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Billy Porter makes peace with himself: 'I set myself free, honey. No more secrets'

Billy Porter attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. "Fabulous and serious can go hand in hand. I am proof positive of that," he says. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Author Interviews

Billy Porter makes peace with himself: 'I set myself free, honey. No more secrets'

Fresh Air

Fourteen years after his initial diagnosis, the Pose actor revealed publicly that he is HIV-positive. Porter says being open about his health status felt like a rebirth. His new memoir is Unprotected.

Billy Porter makes peace with himself: 'I set myself free, honey. No more secrets'

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This book of poetry says, 'I have fists,' and the world needs to know
Alice James Books

Author Interviews

This book of poetry says, 'I have fists,' and the world needs to know

Chinese American poet Jane Wong's new collection, How Not to Be Afraid of Everything, grapples with fear and anger at her family's silence about what they suffered in China's Great Leap Forward.

This book of poetry says, 'I have fists,' and the world needs to know

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How Colin Powell Wanted The World To Remember Him
Harper

NPR's Book of the Day

How Colin Powell Wanted The World To Remember Him

When Colin Powell died on October 18 at the age of 84 from COVID-19 complications, he left behind a long, decorated career in Washington and the U.S. Army. He spent much of his life in the military, eventually rising to the rank of four-star general, and went on to become the first Black Secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But, as he discussed in a 2012 interview with NPR's Robert Siegel about his memoir It Worked For Me, Powell's reputation was tarnished when he used faulty evidence to push for the Iraq War: "I'll never leave it behind."

How Colin Powell Wanted The World To Remember Him

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Carmen Mola was a popular Spanish novelist. Three male writers made her up

The writer Carmen Mola, pseudonym of the writers Jorge Diaz, Agustin Martinez and Antonio Mercero, winner of the 70th edition of the Planeta Novel Prize, gives a press conference after the award ceremony, at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, on 15 October 2021, in Barcelona, Catalonia. Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images hide caption

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Europa Press News/Europa Press via Getty Images

Carmen Mola was a popular Spanish novelist. Three male writers made her up

Antonio Mercero, Agustín Martínez and Jorge Díaz not only created a series of highly successful novels in Mola's name, but also invented the author herself.

As Jane Goodall grieves climate change, she finds hope in young people's advocacy

Dr. Jane Goodall in 2019. She has co-authored a new book, The Book Of Hope. Craig Barritt/Getty Images for TIME hide caption

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Craig Barritt/Getty Images for TIME

As Jane Goodall grieves climate change, she finds hope in young people's advocacy

The world-renowned primatologist explains how small acts to protect the planet can spiral upwards. She has a new book, co-authored by Douglas Abrams, called The Book of Hope.

As Jane Goodall grieves climate change, she finds hope in young people's advocacy

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How do we make sense of the sounds around us?

How do our brains create meaning from the sounds around us? That is the question at the heart of a new book from neuroscientist Nina Kraus, called Of Sound Mind. kimberrywood/Getty Images hide caption

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kimberrywood/Getty Images

Short Wave

How do we make sense of the sounds around us?

Our colleagues at All Things Considered chatted with neuroscientist Nina Kraus about her new book Of Sound Mind. She shares how our brains process and create meaning from the sounds around us.

How do we make sense of the sounds around us?

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Amor Towles' new book is about a road trip that takes more than a few U-turns
NPR

NPR's Book of the Day

Amor Towles' new book is about a road trip that takes more than a few U-turns

Amor Towles' new book is quite the joyride — The Lincoln Highway follows four kids in a 1948 Studebaker who set out along the real-life Lincoln Highway, the first highway to cross the country. Two of them are trying to head for San Francisco to find their mother — the other two want to go the other way, looking for a promised inheritance. Needless to say, things don't go as planned. Towles talked to NPR's Scott Simon about the book — and also about the way the world moves so much faster now than it did in the 1950s, and how that affects the stories kids hear and see and create.

Amor Towles' new book is about a road trip that takes more than a few U-turns

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It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

British author Douglas Adams, left, and Nick Landau read Adams' book The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy in October 1979. Colin Davey/Evening Standard/Getty Images hide caption

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Colin Davey/Evening Standard/Getty Images

It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

The first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book was published in October 1979. Fans are looking back at how the series has endured in popularity and why it's still relevant.

It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

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Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny tackle nuclear war and diplomacy in new crime novel

Louise Penny (left), a best-selling author, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, paired up to write State of Terror, a new novel that they say is meant to serve as a cautionary tale. Dominique Lafond and Deborah Feingold/Simon & Schuster hide caption

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Dominique Lafond and Deborah Feingold/Simon & Schuster

Author Interviews

Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny tackle nuclear war and diplomacy in new crime novel

The former secretary of state and the best-selling author say their new book, State of Terror is meant to serve as an entertaining yet cautionary tale that deals with the perils of the "vast silence."

Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny tackle nuclear war and diplomacy in new crime novel

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A refugee at 4, he felt like a lost star. Now his voice shines in a graphic memoir

Omar Mohamed, left, and his brother, Hassan. In the graphic memoir he coauthored, When Stars Are Scattered, Mohamed shares what their life was like in the refugee camps in Kenya — and their journey to resettlement in the U.S. Omar Mohamed hide caption

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Omar Mohamed

Goats and Soda

A refugee at 4, he felt like a lost star. Now his voice shines in a graphic memoir

When Stars Are Scattered is the story of Omar Mohamed's years at a refugee camp in Kenya. He cared for his brother and found the courage to dream big. The book was a National Book Awards finalist.

Nicole Byer's '#VeryFat #VeryBrave' guide to bikini confidence

Comedian Nicole Byer performs onstage. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Turner hide caption

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Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Turner

It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

Nicole Byer's '#VeryFat #VeryBrave' guide to bikini confidence

Sam revisits his 2020 conversation with comedian and Nailed It! host Nicole Byer on her coffee table book: #VeryFat #VeryBrave: The Fat Girl's Guide to Being #Brave and Not a Dejected, Melancholy, Down-in-the-Dumps Weeping Fat Girl in a Bikini. They talk about home goods, drunken bravery, and learning to love yourself.

Nicole Byer's '#VeryFat #VeryBrave' guide to bikini confidence

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In song and poetry, 'Nina' and 'Just Us' offer ways to start a conversation on race
NPR

NPR's Book of the Day

In song and poetry, 'Nina' and 'Just Us' offer ways to start a conversation on race

After the protests last year, we heard the phrase "racial reckoning" a lot, as some groups of people struggled to catch up with what's just been reality for many others. This week we've got two books that might help you reckon with that reckoning, in two different ways: Traci Todd and illustrator Christian Robinson's bright and powerful picture book biography Nina: A Story of Nina Simone and poet Claudia Rankine's Just Us: An American Conversation, in which she puts together poetry, essays and images to bring readers into an uncomfortable but necessary conversation about race.

In song and poetry, 'Nina' and 'Just Us' offer ways to start a conversation on race

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Beloved children's author and wilderness enthusiast Gary Paulsen has died at 82

Gary Paulsen Brian Adams/Getty Images hide caption

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Brian Adams/Getty Images

Obituaries

Beloved children's author and wilderness enthusiast Gary Paulsen has died at 82

Gary Paulsen — whose wilderness adventure Hatchet taught generations of kids to survive in the forest — worked as a farmhand, truck driver and satellite technician before turning to writing.

Beloved children's author and wilderness enthusiast Gary Paulsen has died at 82

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Fiona Hill's new Trump-era memoir is less about Trump than it is about us
Mariner Books

NPR's Book of the Day

Fiona Hill's new Trump-era memoir is less about Trump than it is about us

In her memoir, Fiona Hill extends her riveting testimony from Donald Trump's first impeachment trial. And while she might not dish as much dirt as other Trump-era memoirists, the former senior National Security official writes movingly about Trump and about polarization and other threats to American democracy. She points to Russian history to suggest that distrust in government and political systems can lead to collapse. And while she describes Trump as the symptom of that division and distrust, she also says he put a spotlight on what needs fixing.

Fiona Hill's new Trump-era memoir is less about Trump than it is about us

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