Elizabeth Warren persists

Also this week: Michael Lewis on COVID, critics' picks and more [View this email online]( [NPR]( by Petra Mayer [Elizabeth Warren]( Greg Nash/AP This past week brought a bumper crop of what we in the biz (or at least, we at my desk) call Big Newsmaker Books, beginning with Sen. Elizabeth Warren's new Persist -- which, [she tells Morning Edition's Rachel Martin]( is a book she's been unwittingly writing her whole life, "through every battle, through every fall, every stumble, everything I got wrong and had to come back and try to fix later on." Political reporter Danielle Kurtzleben took a look at Persist, and calls it "campaign-trail Warren, in book form," but adds that Warren's storytelling, "so electrifying in person -- is flattened on the page." You can [check out Danielle's full review here.]( (And speaking of newsmakers! Berkley just announced it's acquired the rights to Stacy Abrams' first three romance novels, written under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery and long out of print -- [new editions are coming next year]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Next up, Rachel also talked to journalist Michael Lewis -- author of Moneyball and The Big Short -- about his new book on the pandemic and how it spread so quickly in the United States. The Premonition is a sweeping indictment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he says could have condained the pandemic much sooner had it not been so politicized. If the CDC had been "more aggressive right up front. Many, many thousands of Americans would be alive today who are not," Lewis says -- [hear that whole conversation here.]( [The Premonition, by Michael Lewis]( [The Beauty of Living Twice, by Sharon Stone]( There's not really a smooth transition between hard pandemic analysis and Sharon Stone, so. Moving right along! For years the epitome of blonde bombshell glamour, Stone is also an Oscar nominee, a mom, an activist and the survivor of not just a stroke but also some of the worst Hollywood has to offer. She writes about it all in a new memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice -- and [she tells All Things Considered's Michel Martin]( that now that the book is out and people know her story, "I feel ... like I'm just not alone anymore." [Librarian image]( Rich Jean; his daughter, Abigail Jean; and librarian Hasina Islam at StoryCorps in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2016. Jhaleh Akhavan for StoryCorps Before we get to this week's reviews, let me close out with something absolutely lovely -- five years ago, our pals at StoryCorps talked to a father, a daughter and a librarian who helped spark the little girl's love of reading. This year, they recorded [a new, pandemic-remote check-in]( with Abigail Jean and her librarian Hasina Islam. Islam still works at the Brooklyn Public Library and Abigail, now 12, can't wait to see her when the libraries re-open. "I haven't seen you in so long," Abigail says. "And I really, really miss you." Finally this week, critic Thúy Đinh notes that nước -- a Vietnamese word that can mean both country and water -- permeates the story in Eric Nguyen's haunting [Things We Lost to the Water]( the story of a Vietnamese refugee family in New Orleans. Lilly Dancyger's [Negative Space]( is a kind of double biography, telling her father's story alongside her own. Critic Gabino Iglesias calls it "at once an exploration of grief and a literary séance." And Olivia Laing digs into what she calls "the vexed relationship between bodies and freedom" in her new [Everybody](. Critic Annalisa Quinn says the book "makes the case that every person can and should be able to advocate for their own freedom." [Things We Lost to the Water, by Eric Nguyen]( [Negative Space, by Lilly Dancyger]( [Everybody, by Olivia Laing]( I hope 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]