Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews NPR's brings you news about books and authors along with our picks for great reads. Interviews, reviews, and much more.

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Book covers of: To Kill a Mockingbird; 1984; The Catcher in the Rye; Fahrenheit 451; The Grapes of Wrath; The Great Gatsby; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Animal Farm; Slaughterhouse-Five; I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; The Lord of the Rings; The Outsiders; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Johnny Got His Gun; Siddhartha; Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl; Beloved; Brave New World; The Good Earth; The Scarlet Letter; The Things They Carried; Walden

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Books You Love

What books shaped you in high school? Here's what you said

August 28, 2025 • More than 1,100 of you wrote to tell us about the books that broadened your horizons, that you kept through every move, that inspired you to become English majors, librarians, writers and teachers.

An assortment of book covers featured in the 2024 edition of Books We Love

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Review

Books We Love

Here are the Books We Love: 350+ great 2024 reads recommended by NPR

November 25, 2024 • Books We Love returns with 350+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 12 years of recommendations all in one place — that's nearly 4,000 great reads.

Trymaine Lee and his colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for The Times-Picayune’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

Trymaine Lee and his colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for The Times-Picayune's coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Wayne Lawrence/St. Lawrence Press hide caption

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Wayne Lawrence/St. Lawrence Press

Author Interviews

Telling stories of gun violence deaths almost cost this reporter his life

September 15, 2025 • Trymaine Lee spent years reporting on the deaths of men who look just like him. His new memoir, A Thousand Ways to Die, chronicles the impact of gun violence in Black communities.

The Library of Congress has named Arthur Sze, seen here on July 18, its 2025-26 poet laureate. Shawn Miller/Library of Congress hide caption

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Shawn Miller/Library of Congress

Arthur Sze named 25th U.S. poet laureate

September 15, 2025 • Sze is a poet with a lot of acclaim — he's won the National Book Award, was a Guggenheim fellow and was a finalist for the Pulitzer. He aims to promote interest in translated poetry in his new role.

A tiny dog takes a big walk in 'Hello, Tobi!'

Andrea Cáceres/Candlewick Press

Author Interviews

A tiny dog takes a big walk in 'Hello, Tobi!'

September 14, 2025 • Author and illustrator Andrea Cáceres has changed careers, moved countries and built a new home — all alongside her 15-year-old pup, Tobi. Now, he's the main character of her new children's book, Hello, Tobi!, which celebrates their walks in the park.

BOOK: Hello, Tobi!

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Kate Riley is the author of the new novel, Ruth.

Author photo by Colleen Hayes/Courtesy of Penguin Random House

Up First from NPR

Life in a Christian Commune

September 14, 2025 • As a young woman, Kate Riley’s search for meaning led her to a Christian commune. She lived there for a year and embraced collective life – everyone dressed the same and no one owned any private property. Kids growing up there didn’t have contact with cell phones or money. In this week’s conversation, Riley sits down with Ayesha Rascoe to explore what it means to be an individual in a communal place. And she shares what she learned about her own identity. These experiences informed her first novel, Ruth.

Life in a Christian Commune

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'Chinese Encounters with America' argues U.S. and China lost shared interests

Columbia University Press

U.S. vs. China: Inside a great power rivalry

'Chinese Encounters with America' argues U.S. and China lost shared interests

September 13, 2025 • The 12 profiles featured in this edited book highlight the positive aspects of the U.S.-China engagement, which began in earnest after diplomatic relations were established in 1979.

A new biography zeroes in on Lin-Manuel Miranda's superpower

Simons & Schuster

Review

Book Reviews

A new biography zeroes in on Lin-Manuel Miranda's superpower

September 12, 2025 • The secret to his success isn't just genius — it's collaboration a lot of creative friends. Author Daniel Pollack-Pelzner interviewed more than 150 people for his biography about the Hamilton creator.

Reality Winner Christopher Lee/Spiegel & Grau hide caption

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Christopher Lee/Spiegel & Grau

Author Interviews

NSA leaker Reality Winner is rebuilding her life -- and looking back at her past

September 11, 2025 • Winner was working at the NSA in 2017 when she leaked a classified document to the press. Soon after, the FBI showed up at her door. Winner's new memoir is I Am Not Your Enemy.

FA: Reality Winner, I am Not Your Enemy

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Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

4 lives are upended by an impulsive kiss in the epic novel 'Buckeye'

September 10, 2025 • Patrick Ryan's novel focuses on two married couples and stretches from pre-WWII to the close of the 20th century, capturing both the sweep of history and the mundane particularity of everyday life.

FA: Book Review: Buckeye

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Book News & Features

Happy 75th birthday to Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby's big-kid neighbor

September 10, 2025 • Beverly Cleary's fictional third grader with an adopted dog named Ribsy made his debut in 1950. Cleary was praised for writing simple, humorous stories that kids wanted to read.

Happy 75th birthday to Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby's big-kid neighbor

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Book covers of: The Elements, by John Boyne; It Was the Way She Said It, by Terry McMillan; Living in the Present with John Prine, by Tom Piazza; This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web, by Tim Berners-Lee; The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown

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Review

The Book Ahead

New books out today: A Dan Brown thriller, John Prine bio, and World Wide Web memoir

September 9, 2025 • New books this week include Secret of Secrets — the sixth installment of The Da Vinci Code saga, plus a tech memoir from Tim Berners-Lee and a career-spanning anthology from Terry McMillan.

Bob Odenkirk is honored with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 18, 2022 in Hollywood, California. Jerod Harris/Getty Images hide caption

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Jerod Harris/Getty Images

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Bob Odenkirk

September 9, 2025 • Bob Odenkirk is an alt-comedy legend. He wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 90s. Then he got the part in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as Saul Goodman. He’s also a writer. With the help of his children, he released a collection of poems called Zilot & Other Important Rhymes. Bob joins us to talk about writing poetry and how he turned his worn notebook into a book of poetry with the help of his children.

Bob Odenkirk

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Henry Holt and Co.

Review

Author Interviews

New teen thriller 'Sisters in the Wind' finds drama in hidden identities

September 8, 2025 • Angeline Boulley, author of the hit Firekeeper's Daughter, writes thrillers set in Native American communities in northern Michigan, like the ones where her family has lived for generations.

New teen thriller 'Sisters in the Wind' finds drama in hidden identities

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Picture This

Hitch a ride to the moon in a rusty old car and 'The Couch in the Yard'

September 7, 2025 • As the sun sets in a small town, a family loads up their rusty old car with the spare couch in their yard. When it breaks down in the mountains, what else is there to do but fly it to the moon?

PICTURE THIS: THE COUCH IN THE YARD

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The iconic lox bagel — a "Classic with the Works" — at Russ & Daughters.

The iconic lox bagel — a "Classic with the Works" — prepared at Russ & Daughters. Keren Carrion/NPR hide caption

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Keren Carrion/NPR

Food

Russ & Daughters in NYC celebrates '100 years of appetizing' and family

September 6, 2025 • At Russ & Daughters, it takes three months to learn how to slice salmon. NPR's Scott Simon visits the 100 year-old appetizing store to try his hand at the fine art and talk about their new cookbook.

Russ & Daughters in NYC celebrates more than 100 years of 'appetizing' and family

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A case against Anthropic AI brought by a group of authors was settled on Friday. Riccardo Milani/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Riccardo Milani/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Culture

Anthropic settles with authors in first-of-its-kind AI copyright infringement lawsuit

September 5, 2025 • A U.S. district court is scheduled to consider whether to approve the settlement next week, in a case that marked the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems.

Thriller novelist Andrea Bartz is photographed in her home Thursday in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Richard Drew/AP hide caption

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Richard Drew/AP

FA: Sanjay Gupta

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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Elizabeth Gilbert no longer believes she’s a bad person

September 4, 2025 • Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” was about her journey of self-discovery in the aftermath of a painful divorce. It was a massive hit, but it wasn’t nearly the whole story. In her new book “All the Way to the River,” Gilbert examines her self-destructive patterns as she contends with addiction and grief. She and Rachel talk about learning to show herself and others mercy.

Elizabeth Gilbert no longer believes she’s a bad person

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Book covers of: Amity, by Nathan Harris; The Big One, by Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker; John Williams: A Composer’s Life, by Tim Greiving; Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy; To the Moon and Back, by Eliana Ramage; Mercy, by Joan Silber

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The Book Ahead

New books this week track John Williams' life, future pandemics and NASA fiction

September 2, 2025 • This week's publishing highlights are a bumper crop of biography, science and fiction — including new reads the from authors of The Sweetness of Water, The God of Small Things, and Deadliest Enemy.

Harper Voyager

August 28, 2025 • The more Ocean Vuong writes, the more he sees his craft as less of a skill and more a condition. He feels compelled to pay attention to the small details around him and turn those details into a story. But he tells Rachel that he actually hopes a day comes when he can stop writing. Vuong’s latest book is “The Emperor of Gladness.”

Ocean Vuong doesn’t erase pain from beauty

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NEA cancels decades-long creative writing fellowship

The NEA Creative Writing Fellowships have launched many prominent literary careers. Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

NEA cancels decades-long creative writing fellowship

August 26, 2025 • For decades the program has supported writers who would become big names – Alice Walker, Michael Cunningham, Louise Erdrich and more. Last week, applicants got an email saying the program would be no more.