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The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books This week: Meg Wolitzer's latest, Charles Frazier returns to the Civil War, the pressures of being the only black person in the room, a new Macbeth, and marriage-saving tips from a divorce lawyer.
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The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.
Backstage With Janis Joplin: Doubts, Drugs And Compassion

Janis Joplin Tucker Ransom/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Tucker Ransom/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Author Interviews

Backstage With Janis Joplin: Doubts, Drugs And Compassion

John Byrne Cooke was Janis Joplin's road manager from 1967 until her untimely death in 1970. So he saw a lot of rock history up close — and describes some of the details in a new memoir.

Backstage With Janis Joplin: Doubts, Drugs And Compassion

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Chicken Confidential: How This Bird Came To Rule The Cultural Roost

Free-range chickens stand in a pen at an organic-accredited poultry farm in Germany. Joern Pollex/Getty Images hide caption

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Joern Pollex/Getty Images

The Salt

Chicken Confidential: How This Bird Came To Rule The Cultural Roost

Andrew Lawler's Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? explores the secret to the domesticated bird's success: "You can turn the chicken into almost anything," he says, from religious symbol to dinner.

Chicken Confidential: How This Bird Came To Rule The Cultural Roost

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After The Ferguson Decision, A Poem That Gives Name To The Hurt

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Review

This Week's Must Read

After The Ferguson Decision, A Poem That Gives Name To The Hurt

This week, a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown. Writer Syreeta McFadden turns to Audre Lorde's poetry to make sense of this decision.

After The Ferguson Decision, A Poem That Gives Name To The Hurt

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How 'The Hot Zone' Got It Wrong And Other Tales Of Ebola's History

David Quammen's new book is an extended excerpt of his previous one, Spillover, which explored how dangerous pathogens jump from animals to people. Courtesy of David Quammen hide caption

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Courtesy of David Quammen

Goats and Soda

How 'The Hot Zone' Got It Wrong And Other Tales Of Ebola's History

Do people with Ebola actually cry tears of blood? What happens if the U.S. Army thinks you might have Ebola? We catch up with science writer David Quammen to discuss truths and myths about the virus.

43 On 41: A President Traces The Life Of His Father

Former President George W. Bush (right) and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, wave as they leave a family wedding in Washington, D.C., in May 2006. Normand Blouin-Pool/Getty Images hide caption

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Normand Blouin-Pool/Getty Images

Author Interviews

43 On 41: A President Traces The Life Of His Father

Former President George W. Bush sits down with host David Greene to discuss his new book, 41, a biography of his father and fellow former President George H.W. Bush.

43 On 41: A President Traces The Life Of His Father

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These Bookish Millennials Make Memes Worth Reading Into
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New Boom

These Bookish Millennials Make Memes Worth Reading Into

Vermont Public Radio

From a spoof of Kanye West's "Bound 2" (called "Hardcover Bound 2") to click-bait classic novel titles, millennials are proving that smart content and Internet frippery aren't mutually exclusive.

These Bookish Millennials Make Memes Worth Reading Into

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If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off

In Mallory Ortberg's modern retelling of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Miss Havisham texts wedding dress photos from a blocked number. Madeline Gobbo/Courtesy of Henry Holt & Company hide caption

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Madeline Gobbo/Courtesy of Henry Holt & Company

Book News & Features

If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off

Texts from Jane Eyre imagines a Mr. Rochester who worries over his "attic wife" and a super flirty Scarlett O'Hara: "did you know that pantalets are out this year[?] that's why I'm not wearing any :)"

If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off

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For Political Junkies, A (Literary) Post-Election Fix

Review

This Week's Must Read

For Political Junkies, A (Literary) Post-Election Fix

Post-elections, Molly Antopol and Jason Sheehan reflect on the results by turning to their favorite political books, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

For Political Junkies, A (Literary) Post-Election Fix

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A French Best-Seller's Radical Argument: Vichy Regime Wasn't All Bad

Philippe Petain, head of the French World War II collaborationist government in Vichy, greets French prisoners arriving from Germany in 1941. AP hide caption

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Book News & Features

A French Best-Seller's Radical Argument: Vichy Regime Wasn't All Bad

In French Suicide, conservative journalist Eric Zemmour argues that if the country wants to reverse its decline, it must cut through its complex about the collaborationist World War II government.

A French Best-Seller's Radical Argument: Vichy Regime Wasn't All Bad

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After 'Fifty Shades,' Could This Be The Next Big Online Hit?
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Book News & Features

After 'Fifty Shades,' Could This Be The Next Big Online Hit?

After is an epic, erotic fan fiction loosely based on the British boy band One Direction. It's being republished by Simon & Schuster, which is hoping the story's online fans will buy it in book form.

After 'Fifty Shades,' Could This Be The Next Big Online Hit?

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Like It Or Not, Architect Le Corbusier's Urban Designs Are Everywhere

According to biographer Anthony Flint, Le Corbusier (seen here in an undated photo) once proposed razing Paris' historic Marais neighborhood in order to give the dilapidated district a fresh start. AP hide caption

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Author Interviews

Like It Or Not, Architect Le Corbusier's Urban Designs Are Everywhere

"He's blamed for urban renewal ... urban freeways, even countless suburban office parks," says Anthony Flint, author of the new Le Corbusier biography Modern Man.

Like It Or Not, Architect Le Corbusier's Urban Designs Are Everywhere

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'Comedy Is Extraordinarily Difficult': John Cleese On Being Funny

John Cleese got his first big break in London's West End and as a script writer and performer on The Frost Report. Andy Gotts/Courtesy of Crown Publishing hide caption

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Andy Gotts/Courtesy of Crown Publishing

Author Interviews

'Comedy Is Extraordinarily Difficult': John Cleese On Being Funny

John Cleese of Monty Python fame has written a memoir, So, Anyway ... , which brings him from boyhood in a quiet British town called Weston to the footlights of London and screens all over the world.

'Comedy Is Extraordinarily Difficult': John Cleese On Being Funny

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Reviving A Grand Tradition Of 'Black Prophetic Fire'

Professor and author Cornel West in 2008. Richard Alan Hannon/Getty Images hide caption

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Author Interviews

Reviving A Grand Tradition Of 'Black Prophetic Fire'

African-American philosopher Cornel West's new book laments the decline of "prophetic" black leadership, lifting up examples of people who were willing to risk their lives in the service of the truth.

Reviving A Grand Tradition Of 'Black Prophetic Fire'

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A Candid Memoir From Comedian Amy Poehler? 'Yes Please'

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation, which will air its final season next year. Poehler says, "It's a privilege in television to be able to have a proper goodbye." Colleen Hayes/NBC hide caption

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Colleen Hayes/NBC

Author Interviews

A Candid Memoir From Comedian Amy Poehler? 'Yes Please'

Fresh Air

Poehler joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about fighting the body image "demon," being a "world-class snooper" and how she was once told that she had a "great face for wigs."

A Candid Memoir From Comedian Amy Poehler? 'Yes Please'

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75 Years Of 'Colossal Poets' And Live Literature At NYC's 92nd Street Y

W.H. Auden at the 92nd Street Y Poetry Center in 1966. Diane Dorr-Dorynek/Courtesy of the 92nd Street Y hide caption

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Diane Dorr-Dorynek/Courtesy of the 92nd Street Y

Book News & Features

75 Years Of 'Colossal Poets' And Live Literature At NYC's 92nd Street Y

Writer Cynthia Ozick attended readings at the Y in the 1950s. "You saw these icons standing in a blaze of brilliant spotlight," she says, "and you felt that you were at the crux of all civilization."

75 Years Of 'Colossal Poets' And Live Literature At NYC's 92nd Street Y

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