Books

Books
Arts

'The Book Of Strange New Things' Treads Familiar Territory

8:50pm October 30, 2014

by Jason Sheehan

Michel Faber's best-seller, The Crimson Petal and the White, captured the feel of Victorian London. His latest is a literary science-fiction tale that might disappoint hard core sci-fi fans.

Queue Listen Now

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of October 30, 2014

5:07pm October 30, 2014

In Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan shares her story of falling ill to a rare autoimmune disease, and the difficulties doctors had it diagnosing it. The book appears at No. 7.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of October 30, 2014

4:55pm October 30, 2014

Samantha Kofer goes from Wall Street lawyer to an unpaid legal aid intern in John Grisham's Gray Mountain. It debuts at No. 1.

Poet Carolyn Forche stands with her friend and mentor Galway Kinnell (right) during a trip to Japan to attend the Asian Writers Congress in 1983.

Arts

Book News: Remembering Poet Galway Kinnell, Whose Song Said Everything

10:47am October 30, 2014

by Colin Dwyer

The Pulitzer Prize winner has died at the age of 87. In his deceptively simple poetry and in his activism, Kinnell sought to broaden his audience, even while grappling with difficult themes.

It's partly because of bookshelves like these — and their digital equivalents — that publishers have had a positive open to 2014.

Books
Arts

Book News: Young Adult And Kids' Lit Boost E-Book Revenue

9:19am October 30, 2014

by Colin Dwyer

From January to July, e-book revenue grew 7.5 percent compared with the same period last year. Also: R.L. Stine tweets a horror, and poets slip into something a bit sexier.

Books
Arts

The Battle For Dreamland, Revisited In 'Nemo'

12:53pm October 29, 2014

by Etelka Lehoczky

A lavishly produced new tribute to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo comics gathers dozens of today's artists to revisit Slumberland. Critic Etelka Lehoczky says the book is beautiful but unchallenging.

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, which will air its final season next year. Poehler says, "It's a privilege in television to be able to have a proper goodbye."

Books
Arts

A Candid Memoir From Comedian Amy Poehler? 'Yes Please'

10:23am October 29, 2014

Poehler joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about fighting the body image "demon," being a "world-class snooper" and how she was once told that she had a "great face for wigs."

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Book Review: 'Belzhar' By Meg Wolitzer

6:30pm October 28, 2014

Novelist Gabrielle Zelvin reviews Meg Wolitzer's new young adult book, Belzhar.

Queue Listen Now

W.H. Auden at the 92nd Street Y Poetry Center in 1966.

Books
Arts

75 Years Of 'Colossal Poets' And Live Literature At NYC's 92nd Street Y

12:58pm October 28, 2014

by Tom Vitale

Writer Cynthia Ozick attended readings at the Y in the 1950s. "You saw these icons standing in a blaze of brilliant spotlight," she says, "and you felt that you were at the crux of all civilization."

Queue Listen Now

Karen Russell's novel Swamplandia! was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2012.

Books
Arts

Book News: 2 Popular Books May Be Coming To TV

10:26am October 28, 2014

by Colin Dwyer

Ann Leckie's sci-fi epic Ancillary Justice and Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves have been optioned for TV. Meanwhile, a long-lost Malcolm Lowry novel sees publication.