Books

Books
Arts

In 'A Burning,' Striving, Dreaming And Joking In The Face Of Oppression

8:01am June 06, 2020

by Scott Simon

Megha Majumdar's new novel is set during the aftermath of a terror attack in India, and examines the intersecting lives of three people affected by the events and the government's response.

Brit Bennett says it has been "surreal" to publish her post-civil rights era book this week. She is also the author of The Mothers.

Books
Arts

Brit Bennett Set Her Novel 50 Years Ago — She Didn't Expect It To Be 'Timely'

7:54pm June 05, 2020

by Mary Louise Kelly

The Vanishing Half is about African American twins — one lives as a black woman, the other "passes" as white. Passing is "an act of self-creation and also an act of self-destruction," Bennett says.

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Historian Eric Foner On The 'Unresolved Legacy Of Reconstruction'

1:42pm June 05, 2020

by Terry Gross

After the Civil War, the federal government promised former slaves equality and citizenship. Historian Eric Foner says the failed promises reverberate today. Originally broadcast Jan. 9, 2006.

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Arts

Remembering Award-Winning Author Robb Forman Dew

1:42pm June 05, 2020

by Terry Gross

Dew, who died May 22, wrote intimately about family relationships in both fiction and nonfiction. She spoke to Terry Gross in 1994 about The Family Heart, her memoir about learning her son was gay.

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John Ridley Finds Inspiration From Young Protesters Demanding To Be Heard

6:27am June 05, 2020

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to screenwriter, show producer and novelist John Ridley about the unrest in America over the killing of George Floyd, a black man in police custody in Minneapolis.

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Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is speaking out against President Trump's call to use military force to suppress nationwide protests over police brutality.

Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Condemns Trump's Threat To Use Military At Protests

8:25pm June 04, 2020

by Steve Inskeep

In rare remarks, retired Gen. Martin Dempsey rebuked the president's threat to use military troops against protesters as "dangerous," saying it would hurt relations between the military and civilians.

This Is One Way to Dance: Essays, by Sejal Shah

Books
Arts

'This Is One Way To Dance' Explores A Life Straddling Congruent Realities

8:07am June 04, 2020

by Martha Anne Toll

Essayist Sejal Shah brings important, refreshing, and depressing observations about what it means to have dark skin and an "exotic" name, when the only country you've ever lived in is America.

Several publishers have filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive alleging copyright infringement.

Books
Arts

Publishers Sue Internet Archive For 'Mass Copyright Infringement'

3:24pm June 03, 2020

by Colin Dwyer

The lawsuit filed this week in federal court alleges that the organization, which lends books online for free, amounts to a "piracy site" that has been eluding copyright law for years.

Faith leaders stand before a Baltimore mural depicting Freddie Gray, who died April 19, 2015 of injuries sustained while in police custody.

From Freddie Gray To George Floyd: Wes Moore Says It's Time To 'Change The Systems'

2:36pm June 03, 2020

by Terry Gross

In Five Days, Moore chronicles the uprising that occurred in Baltimore following Gray's death. "We're basically reliving history right now," he says of Floyd's death at the hands of police.

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Books
Arts

'The Vanishing Half' Counts The Terrible Costs Of Bigotry And Secrecy

7:00am June 03, 2020

by Heller McAlpin

Brit Bennett's triumphant new novel follows two light-skinned black sisters whose lives take very different paths; you'll keep turning pages not to find out what happens, but who these women are.