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In new novels, marriages are tested by a last request and a moment in the spotlight
In two new novels, marriages are tested by unusual circumstances. First, in Ann Packer’s Some Bright Nowhere, a woman dying of cancer makes a big ask…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
Abby Phillip’s 'A Dream Deferred' chronicles Jesse Jackson’s rise to political esteem
Rev. Jesse Jackson is well-known as an icon of the American Civil Rights Movement, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., and a steadfast activist — bu…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
'The Devil Is a Southpaw' is a story within a story — or so its narrator says
Are all unreliable narrators self-aware? The answer might depend on the novel, but in Brandon Hobson’s The Devil Is a Southpaw, our primary narrator,…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
John Fetterman on his new memoir, his mental health, and disagreements with his party
When Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) won Pennsylvania’s Senate seat in 2022, Democrats saw him as a symbol of a new direction during the Trump era. Three…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
A new book looks to the writings of Renaissance-era nuns for advice on life today
Modern life can make it tempting to return to simpler times, like a 16th-century Spanish convent. In the new book Convent Wisdom, academics Ana Garri…
4 months, 2 weeks ago
Revisiting ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’
Janie Crawford – back in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida – recounts a journey of self-discovery, structured around three marriages. Their Eyes We…
4 months, 3 weeks ago
A Claire McCardell biography and an AI sci-fi are among NPR’s top book picks of 2025
NPR’s annual Books We Love guide is back for its 13th year, sharing over 380 hand-selected reads by NPR staff and critics. In today’s post-Thanksgivi…
4 months, 3 weeks ago
'My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook' is Nite Yun’s love letter to food and family
Some cookbooks don’t just provide recipes; they tell stories—and Nite Yun’s My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook is a perfect example. Yun discovered the ri…
4 months, 3 weeks ago
'We Were Liars' author returns for more teenage catharsis in 'We Fell Apart'
E. Lockhart understands the struggle of being a teenager. Her first novel We Were Liars was a standout YA hit of 2014, celebrated (and at times, crit…
4 months, 3 weeks ago
Comic journalist Joe Sacco on his portrait of deadly riots in Uttar Pradesh, India
In 2013, two young Hindu cousins killed a Muslim man in a rural part of Uttar Pradesh, India. What followed was a series of alternating violence in t…
4 months, 3 weeks ago