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.