Books & Literature

Historian Mary Beard says many of our popular notions about the empire are based on culture rather than fact. Her new book is called SPQR. Originally broadcast Nov. 30, 2015.

The National Book Award winner's new novel is based in part on her memories of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. Woodson describes the teen years as an "amazing and urgent moment" in life.

Megan Abbott's new book takes readers deep into the intense, vacuum-sealed universe of young female gymnasts and their parents. Critic Maureen Corrigan says You Will Know Me is worthy of a gold medal.

In his new novel, The Underground Railroad, Whitehead returns to his childhood vision of the Underground Railroad as an actual locomotive that carries escaped slaves through tunnels.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist William Stanley Merwin was known in the 1960s as an anti-war poet. Now an environmental activist, Merwin has published a new book of poems, The Shadow of Sirius, which addresses themes of memory and mortality.

A conversation with novelist Jay McInerney about finding fame as a young man, writing, New York City, and his new novel Bright, Precious Days about marriage, fidelity and middle age.

John Powers describes this new dystopian novel by Australian Charlotte Wood as a feminist parable.

Author Cathleen Schine says that living far away from an elderly parent can create feelings of guilt as well as those of relief. Her darkly comic new novel is They May Not Mean To, But They Do.

Patti Niemi has been a percussionist for the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1992. She speaks with Fresh Air's Sam Briger about performance anxiety, muscle memory and her memoir, Sticking it Out.

Patrick Ryan has written a very funny and touching collection of nine short stories that take place in the 1960s and '70s around Cape Canaveral, Fla.

As the wife of a Navy fighter pilot, memoirist Rachel Starnes has had much of her life — including where she lives and how often she gets to live with her husband — determined by his career.

Critic at large John Powers says there's an explosion of literary talent coming from Mexico. He reviews two new novels by Mexican writers.

Enter Me

Robert F. Kennedy is often remembered as a liberal icon who worked to heal racial strife, decrease poverty and end the war in Vietnam. But early in his career, biographer Larry Tye notes, Kennedy was a hard-edged anti-communist who worked for red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, authorized the wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr. and supported American intervention in Vietnam. Tye chronicles Kennedy's transformation.

Steven Spielberg's latest movie is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1982 children's book about a big friendly giant. Critic David Edelstein says the BFG is "pure joy" — especially in its second half.

Cathleen Schine's new novel explores how one character's physical and mental decline ripples out to affect his whole family. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it a mix of "fun and bad behavior."

After starring in Broadway shows like The Music Man and Candide, Cook struggled with addiction, then staged a successful second career as a cabaret singer. Her new memoir is Then and Now.

Stephanie Danler drew on her own experiences to write her novel about a young woman working at an upscale restaurant in New York. "It's so physically punishing," she says of her work as a server.

In Susan Faludi's new memoir In The Darkroom she investigates the enigma that always has been her father, and considers the various strains of gender, ethnicity, religion and family that, perhaps, go into making someone who they are.