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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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Special Series

The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.
Heaney's Poems — Great, Dangerous, Healing — Live On

Poet Seamus Heaney, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1995, is seen here in a file photo from 1991, when he was a professor at Harvard. Heaney has died at age 74. Joe Wrinn/AP hide caption

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Joe Wrinn/AP

The Two-Way

Heaney's Poems — Great, Dangerous, Healing — Live On

The Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney died this morning in Dublin at the age of 74. In a remembrance, poet and critic Craig Morgan Teicher writes that Heaney had mastered sound and nuance, crafting poems you can taste and feel, alive and powerful, as you speak them aloud.

Awaiting The Apocalypse In The Quiet Town Of Concord

The view down Main Street in Concord, N.H., reflects the community's small-town feel. Author Ben Winters doesn't live in Concord, but he sets his mystery novels there — he says the city's peaceful, unpretentious atmosphere makes it an appealing setting. Michel Gagnon/Flickr hide caption

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Michel Gagnon/Flickr

Awaiting The Apocalypse In The Quiet Town Of Concord

Ben Winters' mystery novels are set in the capital of New Hampshire, a community hardly known for its crime or intrigue. The twist? In his books, the planet is about to be hit by an asteroid, and everyone knows they're soon going to die. Amid the chaos, one Concord cop fights for law and order.

Awaiting The Apocalypse In The Quiet Town Of Concord

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Elmore Leonard, The 'Dickens Of Detroit,' Dies At 87

In his home library, Leonard kept copies of every book he'd ever written. Paul Sancya/AP hide caption

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Paul Sancya/AP

Elmore Leonard, The 'Dickens Of Detroit,' Dies At 87

Legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard published 46 novels, including Get Shorty and Out of Sight. His works were adapted countless times for film and TV. Noah Adams remembers the man whose advice to other writers was "try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."

Elmore Leonard, The 'Dickens Of Detroit,' Dies At 87

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For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging

The Tyson Library in Ludlow, Vt., is required to support itself independently; public libraries in Vermont receive no state funding. Neda Ulaby/NPR hide caption

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Keys To The Whole World: American Public Libraries

For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging

Most Americans say public libraries are important to the community — but eight states don't actually support them. Texas has cut budgets drastically; in Vermont, local librarians must go hand in hand to town meetings every year. Neda Ulaby reports on the landscape of library funding across the U.S.

For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging

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Fans Are Like Friends To 'Reigning Queen' Of Women's Fiction

Debbie Macomber's latest book is Rose Harbor in Bloom. Deborah Feingold hide caption

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Deborah Feingold

Fans Are Like Friends To 'Reigning Queen' Of Women's Fiction

Debbie Macomber's books don't get a lot of critical attention, but they've sold in the hundreds of millions. Her fans feel like they know and love the woman behind the words, so her publisher threw a party for them.

Fans Are Like Friends To 'Reigning Queen' Of Women's Fiction

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'Good Lord Bird' Gives Abolitionist Heroes Novel Treatment

'Good Lord Bird' Gives Abolitionist Heroes Novel Treatment

In 1857, John Brown liberates 12-year-old Henry from his master. There's only one problem: Brown is so wrapped up in his freedom mission, he thinks Henry is a girl. James McBride delivers a portrait of Brown and his friend Frederick Douglass as Henry sees them.

'Good Lord Bird' Gives Abolitionist Heroes Novel Treatment

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In 'Alphabet' Mysteries, 'S' Is Really For Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse, a Spanish-Moorish landmark, was built in 1929. Anna Fox (harshlight)/Flickr hide caption

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Anna Fox (harshlight)/Flickr

Crime In The City

In 'Alphabet' Mysteries, 'S' Is Really For Santa Barbara

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is one of the most well-known characters in modern crime fiction, but there's another star in Sue Grafton's thrillers: the fictional city of Santa Teresa, based on Santa Barbara, Calif.

In 'Alphabet' Mysteries, 'S' Is Really For Santa Barbara

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Behind 'The New Black': The Real Piper's Prison Story

Taylor Schilling plays Piper in Netflix's Orange Is the New Black, which is based on Piper Kerman's memoir of her year in prison. Jessica Miglio/Netflix hide caption

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Jessica Miglio/Netflix

Author Interviews

Behind 'The New Black': The Real Piper's Prison Story

Fresh Air

When she was 24, Piper Kerman dated a woman who was part of a drug smuggling ring. Years later, after being named as part of that ring, Kerman served time in a federal prison and at one point shared a cell with her former girlfriend. Her memoir of that experience inspired the Netflix series.

Behind 'The New Black': The Real Piper's Prison Story

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'Books On Bikes' Helps Seattle Librarians Pedal To The Masses

Farmers market visitors browse the offerings of Seattle Public Library's "Books on Bikes" program. Gabriel Spitzer for NPR hide caption

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Gabriel Spitzer for NPR

Books

'Books On Bikes' Helps Seattle Librarians Pedal To The Masses

KNKX Public Radio

Imagine a library small enough to be towed by a bicycle; on that bike is a librarian who can check your books out, answer research questions and even issue a library card. The Seattle Public Library is experimenting with a program that does just that.

'Books On Bikes' Helps Seattle Librarians Pedal To The Masses

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Contested Memories Find Common Ground In 'The Storied South'

Author Interviews

Contested Memories Find Common Ground In 'The Storied South'

The Storied South is a new book by folklorist William Ferris, collecting 40 years worth of oral histories from Southern writers and artists. Ferris tells NPR's Celeste Headlee that the book was a way of getting everyone from Eudora Welty to Bobby Rush to a "common table of conversation."

Contested Memories Find Common Ground In 'The Storied South'

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Libraries' Leading Roles: On Stage, On Screen And In Song

Poor Donna Reed: Her Mary would have ended up working in a library — shudder — if not for the matrimonial intervention of Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey. Happily, 1946's It's a Wonderful Life isn't the only lens through which pop culture assesses the worth of the institution and those who make it tick. RKO Pictures/Getty Images hide caption

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RKO Pictures/Getty Images

Keys To The Whole World: American Public Libraries

Libraries' Leading Roles: On Stage, On Screen And In Song

In the latest installment of our library series, NPR's Bob Mondello visits some notable libraries in popular culture: Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel; Lucien's Library in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman; and the stacks in Buffy, Hogwarts, Doctor Who and Fahrenheit 451.

Libraries' Leading Roles: On Stage, On Screen And In Song

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Exclusive First Read: Marisha Pessl's 'Night Film'

First Reads

Exclusive First Read: Marisha Pessl's 'Night Film'

In Marisha Pessl's dark, cinematic new novel Night Film, a disgraced journalist takes on a mysterious filmmaker who seems to be a hybrid of Roman Polanski and Dario Argento. It's an over-the-top summer mystery, full of twisty plotting and cinematic imagery.

Exclusive First Read: Marisha Pessl's 'Night Film'

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