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

3 new books in translation blend liberation with darkness

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

3 new books in translation blend liberation with darkness

May 30, 2023 • The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, The House on Via Gemito, and Cousins together form a tour of human darkness where liberation comes in many forms.

4 new books by Filipino authors to read this spring

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

4 new books by Filipino authors to read this spring

May 25, 2023 • As we near the close of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we bring you a list of new books by Filipino authors — ranging from a noir graphic novel to the latest from Gina Apostol.

Luis Alberto Urrea pays tribute to WWII's forgotten volunteers — including his mother

During World War II, the American Red Cross Clubmobile corps (shown here on an airfield in England in 1943) provided donuts, coffee and friendly conversation to the troops. AP hide caption

toggle caption

AP

Luis Alberto Urrea pays tribute to WWII's forgotten volunteers — including his mother

Fresh Air

May 22, 2023 • The author's mother was a Red Cross volunteer assigned to Patton's 3rd Army — she was with the troops who helped liberate Buchenwald. Urrea's new woman-centered wartime novel is Good Night, Irene.

Luis Alberto Urrea pays tribute to WWII's forgotten volunteers — including his mother

Listen · 7:10 7:10

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1177057433/1177532714" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

In 'Julieta and the Romeos,' a teen aims to uncover the identity of her mystery man

‎ Balzer + Bray

In 'Julieta and the Romeos,' a teen aims to uncover the identity of her mystery man

May 20, 2023 • In Maria E. Andreu's latest YA romance, Julieta Toledo escapes into writing, the perfect haven for her increasingly runaway imagination. There she connects with the mysterious "Happily Ever Drafter."

5 new fantasy novels invigorate old tropes

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

5 new fantasy novels invigorate old tropes

May 18, 2023 • Spell books, dragons, mermaids, fairies and a magic circus all take on new life in the pages of these five enchanting tales hitting shelves in May and June.

Stories in 'Sidle Creek' offer an insider look at Appalachia

Melville House

Books

Stories in 'Sidle Creek' offer an insider look at Appalachia

May 17, 2023 • The 22 stories in Sidle Creek charm, surprise, and convey a deep love of the people and place — the Appalachian plateau of western Pennsylvania — that author Jolene McIlwain has long called home.

'The Three of Us' tracks a married couple and the wife's manipulative best friend

G.P. Putnam's Sons

'The Three of Us' tracks a married couple and the wife's manipulative best friend

May 16, 2023 • We've seen jealous, possessive friends and housewreckers with no boundaries before, though perhaps not quite so thoroughly, unapologetically unlikeable as in Ore Agbaje-Williams's debut novel.

In 'Quietly Hostile,' Samantha Irby trains a cynical eye inward

Vintage

In 'Quietly Hostile,' Samantha Irby trains a cynical eye inward

May 15, 2023 • In her fourth collection of essays, the bestselling author and TV writer renews her love/hate vows with the human race — as well as her relationship with her own flaws and failings.

'Yellowface' takes white privilege to a sinister level

William Morrow

'Yellowface' takes white privilege to a sinister level

May 15, 2023 • R.F. Kuang's first foray outside fantasy is a well-executed, gripping, fast-paced novel about the nuances of the publishing world when an author is desperate enough to do anything for success.

Victor LaValle's novel 'Lone Women' is infused with dread and horror — and more

One World

Victor LaValle's novel 'Lone Women' is infused with dread and horror — and more

May 12, 2023 • This is a wonderful novel that expertly combines adventure and terror, sprinkled with The Changeling author's mordant wit and assured prose. It is a horror novel, but it's also a refreshing western.

'The East Indian' imagines the life of the first Indian immigrant to now-U.S. land

Scribner

'The East Indian' imagines the life of the first Indian immigrant to now-U.S. land

May 11, 2023 • Brinda Charry aims to recover, reclaim, and reframe the little-known, barely footnoted history of the earliest Indian immigrant on record to what is now the United States.

Books We Love: Tales From Around The World

Books We Love: Tales From Around the World. Becky Harlan/NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Becky Harlan/NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Books We Love: Tales From Around The World

May 11, 2023 • Books can take you anywhere. Across oceans, across borders, to places you may have never seen. And those books are some of the ones that we treasure the most. Today we're recommending great books that take you around the world.

Books We Love: Tales From Around The World

Listen · 7:00 7:00

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174748107/1175195963" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

'Warrior Girl Unearthed' revisits the 'Firekeeper's Daughter' cast of characters

Henry Holt & Co.

'Warrior Girl Unearthed' revisits the 'Firekeeper's Daughter' cast of characters

May 10, 2023 • In this gripping follow-up to Angeline Boulley's much-lauded debut, we return to Sugar Island and meet the next generation of girls in the Firekeeper family.

When art you love was made by 'Monsters': A critic lays out the 'Fan's Dilemma'

Penguin Random House

When art you love was made by 'Monsters': A critic lays out the 'Fan's Dilemma'

Fresh Air

May 10, 2023 • Do geniuses get a "hall pass" for their behavior? Or, do we "cancel" the art of artists who've done "monstrous" things? That's the question Claire Dederer tackles in her new book.

When art you love was made by 'Monsters': A critic lays out the 'Fan's Dilemma'

Listen · 7:29 7:29

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174293359/1175261198" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

'Wild Dances' puts consequences of a long-ago, faraway conflict at center

Astra House

'Wild Dances' puts consequences of a long-ago, faraway conflict at center

May 9, 2023 • By ingeniously weaving improbable and conflicting forces that make up his personal history, Eurovision expert William Lee Adams affirms an idea of home that yearns to transcend space and time.

W. W. Norton & Company

'Red Memory' aims to profile people shaped by China's Cultural Revolution

May 8, 2023 • Tania Branigan, once China correspondent for the Guardian, makes the strongest English-language effort yet to reconstruct what it was like to live through, and then with, this part of Chinese history.

In BuzzFeed fashion, 5 takeaways from Ben Smith's 'Traffic'

Penguin Press

In BuzzFeed fashion, 5 takeaways from Ben Smith's 'Traffic'

May 7, 2023 • In his new book, the former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News lands on his promise to chronicle the rise of digital media through the story of a snowballing, head-to-head competition.

Back pain shouldn't stop you from cooking at home. Here's how to adapt

Kobus Louw/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Back pain shouldn't stop you from cooking at home. Here's how to adapt

May 7, 2023 • A new cookbook offers kitchen techniques that reduce physical exertion. It aims to make home cooking accessible again for those with chronic back pain.

Back pain shouldn't stop you from cooking at home. Here's how to adapt

Listen · 3:44 3:44

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174068930/1174468895" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

3 works in translation tell science-driven tales

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

3 works in translation tell science-driven tales

May 5, 2023 • AI may be the topic du jour, but for now only a human can read attentively and sensitively enough to genuinely recreate literature in a new language, as translators have done with these three works.

'Gone to the Wolves' masterfully portrays the heavy metal scene of the '80s and '90s

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

'Gone to the Wolves' masterfully portrays the heavy metal scene of the '80s and '90s

May 4, 2023 • John Wray's latest novel is a powerful and juicy story about a particular time, subculture, and the ways people can find themselves in — or can deliberately disappear into — fandom.

'Shy' follows the interior monologue of a troubled teen boy

Graywolf Press

'Shy' follows the interior monologue of a troubled teen boy

May 3, 2023 • Max Porter's compulsively readable primal scream of a novel offers a compassionate portrait of boy jerked around by uncontrollable mood swings that lead to self-sabotaging decisions.

'The Covenant of Water' tells the story of three generations in South India

Grove Press

'The Covenant of Water' tells the story of three generations in South India

May 2, 2023 • Much will be written about Abraham Verghese's latest novel in the coming months and years; it's a literary feat that deserves to be lauded as much as those of the likes of Dickens and Eliot.

Dennis Lehane's 'Small Mercies' is a crime thriller that spotlights rampant racism

Harper

Dennis Lehane's 'Small Mercies' is a crime thriller that spotlights rampant racism

April 28, 2023 • While set in Boston's Southie in 1974, the story is incredibly timely. It's at once a crime novel, an unflinching look at racism, and a heart-wrenching tale about a mother who has lost everything.

'We Are A Haunting' is a stunningly original, beautiful novel of devotion

Astra House

'We Are A Haunting' is a stunningly original, beautiful novel of devotion

April 27, 2023 • Tyriek White's debut novel is a triumph; it's a gorgeous book about loss and survival that gives and gives as it asks us what it means to be part of a family, of a community.

More from Book Reviews

Browse archive or search npr.org