Our Critics' Year in Reading
The Book Review8 Dec 2023

Our Critics' Year in Reading

The Times’s staff book critics — Dwight Garner, Jennifer Szalai and Alexandra Jacobs — do a lot of reading over the course of any given year, but not everything they read stays with them equally. On this week’s podcast, Gilbert Cruz chats with the critics about the books that did: the novels and story collections and works of nonfiction that made an impression in 2023 and defined their year in reading, including one that Garner says caught him by surprise.

“Eleanor Catton’s ‘Birnam Wood’ is in some ways my novel of the year,” Garner says. “And it’s not really my kind of book. This is going to sound stupid or snobby, but I’m not the biggest plot reader. I’m just not. I like sort of thorny, funny, earthy fiction, and if there’s no plot I’m fine with that. But this has a plot like a dream. It just takes right off. And she’s such a funny, generous writer that I was just happy from the first time I picked it up.”

Here are the books discussed on this week’s episode:

“Be Mine,” by Richard Ford

“Onlookers,” by Ann Beattie

“I Am Homeless if This Ia Not My Home,” by Lorrie Moore

“People Collide,” by Isle McElroy

“Birnam Wood,” by Eleanor Catton

“Biography of X,” by Catherine Lacey

“Madonna: A Rebel Life,” by Mary Gabriel

“The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune,” by Alexander Stille

“The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions,” by Jonathan Rosen

“Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State,” by Kerry Howley

“The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight,” by Andrew Leland

“Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets,” by Burkhard Bilger

“King: A Life,” Jonathan Eig

“Larry McMurtry: A Life,” Tracy Daugherty

“Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odyssey,” by Robert “Mack” McCormick

“Roald Dahl, Teller of the Unexpected: A Biography,” by Matthew Dennison

“The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality,” by William Egginton

“Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World,” by Naomi Klein

“The Notebooks and Diaries of Edmund Wilson”

“Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair,” by Christian Wiman

“Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals,” by Oliver Burkeman

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

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.

Avsnitt(584)

Louise Erdrich on Her New Story Collection and the Mystery of Writing

Louise Erdrich on Her New Story Collection and the Mystery of Writing

Since the publication of her first novel, “Love Medicine,” in 1984, Louise Erdrich has written fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children’s books. Her work has earned multiple awards, including the Nati...

13 Mars 34min

The Avett Brothers’ Bassist on Writing a John Quincy Adams Book

The Avett Brothers’ Bassist on Writing a John Quincy Adams Book

For more than two decades, Bob Crawford has toured the country as the bassist for the Avett Brothers. But long before he began his career as a musician, he was obsessed with American history. After tu...

6 Mars 38min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Wuthering Heights,' by Emily Brontë

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Wuthering Heights,' by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is a tale of star-crossed lovers: Catherine, the wild daughter of an aristocratic family, and Heathcliff, an orphan whom Catherine’s father brings home unexpectedly....

27 Feb 54min

Director Clint Bentley on Adapting ‘Train Dreams’ for the Big Screen

Director Clint Bentley on Adapting ‘Train Dreams’ for the Big Screen

The latest film from the writer and director Clint Bentley, “Train Dreams,” is nominated for four Oscars, including best adapted screenplay. The movie is based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the s...

24 Feb 38min

Guillermo del Toro on Writing and Directing the Oscar-Nominated ‘Frankenstein’

Guillermo del Toro on Writing and Directing the Oscar-Nominated ‘Frankenstein’

For decades, the director Guillermo del Toro has built a career blending the grotesque and the beautiful in films like “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water” and “Pinocchio.” Now he’s earned his late...

20 Feb 35min

Julia Quinn on Her 'Bridgerton' Books and the Smash Netflix Series

Julia Quinn on Her 'Bridgerton' Books and the Smash Netflix Series

Julia Quinn published "The Duke and I," the first book in the 'Bridgerton' series, in 2000. Seven books and a quarter century later, its adaptation remains one of the biggest series ever to air on Net...

13 Feb 42min

How Nintendo Became the World's Most Fun Video Game Company

How Nintendo Became the World's Most Fun Video Game Company

Keza MacDonald, the video games editor at The Guardian and author of the new book “Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play,” chose to write her first book about Ninte...

6 Feb 42min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Hounding' by Xenobe Purvis

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Hounding' by Xenobe Purvis

Xenobe Purvis’s slim but powerful debut novel, “The Hounding,” opens with a jolt: “The girls, the infernal heat, a fresh-dead body. Marching up the river path, the villagers.”How did we get here, with...

30 Jan 49min

Populärt inom Fritid

somna-med-henrik
uggla-ugglas-podcast
man-i-grupp
svenska-fpl-podden
rss-horrujeje
roda-vita-rosen
elbilsveckan
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-livsreglerna
billgren-wood
jordkommissionen
travpodden
spokhistorier
bilar-med-sladd
rss-vara-klassiker
rss-speljuntan
jag-ar-kinky
sexet
kontrollbehov
avsuttet-med-elsa-johanna