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Sex is such an inextricable part of pop music, it's easy to overlook, but NPR Music critic Ann Powers rectifies that in her new book, a portrait of America's obsession with sex as it manifests in pop.
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Ahead of the July 4th weekend, the Seattle-based librarian shares a stack of eight recent favorites. She includes thrillers, mysteries, family sagas and an homage to the game rock, paper, scissors.
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The Book Concierge is back and bigger than ever! Explore more than 300 standout titles picked by NPR staff and critics.
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Anne Tyler's 20th novel will feel comfortably familiar to her fans — A Spool of Blue Thread is the long-haul story of an ordinary Baltimore family thrown into disarray by illness and sudden tragedy.
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Monica Byrne's post-apocalyptic novel follows two women on dangerous journeys around India and Africa; reviewer Jason Heller says the vivid, haunting prose staggers under the weight of too many ideas.
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The Vacationers is a cinematic family drama set on the picturesque island of Mallorca. While the narrative arc verges on predictable, the book's screwball charms make for a pleasant diversion.
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In Jo Walton's elegant, heartbreaking new novel, an elderly woman remembers two distinct lives and families, in parallel timelines splitting off from one crucial decision: to marry, or not to marry?
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The Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist considers books "sacred." Also: Jimmy Carter signs 1,600 books in a little more than two hours; E-book sales rise (barely); Thomas Pynchon on being called paranoid.
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Somehow, a lot of us at NPR Books have never read John Steinbeck's classic. When we realized this anniversary was coming up, we thought: What better way to pay tribute than to actually crack it open?