NPR's Book of the Day

It's the most wonderful time of the year – NPR's annual Books We Love! On today's episode, our host Andrew Limbong sits down with All Things Considered host Juana Summers to discuss some of the titles on this year's roundup, which includes more than 400 recommendations. Then, Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with the author of one of the most popular books on the list: Jennette McCurdy. She opens up about her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, which reckons with her childhood as a Nickelodeon star in an abusive household.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sarah Thankam Mathews' debut novel takes place after the 2009 recession. The lead character, Sneha, just graduated college. Alone in the U.S. after her parents' unfair deportation back to India, she builds community through the friendships and lesbian relationships of her early 20s. In this episode, Mathews explains to Here & Now's Robin Young how her own experience with mutual aid work led her to write about seeking support and solidarity, and why she wanted to break out of the stereotypical narratives around Indian-American identity.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Former Vice President Mike Pence says he's been demeaned and misunderstood for his evangelical Christian values. In his new book, So Help Me God, he dives into how his religious views impact his personal life and his political ambitions, and why he feels he's experienced judgment as a result of both. In this episode, NPR's Steve Inskeep asks Pence about how the religious freedom legislation he championed can be seen as discriminatory towards LGBTQ communities, and how hostility and intolerance can be felt from different perspectives.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author and former dancer Meg Howrey knows about the world of ballet. It's at the center of her new novel, They're Going to Love You, which finds an adult choreographer reflecting on her childhood relationship with her estranged father and her father's partner. In this episode, Howrey talks to NPR's Scott Simon about becoming a writer and honing in on the power that ambition, forgiveness and the passing of time can hold.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Journalist and Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa thinks the world is facing a sort of World War III – especially as it relates to information. Her new book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, details the relationship between trust, truth and democracy, and how social media's pull to inflammatory falsehoods can threaten that delicate balance. In this episode, she tells NPR's Scott Simon how the Philippines have become "a testing ground for attacks against America," and how investigative reporting on the matter is worth the risks it poses.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

There is a common hurdle for many first generation immigrants: feeling out of place. Whether that's in school, speaking a different language, or living through parents' expectations. Today: two books about overcoming those feelings of inadequacy. First, Simu Liu, Marvel's first Asian superhero, discusses his memoir We Were Dreamers, where he talks about his complicated relationship with his parents and what he calls his "immigrant superhero origin story." Then, Cuban-American author Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider as a bilingual speaker and the creative freedom she found in writing Spanish without italics in her book.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Bonnie Garmus' new novel Lessons In Chemistry has been getting a lot of buzz. Elizabeth Zott is a talented chemist but because it's the 1960s, she faces sexism in her quest to work as a scientist. So instead she has a cooking show that is wildly popular. Garmus told NPR's Scott Simon that the character of Elizabeth lived in her head for many years before she started writing this novel.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Somali British poet Warsan Shire has had many projects, including running a popular Tumblr page and collaborating with Beyoncé. Now, she is out with a new collection of poems called Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head. That title is an ode to how she was raised, having to take on a lot of responsibility from a young age. But Shire told NPR's Sarah McCammon that it's also an ode to the children who are able to turn those voices into their friends instead of struggling with them as she has.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author Karen Joy Fowler thinks John Wilkes Booth craved attention – and that he's gotten his fair share of it. So her new novel, Booth, instead focuses on his family. Their history might surprise you, given how John turned out. His grandfather was a part of the Underground Railroad. Fowler told NPR's Scott Simon that because of all we know about Booth's family, the path that John took is one of life's great mysteries. And, no, she hasn't solved it.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author NoViolet Bulawayo's new novel Glory is quite openly based on Orwell's Animal Farm and the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe that ousted then president Robert Mugabe. Horses rule the country, dogs are the military, cows, goats, sheep, and pigs are the everyday people. The government that has been in control of the country Jidada for 40 years has fallen to rebellion. But, as these things go, it quickly turns sour. Bulawayo told NPR's Scott Simon that "it is simply an issue of the leadership kind of forgetting [...] why the people they – that fought to serve – made the sacrifice that they did."Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy