The Year in Books

hey it's Michael today our coverage of. the year in arts and in culture. continues with guest host Melissa kersch. speaking to times critics reporters and. editors take a lesson I think you're. going to like. it from the New York Times this is the. daily I'm Melissa kersch Deputy editor. of culture and. lifestyle as we close out 202 for I'm.

talking with my colleagues Around The. Newsroom about what they watched and. listened to and read this year today. we're talking about books I'll talk with. Gilbert Cruz the editor of the New York. Times book review about the best books. of the year and the best books of the. century then the times's book critics. will join us with some of their. favorites of. 2024 and the critic Dwight Garner will. share some of the funniest snappiest and. most insightful writing he encountered. this year.

it's Tuesday December. [Music]. 31st Gilbert Cruz hello Melissa hi okay. so every year the staff of the New York. Times book review puts out a list of the. 10 best books of the year it has just. come out tell me about how that list. comes together sure so a bunch of. editors and critics over the course of. the year really our meeting monthly and. at every one of those meetings we're. discussing books that we think are great.

and these are books that sort of go. through the ringer we're really debating. them over the course of the whole year. at the end of October which is when this. process ends we take a vote and these 10. books are the result of that vote got it. okay so let's take a spin through the. list sure let's start with fiction um. the five fiction books some of them. might be familiar to you all fours by. Miranda jly good material by Dolly. alderton James by peral Everett martyr. by cave Akbar and you dreamed of Empires.

by Alvaro enri do you have a personal. favorite from that fiction list I do and. and I think it's the smallest book on. this list actually it is you dreamed of. Empires by the uh Mexican writer Alvaro. enri and it essentially imagines the. first meeting between hernand Cortez and. mzuma the Aztec Emperor um in what is. now Mexico City in 1519 it is an. imaginative sort of psychedelic look at.

what that encounter might have been like. uh it's very funny it's very sort of. descriptively written like there there's. smells and and sites that pop off the. page um and again it's it's slim and. that's important when you're reading a. lot of books over the course of a year. right and what about the non-fiction. list what books are on there sure so uh. non-fiction is a mix of uh biography uh. history we have stuff like Reagan by Max. boot that's about Ronald Reagan everyone.

who has gone is here by Jonathan Blitzer. the wide wide Sea by Hampton sides which. I will talk about in a minute cuz I. really loved it I heard her Call My Name. by Lucy Sant and then cold crematorium. by ysep deeni and so your favorite. non-fiction selection the wide wide sea. so the wide wide sea is about Captain. Cook Captain James Cook it's about his. third and final voyage he was sent in. the year 1776 the year that we're all. very with to the South Pacific to return.

a Polynesian man to his home island in. the South Pacific he was also sent to. try to find the Northwest Passage which. is something that many explorers were. looking for it was not accessible at the. time um and then something bad happened. to him he. died that is bad that is bad uh and I. love this book so much because uh I just. love tail set on the high seas I love. books about what it's like to be on a.

you know a big boat with big sails. drinking Grog possibly getting. scurvy uh and and not knowing what. you're going to encounter the next day I. would love to read about possibly. getting. scurvy um so those are the best books of. the year but I want to talk to you about. another project the book review tackled. this year you put out a list of the best. books of the 21st century so far how. does one determine the best books of the.

last 25 years well the secret is that. one does not uh one relies on many other. people we decided to take advantage of. the fact that we have access to. thousands of authors who write reviews. for us all the time and and sort of lean. on their expertise these are all people. that are extremely well read so we sent. a survey out to 1,200 or so people a lot. of them were authors you know Stephen. King Bonnie garas Curtis sittenfeld RL.

Stein then we had editors in the. publishing industry people that own. bookstores. Librarians famous people who read a lot. of books like Sarah Jessica Parker we. asked them what their 10 best books. published in English since January 1st. 2000 were we didn't Define best for them. at all we got back their responses we. added them all up and we published a. list of 100 which is a lot of books to. be fair so it seems to me that if you're. looking for a book to read you could do.

a lot worse than to start with the. number one book on the list which is my. brilliant Friend by Elena fante my. brilliant friend is uh it's a book in. Translation it's translated by an. goldsteen and it's the first in a four. book series that we now refer to as the. neopolitan quartet the first book is. about two young girls growing up in in. postwar Italy in the 1950s and why do. you think this book emerged as the. number one book of of the 21st century.

well so I don't know if you can cast. your mind back to the time when like. fante fever was was sweeping the. literary world I can these books were. coming out and people were obsessed with. them and I think something that is. undeniable about these books for people. who love them is that they capture. female friendship in a way that is truly. unique in 21st century literature um. there is something sort of realistic. about the way that these two young girls.

and they grow up over the over the. course of these four books come together. and pull apart and love each other and. hate each other it is um I think the. first book takes a while to get into but. once you get into it if you connect with. it you sort of just want to keep reading. all four books yeah everyone I know. loves these books mhm so were there any. surprises on the list absolutely there's. a book that came in at number six. 2666 by the Chilean writer Roberto.

Balano and it is one of these massive. slightly impenetrable literary Works. partly having to do with the murder of. hundreds of women in Mexico and partly. to do with lots of other stuff the fact. that it came in so high was surprising. to me there was a book that came in. number eight called ostritz by WG seald. uh which is a book about a young man uh. in mid-century Europe uh sort of. lusciously and beautifully uh written.

novel this book came out in 2001 uh it. was one of the oldest books on the list. and I don't know that it's particularly. welln these days I was surprised by how. high it. placed the list has a feature where you. can check off the books that you've read. and at the end it gives you a tally like. a score of how conscientious a reader. you've been so when this list was. originally published over the summer. there were a lot of people online. bragging about how many of the books. they'd read yeah but some of us were a.

little surprised at how low our number. was I was wondering what you would say. to somebody who was feeling perhaps a. little bit sheepish about how few of. these books they'd read I would say flip. that on its head and think about how. much reading how much wonderful. delightful reading is ahead of you you. can feel badly about this or you can say. oh my God look at all these amazing. books I want to read but I did not I I'm. looking at my Tally right now which I'm. 100% not going to tell you what the. number is and it's embarrassing I'm the.

editor of the New York Times book review. I should have read more books on our. list than this but what I want to say is. you can still be a reader who reads. widely and curiously and not have read. many books on this list right like yeah. I mean look I I bring up all the time I. still have not read Middle March by. George Elliott but I have read I don't. know the Amazing Adventures of cavalier. and Clay by Michael shabon right so. which is more valuable I don't think. there's an answer to that I think it's. just where you're taste leads you and I.

will say if there if you look at this. list of 100 and you see only one or two. books that you want to read that you've. never read before then we succeeded we. did this whole thing and we found one. book for you the right book for you. success did you find a book on this list. that you ended up really loving. absolutely the one that's stuck with me. above all is Lincoln and the BAU by. George Saunders a beautiful book A book. I should have read a long time ago and. it's a book that imagines Abraham.

Lincoln going to the cemetery where his. son has been uh interred um and he is. surrounded by a cacophony of voices all. these ghosts in the cemetery and it was. just so moving so beautiful so odd and. bizarre in its own way uh I was like. everyone needs to read this immediately. I just I did I fell in love with it oh. how I love George Saunders me. too so on that note we're going to take. a break and when we come back we're.

going to hear from some of your book. review colleagues about the best books. they read this year I can't wait to hear. that thank you so much for being here. Gilbert Melissa thank you for having me. on we'll be right. [Music]. back 2024 for me as a reader was as uh.

an abundance of. riches today we're talking about the. best books of the year we asked our. colleagues at the book review to. recommend some of the books they loved. in. 2024 my reading in 2024 was chaotic my. reading in 2024 was kind of all over the. place cuz my job is kind of all over the. place I. read 70 books this year I'm not telling. you how many I read for pleasure I read.

more than a hundred books this year do. you never ask a books editor how many. books they read uh listeners that is a. mystery that we'll have to talk through. in. [Music]. person I'm MJ Franklin I'm an editor at. the New York Times book review and a. book I loved in. 2024 is Margo's got money troubles by. ruy Thorp it is about a 19-year-old. student Margot who gets pregnant by her. college professor then gets dumped and. and loses her job so to make ends meet.

she starts an account in only fans which. is a website best known for sex work and. you just follow Margot as she's trying. to step into adulthood as she's trying. to make ends meet as she's trying to. kind of come into her own power. underneath this very playful zany. colorful plot there's a really sharp. commentary about gender and Power about. sexuality and shaming about the demands. that we put on young women to become.

mothers but then how as a society we. don't support motherhood and it all. comes together in this book that is. playful and layered and smart I've been. recommending it to. everybody hi I'm Jennifer salai and I'm. the non-fiction book critic for the New. York Times book review and a book I. loved in 2024 was when the clock broke. conmen conspiracists and how America. cracked up in the early 1990s by John.

Gans as somebody who grew up in the. 1990s you know I had this idea of what. the 1990s was it was about Bill Clinton. it was about the end of the Cold War. there was a sense of just sort of this. Bland consensus that was coalescing. around the middle this book just shows. us that there was a bunch of just. stranger weirder stuff that was. happening back then you know you have. David Duke who was a grand wizard of the.

KKK who thought he might become. president Ross perau actually ran as a. third party candidate you know you had. these right-wing thinkers coming up with. what was actually like an intellectual. apparatus for the radical right so when. I first read the book in the summer I. was thinking I think of course to the. election ahead but no matter who was. going to win in the November election. this year this is a book that will.

continue to be relevant and I think. provides like an interesting light on. the sort of bewildering moment that we. live. in hi I'm AO Scott and I'm a Critic at. large for the New York Times book review. a book that I really loved in 2024 was a. collection of poetry by Diane Seuss the. book is called modern poetry and. the thing that I really like about this.

book is that it's very accessible this. book in a very unusual and original and. I think moving way says reader you may. have no idea what the hell modern poetry. is but here's what it means to me and. what it means to her is so personal and. revealing and funny she's such an. inventive. poet just in terms of what she does with. form with rhyme with language and I.

think that you don't have to care or. know anything about poetry to enjoy it. it it serves almost as a kind of. introduction to poetry in a funny way. great book great book highly. [Music]. recommended hi I'm Sarah Lyle and among. other things I'm The Thrillers columnist. for the New York Times book review and a.

book I loved in 2024 was the hunter by. Tana French it's a mystery set in rural. Ireland a previous resident of this. small community suddenly returns with a. getrich quick scheme that upends. everything and leads to calamities both. small and large a lot of Thrillers. really rise and fall on plot you read. them really to kind of find out what. happened next but what makes this book.

stand out to me is it's just exquisitly. written every turn of phrase has had. care put into it it heightens your your. senses I think to the nuances of. people's behavior and appearance it's a. great book for when you have a little. bit of extra time and really want to. enjoy what you're reading rather than. race through it. [Music].

I'm Alexander Jacobs and I'm a Critic. for the New York Times book review and a. book I loved in 2024 was candy darling. dreamer icon Superstar by Cynthia Carr. candy darling is a biography of the. transgender Pioneer and Andy Warhol. intimate who lived only till 29 but had. a sort of Blazing event filled life this. is someone who is radical in her very. existence and an extremely conformist.

time in America she was insisting on not. only going through life as a woman but. as a. star and you know I think this book did. her justice it it showed the beauty of. her gorgeous challenging ironic sardonic. life it's just a sparkling book it's. Sparkles like candy darling would wish.

if you were scrambling for a pen to. write down those titles here they are. once again Margo's got money troubles by. rufy Thorp when the clock broke conmen. conspiracists and how America cracked up. in the early 1990s by John Gans modern. poetry by Diane Seuss The Hunter by. Tanner French candy darling dreamer icon. Superstar by Cynthia. Carr when we come back Dwight Garner. cracks open his common Place book what's.

a common Place book we'll tell you all. about it in just a. minute my colleague Dwight Garner is a. book critic at the times and he's also a. kind of literary scavenger as he reads. he collects sentences that move him and. he keeps them all in one huge document. this practice actually has a name it's. called keeping a commonplace book. and Dwight is here today to talk about.

his commonplace book Dwight hello thank. you for being here thank you okay let's. start with the basics explain the. concept of a commonplace book well you. know it's a book of quotes and lines and. aphorisms you know often they're. philosophical or they're humorous or. they're literary and normally they're. kept by one person it's just you know. humans have had written language for. 5,000 years and during most of that time. people have written down or kept in some. form observations and and bits of books.

that really appealed to them and stuck. with them and commonplace books have. been around forever I mean Thomas. Jefferson kept a famous one and so did. Virginia wolf so did wh Auden and it's. just a place to keep track of things. that meant something to you while you're. reading a. book and talk about like what spurred. you to start writing down Snippets that. jumped out at you while you were reading. well I was pretty young I was in my. teens and I was just this huge reader. and once in a while. I would come across a line that really.

stood out for me and I thought well this. is why I'm reading you know for a. sentence like this that really shakes me. awake and opens my eyes and I would I. would start writing them down and you. know when you're a teenager the things. you think are are cool and interesting. you know life is like a box of. chocolates you know how true they not. the things you think are cool and. interesting when when you're 59 as I am. now and um so my my my taste has grown. over time but I started doing this when. I was pretty young and I just you know. some people collect stamps I collect. sentences and observations and I find. that I'm always sort of moved by them so.

do you have any idea of how many quotes. or sentences or lines you added in 2024. oh God I I I would say probably a. thousand you know at minimum because. wait a thousand okay I need you to like. break down to me Dwight Garner reading. because I'm imagining you like with a. keyboard next to you while you're. reading or are you highlighting in the. book you I'm reading the book and I'm. highlighting and then when I'm done with. the book I slap it down next to my.

laptop and I flip through it Page by. page and I type out the best quotes that. I've marked in there I find the the the. act of typing something typing a line. typing an observation typing a great. word um sort of fixes it on my mind a. bit I'm more more likely to remember it. okay so let's take a look at your. commonplace book for 2024 um give me a. line that you added to the book this. year one of my favorite books this year. was Sheila H's alphabetical Diaries you. know H is a really ented young Canadian. novelist and she had a Nifty idea she.

printed her her journals her Diaries in. alphabetical order so the sentences all. just run from a to z and um she wrote no. one at this point in history knows how. to live so we read biographies and. Memoirs hoping to get Clues and I love. that line not because it's funny but. because it's the reason I think I. started reading you know Once Upon a. Time in America before Netflix before. the internet fiction was where we went. to get news about how other people live. lived you know I'm um foodwise sex-wise.

um relationships marriages that's where. news was delivered and it's not so true. anymore but for me it still is and I I. look for novels to sort of understand. why we're here A and B to understand how. can I live better I mean just you know. what lessons do you have Sheila H for me. and she tends to have a lot the title of. her 2010 novel was was great it was how. should a person be and in a way I think. every novel asks that and the fact that. she was great enough to title a novel.

that is is really terrific mhm and it. seems sort of like that's what you do. when you're reading and when you're. keeping your Common Place book you're. sort of taking notes on how to live do. you think that way when you're reading. that you're you're getting instructions. you know I really am I I I think that a. lot of people read and think about what. the world means and why we're here and. how we can you know experience life a. little more fully and that means the. small things and the large things and. that's sort of what what I look for and. the kind of things that I put into my. commonplace book mhm can we hear another.

one let me see one book I read this year. that's really remained with me is Salon. Rush's Memoir knife it's about how he. was stabbed on stage in Upstate New York. in in 2022 and you know it's a it's a. very dark and moving book um and it he. goes through enormous personal pain. physical pain and yet the book is. weirdly very funny as he was being. stabbed he found himself thinking oh no. my Ral luren suit you know he he laughed. about the fact that a surgeon's name was.

James Beard you know like like the chef. and cookbook writer um he writes dear. reader never get a catheter he wrote. that his attacker looked like novic. jokovic the tennis player he wrote that. on the upside he lost 55 PBS and his. snoring and Asthma improved did it. strike you while you were reading the. salon rushy book that like because his. sense of humor was intact like his. Vitality was intact yes it was a sign of. his sanity you know you felt Salman. you're still with us you know um and he. you know sometimes in his work um his.

humor fails him a bit at least in recent. years so it was it was great to see him. um in his full glory in this recent. Memoir all right let's hear another one. this is from honor Levy's book my first. book he was giving night errant organ. meat eater by ronic Hero haplo group. r1b she was giving Damelin distress Pill. Popper pixie dream girl haplo group K he. was in his fall of Rome era. she was serving Sixth and final mass.

extinction event realness his face was a. marble statue her face was an anime. waifu they scrolled into each other okay. Dwight can you explain to me what any of. that means well we're talking about two. young people who are texting and um. using emojis and in reality what these. characters are they're just kids and. this is the dance of their courtship in. a way online their mini courtship mhm.

it's a book largely about you know kids. being online young people being online. and what that feels like now to be sort. of almost permanently online and a lot. of the sentences she's so up toate on on. the language and the lingo that half the. time you barely understand what she's. saying I had I had to run to the. dictionary or at least to Google uh. several times to sort of understand what. she was saying and the more you learn. the more you like it because she's um. just has a way you feel like you're. reading Ann batty about hippies in early. 7s reading honor levy on these young.

kids online now there is something. pleasurable about spending time in that. sort of like in an unfamiliar world and. steeping oneself in the lingo of that. world yeah you know it's just um and. we're all there right we're we all are. online like half the time and yet you. find a writer who can really describe it. who can really get you there and that's. what writing does for us it's the thing. where things you felt but never had. anyone just nail it down just like to. get it right and you say. holy cow that's good writing that's the.

kind of thing I want in my commonplace. book toy this has been fascinating thank. you for letting us peer inside your. commonplace book oh what fun thank. [Music]. you today's episode was produced by Tina. Antolini and Alex Baron with help from. kit L presty it was edited by Wendy door. with production support by Franny car. Toth and original music by Diane Wong. Maran Lozano and Dan Powell it was.

engineered by Daniel. Ramirez special thanks to Sam sifton. Tina Jordan Lauren Manley Alicia beup. Sarah Curtis John White Elsa Dudley. Olivia waight Paula Schuman and Sam. dolnick that's it for the daily I'm. Melissa kersch thanks for listening. [Music].