NPR's Book of the Day

As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we’re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. Today’s episode features two novels that fictionalize the Jim Crow South. Author Tayari Jones spoke with Weekend Edition ’s Ayesha Rascoe about Kin , which follows two friends growing up in Honeysuckle, La. who must navigate the constraints on Black women in the...

As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we’re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. In Eddie Glaude’s new book, the Princeton professor says the United States has a “double consciousness.” Glaude expands on a concept from W.E.B. Du Bois, arguing the country imagines itself at once as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic. In today’s episo...

As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we’re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. In today’s episode, author and journalist Rick Atkinson speaks with Weekend Edition 's Scott Simon about his book The British Are Coming . They discuss Atkinson’s portrait of George Washington, whether the American Revolution was motivated by freedom or economic...

As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we’re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. Bob Crawford of the Avett Brothers has a second career as a writer. In today’s episode, he talks with Morning Edition ’s Steve Inskeep about his book, America’s Founding Son, a biography of one of the less-distinguished presidents in U.S. history: John Quincy Ad...

As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we’re revisiting author interviews on important books that speak to American history. In today’s episode, journalist Norah O’Donnell joins NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly to discuss We the Women , written in collaboration with Kate Andersen Brower. O’Donnell tells Kelly about lesser-known female heroes, like the woman who printed the Declaration...

Summer can be a great time to catch up on reading. If you’re looking for recommendations, the NPR Books team is out with a list of some of our staff’s favorite reads of 2026 so far. In today’s episode, NPR’s Elissa Nadworny and Book of the Day producer Chloee Weiner discuss some of their favorite fiction and nonfiction picks from the list, including The Missed Connection by Tia Williams, The Shamp...

Over 50 years, Judy Blume wrote an incomparable set of books for young readers, including Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret , Deenie , Tiger Eyes , Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber . But she doesn't write books anymore. Scott Simon spoke with Blume at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May, where they reflected on her life and career. In today’s episode, they speak abou...

Ophir led an unremarkable life until her best friend pulled her into the scam. After 10 years on the run from the Singapore police, she’s assumed new identities, losing sight of herself along the way. She decides to tell her story anonymously through a confessional podcast, but longs to be acknowledged for who she really is. In today’s episode, author Yu-Mei Balasingamchow joins Weekend Edition ’s...

A new book argues that Elon Musk has an influence in the 21st century similar to what Henry Ford had in the 20th. He's not just a businessman, but the architect and proponent of a world view. Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff make this argument in a new book called Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed . In today’s episode, Slobodian speaks with Morning Edition ’s Michel Martin ab...

In Tom Perrotta’s new novel, a successful writer named Jimmy Perrini is invited to return to his hometown in suburban New Jersey. The invitation takes him back to a difficult summer when he was in eighth grade and had just lost his mother to cancer. Ghost Town revisits that 1970s summer, one colored by strip malls, troublemakers, the Vietnam War, an Ouija board, and racial tensions in Perrini’s wh...

The Rolling Stones and Soundgarden are two of the most influential bands in the history of rock – and two new books tell their stories. The Rolling Stones by Bob Spitz is a history of the band, but also of drugs, women and feuds. In today’s episode, the author gives Here & Now ’s Indira Lakshmanan a behind-the-scenes look at songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Gimme Shelter.” Then, Sou...

Laverne Cox became a breakout TV star at 40 with a starring role in Orange Is the New Black . Since then, she’s become an advocate and role model for trans people, which she says means “invit[ing] people to see trans people as human beings.” In today’s episode, Cox joins All Things Considered ’s Ailsa Chang for a conversation about her new memoir Transcendent . They discuss Cox’s childhood in Alab...

Author Tessa Yang describes her The Jellyfish Problem protagonist as an "introverted, know-it-all dork." In the novel, Jo, a marine biologist, gets a call from her unrequited college crush, Nadia, who has a request. Nadia lives on a remote island, where they’re having a problem with a giant creature. Can Jo help? In today’s episode, Yang speaks with NPR’s Elissa Nadworny about similarities between...

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut believes there is a “spiritual rot” festering in the country – and he wants the left and right to come together to resolve it. His new book Crisis of the Common Good argues the United States worships profit over people. In it, he takes aim at corporations, billionaires and super PACs. In today’s episode, he speaks with Morning Edition ’s Leila Fadel abou...

Novelist Dave Eggers ( A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Circle) has a new novel out: Contrapposto. It’s a decade-spanning romance of sorts, between two devoted creatives whose careers in the art world bring them together and tear them apart — repeatedly. As Cricket and Olympia navigate their relationship, the age-old question remains: what is art, really? In today’s episode, Eggers j...

In the new novel They All Fall in Love at the End, polyamory is the topic at hand — primarily what it offers the protagonist and how she navigates a world where open relationships are not the norm. The End of Romance tells a story quite the opposite: A woman becomes opposed to romance altogether after leaving an abusive marriage. Today’s episode features conversations with the authors of both book...

How does a nationwide revolution affect the individual lives of its citizens? In the midst of the latest conflict in Iran, journalists Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati set out to answer this question by charting Iran’s history since its 1979 revolution. The product is Stolen Revolution, a collection of accounts from six Iranians — each with their own perspective on Iran and its past, pres...

In 2022, journalist Carlos Barragán moved to Lagos, Nigeria to investigate a cybercrime network of text-based internet phishing, also known as “sweetheart scams." He found that a small band of young men known as the “Yahoo Boys” were creating fake avatars to lure American victims into online romances — a 21st-century iteration of the Yahoo email scams from the 1990s. Barragán, who wrote about his...

R.F. Kuang’s fantasy novel Katabasis , first published in 2025, is out in paperback. The book is about two rival doctoral students studying magic at Cambridge University. Together, they travel to hell to rescue their recently deceased thesis advisor. Last year, Kuang joined NPR’s Emiko Tamagawa for a conversation about the novel at a live event in Boston. They spoke about Kuang’s rigorous approach...

A few years ago, Theo Baker – then a student at Stanford University – joined the school newspaper and broke a story that forced the university president to resign. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, he uncovered, had overseen several labs in which researchers had falsified results. His new book How to Rule the World documents power and corruption at Stanford, colored by mansion parties, slush funds, and tech e...

Novelist Ann Patchett has written about things as wild as hostage takeovers, fairy tales, and betrayed magicians’ assistants. But her new novel Whistler turns down the stakes to focus on the quieter complexities of human relationships. Today’s episode features two conversations between Ann Patchett and NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. First, Patchett talks about Whistler and how it embraces the act of agi...

Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray have just published new historical fiction. Their novel A Pair of Aces is about two women in 1930s New York who face down the mob and try to take down the infamous gangster Lucky Luciano. One of the protagonists is Eunice Carter, based on the real first Black female prosecutor in New York. In today’s episode, the co-authors talk with NPR’s Ayesha Rasc...

At the start of the Cuban Revolution, Adela Ferrer’s husband made an impossible decision. Her husband had fled Havana for New York, and she planned to take her two children and join him. But instead, she was forced to bring only her daughter, leaving her 9-year-old son behind. That daughter – Ada Ferrer – is out with a new memoir called Keeper of My Kin . In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s...

What happened to those who remained in Ireland after the Great Famine of 1865? It’s a question that fascinated Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet, as she began her newest novel Land. Drawing on fragments of Irish history from her great-great-grandfather, O’Farrell’s Land is about… land, but it’s also about the myths, stories, and spirits that persist across generations. In today’s episode, O’Farre...

The first and only 2024 Biden-Trump presidential debate was not a night easily forgotten. Joe Biden’s stumbling performance and Kamala Harris’ resulting candidacy changed history — but questions remain. In former first lady Jill Biden’s new memoir View From the East Wing, she tries to answer them. Did President Biden have a medical episode on stage? Did the Biden campaign project false hope toward...