Person
Every book Jennifer Schuessler recommended on podcasts
Jennifer Schuessler’s most recommended books
- 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
- A Rage for Order by Robert F. Worth
- How to do things with books in Victorian Britain by Leah Price
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- Lives Other Than My Own by Emmanuel Carrère
- Londoners by Craig Taylor
- Never caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
- Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
- The making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Jennifer Schuessler participated in numerous episodes of The Book Review, where she regularly shared and discussed a wide-ranging selection of recommended books with listeners and colleagues. Schuessler recommended Kory Stamper's Word by Word, highlighting the author's work as a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster. She also discussed Robert F. Worth's book A Rage for Order concerning the Middle East and Devoney Looser's The Making of Jane Austen, which traces the history of Austen's reception. During a reading roundtable, Schuessler recommended Craig Taylor's oral history Londoners and discussed reading Patricia Lockwood's memoir Priestdaddy, which details Lockwood's upbringing in the Midwest. Further expanding her reading recommendations, Schuessler brought up Ann M. Blair's Too Much to Know regarding the management of scholarly information before the modern age, Leah Price's How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain, and Emmanuel Carrère's Lives Other Than My Own after hearing about the French novelist from podcast colleagues, demonstrating a diverse literary appetite spanning history, memoir, and lexicography.
Books recommended by Jennifer Schuessler
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2666
2666 is a massive, complex novel by Roberto Bolaño that explores a wide range of themes, most famously centering on the unsolved femicides in a fictional Mexican border city.
Discussed“I recently spent a couple of days in Chicago where the Goodman Theater is preparing an adaptation of his novel 2666”
Where to get it
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A Rage for Order
A Rage for Order by Robert F.
Recommended“and then on a more serious note on a more serious note I've been reading finally getting around to reading Robert worth our former colleague known around here as Bobby Worth's fantastic book or so far fantastic book published last year called The Rage for order about the Middle East”
Where to get it
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How to do things with books in Victorian Britain
How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain by Leah Price is an insightful work of cultural history that examines how nineteenth-century readers interacted physically with books, moving beyond mere reading to explore books as objects, gifts, and tools.
Recommended“Leah Price another um scholar at Harvard wrote this great book called how to do things with Victorian books which just all about”
Where to get it
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Lincoln in the Bardo
Lincoln in the Bardo is a novel by George Saunders that explores the grief of Abraham Lincoln following the death of his young son, Willie, set within a graveyard populated by chattering spirits.
Recommended“and I just finished reading George shers forthcoming novel his first novel called Lincoln and the BAU”
Where to get it
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Lives Other Than My Own
Lives Other Than My Own by Emmanuel Carrère is a deeply reflective French work that blurs the boundaries between memoir and journalism, examining mortality, grief, and human connection in the wake of tragedy.
Recommended“first I have been reading the French novelist Emanuel carer that he's this guy I heard about him on this podcast he's a French novelist writer and I've been reading his book lives other than my own”
Where to get it
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Londoners
Londoners is an immersive oral history by Craig Taylor that captures the diverse and vibrant voices of contemporary individuals living in the British capital.
Recommended“and on the plane back I read this great book called londoners It's an oral history by Craig Taylor who's a Canadian”
Where to get it
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Never caught
Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a rigorous work of historical biography that chronicles the life of Ona Judge, who escaped from George and Martha Washington.
Recommended“and then I've also been reading this really interesting um book a work of history biography called never caught and it's by a historian named Erica Armstrong Dunbar”
Where to get it
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Priestdaddy
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood is a sharply witty and unconventional memoir recounting the author's eccentric upbringing in the Midwest as the daughter of a married Catholic priest.
Recommended“I just started this week um the poet Patricia Lockwood's Memoir from Recently published called priest Daddy and it's about her time being raised uh in the midwest by her father who was a the rare uh married priest”
Where to get it
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The making of Jane Austen
The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser is a detailed exploration of the cultural history and reception of the beloved English novelist.
Recommended“she's written this fascinating in my opinion book called The Making of Jane Austin which really traces kind of the history of her reception”
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.
Recommended“starting with the book everybody seems to be talking about this week Coulson Whit heads the Underground Railroad or as Oprah said when she announced it for her pick the Underground Railroad”
Where to get it
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Too Much to Know
Too Much to Know by Harvard historian Ann M.
Recommended“bring me that one immediately a great book by the Harvard historian Anne Blair called too much to know managing scholarly information before the Modern Age”
Where to get it
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Word by word
Word by word by Kory Stamper is a fascinating non-fiction exploration of the English language and the meticulous, often surprising world of dictionary making.
Recommended“called word by word by Cory Stamper who's a lexicographer at Miriam Webster dictionary”
Where to get it
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Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a powerful, epistolary memoir structured as a letter from a father to his teenage son regarding the realities of growing up Black in America.
Discussed“James Baldwins the fire next time was sort of an inspiration for tanahi coats's Memoir between the world and me”
Where to get it
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Blood in the water
Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson is a definitive work of historical non-fiction that investigates the 1971 Attica prison uprising and its enduring legal, political, and social legacy.
Discussed“this book called blood in the Water by the historian Heather an Thompson who I understand is on the podcast next week”
Where to get it
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Caucasia
Discussed“I really like I loved her first novel caucasia which I think was published about 15 years ago”
Where to get it
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Class trip
Discussed“so Barry again has sent me another one of his books and the one that I'm reading right now is class trip which is a short novel”
Where to get it
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Cockroaches
Discussed“it's a companion to her first book cockroach which is more explicitly about the horror and what she was able to learn and her childhood”
Where to get it
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Exit West
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid is a contemporary magical realist novel that explores migration, refugees, and global upheaval through the lens of a couple fleeing a war-torn country.
Discussed“so I was at the uh beach in New Jersey over the weekend and I borrowed a copy of Mosen Hamed's recent novel exit West what did you think I really liked it”
Where to get it
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Giovanni's Room
Giovanni's Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin that explores the complex romantic and existential struggles of an American man living in Paris.
Discussed“one kind of amazing thing I saw was a a teleplay I think it was sort of a screen television screenplay adaptation of giovan's room his great 1956 novel”
Where to get it
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New people
Discussed“so then I started reading on the train back I started reading this new novel which I believe has just been published by danz Senna called new people”
Where to get it
The other 9 books Jennifer Schuessler recommended or discussed, ranked
- Outline by Rachel Cusk
- Scars of independence by Holger Hoock
- So many books by Gabriel Zaid
- So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
- The Barefoot Woman by Scholastique Mukasonga
- The fire next time by James Baldwin
- The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil
- Underground airlines by Ben H. Winters
- We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch
Appearances
Other mentions (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
“it made me think about Walter benyamine wrote this famous essay called unpacking my library and I've been going around joking like I want to write an essay called de accommodating my library”
“I found weird things like this book called the humanure handbook which was this kind of hippie how-to book about composting human waste”
“and then there was this book which I was going to toss and then I'm like no I have to keep this called The Accidental diarist a history of the daily planner in America”
“there was also this great book I haven't read it so I can't say it's a great book greatl looking book by Anthony Grafton the Renaissance or the early modern historian at Princeton called the culture of Correction in Renaissance Europe”
“I think she talks about him a lot in her recent Memoir Avenue M after my story ran yesterday I heard a great anecdote”