In literature what makes a classic npr

In this sweeping history, Daniel J. Sharfstein unravels the stories of three families who represent the complexity of race in America and force us to rethink our basic assumptions about who we are. Daniel J. Sharfstein is an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt University. Broadcast: Monday, March 14, 10 a. Broadcast: March 10, 10 a. A brilliant and brilliantly entertaining tour de force of American politics from one of journalism's most acclaimed commentators. A four-time Emmy Award winner, he is the author or coauthor of eleven books.

Broadcast: Friday, March 4, 9 a. An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way. Amy Chua is the John Duff Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Broadcast: Wednesday, March 2, 10 a. The only child of a hard-drinking father and a Holy Roller mother, Rodney Crowell was no stranger to bombast from an early age, whether knock-down-drag-outs at a local dive bar or fire-and-brimstone sermons at Pentecostal tent revivals.

From the acclaimed musician comes a tender, surprising, and often uproarious memoir about his dirt-poor southeast Texas boyhood. Broadcast: Thursday, Feb. From the school yards of the South Bronx to the tops of the Billboard charts, rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of our time.

In The Anthology of Rap, editors Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois demonstrate that rap is also a wide-reaching and vital poetic tradition born of beats and rhymes. Broadcast: Tuesday, Feb. Drawing on almost a decade of cutting-edge research and nearly five hundred interviews with young people, Richard Settersten, Ph. Ray shatter stereotypes, revealing an unexpected truth: A slower path to adulthood is good for all of us.

Broadcast: Friday, Feb. In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. His second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of and was also selected by the American Library Association as one of that year's best nonfiction books.

From National Book Award winner Pete Hautman, this is a love story for people not particularly biased toward romance. But it is romantic, in the same way that truth can be romantic and uncertainty can be the biggest certainty of all. Broadcast: Wednesday, Jan.

In Deadly Spin, Wendell Potter takes readers behind the scenes to show how a huge chunk of our absurd healthcare spending actually bankrolls a propaganda campaign and lobbying effort focused on protecting one thing: profits.

Whatever the fate of the current health care legislation, it makes no attempt to change that fundamental problem. Broadcast: Tuesday, Jan.

A reasoned yet urgent call to embrace and protect the essential, practical human quality that has been drummed out of our lives: wisdom. Broadcast: Monday, Jan. Working with leading researchers, Dan Buettner identifies the happiest region on each of four continents.

He explores why these populations say they are happier than anyone else, and what they can teach the rest of us about finding contentment. Buettner is an internationally recognized researcher, explorer, and author.

Broadcast: Thursday, Jan. The Emperor of All Maladies is a "biography" of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer brings to life the most intriguing woman in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt.

The prizewinning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America's preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative. Joseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written influential and award-winning histories on the founding generation of American presidents. Broadcast: Tuesday, Dec. Bestselling author James Kaplan redefines Frank Sinatra in a triumphant new biography that includes many rarely seen photographs.

Broadcast: Monday, Dec. Broadcast: Monday, Nov. In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Broadcast: Tuesday, Nov. Revival is the dramatic inside story of the defining period of the Obama White House. It is an epic tale that follows the president and his inner circle from the crisis of defeat to historic success. Broadcast: Friday, Nov. In the Company of Angels is the powerful story of two damaged souls trying to find their way from darkness toward light.

Thomas E. Kennedy was born in New York City and has lived in Copenhagen for over two decades. He has written over twenty books, mostly published by small presses, including novels, short stories, and essays.

Broadcast: Wednesday, Nov. He has for years kept a notebook in which he notes words or phrases, just from a love of language.

Sunset Park follows the hopes and fears of a cast of unforgettable characters brought together by the mysterious Miles Heller during the dark months of the economic collapse. Paul Auster's unique novels are often like Chinese boxes, continually opening further to reveal new layers.

Broadcast: Thursday, Nov. At the end of the nineteenth century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher, dubbed "The Killer of Little Shepherds," terrorized the French countryside. He eluded authorities for years--until he ran up against prosecutor Emile Fourquet and Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the era's most renowned criminologist. American Grace is based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America. It includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country, which illuminate how the trends described by Putnam and Campbell affect the lives of real Americans.

Broadcast: Wednesday, Oct. Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to "write a history of the world without leaving home.

Broadcast: Monday, Oct. The first poetry collection by D. Broadcast: Friday, Oct. Robert B. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.

Broadcast: Thursday, Oct. John Vaillant is also the author of The Golden Spruce. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and children. A revolutionary new way to understand America's complex cultural and political landscape, with proof that local communities have a major impact on the nation's behavior-in the voting booth and beyond. Broadcast: Friday, Sept. Nancy Pearl sells books: hers and those of the authors she recommends. Book Lust To Go is places to read about before you go.

Broadcast: Tuesday, Sept. Broadcast: Monday, Sept. A former librarian and bookseller, Petterson lives in Oslo, Norway. William Gibson's feat of imagination, embodied by the seminal "cyberpunk" novel "Neuromancer" and subsequent sci-fi techno titles, was in presaging the Information Age and coining some of its language even as he remained a technological laggard who eschewed computers.

Broadcast: Tuesday, September 7, 10 a. She lives north of Chicago with her husband, her three children, four cats, two goats, two dogs, and a horse. Broadcast: Monday, September 6, 10 a. In What the Great Ate, Matthew and Mark Jacob have cooked up a bountiful sampling of the peculiar culinary likes, dislikes, habits, and attitudes of famous—and often notorious—figures throughout history.

Broadcast: Friday, September 3, 10 a. Sara Paretsky is credited with breaking the gender barrier in detective fiction with the creation of her hard-boiled female detective, V. In mysteries that have been translated into more than 20 languages, the no-nonsense and sexy V. Broadcast: Tuesday, August 31, 10 a. For thirty years as a musician, Rosanne Cash has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, releasing a series of albums that are as notable for their lyrical intelligence as for their musical excellence.

In her memoir, Cash writes compellingly about her upbringing in Southern California as the child of country legend Johnny Cash, and of her relationships with her mother and her famous stepmother, June Carter Cash. Broadcast: Monday, August 30, 10 a. Acclaimed bestselling author Michael Capuzzo's brilliant storytelling brings true crime to life more realistically and vividly than it has ever been portrayed before. Born in Boston and educated at Northwestern University, Michael Capuzzo is the author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Close to Shore, a historical thriller of the true story that inspired Jaws.

Broadcast: Monday, August 16, 10 a. Yale psychologist Paul Bloom presents a striking new vision of the pleasures of everyday life. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Broadcast: Friday, August 13, 10 a. William Powers, a former staff writer for the Washington Post, has written about media, technology, and other subjects for a wide variety of publications, including the Atlantic, the New York Times, and McSweeney's. Broadcast: Thursday, August 12, 10 a.

The troubling story of how a cadre of influential scientists have clouded public understanding of scientific facts to advance a political and economic agenda. Naomi Oreskes is a professor of history and science studies at the University of California, San Diego. Broadcast: Thursday, August 5, 10 a. The best-selling author of "Stiff" and "Bonk" explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

The bestselling author of "The Limits of Power" critically examines the Washington consensus on national security and why it must change. Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, retired from the U. Army with the rank of colonel.

Blending political and cultural history with his keen sense of the spirit of the times, Brands captures the national experience through the last six decades and reveals the still-unfolding legacy of dreams born out of a global cataclysm.

Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, July 27, 10 a. With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape. Broadcast, Midmorning Monday, July 21, 10 a. In his thrilling new book, Spencer Wells examines our cultural inheritance in order to find the turning point that led us to the path we are on today, one he believes we must veer from in order to survive.

Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, July 14, 10 a. A groundbreaking and accessible history of heaven—from the earliest biblical conceptions of the afterlife to the theologians who frame our understandings to the convictions and perceptions of everyday people. Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, July 14, 9 a. The same paper ran a huge story about four young men who had killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery.

The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One of their names was Wes Moore. Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, July 13, 10 a. In Plenitude economist and bestselling author Juliet B. Schor offers a groundbreaking intellectual statement about the economics and sociology of ecological decline, suggesting a radical change in how we think about consumer goods, value, and ways to live. Broadcast, Midmorning Monday, July 12, 10 a.

Broadcast, Midmorning Thursday, July 8, 10 a. Gayle Lynds is the author of five other solo thrillers as well as three co-written with Robert Ludlum. Broadcast, Midmorning Thursday, July 1, 9 a. In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness.

Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, June 9, 10 a. Sebastian Junger's new book, War, is a depiction of one year in the life of the U. Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, June 9, 9 a. Beth Whitehouse is a Pulitzer Prize—winning reporter for Newsday. Her five-part front-page series "The Match," which was the basis for this book, won numerous awards. Broadcast, Midmorning Friday, June 4, 10 a. Anya Kamenetz is a staff writer for Fast Company magazine.

The Village Voice nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize for contributions to the feature series Generation Debt, which became a book in Broadcast, Midmorning Friday, June 4, 9 a. A revealing new look at the groundbreaking form of contraception that enabled women to control their lives and transform the world.

Broadcast, Midmorning Thursday, June 3, 10 a. Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, June 2, 10 a. A deliciously wry, edge-of-the-seat memoir of making a fortune with card counters across a wide swath of blackjack in America. Josh Axelrad played blackjack professionally for five years and poker unprofessionally for one.

A graduate of Columbia College, he languished briefly in investment banking before he turned to cards. Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, May 25, 10 a. The bestselling author of Mayflower sheds new light on one of the iconic stories of the American West. In his tightly structured narrative, Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly sketches the two larger-than-life antagonists: Sitting Bull, whose charisma and political savvy earned him the position of leader of the Plains Indians, and George Armstrong Custer, one of the Union's greatest cavalry officers and a man with a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage.

Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, May 19, 10 a. Erudite, down-to-earth, and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemptionare moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, May 18, 10 a. Broadcast, Midmorning Monday, May 17, 10 a.

In powerful and spirited prose, Peter Birkenhead recounts a childhood spent trying to make sense of his father, a terrifying, charismatic presence who brutalized his family physically and emotionally at the same time that he enchanted them with his passion and whimsy. Broadcast, Midmorning Friday, May 14, 10 a.

Broadcast, Midmorning Thursday, May 6, 10 a. Alison Gopnik - a leading psychologist and philosopher, as well as a mother - explains the groundbreaking new psychological, neuroscientific, and philosophical developments in our understanding of very young children, transforming our understanding of how babies see the world, and in turn promoting a deeper appreciation for the role of parents.

Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, May 5, 9 a. Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, May 4, 10 a. Both funny and intellectually rigorous, Bruce Feiler has applied his investigative spirit to religion, Japan, the circus, country music and assorted other topics.

His personal accounts of various cultural forays are always illuminating, if you can keep up. Broadcast, Midmorning Monday, May 3, 10 a. The author of Boys Adrift argues that young women today are at risk, and shows what we can do to help girls achieve their potential. Leonard Sax, M. Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, April 28, 10 a.

Laura Munson's essay in the New York Times, about the time she was tested in a way she never anticipated, created a firestorm-now here's the whole story. When Laura Munson's essay was published, The New York Times was so flooded with responses that they had to close down the comment feature. Readers wrote in saying that they had sent the column to all of their friends.

Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, April 20, 10 a. Her writing appears frequently in journals and newspapers worldwide. She is the recipient of Lannan and Guggenheim fellowships in creative nonfiction. Williams lives in Castle Valley, Utah.

Broadcast, Midmorning Friday, April 16, 10 a. Between Two Worlds is also a deeply revealing account of this tumultuous country and theongoing struggle for freedom that is being fought inside Evin Prison and on the streets of Iran.

From her heartfelt perspective, Saberi offers a rich, dramatic, and illuminating portrait of Iran as it undergoes a striking, historic transformation. Broadcast, Midmorning Thursday, April 15, 9 a. Randi Davenport navigated the byzantine and broken health care system and managed not just to save her son from the brink of suicide but to bring him back to her again, and make her family whole. In The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes, she gives voice to the experiences of countless families whose struggles with mental illness are likewise invisible to the larger world.

Broadcast, Midmorning Wednesday, April 14, 10 a. Funny, fast, and finally magical, Generosity celebrates both science and the freed imagination. In his most exuberant book yet, Richard Powers asks us to consider the big questions facing humankindas we begin to rewrite our own existence.

Broadcast, Midmorning Tuesday, April 13, 10 a. A fast talking wise-ass from the Bronx, Jerry Weintraub became a millionaire at 26 by handling some of the biggest acts in show biz, most famously Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. Weintraub is probably best known as the producer of such classic films as Nashville, Diner, Oh, God! David Grann is a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker. Tracy Chevalier made her first bold stroke on the canvas of the literary world with 's Girl with a Pearl Earring, which took readers inside the mysterious Vermeer painting of the same name.

Her fascination with art and history saturates her work, bringing it to vibrant life. In this unique neurological memoir Siri Hustvedt attempts to solve her own mysterious condition. Hustvedt is a poet and novelist born and raised in Minnesota. The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime. Margaret A. Mildred L.

Batchelder Award ALA-ALSC Awarded to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States. William C. Best Book Lists. Additionally, a special interest group of the International Literacy Association also selects a yearly list of Notable Books For a Global Society outstanding K multicultural literature.

Notable Children's Books ALA-ALSC Each year the Association identifies the best in children's books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels through age 14 that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways. Notable Social Studies Books for Young People NCSS Books that emphasize human relations, represent a diversity of groups and are sensitive to a broad range of cultural experiences, present an original theme or a fresh slant on a traditional topic, are easily readable and of high literary quality, and have a pleasing format and, when appropriate, illustrations that enrich the text.

The lists of popular or topical titles are widely available in paperback and represent a broad variety of accessible themes and genres. The list selects both fiction and nonfiction. Sydney Taylor Book Award Association of Jewish Libraries Presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.

Honor Books are awarded silver medals, and Notable Books are named in each category. Many more awards are linked to here. And by the Connecticut State Library. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. Published: World of Eric Carle - March 23rd, But Not the Hippopotamus Board book. Published: Little Simon - November 30th, Brown Baby Lullaby Hardcover. Go, Dog. Beginner Books R Hardcover. The Napping House board book Board book. Published: Clarion Books - September 1st, Last Stop on Market Street Hardcover.

Published: G. Story Boat Hardcover. Published: Tundra Books - February 4th, Dreamers Hardcover. By Yuyi Morales. Published: Neal Porter Books - September 4th, Jabari Jumps Hardcover. The Rabbit Listened Hardcover. Published: Dial Books - February 20th, Sulwe Hardcover. I Am Enough Hardcover.

By Grace Byers , Keturah A. Bobo Illustrator. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse Hardcover. Published: Greenwillow Books - January 24th, Ali With.

Each Kindness Hardcover. By Jacqueline Woodson , E. Lewis Illustrator. Published: Nancy Paulsen Books - October 2nd, Wherever I Go Hardcover. Mohammed Illustrator. Front Desk Scholastic Gold Paperback. By Kelly Yang. Published: Arthur A. Levine Books - June 25th, Published: Roaring Brook Press - October 22nd, By Vera B. Williams , Vera B.

Williams Illustrator. Published: Greenwillow Books - January 23rd, My Papi Has a Motorcycle Hardcover. Drawn Together Hardcover. Meet Yasmin! Published: Picture Window Books - August 1st, Hair Love Hardcover. By Matthew A. Cherry , Vashti Harrison Illustrator. Published: Capstone Young Readers - August 1st, By Gertrude Chandler Warner , L. Kate Deal Illustrator. Stellaluna Board book. By Janell Cannon. Published: Clarion Books - August 1st, Corduroy Paperback. By Don Freeman. Published: Puffin Books - September 30th, The Story of Ferdinand Paperback.

By Philip C. Stead , Erin E. Stead Illustrator. Published: Roaring Brook Press - May 25th,