In a new book, pilot and author of Skyfaring Mark Vanhoenacker takes readers to far-flung cities he once dreamed about during his childhood in western Massachusetts.
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Every year, we ask NPR staff and contributors to tell us about their favorite books. From a list of 167 books so far this year, here are the 14 that the most people chose as their top pick.
From light romance and short fiction to thrillers, here's a list of books that are perfect companions as you retreat to the beach or pool to catch a break from the summer heat.
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From Lahore's red-light district and the streets of Mexico to a fantastical underwater land of Korean fable, here are some picks that can immerse you in worlds wholly unlike your own.
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Books We Love is back early this year; for 2022, we're launching the first-ever summer edition, complete with 160+ recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.
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Davey Davis' book is far from an ordinary love story — it's a shocking and moving novel about what it means to be an outsider in a world that's crumbling around you.
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Ottessa Moshfegh's Lapvona follows the life of Marek, a 13-year-old peasant boy who lives in a cruel world of sadism and stink, cannibalism and self-flagellation.
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Keefe recognizes that we're all unreliable narrators of our own lives, and writes about his subjects with a keen sense of understanding.
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It's a testament to Hilary Mantel's brilliance as an author that even though the moments in these stories are subtle, the book somehow feels epic in its own way.
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Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong writes in a perfect balance of scientific rigor and personal awe as he invites readers to grasp something of how other animals experience the world.
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50 years on, the authors profess amazement that another president came along willing to jettison whatever conscience he had, and whatever respect for the rule of law, in an effort to stay in office.
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In David Santos Donaldson's debut novel, a young gay Black man gets some supernatural relationship advice from the Black lover of a famous white British writer, both of them long dead.
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Beach reads are great — but here are some new books offering the stuff of sticky, heat-stroke dreams; overgrown, light-filled wildflower fields; and twisted alleys of old cities waking from winter.
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Lindsey Fitzharris' new book tells the true story of Harold Gillies, a British surgeon whose team worked to reconstruct the faces of some of the 280,000 men who suffered facial trauma during WWI.
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Kingston burst onto the scene in 1976 with The Woman Warrior and then kept writing. Critic John Powers says that, like James Baldwin, she's managed to shift American culture and remain relevant.
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Séamas O'Reilly reflects on how he grieved his mother anew as he grew older, on the way grief multiplied within his family, and on mourning rituals — but it's woven through with amusement.
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The problem of American gun violence is persistent and solutions are hard to come by. But here are 5 books that help put a face to the victims, explain how we got here and how we might get out.
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Happy-Go-Lucky is more somber than David Sedaris' usual fare, but there are some fresh, funny bits wedged between the weighty boulders.
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The double threat of climate change and the global pandemic has made post-apocalyptic fiction an undeniably thriving and popular genre. Author David Yoon has one of the latest entrants.
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Book critic Maureen Corrigan has been diving into lighter literary novels and mysteries, searching for books suited for the beginning of summer. Here are some of her picks.
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