Books

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Arts

In This Twist On Tricky Dick's History, A President's Secrets Can Save Us

10:38am July 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

In Crooked, novelist Austin Grossman excuses Richard Nixon's rocky political career in the weirdest ways possible — by reimagining the former president as a warrior against supernatural forces.

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David Duchovny says The X-Files was his biggest break — not because it was successful but because that's where he went from youthful ambition to an adult understanding of what it means to work.

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Arts

From The Ivy League To 'The X-Files': David Duchovny's Big Break

9:56pm July 25, 2015

by Becky Sullivan

Before he became Fox Mulder, Duchovny was working on his Ph.D. in literature at Yale. He was going to be a poet — or maybe a novelist — or maybe a playwright ...

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Lea and Bandy met in 1976 at a high school dance. "He was the boy from out of town," Lea writes. "I was the girl who wanted out."

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Arts

In 'Wondering Who You Are,' A Man Wakes Up And Doesn't Know His Wife

10:55am July 25, 2015

by NPR Staff

Sonya Lea and her husband Richard Bandy had been married for more than 20 years when he had to have an operation for a rare cancer. Since then, he's been piecing together the puzzle of his past.

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Arts

An Unlikely Pair Form A Wily Duo In 'Crooked Heart'

10:55am July 25, 2015

An orphan boy becomes friends with the scheming woman who takes him in in Lissa Evans' new novel, Crooked Heart. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with her about her WWII-era novel.

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'Fresh Air' Remembers 'Billy Bathgate' Author E. L. Doctorow

9:12pm July 24, 2015

Doctorow, who died Tuesday at the age of 84, was the author of dozens of novels, many of which combined fictional characters and real people in a historical context. Originally broadcast in 1989.

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Retracing Ralph Waldo Emerson's Steps In A Now 'Unchanged Eden'

8:22pm July 24, 2015

by Brian Mann

A century and a half ago, the poet and philosopher headed to New York's Adirondack Mountains with some notable pals. Today, we follow his journey with a new crew, the help of a painting and a book.

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Books

NPR Bestsellers: Week Of July 23, 2015

4:03pm July 24, 2015

The lists are compiled from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of July 23, 2015

4:03pm July 24, 2015

Harper Lee's novel To Set a Watchman, is set two decades after her Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. It debuts at No. 1.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of July 23, 2015

4:03pm July 24, 2015

Ta-nehisi Coates' new book Between The World And Me is written as an open letter to his teenage son. It debuts at No. 2.

Books

NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of July 23, 2015

4:03pm July 24, 2015

At No. 10, Jodi Picoult's Leaving Time tells the story of an abandoned teen's search for answers about her disappeared parents.