Person
Every book John Williams recommended on podcasts
John Williams contributes to The Book Review as a thoughtful critic and reader, frequently sharing reflections on overlooked literary classics, notable anniversaries, and personal shelf discoveries. Williams has discussed and recommended a rich variety of fiction, essays, and memoirs. Following the obituary of Theodore Weesner, Williams highlighted the 1972 coming-of-age novel The car thief, arguing for its enduring worth. He also discussed reading Elizabeth Hardwick's late-1970s novel Sleepless Nights and Mohsin Hamid's contemporary novel Exit West. Marking significant literary milestones, Williams noted that he had been rereading Denis Johnson's slender and potent 1992 short story collection Jesus's son in honor of its anniversary. His literary explorations frequently extend into personal essays and memoirs; he recommended Eileen Simpson's early 1980s memoir Poets in their youth, which details mid-century American literary figures, noting that it sent him back to Wilfrid Sheed's essay collection Essays in Disguise because of Sheed's review of Simpson's work. Additionally, Williams discussed reading Anita Brookner's novel Brief lives and praised Andy Miller's book The Year of Reading dangerously. Williams's recommendations reflect a deep-seated love for rediscovering mid-century gems, appreciating powerful short fiction, and engaging with literary criticism.
Books recommended by John Williams
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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“well I finished the portrait of a lady which I read pretty quickly given how big it is”
Where to get it
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Essays in disguise
Essays in Disguise is a celebrated collection of critical pieces and reviews written by Wilfrid Sheed for various publications including the New York Review of Books.
Recommended“what that really did though was it sent me back to one of my favorite books of all time which is Wilfred she's essay collection essays in Disguise because he has a review of simpsons's book”
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“and then I'm continuing into Patricia Lockwood's priest daddy which I mentioned on the show last week which is her Memoir about growing up with her father in the Midwest and her mother and her sister”
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“last week I talked about having read Jeff Dyer just richly imagined an incredibly written book about jazz called but beautiful and because of that I kind of not only listened to some of the musicians that he wrote about”
Where to get it
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Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë's timeless masterwork Jane Eyre follows the harrowing and triumphant journey of its spirited titular orphan as she overcomes a bleak childhood, secures employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, and confronts the dark secrets of Edward Rochester.
Recommended“um also heard from Rachel men's um who said to both romantic and broken heart recently a little Life by Han Yan gahara um she is also an editor here at the Times um and she said I think my heart broke and reformed every 15 pages um someone else mentioned um Bob Mayo mentioned the razor's Edge and then”
Where to get it
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New Grub Street
New Grub Street is a sprawling, 550-page realist novel by George Gissing that explores the grueling economic and moral realities of the literary marketplace in late-nineteenth-century London.
Discussed“I'm reading new grub Street still which I talked about last week by George gissing but it's a 550 page novel so and it's easy to kind of pick it up”
Where to get it
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Outline
Outline by Rachel Cusk is a critically acclaimed contemporary novel known for its minimalist style and unique narrative structure where the protagonist reveals herself primarily through the stories told to her by others.
Discussed“speaking of complex women um I'm reading Rachel cusk's new novel Transit which comes out this month and it's a follow-up to her previous novel outline”
Where to get it
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Under the Glacier
Under the Glacier by Halldór Laxness is a darkly humorous novel about an emissary sent by the bishop of Iceland to investigate peculiar happenings in a remote small town.
Recommended“I finally finished do want to mention briefly again hdor laxus's novel under the glacier which is sort of linked to the other book”
Where to get it
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Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is a classic gothic novel exploring destructive passion, revenge, and obsession on the Yorkshire moors through the turbulent relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine.
Recommended“viea haran andani said weaing Heights the ultimate Forbidden Love”
Where to get it
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Sabbath's Theater
Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth is a provocative and darkly humorous novel centered on a aging, disgraced puppeteer grappling with grief, mortality, and his own destructive impulses.
Discussed“and then I have probably about 20 pages left in um Sabbath theater by Philip Roth which I should just emphasize again”
Where to get it
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Swing Time
Swing Time by Zadie Smith is an intricate novel that explores themes of race, class, friendship, and cultural identity through the lens of young girls dreaming of becoming tap dancers.
Discussed“I have put aside for the moment swing Time by zadee Smith which is which I'm enjoying but which is a big book”
Where to get it
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Look at me
Look at Me by Anita Brookner is a poignant psychological novel that examines loneliness, self-deception, and the quiet struggles of a perceptive young librarian trying to navigate the demands of London's social and intellectual circles.
Recommended“the non- self-reflective one is called look at me so I get it in somehow in every book I read um I want to talk about appreciation for knowing people who recommend great books because this week I'm recommending two things very highly and I would not have read them if it weren't for friends of mine who recommended them”
Where to get it
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The Bass Rock
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld is a critically acclaimed contemporary novel that explores generations of trauma, family secrets, and the lives of women against the backdrop of the Scottish coastline.
Recommended“it's called the bass Rock by Eevee wild wld D”
Where to get it
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Jesus' son
Jesus' Son is a potent and slender 1992 short story collection by Denis Johnson that portrays the chaotic, gritty lives of marginal figures through the perspective of an unreliable narrator.
Recommended“first on a quick note I've been rereading Dennis Johnson's Jesus's son uh a very slender but very potent collection of short stories from 1992 cuz it's celebrating its 25th anniversary”
Where to get it
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Latecomers
Latecomers by Anita Brookner is a 1988 novel that explores themes of displacement, friendship, and the immigrant experience through the lives of two men in London.
Recommended“I am practicing literary self-care and I am returning to Anita Brookner who I talked about last year on the podcast and we figured out parl and I that parl was not here the week that I talked about her because I you're also a big fan so I just sort of picked up another of her novels which is”
Where to get it
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Odd Woman and the City
Odd Woman and the City is a sharp and introspective memoir by Vivian Gornick that explores urban life, solitude, and female friendship through observant walks around New York City.
Discussed“and she wrote about it a lot in her last Memoir uh the odd woman in the city which is another very good book and I thought that the whole book was going to be that kind of just riffing on walking around the streets of New York”
Where to get it
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Other People's Houses
Other People's Houses by Lore Segal is a semi-autobiographical novel that chronicles the experiences of a young girl displaced by World War II who finds herself living with a succession of different foster families.
Recommended“a book called other people's houses by lur seagull”
Where to get it
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Should you leave?
Should You Leave? by Peter D.
Recommended“it's called should you leave it's by the psychologist uh Peter Kramer who everyone knows for listening to Prozac and who has a new book out also about anti-depressants the subtitle of this book is a psychiatrist explores intimacy and autonomy and the nature of advice”
Where to get it
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So long, see you tomorrow
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell is a celebrated, poignant novella that explores a childhood memory, isolation, and a tragic murder in a small Midwestern town.
Recommended“and they recently did one of my favorite books which Greg had talked about earlier this year called so long see you tomorrow a brief novel by William Maxwell”
Where to get it
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The debut
The Debut is a poignant and sharply observed novel by Anita Brookner that explores the solitary life of an English literature scholar.
Recommended“so I read actually earlier this week her first book which was called published in the US as the debut appropriately enough and she published it when she was in her 50s and that was very good and I would recommend it”
Where to get it
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The examined life
Stephen Grosz's The Examined Life offers a collection of compelling psychological case studies drawn from the author's decades of practice as an American-born psychotherapist in London.
Recommended“yeah the examined Life by Steven gross so I'm just I'm gonna just keep following John Williams's”
Where to get it
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The executioner's song
Norman Mailer's monumental true-crime masterpiece The Executioner's song is a sweeping, meticulous examination of the life and execution of Gary Gilmore.
Discussed“I picked up Norman mailer's the Executioner song for some reason I cannot believe you have not read this book”
Where to get it
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Breath
Breath by Tim Winton is a 2008 novel by the Australian author that follows two teenage boys in Western Australia.
Recommended“and the one I read most recently is a 2008 novel called breath and it's a fairly short novel by his standards and it's about two teenage boys in Western Australia”
Where to get it
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Destiny and power
Destiny and power is a detailed biography exploring the life, career, and political journey of former United States President George H.W.
Recommended“his new book is Destiny and power the American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush”
Where to get it
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Fatal discord
Fatal discord by Michael Massing is an extensive dual biography that explores the tumultuous intellectual and religious relationship between Erasmus and Martin Luther during the turbulent era of the Reformation.
Discussed“a new book called fatal Discord by Michael massing which is a 975 page book about Martin Luther and arasmus”
Where to get it
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Foe
Foe by J.
Discussed“and one of the many that he mentions is a novel called foe fo OE by JM CA and I hadn't read Cay in a while so I picked up this also kind of Slender novel”
Where to get it
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Lost Children Archive
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli is a sweeping, structurally inventive novel that weaves together themes of family road trips, the migration crisis at the southern U.S.
Recommended“I'm reading a book called Lost Children archive which got a lot of attention this year when it was published just a couple months ago I think by Valeria louisi”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Middlemarch by George Eliot is widely regarded as a masterwork of Victorian literature, brilliantly capturing the complex social fabric, political undercurrents, and psychological depths of provincial English life.
Discussed“well as listeners will know I have been reading and I am continuing to read Middle March by George Elliott but that will take me a bit longer”
Where to get it
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NW
NW is a critically acclaimed contemporary novel by Zadie Smith that follows the intertwined lives and experiences of four individuals growing up together in a diverse section of London.
Discussed“my my two favorites are probably white teeth and NW”
Where to get it
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The Idiot
The Idiot by Elif Batuman is a brilliant coming-of-age novel that follows a young woman navigating her freshman year at Harvard and her nascent, epistolary romance with an older student.
Recommended“so I also decided this week to read something else alongside it which I won't talk because you guys have all read it recently and talked about on the podcast which is ell Bachman's the idiot”
Where to get it
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The lost weekend
The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson is a classic psychological novel about severe alcoholism that later inspired the acclaimed Billy Wilder film adaptation.
Discussed“the first is just a novel that's been on my shelf for a long time that I've been meaning to read which is Charles Jackson's The Lost weekend which was the inspiration for the Billy Wilder movie which I've never seen and I'm about halfway through the novel which is terrific”
Where to get it
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The odd women
The Odd Women by George Gissing is a sharp, late-Victorian social novel that examines the shifting roles of women, marriage, and independence in industrial England.
Discussed“and the book she talks about loving the most and that she goes on at greatest length about is called the odd women a book that she says she rereads every six months or so”
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 it reminds me in some ways because of that of Paul Batty's the sellout which is a recent book that kind of has no sacred cows and is also very funny and cutting”
Where to get it
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They Came Like Swallows
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell is an exquisite autobiographical novel that captures the profound ripple effects of the 1918 influenza epidemic on a Midwestern family through the shifting perspectives of its members.
Recommended“I had said that he was one of those obit reads for me one of those sort of dead people Word of Mouth where like I I read his obit he was a longtime editor at the New Yorker and then I immediately went out and uh I read they came like swallows”
Where to get it
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All the Light We Cannot See
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a historical novel set during World War II that follows the intersecting lives of a blind French girl and a German boy.
Discussed“um that remains on the hard cover fiction list at number four the other sort of really long-standing book on the hard cover fiction list is last year's big hit”
Where to get it
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I love Dick
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus is a cult-classic epistolary novel exploring obsession, female desire, and feminist theory through the framing of an unrequited infatuation.
Discussed“but I finished I love dick by Chris Krauss which parl and I discussed last week and I discussed it in a very kind of perfunctory way”
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“well I know I that red never let me go and I I have to say that I was not I know that you and Rika are huge fans”
Where to get it
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Play It as It Lays
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion is a stark and haunting 1970 novel that captures the profound existential alienation and emotional desolation of a former actress adrift in the desolate landscapes of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Discussed“I've read the Classic 60s collection slouching towards betham and and The White Album and I I've read play it as it lays her novel one of her novels and and more of the non-fiction”
Where to get it
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Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is an enduring adventure novel published in 1719 about a castaway who spends decades isolated on a remote tropical island facing numerous perils.
Discussed“it's about having read Robinson cruso as a British school child and and about how Robinson cruso”
Where to get it
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Slade House
Slade House by David Mitchell is a chilling supernatural thriller that unfolds as a puzzle box narrative spanning several decades.
Discussed“um but his last book The Bone clocks just came out this past fall and now we have news that this October he'll publish his seventh novel called blade house which Random House will publish on October 27th”
Where to get it
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The Magician
The Magician by Colm Tóibín is a historical fiction novel that offers a novelized chronicle of the life of the celebrated German author Thomas Mann.
Discussed“and the last two he's reviewed are attacus lisha's second novel called the war for Gloria and column Tobin's new novel The Magician”
Where to get it
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The Master
The Master by Colm Tóibín is a celebrated biographical novel that reimagines a crucial period in the life of the renowned author Henry James.
Discussed“and Tobin's novel is interesting because he in 2004 wrote a novel called the master which was about the life of Henry James a book I love”
Where to get it
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The men in my life
The Men in My Life by Vivian Gornick is an incisive collection of literary essays exploring female autonomy, reading, and personal growth through the lens of the author's intellectual influences.
Discussed“because the reason I started reading this book was I was I was reading a collection called the men in my life by gornick which is just a grab bag of essays”
Where to get it
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The Orchard Keeper
The Orchard Keeper is Cormac McCarthy's debut novel, published in 1965, which explores bleak rural landscapes and complex human relationships in the American South.
Discussed“I picked up Cormac McCarthy's first novel I've been meaning to go back and reread some of his books I haven't read this one before called The Orchard keeper published in 1965”
Where to get it
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The shepherd's hut
The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton is a powerful recent novel that follows a fifteen-year-old boy named Jaxie Clackton as he flees across Western Australia after his abusive father dies in an accident.
Discussed“so I'm talking to him about his most recent book The Shepherd's Hut but about his career as well and so I've been going back and reading some of his his backlist”
Where to get it
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The Stone Angel
On the podcast The Book Review, John Williams discussed The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence during two different episodes in July 2024.
Discussed“this is a book called The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence who's a writer who I've talked about on the podcast before”
Where to get it
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a contemporary novel following the decades-long creative and personal partnership of two friends who achieve massive success as video game designers.
Discussed“Gabrielle Zan joins us to talk about her new novel tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow which takes us inside the world of video game design through the lives of three characters”
Where to get it
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Ulysses
Ulysses by James Joyce is a monumental modernist novel that chronicles a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom in Dublin, mirroring the structure of Homer's Odyssey.
Discussed“no actually u i was past the sirens onto the Cyclops part which Ed on Twitter last weekend opens with a a passing reference to a character named Moses Herzog who then Sal Bell stole the name for Herzog”
Where to get it
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A way of life, like any other
A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien is an entertaining and concise novel written by an author who drew praise from critics for his sharp narrative style.
Recommended“but it's a very entertaining pretty short novel called a way of life like any other by a writer named Darcy O'Brien”
Where to get it
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Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a critically acclaimed young adult novel that explores identity, first love, and deep emotional connection between two Mexican-American teenagers in 1980s El Paso.
Recommended“on Twitter a reader named Stephanie said Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe which I thought was a great book title it's a a novel for ya readers by Benjamin Al SS”
Where to get it
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Caleb & Kate
Caleb & Kate by William Steig is an illustrated children's book that tells the whimsical story of a middle-aged married couple who get into a massive argument, after which the husband is magically transformed into a dog and must find his way back home.
Recommended“another of my favorite in that particular subgenre is William stigs Caleb and Kate which is about like a a middle-aged married couple that gets into a huge fight”
Where to get it
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Fates and Furies
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff is a structurally ambitious novel that examines a long marriage through the sharply contrasting perspectives of both partners.
Recommended“someone else here Jenny Stern Alfred mentioned Fates and Furies wasted love and Trust”
Where to get it
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In the Houses of Their Dead - the Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits
In the Houses of Their Dead - the Lincolns, the Booths, and the Spirits by Terry Alford is a historical work examining the role of spiritualism in the families of Abraham Lincoln and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
Discussed“Terry Alford is here to talk about in the houses of their dead which examines the role of spiritualism in the families of Abraham Lincoln and his assassin John wils Booth”
Where to get it
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Keep the river on your right
Keep the River on Your Right is a memoir by Tobias Schneebaum that chronicles his extraordinary and harrowing experiences living among indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
Recommended“it's a book called keep the river on your right by a writer named Tobias sneal”
Where to get it
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Madness, Rack, and Honey
Madness, Rack, and Honey is a brilliant collection of lectures and essays by poet and writer Mary Ruefle that explores art, creativity, and the human condition.
Recommended“she has a previous book of essays called madness rack and honey brilliant which so one of my favorite books of essay is ever probably”
Where to get it
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No One Is Talking About This
No Is Not Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood is a critically acclaimed debut novel that explores internet culture, modern digital existence, and profound personal tragedy.
Recommended“and so I thought I'd talked this week about Patricia Lockwood's first novel no one is talking about this which recently came out”
Where to get it
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Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a classic 1813 comedy of manners that follows the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy as they navigate issues of class, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the British landed gentry.
Recommended“um Sierra Dean listed Pride and Prejudice saying now then forever”
Where to get it
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Riverman
Riverman: An American Odyssey by Ben McGrath is a compelling nonfiction work that follows the life and tragic disappearance of a dedicated canoeist who patrolled the Hudson River.
Recommended“he has been a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine since 2003 and his new book is River man an American Odyssey”
Where to get it
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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a classic British social realist novel written by Alan Sillitoe that captures the rebellious spirit of working-class life in post-war industrial England through its memorable protagonist, Arthur Seaton.
Recommended“one is the one I'm reading which is a novel called Saturday night and Sunday morning which was made into a movie starring Albert finny”
Where to get it
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Shyness and Dignity
Shyness and Dignity is a compact novel by Norwegian author Dag Solstad, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, that explores the intellectual crisis and fading radicalism of a high school literature teacher in Oslo.
Recommended“it's 150 Pages exactly called shyness and dignity by the Norwegian writer dog Sola s o l St a d”
Where to get it
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The mountain lion
The Mountain Lion is a classic mid-century novel by Jean Stafford that depicts the complex and often painful childhood of two siblings growing up in California and Colorado.
Recommended“and so I finally read which I've been meaning to for a long time the mountain lion which is a novel of hers from the late 1940s issued by the New York Review books Classics line it's a great book”
Where to get it
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The western wind
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey is an atmospheric historical novel set in a fifteenth-century English parish where a local priest investigates a suspicious drowning in his community.
Recommended“uh I am reading a British novelist named Samantha Harvey her new book which is called the western wind”
Where to get it
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Visitors
Visitors is a late-career novel by acclaimed British author Anita Brookner that delves into the quiet, isolating experiences of aging, routine, and emotional detachment among middle-class Londoners.
Recommended“and I picked up a book I hadn't read before called visitors it's a novel from 1997 when Brookner herself was almost 70 years old”
Where to get it
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Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead is a darkly eccentric novel by Barbara Comyns that depicts an eccentric English family experiencing a series of bizarre and tragic events in the late nineteenth century.
Recommended“the other book that I want to read of hers soon is called who was changed and who was dead”
Where to get it
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A Jest of God
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence is a celebrated mid-century Canadian novel that follows a lonely, introspective schoolteacher living in a small prairie town as she confronts her unfulfilled desires and family obligations.
Recommended“it's a novel called a g of God by a Canadian writer named Margaret Lawrence and Lawrence is spelled l Au rinse not law”
Where to get it
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A Legacy
A Legacy by Sybille Bedford is a semi-autobiographical novel that vividly portrays the aristocratic society of pre-World War I Germany and the complicated lives of a wealthy wine-merchant family.
Recommended“another book that I kind of bounced around in and that I'm going to talk about is a novel called a legacy by syil Bedford this is part of the nyb Classic series with a terrific introduction by friend of the book review Brenda wineapple Bedford”
Where to get it
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A murder of quality
A Murder of Quality is a classic espionage mystery novel by John le Carré that follows intelligence officer George Smiley as he investigates a complex crime within the confines of an exclusive British boarding school.
Recommended“those are called call for the dead and a murder of quality and I really enjoyed them”
Where to get it
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A word child
A Word Child is a psychologically complex and morally intricate novel by Iris Murdoch that examines guilt, redemption, and the burdens of the past through the life of a troubled civil servant.
Recommended“I think this is my fifth novel by her now called a word child and it was published in 1975 a couple of years after the black prince”
Where to get it
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About Alice
About Alice by Calvin Trillin is a poignant memoir written as a tribute to the author's late wife, showcasing her brilliant mind, sharp wit, and vibrant presence through the eyes of her devoted partner.
Recommended“um Jamie leafer listed Calvin trillin about Alice which she called a beautiful Memorial to a true life partner”
Where to get it
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After me comes the flood
After Me Comes the Flood is a mysterious and atmospheric debut novel by British writer Sarah Perry that follows a man who wanders into an isolated English home during a heatwave and becomes entangled in the lives of its eccentric residents.
Discussed“I am about halfway through a novel by the British writer Sarah Perry it's her first book it's called after me Comes The Flood which I love as a title”
Where to get it
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Angel
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor is a compelling novel by a celebrated British writer, presented in an edition published by New York Review Books.
Recommended“she's a British novelist who nyrb has put out several books of her work this one is from I believe 1957 it's called Angel and it's the first one of hers I've read and I'm really loving it”
Where to get it
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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a sweeping nineteenth-century masterpiece examining love, infidelity, and societal norms in imperial Russia.
Recommended“and Katherine Ahern listed Anna kinina despite or maybe because of the ending”
Where to get it
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Antisocial
Andrew Marantz's Antisocial is a journalistic examination of internet culture, online trolling, and the rise of the alt-right movement in American politics.
Recommended“but I'm not sure any book speaks to right now like Andrew Moran's book antisocial which is not something you might think you'd want to read about”
Where to get it
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Approaching Eye Level
Approaching Eye Level is a compelling essay collection by Vivian Gornick that explores urban life, feminism, and personal observation through the author's sharp, distinctive lens.
Recommended“she hasn't written a ton and I thought that I'd read all of them but there's this collection called approaching eye level which uh I took with me on a recent brief vacation and it's really great”
Where to get it
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Back
Back is a powerful, melancholic novel by Henry Green that follows a traumatized World War II veteran returning to civilian life in England while grappling with grief and lost love.
Recommended“I read over the weekend actually a really beautiful and heartbreaking fairly short book um called back by Henry green”
Where to get it
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Beautiful Animals
Beautiful Animals by Lawrence Osborne is a contemporary novel exploring tourism, morality, and desperation on a Greek island.
Recommended“it's called beautiful animals by Lawrence Osborne and he wrote a piece for us recently and it made me realize”
Where to get it
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Blood, bone, and marrow
Blood, Bone, and Marrow is a comprehensive biographical work by Ted Geltner that explores the tumultuous life and influential career of the distinctive Southern writer Harry Crews.
Recommended“it's called blood bone and Marrow a biography of Harry Cruz by Ted geltner”
Where to get it
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Book of numbers
Book of numbers is a sprawling, contemporary novel by Joshua Cohen that investigates the digital age, internet culture, surveillance, and modern identity.
Recommended“Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen the novelist”
Where to get it
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Braided lives
Braided Lives by Marge Piercy is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1950s that follows two cousins, Jill and Marcia, as they navigate the restrictive social expectations, intellectual awakenings, and personal perils of womanhood in America.
Recommended“um Rosie van strop said braided lives by Marge piery is the best book about friendship she's read”
Where to get it
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Brief lives
Brief lives by Anita Brookner is a poignant and psychological novel exploring themes of loneliness, memory, and the quiet complexities of human relationships.
Recommended“the first book that I read was called brief lives”
Where to get it
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Call for the Dead
Call for the Dead by John le Carré is a classic espionage novel that introduces intelligence officer George Smiley as he investigates the apparent suicide of a foreign office employee.
Recommended“those are called call for the dead and a murder of quality and I really enjoyed them”
Where to get it
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Calypso
Calypso by David Sedaris is a darkly humorous essay collection in which the author explores aging, mortality, family eccentricities, and political shifts from the vantage point of his home in coastal North Carolina.
Recommended“um I read David Sedaris Calypso the the latest essay collection um which I had given to my wife as a present”
Where to get it
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Carry On
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is a young adult fantasy novel that follows Simon Snow, a powerful and sometimes chaotic chosen one navigating his final year at a magical school.
Recommended“Jean an green uh listed rainbow R's carryon”
Where to get it
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Catholics
Catholics by Brian Moore is a compelling and thought-provoking novel that explores deep theological and institutional conflicts within the Catholic Church following sweeping modern reforms.
Recommended“it's called Catholics it's a a very slender almost Nolla by Brian Moore who was an Irish writer who eventually settled in Canada”
Where to get it
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Cloudstreet
Cloudstreet is a sweeping, multi-generational novel by Tim Winton that chronicles the lives of two working-class families in post-World War II Perth, Australia, as they share a large, dilapidated house and navigate grief, hardship, and the supernatural.
Recommended“oh what first you know there's a big novel from the early 90s called Cloud street that I think is the way that a lot of people find him”
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.
Recommended“what I read this time around was conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney a novel that got a lot of attention last year”
Where to get it
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Corazón Tan Blanco (Edición Especial 25 Aniversario) / a Heart So White
A Heart So White is a masterpiece of contemporary Spanish literature by acclaimed author Javier Marías, translated into English and celebrated for its intricate meditations on secrecy, marriage, and memory.
Recommended“she especially suggests reading this novel called a heart so white by Javier Marius”
Where to get it
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Dirt music
Dirt Music by Tim Winton is a powerful, sweeping novel set against the rugged Australian landscape that explores themes of escape, healing, and complex human relationships.
Recommended“I really loved a novel called dirt music”
Where to get it
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Dunbar
Dunbar by Edward St.
Recommended“an upcoming book in October which is Edward St ain's new novel called Dunbar”
Where to get it
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Early work
Early work by Andrew Martin is a satirical debut novel that follows a lazy, aspiring young writer drifting through literary circles in New York City before moving to Iowa.
Recommended“I recently went back and read a novel that was getting a lot of attention what feels to me like last year but it turns out that it was three years ago which I guess is indicative of how we've all been living which is a first novel called early work by a writer named Andrew Martin”
Where to get it
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Eleanor & Park
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell is a contemporary young adult romance novel that tells the story of two misfit teenagers in 1986 Omaha who bond over comic books and music on a school bus.
Recommended“um Julie erle uh suggested Elanor and park by rainbow row and tender by Belinda mcken”
Where to get it
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Epitaph of a Small Winner
Epitaph of a Small Winner, also widely known under its alternate title The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, is a classic satirical novel by Brazilian author Machado de Assis.
Recommended“and this is about a it's called Epitaph of a small winner and it was published I think under a different title which many people know it by which is something like the postumus Memoirs of BRZ cubis who is the the narrator”
Where to get it
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Everywhere I look
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner is a thoughtful collection of essays by the acclaimed Australian author and novelist.
Recommended“I am reading a collection of essays by an Australian writer named Helen Garner who is 70ish and she's a novelist as well James Wood wrote about her recently in the New Yorker on the occasion of this book being released which is called everywhere I look”
Where to get it
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EXIT WEST
Exit West is a speculative novel about a young couple fleeing an unnamed city torn apart by civil war through magical doorways that transport them to different countries as refugees.
Recommended“I finished Mosen hammed's novel exit West who was on the podcast earlier talking to you about it”
Where to get it
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Ghost Light
Ghost Light by Frank Rich is a coming-of-age memoir that explores the author's youth and theatrical fascinations growing up in Washington, D.C.
Recommended“I just read a memoir called ghost light by Frank rich and it came out about 20 years ago and it is a Coming of Age Memoir”
Where to get it
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Grendel
Grendel is a brilliant philosophical novel by John Gardner that reimagines the classic Old English epic poem Beowulf entirely from the perspective of the titular monster.
Recommended“John Gardner uh did a take on Beowolf that was completely from the monsters perspective the novel grindle great book”
Where to get it
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H Is for Hawk
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald is a critically acclaimed memoir that chronicles the author's harrowing journey through grief following the sudden death of her father, which she processes by training a notoriously aggressive goshawk.
Recommended“H is for Hawk Helen McDonald's m which was on the cover of the book review and has gotten a lot of really great attention”
Where to get it
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Heavy
Heavy by Kiese Laymon is a powerful coming-of-age memoir that confronts generational trauma, systemic racism, weight, and the complexities of growing up Black in the American South.
Recommended“but the book that I am really deep into right now that i that i will talk about this week is a Coming of Age Memoir by KS Layman called heavy”
Where to get it
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Her First American
Her First American is a novel by Lore Segal that chronicles the complex relationship between an older immigrant journalist and a young American woman.
Recommended“I'm I'm going to go back a bit to something I read earlier this year but that I knew I would talk about at some point which is this truly great novel called her first American by lur seagull who I talked about a few weeks ago on the podcast for another book”
Where to get it
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Here
Here by Richard McGuire is a groundbreaking graphic novel that depicts a single corner of a room across vast spans of geological and human time from a fixed perspective.
Recommended“and uh someone named Abby Davis were among the many people who named Richard Maguire's here and you talked to Maguire earlier in this episode about that very uh Innovative book”
Where to get it
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Hold still
Hold Still by Sally Mann is a memoir by the celebrated photographer that reflects on her upbringing and the evolution of the photography medium.
Recommended“Hold Still The Memoir by the photographer Sally man”
Where to get it
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Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell is a classic autobiographical account of the author's experiences and observations fighting for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War.
Recommended“so I read um Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell which I had never gotten to which was you know completely brilliant”
Where to get it
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In Trouble Again
In Trouble Again by Redmond O'Hanlon is a travel writing book that recounts the author's perilous and eccentric journey up the Orinoco River and through the Amazon rainforest.
Recommended“also in the Paul through school of completely offensive and obnoxious and would never be published today and yet I think Redmond oh hanan's books are really funny in trouble again and Into the Heart of Borneo I really loved”
Where to get it
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Into the heart of Borneo
Into the Heart of Borneo is an adventurous and darkly humorous travel book by Redmond O'Hanlon that chronicles a grueling and eccentric expedition through the remote jungles of Southeast Asia.
Recommended“also in the Paul through school of completely offensive and obnoxious and would never be published today and yet I think Redmond oh hanan's books are really funny in trouble again and Into the Heart of Borneo I really loved”
Where to get it
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Island Home
Island Home by Tim Winton is a reflective and evocative memoir that explores the author's deep connection to the landscapes of Australia alongside pressing environmental themes.
Recommended“I really loved this breath and he's got a beautiful Memoir from a few years ago called Island home which is really just a sort of environmentalist activist book about Australia”
Where to get it
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Jack Robinson
Robinson by Jack Robinson is a novel published by a small independent press.
Recommended“it's called Robinson it's by a writer named Jack Robinson and that's actually a pen name for a British publisher named Charles Bole and he he runs this small publishing company that publishes this book and others”
Where to get it
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Kokoro
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki is a classic masterpiece of Japanese literature that explores isolation, generational change, and the shifting values of Japan during the Meiji period.
Recommended“so this is the first one I's reading and it's called kokoro k o r o by natsumi soseki who died in 1916”
Where to get it
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Life
Hanya Yanagihara's deeply moving and emotionally resonant novel Life is an intense exploration of trauma, enduring friendship, and human suffering.
Recommended“recently a little Life by Han Yan gahara”
Where to get it
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Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez is a sweeping, lyrical novel of persistent devotion and aging romance set against the backdrop of a Caribbean port city.
Recommended“and then the most responses I think were given to Gabriel Garcia marquez's Love in the Time of Kera”
Where to get it
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Man At the Helm
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe is a comic novel written by a British author that follows a humorous and engaging storyline.
Recommended“the one that I like the most I think that didn't get as much attention as those was uh a comic novel called man at the helm by a British writer named Nina stebi it's a very funny novel”
Where to get it
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Minor characters
Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters provides a compelling look into the lives of women orbiting the Beat generation and sheds light on the heavily masculine atmosphere of that literary movement.
Recommended“and this is one of those its called minor characters by Joyce Johnson and Johnson was 21 years old”
Where to get it
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Miss Lonelyhearts
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West is a classic satirical novella about an agony column writer in New York City who becomes overwhelmed by the human suffering reflected in the letters he receives.
Recommended“this week I read uh Miss Lonely Hearts which is Nathaniel very brief it's about 60 Pages”
Where to get it
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Money
Money by Martin Amis is a satirical 1984 novel that skewers the excesses, crass consumerism, and moral bankruptcy of 1980s celebrity culture through the chaotic perspective of protagonist John Self.
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Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf's classic novel Mrs.
Recommended“what was your favorite book I think my favorite book that was old was Mrs delay which I finally got around to reading this year and that's just incredible as as people who have read it know”
Where to get it
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Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Mrs.
Recommended“I just finished recently a short novel called Mrs palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor and we ran a wonderful review of this book by Jeff Dyer in the book review”
Where to get it
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My Brilliant Friend
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is the captivating first volume of the internationally acclaimed Neapolitan quartet, chronicling the complex lifelong friendship of two girls growing up in a poor yet vibrant neighborhood in Naples.
Recommended“Lucia janova named Elena fron is my brilliant friend which is the first volume in her recently concluded quartet of Neapolitan novels”
Where to get it
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My private property
My Private Property by Mary Ruefle is a unique collection of prose poems and micro-essays characterized by their sharp wit, dark humor, and deeply philosophical observations on everyday life.
Recommended“um and so the one thing that I that I brought that I kind of dipped into um is Mary ruel's book called my private property”
Where to get it
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Nada
Nada is a classic mid-century Spanish novel by Carmen Laforet that portrays a young woman arriving in post-Civil War Barcelona to attend university, only to find her relatives living in squalor and emotional decay.
Recommended“which is called NADA by Carmen lafet it's a novel from 1945 published I realized today when lafet was 23 which made me slightly nauseous”
Where to get it
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Niels Lyhne
Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen is a late nineteenth-century Danish psychological novel that follows the idealistic, searching life of its eponymous protagonist as he navigates love, loss, and the loss of religious faith.
Recommended“the one I read is a novel by a Danish writer named Yen Peter Jacobson and the novel is called named after its protagonist Neil's Lynn n i LS and then L YH n so any Danish listeners can call in and correct me it's from the late 19th century”
Where to get it
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Night Boat To Tangier
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry is a darkly comic and evocative novel that follows two aging, grizzled Irish gangsters as they spend a night in a Spanish ferry port searching for a missing daughter.
Recommended“recently on vacation a book called night boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry the Irish writer”
Where to get it
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Night Shift
Night Shift is a celebrated collection of horror short stories by Stephen King that explores profound fears, supernatural phenomena, and the dark corners of the human psyche.
Recommended“Julie Wright named night shift she said that King's early writing was filled with some great ideas each short story is incredible”
Where to get it
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Norwood
Norwood by Charles Portis is a humorous and idiosyncratic road novel about an ex-marine from Texas who gets pulled into a peculiar journey up to New York City.
Recommended“it's very slender and it's Charles Porto's first novel Norwood which I'm rereading which is rare for me”
Where to get it
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Our spoons came from Woolworths
Our spoons came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns is an eccentric, semi-autobiographical novel that follows a young, bohemian artist navigating poverty, motherhood, and tumultuous relationships in London during the interwar years.
Recommended“so I picked up the one of the two that I have which is from New York Review books and it's called our spoons came from Woolworths”
Where to get it
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Pachinko
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a sweeping historical fiction novel that follows four generations of a Korean family living in Japan.
Recommended“I'm still reading pachenko by m Jin Lee which I am really enjoying and I'm reading it slowly”
Where to get it
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Poets in their youth
Poets in their youth by Eileen B.
Recommended“in addition to that and then I've been reading just a random pick off my shelf which is a memoir from the early 80s by a woman named ien Simpson and it's called poets in their youth”
Where to get it
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Pretty deadly
Pretty deadly is a supernatural western comic book series created by writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Emma Ríos, though discussed on the podcast in connection with Joe Schreiber.
Recommended“uh a reader named Stevie Ray recommends graphic novel called pretty deadly and he says if you love westerns SLS Supernatural folklore beautifully ghoul full Illustrated Graphics than this one is for you”
Where to get it
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Role Models
Role Models is a nonfiction essay collection by John Waters that presents a series of portraits celebrating various eccentric figures, cultural icons, and personal inspirations who shaped the filmmaker and author's worldview.
Recommended“I've read his book Role Models which came out a few years ago and is a series of essays about well people who he admires”
Where to get it
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Sleepless Nights
Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick is a novel from the late 1970s that employs a fragmented and impressionistic narrative style.
Recommended“so I picked up elizabeth Hardwick's sleepless nights which is a from the late 1970s”
Where to get it
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Small Things Like These
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a poignant and concise novella set in Ireland during the weeks leading up to Christmas, focusing on a coal merchant named Bill Furlong who confronts local complicity in the Magdalene laundries.
Recommended“uh and there're small Pages short little book called small things like these by CLA Keegan”
Where to get it
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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is a historical fiction novel that portrays the deep lifelong bond between two girls matched as laotong, sworn companion sisters, in nineteenth-century rural China.
Recommended“two people Lynn M Kia and rosemary Barry Britain both named sunflower and the secret fan by Lisa C which is a novel about um two Chinese women in 19th century uh a remote County in 19 century China”
Where to get it
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Tamarisk row
Tamarisk Row is the semi-autobiographical debut novel by Australian author Gerald Murnane, originally published in 1974, which explores childhood, Catholicism, and horse racing in rural Australia.
Recommended“so I'm reading his first novel which is called Tamarisk row and it was published in 1974”
Where to get it
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Tell the wolves I'm home
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt is a poignant contemporary novel exploring complex themes of grief, family secrets, and unexpected connections.
Recommended“for a newer book she liked tell the Wolves I'm home by Carol Rifka brunt she said that that book was like putting my heart and soul through Boot Camp only to come out of it stronger than I entered”
Where to get it
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The Anatomy Lesson
The Anatomy Lesson is a classic novel by Philip Roth that continues the story of his recurring fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, as he faces a debilitating physical illness and a crisis regarding his literary vocation.
Recommended“and then I read for the first time the next two Zuckerman Unbound and now I'm about a third of the way through the anatomy lesson”
Where to get it
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The Black Prince
The Black Prince is a 1973 novel by Iris Murdoch that examines art, truth, and obsessive love through the complex framing of multiple conflicting narrative perspectives.
Recommended“I cheated on George this last time with another I think pretty giant not maybe quite as giant writer Iris Murdoch and I read her 1973 novel the black prince”
Where to get it
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The Bridegroom Was a Dog
The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yōko Tawada is a concise, sixty-page short story by the acclaimed Japanese writer that explores surreal and transgressive themes.
Recommended“it's a 60 page essentially long short story by a Japanese writer named Yoko toada called the bridegroom was a dog”
Where to get it
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The car thief
The Car Thief by Theodore Weesner is a classic 1972 coming-of-age novel centered on a troubled adolescent whose obsession with stealing automobiles leads to a collision with the juvenile justice system.
Recommended“he thought he was worthy of mention was really this one book called the car thief a novel that was first published in 1972 And um it's a Coming of Age story”
Where to get it
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The child that books built
The child that books built by Francis Spufford is a captivating memoir that explores the profound impact of reading and literature on a young mind growing up in Britain.
Recommended“I am reading a very Charming Memoir by a British writer named Francis spufford called the child that books built”
Where to get it
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The cost of living
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy is a deeply reflective memoir that explores the realities of middle age, independence, and female identity following the dissolution of a marriage.
Recommended“it's Deborah levies or or Levy I don't know how you pronounce her last name l v y um her very short new Memoir called the cost of living”
Where to get it
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The Dog of the South
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis is a brilliantly eccentric and darkly humorous comic novel that follows a deadpan protagonist on a bizarre road trip across America in pursuit of his runaway wife and her scheming lover.
Recommended“True Grit is fantastic the dog of the South is a comic novel that's really funny”
Where to get it
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The Driftless Area
The Driftless Area by Tom Drury is a critically acclaimed novel set in the American Midwest that blends elements of magical realism, crime, and idiosyncratic small-town life.
Recommended“so I picked up a novel of his I hadn't read before from one of those tottering piles called the driftless area from 2006 and this is also set in the midwest”
Where to get it
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The End of the Affair
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene is a classic novel set in London during and after the Blitz, exploring themes of love, jealousy, faith, and obsession.
Recommended“and the last lines she said um James B Kane said uh the end of The Affair by Graham green”
Where to get it
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The end of vandalism
The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury is a celebrated debut novel that captures the quiet complexities, eccentricities, and melancholic humor of life in rural Midwestern America.
Recommended“and his first novel called the end of vandalism is one of my all-time favorite books”
Where to get it
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The evenings
The evenings by Gerard Reve is a celebrated mid-century Dutch novel translated into English, known for its bleak yet darkly humorous depiction of postwar alienation through the daily life of a young office clerk.
Recommended“well anyway well speaking of that General region the world I'm I'm reading a book that I'll be brief about because I only just started it uh a couple of days ago and I'm only about 50 pages in but it's a book called the evenings it's a novel by Gerard reev RVE and it was published in 1947”
Where to get it
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The fire next time
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin is a searing and brilliant collection of essays examining race, religion, and American identity through letters and personal reflection.
Discussed“and the one that I'm going to talk about this week is James Baldwin's the fire next time which a lot of people have been talking about for not just the the past couple of months in America but also since tanasi coats I think sort of modeled his book between the world and me after part of this book”
Where to get it
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The Ghost Writer
The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth is a celebrated novel that follows a young aspiring writer visiting an older, established author, serving as the first book in the author's famous Zuckerman sequence.
Recommended“I'm r ing Philip Roth Zuckerman Trilogy and I actually reread the ghost writer the first book which I had read a few years ago”
Where to get it
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The hack
The Hack is a novel by Wilfrid Sheed that examines the professional and personal life of a dedicated writer navigating the shifting cultural landscapes of the mid-twentieth century.
Recommended“I'm reading a novel by a writer named Wilfred Sheed who's one of my favorites it's called the hack and it's from 1963”
Where to get it
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The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian patriarchal society where women's rights have been stripped away.
Recommended“Jack Martin said that dystopian Tales of plausible Futures are what terrify him including the handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood and Michelle welbeck's recent submission”
Where to get it
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The Life You Save May Be Your Own
The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie is a collective biography exploring the spiritual and creative lives of four prominent American Catholic writers: Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy.
Recommended“and the one that comes to mind is Paul Eli the life you save may be your own which is a sort of group biography of darthy day and flry O Conor and Walker Percy”
Where to get it
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The love object
The love object is a collection of short stories by acclaimed Irish author Edna O'Brien that explores complex themes of romance, identity, and human connection.
Recommended“the love object a collection of short stories by Edna O'Brien”
Where to get it
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The man who loved children
The Man Who Loved Children is a classic novel by Christina Stead that explores the intricate and often dark dynamics of an eccentric family living in Washington, D.C.
Recommended“and he reminded me of Christina studs The Man Who Loved children which I've been meaning to read for about I think 25 years now so I've put that at the top of the pile”
Where to get it
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The missing of the Somme
The missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer, Wade Davis, and Drew Gilpin Faust is a poignant and reflective exploration of history, memory, and the lasting cultural impacts of the First World War.
Recommended“it's Dyer's book called The Missing of the sum which I think was published something I I thought it was more recent than this”
Where to get it
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The Moonstone
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is a pioneering nineteenth-century epistolary detective novel centering on the dramatic theft of a priceless diamond and the complex web of secrets surrounding its disappearance.
Recommended“then after this you're going to read the Moonstone”
Where to get it
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The motherless oven
The motherless oven is a graphic novel by Rob Davis that presents a surreal, coming-of-age narrative set in a bizarre world where teenagers manufacture their own parents and weather is dictated by household objects.
Recommended“um reader named John Freeman and another named Jamie gambell recommended the motherless oven by Rob Davis”
Where to get it
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The Nun. by Diderot. Translated from the French. ... of 2; Volume 1
The Nun by Denis Diderot is an 18th-century epistolary novel that chronicles the harrowing experiences of a young woman forced into a convent against her will.
Recommended“I'm reading a novel called the nun from a very long time ago by Deni dito the philosopher novelist art critic maybe most famously encyclopedist”
Where to get it
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The Orchid Thief
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean is a true-life narrative exploring the eccentric world of orchid poachers and plant obsession in the Florida Everglades.
Recommended“for me I'm finishing up a book that I started talking about last week which is the Orchid Thief by Susan orene”
Where to get it
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The passion
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson is a historical novel set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, following a young French soldier and a web-footed woman with webbed toes in Venice.
Recommended“uh # written on thebody #the passion”
Where to get it
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The Price of Salt
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith is a mid-century romantic novel that later served as the basis for the acclaimed film Carol.
Recommended“um Carrie Larson listed Patricia heith the price of salt which is actually the novel that uh the movie Carol was based on”
Where to get it
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The Razor's Edge
The Razor's Edge by W.
Recommended“um also heard from Rachel men's um who said to both romantic and broken heart recently a little Life by Han Yan gahara um she is also an editor here at the Times um and she said I think my heart broke and reformed every 15 pages um someone else mentioned um Bob Mayo mentioned the razor's Edge and then”
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 Risk Pool
The Risk Pool by Richard Russo is a poignant 1988 novel exploring difficult family dynamics, small-town stagnation, and a complex father-son relationship in upstate New York.
Recommended“and so really the only thing I I read this week was that I dipped back into and read some passages from um Richard Russo's 1988 novel the risk pool because Jen senior one of our daily book critics reviewed his new collection of short stories called trajectory”
Where to get it
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The road from Coorain
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway is a classic memoir that recounts the author's formative years growing up on a remote sheep station in the arid Australian bush before her eventual journey into academia.
Recommended“the one that came to mind was Lori mois who will run the frog Hospital which I read a long time ago”
Where to get it
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The Robber Bride
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood is a complex novel that reimagines the classic femme fatale trope through the manipulative character of Zenia, whose reappearance disrupts the lives of three former university friends.
Recommended“libby kmore said without a doubt the robber bride by Margaret Atwood”
Where to get it
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The Sixth Extinction
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book by science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, co-authored with Marcel Blanc in certain editions, that examines how human activity is driving a mass extinction event on Earth.
Recommended“I am for some reason reason I decided this week at bedtime given given the unremitting news Etc to pick up Elizabeth Colbert's the sixth Extinction as my bedtime rating”
Where to get it
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a classic espionage novel by John le Carré that follows British intelligence operative Alec Leamas through a grim, morally ambiguous mission in Cold War Berlin.
Recommended“but now I'm kind of into the the classic Smiley books which I finished the Spy Who Came in from the cold recently which is absolutely brilliant”
Where to get it
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The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima is a celebrated novel that examines complex psychological and philosophical themes through the lens of a historic temple burning.
Recommended“but the book I finished is called the Temple of the golden Pavilion it was published I think originally in 1959”
Where to get it
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The Thorn Birds
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is an epic family saga spanning decades, chronicling the ambitions, forbidden romances, and heartbreaks of the Cleary family across the vast and unforgiving landscape of the Australian outback.
Recommended“there was Colleen McCulla The Thorn Birds which I remember both the book and the movie being a favorite of my mother”
Where to get it
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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a historical novel by David Mitchell set within the closed trading post of Dejima in Nagasaki during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Recommended“named the Thousand autumns of Jacob dooit by David Mitchell”
Where to get it
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The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a popular contemporary romantic novel about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time travel and his artist wife who must cope with his frequent absences.
Recommended“then we get to the multiple responses at least three readers and I think more but Melissa Weber Suzanne Kirk and Jacqueline Baker all listed the time travelers wife”
Where to get it
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The undoing project
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis explores the profound intellectual partnership between psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, whose groundbreaking work in behavioral economics transformed our understanding of human decision-making.
Recommended“uh I am reading the new book by Michael Lewis which I'm sure everyone has heard about called the undoing project”
Where to get it
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The year of reading dangerously
The year of reading dangerously by Andy Miller is a humorous and engaging memoir chronicling one man's obsessive journey to rediscover the transformative power of literature.
Recommended“he wrote a book called The Year of reading dangerously which is terrific”
Where to get it
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These possible lives
These Possible Lives is a literary work by Fleur Jaeggy that offers concise, striking prose portraits of various notable figures, exploring their distinct intellectual and personal paths.
Recommended“included on her list this book that had kind of escaped my notice when the book review covered it a few weeks ago called these possible lives by a a woman named Flur jaggie”
Where to get it
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Train dreams
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson is a slender, poignant novella following the solitary life of Robert Grainier, a laborer in the American West during the early twentieth century.
Recommended“and so I read also this week in about an hour and a half his very slender novel Nolla called um Train Dreams which I have now already misplaced”
Where to get it
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True Grit
Charles Portis's classic novel True Grit is a celebrated adventure story following young Mattie Ross as she hires a hardened U.S.
Discussed“pis is by far I think still most famous as the author of True Grit but he was written about for so long as an undervalued or underere writer that I think he probably became as read as he was going to be”
Where to get it
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Trust
Trust by Hernan Diaz is a structurally ambitious and celebrated novel that delves into themes of wealth, power, and multiple perspectives in historical America.
Discussed“so the first thing to say is that you open this book and you see the nice title page with your name on it trust by Diaz”
Where to get it
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a chilling psychological thriller novel by Shirley Jackson, published in 1962, that follows the isolated and eccentric Blackwood family following a tragic arsenic poisoning.
Recommended“Shirley Jackson's novel we have always lived in the castle which was her last novel and published in 1962 um this is an addition that has I almost never read an introduction before I start reading a book but this one by Jonathan leam is really good”
Where to get it
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Wedding toasts I'll never give
Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give by Ada Calhoun is a collection of personal essays exploring the complexities, challenges, and realities of modern marriage.
Recommended“um and then the other thing I read I actually really loved which is a a very brief book called wedding toasts I'll never give by aah Calhoun”
Where to get it
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Written on the Body
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson is a poetic, intensely lyrical novel narrated by an unnamed protagonist who meditates on the anatomy of grief and the physical manifestations of love.
Recommended“uh # written on thebody #the passion”
Where to get it
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Zuckerman unbound
Zuckerman Unbound is a satirical novel by Philip Roth that explores the sudden fame and notoriety experienced by writer Nathan Zuckerman following the publication of a successful and controversial book.
Recommended“and then I read for the first time the next two Zuckerman Unbound and now I'm about a third of the way through the anatomy lesson”
Where to get it
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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“and 2666 is something that I have a one volume paperback of it so I'm a little jealous of Greg's now in the slip case”
Where to get it
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A Brief History of Seven Killings
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James is a sprawling, ambitious historical novel that uses the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley to weave a complex narrative spanning decades of political violence, drug wars, and systemic turmoil in Jamaica and the United States.
Discussed“and the big news this week was the announcement of the winner of the man Booker prize which was announced on Tuesday uh and the winner was Marlon James for his novel a brief history of seven killings”
Where to get it
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A childhood, the biography of a place
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews is a evocative and gritty memoir in which the author chronicles his formative early years growing up in a deeply impoverished, isolated farming community in rural Georgia.
Discussed“I have been reading a memoir by Southern writer named Harry Cruz called a childhood”
Where to get it
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A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a beloved 1843 novella by Charles Dickens that tells the transformative story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge after he is visited by spectral warnings on Christmas Eve.
Discussed“John R heckerman said my personal pleasure would be to assign A Christmas Carol to a holiday period reading list”
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A Confederacy of Dunces
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is a classic absurdist comedic novel following the eccentric, lazy, and self-important Ignatius J.
Discussed“I think my favorite one hit wonder is John Kennedy oul you know who wrote Confederacy of Dunces which is such a wacky novel and I you know I spent a few months this year in New Orleans so I read it again in preparation for for traveling down there”
Where to get it
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A great reckoning
Discussed“also Louise peny a great Reckoning that's the latest in her Armand gash series”
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A horse walks into a bar
A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman is a bleak and darkly comic novel that centers on a tragic stand-up comedy performance in a small Israeli town.
Discussed“in in light of that I also did read a very short um Bleak Jewish comic novel in the past couple of weeks and it is daved Grossman's new novel horse walks A horse walks into a bar which Gary steinart reviews on the cover of our March 5th issue”
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A manual for cleaning women
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin is a celebrated short story collection that showcases the author's remarkable talent for capturing the grit, humor, and dignity of everyday working-class lives.
Discussed“just in recent years her work has kind of come back to light and I'm I'm curious how you first came to it in 2015 when Emanual for cleaning women came out a of recollection of all of the stories that had been published during her lifetime”
Where to get it
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A time to be born
Discussed“and now I'm about 100 100 pages into book by Don Powell called the time to be born”
Where to get it
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A Woman Like Her
Discussed“you reviewed a book called a woman like her tell us briefly what that's about I reviewed a really impressive first book by the journalist son Mahar”
Where to get it
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Absolute Beginners
Discussed“the one that not many have is called absolute beginners it's by a British writer named Colin McKinnis”
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All Dressed in White
Discussed“and at number seven Mary Higgins Clark who's had a long career as a bestseller writing books by herself has teamed up with the writer alfair Burke to write a book called all dressed in white”
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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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All things cease to appear
Discussed“I'm reading a thriller that came out earlier this year called All Things cease to appear by Elizabeth Brundage and um it's it's a literary Thriller”
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Amsterdam
Discussed“and given the fact that it won the booker it kind of reminded me of Ian mcan's Amsterdam in that way which is it was sort of a prize given to her after many books that people really loved and admired but maybe isn't her considered widely her best by people”
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An Island
Discussed“her first novel published in the United States is an Island it was longlisted for the booker Prize last year”
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An odyssey
Discussed“and then I'm just also reading Daniel Mendelson's new Memoir and odyssey which is about the time that he he taught a course about Homer's The Odyssey that his father his 81-year-old father attended”
Where to get it
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And Then All Hell Broke Loose
Discussed“at number 12 we have and then all hell broke loose by Richard Engel which is his Memoir of 20 years of reporting out of the Middle East”
Where to get it
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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal is an engaging scientific exploration that challenges human arrogance by examining the diverse, sophisticated forms of cognition and emotion present throughout the animal kingdom.
Discussed“there is this book that came out a few years ago by the animal writer frons wall animal writer no pun intended called are we smart enough to know how smart animals are and I guess I kind of feel like the answer is no”
Where to get it
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Atonement
Atonement by Ian McEwan is a sweeping historical novel that explores themes of guilt, class, and the devastating impact of war across multiple decades.
Discussed“the same goes for uh Ian mcan's atonement I I liked the book more than the movie but I thought the movie was good and he's had a bunch of things adapted”
Where to get it
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Autumn
Autumn by Ali Smith is a reflective contemporary novel that captures the shifting political and cultural landscape of Great Britain.
Discussed“uh I'm reading Ali Smith's new novel called autum”
Where to get it
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Ballad Of The Sad Cafe
Discussed“I read the ballot of the Sad Cafe by her many years ago which I really liked and and this is fine”
Where to get it
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Beautiful Boy
Discussed“there's also an adaptation of kind of two books in one which is sort of interesting uh a movie called Beautiful Boy which is based not on fiction but on two Memoirs by uh David and Nick Chef Father and Son”
Where to get it
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Beowulf
Beowulf, translated brilliantly by Seamus Heaney, is an enduring foundational epic poem of Old English literature that chronicles the legendary hero's epic battles against monsters like Grendel and a fearsome dragon.
Discussed“John Gardner uh did a take on Beowolf that was completely from the monsters perspective”
Where to get it
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Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a bestselling epistolary book written as a letter from the author to his teenage son, exploring the reality of growing up Black in America.
Discussed“tanas book came out you know a year ago a couple weeks ago and I think I might have looked at it the week after it came out the the book”
Where to get it
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Big Bad Love
Discussed“the first thing I read just randomly plucked off my shelves was a collection of short stories from 1990 by a writer named Larry Brown um called Big Bad Love and he's a very Southern writer”
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Black Boy
Black Boy by Richard Wright is a powerful autobiographical memoir detailing the author's harrowing upbringing in the Jim Crow South and his eventual escape to Chicago, marked by systemic racism, poverty, and intellectual awakening.
Discussed“the thing I left at home that I want to talk about is Richard wries black boy his Memoir from the mid1 1940s which I finished recently”
Where to get it
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Black No More
Black No More by George Schuyler is a sharp 1930s satirical novel that explores a fictional medical procedure allowing Black people to rapidly transform their skin color, upending American racial dynamics.
Discussed“a book from the 1930s that parl reviewed recently in the paper called black No More by George Skyler and it's about a doctor who finds a way to make black people white very quickly”
Where to get it
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But What If We're Wrong?
But What If We're Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman is a thought-provoking cultural critique that challenges readers to reconsider contemporary assumptions by imagining how future generations will judge modern art, science, and ideas.
Discussed“at number five Chuck claer the cultural critic and essayist has a book called but what if we're wrong new it number five”
Where to get it
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Child of God
Child of God is a dark and disturbing novel by Cormac McCarthy set in the backwoods of Tennessee, following the harrowing descent of a violent and isolated outcast.
Critiqued“this week I read child of God which I have to say is I I really enjoyed is probably the wrong word”
Where to get it
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City on fire
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg is a massive, sprawling debut novel set in 1970s New York City.
Discussed“a reader Named Dave Brown named City on fire by Garris Colberg which makes sense because that book is everywhere this week”
Where to get it
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Colonia Lebarón / the Colony
Discussed“the investigative journalist and author Sally Denton discusses the colony which explores a Mormon sect in Mexico”
Where to get it
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Complete poems and selected letters
Discussed“John I I have kind of a book recommendation and a movie recommendation this week because the book I'm reading is John ke's selected letters”
Where to get it
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Daisy Miller
Discussed“and then I read Daisy Miller which is james' short book it's almost just a a Nela really about um a young girl who gets corded by winterborn this man who finds her very Innocent but charming and everyone else thinks she's just a crass American and I enjoy that a lot”
Where to get it
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Dark matter and the dinosaurs
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall is a science book exploring the startling interconnectedness of the universe, proposing how dark matter may have ultimately triggered the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Discussed“her new book is dark matter and the Dinosaurs the astounding interconnectedness of the universe which is reviewed in this week's issue and Lisa is here to talk about it”
Where to get it
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Darwin's dangerous idea
Discussed“but I read a book maybe 15 20 years ago by Daniel dennet called Darwin's dangerous idea which is a great overview of evolution”
Where to get it
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Death and the Penguin
Discussed“but then I realized when you mentioned it I had read his book death in the penguin”
Where to get it
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Deep state
Discussed“you reviewed four books for a little wintry Thriller Roundup and it's called Deep state by Chris howdy and it's about the assassination of a president well it's about the attempted assassination”
Where to get it
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Disgrace
Disgrace is a critically acclaimed novel by South African author J.
Discussed“I just kind of sat in the park most of the day and read was um JM cat's disgrace which I've been meaning to read for a long time”
Where to get it
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Dispatches
Discussed“I just finished something this week Michael hair's dispatches which is a book from 1977 about the Vietnam war”
Where to get it
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Emerson's Ghosts
Discussed“um you've written from battlefields Rising how the Civil War transformed American literature as well as Emerson's ghosts literature politics and the making of americanists”
Where to get it
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End of Watch
End of Watch is a gripping crime thriller by Stephen King that concludes his acclaimed detective trilogy centered around retired police detective Bill Hodges.
Discussed“he concludes his bill hajes Trilogy which is his detective series um about a retired cop named Bill Hodges and this book is called End of Watch and that is new at number one”
Where to get it
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Ender's Game
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a classic science fiction novel about exceptionally gifted children recruited into a military battle school to prepare for an impending alien war.
Discussed“and um I've just started on my e-reader um a book that my son really liked that passed me by back in the day which is Enders Game the oron Scott Scott Card”
Where to get it
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Every Man for Himself and God Against All
Every Man for Himself and God Against All by Werner Herzog is a candid and evocative memoir by the renowned filmmaker that chronicles his extraordinary life journey, unconventional career, and unique worldview.
Discussed“and it has a fantastic title which comes from one of his films it's every man for himself and God against all so okay given that title in the quote you read”
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“speaking of Exile I am reading um exit West which is a much anticipated new novel by Mosen Hamid and I've never read him before”
Where to get it
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Faces in the Crowd
Discussed“I think one was called faces in the crowd and and there was another slender book and they were fairly short very beautiful very smart full of great imagery”
Where to get it
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Family of Origin
Discussed“she is the author of two novels family of origin and the from a ways”
Where to get it
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Find Her
Discussed“at number four it's fined her by Lisa Gardner in which the Boston detective now tries to hunt down a missing woman who's been abused and now is turning vigilante”
Where to get it
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Frankenstein
Frankenstein by Mary W.
Discussed“now I'm on something very different which is Mary Shell's Frankenstein it's the 200th anniversary of the book and so I got this nice new edition of it and figured that it would be a good time to read it”
Where to get it
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Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W.
Discussed“but the big one I think the history winner this year was one that at least I had heard a lot of people predicting in the days before the prize was announced which was David W blight's big biography of Frederick Douglas yes which is just titled Frederick Douglas subtitled profit of freedom and that got a lot of great”
Where to get it
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From Battlefields Rising
Discussed“um you've written from battlefields Rising how the Civil War transformed American literature as well as Emerson's ghosts literature politics and the making of americanists”
Where to get it
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Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love
Discussed“I'm not only reading about sex as usual I'm reading about sex and Frey so it's a real twofer the first thing I've been reading this week is Emily wit's new book future sex”
Where to get it
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Gilead
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning epistolary novel structured as a heartfelt letter from an elderly, dying Congregationalist minister to his young son, reflecting on faith, family history, and the profound beauty of existence.
Discussed“Marilyn Robinson who published her first novel I think it was 1988 and then I think it was 16 or 17 years later that she published Gilead and then has kind of interestingly become uh prolific since then and has published three other novels since Gilead”
Where to get it
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Giving Up the Ghost
Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel is a poignant memoir that reflects on the author's childhood, health struggles, and the formative experiences that shaped her literary imagination.
Discussed“and now I'm about 50 or 60 pages into a memoir called giving up the ghost by the novelist Hillary mantel which is unsurprisingly written a lot like a novel”
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“there were a couple of people who Lori Jackson and Kristen Pounders among them who named Harper Le goetta Watchman as their favorite read this summer which I found interesting since it's had such a divided response”
Where to get it
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Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is an epic historical novel set in the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, focusing on the tumultuous life of Scarlett O'Hara.
Discussed“Margaret Mitchell much like Harper Lee chose I think chose to only publish Gone With the Wind and certainly commercially that was a giant smash”
Where to get it
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Good morning, midnight
Discussed“so he had tweeted about um a book called good night midnight”
Where to get it
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Great Expectations
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a classic Victorian coming-of-age novel that follows the orphan Pip as he navigates social class, ambition, guilt, and personal reinvention in 19th-century England.
Discussed“I went through a little phase um some years ago of reading these kind of updated or or or spin-offs of classic Works um Peter krey has a novel called Jack mags that is all about the character mag witch from Great Expectations”
Where to get it
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Great Granny Webster
Discussed“and this is a book called great granny Webster which is a very slender novel based on her own life time spent with her great-grandmother”
Where to get it
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Grunt
Grunt by Mary Roach is a pop science book that investigates the bizarre, hidden scientific innovations and medical challenges experienced by military personnel out in the field.
Discussed“and then at number six Mary Roach uh has a new kind of Pop science book called grunt it looks at the science of the military U what soldiers experience out in the field”
Where to get it
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He Held Radical Light
Discussed“it's a new book by the poet Christian Wyman who these are not poems although he's written several collections of poems this is a memoir SL bookof criticism SL literature itself called he held radical light”
Where to get it
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High Fidelity
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby is a widely recognized breakup novel published in 1995 that explores romance, music obsession, and personal growth through the lens of a struggling record store owner.
Discussed“I was reminded of a line in Nick hornby's High Fidelity something about how if someone's favorite things you know them their favorite movies their favorite music”
Where to get it
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Homegoing
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is an epic debut novel that traces the multi-generational impacts of slavery and violence across three centuries through the lineage of two sisters from Ghana.
Discussed“yagi's debut novel which has gotten quite a lot of attention it was reviewed on hour cover by Isabelle Wilkerson it's called homegoing”
Where to get it
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Hop on Pop
Discussed“I'll finish with another playful one Gail Pitman wrote Hop On Pop”
Where to get it
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Hotel du Lac
Discussed“and so then I followed that up with um Hotel Dak which was her Booker prize winning novel from the late ' 80s”
Where to get it
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If Beale Street Could Talk
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin is a poignant 1974 novel that details the love story of a young Harlem couple facing systemic injustice after the man is wrongfully imprisoned for a violent crime.
Discussed“Jenkins has now followed up that life-changing effort with if be Street could talk his adaptation of a 1974 novel by James Baldwin in the novel and in the film Tish a 19-year-old woman in Harlem copes with the fact that her boyfriend fonnie has been imprisoned for a violent crime that he didn't commit”
Where to get it
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In Other Words
In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri is a reflective memoir written entirely in Italian by the acclaimed American author.
Discussed“um and at number eight somewhat more mutly's Juma leir's first non-fiction book and first book in Italian in other words and this is an interesting book and it's sort of been getting a lot of attention”
Where to get it
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Independent people
Independent People by Halldór Laxness is a sweeping Icelandic epic concerning the arduous life of a stubborn crofter struggling for economic independence against harsh natural elements.
Discussed“and he packed four books by hdor laxnes who was the Icelandic Nobel Prize winner and his big sort of most famous book is called independent people and it's about probably 450 pages”
Where to get it
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Intimations
Discussed“um one of them that'll note because uh I found her first book really interesting too is a new collection of stories by a writer named Alexandra Clan called intimations and her first novel which was published last year was called you two can have a body like mine”
Where to get it
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Into the Wild
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a gripping non-fiction account that chronicles the journey of Christopher McCandless, a young man who abandons his conventional life to seek raw, unmediated experiences in the Alaskan wilderness.
Discussed“there's obvious Echoes In This Book of John krackow into the wild”
Where to get it
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Invisible Man
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a powerful, enduring classic of American literature that examines the complex and often alienating experiences of a young Black man coming of age in the 1950s.
Discussed“so I picked up recently Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison which I thought you were going to say”
Where to get it
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Jack Maggs
Discussed“I went through a little phase um some years ago of reading these kind of updated or or or spin-offs of classic Works um Peter krey has a novel called Jack mags that is all about the character mag witch from Great Expectations”
Where to get it
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Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann is a harrowing work of investigative journalism that uncovers the systematic murders of wealthy Osage Nation members in Oklahoma during the 1920s following the discovery of oil on their tribal lands.
Discussed“uh I'm reading two things I'm about halfway through David Gran's new book killers of the flower Moon”
Where to get it
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Killing Reagan
Killing Reagan by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard is a fast-paced historical narrative that explores the political climate, the assassination attempt, and the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Discussed“up there at the top is Bill O'Reilly and his co-writer Martin duggard and their book Killing Reagan”
Where to get it
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Knowing your value
Discussed“um although there were some practical answers and Janette Lao answered knowing your value by Ma brazinski it changed the way I worked including how I advise my clients on how they create their brand”
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Life for Sale
Discussed“this past week as Greg knows because he edited my review of it for the paper I read a short novel by the Japanese writer yukoh Mishima called life for sale”
Where to get it
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Love and trouble
Discussed“and the one I read most recently is called love and Trouble by CLA deeder and it came out in 2017”
Where to get it
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Mating
Mating by Norman Rush is a sprawling, intellectually ambitious novel following a brilliant female American anthropologist in Botswana as she navigates an intellectual and romantic entanglement with a utopian community leader.
Discussed“it's funny there is a character in costume and what I'm going to read from but I will say briefly about mating that I read it many years ago but it is a very memorable reading experience even if the specifics don't all come back to me quickly it is a wild book”
Where to get it
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Miles, the autobiography
Discussed“and the first one that I picked up is Miles Davis's autobiography which a Jazz playing friend of mine had recommended just as kind of an outrageous you know storytelling exercise because it's I was expecting it to be chatty”
Where to get it
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My bright abyss
Discussed“the other book of his I've read other than some poems here and there in in the various collections is a very intense Memoir called my bright Abyss which was about his relationship to sort of the possibility of his impending death”
Where to get it
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My Utmost for His Highest
Discussed“and she grew up reading regularly this Daily Devotional book called My Utmost For His Highest which is by a Scottish writer named Oswald Chambers”
Where to get it
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Negroland
Margo Jefferson's Negroland is a powerful memoir exploring race, class, and the expectations placed upon the African American elite in mid-century America.
Discussed“Margo Jefferson's book negrand Anor brard Kafka was the rage”
Where to get it
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Night of the Living Rez
Discussed“Morgan talty is here to talk about his debut Story collection Night of the Living Rez plus my colleague Liz Harris will be here with news from the publishing world and the times as critics Dwight Garner and Alexandra Jacobs will be here to talk about books they've recently reviewed”
Where to get it
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No Longer Human
Discussed“and um I'm about halfway through the second book I'm reading by an author named Osamu da da a z AI he was a mid-century writer who actually I think committed suicide when he was in his late 40s and I the two novels that I'm reading I think are essentially the majority of his production as a writer the”
Where to get it
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Northanger Abbey
Discussed“I have returned as an adult um to Jane Austin um when during the wave Aus her North anger ABY”
Where to get it
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Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller is a dark, suspenseful psychological novel that examines obsession, manipulation, and the complex dynamics of female friendship and isolation.
Discussed“and this was uh this is one of those cases where you know the cuts book starts with the affair with the professor and so that put me in mind of this book um Zoe hel's novel what was she thinking parenthesis notes on a scandal”
Where to get it
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On Beauty
On Beauty by Zadie Smith is a contemporary novel exploring family dynamics, art, and cultural friction.
Critiqued“um I'm actually not a big fan of on beauty which a lot of people liked”
Where to get it
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On the Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is the foundational scientific text establishing the theory of evolution by natural selection and detailing its profound impacts on modern biology and human thought.
Discussed“um but give us a sense of what happened between 1859 and and the Scopes trial in 1925 in terms of how uh On the Origin of Species um was received here and the impact it had”
Where to get it
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On the Road
On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a seminal novel chronicling the cross-country road trips and jazz-fueled adventures of its narrator and his peers.
Discussed“and he met Jack herak through other people she knew and so she essentially became an on and off again romantic partner of Jack herak right around the time that on the road was published”
Where to get it
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Outer Dark
Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak, atmospheric southern Gothic novel that forms the second book in the acclaimed author's early trilogy.
Discussed“im reading outer dark which is the second of his first three novels and the third that I'm reading on this little jaunt I'm on”
Where to get it
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Patrimony
Patrimony by Philip Roth is a moving memoir detailing the author's relationship with his aging father and the harrowing experience of watching an 86-year-old parent face declining health.
Discussed“I'm sort of sputtering through this Philip Roth KCK and I'm reading his 1991 Memoir patrony which is the story of his 86-year-old father's declining Health”
Where to get it
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Peril
Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa is a gripping political non-fiction book that details the tense final days of the Trump presidency and the transition of power.
Discussed“so the third book of Woodwards about the Trump presidency is recently out it's called Peril”
Where to get it
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Persuasion
Persuasion by Jane Austen is a classic novel that follows Anne Elliot as she navigates second chances at love and regret within Regency-era society.
Discussed“and so after recalling the affair for a bit she thinks in third person it was different now she knew all sorts of Liaisons were accepted single mothers taken for granted Bishops preaching about family values merely sounded foolish the world of persuasion had been long gone”
Where to get it
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Preparation for the Next Life
Discussed“Li's book is a follow-up to his debut novel preparation for the next life which was kind of a surprise hit a few years ago from a very very small press but a stunningly written book”
Where to get it
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Richard Nixon : the life
Richard Nixon: The Life by John A.
Discussed“it's a one volume biography of Richard Nixon”
Where to get it
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Rules for a Knight
Discussed“at number 12 there's rules for a night which is a book by the actor Ethan Hawk and it's kind of an odd project”
Where to get it
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Schlump
Discussed“the other one is the uh wonderfully titled schlump uh which is the title character in a 1928 novel about World War I that was written anonymously by Hans Herbert Grim”
Where to get it
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Shadowbahn
Discussed“and then a very different book the recent novel um by the experimental writer Steve Ericson called Shadow bond which we had reviewed I think a few weeks ago”
Where to get it
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Shot in the heart
Discussed“journalist wrote A Memoir called shot in the heart about about Gary and about the situation and I really liked the book”
Where to get it
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Sing, Unburied, Sing
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is a powerful Mississippi-set novel that functions simultaneously as a raw road trip narrative and a haunting ghost story.
Discussed“I went to the National book awards sty last night with uh several people including yourself and I had a sense that Jasmine Ward would be one of the favorites for the fiction award for her novel sing un buried sing her second novel to win the prize”
Where to get it
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Smile
Discussed“and I know we don't like to step on our reviews but I feel like this is far enough in the future that I just want to briefly note that Rody Doyle who's a writer I admire a great deal has a new novel coming out in October called smile and I've been reading that”
Where to get it
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Something for the Pain
Discussed“I started I said that I started in a weird way by reading his Memoir about horse racing which is called something for the pain and I finished that a few weeks ago”
Where to get it
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Speedboat
Speedboat by Renata Adler is a fragmentary, highly influential novel defined by its sharp observations and disjointed narrative style.
Discussed“it reminds me a lot of things like rata Adler's speedboat and Jenny ael's Department of speculation from a couple of years ago”
Where to get it
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The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Discussed“Ramona Pon who tweets as Ramona right now wrote The 500 Hats of Bartholomew cubbins”
Where to get it
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The Adversary
The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère is a chilling true-crime narrative that chronicles the life and horrific crimes of Jean-Claude Romand, a French man who murdered his entire family after lying to them about his career for decades.
Discussed“yeah exactly there's nothing more fitting to to wrap up the year with and but I'm reading his book The adversary which I think Jen salai talked about earlier in the year”
Where to get it
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The art of rivalry
Discussed“I read one thing for work like you did this week which was um a new book called The Art of rivalry by an art critic named Sebastian smei”
Where to get it
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The Bell
Discussed“and in fact the Bell another novel of hers is one of my favorite books but it's the Bell is very very serious and in fact I wouldn't say that it's humorless”
Where to get it
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The Blind Side
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis is a celebrated non-fiction book that examines the evolution of football strategy and the recruitment of offensive tackle Michael Oher, highlighting how changes in the game transformed the value of specific athletic positions.
Discussed“but it also became uh Michael Lewis's bestselling book The Blind Side which is it's s a remarkable book starts with a really long chapter analyzing Taylor's effect on football”
Where to get it
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The butcher boy
Discussed“what I found interesting about this in terms of my own trajectory as a reader is that I had read back in I believe it was the 90s his novel The Butcher Boy which was kind of a sensation at the time it was the first book of his published in the US”
Where to get it
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The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a beloved children's book written and illustrated by Dr.
Discussed“Tristan Carrasco said the cat and the hat”
Where to get it
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The Chestnut Man
The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup, translated by Caroline Waight, is a chilling Nordic noir thriller centered on a macabre serial killer who leaves a small figure made of chestnuts at each crime scene.
Discussed“I left reading a book that I talked about briefly on the last episode which was the chestnut Man by Soren vrp a Nordic Noir kind of thriller book”
Where to get it
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The color of water
The Color of Water by James McBride is a celebrated memoir about growing up in Red Hook as one of twelve children born to a Black father and a white mother who grew up Jewish, converted, and started a church.
Discussed“he's known of course his Memoir the color of water and that came up about 20 years ago”
Where to get it
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The Day of the Locust
Discussed“is that edition of Miss Lonely Hearts um packaged with day of the Locust it is”
Where to get it
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The Dirt
The Dirt by Neil Strauss is a notorious, bestselling collaborative autobiography that chronicles the wild, decadent, and tumultuous history of the legendary rock band Mötley Crüe.
Discussed“that put me in mind of a book that I dipped into many years ago called the dirt which is Neil strauss's history of the rock band mle crew”
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 Emperor of Ice-Cream
Discussed“I'd read two of his books previously the lonely passion of Judith Hearn which is I think currently available from the New York Review of Books Classics line and the Emperor of ice cream”
Where to get it
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The end of your life book club
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe is a touching memoir that chronicles the author's final months spent reading and discussing books with his terminally ill mother.
Discussed“and in some ways this book calls to mind another an earlier bestseller um will Schwab's end ofy life book club which was also about his relationship with his dying mother”
Where to get it
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The Evolution of Beauty
The Evolution of Beauty by Richard O.
Discussed“book is called the evolution of beauty by Richard o PR”
Where to get it
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The Ginger Man
Discussed“and last week or maybe the week before JP Don leevy died the 91-year-old Irish American author who is really known best for one novel called The Ginger Man so I've been reading that because I've been meaning to for many years”
Where to get it
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The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls's acclaimed memoir detailing her eccentric, impoverished, and nomadic upbringing with deeply flawed parents.
Discussed“and some of them you mentioned I think The Glass Castle and the Liars club and there was Katherine Harrison's the kiss Memoirs that Were Somehow pivotal points”
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“I had a similar early negative Henry James experience with the Golden Bowl in college which I think I I read read like chapter of um before casting it aside”
Where to get it
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The Goldfinch
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a sprawling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that chronicles the tumultuous life of a young boy who survives a terrorist bombing at an art museum that claims his mother's life, clinging secretly to a famous painting.
Discussed“which Alexander also spoke about The Goldfinch by Donna tart and that's hanging on at number 11 after 56 weeks on the list”
Where to get it
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The Good Lord Bird
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride is a historical novel that won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2014.
Discussed“and then he wrote the good Lord bird which won the national book award for fiction in 2014”
Where to get it
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The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F.
Discussed“the other book that I finally got to uh was The Great Gatsby which is obviously very late in life to be reading it”
Where to get it
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The Guilty
Discussed“up at number two is David balchi whose new novel is called the guilty and he is no stranger to the top of the list”
Where to get it
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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Discussed“what I have not been reading is I I got about 50 or 75 pages into the heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers which I had never read”
Where to get it
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The ice palace
Discussed“don't think the thing I'll mention quickly and secondly because it's so different and strange is this very thin novel called The Ice Palace by a Norwegian writer named tarai vas it's t a r ji and then his last name is V AAS”
Where to get it
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The Interestings
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer is a sweeping contemporary novel that follows the lives of a tight-knit group of friends who met at a performing arts camp as teenagers, tracing their relationships, ambitions, and disappointments over several decades.
Discussed“and I think in that first episode you talked to Meg walitzer about her novel The interestings do you have any memory of kind of going into that episode”
Where to get it
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The Kingdom
The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrère is a sweeping and introspective work exploring the origins and early days of Christianity through historical analysis and personal narrative.
Discussed“and his most recent book is called the kingdom”
Where to get it
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The Kingdom of Speech
Discussed“um and then um also notably Tom Wolf uh with his kind of argument um against the theory of evolution”
Where to get it
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The Kiss
The Kiss is a controversial and boundary-pushing memoir by American author Kathryn Harrison that details her harrowing experiences with familial trauma.
Discussed“and some of them you mentioned I think The Glass Castle and the Liars club and there was Katherine Harrison's the kiss Memoirs that Were Somehow pivotal points”
Where to get it
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The Known World
The Known World by Edward P.
Discussed“it's a novel called the Known World by Edward p Jones”
Where to get it
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The Liars' Club
The Liars' Club by Mary Karr is a seminal memoir recounting the author's turbulent upbringing in a Texas oil town.
Discussed“and some of them you mentioned I think The Glass Castle and the Liars club and there was Katherine Harrison's the kiss Memoirs that Were Somehow pivotal points”
Where to get it
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the lonely passion of judith hearne
Discussed“I'd read two of his books previously the lonely passion of Judith Hearn which is I think currently available from the New York Review of Books Classics line and the Emperor of ice cream”
Where to get it
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The Magic Mountain
Thomas Mann's monumental novel The Magic Mountain follows a young engineer who visits his cousin at an international tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, where time and philosophical debates stretch endlessly.
Discussed“so I decided to pick up the Magic Mountain and just force my way through it it's about 700 Pages um and I'm about 100 pages into it and loving it”
Where to get it
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The Mars Room
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner is a gritty contemporary novel that explores the harsh realities of the American prison system through the eyes of an inmate serving multiple life sentences.
Discussed“so I read Rachel kushner's the Mars room”
Where to get it
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The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is a dazzling satirical masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian literature that intertwines the arrival of the devil in Soviet Moscow with a profound retelling of the story of Pontius Pilate.
Discussed“I feel like around the same time I read the Master and Margarita by bulgakov which I think holds together better you know as a as a whole”
Where to get it
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The Mistletoe Promise
Discussed“up at number nine Richard Paul Evans who has a Christmas themed book every year around this time has the mistletoe in his latest”
Where to get it
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The Nix
The Nix by Nathan Hill is an expansive, satirical debut novel that follows a disgruntled college professor and failed writer as he reconnects with his estranged mother after she commits a bizarre political crime.
Discussed“most notably probably this debut novel by Nathan Hill called the Nicks niix”
Where to get it
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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“there are the literary awards which everyone always looks forward to and in five categories so I'll start with the the fiction category that was won by Richard powers for his novel The over story”
Where to get it
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The Peanuts Papers
Discussed“it is called the peanuts papers writers and cartoonists on Charlie Brown Snoopy and the Gang and the meaning of life”
Where to get it
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The Pharaoh’s Secret
Discussed“at number eight the pharaoh's Secret by Clive kusler and Graham Brown”
Where to get it
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THE PLAGUE
The Plague is an existentialist novel by Albert Camus that follows the harrowing struggles of citizens trapped in a plague-stricken Algerian city.
Discussed“well I'm always a fan of publishing history and so it was interesting and fun to learn about the reaction of readers that Koff the American publisher that uh was actually really eager to acquire the plague Kimo's uh you know Nazi allegory novel”
Where to get it
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The Plot Against America
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is a prominent alternate history novel imagining a fascist America in the 1940s under the isolationist presidency of Charles Lindbergh.
Where to get it
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The Power Broker
The Power Broker by Robert A.
Discussed“well I'm still broker you thought I was kidding when I said I'd be talking about this book for the next year and a half bad as pamin L mov”
Where to get it
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The prelude
The Prelude by William Wordsworth is a monumental, book-length autobiographical poem that chronicles the spiritual and intellectual development of the renowned romantic poet.
Discussed“Chris wisman likewise said I disagree strongly re Wordsworth the Prelude is perhaps the first directly confessional poem”
Where to get it
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The Princess Diarist
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher is a candid and reflective memoir compiling the late actress and writer's personal journals from her time filming the original Star Wars trilogy.
Discussed“and then the sad uh up at number one Carrie Fischer's final book presumably the princess diarist”
Where to get it
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The Room Where It Happened
The Room Where It Happened by John R.
Discussed“it does involve a book or I like to call this book by John Bolton the real American dirt it's John Bolton's Memoir the room where it happened is the other big controversial publishing story this week”
Where to get it
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The setting sun
Discussed“and now I'm reading a book called The Setting Sun which is very different”
Where to get it
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The Stand
The Stand by Stephen King is an epic post-apocalyptic horror novel that chronicles the devastation of human civilization by a weaponized influenza strain and the subsequent battle between survivors aligned with forces of good and evil.
Discussed“you know it probably is the stand I would have to say”
Where to get it
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The Stranger, The Plague (Coles Notes)
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a foundational work of absurdist literature that explores the profound alienation and emotional detachment of its protagonist, Meursault, against the backdrop of colonial Algeria.
Discussed“and of course Kimu is uh in addition to the stranger being a really uh profound and influential book”
Where to get it
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The Swimmers
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is a poignant novel that centers on an eclectic community of regular swimmers who frequent a subterranean municipal pool, before shifting into a deeply moving and powerful narrative about a specific mother and daughter.
Discussed“Julie otsuka will tell us about her new novel the swimmers which starts with a large group at a pool and then turns into the powerful story of a particular mother and daughter”
Where to get it
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The Tin Woodman of Oz
Discussed“and all I can say is that the book called the tin Woodman of Oz which I think is the 12th in the series there were 14 or 15 is basically tells the backstory of the Tin Man and it is disturbing”
Where to get it
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The Vet's Daughter
Discussed“although her probably her best known book which is also in the series is is just called the vet's daughter”
Where to get it
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The War for Gloria
Discussed“and the last two he's reviewed are attacus lisha's second novel called the war for Gloria and column Tobin's new novel The Magician”
Where to get it
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The White Album
The White Album by Joan Didion is a seminal collection of essays capturing the fractured cultural and political landscape of America during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Discussed“I've read the Classic 60s collection slouching towards betham and and The White Album and I I've read play it as it lays her novel one of her novels and and more of the non-fiction”
Where to get it
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The wolves
Discussed“well three new books on hard cover fiction at number 14 it's the Wolves by Alex Baron the 10th book in the series featuring the former CIA agent John Wells”
Where to get it
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The Woman in the dunes
Discussed“but I'm also now more than halfway through the woman in the dunes by Kobo AB which is was also turned into a movie”
Where to get it
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a classic children's fantasy novel by L.
Discussed“weird to say but I'm going to be reading The Wizard of Oz”
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.
Discussed“so over the weekend I read uh they're there by Tommy orange and which I think probably everyone has heard of at this point”
Where to get it
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This Body I Wore
Discussed“her new book is a memoir called this body I wore and the New York Times book review Manuel beton Court calls it an achingly beautiful Memoir about a trans woman's often vexed relationship with her own body”
Where to get it
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Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates
Discussed“at number two Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates”
Where to get it
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a classic espionage novel by John le Carré that follows the intricate investigations of intelligence officer George Smiley.
Discussed“and now I'm into Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy which is fairly considerably longer than the Spy Who Came in from the cold”
Where to get it
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Tracy Flick Can't Win
Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta is a satirical novel that catches up with the famously ambitious protagonist of Election as she navigates the complexities of middle age and professional stagnation.
Discussed“Tom parda joins us to discuss the return of a famous protagonist in his new novel Tracy flick can't win”
Where to get it
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Transit
Transit by Rachel Cusk is a masterclass in minimalist contemporary fiction that explores identity, displacement, and personal restructuring, functioning as the middle installment of her acclaimed trilogy that began with Outline.
Discussed“speaking of complex women um I'm reading Rachel cusk's new novel Transit which comes out this month and it's a follow-up to her previous novel outline”
Where to get it
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Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum Series #22)
Discussed“but he's beat out at the very top this week by Janet ivanovich's new book tricky 22”
Where to get it
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Turning the tables
Discussed“and there's one more there is at number five turning the tables by the Italian American Teresa judice and Casey Barker ujindice is of course the Real Housewife of New Jersey and who's recently released from prison”
Where to get it
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Tweak
Discussed“both of the books one called Beautiful Boy the together called tweak dealing with Nick Chef's meth addiction and the movie which stars Steve Carell and Timothy shalamay tries to interweave the two perspectives of those books”
Where to get it
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Two by Two
Discussed“uh Nicholas Sparks is at number one with uh his most recent novel 2 by two John grisham's on there James Patterson all the familiar names”
Where to get it
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Unreliable memoirs
Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs is the celebrated first installment of the author's autobiographical writings, capturing his early life with wit and sharp observation.
Discussed“Clive James unreliable memo I guess he's not just a book critic”
Where to get it
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Warheart (Sword of Truth)
Discussed“we'll start at number 16 with warheart by Terry goodkin”
Where to get it
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Washington Square
Washington Square by Henry James is a compelling novella that explores themes of courtship, family control, and inheritance in nineteenth-century New York City.
Discussed“I went to Washington Square which is one of his earlier novels and is by his standards relatively quick and easy to read”
Where to get it
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We Were Eight Years in Power
Discussed“the other thing I'm reading is tanasi coat's new book somewhat new it's a collection of pieces from the Atlantic over the past eight or nine years along with some new introductory Mini essays that he wrote for them called we were eight years in power an American Tragedy”
Where to get it
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Welcome home
Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin is a posthumous volume featuring an uncompleted memoir, letters, and sketches that offer a rare window into the nomadic and turbulent life of the celebrated short story writer.
Discussed“this is John Williams and I'm joined by Naja spiegelman who wrote a lovely review this week in the book review of two books by Lucia Berlin Evening in Paradise more stories and welcome home A Memoir with selected photographs and letters”
Where to get it
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What we do now
Discussed“I had a book cross my desk the other day from Melville house called what we do now and it's it's an anthology”
Where to get it
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White Teeth
White Teeth by Zadie Smith is a vibrant, multi-generational debut novel that explores identity, culture, and history through the lives of various families in London.
Discussed“my my two favorites are probably white teeth and NW”
Where to get it
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Wildlife
Discussed“there's an adaptation of a Richard Ford novel called Wildlife directed first feature directed by the actor Paul do with Carrie Mulligan Jake Gyllenhaal Bill Camp that's a long time ago that novel”
Where to get it
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Winter
Winter by Ali Smith is a contemporary novel that serves as the second installment in the author's ambitious quartet exploring the four seasons.
Discussed“it's Ali Smith's new book winter which is the second novel in her quartet based on the seasons”
Where to get it
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Working
Working by Studs Terkel is a celebrated nonfiction book composed of extensive interviews with a wide array of American workers regarding their daily occupations and personal feelings about their labor.
Discussed“we had one answer on Facebook uh that I thought was interesting because I expected more people to say it which is Cleaves who answered stud Turles working which is the sort of oral history of people talking about life on their jobs”
Where to get it
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Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories is a classic collection of children's tales written and illustrated by Dr.
Discussed“she writes the snitches even at five”
Where to get it
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You too can have a body like mine
Discussed“and her first novel which was published last year was called you two can have a body like mine and that was a very imaginative uh odd book”
Where to get it
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Youtubers
Discussed“was a book called YouTubers by Chris stokel Walker who's a British tech journalist”
Where to get it
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M.
Discussed“Robert pers died last month at 88 and so I'm reading the only book he's known for which is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”
Where to get it
Books John Williams wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (202: passing, ad reads, own books)
“the Gary tab's book the case against sugar that you were talking about earlier on the podcast uh makes its debut on in non-fiction at number 15”
“in researching this I I came up with this incredible letter that Weisner wrote to the book review in 198 7 when we reviewed another novel of his called The True Detective”
“number 15 um Billy Collins former poet laurate his new collection the reign in Portugal hits the list at number 15”
“and then at number 12 a book that is pretty wide ranging Ruth Bader Ginsburg the the Supreme Court Justice an anthology called my own words”
“I read um the prime of Miss Jean Brody earlier this year a couple years ago I went on a kick”
“I'm GNA add that to the read MTO Mor that's my other which that one has again”
“she says that the inspiration for this book was Michael gora's book A couple of years ago about Henry James's portrait of a lady”
“I reread parts of it for this review and I also reread some of two other books that I really love that are uh I think antecedents of it which are sarts nausea and dust's Notes from Underground”
“I reread parts of it for this review and I also reread some of two other books that I really love that are uh I think antecedents of it which are sarts nausea and dust's Notes from Underground”
“I at first I thought about um The Magic Mountain which I haven't read so I picked these sort of big ambitious things”
“someone here at the Times particularly recommended moth smoke which maybe was his first”
“it's like in Jonathan fransen's Freedom there was a bit about a guy who used to be a rock star”
“this isn't going to turn into my power broker”
“I'm going to go ahead and spoil the power broker now”
“so in America you have the the comedies that are scathing about race like the sellout or going all the way back to Huck fin”
“so in America you have the the comedies that are scathing about race like the sellout or going all the way back to Huck fin”
“Autumn came out last year”
“the title is a nod to John Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie which was a travel log with his dog”
“it's a 60 page essentially long short story by a Japanese writer named Yoko toada called the bridegroom was a dog... our listeners might remember that last week parl seel one of our critics talked about reviewing Tat's newest novel which is called the Emissary”
“if he chooses Finnegan's wake next that's it might happen”
“one was the scene in slaughterhouse 5 where he gets into the car to drive”
“and then the other one was in catch too when hungry”
“so we've got at number 14 the Paris spy by Susan Elia mcneel”
“at number seven another debut to the list but not by debut author by the very familiar name to the list Karen Slaughter has the good daughter”
“and then another recurring best-selling author Philip a Gregory has a new book The Last tutor at number six”
“two men Stuart Woods also a familiar name on the list and a co-writer Parnell Hall have a new book called barely legal”
“and then at number one again another frequent bestselling author Debbie momer has a new book called Any Dream Will Do”
“what's interesting is that Neil Degrassi Tyson who had been knocked off the top of the list is back up at number one with astrophysics for people in a hurry”
“and then at number four the only debut to the list is by Robert Wright and it is the new book why Buddhism is true”
“he left the hotel and walked to a cinema Where She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was playing”
“I'm gonna keep reading him because I I have I haven't read the remains of the day which obviously I think I should read”
“because Jen senior one of our daily book critics reviewed his new collection of short stories called trajectory and it just kind of”
“It was his second book his first novel was a book called Mohawk and this book was also set in the same fictional Upstate Town”
“and it starts with a sentence about the Magic Mountain by Tomas”
“John I read written lives by Javier Marius”
“she says the novel belongs in that tradition of narrative buffoonery the talkative firstperson voice attempting to ingratiate itself with readers which runs from Tristram Shandy through in our own century”
“and then she mentioned some books that I also love like sao's confessions of Zeno and and her robbles too loud a Solitude and even Samuel Becket she mentions”
“I Read Moby Dick on the beach I we let's do a future podcast on reading Moby Dick on the beach”
“and then um it turns into also a book very much about the death of his father which kind of previews his book patrimony which is a non-fiction book about the same subject”
“there was a cover article in the New York Times magazine in 1992 that the headline was the disturbing photography of Sally man and they were published the photographs in a big book called immediate family which became a really big seller for for such a book a lot controversy for those who don't remember”
“this story I I think James Wood reviewed her last book dear thief in the New Yorker”
“well I lik many things about that book but one amusing thing is that that book has exactly one thing in common with his one of his best friends Martin amos' Memoir experience”
“first up I'll be joined by the Oscar winner Barry Jenkins who's followed his award-winning Moonlight with an adaptation of a novel by James Baldwin”
“Meg willitzer is a prolific novelist whose books include the female persuasion and the interestings”
“Meg willitzer is a prolific novelist whose books include the female persuasion and the interestings”
“a few others that just spring mind briefly uh Anne patchett's belcanto which had a long journey to the screen I think is is out this season”
“the sisters brothers which is a Patrick dwit novel starring uh now starring walking Phoenix and John C Riley”
“the hate you give Angie Thomas's very big young adult smash novel is a movie and I think that that covers some of the ground”
“but what about Jaws you know probably did read jaw didn't every like 15 y old boy read read the book too”
“and some of the bigger books like say cloud outlas just become so unwieldy”
“I'm also reading just as kind of a a fun thing the Harry Potter play that came out a few years ago based on this JK rolling story but it's not actually written by JK Rowling that's Harry Potter and the cursed child”
“I'm also reading just as kind of a a fun thing the Harry Potter play that came out a few years ago based on this JK rolling story but it's not actually written by JK Rowling that's Harry Potter and the cursed child”
“I remember liking both of an Tyler's The Accidental Tourist although that was about a hundred years ago”
“something of white teeth by Z Smith and you say things like there's so much energy and Brilliance here”
“then she has a new book coming out this spring called normal people and it's again getting quite a lot of attention”
“I was reminded a little bit of George saunders's earlier like civil warland and bad decline that kind of social commentary but delivered in this very cartoonish of and entertaining way”
“I mean I would even say Song of Solomon over beloved where it it's the writer is just trying to hold that much more in her grasp”
“I mean I would even say Song of Solomon over beloved where it it's the writer is just trying to hold that much more in her grasp”
“he is the kind of writer where I I think right after this book there's another big one called landscape and memory that I've been meaning”
“he is the kind of writer where I I think right after this book there's another big one called landscape and memory that I've been meaning”
“and John I reviewed my war criminal by Jessica Stern”
“and the one that I'm going to talk about this week is James Baldwin's the fire next time which a lot of people have been talking about for not just the the past couple of months in America but also since tanasi coats I think sort of modeled his book between the world and me after part of this book”
“and the one that I'm going to talk about this week is James Baldwin's the fire next time which a lot of people have been talking about for not just the the past couple of months in America but also since tanasi coats I think sort of modeled his book between the world and me after part of this book”
“there's the JD Vance book which I haven't H I haven't gotten it yet but I'll I'll read that at some point to it's really interesting too if you contrast the books that people are reading”
“the ones that are sort of trying to understand the Trump movement I don't even know if conservative is probably not even the right word are this Memoir hillbilly elogy this very serious um uh non-fiction book white trash by Nancy Eisenberg and meanwhile the top four best sellers this week that are sort of the right explaining the left”
“Glenn Beck 's Liars is number two”
“crisis of character um by uh Gary burn and Grant M Schmidt is number three”
“and Dick Morrison and Eileen mcan's Armageddon is number four”
“and then you have hillbilly elgy but I really feel like and then you know two down you have between the world and me it's like people are really trying to understand what's going on right now”
“and then you have hillbilly elgy but I really feel like and then you know two down you have between the world and me it's like people are really trying to understand what's going on right now”
“I think it Peters out a little bit for me in the last section because similarly actually to Invisible Man which I read recently there are these sort of int party very mid-century scenes”
“it's called should you leave it's by the psychologist uh Peter Kramer who everyone knows for listening to Prozac”
“and if you know gornick work she had a great Memoir a couple years ago called the odd woman in the city”
“and if you know gornick work she had a great Memoir a couple years ago called the odd woman in the city”
“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”
“probably I bought the cassette tape at least 25 years ago of The Accidental Tourist by an Tyler which I had read and liked and I saw that John malovich did the narration and at the time I was you know in sort of a John malovich phase”
“I read a legacy by cibil Bedford”
“some of my favorite books are told in the first person Look At Me by Anita Brookner Richard Ford's Frank baskam novels”
“and then I also think it's really useful for Comic novels for some reason I think of like money by Martin Amos or Homeland by Sam lip site”
“no I think I mean Brookner and I waiting for the barbarians by JM cut is another one that's told from the point of view of this you know this guy who's witnessing”
“I want to hear Melville reading Moby Dick”
“there's a classic Memoir by a guy named Edmund Goss called Father and Son which is one of my favorite books and it it echoes that a little bit”
“there's a classic Memoir by a guy named Edmund Goss called Father and Son which is one of my favorite books and it it echoes that a little bit”
“no actually u i was past the sirens onto the Cyclops part which Ed on Twitter last weekend opens with a a passing reference to a character named Moses Herzog who then Sal Bell stole the name for Herzog”
“I'm going to bring with me two books about Barcelona in particular column Tobin's sort of thin one called homage to Barcelona”
“one of my favorite novels is Iris Murdoch's the Bell”
“and the finalists in that category were civilizing torture by W fitzu Brundage and American Eden David hosac botany and Medicine in the garden of The Early Republic by Victoria Johnson”
“and the finalists in that category were civilizing torture by W fitzu Brundage and American Eden David hosac botany and Medicine in the garden of The Early Republic by Victoria Johnson”
“I think one was called faces in the crowd and and there was another slender book and they were fairly short very beautiful very smart full of great imagery but a bit bit oblique and a bit elliptical which I like”
“it was completely overshadowed by Al Quiet on the Western Front which obviously got a ton of attention and was became a classic pretty instantly”
“Conan himself had a book a few years ago called Thinking Fast and Slow which was on our 10 best books of the year list that year — which I'm also sort of Dipping into”
“Conan himself had a book a few years ago called Thinking Fast and Slow which was on our 10 best books of the year list that year — which I'm also sort of Dipping into”
“I mean those are Grim obviously but this is just about this character in Tennessee a guy who sort of lives outside the bounds of society”
“um I think the next one is going to be outer dark which was this was his third book The Orchard keeper was his first”
“Tina you um recently read the corner that held them the novel by Sylvia Tansen Warner which is also set in medieval times”
“and she actually I think titled her Memoir the odd woman in the city because of this book The Odd women”
“and she actually I think titled her Memoir the odd woman in the city because of this book The Odd women”
“I think it was 1893 a few years after Henry James's the bostonians was published it's actually a book that has a lot in common with that”
“I read other people's houses by lur seagull”
“it's a novel she's best known here I think for her book old filth which I read a million years ago”
“a few two years ago I talked on the podcast about this short book that was published in Britain called Robinson”
“it follows the equally turly titled fear and rage”
“it follows the equally turly titled fear and rage”
“and that book is the magician that's the magician”
“yes our obituary is funny because it says Henry David thorough a life of the Mind 1986 did not win any major lary Awards but it prompted a fan letter from Annie Dillard the Pulitzer prizewinning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”
“I'm reading right now Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy by John lare and I'm reading read me by Leo Benedictus”
“I'm reading right now Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy by John lare and I'm reading read me by Leo Benedictus”
“and I read three books Leon Mor's nine perfect strangers dear Child by Romy Housman and winter by Christen Kure”
“and I read three books Leon Mor's nine perfect strangers dear Child by Romy Housman and winter by Christen Kure”
“and I read three books Leon Mor's nine perfect strangers dear Child by Romy Housman and winter by Christen Kure”
“and I think rightly with Lauren O's new novel fake accounts”
“I had that same reaction with Magda uh Zabo the door right also great of course was excellent”
“and I'm reading Tamaris grow by Gerald mer remember there's more at nytimes.com slbs and you can always write to us at books nytimes.com”
“it is listeners to that episode will know the life or a novel based on the life of the German writer Thomas man who won the Nobel Prize and wrote The Magic Mountain and bden Brooks and Death in Venice”
“it is listeners to that episode will know the life or a novel based on the life of the German writer Thomas man who won the Nobel Prize and wrote The Magic Mountain and bden Brooks and Death in Venice”
“it is listeners to that episode will know the life or a novel based on the life of the German writer Thomas man who won the Nobel Prize and wrote The Magic Mountain and bden Brooks and Death in Venice”
“I read the magician by colum toin”
“and then like I remember I did that with Warren piece originally and you know speaking of a large cast of characters”
“and then like I remember I did that with Warren piece originally and you know speaking of a large cast of characters”
“I did that with bring up the bodies the H did Hall the first I'm sorry Wolf Hall is what I mean”
“I did that with bring up the bodies the H did Hall the first I'm sorry Wolf Hall is what I mean”
“I remember at the beginning of the pandemic the book book I first picked up I'm pretty sure was Ian Frasier in Siberia”
“a good friend of mine Alicia Abbott wrote A Memoir Fairy Land which came out gosh I want to say maybe years ago five years that long ago”
“and then the second one was a book by another good friend Mindy Lewis who wrote A Memoir called life inside”
“I read small things like these by CLA Keegan”
“he won the national book award for fiction in 2014 for his debut collection of short stories redeployment he's also the author of the novel missionaries”
“he's also the author of the novel missionaries”
“I don't think I read the great Santini I know that a lot of people love that book”
“I reviewed a slender book that was recently translated called Rebellion which I really enjoyed and I loved his book job which is brilliant”
“I reviewed a slender book that was recently translated called Rebellion which I really enjoyed and I loved his book job which is brilliant”
“I am now reading Colony by an River sens and I'm reading the emperor's tomb by Joseph Roth”
“I think this was her first and then the second book was a little friend I think is what it was called and I haven't read it but it was received as a disappointment”
“and then she came out with the goldfinch in 2012 or 2013 or something like that and it's like this 10 I feel like we're we're due for a fourth but I loved that book”
“I wonder if we our critic Alexander Jacobs recently reviewed a book called uncommon measure by Natalie Hodes which is a yeah yeah that that's actually what turned me to this book”
“I read the new novel POG Mahone by Patrick McCabe and his earlier book The Butcher Boy”
“Gabriel zevan is the author of several novels including the story life of AJ ficker her new book is tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and she's here to talk about it”
“The Collection again is KN of the living Rez by Morgan talty Morgan thanks so much for being here”
“it's like for me there's a part that's like the battlefield scene of War and Peace where at least I don't know maybe for some readers that's very exciting for me”
“it's like for me there's a part that's like the battlefield scene of War and Peace where at least I don't know maybe for some readers that's very exciting for me”
“now almost I think literally maybe I had read The Accidental Tourist and then I saw that John malovich narrated it”
“I read truth and Beauty by Anne patchet”
“I read truth and Beauty by Anne patchet”
“I'm reading Fierce attachments by Vivien gornick”
“and I'm reading Role Models by John Waters”
“I talked a couple of weeks ago on the podcast about the black prince and so I've continued my education in her reading”
“and of course fransen's new Trilogy is is titled after something in Middle March so we're connecting Dots here”
“she is a Pulitzer Prize finalist poet the author of The memoir the light of the world and I'm willing to bet that you remember her reading her poem praise song for the day”
“he's the author of many acclaimed novels including children which he adapted into an Oscar nominated screenplay the leftovers which later became a series for HBO and election which was turned into a movie starring a very memorable Reese Witherspoon as its lead character”
“he's the author of many acclaimed novels including children which he adapted into an Oscar nominated screenplay the leftovers which later became a series for HBO and election which was turned into a movie starring a very memorable Reese Witherspoon as its lead character”
“he's the author of many acclaimed novels including children which he adapted into an Oscar nominated screenplay the leftovers which later became a series for HBO and election which was turned into a movie starring a very memorable Reese Witherspoon as its lead character”
“Tracy is back now in pda's new novel Tracy flick can't win and he joins me now to talk about it”
“the book again is Tracy flick can't win Tom PDA thanks so much for being here to talk about it”
“after she became a bit more welln here for her ensuing novels one of which is called the Essex Serpent and one of which is called melmoth m m o”
“after she became a bit more welln here for her ensuing novels one of which is called the Essex Serpent and one of which is called melmoth m m o”
“what I love about that is that another contemporary of silos Kings Ley Amos has I think one of the great hangover scenes in Lucky Jim his novel”
“I read Great Expectations in high school but I haven't read anything else”
“and I'm reading Saturday night and Sunday Morning by Alan Silo”
“and I'm reading Saturday night and Sunday Morning by Alan Silo”
“Hornby of course is known uh for weaving lots of music into his books um in particular High Fidelity and um About a Boy about the uh post one hit wonder life”
“Hornby of course is known uh for weaving lots of music into his books um in particular High Fidelity and um About a Boy about the uh post one hit wonder life”
“Simon Winchester reviews this week the new novel by Susan Barker the incarnations”
“he writes screenplays for other people including most recently um wild which was Cheryl str's Memoir turned into a big movie with Reese Witherspoon”
“um but his last book The Bone clocks just came out this past fall and now we have news that this October he'll publish his seventh novel called blade house which Random House will publish on October 27th”
“I think people probably know him best for um dog soldiers and a flag for Sunrise”
“I think people probably know him best for um dog soldiers and a flag for Sunrise”
“tanassi coats's book between the world and me was mentioned that's a number one bestseller”
“tanassi coats's book between the world and me was mentioned that's a number one bestseller”
“so was Paula Hawkins is the girl on the train which is an ongoing bestseller”
“I heard um also some books that are familiar from the bestseller list all of the light we cannot see the Anthony do”
“um Victoria Adell said she's reading uprooted by Naomi novic um a fantasy novel we reviewed earlier this year”
“um and everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ang who was mentioned several times”
“and Elizabeth gagen a writer herself wrote that a manual for cleaning women by Lucia Berlin was her favorite”
“another previous podcast book um a God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson was mentioned by hope Dyan and a couple of other people”
“Michael Takens who works in the business said old filth which I finally read after years of people recommending it to me which led to a flurry of responses on Twitter from other writers”
“it's appropriate given the season that a couple of people mentioned William Finnegan's new surfing Memoir Barbarian days”
“and I also saw Americana by chimamanda Nago adich got a number of mentions”
“um and G Greenwell and Cara blue Adams both plugged a little Life by Hana Yan gahara which of course was just named to the long list for the man Booker prize”
“and one last big seller station 11”
“Harris iron is the author of Heaven's Bankers inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance reviewed this week in the book reviews money issue”
“this is his third novel his first was called John Crow's devil uh that was in 2005”
“and in 2009 he published The Book Of Night women”
“I remember one summer reading light in August which I I thought that I very stealthily snuck off my parents bookshelf”
“and then you have hillbilly elegy but I really feel like”
“and then you know two down you have between the world and me”
“and then you know two down you have between the world and me”
“it's called should you leave it's by the psychologist r Peter Kramer who everyone knows for listening to Prozac”
“Holly Smith named pet cemetery”
“Andrea named Kings misery but said Kujo was great too”
“Andrea named Kings misery but said Kujo was great too”
“Several readers named Agatha Christies and then there none”
“Mark Z Daniel's house of leaves and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which is an old class that is a good creepy one”
“Mark Z Daniel's house of leaves and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which is an old class that is a good creepy one”
“and going even further back in time to something I had not heard of a reader named Colin Harker said the Irish novelist Charles Robert maturan melmoth The Wanderer from 1820 a classic Gothic”
“it actually it has sort of Echoes of you know the American version might be the catcher and the Ry but this is a little more for adults”
“have you read uh The Haunting of Hill House as well I haven't actually I think the only thing I've read of hers is the lottery which of course I read in school like everyone else the short story the very creepy short story about the villagers who well I won't spoil it in case there are three people left”
“somebody uh who's a big fan of that book is Mary Carr and she talks about it in the art of memoir”
“David a Gaspar listed several books among them attakus lish's novel preparation for the next life uh Susan Barker's the incarnations and Garris Colberg sitting on fire”
“David a Gaspar listed several books among them attakus lish's novel preparation for the next life uh Susan Barker's the incarnations and Garris Colberg sitting on fire”
“where we have a page for readers sandre Maria as I said we we asked for books new and old and she said that she was finally getting around to salingers frany and Zoe”
“where we have a page for readers sandre Maria as I said we we asked for books new and old and she said that she was finally getting around to salingers frany and Zoe”
“and then another oldie but goodie Barbara hay said the Moon is down by John Steinbeck”
“have you read they came like swallows”