Books

The title of Jennifer Senior's book — All Joy and No Fun — contrasts the strains of day-to-day parenting with the transcendent experience of having a child.

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Arts

Are We Having Fun Yet? New Book Explores The Paradox Of Parenting

4:09pm February 04, 2014

Kids can be magical and maddening. The title of Jennifer Senior's book — All Joy and No Fun — contrasts the strains of day-to-day parenting with the transcendent experience of raising a child.

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Arts

Midwestern Memoir Tracks 'Flyover Lives' Of Author's Forebears

4:08pm January 31, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Diane Johnson often writes about American heroines living in France, but when she began her memoir, she found herself drawn back to her native ground in America's heartland. Critic Maureen Corrigan says Flyover Lives "lets scenes and conversations speak for themselves, accruing power as they lodge in readers' minds."

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'Le Divorce' Author Finds Stories Closer To Home In 'Flyover'

9:31am January 31, 2014

by NPR Staff

Diane Johnson has spent much of her adult life living in France, writing novels like Le Divorce. But it was not until a visit home, to the Midwestern town of Moline, IL, that the Johnson discovered that her pioneer ancestors had lives worthy of writing about. Her new book, Flyover Lives reconstructs their stories.

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Arts

What Wakes B.J. Novak Up In The Middle Of The Night?

7:58am January 31, 2014

by Lynn Neary

B.J. Novak is a triple threat. He got his start in show business as a standup comedian which led to a job on the hit comedy series The Office. Novak had a regular part on the show but he was also one of the writers. Now he has put his writing talent to work on a book of stories: One More Thing.

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A boat skims through the melting ice in the Ilulissat fjord in August 2008, on the western coast of Greenland.

Entrepreneurs Looking For 'Windfall' Cash In On Climate Change

2:48pm January 28, 2014

A new book explores the ways melting Arctic ice yield new shipping channels, new oil and gas resources — and potential profits. Journalist McKenzie Funk delves into the "booming business of global warming" in Windfall.

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Greg Grandin is a professor of history at New York University.

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Arts

On This Spanish Slave Ship, Nothing Was As It Seemed

5:14pm January 27, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

In The Empire of Necessity, historian Greg Grandin tells the story of a slave revolt at sea. The 1805 event inspired Herman Melville's Benito Cereno, and Grandin's account of the human horror is a work of power and precision.

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'Pope And Mussolini' Tells The 'Secret History' Of Fascism And The Church

1:45pm January 27, 2014

It's commonly thought that the Catholic Church fought heroically against the fascists in Italy. But in The Pope and Mussolini, historian David Kertzer says the church actually lent organizational strength and moral legitimacy to Mussolini's regime.

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Congress Gets A Beating In Gates Memoir, Too

12:50pm January 27, 2014

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has a new memoir out that serves up some tough criticism of President Obama and Congress. NPR's Arun Rath talks to correspondent Liz Halloran about the punches being thrown.

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Published in 1943, The Little Prince is one of the world's most beloved books. AuthorAntoine Saint-Exupery wrote and illustrated the book in New York, between Long Island and Manhattan.

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Arts

Before He Fell To Earth, 'The Little Prince' Was Born In N.Y.

1:31pm January 25, 2014

by Margot Adler

Author Antoine Saint-Exupery was French, but his beloved book, The Little Prince, wasn't written in Paris. Saint-Exupery wrote it in New York, and even included references to the island in his original manuscript.

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Books

An Admitted 'Ham' Shares Slices Of Show-Biz Life

12:14pm January 25, 2014

Sixteen short stories of a triumphant, tragic, and most of all, hilarious life in show business make up Sam Harris' new memoir, Ham: Slices of a Life. NPR's Jacki Lyden speaks to Harris about his rise to fame after winning the first season of the 1980's hit TV show Star Search.

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