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Complex, Generational Music In Lyrical 'Daughters'

3:52pm August 04, 2015

by Carmen Maria Machado

Women are the blood and backbone of Adrienne Celt's debut novel, and at the heart is Lulu, who's revisiting family stories and legends as she comes to terms with her daughter's birth and an old curse.

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'Dragonfish' Offers A Noir Vision Of An 'American Dream Gone Rancid'

3:06pm August 04, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

The debut novel by Vu Tran is a crime drama involving a white cop, his Vietnamese-born ex-wife and her new husband, a violent crime boss. Maureen Corrigan calls Dragonfish a "haunting literary novel."

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Aviator Beryl Markham Soars Again In 'Paris Wife' Author's New Book

1:31pm August 04, 2015

by NPR Staff

"It is my fate to illuminate the lives of these one-of-a-kind notable women that have been somehow forgotten by history," says Paula McLain. She shines her spotlight on Markham in Circling the Sun.

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'Fifth Season' Embraces The Scale And Complexity Of Fantasy

10:03am August 04, 2015

by Jason Heller

Yes, N.K. Jemison's newest epic is the kind of fantasy that has not one but two glossaries at the end — but reviewer Jason Heller says that just underscores her sumptuous detail and dimensionality.

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'Spies' Is A Cinematic Account Of Americans In War-Torn Paris

1:41pm August 03, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Historian Alex Kershaw's latest book focuses on an American doctor and his family who worked with the French Resistance from their apartment just down Avenue Foch from the Paris SS headquarters.

The U.S. military's need for longer-lasting rations led to the invention of many modern processed foods.

Cheetos, Canned Foods, Deli Meat: How The U.S. Army Shapes Our Diet

11:40am August 03, 2015

by Nadia Whitehead

Many of the processed foods that we eat — and the way they're made — were invented not for us, but for soldiers, says the author of the new book Combat-Ready Kitchen.

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This 'Woman With A Secret' Plays Deadly Mind Games

8:11am August 03, 2015

by Jean Zimmerman

Sophie Hannah's new psychological crime thriller is about the cruel machinations of outwardly nice married folks with too much time on their hands.

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A Study Of Gods And Human Nature In 'Tiberius'

4:04pm August 02, 2015

Under Tiberius is a new novel about deceit and crime. The main character is the man who came to be known as Jesus Christ. NPR's Scott Simon talks to author Nick Tosches.

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Luther Campbell Of 2 Live Crew On Fame, Obscenity And Community

8:28am August 02, 2015

by NPR Staff

Before joining the notoriously shocking rap crew, Campbell was a party-rocking DJ in Miami. Even then, he knew that being aggressively different could lead to success.

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A Look Back On 'Middle Passage': The Evolution Of A Literary Classic

6:55pm August 01, 2015

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Twenty-five years after Charles Johnson's Middle Passage — which dwells with race, class and gender in 19th-century America — won the National Book Award, he reflects on his book's evolving meaning.

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