Author Anya Kamenetzwas covering education for NPR when the pandemic started spreading in the U.S. She says she saw how political affiliation, divisions and distrust prevented leaders from putting kids first. Kamenetz sits down with Steve Inskeep to discuss her new book, The Stolen Year, and how the pandemic "magnified the inequality" that already existed among school children.

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In Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives, the characters centered in the novel offer different perspectives of ordinary people under German colonization in East Africa. In an interview with NPR's Scott Simon, the author goes into detail about how the "power and attraction of the victor" can lead to the conquered joining the conqueror and the impact it has on one's identity

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The two books in this episode are thrillers that center class as the theme of the narrative. First up is A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins that the author says, in an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, is a crime-murder-mystery in a setting where "the powerful and the powerless" are right next to each other. Next is You're Invited, authored by Amanda Jayatissa, about a wedding invite gone wrong – but, as Jayatissa shared with Ayesha Roscoe, is actually a backdrop to highlight Sri Lanka's present inequalities.

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Sidik Fofana's short story collection can be best described as "addressing the notion that gentrification is complicated." Those were Fofana's words to NPR's Daniel Estrin as they talked about his debut book, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs. Fofana, who's also a public school teacher, uses the emotions he's felt growing up and situations of other people he's known, to ask: "How would I feel if this happened to me?" He writes them down in his collection as distinct voices and characters struggling to get by in a fictional high rise building in Harlem.

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The author of Rebel With a Clause traveled to more than 40 states to document how grammar is used in relationships, work conversations and everyday life. In this episode, Ellen Jovin shares her discoveries and what she's learned along the way with Scott Simon.

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Blitz Bazawule directed the first Ghanaian original film to be released on Netflix, co-directed Beyonce's visual album 'Black is King', directed the upcoming film musical version of 'The Color Purple' and, now, has published his first novel – The Scent of Burnt Flowers. In this interview, he talks with Michel Martin about how and why he wrote this novel, which meshes real historical events with the supernatural.

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In Belinda Huijuan Tang's debut novel, A Map For the Missing, readers can find parallels between Tang's personal history and her fiction. The book touches on family mystery, personal identity and connections between the end of China's Cultural Revolution in the 1970s up through the1990s. While talking with NPR's Ari Shapiro, Tang shares why she chose this moment in Chinese history for her novel.

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The two books featured in this episode illustrate the impact of colorism in society. First up is The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. In conversation with Scott Simon, Hamid talks about his personal experience after 9/11 and how that helped shape the narrative of this novel. Next is Walking Gentry Home by Alora Young, which chronicles her family's history through nine generations of mothers in her life. Young shares with Leila Fadel about how her stories touch on her skin complexion "as a product of uninvited attention" from people who enslaved her family.

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Author and audiobook narrator Julia Whelan says narrating her own second book, Thank You for Listening, was "so meta, that it just spins off its axis." It's about a former on-camera actress who suffered a tragic event that ended her on-camera career. She's found work in narrating audiobooks and while she loves it, it isn't the same as being in front of the camera. Whelan chats with Mary Louise Kelly about how this latest novel pokes fun at romance while honoring it, and the different voices she has had to use to represent the "voice" of the book.

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In an interview with NPR's Juana Summers, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina talks about the second chances he's been given by his mother and his constituents, which he also details in his new memoir America: A Redemption Story. Scott reflects on his struggles with self image growing up, the doubts he had as a young Black man in high school, and what he wished President Trump would have done during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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