NPR's Book of the Day

Journalist Mikhail Zygar says a lot of Russian historians were actually propagandists – they worked for people in power and wrote recorded events the way politicians and elites wanted. In his new book, War and Punishment , he breaks down the historical myths he says are part of the Russian psyche, one he says Putin uses to defend the invasion of Ukraine. Zygar tells NPR's Leila Fadel that he doesn...

Today's episode focuses on very different experiences of the teenage years. First, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Christine Suggs about their new graphic novel, ¡Ay, Mija!, inspired by Suggs' formative trip to Mexico to understand their parents' upbringing and reconnect with their family and culture. Then, NPR's Rachel Martin sits down with psychologist Lisa Damour to discuss her new book, The Emot...

Writing is a practice – especially for MacArthur Genius Grant and National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes. His new collection of poems, So to Speak , comes out of that practice during turbulent times: COVID quarantine, the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd. And they reach further back, too, to the Jim Crow South and his mother's youth. In today's episode, Hayes speaks with NPR's Ma...

In C.K. Chau's new novel, Good Fortune , Elizabeth Chen is highly wary of the Wong brothers who have swooped in to buy a New York City community center. But where Elizabeth sees a threat to her neighborhood, her mother sees an opportunity – and not just for their block. In today's episode, Chau speaks with NPR's Ailsa Chang about reframing Pride and Prejudice as an early aughts story about love an...

In Filthy Rich Politicians , conservative columnist Matt Lewis presents some startling figures. Senator Rick Scott: net worth of approximately $200 million. Representative Michael McCaul: $125 million. Nancy Pelosi: $46 million. In his book, Lewis takes a close look at how people get richer after they're elected to office, and what this wealth means for our political systems. He speaks with NPR's...

Lara, the protagonist of Ann Patchett's Tom Lake , finds a silver lining during the frightening first few months of the COVID pandemic: her three adult daughters return home to the family orchard in Northern Michigan. In today's episode, Patchett tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly how they bond while Lara tells them of a romance from her youth, and how looking back to the past brings up all kinds of qu...

Today's episode features two novels with two very different protagonists, though their journeys might have more in common than appears at first glance. First, Stephen Buoro discusses The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa with NPR's Camila Domonoske, which follows a young Nigerian man's obsession with whiteness. Then, NPR's Scott Simon asks Max Porter about Shy , a short novel depicting a Bri...

Actor Rainn Wilson says he's "always identified as being a dork and a misfit and an outsider." In fact, he says that's probably why he found so much success playing Dwight Schrute in The Office . But in real life, Wilson attributes his dorkiness to how uncool it was to be "the God guy" in the New York acting scene, causing him to shy away from it. In his new book, Soul Boom , he details the monume...

Miles Morales, the beloved protagonist of Jason Reynolds' Spider-Man novel, is back. And this time, he's dealing with in-school suspension for challenging his history teacher at an elite Brooklyn private school. But between writing poetry about his new crush and saving the world, the young, Black and Puerto Rican superhero also stumbles into some major themes about racism and censorship. Reynolds...

For poet Camille Dungy, environmental justice, community interdependence and political engagement go hand in hand. She explores those relationships in her new book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden . In it, she details how her experience trying to diversify the species growing in her yard, in a predominantly white town in Colorado, reflects larger themes of how we talk about land and rac...

The protagonist of Susanna Hoffs' debut novel, Jane Start, probably listens to Dionne Warwick to hype herself up in the morning. Start is 33 and living with her parents – her days of pop stardom, for one song, are 10 years behind her. But in This Bird Has Flown , a romantic spark reignites a second chance for her creative endeavors, too. In today's episode, Hoffs tells NPR's Andrew Limbong how her...

Today's episode is all about music history. First, musicologists Kerry O'Brien and William Robin tell NPR's Noah Caldwell about their new book, On Minimalism , and how the genre was born out of 1960s counterculture and went on to influence artists like The Who and Alice Coltrane. Then, Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome tell NPR's Samantha Balaban about their new picture book, The Story of th...

Today's episode comes to you straight from Madhur Jaffrey's kitchen. NPR's Michel Martin pays the celebrated chef and actor a visit in her New York home, where she discusses how she first learned to cook while studying acting in London. Jeffrey also reflects on how Indian cooking has changed since she published her first cookbook. An Invitation to Indian Cooking will be re-issued later this year t...

In his new book, A Little Devil in America , poet Hanif Abdurraqib writes about music in such a way that NPR's Rachel Martin wanted to focus a conversation about spiritual transcendence related to it. What came out, however, was a deep discussion about how losing his mother and close friends early in life created its own kind of spiritual practice for Abdurraqib. In today's episode, he explains ho...

In the midst of the #MeToo movement in 2017, Claire Dederer posed a difficult question in The Paris Review : "What Do We Do With the Art of Monstrous Men?" From that viral essay comes her new book, Monsters , which examines how we morally engage with – or don't – musicians, authors and actors whose work we love, when we condemn their personal actions. In today's episode, Dederer tells NPR's Ayesha...

Johannes Vermeer's 1664 masterpiece "The Concert" was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. That real - still unsolved - case is at the heart of Daniel Silva's new thriller, The Collector . Despite his initial reluctance, art restorer and former Israeli intelligence officer Gabriel Allon is enlisted to hunt down the painting, along with an unexpected collaborator. In today's epi...

Today's episode is all about young readers and the ways they interact with complicated emotions. First, NPR's Julie Depenbrock speaks with Jon Klassen about his new book, The Skull , inspired by a folk tale about a little girl who runs away from home. She befriends the skull and they form a close bond despite the strangeness of the situation. Then, NPR's Miles Parks talks with author Kevin Johnson...

Aurora James is the designer behind the fashion brand Brother Vellies and the 15% pledge, an initiative that encourages major retailers to stock more work by Black-owned businesses on their shelves. In her new memoir, Wildflower , she describes the complicated upbringing that led her to her current work as a creative and activist. In today's episode, she tells NPR's Michel Martin why it was so imp...

In their new book, Nobody's Fool , psychology professor Daniel Simons and cognitive scientist Christopher Chabris make the case that people don't just fall for scams because they're gullible. The way our brains work – the way they reason and trust – can often lead us to believe a piece of misinformation or to click on a phishing scam. In today's episode, the authors explain to NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer...

In today's episode, author Nishanth Injam tells NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer that when he first arrived in the U.S. from India, he wondered if he'd made a huge mistake. That tension he grappled with is now at the heart of his debut collection of short stories, The Best Possible Experiences , which chronicles the expansive ups and downs of being an immigrant, both at home and in a new place. See pcm.adswiz...

The new novel The Rachel Incident is rooted around a wonderful, messy friendship. Rachel and James live together, party, and get themselves into a peculiar situation with an older married couple. In today's episode, author Caroline O'Donoghue speaks with NPR's Miles Parks about how abortion and sexual repression in Irish society play a large role in Rachel's early adulthood. O'Donoghue also shares...

Today's episode takes us back in time to American society in the '70s. First, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Dennis Lehane about Small Mercies , his new novel about the desegregation of Boston public schools and a mother's plight to find her missing daughter during that time. Then, Simon chats with CNN anchor Jake Tapper about his book All the Demons Are Here , a family drama that involves a...

Ana Menéndez's novel The Apartment starts decades – maybe centuries – before the art deco building named The Helena is built in South Beach, and ends eons into the future. What takes place in apartment 2B in the in-between is where her story lives. From a Cuban concert pianist to a refugee, Menéndez dives into who lives at The Helena and how their time there shapes them. In today's episode, she te...

In his new nonfiction book, When Crack Was King , Donovan X. Ramsey explores how the crack cocaine epidemic of the '80s and '90s shaped people, neighborhoods and entire communities, particularly for Black and low-income folks. He writes portraits of those who struggled with addiction, those who sold the drug, and those who tackled policy and decriminalization. In today's episode, Ramsey tells NPR'...

Cassie, the main character of Sarah Rose Etter's novel Ripe , has hit a wall. She's burned out at her toxic Silicon Valley job, she's disillusioned by the staggering wealth and poverty that surround her at the same time, and she's struggling with depression and anxiety. In today's episode, Etter tells NPR's Juana Summers how Cassie's experience parallels some of her own time working for a start-up...