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Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

Year of Global Elections

These dictators are different. 'Autocracy, Inc.' explains how

July 24, 2024 • The dictators of today aren't united by ideology, writes Anne Applebaum: They operate like companies, focused on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.

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Penguin Random House

'Someone Like Us' is a fresh, idiosyncratic novel about immigrating to the U.S.

July 24, 2024 • Dinaw Mengestu's ingenuity and eloquence as a writer are on display in this novel about an Ethiopian American man who returns home only to learn that his father has just died.

'Someone Like Us' is a fresh, idiosyncratic novel about immigrating to the U.S.

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Hogarth

'Liars' is an autopsy of a bitterly disappointing marriage

July 22, 2024 • In her fierce second novel, Sarah Manguso writes a requiem for a failed relationship from the point of view of a survivor, the wife left behind.

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Emilienne Malfatto for NPR

Food

A new French cookbook explores Marseille as a cultural melting pot

July 20, 2024 • A new cookbook celebrates Marseille, France's second-largest city.

A new French cookbook shows the diversity Marseille through its cuisine

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NPR

8 hot new love stories from a stellar lineup of Black authors

July 19, 2024 • Some of the most fabulous romances by Black authors still fly under the radar. So we have recommendations for your summer reading enjoyment.

Dutton

'This Great Hemisphere' tackles racism, classism, and political power struggles

July 18, 2024 • Mateo Askaripour's sophomore novel is a sprawling speculative-fiction narrative that delivers a heartwarming story about a young woman learning to navigate the world.

Practice, by Rosalind Brown/Macmillan

This absorbing debut novel about writing takes its cue from 'Mrs. Dalloway'

July 16, 2024 • Rosalind Brown's debut novel, Practice, centers on an undergraduate student trying to write an essay on Shakespeare. Along the way, we are treated to the fleeting insights of the the brain at work.

This absorbing debut novel about writing takes its cue from 'Mrs. Dalloway'

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It's Been a Minute

Simmering over summer books

July 15, 2024 • We're at the peak of summer, which means sunny days on the grass with a good book! Bestselling authors Tia Williams and Jean Chen Ho join host Brittany Luse to give their recommendations for great summer reads. They also offer some armchair theories on why we love a gossipy summer novel.

Simmering over summer books

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

'State of Paradise' effortlessly blends the commonplace and the extraordinary

July 10, 2024 • With exquisite prose, smart lines on every page, a building sense of growing strangeness tinged with dread, and surprises all the way to the end, this might be Laura van den Berg's best novel so far.

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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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