Fully Booked by Kirkus Reviews

In Julia Phillips’ stunning debut novel, Disappearing Earth, two sisters are taken from a seaside city on a summer day, affecting the lives of women and girls in diverse communities throughout Russia’s majestic Kamchatka Peninsula. She joins us on this week’s podcast to discuss her “unusual, cleverly constructed thriller” (starred review) and race, class, and culture in the Russian Far East. Then our editors join with their top picks in books this week.

John Burnham Schwartz joins us on this week’s episode to discuss The Red Daughter, a novel inspired by the remarkable life of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin’s youngest child, whose 1967 defection from the Soviet Union to the United States caused an international uproar. A surprising personal connection gave Schwartz unprecedented access to historical documents that helped him tell her intriguing story. After the interview, our editors join with their top book recommendations for the week.

We’ve never read anything quite like YA star A.S. King’s “stunningly original” new novel, Dig, the meditative saga of a white Pennsylvania family with agricultural roots and a few dirty secrets. On this week’s episode, King discusses confronting racism, classism, and misogyny in an informed and compassionate way, and our editors join with their top picks in books this week.

In Christian Kiefer’s Phantoms, a white American Vietnam vet contends with legacies of racism, violence, and imperialism in a small agricultural town in Placer County, California. Kiefer joins us on this week’s podcast to discuss the incandescent new novel, which Kirkus calls, “certainly anti-war, certainly condemning our country’s dark past ... full of quavering beauty, unbreakable love, and fragile, relentless hope” (starred review). Then our editors join with their weekly book recommendations.

When it comes to Susan Choi’s inventive new novel, Trust Exercise, believe the hype. Set primarily at an exclusive performing arts high school in an unnamed southern city, it’s the story of a steamy, driver-license-less teen love affair … that morphs, via shocking shifts in perspective, into a profound interrogation of how personal mythologies - and perceptions of trauma and abuse - are written and rewritten over time. Choi joins us on this week’s episode for a deep dive into Trust Exercise, followed by our editors’ weekly book recommendations.

On this episode of Fully Booked, American housewife, humorist, professional poker player, and native Alabaman Helen Ellis teaches Clay and Megan all about “Southern Lady Code” (“a technique by which, if you don’t have something nice to say, you say something not so nice in a nice way”) as they discuss her delightful, double-entendre-stuffed essay collection by the same name. Then our editors join with top picks in books this week.

What happens when a Type A needs a plan B? Essayist and bookseller Mary Laura Philpott joins us on this week’s episode for a funny and frank discussion of I Miss You When I Blink, a memoir-in-essays about reinvention, confirmation bias, and identity crisis at home and abroad. Then our editors join with their top picks in books this week.

Inspired by an invigorating walk in Italy, award-winning poet Ross Gay set an intention to write on delight each day for one year. He joins us on this week’s “Rebels Issue” episode to discuss The Book of Delights, a collection of essays contending with the sweet and bitter of everyday life, from plants, animals, politics, and racism to pop music, dreams, and expressions of joy. And our editors offer their top picks in revolutionary books with the power to change hearts and minds.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Holiday House, publishers of Music for Mister Moon, a notable new picture book from Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead, the author and illustrator of 2011 Caldecott Medal Book A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Make sure to stay tuned for our intriguing interview with Erin E. Stead later in the podcast. In our lead interview, Margaret Leslie Davis joins Clay and Megan to discuss the most important book in the history of printing, the Gutenberg Bible. Her exciting new nonfiction, The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey, chronicles one exceptional copy’s various owners, including the boldest female book collector in American history. Then our editors join with their top picks in books this week.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Holiday House, publishers of Music for Mister Moon, a notable new picture book from Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead, the author and illustrator of 2011 Caldecott Medal Book A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Make sure to stay tuned for our intriguing interview with Erin E. Stead later in the podcast. In our lead interview, Margaret Leslie Davis joins Clay and Megan to discuss the most important book in the history of printing, the Gutenberg Bible. Her exciting new nonfiction, The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey, chronicles one exceptional copy’s various owners, including the boldest female book collector in American history. Then our editors join with their top picks in books this week.