Fiction: Just Another Nutty June Weekend in the Rockaways
In Jill Eisenstadt’s comic novel “Swell,” a Manhattan family seeks safety in the Rockaways after 9/11. Fat chance.
Match Book: Dear Match Book: What Novels Can Help Me Prepare for Motherhood?
A woman anticipating her first child seeks fiction that engages with motherhood — nothing dated, depressing or dystopian, please!
'Theft By Finding' Is As Mesmerizing As A Spinning Chicken (Trust Us)
David Sedaris is great company in this new collected volume of his diaries. He buries emotions deep, but describes the world around him (and his love for IHOP) in chaotic and delightful fashion.
(Image credit: Liam James Doyle/NPR)
'White Fur' Is A Fable Of Love, Class, Money And Death
Jardine Libaire's novel — more a series of vignettes — follows two kids from very opposite sides of the tracks who fall hard in love in 1980s New York, and what happens when reality intrudes.
(Image credit: Liam James Doyle/NPR)
In 'Beyond Respectability,' A History of Black Women As Public Intellectuals
Brittney C. Cooper's history of black women thinkers traces decades of struggle against racism and misogyny. It's a crucial cultural study and a dense, serious read that rewards close attention.
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'The Dispatcher' Is A Short Stroll In A Strange Neighborhood
John Scalzi's new novel — originally an audio book — imagines the implications of a world where 999 out of 1,000 murder victims pop back into existence, naked, confused and safe in their own beds.
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'Beren And Lúthien' Reflects Tolkien's Real Life Love Story
J.R.R. Tolkien's son Christopher proves an able guide through Beren and Lúthien, his father's haunting tale of a mortal man who falls in love with the daughter of a disapproving Elven King.
(Image credit: Terence Caven)
In 'Boundless,' The Modern World Is Timeless
Cartoonist Jillian Tamaki's new book is packed with of-the-moment topics — a pyramid skin-care scheme, a porn sitcom, a bedbug battle — but her existential wistfulness raises them to archetype.
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'Descent' Is A Witty Manifesto On Modern Manhood
English author and artist Grayson Perry realized at age 12 that he wanted to wear women's clothes. That fascination is part of his new book, a funny, engaging look at what it means to be a man today.
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'The Jersey Brothers' Highlights The Enduring Legacy Of World War II
Sally Mott Freeman's book, The Jersey Brothers, recounts the story of three men swept up by Word War II. The youngest brother gets captured in the Philippines, and the two others struggle to bring him home. NPR explores why stories of World War II remain so compelling to us today.
Nonfiction: Al Franken Has Been Sitting on Jokes for a Decade. Now He’s Ready to Tell Them.
“Al Franken, Giant of the Senate” is the story of how Franken pretended to be a serious person in public even as his inner comic monologue never stopped running.
Shatner's 'Spirit Of The Horse' Is An Ode To Four-Legged Friends
Yes, he was the captain of the Enterprise, but William Shatner is also a dedicated horseman and founder of the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. His love of horses is on display in his charming new book.
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Hip, Hippo Hooray For 'River Of Teeth'
Sarah Gailey's alternate-history romp takes place in a United States that went ahead with a wild plan to farm hippos for meat. It's a delightful read that suffers only from being too short.
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Love, Money And Betrayal Make For Great Storytelling In 'The Heirs'
Susan Rieger's new book follows an upper-crust, Upper West Side family whose certainties are thrown into doubt after their father dies and an unknown Other Woman sues his estate for child support.
(Image credit: Liam James Doyle/NPR)
'The End Of Eddy' Tells Of Growing Up Poor And Gay In Working-Class France
Édouard Louis' autobiographical novel is the story of a young man coming of age in a downtrodden French village. Critic John Powers calls it a "bulletin from the enraged heart of Le Pen country."
(Image credit: John Foley/Opale/Leemage)
Fiction: Irish Sisters Take Different Paths, but Not the Ones That They Expected
J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel “Saints for All Occasions” covers five decades in the lives of a pair of immigrants and their descendants in America.
A Dancer Is Unstrung By Grief In 'Isadora'
The great American dancer Isadora Duncan led a tragic life, and her worst year — just after the deaths of her first two children in an accident, forms the core of Amelia Gray's powerful new novel.
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Searching For A Summer Escape? These 6 Books Will Carry You Away
Journeys, near and far, into the past and even into near space, are the subject of the novels, memoirs and narrative histories that make up book critic Maureen Corrigan's early summer reading list.
The Power Of Music Is At The Heart Of 'Black Mad Wheel'
Detroit garage-rocker Josh Malerman's second novel follows a fictional 1950s rock bad recruited by the government to find the source of a mysterious, ominous sound emanating from the Namib Desert.
(Image credit: Liam James Doyle/NPR)
Second Thoughts About A Second Marriage In 'Standard Deviation'
Katherine Heiny's first novel for adults is a warmhearted and funny — if overly long — portrait of a man who begins to doubt his chaotic, talkative second wife after 12 years of marriage.
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