Search results for

Reviewer Susan Jane Gilman wasn't impressed by the title of Someone, but she says Alice McDermott's novel is nowhere near as generic as its name. Nothing extraordinary happens to the Irish-American protagonist, but with spare poetry and deep compassion, McDermott makes familiar territory seem new.

Paul Yoon's new novel, Snow Hunters, follows a Korean War POW who starts a new life in Brazil. Yoon drew on his own family's experiences to write the book, and reviewer Alana Levinson says his "ruminations on the role of memory in shaping our identity speak perfectly to the experience of war."

In the new book God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song, author Sheryl Kaskowitz explores the lyrical evolution of Irving Berlin's enduring song and explains how its early popularity reflected the anxiety of the pre-war period and sparked a surprising anti-Semitic and xenophobic backlash.

Read an exclusive excerpt of Scott Lynch's long-awaited new Gentleman Bastard book, The Republic of Thieves. In this installment, dashing thieves Locke and Jean are hired to help fix an election in the city of Karthain. The twist? The opposition has hired their own dirty trickster — Locke's long-lost love, Sabetha.

Former IT consultant Graeme Simsion's debut novel, The Rosie Project, is a scientific romp about a probably-Asperger's-affected genetics professor who falls in love with a free-spirited woman during a search for her biological father. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says it's an "utterly winning screwball comedy."

With a new book out that purports to be a novel but actually isn't, James Franco seems to have mastered celebrity in an unexpected way. He has so many images at this point — stoner, student, artist, bro — that he seems to have no image at all.

Ann Leckie's debut novel, Ancillary Justice, is the tale of former starship AI Breq. Now an autonomous human, Breq is out to kill the devious dictator who rules her corner of the galaxy. Reviewer Genevieve Valentine says Ancillary Justice is "a space opera that skillfully handles both choruses and arias."

This year marks the 125th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot. To celebrate, a re-issue of the first edition of his seminal poem has just been published, with an introduction by New Yorker poetry editor Paul Muldoon. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Muldoon about the poem's lasting influence.

In The Faithful Scribe, Shahan Mufti examines the history of Pakistan and that nation's relationship to the U.S. He interweaves the story of his own family with the tumultuous story of the nation. Mufti talks with NPR's Arun Rath about the future of the world's first Islamic democracy.

In a new memoir called Just Tell Me I Can't Moyer explains how he became a better pitcher in his 40s than his 20s. Moyer's story isn't just the tale of a talented guy who hung on a little longer than others; with the help of a sports psychologist, he managed to gain control of the mental side of his game.