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Riveting 'Obelisk Gate' Shatters The Stillness

2:48pm August 18, 2016

by Amal El-Mohtar

N.K. Jemisin continues the story of the Stillness — a world constantly rocked by quakes, and the rare, gifted people who can control them — in a second volume even more engrossing than the first.

Eating Yogurt Is Not Enough: Rebalancing The Ecosystem Of 'The Microbes Within Us'

1:28pm August 18, 2016

Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes, says someday we might be able to improve our health by taking probiotics, but "we are still in the very early stages of working out how to do this."

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'The Hike' Turns Traditional Fairy Tales Inside Out

10:31am August 18, 2016

by Jason Sheehan

Drew Magary's new novel is the strange story of average guy Ben, whose business meeting at a old country hotel turns into a bizarre odyssey through the woods, full of giant crickets and talking crabs.

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'Hillbilly Elegy' Recalls A Childhood Where Poverty Was 'The Family Tradition'

1:44pm August 17, 2016

J.D. Vance grew up in a Rust Belt town in Ohio, in a family from the hills of eastern Kentucky. His new memoir details the social isolation, poverty and addiction that afflict poor white communities.

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For The 'Oscars Of Romance,' Representation Matters

7:00am August 17, 2016

by Sonali Dev

The RITA awards are the Oscars of romance writing — but of more than 90 RITA finalists this year, only a handful featured heroes and heroines of color. We have a roundup of the ones that did.

Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole (Emily Bogle/NPR)

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Everything Is Fair Game In 'Known And Strange Things'

8:05pm August 16, 2016

by NPR Staff

Teju Cole's new essay collection covers politics, poetry, music and even Snapchat. "I love to live things," he says — and he recommends Miles Davis as a cure for election season stress.

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In 'Uproot,' A DJ Traces Modern Music's Tangled Family Tree

6:37pm August 16, 2016

by NPR Staff

Jace Clayton, best known for his work as DJ /rupture, speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about his first book, Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture.

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Minnesota Bookseller Recommends 3 Summer Porch Reads

4:36pm August 16, 2016

Sue Zumberge of Subtext Books shares her favorite books for summer reading: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough, Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard and Wake Up, Island by Mary Casanova.

'Roaring Wind' Examines Extreme Weather, And The Power Of Air

1:40pm August 16, 2016

Biologist Bill Streever sailed from Texas to Guatemala while doing research for his new book, And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind. He says the wind was working against him "most of the time."

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Cover detail from A Square Meal, by Jane Ziegelman and Andy Coe

Creamed, Canned And Frozen: How The Great Depression Revamped U.S. Diets

11:34am August 16, 2016

During the Depression, cheap, nutritious and filling food was prioritized — often at the expense of taste. Jane Ziegelman and Andy Coe, authors of A Square Meal, discuss food trends of the time.

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