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Mary Louise Kelly Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly

Mary Louise Kelly Biography

Mary Louise Kelly has been reporting for NPR for nearly two decades and is now cohost of All Things Considered. She has also written suspense novels, Anonymous Sources and The Bullet, and is the author of articles and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among numerous other publications. A Georgia native, Kelly graduated from Harvard University with degrees in government and French language and literature and completed a master's degree in European studies at the University of Cambridge in England. She created and taught a graduate course on national security and journalism at Georgetown University. In addition to her NPR work, Kelly has served as a contributing editor at the Atlantic, moderating news-maker interviews at forums from Aspen to Abu Dhabi.

Mary Louise Kelly's website

This bio was last updated on 05/18/2023. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Interview

NPR reporter Mary Louise Kelly discusses It. Goes. So. Fast., the story behind the year before her son went to college.

I've never read a book that attempts to capture a year in someone's life, written in real time, as the year unfolded. Why did you want to do this?

I'm not sure I realized that was what I was doing, until I was too far in to back out. And it was terrifying once it dawned on me, because… what if it turns out to be a boring year? What if nothing interesting happens from, say, April onwards? But I was turning 50, and I'd just lost my dad, and we were all emerging from a pandemic that had rendered our lives unrecognizable. And for me the biggest change afoot was that my oldest kid was starting his senior year of high school, so I was counting the months and then the weeks remaining that we were all living under the same roof, as a family. I wanted this particular year… to stick. I wanted to be intentional about the way I navigated it, and to reckon with my choices as I made them. Both the things I've gotten wrong (my kids would confidently assure you there's enough material there to fill a book by itself) and the things I was hoping I might get right.

When you say you wanted to reckon with your choices… What choices?

Here's an example: my sons love soccer. They live for it, have lived for it since they were tiny. Now ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Mary Louise Kelly at BookBrowse
It. Goes. So. Fast. jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Mary Louise Kelly but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
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We recommend 3 similar authors

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BookBrowse Book Club

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The Wager
by David Grann
From the bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a gripping story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
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Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

From the best-selling author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. comes a funny, eye-opening tale of work in contemporary America.

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    Harlem Rhapsody
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    The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

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    Beast of the North Woods
    by Annelise Ryan

    When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature.

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