Search results for

Illustrator and author Kadir Nelson tells the African-American story — from Colonial times through the civil rights movement — in his new children's book, Heart and Soul.

Writer David Rakoff's received the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his essay collection Half Empty. In the book, Rakoff explains the powers of pessimistic thought as he analyzes topics such as a pornography trade fair, his neurotic childhood and his recent cancer diagnosis.

Russian has a word for light blue and a word for dark blue, but no word for a general shade of blue. So when interpreters translate "blue" into Russian, they're forced to pick a shade. It's one of the many complexities of translation David Bellos explores in his new book, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

In the span of less than a year, Aatish Taseer's father was killed and his brother was kidnapped. Taseer writes about a violent and turbulent Pakistan in his new novel, Noon. "There's a general sense of a society disintegrating," he says.

Cartoonist Art Spiegelman's epic Holocaust graphic novel, Maus, was published 25 years ago. Spiegelman's new book, MetaMaus, explores that signature work through interviews, answers to persistent questions and examples of his early drawings.

In essays, weekly poems, and books, the writer Calvin Trillin has turned a humorous eye on topics from the news, as well as his life, for the last forty years. Now a new book, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin, collects that work.

Children who are bullied often carry those memories with them for years. In the anthology Dear Bully, young adult fiction writers reflect on the experience of being bullied.

President Biden's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was the big news from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's forum. Scott Simon and John Ruwitch discuss other developments from the week.

Molly Antopol's short stories are set in many different times and places. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says each one will make you nostalgic for another era in short fiction, a time when writer like Bernard Malamud, and Issac Bashevis Singer and Grace Paley roamed the earth.

Colin Meloy, best known as the Decemberists' front man, is also a novelist. His newest book is the second in a series for young readers, called Wildwood Chronicles. The book catches up with its precocious protagonist, Prue, who leaves the seventh grade to return to the magical world of Wildwood.