Cary Regional-NPR Readers Corner-Radio/Podcast

Explore the best in literature with NPR's Readers Corner. Discover new authors, dive into thought-provoking conversations, and find your next great read. From fiction to nonfiction, and everything in between, we've got you covered. Browse our curated selection of book reviews, author interviews, and reading recommendations to fuel your love of reading.

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Book cover for "The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi"
Star rating for The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
The first book of "a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman's determined quest to seize a final chance at glory--and write her own legend ... Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands,...
Book cover for "All fours"
Star rating for All fours
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:
"A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey"--
Book cover for "All the other mothers hate me"
Star rating for All the other mothers hate me
Average Rating:
2.7 stars
Description:
"Luckiest Girl Alive meets A Simple Favor in this voice driven, stylish, and darkly comedic debut thriller about a pop star turned bad mom who will do anything to save her son after he becomes the prime suspect in his classmate's disappearance, from the winner of the Lucy Cavendish Prize for Fiction. Florence Grimes is a thirty-one-year-old party girl who always takes the easy way out. Single, broke and unfulfilled after the humiliating end to her...
Book cover for "Anita de Monte laughs last"
Star rating for Anita de Monte laughs last
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Notes:
NPR categorizes this book as suspense/ thriller.
Description:
"Who gets to leave a legacy? 1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn't. By 1998 Anita's name has been all but forgotten - certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by progeny of film producers, C-Suite executives, and international art-dealers, most of whom float through...
Book cover for "The antidote"
Star rating for The antidote
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"A ... Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraska town"--
Book cover for "The bewitching"
Star rating for The bewitching
Average Rating:
1 stars
Description:
"'Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches'. That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva--stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that's why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers...
Book cover for "Black cake"
Star rating for Black cake
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and...

8. Bride

Book cover for "Bride"
Star rating for Bride
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast--again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange. Again. Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception....
Book cover for "The bright sword"
Star rating for The bright sword
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Collum, a brilliantly gifted young knight from the provinces, arrives at Camelot two weeks after the Battle of Camlann, hoping to compete for a spot on the Round Table. But he finds the city empty, King Arthur dead, and the Table destroyed. The remaining six knights aren't the mighty heroes, the legends, like Lancelot and Gawain and Tristram and Galahad. These are the survivors, a grab-bag of minor oddball knights from the margins. ... Arthur's death...
Book cover for "The city we became"
Star rating for The city we became
Series:
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:
"Five New Yorkers must come together in order to save their city from destruction in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. When a young man crosses the bridge into New York City, something changes. He doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even...
Book cover for "The cliffs"
Star rating for The cliffs
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"The crumbling Victorian had been abandoned long before Jane ever discovered it as a child. It was painted a sweet violet color, and the gingerbread trim was blue and green, but inside was shambles--broken glass, a dollhouse ravaged by mice, bedsheets twisted as though someone had left in a hurry. Still, the house became a hideaway whenever Jane needed to escape her volatile mother. Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to...
Book cover for "Colored television"
Star rating for Colored television
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she, her painter husband Lenny, and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend's luxurious home high in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane's sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu--the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her 'mulatto War and Peace'--she'll have tenure and...
Book cover for "The compound"
Star rating for The compound
Description:
"Lily--a bored, beautiful twenty-something--wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door. Cameras are catching all her angles,...
Book cover for "The dream hotel"
Star rating for The dream hotel
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA's algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention center,...
Book cover for "The emperor of gladness"
Star rating for The emperor of gladness
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering...

16. Falling

Book cover for "Falling"
Star rating for Falling
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Thirty minutes before a flight to New York, the family of the pilot is kidnapped and in order for them to live, all 143 passengers onboard must die in the first novel by a former flight attendant.
Book cover for "The god of the woods"
Star rating for The god of the woods
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn't just any camper: she's the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp--as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region. Barbara's...
Book cover for "Good night, Irene"
Star rating for Good night, Irene
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head...
Book cover for "He who drowned the world"
Star rating for He who drowned the world
Series:
Radiant emperor volume 2.
Description:
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu isn't the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband--and she's strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky...
Book cover for "The house in the cerulean sea"
Star rating for The house in the cerulean sea
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel...