A Book Review Critics’ Roundtable

As much as we love hearing from authors on “The Book Review” podcast, there are precious few who have read more than our staff book critics — Jennifer Szalai, Alexandra Jacobs and Dwight Garner. The three came on the show to talk about some of their favorite books of the year so far, as well as a few of the titles that helped shape their reading lives.Books discussed on this episode:“Nothing Random,” by Gayle Feldman“Will and Attention,” by Meghan O’Gieblyn“The Disappearers,” by Marlon James“American Hagwon,” by Min Jin Lee“Lives Other Than My Own,” by Emmanuel Carrère“To the Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf“The American Way of Death,” by Jessica Mitford“Class: A Guide Through the American Status System,” by Paul Fussell“The Great War and Modern Memory,” by Paul Fussell“American Fried,” by Calvin Trillin“Alice, Let’s Eat,” by Calvin Trillin“Third Helpings,” by Calvin Trillin“On Fire,” by Larry Brown“Betsy-Tacy,” by Maud Hart Lovelace“Betsy-Tacy and Tib,” by Maud Hart Lovelace“Rabbit, Run,” by John Updike“Into the Wood Chipper,” by Nicholas Enrich“Cool Machine,” by Colson Whitehead“The Oyster Diaries,” by Nancy Lemann“Biological War: A Scenario,” by Annie Jacobsen“Nuclear War: A Scenario,” by Annie Jacobsen“The Story of Your Life,” by Kathryn Jezer-Morton“Transcription,” by Ben Lerner“The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek,” by Andrew Durbin“Contrapposto,” by Dave Eggers“Brother of the More Famous Jack,” by Barbara Trapido“Love and Hydrogen,” by Jim Shepard“Trash!: A Garbageman’s Story,” by Simon Paré-Poupart Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For Min Jin Lee, the process of writing fiction usually begins with a deep dive into reality. She spends years researching, traveling and interviewing people.That process underscored her belief that education was a common and central value for Koreans in diaspora. But it was also a complicated value, one that often resulted in extreme competitiveness and impossible expectations.In her new novel, “American Hagwon,” she tells the story of the Kohs, a middle-class family of five. The parents are fixated on attaining the best possible education for their children, thinking it will guarantee success and upward mobility. But when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hits, they find themselves having to start over as immigrants in America.This week, Lee returns to “The Book Review” podcast to talk about how education and community play out across her sprawling new novel, which our critic Alexandra Jacobs said “demands to be pressed into friends’” hands.Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioUnlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.We Want to Hear From YouWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, 70 novels and hundreds of short stories, King has terrified generations of readers with books like “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “It” while also writing across multiple genres like fantasy, science fiction and crime — producing books that resist easy categorization.One of those is “The Talisman,” the 1984 fantasy novel King co-wrote with the author Peter Straub (“Ghost Story”). It follows a 12-year-old named Jack Sawyer who discovers that he can move between our world and a parallel one called the Territories. Seventeen years later, King and Straub returned to Jack in the sequel “Black House.” They always intended to write one more book together.Straub died in 2022, before they could. But King is now publishing that third novel in the series, “Other Worlds Than These,” with Straub still credited as his co-author. The book comes out Oct. 6. To write it King has returned not only to the world they created together but also to Straub’s writing itself, rereading his old friend’s work and trying to channel his voice on the page. In it, Jack Sawyer is much older. And the new book, like “Black House” before it, incorporates King’s epic, sprawling Dark Tower series. Part of the story is also inspired by the crimes of the 1950s mass murderer, Charles Starkweather.This week, King joins the “Book Review” podcast to talk about finishing the series without Straub, their decades-long friendship and collaboration, his resistance to being defined solely as a horror writer and why, after more than half a century of published books, he still feels compelled to chase the next story.Books Mentioned on This Episode:“The Talisman,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub“Black House,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub“Other Worlds Than These,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub“Ghost Story,” by Peter Straub“The Hero’s Journey,” by Joseph Campbell“Redheaded Peckerwood,” by Christian Patterson“The Gunslinger,” by Stephen King“The Eyes of the Dragon,” by Stephen King“The Stand,” by Stephen King“The Dead Zone,” by Stephen King“Firestarter,” by Stephen King“Mr. Mercedes,” by Stephen King“Survivor Type,” from “Skeleton Crew,” by Stephen King“Deliverance,” by James Dickey“To the White Sea,” by James Dickey“Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe“Dune,” by Frank Herbert“Floating Dragon,” by Peter StraubListen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioUnlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.We Want to Hear From YouWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] “Book Review” podcast is hosted byand produced by,and. The show was mixed by Pedro Rosado.Special thanks toand. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Paul Yoon’s new novel, “Etna,” follows a haunted, battle-scarred war veteran who wants desperately to go home. He also happens to be a dog — a mixed-breed shepherd trained to sniff out bombs for an unnamed military in the throes of an unnamed conflict — and he has no idea where he is anymore, or if his old farm is even still standing after so much violence. Undeterred, he ventures into the great unknown, to somehow find his way back.The result is a powerful story about survival, the brutal cost of war and what it means to step forward after calamity.On this episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses the novel with his colleagues Elisabeth Egan and Scott Heller. You can follow along, and add your own comments to the discussion here.Other books (and poems, and a movie) mentioned in this episode:The “Odyssey”The work of E.E. CummingsThe film “A Dog’s Purpose,” directed by Lasse Hallström (adapted from W. Bruce Cameron’s novel, also named “A Dog’s Purpose”)“The Vulnerables,” by Sigrid Nunez“The Eyes and the Impossible,” by Dave Eggers“Angel Down,” by Daniel Kraus“Marley & Me,” by John Grogan“Flush,” by Virginia Woolf“Doggerel,” by Reginald Dwayne Betts“Dog Show,” by Billy Collins“Deaf Republic,” by Ilya Kaminsky“An Immense World,” by Ed Yong“Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel“The Road,” by Cormac McCarthyListen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioUnlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.We Want to Hear From YouWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

MJ Franklin is in the host chair this week, in for Gilbert Cruz. MJ spoke with New York Times book critic Dwight Garner about Marlon James’s new novel, “The Disappearers.” Dwight recently reviewed the book, calling it "the novel of the decade, if not the century." With praise like that, the review itself has become a topic of conversation. Dwight talks about the novel, the moment he realized it was a masterpiece and, more broadly, his approach to criticism.We also have a wide-ranging conversation with John Green, the best-selling author. Green is known for his young adult novels, but he makes his adult-fiction debut with “Hollywood, Ending.” We discuss the book, fame and the titles that made an impression on him when he was young. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you were a reading adult in the early 2000s, you probably tackled, or at least heard about, “The Corrections,” Jonathan Franzen’s best-selling and much discussed book.The novel won the National Book Award, was a Pulitzer finalist, and an Oprah Book Club pick.The book arrives at its 25th anniversary this month, and in today’s episode of the “Book Review” podcast, host Gilbert Cruz talks with Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a writer for The New York Times magazine and novelist, about why this novel is so essential to modern American literature. And that’s not just her take: “The Corrections” ranks fifth on our list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, as voted on by hundreds of influential readers.“The Corrections” is a book about America at the turn of the century; it was published just before 9/11. Brodesser-Akner, who admits to having read the novel 20 times, says that Franzen’s work “became the defining book of America’s golden moment, which ended on Sept. 10.”Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioUnlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.We Want to Hear From YouWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] “Book Review” Podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz, produced by Amy Pearl, Sarah Diamond and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is mixed by Pedro Rosado. Special thanks to Dahlia Haddad. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jordan Baker said it best: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”In just one short sentence, the character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” sums up that wonderful feeling of anticipation that comes with autumn. For bookish people, the season comes with its own set of expectations; some of the year’s biggest books are released in September and October. On this episode of the “Book Review” podcast, Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin join our host, Gilbert Cruz, to go over some of the titles they’re most looking forward to.Books discussed on this episode:“The Disappearers,” by Marlon James“The Radiance,” by Ayad Akhtar“American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey From Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump,” by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark“Switzy,” by Emma Cline“The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia,” by Robert Kolker“Dead Beat,” by Leigh Bardugo“American Hagwon,” by Min Jin Lee“Mazywood,” by Tananarive Due“Public Access Afterworld,” by Jane Schoenbrun“Other Worlds Than These,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub“Partita,” by Barbara Kingsolver“Music Against the Night,” by Yiyun Li“The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War and the Making of the Modern World,” by Nathaniel Philbrick“The Occidental Book of the Dead,” by T. Geronimo Johnson“The Brightness,” by Chad Harbach“Stations,” by Louise Kennedy“On the Calculation of Volume (Book V),” by Solvej Balle“Dodge City,” by Patrick DeWitt“Under Story,” by Chloe Benjamin“Our Noble Selves,” by Kate Atkinson“Taipei Story,” by R.F. Kuang“Exit Party,” by Emily St. John Mandel“Ply,” by Hernan Diaz“Hollywood, Ending,” by John Green“No Land to Stand On: Notes From Detention,” by Mahmoud Khalil“Life Out of Order,” by Audrey Niffenegger“Every Story Is a Love Story,” by Imbolo Mbue“Peck & Peck,” by Bonnie Garmus“A Court of Splintered Harmony,” by Sarah J. Maas“Take My Word for It,” by LeVar Burton“Promise Me, America,” by Joe BidenListen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioUnlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.We Want to Hear From YouWe would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] “Book Review” podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Amy Pearl, Sarah Diamond and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is mixed by Pedro Rosado.Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad and Brooke Minters. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At the center of Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book, “London Falling,” is a mystery: In 2019, a young man named Zac Brettler disappeared, and a few days later his body was found in the Thames River. Surveillance footage showed what appeared to be Zac jumping off the balcony of a nearby luxury tower, leading some to speculate that he had taken his own life. His family, though, didn’t quite believe that theory; though troubled, Zac, in their view, hadn’t seemed suicidal. Then the Brettlers learn that before his death, Zac had pretended to be the rich son of a Russian oligarch, and fallen in with a dangerous crowd in London’s criminal scene. So what happened? That’s what Keefe attempts to answer in “London Falling.” On this episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses the book with his colleagues Jennifer Szalai and Sadie Stein. You can follow along and add your own comments to the discussion here. Books discussed on this episode: “Say Nothing” and “Empire of Pain,” by Patrick Radden Keefe “Reunion,” by Fred Uhlman “Putin’s People,” by Catherine Belton “Strangers to Ourselves,” by Rachel Aviv “Days of Love and Rage,” by Anand Gopal “Bad Blood,” by John Carreyrou “Catch and Kill,” by Ronan Farrow Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We Want to Hear From You We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is it about a bookstore? You walk in planning to browse for a few minutes, and somehow an hour later you’re still wandering the stacks with an armful of books you can’t seem to put down. For this week’s episode, our guest host, MJ Franklin, and the producer Sarah Diamond take a field trip to a local bookstore, McNally Jackson Seaport, at the southern tip of Manhattan. There, they talk with the owner, Sarah McNally, about what it’s actually like to run a bookstore. Then MJ sits down with Jennifer Harlan, an editor at the Book Review, to talk about The Times’s new bookstore crawl series, the bookstores she grew up loving and why bookshops seem to be having a moment. Of course, no bookstore episode would be complete without some book recommendations. MJ and Jen share some of their favorite books about bookstores and booksellers, including a romance set in a small-town bookshop and a memoir about living inside Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Books discussed on this episode: “Switzy,” by Emma Cline “Delicate Edible Birds,” by Lauren Groff “Book Lovers,” by Emily Henry “Monogamy,” by Sue Miller “Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare and Co.,” by Jeremy Mercer “The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore,” by Evan Friss “A Marvelous Light,” by Freya Marske “The Rachel Incident,” by Caroline O’Donoghue Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We Want to Hear From You We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected]. Credits “The Book Review” podcast is hosted this week by MJ Franklin and produced by Amy Pearl, Sarah Diamond and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is edited by Tracy Mumford and mixed this week by Daniel Ramirez. Special thanks to Dahlia Haddad and Brooke Minters. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Imagine, if you will, that for unknown reasons North Korea has just launched a nuclear bomb at the United States. What happens next? The journalist Annie Jacobsen has imagined exactly that, and spent more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts while mastering the voluminous literature on the subject — some of it declassified only in recent years — for her 2024 book “Nuclear War: A Scenario,” which walks readers through the 72 minutes from launch to global annihilation. In the Book Review, Barry Gewen said the book was “gripping” and declared it essential reading “if you want to understand the complex and disturbing details that go into a civilization-destroying decision.” Jacobsen now has another book out: “Biological War: A Scenario.” Our critic Dwight Garner wrote in his review that it “moves like a meteor.” For this week’s episode, we revisit the conversation the host Gilbert Cruz had with Jacobsen last year, in which she discussed why she wrote “Nuclear War,” and how she managed to compile so many details about topics that are among the most secret in the world. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.