Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. A lot of the push for more diversity

in TV and movies and books comes from this idea that it's great and important to see yourself

represented in media. But what sometimes gets overshadowed, I think, is the other side of that argument, that you

learn more by watching and reading stuff by people who aren't you.

It's something Azar Nafizi gets at in today's interview.

Her new book is called Read Dangerously, the Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled

Times, and it's a love letter to books and reading in the form

of letters to her late father. And she tells NPR Scott Simon that what's so great about reading

is that it helps you come out of yourself and join someone else's life for a bit.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

As Arn Refizi says, books might not save us from death, but they help us live. The acclaimed

author of Reading Olita and Tehran and the Republic of Imagination has written a new work,

and it consists of letters to her late father

in which she explains how reading authors that include

Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood, and others

has helped her survive.

I don't think that's too strong a word.

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