Books

Books
Arts

'Binary Star' Is A Hard, Harrowing Look Into Inner Space

7:03am January 15, 2015

by Jason Heller

Sarah Gerard's new novel follows a young woman suffering from an eating disorder, and her alcoholic boyfriend. Reviewer Jason Heller says the book balances real-world issues and emotional punch.

David Adam is a writer and editor at the journal Nature and was a special correspondent at the Guardian, writing about science, medicine and the environment.

Why OCD Is 'Miserable': A Science Reporter's Obsession With Contracting HIV

10:58am January 14, 2015

David Adam has had obsessive-compulsive disorder for 20 years. In The Man Who Couldn't Stop, he chronicles his experiences — and how medical understanding and treatment of OCD have changed over time.

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The Daily Texture Of Life Becomes Art In 'The First Bad Man'

10:03am January 14, 2015

by Annalisa Quinn

Miranda July's new novel The First Bad Man defies neat summaries; reviewer Annalisa Quinn calls July "a master of the intimate weirdnesses of human thought," who treats dusty mental corners with care.

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Arts

Fact And Fiction Blur In Frustratingly Opaque 'Swarm'

6:37am January 14, 2015

by Tasha Robinson

Fantasy master Michael Moorcock makes himself a character in his new novel The Whispering Swarm, but reviewer Tasha Robinson says the story doesn't fully satisfy either as biography or fantasy.

Perry Wallace, playing for Vanderbilt University, blocks the shot of 'Pistol' Pete Maravich, circa 1970.

Perry Wallace, Who Broke Basketball Barriers, Didn't Set Out To Be A Pioneer

6:49pm January 13, 2015

by NPR Staff

Strong Inside tells the story of the first black player in college basketball's Southeastern Conference. Wallace says the hard work of integration is "a gritty, dirty, ugly business."

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Book Review: 'Sympathy For The Devil' By Michael Mewshaw

6:45pm January 13, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Alan Cheuse reviews Sympathy for the Devil, Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal by Michael Mewshaw.

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'Girl On The Train' Pays Homage To Hitchcock

2:58pm January 13, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Paula Hawkins' gripping new thriller begins with bitter, dissolute Rachel, who sees what she believes to be a perfect couple, every morning on the train to work — and then one day, the wife is gone.

Books

Author Robert Stone, Known For 'Dog Soldiers,' Dies At 77

8:01am January 13, 2015

by Petra Mayer

National Book Award-winning author Robert Stone was on the fringes of the utopian counterculture of the 1960s — but he preferred to write about what happened when that dream went sour.

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There's Nothing Sketchy About This 'Outline'

7:03am January 13, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Reviewer Heller McAlpin says Rachel Cusk, known for her lacerating memoirs, begins to bring her fiction and nonfiction closer together in Outline, an "impressive deepening" of her work.

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Arts

Miranda July Balances Weirdness And Reality In Debut Novel

6:45pm January 11, 2015

by NPR Staff

The director and artist says one of the challenges of writing The First Bad Man was shaping her main character's odd psyche. Then, she says, she realized, "I can always take it back if it's too much."

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