Books

Books
Arts

Love, Money And Betrayal Make For Great Storytelling In 'The Heirs'

7:00am May 27, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Susan Rieger's new book follows an upper-crust, Upper West Side family whose certainties are thrown into doubt after their father dies and an unknown Other Woman sues his estate for child support.

Books
Arts

Denis Johnson, Author Who Wrote 'Jesus' Son,' Dies At 67

4:33pm May 26, 2017

by Lynn Neary

Denis Johnson was best known for his 1992 short story collection Jesus' Son. He won the 2007 National Book Award for the novel, Tree of Smoke. Johnson died Thursday at age 67.

Mike and Amy Mills' famous smoked chicken wings, as prepared in Ari Shapiro's backyard.

Books
Arts

'Praise The Lard': A Barbecue Legend Shows Us How To Master Smoked Chicken Wings

4:33pm May 26, 2017

by Ari Shapiro

Mike Mills' chicken wings have been named the best in the country. He is even in the Barbecue Hall of Fame. His new book with daughter Amy Mills shares the gospel of barbecue with home cooks.

Queue Listen Now

Denis Johnson, who won the 2007 National Book Award for Tree of Smoke, died Thursday.

Denis Johnson, Author Who Wrote Of The 'Painfully Beautiful,' Dies At 67

3:32pm May 26, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The National Book Award-winning novelist was perhaps best known for Jesus' Son, a book of interwoven stories focused on the lives of addicts. A spokesman for his publisher tells NPR he died Wednesday.

Books
Arts

Remembering 'Jesus' Son,' From Denis Johnson

12:02pm May 26, 2017

On the occasion of the death of writer Denis Johnson, we share a 2007 reflection on Johnson's book Jesus' Son, from novelist Nathan Englander.

Monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia and his adopted daughter Ciri are at the center of a complex story in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Books
Arts

Reading The Game: Witcher 3

4:20pm May 25, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Our occasional series on storytelling in video games returns with an epic, week-long journey into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the latest installment of the adventures of monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia.

Confronting the Legacy of Racism in America

1:03pm May 25, 2017

A conversation with National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi about race and racism in America.

Books
Arts

A Dancer Is Unstrung By Grief In 'Isadora'

7:00am May 25, 2017

by Michael Schaub

The great American dancer Isadora Duncan led a tragic life, and her worst year — just after the deaths of her first two children in an accident, forms the core of Amelia Gray's powerful new novel.

Books
Arts

Searching For A Summer Escape? These 6 Books Will Carry You Away

2:55pm May 24, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

Journeys, near and far, into the past and even into near space, are the subject of the novels, memoirs and narrative histories that make up book critic Maureen Corrigan's early summer reading list.

Queue Listen Now

The Power Of Music Is At The Heart Of 'Black Mad Wheel'

8:31am May 24, 2017

by Jason Heller

Detroit garage-rocker Josh Malerman's second novel follows a fictional 1950s rock bad recruited by the government to find the source of a mysterious, ominous sound emanating from the Namib Desert.