Books & Literature

For our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, summer reading sometimes means catching up on the books she missed earlier in the year. Here's her short roundup of some spring books.

Satrapi's groundbreaking graphic novel Persepolis introduced readers to life in Iran during the Islamic revolution and the Iran/Iraq war. She died June 4. Originally broadcast June 2, 2003.

Rock critic KEN TUCKER reviews Kacey Musgrave's new album Middle of Nowhere and Jimmy McDonough’s biography of the 1970s-era singer Gary Stewart called I Am from the Honky Tonks.

O'Farrell's new novel is based on the story of her own great, great-grandfather, and tells the story of a father and son mapping 19th-century Ireland after the devastation of the Great Famine

Mary Beard taught classics for most of her life at Cambridge, but her career has also included popular TV shows and books that reach a wide audience. Our book critic Maureen Corrigan says Beard's latest book, "Talking Classics," illuminates a lot about the ancient world and our own.

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor. Her new book is called "Something We Said: Richard Pryor, A Notorious Word, And Me."

Jesmyn Ward's new essay collection is called "On Witness And Respair."

Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the author of the new memoir "Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, And Young: A Fugitive Family In The Revolutionary Underground."

Caputo, who died May 7, wrote the acclaimed 1977 memoir A Rumor of War, about leading a Marine platoon during the Vietnam war. He went on to a career in journalism. Originally broadcast in 2005.

Maureen Corrigan reviewed two novels by 'Pemi Aguda and Elizabeth Strout.

(1.) Scottish writer DOUGLAS STUART. His debut novel Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize in 2020. His other novel is Young Mungo. His latest, John of John, is about a son dealing with the weight of his father’s expectations on a remote Scottish island. Both father and son are concealing their sexualities. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW)

Book critic MAUREEN CORRIGAN recommends three new novels: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, American Fantasy by Emma Straub, and Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel.

Tonya Mosley interviews Harvard professor NAMWALI SERPELL. Her new book, On Morrison, is a close reading of Toni Morrison's entire body of work, eleven novels, the criticism, plays, and poetry

Terry Gross interviews humorist, memoirist and actress ANNABELLE GURWITCH about her new memoir called The End of My Life is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker. It is a national bestseller.

Jazz historian KEVIN WHITEHEAD reviews two new jazz biographies: Speakeasies to Symphonies: The Jazz Genius of James P. Johnson by Scott E. Brown; and Cosmic: Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane by Andy Beta.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Nancy Foley’s debut novel I am Agatha.

Rock critic KEN TUCKER reviews a new biography about Bob Dylan, featuring the most recent 30 years of his career: After the Flood, by Robert Polito.

Tonya Mosley interviews Dr. MARY FARIBA AFSARI, a board-certified ob-gyn who walked away from a traditional practice, bought a 31-foot RV, and turned it into one of the country's only mobile gynecology clinics. Her book, Labor: One Woman’s Work, recounts her decision to leave traditional practice to reach communities most abandoned by our current healthcare system.

John Powers reviewed "Stay Alive" by Ian Buruma.

Maureen Corrigan reviewed The Keeper