Books

Books
Arts

'Immortal' Cells Of Henrietta Lacks Live On In Labs

1:03pm February 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

It was one of the most revolutionary tools of biomedical research: the immortal HeLa cell line. But few people know the cells belonged to a poor Southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks. Rebecca Skloot spent years researching Lacks and tells her story in The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks.

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Herman Koch is a Dutch writer and actor. The Dinner is his sixth novel; it originally came out in Dutch in 2009, and has since been published in 25 countries.

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'The Dinner' Asks: What Will You Do To Protect Your Family?

6:42am February 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Herman Koch's new novel The Dinner asks the uncomfortable question: How far will you go to protect your family? Two couples gather for dinner to discuss their teenaged sons, who've most likely committed a terrible crime. Will they report it? Or will they cover it up to keep their sons safe?

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John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, pictured above in January 1970, are the subjects of Jonathan Cott's new book Days That I'll Remember. Cott met Lennon in 1968 and was friends with the couple.

Days With John And Yoko: A Writer Remembers

5:00pm February 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

Rock writer Jonathan Cott met John Lennon in 1968 and formed a working relationship with him, as well as with Yoko Ono, that would span more than two decades. Cott was the last journalist to interview Lennon, just three days before the singer was killed.

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Tales Of Transformation Make 'Vampires In The Lemon Grove' A Stunner

7:54pm February 15, 2013

by Meg Wolitzer

Karen Russell's new collection of short stories has dead presidents reincarnated as horses, girls turning into silkworms, and vampires who quench their thirst for blood with lemons. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that in Russell's world we aren't fixed in space and time but can change at any moment.

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'Klansville, U.S.A.' Chronicles The Rise And Fall Of The KKK

5:30pm February 14, 2013

by NPR Staff

Author and sociologist David Cunningham speaks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the origins of cross burnings and white hoods, and why North Carolina had more Klan members during the height of the civil rights movement than all other Southern states combined.

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A part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is seen inside the vault of the Shrine of the Book building at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

'Dead Sea Scrolls' Live On In Debate And Discovery

4:42pm February 14, 2013

In a new book, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, religious scholar and author John J. Collins tells the history of the scrolls and the controversies they have prompted, and explores the questions they ask and answer about Judeo-Christian history.

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A businesswoman and businessman shake hands.

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A Soured Student-Teacher Friendship Threatens 'Everything'

2:55pm February 12, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

In a new memoir, James Lasdun describes how a former-student-turned-friend stalked and slandered him online. Give Me Everything You Have is a meditation on what it means to control your reputation on the Internet — and the book is Lasdun's attempt to fight back.

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Netflix Moves Back Into Content Production With 'Cards'

11:26am February 12, 2013

by NPR Staff

House of Cards is a $100 million adaptation of a British television show. Starring Kevin Spacey, the first two episodes are directed by The Social Network's David Fincher — and all 13 episodes will be available at once.

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An 'Autopsy' Of Detroit Finds Resilience In A Struggling City

10:36am February 12, 2013

To some, Detroit may be a symbol of urban decay; but to journalist Charlie LeDuff, it's home. In Detroit: An American Autopsy, he says the city's heart beats on. "We're still here trying to reconstruct the great thing we once had," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

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Manufactured On YouTube, Teen Pop Star Searches For His True Voice

6:51pm February 09, 2013

by NPR Staff

The road tour is a well-known backdrop in American novels and one Teddy Wayne explores in his new novel, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine. Along the way, Jonny, a teen heartthrob, explores the pressures of celebrity at a young age.

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