NPR's Book of the Day

Elise Hu moved to Seoul, South Korea to set up an NPR bureau and report on the geopolitical tensions of the mid-2010s. But her new book, Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital, focuses on a different, albeit inescapable, part of life there – beauty standards and the industry driving them. In today's episode, Hu speaks with NPR's Brittany Luse about the consumerism, gender politics and technological advances that drive the booming beauty culture, and explains why the rest of the world should be paying attention...for better or worse.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Nicole Cuffy's novel, Dances, CeCe Cordell becomes the first Black woman to be named principal dancer at a major ballet company; but this big break also comes with big expectations. In today's episode, Cuffy speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about how CeCe navigates the world of ballet's preoccupation with white bodies, how it affects her relationship with her mother and brother, and how Misty Copeland's very real accomplishments informed CeCe's story.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has covered gender-based violence around the world for a number of media outlets and in her widely-acclaimed book, No Visible Bruises. But in her new memoir, Women We Buried, Women We Burned, she examines the role it played in her own life. After the loss of her mother early in life, Snyder was raised in a strict evangelical household, where corporal punishment was the norm. In today's episode, she tells NPR's Scott Simon about how that upbringing eventually pushed her to leave home, and the kindness she discovered waiting for her on the other side.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today's episode features interviews with two poets who revealed different sides of themselves through memoirs. First, Maggie Smith speaks with NPR's Miles Parks about You Could Make This Place Beautiful, and how virality and the dissolution of her marriage impacted her writing. Then, Kwame Alexander discusses Why Fathers Cry at Night with NPR's Michel Martin, which highlights the different kinds of love that have informed his life.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kennedy Ryan's The Kingmaker portrays two seemingly opposite characters – a Yavapai-Apache activist and the heir to an oil fortune – falling in love, and dealing with the complicated fallout of their differences. In today's episode, Ryan speaks with NPR's Chloe Veltman about how she approached writing an indigenous character and community she herself is not a part of, and how powerful storytellers like Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay inspire her own work.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

For decades, male editors told women they couldn't be reporters because of congenital inaccuracies, or because they required having a male escort to report at night. In her new book, Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism, Brooke Kroeger provides a historical record of reporters like Ida B. Wells, Nellie Bly, and Gloria Steinem, who went ahead and did it anyway. Kroeger spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about how these journalists changed the industry forever, and how their legacy lives on through coverage of #MeToo and modern-day issues about gender.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Alex is 22 years old and staying with a much older, wealthy man in the Hamptons. She's the protagonist of Emma Cline's new novel, an outsider looking in at the perfectly pruned life people of a certain social status lead in these towns. In today's episode, Cline speaks with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how her heroine navigates the unfamiliar world she finds herself in, and how power is so unequally wielded in those spaces.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's been three years since George Floyd's murder. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the former police officers who killed Floyd, but accountability and justice is not always found in state-sponsored violence against Black Americans. In his new book, Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence, Ellison retraces the case. As he tells NPR's Leila Fadel, the book – and his experience – is also proof that systems can change to prevent future tragedies.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today's episode features interviews with two monumental performers. First, Jerry Seinfeld chats with Here & Now's Robin Young about his new book, inspired by his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee series, and the kinship between performers in that industry. Then, Tom Hanks speaks with NPR's A Martinez about his new novel, The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece, an ode to all the people and effort required to keep the Hollywood gears turning.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Before author Cassandra Jackson was even born, her father's family suffered a major loss – a car accident that resulted in the deaths of five people, including Jackson's aunt and grandmother. In her new memoir, The Wreck, Jackson attempts to understand the tragedy that shaped her upbringing and dives into the grief she's carried with her for as long as she can remember. In today's episode, she tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe how struggling with infertility triggered her search for answers about her own family's legacy, and what she discovered about segregation and media coverage in the process.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy