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NPR's Book of the Day

In need of a good read? Or just want to keep up with the books everyone's talking about? NPR's Book of the Day gives you today's very best writing in a snackable, skimmable, pocket-sized podcast. Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times – or temporarily escape from them – we've got an author who will speak to you, all genres, mood and writing styles included. Catch today's great books in 15 minutes or less.

'The Ten Year Affair,' 'Sex of the Midwest' look at the role of sex in domestic life

16 mins; November 21, 2025

'Fire in Every Direction' is a personal work by Palestinian scholar Tareq Baconi

14 mins; November 20, 2025

Kathy Iandoli on Gucci Mane’s memoir and becoming the go-to writer for rappers

8 mins; November 19, 2025

'Bog Queen' cherishes Earth’s mossy wetlands and the bodies they preserve

8 mins; November 18, 2025

Margaret Atwood on what finally made her agree to write a memoir

14 mins; November 17, 2025

Revisiting ‘Giovanni's Room’

37 mins; November 15, 2025

Music biographies 'The Cars,' 'Only God Can Judge Me' balance greatness and tragedy

19 mins; November 14, 2025

John Grisham brings a money-hungry lawyer to center stage in 'The Widow'

8 mins; November 13, 2025

In 'A Guardian and a Thief,' a mother’s love for her family threatens her own morals

10 mins; November 12, 2025

Tochi Onyebuchi’s 'Racebook' is a 'personal history' of a less serious time online

8 mins; November 11, 2025

Philip Pullman’s new novel follows ‘The Golden Compass’ heroine into young adulthood

6 mins; November 10, 2025

Revisiting ‘The Joy Luck Club’

34 mins; November 08, 2025

Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben and Chris Kraus are out with new crime thrillers

17 mins; November 07, 2025

These previously unpublished Harper Lee stories were discovered in her NYC apartment

6 mins; November 06, 2025

In 'The Eleventh Hour,' Salman Rushdie writes about morality, revenge and ghosts

12 mins; November 05, 2025

Julian Brave Noisecat’s 'We Survived the Night' is part memoir, part Native history

8 mins; November 04, 2025

Karine Jean-Pierre’s new memoir 'Independent' explains why she left the Democrats

8 mins; November 03, 2025

Revisiting Charles Portis’ True Grit

34 mins; November 01, 2025

Stephen King on 'The Shining' sequel and the novel he co-authored with his son

16 mins; October 31, 2025

In 'The Hacienda,' the protagonist is trapped in a haunted house – and her marriage

9 mins; October 30, 2025

Shirley Jackson’s biographer on the writer’s ability to find evil in the ordinary

8 mins; October 29, 2025

Princeton professor Susan Wolfson on why we love 'Frankenstein' two centuries later

6 mins; October 28, 2025

'Interview with the Vampire' author Anne Rice takes NPR on a tour of her haunted home

14 mins; October 27, 2025

Revisiting Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’

31 mins; October 25, 2025

'Paper Girl' and 'Joyride' are memoirs by journalists who get close to their subjects

18 mins; October 24, 2025

This Palestinian journalist kept a diary as Israeli forces invaded – now it’s a book

8 mins; October 23, 2025

A new James Baldwin biography asks how the writer’s lovers might’ve shaped him

7 mins; October 22, 2025

Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir recounts abuse by Epstein, Maxwell and others

7 mins; October 21, 2025

Ken Liu’s latest novel ‘All That We See or Seem’ is speculative fiction about AI

8 mins; October 20, 2025

Books We’ve Loved: Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, a blueprint to the modern romance

35 mins; October 18, 2025

Cookbooks 'House of Nanking' and 'Boustany' honor rich family legacies through food

19 mins; October 17, 2025

'I Am You' fictionalizes the story of a Dutch Golden Age painter and her maid

11 mins; October 16, 2025

'The Persian' is a spy thriller written by former CIA analyst David McCloskey

9 mins; October 15, 2025

In her new memoir, Jeannie Vanasco gets 'A Silent Treatment' from her mom

9 mins; October 14, 2025

'Pick a Color' is a novel that takes place over a single day at a nail salon

8 mins; October 13, 2025

Introducing: Books We've Loved

2 mins; October 11, 2025

These new mystery novels are 'whodunits' that might as well be called 'whydunits'

17 mins; October 10, 2025

In 'Dream School,' Jeff Selingo wants parents to rethink what makes a ‘good’ college

7 mins; October 09, 2025

For her latest novel, Patricia Lockwood says she wanted to write about confusion

8 mins; October 08, 2025

Mariana Enriquez’s new book connects her interest in cemeteries with Argentina’s past

8 mins; October 07, 2025

'For the Sun After Long Nights' is a history of Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Movement

11 mins; October 06, 2025

Two new history books use the past to explain what’s important now

18 mins; October 03, 2025

'F*** Approval, You Don’t Need It!' makes the case against ‘people pleasers’

10 mins; October 02, 2025

Angela Flournoy’s 'The Wilderness' focuses on a Black, female ‘chosen family’

9 mins; October 01, 2025

Former senator Joe Manchin makes the case for the middle in the memoir 'Dead Center'

7 mins; September 30, 2025

Ian McEwan’s latest novel ‘What We Can Know’ is science fiction without the science

9 mins; September 29, 2025

‘Peacemaker’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Yesterday’ are personal histories of diplomacy

19 mins; September 26, 2025

Ken Jaworowski’s new crime novel ‘What About the Bodies’ has a surprising tender side

7 mins; September 25, 2025

‘Dark Renaissance’ historian on how Christopher Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare

8 mins; September 24, 2025

‘Beyond Fast’ chronicles one coach’s unlikely revolution in high school cross-country

8 mins; September 23, 2025

In his new novel ‘The Secret of Secrets,’ Dan Brown takes on human consciousness

6 mins; September 22, 2025

‘Long Way Down’ and ‘The Hate U Give’ are modern classics about gun violence

15 mins; September 19, 2025

What Toni Morrison learned from revisiting five of her most-read novels

9 mins; September 18, 2025

Sandra Cisneros’ ‘The House on Mango Street’ was born from a feeling of displacement

7 mins; September 17, 2025

In her translation of ‘The Odyssey,’ Emily Wilson aimed for ‘a crystalline clarity’

9 mins; September 16, 2025

Jhumpa Lahiri says the phrase ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ came to her in grad school

11 mins; September 15, 2025

‘2024’ and ‘From the Clinics to the Capitol’ dissect opposing political movements

18 mins; September 11, 2025

In Meg Medina’s new young adult novel, a 13-year-old girl becomes a sea ghost

8 mins; September 11, 2025

‘Misbehaving at the Crossroads’ is a lesson in the complexity of reconciliation

8 mins; September 10, 2025

In Rabih Alameddine’s new novel, a mother and son share a tiny Beirut apartment

9 mins; September 09, 2025

Tamara Yajia’s memoir recounts a chaotic upbringing between the U.S. and Argentina

9 mins; September 08, 2025

‘Papilio’ and ‘Chooch Helped’ are children’s books brought to life by friendship

18 mins; September 05, 2025

In ‘The Sunflower Boys,’ a 12-year-old boy comes of age during war in Ukraine

8 mins; September 04, 2025

‘Friends with Words’ is a book about language, from word origins to regional dialects

11 mins; September 03, 2025

Kate Riley’s novel ‘Ruth’ was inspired by her year in an insular religious community

9 mins; September 02, 2025

In his memoir, poet Raymond Antrobus writes of ‘deaf gain’ instead of hearing loss

8 mins; September 01, 2025

‘Your Favorite Scary Movie’ and ‘Ready for My Close-Up’ are histories of iconic films

16 mins; August 29, 2025

Eighty years after Hiroshima, a new book narrates the history of the atomic bomb

10 mins; August 28, 2025

In the novel ‘Loved One,’ an ambiguous friendship is further complicated by loss

8 mins; August 27, 2025

‘Dinner with King Tut’ follows experimental archaeologists as they recreate the past

9 mins; August 26, 2025

For her 25th book, Karin Slaughter wanted to capture life in small-town Georgia

9 mins; August 25, 2025

‘Cook Once, Eat Twice’ and ‘Accidentally on Purpose’ are new books from cooking stars

19 mins; August 22, 2025

‘Atlantic’ writer James Parker says his odes are exercises in gratitude and attention

10 mins; August 21, 2025

In ‘The Hounding,’ rumors swirl around five sisters living in 18th-century England

7 mins; August 20, 2025

Alexis Okeowo’s ‘Blessings and Disasters’ is an ode to Alabama’s complicated history

8 mins; August 19, 2025

‘Dwelling’ fictionalizes the American housing crisis with elements of fairy tale

9 mins; August 18, 2025

For the authors of ‘Reading Van Gogh,’ ‘Black in Blues,’ art opened a door to meaning

22 mins; August 15, 2025

In ‘Human Nature,’ Kate Marvel bridges the gap between climate science and emotions

8 mins; August 14, 2025

Jason Mott’s new novel ‘People Like Us’ is metafiction that was almost memoir

9 mins; August 13, 2025

‘Sloppy’ author Rax King says she’s inspired by writers who did their best work sober

8 mins; August 12, 2025

A new mystery novel by Liza Tully pairs a green assistant with a seasoned detective

9 mins; August 11, 2025

2 new books were inspired by dark moments in Japanese and Japanese American history

17 mins; August 08, 2025

‘The Feather Detective’ is a biography of Roxie Layboune, forensic ornithologist

8 mins; August 07, 2025

In Lisa Smith’s ‘Jamaica Road,’ a young girl searches for belonging in 1980s London

10 mins; August 06, 2025

‘Algospeak’ looks at algorithms' transformative impact on how we speak on and offline

8 mins; August 05, 2025

Katie Yee's 'Maggie' approaches a tough diagnosis - and a marriage's end - with humor

10 mins; August 04, 2025

New books by Irene Vega, Tim Weiner chronicle changes to federal agencies under Trump

16 mins; August 01, 2025

'On Her Game' is Christine Brennan's portrait of basketball star Caitlin Clark

9 mins; July 31, 2025

Short story collection 'Heart Lamp' is the winner of the International Booker Prize

12 mins; July 30, 2025

In Sophie Elmhirst's 'A Marriage at Sea,' a couple tries to keep themselves afloat

8 mins; July 29, 2025

Through politics, fiction and her latest novel, Stacey Abrams aims to inspire action

7 mins; July 28, 2025

'No Sense in Wishing' and 'Hit Girls' consider the way culture shapes identity

17 mins; July 25, 2025

After 20 years, Mary Jo Bang has completed her translation of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'

8 mins; July 24, 2025

Mark Kurlansky's novel 'Cheesecake' was inspired by a recipe from ancient Rome

6 mins; July 23, 2025

In her new memoir, Hala Alyan searches for home amid a family history of exile

7 mins; July 22, 2025

Aisling Rawle's 'The Compound' follows characters on a semi-dystopian reality TV show

8 mins; July 21, 2025

New biographies look at the careers of designers Claire McCardell and Virgil Abloh

21 mins; July 18, 2025

Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media

2 mins; July 18, 2025

'Trailblazer' is a memoir by Carol Moseley Braun, first Black woman elected to Senate

7 mins; July 17, 2025

Liane Moriarty on her novel 'Here One Moment' and on writing 'women's fiction'

11 mins; July 16, 2025

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