Jason Heller
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
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Ursula K. Le Guin's mastery of fiction has remained so consistent, it's easy to overlook her accomplishments in other forms — but her new nonfiction collection goes a long way towards fixing that.
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Arthur Herman's new book zooms in on Vladimir Lenin, Woodrow Wilson, and the vast, conflicting historical forces they embodied — and which came to a head in the fateful year of 1917.
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Harvard professor Richard F. Thomas teaches a popular class on the importance of Bob Dylan, and now he's turned it into a book, full of stories, personal history and the occasional comparison to Ovid.
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The French singer (and actor) has made her first album in 7 years — a testament to the power of immaculate, effortless-sounding pop songcraft, even in the face of loss.
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Activist Bill McKibben answers his own call for topical fiction with Radio Free Vermont, a gently surreal tale about a septuagenarian troublemaker who inadvertently sparks a secession movement.
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Hodgman's past few books have been jokey compendiums of fake knowledge, but with Vacationland he's getting a little realer with an achingly funny chronicle of his metamorphosis into middle age.
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For his second solo album, The Smashing Pumpkins visionary worked with renowned producer Rick Rubin. The result is a breathtaking balance between intimacy and imagination.
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This collection of essays, poems, and short stories — edited by John Freeman — makes for a gripping and intensely personal examination of inequality, transience and displacement in America.
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Anne Gisleson was reeling from a series of family tragedies when she began meeting with friends to discuss books and life in post-Katrina New Orleans. Her new book chronicles a year of those meetings.
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Sex is such an inextricable part of pop music, it's easy to overlook, but NPR Music critic Ann Powers rectifies that in her new book, a portrait of America's obsession with sex as it manifests in pop.