NPR’s Book Concierge is back, and this year’s guide to great reads is dedicated to the memory of longtime NPR book critic Alan Cheuse. With the app you can explore 260 titles that NPR staff and critics loved this year. If 260 titles seems daunting, you can also use filters to narrow down your search. (Some of my favorite filters are “Rather Long” and “Seriously Great Writing.”) Find the app here.

Yesterday, BBC Culture released the results of a recent poll: What does the rest of the world see as the greatest British novels?

They polled book reviewers, editors at newspapers, magazines or literary blogs, and literary scholars from the United States, continental Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, India, and the Middle East. None were from the UK. And they were asked only about British novels: no nonfiction, no plays, no narrative or epic poems, and no short story collections.

According to their poll, here are the 100 Greatest British Novels.

Here’s a fascinating piece from The New Yorker about Jane and Kurt Vonnegut: How Jane Vonnegut Made Kurt Vonnegut a Writer.

(I’ve coded an instant Tweetable for you to share, so just click here to tweet this from your own account.)

And finally, Robert Sabuda’s love of history, building and pop-ups come together in his newest book, The White House: A Pop-Up of Our Nation’s Home.

In this video, Sabuda explains how a visit to The White House as a child made a large impression on him as an artist. He shares his excitement about creating the curved wall in the Oval Office as well as how he builds prototypes to create the pop-ups.

I fall into the camp that finds pop-ups fascinating. But then again, I can’t refold a map either.

Here’s the embed code: <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/NFFdTmEoe58?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

And here’s the video: