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'A Snake Falls To Earth' tackles real life issues in a fantastical world
Levine Querido

NPR's Book of the Day

'A Snake Falls To Earth' tackles real life issues in a fantastical world

Author Darcie Little Badger has her protagonists, Nina and a cottonmouth snake named Oli, tackle big, real world problems in her new Young Adult novel, A Snake Falls To Earth. She told NPR's Leila Fadel that young people are feeling climate anxiety acutely, so it was important to her to make it a part of this story, even though it takes place in a fantastical world. She does have a PhD in oceanography and a bachelors in geo-science, so understands the stakes really well. But, she doesn't want her readers to walk away feeling hopeless.

'A Snake Falls To Earth' tackles real life issues in a fantastical world

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Robert Jones Jr. and Laird Hunt talk tragedies and overlooked histories
Penguin Random House/Bloomsbury

NPR's Book of the Day

Robert Jones Jr. and Laird Hunt talk tragedies and overlooked histories

Not all history is learned - or taught - in school. In today's first interview, Robert Jones Jr. tells NPR's Scott Simon that he wanted to be 'a witness to [those] testimonies that have not made it into the official record.' His novel, The Prophets, is about enslaved Black queer people in America. The second interview is about the seemingly mundane day-to-day that makes up a person's history in Zorrie. Author Laird Hunt told NPR's Scott Simon that just because someone's story seems unremarkable doesn't mean it isn't rich.

Robert Jones Jr. and Laird Hunt talk tragedies and overlooked histories

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Mel Brooks says his only regret as a comedian is the jokes he didn't tell

Mel Brooks (shown here in 1984) calls comedy his "delicious refuge" from the world: "I hide in humor and comedy. I love it." Larry Ellis/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Larry Ellis/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Author Interviews

Mel Brooks says his only regret as a comedian is the jokes he didn't tell

Fresh Air

Brooks wrote countless edgy jokes over the years, but he doesn't regret any of them. He calls comedy his "delicious refuge" from the world. "I hide in humor," he says. His new memoir is All About Me!

Mel Brooks says his only regret as a comedian is the jokes he didn't tell

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Working from home doesn't have to suck. Here's how 'Out Of Office' can be better

The cover art for Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home by Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen Alfred A. Knopf hide caption

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Alfred A. Knopf

It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

Working from home doesn't have to suck. Here's how 'Out Of Office' can be better

Has working from home during the pandemic been frustrating for you? You're not alone. Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen's new book Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home tackles how remote work can improve, no matter what industry you're in. They talk to Sam about how companies can create sustainable and flexible work environments, the history of workplace culture in the U.S., and how employees can maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Working from home doesn't have to suck. Here's how 'Out Of Office' can be better

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Surviving high school in 'Huda F Are You?'
Penguin Random House

NPR's Book of the Day

Surviving high school in 'Huda F Are You?'

Author Huda Fahmy brings us a fictionalized look back on her teenage years in her new graphic novel. The cleverly titled Huda F Are You? is about a girl growing up in Dearborn, Michigan trying to figure out, well, who she really is. Fahmy told NPR's Scott Simon that her own journey of self discovery often left her feeling like a fraud

Surviving high school in 'Huda F Are You?'

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No black-tie dinner with the Swedish king for this year's Nobel Prize winners

Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian-born novelist and academic who lives in the U.K., poses with his 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature medal after being presented it at the Swedish ambassador's residence in London. Matt Dunham/AP hide caption

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Matt Dunham/AP

Arts & Life

No black-tie dinner with the Swedish king for this year's Nobel Prize winners

Instead, most of the laureates are receiving their awards in their home countries because the pandemic has disrupted the ceremonies yet again.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's last dance
Simon & Schuster

NPR's Book of the Day

Chancellor Angela Merkel's last dance

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down after 16 years. Author and former NPR correspondent Kati Marton has written a new biography of Merkel titled, appropriately, The Chancellor. Marton told NPR's Sarah McCammon that Merkel's upbringing in East Germany before the wall fell prepared her for a future as a politician. But it also created some blind spots in her governing; allowing the far right movement, centered in former East Germany, to gain a foothold in the German Parliament.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's last dance

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2 cousins celebrate their childhood neighborhood in 'Dream Street'
Anne Schwartz Books

Picture This

2 cousins celebrate their childhood neighborhood in 'Dream Street'

Meet Mr. Sidney, who's always sharply dressed. Belle, who catches butterflies in jar. And the Hat Lady, Ms. Sarah. They're just some of the residents of Dream Street, the best street in the world.

2 cousins celebrate their childhood neighborhood in 'Dream Street'

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Jane Goodall Says There's Hope For Our Planet. Act Now, Despair Later!
Damian Dovarganes/AP

Short Wave

Jane Goodall Says There's Hope For Our Planet. Act Now, Despair Later!

Jane Goodall is a renowned naturalist and scientist. She's made a career studying primates and chimpanzees. But lately — something else has been on her mind: climate change. It might feel like there's nothing we can do, but in her new book, The Book of Hope, co-authored with Douglas Abrams, Jane reflects on the planet and how future generations will fight to protect it.

Jane Goodall Says There's Hope For Our Planet. Act Now, Despair Later!

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Louise Erdrich and Kevin Brockmeier are not writing campfire ghost stories
Harper Collins/Penguin Random House

NPR's Book of the Day

Louise Erdrich and Kevin Brockmeier are not writing campfire ghost stories

There are all different kinds of ghost stories and types of ghosts. Maybe the ghost is a malicious spirit out for revenge, or a marshmallow man parade float come to life, or maybe it's truly a friendly ghost — Casper, here to be pals. In today's first featured interview, Here & Now's Robin Young talks with Louise Erdrich about her novel The Sentence which is set in a haunted bookstore in Minneapolis. Then NPR's Ailsa Chang interviews Kevin Brockmeier about his book of short spooky stories The Ghost Variations.

Louise Erdrich and Kevin Brockmeier are not writing campfire ghost stories

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These NYC kids have written the history of an overlooked Black female composer

Three of the student authors of Who Is Florence Price? (left to right: Sebastián Núñez, Hazel Peebles and Sophia Shao), joined by their English teacher, Shannon Potts. Courtesy of Special Music School hide caption

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Courtesy of Special Music School

Music

These NYC kids have written the history of an overlooked Black female composer

A group of sixth, seventh and eighth grade students realized there was no children's book about the composer Florence Price. So they wrote, illustrated and published their own.

These NYC kids have written the history of an overlooked Black female composer

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NPR's Short Wave: 'An Outsider's Guide to Humans'
Penguin Random House

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR's Short Wave: 'An Outsider's Guide to Humans'

Camilla Pang talks with NPR's Short Wave host Emily Kwong about her award-winning memoir, An Outsider's Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do And Who We Are. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 8, the scientist and writer pairs her favorite scientific principles with human behavior and navigating daily life.

NPR's Short Wave: 'An Outsider's Guide to Humans'

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