Person
Every book Alexandra Alter recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Alexandra Alter has recommended or discussed 348 books on podcasts, as of December 19, 2025.
- Alexandra Alter has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of December 19, 2025.
- Those books came up in 162 episodes, as of December 19, 2025.
- The 3 books Alexandra Alter has mentioned in the most episodes, as of December 19, 2025: To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set A Watchman and The Handmaid's Tale.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Alexandra Alter aired on December 19, 2025.
Updated
Alexandra Alter’s most recommended books
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
- Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- The President is Missing by Bill Clinton, James Patterson, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Alexandra Alter is a journalist and podcast guest who frequently appears on literary programs to discuss contemporary fiction and publishing updates. During various episodes of The Book Review, Alter recommended and discussed several notable titles. She highlighted Zachary Mason's novel Void Star, noting that it is an April novel she loved which might give readers nightmares while remaining enjoyable to read. Alter also reviewed Ayobami Adebayo's novel Stay with Me, mentioning that it received a significant amount of critical praise when published in the United States by Knopf. Additionally, she discussed Sarah Ladipo Manyika's novel Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, describing it as a work about an older Nigerian woman living in San Francisco that was published by Cassava Republic. Alter introduced Tommy Orange's debut novel There There, noting his interesting background as the book was published by Knopf. She reviewed John Green's novel Turtles All the Way Down, observing that it stands out for being even darker in some ways. Alter recommended contemporary dystopian fiction such as Omar El Akkad's American War and Lidia Yuknavitch's The Book of Joan. Finally, she shared her enthusiasm for Helen Phillips's novel The Need, explaining that it features a major metaphysical twist that makes it difficult to describe before reading.
Books recommended by Alexandra Alter
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To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird explores themes of racial injustice, moral growth, and empathy in the American South through the eyes of young Scout Finch.
Discussed“I was also thinking of the Harper Lee collection of stories which to me that was interesting just because as everyone knows late in her career a sort of prequel which was kind of a sequel to Tequilla Mockingbird came out and there was a lot debate at the time over what her intentions were with that book.”
Where to get it
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Go Set A Watchman
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee is a novel written before To Kill a Mockingbird that follows an adult Scout returning to Maycomb, Alabama, and confronting her aging father's complex racial views.
Discussed“and now the title is go set a watch um but basically this was her first attempt to tell the story of adus Finch”
Where to get it
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The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale is Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel about a totalitarian society where women's rights are stripped away and a select few are forced into reproductive servitude.
Discussed“so one of the most anticipated books I would say not only for this year but maybe for several decades is um the sequel to Margaret Atwoods 1985 classic the handmaid's tale”
Where to get it
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A Higher Loyalty
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey is a high-profile political memoir by the former FBI director that chronicles his career in public service, his handling of sensitive investigations, and his interactions with political leaders including Donald Trump.
Discussed“including James comey's book a higher loyalty which had a much stronger first week on sale uh the hard covers were 360,000 copies and if you included ebook and audio it was more than 600,000 copies for James Comey”
Where to get it
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Fear: Trump in the White House
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward is a bestselling investigative work examining the inner workings, chaos, and decision-making processes of the Donald Trump administration.
Discussed“another book by Bob Woodward his previous book about the Trump Administration which was titled fear sold millions of copies”
Where to get it
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The Hate U Give
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a powerful young adult contemporary novel that follows a teenage girl grappling with the fatal police shooting of her childhood best friend.
Discussed“that is a theme that seems to be coming up time and time again in these efforts to remove books from schools and you see books like Angie Thomas's the hate you give which deals very bluntly with police brutality and police violence”
Where to get it
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The President is Missing
The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson is a high-stakes political thriller that imagines a crisis where the American commander-in-chief suddenly vanishes while dealing with a catastrophic cyberattack.
Discussed“for the past five weeks Bill Clinton and James Patterson's novel the president is missing has been number one on our list”
Where to get it
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The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historical fiction novel that reimagines the antebellum South by turning the secret network of abolitionist routes into a literal subterranean railway system utilized by an enslaved woman named Cora seeking freedom.
Discussed“a lot of people were surprised to see that Coulson Whitehead was not did not make it from the long list to the short list for the Underground Railroad”
Where to get it
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The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is an acclaimed young adult novel that follows two teenagers coping with terminal cancer diagnoses who fall in love while navigating the painful realities of mortality.
Discussed“and the faar Stars alone has more than 23 million copies in print and of course that's been boosted by some of the film adaptations”
Where to get it
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Purity
Purity by Jonathan Franzen is a sprawling contemporary novel that examines modern journalism, family secrets, global activism, and personal identity through an interconnected cast of characters.
Discussed“and then of course fall Jonathan franzen's next novel Purity”
Where to get it
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1984
1984 by George Orwell is a classic dystopian novel depicting a totalitarian regime characterized by extreme surveillance, historical denial, and psychological manipulation.
Discussed“there was a period where the bestseller list was dominated by Margaret Atwoods the handmaid's tale George Orwell's 1984 and even stclair Lewis's novel”
Where to get it
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Fire and Fury
Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury is an explosive investigative look inside the Donald Trump White House that generated massive controversy and public debate upon its release.
Discussed“most memorably it was Henry Holt when they published fire and fury by Michael wolf”
Where to get it
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It Can't Happen Here
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis is a 1935 political satire and dystopian novel that explores the rise of fascism in the United States and the election of a demagogic American president.
Discussed“there was a period where the bestseller list was dominated by Margaret Atwoods the handmaid's tale George Orwell's 1984 and even stclair Lewis's novel it can't happen here”
Where to get it
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Shuggie Bain
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is a deeply moving debut novel set in 1980s post-industrial Glasgow, chronicling a young boy's devoted efforts to save his mother from the grips of severe alcoholism.
Discussed“so the winner this year is Douglas Stewart for his debut novel shooky Bane which I think was probably heavily favored to win”
Where to get it
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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is Arundhati Roy's highly anticipated second novel, which arrived two decades after her celebrated debut, The God of Small Things.
Discussed“Andy Roy was was cut that was her much anticipated second novel the ministry of utmost happiness”
Where to get it
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The Sellout
The Sellout by Paul Beatty is a bold, satirical novel about race and racism in contemporary America that made history as the first American novel to win the Booker Prize in 2016.
Discussed“and since they opened it up to Americans of course Paul batty won last year for the cellout he was the first American to ever win”
Where to get it
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The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is one of the best-selling mystery thriller novels in history, blending cryptography, religious history, and secret societies.
Discussed“this week Random House announced an upcoming publication It's actually an old one it's Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code which was a huge bestseller when it came came out in 2003”
Where to get it
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American War
American War by Omar El Akkad is a dystopian debut novel that imagines a fractured United States caught in the throes of a second civil war in the late twenty-first century.
Recommended“there are a bunch of great books out this year including American War by om alad and Lydia yuknavich is the book of Joan”
Where to get it
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The Book of Joan
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch is a dystopian science fiction novel set in a ruined, war-torn future where the remnants of humanity orbit a devastated Earth.
Recommended“there are a bunch of great books out this year including American War by om alad and Lydia yuknavich is the book of Joan”
Where to get it
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The End of October
Lawrence Wright’s novel The End of October explores a catastrophic global pandemic and its profound societal consequences.
Discussed“they of course published his novel which was about a global pandemic and it was called the end of October and really had bizarrely prean and extremely similar plot points”
Where to get it
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss
- Did you ever have a family by Bill Clegg
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- Fantastic Beasts by J. K. Rowling
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling
- French Braid by Anne Tyler
- Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two - Playscript by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
- Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance
- Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed
- Jerusalem by Alan Moore
- The friend by Sigrid Nunez
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
- The Mueller Report by Robert S. Mueller
- The new Negro by Jeffrey C. Stewart
- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Revenant by Michael Punke
- The Room Where It Happened by John R. Bolton
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
- Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump Ph.D.
- Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Spy of the first person by Sam Shepard
- All we have left by Wendy Mills
- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
- Hope never dies by Andrew Shaffer
- Killing England by Bill O'Reilly
Alexandra Alter’s latest episodes with books
Alexandra Alter’s book recommendations by year
All 348 books Alexandra Alter recommended or discussed across 162 episodes, filed by the year each episode came out. Each year goes episode by episode, with the minute every book came up.