Books

Books
Arts

AI is contentious among authors. So why are some feeding it their own writing?

8:16am April 30, 2024

by Chloe Veltman

Many authors are concerned about the use of their copyrighted material in generative AI models. At the same time, some are actively experimenting with the technology.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

'Real Americans' asks: What could we change about our lives?

6:00am April 30, 2024

by Rhoda Feng

Many philosophical ideas get an airing in Rachel Khong's latest novel, including the existence of free will and the ethics of altering genomes to select for "favorable" inheritable traits.

Covers of new poetry collections from Marie Howe and Jean Valentine.

Books
Arts

As National Poetry Month comes to a close, 2 new retrospectives to savor

9:11am April 29, 2024

by Craig Morgan Teicher

April always brings some of the years' biggest poetry collections. So as it wraps up, we wanted to bring you two favorites — retrospective collections from Marie Howe and Jean Valentine.

Karla Vasquez, author of <em>The SalviSoul Cookbook.</em>

How 'SalviSoul,' first Salvadoran cookbook from a major U.S. publisher, came together

5:01am April 29, 2024

by Alice Woelfle

Karla Tatiana Vasquez's search for a favorite family recipe became a cookbook documenting the food and culture of El Salvador.

Queue Listen Now

Books

Why 1999 was such a big year for movies

5:26pm April 28, 2024

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Brian Raftery, author of the book, Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen.

Books

Ruth Reichl's 'The Paris Novel' is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Paris

8:23am April 27, 2024

by Scott Simon

Food writer and editor Ruth Reichl's new book, "The Paris Novel," is a coming-of age story full of the author's favorite things: Art, fashion, literature, 1980s Paris, and - of course - oysters.

The trees in this photo are amazing (and not just because they happen to be growing in a very Instagrammable heart shape around Baker Lake in Quebec, Canada.) Read on for a tree appreciation reading list for Arbor Day.

Books
Arts

Happy Arbor Day! These 20 books will change the way you think about trees

5:48pm April 26, 2024

by Beth Novey

Trees communicate. They migrate. They protect. They heal. We climbed into the NPR archives to find some of our favorite arboreal fiction, nonfiction, and kids' lit — get ready to branch out.

Books
Arts

Novelist John Green says OCD is like an 'invasive weed' inside his mind

1:41pm April 26, 2024

by Terry Gross

Green's YA novel, Turtles All The Way Down, has been recently adapted to film. Green described living with OCD, and how "one little thought" could take over his mind, in this 2017 interview.

Queue Listen Now

A new collection of Emily Dickinson's letters has been published by Harvard's Belknap Press, edited by Dickinson scholars Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell.

Books
Arts

This collection may be the closest we'll ever come to a Dickinson autobiography

2:38pm April 25, 2024

by Maureen Corrigan

The Letters of Emily Dickinson collects 1,304 letters, starting with one she wrote at age 11. Her singular voice comes into its own in the letters of the 1860s, which often blur into poems.

Queue Listen Now

The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters, by Susan Page

Books
Arts

Barbara Walters forged a path for women in journalism, but not without paying a price

5:33pm April 24, 2024

by Tonya Mosley

Walters was the first woman to co-anchor a national news show on prime time television. "The path she cut is one that many of us have followed," says biographer Susan Page, author of The Rulebreaker.

Queue Listen Now