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Jonathan Todd/Graphix

In 'Timid,' there is bravery under the surface

June 29, 2024 • Many assume that timidity -- or its close cousin, shyness -- is solely a negative trait. But longtime cartoonist Jonathan Todd shows this is not always the case in this semi-autobiographical tale.

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Catapult

'The Liquid Eye of a Moon' is a Nigerian coming-of-age story

June 26, 2024 • In Uchenna Awoke’s debut novel, we come to understand that 15-year-old Dimkpa’s choices are painfully constricted by the caste system into which he was born.

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NPR

4 crime and suspense novels make for hot summer reading

June 25, 2024 • There’s something about the shadowy moral recesses of crime and suspense fiction that makes those genres especially appealing as temperatures soar. Here are four novels that turn the heat up.

4 crime and suspense novels make for hot summer reading

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Random House

'Cue the Sun!' is a riveting history of reality TV

June 25, 2024 • Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum's book is a near-definitive history of the genre that forever changed American entertainment.

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In 'Parade,' Rachel Cusk once again flouts traditional narrative

June 20, 2024 • In her latest work, Cusk probes questions about the connections between freedom, gender, domesticity, art, and suffering.

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion, by Julie Satow

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue Doubleday
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Doubleday

2 books offer just the right summer mix of humor and nostalgia

June 20, 2024 • Catherine Newman's novel Sandwich centers on a woman vacationing with her young adult children and her elderly parents. Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue profiles three NYC department stores.

2 books offer just the right summer mix of humor and nostalgia

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Books We Love

Here are the nonfiction books NPR staffers have loved so far this year

June 17, 2024 • We asked around the newsroom to find favorite nonfiction from the first half of 2024. We've got biography and memoir, health and science, history, sports and much more.

Summer BWL Nonfiction

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Books We Love

NPR staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024

June 17, 2024 • At work: hardworking news journalists. At home: omnivorous fiction readers. We asked our colleagues what they've enjoyed most this year and here are the titles they shared.

NPR staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024

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William Morrow

'Horror Movie' questions the motivation behind evil acts

June 12, 2024 • Paul Tremblay's latest tale is dark, surprisingly violent, and incredibly multilayered — a superb addition to his already impressive oeuvre showing he can deliver for fans and also push the envelope.

In the episode "From Virgin to Vixen,” Queenie is in peak fun mode, until her demons begin to catch up with her. Latoya Okuneye/Lionsgate hide caption

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Latoya Okuneye/Lionsgate

Queenie's second life on screen gives her more room to grow

June 11, 2024 • An irresistible new Hulu series follows the quarter-life growing pains of a lonely South Londoner. It's based on a 2019 novel by showrunner Candice Carty-Williams.

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Pantheon

In 'Consent,' an author asks: 'Me too? Did I have the agency to consent?'

June 10, 2024 • Jill Ciment wrote about a relationship she had with a teacher when she was very young – that turned into a marriage – in Half a Life. Now, eight years after his death at 93, she reconsiders their relationship in light of the #MToo movement.

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Europa Editions

'Forgotten on Sunday' evokes the heartwarming whimsy of the movie 'Amélie'

June 8, 2024 • Like her other books, French writer Valérie Perrin's third novel to be translated into English, centers on the life-changing magic of friendships across generations.

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Tin House Books

In 'Fire Exit,' a father grapples with connection and the meaning of belonging

June 6, 2024 • Morgan Talty's debut novel is a touching narrative about family in which the past and present are constantly on the page as we follow a man's life, while also entertaining what that life could have been.

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Sourcebooks

'The Last Murder at the End of the World' is a story of survival and memory

May 24, 2024 • Stuart Turton’s bizarre whodunit also works as a science fiction allegory full of mystery that contemplates the end of the world and what it means to be human.

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St. Martin's Press

'Rednecks' chronicles the largest labor uprising in American history

May 23, 2024 • Taylor Brown's Rednecks is a superb historical drama full of violence and larger-than-life characters that chronicles the events of leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

One World

What's it like to live in a vacation spot when tourists leave? 'Wait' offers a window

May 22, 2024 • Set during a uniquely stressful summer for one Nantucket family, Gabriella Burnham's second novel highlights the strong bonds between a mom and her daughters.

Liveright

Prize-winning Bulgarian writer brings 'The Physics of Sorrow' to U.S. readers

May 21, 2024 • Writer Georgi Gospodinov won the 2023 International Booker Prize for his book Time Shelter. The Physics of Sorrow, an earlier novel, now has an English translation by Angela Rodel.

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Books We Love

20 new books hitting shelves this summer that our critics can't wait to read

May 21, 2024 • We asked our book critics what titles they are most looking forward to this summer. Their picks range from memoirs to sci-fi and fantasy to translations, love stories and everything in between.

Pantheon

'Whale Fall' centers the push-and-pull between dreams and responsibilities

May 16, 2024 • Elizabeth O'Connor's spare and bracing debut novel provides a stark reckoning with what it means to be seen from the outside, both as a person and as a people.

NPR

Two new novels investigate what makes magic, what is real and imagined

May 15, 2024 • Both of these novels, Pages of Mourning and The Cemetery of Untold Stories, from an emerging writer and a long-celebrated one, respectively, walk an open road of remembering love, grief, and fate.

What are 'the kids' thinking these days? Honor Levy aims to tell in 'My First Book'

Penguin Press

Books

What are 'the kids' thinking these days? Honor Levy aims to tell in 'My First Book'

May 14, 2024 • Social media discourse and the inevitable backlash aside, the 26-year-old writer's first book is an amusing, if uneven, take on growing up white, privileged, and Gen Z.

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

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W. W. Norton & Company

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

Fresh Air

May 13, 2024 • Messud draws from her grandfather's handwritten memoir as she tells a cosmopolitan, multigenerational story about a family forced to move from Algeria to Europe to South and North America.

Claire Messud's sweeping novel borrows from her own 'Strange Eventful History'

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HarperOne

My Octopus Teacher's Craig Foster dives into the ocean again in 'Amphibious Soul'

May 13, 2024 • Nature's healing power is an immensely personal focus for Foster. He made his film after being burned out from long, grinding hours at work. After the release of the film, he suffered from insomnia.

Zando — SJP Lit

'Women and Children First' is a tale about how actions and choices affect others

May 11, 2024 • The puzzle of a girl's death propels Alina Grabowski's debut novel but, really, it's less about the mystery and more about how our actions impact each other, especially when we think we lack agency.