Person
Every book Molly Young recommended on podcasts
Molly Young’s most recommended books
- Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
- Mindful tech by Levy, David M.
- Pogue's basics by David Pogue
- The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère
- Breakfast with Seneca by David Fideler
- Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino
- Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
- The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
Molly Young is a book critic and editor for The New York Times Book Review who frequently discusses literature and evaluates new releases across various genres. During her appearances on The Book Review podcast, she has recommended and discussed several notable titles. Young stated the title of Gary Shteyngart's pandemic novel Our Country Friends, noting that she had reviewed it and loved it, while also mentioning his earlier works The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Super Sad True Love Story. She recommended Emmanuel Carrère's breakout book The Adversary as an ideal starting point for readers unfamiliar with his writing. Additionally, Young evaluated David Levy's Mindful Tech as a strong option for people looking to manage email and phone usage in daily life, and she recommended David Pogue's Pogue's Basics as a great guide for young people starting out. Throughout her discussions, she also engaged with the publication history and cultural impact of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary.
Books recommended by Molly Young
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Our Country Friends
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart is a pandemic-era novel that follows a group of friends who isolate together in a country house as the world shuts down.
Discussed“I've recently written about Gary Stein's pandemic novel which is called our country friends and and I loved it”
Where to get it
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Mindful tech
Mindful tech by David M.
Recommended“and then after that if you had to go down the list mindful Tech is a really good option for people who are resigned to the fact that email and phones are part of our lives”
Where to get it
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Pogue's basics
Pogue's basics by David Pogue is a practical guide featuring essential life tips and shortcuts that people often do not learn elsewhere.
Recommended“and after that after that poges Basics poges Basics is a great book to give to uh the young whipper snapper in your life”
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.
Recommended“I would start with the adversary which is his breakout”
Where to get it
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Breakfast with Seneca
Discussed“so what brought me to it was a book called breakfast with senica by David Fidel who's a philosopher”
Where to get it
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Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding is a landmark contemporary comedic novel that popularized the Bridget Jones series and captured the experiences of a single British woman navigating romance and professional life in the 1990s.
Discussed“first of all the the first Bridget Jones Diary came out in 1995”
Where to get it
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Deep Work
Deep Work by Cal Newport is a guide to cultivating undistracted focus and achieving peak productivity in an increasingly noisy world.
Discussed“and Cal Newport who writes deep work is a big proponent of sort of batching all of your small tasks into discret periods of the day”
Where to get it
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Eating to Extinction
Discussed“i wrote about a book by the bbc journalist dan saladino called eating to extinction the world's rarest foods and why we need to save them”
Where to get it
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Super Sad True Love Story
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart is a satirical, near-term dystopian novel set in an America dominated by a social media-driven, crypto-fascist regime.
Discussed“but the book he wrote that really got me on the shineart bus was called super sad true love story”
Where to get it
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The Daily Stoic
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman offers 365 days of ancient wisdom and reflections designed to help readers cultivate resilience, clarity, and self-control in their everyday lives.
Discussed“so for example Ryan holiday who the big breakthrough book in 2014 he wrote the obstacle is the way and then subsequently wrote The Daily stoic and he's written a bunch of books about the philosophy”
Where to get it
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The Obstacle Is the Way
The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday is a popular self-help book that draws on Stoic philosophy to help readers reframe adversity as an opportunity for growth.
Discussed“so for example Ryan holiday who the big breakthrough book in 2014 he wrote the obstacle is the way and then subsequently wrote The Daily stoic and he's written a bunch of books about the philosophy”
Where to get it
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The Productivity Project
The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey is a comprehensive guide that explores various tactics, experiments, and mindsets designed to help individuals optimize their time, focus, and energy.
Discussed“I mean you could be a very productive procrastinator or a very productive consumer of internet porn and those things aren't necessarily good things but in in one case in the productivity project”
Where to get it
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The Russian Debutante's Handbook
Discussed“yeah I am his first novel called the Russian debutants handbook and it was it kind of made a splash”
Where to get it
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Yoga
Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère is a genre-bending autobiographical work that chronicles the author's journey through depression, psychiatric hospitalization, and spiritual seeking, while openly questioning the boundary between strict truth and fiction.
Discussed“I review Memoirs by Robert LOL and I reviewed yoga by Emanuel carrer”
Where to get it
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beth Macy’s ‘Truevine’ | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 1 |
| Jennifer Haigh on 'Mercy Street' | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 1 |
| Alan Cumming Talks About ‘Baggage’ | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 4 |
| Robert Gottlieb on ‘Garbo’ and ‘Babbitt’ | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 3 |
| Chaos Among Spies After the Berlin Wall Crumbles | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 2 |
| Inside The New York Times Book Review: Bill Bryson on Britain | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 4 |