NPR: Book Reviews : NPR

Accessibility links

NPR: Book Reviews Summary judgment on books of note, from NPR personalities, independent booksellers and critics from across the public-radio spectrum.

Book Reviews

Subscribe to Books Newsletter

On the Same Page, by Penelope Janu

For December, 3 Romantic Holiday Escapes

December 11, 2018 • Get away from holiday stress and crummy weather with our romance picks for December. We've got great contemporary stories and a charming inversion of that classic Regency trope, the forced engagement.

Maureen Corrigan Picks The Best Books Of 2018, Including The Novel Of The Year

Click here to browse more than 300 recommended titles in NPR's 2018 Book Concierge. NPR hide caption

toggle caption

NPR

Maureen Corrigan Picks The Best Books Of 2018, Including The Novel Of The Year

Fresh Air

December 10, 2018 • Fresh Air's book critic recommends her 10 favorite books of the year, including The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai's sweeping story about the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Maureen Corrigan Picks The Best Books Of 2018, Including The Novel Of The Year

Listen · 8:38 8:38

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/675277378/675328141" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

The Museum of Modern Love

Art Restores The Soul In 'Museum Of Modern Love'

December 10, 2018 • Performance artist Marina Abramovic is the still point at the center of Heather Rose's new novel, as a motley cast of characters come to see her sitting at a table in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Trish Trash

Book News & Features

In 'Trish Trash,' Roller Derby — And Anti-Capitalist Parable — On Mars

December 8, 2018 • Jessica Abel's comic Trish Trash, Rollergirl of Mars isn't just a sports story and a coming-of-age tale, it's a masterful critique of capitalism that stays engaging despite a few wobbles.

Mary Queen of Scots

'Mary Queen Of Scots' Is A Case Study On How Political, Human Narratives Get Crafted

December 7, 2018 • Stefan Zweig's famous book is as much about its own context as an execution 300 years ago; its archness signals a time capsule, except that the rhetoric around women in power has changed so little.

Broken Ground

'Broken Ground' Balances Location, Character And Props In Perfect Proportion

December 6, 2018 • Prolific crime writer Val McDermid's latest catches up with plainspoken cold-case detective Karen Pirie as she deals with personal troubles, machinations at work and a mystery going back decades.

Parallel Lives

Surrealism Meets Sci-Fi In 'Parallel Lives'

December 6, 2018 • Olivier Schrauwen's new graphic novel is cold and rejecting, giddy and uncontrolled, all at the same time. It's semi-autobiographical and loosely sci-fi, set in an unsettlingly minimalist future.

The Game

1968: How We Got Here

Key 1968 Harvard-Yale Battle Sets Scene For 'The Game' — And Football's Future

December 5, 2018 • Author George Howe Colt's choice to delve into the lives of the players and coaches in his new book, as well as the turbulent year itself, makes his writing about the actual game pay off beautifully.

Revolution Sunday

Complicated, Challenging 'Revolution Sunday' Mixes Prose And Poetry

December 5, 2018 • Cuban writer Wendy Guerra has lived under surveillance in her home country, and she works that experience into her intense new novel about a young poet in Havana whose success causes trouble.

Milkman

Brutally Intelligent 'Milkman' Depicts Lives Cramped By Fear

December 4, 2018 • Anna Burns' new novel — which won the Man Booker prize — follows a never-named young woman who's being harassed by a powerful paramilitary figure during Ireland's Troubles.

Babel

'Babel' Looks At Language Through The 20 Most-Widely Spoken

December 4, 2018 • Linguist Gaston Dorren's book is endlessly interesting — and you don't have to have any linguistic training to enjoy it: He has a talent for clearly explaining even the most difficult concepts.

Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants

Tell Them Of 'Battles, Kings,' And Michelangelo On The Bosporus

December 2, 2018 • Mathias Énard's novel — newly translated from French — imagines what would have happened if Michelangelo had accepted an offer from the Ottoman ruler to design a bridge across the Golden Horn.

'Come With Me' Lays Bare The Risks And Regrets Of Our Online Lives

Cover image of Come With Me, by Helen Schulman. Cameron Pollack/NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Cameron Pollack/NPR

'Come With Me' Lays Bare The Risks And Regrets Of Our Online Lives

Fresh Air

November 29, 2018 • Helen Schulman splices together an old-school family drama with high-tech fantasy in her new novel, a rich, closely observed story about regrets and risk-taking in the Internet age.

'Come With Me' Lays Bare The Risks And Regrets Of Our Online Lives

Listen · 7:28 7:28

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/670794043/671960613" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

How Long 'til Black Future Month?

Gorgeous 'Black Future Month' Tracks A Writer's Development

November 29, 2018 • N.K. Jemisin's new story collection is a story in itself, a chronicle of her career that has the seeds of her award-winning novels, but also lovely and thought-provoking stand-alone work.

Insurrecto

Witty And Stylish, 'Insurrecto' Offers An Inside View Of The Pain Of Colonization

Fresh Air

November 28, 2018 • Gina Apostol's dizzying new novel begin in present-day Manila before diving into the late 19th century — and the tortuous relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines.

Witty And Stylish, 'Insurrecto' Offers An Inside View Of The Pain Of Colonization

Listen · 6:35 6:35

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/671506059/671629642" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

In Search of the Canary Tree

'In Search Of The Canary Tree' Highlights The Links Between Nature, Climate And Us

November 28, 2018 • Conservation scientist Lauren E. Oakes weaves her musings about humans' place in a warming world together with conservation science in a moving and effective way.

Evening in Paradise

'Evening In Paradise' Remembers Those Who Might Otherwise Be Forgotten

November 28, 2018 • This second posthumous anthology of stories by Lucia Berlin is full of deeply felt stories about lives on the fringe, alternately comic and tragic, bound together by Berlin's love for her characters.

Where We Go from Here

Bernie Sanders Criticizes Democrats And Republicans In 'Where We Go From Here'

November 27, 2018 • The former presidential candidate's latest book is just what you might expect from this genre: His platforms are presented but not interrogated — and there is little self-reflection.

Dance in America

'Dance In America' Aims To Chronicle The Art In The U.S.

November 26, 2018 • Mindy Aloff has attempted the nearly impossible task of collecting, in an anthology, the essays, excerpts, and asides that create a snapshot of the history of American dance.

Why We Dream

'Why We Dream' Is A Spirited, Cogent Defense Of Dreams And Dream-Telling

November 26, 2018 • "If we fail to take the simple steps to remember and understand our dreams, we are throwing away a gift from our brains without bothering to open it," writes Alice Robb.

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Just How Tight Are Family Ties When Your Sister's A 'Serial Killer'?

November 25, 2018 • Oyinkan Braithwaite's wry, sly debut novel follows two sisters, dowdy Korede and gorgeous Ayoola — who has a habit of killing her boyfriends. Korede cleans up her sister's messes, but for how long?

The Houseguest

Unseen Forces Menace 'The Houseguest'

November 24, 2018 • Amparo Dávila is often described as Mexico's answer to Shirley Jackson, and The Houseguest -- her first collection to be translated into English --radiates a sense of unease and calamity.

Hardly Children

'Hardly Children' Is Restless And Strange — Just Like Humanity

November 22, 2018 • The spare, slightly creepy off-white cover of Laura Adamczyk's debut collection is perfect for the uncomfortable stories within it, works that examine family, childhood, adulthood, gender and race.

More from Book Reviews

Browse archive or search npr.org