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In need of a good read? Or just want to keep up with the books everyone's talking about? NPR's Book of the Day gives you today's very best writing in a snackable, skimmable, pocket-sized podcast. Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times – or temporarily escape from them – we've got an author who will speak to you, all genres, mood and writing styles included. Catch today's great books in 15 minutes or less.

NPR's Book of the Day

Al Pacino's childhood was spent in a tough neighborhood in the South Bronx. But he grew up among a crew of wild kids who often found themselves on adventures rivaling those of Huckleberry Finn. Those childhood antics proved foundational for Pacino, who details these stories and more in a new memoir, Sonny Boy. In today's episode, Pacino speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about the experiences that ignited and fed his love of acting, like a performance of Chekhov's The Seagull that changed his life. They also discuss the influence of the actor's mother and grandfather on his upbringing and whether Pacino still feels like a nonconformist at 84 years old.

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Al Pacino's memoir 'Sonny Boy' is a story of adventure, starting in the South Bronx

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, died in a Siberian prison this past February–and in his diary entries, Navalny wrote that he knew he might not make it out alive. Those diaries are part of Navalny's new memoir, Patriot, published posthumously with help from his widow, Yulia Navalnaya. The book details some of Navalny's darkest moments in his fight for a more democratic Russia, but also showcases the leader's characteristic humor. In today's episode, Navalnaya joins NPR's Ari Shapiro to talk about a pivotal conversation between the couple during a prison visit, the duality of her late husband's personality as a serious politician and an ordinary family man, and taking up the mantle of the Russian opposition movement after Navalny's death.

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'Patriot' is a posthumous memoir by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Tensions are running high for married couple Keru and Nate, who decide to rent a house in Cape Cod, sharing it with each set of parents at different points of a month-long trip. Their vacation seems to have stoked the fires of family dysfunction, eventually pushing Keru to a breaking point. Author Weike Wang believes in putting one's characters through trial by fire, which she does quite literally in her latest novel, Rental House. In today's episode, Wang speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about sometimes-frustrating family life, coexistence, and obstacles for characters.

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There is such a thing as too much quality time in Weike Wang's 'Rental House'

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story is a 2023 history book for middle school readers about the tribe's first encounters with English settlers. In the early 17th century, European contact set off years of destruction for the Wampanoag Nation, including a disease that killed an estimated two-thirds of the population. Earlier this year, the nonfiction work was recategorized as fiction at a library in Montgomery, Texas, following complaints by an anonymous cardholder. But last month, a judge ruled that the book must be returned to the library's nonfiction section. In today's episode, Linda Coombs, Wampanoag historian and author, joins Here & Now's Robin Young to speak about how the recategorization of her book fits into the history of her tribe's erasure.

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Author of Wampanoag history discussed her children's book and erasure

Renowned poet and professor Nikki Giovanni died earlier this week at age 81, following a third cancer diagnosis. She was a prolific writer and leader in the Black Arts Movement, publishing poetry collections such as Black Feeling Black Talk and Those Who Ride the Night Winds. She also taught English at Virginia Tech. In today's episode, we revisit a 2013 conversation between Giovanni and NPR's Michel Martin that followed the release of Chasing Utopia, which featured a combination of essays and poetry. Giovanni and Martin discussed the poet's relationship to her late mother, the pleasure of old age, and the trauma of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.

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Remembering Nikki Giovanni, poet and icon of the Black Arts Movement

The World With Its Mouth Open is a book of short stories from journalist-turned-author Zahid Rafiq. The collection showcases the precarious but ordinary lives of people in modern day Kashmir, a site of ongoing geopolitical conflict. In Rafiq's stories, a work crew makes a disturbing discovery at a construction site, a pregnant woman searches for fresh fish, and a shopkeeper has an unexpected encounter with a mannequin. In today's episode, Rafiq tells NPR's Eric Deggans about his interest in writing stories without knowing the ending, and his characters' ability to build a future on the foundation of a difficult past.

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In Zahid Rafiq's debut short story collection, the future of Kashmir is uncertain

Two books of essays consider the female experience through different stages of life. First, Kate Kennedy's One in a Millennial documents coming of age as a member of a highly-scrutinized generation. Her book explores the origins of millennial stereotypes and pop culture, but also focuses on the way that shared experiences of girlhood are often dismissed as frivolous. In today's episode, Kennedy joins NPR's Juana Summers for a conversation that touches on AOL Instant Messenger, college pre-games, and self-editing our own desires. We then hear from Jenny Slate about her new book Lifeform, a compilation of experimental essays that follow her life through five phases: Single, True Love, Pregnancy, Baby, and Ongoing. Slate joined Here & Now's Emiko Tamagawa at a live event in Boston, where the two discussed the confidence it takes to write down our ideas, fear and bravery in love, and Slate's perspective on childbirth and motherhood.

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Two books explore phases of female life, girlhood and womanhood

Colson Whitehead's 2019 novel The Nickel Boys follows the studious and idealistic Elwood Curtis, a Black teenager whose prized possession is a recording of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. But when Elwood is sent to a juvenile reformatory in Florida, his worldview is challenged by the horrors he experiences there. Now, Whitehead's novel has been adapted into a film. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Whitehead and NPR's Scott Simon, where they discuss the real-life reform school that inspired Nickel Academy, MLK's idea of soul force, and Whitehead's strong emotional reaction to the characters in his novel.

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Colson Whitehead's novel 'The Nickel Boys' comes to the big screen

In Fabienne Josaphat's latest novel, a young woman named Nettie leaves Haiti for the United States. Set in the 1960s, Kingdom of No Tomorrow follows Nettie as she joins the Black Panther Party's free health clinics in Oakland, California, and falls in love with a party defense captain. In her research for the novel, Josaphat found deep resonances between Haiti's revolutionary history and the Black Panther movement. In today's episode, she speaks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about her research, the Black Panthers' Free Breakfast for School Children Program, and how her book might fit into the broader understanding of the party.

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In 'Kingdom of No Tomorrow,' a young woman joins the Black Panther Party

After a high school English teacher introduced Alizah Holstein to Dante's Divine Comedy, the Italian capital Rome became the first place she wanted to go. Rome's rich history was the one thing she wanted to study most. As an adult, she did spend time researching and exploring in Rome, believing that becoming a Roman historian was her destiny. But while working on her Ph.D. back in the U.S., Holstein came face to face with gender biases in academia – and she pivoted to another, wholly different path. In today's episode, Holstein speaks with NPR's Robin Young about her memoir My Roman History, the gender biases she encountered, and how Rome has continued to be a city that inspires wonder in her.

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Alizah Holstein writes about the complex echelons of academia in 'My Roman History'

As part of Black History Month, we are running interviews from our archives. The Color Purple is about the survival of Black women in a male-dominated world. Author Alice Walker said that she just wrote what happens in the real world. At its core, this is a story of women loving and helping other women. Walker told NPR's Faith Fancher that "one of the reasons I wanted to have strong, beautiful, wonderful women loving each other is because I think that people can deal with that. [...] I think that the people who are uptight and bigoted and afraid in their own lives will have difficulty."

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'The Color Purple' is about the bonding of women

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