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Morally Messy Stories, Exquisitely Told, In Mia Alvar's 'In The Country'

5:00pm June 18, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

The author was born in Manila and grew up in Bahrain and New York City. Her back story is shared by many of her Filipino characters in her debut short story collection.

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'Seven Good Years' Remembers Tiny Moments Writ Exquisitely Large

10:03am June 18, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

In his new collection Etgar Keret recounts bittersweet and often humorous vignettes of life in the seven years between the birth of his son and the death of his father.

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Lawyer Argues That Virtual Trials Would Make Justice System More Fair

1:02pm June 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

Adam Benforado's new book, Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice, describes a system in which race, accents and even attractiveness couldn't play a role in a jury's decision.

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Aziz Ansari is a writer, stand-up comedian and actor well-known for playing Tom Haverford in NBC's Parks and Recreation.

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From Dating Exhaustion To ... Flo Rida? Aziz Ansari Surveys 'Modern Romance'

1:02pm June 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

The comic teamed up with a sociologist to write an overview of dating and relationships. His book explains online dating's paradox of choice and how we're all like a song by hip-hop artist Flo Rida.

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Etgar Keret's work has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and he's contributed to This American Life.

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What Etgar Keret Learned From His Father About Storytelling And Survival

12:01pm June 17, 2015

The Seven Good Years spans the time between the birth of his son and the death of his father. Keret says his father, who was a Holocaust survivor, taught him to "look reality straight in the face."

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Too Much 'Word,' Not Enough 'Nerd' In This Scrabble Story

10:15am June 17, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Professional Scrabble fan John D. Williams' new memoir is chock full of interesting tidbits (like lists of important words with Q, X and J) but gets bogged down in tedious biographical detail.

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'Modern Romance:' Love In The Age Of Demography

7:03am June 17, 2015

by Jason Sheehan

Aziz Ansari did a lot of demographic research — yes, you read that right — for his new book, and the result is an uneasy but occasionally entertaining hybrid of hard data and too-sparse comedy.

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Who's That Batgirl? 'Burnside' Charms Despite Stumbles

8:07pm June 16, 2015

by Etelka Lehoczky

Barbara Gordon gets a perky makeover in the new Batgirl Vol. 1. Critic Etelka Lehoczky says the series is a clever exploration of identity in the digital age, but suffers from occasional cluelessness.

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We're All Looking For A Home 'In The Country'

7:31pm June 16, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Many of the characters in Mia Alvar's debut story collection are outcasts looking for love and a home — but critic Michael Schaub says it's hard to condense this impressive book into just one theme.

In his new book One Man Against the World, Tim Weiner explores some of the questions surrounding the presidency of Richard Nixon, pictured above in the Oval Office on Feb. 19, 1970.

Fueled By Fear, How Richard Nixon Became 'One Man Against The World'

4:52pm June 16, 2015

In his new book, New York Times journalist Tim Weiner paints a portrait of a president overwhelmed by wars at home and abroad, whose self-destructive behavior resulted in "political suicide."

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