Books & Reading

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.

Author Mark Daley has shared his experiences fostering and what he learned along the way in the book Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care and the Risks We Take for Family.

"Prose to the People," edited by Katie Mitchell, chronicles the legacy of past and present Black bookstore's throughout the country. NPR spoke with five booksellers profiled in the vast collection.

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.

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.

NPR's Scott Detrow talks with two educators about teaching F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby 100 years after its publication.

The Whiting Foundation marks its 40th year giving literary awards to emerging writers in 2025. The awards have helped launch the careers of many future award-winners, including Colson Whitehead, Alice McDermott and Ocean Vuong.

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Austin Kelley, a former New Yorker fact checker, about his novel, "The Fact Checker," about a man's attempt to solve a possible mystery at the farmer's market.

Jasmine Guillory has written eight romance novels and is now featuring a Sapphic love story in her ninth. Guillory and fellow author Amy Spalding chat about fear, cheerleading, and support.