November 27, 2012
Having recently won her second Booker prize, Hilary Mantel appeared on Terry Gross‘ show to discuss her latest book, Bring Up the Bodies. This work is a sequel to Wolf Hall, which also won the prestigious award. When asked about her focus on Cromwell and Tudor England, Mantel responded that historians have always realized how […]
November 27, 2012
Sendak’s last book “My Brother’s Book” will be published in early Feb. 2013. He writes in anticipation of his own death, so it is a far cry from the rambunctious, playful stories he’s best known for. His older brother Jack passed away in 1995 and this story shows how they might be reunited (obviously, in […]
November 27, 2012
Nancy Pearl, the grande dame of book recommenders and occasional NPR commentator, spoke with “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep about her favorite choices for hungry readers looking for books that might not have gotten the hype and marketing push they deserve. Asked how she selects titles for this, she answered, “…Simple: I just pick some […]
November 21, 2012
Nick Harkaway is used to answering questions about his dad John le Carré. “I keep trying to explain that I don’t mind,” the young British novelist wrote in a candid essay for The Telegraph. “It’s just part of the landscape to me, like my own nose.” But even if he is willing to talk about his […]
November 16, 2012
Seventy nine-year-old Philip Roth recently announced that he’s “done with fiction”. In an interview with the French magazine Les inRocks, he said that his 2010 book Nemesis would be his last. After writing more than 20 works of fiction, he told the magazine: ” I don’t want to read any more of it, write any […]
November 15, 2012
Louise Erdrich has won the National Book Award for fiction for her novel “The Round House” about a woman raped in a Native American community. Katherine Boo has received the nonfiction prize for “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” which focuses on the poor in India and government corruption. […]
November 13, 2012
2012 is the 200th anniversary of Grimm’s fairy tales. Films, books, and plays are being adapted to celebrate this bicentennial. British fantasy author Philip Pullman just published Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm, a retelling of 50 of the stories originally published in 1812. In January Paramount will release Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, and […]
November 13, 2012
There are the four Gospels, the extensive histories by Flavius Josephus, numerous other accounts of the life of Jesus in art and literature, but none that tells the story through Mary’s eyes. On today’s “Morning Edition,” Lynn Neary spoke with author Colm Toibin (Brooklyn, The Empty Family, The Master) on his new book The Testament […]
November 12, 2012
The titles for the next World Book Night have been released. World Book Night is an annual event where tens of thousands of people in the US distribute 500,000 free books to light or non-readers. The next one will take place April 23, 2013. You will recognize many of the titles as outstanding books from recent […]
November 9, 2012
This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring the lyrical debut of Rowan Ricardo Phillips. In The Ground, the Stony Brook University professor meditates on both the beautiful and ugly of post-9/11 New York City in 44 poems of “fiery intelligence and inescapable music.” Reminiscent of the work of Derek Walcott, Wallace Stevens, and Rita Dove, […]
