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.
Special Series
The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books
This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.
British newspaper the Independent announced it will move to a digital-only format later this month. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption
Whither Bridget Jones? Britain's 'Independent' Newspaper Goes Digital
Author Helen Oyeyemi's new book reflects her fascination with keys. Manchul Kim hide caption
Children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who died in 2012, spent much of his life obsessed with death. In 2011 he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross: "There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready." Mary Altaffer/AP hide caption
It took a little over a year for Sara Baume's debut novel — about a troubled man who adopts a one-eyed dog — to go from being accepted for publication to being published. "I made the clay dogs to keep the thing alive for myself after it was finished, but before it was a book," she writes on her blog. Sara Baume hide caption
Left: Julia Ward Howe, pictured during her honeymoon in England. Right: Her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. He would soon prove controlling of every aspect of her life, including what she ate. The Yellow House Papers: The Laura E. Richards Collection, Gardiner Library Association and Maine Historical Society, Coll. 2085, RG10, F6; Samuel Gridley Howe, 1857. Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind Archives. hide caption
Bartender Sunny Balzano (left) transformed a longshoremen's bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn into a local institution. He's pictured above with Tim Sultan, who recounts Balzano's story in Sunny's Nights. Evan Sung hide caption
Longtime Brooklyn Bartender Who Inspired 'Sunny's Nights' Has Died
According to the U.S. Census, single adult women now outnumber married adult women in America. Oivind Hovland/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption
Single By Choice: Why Fewer American Women Are Married Than Ever Before
'The Ballad Of Black Tom' Offers A Tribute To And Critique Of Lovecraft
Marley Dias Andrea Cipriani Mecchi hide caption
Where's The Color In Kids' Lit? Ask The Girl With 1,000 Books (And Counting)
The Indecisive Chicken combines the recipes and life stories of eight women from communities across India who now live in Dharavi, a teeming Mumbai slum. Sarita Rai, from a village in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, contributed a recipe for pharas, "semi-circular pockets of rice dough" filled with chickpea flour, served steamed or deep-fried. Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks hide caption