Best Books Of 2012

10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012

2012 was a very jittery year — what with the presidential election, extreme weather events and the looming "fiscal cliff." Fresh Air critic Maureen Corrigan found that her favorite fiction and nonfiction this year directly confronted the atmospheric uncertainty of the age.

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Books News & Features

Hear The 2012 National Book Award Nominees

What are the best of the books? NPR Books looks at this year's National Book Award nominees for fiction and nonfiction. These 10 books — which tell the stories of a young drug smuggler, lovable philanderers, holograms in the Saudi desert and more — inspired, informed and entertained readers.

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Book Reviews

Roving Eyes, Wandering Hands In 'How You Lose Her'

Junot Diaz's electric new collection of short stories centers around Yunior, a macho yet mournful Dominican-American man. In these stories about love, lust and infidelity, a good man is hard to find — and when he is found, he's always in bed with someone else.

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Book Reviews

'Lose Her' Finds Power In Resonant Voices

Junot Diaz's third book, This Is How You Lose Her, is a collection of stories, many narrated by recurring character Yunior. Diaz's voice-driven prose describes characters who are simultaneously appealing and appalling, says NPR critic Carmen Gimenez Smith.

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Author Interviews

Fidelity In Fiction: Junot Diaz Deconstructs A Cheater

Yunior is a gruff, masculine artist who finds it nearly impossible to stay faithful to the women in his life. And then the day comes when all of that betrayal finally catches up with him. In This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz delves into what it takes to get an adulterer to change his ways.

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Guest DJ: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Junot Diaz

Diaz stops by Alt.Latino to talk about books, music, immigration, the Caribbean diaspora, machismo and why so many men relate to Oscar Wao. And, of course, he picks an exciting assortment of bachata and urban merengue to play on the show.

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Three Books...

Three Rapid Reads For The Impatient Intellectual

Short story month is just about over, but take heed: if diving into the latest bestseller seems too daunting, the short story could be the form of fiction for you. Atlantic writer and producer Miriam Krule suggests three collections that are complex and nuanced despite their brevity — and perfect for your morning commute.

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Book Tour

Junot Diaz Reads From His 'Wondrous' Tale

Author Junot Diaz won a Pulitzer Prize this year for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the story of an overweight, lovesick "ghetto nerd."

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Author Interviews

Junot Diaz Discusses his 'Wondrous' Debut Novel

Author Junot Diaz won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Set in both the United States and the Dominican Republic, the novel explores the complexities of living in two cultures at once, with prose that frequently mixes Spanish and English in the same sentence.

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