Accessibility links
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.

Books

Books We Love: Great books about identity and culture
NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Great books about identity and culture

The latest edition of NPR's Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of book recommendations from critics, writers and NPR journalists to try to give you just the read you're looking for. Today, we're giving recommendations for our favorite books about identity and culture.

Books We Love: Great books about identity and culture

Listen · 9:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1100361343/1100370782" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A kids' story unfolds without words in 'A Day For Sandcastles'

A Day For Sandcastles Illustrations copyright © 2022 by Qin Leng hide caption

toggle caption
Illustrations copyright © 2022 by Qin Leng

Picture This

A kids' story unfolds without words in 'A Day For Sandcastles'

Three siblings spend a summer day at the beach building sandcastles and watching them get demolished in a wordless picture book written by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Qin Leng.

A kids' story unfolds without words in 'A Day For Sandcastles'

Listen · 6:58
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1093588533/1100588000" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
These 4 novels will get your summer off to a terrific start
Fatemeh Saberi/EyeEm/Getty Images

Review

Book Reviews

These 4 novels will get your summer off to a terrific start

Fresh Air

Book critic Maureen Corrigan has been diving into lighter literary novels and mysteries, searching for books suited for the beginning of summer. Here are some of her picks.

These 4 novels will get your summer off to a terrific start

Listen · 6:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1100017362/1100130457" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Mirror Made of Rain' looks at how patterns of self-destruction are inherited
Naheed Phiroze Patel

Author Interviews

'Mirror Made of Rain' looks at how patterns of self-destruction are inherited

Naheed Phiroze Patel's debut novel Mirror Made of Rain is out in the U.S. this week.

'Mirror Made of Rain' looks at how patterns of self-destruction are inherited

Listen · 7:08
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099064306/1099997314" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Many know how George Floyd died. A new biography reveals how he lived

A mural of George Floyd at the intersection where he was murdered in Minneapolis, Minn. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Race

Many know how George Floyd died. A new biography reveals how he lived

NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa about their new book, His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice.

Many know how George Floyd died. A new biography reveals how he lived

Listen · 7:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099585400/1099591505" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

On Aging

After a stroke blinded one eye, Frank Bruni focused on the future

Fresh Air

The New York Times columnist says the stroke forced him to choose: He could focus on what had been lost, or on what remained. His memoir is The Beauty of Dusk. Originally broadcast March 22, 2022.

After a stroke blinded one eye, Frank Bruni focused on the future

Listen · 43:40
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099465610/1099517494" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
This forgotten women's prison helped cement Greenwich Village's queer identity

Angela Davis is escorted by two FBI agents after her arrest in New York on Oct. 13, 1970. She was taken from FBI headquarters to the Women's House of Detention. David Pickoff/AP hide caption

toggle caption
David Pickoff/AP

Author Interviews

This forgotten women's prison helped cement Greenwich Village's queer identity

Fresh Air

In his book The Women's House of Detention, Hugh Ryan writes about the New York City prison and the role it played in the gay rights movement of the '60s, including the 1969 Stonewall Uprising.

This forgotten women's prison helped cement Greenwich Village's queer identity

Listen · 43:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098786259/1099217643" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
If you've ever wanted to take a break from the internet, try these tips
Malaka Gharib/NPR

Life Kit

If you've ever wanted to take a break from the internet, try these tips

The world has changed a lot since the internet. Remember asking people for directions? If you miss the days pre-internet (or wonder what it was like), Pamela Paul, author of 100 Things We've Lost To The Internet, gives us a few ways you can reconnect with an analog way of life.

If you've ever wanted to take a break from the internet, try these tips

Listen · 18:33
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098578092/1098750745" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
You can't 'Trust' this novel. And that's a very good thing
Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

You can't 'Trust' this novel. And that's a very good thing

Fresh Air

Hernan Diaz's novel is constantly pulling a fast one on the reader. It opens with the saga of a Wall Street tycoon, but soon another narrative comes to upend the truth of everything that came before.

You can't 'Trust' this novel. And that's a very good thing

Listen · 6:25
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098478246/1098529608" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction
NPR

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction

NPR's annual Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of books that scratch whatever your reading itch might be. Today, we're going to talk about some of the nonfiction we loved.

Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction

Listen · 8:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1096913963/1097600082" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'
New York Review Books

Culture

2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'

The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes in fiction, poetry, drama and other categories in arts and letters were announced in New York along with awards for journalism.

2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'

Listen · 2:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1097566167/1097673903" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org