Arts

Bait And Twitch: Vice Magazine, Suicide Glamour, And Not Staying Quiet

Linda Holmes — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:47:00 +0000

This week, Vice Magazine unveiled a fashion spread featuring images based on famous women writers who killed themselves.

Book News: Kim Jong Un Reportedly Gave 'Mein Kampf' As Gifts

Annalisa Quinn — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:58:00 +0000

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Kim Jong Un gave top officials in North Korea copies of Adolf Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, as gifts on his birthday last January, according to a report in New Focus International, a newspaper written largely by North Korean defectors. It seems the book was intended to promote a study of Hitler's economic reforms, and was not necessarily meant as an endorsement of Nazism.

A Family's Secrets And Sorrows Surface In 'Heatwave'

Heller McAlpin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:03:00 +0000

British writer Maggie O'Farrell, born in Northern Ireland, is less well-known in the U.S. than she should be. Her mesmerizing, tautly plotted novels often revolve around long-standing, ugly family secrets and feature nonconformist women who rebel against their strict Irish Catholic upbringing. Her most recent books, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2006) and The Hand That First Held Mine (2010), offer the sort of spellbinding reads that can make you miss your flight announcement.

I nearly missed my subway stop while immersed in Instructions for a Heatwave.

The Art Of Investing: The Rewards Aren't Always Financial

Uri Berliner — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:17:00 +0000

NPR's Uri Berliner is taking $5,000 of his own savings and putting it to work.

Stalking The Elusive, Worthy Apricot

Domenica Marchetti — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:13:00 +0000
Apricots are the finest of summer's fruits, with dense, juicy flesh and delicate, velvety skins. Piled in baskets in farmers market stalls, they seem to glow in the early morning light. The prettiest ones have a celestial blush and a sweet, floral fragrance.
That's why it is so disheartening when you bite into one only to find it is mealy and flavorless. I can't count the number of times this apricot lover has been the victim of just such an injustice. You probably have been, too.
I grew up eating apricots by the kilo during summers spent in Italy.

Change Is On The Horizon For London's Famous Skyline

Christopher Werth — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:18:00 +0000
Cities are defined by their skylines — while Paris is composed mostly of low-rise apartment buildings, New York is a city of tall office towers. But London is a city in transition.

In NYC, A Play Festival Spotlights Stories Of Disability

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:41:00 +0000
Ike Schambelan doesn't like thinking about disability, and he's guessing you don't either.
"We hate it. We do not want to see it," he says. "Personally, I want to see it least in myself, second in my wife, third in my cat and fourth in you and all others. I don't want to know about it. I want to be in a total state of denial about it as much as I can be."
But discomfort with disability shouldn't mean shunting disabled people to the shadows.

Samberg, Taccone And Schaffer: Three's Not A Lonely Island

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:57:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKQ6nINAeq8

Cécile McLorin Salvant: Making Old Songs New Again

Kevin Whitehead — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:43:00 +0000
Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was born in Miami to French and Haitian parents, and started singing jazz while living in Paris. Back in the U.S., she won the Thelonious Monk vocal competition in 2010. The 23-year-old's first album, WomanChild, is now out — and few jazz debuts by singers or instrumentalists make this big a splash.
Salvant's unusual material sets her apart as much as her chops do. The most recent non-original tune on her nervily accomplished debut is by Fats Waller.

Death Of A Puppy: An Exclusive Imaginary Excerpt From The 'Man Of Steel' Sequel

Glen Weldon — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:52:00 +0000
NPR has obtained [or invented, whatever] an excerpt of the draft script for Zack Snyder's much-rumored sequel to the hugely successful Man Of Steel. The script, which was found in a booth at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on La Cienega, suggests that the distinctive tone set by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and adopted by Snyder's Man Of Steel will continue to inform the expanding cinematic universe of DC Comics characters.

Books Your Kid Might Give Up Video Games To Read

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:07:00 +0000
Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but maybe you just need a few moms in your corner. Every week, we check in with a diverse group of parents for their comments and some savvy advice.
Today, we want to get some advice about something you've probably been thinking about. If you have school-age children, you've probably gotten the message that you need to keep their heads in the academic game somehow over the summer, especially reading.

Book News: VICE Draws Ire By Staging Female Author Suicides

Annalisa Quinn — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:14:00 +0000
The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.
VICE magazine has a reputation for using provocative content to draw an audience — Dennis Rodman's North Korean tour comes to mind — but a spread in the magazine's recent fiction issue has sparked particular fury.

The Funny (Touching, Fascinating) Pages: 5 Comics For Summer

Myla Goldberg and Myla Goldberg — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:03:00 +0000
When's the last time you read a comic book? Oh, right, the term now is "graphic novel" — as if calling them "comics" was somehow undignified or not sufficiently intellectual. But the problem with "graphic novel" is that it's far too limiting — because, sure, while all comics are graphic, many of the smartest and most exciting examples don't even remotely resemble novels. In fact, I'm about to recommend five books that — each for its own reason — can only be called comics, representing a wide range of literature being produced in what is truly a golden age.
So there.

Spy Reporter Works Her 'Sources' To Write A Thriller

editor — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:08:00 +0000
Mary Louise Kelly used to cover the national security beat for NPR, but lately she's turned her attention to teaching and writing fiction. Her new novel, Anonymous Sources, follows rookie journalist Alexandra James as she investigates a shady banana shipment and a clandestine nuclear plot.

Teens Find The Right Tools For Their Social-Media Jobs

Trey Graham — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:18:00 +0000
Once upon a time, it was MySpace. (Huh. Turns out you can still link to it.) Then Facebook happened. And Twitter. And beyond those two dominant social-media platforms, there are a host of other, newer options for staying in touch and letting the digital universe get a look at your life.