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

Subscribe to Books Newsletter

What 'Queer Ducks' can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom

Eliot Schrefer's book, Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality, is designed to be teenager friendly. It's filled with comics and humor and accessible science on the diversity of sexual behavior in the animal world. Jules Zuckerberg hide caption

toggle caption

Jules Zuckerberg

Author Interviews

What 'Queer Ducks' can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom

May 29, 2022 • The new book, Queer Ducks (and Other Animals), is designed to be teenager friendly. It's filled with comics and humor and accessible science on the diversity of sexual behavior in the animal world.

What 'Queer Ducks' can teach teenagers about sexuality in the animal kingdom

Listen · 8:01 8:01

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1101224759/1101224994" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

'City of Orange' is a post-apocalyptic tale starting with memory loss

G.P. Putnam's Sons

Review

Book Reviews

'City of Orange' is a post-apocalyptic tale starting with memory loss

May 28, 2022 • The double threat of climate change and the global pandemic has made post-apocalyptic fiction an undeniably thriving and popular genre. Author David Yoon has one of the latest entrants.

At 58, poet Diana Goetsch finally feels right in her own skin

Diana Goetsch writes about her later-in-life transition in the memoir, This Body I Wore. Tyler Foltz/Farrar, Straus and Groux hide caption

toggle caption

Tyler Foltz/Farrar, Straus and Groux

Author Interviews

At 58, poet Diana Goetsch finally feels right in her own skin

Fresh Air

May 25, 2022 • Goetsch grew up in a time when she didn't have the language to help her understand what it meant to be trans. She chronicles her later-in-life transition in the memoir is This Body I Wore.

At 58, poet Diana Goetsch finally feels right in her own skin

Listen · 44:25 44:25

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1100947511/1101260960" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Ben Bernanke's Lessons From 'The Great Inflation'

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Planet Money

Ben Bernanke's Lessons From 'The Great Inflation'

May 24, 2022 • In a new book, Ben Bernanke explains how and why the U.S. Federal Reserve has evolved to play such an important role in the economy.

Elif Batuman's sequel 'Either/Or' follows a young woman's sexual awakening

Elif Batuman Valentyn Kuzan hide caption

toggle caption

Valentyn Kuzan

Author Interviews

Elif Batuman's sequel 'Either/Or' follows a young woman's sexual awakening

May 24, 2022 • Either/Or is Batuman's sequel to her bestselling Pulitzer finalist novel The Idiot.

Elif Batuman's sequel 'Either/Or' follows a young woman's sexual awakening

Listen · 7:11 7:11

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1100118428/1100898025" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

A burn-proof edition of 'The Handmaid's Tale' goes up for auction

Author Margaret Atwood attends the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in New York on Nov. 11, 2019. Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Book News & Features

A burn-proof edition of 'The Handmaid's Tale' goes up for auction

May 24, 2022 • Organizers say proceeds from the auction will be donated to PEN, which advocates for free expression around the world.

Books We Love: Great books about identity and culture

NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Great books about identity and culture

May 23, 2022 • 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 9:12

Download
Embed <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'

toggle caption

Picture This

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

May 22, 2022 • 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 6:58

Download
Embed <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

May 19, 2022 • 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 6:19

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1100017362/1100130457" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Latin American literature in translation: Stories that take you to unexpected places

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Latin American literature in translation: Stories that take you to unexpected places

May 19, 2022 • New translations of Juan Emar's Yesterday, Cristina Rivera Garza's New and Selected Stories, and Gabriela Alemán's Family Album offer a look at human nature — and adventures along the way.

'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

May 19, 2022 • 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 7:08

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099064306/1099997314" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

'Translating Myself and Others' is a reminder of how alive language can be

Princeton University Press

Review

'Translating Myself and Others' is a reminder of how alive language can be

May 18, 2022 • Jhumpa Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the "essential aesthetic and political mission" of translation.

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

May 18, 2022 • 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 7:57

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

NPR's Petra Mayer receives posthumous science fiction award

Petra Mayer in 2019. Allison Shelley/NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Allison Shelley/NPR

Fresh Air

May 17, 2022 • 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 43:40

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099465610/1099517494" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

In 'This Time Tomorrow,' Emma Straub looks at the pieces that make a life

Riverhead

toggle caption

David Pickoff/AP

Author Interviews

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

Fresh Air

May 16, 2022 • 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 43:50

Download
Embed <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

May 16, 2022 • 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 18:33

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098578092/1098750745" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Three female authors show us how writing can turn adversity into beauty

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Three female authors show us how writing can turn adversity into beauty

May 13, 2022 • In their latest works, Azar Nafisi, Elena Ferrante, and Anna Quindlen vigorously assert that reading and writing can pull us out of our mess. In their hands, reading and writing are worth celebrating.

'Nasty, Brutish, and Short' contends that all parents are raising little philosophers

Penguin Press

Review

Book Reviews

'Nasty, Brutish, and Short' contends that all parents are raising little philosophers

May 12, 2022 • Author Scott Hershovitz sets out to prove that philosophy, like inquisitive, rowdy children, can offer illuminating insights — even when addressing complex subjects related to misbehavior.

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

May 12, 2022 • 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 6:25

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098478246/1098529608" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

'Fly Girl' and 'The Great Stewardess Rebellion' recount journeys toward empowerment

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

'Fly Girl' and 'The Great Stewardess Rebellion' recount journeys toward empowerment

May 11, 2022 • Novelist Ann Hood, whose Fly Girl paints a picture of her time as a flight attendant, was a beneficiary of the fight by the women profiled in Nell McShane Wulfhart's book to be treated professionally.

Percy Jackson creator Rick Riordan rips complaints about casting the TV series

Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and The Olympians. Rick Riordan hide caption

toggle caption

Rick Riordan

Culture

Percy Jackson creator Rick Riordan rips complaints about casting the TV series

May 10, 2022 • Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series, has issued a forceful response to criticisms of the decision to hire a person of color, Leah Jeffries, to play Annabeth Chase on TV.