NPR: Book Reviews Summary judgment on books of note, from NPR personalities, independent booksellers and critics from across the public-radio spectrum.

Book Reviews

Subscribe to Books Newsletter

Penguin Random House

A Botched Execution Leads To A Search For Answers In 'Two Truths And A Lie'

Fresh Air

February 24, 2021 • Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter for The Miami Herald, when she witnessed an execution that went horribly wrong. She revisits the case of Jesse Tafero in an intense new true crime book.

Ballantine Books

On 'The Kitchen Front,' 4 Women Cook Their Way To Victory

February 24, 2021 • In Jennifer Ryan's new novel, set in England in 1942, four women from different backgrounds compete in a cooking contest with a possibly life-changing prize: The chance to cohost a BBC cooking show.

Pigeons Star In A Tale Of Mining In 'Flight Of The Diamond Smugglers'

Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa, by Matthew Gavin Frank Liveright hide caption

toggle caption

Liveright

Pigeons Star In A Tale Of Mining In 'Flight Of The Diamond Smugglers'

February 23, 2021 • Journalist Matthew Gavin Frank exposes the history of South Africa's nefarious diamond industry, accompanied by a tale of pigeons and their role in subversion, in crisp and poetic prose.

Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations

Becky Harlan/NPR

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations

February 23, 2021 • Every year, NPR brings together some of the best books of the year in a searchable, explorable guide called the Book Concierge. Today, we're talking about some of the best nonfiction picks that show up in this year's guide.

Book Concierge: Nonfiction Recommendations

Listen · 11:57 11:57

Download
Embed <iframe src="http://www.hefuqianbao.cn/player/embed/969459069/970151638" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

In 'Nubia: Real One,' Trying To Be A Hero When Society Thinks You're A Threat

Nubia: Real One, by L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith DC Comics hide caption

toggle caption

DC Comics

Are You There God? It's Me, Juanita

In 'Nubia: Real One,' Trying To Be A Hero When Society Thinks You're A Threat

February 21, 2021 • Nubia has been many things over decades of comics: Wonder Woman's sister, her rival, a guardian of the underworld. Now, L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith have re-imagined her as a Black American teenager.

Walker Books

Winter Not Cold Enough? Here Are 3 YA Thrillers To Chill You

February 20, 2021 • Prickly, angry girls get to the bottom of mysterious disappearances — or cause them — in these three angsty YA novels, from a retelling of "The Cask of Amontillado" to a wild and frozen dystopia.

Riverhead Books

You Actually Will Be Talking About 'No One Is Talking About This'

February 18, 2021 • Patricia Lockwood's first novel follows an Extremely Online woman whose life changes forever when her niece is born with a serious illness — which sounds Hallmark-ready, but Lockwood pulls it off.

Tor Books

'The Echo Wife' Layers Sci-Fi And Murder Mystery For A Twisty Treat

February 17, 2021 • Sarah Gailey's new novel follows a famed geneticist whose husband uses her methods to clone her — and has an affair with the clone. When he's murdered, the two women must figure out to do next.

Grace Callaway Books

For February, 3 Romances To Warm Up Your Valentine's Day

February 14, 2021 • February is dark and cold at the best of times — and this year is no exception. But we've got three hot, humorous and heartwarming romances that will bring a little light to the darkest days.

Avon

Let This 'Wild Rain' Sweep You Away

February 11, 2021 • The latest from Beverly Jenkins revisits an old favorite spot — the town of Paradise, Wy., where Spring Rain Lee (sister of previous hero Colton Lee) meets a man who may upend her independent life.

'Gay Bar' Tracks The Wave Of A Whole Culture — And One Life

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Jeremy Atherton Lin Little, Brown and Company hide caption

toggle caption

Little, Brown and Company

'Gay Bar' Tracks The Wave Of A Whole Culture — And One Life

February 11, 2021 • Author Jeremy Atherton Lin writes of the history of gay bars, as their existence is threatened by the popularity of dating apps and rising property costs, and reflects on their presence in his life.

'Between Two Kingdoms' Tells A Story Of Survival — And Of A Journey To Learn To Live

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad Random House hide caption

toggle caption

Random House

'Between Two Kingdoms' Tells A Story Of Survival — And Of A Journey To Learn To Live

February 9, 2021 • A new book by Suleika Jaouad, author of the column "Life, Interrupted," encompasses a less familiar tale of what it's like to survive cancer and have to figure out how to live again in its aftermath.

Harper Collins

'We Run The Tides' Pulls You Into The Rough Seas Of Female Adolescence

Fresh Air

February 8, 2021 • Vendela Vida's novel centers on four 13-year-old girls who are perched on the edge of adulthood — and the recognition that some things they do or say now will change who they become as adults.

'We Run The Tides' Pulls You Into The Rough Seas Of Female Adolescence

Listen · 6:37 6:37

Download
Embed <iframe src="http://www.hefuqianbao.cn/player/embed/964041355/965441674" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

'Under A White Sky' Examines What It Might Take For Humans To Continue To Exist

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert Crown hide caption

toggle caption

Crown

'Under A White Sky' Examines What It Might Take For Humans To Continue To Exist

February 8, 2021 • Elizabeth Kolbert makes clear how far we already are from a world of undisturbed, balanced nature — and how far we must go to find a new balance for the planet's future, one that still includes us.

Ecco

Powerful 'Removed' Walks A Path Between Memory And Mourning

February 7, 2021 • Brandon Hobson's new novel crosses back and forth between past and present, mourning and memory to tell the story of a Cherokee family grappling with the death of a son at the hands of the police.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Facing Down The Monster Within in 'What Big Teeth'

February 7, 2021 • Rose Szabo has created a monstrous, dysfunctional family far worse than anything Charles Addams ever dreamed up — and young daughter Eleanor may be the worst of them. She just doesn't know why.

Tor Books

Compelling Queer Romance Eclipses Sci-Fi Stakes in 'Winter's Orbit'

February 6, 2021 • This charming, trope-laden sci-fi romance started life as an original story posted to a fanfiction site, and it wears its fannish influences proudly. Fake-dating? Hurt/comfort? Sunny/grumpy? Yes!

Mariner

A Journalist's Eye Enlivens 'Land Of Big Numbers'

February 6, 2021 • Journalist Te-Ping Chen's fiction debut puts her reportorial talents to brilliant use, in a collection of short stories about Chinese life that will make readers reconsider their settled notions.

Atria Books

You'll Never Look At Your 'Good Neighbors' The Same Way Again

February 4, 2021 • Sarah Langan's new novel takes the old theme of "something rotten in suburbia" and pushes it into the future, in an intense, uncomfortable story about class resentment and the horrors it can lead to.

Nightboat Books

While the Possible is Possible: A 2021 Poetry Preview, Part 3

February 4, 2021 • In the final installment of our 2021 poetry preview, we bring you books that demonstrate the incredible capaciousness of poetry — and that we hope will be sustaining company for the year ahead.

New Translation Shares The Voice Of A Poet Who Wrote As Intensely As She Lived

The Copenhagen Trilogy, by Tove Ditlevsen Farrar, Straus and Giroux hide caption

toggle caption

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

New Translation Shares The Voice Of A Poet Who Wrote As Intensely As She Lived

Fresh Air

February 3, 2021 • Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen took her own life in 1976. A newly translated version of her three-part memoir traces the sometimes amusing, sometimes painful turns of her unconventional life.

New Translation Shares The Voice Of A Poet Who Wrote As Intensely As She Lived

Listen · 5:22 5:22

Download
Embed <iframe src="http://www.hefuqianbao.cn/player/embed/963592455/963684670" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript