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Matthiessen was a spy, a naturalist, a well-regarded activist and a three-time winner of the National Book Award — for both fiction and nonfiction. He died of acute myeloid leukemia.

Novelist Clyde Edgerton has four kids; one is an adult, and the other three are all younger than 10. His new book, Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers, is a guide for dads that's written from his perspective as an older father. Pay heed, expectant fathers: Install that car seat now.

The Hunger Games has been a huge success, and the film adaptation is only weeks away. Now, publishers are looking for the next big dystopian hit.

Ishmael Beah was 12 when he was orphaned by Sierra Leone's civil war and recruited as a child soldier. He described the ordeal in his 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone. Now, Beah's debut novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, tells the story of a shattered community struggling to rebuild itself after war.

The term "Rube Goldberg machine" has become shorthand for a convoluted contraption made up of a series of chain reactions. But Goldberg was also a real person, whose ideas for whimsical devices have captivated imaginations for decades.

Donna Tartt is a writer who takes her time — she's published just one novel per decade since her debut in 1992. But critic Maureen Corrigan says she'd gladly wait another 10 years for a book as extraordinary as Tartt's latest work, The Goldfinch, an "exuberantly plotted triumph."

If you're tired of political competition, there's always athletic competition. And if your team stinks, we can offer sympathy and a selection of the year's best books about sports to ease the sting.

As the U.S. men's basketball team prepared for Tuesday’s game against Brazil, NPR's Juana Summers talked the team’s managing director, Grant Hill, to ask how he views the competition.

The virus has been confined to certain areas of the Amazon but is moving into new turf as climate change enables the insects that spread it to spread out. Here's what we know.

Imagine camping out in the woods, taking mushrooms, and meeting your future self ... played by Aubrey Plaza. That's what happens to 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella) in this charming, quirky comedy.

The 75th Emmy Awards offered up nothing in the way of real surprise. Succession, The Bear and Beef dominated on a night steeped in television nostalgia.

Critic David Orr surveys the "jumbled landscape" of American poetry to select his favorite collections of the year: five books that will alternately comfort and challenge you.

A small rock might contain tissue from a 130 million-year-old dinosaur brain. If confirmed, it would be the first bit of fossilized dino gray matter ever found.

NPR critic Bob Mondello reviews American Animals. It's a heist film that uses actors to tell a true story, and also uses the real perpetrators to comment on its storytelling.

Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, came to Washington D.C., to accept an award from Refugees International on Tuesday night. Manal Abazeed stopped by to talk to NPR's Ari Shapiro about her work.

The fungus takes over cicadas’ lower halves and sex drives, fueling them to keep mating and spreading the disease in the process. That's why some scientists call them “flying salt shakers of death.”

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with mycologist Aishwarya Veerabahu about the rapid spread of golden oyster mushrooms across North America. It's the subject of a new study authored by Veerabahu.

The history of the presidential turkey pardon is often misremembered. Here are the fowl facts.

A network of rescue groups are caring for animals affected by wildfires still burning in the Los Angeles area. A multi-state operation is under way to help relieve local animal shelters.

LeBron James has been so good for so long, there's a famous running joke about when he might slow down. At age 40, where does his 50,000 career points record put him in the GOAT debate?