NPR's Book of the Day

Inspired by a true story from Oakland, California, Leila Mottley's first novel follows a young Black girl who is sexually abused by a group of police officers. Kiara is a 17-year-old girl who comes from a fractured, poor family, and the novel follows her story as she attempts to survive and thrive navigating so much with so little protection. In an interview with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe, Mottley talked about the rich internal world she created for her main character, adding nuance to the storylines of poor characters, and the media coverage of the case that inspired her book.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In this episode, Here & Now's Robin Young talks with author Andrew Sean Greer about his new novel Less is Lost, the sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Less. This time, Greer's protagonist Arthur Less takes a tour of America in a van, and in the process learns about what it means to be an author today. Less is disappointed by how things are going, but doesn't realize how good things actually are for him. Greer says that he almost didn't write a second book, but by satirizing the literary crowd, he saw the importance of critiquing himself.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author Tochi Onyebuchi says that a majority of space stories he's come across favor those in power. Rich white people get to escape in spaceships, whereas less affluent Black and brown people are left behind on an increasingly inhabitable Earth. His new science-fiction novel Goliath gets at this power imbalance, and the author spoke to Juana Summers about how it tells us so much about racial and economic disparities right now.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the aftermath of the Mexican war for independence, a new bride finds herself alone in a haunted house surrounded by people who don't believe her. It's the plot of Isabel Cañas' debut novel The Hacienda, where she blends romance, terror, and the supernatural to tell a story highly embedded with Mexican culture. In an interview with Weekend Edition Sunday, Cañas told Ayesha Rascoe about the themes she wanted to explore in her novel – colonialism, social status, the syncretism of Catholicism and indigenous practices – and her own fear of darkness.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today's episode centers around two books that explore the rippling consequences of violence against women. First, author Johanne Lykke Holm sits down with NPR's Scott Simon to discuss her new novel, Strega, which follows a group of teenage girls sent to work at an odd hotel – it's a place focused more on reinforcing gendered roles and behavior than welcoming guests. Then, NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers about her fiction debut, All Good People Here, which tracks the eerie cases of missing young women in a small Indiana town.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is a trailblazing journalist. The first Black reporter for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section, she's spent more than a half-century reporting on the lives of Black Americans. Her newest book, My People, is a collection of pieces written throughout her career that provide a nuanced look at Black communities across the U.S. In this episode, she speaks to NPR's Michel Martin about how our country's understanding of race has changed since she first began working as a journalist, but how some things – like the bans on books by certain authors – kind of stay the same.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The United States is seeing some concerning trends when it comes to school shootings, deaths by suicide, overdoses and other unhealthy behaviors; they're on the rise. Physician Gabor Maté says that's not so much a coincidence as a consequence of a toxic culture in our country. His new book, The Myth of Normal, dispels the idea that these are unavoidable, unrelated statistics. In this episode, he speaks to Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd about capitalism's role in this morbid, new "normal," and where society can look for opportunities to start healing.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Novelist Barbara Kingsolver loves living in the Appalachian hills of southwestern Virginia. But she says she feels that the region is often misconstrued by mainstream media. Her new book, Demon Copperhead, follows a young boy grappling with the consequences of loss, addiction and poverty – but also finding ways to survive through creativity and imagination. In this episode, Kingsolver speaks with Here & Now's Scott Tong about the Dickensian influences in the novel, the divide between urban and rural, and the idea that "the middle of nowhere is relative."Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Bestselling author Neil Pasricha knows what it's like to feel down. Fifteen years ago, he was going through a difficult period in his life – so he started a blog to write down the ordinary, everyday things that brought him happiness: unsubscribing from annoying emails, finding the right tupperware lid on the first try, wearing warm undies out of the dryer. That positivity is the driving force behind Our Book of Awesome. In today's episode, he explains to Here & Now's Jane Clayson how those seemingly insignificant moments can add up to actually change our outlook on life.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today's episode is all about dessert. Not just any dessert – chef-certified, tested and recommended baked goods that are sure to be the star of any holiday table. First, Here & Now's Robin Young tests out some of Molly Gilbert's recipes, from a rice krispie treat variation to a tres leches, and asks why Gilbert chose the sheet pan to be the protagonist of her cookbook. Then, Rose Levy Beranbaum of The Cake Bible fame joins Young to indulge in her newest book: The Cookie Bible.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy