Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews : NPR

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, the NPR Bestseller Lists, New in Paperback and much more.

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Click If You Dare: 100 Favorite Horror Stories

Angela Hsieh/NPR

Summer Reader Poll 2018: Horror

Click If You Dare: 100 Favorite Horror Stories

August 16, 2018 • In honor of Frankenstein's 200th birthday, this year's summer reader poll is all about horror — from classics like Mary Shelley's monster to new favorites, we've got something to scare everyone.

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Book Reviews

'The Big Fella' Highlights Babe Ruth's Spot As First Celebrity Sports Star

October 18, 2018 • Jane Leavy tells the story of Ruth as the first baseball superstar — but also of his roles as movie star, vaudeville performer, barnstormer, pitchman for every conceivable product, and columnist.

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'Ruth Bader Ginsburg' Reminds Us Why The Justice Is A True Legal Icon

October 18, 2018 • Jane Sherron De Hart's biography sheds light on personal and professional challenges Ginsburg faced on the way to the top and puts the Supreme Court justice's life in context.

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'Melmoth' Bears Witness To Our Worst, Loneliest Moments

October 18, 2018 • Sarah Perry's new novel isn't subtle — it's full of ominous birds, guttering candles and mysterious figures in gloomy windows. But there's something satisfying about its emotional flamboyance.

What Would Eleanor Do? 'If You Ask Me' Revisits Roosevelt's Advice Columns

Eleanor Roosevelt's advice column — "If You Ask Me" — ran from 1941, when she was still first lady, to her death in 1962. She's shown in October 1957. AP hide caption

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What Would Eleanor Do? 'If You Ask Me' Revisits Roosevelt's Advice Columns

Fresh Air

October 17, 2018 • For 20 years, Roosevelt answered reader questions on topics monumental, mundane and everywhere in between. A new book presents a selection of her essential advice and practical wisdom.

What Would Eleanor Do? 'If You Ask Me' Revisits Roosevelt's Advice Columns

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'Vietnam' Takes On All Sides With A Critical Gaze

October 17, 2018 • While historian Max Hastings may break no new ground in his tome, it's how he crafts his story with color, detail and pathos that makes it great — and likely to become the standard on the war.

'Heavy' Brilliantly Renders The Struggle To Become Fully Realized

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'Heavy' Brilliantly Renders The Struggle To Become Fully Realized

October 17, 2018 • The book is at once a paean to the Deep South, a condemnation of our fat-averse culture, and a beautiful memoir of being black, bookish, and part of a family that's as challenging as it is grounding.

Man Booker Prize For Fiction Goes To 'Milkman' By Anna Burns

Anna Burns, author of Milkman, which was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction on Tuesday. WPA Pool/Getty Images hide caption

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Man Booker Prize For Fiction Goes To 'Milkman' By Anna Burns

October 16, 2018 • For the first time, a writer from Northern Ireland has won the prestigious award. The story draws on Burns' own experiences during "the troubles."

Author Interviews

'Hey, Kiddo' Aims To Help Kids With Addicted Parents Feel Less Alone

Fresh Air

October 16, 2018 • Jarrett J. Krosoczka was raised by his grandparents. The author and illustrator says he got a lot of practice telling stories as a kid — "making up excuses for where my biological parents were."

'Hey, Kiddo' Aims To Help Kids With Addicted Parents Feel Less Alone

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'Brief Answers To The Big Questions' Is Stephen Hawking's Parting Gift To Humanity

October 16, 2018 • The physicist's posthumous book highlights his belief in the rationality of nature and in our ability to uncover its secrets — and a faith in science's ability to solve humanity's biggest problems.

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'Frederick Douglass' Is An Extended Meditation On The Legend's Self-Invention

October 16, 2018 • David W. Blight's opus manages to be both a celebration of a remarkable life and a sober reminder of the many ways in which our terrible times are shaped by those Douglass lived through.

Novelist Esi Edugyan On Black Genius And What Comes After Slavery

Cameron Pollack/NPR

Author Interviews

Novelist Esi Edugyan On Black Genius And What Comes After Slavery

October 16, 2018 • The author of Man Booker Prize finalist Washington Black began her new book on a plantation in 1830s Barbados. "I really have no idea where my story is going at the outset of it," she says.

Novelist Esi Edugyan On Black Genius And What Comes After Slavery

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Phoebe Robinson: There's No Excuse For The Lack Of Diversity In Comedy

Phoebe Robinson hosts the podcast 2 Dope Queens. Plume hide caption

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Phoebe Robinson: There's No Excuse For The Lack Of Diversity In Comedy

Fresh Air

October 15, 2018 • "There are so many talented, amazing people and if you're not booking them, it's either out of laziness or the fact you really don't care," says the co-host of the 2 Dope Queens podcast.

Phoebe Robinson: There's No Excuse For The Lack Of Diversity In Comedy

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In 'Them,' Sen. Sasse Aims To Find Ways To Move America Beyond Divisive Politics

October 15, 2018 • Them doesn't read like a campaign book — there's no humble-bragging about accomplishments. Sasse instead focuses on building relationships, but doesn't go deep enough or propose tangible solutions.

'Washington Black' Is A Soaring Tale Of Enslavement And Escape

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'Washington Black' Is A Soaring Tale Of Enslavement And Escape

Fresh Air

October 15, 2018 • Esi Edugyan's new novel centers on a boy who escapes slavery via hot air balloon — before crashing down to hard historical realities. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls Washington Black "a wonder."

'Washington Black' Is A Soaring Tale Of Enslavement And Escape

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Author Interviews

Getting 'The Band' Together: Questions For Nicholas Eames

October 15, 2018 • Author Nicholas Eames's series The Band is a joyous mashup of classic rock and fantasy tropes — because if there were monsters, why wouldn't there be bands of celebrity mercenaries to slay them?

The 'Young Black Man' Who Reluctantly Became An NRA-Certified Instructor

Firearms are exhibited at the annual NRA convention in Dallas this past May. RJ Young's book Let It Bang examines the NRA's relationship with race through his personal, unexpected interest in guns. Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Author Interviews

The 'Young Black Man' Who Reluctantly Became An NRA-Certified Instructor

October 14, 2018 • RJ Young developed an interest in guns in order to bond with his white father-in-law. The experience is chronicled is his new book, Let It Bang.

The 'Young Black Man' Who Reluctantly Became An NRA-Certified Instructor

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In 'Scribe,' A World Haunted By Absences

October 14, 2018 • Alyson Hagy's new dystopian novel paints an America torn apart by war and plague, leaving little of the past intact. It's a lean, hungry book that draws on Appalachian folk myths, mercilessly told.