Books

Cover photo of There There, by Tommy Orange

Books
Arts

Pithy And Pointed 'There There' Puts Native American Voices Front And Center

1:28pm June 18, 2018

by Maureen Corrigan

Critic Maureen Corrigan says Tommy Orange's novel, which centers on a cast of native and mixed-race characters whose lives intersect at a powwow, features "a literary authority rare in a debut."

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Angry villagers — like these, from James Whale's classic 1931 film version of Frankenstein.

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Arts

It'll Take More Than A Few Angry Villagers To Kill Off 'Frankenstein'

7:00am June 18, 2018

by Genevieve Valentine

Mary Shelley's timeless novel gave us not only an enduring trope — the misunderstood monster — but an equally enduring way to talk about what happens when human knowledge outpaces responsibility.

Buk buk. Rubber chicken keeled over on its side.

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Arts

Have We Reached Peak Funny?

5:00am June 18, 2018

by Glen Weldon

In his new book Planet Funny: How Comedy Took Over Our Culture, Ken Jennings takes humor seriously, tracing how comedy infiltrated every aspect of our lives — and what it's doing to us.

Books

David Lynch On 'Room To Dream'

8:12am June 17, 2018

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks David Lynch about Room to Dream, the director's new memoir.

"We Are Where the Nightmares Go" by C. Robert Cargill

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Arts

'Where The Nightmares Go' Maps The Territory Of Fear

7:00am June 17, 2018

by Jason Sheehan

C. Robert Cargill's new story collection covers the globe and genres of horror from classic to modern, with ghost stories, thrillers, gore and puzzles that would be right at home on premium cable.

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Arts

'The Secret Life of Cows' Aims To Show Animals As Thinking, Feeling Beings

5:01am June 17, 2018

by Barbara J. King

Farmer Rosamund Young's book will charm people who want to lap up more evidence that animals have personalities, but may not warm hearts of animal lovers who don't eat meat.

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Arts

In June, Make Your Escape With These 3 Hot Reads

10:00am June 16, 2018

by Maya Rodale

Summer's getting hotter, so here are three romances guaranteed to raise your temperature and take you on an adventure, from London's West End to Barcelona to a Harvard University classroom.

A Spy Talks About His Time In Al-Qaida

8:10am June 16, 2018

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Aimen Dean about his time with al-Qaida in his new memoir, Nine Lives, My Time as the West's Top Spy Inside al-Qaeda.

cover of Old in Art School by Nell Painter

Books
Arts

'Old In Art School': An MFA Inspires A Memoir Of Age

7:26am June 16, 2018

by Scott Simon

Upon retiring from Princeton University at age 64, historian Nell Irvin Painter decided to pursue a second career in visual art among students a third of her age.

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Arts

In 'Fight No More,' Life Rushes By, But Sometime's There's Beauty

7:00am June 16, 2018

by Lily Meyer

Lydia Millet's latest is a novel about death, disguised as a short story collection about real estate, alternately wrenching and hilarious, and full of joys on every scale.