Books

Books
Arts

A Mystery That Explores 'The Rage' Of New Ireland

2:40pm February 06, 2013

by John Powers

Reporter-turned-novelist Gene Kerrigan sets his story in Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis. The Rage is a boundlessly readable portrait of a country in which ordinary citizens have been hit the hardest and all the old certainties have vanished.

Queue Listen Now

A shop in Tahrir Square is spray-painted with the word "twitter" after the government shut off Internet access in February 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

'Distant Witness': Social Media's 'Journalism Revolution'

2:22pm February 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

When protests broke out across North Africa and the Middle East, NPR senior strategist Andy Carvin followed the events in real time online. In his book Distant Witness, Carvin explains how he cultivated social media sources into a new form of journalism where people on the ground controlled the news.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

A Barbados Family Tree With 'Sugar In The Blood'

1:44pm February 04, 2013

In her new book, Andrea Stuart explores the intersection of sugar, slavery, settlement, migration and survival in the Americas. Stuart's personal history was shaped by these forces — she is descended from a slave owner who had relations with an unknown slave.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Disaster Diaries' Will Help You Survive The End Of The World

6:16pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sam Sheridan was a mixed martial arts fighter, wilderness firefighter, construction worker in the South Pole, and now, author. His new book, Disaster Diaries, will help you survive the apocalypse, no matter the catastrophe.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Schroder' Chronicles A Father's Desperate Mistakes

3:43pm February 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

In Amity Gaige's new novel, Eric Kennedy, aka East German immigrant Erik Schroder, reveals his true identity to his ex-wife and explains why he kidnapped his own 6-year-old daughter.

Queue Listen Now

How The Glock Became America's Weapon Of Choice

10:18am February 01, 2013

In his book Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, Paul Barrett traces how the sleek, high-capacity Austrian weapon found its way into Hollywood films and rap lyrics, not to mention two-thirds of all U.S. police departments.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

War Writ Small: Of Pushcarts And Peashooters

7:55pm January 31, 2013

by Adam Mansbach

Jean Merrill's classic children's book The Pushcart War explores war, peace and pushcarts on the streets of New York. Author Adam Mansbach writes that the story still resonates. Do you have a favorite children's book that deals with heavy themes? Tell us in the comments.

Queue Listen Now

Gen. David Petraeus is the subject of The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, a new book by Fred Kaplan.

Books
Arts

'The Insurgents': Petraeus And A New Kind Of War

3:05pm January 29, 2013

In a new book about Gen. David Petraeus, author and journalist Fred Kaplan looks at how theories of counterinsurgency have shaped U.S. military policy in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Queue Listen Now

According to the American Staffing Association, the U.S. temp industry has added more jobs than any other over the past three years.

A 'Permatemp' Economy: The Idea Of The Expendable Employee

2:00pm January 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Nearly 13 million people head to work as temporary and contract employees each year, according to the American Staffing Association. In an opinion piece for The New York Times, sociologist Erin Hatton argues that it's time to get rid of the "anti-worker ideology that has come to accompany it."

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Jane Austen's 'Pride And Prejudice' At 200

6:38pm January 28, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

As the classic novel celebrates its bicentennial, Paula Byrne's The Real Jane Austen examines some of the key objects in Austen's life and how they reveal a much more cosmopolitan awareness of the world than is commonly credited to her.

Queue Listen Now