Over the past week, Dolly Parton has been remembered for her music, her star power, her advocacy and her philanthropic contributions. But she was also an author. In today?s episode, we remember the country star through two of her books. In 2022, Parton and co-author James Patterson spoke with Morning Edition?s Rachel Martin about their novel Run, Rose, Run, about an aspiring country musician who moves to Nashville. Then, we revisit a 2023 conversation between Parton and NPR?s Melissa Block about the author?s children's book, Billy the Kid Makes It Big.

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Chang-Rae Lee?s new novel is filled with some of his own memories, like worrying about being picked last for dodgeball and sizing up his fellow Asian American classmates to determine who was most ?foreign.? Lee says, unlike some of his other novels, these autobiographical elements populate A Tender Age. In today?s episode, the author speaks with Here & Now?s Scott Tong about growing up Korean American in suburban New York in the 1970s, attending church camp in the Hudson Valley and the fragility of being a pre-teen.

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Sam Roberts says when people find out what he does for work, they tend to shrink away. Roberts is a veteran obituarist for The New York Times. But the writer says he writes about life ? not death. His new memoir Are They Dead Yet? is a behind-the-scenes look at the craft of writing obituaries. In today?s episode, he tells NPR?s Eyder Peralta about how the Times determines who gets an obituary, how Roberts weighs the unsavory parts of his subjects? pasts and why he decided to publish an obituary for Jesus.

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Daytona Teddy Riggs is a former high school football star from a wealthy oil and gas family. But in his 20s, he enters a downward spiral as he seeks to become the World?s Strongest Man. Daytona Teddy Riggs follows this single-minded quest, one marked by steroids, behavioral issues and new consequences for his actions. In today?s episode, debut author Drew Buxton joins NPR?s Danielle Kurtzleben for a conversation about the novel, masculinity, and his protagonist?s future.

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Ken Salazar's personal and political life have been defined by the U.S.-Mexico border. The fifth-generation Mexican American has served as a U.S. senator, secretary of the interior and ambassador to Mexico. His new memoir Borderlands focuses on the long history between the U.S. and Mexico. In today?s episode, he speaks with NPR?s Eyder Peralta about his work on migration under the Biden administration.

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Journalist Jodi Kantor and Harvard happiness expert Arthur Brooks are both out with new books about identifying and cultivating meaning in one?s life. Brooks says he wanted to write The Meaning of Your Life after observing an explosion in depression and anxiety among young people beginning around 2008. In today?s episode, he chats with Here & Now?s Indira Lakshmanan about how neglecting right-brain activity has led us astray. Then, Kantor tells NPR?s Mary Louise Kelly about the daunting commencement speech invitation that led to her book How to Start, which focuses on cultivating one?s life work through ideas like ?craft? and ?need.?

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In 1839, conjoined twins and famous showmen Chang and Eng Bunker ? native to Thailand, then called Siam ? took a break from touring, settled in North Carolina, bought a slave plantation, and married two American sisters. The interracial union caused a public scandal for more reasons than one, and their story is the inspiration for Christina Baker Kline?s novel The Foursome. In today?s episode, Baker Kline, who is a distant cousin of the twins? wives, speaks with NPR?s Ayesha Rascoe about exploring the complexity of the foursome?s place in a society that both feared and fetishized them. 

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In Project Hail Mary, amateur astronaut Ryland Grace must travel light years from Earth to save humanity from a dying Sun. The stakes are high, to say the least. But author Andy Weir was intentional about centering hope in his bestselling novel, which inspired the recent blockbuster film starring Ryan Gosling. In today?s episode, Andy Weir joins Here and Now?s Indira Lakshmanan to discuss his creative world-building process, and why he remains optimistic about our ability to collaborate in the face of existential threats.

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Virginia Evans? The Correspondent became a runaway hit for its exploration of a life told through letters. When readers meet Sybil Van Antwerp she?s in her 70s, and she takes readers on a journey through her various correspondences ? which include names as revered as Joan Didion and Ann Patchett. But Sybil isn?t telling us everything, and her clever prose might hide as much as it reveals. In today?s episode, author Virginia Evans joins Here and Now?s Robin Young to discuss the value of correspondence, and how the book?s success has changed the letter-writing industry itself.

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Author Daniyal Mueenuddin hit the ground running with his debut novel, This is Where the Serpent Lives. Set in modern Pakistan, the story spans generations and explores class, corruption, and crime ? themes that  Mueenuddin says he believes might resonate with American readers in particular. In today?s episode, Mueenuddin speaks with NPR?s Scott Simon about his novel-writing process for This is Where the Serpent Lives, and why he sprinkled subtle autobiographical details across its pages.

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Today?s episode features two novels with tech at the center. Climate journalist Nathaniel Rich?s Cloudthief is the story of a hacker and a journalist who team up to rob a data center in Oklahoma. Rich spoke with Here & Now?s Indira Lakshmanan about how he came up with the idea for the heist. Then, horror writer Paul Tremblay is out with a new novel about a gamer who takes on an odd job involving a man in a vegetative state. Tremblay spoke with Here & Now?s Tiziana Dearing about Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep.

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Hannah Lucinda Smith is a veteran foreign correspondent. Her new book Hinterlands explores whether hidden conflicts unfolding in little-noticed border areas might be shaping a new world order. In today?s episode, she speaks with All Things Considered?s Mary Louise Kelly about ?overlooked? places caught between the Russian and Turkish spheres of influence and the West. They also discuss Smith?s comparison between the political circumstances in Damascus in 2011 and Sarajevo in 1914 ? and the dynamic nature of borders.

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By chance, authors Annie Hartnett and Kevin Wilson published road trip novels last year within just a few weeks of each other. The Road to Tender Hearts follows a 67-year-old man, his estranged daughter and his newly adopted grandniece and nephew on a road trip to reunite with the man?s high school crush. Run for the Hills is about four half-siblings who set off to track down the father who abandoned them. In today?s episode, Hartnett and Wilson join All Things Considered?s Juana Summers for a conversation about road trip stories and their favorites in the genre.

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As Democrats struggle to revive their party, democratic strategist Ben Wikler has advice to share. Wikler was chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019-2025. And the key, he says, is to focus on the whole system rather than one candidate. He makes this argument in a new book called This Is the Plan. He spoke with NPR?s Sacha Pfeiffer about how he believes Democrats can ?un-rig? the system and regain political power at the national level.

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Etna is a dog living in a fictional, coastal country on a farm with his mom and siblings. Then, one day, he?s scooped up by a mysterious woman who enlists him for war. The new novel Etna is narrated through the dog?s eyes as he lives and fights alongside explosions, gunfire, crumbling buildings and his handler, Jason. In today?s episodes, author Paul Yoon speaks with Weekend Edition?s Scott Simon about what we learn about war by seeing it through Etna?s eyes.

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This summer, wildfires have swept across Europe, Northern Africa, Canada and the U.S. ? and today?s episode features firsthand accounts of deadly fires in California. In Torched, CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti writes about political mismanagement of the 2025 Palisades Fire. He spoke with Morning Edition?s A Martínez about how the 2028 Summer Olympics are impacting L.A.?s efforts to rebuild. Then, Wildfire Days is a memoir by Kelly Ramsey, the only woman on her hotshot crew. She spoke with Here & Now?s Peter O?Dowd about working on the ?special forces? of wild land firefighters in 2020.

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Robinne Lee?s first novel, The Idea of You, was a big hit. It tells the story of a single mother who begins a romance with a much younger man, the lead singer of a fictional boy band. In Lee?s latest novel, Crash Into Me, a middle-aged couple moves from Paris to Los Angeles. And this time, the wife falls into a love affair with a much younger woman, bringing her marriage to a crossroads. In today?s episode, Lee joins All Things Considered?s Juana Summers for a discussion about writing a multi-generational, multi-racial novel.

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Sex Diaries is a weekly column in New York Magazine, collected and edited by Alyssa Shelasky, that has featured headlines like ?The Musician Ghosting His Dates? or ?The Woman Cheating With Her Ex.? Now, Shelasky has compiled some of her favorite entries on non-monogamy into a new book with the same title. In today?s episode, the author speaks with All Things Considered?s Juana Summers about the mundane, non-sexual details in Sex Diaries entries and why Shelasky believes romantic relationships are headed in a more empowered direction.

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I Made You Up Inside My Head is Marta Pérez-Carbonell?s debut novel. In the book, three strangers have a surprise encounter on an overnight train. A woman named Alicia meets Terence and Mick. One of them is a writer at the center of a literary scandal, having ripped off the life of a man who has since gone missing ? and Alicia gets pulled into their story. In today?s episode, Pérez-Carbonell and Weekend Edition?s Scott Simon discuss the novel?s multilayered nature and how the author approached the theme of isolation.

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Before Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, became the state's junior U.S. senator, he was selected to serve as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His new book, The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America, argues that democracy is "the political enactment of a spiritual idea." In today?s episode, Warnock talks to Morning Edition host Michel Martin about the relationship between faith and politics.

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Two new novels use death to shed new light on life, but these aren?t depressing reads. In Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, the Grim Reaper gets a little too attached to the people he meets along the way. In today?s episode, author Ben Reeves speaks with All Things Considered?s Scott Detrow about publishing his debut novel after 20 years of writing. Then, Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library, talks with Here & Now?s Indira Lakshmanan about his new book, The Midnight Train, about a man who boards a magical train that gives him a chance to review his past.

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Sigrid Nunez ? author of novels like The Friend and What Are You Going Through ? is out with a new collection of short stories. It Will Come Back to You features characters like a middle-age daughter coping with her mother?s memory loss, a Brad Pitt lookalike and a housekeeper working at a luxury hotel in Manhattan. In today?s episode, Nunez joins Here & Now?s Tiziana Dearing for a conversation about the familial relationships in the collection. The author also shares writing advice from Elizabeth Hardwick and Kurt Vonnegut.

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French footballer Kylian Mbappé was one of the World Cup's biggest stars this summer, despite France's loss to Spain in the semifinals. ESPN soccer correspondent Julien Laurens has written a new book called Kylian Mbappé: The Definitive Biography, which details the soccer star?s upbringing and path to becoming a sports prodigy. In today's episode, Laurens speaks with Here & Now's Scott Tong about how Mbappé has grown over his career and how ? like many of our greatest athletes ? he's "wired differently."

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In preparation for an upcoming trip to Ireland, All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly has been tearing through Tana French's books. French is the queen of Irish crime fiction and has authored the popular Dublin Murder Squad series, among other novels. In today?s episode, Kelly and French talk about traveling through fiction, how land ownership looms large in the Irish psyche and how French gives her fiction a sense of place. Then, the author shares her recommendations for summer reads set in Ireland.


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Ray Carney is a furniture salesman in Harlem with a long-running side hustle. Colson Whitehead?s Harlem Trilogy follows the character as he descends into crime across decades in a rapidly changing New York. Cool Machine is the third and final book in that series. In today?s episode, Whitehead speaks with Weekend Edition?s Ayesha Rascoe about Carney as a divided soul. They also chat about gentrification in 1980s Harlem and how Whitehead brought his own version of New York into the world of the book.

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In two new novels, city folk are thrown into life in the country. The Great Wherever is a multigenerational story told through ghosts. A woman living in Washington, D.C. learns she?s inherited her father?s share of a family property, a piece of farmland in Tennessee. In today?s episode, author Shannon Sanders chats with Weekend Edition?s Scott Simon about ancestral hauntings. Then, Country People is about two academics who move from the Bay Area to a small town in Vermont. Author Daniel Mason spoke with Here & Now?s Robin Young about procrastination, Russian folktales and how we imagine rural America.

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Deb Haaland?s ancestors, who were Pueblo Indians, were the first inhabitants of New Mexico ? and she?s had a number of firsts herself. In 2018 she was one of the first two Native women elected to Congress, and then in 2021 she became the first Native American named as a cabinet secretary. Now, she?s running for governor of New Mexico. In today?s episode, she talks with Morning Edition?s A Martínez about her new memoir A Voice Like Mine, her candidacy for governor and how federal policy on natural resources has shifted under the Trump administration.

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After a couple suffers a tragedy, they receive a mysterious and exclusive offer for a humanoid AI companion that knows everything about them. At first, Mr. Man is a godsend for their home, but then it begins to anticipate the family?s every need, even their unspoken desires. In today?s episode, author Gregg Hurwitz joins Weekend Edition?s Ayesha Rascoe for a conversation about his horror novella The Delivery. The author also shares his views on how to keep AI in check.

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Dave Portnoy, the polarizing social media personality and founder of Barstool Sports, has published a memoir. In Cancel Me If You Can, he writes about building a media empire ? but also about his role as a political lightning rod. Portnoy spoke with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep about his fallout with Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper, his popularity among young men, and why he "stay[s] up at night" worrying about antisemitism and democratic socialism.

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Celeste Ng ? author of titles like Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere ? says she begins her writing process by envisioning an image, then investigating something she doesn?t understand. Her new novel Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian near-future where xenophobia and state oppression are norms. She joined Here & Now?s Robin Young in May for a conversation at the WBUR festival in Boston. They spoke about Ng?s childhood in her hometown near Pittsburgh, Pa. and how she incorporates real-life experiences of anti-Asian discrimination in her books.

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In two new novels, characters with glamorous lives have their routines disrupted by shocking news. The Shampoo Effect is a story about an extremely close friend group living in a small seaside town. In today?s episode, author Jenny Jackson speaks with All Things Considered?s Juana Summers about how her characters? tight-knit dynamic is disrupted by an outsider and a surprise pregnancy. Then, in The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, an ex-boyfriend pops up with news that stirs up past traumas. Author and TV producer Mara Brock Akil spoke with Morning Edition?s Michel Martin about writing her debut novel.

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Why are we obsessed with the ancient world, even the most ordinary parts of it? Mary Beard tackles that question in her new book Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old. Her personal interest in antiquity began with a 4,000 year-old piece of bread displayed at the British Museum. Now, she?s an academic who has spent her career studying ancient Greece and Rome. In today?s episode, Beard chats with NPR?s Scott Simon about how the Greeks and Romans were ?brutal? but also "unfailingly interesting" ? and how contemporary culture replicates aspects of the classical world.

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In 2008, artist and activist Ai Weiwei clashed with the Chinese government over its response to the deadly Sichuan earthquake. The government had censored information about the death toll, so Ai Weiwei launched a citizen?s investigation, knocking on doors and visiting villages to learn the names of the thousands of children who died. More recently, the artist has also become critical of political censorship in the United States. In today?s episode, he joins Here & Now?s Scott Tong for a conversation about his new book On Censorship, a critique of censorship under both democratic and authoritarian governments.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence is out with a new book that includes critiques of the second Trump administration and the populist right. What Conservatives Believe, Pence says, was inspired in part by Barry Goldwater?s 1960 manifesto The Conscience of a Conservative, which helped define modern conservatism. In today?s episode, Pence speaks with Morning Edition?s Steve Inskeep about political favoritism of companies, civil rights, and returning to the country?s ?first principles.?

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Filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz says he turned to fiction because he could no longer make movies in Venezuela after being exiled. In 2016, he published the blockbuster hit The Adventures of Juan Planchard, a novel about a deeply flawed anti-hero who gets involved with a corrupt government regime. Jakubowicz says he wanted to show the reality of life under the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. In today?s episode, the author joins NPR?s Scott Detrow for a conversation about the book, which has just been translated into English.

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As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we?re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. Today?s episode features two novels that fictionalize the Jim Crow South. Author Tayari Jones spoke with Weekend Edition?s Ayesha Rascoe about Kin, which follows two friends growing up in Honeysuckle, La. who must navigate the constraints on Black women in the 1960s. And Margaret Verble chatted with All Things Considered?s Ari Shapiro about When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, the story of a Cherokee woman working as a horse-diver at a Nashville, Tenn. zoo.

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As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we?re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. In Eddie Glaude?s new book, the Princeton professor says the United States has a ?double consciousness.? Glaude expands on a concept from W.E.B. Du Bois, arguing the country imagines itself at once as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic. In today?s episode, Glaude joins Here & Now?s Scott Tong for a conversation about America, U.S.A., which traces that contradiction as it has bubbled up across the country?s milestone birthdays.

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As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we?re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. In today?s episode, author and journalist Rick Atkinson speaks with Weekend Edition's Scott Simon about his book The British Are Coming. They discuss Atkinson?s portrait of George Washington, whether the American Revolution was motivated by freedom or economic incentives and how ?the nation was born disputatiously.?

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As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we?re revisiting author interviews on important books about American history. Bob Crawford of the Avett Brothers has a second career as a writer. In today?s episode, he talks with Morning Edition?s Steve Inskeep about his book, America?s Founding Son, a biography of one of the less-distinguished presidents in U.S. history: John Quincy Adams. Adams was a Washington insider who was swept out of office by a populist wave in 1829. But Crawford argues Adams had an influential post-presidency career in Congress as an advocate against slavery.

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As we continue to celebrate the 250th birthday of the U.S., we?re revisiting author interviews on important books that speak to American history. In today?s episode, journalist Norah O?Donnell joins NPR?s Mary Louise Kelly to discuss We the Women, written in collaboration with Kate Andersen Brower. O?Donnell tells Kelly about lesser-known female heroes, like the woman who printed the Declaration of Independence and a female soldier who fought in the American Revolution.

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Summer can be a great time to catch up on reading. If you?re looking for recommendations, the NPR Books team is out with a list of some of our staff?s favorite reads of 2026 so far. In today?s episode, NPR?s Elissa Nadworny and Book of the Day producer Chloee Weiner discuss some of their favorite fiction and nonfiction picks from the list, including The Missed Connection by Tia Williams, The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson and In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor.

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Over 50 years, Judy Blume wrote an incomparable set of books for young readers, including Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Deenie, Tiger Eyes, Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing and Blubber. But she doesn't write books anymore. Scott Simon spoke with Blume at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May, where they reflected on her life and career. In today?s episode, they speak about how Blume traded felt art pieces for a typewriter, her new career as a bookstore owner and why Margaret will always be 12.

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Ophir led an unremarkable life until her best friend pulled her into the scam. After 10 years on the run from the Singapore police, she?s assumed new identities, losing sight of herself along the way. She decides to tell her story anonymously through a confessional podcast, but longs to be acknowledged for who she really is. In today?s episode, author Yu-Mei Balasingamchow joins Weekend Edition?s Ayesha Rascoe to discuss her debut novel Names Have Been Changed. They talk about the novel's exploration of diaspora, the "Singlish" vernacular and what Balasingamchow hopes readers will learn about Singapore.

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A new book argues that Elon Musk has an influence in the 21st century similar to what Henry Ford had in the 20th. He's not just a businessman, but the architect and proponent of a world view. Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff make this argument in a new book called Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. In today?s episode, Slobodian speaks with Morning Edition?s Michel Martin about the parallels between Muskism and Fordism, Musk?s upbringing in South Africa under apartheid and the metamorphosis of his politics.

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In Tom Perrotta?s new novel, a successful writer named Jimmy Perrini is invited to return to his hometown in suburban New Jersey. The invitation takes him back to a difficult summer when he was in eighth grade and had just lost his mother to cancer. Ghost Town revisits that 1970s summer, one colored by strip malls, troublemakers, the Vietnam War, an Ouija board, and racial tensions in Perrini?s white, working-class town. In today?s episode, Perrotta speaks with Here & Now?s Robin Young about the bygone era of his own childhood.

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The Rolling Stones and Soundgarden are two of the most influential bands in the history of rock ? and two new books tell their stories. The Rolling Stones by Bob Spitz is a history of the band, but also of drugs, women and feuds. In today?s episode, the author gives Here & Now?s Indira Lakshmanan a behind-the-scenes look at songs like ?(I Can?t Get No) Satisfaction? and ?Gimme Shelter.? Then, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil joins Morning Edition?s A Martínez for a conversation about A Screaming Life, which tells the story of the band from its roots in Seattle?s grunge scene.

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Laverne Cox became a breakout TV star at 40 with a starring role in Orange Is the New Black. Since then, she?s become an advocate and role model for trans people, which she says means ?invit[ing] people to see trans people as human beings.? In today?s episode, Cox joins All Things Considered?s Ailsa Chang for a conversation about her new memoir Transcendent. They discuss Cox?s childhood in Alabama, how reading Walden provided her with important language and what it was like to find creative success later in life.

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Author Tessa Yang describes her The Jellyfish Problem protagonist as an "introverted, know-it-all dork." In the novel, Jo, a marine biologist, gets a call from her unrequited college crush, Nadia, who has a request. Nadia lives on a remote island, where they?re having a problem with a giant creature. Can Jo help? In today?s episode, Yang speaks with NPR?s Elissa Nadworny about similarities between Jo and the story?s central monster ? and whether this book makes a good beach read.

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Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut believes there is a ?spiritual rot? festering in the country ? and he wants the left and right to come together to resolve it. His new book Crisis of the Common Good argues the United States worships profit over people. In it, he takes aim at corporations, billionaires and super PACs. In today?s episode, he speaks with Morning Edition?s Leila Fadel about addressing financial inequality in the United States and what Democrats can learn from Donald Trump about messaging.

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Novelist Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Circle) has a new novel out: Contrapposto. It?s a decade-spanning romance of sorts, between two devoted creatives whose careers in the art world bring them together and tear them apart ? repeatedly. As Cricket and Olympia navigate their relationship, the age-old question remains: what is art, really? In today?s episode, Eggers joins NPR?s Ailsa Chang to discuss Contrapposto, the inspiration behind the book, and how Eggers himself approaches the ?meaning? of art. 

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