The Books We're Excited About in Early 2026
16 January - 45 minsA new year means new books are on the way! So many new books. On this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz talks with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the upcoming fiction and nonfiction titles they’re most anticipating between now and April.
Here are the books discussed in this week’s episode:
“Vigil,” by George Saunders“Where the Serpent Lives,” by Daniyal Mueenuddin“Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings and the Rebirth of White Rage,” by Heather Ann Thompson“Five Bullets,” by Elliot Williams“Lost Lambs,” by Madeline Cash”Half His Age,” by Jennette McCurdy“A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” by Michael Pollan“On Morrison,”...
Series Episodes
'The Correspondent' Author Virginia Evans On Her Breakout Year
Virginia Evans’s debut novel, “The Correspondent,” was published last April and became one of the publishing industry’s heartwarming champions of 2025. For Evans, who had written and failed to sell seven previous novels, the book’s popularity has felt magical, as she explains to host Gilbert Cruz on this week’s podcast.
40 mins
9 January Finished
Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘What We Can Know’
Ian McEwan’s latest novel, one of the Book Review’s 100 Notable Books of 2025, is a literary mystery about a scholar’s search for a long-lost poem.
51 mins
27 December 2025 Finished
What Did 2025 Mean for Books?
On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin talks with his Book Review colleagues Alexandra Alter, Tina Jordan and John Maher about the biggest book stories and most significant reading trends of 2025.
47 mins
19 December 2025 Finished
Our Book Critics on Their 2025 in Reading
On this episode, host Gilbert Cruz talks with New York Times Book Review critics Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai about their standout fiction and nonfiction of the past 12 months.
36 mins
12 December 2025 Finished
The 10 Best Books of 2025
In this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz gathers a group of fellow editors at The New York Times Book Review to talk about the most exciting fiction and nonfiction of the year.
1 hour 18 mins
2 December 2025 Finished
