Books

Books

A new book details the rise of Home Box Office since the channel debuted in 1972

4:45pm November 23, 2021

by Eric Deggans

James Andrew Miller's new book, Tinderbox, tells the history of HBO starting with its 1972 debut. HBO succeeded as a cable channel revolutionizing TV by airing programs most outlets wouldn't touch.

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Thanksgiving cookbooks to keep it simple.

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Arts

These 5 cookbooks help keep Thanksgiving simple — and focused on family

10:19am November 23, 2021

by T. Susan Chang

For many, Thanksgiving will be the first holiday where family gathers since the start of the pandemic. We offer some cookbooks that aim to keep meal prep easy, so there's more time for loved ones.

These Precious Days: Essays, by Ann Patchett

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Ann Patchett reflects on love and relationships in new essay collection

7:11am November 23, 2021

by Annalisa Quinn

Even when nominally about something else, the essays in These Precious Days are about the weight and grief of relationships. "I was asking what mattered most in this precarious and precious life."

Author Louise Erdrich next the cover of her new book, The Sentence.

The white ghosts haunting Native Americans in 'The Sentence'

6:00am November 23, 2021

by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler

Louise Erdrich's novel turns the trope of the haunted Indian burial ground on its head with the story of a Native-run bookstore being visited by the ghost of a white woman obsessed with indigeneity.

Dave Eggers' new book depicts a dystopian future and an all-powerful tech giant

5:20pm November 22, 2021

NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with author Dave Eggers about his new book, The Every, a dystopian look at the near-future when one massive company controls just about everything.

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Robert Bly won a National Book Award in 1968. He is pictured above in 2008.

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Arts

Poet Robert Bly, anti-war activist and 'men's movement' leader, dies at 94

5:20pm November 22, 2021

by Euan Kerr

Bly won a National Book Award and was a tireless advocate for poetry. But he knew he could rub people the wrong way. "I do remember people wanting to kill me," he said, "but that's not unusual."

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A clerk shows a customer an AR-15 style rifle at a gun show in Costa Mesa, Calif. in June 2021. Gun sales increased in the U.S, following COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Former gun industry insider explains why he left to fight for the other side

1:20pm November 22, 2021

by Dave Davies

Gunfight author Ryan Busse was once a rising star in the gun industry. But he became disillusioned after Columbine when, he says, the NRA began to use "fear and conspiracy and hatred" to boost sales.

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The Sinner and the Saint, by Kevin Birmingham

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'The Sinner and the Saint' masterfully unpacks a Dostoevsky classic

10:45am November 22, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

Kevin Birmingham's deeply researched biography details the radical political fervor that almost destroyed Dostoevsky's life — and the real-life murder that inspired Crime and Punishment.

Books

Author interview: 'The Deeper the Roots'

5:09pm November 21, 2021

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Michael Tubbs about his memoir, The Deeper the Roots.

Books

A teenage girl finds an ally on her life journey when 'A Snake Falls to Earth'

8:02am November 21, 2021

"A Snake Falls to Earth" is a fantasy book set against a backdrop of climate change and rooted in Lipan Apache storytelling. Leila Fadel talks to Darcie Little Badger, the book's author.

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