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Remembering historical crime novelist Anne Perry

1:55pm April 21, 2023

by Terry Gross

For decades, Perry, who died April 10, kept secret the fact that she was one of the teenage girls involved in the murder depicted in the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. Originally broadcast in 1994.

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Image from Sunshine. Images and text copyright © 2023 by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Used with permission from Graphix/Scholastic Inc.

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Arts

'Sunshine' centers on a life-changing summer for author Jarrett J. Krosoczka

8:51am April 21, 2023

by Tahneer Oksman

The 'Lunch Lady' and "Hey, Kiddo' author-illustrator's new graphic memoir takes us back to one week when he was a teen volunteering at a camp for children with cancer — and how it changed his life.

Chita Rivera as Anita in the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story.

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Books

Broadway legend Chita Rivera dances through her life in a new memoir

5:11am April 21, 2023

by Susan Stamberg

In Chita: A Memoir, Rivera recounts her career originating roles in major Broadway shows. Now 90, Rivera remembers West Side Story from the beginning: "I was there at the first flicker of the skirt!"

Author Judy Blume is finally ready to tell her own story in new documentary

4:28pm April 20, 2023

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with author Judy Blume and filmmaker Davina Pardo about Judy Blume Forever, a documentary on the life and impact of one of the most celebrated children's writers.

'Greek Lessons' is an intimate, vulnerable portrayal of two lonely people

7:46am April 20, 2023

by Leland Cheuk

Greek Lessons feels like a departure from Han Kang's other English-translated novels; tugging bit by bit at the heartstrings, readers are left speechless with both sadness and hope by the final pages.

White women in rural America are dying. This memoir examines why

4:27pm April 19, 2023

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with Monica Potts about her memoir, The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America.

Rachel Pollack authored more than 40 books across several genres, and helped transform tarot into a contemporary practice.

Books
Arts

Writer Rachel Pollack, who reimagined the practice of tarot, dies at 77

10:02am April 19, 2023

by Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong

The science fiction and comic book writer helped make reading tarot cards part of a contemporary spiritual practice. She authored more than 40 books across several genres.

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In 'The New Earth,' a family's pain echoes America's suffering

8:29am April 19, 2023

by Michael Schaub

Jess Row's new novel is about an American family that has imploded, one that's broken, possibly irretrievably. It's a stunning book, a high-wire balancing act that tries to do a lot — and succeeds.

Julia Lee's book cover for Biting the Hand: Growing up Asian in Black and White America.

Books

'Biting the Hand': Korean American author calls for weaponizing invisibility

7:57am April 19, 2023

by Reena Advani

Korean American author Julia Lee pulls no punches about the experience of being Asian in the U.S. today, in her memoir Biting the Hand: Growing Up Asian in Black and White America.

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'The Wager' chronicles shipwreck, mutiny and murder at the tip of South America

2:03pm April 18, 2023

by Sam Briger

Author David Grann tells the story of an 18th-century British warship that wrecked along the coast of Patagonia. The survivors sailed thousands of miles to safety, and later faced charges of mutiny.

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