NPR's Book of the Day

Body image can be a tricky subject to navigate for those of all ages – including kids. In today’s episode, we’re highlighting two kids’ books that encourage body positivity and spark curiosity about our outsides and insides. First, NPR’s Scott Detrow talks to author Susan Verde about her book Body Beautiful, and her quest to stop kids’ negative self-talk before it begins. Then, Here & Now’s Robin...

Robert Smalls’ dynamic life story – his daring escape from slavery, his pivotal role in the Civil War, and the political career that ensued – was almost lost to history. But now there are plans to preserve and celebrate him. A new monument honoring Smalls is set to be unveiled outside the South Carolina Statehouse. In today’s episode, Michael Boulware Moore, Smalls’ great-great-grandson and author...

In the spring of 1941, Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, braced for incoming attacks from German bombers. Over April and May, four German air raids killed thousands of Belfast residents. Lucy Caldwell’s novel These Days is set during this time. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon about a piece of writing advice from Gabriel García Márquez, what she learned from survivors...

We are in the thick of winter in the U.S. Days are short, nights are long, and in much of the country, it’s crisp and cold outside. A new book by the Scottish author Val McDermid makes the case for the season’s beauty – despite its challenges. Winter: The Story of a Season is a work of creative nonfiction that explores seasonal traditions and McDermid’s personal memories. In today’s episode, the a...

Matt Greene’s new novel The Definitions starts with new college dormmates getting to know each other. But there’s a dystopian twist: The students have survived a virus that has erased people’s memories. Nameless students attend school at The Center, where they’re told their memories will one day return to them. In today’s episode, Greene chats with NPR’s Lauren Frayer about the philosophy of langu...

Two debut novelists are out with murder mysteries set in the United Kingdom. First, Jennie Godfrey’s T he List of Suspicious Things is a coming-of-age story inspired by the Yorkshire Ripper, the English serial killer who murdered 13 women in the 1970s. In today’s episode, Godfrey tells NPR’s Scott Simon about her own experience growing up during the time of these murders. Then, Death at the White...

Indian Bengali writer Amitav Ghosh has been writing about empire, the environment, and other subjects for the past 25 years. Now, he has gathered some of his essays into a new collection called Wild Fictions , which asks big questions about the way humans are connected to other forms of life. In today’s episode, Ghosh joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on climate change as a p...

Hester Kaplan, the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Justin Kaplan, knew her father was an esteemed writer and researcher, but she didn’t quite know him personally. After the elder Kaplan died in 2014, Hester began to discover her father, unexpectedly, through his famous biographical account of Mark Twain. In today’s episode, Kaplan speaks with Here and Now ’s Tiziana Dearing about the...

Palantir is one of the world’s most valuable companies, analyzing data for businesses, but also for U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies. The Philosopher in the Valley , a new book by Michael Steinberger, is a portrait of the company’s CEO, Alex Karp. In today’s episode, Steinberger speaks with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about Palantir’s operations at the nexus of technology and national security, Karp...

Russ & Daughters opened in 1914 and is one of the last remaining “appetizing stores” in New York City. The shop – which the owners say is not a deli – is famous for its bagels and lox, among other classic Jewish foods. Now, the Russ family is out with a cookbook that includes history, recipes and musings from the last century. In today’s episode, NPR’s Scott Simon visits Russ & Daughters, where he...

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Last up: A 10-year-old girl, Louisa, is later found on a beach in Japan – and her father has disappeared. She and her mother are left on their own – but the tragedy doesn’t bring them closer together, at least for a long time. Susan Choi’s novel Flashlight follow...

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Tessa Hulls’ grandmother, Sun Yi, was a dissident journalist in Shanghai who faced intense political persecution during the Chinese Communist Revolution. In today’s episode, Hulls tells Here & Now’s Scott Tong that her grandmother’s trauma often cast a shadow ove...

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Megha Majumdar’s novel A Guardian and a Thief , a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award, takes place in a near-future Kolkata struck by climate change. There, one family’s possibility of escape is put in jeopardy when their passports are stolen. In this conve...

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. Karen Russell’s novel The Antidote is set during the Dust Bowl – a period when poor farming practices and drought led to a wave of severe and damaging dust storms. In this bleak setting, we’re introduced to a cast of characters, including a woman who stores other...

As 2025 comes to a close, we're revisiting interviews with this year's nominees and winners of some of the biggest prizes in literature. First up: Raja teaches philosophy to high schoolers and shares an apartment with his 82-year-old mother, Zalfa. Rabih Alameddine explores their relationship – and other forms of intimacy – in his new novel The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)...

If you’re feeling burnt out from your annual holiday cookie-baking marathon, don’t fear. There’s hope on the other side… in the form of cake. In today’s episode, Here and Now' s Robin Young speaks with two authors and bakers about their newest cookbooks focused on cake. First, she joins Dorie Greenspan to discuss Dorie’s Anytime Cakes , a beginner-friendly collection of comforting cake recipes. Th...

Dictionaries were once bestsellers, but between the internet and artificial intelligence, its role in our culture has changed. Stefan Fatsis is out with a new book called Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) The Modern Dictionary , which documents this shift. In today’s episode, he speaks with NPR’s Don Gonyea about embedding with the publisher of Merriam Webster, the history of lexicography,...

In 2017, Wicked author Gregory Maguire set out to tell the backstory of another classic fairytale. His novel Hiddensee focuses on Herr Drosselmeyer, the powerful toymaker in The Nutcracker . In today’s episode, we revisit a conversation between Maguire and then-NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Maguire tells Garcia-Navarro about his interest in writing a Nutcracker prequel, giving people “consolation”...

Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold more than 300 million books since the first installment was published in 2007. The star of the series is the famous line drawing, Greg Heffley, a frequently frowning, middle-school-aged antihero. Now, Kinney is out with Partypooper , the 20th book in the series. In today’s episode, Here & Now’s Robin Young travels to An Unlikely Story in Plainvill...

Mahmood Mamdani — a professor of government at Columbia University and the father of Zohran Mamdani, NYC’s next mayor — has spent decades researching colonialism and its effects on the African continent. His work is both political and personal, influenced by his own experience in Uganda as an exiled citizen deemed nonindigenous by colonial structures. In today’s episode, Mamdani talks to NPR’s Lei...

As the film adaptation of Waiting to Exhale celebrates its 30th anniversary, B.A. Parker and Andrew Limbong , along with It’s Been a Minute host, Brittany Luse , revisit its source material about four friends, Savannah, Gloria, Robin, and Bernadine, as they make their way through the 30s, in love and in life. Later on, special guest, Tia Williams , speaks to Andrew about how Terry McMillan paved t...

Two new memoirs zoom in on important moments in music history. First, Paul McCartney’s new book Wings reflects on the life of his post-Beatles band, which he formed in London in 1971. In today’s episode, McCartney speaks with NPR’s A Martínez about establishing a distinct identity in The Beatles’ shadow. Then, Rob Miller founded Bloodshot Records in the 1990s when a new sound – “insurgent country”...

33 Place Brugmann opens with a list of the residents of a Brussels apartment building. The year is 1939 and Germany’s invasion of Belgium is on the horizon. Alice Austen’s debut novel winds together the fates of these residents under Nazi occupation. In today’s episode, Austen joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on the backstory of the building’s address, how she balanced the n...

In William Boyd’s newest novel The Predicament , lead character and travel writer Gabriel Dax becomes a secret spy, scouring the globe on British orders during the Cold War. He’s looking for an escape from espionage, but when he starts to receive envelopes of cash from the KGB, can he resist? In today’s episode, author William Boyd talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about the second book in the Gabriel...

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn has spent more than three decades in Congress. But he’s not the first Black congressman to represent South Carolina; there were eight others before him. His new book, The First Eight , dives into the political careers of figures like Robert Smalls and George Washington Murray. In today’s episode, Clyburn speaks with NPR’s Michel Martin about one major takeaway from the...