Books

Books

Banned books are finding a new home at a tiny library on an island

6:24am March 22, 2022

Residents of Matinicus, off the coast of Maine, are pushing back on book banning efforts sweeping the country. They're stocking their library's shelves with books being censored elsewhere.

For classical pianist Jeremy Denk, life is like a series of music lessons

2:02pm March 21, 2022

by Terry Gross

The MacArthur "genius" grant winner talks about what he learned from his piano teachers, and his failures, frustrations and pivotal moments as an artist. Denk's new memoir is Every Good Boy Does Fine.

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Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books, including The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison and Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City

Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs

9:53am March 21, 2022

by Odette Yousef

A conservative campaign to ban certain books from schools is prompting other parents to push back. The issue is often framed as the latest "culture war" battle, but some see democracy itself at stake.

Books
Arts

5 books at the intersection of Black feminist thought, culture, and politics

6:22am March 21, 2022

by Carole V. Bell

Black feminists are some of the most astute observers and theorists of American mass culture today. Here are five books to read — not all isolated to the proverbial ivory tower.

Books

A cheap gas station map may be the key to solving a murder in 'The Cartographers'

8:05am March 20, 2022

by Elissa Nadworny

Elissa Nadworny speaks to Peng Shepherd about her new book, "The Cartographers," where the daughter of a murdered map scholar unravels the mystery of a map she finds hidden in his desk.

Books

Karen Joy Fowler paints the unlikely life path of John Wilkes Booth in novel 'Booth'

8:02am March 19, 2022

by Scott Simon

Scott Simon asks Karen Joy Fowler about her new historical novel, "Booth," in which she focuses on the parents and siblings of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Books
Arts

'Like A Sister' is noir for the media-struck generation

6:00am March 19, 2022

by Carole V. Bell

In Kellye Garrett's thriller, a beautiful Black reality TV star is found dead on a playground in the Bronx; the tabloid headlines and the police scream overdose, but the woman's sister is unconvinced.

Books
Arts

Remembering William Hurt, star of 'Broadcast News' and 'The Big Chill'

1:26pm March 18, 2022

by Terry Gross

Hurt, who died March 13, won an Oscar for his performance as a drag queen sharing a prison cell with a political dissident in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman. Originally broadcast in 2010.

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'The Bond King' details the rise and fall of notorious financial investor Bill Gross

4:29pm March 17, 2022

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Mary Childs, one of the hosts of NPR's Planet Money, about her new book The Bond King, which tells the story of a notorious financial investor.

Russia's war in Ukraine has NATO on alert. Here's how we got to this point

1:23pm March 17, 2022

by Terry Gross

Historian Mary Elise Sarotte tells how NATO expanded into Eastern Europe after the fall of the U.S.S.R, and is now obligated to defend nations near Russia's war in Ukraine. Her book is Not One Inch.

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