Arts & Life : NPR

Bigger And Louder Than Ever, Can The Avengers Still Satisfy?

Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Film Frame/Marvel hide caption

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Film Frame/Marvel

Review

Movie Reviews

Bigger And Louder Than Ever, Can The Avengers Still Satisfy?

April 30, 2015 • Avengers: Age Of Ultron continues the march of the Marvel Cinematic Universe toward more and more and more of everything. But that's not the same thing as making the movies better.

In 'Marie's Story,' A Tale Of Teaching And Faith

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Film Movement

Review

Movie Reviews

In 'Marie's Story,' A Tale Of Teaching And Faith

April 30, 2015 • A new French film about a girl born blind and deaf speaks not only to the questions of how she learns, but of her encounters with faith and loss.

Revisiting The Melodrama Of 'Far From The Madding Crowd'

Matthias Schoenaerts and Carey Mulligan in Far From The Madding Crowd. Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation hide caption

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Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Review

Movie Reviews

Revisiting The Melodrama Of 'Far From The Madding Crowd'

April 30, 2015 • Carey Mulligan plays the role once occupied by Julie Christie, but her very different take may be too controlled for its own good.

Dozens Of Writers Join Protest Of Free Speech Award For 'Charlie Hebdo'

This pair of Charlie Hebdo covers from 2012 pokes fun at the magazine's "irresponsible" approach to humor. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/AFP/Getty Images

The Two-Way

Dozens Of Writers Join Protest Of Free Speech Award For 'Charlie Hebdo'

April 30, 2015 • Nearly 150 writers have now signed an open letter that condemns the attacks on the French satirical magazine, but questions whether it deserves a free speech prize for its willingness to offend.

William Faulkner Makes Us Wonder: What's So Great About Poetry, Anyhow?

Before William Faulkner became a Nobel Prize-winning novelist, he published some unsuccessful poetry. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Book News & Features

William Faulkner Makes Us Wonder: What's So Great About Poetry, Anyhow?

April 30, 2015 • William Faulkner — one of the great American novelists — thought of himself as a failed poet. Which made our critic Juan Vidal wonder: What is it about poetry that makes us hold it above other arts?

Rome's Might Meets The Arabian Nights In 'Ember In The Ashes'

Review

Book Reviews

Rome's Might Meets The Arabian Nights In 'Ember In The Ashes'

April 30, 2015 • First-time novelist Sabaa Tahir creates Capital Letter Fantasy in An Ember in the Ashes, with rebel Scholars battling an ancient, brutal Empire. Critic Amal El-Mohtar calls it "frequently riveting."

Photos: Baltimore Quiet For 2nd Night; New York, Denver Protests Noisier

Demonstrators snarl traffic as they try to block an entrance to the Holland Tunnel during a solidarity protest Wednesday in New York City. Michael Abbott/Getty Images hide caption

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Michael Abbott/Getty Images

The Two-Way

Photos: Baltimore Quiet For 2nd Night; New York, Denver Protests Noisier

April 30, 2015 • Police arrested about 100 demonstrators in Manhattan after crowds tried to block a major tunnel, and pepper spray was deployed in Colorado. In Baltimore, the curfew was honored.

Ohio Kidnapping Survivors Recount Captivity, Escape From Horror

House of horrors: The exterior of the Cleveland house where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were held captive. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images hide caption

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Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Author Interviews

Ohio Kidnapping Survivors Recount Captivity, Escape From Horror

Fresh Air

April 29, 2015 • In 2013, three young women who had vanished years earlier escaped from a house where they had been held captive. Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, along with writer Mary Jordan, discuss their new memoir.

Ohio Kidnapping Survivors Recount Captivity, Escape From Horror

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3,600-Page Autobiographical Novel Is An Honest And Masterful 'Selfie'

Review

Book Reviews

3,600-Page Autobiographical Novel Is An Honest And Masterful 'Selfie'

Fresh Air

April 29, 2015 • My Struggle is about Karl Ove Knausgaard's wrangle with his father, with death, with his muse and so on. The 46-year-old Norwegian's pointedly unliterary book has become a literary sensation.

3,600-Page Autobiographical Novel Is An Honest And Masterful 'Selfie'

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These Parents Make Lovely Lunch Bag Art. Not Everyone Is Pleased

Samantha Lee's take on The Girl With The Pearl Earring. Courtesy of Samantha Lee hide caption

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Courtesy of Samantha Lee

The Salt

These Parents Make Lovely Lunch Bag Art. Not Everyone Is Pleased

April 29, 2015 • Elaborately illustrated napkins. Famous paintings re-created using food. Depending on your viewpoint, these lunch projects are an expression of parental love or another salvo in the parenting wars.

A Futuristic Private Eye Gets In Over Her Head In 'Depth'

Emily Jan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

A Futuristic Private Eye Gets In Over Her Head In 'Depth'

April 29, 2015 • Lev AC Rosen's dystopian thriller, set in an underwater New York City, is an expert mix of the sci-fi and hardboiled genres. Reviewer Jason Heller calls it a nervy crime caper with hidden depths.

'SuperMutant Magic Academy' Is Hogwarts With Nuts (And A Cherry)

Review

Book Reviews

'SuperMutant Magic Academy' Is Hogwarts With Nuts (And A Cherry)

April 29, 2015 • Kurt Vonnegut once famously described book critics as donning armor to battle a hot fudge sundae. Jillian Tamaki takes on Harry Potter in SuperMutant Magic Academy, but she's tossing marshmallows.

Graphic Novel About Holocaust 'Maus' Banned In Russia For Its Cover

Cartoonist Art Spiegelman attends the French Institute Alliance Francaise's "After Charlie: What's Next for Art, Satire and Censorship" at Florence Gould Hall on Feb. 19 in New York City. Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images hide caption

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Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images

Book News & Features

Graphic Novel About Holocaust 'Maus' Banned In Russia For Its Cover

April 28, 2015 • NPR's Robert Siegel talks with author and illustrator Art Spiegelman about how his book Maus, the very antithesis of Nazi propaganda, was purged from Moscow stores because of a swastika on the cover.

Graphic Novel About Holocaust 'Maus' Banned In Russia For Its Cover

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Director Julie Taymor Steers A 'Grounded' Portrait Of A Drone Pilot

Anne Hathaway plays a nameless drone pilot in Julie Taymor's latest directing project, Grounded. Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater hide caption

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Joan Marcus/Courtesy of The Public Theater

Theater

Director Julie Taymor Steers A 'Grounded' Portrait Of A Drone Pilot

April 28, 2015 • The political, one-woman play starring Anne Hathaway seems to be the opposite of what Taymor — the creative force behind Broadway's The Lion King and Spider-Man musical — is known for.

Director Julie Taymor Steers A 'Grounded' Portrait Of A Drone Pilot

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Virtual Readings For Baltimore's Freddie Gray

A man rides a bicycle through heavy smoke from a fire at a nearby store on Monday during unrest following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

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Patrick Semansky/AP

Code Switch

Virtual Readings For Baltimore's Freddie Gray

April 28, 2015 • Here are some words from novelists, poets and rappers that folks are sharing on social media to make sense of what's going on in Baltimore.