Books

Books

Samantha Hunt On Her Short Stories In 'The Dark Dark'

8:08am July 22, 2017

NPR's Scott Simon talks with acclaimed novelist Samantha Hunt about her first book of short stories, The Dark Dark, which explores the fantastical and the sorrowful in everyday life.

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Yes, Some Comics Are For Kids — And They're Big Business

8:08am July 22, 2017

by Petra Mayer

What's the best way to get people reading comics? Hook 'em young. And comics for early readers are booming — even big publishers like DC, famed for grim and gritty, are getting in on the action.

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Life Lessons (With Zombies) In 'Minecraft: The Island'

7:00am July 22, 2017

by Jason Sheehan

Max Brooks' latest novel is set in the world of the popular video game Minecraft — and once you get past that, it has a lot of valuable ideas for young readers, cleverly disguised with plenty of fun.

A vintage postcard from the Peach Tree State. Georgia isn't the biggest producer of the pink-orange fruit. So why are its peaches so iconic? The answer has a lot to do with slavery — its end and a need for the South to rebrand itself.

The Un-Pretty History Of Georgia's Iconic Peach

8:00am July 21, 2017

by Tove Danovich

The state isn't the biggest producer of the pink-orange fruit. So why are Georgia peaches so iconic? The answer has a lot to do with slavery — its end and a need for the South to rebrand itself.

Cover detail of Who is Rich?, by Matthew Klam

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2 Smart New Novels Find Humor In Fantasies Of Escape

1:58pm July 20, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

These terrific comic novels — The Last Laugh by Lynn Freed and Who Is Rich? by Matthew Klam — will have you laughing at the many ways we all try to run away from the realities of life.

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Bao Phi hopes his poetry book Thousand Star Hotel and his children's book A Different Pond can fill the hole in Asian-American literature that he saw when he was a kid.

The Poet Bao Phi, On Creating A 'Guidebook' For Young Asian-Americans

11:18am July 20, 2017

by Kat Chow

When Bao Phi was a child, there was little literature about Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. Phi hopes to change that with his new poetry book Thousand Star Hotel and a forthcoming children's book.

Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home By Nicole J. Georges

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In 'Fetch,' A Memorial To A Beloved Dog Raises Hard Questions

7:00am July 20, 2017

by Etelka Lehoczky

Do you deserve your pets? Do you deserve the people in your life? In her new graphic memoir, Nicole Georges suggests the two questions are closely related — and you may not like the answers.

Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen. The illustration above is from Presto and Zesto in Limboland, a book he completed with his friend Arthur Yorinks more than 20 years ago. Sendak died in 2012.

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Collaborator Says Sendak Would Be 'Jumping For Joy' Over New Publication

11:08pm July 19, 2017

by Robert Siegel

More than 20 years ago, Maurice Sendak and Arthur Yorinks collaborated on a book called Presto and Zesto in Limboland. But they were both busy with other projects, and never bothered to publish it.

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Billy Bragg says he initially pursued songwriting as a way to escape working in the local car factory.

Billy Bragg On Skiffle, The Movement That Brought Guitar To British Radio

3:29pm July 19, 2017

by Terry Gross

The singer describes skiffle as "a bunch of British school boys in the mid '50s playing Lead Belly's repertoire ... on acoustic guitars." Bragg's new book is Roots, Radicals And Rockers.

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We All Live In The Dark, But Some Of Us Live In 'The Dark Dark'

7:00am July 19, 2017

by Carmen Maria Machado

Samantha Hunt's new story collection dissects the unique strangeness of women's lives, mixing eerie fantasy with solid literary sensibility and a knack for strange and lovely set pieces.