NPR's Book of the Day

Despite the attention that Roe v. Wade has gotten throughout the years, there are still many details about the case that are obscure to the public. For one, the landmark case that legalized most abortions for women did not in fact end with an abortion. The baby, often referred to as Baby Roe, is Shelly Lynn Thornton, now a grown woman whose story is at the center of Joshua Prager's book The Family Roe. In an interview with All Things Considered, Prager told Michel Martin that through the family's story, he hoped to humanize the debate and help others see abortion "not through politics, but people."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 weekend is Mother's Day, a good occasion to reflect on the art of parenting. First, comedian Glenn Boozan speaks to Celeste Headlee on Here and Now about her book There Are Moms Way Worse Than You, a joke-book that uses examples of bad parenting from the animal kingdom to soothe those who might be worried about their own child-raising skills. Then, an interview from our archives: a 1989 chat with Amy Tan on All Things Considered about her novel The Joy Luck Club, the story of four Chinese American families living in San Francisco inspired by Tan's experience as a child of immigrants. 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

Dolen Perkins-Valdez says she's attracted to what she calls "silences in the archives," or – holes in our recollection in history, particularly those in African American history. In her new historical novel Take My Hand, she tackles forced sterilizations inspired by the 1973 case of the Relf sisters. On Weekend Edition Sunday, Perkins-Valdez told Ayesha Roscoe about her decision to tell this story from a nurse's perspective, the double-edged sword of birth control for Black women, and her goals on writing from real life. 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

After writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning books The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, author Colson Whitehead needed a change of pace. So for his next novel, Harlem Shuffle, he decided to tackle topics near and dear to his heart: heists and New York real estate. In today's episode, Morning Edition host Noel King talks to Whitehead about his book's protagonist, a furniture retailer named Ray Carney, and what draws him to a double life of crime. 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, simply existing in a neurotypical world can be exhausting. Many learn early on to employ certain strategies to fit in with others, a tactic often referred to as masking. Social psychologist Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism, spoke to Eric Garcia on Life Kit about the freedom that comes from doing the opposite: 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. 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 2017, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender woman in office when she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. In her new memoir, Burn the Page, she writes about the experiences that got her to that moment, the women who inspired her, and the ways in which she reclaimed her own narrative. In an interview on All Things Considered, Roem told Juana Summers that she wrote about things other politicians might try to bury to take control of her own narrative. She says her motto "be vulnerable enough to be visible" has empowered and liberated her in her career. 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

Who made you the person you are? Today, we bring you two interviews from Black female authors who explore the impact that musicians, writers, and actresses had on their own artistic careers. First, Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer prize culture critic and celebrated memoirist, speaks to Ari Shapiro on All Things Considered about mixing memoir and criticism in her book to show both power and vulnerability. Then, Danyel Smith talks to Juana Summers on It's Been a Minute, about the history of Black women in music and how she hopes to give them the respect they deserve. 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

New Yorker magazine cartoonist Liana Fink grew up in a Jewish household; she went to synagogue, attended Hebrew day school, and observed Shabbat. But noticing a drift between her religious practice and her interest in its traditional stories put her on a path to reclaim her faith on her own terms. The result is 'Let There Be Light,' a graphic novel that retells the Book of Genesis starring a woman as God. In an interview on Weekend Edition Sunday, Fink told Scott Simon that reimagining God as a woman through her characteristic humorous style has helped her reconnect with her faith and religion. 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 Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the Wilson Center known for her research on online disinformation, women face a disproportionate amount of attacks online. These range from physical insults to threats of violence, and they're forcing women – especially younger ones – to censor themselves out of fear of physical or emotional retribution. In her new book, How to Be a Woman Online, she offers practical advice for those who, lacking institutional help, have to address these matters solely on their own. 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

Janelle Monáe's Afrofuturistic pop album 'Dirty Computer' was nominated for a Grammy in 2019. Now, Monáe brings the sci-fi world into literature through her latest collection of short stories The Memory Librarian. In an interview with Ayesha Rascoe on Weekend Edition Sunday, Monáe spoke about the nightmare that sparked this idea and how it prompted her to reclaim her full identity as a Black, queer woman. In a radical approach to love and community, Monáe hopes to help people feel free to be themselves, especially those whose stories are often marginalized or erased. 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

After more than a dozen novels and collections of short stories, Irish writer ColmTóibín recently published his first book of poetry. His new collection, Vinegar Hill, examines a wide range of subjects: from mortality, religion, and the current political climate, to the power of poetry in life's most important moments. To celebrate Poetry Month, Tóibín read some of his poems to Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, and said that he wanted to write without the usual adornments of poetry. In a way, he hopes the simplicity of his writing will have more expression and power. 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 is Earth Day, a good occasion as any to reflect on the emergencies the planet currently faces. First, Harriet A. Washington, author of A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind, talks to NPR's Sarah McCammon about the long-term damage environmental issues can have on brain development—particularly for people of color. Next, the author David Wallace-Wells talks to NPR's Rachel Martin about his book The Uninhabitable Earth, which is a lot more hopeful than the title might suggest. He runs through the worst-case scenarios climate change could wreak, and why every effort we make against further global warming matters.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

Percival Everett's page-turning new detective novel is at once gruesome and screamingly funny. A racial allegory rooted in southern history, the book features two big-city special detectives with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation who are sent to investigate a small town crime. The murders are hideous in detail, the language is rough, there are racial epithets of all kinds, and somehow the politically incendiary humor is real. Everett talks with NPR's Scott Simon about how — and why — he blended these styles. 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

Nobody does love and heartbreak like an Ephron. And Delia Ephron knows a lot about it. Her new memoir is Left on Tenth, and it details the trauma of loss and the incredible hopefulness of falling in love. And as she tells NPR's Scott Simon in this Weekend Edition interview, in the end, love is all that really matters. 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

When you think of an epic, what comes to mind? The Iliad, the Odyssey, maybe Beowulf? Well, author Honorée Fanonne Jeffers points out that epics are almost always about white men. She told former Morning Edition host Noel King that she didn't want to tell that story because that story has already been told...many times. So, Jeffers set out to write a different kind of epic about heroic Black women in The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois. 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 already pretty hard to tell what's really real when it comes to social media. But Jennifer Egan takes it one step further in her latest novel The Candy House where people can upload their actual memories, and let other people live in theirs. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad talked with NPR's Leila Fadel on Morning Edition about what it means to be "authentic." 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

Both interviews today are with author Douglas Stuart. The first about his Booker prize-winning Shuggie Bain; a story based on his own life growing up a queer son of a single mother struggling with addiction. He told NPR's Scott Simon that he hoped people could find comfort in this story. Next, Stuart spoke to NPR's Ari Shapiro about his new book, Young Mungo. It's a story about two boys separated by faith who end up falling in love with each other. Stuart told Shapiro that when he "write[s] about heartbreak or sadness, I'm really only doing that to make the tenderness and the love shine more."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

Bonnie Garmus' new novel Lessons In Chemistry has been getting a lot of buzz. Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist but because it's the 1960s she faces sexism in her quest to work as a scientist. So instead she has a cooking show that is wildly popular. Garmus told NPR's Scott Simon that the character of Elizabeth lived in her head for many years before she started writing this novel.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

Former Homeland Security official and author Juliette Kayyem has a new book out that encourages preparedness. The Devil Never Sleeps makes the case that disasters are going to happen, and gives advice on how to manage them. Kayyem told NPR's Steve Inskeep that we need to redefine our definition of success after disasters occur.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 Jenny Tinghui Zhang is out with a new historical fiction novel, Four Treasures In The Sky. Set in the 1800s during the height of anti-Chinese sentiment, a young girl named Daiyu is kidnapped and brought to the U.S. Zhang told NPR's Ayesha Rascoe that she has seen a lot of reviews that refer to this book as 'timely' – and that she does not think that is a good thing when a book is about racism.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

April is National Poetry Month, so to celebrate we are bringing you a conversation with poet Ocean Vuong. His new collection, Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told Morning Edition's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost his mother: "when I look at my life since she died in 2019, I only see two days: Today when she's not here, and the big, big yesterday when I had her."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

Writer Maud Newton could not ignore her family's white supremacist history, so she decided to reconcile with it in her new book Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. She told NPR's Ari Shapiro that she felt a responsibility to deal with her family's past. Next, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's book Whereabouts is about a sense of place – even though we are never told where exactly the book takes place. Lahiri told NPR's Mary Louis Kelly that we can be too fixated on who we are and where we are from, so not naming where this novel is set was freeing.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

Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel The Committed follows the same unnamed character we met in his Pulitzer-winning thriller, The Sympathizer. The character is now in Paris; having become disillusioned with the revolution he was a part of when we last saw him, he hasn't given up on the idea entirely. Nguyen told NPR's Scott Simon the book is also about colonization: He "wanted it to be set in a Paris that was not the tourist Paris or the romantic Paris. [It's] a novel about French ideas and French Revolution and French colonialism, but it's also a crime thriller set in these immigrant neighborhoods."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 1970, a cyclone tore through Pakistan and the political lines that existed, leading to genocide and very nearly a nuclear war in the country. Author Scott Carney was curious about this catastrophe but also how these extreme weather events, which are only becoming more common, have political consequences. Carney told NPR's Steve Inskeep that we will almost certainly face similar problems in the future, so we should be wary of today's unstable political systems.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 Karen Joy Fowler thinks John Wilkes Booth craved attention – and that gotten his fair share of it. So her new novel, Booth, instead focuses on his family. Their history might surprise you, given how John turned out. His grandfather was a part of the Underground Railroad. Fowler told NPR's Scott Simon that because of all we know about Booth's family, the path that John took is one of life's great mysteries. And, no, she hasn't solved 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

Writer John Schu and illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison are out with a new picture book that asks the question what exactly is school...for? Test prep? Socialization? This Is A School makes the case that it's a place for community and trying new things. Schu and Miller Jamison told NPR's Ailsa Chang that their own elementary school experiences were not like the ones in their book, but they hope kids today get to have diverse experiences.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 first interview is with author Peng Shepherd on her new mystery. A father and daughter, both cartographers, haven't spoken in seven years. But when the father is found dead his daughter must use their shared skill to solve the mystery of his death. Shepherd told NPR's Elissa Nadworny that obsession can be a stand-in for the person lost. Next, Anne Tyler on her new book which follows a family in Baltimore across several generations. Tyler told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that she likes to write about families because they sort of have to love each other even when they annoy each other.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 Ladee Hubbard's new collection of short stories, The Last Suspicious Holdout, all take place in a nameless, majority Black suburb in the 90s and early 2000s. The stories all connect and intertwine with each other over time; telling the story of this community. Hubbard told NPR's Juana Summers that she was "interested in people that keep going, that survive hardships and find a way to keep believing and working towards things getting better" and those transformations were emblematic of the community as a whole.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

Journalist Frank Bruni had lots of professional success: he was a White House correspondent, food critic, and opinion columnist. But then in 2017 he suffered a rare type of stroke that left him unable to see correctly. His new memoir, The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found, focuses on many people who, like Bruni, have had challenges or setbacks in their lives that they have had to adjust to. Bruni told NPR's Ari Shapiro that asking people about their pain "ends up being rewarding and enriching for everybody involved."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

Comic Phoebe Robinson told NPR's Rachel Martin that she doesn't wake up every day thinking "time to dismantle systemic racism!" But since she has a platform, she might as well use it to bring about some positive change. She also told Martin that her dream life involves buying sensible cardigans, getting day drunk with Kathy Lee and Hoda, and a loving marriage with Robert DeNiro. Robinson's book You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain goes into the racism she experiences and why she would like to date either Michael Fassbender or Michael B. Jordan (sorry Mr. DeNiro).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 94th Academy Awards were last night. To celebrate we're taking a trip down memory lane with one of Hollywood's greatest icons, Rita Moreno. Back in 2013 she sat down with NPR's Rachel Martin to discuss her life and career, including her win for best supporting actress in 1962. She told Martin that her acceptance speech was so short because she wanted to get off stage so she could cry.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 nearly a month since Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine, so we are taking another look at how we got here. First, an interview from 2014 with the late political scientist Karen Dawisha on how Putin and his cronies became so fabulously wealthy. She told NPR's Arun Rath that leveling economic sanctions would have been effective because Putin expected military action instead. Second, we have a new memoir from Marie Yovanovitch who was ousted as ambassador to Ukraine by President Trump and played a key role in his impeachment. She told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly it was a painful experience.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

Romance writer Jasmine Guillory writes beautiful love stories – but that doesn't mean they aren't based in reality. Her novel Party of Two from the summer of 2020 is about a Black woman and a white man who have a meet-cute and start a casual long distance relationship. But race does have an impact on their connection because of the different ways the world has impacted them. Guillory told former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro that real life couples have these conversations so her characters should 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 nameless narrator in author Claire-Louise Bennett's new novel, Checkout 19, absolutely loves books. Their mere presence puts her at ease. But her lifelong love of reading is, in part, because she feels let down by the people around her. Bennett told NPR's Scott Simon that loving to read is amazing, but there's a danger in always living other's experiences before having some of your own.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

Can you belong to more than one home? Author Melissa Fu sets out to answer that question in her debut novel Peach Blossom Spring. The story of the Peach Blossom Spring was first told by a poet over one thousand years ago: A fisherman stumbles upon a paradise of peach trees and has to decide whether to abandon his old life and stay in this beautiful place or go back home. That is the same predicament that Fu's main character Renshu faces. Fu told NPR's Ailsa Chang that it's hard to live in two cultures but she wouldn't have it any other 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

Author Azar Nafisi has written a love letter to literature and reading in Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times. She does this in a series of letters to her late father who passed on in 2004. Nafisi says that reading can help us really live and also help us, and has helped her, survive challenging times. Nafisi told NPR's Scott Simon that literature's purpose is to let us experience new worlds: "to come out of yourself, and join the other."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

Our books today give the reader a peek into showbiz. Sarah Polley was a child actor but that led to her being put into many dangerous situations, which she details in her new memoir, Run Toward The Danger. She told NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer that she's not sure kids should be acting in a professional environment at all. Next, Isaac Butler deep dives into method acting in his new book The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. Butler told NPR's Scott Simon that method acting can create some beautiful performances but it's not an excuse to be terrible.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

At the center of author Naima Coster's novel What's Mine & Yours are two struggling mothers. Jade is a Black single mother who is trying to provide a better life for her son, and Lacey May is a white mother who is trying to give her daughters the life she never had. Their stories will intertwine over decades, starting with when Lacey May opposes the integration of her daughters' school – the same school Jade is trying to get her son into. Coster told NPR's Audie Cornish that fiction gives us a window into other people's lives but that does not mean we have to condone their actions.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

Somali British poet Warsan Shire has had many projects, including running a popular Tumblr page and collaborating with Beyoncé. Now, she is out with a new collection of poems called Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head. That title is an ode to how she was raised, having to take on a lot of responsibility from a young age. But Shire told NPR's Sarah McCammon that it's also an ode to the children who are able to turn those voices into their friends instead of struggling with them as she has.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 NoViolet Bulawayo's new novel Glory is quite openly based on Orwell's Animal Farm and the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe that ousted then president Robert Mugabe. Horses rule the country, dogs are the military, cows, goats, sheep, and pigs are the everyday people. The government that has been in control of the country Jidada for 40 years has fallen to rebellion. But, as these things go, it quickly turns sour. Bulawayo told NPR's Scott Simon that "it is simply an issue of the leadership kind of forgetting [...] why the people they – that fought to serve – made the sacrifice that they did."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 former attorney general under former President Trump, William Barr, is out with a new memoir called One Damn Thing After Another. In it, he agrees with President Trump on many things: modern day culture wars and that the progressives are dividing the country. But Barr also gives his own version of the events of the Trump White House and disagrees with the former president about the "stolen election." Barr told NPR's Steve Inskeep "after the election, [Trump] didn't seem to listen to anybody except a group of sycophants who were telling him what he wanted to hear."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

Our interviews today are both children's books and even though they are about wildly different topics, they both aim to make reading more accessible for kids. Nikole Hannah Jones, with the help of Renee Watson, has 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 written a collection of short stories that are all different but have the same title: The Ice Cream Machine. Rubin told NPR's Rachel Martin that there are so many ways to tell a story.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 Bernardine Evaristo wrote the Booker prize winning novel Girl, Woman, Other. But before she did, like way before, she was incredibly unsure of herself or how she - as someone with a Black father and white mother - fit into her mostly white town. Even still, Evaristo always knew she had something important to say. She lays out those early struggles and how she overcame them in her new memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up. Evaristo told NPR's Michel Martin that she has always been a private person but sharing so many of her secrets for the reader was very liberating.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 Tess Hadley's new novel opens with an affair, but that's not really what the book is about. Free Love is set in the 1960s just outside of London and it starts with a wealthy woman in her 40s, Phyllis, sharing a secret kiss with a much younger man who is not her husband (gasp). The kiss has unintended consequences and Phyllis has to figure out what she really wants out of life. Hadley told NPR's Elissa Nadworny that being part of the bourgeois is not something she's familiar with, but she loves to write about it because she doesn't think that world exists anymore.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 an Icelandic word, sprakkar, that means outstanding women - and those women are at the heart of the book Secrets Of The Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women And How They Are Changing The World. Iceland's first lady and author, Eliza Reid, interviewed women from all walks of life to find out what makes being a woman in Iceland so great. Reid told NPR's Leila Fadel that not everyone knows Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Equality Index for the past 12 years, so she set out to change that.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

Back in 2013 author Anthony Marra wrote a book that is every bit as timely today. A Constellation Of Vital Phenomena takes place in Chechnya, a place very familiar with warring with Russia, in 2004. It's a story about the people - everyday, ordinary people - war and its aftermath impacts. Marra told NPR's Jacki Lyden that he wrote "a novel about people who are trying to transcend the hardships of their circumstances by saving others."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 look at the power of the Chinese government. The first book, How I Survived A Chinese Reeducation Camp, is by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman who spent years in a detention camp. It's a stark account of human rights atrocities. Haitiwaji told NPR's Scott Simon she feels lucky because millions of people are still suffering. Next is an interview with Chinese businessman Desmond Shum about his book Red Roulette. It's the story of his wife's disappearance and then reappearance. Shum told NPR's Steve Inskeep that when she resurfaced he felt like he was "negotiating with her kidnapper."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

Novelist David Wright Falade learned about the life of Richard Etheridge in the 90s and has been enthralled by him ever since. Born into slavery in North Carolina, he became a sergeant of an all-Black brigade when the Civil War broke out. Black Cloud Rising is a fictionalized version of these events; Etheridge goes back down to North Carolina to free enslaved people and fight guerillas. Falade told NPR's Scott Simon that it was really important for him to try to get to know the human behind the extraordinary acts.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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed his recent invasion of Ukraine as a "de-nazification" of the country. This is not a new move by Putin. In fact, he used this same rhetoric to attack the Ukranian protesters during the 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Back in 2014 historian Timothy Snyder talked to NPR's Robert Siegel about fascism in Ukraine and the rise of Stalinism in Russia. He told Siegel that calling Ukranians Nazis is both a way to confuse the European Union - because they know Nazis were bad - and a way to garner pro-Russian sentiment.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