Books

Harvard University's Bruce Freeman tries to run around a teammate and a Yale player and into the end zone after catching a pass during the final 42 seconds of The Game against Yale University at Harvard Stadium in Boston on Nov. 23, 1968.

Key 1968 Harvard-Yale Battle Sets Scene For 'The Game' — And Football's Future

12:05pm December 05, 2018

by Michael Schaub

Author George Howe Colt's choice to delve into the lives of the players and coaches in his new book, as well as the turbulent year itself, makes his writing about the actual game pay off beautifully.

Books
Arts

Complicated, Challenging 'Revolution Sunday' Mixes Prose And Poetry

7:00am December 05, 2018

by Lily Meyer

Cuban writer Wendy Guerra has lived under surveillance in her home country, and she works that experience into her intense new novel about a young poet in Havana whose success causes trouble.

Swinging on a Star, written by jazz and film critic Gary Giddins, is out now.

New Biography Chronicles Bing Crosby's Most Beloved Years

5:06pm December 04, 2018

by Tom Vitale

Crosby set the mold for the multimedia star: on radio, on the big screen and on record. The 1940s was the period when his star shone brightest and Swinging on a Star by Gary Giddins tells that story.

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Books
Arts

Brutally Intelligent 'Milkman' Depicts Lives Cramped By Fear

3:19pm December 04, 2018

by Annalisa Quinn

Anna Burns' new novel — which won the Man Booker prize — follows a never-named young woman who's being harassed by a powerful paramilitary figure during Ireland's Troubles.

Books

Extreme Ideologies Clash In 'North Of Dawn'

3:19pm December 04, 2018

by Steve Inskeep

Author Nuruddin Farah writes about immigration and radicalization in his latest novel North of Dawn, which follows a Somali living in exile in Norway whose son chooses a dangerously extreme path.

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Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages, by Gaston Dorren

'Babel' Looks At Language Through The 20 Most-Widely Spoken

9:28am December 04, 2018

by Michael Schaub

Linguist Gaston Dorren's book is endlessly interesting — and you don't have to have any linguistic training to enjoy it: He has a talent for clearly explaining even the most difficult concepts.

Books
Arts

In Love With Teen Lit: Remembering The 'Paperback Crush' Of The '80s And '90s

6:04pm December 03, 2018

by Ailsa Chang

As a preteen Gabrielle Moss devoured books in "The Baby-Sitters Club" and "Sweet Valley High" series. She recently reread them for "nostalgic stress relief" and ended up writing a book on the genre.

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Jean-Claude Arnault is escorted on Nov. 12 after the first day of his appeal trial in Stockholm. Arnault challenged his conviction for rape, but instead of throwing out the conviction, the appeals court extended his sentence.

Swedish Cultural Figure Appeals Rape Conviction, Is Given Longer Sentence

4:06pm December 03, 2018

by Camila Domonoske

Jean-Claude Arnault's sex abuse scandal has roiled the Swedish Academy, which selects the Nobel Prize in Literature. His appeal of his Oct. 1 conviction has backfired.

Michelle Obama (left) talks with poet Elizabeth Alexander during an event for the former first lady's memoir at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday.

Michelle Obama's Take On 'Lean In'? 'That &#%! Doesn't Work'

3:59pm December 03, 2018

by Laurel Wamsley

Obama told a Brooklyn audience that the notion of "having it all" is "a lie." Many were delighted by the former first lady's spontaneous candor.

Books

George H.W. Bush Biography

7:53am December 02, 2018

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with presidential biographer, Jon Meacham, about the late George H.W. Bush and his impact.