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'Booth' looks at the family life of President Lincoln's notorious assassin
Author Karen Joy Fowler thinks John Wilkes Booth craved attention – and that gotten his fair share of it. So her new novel, Booth, instead focuses on his family. Their history might surprise you, gi…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
A new picture book seeks to answer the question 'what is school for?'
Writer John Schu and illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison are out with a new picture book that asks the question what exactly is school...for? Test prep? Socialization? This Is A School makes the case…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Authors Peng Shepherd and Anne Tyler show that family is...complicated
Today's first interview is with author Peng Shepherd on her new mystery. A father and daughter, both cartographers, haven't spoken in seven years. But when the father is found dead his daughter must …
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
'The Last Suspicious Holdout' looks at how humans keep on believing
Author Ladee Hubbard's new collection of short stories, The Last Suspicious Holdout, all take place in a nameless, majority Black suburb in the 90s and early 2000s. The stories all connect and intert…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
'The Beauty of Dusk' and life's calamitous challenges
Journalist Frank Bruni had lots of professional success: he was a White House correspondent, food critic, and opinion columnist. But then in 2017 he suffered a rare type of stroke that left him unabl…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Solving systemic racism and buying sensible cardigans with comic Phoebe Robinson
Comic Phoebe Robinson told NPR's Rachel Martin that she doesn't wake up every day thinking "time to dismantle systemic racism!" But since she has a platform, she might as well use it to bring about s…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
We look at Hollywood legend Rita Moreno's career after the Oscars
The 94th Academy Awards were last night. To celebrate we're taking a trip down memory lane with one of Hollywood's greatest icons, Rita Moreno. Back in 2013 she sat down with NPR's Rachel Martin to d…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
Karen Dawisha and Marie Yovanovitch provide a deeper look at Russia's war in Ukraine
It's been nearly a month since Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine, so we are taking another look at how we got here. First, an interview from 2014 with the late political scientist Karen Dawisha on how …
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
A meet-cute followed by real life: 'Party of Two' is about love in the real world
Romance writer Jasmine Guillory writes beautiful love stories – but that doesn't mean they aren't based in reality. Her novel Party of Two from the summer of 2020 is about a Black woman and a white m…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago
'Checkout 19' explores the magic of escaping with a good book
The nameless narrator in author Claire-Louise Bennett's new novel, Checkout 19, absolutely loves books. Their mere presence puts her at ease. But her lifelong love of reading is, in part, because she…
Published on 3 years, 8 months ago