Books

Allan Sherman released three albums between October 1962 and August 1963.

Hello Muddah, Hello Drama: The Brief Bloom Of Parodist Allan Sherman

6:53pm June 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Sherman worked a tight niche: classic songs rewritten to tickle a Jewish audience's funny bone. A new biography, Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman, explains how the performer's 1960s crossover fell in line with a collective awakening to ethnic identity in America.

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Arthur Geisert's Thunderstorm follows a tempest in the rural Midwest.

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Arthur Geisert's 'Thunderstorm' Celebrates Life On The Prairie

11:39am June 03, 2013

by Rebecca Hersher

The award-winning children's book author has written more than two dozen books set in the American heartland. He's most famous for his intricate illustrations of the Midwest — sprawling prairie, family farms and his signature mischievous pigs.

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Books

Trial To Start In Apple Price-Fixing Dispute

10:23am June 03, 2013

by Jim Zarroli

Apple appears in court Monday to face civil accusations by the Justice Department that it illegally conspired to fix e-book prices with other publishers. The government last year accused Apple of conspiring with five major publishers to raise prices for electronic books — something the government says has cost consumers many millions of dollars.

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In Oqa, Afghanistan, Boston weaves a saddlebag for her husband's donkey. The weavers of Oqa also weave large carpets, earning less than $1 a day for their work.

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Mapping 'The World' Of A Remote Afghan Village

8:18pm June 02, 2013

by NPR Staff

Journalist Anna Badkhen chronicles life in a small Afghan village in her new book, The World Is A Carpet. A village of 240 people, Oqa survives on an old-time tradition of carpet weaving. Residents earn about 40 cents a day for carpets that eventually sell for $5,000 to $20,000 abroad.

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Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Litter' And 'The Shirt'

8:18pm June 02, 2013

NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Litter by Kalad Hovatter of Orange, Calif., and The Shirt by Jennifer Anderson of Shorewood, Wis.

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'Nine Years' In A Baltimore Funeral Home

6:11pm June 01, 2013

by NPR Staff

A summer job in a Baltimore funeral home turned into a nine-year career and lifelong passion for Sheri Booker. Her coming-of-age memoir recalls tears and trade secrets of the mortuary business.

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Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy are reporters for The Boston Globe.

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Whitey Bulger Bio Profiles Boston's Most Notorious Gangster

1:29pm May 31, 2013

Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered Bulger for years for The Boston Globe, have a book out about the career criminal. Bulger was wanted for 19 murders when he was captured by the FBI in 2011. Jury selection for his trial begins June 6.

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Illustration: A little boy in a boat reads a book as the boat is picked up by an octopus.

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Field Trip! 10 Books That Will Send Kids Exploring

8:34am May 31, 2013

by Mara Alpert

Children's librarian Mara Alpert recommends 10 titles that will send youngsters off on brand-new adventures. In these books, kids will learn what baby animals do on their first day of life, what baseball games are like in Japan, and what happens when you read a poem from bottom to top.

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How OxyContin's Pain Relief Built 'A World Of Hurt'

12:40pm May 30, 2013

New York Times reporter Barry Meier's new e-book explores opiate painkillers and the consequences that come with long-term use. He focuses in particular on OxyContin, how it came to be prescribed for chronic pain, what the consequences have been, and how it became a street drug.

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Nadeem Aslam's other books include Season of the Rainbirds and The Wasted Vigil.

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Novel Examines Afghanistan War From A Pakistani Perspective

8:43am May 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

Nadeem Aslam's The Blind Man's Garden explores the consequences of Sept. 11 through the story of two young brothers who go to Afghanistan in late 2001 to help wounded civilians. Aslam says he wrote the book over four and a half years, part of which was spent in total isolation.

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