Episode · The Book Review · 2020-12-25
Books mentioned on The Listeners’ Episode: Editors and Critics Answer Your Questions
Elisabeth Egan recommended I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Pamela Paul discussed The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Tina Jordan recommended The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, and Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, and discussed Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and others and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Parul Sehgal recommended How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa, and discussed The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie and Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann. John Williams discussed All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews and The Diviners by Margaret Laurence. Dave Kim recommended Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis, Trust Exercise by Susan Choi and others, Minor Detail by عدنية شبلي and others, A Saint from Texas by Edmund White, and The Abstainer by Ian McGuire, and discussed The mezzanine by Nicholson Baker and An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky. MJ Franklin recommended Tiny beautiful things by Cheryl Strayed, Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff, Florida by Lauren Groff, Tenth of December by George Saunders and others, Friday black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, and There There by Tommy Orange, and discussed slouching towards bethlehem by Joan Didion.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle is a beloved 1948 coming-of-age novel by Dodie Smith that follows a seventeen-year-old girl named Cassandra Mortmain as she chronicles her eccentric family's impoverished life in a dilapidated English castle through her diary entries.
Recommended“I'm going to say I capture the castle by Jodie Smith which is this amazing 1948 British Coming of Age novel about a 17-year-old girl in 1934 who's growing up in a dilapidated castle with her sister her stepmother and her father”
Where to get it
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Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a beloved classic novel that tells the heartwarming story of an imaginative and spirited orphan girl sent to live with an elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island.
Recommended“I also have a series that I return to again and again which might not fall into people's traditional Classics list but I go back to Ann of green gaes again and again I just love the an books and also a lesser known series by LM Montgomery who wrote an of green Galls called Emily of New Moon”
Where to get it
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Emily of New Moon
Emily of New Moon is a classic coming-of-age novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that follows an imaginative orphan girl striving to become a writer in Prince Edward Island.
Recommended“and also a lesser known series by LM Montgomery who wrote an of green Galls called Emily of New Moon which some people turn to yoga when they need soothing I turn to an and Emily”
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.
Discussed“portrait of a lady was the first book that I think the first book that made me cry you know by the end I just like tears streaming down my face”
Where to get it
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The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a classic gothic novella that follows a governess who becomes convinced that the remote estate where she cares for two children is haunted by malevolent spirits.
Discussed“and it's funny because I'm actually among other things reading a book of Henry James right now and one of the stories in the book it's really a Nolla that I'm reading right now is the turn of the screw which I hadn't read since I originally read it”
Where to get it
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Hard Times
Hard Times by Charles Dickens is a classic nineteenth-century novel that explores the social and economic realities of industrial Britain through the fictional factory town of Coketown.
Discussed“I just bought a copy of Hard Times which I'm looking forward to reading have you either have you read that book”
Where to get it
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Our Mutual Friend
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens is a sweeping Victorian novel exploring wealth, corruption, and societal hypocrisy against the backdrop of the River Thames.
Discussed“what's your what's your favorite Dickens Ina it's probably our mutual friend”
Where to get it
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Great Expectations
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a classic Victorian novel following the orphan Pip as he navigates social class, ambition, and personal growth.
Discussed“Great Expectations yeah Great Expectations is the other Contender”
Where to get it
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The Great Believers
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai is a powerful, emotionally devastating novel that chronicles the devastating impact of the AIDS crisis on the arts community in 1980s Chicago alongside a parallel storyline in modern-day Paris.
Recommended“looking at Sheila's book list the book that popped into my head was the great Believers by Rebecca McKai which is about the AIDS crisis and the Arts community in Chicago in the 1980s and it absolutely stopped me in my tracks”
Where to get it
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The Summer Book
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson is a gentle, evocative novel set on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland that captures the quiet rhythms of nature and human relationships.
Recommended“when I look back at my reading for the year what I wanted most of all was to escape um to get out of 2020 I loved tovy janson's the summer book which was set on an island in the Gulf of Finland”
Where to get it
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Hamnet
Hamnet is a deeply moving historical novel by Maggie O'Farrell that imagines the domestic life of William Shakespeare and the profound grief surrounding the death of his young son.
Recommended“and from this year I think I would have to say my favorite literary novel was Maggie o Farrell's hamnet and it is both a love story and a tale of of incredible loss”
Where to get it
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Nothing to See Here
Kevin Wilson's novel Nothing to See Here is a darkly humorous story about a woman who is hired to babysit twins who spontaneously combust when they become upset.
Recommended“but Sheila if you're looking for a funny book I recommend Kevin Wilson's nothing to see here about a woman is hired to babysit for twins who spontaneously combust when they're upset”
Where to get it
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The Erratics
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie is a darkly funny and astonishing memoir detailing the author's harrowing experiences growing up with an intensely abusive and mentally unstable mother in rural Canada.
Discussed“I did review two Canadian Memoirs at bite of the Apple by Lenny Goodings which is a memoir starting up a um sort of feminist press verago in England and the erratics by Vicki Lao RV which is you know a really strange ingenious Memoir of of living with a really impossible mother”
Where to get it
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How to Pronounce Knife
How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of linked short stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa that portrays the immigrant experience with sharp clarity and emotional depth.
Recommended“that said I am looking forward to reading this book of I think it's linked short stories called how to pronounce KN have you guys read it it's by suam tamanga it just won the Giller prize which is of Canada's most prestigious literary award”
Where to get it
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Ducks, Newburyport
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann is a massive, highly experimental stream-of-consciousness novel told almost entirely through a single, sprawling sentence spanning roughly one thousand pages.
Discussed“and I and I just in general am a big fan of the Canadian press biblioasis which put out one of my favorite books of recent years called Ducks Newberry Port which is this immense book told in one sentence and continually sort of puts out really sort of creative strange Innovative books”
Where to get it
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All My Puny Sorrows
Discussed“but whose book I really love is a book called all my puny Sorrows which is a sort of autobiographical novel about her sister and herself”
Where to get it
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The Diviners
Discussed“but then this year I read as podcast listeners will know a book called the G of God by Margaret Lawrence who is a who's a Canadian writer of of an earlier generation and it became one of my favorite books”
Where to get it
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The mezzanine
Discussed“I have very distinct memories of reading Nicholson Baker's the mezzanine in my 20s and being utterly fascinated by it I loved being able to get lost in the minutia of the world”
Where to get it
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Varieties of Disturbance
Varieties of Disturbance is a collection of short stories by American author Lydia Davis.
Recommended“Lydia Davis also did this for me my my introduction to her began with her Story collection varieties of disturbance but these days you're much better off just getting her collected stories and leaving it on your bedside table”
Where to get it
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Tiny beautiful things
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed is a deeply moving compilation of the author's most resonant online advice columns written under the pseudonym Sugar, offering compassionate and fierce guidance on love, loss, and human struggle.
Recommended“one book is a book that I recommend literally all the time always it's always in my rotation and that is Tiny Beautiful Things by Sher Str this is a pure purely emotional 20s recommendation”
Where to get it
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slouching towards bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion is a seminal collection of essays exploring the cultural landscape of California and the broader American counterculture during the turbulent 1960s.
Discussed“the other book that I that was so formative for me was slouching toward Bethlehem by Joan didan I actually read one Joan didan essay in high school in this very nerdy writing camp that I went did one summer and that was on keeping notebook”
Where to get it
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An Inventory of Losses
Discussed“one of the book reviews I edited this month was Judith shalansky an inventory of losses which is kind of a catalog of various artifacts and animals and places that no longer exist and I had kind of a hard time figuring out what to label it”
Where to get it
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Delicate Edible Birds
Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff is a powerful and evocative short story collection that showcases the author's trademark lyrical prose and deep emotional insight.
Recommended“delicate edible Birds by Lauren gra is one of my all-time favorite Collections and I actually was recommended this by a book seller um from three lives and Company who had seen me come in many times”
Where to get it
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Florida
Florida is a striking collection of interconnected stories and essays by Lauren Groff that explores environmental anxiety, domestic isolation, and the complex landscape of the American South.
Recommended“and then also Florida I think Lauren gra does so many things well but one of the things she does is I think write anger and discontentment particularly well and those books definitely capture that”
Where to get it
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Tenth of December
Tenth of December is a critically acclaimed collection of short stories by American writer George Saunders.
Recommended“the other book that I wanted to recommend was the 10th of December by George Saunders I was given this book as a gift by my brother right when it came out and George Saunders writing is so it's so unique”
Where to get it
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Friday black
Friday black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a piercing short story collection that confronts modern consumerism, systemic racism, and violence with sharp speculative energy.
Recommended“can I recommend an individual short story as well yes which is so from Friday Black by naname AJ BR the opening story in that collection is a story the finlin 5”
Where to get it
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Trust Exercise
Susan Choi's novel Trust Exercise is a complex narrative that explores a high-pressure performing arts high school while constantly upending reader expectations through startling structural shifts.
Recommended“trust exercise by Susan Choy has probably one of the strangest and best executed trick endings I've read in recent memory this is a book that's constantly throwing you off and revealing new layers right up until the final pages”
Where to get it
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Minor Detail
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, is a haunting, powerful short novel that bridges two distinct historical eras in the Middle East through the experiences of two women whose lives mirror each other in striking and devastating ways.
Recommended“in minor detail by Adonia shii which is a short novel about two Palestinian women separated by several decades but who mirror each other in really interesting ways those had some really nice endings”
Where to get it
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A Saint from Texas
A Saint from Texas by Edmund White is a novel that traces the divergent paths of two stepsisters from Texas, following one into high-society Parisian art circles and the other into a life of religious devotion in a convent.
Recommended“but a couple of titles that I read this year Edmund whites a saint from Texas has a nice bittersweet ending to it”
Where to get it
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The Abstainer
The Abstainer by Ian McGuire is a historical novel set in nineteenth-century Manchester that explores political violence, espionage, and complex human loyalties against a dark backdrop.
Recommended“Ian Maguire's the abstainer has a classic dark almost biblical ending”
Where to get it
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Asymmetry
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday is a structurally innovative and critically acclaimed novel exploring power dynamics, ambition, and global politics through two seemingly distinct narratives that ultimately interconnect.
Recommended“the first I wanted to mention this came out a few years ago was a symmetry by Lisa Halliday there's in the very very last section there's just this like small like if you're reading fast you might miss it line that makes you rethink the entire book”
Where to get it
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There There
There There by Tommy Orange is a powerful polyphonic novel that follows a diverse group of Native American characters living in modern-day Oakland, California.
Recommended“and the last ending that I wanted to shout out was there there by Tommy orange which ruined me and that's all I'll say about that”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (6) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“she says I'm really in a Classics kick I loved portrait of a lady and from the 20th century I loved Stoner that's by John Williams what are the classics that are were most impactful to you”
“she says I'm really in a Classics kick I loved portrait of a lady and from the 20th century I loved Stoner that's by John Williams what are the classics that are were most impactful to you”
“she says I have not read one work of current literary fiction what's the one novel I should read to round out my epic reading year I should say she preface this by giving us a list of all the things she has read which is very impressive everything from Carolyn Weber's PR's Duchess to Steve Luxenberg separate the story”
“really the first thing that would have come to mind is Miriam Taves who whose last name is t OE WS who got a lot of attention for her book women talking was that this year or last year time is time is really blending together last year”
“and I had one teacher in high school who gave me really difficult modernist books you know he assigned James Joyce we read portrait of the artist he assigned fuler short Story collection go down Moses with a sort of impenetrable story The Bear”
“and you know what can top gats be with like the boats against the current”