What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out
Some experts are concerned that both in-school assignments and the books kids read for pleasure may not be challenging them enough.
Books
The Courage To Cross An Ocean, Explored In 'TransAtlantic'
Colum McCann's novel TransAtlantic weaves together disparate historical figures and times. Reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says that while some sections are uneven, the book rolls over you like a wave, crashing and building upon itself.
Three-Minute Fiction: The Round 11 Winner Is ...
After sifting through thousands of submissions for our short-story contest, we have found a winner. This round, guest judge Karen Russell asked you to write a story in which a character finds something he or she has no intention of returning.
Time-Traveling Serial Killer Hunts For 'The Shining Girls'
Over the last 15 years, the South African writer Lauren Beukes has been a journalist, a screenwriter, a documentarian — and most recently, a novelist. Her new book is called The Shining Girls, a summer thriller about a time-traveling serial killer and the victim who escapes to hunt him down.
Judy Blume Hits The Big Screen With 'Tiger Eyes' Adaptation
With the help of her son Lawrence Blume, Judy Blume has adapted her 1981 novel into a film. The widely beloved coming-of-age author speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about turning the book into a movie, and how the themes in Tiger Eyes echo her own life.
'Beside Ourselves' Explores Human-Animal Connections
Karen Joy Fowler's haunting novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, draws on arguments she used to have with her father, a psychology professor, over how closely connected humans and animals really are. Fowler is also the author of the 2004 best-seller The Jane Austen Book Club.
'The Life That Follows' Disarming IEDs In Iraq
Brian Castner commanded two Explosive Ordnance Disposal units in Iraq, where his team disabled roadside IEDs and investigated the aftermath of roadside car bombings. He returned home a completely different man, which he details in his memoir, The Long Walk.
How To Survive A Mass Extinction
In her new book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction writer Annalee Newitz looks back at Earth's previous mass extinctions to see what lessons might be learned, and how earthlings might prepare themselves to survive a future planet-wide catastrophe.
The Patient Who Let Us Peek Inside A Brain In 'Present Tense'
For nearly 50 years, neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin worked with Henry Molaison, who lost most of his memory in 1953 after experimental surgery for severe seizures. Their work together taught us much of what we know today about memory, and she writes about Molaison and their work in her new book.
'Fairyland': A Girl Grows Up In San Francisco's Gay Community
In her new memoir, Fairyland, Alysia Abbott describes her childhood as the daughter of an openly gay father in San Francisco while the gay liberation movement was gaining strength. Her book is based largely on her father's journals, which she found after his death in 1992.