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'Shining City' Is Packed With Timely Thrills

7:24am February 18, 2017

by NPR Staff

Tom Rosenstiel — head of the American Press Institute — has written a novel about a political fixer who gets the biggest job of his career: Sanitizing a controversial Supreme Court nominee.

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Arts

Letting Go Is The Hardest Thing For 'Lincoln In The Bardo'

7:00am February 18, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

George Saunders — master of the short story — debuts as a novelist with this strange, haunting (and haunted) tale of President Lincoln as he grieves the death of his young son Willie.

In 2016, people of color were the protagonists in 22 percent of children's literature.

Authors And Illustrators Of Color Accounted For 22 Percent Of Children's Books

8:08pm February 17, 2017

by Leah Donnella

In 2016, people of color wrote or illustrated fewer than a quarter of new children's books. Here's why that matters.

An early draft of Card III in Hermann Rorschach's psychological test.

How Hermann Rorschach's 'Inkblots' Took On A Life Of Their Own

6:46pm February 17, 2017

by NPR Staff

These days, you're more likely to come across the concept of a Rorschach test in a cultural context than a clinical one. In a new book, author Damion Searls traces the history of the famous inkblots.

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Dick Bruna at the opening of his 2005 exhibit of Miffy creations in the Hague. Bruna's iconic white rabbit proved to be popular worldwide.

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Dick Bruna, Artist And Author Of The Intricately Simple Miffy, Dies At 89

5:07pm February 17, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The Dutch illustrator and children's book author wrote over 120 books and sold some 85 million copies worldwide. But no character earned him greater acclaim than a simple white rabbit.

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Book Review: '300 Arguments,' Sarah Manguso

4:35pm February 16, 2017

Poetry reviewer Tess Taylor declares Sarah Manguso's new book, 300 Arguments, is poetry, not essays — or is it?

Could this dapper gentleman be Marcel Proust? If it is, as a Canadian professor believes, it would mark the first time the great French author was found in film footage.

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WATCH: Is This Proust? Scholars Say They've Finally Found Author On Film

3:16pm February 16, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

The French novelist Marcel Proust is regularly listed among the greatest writers of the 20th century. But how did the man move? A professor says the answer is on a wedding film over 110 years old.

Ghachar Ghochar embodies the "fear of falling into economic and moral ruin."

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Arts

'Ghachar Ghochar' Presents A Fretful Vision Of Indian Class Anxiety

2:07pm February 16, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

The narrator of Vivek Shanbhag's new novel once lived a lower-class subsistence in Bangalore. Critic Maureen Corrigan says Ghachar Ghochar embodies the "fear of falling into economic and moral ruin."

Freda DeKnight was Ebony's first food editor and author of a best-selling African-American cookbook in the 1940s. Her recipes presented a vision of black America that was often invisible in mainstream media.

Meet Freda DeKnight, A 'Hidden Figure' And Titan Of African-American Food

12:55pm February 16, 2017

by Donna Battle Pierce

DeKnight was Ebony's first food editor and author of a best-selling African-American cookbook in the '40s. Her recipes presented a vision of black America that was often invisible in mainstream media.

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Arts

Peter S. Beagle Finds Magic In 'Calabria'

7:00am February 16, 2017

by Tasha Robinson

Beagle has spent his career writing about unicorns — and he returns to that enclosed garden with In Calabria, the tale of a grouchy farmer who finds a pregnant unicorn investigating his fields.