Person
Every book Parul Sehgal recommended on podcasts
Parul Sehgal’s most recommended books
- Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
- A manual for cleaning women by Lucia Berlin
- Are you my mother? by Alison Bechdel
- Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
- Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
- The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
- Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Written in Invisible Ink by Hervé Guibert
Parul Sehgal participated in multiple episodes of The Book Review podcast, where she recommended and discussed a wide array of fiction, memoirs, and philosophical works. Sehgal expressed excitement for David Grann's forthcoming book Killers of the Flower Moon and recommended Jan Morris's memoir Conundrum, noting that she had recently reread it. As a guest, she brought up Vivek Shanbhag's book Ghachar Ghochar to offer a strong recommendation to listeners after finishing and writing an essay about it. Sehgal also recommended Gaston Bachelard's philosophical book The Poetics of Space, describing it as a difficult-to-describe work by a French philosopher. Additionally, she recommended Samantha Irby's essay collection We Are Never Meeting in Real Life as a great book about internet culture, discussed Martin Amis's award-winning essay collection The War Against Cliché, and brought up Judith Thurman's Cleopatra's Nose as a vacation read. Finally, Sehgal suggested Yoko Tawada's book The Bridegroom Was a Dog to listeners looking to explore Tawada's writing. Across these discussions, Sehgal shared her eclectic reading habits, offering thoughtful insights and enthusiastic recommendations for various literary styles, essay collections, and thought-provoking nonfiction titles.
Books recommended by Parul Sehgal
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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.
Recommended“so I picked up a favorite book of mine which I haven't read in like seven years but I used to read it every year uh it's Zoe hel's notes on a scandal which was made into a very good movie but the book is just Sublime”
Where to get it
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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“at number 18 on the extended um hard cover bestseller list and fiction is a book called manual for cleaning women by Lucia Berlin”
Where to get it
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Are you my mother?
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel is an acclaimed graphic memoir that explores the complex psychological relationship between a daughter and her mother through literature, psychoanalysis, and art.
Discussed“I like Alison Bechdel's book Are You My Mother?”
Where to get it
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Ducks, Newburyport
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann is a massive, highly experimental stream-of-consciousness novel told almost entirely through a single, sprawling sentence spanning roughly one thousand pages.
Discussed“but it's also in the case of this book Ducks Newberry Port by Lucy Elman a deep pleasure”
Where to get it
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Her Body and Other Parties
Carmen Maria Machado's short story collection Her Body and Other Parties blends psychological realism, horror, and fairy tales to examine the bodily experiences of women.
Discussed“her body and other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado”
Where to get it
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The Erratics
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie is a darkly funny and astonishing memoir detailing the author's harrowing experiences growing up with an intensely abusive and mentally unstable mother in rural Canada.
Discussed“I did review two Canadian Memoirs at bite of the Apple by Lenny Goodings which is a memoir starting up a um sort of feminist press verago in England and the erratics by Vicki Lao RV which is you know a really strange ingenious Memoir of of living with a really impossible mother”
Where to get it
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Red Birds
Red Birds is a satirical novel by Mohammed Hanif that explores modern geopolitics, conflict, and displacement through contrasting perspectives in a desert landscape.
Discussed“and he has a new book a new novel called red birds”
Where to get it
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Written in Invisible Ink
Discussed“I reviewed two books by the amazing French writer erve giber who died I think in the in the early in the early 90s and I reviewed his two books to the friend who did not save my life and written invisible Inc”
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.
Recommended“one of them is are we smart enough to know how smart animals are by France dwall”
Where to get it
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Artful
Artful by Ali Smith is a hybrid work of fiction and literary criticism that explores the nature of art, storytelling, and grief through a series of lectures left behind by a deceased scholar.
Recommended“but i'm more sort of immersed in this book by ali smith it's called artful we've been talking a lot about essays because you're reading a lot of essays”
Where to get it
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Avid Reader
Avid Reader by Robert Gottlieb is a celebrated memoir by the legendary book editor that offers a fascinating look inside the world of publishing and literature.
Recommended“but this morning on the way to work I I picked up a book I've wanted to read forever which is Robert Gotti's Avid Reader and Gotti was this is a sort of legendary editor”
Where to get it
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Bento's Sketchbook
Bento's Sketchbook by John Berger is a reflective and philosophical work blending prose, drawing, and meditations on perception, inspired by the seventeenth-century lens grinder and philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
Recommended“I am reading this week Bento Sketchbook by John Burger a book that I have pretended to have read for many years”
Where to get it
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Black hole blues
Black hole blues by Janna Levin is a compelling chronicle detailing the decades-long development of the massive scientific machines designed to detect gravitational waves.
Recommended“one of them is black hole blues and other songs from Outer Space by Jan 11 and it's a Chronicle of the development of a machine that detects gravitational waves”
Where to get it
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Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin is a captivating non-fiction chronicle detailing the scientific quest to detect gravitational waves and capture the elusive signals of black holes colliding in the distant universe.
Recommended“one of them is black hole blues and other songs from Outer Space by Jan 11 and it's a Chronicle of the development of a machine that detects gravitational waves”
Where to get it
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Cleopatra's Nose
Cleparats Nose by Judith Thurman is an engaging collection of essays exploring biography, history, fashion, and culture through the discerning eye of a veteran critic.
Recommended“I was reading Cleopatra's nose by Judith Thurman have you guys read this”
Where to get it
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Conundrum
Conundrum by Jan Morris is a celebrated memoir that chronicles the author's pioneering journey as a transgender woman and renowned travel writer.
Recommended“and I reread a book that I think I bet Pamela has read maybe you guys have read to Jan Morris's conundrum”
Where to get it
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Don't Believe a Word
Don't Believe a Word by David Shariatmadari is a popular science book exploring myths and facts about human language written by a Guardian editor and writer.
Recommended“I reviewed a book called don't believe a word by the guardian editor and writer davet sharat madari and if I'm mangling your name please at me”
Where to get it
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Everything you know
Zoë Heller's compelling novel explores complex personal relationships and sharp social observations through distinct and memorable character dynamics.
Recommended“uh I love her first novel everything you know”
Where to get it
The other 107 books Parul Sehgal recommended or discussed, ranked
- Forty-One False Starts by Janet Malcolm
- Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
- How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
- Making babies by Anne Enright
- Native speaker by Chang-rae Lee
- Old Age by Michael Kinsley
- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics 8-Copy Counter Display by Carlo Rovelli
- Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski
- The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yōko Tawada
- The cost of living by Deborah Levy
- The genius of birds by Jennifer Ackerman
- The poetics of space by Gaston Bachelard
- The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
- The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
- The story of a goat by Murugan Perumal
- The War Against Cliché by Martin Amis
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
- Underland by Robert Macfarlane
- Wayward by Dana Spiotta
- We are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
- Women Talking by Miriam Toews
- You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
- Your duck is my duck by Deborah Eisenberg
- 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell
- A case of exploding mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
- A Childhood by Harry Crews
- A life's work by Rachel Cusk
- Alice & Oliver by Charles Bock
- All the single ladies by Rebecca Traister
- Anna Karenina by Лев Толстой
- Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgård
- Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Blue dreams by Lauren Slater
- CoDex 1962 by Sjón
- Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
- Dancing with Cuba by Alma Guillermoprieto
- Devil's bridge by Linda Fairstein
- Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
- Fierce attachments by Vivian Gornick
- Fifty-Two Stories by Anton Chekhov
- Francis Bacon by Mark Stevens
- Fun by Unknown
- Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel
- Goodnight Moon 60th Anniversary Edition by Margaret Wise Brown
- Happy Land: The Spellbinding New Novel from the Bestselling Author of Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- Heart berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
- Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
- Jazz by Toni Morrison
- Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Let Me Not Be Mad by A. K. Benjamin
- Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown
- Lose your mother by Saidiya V. Hartman
- Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
- Melmoth by Sarah Perry
- Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
- Mislaid by Nell Zink
- Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin
- NW by Zadie Smith
- On dreams by Sigmund Freud
- Our Andromeda by Brenda Shaughnessy
- Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
- Outrages by Naomi Wolf
- Prozac Diary by Lauren Slater
- Rain by Cynthia Barnett
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
- Serious Noticing by Wood, James
- Silver linings by Debbie Macomber
- State of Fear by Michael Crichton
- The armies of the night by Norman Mailer
- The Art of fact : a historical anthology of literary journalism by Unknown
- The emissary by Yōko Tawada
- The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
- The flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
- The Funny Thing by Wanda Gág
- The heart is a shifting sea by Elizabeth Flock
- The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy
- The mean mouse, and other mean stories by Janice (May) Udry
- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
- The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
- The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
- The Shadow Drawing by Francesca Fiorani
- The talented Miss Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
- The tangled tree by David Quammen
- The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
- The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag
- The voyeur's motel by Gay Talese
- The Walker by Matthew Beaumont
- The world is what it is by Patrick French
- Those who knew by Idra Novey
- To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life by Hervé Guibert
- Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
- Unbound by Arlene Stein
- Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit
- Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
- Ways of Seeing by John Berger
- Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya V. Hartman
- Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
- Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
- Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère
Appearances
Other mentions (35: passing, ad reads, own books), the 30 most recent
“um and it's not interpretation of dreams on dreams was written a few years after”
“American pastoral of course is right up there and it's a very different kind of Roth book”
“the elizab withth wartel Girl Interrupted all these books that were talking about mental health”
“I was in Australia a couple of years ago interviewing a novelist an Australian novelist who' written a novel called see what I have done and it fascinated me that this Australian novelist was so obsessed with this story”
“there is a new Ed book store that I like not new but you know there there's one that I've discovered on the upper west side you know there's a character in Tropic of Cancer who never wants other people to know what he's reading”
“I'm sure you're aware that I you know your review of spillover led me to that story which I thought was short story called walking out”
“he wrote a book a few years ago that was kind of his breakup book translated into English called tomb song about his childhood”
“he wrote a book a few years ago that was kind of his breakup book translated into English called tomb song about his childhood”
“I discussed mouthful of birds by samanta schweblin”
“parl I reviewed a woman like her by son Mah”
“I reviewed notes from an apocalypse a personal Journey to the end of the world and back by Marco Connell and I reviewed 52 stories by Anton of translated by Richard pav and L volansky”
“and then there's this great one by Wanda Gog who wrote hundreds of millions of cats or whatever that that that famous book is”
“I mean here's one by the author of a tree is nice which I think we probably all remember from our childhood and I don't know if this was her followup”
“it's how to get rich in rising Asia that was in second person for you”
“stuff I haven't you know my ignorance is always ging and there's a really there's a a lot of like lovely stuff in here from Boswell but the big surprise to me has been Norman maer which i' I've read him like little pieces you know here in their executioner song”
“and I reviewed Francis Bacon Revelations by Mark Stevens and anelyn Swan”
“and I reviewed p languages of Truth by salon rushi”
“we don't really look at a book like moobi dick or huin and say like is the writing good”
“we don't really look at a book like moobi dick or huin and say like is the writing good”
“and Fitzgerald himself was very influenced by the Wasteland and and by certain kind of thunderous symbolism”
“I have two books on pause right now both of which I intend to finish both of which I was enjoying one of them was travels in Siberia by Ian Frasier”
“the other one is the return of the Native by Thomas as hearty”
“so Dana spata is is perhaps best known for her books including Stone in Arabia and lightning Fields”
“so Dana spata is is perhaps best known for her books including Stone in Arabia and lightning Fields”
“I reviewed Wayward By Dana spata and I think if you're new to Malcolm I'd start with”
“there's friction by Sandra Brown the murderer's daughter by Jonathan Kellerman”
“there's friction by Sandra Brown the murderer's daughter by John Jonathan Kellerman”
“there's friction by Sandra Brown the murderer's daughter by Jonathan Kellerman and the last bust to wisdom by Ivan do”
“the murderer's daughter by John Jonathan Kellerman”
“and the last bust to wisdom by Ivan do”