Books

Jamaica Kincaid, author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, lives in Vermont.

Books
Arts

Time Rules In Jamaica Kincaid's New Novel, 'See Now Then'

8:44pm March 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Sweet is anything but sweet. In Jamaica Kincaid's first new novel in 10 years, she traces the unraveling of a marriage. See Now Then follows the joy, pain and destruction that time can wreak on a union.

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Mary Robinson was Ireland's first female president. A former United Nations High Commissioner and activist lawyer, she has advocated for human rights around the world.

For Ireland's First Female President, 'Everybody Matters'

5:21pm March 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

In her memoir, Mary Robinson speaks of her experience advocating for social causes and her personal convictions after growing up in a deeply Catholic family.

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Man Turned Fly Seeks Revenge For Bad Reincarnation

8:01pm March 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

When 18th century Jewish peddler Jacob Cerf reappears in the 21st century, he finds he can read minds and will people to do his bidding — but he's also a common housefly. Rebecca Miller's Jacob's Folly traces Jacob's mission to get back at God.

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The Case For Being Concise: Short Poems That Speak Volumes

3:03pm March 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

Brad Leithauser likes to look for poetry in graveyards. An author and poet himself, there's something he values greatly in tombstone epitaphs: brevity. In a piece for The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog, Leithauser cites tiny works that speak volumes.

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Arts

Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' Inspires The Story Of 'Mary Coin'

1:00pm February 28, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Marisa Silver's new novel imagines the meeting of a Depression-era photographer and her now-iconic subject. Giving the characters different names but similar stories to their real-life counterparts, Silver tackles big questions about the morality of art.

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The "elephant in the room" is something obvious that can't be overlooked, even if no one is talking about it. The phrase was in use as early as 1935.

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Arts

Dictionary Of Idioms Gets Everybody On The Same Page

12:04pm February 28, 2013

by NPR Staff

From "dead cat bounce," which originated in the 1980s, to "cold fish," which was coined by Shakespeare, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms explores the origins of more than 10,000 nonliteral sayings.

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In his new book, The Vatican Diaries, John Thavis draws on his nearly 30 years of reporting on the Vatican.

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'Behind The Scenes' At The Vatican: The Politics Of Picking A New Pope

1:54pm February 27, 2013

John Thavis covered the Vatican from Rome for nearly 30 years while working for the Catholic News Service. In his new book, The Vatican Diaries, he describes a place much less organized and hierarchical than the public imagines.

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How The Food Industry Manipulates Taste Buds With 'Salt Sugar Fat'

12:46pm February 27, 2013

by Nell Boeschenstein

From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new book goes inside the world of processed, packaged goods.

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Arts

Under Ogawa's Macabre, Metafictional Spell

7:23pm February 25, 2013

by Alan Cheuse

Fiction is reality and reality fiction in Revenge, Yoko Ogawa's absorbing cycle of interlinked, eerie tales. Readers may detect the shadows of Murakami, Borges and Poe, but, says critic Alan Cheuse, Ogawa's delicious tales cast their own singular spell.

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Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy are reporters for The Boston Globe.

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Arts

Whitey Bulger Bio Profiles Boston's Most Notorious Gangster

1:38pm February 25, 2013

Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered Bulger for years for The Boston Globe, have a new book out about the career criminal. Bulger was wanted for 19 murders when he was captured by the FBI in 2011. He faces trial in June.

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