Books

How Black Leaders Unwittingly Contributed To The Era Of Mass Incarceration

4:34pm May 11, 2018

by Terry Gross

In Locking Up Our Own, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Forman Jr. argues that African-American leaders helped shape policies that harmed black communities. Originally broadcast July 17, 2017.

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Brilliant But Devastating, 'The Mars Room' Chronicles Life Behind Bars

10:00am May 10, 2018

by Michael Schaub

Rachel Kushner's heartbreaking, nearly flawless third novel centers on Romy Hall, a young woman who's just been sentenced to two life sentences for beating her stalker to death.

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'Free Woman' Is An Uncompromising Look At An Unconventional Writer

7:00am May 10, 2018

by Lily Meyer

Lara Feigel's new book is a combination memoir and celebration of the writer Doris Lessing — whose famous distaste for convention led her to exclaim "Oh, Christ," upon winning the Nobel Prize.

Books

'Barracoon' Tells The Story Of The Last Slave In First Person

4:09pm May 09, 2018

With the publication of Zora Neale Hurston's "Barracoon," the subject and the storyteller are equally fascinating.

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'Undead Girl Gang': Mister, They ARE The Weirdos

10:14am May 09, 2018

by Caitlyn Paxson

In Lily Anderson's debut novel, a string of suspicious deaths prompts teen witch Mila to try to solve the mystery by raising the dead girls to ask who killed them — but of course, it's not that easy.

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My First Existential Crisis: The Sweet Story Of An Angsty 'Square'

5:07pm May 08, 2018

by Rachel Martin

Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett are writing a children's book trilogy about shapes who are just like us. The second installment follows a straight-laced square who wonders if he's really a genius.

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'Barracoon' Offers A Vivid, First-Hand Account Of Slavery In America

2:59pm May 08, 2018

by Maureen Corrigan

In 1927, author Zora Neale Huston interviewed Cudjo Lewis, the last known living person who could recount the experience of being taken captive in Africa and transported on a slave ship to America.

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Brothers Jay (left) and Mark Duplass have been making films together since they were kids. Their new memoir is Like Brothers.

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Duplass Brothers On Working Together And Growing Apart: 'We Are Ex-Soulmates'

1:11pm May 08, 2018

by Terry Gross

Filmmaker siblings Jay and Mark Duplass have been making movies together since they were kids. More recently, Mark says, "We had to dig out space from that beautiful co-dependence."

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'Barracoon' Brings A Lost Slave Story To Light

10:00am May 08, 2018

by Jean Zimmerman

Both terrifying and wonderful, Barracoon is Zora Neale Hurston's long-unpublished account of her conversations with Cudjo Lewis, who was brought to America on the last trans-Atlantic slave ship.

Books

In Zora Neale Hurston's 'Barracoon,' Language Is The Key To Understanding

8:51am May 08, 2018

by Lynn Neary

The book is based on conversations Hurston had with Cudjo Lewis, who was brought to this country on the last trans-Atlantic slave ship. It's a unique document of Lewis' life before and after slavery.

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