Caribbean American journalist Charmaine Wilkerson began her professional life in TV news. She recalls meeting people on the worst day of their life, when their personal pain was bared to the public eye. Her debut novel, Black Cake, and her new book, Good Dirt , both begin with grief, tracing the loss of loved ones to family revelations that come after. Today's episode revisits a 2022 conversation with Wilkerson and NPR's Kelsey Snell about the role of identity and cultural inheritance in Black C...
Feb 14, 2025•17 min
Singer-songwriter Neko Case of The New Pornographers band has just released a memoir titled The Harder I Fight the More I Love You. While the book touches on her time with the Canadian indie-rock group, Case's memoir focuses more on her upbringing – she opens up about her complex relationship with her mother, who faked her own death when Case was young. In today's episode, Case speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about tracing her own family history, allowing room for rage, and seeing forgiveness not ...
Feb 13, 2025•9 min
In 1917, Lev Bronshtein – also known as Leon Trotsky – spent 10 weeks in exile in New York City. The Russian revolutionary hoped to spark a socialist revolution in the United States, but found disappointment when American workers didn't respond the way he had hoped. Trotsky's time in New York is the subject of Robert Littell's latest novel, Bronshtein in the Bronx . In today's episode, Littell talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the author's family connection to the revolutionary, his decision to...
Feb 12, 2025•8 min
In Ali Smith's Gliff , two children wake up to find that someone has painted a red line around their home. They've been marked "unverifiable" and they're at risk of being captured. The dystopian near-future in which they live is a world of government surveillance and environmental destruction – and one without libraries. In today's episode, Smith talks with NPR's Scott Simon about the authoritarian themes in her novel. They discuss what makes authoritarianism feel attractive and safe, Smith's fo...
Feb 11, 2025•7 min
As a cable news host, MSNBC's Chris Hayes is in the attention business. But in today's interview, he says that he often feels like he's chasing rather than directing his audience's focus. In his new book, The Sirens' Call , Hayes argues that attention has become the information age's most finite resource, with damaging consequences for our politics, lives and collective alienation. In today's episode, Hayes joins NPR's Steve Inskeep for a conversation about the difference between attention and i...
Feb 10, 2025•8 min
The authors of two nonfiction books say they were moved to change the world after finding inspiration in nature. First, Robin Wall Kimmerer's book The Serviceberry explores themes including economies of abundance and reciprocity in the natural world – similar to those addressed in her hit book Braiding Sweetgrass . In today's episode, Kimmerer joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation that touches on biomimicry, little free libraries, and what nature can teach us about human economies. Then, we...
Feb 07, 2025•21 min
Cecilia, the main character in Olivia Abtahi's The Interpreter , wears an oversized green suit and tie. She's a kid, but she also works as a translator and interpreter for her immigrant parents. Whether at the DMV, the doctor's office or the mechanic, she's there to help out with cultural translation. The story, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo, is based on Abtahi's own experience growing up with an Iranian father and an Argentine mother who both spoke English, but sometimes needed support with cul...
Feb 06, 2025•12 min
At age 36, actor Naomi Watts visited her doctor in hopes of starting a family. Instead, she was told that she was close to menopause. She says she felt panicked and alone, despite the fact that tens of millions of women experience menopause each year. In a new book, Dare I Say It , Watts tries to open what she sees as a closed conversation around aging. Her advice-based book covers her own fertility story, her experience with menopause symptoms, skincare, nutrition and more. In today's episode, ...
Feb 05, 2025•9 min
In 2021, Andy Corren published an obituary for his late mother in The Fayetteville Observer . "A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday," he wrote. His colorful, candid remembrance went viral on Twitter, and now Corren has expanded the tribute into a memoir. Dirtbag Queen recounts the author's experience of growing up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with a single, Southern, unconventional mother of six children. In today's episode, Corren speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about ...
Feb 04, 2025•9 min
Betty Shamieh was the first Palestinian American playwright to have a play produced off-Broadway. She describes her debut novel, Too Soon , as a "Palestinian American Sex and the City." The novel follows three Palestinian American women across generations as they navigate love and identity. In today's episode, Shamieh speaks with NPR's Pien Huang about using comedy as a way to humanize characters who may be dehumanized in the real world, the 10 year writing process for the book, and how she didn...
Feb 03, 2025•7 min
Grady Hendrix is one of the biggest names in horror fiction today. He's published 11 horror novels and won a Bram Stoker Award for his non-fiction book on the history of horror fiction. In this episode, we revisit a 2021 conversation between Hendrix and former NPR host Audie Cornish about his book Final Girl Support Group with a discussion on society's obsession with violence and its perpetrators, rather than the victims. Then, we hear Hendrix speak with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about his latest nove...
Jan 31, 2025•19 min
After a long career as a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a judge, 77-year-old Rusty Sabich is retired. But when a young woman named Mae Potter goes missing, Rusty comes out of retirement to defend the lead suspect – who happens to be his soon-to-be stepson. Presumed Guilty is the latest novel from Scott Turow, who's been writing about this character since he published Presumed Innocent in 1987. In today's episode, Turow joins NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on second chances...
Jan 30, 2025•8 min
A new book titled Unassimilable: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the 21st Century by Bianca Mabute-Louie makes a radical case against assimilation for the Asian diaspora. The project was inspired by the author's upbringing in San Gabriel Valley, an ethnoburb right outside of Los Angeles, which Mabute-Louie describes as a place "where Asian immigrants go to never assimilate." In today's episode, the author joins NPR's Ailsa Chang for a conversation about what un-assimilability looks like in prac...
Jan 29, 2025•9 min
Photographer Brian Kelley has been collecting National Park ephemera for years. He wanted to find a way to share the maps, brochures and memorabilia he's collected from his visits, which resulted in the 2019 project Parks . Now, Kelley is out with a sequel, Parks 2 , a coffee table book that shares more of his personal archive of National Park designs. In today's episode, Kelley speaks with NPR's Sarah McCammon about what inspired him to start his collection, the history of design technology, an...
Jan 28, 2025•5 min
In this interview with NPR's Scott Simon, Han Kang says the idea for her latest novel came to her in a snowy, haunting dream. The Nobel Prize-winning author's We Do Not Part is itself dreamlike. The novel follows narrator Kyungha as she tries to rescue a friend's beloved pet bird in the midst of a snowstorm that has hit South Korea's Jeju Island. As the story goes on, Kyungha is confronted with the taboo, hidden history of a 1948 massacre that took place on the island. In today's episode, Simon ...
Jan 27, 2025•8 min
Two new novels tackle themes of motherhood and family secrets. First, in Emma Knight's The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus , 18-year-old Pen has just arrived as a student at the University of Edinburgh. For Pen's whole life, she's sensed that her parents were hiding something from her – and she believes the answers might lie in Scotland. In today's episode, Knight joins NPR's Mary Louise Kelly for a conversation about her debut novel. They discuss the first character that came to Knight – and h...
Jan 24, 2025•16 min
The beginning of a new year often represents a clean slate for people hoping to make a change. But by this point in January, many have let go of their resolutions. It can be difficult to make goals stick, especially when they require actions that aren't inherently rewarding. Katy Milkman, a behavioral economist at the University of Pennsylvania, has spent her career researching what it takes to achieve our goals. Her 2021 book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You...
Jan 23, 2025•11 min
Jules Feiffer, illustrator of The Phantom Tollbooth , died last week at age 95. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cartoonist began drawing and writing for a living when he was 17. And just last year, Feiffer came out with his first graphic novel for middle grade readers. That book, Amazing Grapes , kicks off with a father's departure, which sets in motion a series of adventures across dimensions for his three children. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Feiffer and NPR's S...
Jan 22, 2025•9 min
Betül Tunç is the Turkish baker behind the popular Instagram account, @turkuazkitchen. With more than 10 million followers, her account features recipes and photography of sweet and savory baked goods. The account took off during the early days of the pandemic with a video of Tunç punching the air out of freshly risen dough. Her debut cookbook Turkuaz Kitchen presents those recipes and more from Tunç's childhood. In today's episode, Tunç speaks with Here & Now's Jane Clayson about baking as ther...
Jan 21, 2025•10 min
Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history when she performed at President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021. Her poetry often deals with topics like gender, race and politics. She continues to explore these themes in a new picture book Girls on the Rise , which is a poem illustrated by Loveis Wise. In today's episode, Gorman speaks with NPR's Eric Deggans about drawing inspiration from the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, the importance of creating a welcoming dialogue w...
Jan 20, 2025•10 min
Brooke Shields started in Hollywood at just 11-years-old, starring in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon . From that young age, the actress and model was sexualized on and off screen – and decades later, she's out with a memoir that reflects on that public scrutiny. In Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old , Shields – now 59 – writes about her experience with age-related bias in the industry. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about her refusal to feel invisible as ...
Jan 17, 2025•13 min
Parks and Recreation changed the trajectory of actor Jim O'Heir's career. He landed a small part as Jerry Gergich on the NBC sitcom, ultimately becoming a series regular. Now, 10 years after the show wrapped, O'Heir is out with a memoir, Welcome to Pawnee . In today's episode, he speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about the moment the character clicked for him, the "Parks" family group text, and whether the series could work today. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book co...
Jan 16, 2025•9 min
A new book from writer, BBC broadcaster and cellist Kate Kennedy tackles the stories of four cellists connected by a mutual musical obsession. Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound focuses on musicians like Lise Cristiani, the first female professional cello soloist, and Pál Hermann, a Jewish-Hungarian cellist captured by the Gestapo during World War II. In today's episode, Kennedy speaks with NPR's Daniel Estrin – also a cellist – about these musicians' histories and her own complicated rel...
Jan 15, 2025•11 min
About 10 years ago, author Lily Tuck was reading obituaries in The New York Times when she came across photos of Czesława Kwoka, a young prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp. Tuck didn't know much about Kwoka besides her name and age, but decided to try to write about her. The result is her new novel, The Rest Is Memory , which imagines Kwoka's life at Auschwitz. In today's episode, Tuck speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how she approaches narrating a story through Kwoka's eyes, the carefu...
Jan 14, 2025•7 min
Author Mark Lilla is professor of humanities at Columbia University specializing in intellectual history. His new book, Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know , examines the tendencies for willful ignorance in human nature and the correlations of those tendencies to education castes. In today's episode, Lilla speaks to NPR's Asma Khalid about curiosity and the role social media plays in choosing to engage with information and facts. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR'...
Jan 13, 2025•6 min
Two novels explore the way that violence and loss can ripple across a village, town – or even entire countries. First, in Karina Sainz Borgo's No Place to Bury the Dead , a plague that causes amnesia runs rampant across an unnamed Latin American country. One mother's flight brings her to a border-town cemetery that operates on disputed land. In today's episode, Borgo joins NPR's Elissa Nadworny for a conversation that touches on the importance of death rituals, the myth of Antigone, and a real-l...
Jan 10, 2025•13 min
We've moved past the shortest day of the year – Dec. 21 – and, now, the days are getting longer. For more than 40 years, people have read and performed Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" to commemorate the winter solstice. In 2019, that poem was turned into a children's book, illustrated by Carson Ellis. In their collaboration, the two hoped to convey a story about light's triumph over darkness year after year. In today's episode, Cooper and Ellis join NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation ab...
Jan 09, 2025•7 min
Small Things Like These is a novella by Claire Keegan that centers around Bill Furlong, an Irish coal merchant who discovers exploitation at a local convent. The story is based on the real-life history of the Magdalene Laundries, workhouses where Irish girls and women were forced into unpaid labor. Keegan's book, originally published in 2021, was adapted to film in the fall of 2024. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Keegan and Here & Now's Deborah Becker. They discuss the aut...
Jan 08, 2025•10 min
Twenty-five years into the new millennium, Y2K aesthetics and millennial nostalgia are still alive and well in Colette Shade's new book, Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was), where she examines the impact of the era on everything from pop culture to politics. In today's episode, Shade talks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about the economic consequences of the era and some of the 2000s cultural artifacts that are still around today. To listen to Book of the Day sp...
Jan 07, 2025•8 min
A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook was first published in 1995, a few decades after the seven-day festival was created in 1966. Written by culinary historian and author Jessica B. Harris, the book explores the holiday's history, traditions, rituals, and food–and in 2024, Harris released an updated version of her original guide. In today's episode, she joins Here & Now's Scott Tong for a conversation about the meaning of the seven symbols and principles of Kwanzaa. They also discuss the way the cook...
Jan 06, 2025•11 min
