Book Reviews, Book News, and Author Interviews : NPR (2024)

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Here are the Books We Love: 380+ great 2023 reads recommended by NPR

November 20, 2023 • Books We Love returns with 380+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 11 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,600 great reads.

Hanna Cha / Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

To learn 'The Truth About Dragons,' go on a quest through this kids' book

July 27, 2024 • A little boy must go on a hero's quest — through woods full of oak trees and a bamboo forest — to discover "The Truth About Dragons" in Julie Leung and Hanna Cha's Caldecott Honor children's book.

Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

These dictators are different. 'Autocracy, Inc.' explains how

July 24, 2024 • The dictators of today aren't united by ideology, writes Anne Applebaum: They operate like companies, focused on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.

Universal

'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu says creativity isn't magic — it's hard work

July 24, 2024 • Chu takes his inspiration from his dad, a Chinese immigrant who worked both the front room and the kitchen of their family-run restaurant: "The guy that in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero."

Penguin Random House

'Someone Like Us' is a fresh, idiosyncratic novel about immigrating to the U.S.

July 24, 2024 • Dinaw Mengestu's ingenuity and eloquence as a writer are on display in this novel about an Ethiopian American man who returns home only to learn that his father has just died.

cinoby/Getty Images

Dancing yeti crabs, morphing cuttlefish, other stories from the deep sea

July 24, 2024 • As a kid, Sabrina Imbler loved the ocean. They'd swim and snorkel, following around parrotfish in the water. Later, they tried to learn everything they could about the brightly-colored tropical fish – how some create a mucus cocoon at night to protect it from parasites, or how they help keep coral reefs healthy.

Sergei Guneyev/AFP via Getty Images

Expert on dictators warns: Don't lose hope -- that's what they want

July 23, 2024 • Autocracy, Inc. author Anne Applebaum says that today’s dictators — including Putin and Xi — are working together in a global fight to dismantle democracy, and Trump is borrowing from their playbook.

Hogarth

'Liars' is an autopsy of a bitterly disappointing marriage

July 22, 2024 • In her fierce second novel, Sarah Manguso writes a requiem for a failed relationship from the point of view of a survivor, the wife left behind.

NPR

8 hot new love stories from a stellar lineup of Black authors

July 19, 2024 • Some of the most fabulous romances by Black authors still fly under the radar. So we have recommendations for your summer reading enjoyment.

Dutton

'This Great Hemisphere' tackles racism, classism, and political power struggles

July 18, 2024 • Mateo Askaripour's sophomore novel is a sprawling speculative-fiction narrative that delivers a heartwarming story about a young woman learning to navigate the world.

Etienne Laurent/Getty Images

LeVar Burton has portrayed the Black experience "from our enslavement to the stars"

July 18, 2024 • LeVar Burton has three roles he'll forever be known for: Kunta Kinte on the TV series Roots, Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation and host of Reading Rainbow. Those roles have had profound impacts on people and he now understands, as he puts it, "my job is to be LeVar Burton." He talks to Rachel about the tension of that job, his changing definitions of success and learning to embrace the chaos.

Laurel Chor for NPR

Ukraine's bookstores are thriving, but a top printing plant took a deadly hit

July 18, 2024 • Ukraine's bookstores have expanded despite the war, fueled by interest in works by Ukrainian writers, some who have been killed by Russian forces. But a Russian missile struck a top printing plant.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The political evolution of J.D. Vance

July 16, 2024 • When President Biden heard that Donald Trump had picked J.D. Vance to be his running mate, he called the Ohio senator "a clone" of Trump. But when Vance first gained national attention, he was one of Trump's loudest critics.

Practice, by Rosalind Brown/Macmillan

This absorbing debut novel about writing takes its cue from 'Mrs. Dalloway'

July 16, 2024 • Rosalind Brown's debut novel, Practice, centers on an undergraduate student trying to write an essay on Shakespeare. Along the way, we are treated to the fleeting insights of the the brain at work.

Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Simmering over summer books

July 15, 2024 • We're at the peak of summer, which means sunny days on the grass with a good book! Bestselling authors Tia Williams and Jean Chen Ho join host Brittany Luse to give their recommendations for great summer reads. They also offer some armchair theories on why we love a gossipy summer novel.

Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Festiva

The Sunday Story: The love that shaped Whoopi Goldberg

July 14, 2024 • Whoopi Goldberg is an icon of entertainment. She's played many roles in Hollywood, and she has perhaps been most inspirational for the way she has shown up as herself. But before the acclaim, Whoopi Goldberg was known as Caryn Johnson and in her own words, "A little bit different.. and out there."

Michael Loccisano/Getty

Nikki Giovanni doesn't think about her legacy. But here's a moment she felt proud

July 11, 2024 • At 81, Nikki Giovanni isn't afraid of getting older. And the legendary poet also isn't spending any time thinking about her legacy. She's mostly focused on having fun and being able to look back on her life and feel like she did her duty. She talks to Rachel about the myth of a happy family, what she's learned on safaris and why she's fascinated with Mars.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

'State of Paradise' effortlessly blends the commonplace and the extraordinary

July 10, 2024 • With exquisite prose, smart lines on every page, a building sense of growing strangeness tinged with dread, and surprises all the way to the end, this might be Laura van den Berg's best novel so far.

Cory Richards

This photographer nearly died mountain climbing. His memoir details the mental toll

July 10, 2024 • Former National Geographic photographer details his struggles with mental health while climbing the world’s mountains

Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Mavis Staples on Prince, MLK and a life onstage

July 9, 2024 • This week, the legendary singer and civil rights figure Mavis Staples is turning 85 and there's no sign of her slowing down: She released a new song, "Worthy," and a children's book, Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples.

Simon and Schuster

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has “complete confidence” in Biden’s candidacy

July 9, 2024 • NPR's Juana Summers talks with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer about her new book True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership and Everything in Between.