Accessibility links
Books: Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews NPR's brings you news about books and authors along with our picks for great reads. Interviews, reviews, and much more.

Books

The cover of the Yup'ik alphabet coloring book.

The cover of the Yup'ik alphabet coloring book. Courtesy of Nikki Corbett hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Nikki Corbett

Education

These Alaska moms couldn’t find a Yup’ik children’s book. So they made one themselves

Yup’ik is the most spoken Native language in Alaska, but finding Yup’ik books for young children can be almost impossible. These moms created their own – and now they’re fielding nearly 1,000 orders.

Yup'ik mom in Alaska creates her own books to teach her kids the Yup'ik language

Listen · 2:41
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5090805/nx-s1-9105f768-99e0-4d3a-82bb-624c4263eef0" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn-in during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 21, 2022.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn-in during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 21, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Law

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shares the poem she's kept in every one of her offices

The first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court says Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Ladder of Saint Augustine," has been a guiding principle. Jackson's new memoir is Lovely One.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shares the poem she's kept in every one of her offices

Listen · 43:48
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5095923/g-s1-20843" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Ketanji Brown Jackson chronicles her path to the Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson talks with All Things Considered co-host Juana Summers. Zayrha Rodriguez/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Zayrha Rodriguez/NPR

Consider This from NPR

Ketanji Brown Jackson chronicles her path to the Supreme Court

When Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson entered the national spotlight, she found praise and also criticism.

Ketanji Brown Jackson chronicles her path to the Supreme Court

Listen · 11:16
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198913182/1258198064" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Danzy Senna is the author of Caucasia, Symptomatic and New People. Her latest novel is Colored Television.

Danzy Senna says her first novel, Caucasia, was met with acclaim. "But one of the things I kept hearing from publishers was: Don't do this again. Don't keep writing about mixed-ness. ... it's that idea that you're a predicament. You're not a world." Her latest novel is Colored Television. Dustin Snipes/Penguin Random House hide caption

toggle caption
Dustin Snipes/Penguin Random House

Author Interviews

'I want to write myself into existence,' says 'Colored Television' author

Danzy Senna was born in 1970, just a few years after Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage. “Just merely existing as a family was a radical statement at that time,” she says.

'I want to write myself into existence,' says 'Colored Television' author

Listen · 44:22
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5095921/g-s1-20675" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Algorithms don't just pick playlists. They're changing your life

Algorithms are in everything from your social media use to how many companies curate your playlists. Researcher Joy Buolamwini and writer Kyle Chayka question the extent of their influence and helpfulness. Qi Yang/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Qi Yang/Getty Images

Short Wave

Algorithms don't just pick playlists. They're changing your life

Humans hallucinate. Algorithms lie.

Algorithms don't just pick playlists. They're changing your life

Listen · 13:43
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1257825205/1258097912" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
'The Dictionary Story' is a kids' book that defies definition
Copyright © 2024 by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston/Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA on behalf of Walker Books, London

Picture This

'The Dictionary Story' is a kids' book that defies definition

Dictionary wants to bring her pages to life but then a hungry alligator chasing a donut crashes into a queen who slips on some soap and chaos ensues. Can Dictionary put herself back together again?

'The Dictionary Story' is a kids' book that defies definition

Listen · 8:51
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-4865931/nx-s1-6b8b91d6-4f8d-4bf2-b979-b18b16f363e1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Grief is complicated, but author Annie Sklaver Orenstein tells Morning Edition there are simple ways to help those grieving a loss.

Grief is complicated, but author Annie Sklaver Orenstein tells Morning Edition there are simple ways to help those grieving a loss. Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Getty Images

Mental Health

Grieving the dead is complicated. Here's how you can help someone experiencing loss

Annie Sklaver Orenstein, author of Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner’s Guide to Grief, tells Morning Edition that grief is complicated but there are simple things someone can do for those going through it.

Complex grief: Coping with the loss of a sibling

Listen · 4:46
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5092142/nx-s1-075d4ce4-f245-456a-a0b1-443209bce5d7" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Cartoonist Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry was a 2019 recipients of MacArthur "Genius" Grant. John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation hide caption

toggle caption
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Cartoonist Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry is a legend of alternative comics. These days, she teaches at the University of Wisconsin. Her book What It Is, was recently re-issued on paperback. When we talked to Lynda in 2020, she'd just released Making Comics. It's sort of an illustrated guide on how to create comics. At the heart of the book is a belief Lynda has: Anybody can draw. Anyone can make comics. Yes, even you!

Listen to this Episode

Listen · 33:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197961506/1258022104" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
What James Baldwin can teach us about Israel, and ourselves

An illustrated portrait of the famous intellectual and writer James Baldwin. Jackie Lay hide caption

toggle caption
Jackie Lay

Code Switch

What James Baldwin can teach us about Israel, and ourselves

It's been more than ten months since devastating violence began unfolding in Israel and Gaza. And in the midst of all the death, so many people are trying to better understand what's going on in that region, and how the United States is implicated in it. So on this episode, we're looking back to the writing of James Baldwin, whose views on the country transformed significantly over the course of his life. His thoughts offer some ideas about how to grapple with trauma, and how to bridge the gap between places and ideas that, on their surface, might seem oceans apart.

What James Baldwin can teach us about Israel, and ourselves

Listen · 39:27
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197958398/1257907403" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Preserving humanity in the age of robots
CreativeDesignArt/Getty Images

Short Wave

Preserving humanity in the age of robots

Human beings are hardwired for social connection – so much so that we think of even the most basic objects as having feelings or experiences. (Yup, we're talking to you, Roomba owners!) Social robots add a layer to this. They're designed to make us feel like they're our friends. They can do things like care for children, the elderly or act as partners. But there's a darker side to them, too. They may encourage us to opt out of authentic, real-life connections, making us feel more isolated. Today on the show, host Regina G. Barber explores the duality of social robots with Eve Herold, author of the book Robots and the People Who Love Them.

Preserving humanity in the age of robots

Listen · 14:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1198916199/1257859547" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
H.R. McMaster receives a send-off from the White House staff on his last day in the Trump administration on April 6, 2018.

Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster receives a send-off from the White House staff on his last day in the Trump administration on April 6, 2018. H.R. McMaster hide caption

toggle caption
H.R. McMaster

Politics

Former national security adviser McMaster says he won’t work for Trump again

In his new book At War with Ourselves, My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster recounts his experience working for Trump and his inner circle.

'AT WAR WITH OURSELVES'

Listen · 7:01
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5042515/nx-s1-b150769a-882a-4d0b-a675-928a2ca40172" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Paradise Bronx

Paradise Bronx Macmillan Publishers hide caption

toggle caption
Macmillan Publishers

Review

Book Reviews

Frazier's 'Paradise Bronx' makes you want to linger in NYC's 'drive-through borough'

Ian Frazier’s signature voice — droll, ruminative, generous — draws readers in. But his underlying subject here is even bigger than the Bronx: It’s the way the past “bleeds through” the present.

Frazier's 'Paradise Bronx' makes you want to linger in NYC's 'drive-through borough'

Listen · 7:21
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5084087/g-s1-18393" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
President Biden speaks during the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago's United Center Stadium.

President Biden speaks during the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago's United Center Stadium. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

toggle caption
J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Author Interviews

With the DNC underway, a historian explains how 'The Stadium' became a public square

"We fight our political battles in stadiums," historian Frank Andre Guridy says. "They become ideal places to stake your claims on what you want the United States to be." His new book is The Stadium.

With the DNC underway, a historian explains how 'The Stadium' became a public square

Listen · 35:32
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5081400/g-s1-18027" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Wilder Shore, by Camille Peri

A Wilder Shore Penguin Random House hide caption

toggle caption
Penguin Random House

Review

Book Reviews

'A Wilder Shore' charts the course of a famous bohemian marriage

Camille Peri's lively and substantive dual biography of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson offers a glimpse of their unconventional marriage — and an inspiration for living fearlessly.

'A Wilder Shore' charts the course of a famous bohemian marriage

Listen · 7:10
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5081139/g-s1-17612" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
The physical media we still treasure
Mikhail Dmitriev/Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

The physical media we still treasure

The vinyl record, the CD, the DVD, the VHS tape — even the paper book has been the subject of debate and concern over its future. But we haven't given up our collections just yet. Today, we're revisiting our conversation about the physical media we still treasure.

The physical media we still treasure

Listen · 14:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1197968183/1257401908" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
What happens at the end of the universe?

This composite image shows the Cartwheel Galaxy, located about 500 million light-years away. In the heat death scenario, the universe would expand so far that the light of one galaxy would be unable to reach its neighbor. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI hide caption

toggle caption
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Short Wave

What happens at the end of the universe?

Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic unraveling? A slow and lonely dissolution? Or a quantum-level transition that breaks the laws of physics? Theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack breaks down three possible scenarios for how the universe as we know it will finally come to an end.

What happens at the end of the universe?

Listen · 12:43
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250455735/1257152480" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Browse archive or search npr.org