Ashley Hope Pérez published Out of Darkness in 2015 to critical acclaim. The novel re-contextualized contemporary issues of race providing a historical framework in a not-so-post-racial America.

NPR's A Martínez talks to writer Jason Reynolds, who is ending his term as the national ambassador for young people's literature. The Library of Congress appointed him to the post three years ago.

A Dangerous Business, by Jane Smiley, is mash-up of a Western, a serial killer mystery and a feminist erotic romp. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt, is a noir story about an octopus.

When illustrator Molly Idle read the text of Julie Fogliano's children's book, she immediately thought of her buddy Juana Martinez-Neal — and in true friend form — she volunteered her for the job.

In the 1940s Georgia mountains, eight children were taken into the woods and left to die. They survived. And now their story is a page-turning novel.

Authors such as Barbara Kingsolver and Jacqueline Woodson have pledged not to submit work to HarperCollins until the strike has resolved.

In Jane Smiley's latest novel, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," characters Eliza and Jean are determined to figure out who killed their missing colleagues.

Michael Cecchi-Azzolina has worked in several high-end New York City restaurants — adrenaline-fueled workplaces where booze and drugs are plentiful and the health inspector will ruin your day.

Novelists like Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and Stephen King shared discouraging moments in their career after a debut author Chelsea Banning tweeted that only two people came to her book signing.

In his new book, Gambling on Development, economist Stefan Dercon argues that the key to a low-resource country's success is not what you might think.

NPR has launched its complete Books We Love list for 2022, our quirky collection of staff and contributors' favorite books of the year. Here are eight of our most recommended picks.

Crescent Dragonwagon was in her 20s when she wrote a story told entirely in dialogue between a mother and her child. Now, she's updating her 1977 text with new illustrations by Jessica Love.

It's been a busy season for celebrity memoirs. A-listers from the worlds of Hollywood, music, journalism and royalty dish their own stories in these recent and upcoming books.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist faced criminal charges in the Philippines after her news site's reporting angered government officials. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is her new memoir.

Some years, this annual book list falls into a pattern: like stand-out memoirs or dystopian fiction. But 2022 could not be contained, and these titles sprawl all over the place in subject and form.