Accessibility links
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.
NPR's Book of the Day

Podcast Directory

NPR's Book of the Day

From NPR

See More

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.

Most Recent Episodes

In new memoirs, David Archuleta and Lindy West break with their pasts
Gallery Books/Grand Central Publishing

In new memoirs, David Archuleta and Lindy West break with their pasts

Singer-songwriter David Archuleta and writer Lindy West are both out with memoirs that deal with letting go of the past. First, Archuleta was the runner-up on the seventh season of American Idol. Underneath that success, he struggled privately with his queer identity and his relationship to the Mormon church. In today’s episode, he talks with Here & Now’s Indira Lakshmanan about his new memoir Devout. Then, Lindy West tells NPR’s Leila Fadel about Adult Braces, the cross-country road trip that reset the Shrill writer’s life, and how she opened herself to the idea of a non-monogamous marriage.

In new memoirs, David Archuleta and Lindy West break with their pasts

Listen · 19:51
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5763470/nx-s1-mx-5763470-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Apple is turning 50. David Pogue’s new book tells its history.
Simon & Schuster

Apple is turning 50. David Pogue’s new book tells its history.

Next month, tech giant Apple will turn 50, marking five decades since Steve Jobs and his co-founders set out to put powerful technology in the hands of everyday people. David Pogue joined NPR’s Michel Martin for a conversation about his new book Apple: The First 50 Years – and said he sees the company’s story as one of “focus.” In today’s episode, Martin and the CBS News correspondent discuss Steve Jobs as a Rorschach test, Jobs’ relationship with Steve Wozniak and Apple’s lesser-known third founder, Ronald Wayne, and a time when the company faced bankruptcy.

Apple is turning 50. David Pogue’s new book tells its history.

Listen · 7:48
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5761250/nx-s1-mx-5761250-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
In the novel 'Black Bag,' a classroom experiment invites questions about masculinity
Zando

In the novel 'Black Bag,' a classroom experiment invites questions about masculinity

The narrator in Black Bag is an unnamed and mostly unemployed actor until a professor offers him the starring role in an experiment. The narrator is asked to zip himself in a black bag and sit in the back of a lecture theater. Luke Kennard’s new novel is based on an experiment from 1967, in which a professor set out to explore “the mere-exposure effect.” In today’s episode, Kennard talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about why the protagonist takes up this non-role – and what the experiment reveals about masculinity.

In the novel ‘Black Bag,’ a classroom experiment invites questions about masculinity

Listen · 7:45
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5759955/nx-s1-mx-5759955-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Fab 5 Freddy’s 'Everybody’s Fly' is a backstage pass to NYC’s new wave hip hop scene
Viking

Fab 5 Freddy’s 'Everybody’s Fly' is a backstage pass to NYC’s new wave hip hop scene

Fred Brathwaite — aka ‘Fab 5 Freddy’ — is a pioneering multimedia artist credited with bringing hip hop to the mainstream in the 1980s. His new memoir Everybody’s Fly looks back at Brathwaite’s life in New York, beginning when art forms like rap, graffiti, breakdance, and DJ remained mostly underground. In today’s episode, Brathwaite joins NPR’s Adrian Ma to discuss his inspiration behind the memoir, and how his widespread artistic collaborations throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s synthesized culture and propelled it forward.

Fab 5 Freddy’s ‘Everybody’s Fly’ is a backstage pass to NYC’s new wave hip hop scene

Listen · 10:07
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5758061/nx-s1-mx-5758061-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Sarvat Hasin's new novel is about a magnetic friendship between 'Strange Girls'
Dialogue Books

Sarvat Hasin's new novel is about a magnetic friendship between 'Strange Girls'

In Sarvat Hasin’s novel Strange Girls, a Pakistani woman and an American woman meet at a London-based university in the 2010s. There, they quickly become close, bonding over a shared dissatisfaction with the definition of femininity available to them. In today’s episode, Hasin joins NPR’s Juana Summers for a conversation about the intense relationship that forms between the two protagonists, the way friendships can be strained in the post-college years, and what makes this novel a kind of “period piece.”

Sarvat Hasin's new novel is about a magnetic friendship between 'Strange Girls'

Listen · 8:42
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5757477/nx-s1-mx-5757477-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Two new murder mysteries: 'Ruby Falls' and 'The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives'
Atlantic Crime/Berkley

Two new murder mysteries: 'Ruby Falls' and 'The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives'

Two new murder mystery novels let readers into hidden worlds: one underground and the other among the wives of serial killers. First, Ruby Falls begins in 1928 in Chattanooga, Tennessee when a man discovers a mysterious underground cavern and waterfall. In today’s episode, NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Gin Phillips about the publicity stunt that sets her story in motion. Then, Lizzie Pook chats with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe about The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives – published under the pen name Elizabeth Arnott – in which three women find each other after their husbands’ crimes are uncovered.

Two new murder mysteries: 'Ruby Falls' and 'The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives'

Listen · 17:52
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5754037/nx-s1-mx-5754037-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Daisy Hernández argues 'Citizenship' has never been a fixed legal status
Hogarth

Daisy Hernández argues 'Citizenship' has never been a fixed legal status

Author Daisy Hernández grew up in New Jersey in a community she describes as “the United Nations of Latinos,” with parents from Cuba and Colombia and relatives from Puerto Rico and Peru. Her new book Citizenship uses her family story to trace the history of citizenship in the United States. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Emily Kwong about the concept of “social citizenship” and why American citizenship fails to fit into a fixed legal definition.

Daisy Hernández argues 'Citizenship' has never been a fixed legal status

Listen · 8:48
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5753517/nx-s1-mx-5753517-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Cara Bastone's 'No Matter What' is a romance novel that begins with a separation
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Cara Bastone's 'No Matter What' is a romance novel that begins with a separation

Cara Bastone says she wanted to write a book filled with miscommunications that couldn’t be solved with a quick conversation. In her novel No Matter What, Roz and Vin navigate a changing relationship after the couple endures a traumatic accident. In today’s episode, Bastone speaks with NPR’s Juana Summers about developing characters who look like “normal people,” writing her husband into her work, and why there are so many contemporary novels about separation and divorce.

Cara Bastone's 'No Matter What' is a romance novel that begins with a separation

Listen · 8:53
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5751256/nx-s1-mx-5751256-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
In 'The Mixed Marriage Project,' Dorothy Roberts works through her dad's archive
Atria/One Signal Publishers

In 'The Mixed Marriage Project,' Dorothy Roberts works through her dad's archive

After the death of her father, sociologist and law professor Dorothy Roberts decided to sort through his boxes. What she found was an archive of notes related to his research on interracial marriage, which he saw as a means to dismantle white supremacy. Roberts’ new memoir The Mixed Marriage Project chronicles her confrontation with her father’s research – and her role in it; she herself was the product of her parents’ mixed marriage. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Michel Martin about this trove of interviews with interracial couples and Roberts’ questions about her own family history.

In 'The Mixed Marriage Project,' Dorothy Roberts works through her dad's archive

Listen · 7:47
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5750268/nx-s1-mx-5750268-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
'The Correspondent' is an epistolary novel, but can letters tell the whole story?
Crown

'The Correspondent' is an epistolary novel, but can letters tell the whole story?

Virginia Evans’ The Correspondent became a runaway hit for its exploration of a life told through letters. When readers meet Sybil Van Antwerp she’s in her 70s, and she takes readers on a journey through her various correspondences — which include names as revered as Joan Didion and Ann Patchett. But Sybil isn’t telling us everything, and her clever prose might hide as much as it reveals. In today’s episode, author Virginia Evans joins Here and Now’s Robin Young to discuss the value of correspondence, and how the book’s success has changed the letter-writing industry itself.

'The Correspondent' is an epistolary novel, but can letters tell the whole story?

Listen · 12:02
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5746865/nx-s1-mx-5746865-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
or search npr.org