Mar 24 A mother and son reflect on how a DNA test affects family and identity By Courtney Vinopal When writer Dani Shapiro found out that the man who had raised her was not her biological father, the discovery had implications that reverberated throughout her entire family. Continue reading
Mar 20 8 books to read in the time of the coronavirus By Courtney Vinopal If there’s an upside to this period of “social distancing,” it might be an unfettered excuse for voracious readers to dive into all types of literature. Continue reading
Mar 16 Dani Shapiro on how a DNA test ‘flooded every corner’ with truth — and shaped her writing By Courtney Vinopal Years after her dad died, Dani Shapiro found out he was not her biological father. But she had long sought to better understand him through her writing before that moment. Continue reading
Mar 06 How a surprising DNA test inspired this writer’s memoir By Courtney Vinopal Our March pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club “Now Read This” is Dani Shapiro’s “Inheritance.” Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group, or by signing up to our newsletter. Learn… Continue reading
Mar 05 Discussion questions for ‘Inheritance’ By Courtney Vinopal Our March 2020 pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club is Dani Shapiro’s “Inheritance.”… Continue reading
Feb 28 ‘Inheritance’ is our March book club pick By Courtney Vinopal After submitting her DNA for analysis to an ancestry website in 2016, Dani Shapiro received a piece of news that rocked her to the core: The man who had raised her, her now-deceased father, was not her biological kin. Continue reading
Feb 26 5 ways prisoners were used for profit throughout U.S. history By Shane Bauer "American Prison" author Shane Bauer highlights a few key moments in the history of prison-as-profit in America, drawing from research he conducted for the book. Continue reading
Feb 10 Why the author of ‘American Prison’ embraces people’s contradictions By Courtney Vinopal “It will make your writing much better in the end,” says Shane Bauer. Continue reading
Jan 29 These photos helped the author of ‘Heart Berries’ mine her memory By Courtney Vinopal “Photographs informed parts of the book my memory could not retrieve,” said Terese Marie Mailhot. Continue reading
Jan 06 Discussion questions for ‘Heart Berries’ By Courtney Vinopal Terese Marie Mailhot’s “Heart Berries,” a memoir that addresses the trauma experienced by indigenous people across generations, is our January 2020 book pick. Continue reading