The Book Review

In 2024, The New York Times Book Review gathered more than 500 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and literary enthusiasts to help pick the best books of the 21st century so far. One of those books was Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road,” which came in at No. 13. That book tells the story of a man and his young son trying to survive in a postapocalyptic United States. Like other books by McCarthy, it combines ornate prose with moments of unforgettable violence. It is also a moving story of love and parenthood under the most extreme circumstances.

One of the people who voted on our best books list was Ryan Holiday, author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, host of the “Daily Stoic” podcast and owner of the Painted Porch Bookshop in Bastrop, Texas. We recently invited him on the “Book Review” podcast to talk about “The Road,” and how its meaning changed for him after he became a father.

Books Discussed on This Episode:

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

“No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy

“All the Pretty Horses” by Cormac McCarthy

“Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy

“The Odyssey” by Homer

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The Children of Men” by P. D. James

“The Plague” by Albert Camus

“Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates

“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius

“Of Boys and Men” by Richard Reeves

“Outdoor Kids in an Inside World” by Steven Rinella

“Letter to His Father” by Franz Kafka

“Range” by David Epstein

“Good Inside” by Becky Kennedy

“Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy

“Death Be Not Proud” by John Gunther

“The Revenant” by Michael Punke

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June is here and the long summer days are stretching out ahead, which means it’s time to settle in front of the air-conditioner with a pile of books. (Just us?) But which ones should you read this summer? The “Book Review” podcast’s Gilbert Cruz talks with the Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the titles they’re most excited about.

Books discussed in this episode:

“Red Sheet,” by James Ellroy

“Villa Coco,” by Andrew Sean Greer

“They All Fall in Love at the End,” by Haili Blassingame

“Whistler,” by Ann Patchett

“As If,” by Isabel Waidner

“The Housewives Underground,” by Kaitlyn Tiffany

“Nebraska,” by Monica Datta

“Cool Machine,” by Colson Whitehead

“The Mortons,” by Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld

“Country People,” by Daniel Mason

“Fixer Chao,” by Han Ong

“Biological War,” by Annie Jacobsen

“We Were Forbidden,” by Jacqueline Harpman

“The Amateur,” by Chris Bohjalian

“A Tender Age,” by Chang-rae Lee

“The Jackal,” by Joby Warrick

“A Moment in the Sun,” by Shane White

“A Sudden Flicker of Light,” by David Thomson

“Rabbit, Fox, Tar” by P.C. Verrone

“The Au Pair,” by Teddy Wayne

“Land,” by Maggie O’Farrell

“Sublimation,” by Isabel J. Kim

“Cloudthief,” by Nathaniel Rich

“Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep,” by Paul Tremblay

“You Won’t Get Free of It,” by Rachel Aviv

“Awake Awake,” by Fiona Mozley

“Triage,” by Claudia Rankine

“Catch the Devil,” by Pamela Colloff

“Helpless,” by Jessica Knoll

“Life of M,” by Rachel Cusk

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Ben Lerner’s slender new novel, “Transcription,” is just 130 pages long, yet it cracks open some of our most colossal and enduring philosophical questions.

The novel is told in three parts. We open with an unnamed narrator going to interview his mentor, Thomas — an acclaimed artist in his 90s who also happens to be the father of one of the narrator’s friends, Max — for a magazine. Before the interview, however, the narrator’s phone breaks and he has no way to record their conversation. Rather than reschedule, he proceeds with the interview and only pretends to record Thomas as they talk.

The second section flashes to the future. Thomas has died, and the article that our narrator wrote has become enshrined as the final interview with the iconic artist. At a symposium in Madrid, the narrator confesses that his interview was reconstructed rather than transcribed — a revelation that dismays the other guests and infuriates Max. Then we flash again. In the final section, the narrator talks to Max, who discusses his own complicated relationship with Thomas and technology, including how the internet and other digital tools impacted his family during several crises.

Through these scenes, “Transcription” asks a series of questions: How does technology mediate our lives? How does it bring us together or pull us apart? Is there a difference between what’s real and what’s true? It also becomes a potent and poignant study of fatherhood and what it means.

On this episode, MJ Franklin discusses “Transcription” with fellow Book Review editors Gregory Cowles and Alexandra Jacobs.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

• “Leaving the Atocha Station,” “10:04” and “The Topeka School,” by Ben Lerner


• “The Dance of Anger,” by Harriet Lerner


• “Reporting,” by Lillian Ross


• “Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art,” by Virginia Heffernan


• “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss,” by Amy Bloom


• “No One Is Talking About This,” by Patricia Lockwood


• “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr


• “Universality,” by Natasha Brown


• “White Noise” and “The Body Artist,” by Don DeLillo


• “A Hunger Artist,” by Franz Kafka


• “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” by Jennifer Egan


• “Asymmetry,” by Lisa Halliday


• “Trust,” by Hernan Diaz


• “The Mezzanine” and “Vox,” by Nicholson Baker


• “Outline,” by Rachel Cusk


• The books of Virginia Woolf

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Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Ezra Klein Show,” originally published on March 31. Ezra interviewed author Michael Pollan, whose best-selling books include “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan’s latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” came out earlier this year. It’s an exploration of what consciousness is, and the book is — as our review put it — “highly pleasurable to read.”

Mentioned in the episode:

“The Descriptive Experience Sampling method” by Russell T. Hurlburt and Sarah A. Akhter

“What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” by Thomas Nagel

The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms

Descartes’ Error by Antonio Damasio

“The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought” by Kalina Christoff and Kieran C. R. Fox

Book Recommendations:

The Blind Spot by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Being You by Anil Seth

You can find transcripts and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.

This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Kim Freda. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.

Listen to and Follow the “Book Review” Podcast

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We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Matt Haig was already several books into his career as a writer by the time he published “The Midnight Library” in 2020. One of those books, the 2015 memoir “Reasons to Stay Alive,” had even been a best seller in England, his home nation. Yet, “The Midnight Library” was a true breakout phenomenon. The novel, about a depressed woman who, after deciding to end her own life, ends up in a magical library in which every book presents her with an alternative life, eventually sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

The author’s new book, “The Midnight Train,” takes place on a parallel track. In it, an older man dies and finds himself on a train, able to revisit key moments in his life on his way to the hereafter. Like its blockbuster sibling, the book is concerned with questions of gratitude, regret and perspective.

Haig joined the “Book Review” podcast and spoke to the host, Gilbert Cruz, about his new book and why he returned to the world of “The Midnight Library.”

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Books Discussed on This Episode

• “The Midnight Library,” by Matt Haig


• “Reasons to Stay Alive,” by Matt Haig


• “The Labrador Pact,” by Matt Haig


• “Winnie-the-Pooh,” by A. A. Milne


• “The House at Pooh Corner,” by A. A. Milne


• “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Lewis Carroll


• “The Outsiders,” by S. E. Hinton


• “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau


• “Paris Trance,” by Jeff Dyer


• “Invisible Cities,” by Italo Calvino


• “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” by V. E. Schwab


• “The History of Love,” by Nicole Krauss


• “We Burned So Bright,” by T. J. Klune


• “A Novel Love Story,” by Ashley Poston


• “The Someday Garden,” by Ashley Poston

Listen to and Follow the ‘Book Review’ Podcast

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Credits

The “Book Review” podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Sarah Diamond, Amy Pearl, and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is edited by Larissa Anderson and mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad, and Brooke Minters.

Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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