News on Books

"He always made people feel like they belonged," says a former Bourdain producer. World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is based on the TV chef's writings and an interview conducted just before his death.

A complete version of the Richard Wright novel The Man Who Lived Underground is being published for the first time. It centers on police brutality and the Black experience in America.

Michelle Zauner's new memoir, built on her 2018 New Yorker piece of the same name, powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship cut much too short, with Korean food as a guide.

Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water is built on a familiar premise: two young people meet and fall in love. Nelson's debut novel is brimming with references to Black art, music, poetry and photography.

The first volume of Kaoru Takamura's 1997 eccentric crime thriller has just been translated into English. Inspired by a real-life case, Lady Joker reveals its world in rich, polyphonic detail.

Julie Lythcott-Haims's new book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, is a handbook on adulthood. Her 2017 memoir, Real American, is the story of her coming to terms with her biracial identity.

Noel King speaks with Rose Eveleth about her illustrated book: Flash Forward.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with poet Samuel Getachew, former National Youth Poet Laureate finalist, about his favorite listener-submitted poems.

Lauren Hough tells NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro about her memoir Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing. Hough spent part of her childhood in a cult, which affected her later life.

Gustavo Roldán's tale of an adventurous (if nap-prone) ant — newly translated into English — has everything you could want: silliness, adventure, daring, a cliffhanger, and a fun, satisfying ending.