NPR's Book of the Day

At the start of the Cuban Revolution, Adela Ferrer’s husband made an impossible decision. Her husband had fled Havana for New York, and she planned to take her two children and join him. But instead, she was forced to bring only her daughter, leaving her 9-year-old son behind. That daughter – Ada Ferrer – is out with a new memoir called Keeper of My Kin. In today’s episode, she speaks with NPR’s Adrian Florido about the weight of family separation in Cuba and the difficulty of being “the chosen one.”

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What happened to those who remained in Ireland after the Great Famine of 1865? It’s a question that fascinated Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet, as she began her newest novel Land. Drawing on fragments of Irish history from her great-great-grandfather, O’Farrell’s Land is about… land, but it’s also about the myths, stories, and spirits that persist across generations. In today’s episode, O’Farrell joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about Land, and why — despite geographic and societal upheaval — she believes that “human hearts and human minds change that much at all.”

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The first and only 2024 Biden-Trump presidential debate was not a night easily forgotten. Joe Biden’s stumbling performance and Kamala Harris’ resulting candidacy changed history — but questions remain. In former first lady Jill Biden’s new memoir View From the East Wing, she tries to answer them. Did President Biden have a medical episode on stage? Did the Biden campaign project false hope towards voters afterwards? In today’s episode, Jill Biden joins NPR’s Scott Detrow to discuss her husband’s presidency, legacy, and what readers can take away from her unique vantage point.

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Today on the show: Fictional and nonfictional takes on extraterrestrial life. Steven Rowley’s new novel Take Me With You is about a man whose husband is abducted by aliens. The author says the premise stemmed from one he often discusses with his own husband: If you had the chance to be taken by aliens, would you go? In today’s episode, Rowley speaks with NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe about the novel’s “willing hitchhiker.” Then, Neil deGrasse Tyson talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about his new book,Take Me to Your Leader, which is a practical guide to – and exploration of – alien encounters.

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Sportswriter Joe Posnanski and TV writer Michael Schur say their new book is for everyone who has risked their emotional health over a sports team. Big Fan took the co-authors across the United States and beyond as they investigated fans of football, chess, Taylor Swift and more. In today’s episode, they tell NPR’s Scott Simon about how a video from the Worlds Dart Championship led them on their international tour of deep fandom.

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