Author Amy Tan spends hours in her backyard, watching and drawing birds go about their business. Her new book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, is full of essays and illustrations about her connection to these small creatures. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about how an overwhelming sense of gloom from racism and political division in 2016 forced her to find a way to immerse herself in nature, and how her obsessive hobby led to a pretty high bird food budget – and mealworms in her fridge. 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/bookoftheday
Two childhood best friends realize they're in love and break up with their significant others to be together – that's a classic romantic-comedy storyline. But in her new book, Funny Story, author Emily Henry wonders about some of the other forgotten cast members: what happens to the people who got dumped along the way? In today's episode, NPR's Juana Summers asks Henry about writing male characters that go to therapy, leaning into the cringey moments of falling in love and looking up to her own parents' relationship.
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/bookoftheday
Starting in the year 1096, the Christian kingdoms of the Latin Church united to retake religious sites in the Holy Land. This war was known as a crusade.
This was just the first in a series of nine official and several other unofficial crusades over a span of 200 years.
These crusades impacted the kingdoms that took park, the Eastern and Western Christian churches, and relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in some ways that can still be felt today.
Learn more about the Crusades, the reason for them, and how they affected the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Middle school can be a rough time no matter what. But for Isaiah, the eighth grader at the heart of Alicia D. Williams' book Mid-Air, there are some added challenges: feeling like his affinity for rock music and nail polish makes him weird, grieving the loss of a close friend, and drifting further and further apart from his other best bud. In today's episode, Williams speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about the particular difficulties Black boys face to feel like they belong, and why — in the face of tragedy or discomfort — it can be even harder for them to connect with one another.
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/bookoftheday
The First World War wasn’t just fought on the fields of France and Belgium. There were lesser battles fought on the homefronts of the nations which were fighting.
In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, this battle was fought on the streets of cities and towns between men who didn’t wear a uniform and women who tried to shame them into joining the military.
These street conflicts got so bad that the governments eventually had to take action.
Learn more about the White Feather Girls and how they shaped World War One on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Reporter David Sanger has covered five American presidents for The New York Times. But in today's episode, he tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that there's an unpredictability to the politics of today — particularly on an international stage. His new book, New Cold Wars, analyzes how the ties between the United States, Russia and China have rapidly evolved in recent decades, and how technology, military intelligence and economic sanctions play into the conflict
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/bookoftheday
Adolf Hitler single-handedly started the Second World War in Europe.
While the Allies were desperately trying to end the Third Reich and Hitler personally, they weren’t the only ones trying to bring Hilter’s reign to an end.
Inside Nazi Germany, a small but committed group sought to remove Hitler from power, and they took action in July 1944.
Learn more about Operation Valkyrie and the plot to assassinate Hitler on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
By the early 19th century, the United States and Great Britain had already fought two wars with each other.
Those two wars were not enough to resolve all of the territorial and border disputes between them.
There was one massive open question that remained between the two countries. A large swath of land in the Pacific Northwest that both countries claimed and were ready to go to war over.
Learn more about the Oregon Boundry Dispute and how it almost led to war on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.