Trevor and Paul are back with the fourth annual best of the year extravaganza! In Part I, we count down the first half of our en favorite reads of 2024—and we are once again joined by a cast of friends and listeners who share some of their top books and best reading experiences of the year! Another great chance to grow your TBR pile for 2025!

Shownotes

Books

* The Postcard, by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover

* Gabriëlle, by Anne Berest and Claire Berest, translated by Tina Kover

* Two Hours, by Alba Arikha

* Crooked Seeds, by Karen Jennings

* Fathers and Fugitives, by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns

* Not Even the Dead, by Juan Gómez Bárcena, translated by Katie Whittemore

* Not a River, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada, translated by Chris Andrews

* Dead Girls, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* Brickmakers, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert

* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert

* Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman

* Rhine Journey, by Anne Schlee

* About Looking, by John Berger

* The Inkal, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius

* Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo, translated by Douglas J. Weatherford

* The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes, by K.C. Constantine

* The Premier, by Georges Simenon

* Two Thousand Million Man-Power, by Gertrude Trevelyan

* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay

* A County Doctor, by Franz Kafka

* Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Angélica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin

* Sons, by Robert De Maria

* Brothers, by Robert De Maria

* Fletch, by Gregory McDonald

* Bedlam, by Charlene Elsby

* Quarry, by Max Allan Collins

* A Tiler’s Afternoon, by Lars Gustfsson, translated by Tom Geddes

* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, translated by

* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

* The Carrying, by Ada Limón

* Picnic, Lighting, by Billy Collins

* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker

* Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón

* The Hurting King, by Ada Limón

* You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, compiled by Ada Limón

* Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West

* Clear, by Carys Davies

* Malena, by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Philip Boehm

* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken

* Last Words from Montmartre, by Qin Miaojin, translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich

* The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes, translated by Kate Briggs

* Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917 - 1922, by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated by Jamey Gambrell

* The Power of Gentleness: Meditation on the Risk of Living, by Anne Dufourmantelle, translated by Katherine Payne and Vincent Sallé

* Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood, by Lucy Jones

* Question 7, by Richard Flanagan

* The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan

* Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming

* H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

* The Goshawk, by T.H. White

* The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller’s Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece, by Laura Cumming

* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan

* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud

* James, by Percival Everett

* The Trees, by Percival Everett

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

Since his death in 2022, we have been wanting to dedicate an episode to Spanish novelist Javier Marías, a master of the distrusting, long sentence. We had a lovely time reflecting on his books, which we could read again and again.

What is your favorite Javier Marías book?

Shownotes

Books

* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope

* Great Fear on the Mountain, by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Bill Johnston

* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

* Three Days in June, by Anne Tyler

The Works of Javier Marías

* Los dominios del lobo (1971)

* Voyage Along the Horizon (1973), translated by Kristina Cordero

* El monarca del tiempo (1978)

* El siglo (1983)

* The Man of Feeling (1986), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* All Souls (1989), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* While the Women Are Sleeping (1990), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* A Heart So White (1992), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me (1994), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* When I Was Mortal (1996), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico (1996), translated by Esther Allen

* Dark Back of Time (1998), translated by Esther Allen

* Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear (2002), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Your Face Tomorrow 2: Dance and Dream (2004), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Your Face Tomorrow 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (2007), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* The Infatuations (2011), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Thus Bad Begins (2014), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Berta Isla (2017), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* Tomás Nevinson (2021), translated by Margaret Jull Costa

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Subscribed

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

What books have you wanted to reread as soon as you finished them? Inspired by this fascinating prompt from our friend Nora, we decided to dive into this fun topic. We talk about the categories of books that inspire immediate rereads, share a few of our own examples, and discuss when (or if) we’ve ever actually done it. What books have inspired you to turn the last page and immediately go back to the beginning?

Shownotes

Books

* Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, by Rebecca Solnit

* Absolution, by Jeff Vandermeer

* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope

* The Wood in Midwinter, by Susanna Clarke

* On the Calculation of Volume, by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland

* Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette

* Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier

* Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope

* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

* The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms

* Middlemarch, by George Eliot

* Moby-Dick: or, The Whale, by Herman Melville

* The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein

* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson

* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

* Bleak House, by Charles Dickens

* Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

* Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

* A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

* The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens

* Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

* A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson

* The Ghost Writer, by Philip Roth

* The Counterlife, by Philip Roth

* Zuckerman Unbound, by Philip Roth

* The Anatomy Lesson, by Philip Roth

* The Prague Orgy, by Philip Roth

* American Pastoral, by Philip Roth

* I Married a Communist, by Philip Roth

* The Human Stain, by Philip Roth

* The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana

* The Walk, by Robert Walser, translated by Christopher Middleton and Susan Bernofsky

* Splitting and Order, by Ted Kooser

* Picnic, Lightning, by Billy Collins

* James, by Percival Everett

* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell

* Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell

* The Chateau, by William Maxwell

* Felix Holt, by George Eliot

* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee

Other Links

* Nora’s Instagram Post

* One Bright Book

* Episode 49: Rereading

* Episode 76: Author Completionism

* Episode 77: Poetry

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

We love talking about essays so much, we decided to do it again! This week, we pick up where we left off a few episodes ago, chatting about more of our favorite essayists and collections. We also share a few from our essay TBR piles. What are some of your favorites?

Shownotes

Books

* Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

* Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

* The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin

* The Unforgivable, by Cristina Campo

* You Like It Darker, by Stephen King

* Every Arc Bends Its Radian, by Sergio De La Pava

* A Naked Singularity, by Sergio De La Pava

* Ghosts, by Edith Wharton

* Europe in Sepia, Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams

* Karaoke Culture, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams

* Muzzle for Witches, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać

* Thank You for Not Reading, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth, with contribution from Damion Searls

* Fox, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać and David Williams

* An Elemental Thing, by Eliot Weinberger

* A Chance Meeting: American Encounters, by Rachel Cohen

* Sightlines, by Kathleen Jamie

* The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman

* The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay

* The Book of (More) Delights, by Ross Gay

* Pulphead, by John Jeremiah Sullivan

* Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace

* A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write, by Melissa Pritchard

* The Common Reader, by Virginia Woolf

* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

* Felix Holt: The Radical, by George Eliot

* Middlemarch, by George Eliot

* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland

* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden

* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young

* Angel in the Forest, by Marguerite Young

* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker

Other Links

* Episode 39: Scary Books That Kept Us Up at Night

* Electric Lit: Our Favorite Essays and Stories About Horror Films

* Three Percent Podcast: Lori Feathers on Marguerite Young

* Obliteraturetees

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

This week, we’re joined by our good friend Mark Haber to discuss his wonderful books, including the brand new Lesser Ruins. Fittingly, this episode features numerous digressions into literary influences and loves, coffee, music, art, travel, and much more!

Shownotes

Books

* The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez

* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence

* Fog at Noon, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg

* Difficult Light, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg

* Living Things, by Munir Hachemi, translated by Julia Sanches

* Vacated Landscape, by Jean Lahougue, translated by K.E. Gormley

* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland

* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden

* Attila, by Aliocha Coll, translated by Katie Whittemore

* Attila, by Serena, by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Whittemore

* Deathbed Conversions, by Mark Haber

* Reinhardt’s Garden, by Mark Haber

* Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, by Mark Haber

* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber

* An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, by César Aira, translated by Chris Andrews

* The Netanyahus, by Joshua Cohen

* Ada, by Mark Haber (forthcoming 2026)

* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

* Ten, by Juan Emar, translated by Megan McDowell

* Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence, by Geoff Dyer

* Compass, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell

Other

* Episode 31: New Directions, with Mark Haber

* Wakefield Press

* LitHub: “Mark Haber on the Beauty of Digression”

* Southwest Review: “How to Read Kafka,” by Mark Haber

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

This week’s episode is all about essays! From nature writing, to reviews and criticism, to personal reflections and familiar essays, this form offers something for everyone. In this episode, we share our thoughts and experiences, including our go-to varieties and favorite examples. What are yours?

Shownotes

Books

* The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill

* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy

* We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman

* The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

* Herscht 07769, by László Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet

* The Emporium: A Health Resort Horror Story, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert

* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert

* Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman

* At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays, by Anne Fadiman

* Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman

* Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader, by Viviane Gornick

* Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion

* The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison

* Make It Scream, Make It Burn, by Leslie Jamison

* The Hall of Uselessness, by Simon Leys

* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young

* The Death of Napoleon, by Simon Leys

* The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams

* When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice, by Terry Tempest Williams

* Erosion, by Terry Tempest Williams

* Finding Beauty in a Broken World, by Terry Tempest Williams

* The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane

* Leap, by Terry Tempest Williams

* Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, by Terry Tempest Williams

* The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick

* The Uncollected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick

* Seduction and Betrayal, by Elizabeth Hardwick

* The Fun Stuff, by James Wood

* Widening the Skirts of Light, by Rohan Maitzen

* Feel Free, by Zadi Smith

* On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

* On Beauty and Being Just, by Elaine Scarry

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

We all have those books that are waiting in the wings, begging for a chance to make their way off the shelf and into our hands. This week, we chat about why some books seem to get stuck on the sidelines, even though we always think they’ll be the next one up. We discuss some of the reasons this happens and each share five of our own benchwarmer books, doing our best to justify why we keep ignoring their pleas to “put me in coach!”

Shownotes

Books

* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay

* Proust Was a Neuroscientist, by Jonah Lehrer

* The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller

* Circe, by Madeline Miller

* To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolfe

* Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

* The Human Stain, by Philip Roth

* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

* Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy

* Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov

* Absalolm, Absalom!, by William Faulkner

* Baudolino, by Umberto Eco

* The Gormenghast Novels, by Mervyn Peake

* Strong Motion, by Jonathan Franzen

* The Twenty-Seventh City, by Jonathan Franzen

* Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips

* The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Books) Saved My Life, by Andy Miller

* We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen

* The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

* Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence

* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence

* Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence

* Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence

* Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

* Hurricane Season, by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes

* Hons and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford

* Romola, by George Eliot

* The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen

* At Play in the Fields of the Lord, by Peter Matthiessen

* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker

* Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen

* Tigana, by Guy Gabriel Kay

* Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell

* The Last Colony, by John Scalzi

* Old Mans’ War, by John Scalzi

* The Ghost Brigade, by John Scalzi

* Zoe’s Tale, by John Scalzi

* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre

* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust

* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Anthony Briggs

* The Expendable Man, by Dorothy B. Hughes

* Felix Holt, the Radical, by George Eliot

* Phineas Redux, by Anthony Trollope

* Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope

* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope

* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy

Other Links

* Jack’s Instagram Post

* Episode 31: New Directions, with Mark Haber

* Episode 6: Our Fantasy Past (and Future?)

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

To close out Women In Translatjon month, we’re thrilled to be joined by poet and translator Robin Myers. We chat about the art of translation and the importance of providing access to and for wide a range of voices. And we each share three translated books written by women that we think you should know about. What did you read this year during #WITMonth?

Shownotes

Books

* The Brush, by Eliana Hernández-Pachón, translated by Robin Myers

* The Forgery, by Ave Barrera, translated by Robin Myers and Ellen Jones

* Restoration, by Ave Barrera, translated by Robin Myers and Ellen Jones

* Metamorphoses, by Emanuele Coccia, translated by Robin Mackay

* Texas: The Great Theft, by Carmen Boullosa, translated by Samantha Schnee

* Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver

* Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli, translated by Elizabeth Jaquette

* Lojman, by Ebru Owen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu

* Umami, by Laia Jufresa, translated by Sophie Hughes

* A Change of Time, by Ida Jensen, translated by Martin Aitken

* Ladivine, by Marie Ndiaye, translated by Jordan Stump

* Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater, by Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call

* Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel, by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky

* Ti Amo, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken

* We Are Green and Trembling, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Robin Myers

* A Strange Adventure, by Eva Forest, translated by Robin Myers

* Sister Deborah, by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti

* Canoes, by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore

* Stay with Me, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken

Other Links

* Poem Per Diem, Robin Myer’s Substack

* Women in Translation Webpage

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

This week, we are joined from Down Under by veteran book blogger Kim Forrester to discuss our 2024 summer read, William Trevor’s The Story Of Lucy Gault. We discuss this heartbreaking, beautiful book, chat about William Trevor’s other works and make some recommendations (and plans) about where to go next. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did—and we’d love to hear your thoughts on the book, the author, and what you plan to read next!

Shownotes

Books

* Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin

* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin

* The Story of Lucy Gault, by William Trevor

* My Friends, by Hisham Matar

* Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood

* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope

* Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope

* Time of the Flies, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

* Elena Knows, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

* A Little Luck, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle

* “The Piano Tuner’s Wives,” by William Trevor

* Love in Summer, by William Trevor

* Reinhardt’s Garden, by Mark Haber

* The Silence in the Garden, by William Trevor

* Fools of Fortune, by William Trevor

* Felicia’s Journey, by William Trevor

* Two Lives, by William Trevor

* Last Stories, by William Trevor

* “The Dressmaker’s Child,” by William Trevor

* The Book of Evidence, by John Banville

* The Sea, by John Banville

* A Death in Summer, by Benjamin Black

* Death in Summer, by William Trevor

Other Links

* Kim’s Blog: Reading Matters

* A Year with William Trevor

* 746 Books Blog

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!

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

This week we have fun with all of the top books of the 21st century hype by sharing our own top 10 lists. We each killed a few darlings and made some very tough decisions. How did we do?

What books would make your list?

Summer Book Club

The book for the Mookse and the Gripes Summer Book Club 2024 is William Trevor’s The Story of Lucy Gault. You can start reading it whenever you want to! We have lined up a guest to join us to discuss the book for the next episode!

Shownotes

Books

* The Story of Lucy Gault, by William Trevor

* The Land Breakers, by John Ehle

* Testing the Current, by William McPherson

* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young

* Schattenfroh, by Michael Lenz, translated by Max Lawton

* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber

* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay

* Universal Harvester, by John Darnielle

* A Head Full of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

* Cabin at the End of the Woods, by Paul Tremblay

* The Indian Lake Trilogy, by Stephen Graham Jones

* The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison

* In a Strange Room, by Damon Galgut

* The Promise, by Damon Galgut

* Open City, by Teju Cole

* When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West

* The MANIAC, by Benjamin Labatut

* The Employees, by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken

* Flights, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft

* Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones Croft

* The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft

* LaRose, by Louise Erdrich

* Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Life of Sylvia Plath, by Heather Clark

* Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

* Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

* Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane

* The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane

* Reinhardt’s Garden, by Mark Haber

* Ducks, Newbury Port, by Lucy Ellmann

* Your Face Tomorrow, by Javier Marías, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

* The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy

* Runaway, by Alice Munro

* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson

* Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson

* Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

* Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald, translated by Anthea Belle

* The Immigrants, by W.G. Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse

* The Rings of Saturn, by W.G. Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse

* Vertigo, by W.G. Sebald, translated by Michael Hulse

* Blinding, by Mircea Cartarescu, translated by Sean Cotter

* The Garden of Seven Twilights, by Miquel de Palol, translated by Adrian Nathan West

* Antagony, by Luis Goytisolo, translated by Brendan Riley

* Monument Maker, by David Keenan

* Tomb of Sand, by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell

* Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright

* Wizard of the Crow, by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

* The Known World, Edward P. Jones

* Hurricane Season, by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes

* The Twilight Zone, by Nona Fernandez, translated by Natasha Wimmer

* Septology, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls

* The Years, by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison Strayer

* In the Distance, by Hernan Diaz

* Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

* My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Don Bartlett

Other Links

* The Untranslated

* New York Times: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

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