‘How a Game Lives,’ ‘How to Save the Internet’ show the best and worst of life online

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A new book of poems by Kate Baer wrestles with the realities of middle age

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In 'The Unveiling,' a disastrous cruise becomes an opportunity for cultural reckoning

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Deborah Willis on her seminal history of Black photography, reissued 25 years later

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In ‘Best Offer Wins,’ an ambitious millennial is driven mad by the homebuying process

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Revisiting Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’

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In new novels, marriages are tested by a last request and a moment in the spotlight

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Abby Phillip’s 'A Dream Deferred' chronicles Jesse Jackson’s rise to political esteem

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'The Devil Is a Southpaw' is a story within a story — or so its narrator says

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John Fetterman on his new memoir, his mental health, and disagreements with his party

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A new book looks to the writings of Renaissance-era nuns for advice on life today

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Revisiting ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’

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A Claire McCardell biography and an AI sci-fi are among NPR’s top book picks of 2025

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'My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook' is Nite Yun’s love letter to food and family

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'We Were Liars' author returns for more teenage catharsis in 'We Fell Apart'

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Comic journalist Joe Sacco on his portrait of deadly riots in Uttar Pradesh, India

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Justinian Huang’s new novel follows a Taiwanese-American family intent on a male heir

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Revisiting ‘Gone Girl’

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'The Ten Year Affair,' 'Sex of the Midwest' look at the role of sex in domestic life

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'Fire in Every Direction' is a personal work by Palestinian scholar Tareq Baconi

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Kathy Iandoli on Gucci Mane’s memoir and becoming the go-to writer for rappers

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'Bog Queen' cherishes Earth’s mossy wetlands and the bodies they preserve

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Margaret Atwood on what finally made her agree to write a memoir

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Revisiting ‘Giovanni's Room’

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Music biographies 'The Cars,' 'Only God Can Judge Me' balance greatness and tragedy

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John Grisham brings a money-hungry lawyer to center stage in 'The Widow'

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In 'A Guardian and a Thief,' a mother’s love for her family threatens her own morals

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Tochi Onyebuchi’s 'Racebook' is a 'personal history' of a less serious time online

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Philip Pullman’s new novel follows ‘The Golden Compass’ heroine into young adulthood

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Revisiting ‘The Joy Luck Club’

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Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben and Chris Kraus are out with new crime thrillers

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These previously unpublished Harper Lee stories were discovered in her NYC apartment

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In 'The Eleventh Hour,' Salman Rushdie writes about morality, revenge and ghosts

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Julian Brave Noisecat’s 'We Survived the Night' is part memoir, part Native history

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Karine Jean-Pierre’s new memoir 'Independent' explains why she left the Democrats

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Revisiting Charles Portis’ True Grit

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Stephen King on 'The Shining' sequel and the novel he co-authored with his son

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In 'The Hacienda,' the protagonist is trapped in a haunted house – and her marriage

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Shirley Jackson’s biographer on the writer’s ability to find evil in the ordinary

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Princeton professor Susan Wolfson on why we love 'Frankenstein' two centuries later

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'Interview with the Vampire' author Anne Rice takes NPR on a tour of her haunted home

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Revisiting Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’

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'Paper Girl' and 'Joyride' are memoirs by journalists who get close to their subjects

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This Palestinian journalist kept a diary as Israeli forces invaded – now it’s a book

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A new James Baldwin biography asks how the writer’s lovers might’ve shaped him

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Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir recounts abuse by Epstein, Maxwell and others

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Ken Liu’s latest novel ‘All That We See or Seem’ is speculative fiction about AI

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Books We’ve Loved: Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, a blueprint to the modern romance

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Cookbooks 'House of Nanking' and 'Boustany' honor rich family legacies through food

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'I Am You' fictionalizes the story of a Dutch Golden Age painter and her maid

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'The Persian' is a spy thriller written by former CIA analyst David McCloskey

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In her new memoir, Jeannie Vanasco gets 'A Silent Treatment' from her mom

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'Pick a Color' is a novel that takes place over a single day at a nail salon

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Introducing: Books We've Loved

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These new mystery novels are 'whodunits' that might as well be called 'whydunits'

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In 'Dream School,' Jeff Selingo wants parents to rethink what makes a ‘good’ college

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For her latest novel, Patricia Lockwood says she wanted to write about confusion

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Mariana Enriquez’s new book connects her interest in cemeteries with Argentina’s past

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'For the Sun After Long Nights' is a history of Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Movement

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Two new history books use the past to explain what’s important now

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'F*** Approval, You Don’t Need It!' makes the case against ‘people pleasers’

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Angela Flournoy’s 'The Wilderness' focuses on a Black, female ‘chosen family’

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Former senator Joe Manchin makes the case for the middle in the memoir 'Dead Center'

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Ian McEwan’s latest novel ‘What We Can Know’ is science fiction without the science

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‘Peacemaker’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Yesterday’ are personal histories of diplomacy

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Ken Jaworowski’s new crime novel ‘What About the Bodies’ has a surprising tender side

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‘Dark Renaissance’ historian on how Christopher Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare

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‘Beyond Fast’ chronicles one coach’s unlikely revolution in high school cross-country

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In his new novel ‘The Secret of Secrets,’ Dan Brown takes on human consciousness

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‘Long Way Down’ and ‘The Hate U Give’ are modern classics about gun violence

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What Toni Morrison learned from revisiting five of her most-read novels

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Sandra Cisneros’ ‘The House on Mango Street’ was born from a feeling of displacement

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In her translation of ‘The Odyssey,’ Emily Wilson aimed for ‘a crystalline clarity’

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Jhumpa Lahiri says the phrase ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ came to her in grad school

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‘2024’ and ‘From the Clinics to the Capitol’ dissect opposing political movements

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In Meg Medina’s new young adult novel, a 13-year-old girl becomes a sea ghost

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‘Misbehaving at the Crossroads’ is a lesson in the complexity of reconciliation

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In Rabih Alameddine’s new novel, a mother and son share a tiny Beirut apartment

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Tamara Yajia’s memoir recounts a chaotic upbringing between the U.S. and Argentina

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‘Papilio’ and ‘Chooch Helped’ are children’s books brought to life by friendship

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In ‘The Sunflower Boys,’ a 12-year-old boy comes of age during war in Ukraine

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‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects

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Kate Riley’s novel ‘Ruth’ was inspired by her year in an insular religious community

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In his memoir, poet Raymond Antrobus writes of ‘deaf gain’ instead of hearing loss

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‘Your Favorite Scary Movie’ and ‘Ready for My Close-Up’ are histories of iconic films

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Eighty years after Hiroshima, a new book narrates the history of the atomic bomb

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In the novel ‘Loved One,’ an ambiguous friendship is further complicated by loss

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‘Dinner with King Tut’ follows experimental archaeologists as they recreate the past

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For her 25th book, Karin Slaughter wanted to capture life in small-town Georgia

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‘Cook Once, Eat Twice’ and ‘Accidentally on Purpose’ are new books from cooking stars

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‘Atlantic’ writer James Parker says his odes are exercises in gratitude and attention

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In ‘The Hounding,’ rumors swirl around five sisters living in 18th-century England

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Alexis Okeowo’s ‘Blessings and Disasters’ is an ode to Alabama’s complicated history

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‘Dwelling’ fictionalizes the American housing crisis with elements of fairy tale

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For the authors of ‘Reading Van Gogh,’ ‘Black in Blues,’ art opened a door to meaning

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In ‘Human Nature,’ Kate Marvel bridges the gap between climate science and emotions

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Jason Mott’s new novel ‘People Like Us’ is metafiction that was almost memoir

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‘Sloppy’ author Rax King says she’s inspired by writers who did their best work sober

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A new mystery novel by Liza Tully pairs a green assistant with a seasoned detective

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2 new books were inspired by dark moments in Japanese and Japanese American history

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Listen Show PodCast

‘How a Game Lives,’ ‘How to Save the Internet’ show the best and worst of life online

Playlist

A new book of poems by Kate Baer wrestles with the realities of middle age

Playlist

In 'The Unveiling,' a disastrous cruise becomes an opportunity for cultural reckoning

Playlist

Deborah Willis on her seminal history of Black photography, reissued 25 years later

Playlist

In ‘Best Offer Wins,’ an ambitious millennial is driven mad by the homebuying process

Playlist

Revisiting Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’

Playlist

In new novels, marriages are tested by a last request and a moment in the spotlight

Playlist

Abby Phillip’s 'A Dream Deferred' chronicles Jesse Jackson’s rise to political esteem

Playlist

'The Devil Is a Southpaw' is a story within a story — or so its narrator says

Playlist

John Fetterman on his new memoir, his mental health, and disagreements with his party

Playlist

A new book looks to the writings of Renaissance-era nuns for advice on life today

Playlist

Revisiting ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’

Playlist

A Claire McCardell biography and an AI sci-fi are among NPR’s top book picks of 2025

Playlist

'My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook' is Nite Yun’s love letter to food and family

Playlist

'We Were Liars' author returns for more teenage catharsis in 'We Fell Apart'

Playlist

Comic journalist Joe Sacco on his portrait of deadly riots in Uttar Pradesh, India

Playlist

Justinian Huang’s new novel follows a Taiwanese-American family intent on a male heir

Playlist

Revisiting ‘Gone Girl’

Playlist

'The Ten Year Affair,' 'Sex of the Midwest' look at the role of sex in domestic life

Playlist

'Fire in Every Direction' is a personal work by Palestinian scholar Tareq Baconi

Playlist

Kathy Iandoli on Gucci Mane’s memoir and becoming the go-to writer for rappers

Playlist

'Bog Queen' cherishes Earth’s mossy wetlands and the bodies they preserve

Playlist

Margaret Atwood on what finally made her agree to write a memoir

Playlist

Revisiting ‘Giovanni's Room’

Playlist

Music biographies 'The Cars,' 'Only God Can Judge Me' balance greatness and tragedy

Playlist

John Grisham brings a money-hungry lawyer to center stage in 'The Widow'

Playlist

In 'A Guardian and a Thief,' a mother’s love for her family threatens her own morals

Playlist

Tochi Onyebuchi’s 'Racebook' is a 'personal history' of a less serious time online

Playlist

Philip Pullman’s new novel follows ‘The Golden Compass’ heroine into young adulthood

Playlist

Revisiting ‘The Joy Luck Club’

Playlist

Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben and Chris Kraus are out with new crime thrillers

Playlist

These previously unpublished Harper Lee stories were discovered in her NYC apartment

Playlist

In 'The Eleventh Hour,' Salman Rushdie writes about morality, revenge and ghosts

Playlist

Julian Brave Noisecat’s 'We Survived the Night' is part memoir, part Native history

Playlist

Karine Jean-Pierre’s new memoir 'Independent' explains why she left the Democrats

Playlist

Revisiting Charles Portis’ True Grit

Playlist

Stephen King on 'The Shining' sequel and the novel he co-authored with his son

Playlist

In 'The Hacienda,' the protagonist is trapped in a haunted house – and her marriage

Playlist

Shirley Jackson’s biographer on the writer’s ability to find evil in the ordinary