Books

Joan Didion leaves one more piece of writing to faithful fans

Heller McAlpin

Didion's book is an intimate chronicle of the author's struggle to help her daughter, even if it meant digging into her own long-unexamined neuroses.
These 2 funny books give readers a reason to smile in tough times

Maureen Corrigan

Dorothy Parker's posthumously published collection is Poems; Camilla Barnes' debut novel is The Usual Desire to Kill. Both affirm: sharp humor can be grounded in pain.
Arts & Culture

Drag, punk and TikTok stardom: Memoirs from RuPaul, Mark Hoppus and Dylan Mulvaney get personal

Leslie Gonzalez

Celebrities with San Diego ties open up about identity, fame and personal growth in three powerful new memoirs.
5 notable new books that are all over the map (in a good way)

Colin Dwyer

These books confront readers with the recent past and distant future, bring them to southeastern Africa and an alternative Japan, and bedeck their pages with subversive cartoons and lush landscapes.
Pooja Bavishi shares frozen treats from her South Asian-inspired cookbook 'Malai'

Leila Fadel

Mansee Khurana

Adriana Gallardo

NPR's Leila Fadel visits Pooja Bavishi, the author of Malai, a South Asian-inspired frozen desserts cookbook, at her D.C. shop where they sample ice cream and make their own treat.
'Buffy' podcasters built a community — and they didn't let divorce break it

Alan Yu

Buffering the Vampire Slayer podcasters Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo write about their community of fans, and how it help them keep working together after a split, in Slayers, Every One of Us.
Do what you can. A new kids' book shows how even 'The Littlest Drop' helps

Samantha Balaban

A brave hummingbird does what she can to fight a fire in Sascha Alper's new book. It was one of the last projects illustrator Jerry Pinkney worked on before he died. His son Brian finished it for him.
10 emerging writers win Whiting Awards

NPR Staff

The awards, which come with a $50K purse, have helped launch the writing careers of many now well-known authors, including Colson Whitehead, Ocean Vuong, Alice McDermott and Jia Tolentino.
Education

'The Great Gatsby' turns 100. What's it like teaching it today?

Andrew Limbong

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel has spent years on high school reading lists. How are literature professors teaching it today? And do students still find it relevant?
100 years later, 'The Great Gatsby' still speaks to the troubled dream of America

Maureen Corrigan

Great works of art are great, in part, because they continue to have something to say to the present: They're both timebound and timeless. And, boy, does Gatsby have something to say to us in 2025.