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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.
Hooray For YA: Teen Novels For Readers Of All Ages
Chris Silas Neal

Critics' Lists: Summer 2011

Hooray For YA: Teen Novels For Readers Of All Ages

A good novel doesn't just transcend the boundaries of its target market — it knows nothing about target markets. Julianna Baggott recommends five "young adult" novels that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Hooray For YA: Teen Novels For Readers Of All Ages

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Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With The Wind' Turns 75

Margaret Mitchell, pictured above in 1941, started writing while recovering from an ankle injury in 1926. She had read her way through most of Atlanta's Carnegie Library, so her husband brought home a typewriter and said: "Write your own book to amuse yourself." The result was Gone with the Wind. Al Aumuller/Telegram & Sun/Library of Congress hide caption

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Al Aumuller/Telegram & Sun/Library of Congress

Books

Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With The Wind' Turns 75

Gone with the Wind sold one million copies in its first six months, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and brought an explosion of unexpected, unwished-for celebrity to its author. NPR's Susan Stamberg visits the tiny Atlanta apartment where Mitchell wrote the famous novel 75 years ago.

Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone With The Wind' Turns 75

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Isolation Proves Dangerous On 'Rat Island'

Author Interviews

Isolation Proves Dangerous On 'Rat Island'

For years, the New Zealand kakapo had no need to fly — the bird's only predators were in the sky — but then came human settlers and, with them, an invasive weasel-like predator. Author William Stolzenburg explores exotic island species' vulnerability to newcomers in Rat Island.

Isolation Proves Dangerous On 'Rat Island'

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How Industrial Farming 'Destroyed' The Tasty Tomato
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Fresh Food

How Industrial Farming 'Destroyed' The Tasty Tomato

Fresh Air

In his new book, Tomatoland, food writer Barry Estabrook details the life of the mass-produced tomato — and the environmental and human costs of the tomato industry. Today's tomatoes, he says, are bred for shipping and not for taste.

How Industrial Farming 'Destroyed' The Tasty Tomato

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'Untold Story': What If Princess Diana Had Survived?

Princess Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997, in a Paris car crash while trying to avoid paparazzi. Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

Author Interviews

'Untold Story': What If Princess Diana Had Survived?

In Untold Story, writer Monica Ali imagines what might have happened if Princess Diana had survived that 1997 car crash in Paris — and then gone on to fake her own death.

'Untold Story': What If Princess Diana Had Survived?

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Josh Ritter: First A Songwriter, Now A Novelist

Josh Ritter is a singer-songwriter who has released six albums. Bright's Passage is his first novel. Marcelo Biglia/ hide caption

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Marcelo Biglia/

Author Interviews

Josh Ritter: First A Songwriter, Now A Novelist

In Josh Ritter's first novel, Bright's Passage, a World War I soldier goes home to West Virginia and must protect himself and his infant son. The book contains Ritter's trademark combination of humor, gothic themes and fantastical imagery (an angel who inhabits the body of a horse).

Josh Ritter: First A Songwriter, Now A Novelist

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Nancy Pearl Presents 10 Terrific Summer Reads
Chris Silas Neal

Opinion

Critics' Lists: Summer 2011

Nancy Pearl Presents 10 Terrific Summer Reads

The librarian extraordinaire sorts through the piles of books in her office and comes up with 10 captivating tales. With strong narrative voices and wonderfully drawn characters, these books will make you stop and savor the story.

Nancy Pearl Presents 10 Terrific Summer Reads

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'That's How' Illustrator Christoph Niemann Explains It All

A creation of Christoph Niemann's. Christoph Neimann/Greenwillow Books hide caption

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Christoph Neimann/Greenwillow Books

Author Interviews

'That's How' Illustrator Christoph Niemann Explains It All

Fresh Air

Illustrator Christoph Niemann's work ranges from whimsical children's books to poignant cover art for The New Yorker, but he's not interested in ending up in a museum. "I get a much bigger kick out of having my image seen like a million times for like 20 seconds," he says.

'That's How' Christoph Niemann Explains It All

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'Death And After In Iraq': Memoir Of A Mortuary

The Impact of War

'Death And After In Iraq': Memoir Of A Mortuary

Fresh Air

Marine Jess Goodell spent eight months recovering and processing the remains of fallen troops in the Mortuary Affairs unit. "I don't think I ever stopped smelling death when I was in Iraq," she says.

'Death And After In Iraq': Memoir Of A Mortuary

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'You Think That's Bad': Fiction Of The Unfamiliar

Author Interviews

'You Think That's Bad': Fiction Of The Unfamiliar

Fresh Air

Jim Shepard writes what he knows, but he also likes to write what he doesn't know. "I think literature is, in some ways, about the exercise of the empathetic imagination," Shepard says. "I'm always interested in stretching that capacity." You Think That's Bad is his latest collection of short stories.

'You Think That's Bad': Fiction Of The Unfamiliar

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Hidden Gems And 'Killer Stuff': A Flea Market How-To

Hidden Treasure How-To: Maureen Stanton offers 10 tips for finding valuable antiques and hidden flea market gems. Click here to see her suggestions. iStockphoto.com hide caption

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iStockphoto.com

Author Interviews

Hidden Gems And 'Killer Stuff': A Flea Market How-To

You've got to get up early — before dawn, even — to really make a killing at a flea market. So says Maureen Stanton, whose new book explores the subculture. It's called Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America.

Hidden Gems And 'Killer Stuff': A Flea Market How-To

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Sympathy For The 'Demon Fish'

A great white shark swims in Shark Alley near Dyer Islandin Gansbaai, South Africa. Ryan Pierse/Getty Images hide caption

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Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Books

Sympathy For The 'Demon Fish'

Author Juliet Eilperin says that while sharks are efficient, relentless killers, humanity's fear of the animals at the top of the ocean's food chain is overblown. "They're incredibly good at what they do," she says, but "they're not targeting us."

Sympathy For The 'Demon Fish'

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Tweeting 'Ulysses': Fans Put A Twist On Bloomsday

Irish author James Joyce, seen here in 1931. AP hide caption

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AP

Books

Tweeting 'Ulysses': Fans Put A Twist On Bloomsday

Today is Bloomsday, the annual celebration of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. The book details an epic day in the life of Leopold Bloom, on June 16, 1904. This year, the commemorations include Twitter, where Joyce fans turned the novel into tweets.

Tweeting 'Ulysses': Fans Put A Twist On Bloomsday

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Five Tips For Making Travel Meaningful

Clouds move over the Potala Palace in Tibet's Lhasa prefecture. Feng Li/Getty Images hide caption

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Feng Li/Getty Images

Opinion

Author Interviews

Five Tips For Making Travel Meaningful

Few know more about the art of travel than acclaimed writers Paul Theroux and Pico Iyer, who have a combined six decades of experience chronicling their adventures around the world. Theroux and Iyer share their tips for being a traveler rather than a tourist.

Five Tips For Making Travel Meaningful

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