Episode · The Book Review · 2026-06-12
Ryan Holiday on The Book Review: books mentioned
The Best Books of the 21st Century: Ryan Holiday on ‘The Road’
Gilbert Cruz discussed The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Ryan Holiday recommended Daring Young Men by Richard Reeves, Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves, Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater by Franz Kafka, Range by David J. Epstein, Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, Death be not proud by John Gunther, and The Revenant by Michael Punke, and discussed The Odyssey, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Revolutionary road by Richard Yates, and Meditations by Aurelius Marcus.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Road
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, post-apocalyptic novel that follows a father and his young son as they walk across a burned America, striving to survive while holding onto their morality.
Discussed“So today, we're going to dig in on one of those books, number 13 on the list, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.”
Where to get it
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The Odyssey
The Odyssey by Homer is an epic ancient Greek poem that follows the arduous ten-year journey of Odysseus as he attempts to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, encountering mythical creatures, divine wrath, and numerous trials along the way.
Discussed“You read the Odyssey and on some level it's about a guy getting home. Then you get older and you go, Oh, this is actually a guy who's less trying to get home, but is sort of condemned to always be moving and and doing.”
Where to get it
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The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F.
Discussed“Gatsby's obviously a great example of this. On on one level, it's a perfect snapshot of the Jazz Age. And then you realize on a different level it's about the American dream, it's about ambition...”
Where to get it
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Revolutionary road
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is a powerful and tragic novel that examines the deep disillusionment of a young couple living in the Connecticut suburbs during the 1950s as they struggle against the conformity and suffocating emptiness of mid-century American life.
Discussed“You know, I just reread Revolutionary Road. You have the the sort of struggle with the obligations and the unfairness and the dysfunctions of parenting in modern society...”
Where to get it
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Meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a collection of personal journals and philosophical notes written by the Roman emperor during his military campaigns, offering profound insights into Stoic philosophy, self-discipline, and personal endurance.
Discussed“There's a passage in Meditations where Marcus Aurelius is quoting Epictetus and I think pertains here to the road...”
Where to get it
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Daring Young Men
Daring Young Men by Richard Reeves is a sociology and parenting book that examines the structural challenges, employment struggles, and educational disparities facing modern boys and men.
Recommended“Uh I thought some parenting books generally that I thought people would love if you were struck by The Road as a kind of a a parenting book, Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves about the sort of male uh crisis...”
Where to get it
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Of Boys and Men
Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves is an insightful sociological examination of the modern challenges, educational struggles, and structural disadvantages currently facing boys and men.
Recommended“Uh I thought some parenting books generally that I thought people would love if you were struck by The Road as a kind of a a parenting book, Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves about the sort of male uh crisis...”
Where to get it
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Letter to the Father/Brief an den Vater
Letter to the Father by Franz Kafka is a deeply personal, confessional, and heartbreaking document in which the author examines the psychological abuse, fear, and emotional weight of his relationship with his overbearing parent.
Recommended“On a little more literary front, I think more people should read this. This is Kafka's Letter to the Father, which is this confessional, heartbreaking, tragic letter...”
Where to get it
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Range
Range by David J.
Recommended“I've said that just as The Road is a parenting book in disguise, I think David Epstein's Range is a parenting book in disguise.”
Where to get it
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Good Inside
Good Inside by Dr.
Recommended“And then, um we're talking about keeping the fire and being the good guys. Dr. Becky's Good Inside is a book I've given to a lot of dads and and parents across the board.”
Where to get it
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Wild Dark Shore
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is a gripping contemporary novel that explores the struggles of a family trying to survive in a world severely damaged by climate change.
Recommended“Reese Witherspoon's Book Club picked Wild Dark Shores about a year ago. And this is a book about a family in the midst of a world being destroyed by climate change...”
Where to get it
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Death be not proud
Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther is a deeply moving memoir chronicling the author's young son's courageous battle against a brain tumor.
Recommended“Have you read Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther? ... Will also make you break down and weep.”
Where to get it
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The Revenant
The Revenant by Michael Punke is a gripping historical survival novel inspired by the harrowing true-life ordeal of frontier fur trapper Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions in the American wilderness.
Recommended“And then if you like the survivalist elements of The Road, the sort of journey element of it and the implacable sort of human spirit, the inability to quit or be killed, I thought The Revenant, which is also a good movie, is a very good one.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (5) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“McCarthy, who died in 2023, is the author behind books as popular and traditional as No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses, and as ornate and knotty as Blood Meridian.”
“McCarthy, who died in 2023, is the author behind books as popular and traditional as No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses, and as ornate and knotty as Blood Meridian.”
“McCarthy, who died in 2023, is the author behind books as popular and traditional as No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses, and as ornate and knotty as Blood Meridian.”
“It's funny because I I couldn't bring myself to read Camus' The Plague, but I did decide to pick up The Road...”
“Ryan Holiday, thank you so much for joining The Book Review to talk about Cormac McCarthy's The Road, one of the New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st century.”