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'Honor' is a searing meditation on the meaning of dignity in a dehumanizing world

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

'Honor' is a searing meditation on the meaning of dignity in a dehumanizing world

January 26, 2022 • Thrity Umrigar's novel is about India's humanitarian crisis — with its depictions of misogyny and scenes of public shaming, mistreatment and torture — but it's also about a transformative journey.

A true crime writer struggles with his responsibility to the victims in 'Devil House'

MacMillian

A true crime writer struggles with his responsibility to the victims in 'Devil House'

January 26, 2022 • Novelist John Darnielle — also singer-songwriter with the Mountain Goats — has a hero who wants to honor the victims he's writing about but doesn't much like them.

Wajahat Ali's 'Go Back To Where You Came From' is biting and funny and full of heart

W. W. Norton & Company

Wajahat Ali's 'Go Back To Where You Came From' is biting and funny and full of heart

January 25, 2022 • Ali's memoir is intelligent and incisive in its arguments against "whiteness" but focuses, too, on hope and heart — calling for a more compassionate world through community and solidarity.

Books We Love: Recommendations For Music Fans

Becky Harlan/NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Recommendations For Music Fans

January 24, 2022 • If you're looking to discover a new book, NPR has a marvelous mechanism to help you out: It's called Books We Love, and it's a sortable guide to hundreds of great books from 2021, as handpicked and recommended by the NPR staff. Today we're talking about some of the music-related books we loved in 2021.

Books We Love: Recommendations For Music Fans

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'Joan Is Okay,' explores the meaning of home, having roots

Random House

'Joan Is Okay,' explores the meaning of home, having roots

January 21, 2022 • By exploring the spectrum of commitment in this book, and in her debut novel Chemistry, Weike Wang has shown us myriad ways to build a sense of home, myriad ways to feel okay in our skin.

'Davos Man' is an angry, powerful look at economic inequality

Custom House

'Davos Man' is an angry, powerful look at economic inequality

January 20, 2022 • New York Times writer Peter S. Goodman does not like Davos Man. At all. And his new book does an excellent job explaining why — focusing on the rich getting richer as the COVID-19 pandemic raged.

'Manifesto' is a story of dreams made real by never giving up

Grove Press

'Manifesto' is a story of dreams made real by never giving up

January 18, 2022 • One of the foremost writers of the age, Bernardine Evaristo unwinds her career and life — giving us a nonfiction bildungsroman that is a towering monument to the creative life of Black women.

'What Is Otherwise Infinite' asks for granular honesty in our search for meaning

Tin House Books

'What Is Otherwise Infinite' asks for granular honesty in our search for meaning

January 18, 2022 • In her fourth collection, poet Bianca Stone unites vulnerability and humor to tackle the heavy question of what it means to be alive.

'What Is Otherwise Infinite' asks for granular honesty in our search for meaning

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In 'Present Tense Machine,' the allegory of The Fall becomes a linguistic accident

Present Tense Machine: A Novel, by Gunnhild Øyehaug Farrar, Straus and Giroux hide caption

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In 'Present Tense Machine,' the allegory of The Fall becomes a linguistic accident

January 14, 2022 • In Gunnhild Øyehaug's novel, a mother and daughter are separated and forgotten to each other, yet continue to exist as thinkers and artists in their respective worlds, each missing something unknown.

Gwen E. Kirby's stunning collection of short stories takes readers on a wild ride

Penguin Books

Gwen E. Kirby's stunning collection of short stories takes readers on a wild ride

January 12, 2022 • While Kirby has a clear predilection for the bizarre, she plays some of her stories in her new book, Shit Cassandra Saw, straight — and those are just as entertaining as the fantastical ones.

'To Paradise' packs a staggering amount into its alternate histories

Doubleday

'To Paradise' packs a staggering amount into its alternate histories

January 12, 2022 • Hanya Yanagihara worked three centuries of imagination into this novel — undoubtedly an achievement. But the onslaught of details and stories muddle the narrative, weighing on the reading experience.

A grief story and a love story form the backbone of 'Lost & Found'

Random House

A grief story and a love story form the backbone of 'Lost & Found'

January 11, 2022 • Lost & Found is as much a philosophical reckoning with the experiences of losing and finding as it is a record of New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz's personal grief and love stories.

Legendary reporter Carl Bernstein revisits his early career in 'Chasing History'

Chasing History, by Carl Bernstein Henry Holt & Co. hide caption

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Henry Holt & Co.

Legendary reporter Carl Bernstein revisits his early career in 'Chasing History'

January 11, 2022 • It would have been easy for the famous journalist to fall into the nostalgia trap with his memoir, which chronicles his earliest years in the newspaper business. Happily, he doesn't.

In 'Wahala,' intimacy at times morphs into enmity

Wahala: A Novel, by Nikki May Custom House hide caption

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Custom House

In 'Wahala,' intimacy at times morphs into enmity

January 10, 2022 • Nikki May's novel captures issues of modern city living: women's evolving roles in home and work, interracial relationships, multicultural identity, and competition that runs under many friendship.

'One True Loves' stirs a journey to a successful future with a bit of love

One True Loves, by Elise Bryant Balzer + Bray hide caption

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Balzer + Bray

'One True Loves' stirs a journey to a successful future with a bit of love

January 6, 2022 • Elise Bryant tells a fantastic tale full of shenanigans and escapades, while also delving into deeper issues of race and the perception of a successful future for young people of color.

In 'The Maid,' a devoted hotel cleaning lady is a prime murder suspect

The Maid by Nita Prose Ballantine Books hide caption

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Ballantine Books

In 'The Maid,' a devoted hotel cleaning lady is a prime murder suspect

January 5, 2022 • In Nita Prose's debut, a guest at a fancy urban hotel lies dead and the main suspect is Molly Gray, a devoted member of the cleaning staff who recognizes she has "trouble with social situations."

'Fiona and Jane' is a life-sized story of true friendship

Fiona and Jane, by Jean Chen Ho Viking hide caption

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Viking

'Fiona and Jane' is a life-sized story of true friendship

January 4, 2022 • Jean Chen Ho's debut work of fiction focuses on a long-standing friendship that rings, sometimes terribly, true, as the girls-turned-women face the trials and tribulations of life.

Rep. Jamie Raskin searches for answers in 'Unthinkable' journey of trauma and grief

Harper

Rep. Jamie Raskin searches for answers in 'Unthinkable' journey of trauma and grief

January 4, 2022 • In a new memoir, the Democratic congressman recounts a year of loss and grief after the death of son Tommy — and a motivation to right the wrongs that occurred on Jan. 6.

In 'The Four Humors,' a woman delves into the past on a journey of self-discovery

The Four Humors, by Mina Seçkin Catapult hide caption

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Catapult

In 'The Four Humors,' a woman delves into the past on a journey of self-discovery

December 24, 2021 • Turkish American writer Mina Seçkin's debut is an engrossing exploration of national identity, the meaning of family and loss, and what happens when a family hides its central secret.

For queer Seoulites in 'Love in the Big City,' pride and shame intertwine

Grove Atlantic

For queer Seoulites in 'Love in the Big City,' pride and shame intertwine

December 23, 2021 • Sang Young Park's novel can be read as an anthropological approach to Seoulite queer lives in the 21st century: Its four linked stories capture the experience of being both visible and unacknowledged.

'Small Things Like These' add up to a seismic change in 1980s Ireland

Grove Atlantic

'Small Things Like These' add up to a seismic change in 1980s Ireland

December 22, 2021 • In Claire Keegan's feminist take on Dickens, a boy born to an unwed teen builds a life as a coal merchant, husband, and father to five daughters, and faces crises of faith and conscience.

'A Marvellous Light' infuses magic and adventures into 19th century England

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske Tordotcom hide caption

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Tordotcom

'A Marvellous Light' infuses magic and adventures into 19th century England

December 22, 2021 • The 19th century historical fantasy wherein magic is a layer over the already complicated strata of society is a fairly common genre, but Freya Marske makes it feel fresh in this treat of a book.

'All Her Little Secrets' asks whether we can reinvent ourselves

All Her Little Secrets: A Novel, Wanda M. Morris William Morrow hide caption

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William Morrow

'All Her Little Secrets' asks whether we can reinvent ourselves

December 21, 2021 • Wanda M. Morris' All Her Little Secrets is a carefully constructed thriller wrapped in a narrative about racism, gentrification, and being the only Black person in an all-white environment.

'Mothers, Fathers, and Others' addresses the realities of motherhood

Mothers, Fathers, and Others: Essays by Siri Hustvedt Simon & Schuster hide caption

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Simon & Schuster

'Mothers, Fathers, and Others' addresses the realities of motherhood

December 20, 2021 • Siri Hustvedt's essays bring into focus the profound contradictions of motherhood — often eclipsed by the cultural idealization of mothers as the model of self-sacrificing nurturance.

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