Vanessa Diaz sits in for Rebecca this week and talks to Jeff about the challenges of making a best books of the year list before getting into the news of the week.
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Amazon’s best books of the year
David Szalay has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh
B&N’s best book of the Year is Mona’s Eyes
The 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards.
I’m bookmarking this deep dive into the fashion industry’s recurrent interest in literature for knife-and-fork reading this weekend
Reader’s Digest asked three professional designers to pick the best book covers of the year
Kindle translate
Somebody is Walking On Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez
Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman
Devouring Time by Tod Goddard
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Flashlight by Susan Choi
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57:05
Fall Media Diet Check-In (Plus Other Life Pursuits) [Teaser]
This is a bonus preview of our Patreon-only episode in which Jeff and Rebecca talk about what they've been doing with their lives recently, outside of the world of books.
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6:38
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6:38
The Books We Still Want to Read in 2025
Jeff and Rebecca talk about the books they still want to get to before 2026 gets here.
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Discussed in this Episode:
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Flesh by David Szalay
Maggie by Katie Yee
Kaplan's Plot by Jason Diamond
Who is Government? by Michael Lewis
Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer
The Uncool by Cameron Crowe
Joyride by Susan Orlean
A Truce That is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
Trying by Chloe Caldwell
Next of Kin by Gabrielle Hamilton
Girl Warrior by Joy Harjo
The Season by Helen Garner
Does This Make Me Funny? by Zosia Mamet
Palaver by Bryan Washington
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Black-Owned by Char Adams
This is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee
Every Screen on the Planet by Emily Baker-White
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Heart the Lover by Lily King
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie
Squirrel by Nancy Castaldo
Isola by Allegra Goodman
We The People by Jill Lepore
The History of Money by David McWilliams
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
The Emergency by George Packer
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott
Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart
Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
The Librarians by Sherry Thomas
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
The Persian by David McCloskey
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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38:38
Speculating on The Book of the Year and the Impacts of AI on Writing
We're in a lull of current publishing industry news, so Jeff and Rebecca speculate about upcoming book awards, year-end announcements, and the book of the year, as well as touch on the impact of AI on writing.
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Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network.
Discussed in this Episode:
Check out Zero to Well-Read!
The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
New Report Examines Writers’ Attitudes toward AI [Publishers Weekly]
My Students Use AI. So What? [The Atlantic]
The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
Erin Somers interview on First Edition
The Running Ground by Nicholas Thompson
Craftland by James Fox
Make your Holiday Book Recommendation requests to podcast [at] bookriot.com
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59:01
What We Want from Essays: DEAD & ALIVE by Zadie Smith
Jeff and Rebecca talk Zadie Smith's Dead & Alive.
Check out Zero to Well-Read!
Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to get the most out of your reading life.
The Book Riot Podcast Patreon
Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network.
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News in the world of books and reading, including hot industry releases, adaptations, publishing industry events, and more with Book Riot’s Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky.
Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America and home to a host of media, from podcasts to newsletters to original content, all designed around diverse readers and across all genres.
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