NPR's Book of the Day

By chance, authors Annie Hartnett and Kevin Wilson published road trip novels last year within just a few weeks of each other. The Road to Tender Hearts follows a 67-year-old man, his estranged daughter and his newly adopted grandniece and nephew on a road trip to reunite with the man’s high school crush. Run for the Hills is about four half-siblings who set off to track down the father who abandoned them. In today’s episode, Hartnett and Wilson join All Things Considered’s Juana Summers for a conversation about road trip stories and their favorites in the genre.

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As Democrats struggle to revive their party, democratic strategist Ben Wikler has advice to share. Wikler was chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019-2025. And the key, he says, is to focus on the whole system rather than one candidate. He makes this argument in a new book called This Is the Plan. He spoke with NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer about how he believes Democrats can “un-rig” the system and regain political power at the national level.

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Etna is a dog living in a fictional, coastal country on a farm with his mom and siblings. Then, one day, he’s scooped up by a mysterious woman who enlists him for war. The new novel Etna is narrated through the dog’s eyes as he lives and fights alongside explosions, gunfire, crumbling buildings and his handler, Jason. In today’s episodes, author Paul Yoon speaks with Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon about what we learn about war by seeing it through Etna’s eyes.

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This summer, wildfires have swept across Europe, Northern Africa, Canada and the U.S. – and today’s episode features firsthand accounts of deadly fires in California. In Torched, CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti writes about political mismanagement of the 2025 Palisades Fire. He spoke with Morning Edition’s A Martínez about how the 2028 Summer Olympics are impacting L.A.’s efforts to rebuild. Then, Wildfire Days is a memoir by Kelly Ramsey, the only woman on her hotshot crew. She spoke with Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd about working on the “special forces” of wild land firefighters in 2020.

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Robinne Lee’s first novel, The Idea of You, was a big hit. It tells the story of a single mother who begins a romance with a much younger man, the lead singer of a fictional boy band. In Lee’s latest novel, Crash Into Me, a middle-aged couple moves from Paris to Los Angeles. And this time, the wife falls into a love affair with a much younger woman, bringing her marriage to a crossroads. In today’s episode, Lee joins All Things Considered’s Juana Summers for a discussion about writing a multi-generational, multi-racial novel.

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