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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

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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'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'

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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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

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

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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Rewriting The Travel Guidebook With Nanjala Nyabola

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

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

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

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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Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet And Small-Press Publisher, Dies At 101

Poet and author Lawrence Ferlinghetti, pictured above in 1960, was born on March 24, 1919. AP hide caption

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AP

Obituaries

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet And Small-Press Publisher, Dies At 101

In 1956, Ferlinghetti published the first edition of Allen Ginsberg's Howl. According to one critic, his greatest accomplishments were fighting censorship and starting a small-press revolution.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beat Poet And Small-Press Publisher, Dies At 101

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'Red Line' Examines Syria's Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The World's Discovery Of It

Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World, by Joby Warrick Doubleday hide caption

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Doubleday

Author Interviews

'Red Line' Examines Syria's Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The World's Discovery Of It

Journalist Joby Warrick takes a detailed look at an excruciating moment for the world — the time in 2013 when the U.S. concluded that Syria's government had used chemical weapons in its civil war.

'Red Line' Examines Syria's Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The World's Discovery Of It

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Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations
Becky Harlan/NPR

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations

Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're talking about some of the best nonfiction picks that show up in this year's guide.

Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations

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'Popular Longing' Digs Into Everything We'd Rather Leave Unsaid
Copper Canyon Press

Author Interviews

'Popular Longing' Digs Into Everything We'd Rather Leave Unsaid

In her third collection of poems, Natalie Shapero takes a blunt, funny look at the uncomfortable realities of life under capitalism. She says her work engages with the things people don't talk about.

'Popular Longing' Digs Into Everything We'd Rather Leave Unsaid

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BONUS: Throughline — Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction‬

Artistic rendering of Octavia Butler. Joelle Avelino hide caption

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Joelle Avelino

Short Wave

BONUS: Throughline — Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction‬

To round out our celebration of Black History Month, we're bringing you a special episode featuring acclaimed science fiction writer Octavia Butler from our friends at NPR's history podcast Throughline.

BONUS: Throughline — Octavia Butler: Visionary Fiction‬

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