Books & Literature

Maureen Corrigan reviews Richard Ford's new book, "Be Mine," and Lorrie Moore's "I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home."

Gottlieb, who died June 14 at 92, edited Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré and, for more than 50 years, Robert Caro. We listen back to an interview with Gottlieb from just a few months ago.

Two new novels about the struggle to find and keep a secure place in America have caught our book critic Maureen Corrigan's attention.

German author Jenny Erpenbeck is one of the most acclaimed writers of the last 25 years. Her new novel "Kairos," just out from New Directions, tells the story of a 19-year-old female student in East Berlin who falls in love with a much older male writer in the run-up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The late rapper — who was killed at 25 in 1996 — would have turned 52 this year. Santi Elijah Holley's new book follows the Shakur family tree and their work in the Black Liberation Movement.

Swarns' new book — The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church — expands on that article. It tells the story of the Church's history of enslavement in America, while illustrating the consequences by focusing on generations of one family that had several members among those 272 people sold by the Church in 1838.

Cooper was birdwatching in Central Park in 2020 when a white woman falsely accused him of threatening her. His book chronicles life as a Black birder, gay activist and Marvel comics writer and editor.

Maureen reviewed "Beware The Woman" by Megan Abbott and "My Murder" by Katie Williams.

John Vercher trained in mixed martial arts as a young man. His novel, After the Lights Go Out, centers on a veteran MMA fighter who struggles to remember things. Originally broadcast June 28, 2022.

"I'm not a grown man — I'm a growing man," Alexander says. His new memoir started as a book of love poems, but ended up being a collection of essays and poems about love, divorce and raising children.

The British novelist, who died May 19, was a member of one of England's most famous writing families. His novels included Money, London Fields and The Information. Originally broadcast in 1990.

New York Times media reporter John Koblin discusses the Hollywood writers' strike — and how streaming has upended every element of TV and film production, leading to deteriorating working conditions.

Urrea is celebrated for his books about the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly his nonfiction work, The Devil's Highway, which was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Good Night, Irene is a departure: drawing on his mother's journals and scrapbooks and the spotty information that's survived about the Clubmobile corps, Urrea has written a female-centric World War II novel.

The title of Irby's new memoir in essays, Quietly Hostile, was inspired by her own public persona, which she describes as a "a constant low-grade frustration with everything" wrapped in "an outer shield of Midwestern politeness and charm."

Should we continue to celebrate works of art - books, paintings, films - made by human beings who've done terrible things? If you don't have a readymade answer to that question, our book critic Maureen Corrigan has a book to recommend. It's called "Monsters."

Author Henry Grabar says parking codes, parking lots and garages have shaped the landscape of cities and suburbs, and limited the creation of affordable housing.

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

Financial journalist Gretchen Morgenson explains how private equity firms buy out companies, then lay off employees and cut costs in order to expand profits. Her new book is These are the Plunderers.

Virginia Sole-Smith produces the newsletter and podcast Burnt Toast, where she explores fatphobia, diet culture, parenting and health. In her new book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, she argues that efforts to fight childhood obesity have caused kids to absorb an onslaught of body-shaming messages.

When Judy Blume began writing for pre-teens and teens in the '70s and '80s, young readers devoured her novels, which spoke to their hopes and anxieties. Two of her books Forever, and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret... were banned in some places.