Book, literature and publishing news on HDT.

Book Reviews

NPR Topics: Books
Book reviews, interviews with authors, best-seller lists and more. Subscribe to the RSS feed.
Books
  • '666': A Tale Of The Tribulation So Bad, It's Good
    When Rhoda Janzen was 9, her mother busted her for reading the thriller 666 during an incredibly dull sermon at their Mennonite church. To this day, Janzen revels in the terribly written prose about the Antichrist, cannibalism, global famine and apocalyptic doom.
  • God Not Needed To Create Universe, Hawking Says
    In his new book, The Grand Design, the British physicist says unraveling a complex series of theories will explain the universe. The book, written with American physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow, will be published Sept. 9.
  • Where's The Beef? One Man's Search For 'Steak'
    Mark Schatzker, a lifelong steak lover, was disappointed in the steaks he was eating. So Schatzker set off on a quest to find the very best piece of beef in the world -- a quest that took him from feedlots in Texas, to French cave paintings of prehistoric cattle, to the Argentine pampas.

NPR Book News

  • Agassi Visits U.S. Open, Signs Copies Of 'Open'
    It's the first week of the U-S Open. Former tennis star Andre Agassi talks to Steve Inskeep about great tennis rivalries and his book Open: An Autobiography, and how it's been received by his family.
  • Blair's Key To Success: 'Skills Of Persuasion'
    Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is out with a memoir called A Journey: My Political Life. Steve Inskeep asks him to relate one story about a quality Blair realized he had in common with the late Princess Diana -- one that had a hand in his own political success.
  • Tony Blair On War, Globalization And 'My Political Life'
    The former prime minister of the United Kingdom's memoir, My Life: A Political Journey, is on sale in the U.S. Blair spoke to Steve Inskeep about Iraq, globalization and his political career.

Random Literary Events

Facebook Share

Share on facebook

Random Book Awards

The John H. Dunning Prize for United States History
Wednesday, 04 June 2008
  The John H. Dunning Prize is given for the best book on "any subject pertaining to the history of the United States." The Dunning... Read more...
Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award
Monday, 05 July 2010
   The Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award is given annually for, logically enough, the best book... Read more...
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Books
Sunday, 08 June 2008
  The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards "are among the most prestigious honors in the field of children's and young adult literature."... Read more...
Guardian First Book Award
Friday, 23 January 2009
   The latest winner of the Guardian First Book Award is featured below along with a complete list of all past winners, and a link to our... Read more...
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction
Monday, 05 July 2010
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is awarded annually by the BBC "to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of all... Read more...
Los Angeles Times Book Prize For Biography
Monday, 12 May 2008
  The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are given annually in ten categories. To be eligible for one of the awards a book must have been... Read more...
British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award for Best Novel
Sunday, 01 June 2008
  The August Derleth Award for best novel is given by The British Fantasy Society. "The British Fantasy Society exists to promote and enjoy... Read more...
The Western Heritage Award for Photography Books
Monday, 26 May 2008
  The Western Heritage Awards were first presented by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1961. They are given to... Read more...
Costa Book Award for Best Novel
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
  The Costa Book Award for The Best Novel of the year can be found below along with a list of all previous winners, links to the... Read more...
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
Friday, 23 January 2009
   The latest winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize is featured below along with a complete list of all previous winners, and a link... Read more...

Who's Online

We have 75 guests online

Great Quotations

  • Jack London on the advantages of not being a cabbage
    Author's Name Jack London
    Type of Quote Animals
    Change
    "The advantage of the animal over the vegetable kingdom is obvious. The cabbage, should its environment tend to become worse, must live it out, or die; the rabbit may move on in quest of a better."
  • Edith Wharton on Secrets and Age
    Author's Name Edith Wharton
    He was growing old, and beginning to need rest and an imperturbed spirit. He did not want the secrets of other lives thrust upon him.
  • Edith Wharton on Weddings
    Author's Name Edith Wharton
    She says a wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth. Nice thing for a woman to say to her husband!
  • James Tiptree, Jr., (Alice B. Sheldon)
    Anyone who shoots a real gun at you when drunk and angry is simply not husband material, regardless of his taste in literature.
  • Truman Capote
    Any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person's nature; only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves.
  • Jack London

     

    "The advantage of the animal over the vegetable kingdom is obvious. The cabbage, should its environment tend to become worse, must live it out, or die; the rabbit may move on in quest of a better."

     

     


     

     

  • Donald Westlake

    "A gun is so clean, so impersonal. It separates you, just a bit, from the event."


  • John Gregory Dunne

     

    "Being as rich as my father had made me allowed me to nourish a small talent for irony, irony being the vehicle by which the essentially second rate arrive at some kind of superiority."

     


  • G.K. Chesterton

    "If we boast of our best, we must repent of our worst. Otherwise patriotism will be a very poor thing indeed."

     

  • Jorge Luis Borges

    "It is like two bald men fighting over a comb."

    Jorge Luis Borges on the Falklands war.

                                                                                                                 

  • Stephen King

     "The world has teeth and it can bite you with them any time it wants."

                                                                                           by Stephen King

     


     



Poetry Readings

Random Author Pages

Amis, Kingsley

  Kingsley Amis April 16, 1922 to October 22, 1995 Born in London, England & Died in London, England Author of Lucky Jim, multiple Booker... Read more...  
O'Brien, Tim

  Tim O'Brien  October 1, 1946 Born in Austin, Minnesota National Book Award winning novelist associated with the Vietnam... Read more...  
Niebuhr, Reinhold

  Reinhold Niebuhr June 21, 1892 to June 1, 1971 Born in Wright City, Missouri & Died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts Christian author and... Read more...  
Eliot, T. S.

  T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot) September 26, 1888 to January 4, 1965 Born in St. Louis, Missouri & Died in London, England Considered... Read more...  
Jones, James

  James Jones November 6, 1921 to May 9, 1971 Born in Robinson, Illinois & Died in Southampton, New York Author of From Here to Eternity,... Read more...