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Bans on books like 'Out of Darkness' target authors of color Oct 02, 2023

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Professor Ashley Hope Pérez's book Out of Darkness explores school segregation in 20th century Texas through a fictional love story between a young African-American boy and a Mexican-American girl. But the YA novel has been banned in a number of places and effectively pulled out of several school libraries. In today's episode, the author tells NPR's Rob Schmitz how sexual content is used as a scapegoat to target books addressing race, gender and other identity-based topics – and how those battles ultimately set back strides in diversifying children's literature.
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Novels by Hila Blum and William Landay unravel family mysteries Sep 29, 2023

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Today's episode is all about figuring out the moment things went wrong between family members – and how the fallout has long lasting effects on everyone involved. First, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with author Hilda Blum about her novel How to Love Your Daughter, and what it means for a mother and daughter's bond to be tested over time. Then, Here & Now's Tiziana Dearing asks William Landay about his new thriller, All That Is Mine I Carry With Me, in which a missing woman's children have been raised by the man police believe may have killed her.
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'Others Were Emeralds' is a coming-of-age story confronting racism in Australia Sep 28, 2023

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In today's episode, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes and author Lang Leav bond over growing up in Australia, and navigating racism and anti-immigrant sentiments while also trying to find community as a young person. Leav's new novel, Others Were Emeralds, follows a Cambodian teen growing up in a small town of Asian immigrants near Sydney. While she's trying to make sense of the hostility that she faces from outsiders, she's also dealing with the everyday struggle of being a young woman.
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Sandeep Jauhar's memoir explains how Alzheimer's works – and how it affected his dad Sep 27, 2023

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As a physician, Sandeep Jauhar had a certain understanding of Alzheimer's. Then, when the disease was impacting his own father, more and more questions, confusion, and frustrations arose. In his new memoir, My Father's Brain, Jauhar describes how his immigrant family grappled with his father's new reality. He tells Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes how difficult and exhausting it can be to allocate the resources that it takes to care for an aging loved one, and how cultural context can play a huge role in their safety.
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Anne Enright's 'The Wren, The Wren' is a family story about poetry and betrayal Sep 26, 2023

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Phil McDaragh is a great Irish poet; he was also a lousy husband and father, abandoning his family to pursue his writing. In Anne Enright's new novel, The Wren, The Wren, three generations of women in the McDaragh family contend with the absent patriarch's complicated legacy. Enright spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about writing fiction about a great writer, and how the poet's bad behavior in his personal life impacts the McDaragh women's own passions, years down the road.
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'Foreign Bodies' traces the history of pandemics and vaccine hesitancy Sep 25, 2023

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Historian Simon Schama's new book, Foreign Bodies:Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations, recounts the pain and panic caused by smallpox, cholera and the Bubonic plague over the past two centuries. But he also examines how vaccines were developed for each disease – and how understanding science and our bodies brings humans closer together. In today's episode, Schama speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how the history of mass disease and immunization is still relevant to today's global health, especially when it comes to political messaging around COVID-19.
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Two books examine the lives of Afghans in the aftermath of American withdrawal Sep 22, 2023

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Today's episode is all about the lives of women in Afghanistan, before and after the U.S. armed forces occupied the country. First, Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with journalist Mitchell Zuckoff about his new book, The Secret Gate, chronicling how activist Homeira Qaderi engineered her escape out of Kabul at the very last minute. Then, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes asks Sola Mahfouz and Malaina Kapoor about Defiant Dreams, which tells of Mahfouz's upbringing under Taliban rule.
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Why Matthew McConaughey wrote a children's book about the "paradox of living" Sep 21, 2023

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Matthew McConaughey has a new children's book out, full of couplets with a pretty mature message. Just Because is all about the contradictions in life – like "just because I lied doesn't mean that I'm a liar." In today's episode, the Academy Award winner speaks with NPR's A Martinez about how this idea that our actions don't necessarily define our character can be pretty complex, but it can also spark really fruitful conversations from a young age.
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'Roaming' is a graphic novel about friendship and travel Sep 20, 2023

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It's one thing to be friends with someone, but going on a trip together? Totally different story. A new graphic novel by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki captures that dissonance: Roaming follows two friends from high school reuniting on a trip to New York City during college. But there's a new, third pal in the mix – and pretty soon, it's clear the vibes are off. The Tamiko cousins spoke with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about how the way a person travels reveals a lot about their character, and why that experience was much different in 2009 – the year the book is set – than it is now.
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In 'Jews in the Garden,' a Holocaust survivor tries to uncover uncomfortable truths Sep 19, 2023

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As The Public's Radio Lynn Arditi says in today's episode, much has been written about the Polish resistance movement during World War II. But in her interview with Judy Rakowsky, author of Jews in the Garden, the two journalists discuss the culture of silence around many of the atrocities of the time period. Rakowsky's book – part memoir, part thriller – recounts how she spent decades using her investigative reporting skills to help Sam, a family member and Holocaust survivor, make sense of what really happened in the Polish village he fled as a teen.
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