Episode · The Book Review · 2024-07-18
Books mentioned on Richard Powers on ‘Bewilderment’
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Overstory
The Overstory by Richard Powers is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that follows several Americans whose lives connect through trees and their deep relationship with the natural world.
Discussed“and of course his most recent novel The overstory won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction”
Where to get it
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Bewilderment
Discussed“I mean bewilderment is I I think different from anything that else that I've ever written”
Where to get it
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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
The Love Songs of W.E.B.
Discussed“Pamela Honore Fon Jeffers joins us now from Norman Oklahoma her new book and her debut novel”
Where to get it
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Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon by David Rogers and Daniel Keyes is a poignant science fiction masterpiece that chronicles a mentally disabled man who undergoes experimental surgery to drastically enhance his intelligence, only to experience a tragic intellectual decline.
Discussed“and that's what propels the story which is a kind of flowers for algenon if you will”
Where to get it
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The Republic
The Republic by Plato is a foundational philosophical text exploring justice, the ideal political state, the nature of reality through the allegory of the cave, and the evolution of various political regimes including democracy.
Discussed“and when I went back to the key story I was really intrigued at his use of an epigraph from Plato's Republic”
Where to get it
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In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker is a groundbreaking collection of prose pieces in which the author explores Black feminism, creativity, and the spiritual lives of women of color.
Discussed“well one of the people who I return to over and over is the great Alice Walker who defined womanism as black feminism in an essay that is in her groundbreaking book of essays in search of our mother's Garden”
Where to get it
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The Souls of Black Folk
The Souls of Black Folk by W.
Discussed“but in reality WB de Boyce predates both TS Elliott and Ezra pound web de boy is the founder of American modernism The Souls of black folks comes out in 1903”
Where to get it
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But Beautiful
But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer is a richly imagined, critically acclaimed book about jazz that blends biography, fiction, and impressionistic criticism to capture the lives and music of legendary jazz icons.
Discussed“it reminds me in a way of Jeff Dyer's book but beautiful which is a very different book”
Where to get it
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On Juneteenth
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed is a work of historical nonfiction that weaves the author's personal experiences growing up in Texas with a broader examination of the state's history and the origins of the Juneteenth holiday.
Recommended“I'm also reading a fairly short book a very short book really it's on juneth by Anette Gordon Reed”
Where to get it
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The Hemingses of Monticello
Discussed“she's a Pulitzer winner for a biography that she wrote of Sally hemings and the hemings family the hemingses of Montello”
Where to get it
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Congratulations, by the way
Congratulations, by the way is a brief motivational book by George Saunders featuring thoughts on kindness.
Recommended“it is Congratulations by the way by George Saunders the subtitle is some thoughts on kindness and it's so short as to almost not be a book”
Where to get it
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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders is a unique book on writing and thinking that features several Russian short stories alongside deep literary analysis.
Discussed“first of all my husband was reading saunders's more recent book which is a swim in a pond in the rain which is a real-sized book”
Where to get it
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A Motor-Flight Through France
A Motor-Flight Through France is a travel book by Edith Wharton that chronicles her motoring journey across the French countryside.
Recommended“and then the other book I read was not long and it was based in fact on a series of articles in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in the early 20th century and that book is called a motor flight through France by Edith Wharton”
Where to get it
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The Buried Giant
Kazuo Ishiguro's atmospheric and evocative novel The Buried Giant examines memory, love, vengeance, and the fragile peace of a mythical post-Arthurian Britain.
Critiqued“when it came out I read Kazo ishiguro is the buried Giant and it didn't click for me at all it was my first and only book of his”
Where to get it
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The Long Goodbye
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler is a celebrated hardboiled detective novel featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe.
Critiqued“but last year I read Raymond Chandler's long goodbye and that experience was my long goodbye to Raymond Chandler didn't like the characters”
Where to get it
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Never Let Me Go
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is a haunting dystopian novel that explores the poignant lives of students at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school who slowly discover a dark and tragic truth about their engineered existence.
Discussed“so it's funny that she writes about ishiguro because I the first ishiguro I read was never let me go”
Where to get it
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The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is a masterclass in psychological fiction, following an aging English butler named Stevens as he reflects on his career of dedicated service and his unrequited love amid the shifting political landscape of post-World War II Britain.
Recommended“given that he's a shuro I read Remains of the Day few years after that and really really liked it and I might read more by him”
Where to get it
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The Golden Bowl
The Golden Bowl by Henry James is a complex, late-period psychological novel that explores betrayal, marriage, and moral ambiguity among a small circle of wealthy Americans in Europe.
Critiqued“another book that she assigned was the golden Bow by Henry James I also stopped reading it despised it”
Where to get it
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Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf's classic novel Mrs.
Recommended“I had her read Michael Cunningham's the hours first and then I said oh maybe you should also read Mrs delaway now after it and and then she was making all the connections”
Where to get it
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To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf's modernist masterpiece To the Lighthouse explores the complex dynamics of the Ramsay family during two visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland before and after the First World War.
Critiqued“so she assigned to the lighthouse I think I read three pages and I was like I never Reading Virginia wolf again”
Where to get it
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Conversations With Friends
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is a critically acclaimed contemporary debut novel exploring the intricate relationships among a group of young adults in Ireland.
Critiqued“and then I gave my copy to Greg I said you can have it I'm done”
Where to get it
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The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James is a classic 1881 novel following the spirited young American heiress Isabel Archer as she navigates European society, independence, and a disastrous marriage.
Recommended“and later in my 20s I went back and I read first portrait of a lady and you know which is just one of the best books I've ever read”
Where to get it
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The hours
The Hours by Michael Cunningham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that weaves together the lives of three women across different eras, deeply connected to Virginia Woolf's Mrs.
Recommended“I did something sneaky with my 16-year-old daughter which was I had her read Michael Cunningham's the hours first and then I said oh maybe you should also read Mrs delaway now after it”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (6) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Richard pow's newest novel is called bewilderment”
“the book again is called the love songs of web to boys by Honore fenan Jeffers Honore such a pleasure to have you here”
“now it's mentioned in beautiful world where are you the new book by Sally Rooney and she is an author who I read about 20 pages of conversations with friends”
“I read on juneth by Annette Gordon Reed”
“and I read Congratulations by the way by George Saunders”
“and a motor flight through France by Edith Warden”