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

'Love Letter To Black Boys': Memoir Explores Masculinity Against Appalachian Backdrop

Brian Broome's debut memoir is Punch Me Up To The Gods. Andy Johanson Photography hide caption

toggle caption
Andy Johanson Photography

Author Interviews

'Love Letter To Black Boys': Memoir Explores Masculinity Against Appalachian Backdrop

Punch Me Up To The Gods opens with Brian Broome's father beating him when he was 10. The blows by his father were meant to pound manliness into him — to be the "toughest guy in the room."

'Love Letter To Black Boys': Memoir Explores Masculinity Against Appalachian Backdrop

Listen · 7:06
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/997537067/997783505" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'Let's Talk About Hard Things' With Help From Anna Sale

Anna Sale, author of Let's Talk about Hard Things. She's also the creator and host of Death, Sex & Money, the podcast from WNYC Studios . Gabriela Hasbun/Gabriela Hasbun hide caption

toggle caption
Gabriela Hasbun/Gabriela Hasbun

It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

'Let's Talk About Hard Things' With Help From Anna Sale

How do you bring up something that might be easier left unsaid? Anna Sale, host and creator of WNYC's Death, Sex & Money podcast, has answers in her new book, Let's Talk About Hard Things. She chats with Sam about how to talk to family, why we need to start having different conversations about money, and what it means to actually listen.

'Let's Talk About Hard Things' With Help From Anna Sale

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/995478833/997555000" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'The Underground Railroad' Is A Brutal Yet Beautiful Ride

Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad looks unflinchingly at the brutality of life as a slave through the eyes of Cora, played by Thuso Mbedu. Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios hide caption

toggle caption
Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'The Underground Railroad' Is A Brutal Yet Beautiful Ride

The new Amazon series The Underground Railroad is the latest project from Barry Jenkins, who directed Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. It's the story of Cora, a runaway slave in the antebellum South, who escapes a vicious Georgia plantation and sets off on a journey toward freedom aboard the mysterious and entirely literal underground railroad. It's many contradictory things at once: lyrical yet brutal, luminous yet horrifying.

'The Underground Railroad' Is A Brutal Yet Beautiful Ride

Listen · 19:13
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996578434/996833655" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Andrew McCarthy Recalls His Brat Pack Years In A New Memoir
Grand Central Publishing

Author Interviews

Andrew McCarthy Recalls His Brat Pack Years In A New Memoir

The star of movies like St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink writes about his tumultuous 20s in Brat: An '80s Story. Of that era's movies, he says the emotions are timeless, the hair not so much.

Andrew McCarthy Recalls His Brat Pack Years In A New Memoir

Listen · 7:55
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996894100/997259492" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Paris Bookstores Are Designated Essential — But These Landmarks Struggle To Survive

The first Gibert bookstore in 1908. Family Archives hide caption

toggle caption
Family Archives

The Coronavirus Crisis

Paris Bookstores Are Designated Essential — But These Landmarks Struggle To Survive

Gibert Jeune, which held a prominent place in Parisians hearts, is one of the latest to close. The pandemic is only one pressure on independent bookstores, but some have found ways to survive.

Paris Bookstores Are Designated Essential — But These Landmarks Struggle To Survive

Listen · 4:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996777829/997339452" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Boy And His Grandfather Visit Home 'On The Trapline'
Illustrations by Julie Flett / Tundra

Picture This

A Boy And His Grandfather Visit Home 'On The Trapline'

A little boy and his Moshom — which means grandfather in Swampy Cree — travel north to visit the trapline where, many years ago, the grandfather grew up living off the land.

A Boy And His Grandfather Visit Home 'On The Trapline'

Listen · 6:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996545861/997105788" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Lee Mokobe: How Can We Make Sense Of Ourselves Through Poetry?
Courtesy of TED

TED Radio Hour

Lee Mokobe: How Can We Make Sense Of Ourselves Through Poetry?

How can art be a tool to better understand ourselves and the world around us? Poet Lee Mokobe shares what it was like to grow up trans in South Africa, and how language can be a tool for change.

Lee Mokobe: How Can We Make Sense Of Ourselves Through Poetry?

Listen · 12:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996594214/996639820" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Amanda Gorman: Using Your Voice Is A Political Choice
Mark Leibowitz

TED Radio Hour

Amanda Gorman: Using Your Voice Is A Political Choice

Poet Amanda Gorman has often been asked to write poems that aren't "political." In her 2018 TED Talk, she explains why her writing inherently carries messages greater than her words.

Amanda Gorman: Using Your Voice Is A Political Choice

Listen · 5:20
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996587775/996638948" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Reality TV Inspired This Poetic Look At People And The Things They Hoard
Wave

Author Interviews

Reality TV Inspired This Poetic Look At People And The Things They Hoard

In her latest book of poems, artist Kate Durbin looks at modern consumerism and the way people process trauma and loss through the objects they hoard. Durbin was inspired by the A&E show Hoarders.

Reality TV Inspired This Poetic Look At People And The Things They Hoard

Listen · 2:12
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/996197971/996446142" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Constitutional Quirk Inspired Stacey Abrams' New Thriller, 'While Justice Sleeps'
Doubleday

Author Interviews

A Constitutional Quirk Inspired Stacey Abrams' New Thriller, 'While Justice Sleeps'

Article III of the Constitution gives Supreme Court justices lifetime appointments — but doesn't cover what to do if they become incapacitated. For Abrams, that was the spark for an exciting story.

A Constitutional Quirk Inspired Stacey Abrams' New Thriller, 'While Justice Sleeps'

Listen · 8:24
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/994605989/995173056" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org