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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

A novelist's time in the MMA cage informed his book on memory loss and identity

John Vercher is the author of the novels Three-Fifths and After the Lights Go Out. Karen Maria Photography/Soho Press hide caption

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Karen Maria Photography/Soho Press

Author Interviews

A novelist's time in the MMA cage informed his book on memory loss and identity

Fresh Air

John Vercher trained in mixed martial arts as a young man. His novel, After the Lights Go Out, centers on a veteran MMA fighter who struggles to remember everyday things.

A novelist's time in the MMA cage informed his book on memory loss and identity

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Life in the Middle Ages is more gross than engrossing in this ruthless novel

Lapvona, by Ottessa Moshfegh Penguin Random House hide caption

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Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

Life in the Middle Ages is more gross than engrossing in this ruthless novel

Fresh Air

Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona follows the life of Marek, a 13-year-old peasant boy who lives in a cruel world of sadism and stink, cannibalism and self-flagellation.

Life in the Middle Ages is more gross than engrossing in this ruthless novel

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Author Interviews

Fasten your seat belts, flight attendant-turned-novelist shares stories from the sky

Fresh Air

T.J. Newman began writing the hijack thriller Falling while she was a flight attendant. She'd jot down ideas on paper napkins in the quiet moments on red-eye flights. Originally broadcast July 2021.

Fasten your seat belts, flight attendant-turned-novelist shares stories from the sky

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The human sensory experience is limited. Journey into the world that animals know

A dolphin's sense of echolocation allows it to coordinate efforts to hunt prey, see "through" other creatures and form three-dimensional shapes using sound. Raymond Roig/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Raymond Roig/AFP via Getty Images

Shots - Health News

The human sensory experience is limited. Journey into the world that animals know

Fresh Air

In his new book, An Immense World, science writer Ed Yong explores the diversity of perception in the animal world — including echolocation, magnetic fields and ultraviolet vision.

The human sensory experience is limited. Journey into the world that animals know

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Raising kids is 'Essential Labor.' It's also lonely, exhausting and expensive

Fourth-grader Lucy Kramer (foreground) does schoolwork at her home, as her mother, Daisley, helps her younger sister, Meg, who is in kindergarten, in 2020 in San Anselmo, Calif. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images hide caption

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Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Raising kids is 'Essential Labor.' It's also lonely, exhausting and expensive

Fresh Air

In her book, author Angela Garbes makes the case that the work of raising children has always been undervalued and undercompensated in the U.S. Then came the pandemic, and everything got harder.

Raising kids is 'Essential Labor.' It's also lonely, exhausting and expensive

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Some states are changing the laws that govern community libraries

Attempts to ban books in school districts around the country have increased in recent years. Now, some states are working on enacting laws to give politicians more power over public libraries. Rick Bowmer/AP hide caption

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Rick Bowmer/AP

Book News & Features

Some states are changing the laws that govern community libraries

At a time of concern about book banning, states are passing laws to tighten control over public libraries. The laws address how libraries are managed and some laws may open librarians to legal action.

Some states are changing the laws that govern community libraries

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Fangirls rule the internet in 'Everything I Need, I Get From You'

Kaitlyn Tiffany, author of Everything I Need, I Get From You: How Fangirls Shaped the Internet as We Know It. Amelia Holowaty Krales/FSG Books hide caption

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Amelia Holowaty Krales/FSG Books

It's Been a Minute

Fangirls rule the internet in 'Everything I Need, I Get From You'

Fangirls often don't get taken seriously in pop culture. But in her new book, Everything I Need, I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It, culture reporter Kaitlyn Tiffany explores just how much fangirls have shaped online life. She talks with guest host B.A. Parker about how fans used Tumblr to transform internet culture, how being a One Direction fan enriched her own life and why fandom is more complicated than we might think.

Fangirls rule the internet in 'Everything I Need, I Get From You'

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Oh, what a beautiful archive: Oscar Hammerstein's letters reveal his many sides

Julie Andrews sang "The hills are alive" in the film version of The Sound of Music, but Hammerstein's letters reveal that a much bigger Hollywood star had lobbied hard to play Maria. Alamy Stock Photo hide caption

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Alamy Stock Photo

Oh, what a beautiful archive: Oscar Hammerstein's letters reveal his many sides

A thousand pages of correspondence by Oscar Hammerstein II, the lyricist for such musicals as Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel and The Sound of Music are available to a wide public for the first time.

Oh, what a beautiful archive: Oscar Hammerstein's letters reveal his many sides

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History

'On Juneteenth' historian examines the hope and hostility toward emancipation

Fresh Air

Juneteenth celebrates the day slavery ended in Texas, June 19, 1865. Historian Annette Gordon-Reed studies the early American republic and the legacy of slavery. Originally broadcast May 25, 2021.

'On Juneteenth' historian examines the hope and hostility toward emancipation

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In 'Human Resources,' a poet finds her voice by working on artificial intelligence

Poet Ryann Stevenson William Brewer hide caption

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William Brewer

In 'Human Resources,' a poet finds her voice by working on artificial intelligence

Ryann Stevenson's debut collection Human Resources won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. It looks at how technology both connects and separates us.

In 'Human Resources,' a poet finds her voice by working on artificial intelligence

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'1619 Project' journalist lays bare why Black Americans 'live sicker and die quicker'

A Black woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Tampa, Fla. Black Americans have died of the disease at a rate more than double that of white people. Octavio Jones/Getty Images hide caption

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Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

'1619 Project' journalist lays bare why Black Americans 'live sicker and die quicker'

Fresh Air

Linda Villarosa says bias in the health care system and the "weathering" affect of living in a racist society are taking a serious toll on African Americans. Her new book is Under the Skin.

'1619 Project' journalist lays bare why Black Americans 'live sicker and die quicker'

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'Greenland' revives E.M. Forster — and spins a tale of racism and self-discovery
Green Apple Books

Review

Book Reviews

'Greenland' revives E.M. Forster — and spins a tale of racism and self-discovery

Fresh Air

In David Santos Donaldson's debut novel, a young gay Black man gets some supernatural relationship advice from the Black lover of a famous white British writer, both of them long dead.

'Greenland' revives E.M. Forster — and spins a tale of racism and self-discovery

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Joseph Han on U.S. imperialism, Korean ghosts and Guy Fieri
Huan He/Counter Point Press

It's Been a Minute

Joseph Han on U.S. imperialism, Korean ghosts and Guy Fieri

We don't often think of Hawaii and the Korean peninsula as having any kind of shared history. But author Joseph Han disagrees — and he makes the case in his debut novel Nuclear Family. In this episode, Han and guest host B.A. Parker discuss the book and Han's experience as a Korean immigrant in Hawaii. And they unpack the long effects of U.S. imperialism and military presence in both places. Along the way, they get into ghosts, grandmas and Guy Fieri.

Joseph Han on U.S. imperialism, Korean ghosts and Guy Fieri

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