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NPR's Favorite Books Of 2020: The Book Concierge Is Back With 380+ Great Reads

December 1, 2020 • Find eight years of recommendations all in one place: Here are nearly 2,500 titles, hand-picked by NPR staff and trusted critics — with handy filters to help you find the perfect book!

Ace

Questions For Zen Cho, Author Of 'Black Water Sister'

May 17, 2021 • In Zen Cho's new novel, a young woman begins to hear a voice in her head: It's the dead, estranged grandmother she never knew. Wronged in life, the grandmother wants revenge after death.

'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

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Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios

Review

'The Underground Railroad' Is A Brutal Yet Beautiful Ride

May 17, 2021 • 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

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Grand Central Publishing

Andrew McCarthy Recalls His Brat Pack Years In A New Memoir

May 16, 2021 • 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

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

The first Gibert bookstore in 1908. Family Archives hide caption

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Family Archives

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

May 16, 2021 • 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

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'The Plot' Works As Literary Satire, But Its Mystery Fizzles

Celadon Books

Review

'The Plot' Works As Literary Satire, But Its Mystery Fizzles

May 16, 2021 • Jean Hanff Korelitz's tale of dirty deeds in the world of letters skewers pompous male authors with sly humor — but her approach to the central mystery might have you guessing the ending too soon.

Illustrations by Julie Flett / Tundra

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

May 15, 2021 • 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'

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'The Rock Eaters' Explores The Boundaries Of Emotion, Possibility And Longing

Penguin

Review

'The Rock Eaters' Explores The Boundaries Of Emotion, Possibility And Longing

May 15, 2021 • Brenda Peynado's new collection yanks readers straight into her stories, punchy and powerful tales that mix the everyday and the fantastic to search for meaning in the immigrant experience.

Courtesy of TED

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

May 14, 2021 • 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?

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Mark Leibowitz

Amanda Gorman: Using Your Voice Is A Political Choice

May 14, 2021 • 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

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In 'Sorrowland,' The Story Gets Lost In The Forest

MCD

Review

In 'Sorrowland,' The Story Gets Lost In The Forest

May 14, 2021 • Rivers Solomon's new novel — a gothic thriller about a woman escaping a cult for a wild life in the forest — relies too much on atmospherics, neglecting the basic building blocks of story.

CCAC North Library

Engaging With Asian American And Pacific Islander Heritage Month: A Reading List

May 14, 2021 • Over the past year, stories surrounding Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been full of violence and grief — here are some reading recommendations that'll take you beyond just suffering.

Wave

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

May 13, 2021 • 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

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'Son Of The Storm' Explores Power And Its Transformations

Orbit Books

Review

'Son Of The Storm' Explores Power And Its Transformations

May 12, 2021 • Suyi Davies Okungbowa's new novel seems like a familiar epic fantasy setup-- in fact, it's anything but. Son of the Storm explores power: Who has it, who wants it, and who's shut out from it.

'Notes On Grief' Makes Visceral The Experience Of Death And Grieving

Notes On Grief, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Knopf hide caption

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Knopf

Review

'Notes On Grief' Makes Visceral The Experience Of Death And Grieving

May 11, 2021 • "'After the burial we can begin to heal,'" Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recounts her mother saying. Perhaps in the reading of this book, so too will the rest of us who lost so much over this past year.

Running Press Kids

Fandom Can Be A Lot Like High School — Here's How To Avoid The Bad Stuff

May 9, 2021 • Finding a supportive fandom — a group of people who love what you love — is a great experience. But some fan communities can be toxic, so here are a few tips for kids looking for fan connections.

Doubleday

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

May 9, 2021 • 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'

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'The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba' Steps Out Of The Headlines And Onto The Page

Berkley

Review

'The Most Beautiful Girl In Cuba' Steps Out Of The Headlines And Onto The Page

May 8, 2021 • The Spanish-American war serves as the backdrop for Chanel Cleeton's new novel, which follows a real-life rebel named Evangelina Cisneros, who attracted a lot of attention from American newspapers.

Compassion Is The True Test Of A Person In 'Second Place'

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review

Compassion Is The True Test Of A Person In 'Second Place'

May 8, 2021 • Rachel Cusk follows her acclaimed Outline trilogy with this story about a woman whose lifelong obsession with a truculent painter is tested when he comes to stay at a cottage on her property.

'Things We Lost To The Water' Is A Literal And Allegorical Look At Dislocation

Knopf

Review

'Things We Lost To The Water' Is A Literal And Allegorical Look At Dislocation

May 6, 2021 • Eric Nguyen's debut novel plays off a Vietnamese word that means both country and water, examining all the ways those two things affect a family of Vietnamese refugees who resettle in New Orleans.

'Everybody' Examines The Idea That Bodies Can Confine Or Free

Everybody: A Book about Freedom, Olivia Laing W. W. Norton & Company hide caption

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W. W. Norton & Company

Review

'Everybody' Examines The Idea That Bodies Can Confine Or Free

May 6, 2021 • Olivia Laing weaves the history of people and ideas in with her own life, bringing readers on a fleet, gracious tour of bodily distress and joy that takes in Malcolm X, the Marquis de Sade and others.

A Daughter Rediscovers Her Deceased Father's Life In 'Negative Space'

Negative Space, by Lilly Dancyger Santa Fe Writer's Project hide caption

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Santa Fe Writer's Project

Review

A Daughter Rediscovers Her Deceased Father's Life In 'Negative Space'

May 5, 2021 • Lilly Dancyger's memories, coupled with her father's art and conversations with his friends, create a map she uses to navigate her past, her childhood and growing up, and her father's life and legacy.

Trees Talk To Each Other. 'Mother Tree' Ecologist Hears Lessons For People, Too

Suzanne Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. Her own medical journey inspired her research into, among other things, the way yew trees communicate chemically with neighboring trees for their mutual defense. Brendan George Ko/Penguin Random House hide caption

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Brendan George Ko/Penguin Random House

Shots - Health News

Trees Talk To Each Other. 'Mother Tree' Ecologist Hears Lessons For People, Too

Fresh Air

May 4, 2021 • Ecologist Suzanne Simard says trees are "social creatures" that communicate with each other in remarkable ways — including warning each other of danger and sharing nutrients at critical times.

Trees Talk To Each Other. 'Mother Tree' Ecologist Hears Lessons For People, Too

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