NPR Topics: Author Interviews

• Abraham Lincoln Reborn As A Vampire Slayer

  Suppose that, in 19th-century America, the forces of good and evil battled for the soul of the new republic — what we now know as the Civil War. Author Seth Grahame-Smith explores that premise in a new book you can really sink your teeth into.

• Clinging To The Past And 'The Invisible World'

  Set in the buildup to Indonesia's 1965 civil war, Tash Aw's Map of the Invisible World is the story of a 16-year-old boy on a quest to find his stepfather.

• Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran?

  Scholar Philip Jenkins argues that scriptures in the Quran are less brutal than those in the Bible. In his forthcoming book, Dark Passages, Jenkins points out that violence in the Quran is mostly defensive, but in the Bible, it is often a method of genocide.

• Negative Images 'Brainwash' African Americans

  Ad man Tom Burrell calls out negative images of African Americans in the media for perpetuating the myth of black inferiority. In Brainwashed, he examines the history of the myth and how contemporary culture reinforces it.