Books

Classical Music Piece Enhances Roald Dahl's 'Dirty Beasts'

11:03am February 18, 2014

by Ari Shapiro

On Sunday, the London Philharmonic debuted a new piece of music based on Roald Dahl's Dirty Beasts. With Matilda playing to sold-out crowds on Broadway and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory running in London's West End, this is just the latest work by the author to get a musical soundtrack.

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Don't Know What To Do With Your Life? Neither Did Thoreau

2:59pm February 17, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

A new biography reveals that young Thoreau took quite a few detours on his path to Walden. A gossipy young man who loved eating popcorn, ice skating and listening to his music box, schoolmates and neighbors found him standoffish and regarded his fascination with plants and Indian relics as downright odd.

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Indian activists from the student wing of Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party protest near the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi on May 25, 2010, against Wendy Doniger's The Hindus. Penguin Books, India, said this week that it would withdraw the book and pul

Author Of Book Yanked In India Says Move Has Backfired

8:09pm February 14, 2014

by Krishnadev Calamur

Penguin Books, India, withdrew Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternate History after a Hindu group's court challenge. The group said the book denigrated Hinduism. Doniger defended the publisher but said the Indian law that makes offending religious sentiment a crime should be changed.

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Most of us have never been submerged under more than a few feet underwater. But just a few meters down, the water compresses the tissues of your body so that you become more dense. At that point, "You're more likely to sink than float," says Dr. Kevin Fon

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Practicing 'Extreme Medicine,' From Deep Sea To Outer Space

12:39pm February 12, 2014

by NPR Staff

In his new book, Dr. Kevin Fong explores how humans survive extremes of heat, cold, outer space and deep sea. "We're still exploring the human body and what medicine can do in the same way that the great explorers of the 20th century and every age before them explored the world," he says.

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The Earth's 'Sixth Extinction' May Be One Of Our Own Making

10:15am February 12, 2014

There have been five major mass extinctions over the last half-billion years, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring an era of mass extinction predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But this time around, says Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction, it's humans that are causing it.

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Brian McGough and Kayla Williams met in Iraq in 2003.

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For Military Couples, It's A Long Recovery 'When We Get Home'

8:24am February 11, 2014

Kayla Williams and Brian McGough met in Iraq in 2003. Williams' new memoir, Plenty of Time When We Get Home, describes their homecoming after McGough suffered physical and cognitive injuries in an IED explosion.

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Romance Novels Sweep Readers Off Their Feet With Predictability

1:26pm February 10, 2014

by NPR Staff

At $1.4 billion, romance is by far the biggest sector of the publishing industry. Harper's editor Jesse Barron looked into the business of romance and its peculiarities for this month's issue. He says the key is copying the elements that made other authors successful — down to the cover model's pose.

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detail from cover of Code Name: Johnny Walker

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With Fearlessness And A 'Code Name,' Iraqi Helped Navy SEALs

6:33pm February 09, 2014

by NPR Staff

Interpreter "Johnny Walker" accompanied the U.S. military on countless missions in his war-torn home country of Iraq. His memoir, Code Name: Johnny Walker, details his experiences with the SEALs and his family's long path to U.S. citizenship.

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Lessons On Addiction And Escaping The 'Death Grip From Satan'

6:34pm February 08, 2014

In order to understand and to mourn the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon recommends reading The Night of the Gun by David Carr.

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detail from cover of The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles

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Triumph Of The Bookworms: Two Novels To Cure Your Winter Blues

5:19pm February 05, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Alena, a reworking of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, takes place in the contemporary art world, while The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles is a "delicious French romp." Critic Maureen Corrigan says both novels are "exquisite vehicles of escape fiction."

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