Books & Literature

In his new book of essays, Damon Young, co-founder of the blog Very Smart Brothas, sticks it to his high school bully — while also offering insights into race, power and how to be a modern man.

Our book critic Maureen Corrigan says it's never too early to get a jump on summer reading. She has two good books she wants to recommend.

When New York Times media columnist David Carr died suddenly of previously undiagnosed lung cancer in 2015, he left behind a legacy as a journalist, a mentor and a father.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new memoir about growing up wealthy on Philadelphia's Main Line. The author's grandmother was the inspiration for Katherine Hepburn's character in the film The Philadelphia Story.

Shakespeare's King Lear is one of the most challenging and prestigious roles in theater — and one that's traditionally played by a man. But now a new production of King Lear on Broadway stars Glenda Jackson in its title role. The British actor, who is 82, is fine with the gender bending casting. She recently returned to acting after 23 years away, when she served as a Member of Parliament.

Nell Freudenberger's gorgeous new novel tells the story of a middle-aged woman who receives messages sent from her college friend's cell phone — even after her friend has died.

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Robert Caro has spent decades researching and chronicling the lives of notable men.

Twenty-eight year old Sally Rooney is something of a wunderkind--an Irish writer whose first novel, 'Conversations with Friends' was published in 2017 and written in three months while she was in graduate school. Rooney's second novel 'Normal People' has just come out in the United States and was already designated the "Irish Novel of the Year" at the 2018 Irish Book Awards. Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews it.

Laila Lalami's new novel is called The Other Americans and it's likely to jump start some timely book group discussions about the American experiment; specifically, about how different types of people feel less visible in this country because of their ethnicity, class, race or citizenship status.

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb, writes the Dear Therapist column in The Atlantic, and her new book is about her own recent experiences in therapy, as well as that of some of her patients.

The former U.S. poet laureate, who died March 15, was a prolific writer as well as a conservationist and a conscientious objector during World War II. He spoke to Fresh Air in 2008.

One of the most joyous, true life, "on-the-road" adventures in literary history took place in the summer of 1927. It began in Mobile, Ala., when a young Langston Hughes, who was traveling in the South, stepped off the train from New Orleans and ran smack into Zora Neale Hurston.

What place in America could accomodate monsters, the Marx Brothers, and the artist who immortalized melting clocks? The answer, of course, is Hollywood and our book critic MAUREEN CORRIGAN has a review of two new books about forgotten stories from Hollywood's past.

It was a cold December night in 1972 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A 38-year old widowed mother of 10 named Jean McConville was with her children in their apartment in the Divis Flats, a labyrinthine public housing project that one critic described a "slum in the sky."

Mary Pipher's new book, Women Rowing North, chronicles the positive aspects of transitioning from middle age to old age: "At this life stage, women start granting themselves the power of no."

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new novel about the fate of undocumented migrant children by Valeria Luiselli who was a volunteer court translator for undocumented children in New York.

Critic at large John Powers reviews a debut spy novel about an African American female FBI agent during the Cold War.

Before I talk about individual essays in Emily Bernard's new book, Black Is the Body, I want to pay it an all-inclusive tribute. Even the best essay collections routinely contain some filler, but of the 12 essays here, there's not one that even comes close to being forgettable.

Growing up, Bridgett M. Davis' mother booked and banked bets from their home in Detroit. She writes about her experience — and the role of "the numbers" in the black community — in her memoir.

Stephanie Land's new memoir is about what it's like to work hard, but still live below the poverty line. It's also about how she went back to college, and became a writer.