Search results for

In her new story collection, This Close, Jessica Francis Kane depicts a group of women who are worn down, overwhelmed by love and loss, yet familiar as old friends. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says they are "our family, our friends and neighbors. They are us, at our most vulnerable."

Christa Parravani tells the story of her identical twin, Cara, whose brutal rape led to a heroin addiction and eventually her death at the age of 28.

Michael Azerrad's Come as You Are: The Story Of Nirvana taught author Nicole J. Georges how to overcome her teenage angst and grow up.

Dr. Sam Parnia researches the experiences of cardiac arrest patients in the time between when their hearts stop and when they are brought back to life. Parnia thinks of these experiences as actual-death experiences as opposed to near-death experiences.

Reporters Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy, who covered Bulger for years for The Boston Globe, have a new book out about the career criminal. Bulger was wanted for 19 murders when he was captured by the FBI in 2011. He faces trial in June.

Economist Sonali Deraniyagala lost her husband, parents and two sons in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Wave is her searing, unflinching account of learning to live with that loss, and of allowing herself to remember the life that she lost.

Folk musician Woody Guthrie wrote thousands of songs in his lifetime — but as far as anyone knows, he only wrote one novel. Recently discovered, House of Earth is the story of struggling young sharecroppers who dream of creating a safe haven amid the dust storms and economic depression of the 1930s.

Maurice Sendak died last May but left behind a final book: a reflection on loss and love written in memory of his brother Jack. Sendak's longtime friend Tony Kushner describes the book's origins and Sendak's literary heroes.

NPR's Backseat Book Club takes the yellow brick road back to its origins with L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900.

Chris Morgan Jones' The Jackal's Share finesses the fundamentals of the spy novel with admirable economy. The clever premise has our detective investigating his own client in order to certify his sterling character. Naturally, complications arise.