The Best of NPR Books for March 1, 2018

[NPR]( [View this email in your browser]( [NPR Books]( This week, we close out Black History Month with Lynn Neary's lovely appreciation of W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk. "It's deeply lyrical, but not just lyrical in the sense that he had, sort of, beautiful language," says scholar Ibrahim X. Kendi, who wrote the introduction to a new 150th anniversary edition. "It's lyrical in the sense that he was able to really capture the complexities and multiplicities of life." Then, Patton Oswalt stops by to discuss his late wife Michelle's book about her quest to discover the identity of the Golden State Killer; colleagues who knew her helped carry the book to completion after she died suddenly in 2016. "She definitely loved the puzzle aspect of it, the fact that there's a limited amount of pieces and you have to try to ... bring a solution," Oswalt tells NPR's Scott Simon. Scott, you might know, is a Chicago boy, and this weekend he also got to talk to David Mamet, whose new novel celebrates the town they both grew up in. It's a mob-era story, full of hits ordered and trucks full of hooch; Mamet says that "in Chicago in my generation — I was born in 1947 — you grew up with stories of the mob." Also this week we take a look at veteran children's book publisher Philip Lee, whose new imprint Readers to Eaters aims to encourage food literacy among kids, with titles like Our School Garden and Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix. And finishing out the food theme, the new book The Rise of Yeast (WE SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE) tracks the really amazing impact those little critters have had on human civilization. (Did you know the ancient Romans incorporated yeasty beer froth into their bread? I didn't.) Happy reading! (And baking, too -- it's a cold weekend, at least here in DC, and all that reading about yeast has inspired me to bust out the loaf pans.) The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books [Patton Oswalt On His Late Wife's Search For The Golden State Killer]( Before Michelle McNamara died in 2016, she was working on a book that aimed to bring a serial rapist and murderer to justice. I'll Be Gone in the Dark has now been published. [Read this story]( The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books [David Mamet On 'Chicago': 'These Were The Stories You Grew Up With']( The playwright and screenwriter's first novel in 20 years is set in the Windy City of the 1920s, where the mob rules, the market for sin is thriving and the dialogue is as distinctive as ever. [Read this story]( The Week's Best Stories From NPR Books [The Enduring Lyricism Of W.E.B. Du Bois' 'The Souls Of Black Folk']( The collection of essays about black American life has been republished for Du Bois' 150th birthday anniversary — and still has plenty to say to those encountering it. [Read this story]( The Salt [Children's Publishing House Takes Food Literacy Literally]( Teaching kids how to eat healthfully and appreciate the cultural diversity of food begins with getting books about these themes into their hands, says Readers to Eaters' founding publisher. [Read this story]( The Salt [The Rise Of Yeast: How Civilization Was Shaped By Sugar Fungi]( Without yeast, bread wouldn't rise and beer wouldn't foam. As Nicholas Money's new book, The Rise of Yeast, points out, it leaves its mark on other foods, too, including coffee, and even chocolate. [Read this story]( NPR | 1111 N. Capitol St. NE | Washington, DC 20002 | [Privacy Policy]( This message was sent to {EMAIL} based on your NPR email subscriptions. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you may [unsubscribe]( at any time. [NPR](