NPR's Book of the Day

In an interview with NPR's Juana Summers, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina talks about the second chances he's been given by his mother and his constituents, which he also details in his new memoir America: A Redemption Story. Scott reflects on his struggles with self image growing up, the doubts he had as a young Black man in high school, and what he wished President Trump would have done during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Marianne Wiggins had started to write her latest book Properties of Thirst when she had a stroke in 2016. So her daughter Lara Porzak, helped her finish it. Porzak described the experience as "hard, very difficult, but beautiful." Talking to Scott Simon, both authors share how their time in the hospital and the uncertainty of the future helped complete a story about new beginnings. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

In an interview with the author of Solitary, the issue of criminal justice reform is central. Alfred Woodfox, who served 43 years in prison – most in solitary confinement, for a crime he says he didn't commit – died in August. He told NPR's Scott Simon that after his release, he struggled with claustrophobia because of the decades he spent in prison. This is an encore episode from February 2022. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's interviews center on children's books with wildly different topics, but they both aim to make reading more accessible for kids. Nikole Hannah Jones, working with Renee Watson, turned the 1619 Project into a picture book called Born On The Water. They told NPR their goal was "to say to young people - to young Black Americans, you belong here." Next, Adam Rubin has on his collection of short stories that are all different but share the same title: The Ice Cream Machine. Rubin told NPR's Rachel Martin that there are so many ways to tell a story. This is an encore episode from March 2022. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Author Imani Perry is a child of the South. In her newest book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, she gives the reader a look at the South's complicated history, interwoven with her own personal anecdotes. Even though the South has a difficult history, Perry contends, it provides important context for America today. Perry told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that in order to write this book she had to stop romanticizing the place she calls home – and, instead, look at it starkly. This is an encore episode from January 2022. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Patriarch Leo Chao is murdered at his restaurant at the beginning of Lan Samantha Chang's new novel The Family Chao. Eventually family secrets and bitterness reveal themselves — much like a Dostoyevsky novel, from whom Chao took a lot of inspiration. But NPR's Scott Simon points out that even though this novel is about a murder, it's quite funny. Chang told Simon that she just enjoyed writing it so much that humor became a natural part of it. This is an encore episode from February 2022. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

For people with autism, navigating a neurotypical world can be exhausting. Many deploy strategies to fit in with others, a tactic often referred to as masking. Social psychologist Devon Price spoke to Eric Garcia, author of Unmasking Autism, on Life Kit about the freedom that comes from unmasking. Price says neurodivergent people can find greater self-acceptance by getting in touch with the person they were before they started trying to fit in. Price and Garcia, who both have autism, talk about how unmasking means progress for disability justice. This is an encore episode from May 2022. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The 2022 Winter Olympics are right around the corner, so to prepare we are bringing you a conversation with skier Lindsey Vonn. Her new memoir, Rise, looks at her road to becoming a ski champion and Olympic medalist. Spoiler alert: it was not all sunshine and roses. Vonn told NPR's A Martinez that she's lucky she is wired in a way that makes negativity a driving force because she has seen the pressure and stress of being an Olympic athlete derail other people's careers. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today, two children's books that touch on a little bit of everything: from pets and illustrations to managing complicated emotions. First, Ian Falconer talks about his new book Two Dogs, a story inspired by his sister's dachshunds. In an interview with Ailsa Chang on All Things Considered, Falconer spoke about the deeper message – or lack thereof – of his work. Then, we hear from Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC about his new book, Darryl's Dream, inspired by his personal story. In an interview with Here and Now's Peter O'Dowd, McDaniels spoke about using books to teach kids about adult feelings. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The workplace can be a tricky - even fraught - place to navigate for anyone, but for those who come from marginalized backgrounds, it can be even tougher. How can you most effectively advocate for yourself? How can you make sure your work is being seen? Alan Henry's new book, Seen, Heard, and Paid, is an invitation to do just that. In an interview with Ana Sale on It's Been a Minute, the journalist and Wired editor gives practical advice for feeling empowered at work, taking control of your own schedule, and ultimately making work work for you, too. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The quest to find the headwaters of the Nile River was the mid-19th century's equivalent to the space race. In her new nonfiction book, River of God, Candice Millard follows the story of two bitter rivals on an adventure into uncharted places to claim that prize for England. In an interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, Millard spoke about the complicated legacy of the Nile's exploration and the arrogance behind "discovering" a land that has been populated for millions of years. And don't say we didn't warn you about the part where a beetle gets in someone's ear... To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today, the Great Dismal Swamp is a National Wildlife Refuge stretching between Virginia and North Carolina. But from the late 1600s to the Civil War, indigenous peoples and slaves sought refuge from persecution in the sprawling forested wetland. In her novel for young adults, titled Freewater, author Amina Luqman-Dawson imagines a world inside the swamp's colonies, filled with freedom, love, and change. In an interview with Here and Now's Celeste Headlee, Luqman-Dawson talks about her decision to stay away from writing a non-fiction book and the power of historical fiction for teens and kids. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

It's been 28 years since Apartheid ended in South Africa, but the country's people are still wrestling with the aftermath of segregationist policies. In her book, The Inheritors, journalist Eve Fairbanks shows – through the stories of three people – how decades of institutionalized racism etched themselves into the country's psyche. In an interview with Ayesha Rascoe on Weekend Edition Saturday, Fairbanks said she wanted to help people understand South Africa and its history in a more complex and nuanced way.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

This episode features baseball diaries with Scott Simon. First up, CC Sabathia details his personal struggles with alcoholism and fame in his memoir Til The End. And then, a conversation with Ron Shelton about the story and legacy of the classic film Bull Durham in his new memoir, The Church of Baseball. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Doreen Cunningham felt worn down by financial limitations as a single parent trying to, as she says, make life work. She tells Scott Simon that society's unfair treatment toward single-parent households led her to escape to follow the gray whale migration with her 2-year-old son, which she documents in her memoir Soundings. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Displacement, identity and the aftermath of warfare are themes running through today's episode on 'The Haunting of Hajji Hotak.' Author Jamil Jan Kochai talks with Ari Shapiro about why he used elements of science fiction like video games and magical realism to tell a largely autobiographical story of his family's life in Afghanistan before and after the Soviet invasion. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The setting for today's book could be an "alternate version of right now," according to author Davey Davis. They spoke with Anna Sale in an interview for It's Been a Minute about how their book 'X' looks into a dystopian reality where sex workers, immigrants and trans people are exported out of the U.S. And the book tells the story of what life is like for those in hiding. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's book evaluates the price of assimilation when representation, identity and belonging are erased. In Why Didn't You Tell Me?, author Carmen Rita Wong recounts how she discovered her origin story was all but true. She talks with Ailsa Chang about navigating her life after that discovery – and the impact of colonialism. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's episode features two books that reach deep into the animal world. First, E.O. Wilson sits down with Robert Seigel to discuss how the narrative of war is used in his story featuring ants, called Anthill. Then writer Ed Yong talks with Ayesha Roscoe about trying to show the experience of life through a different perspective – animals – in An Immense World. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's fictional book is set in very non-fictional circumstances. Novelist Ann Leary was trying to learn about her grandmother's history as an orphan and found that she worked at a eugenics asylum in Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. This became the basis of her story in the book 'The Foundling' which explores the state of women's rights, the relationship between it and eugenics, and a commentary over the long history of control over women's bodies. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's Book of the Day spans across two places: Hawaii and the Korean Peninsula. The story, though, goes beyond the two realities. In Joseph Han's debut novel Nuclear Family, a Korean family goes through hurdles when one of them is haunted by a long lost family member, crosses a dangerous border, and questions the blurred history of their past. Han shares with B.A. Parker how his own background and upbringing helped tell the story of this book. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today's Book of the Day is a little bit of everything: punk rock music, high school dynamics, some horror tropes, and pointing out the dangers of nostalgia. Author Paul Tremblay discusses with Shannon Bond why that is, and explains the influence his own high school experience and Stephen King brought to his book The Pallbearers Club. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

As the House's committee hearings on Jan. 6 continue, today's episode offers some context from The Atlantic reporter Mark Leibovich, who has a new book out this month titled Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission. He sits down with Juana Summers to talk about the price of blind loyalty under the Trump administration, and how that affected the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today, two books from indigenous authors who make a similar, wry argument: it's a miracle there are any Indigenous people in the Americas alive at all. First, Stephen Graham Jones talks about his horror novel The Only Good Indians, a reworking of an old, hostile phrase attributed to Theodore Roosevelt; plus the literary reasons why he chose to make it a horror story. Then, author Lisa Bird-Wilson talks about how her personal experience influenced her new book, Probably Ruby, a novel that follows the legacy of forced Indigenous adoption and residential schools in Canada. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

In this episode, we're going back in time to 1722 to examine the different approaches to justice between Native Americans and Pennsylvania colonists in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by historian Nicole Eustace. In an interview with Here & Now's Scott Tong, Eustace discusses how reparative justice has deep roots in American history. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

In celebration of the new U.S. poet laureate this year, Ada Limón, today's episode revisits another poet laureate's conversation with Michel Martin about how poetry has been used to deal with pain and healing. Joy Harjo, who has been the U.S. poet laureate since 2019 says she has always been drawn to healing ever since she was little. She even studied pre-med in college. But it wasn't until Harjo heard Native poets that she realized "this is a powerful tool of understanding and affirmation." She shares her poetry and story in the book, Poet Warrior. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

According to Jessica Hernandez, "as long as we protect nature, nature will protect us." Hernandez, from the Maya Ch'ortí and Zapotec nations, is a University of Washington postdoctoral fellow. In her new book, Fresh Banana Leaves, she makes a plea for the climate conversation to include indigenous expertise, and highlights practices she believes should be more widespread. In an interview with Celeste Headlee on Here and Now, Hernandez said that, if we want to be successful in the fight against climate change, we need to listen to those who have spiritual connections to Mother Earth. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Nailing the balance between humor and heavy, dark topics is a difficult feat. Night of the Living Rez by author Morgan Talty meets the mark. His collection of interconnected short stories tell the story of a Native American woman and her son who return to their reservation island in Maine. The two start living with a volatile alcoholic and the stories chronicle what that life looks like as the son grows up. Debut author Talty sat down with Melissa Block on Weekend Edition Saturday to talk about his work.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today we have two nonfiction books that touch on a bygone era of Hollywood some refer to as its "Golden Age." First, George Stevens, Jr., talks to Scott Simon about his book My Place in the Sun, a memoir about growing up as the son of a movie director, learning the family's craft, and striving for his dad's respect. Then, author Mark Rozzo speaks to Ailsa Chang about the untold story of Brooke Hayward and Dennis Hopper's relationship, the focus of his new book: Everyone Thought We Were Crazy. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer during World War II, stationed on a small island in the Philippines. When the Japanese army evacuated, Onoda stayed and fought for 29 more years, living in the jungle and resisting all attempts to convince him the war was over. Renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog tells a fictionalized account of this story in his first novel, The Twilight World. In an interview on All Things Considered, Herzog told Ari Shapiro that he's always been a writer and that this book is finally putting into words a story he had in him for two decades. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Life expectancy in the U.S. has always been different for people of color. And since the pandemic, that gap has widened. In her new book, Under the Skin, journalist Linda Villarosa uncovers the hidden toll of racism in America and how racial disparities impact all aspects of healthcare. In an interview with Karen Grisby Bates on the podcast Code Switch, Villarosa talks about the biases that lead to worse care for communities of color and how medical students are pushing against them. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

In Sudhir Venkatesh's The Tomorrow Game, two teenagers on Chicago's South Side face each other in a story that conveys the pressures and motivations boys face when buying guns. Venkatesh, a professor of sociology and African American studies at Columbia University, tells a true story (with names changed to protect privacy). In an interview with Weekend Edition Saturday, Venkatesh tells Susan Davis about the systemic and cultural challenges that kids face in poor neighborhoods, and says that if we want to solve the problem of gun violence, we must include them in the conversation. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Beach resorts are a favorite when it comes to travel destinations. But behind the infinity pools and the all-inclusive deals, these massive resorts are taking a toll on the environment and on local communities, says Sarah Stodola, author of The Last Resort. On one hand, they've proven to raise the standard of living for local communities, help create jobs and grow the economy. On the other hand, these communities have lost big parts of their culture and autonomy, and the impact they have on the environment is hard to miss. What is the tipping point in the growth and development of a place? To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today, two takes on stories we tell to make ourselves feel better and the consequences of believing them. First, author Danielle Evans' short story collection, The Office of Historical Corrections. The title story is about a fictional agency that fact checks in real time but, as she told former NPR host Noel King, it's less powerful than you might think. Then, the story of a Black woman's decision to pass as white and the decades-long fallout of that choice, in The Vanishing Half. Author Brit Bennett told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that the point of the story isn't to moralize.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Author Charmaine Wilkerson's new novel, Black Cake, is all about identity; who we are and how we fit into this world. Estranged siblings, Benny and Byron are left a recording by their late mother after she dies. The recording is full of secrets about their family that force Benny and Byron to reevaluate everything about their lives. Wilkerson told NPR's Kelsey Snell that even though Benny and Byron didn't know everything about their mother, she is still their mother who loved them very much, and that's also a part of their identity.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Patriarch Leo Chao is murdered at his restaurant at the beginning of Lan Samantha Chang's new novel The Family Chao. Eventually family secrets and bitterness reveal themselves — much like a Dostoyevsky novel, from whom Chao took a lot of inspiration. But NPR's Scott Simon points out that even though this novel is about a murder, it's quite funny. Chang told Simon that she just enjoyed writing it so much that humor became part of it.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Author of the wildly popular and, at times, controversial A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara, is out with a new novel. To Paradise is an epic – in three parts – sprawling over 700 pages and 200 years about a make-believe New York City. Yanagihara was mostly through writing her story, which features pandemics prominently, when COVID-19 first hit in early 2020. But Yanagihara told NPR's Scott Simon that she was able to keep her story and her fears about the pandemic in reality separate.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Author Emma Straub has written a book about family dynamics and the mess and love that comes with them in All Adults Here. It's no secret that families are complicated. Straub argues a lot of our familial relationships are watching each other grow up and whether or not you allow those you love to grow and change. She told NPR's Scott Simon though that even the bits that aren't perfect are worth loving.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Two collections of short stories, both alike in playfulness in our fair podcast. The first is with Gwen Kirby whose debut collection of short stories is called, hilariously, Shit Cassandra Saw. It ranges from radioactive cockroaches to tapdancing Twizzlers. Kirby told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that writing this book was a cathartic experience. The second interview is with Helen Oyeyemi about her collection of short stories, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. The stories are fairy tales, though not traditional ones. Oyeyemi told NPR's Steve Inskeep that she likes fairy tales because they endure.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

A non-fiction science book about animal sexuality could read like a dry textbook, but Eliot Schrefer wanted his book to be accessible. Queer Ducks uses interviews with scientists, illustrations, and stories to help teenagers learn more about sexuality in the animal kingdom. In an interview with Sacha Pfeiffer, Schrefer said he didn't want his book to argue for human behavior based on that of animals, but rather to make the point that humans are not alone in their LGBTQ identities. And, according to Schrefer, there is a lot of simplicity and radical acceptance to be found in nature. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker are old enough to remember Jim Crow in the South. But they recognize the part of the country they grew up in for both its flaws and its significant role in the history of the country. In their new book, The Southernization of America, Tucker and Gaillard make an argument about how the South shapes the nation's political and cultural landscape – for good and bad. In an interview with Debbie Elliott on Weekend Edition Saturday, they discuss the South's problematic contradictions and pushback now by some against learning about them. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

As a little boy grieving his mother, Séamas O'Reilly couldn't entirely grasp the monumental task it was for his father to have to raise 11 children all on his own. In his new memoir, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, he uses humor to get through all the sad, tragic parts of his childhood and to help celebrate the joy and love of his unusually large family. In an interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, O'Reilly spoke about how his memoir is ultimately a tribute to his father who, despite the circumstances, was always a source of delight. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Junteenth was celebrated across the country this weekend and is observed nationally Monday. In a new, Juneteenth-inspired cookbook, Nicole A. Taylor puts a summery spin on traditional African American food: making cocktails with sweet potatoes, fresh salads with collard greens and tons of ice cream. Although many people argue against commemorating the holiday with barbecues and other celebrations, Taylor spoke to Here and Now's Scott Tong about the juxtaposition of sorrow and sadness and how Black Americans have always had to make space for both. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Father's Day is this Sunday, giving us a good opportunity to reflect not only the art of fatherhood but also on the struggles that come after dads leave us. First, Helen McDonald talks to Robin Young on Here and Now about grieving her father's death by training a hawk – and finding her path again after grief. Then, Keggie Carew discusses her memoir Dadland, which talks about her relationship with her father, his fascinating stories from his time as a spy, and his struggle with dementia. In a way, these two nostalgic interviews are an invitation to give fathers their due, especially when they're still around. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You've probably seen it: Reese Witherspoon playing ambitious, throat-cutting Tracy Flick in the 1999 movie Election. It's the film adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name. Now, Perrotta has written a sequel called Tracy Flick Can't Win. In it, we meet Tracy Flick in middle age and just a tad bit away from accomplishing her high school dreams of becoming president of the United States. In an interview with All Things Considered, Perrotta told Sascha Pfiffer that he wanted to revisit this character's story to reflect on ambition, success, and the softening that happens in middle age. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Keri Blakinger says there are no rules behind bars. In 2010, she was arrested on a drug charge and spent two years in prison. And although that statement might sound counterintuitive, Blakinger says that inside the prison, no one is watching when it matters. In her memoir Corrections in Ink, she writes about her path from high-achieving teenager to incarcerated woman to reporter and writer. In an interview with Ailsa Chang on All Things Considered, she says reporting on the prison system has been meaningful because she gets to amplify the stories of those who are just where she used to be. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Inspired by a true story from Oakland, California, Leila Mottley's first novel follows a young Black girl who is sexually abused by a group of police officers. Kiara is a 17-year-old girl who comes from a fractured, poor family, and the novel follows her story as she attempts to survive and thrive navigating so much with so little protection. In an interview with Ayesha Roscoe on Weekend Edition Sunday, Mottley talked about the rich internal world she created for her main character, adding nuance to the storylines of poor characters, and the media coverage of the case that inspired her book. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Four strangers sitting in the reading room of the Boston Public Library suddenly hear a woman's piercing scream. When the body is found, the four characters quickly become friends as they work to solve the mystery. It's the plot of Sulari Gentill's new novel The Woman in the Library, a thriller set in the cold winter months of Boston, Massachusetts. In an interview on All Things Considered, Gentill told Elissa Nadworny that the idea of strangers bonding during scary events came from her own life experience during the bushfires of Australia. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

There is a common hurdle for many first generation immigrants: feeling out of place. Whether that's in school, speaking a different language, or living through parents' expectations. Today: two books about overcoming those feelings of inadequacy. First, Simu Liu, Marvel's first Asian superhero, discusses his memoir We Were Dreamers, where he talks about his complicated relationship with his parents and what he calls his "immigrant superhero origin story." Then, Cuban-American author Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider as a bilingual speaker and the creative freedom she found in writing Spanish without italics in her book.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Author Dan Chaon wanted to find a way to write about current times – instability, fear, political division – by creating an alternate version of America. Set in the future, his new book Sleepwalk is a dark and shadowy dystopia "one more pandemic away." Through the story, however, his eccentric main character discovers a longing for kingship and connection that was partly inspired by Chaon's experience as an adoptee meeting his biological father. In an interview on Weekend Edition Saturday, Chaon told Scott Simon that novels are like black holes: Everything you see in the world gets sucked into it. To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy