'This Great Hemisphere' tackles racism, classism, and political power struggles
Mateo Askaripour's sophomore novel is a sprawling speculative-fiction narrative that delivers a heartwarming story about a young woman learning to navigate the world.
This absorbing debut novel about writing takes its cue from 'Mrs. Dalloway'
Rosalind Brown's debut novel, Practice, centers on an undergraduate student trying to write an essay on Shakespeare. Along the way, we are treated to the fleeting insights of the the brain at work.
Simmering over summer books
We're at the peak of summer, which means sunny days on the grass with a good book! Best-selling authors Tia Williams and Jean Chen Ho join host Brittany Luse to give their recommendations for great summer reads. They also offer some armchair theories on why we love a gossipy summer novel.
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Guest by Emma Klein
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong
Hip-Hop Is History by Questlove with Ben Greenman
Devil is Fine by John Vercher
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Want to be featured on IBAM? Record a voice memo responding to Brittany's question at the end of the episode and send it to ibam@npr.org.
'State of Paradise' effortlessly blends the commonplace and the extraordinary
With exquisite prose, smart lines on every page, a building sense of growing strangeness tinged with dread, and surprises all the way to the end, this might be Laura van den Berg's best novel so far.
In 'Timid,' there is bravery under the surface
Many assume that timidity -- or its close cousin, shyness -- is solely a negative trait. But longtime cartoonist Jonathan Todd shows this is not always the case in this semi-autobiographical tale.
(Image credit: Jonathan Todd)
'The Liquid Eye of a Moon' is a Nigerian coming-of-age story
In Uchenna Awoke’s debut novel, we come to understand that 15-year-old Dimpka’s choices are painfully constricted by the caste system into which he was born.
4 crime and suspense novels make for hot summer reading
There’s something about the shadowy moral recesses of crime and suspense fiction that makes those genres especially appealing as temperatures soar. Here are four novels that turn the heat up.
(Image credit: NPR)
'Cue the Sun!' is a riveting history of reality TV
Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum's book is a near-definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment.
In 'Parade,' Rachel Cusk once again flouts traditional narrative
In her latest work, Cusk probes questions about the connections between freedom, gender, domesticity, art, and suffering.
2 books offer just the right summer mix of humor and nostalgia
Sandwich'/>
Catherine Newman's novel Sandwich centers on a woman vacationing with her young adult children and her elderly parents. Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue profiles three NYC department stores.
(Image credit: Harper Collins)
Here are the nonfiction books NPR staffers have loved so far this year
We asked around the newsroom to find favorite nonfiction from the first half of 2024. We've got biography and memoir, health and science, history, sports and much more.
(Image credit: Alicia Zheng)
NPR staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024
At work: hardworking news journalists. At home: omnivorous fiction readers. We asked our colleagues what they've enjoyed most this year and here are the titles they shared.
(Image credit: Alicia Zheng)
'Horror Movie' questions the motivation behind evil acts
Paul Tremblay's latest tale is dark, surprisingly violent, and incredibly multilayered — a superb addition to his already impressive oeuvre showing he can deliver for fans and also push the envelope.
(Image credit: William Morrow)
Queenie’s second life on screen expands its original vision
Like the 2019 novel by Candice Carty-Williams that it’s based on, the Hulu series Queenie – which premiered Friday – explores the quarter-life growing pains of lonely South Londoner, Queenie Jenkins.
(Image credit: Latoya Okuneye)
In 'Consent,' an author asks: 'Me too? Did I have the agency to consent?'
Jill Ciment wrote about a relationship she had with a teacher when she was very young – that turned into a marriage – in Half a Life. Now, eight years after his death at 93, she reconsiders their relationship in light of the #MToo movement.
An arresting memoir of 'Consent' asks: Does a marriage's end excuse its beginning?
Jill Ciment was 17 in 1970 when she got involved with the 47-year-old teacher who would become her husband. Now widowed, she reconsiders the relationship — and its "poisonous" beginnings.
Actor Griffin Dunne revisits his Hollywood childhood in 'The Friday Afternoon Club'
In a new memoir, Dunne writes about growing up in a family of storytellers, his complicated relationship with fame and the trauma the family experienced after the 1982 murder of his sister, Dominique.
'Forgotten on Sunday' evokes the heartwarming whimsy of the movie 'Amélie'
Like her other books, French writer Valérie Perrin's third novel to be translated into English, centers on the life-changing magic of friendships across generations.
In 'Fire Exit,' a father grapples with connection and the meaning of belonging
Morgan Talty's debut novel is a touching narrative about family in which the past and present are constantly on the page as we follow a man's life, while also entertaining what that life could have been.
'The Last Murder at the End of the World' is a story of survival and memory
Stuart Turton’s bizarre whodunit also works as a science fiction allegory full of mystery that contemplates the end of the world and what it means to be human.
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