NPR's Book of the Day
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NPR's Book of the Day
In need of a good read? Or just want to keep up with the books everyone's talking about? NPR's Book of the Day gives you today's very best writing in a snackable, skimmable, pocket-sized podcast. Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times – or temporarily escape from them –...
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'A Perfect Hand' is a romp through 19th-century England, with a suffragist twist
A Perfect Hand has all the ingredients of a charming Victorian romance novel: a scheming matchmaker plot, an upstairs-downstairs dynamic, and a hefty...
Two new murder mysteries cleverly explore the meta — in two very different ways
In Ilona Bannister’s Five, five strangers wait on a train platform. One will die in the next five minutes but only one person knows: the reader. In An...
In 'Backtalker,' Kimberlé Crenshaw turns from political theory to personal memoir
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is a foundational legal scholar, theorist, and Civil Rights advocate, known for coining such significant and controversial...
In 'Homebound,' an epic journey through multiverses begins with a single video game
Becks is a queer teenager in the 1980s struggling to find a sense of belonging. When she picks up an unfinished coding project left behind by her belo...
'The People Can Fly' examines the history of Black prodigies from poets to professors
What does it truly mean to be a “prodigy?” For the poet, professor and author of The People Can Fly Joshua Bennett, the answer is complicated. But may...
Revisiting 'Whalefall,' the underwater thriller from Pulitzer winner Daniel Kraus
Time is running out for 17-year-old Jay Gardiner: He’s trapped underwater in the body of a sperm whale with just one hour of oxygen left. This not-so-...
Two new books approach running from different angles
Today’s episode spotlights two new books all about running. The Long Run is a history of the marathon by author and running coach Martin Dugard. He sp...
Reflecting on 30 years of 'The Golden Compass' with Sir Philip Pullman
It’s been 30 years since Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass arrived on U.S. shores. The award-winning British fantasy classic tells the story of Lyra...
In 'The Future is Peace,' tourism paves a way forward for Israelis and Palestinians
For Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon, their bond of mutual understanding evolved from a place of tremendous pain. Both men saw members...
In 'The Ending Writes Itself,' a contest to complete a manuscript turns deadly
In a new mystery novel, a group of struggling writers lands on a private island belonging to bestselling author Arthur Fletch. But Fletch is dead and...
Mark Helprin’s 'Elegy in Blue' is a tragedy, love story and ghost story all in one
We meet the unnamed narrator of Mark Helprin's new novel Elegy In Blue when he’s 82-years-old. He was a man of wealth and standing but has wound up al...
Journalist Jodi Kantor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks on how to find purpose
Journalist Jodi Kantor and Harvard happiness expert Arthur Brooks are both out with new books about identifying and cultivating meaning in one’s life....
Lena Dunham on her memoir 'Famesick' and the intense bond between 'Girls' co-stars
Lena Dunham shot the pilot for the HBO series Girls at age 24. Quickly, she was launched into the creative spotlight but the author says she was not p...
In 'Dear Monica Lewinsky,' a woman turns to an unusual saint for support
In Julia Langbein’s new novel, a woman named Jean is in turmoil over her past. She has rediscovered a diary from 1998, when she was 17-years-old, and...
Belle Burden on 'Strangers,' her divorce, and financial literacy for women
During the second week of the Covid lockdown, Belle Burden’s husband ended their 20-year marriage and became “someone [she] did not recognize.” Their...
'Spies and Other Gods' is an espionage novel by a former British intelligence officer
James Wolff is the pseudonym of a former British intelligence officer who now writes espionage novels. His latest, Spies and Other Gods, follows the H...
'The Take' and 'The Left and the Lucky' explore peculiar friendships across age
Two new novels center vital, but unusual connections across age. In The Take, an aspiring writer named Maggie agrees to an outlandish deal with Ingrid...
Mikhail Zygar says the Soviet Union’s collapse was only a temporary win for democracy
Wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East are reshaping global politics. In The Dark Side of the Earth, exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar traces th...
In 'Yesteryear,' a tradwife influencer wakes up in the time period she’s fetishized
Natalie Heller Mills is a tradwife influencer with 5 million followers. She drinks raw milk, eats farm fresh eggs, and is “perfect at being alive.” Bu...
'Infinity Machine' is a biography of an Oppenheimer-like figure in AI
Demis Hassabis says when he set up an AI lab in 2010, “no one believed in it.” The Google DeepMind co-founder and Nobel Prize winner is the subject of...
In Maria Semple’s 'Go Gentle,' a surprise love interest upends a Stoic life
In Maria Semple’s new novel, Adora Hazzard works as a moral trainer to the tweens of a wealthy family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She’s a con...
Ada Limón talks forgiveness, ghosts and fertility on 'Wild Card'
This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. In 2024, then U.S. Poet Laureate Ada L...
Healing through poetry in 'Light For The World To See'
This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. In 2020, Kwame Alexander was feeling t...
In his memoir, poet Raymond Antrobus writes of 'deaf gain' instead of hearing loss
This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. When Raymond Antrobus was 6 years old,...
In 'Poet Warrior', Joy Harjo uses poetry to deal with pain and heal
This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Joy Harjo, who was the U.S. poet laure...
Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother'
This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Ocean Vuong's collection, Time Is A Mo...
Brandy Norwood and Arsenio Hall's memoirs look back on careers that defined the '90s
Two figures who defined ‘90s culture are out with new memoirs. First, Brandy Norwood is a Grammy-winning singer and made history as the first Black ac...
For her new novel about boy bands, Emma Straub took a page from New Kids on the Block
A few years ago, author Emma Straub saw a story about New Kids on the Block hosting a tropical cruise for their fans. That planted the seed for Straub...
'Labor' is a memoir by a doctor who traveled the country with a mobile OB-GYN clinic
Twenty years into her medical career, Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari, a board-certified OBGYN, had grown increasingly frustrated with the medical profession....
John Sayles on Henry Ford, Detroit and his new historical novel 'Crucible'
In the new novel Crucible, director and author John Sayles turns his attention to Henry Ford, Detroit, and automotive labor in the 1920s through World...
Patrick Radden Keefe on 'London Falling' and the mystery of Zac Brettler
In November of 2019, a young man leaped into the Thames River from a London apartment building and died. After 19-year-old Zac Brettler’s death, his p...
New children’s books center intergenerational relationships in life and the afterlife
Intergenerational relationships take center stage in two new children’s books. First, in The One About the Blackbird, a little boy learns to play guit...
Katrina Manson on 'Project Maven' and how the U.S. is using AI in warfare
Marine Corps colonel Drew Cukor says AI will completely change the way the United States fights wars – and maybe already has. The new book Project Mav...
In 'Kutchinsky's Egg,' a jeweler’s corrosive ambition leads to his family’s downfall
A famous jeweler in London once became obsessed with a single goal: To produce the world’s largest golden egg. He became fixated with one-upping the f...
'Anywhere Else' is a book of essays about a love-hate relationship with Florida
Writer Rachel Knox says there was a point at which she wanted to escape Florida. She moved away to New York, but eventually returned. Her new essay co...
Sen. Cory Booker on 'Stand' and his intentions for the 2028 election
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration, but lately he’s also expressed frustration with the Democratic Party. H...
The story behind cookbooks 'The Talisman of Happiness' and 'Will This Make You Happy'
Today’s episode features two cookbooks: One new, the other newly translated. First, a classic Italian cookbook (and classic wedding gift) has been tra...
Keith O'Brien on 'Heartland,' Larry Bird and the basketball career that almost wasn't
Larry Bird – one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA – once gave up his college basketball career to return to his hometown, French Lick...
In the epic 'Son of Nobody,' Yann Martel gives footnotes a starring role
Yann Martel’s new novel Son of Nobody contains two narratives: a lost epic about the Trojan War and a personal tragedy that plays out in the book’s fo...
Geoff Bennett on the history of Black comedy from vaudeville to sitcoms
PBS Newshour co-anchor Geoff Bennett is out with a new book that presents portraits of Black artists who shaped comedy. Black Out Loud is a history th...