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

On Aging

After a stroke blinded one eye, Frank Bruni focused on the future

Fresh Air

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
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1099465610/1099517494" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
This forgotten women's prison helped cement Greenwich Village's queer identity

Angela Davis is escorted by two FBI agents after her arrest in New York on Oct. 13, 1970. She was taken from FBI headquarters to the Women's House of Detention. David Pickoff/AP hide caption

toggle caption
David Pickoff/AP

Author Interviews

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

Fresh Air

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
  • Download
  • <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

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

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
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1098478246/1098529608" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction
Becky Harlan/NPR

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction

NPR's annual Books We Love project rounded up hundreds of books that scratch whatever your reading itch might be. Today, we're going to talk about some of the nonfiction we loved.

Books We Love: Recommendations for nonfiction

Listen · 8:30
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1096913963/1097600082" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'
New York Review Books

Culture

2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'

The 2022 Pulitzer Prizes in fiction, poetry, drama and other categories in arts and letters were announced in New York along with awards for journalism.

2022 Pulitzer Prizes in arts and letters go to 'Fat Ham' and 'The Netenyahus'

Listen · 2:57
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1097566167/1097673903" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Former Pentagon chief Esper says Trump asked about shooting protesters

Mark Esper has written a book about the challenges he faced as Defense secretary in the Trump administration. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Author Interviews

Former Pentagon chief Esper says Trump asked about shooting protesters

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Mark Esper about his forthcoming book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times."

Former Pentagon chief Esper says Trump asked about shooting protesters

Listen · 7:56
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1097517470/1097673897" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
George Pérez, celebrated comic book artist who redefined Wonder Woman, has died

George Pérez, a celebrated comic book writer and artist, died at age 67 on Friday. Here, the artist is seen in 2019 at Excelsior! A Celebration of the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible & Uncanny Life of Stan Lee, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Obituaries

George Pérez, celebrated comic book artist who redefined Wonder Woman, has died

Pérez died on Friday at age 67. In a career that spanned over four decades, Pérez's meticulous pencil was behind some of the biggest comic book heroes.

The consequences of losing Roe v. Wade, plus Summer of Books

Pro-choice and anti-abortion activist rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on May 02, 2022 in Washington, DC. In an initial draft opinion obtained by Politico, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey should be overturned, which would end federal protection of abortion rights. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

It's Been a Minute

The consequences of losing Roe v. Wade, plus Summer of Books

Protests erupted across the nation this week in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court brief suggesting the landmark "Roe v. Wade" abortion ruling will be overturned. The decision could endanger people seeking medical care and set a precedent for challenging other reproductive rights. Guest host Elise Hu discusses patients' concerns with health and gender reporter Shefali Luthra of "The 19th" and Dr. Jennifer Kerns, an OBGYN and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

The consequences of losing Roe v. Wade, plus Summer of Books

Listen · 42:35
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1096715496/1097297559" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
CNN's Zain Asher is grateful for her mom's tough love — even if it meant no TV

CNN international anchor Zain Asher poses with her mother, Obiajulu Ejiofor. After losing her husband in a car crash, Ejiofor raised four children with strict and innovative practices — including, when Asher was a teenager, using scissors to cut the power cord of the TV set. Obiajulu told her daughter she could watch television again once she'd earned admission to Oxford. Courtesy of Zain Asher hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Zain Asher

Goats and Soda

CNN's Zain Asher is grateful for her mom's tough love — even if it meant no TV

Asher's dad died in a car crash in Nigeria when she was 5. Her grief-stricken mother used strict and innovative methods to raise 4 kids. Asher honors her mom in the memoir Where the Children Take Us.

CNN's Zain Asher is grateful for her mom's tough love — even if it meant no TV

Listen · 36:22
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1096678642/1096680103" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org