Tracy K. Smith Named U.S. Poet Laureate
The Library of Congress has named Tracy K. Smith as the the country's new poet laureate. She's the author of three collections of poetry and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
Books
What Makes A Good Whodunit? 'Magpie Murders' Author Spells It Out
Anthony Horowitz's latest novel is a whodunit about whodunits. He says, "I wanted it to be ... a sort of a treatise on the whole genre of murder mystery writing."
Journalist Ventured 'Behind The Lines Of Jihad' To Interview The World's Most Wanted
Washington Post correspondent Souad Mekhennet has risked kidnapping and imprisonment to report on extremist groups, such as ISIS and the Taliban. Her new memoir is I Was Told to Come Alone.
Prog Rock Gets Some Respect In 'The Show That Never Ends'
David Weigel is primarily a political reporter, but in The Show that Never Ends he spins his love of prog rock into a detailed, affectionate history of a genre that's never completely gone away.
'So Much Blue' Is Percival Everett's Best Yet
By turns funny, shocking and heartbreaking, Everett's new novel follows a painter who's deeply ambivalent about his apparently idyllic life and digs into the moments in his past that shaped him.
'Hue 1968' Revisits An American 'Turning Point' In The War In Vietnam
Author Mark Bowden says the capture of Hue, Vietnam, was part of a wave of well-planned Communist attacks that shocked American commanders and helped turn U.S. public opinion against the war.
Race, Class And Paying Down Southern Food's Great 'Debt Of Pleasure'
In his book, The Potlikker Papers, John T. Edge tells the story of modern Southern history through food — which means "explicitly digging into issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity," he says.
Adam West Saved Batman. And Me.
NPR's resident Bat-scholar Glen Weldon offers a personal remembrance of the late Adam West, explains how the actor rescued the character of Batman from oblivion, and explores his enduring legacy.
'Blind Spot' Is A Multimedia Journal Of Travel
Novelist and photographer Teju Cole's latest book is a mix of text and photography. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks him about his book Blind Spot.
'Last Kid Left' Is A Summer Read For People Who Hate The Light
Rosecrans Baldwin's new novel probably shouldn't have come out in summer: It's got the trappings of a beach read — a shore town, tourists, a murder — but it strays into some very dark territory.