Review Why Libraries Should Stock 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider' October 23, 2006 • When a student showed Alice McDermott a discarded library copy of Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider, stamped "Low Demand," McDermott felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. The title novella in this collection, McDermott says, exhibits "intelligence, wit, heartache, profundity and marvelous prose." Why Libraries Should Stock 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6184364/6369188" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Why Libraries Should Stock 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6184364/6369188" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Gwendolyn Brooks' Indispensable 'Maud Martha' October 10, 2006 • Gwendolyn Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who died in 2000, published only one work of fiction for adults: Maud Martha. Author Asali Solomon says Brooks tells this coming-of-age tale with "minimal drama and maximal beauty." Gwendolyn Brooks' Indispensable 'Maud Martha' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6197361/6243136" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Gwendolyn Brooks' Indispensable 'Maud Martha' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6197361/6243136" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Orwell on Writing: 'Clarity Is the Remedy' September 22, 2006 • Most people these days think of George Orwell as the author of high school reading staples Animal Farm and 1984. But author Lawrence Wright says that Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language," is the piece of writing to which he most often returns. Orwell on Writing: 'Clarity Is the Remedy' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6124822/6125346" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Orwell on Writing: 'Clarity Is the Remedy' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6124822/6125346" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review 'Middlemarch': Juvenile Pleasure, Grown-Up Insight September 7, 2006 • Don't take Francine Prose's word about George Eliot's novel Middlemarch. Virginia Woolf called it "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Eliot's book, says Prose, offers a "dizzying tour past the landmarks of adulthood." 'Middlemarch': Juvenile Pleasure, Grown-Up Insight Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5776481/5782606" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
'Middlemarch': Juvenile Pleasure, Grown-Up Insight Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5776481/5782606" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Review A History Both Global and Personal September 1, 2006 • Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes completes his four-book study of world history that began with The Age of Revolution in 1962. Author and historian Michael Kazin talks about its significance.
Review 'Fathers and Sons': A Ravishing Knockout of a Book August 23, 2006 • Author Gary Shteyngart says his favorite novel is Fathers and Sons. Ivan Turgenev's story of two young men and their families "explains just about everything you need to know about families, love, heartache, religion, duels and the institution of serfdom in 19th-century Russia." 'Fathers and Sons': A Ravishing Knockout of a Book Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5684676/5696880" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
'Fathers and Sons': A Ravishing Knockout of a Book Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5684676/5696880" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review The Funniest, and Scariest, Book Ever Written August 22, 2006 • Writer Charles Baxter offers praise for Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, which can be confusing, comical and harrowing. "Novels like The Third Policeman can sometimes throw readers into a panic," Baxter says. "They ask, 'What on earth is this?"
Review On Learning to Appreciate John Cheever's Stories August 17, 2006 • The California-based novelist T.C. Boyle originally thought John Cheever's short stories were "antiquated," when he read them as a young writer. He soon realized how wrong he was, growing to recognize the enduring beauty of Cheever's writing. On Learning to Appreciate John Cheever's Stories Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5652619/5664251" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
On Learning to Appreciate John Cheever's Stories Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5652619/5664251" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Seeing Flowers in a New Way, Through Loren Eiseley August 17, 2006 • Given his status as a political writer, Michael Lind may seem to come from left field with his must-read recommendation: Loren Eiseley's essay "How Flowers Changed the World," which takes an expansive view of botany's impact on humans. Eiseley, Lind says, is capable of cinematic constructs that are "breathtaking."
Review Hooked on the Most Important Food Writer Alive August 10, 2006 • Heat author Bill Buford finds "his McGee" indispensable — that is, Harold McGee's essential tome On Food and Cooking. "McGee is the most important person alive writing about food," Buford says. Hooked on the Most Important Food Writer Alive Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5634817/5634834" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Hooked on the Most Important Food Writer Alive Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5634817/5634834" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Admiring Oe's Talent for Discomfort August 3, 2006 • Victor Lavalle, the author of slapboxing with jesus, says Kenzaburo Oe's novella "Prize Stock" explores themes of racism and brutality while avoiding simplistic escapes: "It's not a story about right or wrong, democracy versus anarchy, and you can't pick out the good guys."
Review Breece D'J Pancake's Short, Stunning Career July 27, 2006 • Breece D'J Pancake took his own life in 1979, not long after The Atlantic Monthly published his first stories. He was 26. Author Susan Straight often shares his work with twentysomething students. She wants them "to heed the fullness of his fictional world... his anger and exact prose."
Review Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat' July 25, 2006 • Book critic Oscar Villalon offers his appreciation of Bill Buford's new memoir Heat. Inspired by Italian star chef Mario Batali, Buford experiences a trial by fire in the kitchen of one of New York's top restaurants. Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5526223/5581521" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5526223/5581521" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Jonathan Ames' Personal Hardboiled Hero July 20, 2006 • Author Jonathan Ames extols the virtues of Dashiell Hammett's hardboiled classic, The Dain Curse. "I started reading Hammett about a dozen years ago, after a long and enjoyable romance with Chandler," Ames says. "I return and reread both writers all the time."
Review Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise' July 18, 2006 • The real-life story behind Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise is a compelling one: the author's manuscript lay unread for years after her death at the Auschwitz camp. But Nemirovsky's writing, notes author Elizabeth Strout, can stand up to its own tragic provenance. Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5542557/5565974" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5542557/5565974" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
