Episode · The Megyn Kelly Show · 2025-06-13
Books mentioned on Nine Books Every Dad Needs This Father's Day - "Dedicated with Doug Brunt" Special Episode
Megyn brings you this special episode of "Dedicated with Doug Brunt," on the books every dad needs this Father's Day, featuring authors Jennifer Egan, Jay McInerney, and David Grann. Subscribe to Dedicated: Apple: https://podcasts.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is Agatha Christie's ingenious 1926 detective novel that revolutionized the mystery genre with its shocking and unprecedented narrative twist.
Recommended“So, I went with a crime theme. Uh, and I'm going to actually go as it happens in chronological order. Uh, starting with Agatha Christie. Um, obviously, as we all know, Agatha Christie wrote many books. Um, and this is, in my opinion, her best.”
Where to get it
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A Rage in Harlem
Recommended“number two is Chesterheims, A Rage in Harlem. So wonderful crime writer. He actually did write who done Dunits, but this is not a who done it.”
Where to get it
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A flag for sunrise
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone is a political and psychological novel published in 1981 that explores moral decay and political turmoil in a fictional Central American country.
Recommended“number three, published in 1981, A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone. One of my favorite writers. I feel like he has been a bit eclipsed.”
Where to get it
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Dog Soldiers
Discussed“I agree about Robert Stone that he should be more read. He he was actually a pretty good friend of mine and u uh I first got hooked on dog soldiers. Yeah, that was a really good book. I think the pri prior novel”
Where to get it
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Berlin Game
Recommended“Well, um I'm going to start with my u crime thriller because I actually am not really a reader of crime fiction and and suspense novels. Um, but I I think for Christmas, uh, my friend Morgan Entreken, who's the publisher of Grove Atlantic, um, gave me this Len Dayton novel, um, called Berlin Game.”
Where to get it
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A fan's notes
Frederick Exley's semi-autobiographical classic A Fan's Notes explores the turbulent life of its fictionalized author through a unique blend of fiction and memoir.
Recommended“My next novel, let's uh is um A Fans Note by Frederick Axley. quite a different um quite a different genre if indeed it's any genre at all.”
Where to get it
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Light years
Light Years by James Salter is an evocative, melancholic novel that meticulously charts the gradual dissolution of a seemingly idyllic bourgeois marriage and the relentless passage of time.
Recommended“My last book is Light Years by James Salter. And um James James is I think one of the great great stylists of of certainly my lifetime.”
Where to get it
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A Sport and a Pastime
James Salter's A Sport and a Pastime is a celebrated novel that chronicles a passionate and illicit romance in provincial France through a distinctive narrative lens.
Discussed“I I could have picked a number of of his books, but uh, for instance, a sport in a pastime, which is one of the most erotic books, literary books I've ever read.”
Where to get it
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Brightness Falls
Recommended“And I recommended Jay's book, Brightness Falls, which you just mentioned, as an example of the a novel that I think best captures the publishing world as it as it was when I first began to publish in the in the mid '9s.”
Where to get it
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Epitaph for a Spy
Recommended“When he mentioned Lendy and you know there was it it reminded me of Eric Amler who I think is actually a great father's day book and somebody who has kind of been forgotten over time but wrote early spy novels... and epitap to a spy would be a great one to start with”
Where to get it
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The River of Doubt
The River of Doubt by Candice Millard is a riveting historical narrative detailing former U.S.
Recommended“It's by Candace Mard. It's the river of doubt because what it really is is just a hell of a story and rather than being a soup to nuts bio of an individual, it's just plopping down the president in the middle of a situation”
Where to get it
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The North water
The North Water by Ian McGuire is a gripping historical novel set aboard a whaling ship in the nineteenth century, following a brutal journey into the freezing waters of the Arctic.
Recommended“and um this is a book called The North Water by uh, Ian Maguire. um I don't even know how to describe. You all would probably describe it better than I would, but um it is it's a sea novel”
Where to get it
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Grey Wolf
Grey Wolf by Louise Penny is a murder mystery novel featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he uncovers dark conspiracies and complex crimes within the seemingly idyllic Quebec village of Three Pines.
Recommended“um uh but I picked this one by Louise Penny. Um, this is her newest one, The Grey Wolf. The plot in this one is a little bit more baroque.”
Where to get it
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The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is a seminal 1939 hardboiled detective novel that introduced the iconic investigator Philip Marlowe and established the atmospheric style of modern noir fiction.
Discussed“...William Faulner I think wrote this screenplay for the big sleep yeah he still doesn't know what it's about nobody knows what it's like that movie somebody said to him what's it about he said damned if I know try the multis falcon forget it fantastic”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (8) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“We are joined by Jennifer Eaggan, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jay McCannernney, author of the decade defining novel Bright Lights Big City, and David Gran, who has carved out a permanent piece of real estate on the bestseller list with his books The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“We are joined by Jennifer Eaggan, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jay McCannernney, author of the decade defining novel Bright Lights Big City, and David Gran, who has carved out a permanent piece of real estate on the bestseller list with his books The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“We are joined by Jennifer Eaggan, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jay McCannernney, author of the decade defining novel Bright Lights Big City, and David Gran, who has carved out a permanent piece of real estate on the bestseller list with his books The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“We are joined by Jennifer Eaggan, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jay McCannernney, author of the decade defining novel Bright Lights Big City, and David Gran, who has carved out a permanent piece of real estate on the bestseller list with his books The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“I was very fortunate that when I was when when I was writing book you mentioned earlier Brightness Falls um uh he lent me his he he used to go to Aspen in the winter to ski”
“I read this when I was working on the Lost City of Z. So that's how that's what kind of led me uh to that one.”
“And of course working on the wager, something you know about. Yes. Working on the wager. I I was you know read a lot of seales.”
“...William Faulner I think wrote this screenplay for the big sleep yeah he still doesn't know what it's about nobody knows what it's like that movie somebody said to him what's it about he said damned if I know try the multis falcon forget it fantastic”