Books

Juan Felipe Herrera won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008 for his collection Half of the World in Light.

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Arts

Juan Felipe Herrera Named U.S. Poet Laureate

7:20pm June 10, 2015

by Colin Dwyer

Already California's poet laureate, the prolific Chicano writer bears an enduring fascination for his native state — and a passion for teaching that's likely to shape his time in the new role.

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Book Review: 'The Black Snow,' Paul Lynch

6:54pm June 10, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

NPR's Alan Cheuse reviews Paul Lynch's second novel, The Black Snow.

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Mama's Still Alive Today: 'Meursault' Investigates A Literary Murder

12:25pm June 10, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

In The Stranger, Albert Camus' antihero Meursault famously killed a nameless Arab; Algerian writer Kamel Daoud's new novel reworks Camus from the point of view of the murdered man's brother.

Robert Fortune was a 19th-century Scottish botanist who helped the East India Trading Company swipe the secrets of tea production from China.

Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China's Tea Empire

11:05am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

In the mid-1800s, Britain was a global superpower with a big weakness for tea, all of which came from China. But a botanist with a talent for espionage helped Britain swipe the secrets of tea.

Robert Siegel interviews Munro Price, author of Napoleon: End of Glory about napoleon's failed plan to relocate to America after the defeat at Waterloo.

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Napoleon In America: Not As Strange As It Sounds

10:25am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

Historian Munro Price's new Napoleon: End of Glory imagines what might have happened had the French emperor followed through with a planned flight to America after his final defeat at Waterloo.

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Fallon's new book has a daddy bee, dog, rabbit, cat and donkey (one of his personal favorites) all trying — and failing — to get their babies to say "dada."

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If Jimmy Fallon Gets His Way, 'Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada'

8:11am June 10, 2015

by NPR Staff

The Tonight Show host's new children's book was inspired by his daughters. He tells NPR about his efforts to trick his first daughter into saying "dada" and his family's struggle to conceive.

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'Louisa Meets Bear' Is More Than The Sum Of Its Parts

6:50pm June 09, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Lisa Gornick's new novel-slash-story-collection turns around the long and stormy relationship between the title characters. Critic Michael Schaub says the book "may not be comforting, but it's true."

Nisid Hajari led international coverage at Newsweek for more than a decade as a foreign editor and managing editor and now oversees Asia coverage for Bloomberg View.

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India's 1947 Partition And The 'Deadly Legacy' That Persists To This Day

3:49pm June 09, 2015

In his new book, Midnight's Furies, Nisid Hajari describes the riots and massacres that ensued after Pakistan was established as a separate state, and how those tensions are still playing out.

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Coping With Calamity In Shimmering 'Cathedral'

11:08am June 09, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

The aging characters in Kate Walbert's new novel are learning to go with the flow as waters rise and life takes strange turns. Critic Heller McAlpin praises Walbert's ability to capture women's lives.

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Arts

This 'Book Of Numbers' Speaks A Human Language

6:56pm June 08, 2015

by NPR Staff

Writer Joshua Cohen says his new novel (about a journalist and a tech mogul both also named Joshua Cohen) aims to reclaim the Internet. "It's made of our humanity," he tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

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