Books

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Arts

Don't Hate The Players, Learn The Rules Of The Game (Theory)

6:44pm December 12, 2013

by Tim Harford

With Congress expected to pass its first bipartisan budget in years, renewed focus has fallen on the tactics that brought it about. These tactics may be puzzling (or alarming), but according to author Tim Harford, they're not new: They're rooted in game theory. He suggests reading Thomas Schelling's The Strategy of Conflict to learn more.

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Gov. Scott Walker Recounts First-Term Battles In New Book

12:51pm December 12, 2013

by NPR Staff

The Wisconsin Republican survived a recall effort last year after signing legislation that eliminated collective bargaining rights for most of the state's public employees. He writes about the political battle in Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge.

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Browse more than 200 standout titles from 2013 selected by NPR staff and critics — including Maureen Corrigan.

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Need A Read? Here Are Maureen Corrigan's Favorite Books Of 2013

4:10pm December 11, 2013

by Maureen Corrigan

Fresh Air's book critic says it's just a fluke that 9 of the 11 titles she picked this year were written by female authors. Her favorites include a jumbo-sized Dickensian novel, a biography of Ben Franklin's sister, a comedy of manners, a stunning Scandinavian mystery and more.

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Frustrating Heroine Stars In Fresh, Feminist 'Nightingale'

3:33pm December 10, 2013

by John Powers

Nina Borg, the heroine of Death of a Nightingale, is a Red Cross nurse on a mission to save the dispossessed. But she neglects her own family as she rescues those in need in Agnete Friis and Lene Kaaberbol's elaborately plotted page-turner.

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Delia Ephron is a novelist and playwright. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, O, Vogue and the Huffington Post. Her older sister, writer Nora Ephron, died in June 2012.

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Delia Ephron On The Closeness And Complexity Of Sisterhood

4:56pm December 09, 2013

Novelist Delia Ephron says that losing her older sister Nora was like "losing an arm." But for all their collaboration and closeness, Delia writes about the complications of sisterhood in her new collection of autobiographical essays, Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.).

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You may recognize this drawing from Allie Brosh's popular "This Is Why I'll Never Be An Adult" blog post. (It's now a popular Internet meme.)

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Even When It Hurts 'ALOT,' Brosh Faces Life With Plenty Of 'Hyperbole'

4:21pm December 09, 2013

On her Hyperbole and a Half blog, Allie Brosh writes stories about her life illustrated with a "very precise crudeness." Most are lighthearted — about her dog or her favorite grammatical mistake ("a lot" vs. "alot) — but her most popular posts have also been the most upsetting, about her crippling depression.

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Getting Away with Murder, by Heraldo Munoz

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'Getting Away With Murder': A Study Of Benazir Bhutto's Death

6:13pm December 08, 2013

by NPR Staff

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007. Heraldo Munoz, who led the United Nations investigation into her death, portrays the tense political climate that surrounded Bhutto's return to politics and the circumstances of the killing in his new book.

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'Pomegranate Lady' Depicts The Comedy And Tragedy Of Exile

6:33pm December 07, 2013

by NPR Staff

Goli Taraghi writes about life in Iran — about love, loss, alienation and exile. She is particularly equipped to the task, as her own exile from the country began in 1980 at the outset of the Iranian Revolution. She discusses her latest collection of short stories, The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons.

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Someone has earned a spot on the naughty list this year.

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A Holiday Photo Book That Puts Families In An 'Awkward' Position

12:06pm December 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

Matching long johns. Kick lines in skis. Peeing on Santa's lap. Every family has these cringe-worthy moments, immortalized on film, that embody the particularly joyous brand of awkward that the holidays bring. And thanks to Mike Bender, co-author of Awkward Family Holiday Photos, the rest of us can rubberneck.

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The price of gold rose dramatically after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

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Underground Cities And 'Ghost' Miners: What Some People Do For Gold

2:41pm December 03, 2013

South Africa's Mponeng gold mine is a 2.5-mile-deep network of chutes and tunnels that employs about 4,000 miners. Of course, that number doesn't include the miners who wander its tunnels clandestinely, stealing and refining ore. In a new book, journalist Matthew Hart investigates why gold and crime sometimes go hand in hand.

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