Books

Books

Nobel Committee To Release 2018 And 2019 Literature Prizes On Thursday

11:04am October 10, 2019

by Lynn Neary

Because scandals such as harassment and the leaking of names engulfed the Swedish academy in 2018, it did not name a Nobel laureate in literature. (This piece initially aired Oct. 9, 2019 on ATC.)

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Polish author Olga Tokarczuk (left) won the postponed 2018 Nobel Prize for literature and Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke won the 2019 award. The Swedish Academy did not hand out a prize last year due to scandal.

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Nobel Prizes In Literature Go To Olga Tokarczuk And Peter Handke

9:28am October 10, 2019

by Colin Dwyer

The Swedish Academy made the unusual move Thursday of recognizing both Handke, an Austrian writer, and Tokarczuk, who is Polish, after scandal prevented the committee from awarding a prize last year.

Blondie's Debbie Harry Releases Memoir: 'Face It'

6:59am October 10, 2019

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Debbie Harry, the iconic singer of Blondie, about her new memoir, Face It, which shows how her long-lasting music grew out of a specific place and time.

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Swedish Academy To Name 2 Nobel Laureates in Literature In 2019, After Missing 2018

7:10pm October 09, 2019

by Lynn Neary

Because scandal — including sexual harassment and leaking of names — engulfed the Swedish Academy last year, it did not name a Nobel Laureate in Literature. This year, it will name two.

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Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, by Megan Phelps-Roper

Granddaughter Of Westboro Baptist Church Founder Chronicles Leaving In 'Unfollow'

6:38pm October 09, 2019

by Kate Tuttle

Megan Phelps-Roper, who first picketed against homosexuality with her family at age 5, writes of facing feelings of guilt. In her memoir she says of her family, "losing them was the price of honesty."

In 'Horror Stories,' Liz Phair Writes Of 'The Haunting Melodies' In Her Head

3:17pm October 09, 2019

by Michael Schaub

The singer-songwriter's new book is an unconventional rock memoir that doesn't hew to the genre's norms. And like her entire musical catalog, it's honest and original.

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Arts

Saeed Jones' Eloquent Coming-Of-Age Is Hard To Read — And Harder To Put Down

12:21pm October 09, 2019

by Maureen Corrigan

Jones grew up black, gay and isolated in Texas. He chronicles his wobbly path to self-affirmation in the raw and eloquent new memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives.

"The things that I was building on originally for the defense of our democracies had been completely inverted," Christopher Wylie says of his work at Cambridge Analytica.

Whistleblower Explains How Cambridge Analytica Helped Fuel U.S. 'Insurgency'

7:08am October 09, 2019

by Terry Gross

In 2014, Christopher Wylie resigned from his position as Cambridge Analytica's research director. He later exposed the company's role in the Trump presidential campaign and the Brexit referendum.

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cover of The Topeka School by Ben Lerner

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How High School Debate In 1990s Kansas Explains The Present: A Novel Argument

7:15pm October 08, 2019

by Ari Shapiro

Author Ben Lerner's new semi-autobiographical book, The Topeka School, finds a competitive-debate whiz kid navigating adolescence — and perhaps the precursors to today's American politics.

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The Smashing Pumpkins Perform At The Theatre At Ace Hotel

'Horror Stories' With Liz Phair

4:26pm October 08, 2019

The sound of our feminist teenage angst joins us to talk about her new memior and where, exactly, Guyville is.