memoir : NPR

Book covers of The Fate of the Day, Ginseng Roots, Girl on Girl, Questions Without Answers, The Sea Gives Up the Dead, The Secret Life of a Cemetery

NPR

There's some Revolutionary reading coming your way this week

April 29, 2025 • The second volume in Pulitzer-winning historian Rick Atkinson's planned trilogy on the American Revolution publishes Tuesday. Plus a graphic memoir, short fiction, and "the secret life" of a cemetery.

NPR

Review

This Hollywood memoir is an expertly mixed cocktail of history and family drama

April 28, 2025 • Matthew Specktor grew up the son of a famous Hollywood agent. In The Golden Hour he serves up family saga, cultural criticism, fictionalized biography, history and lament for a vanishing world.

This Hollywood memoir is an expertly mixed cocktail of history and family drama

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The Secret Life of a Cemetery: The Wild Nature and Enchanting Lore of Père-Lachaise

Greystone Books

Review

What connects Fredéric Chopin, Marcel Proust and Jim Morrison? A final resting place

April 28, 2025 • The Secret Life of a Cemetery is a paean to the renowned Parisian cemetery, Père Lachaise. There, 10,000 visitors a day seek the graves of some 4,500 notable figures.

Knopf

Review

Joan Didion leaves one more piece of writing to faithful fans

April 22, 2025 • Didion's book is an intimate chronicle of the author's struggle to help her daughter, even if it meant digging into her own long-unexamined neuroses.

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Daniel Speer

Josh Gad

April 15, 2025 • Josh Gad joins us to talk about his new memoir In Gad We Trust: A Tell Some. He also gets into what life was like growing up in South Florida, the one time he refuses to use his Olaf voice and winning three national titles in teen oratory competitions.

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St. Martin's Press

'Buffy' podcasters built a community — and they didn't let divorce break it

April 13, 2025 • Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcasters Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo write about their community of fans, and how it help them keep working together after a split, in Slayers, Every One of Us.

All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman, The Antidote by Karen Russell, Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, and The Story of Witches by Willow Winsham

NPR

New books this week: A foodie memoir, a missing child, witches illustrated, and more

March 11, 2025 • Care and Feeding chronicles life in the culinary world. All the Other Mothers Hate Me follows a mom turned amateur detective. Plus, Karen Russell's first full-length novel since Swamplandia!

Hanif Kureishi says his fall in 2022 didn't rob him of his ability to function or be creative: "In fact, I'm writing more now." Kier Kureishi/Harper Collins hide caption

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Kier Kureishi/Harper Collins

A fall 'Shattered' Hanif Kureishi's life. Dictating his new book gave him purpose

March 3, 2025 • Kureishi began his new memoir just days after a fall left him paralyzed. In it, he describes being completely dependent on others — and the sense of purpose he's gained from writing.

A fall 'Shattered' Hanif Kureishi's life. Dictating his new book gave him purpose

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Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields, In Gad We Trust by Josh Gad, I'll Have What She's Having by Chelsea Handler, I'm That Girl by Jordan Chiles, Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over by Michael Caine, Matriarch by Tina Knowles, Uptown Girl by Christie Brinkley, The Art of Winning by Bill Belichick, Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze, Karen by Kelsey Grammer, We All Want to Change the World by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld, Uncommon Fever by Dawn Staley, and Lionel Ritchie's memoir, as yet untitled.

NPR

What's it like to be famous? These 13 new celebrity memoirs may clue you in

February 23, 2025 • This year brings memoirs from more than a dozen famous names — from Brooke Shields and Dawn Staley to Bill Belichick and Lionel Ritchie.

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Penguin Random House

Review

Tony Horwitz's widow Geraldine Brooks writes a beautiful memoir of grief

February 18, 2025 • Horwitz died suddenly in 2019 while on a book tour. In Memorial Days, Geraldine Brooks grieves her husband — and also reflects on the life she might have lived had they not met.

Tony Horwitz's widow Geraldine Brooks writes a beautiful memoir of grief

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Buda Mendes/Getty Images

5 things we learn about Pope Francis from his new memoir

January 14, 2025 • In Pope Francis' autobiography Hope he reiterates themes of his papacy like hatred of war and unchecked capitalism, and a desire for the Catholic Church to be seen as a field hospital, not a fortress.

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Mehmet Kaman/Anadolu

Author Interviews

Angela Merkel and the future of NATO under a second Trump term

November 26, 2024 • Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she had to consider whether she is a "feminist." She joined NPR's Mary Louise Kelly to discuss her new memoir, Freedom.

Angela Merkel and the future of NATO under a second Trump term

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John Russo

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Eve

September 17, 2024 • Eve is an icon in hip-hop, a west Philly rapper whose flow, style and production helped define the genre in the early 2000s. She's released three incredible albums–all of which reached either gold or platinum–and stands out as the first lady of rap collective The Ruff Ryders. Eve covers it all in her new memoir, Who's that Girl?. It's about Eve's journey in hip-hop, acting, motherhood, and mental health. We talk all about it and so much more on Bullseye.

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Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images; Adam Bettcher/Getty Images; Phil Walter/Getty Images

July 14, 2024 • Whoopi Goldberg is an icon of entertainment. She's played many roles in Hollywood, and she has perhaps been most inspirational for the way she has shown up as herself. But before the acclaim, Whoopi Goldberg was known as Caryn Johnson and in her own words, "A little bit different.. and out there."

The Sunday Story: The love that shaped Whoopi Goldberg

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Tuesday April 29, 2025

Monday April 28, 2025

Review

This Hollywood memoir is an expertly mixed cocktail of history and family drama

Review

Tuesday April 22, 2025

Review

Tuesday April 15, 2025

Listen to this Episode

Sunday April 13, 2025

Tuesday March 11, 2025

Monday March 3, 2025

A fall 'Shattered' Hanif Kureishi's life. Dictating his new book gave him purpose

Sunday February 23, 2025

Tuesday February 18, 2025

Review

Tony Horwitz's widow Geraldine Brooks writes a beautiful memoir of grief

Tuesday January 14, 2025

Tuesday November 26, 2024

Angela Merkel and the future of NATO under a second Trump term

Tuesday September 17, 2024

Listen to this Episode

Friday September 6, 2024

Sunday July 14, 2024

The Sunday Story: The love that shaped Whoopi Goldberg