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Roving Literary Death Match Aims To Breathe Life Into Literature

7:09pm March 02, 2014

by Alex Schmidt

Imagine writers on stage, squared off in a fight to the death. That's the idea behind Literary Death Match –- kind of. It's a performance series that pits authors against each other in live readings.

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'The Natural' Of 1952 Holds Lessons For Today's MLB

3:43pm February 26, 2014

A new edition of Bernard Malamud's classic baseball story, The Natural, was just released. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Howard Bryant of ESPN about how the 1952 novel is more relevant than ever.

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These Stories Consider Solitude, With Echoes Of Emily Dickinson

2:20pm February 26, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

It's been 15 years since acclaimed writer Lorrie Moore has brought out a new short story collection. Bark has some clunkers and some keepers, but critic Maureen Corrigan says it was worth the wait.

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Howard Blum is a former investigative reporter for The New York Times who's now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

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During World War I, Germany Unleashed 'Terrorist Cell In America'

12:06pm February 26, 2014

In Dark Invasion, Howard Blum explores the campaign of sabotage that Germany inflicted on an unsuspecting U.S. As ships and factories blew up, "no one really suspected a spy network," he says.

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Sure, you can try doing your Internet browsing this way, but we can't promise that it will help you protect your personal data online.

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If You Think You're Anonymous Online, Think Again

11:00am February 26, 2014

In Dragnet Nation, Julia Angwin describes an oppressive blanket of electronic data surveillance. "There's a price you pay for living in the modern world," she says. "You have to share your data."

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Remembering Activist Poet Amiri Baraka

9:02pm February 21, 2014

Baraka was one of the key black literary voices of the 1960s. The political and social views that inspired his writing changed over the years, from his bohemian days as a young man in Greenwich Village to his later years as a Marxist. He spoke to Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 1986.

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James Patterson writes suspense and thriller novels as well as children's books. He runs the children's literacy campaign ReadKiddoRead.

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Author James Patterson To Give $1 Million To Bookstores

12:43pm February 20, 2014

by NPR Staff

On Thursday, he announced the names of more than 55 booksellers who are getting some of that money — up to $15,000 each. He tells Renee Montagne about why he's driven to help independent bookstores.

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Books

Santa Cruz Bookstore To Receive Funds From Patterson

11:55am February 20, 2014

One of the bookstores receiving money from author James Patterson is Bookshop Santa Cruz in California. Casey Coonerty is the owner.

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Why does thunder rumble? Acoustic professor Trevor Cox explains that it has to do with the way lightning is a jagged line. "Each little kink is actually generating the sound, and the reason thunder rumbles is because the sound takes different time to come

One Man's Quest To Find The 'Sonic Wonders Of The World'

2:38pm February 19, 2014

Acoustic engineer Trevor Cox has traveled around the globe to hear whispering arches and singing sand dunes. Closer to home, he can also explain why your singing sounds better in the shower.

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The feet of a teen couple dangle as they sit on a dock.

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Teens Rehearse For Adulthood In Wolitzer's 'Interestings'

3:03pm February 18, 2014

Meg Wolitzer's novel is about lifelong friendship tinged with jealousy. It begins at a summer camp in 1974 and follows a group of friends through middle age. Wolitzer says her teen years were a rehearsal for her adult life and that today she is "different" but "in the same shell."

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