The Book Review

By The New York Times

Arts

What's The Book Review about?

The world's top authors and critics join host Pamela Paul and editors at The New York Times Book Review to talk about the week's top books, what we're reading and what's going on in the literary world.

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Revisiting Baldwin vs. Buckley

11.15.2019

Nicholas Buccola talks about “The Fire Is Upon Us,” and Saeed Jones discusses “How We Fight for Our Lives.”

The Book Review episodes:

11.15.2019 Revisiting Baldwin vs. Buckley Nicholas Buccola talks about “The Fire Is Upon Us,” and Saeed Jones discusses “How We Fight for Our Lives.”
11.08.2019 Among the Trolls Andrew Marantz talks about “Antisocial,” and Gail Collins discusses “No Stopping Us Now.”
11.01.2019 The Life of Thomas Edison David Oshinsky talks about Edmund Morris’s “Edison,” and Tina Jordan discusses new memoirs by Demi Moore, Julie Andrews and Carly Simon.
10.25.2019 John Lithgow on His Satirical Poems The actor talks about "Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse," and Leigh Bardugo discusses "Ninth House."
10.18.2019 Thomas Chatterton Williams on ‘Unlearning Race’ Williams talks about his new memoir, “Self-Portrait in Black and White,” and Stephen Kinzer discusses “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.”
10.11.2019 Are Cheap Clothes Ruining the Planet? Dana Thomas discusses “Fashionopolis,” and Steven Greenhouse talks about “Beaten Down, Worked Up.”
10.04.2019 Ben Lerner's New Novel and the Politics of Language Garth Risk Hallberg talks about Lerner's "The Topeka School," and Bari Weiss discusses "How to Fight Anti-Semitism."
09.27.2019 Samantha Power on What She's Learned Power talks about her new memoir, "The Education of an Idealist," and Craig Johnson discusses his Longmire mysteries.
09.20.2019 Two Times Reporters on ‘The Education of Brett Kavanaugh’ Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly discuss their new book, and Tim Winton talks about his most recent novel, “The Shepherd’s Hut.”
09.13.2019 Bringing Down Harvey Weinstein Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey talk about their new book, “She Said,” and Ian Urbina discusses “The Outlaw Ocean.”
09.06.2019 Trump, TV and America James Poniewozik discusses “Audience of One,” and Bina Venkataraman talks about “The Optimist’s Telescope.”
08.30.2019 The Ruining of the American West Christopher Ketcham talks about “This Land,” and Gretchen McCulloch discusses “Because Internet.”
08.23.2019 The Politicization of Academic Life Anthony Kronman talks about “The Assault on American Excellence,” and Christopher Benfey discusses “If,” his new book about Rudyard Kipling.
08.16.2019 Jia Tolentino on Life With the Internet Tolentino talks about “Trick Mirror,” and John Taliaferro discusses “Grinnell,” his biography of a pioneering conservationist.
08.09.2019 Toni Morrison's Legacy Wesley Morris, Parul Sehgal and Dwight Garner talk about Morrison’s career, and Sarah M. Broom talks about her debut memoir, “The Yellow House.”
08.02.2019 The Fight for the Supreme Court Carl Hulse talks about “Confirmation Bias,” and De’Shawn Charles Winslow discusses “In West Mills.”
07.26.2019 Fiction About Unprecedented Situations Ted Chiang talks about “Exhalation,” and Helen Phillips discusses “The Need.”
07.19.2019 Colson Whitehead Talks About 'The Nickel Boys' The Pulitzer Prize winner discusses his new novel, and Jon Gertner talks about “The Ice at the End of the World.”
07.12.2019 George F. Will on Conservatism’s Homelessness Will discusses “The Conservative Sensibility,” and David Maraniss talks about “A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father.”
07.05.2019 Picking the Best Memoirs Since 1969 The Times’s book critics talk about choosing the best 50 memoirs of the past 50 years, and Daniel Okrent discusses “The Guarded Gate.”
06.28.2019 Taffy Brodesser-Akner Talks About Her First Novel Brodesser-Akner discusses “Fleishman in Trouble,” and Katherine Eban talks about “Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom.”
06.21.2019 Jill Lepore on the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing Lepore discusses several new books about the Apollo 11 mission, and Julie Satow talks about the history of the Plaza Hotel.
06.14.2019 The World's Far Corners and Deepest Depths Robert Macfarlane talks about "Underland," and Julia Phillips discusses "Disappearing Earth."
06.07.2019 Rethinking the Epidemic of Domestic Violence Rachel Louise Snyder talks about “No Visible Bruises,” and Josh Levin discusses “The Queen.”
05.31.2019 Thrillers for Summer Vanessa Friedman talks about this season’s notable thrillers, and Liesl Schillinger discusses new books about travel.
05.24.2019 A Trilogy About the American Revolution Begins Rick Atkinson talks about “The British Are Coming,” and Brenda Wineapple discusses “The Impeachers.”
05.17.2019 Harper Lee's Unwritten True-Crime Book Casey Cep discusses "Furious Hours," and Eliza Griswold talks about "Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America."
05.10.2019 The Real Life of a Diplomat, Told Like a Novel George Packer talks about “Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century,” and Lori Gottlieb discusses “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.”
05.03.2019 Laila Lalami on 'The Other Americans' Lalami discusses her latest novel, and Jenny Odell talks about "How to Do Nothing."
04.26.2019 Connecting the Dots Between Reconstruction and Jim Crow Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about “Stony the Road” and “Dark Sky Rising,” and David Wallace-Wells discusses “The Uninhabitable Earth.”
04.19.2019 Robert Caro on How He Does It The acclaimed biographer of Lyndon Johnson and Robert Moses talks about his new book, "Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing."
04.12.2019 Ruth Reichl's Delicious New Memoir Reichl discusses "Save Me the Plums," and Emily Bazelon talks about "Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration."
04.05.2019 The Chernobyl Disaster in Full Adam Higginbotham talks about his sweeping new history of the nuclear accident and its aftermath, and Nellie Bowles discusses Clive Thompson's "Coders."
03.29.2019 Preet Bharara on the Rule of Law Bharara discusses “Doing Justice,” and Senator Doug Jones talks about “Bending Toward Justice.”
03.22.2019 The Life of Sandra Day O'Connor Evan Thomas talks about “First,” his new biography of O’Connor, and Mitchell S. Jackson discusses “Survival Math.”
03.15.2019 Isaac Mizrahi on His New Memoir The fashion designer discusses “I.M.,” and David McCraw talks about “Truth in Our Times.”
03.08.2019 A Violent Summer in Chicago Alex Kotlowitz discusses “An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago,” and John Lanchester talks about his new novel, “The Wall.”
03.01.2019 A Gripping Political Mystery in Northern Ireland Patrick Radden Keefe talks about “Say Nothing,” and Frans de Waal discusses “Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves.”
02.22.2019 Seeking Silence Gal Beckerman discusses “How to Disappear,” by Akiko Busch, and “Silence,” by Jane Brox; and Steve Luxenberg talks about “Separate.”
02.15.2019 A Class in ‘Dreyer’s English’ Benjamin Dreyer discusses his best-selling book about writing, and Thomas Mallon discusses “Landfall,” his new novel about the presidential administration of George W. Bush.
02.08.2019 Marlon James Talks About His Epic New Trilogy James discusses "Black Leopard, Red Wolf," and Stephanie Land talks about "Maid."
02.01.2019 Assessing the Facebook Problem Roger McNamee talks about "Zucked," and Charles Finch discusses the season's best thrillers.
01.25.2019 Dani Shapiro on Her Surprising 'Inheritance' Shapiro talks about her new best-selling memoir, and David Treuer discusses “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee.”
01.18.2019 A New Novel Conjures Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman A. O. Scott talks about Linn Ullmann’s “Unquiet,” and Judith Newman discusses new books about anxiety, mental illness and grief.
01.11.2019 How Curses Function in Literature Julian Lucas talks about the role of curses in contemporary African literature, and Abby Ellin discusses "Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married."
01.04.2019 Fugitive Slaves and the Road to the Civil War Andrew Delbanco discusses “The War Before the War,” and Rob Dunn talks about “Never Home Alone.”
12.28.2018 Tyranny in Rome and Fake Drugs in Fiction Yascha Mounk discusses Edward J. Watts's "Mortal Republic," and Jonathan Lethem talks about the surge of fictional psychotropic drugs in novels.
12.21.2018 Isabel Wilkerson Talks About Michelle Obama’s Memoir The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian discusses the former first lady’s story, and Helen Schulman talks about her novel “Come With Me.”
12.14.2018 Poetry & Politics The Book Review’s poetry editor, Gregory Cowles, discusses Tracy K. Smith’s essay about political poetry and more from this week’s special issue; and Maria Russo discusses the best children's books of 2018.
12.07.2018 Immaturity in American Politics Alan Wolfe discusses “The Politics of Petulance,” and Nadja Spiegelman talks about two newly published books by Lucia Berlin, “Evening in Paradise” and “Welcome Home.”

Older episodes

The Book Review

What's The Book Review about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Book Review episodes:

Revisiting Baldwin vs. Buckley

Among the Trolls

The Life of Thomas Edison

John Lithgow on His Satirical Poems

Thomas Chatterton Williams on ‘Unlearning Race’

Are Cheap Clothes Ruining the Planet?

Ben Lerner's New Novel and the Politics of Language

Samantha Power on What She's Learned

Two Times Reporters on ‘The Education of Brett Kavanaugh’

Bringing Down Harvey Weinstein

Trump, TV and America

The Ruining of the American West

The Politicization of Academic Life

Jia Tolentino on Life With the Internet

Toni Morrison's Legacy

The Fight for the Supreme Court

Fiction About Unprecedented Situations

Colson Whitehead Talks About 'The Nickel Boys'

George F. Will on Conservatism’s Homelessness

Picking the Best Memoirs Since 1969

Taffy Brodesser-Akner Talks About Her First Novel

Jill Lepore on the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

The World's Far Corners and Deepest Depths

Rethinking the Epidemic of Domestic Violence

Thrillers for Summer

A Trilogy About the American Revolution Begins

Harper Lee's Unwritten True-Crime Book

The Real Life of a Diplomat, Told Like a Novel

Laila Lalami on 'The Other Americans'

Connecting the Dots Between Reconstruction and Jim Crow

Robert Caro on How He Does It

Ruth Reichl's Delicious New Memoir

The Chernobyl Disaster in Full

Preet Bharara on the Rule of Law

The Life of Sandra Day O'Connor

Isaac Mizrahi on His New Memoir

A Violent Summer in Chicago

A Gripping Political Mystery in Northern Ireland

Seeking Silence

A Class in ‘Dreyer’s English’

Marlon James Talks About His Epic New Trilogy

Assessing the Facebook Problem

Dani Shapiro on Her Surprising 'Inheritance'

A New Novel Conjures Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman

How Curses Function in Literature

Fugitive Slaves and the Road to the Civil War

Tyranny in Rome and Fake Drugs in Fiction

Isabel Wilkerson Talks About Michelle Obama’s Memoir

Poetry & Politics

Immaturity in American Politics

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