Books

Books
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'How To Grow Up' Needs To Grow Up

3:05pm January 28, 2015

by Michael Schaub

Poet, novelist, memoirist and queer icon Michelle Tea makes a rare misstep in How to Grow Up, an essay collection that reviewer Michael Schaub calls "a well-intentioned, exasperating mess of a book."

Marie Mutsuki Mockett says the Japanese tradition of Tōrō nagashi — lighting floating paper lanterns in honor of loved ones — reminded her that she was not alone in her grief.

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After Father's Death, A Writer Learns How 'The Japanese Say Goodbye'

6:30pm January 27, 2015

by NPR Staff

Lost in a deep depression, Marie Mutsuki Mockett visited a temple owned by her mother's family near Fukushima. There, she found traditions and ways of thought that helped her work through her grief.

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'Mr. Mac' Paints Flowers In A Darkening World

1:53pm January 27, 2015

by Heller McAlpin

Esther Freud's new novel Mr. Mac and Me traces an unlikely friendship between a lonely boy and a struggling artist. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says the book has both technical prowess and grace.

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'The Jaguar's Children' Is Ripped From Heartbreaking Headlines

1:09pm January 27, 2015

by Alan Cheuse

Critic Alan Cheuse says John Vaillant's intense tale of illegal immigrants trapped in a tanker truck in the Arizona desert expands a single terrible story into a history of human suffering.

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Frank Sinatra captured by photographer William "PoPsie" Randolph during a 1943 concert. Author Ben Yagoda points to Sinatra as one of the interpreters who helped revive the Great American Songbook.

When Pop Broke Up With Jazz

9:00am January 27, 2015

by NPR Staff

For the first half of the 20th century, Tin Pan Alley songwriters like Irving Berlin and the Gershwins dominated pop music. By the the 1950s, tastes had changed, and the music changed with them.

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For A Taste Of Grimdark, Visit The 'Land Fit For Heroes'

3:01pm January 26, 2015

by Genevieve Valentine

Richard K. Morgan's epic sword-and-planet (and alien technology) Land Fit for Heroes series is a good introduction to grimdark, a subgenre that aims to show the gritty underside of fantasy fiction.

One of Megan Mayhew Bergman's short stories is based on the life of dancer and actress Butterfly McQueen.

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Arts

These 13 'Almost Famous Women' Stirred Up Trouble, Or Trouble Found Them

2:17pm January 26, 2015

by Maureen Corrigan

Megan Mayhew Bergman's stories about historical women are littered with bad-girl paraphernalia, like smashed-up motorcycles and morphine needles. In this collection, their lives are richly imagined.

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'Ghettoside' Explores Why Murders Are Invisible In Los Angeles

1:17pm January 26, 2015

In her new book, journalist Jill Leovy studies the epidemic of unsolved murders in African-American neighborhoods and the relationships between police and victims' relatives, witnesses and suspects.

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In 'Fatherland,' A Daughter Outlines Her Dad's Radicalization

12:12pm January 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

Falling in love with your handsome pen pal, moving overseas to marry him, then finding out he's part of a terrorist organization: That's the Bunjevac family story, told in a new graphic memoir.

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Esther Freud is the author of Hideous Kinky, The Sea House, and other novels.

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Arts

Two Outcasts Form An Artistic Bond In 'Mr. Mac And Me'

11:49am January 26, 2015

by NPR Staff

Painter's daughter Esther Freud weaves her own experiences into the story of a lonely little boy in a British seacoast town, who befriends the great Art Nouveau designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

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