Books & Literature

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says Kevin Birmingham's biography of the novel Crime and Punishment is packed with cinematic episodes.

Ryan Busse went to work for the firearms manufacturer Kimber America, where he was so good at marketing the weapons that he became a rising star of the industry. But over the years, he became disillusioned when he saw the NRA refuse to consider gun controls after mass shootings. His new book is 'Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America'.

Journalist Dawn Turner revisits her own past, and tells the story of her sister, who died at 24 from chronic alcoholism, and her childhood best friend, who served 20 years in prison for murder.

Cleland was a decorated Army veteran who lost three limbs while serving in Vietnam. After the the war, he dedicated his life to public service. He died Nov. 9. Originally broadcast in 2009.

The world knows Will Smith as a musician, a comedian and blockbuster movie star — perhaps even the most bankable star in the world. But in his new memoir, called Will, Smith explores another identity, one that has fueled his unwavering work ethic: that of a coward. Smith says that when he was 9, he stood by, watching helplessly as his father beat his mother. It was a moment that shaped his identity.

The Sentence is part of a vanguard of fall fiction that tries to capture a splintering America during this long pandemic moment. For Erdrich, these strange times call for a ghost story that sometimes shifts into social realism

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says 'My Monticello,' by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, is a striking debut collection of fiction that resists categories.

Some people got into baking bread during the pandemic. Gary Shteyngart wrote a novel instead. Our Country Friends is about eight friends riding out the COVID pandemic in the country home of a Russian-born American writer.

Robert Costa's new book Peril, which he co-wrote with journalist Bob Woodward, centers on President Trump's final days in office — specifically the events leading up to and following the Capitol siege.

A political suspense novel by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.

Kravitz's memoir follows his childhood and early career. Still touring in his 50s, Kravitz says, "I'm going to continue doing this as long as I can." Originally broadcast Oct. 6, 2020.

The Newbery award-winning author, who died Oct. 13, wrote over 200 books, many of which were tales of adventure aimed at young adults. In 1994, Paulsen talked about Alaska's Iditarod dog sled race.

Former president of NBC Entertainment Brandon Tartikoff was the youngest person to hold that position. While there, he was responsible for such hit series as "The Cosby Show," "Cheers," "Miami Vice," and "Hill Street Blues." Now Tartikoff is chairman at Paramount Pictures. He has a new book about his NBC years, called "The Last Great Ride."

In his new book, Roots co-founder Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson starts in 1971 and moves year-by-year through his life, writing about memories, turning points and the songs he listened to.

White spent his early childhood in poverty in Baltimore, at times sleeping in abandoned houses. He's now principal tubist in the Santa Fe Symphony and the New Mexico Philharmonic.

Doerr's follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The Light We Cannot See follows five young people, each living in dangerous times across the span of eight centuries.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the 1931 novel, The Fortnight in September, by R. C. Sherriff.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead does extensive background research whenever he works on a book. For his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, that meant learning how stolen items get "fenced."

Beautiful World, Where Are You is a cerebral novel that traces the relationships between four characters, and shifts between themes of sex, friendship and life's dark uncertainty.

Joy Harjo is the first American Indian appointed to the position of U.S. poet laureate. She has a new memoir, Poet Warrior, that’s in part about her family’s history.