Your girls our back! This Olympics was too dramatic to keep our commentary in the group chat so we’re back on mic to debrief it all. We chat through every event sharing our highlights and heartbreaks as well as answering some of your questions along the way. Plus we give some tips on how to keep up with the world of figure skating in between Olympic Games.

You can follow Layne Fargo on Instagram and Substack. If you’re currently experiencing ice dance withdrawal, get yourself a copy of The Favorites and then read all about The Ice Queens, coming in 2027.

You can follow Denne Michele Norris on Instagram and keep up with her work at Electric Literature through their IG and website. Her debut novel When the Harvest Comes is out now and will release in paperback in April.

Read, Watch, Listen

* The Nice Capades

* The Runthrough

* The Runthrough Ice Dance Lore Part 1

* Surya Bonaly’s 1998 Olympic free skate

* Ryan Bradley’s celebratory backflip

* Ilia and Adam’s synchronized backflips

* Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier free dance

* Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnak free dance

* Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko free dance

* Adam Siao Him Fa Olympic short program

* Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara free skate

* Alysa Liu Olympic free skate

* Amber Glenn Nationals short program

* So You Want to Watch Figure Skating

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Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. This is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll talk with writers about reading to learn about their tastes, their habits, and the books that matter to them.

Today, I’m joined by Alli Hoff Kosik. Alli is a full-time writer and editor. For seven years, she independently produced and hosted The SSR Podcast. Alli holds an MFA from Temple University and lives in Philadelphia with her family. Her debut novel Too Blessed to Stress comes out March 3rd.

Alli has long been one of my favorite readers on the internet. Her fun and thoughtful examination of middle grade classics in the SSR Podcast is a wonderful example of conversational criticism and how every book, no matter the genre or intended audience, can be read with care and insight. Today, we get to apply that same framework to one of Alli’s favorite novels, Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. Then, she shares a bit about her own debut novel, Too Blessed to Stress. Kiley Reid calls Alli’s debut “a delightful satire full of tenderness and heart” and I couldn’t agree more. Watching Alli make the leap from public reader to published author has been incredible and I highly recommend listening to her Behind the Scenes of Too Blessed to Stress podcast all about her process.

Too Blessed to Stress is out March 3rd, and you can preorder it now from Bookshop.org or your favorite indie bookstore.

Books and Links

* Too Blessed to Stress by Alli Hoff Kosik

* The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

* What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang

* The Wangs Vs. The World by Jade Chang

* Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

* The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.Salinger

* Bloomability by Sharon Creech

* American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

* The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

* Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks

* Workhorse by Caroline Palmer

* Kylie Reid

Connect with Alli

* Instagram

* Is This a Thing?

* Getting It Alli Together

* Pre-Order Too Blessed to Stress

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The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan have begun. The torch is lit and the figure skating team event is underway. As you may know, I’m a former figure skater, and I love the winter Olympics. And so, I couldn’t resist asking two of my favorite authors and fellow figure skating fans to join me to share our Olympic enthusiasm and give you a little preview of what to watch for.

Layne Fargo is the bestselling author The Favorites, They Never Learn, and other fierce stories for fearless femmes. She is an ice-dance superfan and just announced a forthcoming novel, The Ice Queens, set in the same high stakes ice dance world as The Favorites. She lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.

Denne Michele Norris is the editor and chief of Electric Literature, winner of the 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. Last year, Denne released her debut novel, When the Harvest Comes as well editing and publishing the essay collection Both / And. A former figure skater herself, she is currently at work on a writing project that features figure skating.

These women are two of my favorite people to talk about this sport with. They are knowledgeable, fiercely funny, and willing to talk shit when shit needs to be talked. I hope you love this conversation as much as I did and that it adds some joy into your Olympic viewing.

Links

* Follow Layne on Instagram and Substack

* Follow Denne on Instagram and at Electric Literature

* The Favorites by Layne Fargo

* When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris

* Both / And by Denne Michele Norris

* Glitter and Gold

* Deanna’s Dream

* Jane Torville and Christoper Dean’s “Bolero”

* Michelle Kwan’s “The Red Violin”

* Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”

* Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s “Moulin Rouge”

* Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

* Ice Princess

* The Cutting Edge

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Happy reading!

Sara

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Welcome to Books That Matter. Today, I’m joined by A. Natasha Joukovsky.

a. natasha joukovsky is the author of the novels The Portrait of a Mirror and Medium Rare (forthcoming March 2026). Her writing has been published in Literary Hub, The Common, and Still Alive, and she writes the “quite useless” Substack newsletter. Natasha holds a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She lives in Washington, DC.

In today’s episode, Natasha and I talk about her theory of choice novels, different flavors of myth retellings, and why Evelina by Frances Burney is a book that matters to her–and to Jane Austen. Later we get into Natasha’s sophomore novel Medium Rare, a sharp, funny, piercing social novel about a mid-tier lobbyist who flies too close to the sun with a potentially perfect March Madness bracket. I adored this novel and I appreciate it all the more after this conversation. Medium Rare is available now for preorder.

Books and Links

* Evelina by Frances Burney

* Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

* Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

* Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary

* Emma by Jane Austen

* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

* Middlemarch by George Eliot

* The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

* The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

* Beloved by Toni Morrison

* The Age of Choice by Sophia Rosenfeld

* Metamorphoses by Ovid

* Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

* The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack: How to read like a novelist

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack:The Austen Math cumulative report

* Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney

* Rebecca Romney on Pawn Stars

* The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

* Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

* The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

* The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

* Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

* Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

* House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* The Book of Anne by H.A.Thurston

* Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

* Prodigals by Greg Jackson

* Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

* The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

* The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

* Circe by Madeline Miller

* The Sellout by Paul Beatty

* The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

* Ars Longa, Via Brevis by Russell Bittner

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Welcome to Books That Matters. Today, I’m joined by Anika Jade Levy. Anika is a writer from Colorado, a founding editor of Forever Magazine, and an instructor in the Writing program at Columbia. Her fiction and reporting have appeared in The Paris Review, Vogue, Playboy, GQ, Interview Magazine, and elsewhere. Her debut novel Flat Earth came out from Catapult in 2025.

In today’s episode, Anika and I chat about voice in fiction, the male literacy crisis, and why The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger is a book that matters to her. Later we get into Anika’s novel Flat Earth, a raw and funny novel that excels at capturing both voice and place. Anika shares about the novel’s origins as a stream of consciousness exercise, how art and ideas are contagious, and her hopes for her future writing .

You can find links to Anika’s work and the books she recommends in the show notes. Alright let’s get into my conversation with Anika Jade Levy.

Books and Links

* Forever Magazine

* Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy

* The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

* Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

* The Babysitter at Rest by Jen George

* Dorothy Project

* Books That Matter with Jade Chang

* Taipei by Tao Lin

* Leave Society by Tao Lin

* NYT Review

* Guardian Review

* Kirkus Review

* UnHerd Review

* That text

* Female Loneliness Epidemic by Danielle Chelosky

* “Worst Friends Forever” - Kazou Robinson’s review of Flat Earth

* Anika at Aspen Lit Festival

* Anika’s Review of Shadow Ticket

* Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

* Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

* Rayne Fisher Kwann and what it means to be woman’d

* “I’m Crazy” by J.D. Salinger

* Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

* At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard

* “The Sentence is a Lonely Place” by Gabrielle Lutz

* Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

* A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)

* Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

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This episode needs no introduction. Today Liz and I are share our favorite books of the year--all new releases. This was a weird year in books, but we each managed to come up with lists we feel excited to share and champion before the new year. As always, we hope you’ll let us know about your best books in the Substack comments.

If you want to hear Liz and I talking about books all year long, now is a great time to upgrade your subscription. With a paid membership, you’ll get our bonus superlatives episode and This Month in Books, our ongoing book discussion series. Subscriptions are 20% off through the month of December, so it’s the perfect time to join!

Alright, let’s get to it!

Books Mentioned

* Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

* The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

* Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

* The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

* Liz’s Ranking of her 100 Favorite Reads from the past 5 years

* James by Percival Everett

* Heart the Lover by Lily King

* Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

* 21:26 - Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy (Liz’s #10)

* Hanif Abduraquib

* 24:15 - Days of Light by Megan Hunter (Sara’s #10)

* 26:56 - The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Liz’s #9)

* 32:31- Stag Dance by Torrey Peters (Sara’s #9)

* Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters

* 35:330 - The Antidote by Karen Russell (Liz’s #8)

* Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

* 40:48 - The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne (Sara’s #8)

* Medium Rare by Natasha Jouvkosky

* Natasha Joukovsky on “the choice plot”

* 44:28 - Ending by Maria Reva (Liz’s #7)

* 47:35 - Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (Sara’s #7)

* A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter

* 51:05 - The Lack of Light by Nino Haratischvili (Liz’s #6)

* The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili

* 55:10 - Fox by Joyce Carol Oates (Sara’s #6)

* 1:00:18 - People Like Us by Jason Mott (Liz’s #5)

* Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

* 1:05:46 - Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor (Sara’s #5)

* 1:11:02 - Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski (Liz’s #4)

* House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

* 1:17:41 - Flashlight by Susan Choi (Sara’s #4)

* 1:19:12 - Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Liz’s #3)

* 1:22:00 - Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian (Sara’s #3)

* 1:26:15 - North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whale Ship Esther by Ethan Rutherford (Liz’s #2)

* Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

* 1:31:42 - The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken (Sara’s #2)

* My Work by Olga Ravn

* The Employees by Olga Ravn

* 1:37:35 - The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (Liz’s #1)

* 1:42:30 - Audition by Katie Kitamura (Sara’s #1)

* The Director by Daniel Kehlman

* Tyll by Daniel Kahlman

* The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

* The Mobius Book by Catherine Lacey

* Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy

* Universality by Natasha Brown

* The Pilgrimage by John Broderick

* Hunchback by Saou Ishikawa, translated by Polly Barton

* Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno

* One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

* Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith

* Original Sins by Eve Ewing

* Sarah’s Bookshelves Superlative Episode

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Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Jade Chang to talk about the nostalgia of childhood reading, the blurring of genres, and why The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a book that matters to her. Later we get into Jade’s sophomore novel What a Time to Be Alive, a thoughtful and pacey story about grief, grifting, and growing up set in an LA we don’t often see on the page. Jade shares about losing the original manuscript for this novel (I was shocked!) and why she values writing about how we actually live now.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book. There are a couple brief audio hiccups in this episode, but please bear with us as they don’t last long! As has become tradition, this episode is overflowing with books so be sure to check out the book list and links in the show notes. You can find What a Time to Be Alive and Jade’s debut The Wangs Vs. the World wherever you browse for books. Alright let’s get into my conversation with Jade Chang.

Books and Links

* The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

* In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

* Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo

* Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shosin

* Shopsins

* My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

* Just Kids by Patti Smith

* The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

* The Tattooed Potato by Ellen Raskin

* The Mysterious Disappearance of Noel (I Mean Leon) by Ellen Raskin

* From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

* Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

* The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

* The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

* The Idiot by Elif Batuman

* Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

* Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

* Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Hadix

* Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

* Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal

* The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

* The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

* In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

* What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang

* The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang

* Joan Didion

* Eve Babitz

* The Hours by Michael Cunningham

* A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

* Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Alright readers I hope you enjoyed this episode of books that matter with Jade Chang. You can find links to What a Time to Be Alive, The Woman Warrior, and all the books mentioned in the show notes or substack post. If you want more FM podcast content consider becoming a paid Substack or Patreon subscriber. Paid subscribers get at least two additional podcasts each month, including my ranked reading recap and this month in books with Liz Hein. As always, thanks for listening and I’ll be back soon to help you find more books that matter.

*This book contains affiliate links.

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Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast; this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into the books that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Rickey Fayne. Rickey’s debut novel The Devil Three Times is currently shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and one of my personal favorite debut novels of the year. In this episode, Rickey and I talk about the value of reading classic literature, the books he returned to when he started thinking he wanted to write, and why Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is the book that matters to him. Then we get into his novel The Devil Three Times. Rickey shares where he began with his expansive project, why he isn’t a short story writer, and how a planned dissertation influenced the novel he eventually wrote.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book. There is one moment where Rickey worries he’s giving away the end of Song of Solomon, but I promise it’s too vague to be a real spoiler! This episode is overflowing with books so be sure to check out the book list and links in the show notes and then pick up your copy of The Devil Three Times at your favorite bookshop.

Books Mentioned

* Loca by Alejandro Heredia

* Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

* Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

* Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

* House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

* Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

* Summer by Edith Wharton

* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

* Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Marukami

* Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

* A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

* All of Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones

* The Known World by Edward P. Jones

* Jane Austen

* Charlotte Bronte

* Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

* Sula by Toni Morrison

* The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

* The Black Book by Middleton A. Harris

* On Morrison by Namwali Serpell

* Toni at Random by Dana A. Williams

* The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne

* Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

* Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

* The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the Fiction Matters podcast. This is Books That Matter, an author interview series where we’ll get to know writers as readers and talk about the books that matter to them.

Since this is the first in this new series, I’m going to pause our regular intro to give a little bit of background information on the series and how it came to be and what I’m hoping to do here.

So for quite some time, I’ve been wanting to do more author interviews on my Substack. First of all, it’s a way to shine a light on writers that I love, and it’s a way for me to get to know more about writing and reading in general and the writers I really admire in particular.

But to be quite honest, I’ve always had kind of a complicated relationship with author interviews. I can be a little bit precious about my own reading. As a reader, I really like to do the interpretive work. I like to make meaning out of a book in terms of how I connect with it, how I see it. I guess I’m kind of a self-centered reader in that regard and how I approach reading fiction. And so sometimes I can avoid author interviews because I just I don’t want to know too much that influences how I read the book.

But at the same time, I love listening to authors talk and I love talking with authors. I find the conversation so fascinating because I think that writers read a little bit differently than regular readers, or at least I’ve noticed that a lot of writers read differently than I do personally. And so I’m always fascinated to hear about what they read, how they read, and the types of books that they enjoy and how that then translates into their own work.

So I have been thinking about how to host author interviews and I thought, maybe I would like to talk to writers, but talk to them more as readers and in particular about the books that have really shaped or influenced or mattered to them in some way. I have actually been doing this similar series and a series that goes by the same name over on Patreon for years where I talk to literary society members of the Patreon group about books that matter to them. And so now, starting today, I’m going to be bringing a similar series called Books That Matter to Substack, where I will be talking with authors about a book that matters to them, and in doing so, hoping to get to learn a little bit more about their reading lives.

I’ll also, of course, be talking to them about their writing lives and their own books, but the focus is going to be a little bit more on reading. And I’m still figuring out this whole series, exactly what it’s going to look like, how often it’s going to come out, all of that. Right now, it will just be kind of spontaneously as I find and reach out to authors who I really want to speak with. And you might notice the episode format or at least kind of discussion points shift a bit between episodes as I get into a groove, as I figure out my stride and what really works for these conversations.

But the goal is going to remain the same, to get to know writers as readers and writers. discover new to us books that matter or learn about books that maybe we readers already know and love, but learn how they matter to a particular writer in a different way.

So I hope you’re excited for this series. I’m so excited. I have some great guests lined up for you over the next few weeks and months and today, for the inaugural episode, I’m joined by Emily Adrian. Emily is the author of Seduction Theory, a metafictional campus novel that explores loyalty, betrayal, and writing craft through a story that’s both extremely clever and highly entertaining. In the first part of this episode, you’ll hear about Emily’s reading life, how learning to read made life snap into focus, and why Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark became an instant favorite. Later we get into her 2025 release Seduction Theory. She shares how the narrator of the book emerged as she wrote and (remarkably without any spoilers!) how she added to the ending right before her book went on submission.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book, and I hope you will because this was a very fun conversation! Alright after that long preamble, let’s get into my conversation with Emily Adrian.

If you prefer to listen in a podcast player, here are instructions to make sure you have linked your FictionMatters subscription to your app of choice. You can also view the entire transcript of our conversation by playing this episode in your desktop browser.

Links & Timestamps

* Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian

* Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

* Sigrid Nunez

* Susan Choi

* Heart the Lover by Lily King

* Vladimir Nabokov

* Muriel Spark

* Joy Williams

* Alice Munro

* Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

* The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

* 12:18 - Loitering with Intent Discussion

* 32:21 - Seduction Theory Discussion

* Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

* Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

* The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

* God and Sex by Jon Raymond

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