Books & Literature

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

Josh Owens' book is "The Madness of Believing: A Memoir From Inside Alex Jones's Conspiracy Machine."

Grammy-award winning singer, songwriter and actor JILL SCOTT. She recently released her sixth studio album “To Whom This May Concern”--her first new music in a decade. SCOTT has been making music for more than 25 years. Her 2000 debut, “Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1” was well received with double platinum sales, three Grammy nominations and a sound that helped define neo-soul.

ward winning British author FRANCIS SPUFFORD. His books have won the Costa Book Award, The Ondaatje Prize and have been long listed for the Booker Prize.They include Cahokia Jazz - a 1920’s noir crime novel set in an alternate American history where a sovereign majority indigenous nation-state thrives in the middle of the United States, and Golden HIll a novel set in 18th century New York. Spufford’s new novel, called Nonesuch, takes place in London during the war as the city must try to survive the Blitz - the 8-month bombing campaign led by the Nazis that killed over 40,00 British.

Before the captivity narrative about a Mexican woman abducted by the Apache in the mid-1800s; before the storyline about Geronimo's surrender; before the torrent of details about the life and peoples on the borderlands between present-day Mexico and the U.S.; there's this first sentence:

In the beginning, things appear. Writing is a defiant gesture we’ve long since gotten used to: where there was nothing, somebody put something, and now everybody sees it. For example, the prairie.

As a culture critic, Lemieux has spent years pushing back against the stereotypes and stigma that follow single mothers. Her new book blends her own memoir with the stories of 21 other Black women.

Allegra Goodman's latest novel is called "This Is Not About Us." But our book critic, Maureen Corrigan, says that title is coy. Goodman's readers are bound to see aspects of themselves and their families in these pages. Here's her review.

novelist Tayari Jones. She wrote her first novel more than two decades ago, but it was her fourth, "An American Marriage," that put her into the national spotlight. When it came out in 2018, Oprah chose it for her book club, and Barack Obama put it on his reading list. It went on to win the Women's Prize for Fiction and has been published in more than a dozen countries, praised as a compassionate portrait of love and justice.

Loubna Mrie grew up in Syria, where her father was allegedly an assassin for the regime. She joined the Syrian revolution first as a protester and then as a photojournalist. Her memoir is Defiance.

Dorothy Roberts is a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a 2024 MacArthur fellow. Her new memoir is called "The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir Of Love, Race, And Family."