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The Book Review
About the podcast
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.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author talks process and “Planet of the Apes.”
Bob Crawford discusses the leap from stage to page and why his new book, “America’s Founding Son,” feels so relevant.
Emily Brontë’s classic “Wuthering Heights” has long been a favorite among readers, and the novel is back in the zeitgeist thanks to Emerald Fennell’s recent film adaptation. On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “Wuthering Heights” with colleagues from the New York Times Book Review.
The latest film from the writer and director Clint Bentley, “Train Dreams,” is nominated for four Oscars, including best adapted screenplay. The movie is based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name and tells the story of Robert Grainier, a logger in the Pacific Northwest, in stream-of-consciousness, nonlinear prose. This week, Gilbert Cruz talks with Bentley, who wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar, his longtime collaborator, about how he went about translating Johnson’s work into a visual medium. Bentley first read “Train Dreams” just after college, long before he ever thought of making it into a movie. When producers with rights to the book approached Bentley, he was suddenly worried. “Going back and reading the book again,” Bentley said, “I was like, Oh, maybe this thing is unadaptable.” Set on capturing the spirit of the book, Bentley and Kwedar focused on “the vastness of this small little life,” he said. “We very rarely have an understanding of our lives in the moment we’re actually living them,” Bentley said. “We only start to understand them when it’s too late.”
Ahead of this year’s Academy Awards, the director appeared on the Book Review podcast to speak about his latest film.
Julia Quinn published "The Duke and I," the first book in the 'Bridgerton' series, in 2000. Seven books and a quarter century later, its adaptation remains one of the biggest series ever to air on Netflix. Quinn spoke to host Gilbert Cruz about the show, her books and how the romance genre has changed over several decades.
Keza MacDonald, the video games editor at The Guardian and author of the new book “Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play,” speaks with host Gilbert Cruz about the iconic Japanese company.
Xenobe Purvis’s slim but powerful debut novel, “The Hounding,” is about five young sisters in 1700s England who are suspected of being able to transform into a pack of wild dogs. It is a gothic parable about male ego, cultural misogyny and the dangers of gossip run amok. On this week’s episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “The Hounding” with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib, Emily Eakin and Gregory Cowles.
The journalist, novelist and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman is best known for writing about rock music and pop culture. But Klosterman got his start in college as a sports journalist, and with his new book, “Football,” he has finally devoted an entire collection to the sport that has fundamentally shaped him alongside American society at large.
A new year means new books are on the way! So many new books. On this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz talks with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the upcoming fiction and nonfiction titles they’re most anticipating between now and April.