Books

Books

Novelist Steph Cha on her favorite novel, 'The Long Goodbye' by Raymond Chandler

4:53pm December 14, 2022

All Things Considered hosts are asking their favorite writers about their favorite writers. Ailsa Chang talks with novelist Steph Cha about her favorite novel, "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler.

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Arts

Pioneering writer Octavia Butler on writing Black people and women into sci-fi

2:09pm December 14, 2022

Butler's 1979 book, Kindred, is now a series for FX on Hulu. In 1993, the pioneering author, who died in 2006, told Fresh Air she made up her own stories so that she could see herself in them.

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Remembering Marijane Meaker, a pioneer of lesbian pulp fiction

2:09pm December 14, 2022

by Terry Gross

Meaker wrote Spring Fire in 1952, and was surprised when it sold 1.5 million copies. She went on to write other lesbian-themed books under pen names. She died Nov. 21. Originally broadcast 2003.

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Author Ashley Hope Pérez wrote Out of Darkness, which is on the American Library Association's lists of most banned books.

Ashley Hope Pérez: 'Young people have a right' to stories that help them learn

1:06pm December 14, 2022

by Ashley Hope Pérez

For years, Out of Darkness appeared on reading lists as a recommendation for ambitious young readers ready to face disquieting aspects of the American experience. It began facing bans in 2021.

Book cover with the back of braided hair down the center on a aged background. The cover bold orange and red across the braid.

Banned Books: Author Ashley Hope Pérez on finding humanity in the 'darkness'

9:10am December 14, 2022

Ashley Hope Pérez published Out of Darkness in 2015 to critical acclaim. The novel re-contextualized contemporary issues of race providing a historical framework in a not-so-post-racial America.

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Woodrow Wilson led the U.S. into WWI. He also waged war on democracy at home

1:55pm December 13, 2022

by Dave Davies

Author Adam Hochschild says Wilson used the first World War as an excuse to spy on Americans, censor the press and plan for the mass deportation of immigrants. His new book is American Midnight.

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Jason Reynolds, pictured at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2019, has spent the last three years speaking with students across the United States in his role as national ambassador for young people's literature.

Literature ambassador Jason Reynolds knows young people have a story of their own

11:02am December 13, 2022

by Julie Depenbrock

NPR's A Martínez talks to writer Jason Reynolds, who is ending his term as the national ambassador for young people's literature. The Library of Congress appointed him to the post three years ago.

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A Dangerous Business and Remarkably Bright Creatures

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Arts

Looking for a twist on the whodunit? Two mysteries veer into uncharted territory

6:54pm December 12, 2022

by Maureen Corrigan

A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley, is mash-up of a Western, a serial killer mystery and a feminist erotic romp. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, is a noir story about an octopus.

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Books

Recommendations from NPR's Books We Love

5:20pm December 11, 2022

by Maureen Pao

It's the end of the year and time to dive into NPR's Books We Love series.

Books

Bora Chung on her collection of short stories 'Cursed Bunny'

7:55am December 11, 2022

by Ayesha Rascoe

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Bora Chung, author of "Cursed Bunny," a collection of offbeat, surreal short stories newly translated from Korean into English.