Books

Books
Arts

'Missing, Presumed' Chronicles Ups And Downs Of Dating ... And Detective Work

8:28am July 16, 2016

by NPR Staff

At the beginning of Susie Steiner's new thriller, a detective is on a date with a man whose name she can't remember. Not long after, a well-connected university student goes missing.

Books
Arts

'Stars' Is A Sequel That Goes A Bit Askew

8:00am July 16, 2016

by Jason Sheehan

In The Stars Askew, Rjurik Davidson returns to the world of Caeli-Amur, now trying to put itself back together after a revolution. But the story bogs down in plural narratives and political minutiae.

Books
Arts

Poets Take Cues From Journalism In Recent Collections

4:42pm July 15, 2016

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with our poetry reviewer Tess Taylor about three recent collections that take their cues from nonfiction, including Admit One by Martha Collins, Look by Solmaz Sharif and Olio by Tyehimba Jess.

Books
Arts

Like These Books? Here Are 60+ Things You Might Also Like ...

9:35am July 15, 2016

You know that feeling when you put down a great book and all you want is more? We took 27 recent books and paired them with movies, musicals, TV shows, comics and podcasts to keep your buzz going.

In 1964's The Best Man, presidential candidate and principled intellectual William Russell (Henry Fonda) competes with a TV-savvy opportunist at his (unspecified) party's convention.

What Do Contested Conventions Look Like? Ask Hollywood And Sinclair Lewis

6:53pm July 14, 2016

by Bob Mondello

Thanks to movies, novels and TV, Bob Mondello knows what a contested convention would be like: raucous crowd, oppressive din and (if movies are any guide) Angela Lansbury scheming in the corner.

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An Opera Percussionist Traces Her Path 'From Juilliard to the Orchestra Pit'

3:22pm July 14, 2016

Patti Niemi has been a percussionist for the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1992. She speaks with Fresh Air's Sam Briger about performance anxiety, muscle memory and her memoir, Sticking it Out.

Jason Aaron Baca has been featured on more than 475 romance novels.

Meet The Guy Who Has Been A Hero, A Pirate, A 'Mountain Of Molten Lust'

11:43am July 14, 2016

by NPR Staff

Model Jason Aaron Baca has appeared on 475 romance book covers. By his tally, that's more than even Fabio. His is a story of hard work and luck in the swashbuckling, bodice-ripping world of romance.

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Books

Egypt's Repressive Government Frames Yasmine El Rashidi's First Novel

10:14am July 14, 2016

Steve Inskeep talks to journalist Yasmine El Rashidi about her debut novel, Chronicle of a Last Summer. It follows a young Egyptian whose life and country change over three turbulent summers.

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Elie Wiesel speaks at Vermont's Middlebury College in 2002. The Holocaust survivor, Nobel laureate and author died July 2 at the age of 87.

Forgetting Isn't Healing: Lessons From Elie Wiesel

9:06am July 14, 2016

by Sonari Glinton

Calls for racial healing often focus on putting the painful past behind us. NPR's Sonari Glinton remembers the man who taught him never to forget: Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

Books
Arts

Time Catches Up With Us All In 'The Heavenly Table'

7:00am July 14, 2016

by Jason Sheehan

Donald Ray Pollock's surreal, hardscrabble new novel is set in 1917, but it could just as well be 917; his characters are all lost in time and puzzled by the pace at which the future's coming at them.