The Best of NPR Books for December 4, 2014

This week: Book Concierge, P.D. James, Janis Joplin, conquering chickens and poetry for Ferguson. View this email in your browser update preferences

This week, the NPR Book Concierge is back, all new and expanded for 2014 -- looking for your next great read? Look no further! Plus, we remember P.D. James, go backstage with Janis Joplin, consider the conquering chicken, and recommend some great Audre Lorde poetry to read in the wake of the Ferguson and Garner grand jury decisions. Books The 2014 Book Concierge Is Here To Help You Find Your Next Great Read NPR's Lynn Neary and Petra Mayer introduce an interactive guide to the books NPR staff and critics loved this year. Read this story Remembrances P.D. James Believed Mysteries Were Made Of Clues, Not Coincidences The best-selling author died Thursday. She was 94. In 1987, James told Terry Gross that while the "shock of finding the bodies is important" in her novels, she personally doesn't like "messy lives." Read this story Author Interviews Backstage With Janis Joplin: Doubts, Drugs And Compassion John Byrne Cooke was Janis Joplin's road manager from 1967 until her untimely death in 1970. So he saw a lot of rock history up close — and describes some of the details in a new memoir. Read this story The Salt Chicken Confidential: How This Bird Came To Rule The Cultural Roost Andrew Lawler's Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? explores the secret to the domesticated bird's success: "You can turn the chicken into almost anything," he says, from religious symbol to dinner. Read this story This Week's Must Read After The Ferguson Decision, A Poem That Gives Name To The Hurt This week, a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown. Writer Syreeta McFadden turns to Audre Lorde's poetry to make sense of this decision. Read this story

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