Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Wild Dark Shore,' by Charlotte McConaghy
23 August 2025 - 43 minsCharlotte McConaghy’s latest novel, “Wild Dark Shore,” opens with an enigma: A mysterious, half-drowned woman washes ashore.
The stranger’s name is Rowan, and she has arrived on Shearwater, a remote island near Antarctica. The island, which houses an important seed bank, was once teeming with a community of scientists, but now the project is shutting down, the workers have left and the land lies quiet and deserted, everybody gone except for the Salt family, whose members are all lost in their own way. And all are hiding terrible secrets.
They’re not alone. Rowan herself has come to the island with a hidden purpose, putting this small community on a crash course for a long-overdue reckoning...
The Best Books of the 21st Century: Ryan Holiday on ‘The Road’
The best-selling author joined the “Book Review” podcast to discuss how his relationship to Cormac McCarthy’s novel changed after becoming a father.
36 mins
12 June Finished
A Summer Book Recommendation Bonanza
From doppelgängers to dark academia, the Book Review editors share some of their most-anticipated titles.
43 mins
5 June Finished
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Transcription,' by Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner’s slender new novel, “Transcription,” is just 130 pages long, yet it cracks open some of our most colossal and enduring philosophical questions. On this episode, MJ Franklin discusses “Transcription” with fellow Book Review editors Gregory Cowles and Alexandra Jacobs.
47 mins
30 May Finished
The Ezra Klein Show: Michael Pollan’s Journey to the Borderlands of Consciousness
Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Ezra Klein Show,” originally published on March 31. Ezra interviewed author Michael Pollan, whose best-selling books include “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan’s latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” came out earlier this year. It’s an exploration of what consciousness is, and the book is — as our review put it — “highly pleasurable to read.”
1 hour 28 mins
22 May Finished
Matt Haig on ‘The Midnight Library,’ Mental Illness and Winnie-the-Pooh
The best-selling author joins the “Book Review” podcast to discuss his new novel, “The Midnight Train.”
42 mins
15 May Finished
Patricia Cornwell on Her Dark Childhood and Best-Selling Novels
The crime novelist discusses her new memoir “True Crime.” Also, Daniel Kraus, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction, talks about his novel “Angel Down.”
59 mins
8 May Finished