We don't have to tell you that it's been another challenging year, with lots of tough news and changes and uncertainty.

Launching this podcast has been a bright spot for us, and we hope it has been for you, too, bringing you a little joy or escape in the way only a really good book can.

If you're able, help us continue to bring you these conversations in the

year to come. Just visit donate.npr.org to give to your local NPR station today. Thanks so much for

listening. Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Well, it's December, which

for my money is a much spookier month than October.

Like, October is all about the ha-ha fun ghosts who like to wear sunglasses and have a good time

and party. But December is when the real bad and sad ghosts tend to linger and overstay their

welcome. For me, at least, a Christmas carol,

you know, is a ghost story after all. So let's lean into it. In a bit, we're going to hear

an interview with Kevin Brockmeyer, whose book The Ghost Variations is a hundred different ghost

stories, some funny, some sad, some philosophical, that go beyond your usual ghost fair.

But first, the author Louise Urchick is out with a new book called The Sentence.

And it's about a Native American bookstore owner, the ghosts that haunts her store,

and the cultural and historical ghosts that have come up these past couple years,

from the pandemic to police murdering George Floyd.

And as you'll hear Erdrich Tell here and now is Robin Young. She's a novelist, and writing was the

only way she could deal with so many things haunting her. 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.

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