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'Wish You Were Here' ... Stranded with me in the Galapagos Islands Dec 15, 2021

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Have you ever wanted to get stranded on a beautiful island? Maybe at the end of a vacation when you think you never want to leave. Well, that's what happens to the protagonist in Jodi Picoult's new novel, Wish You Were Here. It's a little less glamorous than what you might be picturing. It's March of 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic traps Diana O'Toole in the Galapagos Islands with very little wifi or cell service. Picoult told NPR's Scott Simon that this extreme isolation forced her main character to reevaluate how she really wanted to live her life.
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Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan on the highs and lows of success Dec 14, 2021

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Legendary rapper and integral member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Raekwon, is out with a new memoir called From Staircase to Stage. Born Corey Woods in Staten Island, Raekwon takes a look back at hating school, watching his neighborhood decline during the crack-cocaine epidemic, and then finding success with the Wu-Tang Clan. Raekwon told NPR's Steve Inskeep that success came with both big highs and deep lows.
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A tech giant does its best Big Brother impersonation in 'The Every' Dec 13, 2021

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Author Dave Eggars has written a new book, The Every, satirizing technology and it's ever-expanding hold on us. While publishing and distributing the book, which also happens to be about a tech giant overextending its reach, he tried to keep it out of the hands of one of today's tech giants. It proved to be a difficult task, Eggars told NPR's Audie Cornish, "...[it's] like taking not just the back roads but taking the dirt roads off the back roads off the highway."
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'Design To Live' is a testament to the human spirit Dec 09, 2021

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From creating vertical gardens to breeding pigeons, the people living in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan manage to "carve out a life worth living." Artist and architectural historian Azra Aksamija co-edited a book that looks at the ingenuity found within that camp called, Design To Live: Everyday Inventions From A Refugee Camp. Aksamija told NPR's Scott Simon that even though camps are supposed to be a temporary solution, lots of families end up staying for years at a time, so they find ways to make themselves at home in a place that's not meant to be hospitable.
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'A Snake Falls To Earth' tackles real life issues in a fantastical world Dec 08, 2021

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Author Darcie Little Badger has her protagonists, Nina and a cottonmouth snake named Oli, tackle big, real world problems in her new Young Adult novel, A Snake Falls To Earth. She told NPR's Leila Fadel that young people are feeling climate anxiety acutely, so it was important to her to make it a part of this story, even though it takes place in a fantastical world. She does have a PhD in oceanography and a bachelors in geo-science, so understands the stakes really well. But, she doesn't want her readers to walk away feeling hopeless.
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Robert Jones Jr. and Laird Hunt talk tragedies and overlooked histories Dec 07, 2021

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Not all history is learned - or taught - in school. In today's first interview, Robert Jones Jr. tells NPR's Scott Simon that he wanted to be 'a witness to [those] testimonies that have not made it into the official record.' His novel, The Prophets, is about enslaved Black queer people in America. The second interview is about the seemingly mundane day-to-day that makes up a person's history in Zorrie. Author Laird Hunt told NPR's Scott Simon that just because someone's story seems unremarkable doesn't mean it isn't rich.
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Surviving high school in 'Huda F Are You?' Dec 07, 2021

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Author Huda Fahmy brings us a fictionalized look back on her teenage years in her new graphic novel. The cleverly titled Huda F Are You? is about a girl growing up in Dearborn, Michigan trying to figure out, well, who she really is. Fahmy told NPR's Scott Simon that her own journey of self discovery often left her feeling like a fraud
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Chancellor Angela Merkel's last dance Dec 06, 2021

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down after 16 years. Author and former NPR correspondent Kati Marton has written a new biography of Merkel titled, appropriately, The Chancellor. Marton told NPR's Sarah McCammon that Merkel's upbringing in East Germany before the wall fell prepared her for a future as a politician. But it also created some blind spots in her governing; allowing the far right movement, centered in former East Germany, to gain a foothold in the German Parliament.
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Louise Erdrich and Kevin Brockmeier are not writing campfire ghost stories Dec 03, 2021

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There are all different kinds of ghost stories and types of ghosts. Maybe the ghost is a malicious spirit out for revenge, or a marshmallow man parade float come to life, or maybe it's truly a friendly ghost — Casper, here to be pals. In today's first featured interview, Here & Now's Robin Young talks with Louise Erdrich about her novel The Sentence which is set in a haunted bookstore in Minneapolis. Then NPR's Ailsa Chang interviews Kevin Brockmeier about his book of short spooky stories The Ghost Variations.
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NPR's Short Wave: 'An Outsider's Guide to Humans' Dec 02, 2021

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Camilla Pang talks with NPR's Short Wave host Emily Kwong about her award-winning memoir, An Outsider's Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do And Who We Are. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 8, the scientist and writer pairs her favorite scientific principles with human behavior and navigating daily life.
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