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Here are the Books We Love: 380+ great 2023 reads recommended by NPR
November 20, 2023 Books We Love returns with 380+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 11 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,600 great reads.
NPR
Review
Book Reviews
11 books to look forward to in 2024
December 30, 2023 The first few months of the year are stacked with exciting and interesting reads. Get ready for big swings from old pros and exciting new debuts.
11 books to look forward to in 2024
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Book Reviews
5 new mysteries and thrillers for your nightstand this spring
April 17, 2024 These new books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin to an online community that might hold the solution to a missing-person case.
Nickolai Hammar/NPR
Culture
Watch: Salman Rushdie on the moment he was attacked on stage, and why he felt lonely
April 17, 2024 Salman Rushdie is a storyteller. So when you ask him to describe the day, in 2022, when he was attacked and nearly killed by a young man with a knife, Rushdie paints a vivid picture.
Lindsey Anderson sits down to read Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina to her children Orion, 6, Arthur, 4, and Thora Hoke, 1, inside the exhibit inspired by the book inside The Rabbit hOle, an immersive museum dedicated to children's literature, in North Kansas City, Mo. Katie Currid for NPR hide caption
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Katie Currid for NPR
The Picture Show
An immersive museum in Kansas City allows kids to explore their favorite books
April 17, 2024 A new museum in Kansas City is designed for kids to be immersed in their favorite books, including classics like Goodnight Moon.
Cumulative book bans in the United States, July 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023. See the full PEN America report here. PEN America hide caption
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PEN America
Report: Last year ended with a surge in book bans
April 16, 2024 According to PEN America, 4,349 books were banned from schools between July and December 2023, more than the entire previous school year. More than 3,000 of those bans were in Florida.
Paralympic medalist Scout Bassett's book describes her journey in finding success on and off the track. Elsa/Getty Images hide caption
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Elsa/Getty Images
'Lucky Girl' is the global journey of a Paralympic medalist
April 16, 2024 In the book, Lucky Girl, Paralympic medalist Scout Bassett says she felt lost until she found running.
'Lucky Girl' is the global journey of a Paralympic medalist
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Atria Books
Review
Book Reviews
It's a wild ride to get to the bottom of what everyone's hiding in 'A Better World'
April 16, 2024 A very sinister thriller with a dash of science-fiction and full of inscrutabilities, Sarah Langan's novel is as entreating and creepy as it is timely and humane.
Salman Rushdie says writing Knife allowed him to change his relationship to the attack. "Instead of just being the person who got stabbed, I now see myself as the person who wrote a book about getting stabbed," he says. Rachel Eliza Griffiths/Penguin Random House hide caption
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Rachel Eliza Griffiths/Penguin Random House
Author Interviews
Two nights before the attack, Salman Rushdie dreamed he was stabbed onstage
Fresh Air
April 16, 2024 Rushdie was onstage at a literary event in 2022 when he was attacked by a man in the audience: "Dying in the company of strangers — that was what was going through my mind." His new book is Knife.
Two nights before the attack, Salman Rushdie dreamed he was stabbed onstage
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W. W. Norton & Company
Culture
Why Patricia Highsmith's most famous creature, Tom Ripley, continues to fascinate
April 15, 2024 Sinister and visually stunning, the new Netflix series Ripley reminds us why Patricia Highsmith's book The Talented Mr. Ripley continues to influence popular culture.
Random House
5 takeaways from Salman Rushdie's new memoir 'Knife'
April 15, 2024 Nearly two years after the renowned author was stabbed on stage in Chautauqua, N.Y., Rushdie's new memoir unpacks everything he's been feeling since the attack.
An illustration from his book Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows, by illustrator Rachel Moss. It depicts Juleus Ghunta and his teacher described in his Unsung Hero story. Juleus Ghunta hide caption
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Juleus Ghunta
My Unsung Hero
Growing up, he struggled to read. Then a young teacher saw his potential
April 15, 2024 Juleus Ghunta is a published children's author and award-winning poet. But growing up, he could barely read. That was until a teacher saw his potential.
Luke Medina/NPR
Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Books We Love: Love And Romance
April 15, 2024 NPR's Books We Love is a roundup of favorite books of the year, sorted and tagged to help you find exactly what you're looking for. From the meet cutes to the happy endings and through all the ups and downs in between, we're recommending great books for people who love love and romance.
Books We Love: Love And Romance
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Celadon Books
Review
Book Reviews
In 'Like Happiness,' a woman struggles to define a past, destructive relationship
April 12, 2024 Ursula Villarreal-Moura's debut novel movingly portrays its protagonist coming to terms with an imbalanced, difficult, and sometimes harmful friendship that was also a key part of her life for years.
Flatiron Books
Review
Book Reviews
'The Familiar' is a romance, coming-of-age tale, and a story about fighting for more
April 11, 2024 In her new novel, Leigh Bardugo drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles, and intrigue — one where there isn't a single character that doesn't have a secret agenda.
Excerpts from the works of the 2024 Whiting award winners
April 10, 2024 The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.
The Whiting Foundation
10 writers win 2024 Whiting Awards for emerging authors
April 10, 2024 Each writer will receive $50,000 to help support their craft — one of largest awards granted to new authors.
An American hauls in a HA-19 Japanese submarine following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Submarine warfare would prove crucial during WWII. Penguin Random House hide caption
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Penguin Random House
History
Seizures, broken spines and vomiting: Scientific testing that helped facilitate D-Day
Fresh Air
April 10, 2024 Biomedical engineer Rachel Lance says British scientists submitted themselves to experiments that would be considered wildly unethical today in an effort to shore up the war effort.
Seizures, broken spines and vomiting: Scientific testing that helped facilitate D-Day
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Amanda Montell hosts the podcast Sounds Like a Cult. She's also the author of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. Kaitlyn Mikayla/Simon & Schuster hide caption
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Author Interviews
'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stoke irrational thoughts
Fresh Air
April 9, 2024 Author and podcast host Amanda Montell says our brains are overloaded with a constant stream of information that stokes our innate tendency to believe conspiracy theories and mysticism.
'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stoke irrational thoughts
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NPR
Culture
International Booker Prize shortlist for 2024 spans three continents
April 9, 2024 The International Booker Prize celebrates fiction that's been translated into English. This year's shortlist, announced Tuesday morning, features books in six languages from three continents.
Here's the shortlist of authors for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The winner will be announced in Toronto on May 13th. McClelland & Stewart/Random House/Doubleday Canada/SJP Lit hide caption
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McClelland & Stewart/Random House/Doubleday Canada/SJP Lit
Culture
One of these novelists will receive the $150K Carol Shields Prize
April 9, 2024 The shortlist for the Carol Shields Prize was announced Tuesday morning. The award recognizes "creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States."
Stephen King at a press conference in 2013, in Paris. Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images
Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
A guide to Stephen King
April 9, 2024 Stephen King is one of the most successful living writers. He's written more than 50 books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies. And his works have been adapted into a number of classic films, including The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, and It. This month marks the 50th anniversary of his first novel, Carrie, so we are revisiting our guide to Stephen King.
A guide to Stephen King
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Chilean author Isabel Allende poses for a photograph in Madrid on June 5, 2017. Francisco Seco/AP hide caption
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Author Interviews
Isabel Allende tells a story of impossible love in 'Lovers at the Museum'
April 8, 2024 We spoke with the prolific, 81-year-old author about her new short story — a powerful allegory of the human condition and the mystery of love — and also AI and what's she's working on now.
Obituaries
John Barth, innovative postmodernist novelist, dies at 93
April 3, 2024 John Barth, the playfully erudite author whose darkly comic and complicated novels revolved around the art of literature and launched countless debates over the art of fiction, died Tuesday.
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