© 2025 WEKU
NPR for Northern, Central and Eastern Kentucky
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Public Media funding has been eliminated. You can help! WEKU is working to make up the $240-thousand dollar annual loss in funds. Join our 1850 Campaign. 1850 donors giving at least $10 a month. We are down to 1120 to go! Click here to support WEKU!

Brand new books: Stephen King's latest, plus tales of a tired mom and a scary stalker

NPR

For plenty of folks, the first Tuesday after Memorial Day marks the first "true" day of summer: Sun! Sand! Baseball! Indigestion! Sunburn! Heatstroke? Reckless whales?!

OK, you're right, what were we thinking — it's way too dangerous out there. Much safer to stay indoors, close the blinds and wait for winter and a good book. Good thing this week's publishing highlights, all fiction, present plenty of opportunities for escape. Why not get away to London or Malaysia, or go spelunking in the mind of a sociopath, all from the thermostat-managed comfort of your own home?

Beware of papercuts, though — that could easily turn into a Stephen King-esque nightmare scenario if you're not ready.


/ Riverhead Books
/
Riverhead Books

Autocorrect: Stories, by Etgar Keret, translated by Jessica Cohen and Sondra Silverston

Keret, a doyen of the short story, typically takes his task quite literally: Whatever else it may be, a story by the Israeli writer is quite likely to be short. That's true as well in Autocorrect, the latest of the Israeli writer's collections to be translated into English. Most of the stories here last no more than a handful of pages. But don't mistake his characteristic concision and humor for flippancy. Some of these stories — originally published in Hebrew, in the long shadow of the Oct. 7 attacks and the war in Gaza — hit like a punch to the gut from a passing stranger.


/ Riverhead Books
/
Riverhead Books

Consider Yourself Kissed, by Jessica Stanley

In at least one sense, Stanley didn't have to go far to generate drama for her second novel: Its backdrop is the truly tumultuous past decade in British politics, which the Australian expat experienced herself living in London. But noisy as they may be, Brexit, Covid and the revolving door of prime ministers just add flavor to this book's entree: a romance between a political journalist and an aspiring novelist who struggles to balance their "happily ever after" — complete with cute kids, et al — with the independent sense of self that all this familial contentment threatens to drown.


/ Scribner
/
Scribner

Never Flinch, by Stephen King

Holly Gibney is back — though it's not as if she really left for long. Lately the eccentric private detective has rounded into a marquee player in King's troupe of recurring characters. She has appeared in seven of King's books in the decade or so since her introduction in Mr. Mercedes, and finally got her own book, titled Holly, in 2023. In this two-pronged thriller, Gibney gets called upon both to protect a women's rights activist and prevent a mysterious killer from following through on an audacious threat.


/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux
/
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The South, by Tash Aw

Back in 2010, famed librarian Nancy Pearl slipped a rather audacious declaration into an otherwise innocuous article: "I believe that someday Aw will win a well-deserved Nobel Prize for Literature." Now, that prediction hasn't come true yet, but the 50-something Malaysian novelist still has time — and a growing bibliography that has only attracted more passionate fans since then. Now based in the U.K., Aw in his latest novel returns to Malaysia for the story of a family seeking to revive an inherited farm, with the son center-stage, coming of age and into young queer love.


/ Soho Press
/
Soho Press

The Stalker, by Paula Bomer

Doughty, the star of Bomer's latest novel, courts comparisons to Patrick Bateman and Tom Ripley. Manipulative, unbridled by morals, as deceptive with others as they are with themselves — only, it appears that Doughty is also unbridled by brains. The saga of this dim and dastardly striver is streaked through with pitch-black humor.


Copyright 2025 NPR

Colin Dwyer covers breaking news for NPR. He reports on a wide array of subjects — from politics in Latin America and the Middle East, to the latest developments in sports and scientific research.
WEKU depends on support from those who view and listen to our content. There's no paywall here. Please support WEKU with your donation.
Related Content
  • Both countries said they would make the formal announcement at the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
  • Brown University will pay $50 million to Rhode Island workforce development organizations in a deal with the Trump administration that restores lost federal research funding, officials said Wednesday.
  • When many people think of eastern Kentucky, coal is often one of the first things that comes to mind. The Trump Administration has made several policy and rule changes designed to promote coal mining. However, Shiloh Hernandez, a senior attorney for the environmental group Earth Justice, said they’re not likely to work.“Coal simply is not competitive economically with other energy resources, namely, and especially renewable energy and with storage, it wasn't competitive. It hasn't been competitive for some time,” Hernandez said.The Trump Administration has instituted rule changes to speed up the mining permitting process and weaken environmental regulations. Despite those efforts, Hernandez said coal will only become more expensive to mine.“All the cheap coal reserves have been mined out in the United States. For the most part, it's just getting more expensive. On the other hand, renewable energy is just getting cheaper every day, so the market fundamentals are what's discouraging anyone with smart money from investing in coal development right now,” Hernandez said.The Kentucky Coal Association declined an interview request. WEKU also reached out to more than 20 coal operators, none of whom agreed to an interview.
  • Several factors help determine whether a given earthquake will generate a dangerous tsunami, but the process is not yet fully understood.
  • FEMA is denying federal individual assistance to those hit by May’s tornadoes in Christian and Todd counties. That’s according to a letter from the agency to Gov. Andy Beshear.