NPR Books We Love

Annie Lowrey explores the administrative burdens people face applying for government benefits. It's not just about wasted time: "When the government treats us like this, we don't trust it," she says.

Oxford University professor Katherine Rundell became the first children's author since J.K. Rowling to simultaneously reach number one on the U.K. and U.S. sales charts.

In her 2016 global bestseller “Grit,” University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth argued that passion and perseverance are the engines of achievement.

The gunfighter has been a legend in American culture for well over a century.

Liane Moriarty's 2014 novel "Big Little Lies" was not only a best-seller, but it also spawned an Emmy-winning HBO series.

Like much of Rachel Cusk's work, Life of M is driven by her concern with conditions that impede self-definition -- for writers, artists, and women in particular.

In The Jackal, national security writer Joby Warrick writes about the playboy terrorist who killed and kidnapped for years, eluding law enforcement while frequenting nightclubs and luxury hotels.

If you're looking for an end-of-summer escape you can't go wrong with The Intrigue, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Under the Falls, by Richard Russo, or The Blue Flame, by George Pelecanos.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Harvard professor and writer at the New Yorker Jill Lepore about her new book, "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State."

The novel tells the story of a young woman in Florida as she navigates the aftermath of surviving a mall shooting, raises a 10-year-old daughter, struggles to keep her elderly parents and brother safe from gangs in Haiti, and grapples with her mother's mental illness.