Books

The collection draws inspiration from the real-life struggles women, in particular, face.

For author Peter Orner, mirror books are essential reading — for all ages — and include childhood favorites, stories he discovered as an adult and a classic he returned to years later with his children.

Acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Yiyun Li discusses Music Against the Night, a sweeping historical novel set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Through the lives of two musicians, Li explores artistic ambition, sacrifice and the elusive promise of being remembered.

PEN America's annual report examines the growing trend in bans, the books and authors targeted, and the tactics school districts use to restrict access to literature.

A reflection on Mavis Gallant’s “My Heart Is Broken,” a powerful story about violence, silence and the limits of our ability to understand another person’s suffering.

Three-time National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat and debut novelist Morgan Thomas are up for the fiction prize. Nonfiction books cover the prison system and music, and queer parenthood.

A review of Madeleine Thien’s story collection, "Simple Recipes." It's a quietly powerful collection about family, displacement and the ways love, memory and history shape the lives we inherit.

Mirror Books is a new podcast series from Book Public at Texas Public Radio about seeing ourselves — and discovering and knowing others — through books. Our inaugural guest is acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros, whose writing has become a mirror for countless readers. Listen as she discusses not just one mirror book, but many — and the ways these books she discovered from childhood through adulthood have remained important to her.

Dorothy West was just 17 years old when she wrote “The Typewriter,” a quietly devastating story about dreams, family and the painful cost of disillusionment. Peter Orner and Yvette Benavides discuss the story and the remarkable psychological insight of Dorothy West — and the worlds she went on to create for decades.

Ann M. Martin's beloved series has influenced generations of readers. We're still asking: Which babysitter are you?