Visions of Black beauty

Also this week: Viet Thanh Nguyen, critics' picks and more by Petra Mayer [Portrait from 'Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty,' by Kahran and Regis Bethenourt]( Regis and Kahran Bethencourt We bid farewell to Black History Month with some eye-poppingly gorgeous fantasy portraits of children from a new book, Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty by Atlanta photographers Kahran and Regis Bethencourt. "We really wanted to shatter the conventional standards of beauty for Black kids. We highlighted a variety of kids across the African diaspora," Kahran tells Morning Edition. "We bring to life past, present and future visions of Black culture." [Click here for some fabulous mermaids, sports stars, future travelers and warriors]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- [Brooklyn librarian Tenzin Kalsang]( Brooklyn Public Library Facebook Page/Screenshot Brooklyn librarian Tenzin Kalsang has been keeping busy in quarantine -- she hosts a bilingual storytime in Tibetan and English, streaming live on Facebook from a colorful corner of her apartment set up with plants and kids' books. The Brooklyn Public Library has been offering all kinds of bilingual story times online, including Russian, Spanish and Chinese -- but Kalsang's have been a runaway hit. One of her streams has been viewed 20,000 times; her story times appeal particularly to the refugees who scattered around the world after China's invasion of Tibet in 1950. [Hear more about Kalsang here](. [The Committed, by Viet Thanh Nguyen]( With The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen continues the story he began in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer -- his nameless communist double agent is now a refugee in Paris, splitting his time between leftist intellectuals and the underworld. "The Committed is a novel about French ideas and French Revolution and French colonialism," [Nguyen tells Weekend Edition's Scott Simon]( "but it's also a crime thriller set in these immigrant neighborhoods." [Reviewer Thúy Đinh]( says the book's "revolutionary core is its plasticity — a novel of ideas that continuously shapeshifts to question its raison d'être." [King-Cat Classix, by John Porcellino]( Comic artist and zine maker John Porcellino got his start in the late 1980s, as a self-described "a 20-year-old, hormonally charged, punk-inspired Rock 'n' Roller" who wanted to publish something that reflected his own life. That something was King-Cat Comics and Stories, which helped spur the rise of the '90s zine scene and shape its culture. Now that Porcellino's work is being reissued in three new volumes, our [comics critic Etelka Lehoczky talked to him]( about getting married, publishing during COVID and seeing the renaissance of zines. Finally this week, Fresh Air's John Powers recommends [Slough House]( latest in Mick Herron's series about comically inept British spies. Fran Wilde says S.B. Divya's [Machinehood]( is both an examination of the laws of robotics and a thrilling whodunnit. And Annalisa Quinn calls Kazuo Ishiguro's [Klara and the Sun]( "gentle, mournful and lovely." [Slough House, by Mick Herron]( [Machinehood, by S.B. Divya]( [Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro]( Hoping books bring you what you need this week! -- Petra --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [books@npr.org](mailto:books@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Pop Culture, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Books emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]