NPR Books
'Steal The Menu': A Chronicle Of A Career In Food Coverage
When Raymond Sokolov began writing about food, it was considered a specialty portfolio. Today, celebrity chefs abound in the U.S. and Britain, with cookbooks, TV shows and groupies. Host Scott Simon speaks with Sokolov about his new book, Steal the Menu: A Memoir of Forty Years in Food.
Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Geometry' And 'Snowflake'
NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Snowflake by Winona Wendth of Lancaster, Mass., and Geometry by Eugenie Montague of Los Angeles.
Snowflake
She found the photograph early in the day, while she was cleaning for spring, pulling a winter's collection of domestic detritus out from under the bed. Ticket stubs, grimy grocery notes, coffee-stained lined paper, and dead pens. Their life: movies, food, and books.
Gateway Arch 'Biography' Reveals Complex History Of An American Icon
The gleaming stainless steel arch in St. Louis is, officially, a monument to westward expansion. But in The Gateway Arch: A Biography, Tracy Campbell argues that the monument's meaning is more complicated. He tells NPR about the controversies, the clout and the costs behind the 630-foot structure.
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Prepare For Takeoff With 'Cockpit Confidential'
In his new book, pilot and columnist Patrick Smith explains why you have to turn off your cellphone for takeoff and landing, and why your ideas about autopilot are probably all wrong. He wants people to "re-appreciate the act of air travel. It's not as horrible as everybody thinks it is."
A Race Against Time To Find WWI's Last 'Doughboys'
In 2003, Richard Rubin set out to talk to every American veteran of World War I he could find. With help from the French, he tracked down dozens of centenarian vets and recorded their stories in a new book called The Last of the Doughboys.
NPR Bestsellers: Week Of May 23, 2013
The lists are compiled from weekly surveys of close to 500 independent bookstores nationwide.
NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of May 23, 2013
Symbologist Robert Langdon faces a Dante-themed riddle in Dan Brown's Inferno. It debuts at No. 1.
NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Nonfiction, Week Of May 23, 2013
The Guns at Last Light concludes Rick Atkinson's World War II trilogy. It debuts at No. 4.
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NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Fiction, Week Of May 23, 2013
At No. 13, a pilot fights to survive after a devastating pandemic in Peter Heller's The Dog Stars.
NPR Bestsellers: Paperback Nonfiction, Week Of May 23, 2013
An expanded edition of Wreck This Journal encourages creative destruction. It debuts at No. 14.
Book News: Judge's Comments Bruising To Apple's Price-Fixing Case
Also: Mary Karr on addiction and David Foster Wallace; Maria Semple calls Jonathan Franzen her "big daddy."
'Lunch Lady' Author Helps Students Draw Their Own Heroes
Can you imagine your own superhero? That's the question author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka posed to kids on a recent afternoon at a school in Washington, D.C. Krosoczka also described how he overcame a difficult childhood to become the author of the beloved Lunch Lady series.
June Kids' Book Club Pick: 'The One And Only Ivan'
In June, NPR's Backseat Book Club will read Katherine Applegate's tale of Ivan, a gorilla who lives in a shopping mall. Ivan enjoys watching TV and painting, but a newcomer to the mall — a baby elephant — forces Ivan to face his own past.
Book News: Lydia Davis Wins Man Booker International Prize
Also: Amazon to begin publishing fan fiction; Paul Ryan and Elizabeth Warren are writing books; Keith Richards' exorbitant library fines.
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Heartbreaking Choice Sets Siblings On Separate, Unequal Paths
A poor father sells his daughter to a wealthy, childless couple, dividing her from her beloved brother and setting a chain of stories in motion in Khaled Hosseini's And the Mountains Echoed. Moving and morally complex, this is the most ambitious book yet from the author of The Kite Runner.
Judge: Unredeemed Borders Gift Cards Are Worthless
A Manhattan judge upholds a lower court ruling that $210 million worth of unredeemed gift cards from the defunct book chain are no longer valid.
Fictional 'Mothers' Reveal Facts Of A Painful Adoption Process
After years trying to conceive, novelist Jennifer Gilmore and her husband decided to adopt. What they thought would be a relatively simple process was instead a long and painful one. In her latest novel, Gilmore channels these autobiographical experiences into fiction.
Book News: Newly Found Pearl Buck Novel To Be Published This Fall
Also: shameless book blurbs; new plays from Ayad Ahktar; and a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone draws a record price at auction.
A Different Kind Of Immigrant Experience In 'Americanah'
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest, Americanah, follows the trials and tribulations of Ifemelu, a middle-class Nigerian immigrant to America. Reviewer Jennifer Reese calls Americanah a "rich and gloriously detailed tapestry ... hung on the sturdy scaffolding of a sweet love story."