The Best of NPR Books for December 28, 2014

This week: a South Pole Christmas, Chaucer, life in translation, drunken Hollywood and Cuba's charm. View this email in your browser update preferences

The Salt Antarctic Holiday: A Christmas Feast In The Loneliest Spot On Earth For Dr. Gavin Francis, Christmas Eve marked the start of a year-long stay in an icy research base 8,700 miles from home. In this "empire of ice and isolation," he says, food is essential to morale. Read this story Books Gentlefolk All, Survive Your Holidays With Help From Chaucer Who better to help you through the stresses and strains of a modern Christmas than a 14th-century English poet? Yes, Geoffrey Chaucer is online now, and he's here for all your holiday advice needs. Read this story Author Interviews Smashing Snow Globes: A Writer On Essays, Novels And Translation Valeria Luiselli, who was born in Mexico City and lives now in Harlem, released two slim, multinational books this year: the essay collection Sidewalks and her time-jumping novel Faces in the Crowd. Read this story Food How Tinseltown Got Tipsy: A Boozy Taste Of Hollywood History Mark Bailey, who detailed old Hollywood's legendary love affair with liquor in his book Of All the Gin Joints, shares stories from a bygone era over cocktails at a legendary Hollywood bar. Read this story This Week's Must Read 'Rum, Rumba, And Romance': A Book On Cuba's Enduring Mystique This week, President Obama announced that he will begin to normalize relations with Cuba. Cuban-American writer Richard Blanco recommends a book about Cuba's imprint on the American imagination. Read this story

This email was sent by: NPR, 1111 N. Capitol St. NE, Washington, D.C., 20002. Privacy Policy This message was sent to ignoble.experiment@arconati.us based on your NPR.org email subscriptions. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you may unsubscribe at any time.