Person
Every book Lauren Christensen recommended on podcasts
Lauren Christensen’s most recommended books
- Blood Orange Night by Melissa Bond
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
- Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
- Luster by Raven Leilani
- A visitation of spirits by Randall Kenan
- Anna Karenina by Лев Толстой
- Cherry by Nico Walker
- Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
- Friday black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Lauren Christensen appeared on podcasts such as The Book Review to discuss, recommend, and explore various works of contemporary and classic literature. During these discussions, Christensen engaged with listeners and guests about a wide array of fiction and non-fiction titles. She recommended Sarah Manguso's book Liars, which is told from the perspective of a female writer married to an artist. She also talked about reading Emma Cline's novel The Girls, noting how the main character, Eevee, narrates the story from a middle-aged perspective while looking back on her impressionable youth. Furthermore, Christensen discussed Michael Gorra's book Portrait of a Novel, focusing on its connection to Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady. She shared her reading of Robert Caro's extensive biography detailing the life of Lyndon Johnson in The Path To Power. Christensen also recommended and discussed Toni Morrison's novel Tar Baby after finishing it. In addition, she highlighted Raven Leilani's novel Luster, expressing excitement about finally discussing it on the air. Through these various conversations, Christensen shared her insights into character perspectives, narrative structures, and thematic elements across modern fiction and historical non-fiction alike.
Books recommended by Lauren Christensen
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Blood Orange Night
Blood Orange Night by Melissa Bond is a compelling and unconventional memoir detailing the author's harrowing journey through severe drug addiction and recovery.
Recommended“this is a more recent book it is called blood orange night it is a memoir by this woman named Melissa Bond she reads it which is something I I really love when an author reads their own Memoir”
Where to get it
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Klara and the Sun
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro is a dystopian novel narrated by an artificial intelligence companion observing the shifting human world.
Recommended“so when I picked up Clara and the sun his latest book and found out it was about a robot I was just a little bit worried about which side I would end up on”
Where to get it
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Tar Baby
Toni Morrison's novel Tar Baby received thoughtful reflection and recommendation across multiple episodes of The Book Review in July 2024.
Recommended“I just finished Tar baby”
Where to get it
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Dept. of Speculation
Dept.
Discussed“I hadn't ever read Department of speculation which was on our 2014 best books list”
Where to get it
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Luster
Luster is a striking debut novel by Raven Leilani that explores the complexities of youth, race, art, and modern intimacy.
Recommended“I have been dying to talk about it since I I read it a little bit earlier this summer but but it just came out Raven Leilani's luster”
Where to get it
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A visitation of spirits
A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan is a powerful southern gothic novel that explores the struggles of a young gay Black boy named Percy James in a rural North Carolina community, blending magical realism and deep psychological insight.
Recommended“I'm halfway through the late Randall Keenan's debut novel a visitation of spirits”
Where to get it
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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a monumental 19th-century masterpiece of Russian literature that explores complex themes of love, adultery, social class, and tragic human choices.
Recommended“and another one that I really loved was Anna kenina brought of before Maggie Gyllenhaal really hits that sweet spot obviously she knows act for the screen but she reads Tolstoy like like she wrote it”
Where to get it
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Cherry
Cherry by Nico Walker is a gritty debut novel following an anonymous narrator who drops out of college to serve as an army medic in Iraq, only to return home battling severe PTSD and opioid addiction.
Recommended“I am reading uh Cherry it's a debut novel by Nico Walker”
Where to get it
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Four Treasures of the Sky
Four Treasures of the Sky is a novel by Jenny Tinghui Zhang that follows a young Chinese woman's harrowing journey of survival in the American West during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Recommended“so I'm reading four treasures of the Sky by an author named Jenny tingu Zang”
Where to get it
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Friday black
Friday black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a piercing short story collection that confronts modern consumerism, systemic racism, and violence with sharp speculative energy.
Recommended“my one of my favorite books of the year uh was actually a debut short Story collection called Friday Black by nanak kuame a brna”
Where to get it
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Intimacies
Intimacies by Katie M.
Recommended“I just finished Katie kimura's new novel intimacies and I hadn't read her earlier books I'd read the previous one separation and loved it”
Where to get it
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Liars
Liars is a darkly witty and psychologically astute novel by Sarah Manguso that explores the complex dynamics of marriage, female ambition, and domestic resentment from the perspective of a writer married to a visual artist.
Recommended“but I guess just in recent reading and viewing there's Dany senna's colored television as well as Sarah Mango's Liars which are both told from the perspectives of female writers who are married to artists”
Where to get it
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Love That Story
Love That Story is an essay collection by author and television personality Jonathan Van Ness that shares personal reflections, humor, and insights on identity, culture, and self-acceptance.
Recommended“I am here with Jonathan vaness who's the author most recently of love that story and Essay collection”
Where to get it
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Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb is a candid memoir by a psychotherapist who takes readers inside her own therapy sessions while simultaneously treating her diverse roster of patients.
Recommended“the first one is definitely maybe you should talk to someone by Lori gotle I think actually it does speak to what we were just talking about in terms of episode podcast structure”
Where to get it
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Portrait of a Novel
Portrait of a Novel by Michael Gorra is a brilliant work of literary criticism that examines the creation and legacy of Henry James's classic novel The Portrait of a Lady.
Recommended“I'm reading portrait of a novel by Michael Gora which is s of a book about a book it's about Henry James's the portrait of a lady”
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.
Recommended“and another novel that I had thought of was sing unburied Singh Jasmine Ward's Mississippi novel”
Where to get it
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The Chiffon Trenches
The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley is a candid memoir by the late fashion journalist that chronicles his trailblazing career, high-society relationships, and personal struggles within the elite fashion industry.
Recommended“so I just finished listening to the audio book of Andre Leon Tally's Memoir the chiffon trenches”
Where to get it
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The Dutch House
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is an immersive, decades-spanning family saga that traces the complex bond between a brother and sister locked out of their childhood home.
Recommended“I am reading Anne patchett's latest novel The Dutch house I confess I'm certainly not an aacha completist”
Where to get it
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The Girls
The Girls by Emma Cline is a critically acclaimed debut novel that explores the dark and mesmerizing allure of a 1960s cult through the eyes of a vulnerable, impressionable teenage girl.
Recommended“so let me just backtrack to the the plot um Eevee is sort of narrating from later in life she's middle-aged and sort of a drift she she's kind of lost herself and um she remembers a story of when she was a young teenager very impressionable”
Where to get it
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The Path To Power
The Path to Power by Robert A.
Recommended“Im about 400 pages into the more than 3000 in counting pages that robert Carol has written about Lyndon Johnson”
Where to get it
The other 37 books Lauren Christensen recommended or discussed, ranked
- The Power by Naomi Alderman
- The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
- The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
- The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
- Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement
- Wild seed by Octavia E. Butler
- A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
- A separation by Katie M. Kitamura
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
- Heavy by Kiese Laymon
- Homie by Danez Smith
- Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
- My Brilliant Friend by Chiara Lagani
- Passing by Nella Larsen
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- Stoner by John Williams
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- The Diving Pool by 小川洋子
- The Fraud by Zadie Smith
- The Idiot by Elif Batuman
- The Magician by Colm Tóibín
- The Neapolitan Novels : My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
- The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
- The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
- The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Appearances
Other mentions (14: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and so I feel like it was just almost like going I just read creation lake so caves are in my mind it's almost like going into a cave and seeing this cavernous room”
“because then it's it really is like a good Counterpoint to Helter Skelter because in Helter Skelter you really don't understand those girls at all”
“reminded me a little bit of Han Kang's novel The vegetarian and what Han was doing in that book”
“the last novel I read was belcanto in college and I absolutely loved it”
“and incidentally completely by coincidence the last book we read was small fry”
“so um I also read intimacies by Kitty kidura and I just that's not the book I'm about to discuss”
“I read visitation of Spirits by Randall Keenan”
“he was previously the author of A Memoir called over-the-top and many listeners may know him as a star and the grooming expert on Netflix's queery”
“she's also written the answers nobody is ever missing and Pew this book to me was just indisputably I would say a hugely ambitious work of fiction”
“she's also written the answers nobody is ever missing and Pew this book to me was just indisputably I would say a hugely ambitious work of fiction”
“she's also written the answers nobody is ever missing and Pew this book to me was just indisputably I would say a hugely ambitious work of fiction”
“before I describe the book I want to clarify that this is not the same Jenny Zang as the woman who wrote sour heart”
“but in terms of reader investment in this young woman's coming of age it made me think so much of Kora in Coulson whiteheads the Underground Railroad from a few years ago”
“I mean I don't know this book feels like you're gonna I I don't know how you're G to feel about this but it feels like Middle March to me”