NPR's Book of the Day Folgen

In Life Hacks for a Little Alien, both the narrator and protagonist are unnamed. The debut novel from Alice Franklin is written from a second-person perspective and follows a little girl who experiences the world differently. Little Alien is neurodivergent, but undiagnosed, and often finds that people don't understand her. When she encounters an ancient text written in an unknown language, she sees parallels between its indecipherability and her own experiences. In today's episode, Franklin speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about the way she plays with language in her story, her own diagnosis journey, and our collective definition of normalcy.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Peter Beinart, once a defender of the Israeli state, has become one of its sharpest critics. His new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, was born out of Beinart's personal struggle within the Jewish community in the wake of the war. In the book, Beinart makes an urgent appeal, asking his peers to imagine a world in which Palestinians and Israeli Jews share equal rights. In today's episode, Beinart joins NPR's Leila Fadel for a discussion that touches on the intertwined relationship between Israeli and Palestinian safety and how a reimagined Israeli state could lead to a better future for all people.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Caribbean American journalist Charmaine Wilkerson began her professional life in TV news. She recalls meeting people on the worst day of their life, when their personal pain was bared to the public eye. Her debut novel, Black Cake, and her new book, Good Dirt, both begin with grief, tracing the loss of loved ones to family revelations that come after. Today's episode revisits a 2022 conversation with Wilkerson and NPR's Kelsey Snell about the role of identity and cultural inheritance in Black Cake. Wilkerson then speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about how those themes develop in Good Dirt.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy