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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!

'The Committed' Remains Uncommitted — And That's Its Strength

Grove Atlantic

Review

'The Committed' Remains Uncommitted — And That's Its Strength

March 4, 2021 • Viet Thanh Nguyen's sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer finds our hero a refugee again, this time in Paris, and disillusioned with communism but not ready to embrace capitalism.

'Home Is Not A Country' Imagines The Lives We Could Have Led

Make Me a World

Review

'Home Is Not A Country' Imagines The Lives We Could Have Led

March 4, 2021 • Safia Elhillo's novel follows a first-generation Muslim American girl who, bullied at school, longs for the homeland she's never really known and the alter ego who represents a more confident self.

'Klara And The Sun' Is A Masterpiece About Life, Love And Mortality

Knopf

Review

'Klara And The Sun' Is A Masterpiece About Life, Love And Mortality

Fresh Air

March 3, 2021 • Narrated by a robotic "artificial friend," Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel offers readers a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

'Klara And The Sun' Is A Masterpiece About Life, Love And Mortality

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There Are So Many Flavors Of Potato Chips; 'Hooked' Looks At Why

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, by Michael Moss Random House hide caption

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Random House

Review

There Are So Many Flavors Of Potato Chips; 'Hooked' Looks At Why

March 3, 2021 • Investigative reporter Michael Moss explores how some food companies tweak their products to take advantage of evolved biology, creating room for novelty that triggers the brain to make us want more.

'Machinehood' Upgrades Asimov's 3 Laws Of Robotics

Gallery/Saga Press

Review

'Machinehood' Upgrades Asimov's 3 Laws Of Robotics

March 2, 2021 • S.B. Divya's debut novel does what the best science fiction does — establishes a future that's relatable, plausible, and infinitely strange, where implants and wearable tech help humans survive.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises Will Shelve 6 Books, Citing 'Hurtful' Portrayals

Dr. Seuss Enterprises is pulling six of the author's books, saying they "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote children's books as Dr. Seuss, is seen here in his La Jolla, Calif., home. James L. Amos/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

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James L. Amos/Corbis via Getty Images

America Reckons With Racial Injustice

Dr. Seuss Enterprises Will Shelve 6 Books, Citing 'Hurtful' Portrayals

March 2, 2021 • The decision includes books such as And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo. They have been criticized for how they depict Asian and Black people.

'Klara And The Sun' Asks What It Means To Be Human

Knopf

Review

Book Reviews

'Klara And The Sun' Asks What It Means To Be Human

March 2, 2021 • Kazuo Ishiguro's lovely, mournful new novel is set in a world where children can have android companions, known as Artificial Friends — but can those artificial friends ever replace the children?

2 Determined Mothers Clash Over Integration Efforts In 'What's Mine And Yours'

What's Mine and Yours, by Naima Coster Grand Central hide caption

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Grand Central

Author Interviews

2 Determined Mothers Clash Over Integration Efforts In 'What's Mine And Yours'

March 1, 2021 • NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Naima Coster about her novel What's Mine And Yours, about a North Carolina high school in the middle of an integration program in the early 2000.

2 Determined Mothers Clash Over Integration Efforts In 'What's Mine And Yours'

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Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than Tragic In 'Slough House'

Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than Tragic In 'Slough House'

Fresh Air

March 1, 2021 • Mick Herron's brilliantly plotted series follows a group of maladroit MI5 agents who've somehow blown it with the agency. The latest installment is a timely novel set in a post-Brexit U.K.

Britain's MI5 Spy Agency Proves More Comic Than Tragic In 'Slough House'

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King Cat John Porcellino On Comics, Zines And Trying To Make The World Less Crazy

Self-portrait of John Porcellino Copyright John Porcellino/Courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly hide caption

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Author Interviews

King Cat John Porcellino On Comics, Zines And Trying To Make The World Less Crazy

February 28, 2021 • Cartoonist and zine-maker John Porcellino has been a hugely influential figure in the world of zine-making. As several of his classic books are reissued, we talk to him about his life and work

Brooklyn Librarian Becomes Unlikely Star With Her Bilingual Story Time

Tenzin Kalsang's in-person story times in Tibetan and English on were held at the Williamsburgh branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system. Brooklyn Public Library's Facebook Page/Screenshot hide caption

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Brooklyn Public Library's Facebook Page/Screenshot

The Coronavirus Crisis

Brooklyn Librarian Becomes Unlikely Star With Her Bilingual Story Time

February 28, 2021 • The pandemic has yielded a silver lining for the Brooklyn Public Library. Tenzin Kalsang's Tibetan story time has been drawing audiences in the tens of thousands.

Brooklyn Librarian Becomes Unlikely Star With Her Bilingual Story Time

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To Summarize, 'Infinite Country' Can Be Frustrating

Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster

Review

Book Reviews

To Summarize, 'Infinite Country' Can Be Frustrating

February 27, 2021 • Patricia Engels' novel about the experiences of a Colombian family migrating to the U.S. stands out for its sharp writing — but frustrates in equal measure because of its reliance on summary.

'It's Hard To Leave Him': 'Sympathizer' Spy Story Continues In 'The Committed'

Grove Press

Author Interviews

'It's Hard To Leave Him': 'Sympathizer' Spy Story Continues In 'The Committed'

February 27, 2021 • Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning spy novel The Sympathizer told the story of a communist double agent just after the Vietnam War — his quest for revolution resumes in The Committed.

'It's Hard To Leave Him': 'Sympathizer' Spy Story Continues In 'The Committed'

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Love May Be 'For Losers,' But This Book Is For Everyone

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Review

Book Reviews

Love May Be 'For Losers,' But This Book Is For Everyone

February 27, 2021 • Wibke Brueggemann's charmingly snarky YA novel follows teenaged Phoebe as she recovers from the Worst New Year's Ever and learns that not all of life's answers can be found via Google.

Photographers Make Kids' Wildest Dreams Come To Life

General: D'Zion Thompson Kahran and Regis Bethencourt hide caption

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Kahran and Regis Bethencourt

The Picture Show

Photographers Make Kids' Wildest Dreams Come To Life

February 26, 2021 • A husband and wife photography team create avant-garde and futuristic shoots for their clients. The couple hopes the portraits transcend the typical images of beauty.

Photographers Make Kids' Wildest Dreams Come To Life

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'Hunt, Gather, Parent' Offers Lessons Collected Around The World

Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans, by Michaeleen Doucleff Avid Reader Press hide caption

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Avid Reader Press

Author Interviews

'Hunt, Gather, Parent' Offers Lessons Collected Around The World

February 25, 2021 • NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff found that parenting books she read after becoming a mom left a lot out. When she went through a tough period with her daughter, she traveled the world in search of guidance.

'Hunt, Gather, Parent' Offers Lessons Collected Around The World

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Nanjala Nyabola is an academic, traveler, and collector of guidebooks, some of which are pictured here. Nanjala Nyabola hide caption

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Nanjala Nyabola

Rough Translation

Rewriting The Travel Guidebook With Nanjala Nyabola

February 24, 2021 • What happens when your guidebook isn't written with you in mind? Nanjala Nyabola on her new book: Travelling While Black.

Rewriting The Travel Guidebook With Nanjala Nyabola

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A Botched Execution Leads To A Search For Answers In 'Two Truths And A Lie'

Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

A Botched Execution Leads To A Search For Answers In 'Two Truths And A Lie'

Fresh Air

February 24, 2021 • Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter for The Miami Herald, when she witnessed an execution that went horribly wrong. She revisits the case of Jesse Tafero in an intense new true crime book.

A Botched Execution Leads To A Search For Answers In 'Two Truths And A Lie'

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Tim O'Brien On Late-In-Life Fatherhood And The Things He Carried From Vietnam

Tim O'Brien was a foot soldier during the Vietnam War. "The problem for me really is that I questioned the rectitude of the war," he says. "I thought I was doing the wrong thing by being there." Courtesy of Gravitas Ventures hide caption

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Courtesy of Gravitas Ventures

Movie Interviews

Tim O'Brien On Late-In-Life Fatherhood And The Things He Carried From Vietnam

Fresh Air

February 24, 2021 • Now 74, O'Brien didn't become a father until his late 50s. He reflects on writing, mortality and his experiences in Vietnam in the new documentary, The War and Peace of Tim O'Brien.

Tim O'Brien On Late-In-Life Fatherhood And The Things He Carried From Vietnam

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On 'The Kitchen Front,' 4 Women Cook Their Way To Victory

Ballantine Books

Review

Book Reviews

On 'The Kitchen Front,' 4 Women Cook Their Way To Victory

February 24, 2021 • In Jennifer Ryan's new novel, set in England in 1942, four women from different backgrounds compete in a cooking contest with a possibly life-changing prize: The chance to cohost a BBC cooking show.