The Critics’ Picks: A Year in Reading

<p>Literature isn’t a horse race. Taste is subjective, and artistic value can’t be measured in terms of “winners" and “losers.”</p><p>That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try.</p><p>The book world’s awards season officially kicked off on Oct. 9, when the Hungarian novelist Laszlo Kr ... Show More

<p>Nicholas Boggs’s “Baldwin: A Love Story,” is many things at once. It’s a comprehensive biography of James Baldwin. It’s a nimble excavation of Baldwin’s work, filled with astute literary analysis of his books and prose. And, most pressingly, it’s an argument for a new critical ... Show More

<p>On Nov. 10, 1975, during a calamitous storm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk below the waves of Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard went down with the vessel. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses, there’s always been a sense of mystery to what is arguably the most famous shipwreck in ... Show More

We have a new podcast! WSIRN is about helping readers find their next read. In each episode, the recommendations are geared toward a particular reader’s style, and Anne always looks for titles they haven’t read before. Our new podcast is a short format show called One Great Book. ... Show More

Charlie Lovett joins Anne to discuss the enduring power of not only stories but the books themselves, how books connect people of all ages, and of all times, how we can preserve literature for future generations, the joy of a book as a physical object, the art of literary forgery ... Show More

A caller asks for books that feel like The Wonder Years. Vox book critic Constance Grady recommends three books that are perfect for summer nostalgia. Plus, Constance discusses the “free narrative” of The Princess Bride in a clip from the Vox Book Club Zoom event. Constance recom ... Show More

This week’s episode is with one of my biggest writing inspirations: Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Her 111th novel Love Frankie is out now. We talk about her journey into being one of the nation's most loved writers, her writing process, why she's always wanted to discuss deeper issues ... Show More

Today's guest is the amazing Julia Cameron - a return Ctrl Alt Delete guest! Her brand new book The Listening Path is out now. If you are a fan of The Artist's Way, you will LOVE it. It was so great getting to chat to Julia all about the power of listening. Over six weeks, reader ... Show More

<p>One of Marcelle's favorite books is The Night Circus, so she decided to be brave and do an entire episode about the best-selling fantasy novel by Erin Morgenstern. Why brave? Well because sometimes it's hard to think critically about something you love! We all know that. ;) Th ... Show More

Today on the podcast is the New York Bestselling writer and essayist Christie Tate. She has written for the New York Times (Modern Love), The Rumpus, The Washington Post, among others. Now she has an incredible memoir out called Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers ... Show More

CORRECTION: In the intro I said Kiley Reid has written 'a number of novels and stories'. Such A Fun Age is actually her DEBUT novel. Apologies for this error.Kiley Reid is a New York Times Bestselling writer, earning her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won a fellow ... Show More

This is a replay of a previous episode with Dawn O’Porter. Dawn has actually come on this podcast 3 times, but this is a replay of the latest conversation we had in 2019, about her brilliant novel So Lucky. She is the author of 6 books including the award-winning YA books Paper A ... Show More