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Funny, Touching 'Bream' Has Echoes Of Steve Martin And Woody Allen

4:22pm September 08, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Jesse Eisenberg specializes in playing (and writing about) jittery, antisocial nerds. Critic Heller McAlpin says the wonder is the empathy he brings to the sad sacks in his new story collection.

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Arts

'Fear Of Dying' Asks: Can You Go Zipless At 60?

3:19pm September 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

Author Erica Jong famously explored female sexuality in 1973's Fear of Flying. In her new novel, she writes about how the need for sex, touch and connection doesn't diminish when you get older.

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'Child Garden' Gives The Cozy Mystery A Shot Of Caffeine

7:43am September 08, 2015

by Jean Zimmerman

Tight-laced Gloria Harkness says she's no Miss Marple, but she can't help picking at the threads of a murder mystery. Especially when it involves the care at the home where her disabled son lives.

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Why The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are Good For You

10:12am September 06, 2015

by David C. Barnett

It was known as the black Pulitzer Prize. Edith Anisfield Wolf created the award in 1935 to honor books that explored issues of race and culture diversity. Thursday is its 80th anniversary.

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In A Shadow Tongue, 'The Wake' Tells Of Bloody Battles And Old Gods

7:03am September 06, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Paul Kingsnorth invented a whole new language for his novel about the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Critic Jason Sheehan says that hard work paid off.

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Lighter Than Air: An End-Of-Summer Comics Collection

7:03am September 06, 2015

by Etelka Lehoczky

Just in time for the long Labor Day weekend, we've got the perfect selection of comics to help you wring the last bits of sunlight out of summer: plenty of heroism and romance, but nothing too heavy.

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Arts

Jesse Eisenberg's New Book Gets Seriously Absurd (And A Little Serious)

6:36pm September 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

The actor and writer has a collection of funny short stories that also mine some emotional truths — from post-gender attempts at pick-ups to a lonely 9-year-old reviewing expensive restaurants.

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Salman Rushdie is the author of 12 novels, including Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was once the subject of death threats; now, when asked if he can move about freely Rushdie responds: "You have to stop asking me. ... It's been like 1

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Salman Rushdie: These Days, 'Everyone Is Upset All The Time'

11:38am September 05, 2015

by NPR Staff

"Everything I write upsets somebody," Rushdie tells NPR's Scott Simon. His latest book, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, sweeps the reader into a turbulent, magical, mythological world.

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'Harriet Chance' Explores Late-Life Reinvention

11:38am September 05, 2015

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Jonathan Evison about his new novel, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance, in which the title character finds herself on an Alaskan cruise with the ghost of her husband and a daughter she can't trust.

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'Dragon Heart' Is Epic Fantasy With A Gothic Air

7:03am September 05, 2015

by Jason Heller

Historical novelist Cecelia Holland ventures into fantasy with this tale of a mute princess and a dragon. Critic Jason Heller says the book has an intriguing and unexpected core of Gothic romance.