Npr Books Videos

Stories in this episode: 1) 'Dying Up Here' Chronicles Golden Age Of Stand-Up 2) Doctorow's Fictional Take On Real-Life Eccentricity 3) 'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter

Stories in this episode: 1) Ready to become engrossed in a good book? Try these mysteries you may have missed. 2) A new interactive novel allows readers to e-mail and telephone characters from the book. 3) Tina Brown, the Daily Beast editor talks about what you need to read on the web.

Stories in this episode: 1) Lev Grossman's new novel reads like a Harry Potter tale, but with more shades of gray. 2) Children's book author Lesley Blume recommends timeless books that both kids and parents will enjoy. 3) Fancy a cozy whodunit set in the English countryside? Don't read any of Mark Billingham's novels.

1) David Balducci writes crime novels that take place in Washington, D.C.. 2) A writer for The Onion talks about his new memoir and how marrying his humor and his depression makes for an insane, dark comedy. 3) Crime writer Gabriel Cohen takes us on a tour around Brooklyn, New York pointing out sites where his characters murder and die. 4) One cookbook author says you don't need recipes as long as you know ratios. 5) Some of the best books for beach reading are the ones which tell tales about the specific beach you're sitting on.

Stories in this episode: 1) Despite the economic downturn, one kind of story is still selling better than many other forms of adult fiction. 2) In a kind of supermarket Cinderella story, a cashier in France has become a literary sensation. 3) 'Young Woman and the Sea' shows how Gertrude Ederle's fame grew, then evaporated.

Stories in this episode: 1) The murder of wildlife activist and filmmaker Joan Root was never solved, but her life and violent death is the subject of a new book, 'Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa'. 2) Writer Neil Gaiman talks with Neal Conan about "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader."

Stories in this episode: 1) Author Colin Ellard says you can train yourself to be more conscious of your surroundings. 2) Author Jag Bhalla discusses the unique turns of phrase that different cultures use. 3) In a new book, Nick Reding describes why the working class in Oelwein, Iowa, started using meth.

Stories in this episode: 1) Retrace the strands that led to a lot of current American satire, and you end up at Harvey Kurtzman. 2) Nikita Khrushchev starred in his own travel comedy back in 1959. Peter Carlson's new book, 'K Blows Top,'documents the Communist leader's unusual tour through the United States. 3) Dean Olsher, author of 'From Square One,' weighs in on the appeal of the crossword.

Stories in this episode: 1) 'Touch' tells of the conflicting accounts that arise after a girl is groped on a school bus. 2) Author Gigi Levangie Grazer talks about her new novel, 'Queen Takes King.' 3) 'The Photographer' is an unusual graphic novel that tells the story of a photojournalist's harrowing trip to Afghanistan.

Stories in this episode: 1) Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro's new novel merges vampire folklore with the very modern paranoia over pandemics. 2) Looking to cozy up with some good books? Librarian Nancy Pearl has some great suggestions. 3) A multivolume dictionary five decades in the making collects the nation's linguistic treasures.

Stories in this episode: 1) This year's selections take readers from the great outdoors to the inside of a Scrabble factory. 2) Google's new e-book plan could give the Amazon Kindle a run for its money by the end of this year. 3) Haunted by memories of failures from his youth, Robin Hemley went back for a second chance.

Stories in this episode: Reviewer Alan Cheuse and writer Samantha Hunt offer their suggestions of books for summer. 2) The Kasper Hauser group's 'Weddings of the Times' pokes fun at formal wedding announcements. 3) For the first time, David Kaczynski has written about his relationship with the brother he admired. 4) These three books about the intensity of illicit love are meant to be savored for eternity.

Stories in this episode: 1) As author Clinton Heylin explains, Shakespeare's sonnets were never intended for a wide audience. 2) Karl Taro Greenfeld describes growing up with his autistic brother in his book 'Boy Alone.' 3) For Jeffrey Eugenides, Saul Bellow's 1964 tale of a man on the rocks beats any dose of caffeine. 4) A novel wears an autobiography's disguise in Clive James' rereleased 'Unreliable Memoirs.'

1) Vientiane, the capital city of Laos is the setting for Colin Cotterill's "Dr. Siri" mystery novels; 2) 2008 is the year of Richard Wright's centennial - Juan Williams speaks with Julia Wright, daughter of the author of "Black Boy" and "Native Son"; 3) Three Books with "Bark and Bite" for the dog days of summer; 4) Writer Walter Dean Myers tries to convey the African American experience in fiction to another generation; 5) "Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States" by Chris Fair brings together the foods and politics of Iran, Iraq and North Korea

1) "The Obama Nation" by Jerome Corsi is hitting bookstore shelves and bestseller lists - despite factual inaccuracies; 2) A deeper look at the political "Swift-booking" industry; 3) In "Warrior Girls" Michael Sokolove explores the risk of injuries faced by young female athletes; 4) A continuing fight over the rights to some of John Steinbeck's most famous books; 5) Historian Jason Goodwin uses the Istanbul of the past in his mystery novels, including his latest, "The Snake Stone"; 6) Alan Cheuse reviews "The Gift of Rain" and "Mosquito" - two novels set in Southern Asia

1) Matt Beynon Rees sets his new mystery, "The Samaritan's Secret" in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank; 2) The owner of a bookstore in Decatur, Georgia is soliciting funds from customers to help pay bills; 3) Writers from Santa Cruz attempt to capture the play of light and sun on the Pacific Ocean; 4) Alan Cheuse reviews Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing's new novel "Alfred 5) Publication of the controversial historical novel "The Jewel of Medina" by Sherry Jones was postponed over concerns of offending Muslims

1) Morning Edition's "Crime in the City" series goes to Glasgow, Scotland with the novelist Denise Mina, whose protagonist is the depressive Maureen O'Donnell; 2) "In Lincoln's Shadow" chronicles the race riots of Springfield, Illinois that erupted a century ago; 3) Michael Chabon's alternate-history novel "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" wins this year's Hugo award for Science Fiction; 4) George Orwell's diary reconceived as a blog, with each entry posted 70 years to the day later; 5) Patricia Nell Warren writes about the lives of gay athletes in her upcoming book "The Lavender Locker Room"

1) "Goodnight Bush" parodies a classic children's book, with a bitingly political bent; 2) Librarian Nancy Pearl recommends ideal reads for airplane trips; 3) Hamlet is updated and moved to the midwest in David Wroblewski's "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" and Lin Enger's "Undiscovered Country"; 4) Is "The Four-Hour Workweek" possible? Author Timothy Ferris says time is a scarce currency; 5) Three Books on the subject of shipwrecks

1) A challenge for amazon's Kindle e-reader: how does it stand up to a visit to a pool? 2) Three Books celebrating independence; 3) "Curse of the Black Gold" examines Nigeria's troubled history with oil exploration and its effects on the country's environment and population; 4) Wordsworth, Coleridge and the birth of the English Romantic Movement; 5) Were Shakespeare's plays actually written by the Earl of Oxford? 6) Summer thrillers reviewed by Alan Cheuse

1) Author Jonathan Raban says you must read Evelyn Waugh's "Put Out More Flags" - a comedic novel set in the early days of the second World War ; 2) A duel between rival actors portraying Hamlet leads to "The Shakespeare Riots"; 3) Maureen Corrigan reviews Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland"; 4) "Rome 1960" by David Maraniss looks at the Olympics games that 'changed the world'; 5) Benjamin Wittes looks at "Law and the Long War" - what the role of the courts will and should be in fighting terrorism