Books

Books
Arts

Laura Lippman's 'Dream Girl' Is The Latest Thriller To Center On Stolen Stories

12:38pm August 18, 2021

by Maureen Corrigan

Many of this year's mystery and suspense novels explore literary appropriation — characters in positions of privilege laying their sticky mitts on stories that don't belong to them.

Tennis Legend Billie Jean King Puts It 'All In' Her New Autobiography

1:37pm August 17, 2021

by Dave Davies

The book covers King's Grand Slam and Wimbledon championships, the "Battle of the Sexes," her activism for women's and LGBTQ rights, as well as some joyous and painful chapters in her personal life.

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Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption, Rafia Zakaria

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Arts

'Against White Feminism' Is An Urgent Call To Action For Solidarity And Justice

1:14pm August 17, 2021

by Jenny Bhatt

Although personal anecdotes are included throughout, Rafia Zakaria's aim is not to explore her own pain but to retrace the history of how white feminism has caused unending trauma through centuries.

'The State Must Provide' Is A Lesson On Inequality In Higher Ed, Past And Present

1:23pm August 16, 2021

by Terry Gross

Journalist Adam Harris explains how the higher education system has been built on an uneven foundation from the start — and how slavery, segregation and racism have stymied Black education.

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Arts

The Town That Inspired John Steinbeck Has A New Literary Star

9:19am August 16, 2021

by Michael Schaub

Jaime Cortez's debut collection, Gordo, is set in and around the same dusty California town that inspired John Steinbeck. It's a lovely portrait of a time and place that still manages to be universal.

Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall

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Arts

Sci-Fi Has Changed A Lot In The Past Decade — These 7 Reads Will Show You How

7:00am August 16, 2021

by Jason Sheehan

This year's Summer Poll is all about the past decade in science fiction and fantasy, so we asked critic Jason Sheehan to come up with his own list of the new sci-fi that's blowing his mind.

Books

'Paradise' Explores A Previous Record Breaking Wildfire Season

10:15am August 14, 2021

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Lizzie Johnson about her new book, Paradise, which examines the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the northern California town of Paradise.

Books
Arts

Kaveh Akbar Pits The Self Against The Sacred In His New Poems

5:00am August 14, 2021

by Jeevika Verma

Words can seem infinite — but language has limits. In his new poetry collection, Pilgrim Bell, Kaveh Akbar shapes language into prayer, into body, into patchwork — but only into what can be known.

Books

If A Russian Doll Looked Into A Black Mirror ... You'd Have This Novel

4:00am August 14, 2021

by Bethanne Patrick

In Sarah Zachrich Jeng's debut thriller The Other Me, a young woman wanders away from a boring birthday party and finds herself in a different life, with a husband and family she didn't have before.

Books

In 'Mrs. March,' A Judgmental, High Society Woman Is Gaslit To The Brink Of Madness

6:33pm August 13, 2021

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Virginia Feito, the author of the new novel Mrs. March, a story about a woman with a tidy, respectable life on the Upper East Side which is thrown into disarray.