Reader's Notebook: Change Is in the Air at the E. B. White Farm
Discovering the author’s home in Maine, where he wrote “Charlotte’s Web” and heard those darn crickets.
Addiction Is A Family Affair In 'Mayhem'
Sigrid Rausing is heir to a packaging fortune and a global philanthropist, but her new memoir describes a painfully ordinary family tragedy: her sister-in-law's drug addiction, struggle and death.
(Image credit: Christina Ascani/NPR)
People And Animals, 'Falling And Flying,' Make For A Hypnotic Read
Ben Loory's new story collection is dreamlike in the best way: both cheerfully surreal and cosmically unsettling, full of lovelorn cephalopods, discontented sloths and the occasional darker touch.
(Image credit: Christina Ascani/NPR)
Nonfiction: What the Greek Myths Teach Us About Anger in Troubled Times
In “Enraged,” Emily Katz Anhalt shows how the earliest works of Western literature questioned the values of the society that produced it.
By the Book: Nicole Krauss: By the Book
The author of “Great House,” “The History of Love” and, most recently, “Forest Dark” prefers to read classic novels on the plane: “Twelve hours in economy is not the moment to gamble on a book.”
John le Carré’s ‘A Legacy of Spies’: An Excerpt
George Smiley returns in this coda to le Carré’s classic, “The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.”
Book News: Boys Puberty Book is Pulped After Aging Badly
A passage about breasts in “Growing Up for Boys” leads to some awkward conversations for a British publisher.
Fiery And Nuanced, 'Tales Of Two Americas' Sheds Light On Economic Inequality
This collection of essays, poems, and short stories — edited by John Freeman — makes for a gripping and intensely personal examination of inequality, transience and displacement in America.
(Image credit: Penguin Group USA)
'The World Of Tomorrow' Is A Huge Story, Told Intimately
Brendan Mathew's The World of Tomorrow follows three Irish brothers having the best (or the worst) week of their lives, in 1939 New York. It's a serious literary novel, but full of madcap flourishes.
(Image credit: Christina Ascani/NPR)
Nonfiction: In Praise of the Black Men and Women Who Built Detroit
In ‘Black Detroit,’ Herb Boyd celebrates the city’s rich history through its unsung heroes.
Nonfiction: Mikhail Gorbachev Brought Democracy to Russia and Was Despised for It
William Taubman’s definitive new biography, “Gorbachev,” describes a leader who was celebrated abroad, reviled at home.
Otherworldly: The Latest in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Novels, graphic and otherwise, about the world at war, life with no future and imagined universes.
'Sing' Mourns The Dead, Both Buried And Unburied
Jesmyn Ward's lush and lonely new novel is set amid the mud, blood and heat of Mississippi. It's a road-trip odyssey complicated by hunger, sickness and the murderous racism that infects the town.
(Image credit: Christina Ascani/NPR)
Life in a Police State, Through the Searing Story of a Refugee’s Disappearance
In “A Disappearance in Damascus,” the journalist Deborah Campbell searches for her guide, an Iraqi refugee.
Fiction: ‘A Kind of Freedom’ Follows Three Generations of a Black Family in New Orleans
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s luminous debut novel has the disenchanting optimism of the blues.
'Blood, Sweat, And Pixels': For Designers Of Video Games, It's Always Crunch Time
Journalist Jason Schreier walks readers through the development of 10 recent games, finding marked similarities in the essential infrastructure of their design and production.
(Image credit: Christina Ascani/NPR)
Children’s Books: Picture Books That Remind Children — and Grown-Ups — What Real-Life Friendship Looks Like
For real, true friends, there are sweet spots, rough spots and true connection — beyond clicks and tweets.
Fiction: ‘Class Mom’ Casts a Satirical Lens on So-Called Perfect Parents
Laurie Gelman’s debut novel, “Class Mom,” is told from the comically cynical point of view of a former ’90s wild child turned suburban mother.
Nonfiction: Fake News: It’s as American as George Washington’s Cherry Tree
Kurt Andersen’s “Fantasyland” argues that alternative facts are baked into the American character.
Children’s Books: A Talking Tree, 200 Years Old and Fed Up With Intolerance
In her new novel, “Wishtree,” Katherine Applegate channels the natural world to take on prejudice against immigrants.
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