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.

Showing 1 - 20 of 44  There are a total of 283 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "2024"
Star rating for 2024
Author:
Description:
"The definitive, inside story of the most tumultuous and consequential presidential campaign in our history "The whole world was against me, and I won," said Donald Trump in an exclusive interview, ten days before his second inauguration. Nearly four years after Trump's first turbulent presidency concluded in a violent attempt to overturn the election, he made a political comeback on a scale that stunned the nation. How did the first U.S. president...
Book cover for "All we were promised"
Star rating for All we were promised
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:
"The paths of three young Black women in pre-Civil War Philadelphia unexpectedly and dangerously collide in this dramatic debut novel inspired by the explosive history of a city at war with itself. ... Inspired by the untold history of Pennsylvania Hall, one of Philadelphia's landmarks lost to violence, [this book tells] the story of ... the rebel, the socialite, and the fugitive fighting for each other in an American city straining to live up to...
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 "Black in blues"
Star rating for Black in blues
Description:
"A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue and its ... role in Black history and culture"--
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 buffalo hunter hunter"
Star rating for The buffalo hunter hunter
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who...
Book cover for "Careless people"
Star rating for Careless people
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
An insider account charting one woman's career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.
Book cover for "Chokepoints"
Star rating for Chokepoints
Description:
"The epic story of how America turned the world economy into a weapon, upending decades of globalization to take on a new authoritarian axis-Russia, China, and Iran. It used to be that ravaging another country's economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government. In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into...
Book cover for "Circle of Hope"
Star rating for Circle of Hope
Description:
"Americans have been leaving their churches. Some drift away. Some stay home. And some have been searching for--and finding--more authentic ways to find and follow Jesus. This is the story of one such 'radical outpost of Jesus followers,' dedicated to service, the Sermon on the Mount, and working toward justice for all in this life, not just salvation for some in the next. Part of a little-known yet influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism,...
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 "Defectors"
Star rating for Defectors
Description:
"An award-winning journalist's deeply reported exploration of how race, identity, and political trauma have influenced the rise in far-right sentiment among Latinos, and how this group can shape American politics. Democrats have historically assumed they can rely on the Latino vote, but recent elections have shown this to be far from the case. In fact, despite his vociferous anti-immigrant rhetoric and disastrous border policies, Trump won a higher...
Book cover for "Desi Arnaz"
Star rating for Desi Arnaz
Description:
"An illuminating biography of Desi Arnaz, the visionary, trailblazing Cuban American who revolutionized television and brought laughter to millions as Lucille Ball's beloved husband on I Love Lucy, leaving a remarkable legacy that continues to influence American culture today. Desi Arnaz is a name that resonates with fans of classic television, but few understand the depth of his contributions to the entertainment industry. In Desi Arnaz, Todd S....
Book cover for "The director"
Star rating for The director
Description:
"G.W. Pabst, one of cinema's greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him. When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself...
Book cover for "Everything is tuberculosis"
Star rating for Everything is tuberculosis
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John beccame fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest,...
Book cover for "Forgottenness"
Star rating for Forgottenness
Description:
"An award-winning novel from one of Ukraine's most prolific contemporary authors, Forgottenness tells a spellbinding story of belonging and uprootedness, as understood by two exiles across time. An exceedingly anxious narrator grapples with a host of conditions, from obsessive-compulsive disorder to a creeping sense of agoraphobia. As her symptoms deepen, she finds unexpected solace researching Viacheslav Lypynskyi (1882-1931), a social and political...
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 "Hestia strikes a match"
Star rating for Hestia strikes a match
Description:
"Set amid the devastation of a new American civil war, Hestia Strikes a Match is the slyly funny story of a woman looking for love and friendship, even as the world collapses"--
Book cover for "The house of doors"
Star rating for The house of doors
Description:
It's 1921, and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert's, comes to stay. Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day, but he's beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health, and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more...
Book cover for "How to sell out"
Star rating for How to sell out
Description:
"A timely, vulnerable, and cutting-edge exploration of the pressures and pitfalls of writing while Black in America in this urgently needed addition to the national conversation of race, money, and art"--
Book cover for "Invitation to a banquet"
Star rating for Invitation to a banquet
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world's best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication--but...