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Black In America: A Story Rendered In Gray Scale 
  Tue, 14 May 2013 07:00:00 -0400 
    Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah is about a young Nigerian woman who moves to the U.S. It's a story of relocation, far-flung love and life as an outsider. But reviewer Rosecrans Baldwin says that despite the author's talent, much of the storytelling feels flat.


Christine Ha: From MasterChef To Home Kitchen 
  Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 -0400 
    When Christine Ha won MasterChef in 2012, she blew the reality TV show judges away with her Vietnamese influenced cooking. But what really impressed viewers was that she had total control in the kitchen, even though she's blind. Host Michel Martin speaks to Christine Ha about her new cookbook Recipes from my Home Kitchen.


Book News: J.K. Rowling Tells 'Harry Potter' Backstories 
  Mon, 20 May 2013 07:15:00 -0400 
    Quidditch was invented "in a small hotel in Manchester after a row with my then boyfriend," writes the Harry Potter creator. Other book news: Ireland puts an entire short story on a postage stamp; Daniel Handler on Midwestern literature; and the best books coming out this week.


May 20-26: A Coup, An Ancient Battle And One Steamy Diary 
  Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:00 -0400 
    In softcover nonfiction, Jenny Rosenstrach examines dinnertime, Kate Summerscale recounts a scandalous Victorian trial, and John Dramani Mahama looks back on his childhood in Ghana. In fiction, Victor Davis Hanson reimagines an ancient battle, and Marie NDiaye follows three women from Senegal to Europe.


Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 16:09:00 -0400 
    John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.


Unacceptable Anger From 'The Woman Upstairs' 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 16:09:00 -0400 
    "Women's anger is very scary to people," author Claire Messud says. Her new novel, The Woman Upstairs, features a seething main character, a young woman whose anger is unsettling.


Three-Minute Fiction: 'Ten Ring Fingers' And 'Ghost Words' 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 06:54:00 -0400 
    NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Ten Ring Fingers by Tamara Breuer of Washington, D.C., and Ghost Words by Matheus Macedo of Winthrop, Mass.


Siblings' Separation Haunts In 'Kite Runner' Author's Latest 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 05:41:00 -0400 
    Khaled Hosseini's new novel, like his two earlier works, is set partly in Afghanistan — but this time, political turmoil isn't a major element of the plot. Instead, And The Mountains Echoed is a story of a family's loss that spans decades and continents.


Stories Of Hope Amid America's 'Unwinding' 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 05:41:00 -0400 
    When the factory she worked at closed down, Tammy Thomas reinvented herself as a community organizer; and when Dean Price's truck stop business went belly up, he became a champion of biofuel. In a new book, George Packer examines how ordinary people are adapting to a new America.


Ghost Ships, Murders, Bird Attacks: Stories To Keep You Awake 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 07:00:00 -0400 
    Author Ethan Rutherford started reading Daphne du Maurier's collection of stories, Don't Look Now, while it was still light out and didn't move from his chair until dark. Each one features characters who endure the strange and the extreme, and who are forever changed by the events that befall them.


Ten Ring Fingers 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 06:42:00 -0400 
    She found the first ring on a night that smelled of body odor and beer. The bar's last customers had finally given up hope of taking her to bed and staggered away, leaving her to clean the stains of their desperation.


Ghost Words 
  Sun, 19 May 2013 06:41:00 -0400 
    The letter smelled of lavender and vanilla, like she couldn't decide which perfume to use so she used both. Her hand-writing had been drawn with the careful precision only seventh-grade girls in love have patience for.


Three-Minute Fiction Reading: 'Plum Baby' 
  Sat, 18 May 2013 16:41:08 -0400 
    NPR's Susan Stamberg reads an excerpt of one of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. She reads Plum Baby by Carmiel Banasky of Portland, Ore.


'Waiting To Be Heard' No More, Amanda Knox Speaks Out 
  Sat, 18 May 2013 16:41:00 -0400 
    Less than two months into her study abroad program in Italy, Amanda Knox was accused and eventually convicted of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher. After her conviction was overturned, Knox returned home to Seattle — and now faces a potential retrial. Knox tells her story in a new memoir.


Dan Brown: 'Inferno' Is 'The Book That I Would Want To Read' 
  Sat, 18 May 2013 05:13:00 -0400 
    Dan Brown, author of the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, is back with his first novel in four years. Inferno follows academic hero Robert Langdon on a chase through Italy as he attempts to avert a biological catastrophe.
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