Vincent Williams: When the scary becomes the stupid: Obama satire in the New...
So... the New Yorker cover... Barack Obama's wearing the Somali garb, Michelle Obama has a huge afro, donned in black militant fatigues and, uh-oh, they're giving each other that strange greeting...
View ArticleWith whom the book resonates: Obama and McCain share a love for Hemingway
When it comes to the issues, Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be more different. But when it comes to literature, the two are remarkably the same. Each cites Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,”...
View ArticleWriter exposes Dick Cheney’s war in "The Dark Side"
In "The Dark Side," author Jane Mayer weaves a seven-year narrative detailing what we know and don't know about the decisions made while pursuing terrorists after the coordinated terrorist attacks of...
View ArticleChildren's books: The G-rated apocalypse
Guests: Susan Pfeffer, author of post-apocalyptic childrens books, "Life as We Knew It" (2006) and "The Dead and the Gone" (2008), and Dr. Frank Gaskil, child psychologist
View ArticleAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author of "The Gulag Archipelago," dies at 89
Guest: Archie Barron, producer and director of the documentary "The Solzhenitsyns Take a Long Way Home"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn timeline:Birth1918, December 11Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is born in...
View Article"Typhoon," an Olympic Thriller
In the wake of violent protests involving the Olympic torch and the murder of 16 policemen in Xinjiang province, Olympics organizers and participants fear more civic disturbances. Ironically, author...
View ArticleThe harsh realism of war in the miniseries "Generation Kill"
Evan Wright turned the articles he wrote as an embedded journalist in Iraq for Rolling Stone into the award winning book “Generation Kill." Wright sold the rights to HBO, who promised to re-create the...
View ArticleThe real Marines behind "Generation Kill"
The book “Generation Kill” is based on the experiences of journalist Evan Wright as he rode from Kuwait to Baghdad in 2003. The marines in HBO's version are played by actors, but their stories are...
View ArticleForging a new career: Lee Israel's life of literary crime
Guest: Lee Israel, biographer, copy editor, author of “Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger”
View ArticleA contest to best the worst book opener ("It was a dark and stormy night...")
The annual Bulwer-Lytton writing contest features the best of the worst opening lines for novels that never were, and never will be. Guest: Dawn Davis, Harper Collins
View ArticleAgatha Christie describes her life and characters in newly discovered tapes
In the world of blockbuster books, Agatha Christie was way ahead of her time — not only in spinning unpredictable tales but also introducing the world to her distinctive characters. Now, newly...
View ArticleThomas Friedman says Earth is "Hot, Flat and Crowded"
Thomas Friedman argues "that we are going from a world of a billion Americans to a world of 2 or 3 billion." And "in a world that is hot, flat and crowded, clean technology is the next great global...
View ArticleFrench novelist J.M.G. Le Clezio wins 2008 Nobel Prize in literature
The 2008 Nobel Prize in literature was announced this morning. The winner is French novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. Guest: Patrik Henry Bass, ESSENCE Magazine
View ArticleEavesdropping on America: James Bamford's "The Shadow Factory"
If the NSA is listening to your phone calls and reading your emails, would you want to know about it?
View ArticleMolecular gastronomy and an experimental martini
There is science and there is cooking. Then there is the area where the two intersect. New York Times writer Julia Moskin joins The Takeaway to talk about the culinary and scientific as heavy...
View ArticleIt was the worst of times: Dickens teaches us about financial crises
For those of you looking for hope in times of economic woe, look no further than the man who brought you Oliver Twist. University of Oxford English professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst says no other...
View ArticleJohn Hope Franklin's literary legacy: A chronicle of the African-American...
Last week, the U.S. lost a seminal historian of the African-American experience when John Hope Franklin passed away. His books, includingFrom Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, Mirror...
View Article2009 Pulitzer Prize offers diverse cast of winners
The winning line-up of this year's Pulitzer Prizes for literature was a far more diverse group than in years past. Two African American women were winners: Playwright Lynn Nottage won for Ruined, a...
View ArticleUrkel and Obama: The rise of the black nerd
The election of Barack Obama may have had what we'll call The Urkel Effect. Takeaway Contributor and Senior Editor at Essence Magazine, Patrik Henry Bass says the rise of the bookish President may...
View ArticleAndy Borowitz: How Madoff Can Survive in Prison
When comedian Andy Borowitz read that Bernard Madoff’s relatives were looking for a guide to help Bernie survive life in prison, he jumped at the chance to help the disgraced billionaire. He wrote a...
View ArticleRay Bradbury Dies at Age 91
Ray Bradbury has died at age 91, and with him dies an imagination that sparked the imagination of so many readers. John Hockenberry remembers his first Bradbury novel, The Illustrated Man, which came...
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