Books

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.

Matthew Macfadyen (right) and Stephen Mangan played Jeeves and Wooster, respectively, in Perfect Nonsense, a 2013 stage production. The characters were first created by comic author P.G. Wodehouse.

Books
Arts

Jeeves And Wooster, But Make It A Modern Spy Novel

7:53am December 02, 2018

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Ben Shott has taken the iconic P.G. Wodehouse comic characters (with the blessing of the Wodehouse estate) and twisted "five degrees to starboard" in his new novel Jeeves and the King of Clubs.

Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants, by Matthias Enard

Books
Arts

Tell Them Of 'Battles, Kings,' And Michelangelo On The Bosporus

7:00am December 02, 2018

by Juan Vidal

Mathias Énard's novel — newly translated from French — imagines what would have happened if Michelangelo had accepted an offer from the Ottoman ruler to design a bridge across the Golden Horn.