NPR's Book of the Day

NPR's Book of the Day

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In 'Poet Warrior', Joy Harjo uses poetry to deal with pain and heal

This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Joy Harjo, who was the U.S. poet laureate from 2019 to 2022, says she has always been drawn to healing ever since she was little. She even studied pre-med in college. B ...  Show more

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In 'Poet Warrior', Joy Harjo uses poetry to deal with pain and heal

This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Joy Harjo, who was the U.S. poet laureate from 2019 to 2022, says she has always been drawn to healing ever since she was little. She even studied pre-med in college. B ...  Show more

Poet Ocean Vuong shares his grief in 'Time Is A Mother'

This week, we're celebrating National Poetry Month by revisiting some of our favorite conversations with poets. Ocean Vuong's collection, Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told NPR's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost h ...  Show more

Brandy Norwood and Arsenio Hall's memoirs look back on careers that defined the '90s

Two figures who defined ‘90s culture are out with new memoirs. First, Brandy Norwood is a Grammy-winning singer and made history as the first Black actress to play a Disney princess on screen. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s A Martínez about her memoir Phases, her belov ...  Show more

For her new novel about boy bands, Emma Straub took a page from New Kids on the Block

A few years ago, author Emma Straub saw a story about New Kids on the Block hosting a tropical cruise for their fans. That planted the seed for Straub, whose new novel, American Fantasy, is about a fictional, aging boy band called Boy Talk that sets sail for five days of nostalgi ...  Show more

'Labor' is a memoir by a doctor who traveled the country with a mobile OB-GYN clinic

Twenty years into her medical career, Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari, a board-certified OBGYN, had grown increasingly frustrated with the medical profession. She felt that medicine had become more about business and less about caring for patients. Her new memoir, Labor: One Woman’s Work, ...  Show more