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.

The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books

This week: Meg Wolitzer, Charles Frazier, Jo Nesbo, Nafissa Thompson-Spires and James Sexton.

Books

Illustrator Fills In Photographer's Tale Of War

June 27, 2009 • The Photographer is an unusual graphic novel that combines photos and illustrations to tell the story of a photojournalist's harrowing trip to Afghanistan with a medical team from Doctors Without Borders.

Illustrator Fills In Photographer's Tale Of War

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Book Reviews

Hilarious Strut Through Badlands Of Race And Class

June 26, 2009 • A delicious comedy of miscommunication, Percival Everett's I Am Not Sidney Poitier takes on racism and its absurdities. It's a freewheeling coming-of-age, and one of the funniest, most original stories to be published in years.

Critics' Lists: Summer '09

Summer Nonfiction: True Tales Enlighten, Delight

June 24, 2009 • Nonfiction can be every bit as exhilarating and illuminating as novels. You just have to pick the right books. Here, then, are five works of history, journalism and biography that will shock, inform and delight.

Books

Meditations, Digressions, From A Crossword Addict

June 23, 2009 • Though crossword advocates sometimes credit the puzzles with staving off dementia, former NPR arts and culture correspondent — and longtime puzzler — Dean Olsher says it's more honest to think of them as a habit, like smoking.

Meditations, Digressions, From A Crossword Addict

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The 'Mad' Art Of Comic Harvey Kurtzman

June 22, 2009 • Retrace the strands that led to a lot of current American satire — including The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show — and sooner or later you end up at Harvey Kurtzman.

The 'Mad' Art Of Comic Harvey Kurtzman

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Critics' Lists: Summer '09

Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks Summer's Best Books

June 19, 2009 • Looking to cozy up with some good books? Librarian Nancy Pearl has some great suggestions. Her list includes a somber, genre-defying graphic novel about Doctors Without Borders volunteers, and a whimsical first novel about a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fan.

Librarian Nancy Pearl Picks Summer's Best Books

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Nominations: Best Beach Books Of All Time

June 18, 2009 • NPR is drawing up a list of the best beach books ever, and we need you to help by nominating your favorite summer reads.

Review

Three Books...

Books To Keep You Sane On A Family Road Trip

June 17, 2009 • Being in a car with your immediate family for hours on end can make even the most levelheaded traveler consider jumping out the window. Author Sarah Dessen has some reading suggestions for staying safe — and sane — on the highway.

Books To Keep You Sane On A Family Road Trip

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Forecast: High Anxiety, Increasing Laughter

June 16, 2009 • With a bride on her wedding day and an ex-boyfriend lurking among a houseful of eccentric guests, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding seems set on a predictable track. But Julia Strachey's frenetic, screwball novel has some twists in store.

Books

What People Were Reading During The Depression

Fresh Air

June 15, 2009 • What can old issues of Publishers Weekly tell us about reading habits in dire economic times? Maureen Corrigan cracks open some of the magazine's 1933 issues and learns that readers today aren't so different from our Depression-era brethren.

What People Were Reading During The Depression

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Three Books...

No Such Thing As Witty Women? Think Again

June 15, 2009 • Think women aren't funny? Lynn Harris recommends three books by famous funny ladies Dolly Parton, Lucille Ball and Carrie Fisher that will force you to think again.

Books

Regional Dictionary Tracks The Funny Things We Say

June 14, 2009 • The Dictionary of American Regional English is a multivolume collection of the nation's linguistic treasures — from pipjennies to mumble squibbles. Now, five decades after its inception, the final volume, containing words S to Z, is almost ready to be published.

Regional Dictionary Tracks The Funny Things We Say

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Critics' Lists: Summer '09

Independent Booksellers Pick Summer's Best Reads

June 11, 2009 • Your reading this summer may involve brushing the sand off page five — or firing up your Kindle. However you do it, we have some reading suggestions for you, straight from independent booksellers around the country.

Independent Booksellers Pick Summer's Best Reads

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Three Books...

Buck Up: Life Lessons From Young Heroines

June 10, 2009 • When the stock market crashed, writer Lizzie Skurnick turned to her childhood bookcase, where she found a bunch of girls who learned to survive life's downsizing. Here are three heroines whose belt-tightening serves as great advice.

Buck Up: Life Lessons From Young Heroines

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Book Reviews

Hungry For Love? Two Food Memoirs Satisfy

June 10, 2009 • A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, and I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci present appealing memoirs by authors who handle tribulations with grace — and manage to get dinner on the table, too.