Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘John of John’
1 August - 55 minsEarly in Douglas Stuart’s new novel, “John of John,” the Booker Prize-winning author describes a peculiar irony: “What skinned him was that the closer he got to home, the more lost he felt.”
It’s a passing line, but it captures the tension at the heart of this magnificent book: Here is a story of two men, each profoundly isolated, trying to figure out how to exist in a small, claustrophobic world.
The traveler heading home and dreading it is Cal, a young gay man who has recently graduated from college in Edinburgh and has been floundering ever since. At the start of the novel, he is summoned back to the small village where he grew up to care for his sick grandmother. He obliges, but he’s n...
Series Episodes
The Best Books of the 21st Century: Taffy Brodesser-Akner on ‘The Corrections’
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.”
47 mins
11 September Finished
It’s Time for a Big Ol’ Fall Book Preview
From horror to history to literary fiction, the Book Review editors discuss 31 titles that deserve a look.
49 mins
4 September Finished
Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘London Falling’
Keefe’s new book explores a teenager’s mysterious death on the River Thames.
54 mins
29 August Finished
Why We Can’t Resist a Great Bookstore
We visit a local New York City bookstore, dive into The Times’s new bookstore crawl series, and recommend some of our favorite books about bookstores and booksellers.
26 mins
21 August Finished
This Reporter Can Tell Us What Nuclear Apocalypse Looks Like (Encore)
We bring back an episode from our archives, in which Annie Jacobsen discusses her 2024 book “Nuclear War: A Scenario.”
45 mins
14 August Finished
Let’s Talk About the 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
explicitFrom “Gone Girl” to “Mystic River,” Gilbert Cruz, Tina Jordan and Sarah Lyall revisit the books that changed the genre, discuss overlooked favorites and recommend the thrillers that everyone should read next.
51 mins
5 August Finished
