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A collection of book covers from our 2015 book concierge

NPR

NPR's Book Concierge: Our Guide To 2015's Great Reads

December 8, 2015 • The Book Concierge is back and all new for 2015! Explore more than 260 standout titles picked by NPR staff and critics.

Charles Dickens toured Italy in 1844-45, and was particularly struck by Neapolitans' passion for the lottery. Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images

Great Expectations: Dickens And The Powerball

January 13, 2016 • Tonight's record $1.5 billion Powerball drawing may seem like a modern phenomenon, but this frenzy is nothing new. Just ask Charles Dickens, who bemusedly observed the Naples lottery 170 years ago.

Simplicity And Restraint Make 'Lucy Barton' Shine

January 13, 2016 • Elizabeth Strout's new novel, about an estranged mother and daughter reconnecting during the daughter's illness, is a marvel of quiet simplicity. Reviewer Annalisa Quinn calls it "a true novel."

Recently Reviewed

'Bad News' Chronicles The Loss Of Press Freedom In Rwanda

January 13, 2016 • NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with author Anjan Sundaram about his new book, Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship, which tells the story of dwindling press freedom in Rwanda.

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'My Ears Are Open': Novelist Elizabeth Strout Finds Inspiration In Everyday Life

January 13, 2016 • The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge says she was a "bad lawyer" before turning her energies to writing. Her latest novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, is about an aspiring writer.

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Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist

'Your Heart Is A Muscle' Is A Florid, Ambitious Tale Of Protest

January 12, 2016 • Sunil Yapa's new novel follows a group of characters through the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Critic Michael Schaub praises Yapa's ambition, but says his execution is amateurish.

'Last Stop On Market Street,' 'Finding Winnie,' Win U.S. Children's Book Prizes

January 11, 2016 • Matt de la Pena's Last Stop on Market Street won the Newbery Medal for the best children's book of 2015. Finding Winnie, the story behind A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, has won the Caldecott Medal for the top illustrated book.

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Somalis living in the Dadaab camp in Kenya gather to watch the arrival of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees last May. Tony Karumba /AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Tony Karumba /AFP/Getty Images

The World's Largest Refugee Camp Looks Like A Slum/Star Wars Mashup

January 11, 2016 • But for thousands of Somali refugees, the camp in Dadaab, Kenya, is the only home they've ever known.

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'Last Stop On Market Street' Wins Newbery Medal, 'Finding Winnie' Takes Caldecott

January 11, 2016 • Matt de la Peña becomes the first Hispanic author to win the Newbery award for children's literature, while the Caldecott picture-book prize went to a book about the real-life Winnie the Pooh.

Revisiting The 'Last Interview' Of Ernest Hemingway, Philip K. Dick And Nora Ephron

Fresh Air

January 11, 2016 • A series of books published by Melville House gathers together the final interviews conducted with prominent deceased writers and thinkers. Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the latest in the series.

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Book Your Trip

How An 1871 Disaster Helped To End America's Whaling Dynasty

January 11, 2016 • David Greene talks to Peter Nichols, author Oil and Ice, a book about a fleet of 33 whaling ships trapped in Arctic ice. Whalers and their families had to escape in tiny rowboats through miles of ice.

'Game Of Thrones': When The TV Show Outpaces The Books

January 10, 2016 • George R.R. Martin hasn't finished his latest book in time for the sixth TV season. NPR's Rachel Martin talks with Amy Sullivan and Spencer Kornhaber of the Atlantic's 'Game of Thrones' roundtable.

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When 'One Breath' Tests Life: Author Explores Extreme Freediving

January 10, 2016 • NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Adam Skolnick about his new book about the extreme sport of freediving. It's called One Breath, and it focuses on the death in 2013 of freediver Nick Mevoli.

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'Manners And Mayhem': A Darker, Snarkier Side To Domesticity

January 10, 2016 • NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Helen Ellis, author of the book American Housewife. The book of short stories begins with the line - "Inspired by Beyonce, I stallion walk to the toaster."

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Memories Of A Long Life Return In 'Alive, Alive Oh!'

January 10, 2016 • British writer Diana Athill is 98 — by her own account, a very old woman. In this slim but lovely volume, she recounts the moments that have lingered: heartbreak, yes, but also hills of bluebells.

This painting of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart shows him at the keyboard at the age of 9. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Hulton Archive/Getty Images

'Geography Of Genius' Explores How Surroundings Influence Ideas

January 10, 2016 • Author Eric Weiner identifies Renaissance Florence, Classical Athens and Silicon Valley as "genius clusters." And he explains how the right amount of friction and competition can help geniuses thrive.

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Bones And Grooves: The Weird Secret History Of Soviet X-Ray Music

January 9, 2016 • In Cold War Russia, getting your hands on an American rock record was close to impossible. But a few bootleggers found a way to hide their contraband in the last place anyone would think to look.

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75 Years Of 'Pal Joey'

January 9, 2016 • Penguin Classics has published a 75th Anniversary presentation of the John O'Hara novel, and the libretto and lyrics of the musical. Scott talks to Thomas Mallon, who wrote the book's forward.

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A survey from the Authors Guild reveals a 30 percent decline in author income since 2009. Ariel Zambelich/NPR hide caption

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As Writers' Wages Wane In Digital Chapter, Authors Pen Demands

January 9, 2016 • Numbers show more authors are finding it hard to make a living income. Fresh off of fighting the Google Books case, the Authors Guild is now taking on author contracts in an open letter to publishers.

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'Steal The Sky' Puts A Swashbuckling Spin On Familiar Fantasy

January 9, 2016 • Megan O'Keefe kicks off a new fantasy series with Steal the Sky, an adventure set in an arid land where rare-element powered airships sail above mining towns packed with charming crooks and con men.

The new "critical edition" of Mein Kampf, shown here in a Munich bookstore on Friday, is the first version of Adolf Hitler's notorious manifesto to be published in Germany since the end of World War II. Matthias Schrader/AP hide caption

toggle caption Matthias Schrader/AP

Parallels

Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Is Back In German Bookstores After 70 Years

January 8, 2016 • A new, annotated edition — complete with criticism — is the first publication of the notorious autobiography in Germany since the end of World War II.

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Harold Pollack's index card of finance tips. Harold Pollack hide caption

toggle caption Harold Pollack

All Tech Considered

Can The Best Financial Tips Fit On An Index Card?

January 8, 2016 • Yes, according to an economist who wrote a blog post that went viral in 2013. Now he has expanded the basics in a book, The Index Card.

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