Books

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Books
Arts

Marriage Is Passionate, Not Perfect, In 'The Most Fun We Ever Had'

7:00am June 25, 2019

by Heller McAlpin

Claire Lombardo's sweeping family drama — fueled by power plays between spouses and between sisters — is a wonderfully immersive read that packs more heart and heft than most first novels.

William McRaven's Memior: 'Sea Stories: My Life In Special Operations'

6:22am June 25, 2019

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to retired Admiral William McRaven, who may be best known as the Navy SEAL commander who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, about his new memoir.

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Amber Scorah writes about exiting the Jehovah's Witnesses in Leaving the Witness.

'I Couldn't Continue On': A Former Jehovah's Witness On Leaving The Faith

7:17pm June 24, 2019

by Terry Gross

"I felt like everything that had mattered to me was gone," Amber Scorah says of her decision to leave the Jehovah's Witness community she grew up in. Her new memoir is Leaving the Witness.

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Books

Judith Krantz, Queen Of The Sex And Shopping Novel, Dies At 91

6:01pm June 24, 2019

by Petra Mayer

Judith Krantz, queen of the 'sex and shopping' novel, has died at 91. Beginning with Scruples in 1978, she sold millions of books with her signature mix of high fashion, hot sex and female ambition.

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Books
Arts

Bad Things Happen Out Of The Blue In Sadie Jones' 'The Snakes'

8:17am June 23, 2019

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

The author says writing this novel was like writing an "anti-murder mystery." Murder mysteries are nice and tidy, she says, but this disturbing morality tale is about unforeseeable tragedy.

Books
Arts

Simple, Sassy 'Summer Of '69' Is The Perfect Beach Read

7:00am June 23, 2019

by Jean Zimmerman

Elin Hilderbrand — known as the "Queen of Summer" — is back with another beachy tale of family secrets and intrigue (and tasty period details), set on Nantucket during the turbulent summer of 1969.

Bill Cosby is taken away in handcuffs after he was sentenced for felony sexual assault on Sept. 25, 2018, in Norristown, Penn.

Books

'Chasing Cosby' Author Says Covering The Cosby Case Was A Journey Of Disillusionment

8:11pm June 22, 2019

by Michel Martin

Nicole Weisensee Egan has followed the sexual assault accusations against Bill Cosby since 2005. At first a skeptic herself, Egan discusses how "America's Dad" managed to escape justice for decades.

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Books

Chanelle Benz On 'The Gone Dead'

8:22am June 22, 2019

Chanelle Benz's new novel is a story that swells with Mississippi swelter, blood oaths, old grudges, conspiracy theories and everlasting mysteries. Scott Simon talks with her about the book.

Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes

Books
Arts

2 Fractured Halves Make A Whole In 'Evvie Drake'

8:22am June 22, 2019

by Scott Simon

The debut novel from NPR's own Linda Holmes follows a suddenly widowed (and not all that grief-stricken) woman and her new lodger — a former major league ballplayer who's lost his ability to pitch.

Books
Arts

Why We're Reading Beowulf In The Bathtub

7:00am June 22, 2019

by Juanita Giles

NPR's new kids' fiction column — by Juanita Giles, founder of the Virginia Children's Book Festival — kicks off with an explanation of why the epic poem Beowulf is the perfect bathtime read.