Books & Literature

Our book critic Maureen Corrigan has a review of a new novel that she says should spark all sorts of lively conversations about end-of-life care and what the living owe the dying. It's by Ann Packer, and it's called "Some Bright Nowhere."

Cynthia Erivo, the award-winning actress and singer who stars as Elphaba in the "Wicked" films. She's also the author of a new memoir, "Simply More: A Book For Anyone Who Has Been Told They're Too Much."

Smith revisits her childhood and offers insights into her marriage in a new memoir. Bread of Angels offers an intimate, if imperfect, view of the visionary punk poet.

Maureen Corrigan reviews Heart the Lover by Lily King.

In his new memoir, The Uncool, Crowe reflects on his adventures and misadventures as a teenage music journalist. He also writes about what life was like in his family, and how he convinced his parents to allow him to go on the road before he'd even graduated high school.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Daphne Dumaurier's book of short stories "After Midnight."

Limón's work documents everything from kingfisher birds to the cosmos itself. "I'm embracing my strangeness," she says of her poetry. Her new collection is Startlement.

It took Kiran Desai nearly 20 years to write her new novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Book critic Maureen Corrigan shares her review.

Gilbert's 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, chronicled her year of post-divorce travel and self discovery, and was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts. Her latest book, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation, tells the story of Gilbert's relationship with Rayya Elias.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the novels Pariah and The Dancing Face.

In 2023, Mallon spoke about his novel, Up With the Sun, which is based on the life of a little-known actor who was gay and closeted. His new book is The Very Heart of it: New York Diaries, 1983-1994.

John Powers reviews The Diary of Lies

Political strategist Stacey Abrams on her new book Coded Justice.

Maureen Corrigan review The Salt Stones by Helen Whybrow and A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

Danzy Senna was born a few years after Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage. "Existing as a family was a radical statement at that time," she says. Originally broadcast Sept. 3, 2024.

Leila Mottley's latest novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, follows three women, ages 16, 18 and 20, as they navigate pregnancy and motherhood in a small town in the Florida panhandle. With the state's abortion laws in flux, Mottley says she had to keep adjusting her characters' experiences to fit the new reality.

Tamara Yajia grew up Jewish in Argentina, intent on becoming a child star. But just when her break was coming along, her family emigrated to California. Her new memoir is Cry for Me, Argentina.

Carter Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at The Guardian, where she's covered the real-world results of abortion bans, access to health care for trans people and how technology is reshaping our view of our bodies and our choices. In her new book, "The Second Coming: Sex And The Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future," Sherman explores why Gen Z - that's people ages 13 to 28 - are having less sex than previous generations.

Growing up, White tried to "cure" his own homosexuality; he later drew upon that time for his 1982 bestseller, A Boy's Own Story. White died June 3. Originally broadcast in 1985, 1994, 1997 and 2006.

Maureen Corrigan reviews 4 mystery and suspense novels