Étienne Davodeau's new graphic novel sounds like it could be laden with chick-flick schmaltz, but critic Etelka Lehoczky says this tale of female self-discovery is fresh, funny and unexpected.
Some 16 billion jelly beans are consumed every year in the U.S. alone, and every year new flavors hit the market. But the origins of the popular confection are "lost in the mists of time."
Hilary Mantel is the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice, first for her 2009 novel, Wolf Hall, and also for its 2012 sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. She discusses the books with Terry Gross.
AMC's award-winning drama Mad Men returns for its final season Sunday. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says these last seven installments explore how little people change, even in tumultuous times.
The show, based on Hilary Mantel's acclaimed novel, stars Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister. Critic John Powers says it's darkly lit, finely acted and thoroughly compelling.
Tiny Cooper, the breakout star of the 2010 novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, steps center stage in its companion novel — a fully realized version of an epic musical Tiny's written about his own life.
In James Hannaham's novel Delicious Foods, addiction itself is a character — it even narrates some of the chapters. The book imagines what slavery would look like in modern America.
In the enchanted forest, fairy tale villains are interrogated by the elite Fairy Tales Victims Unit. These are their stories. Can you solve whodunit from these fabled motives?