Jeff O'Neill (2:46)

I won't have a shot until like Friday of next week. I think it's going to take me another 10 days.

Rebecca Schinsky (2:51)

But we have narrowed down sort of the book riot podcast 10 share 10 most anticipated we've got some shout outs to things in the fall that are TBD on exact release dates. And then we've each got some additional personal idiosyncratic picks as well. But we're just going to run them down in order of release to get started.

Jeff O'Neill (3:10)

All right with that, go check out zero well read. There's new stuff in there, including how to read more and better in 2026, which is, I think, a really good episode. I think it's it's not just, you know, turn off your phone though. That is certainly a big part of it. It's not really tips and tricks. It's more philosophical and personal and about building a life. How to think about reading within books. Yeah, and how to think about it too. So that was really cool over there. We'll take our first sponsor break and get into it.

Sponsor Narrator (3:38)

Today's episode is brought to you by Harper Celebrate, publishers of Tidying Up. Written and narrated by Aya Fuqua and Meg DeLong In Tidying Up, Meg DeLong and Aya Fuqua, founders and owners of the Tidy Home, offer you a shame straightforward approach to embracing organization as soul care. So whether you have a studio apartment or an overflowing farmhouse with fun, colorful design features throughout, Tidying up is a perfect gift for New Year, New you, Christmas Spring cleaning, back to school, or for anyone making a fresh move into their new home, apartment or dorm room. Declutter your life and create the peaceful sanctuary you desire with these 100 organizational tricks from Meg DeLong and Aya Fuqua, co founders of the Tidy Home As I mentioned before, this foolproof room by Room guide is the book you need. So easy and fun, everyone can join in and it's coming right at the perfect time. Like I said before New Year New you make sure to pick up Tidying up, written and narrated by Aya Fuqua and Meg DeLong. And thanks again to Harper Celebrate for sponsoring this episode.

Rebecca Schinsky (4:49)

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. This year I'm getting really intentional about resetting my home, especially my evening routine, because that five to nine window is the part of the day that really matters to me. I've been building this little nightly ritual with Cozy Earth and honestly, it's becoming my favorite part of the day. I start with a bubble bath. Obviously I'm reading a great book, and then I wrap up in one of their luxe bath towels, which are so unbelievably soft, but they also dry you off really quickly. After that I slip into Cozy Earth's bamboo stretch knit pajamas, which are the kind of comfort that feels effortless and still looks put together. And then there's the bedding. Climbing into fresh, luxurious sheets at the end of the night makes my entire space feel calmer. It's the easiest way to signal to my body that it's time to slow down, to rest deeply and to reset for the next day. Cozy Earth also makes it easy to try. There's a 100 night sleep trial and a 10 year warranty, which says a lot about their quality. If you're ready to start the new year with a TR reset, head to cozyearth.com and use code book riot for up to 20% off. And if you get a post purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. That's cozyearth.com using code bookriot for 20% off cozyearth.com code bookriot. This podcast is supported by Quince A new year and colder days are when your winter wardrobe really has to deliver. And honestly, this is where Quince shines. I've been a Quince customer for years and back in the fall I gave my husband one of their Mongolian cashmere Henley sweaters. It's already become his go to. He wears it constantly. It's ridiculously soft, it still looks polished, and it hasn't pilled or lost its shape even in such heavy rotation that I should just buy him one in every color. It's the kind of quality you expect from a much more expensive sweater without the sticker shock. Quince has everything you need to build a winter wardrobe that actually works. Men's Mongolian cashmere sweaters, wool coats, leather and suede outerwear that hold up to daily wear and still look rate. Every item is made from premium materials by trusted factories that meet high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. And by cutting out middlemen and traditional retail markups, Quince delivers the same high quality you'd find from luxury brands at a fraction of the price. The result is classic, well made pieces you can rely on year after year. Refresh your winter wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com bookriot for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's qui insight. Quince.com/book riot for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com/book Riot.

Jeff O'Neill (7:34)

All right, Rebecca, you. You have this according to release date and then you have the stuff in the fall. As Honorable mentioned, I did my own top 10. It looks a lot like this, but I have fall stuff in here. So let's proceed. You can captain the ship and I will just tell you how you're wrong throughout, which is my favorite spot to do. I get to be in your seat for a little while.

Rebecca Schinsky (7:55)

Yeah.

Sponsor Narrator (7:56)

Welcome.

Rebecca Schinsky (7:56)

We'll do a little rol reversal to kick off 2026. I know we agree on this one though. The first book that we are really excited about for 2026 is Vigil, a new novel by George saunders. Comes out January 27th. If you read Lincoln in the Bardo, which I just reread and I deeply recommend, Saunders is in a moment of thinking about death, but really thinking about the ways that the reality of death informs how we approach life. But he's doing it in George Saunders ways. So this is a no. A woman who is spending her afterlife sort of as an it reads to me like updated version of the Boatman of Styx. Like it's her job to usher other people into the afterlife. She's done it for hundreds of people, but her latest client was like an oil industry tycoon in his life and she's wrestling with questions about that and the morality of it. But also George Saunders doing weird George Saunders Life and Death and informed by classical works kinds of stuff. It is a tight 192 pages.

Jeff O'Neill (9:09)

Jeff O' Neill My most anticipated book of the whole year, I think. Rebecca. Not just the first coming out, but I have my own ranking. I think this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. I don't know if recency bias for things that haven't come out yet. I don't think that's a thing. But I don't know where this is on your board, but I think this is my most anticipated of the year.

Rebecca Schinsky (9:29)

It's really high. I was thinking about this as well, that when a book we're this excited about comes out so early in the year, it becomes the one that everything else is judged against. It's kind of the first book in an IT books conversation where like it could run the board. Like we could be sitting here in December. I think it's very possible and Vigil could be at the top of our List. It is my number one with a bullet for the season. Absolutely. There's a couple big names that we both really like with books out in the fall. We'll see. But I will not be surprised if we are here at the end of the year doing an ode to all things George Saunders.

Jeff O'Neill (10:08)

I have a side question for you. Which of us would be better as the boatman? We're just us. Someone's just died, we're taking them to the afterlife. I feel like you would be better at this than I would.

Rebecca Schinsky (10:21)

Okay, I appreciate that. I was gonna make a joke about how you get motion sick so you're like, really not.

Jeff O'Neill (10:26)

That's a real problem for me. I'm assuming we've got good pharmacological remedy in the afterlife. You know, I'm hoping some of our corporeal foibles melt away. Yeah, a little bit there. What do you say to someone? They apparate on your boat? Like, do you have to tell them they're dead? Like, what's. Do they give a handbook? Do they know you're like, all right, Jim, all right, I know you were just. You were just playing golf, but let me just give it to you straight here. The bad news is you're dead. The good news is it's just not oblivion forever. How. How are you doing? I don't know. Maybe I would be fine. That was okay?

Rebecca Schinsky (11:05)

Yeah, it was okay. It kind of felt like that opening scene of the Good Place where the wall just says, like, everything is okay. I think. I don't know. I think I could be good at that. But we both have a skill with. So here' the deal. Like, I think I'm. I'm maybe particularly here's the deal Ish in life, but I think you could do it.

Jeff O'Neill (11:28)

What kind of vibe do you think you would want from your boatman? Let's say you operate on the boat. What are you wanting a. All right, here we go. Do you want. You want a more. You want a moment to grieve that it's over? Do you want to be. You want to be forward looking? Like, I don't know. It's a very. A very difficult writing slash speaking proposition. So I found myself very interested in what is the first line of your mouth as the boat.

Rebecca Schinsky (11:52)

If only we were going to have a bonus episode where I could get your speech as the boatman. I think I want, like, listen, lady, here's the deal. Here's, like, here's where we are. Here's how you ended up here. If you need to like, take a minute and fix your makeup and get your feelings together about it, that's fine. But we do, in this house, we believe in radical acceptance. And the only. The only thing that's going to happen is you're going to cross this river. So let's talk about crossing it.

Jeff O'Neill (12:23)

Yeah, I think I would take the brass tacks approach of like, all right, this is. Curfew is at 10pm you know, you've got forever here. You've got forever. So don't rush anything. You know, there's no hurry. You know what else? You know, what are the other details? Because I find in moments of stress to latching on to the specifics of what you can do to be very. You want, I don't know what, the.

Rebecca Schinsky (12:48)

Freshman orientation to the afterlife.

Jeff O'Neill (12:51)

Yeah, a little bit like, a little bit of. I need the char. Do you want the charge nurse in the emergency room or do you want your therapist? I think I want the charge nurse in the emergency room myself. I don't think I can perform that for other people necessarily, but I think that's what I want myself.

Rebecca Schinsky (13:05)

I wholeheartedly agree. Do you think that George Saunders would be delighted that this is the kind of conversation his book is inspiring?

Jeff O'Neill (13:14)

I dare not. I dare not speculate on what gives George Saunders intellectual stimulation. It is not something I care to speculate on because knowing the things he kinds of writes, I cannot create that. And so I'm not going to.

Rebecca Schinsky (13:29)

But how would you be as the boatman of sticks is a very. George Saunders kind of.

Jeff O'Neill (13:33)

Yeah, right. That was all right.

Rebecca Schinsky (13:36)

That was fun. Okay.

Jeff O'Neill (13:37)

Yes.

Rebecca Schinsky (13:38)

Number two, again, these are release order, not publication date. This one might have shifted around a little bit, but it is on Morrison by Namwali Serpell, I think originally had a January release date. Now it's indicated as February 17th. Big examination of Toni Morrison's life and work and impact on the world of books and reading. A look at her legacy. A look at what she has done. This is the first big book length consideration of her that I've seen, which is shocking, frankly. Yes. 384 pages. I would read 900 of this. Can't wait. This is literary criticism of the year. And then as a shout out, Morrison's own collection of essays. There's an essay collection being published as Language as Liberation, which is coming out on February 3rd. And it is. The subtitle is Reflections on the American Canon. But this is Toni Morrison looking specifically at black literature and black characters in the American canon. So I'm going to Read those kind of together.

Jeff O'Neill (14:46)

This one, you know, I'm looking forward to this. It wouldn't make my top 20. I guess what I'm thinking. I think the ones I'm most excited to like get down and read. I will read this eventually, but it doesn't have. I don't know. I've read a lot about Morrison. I read a lot of Morrison. I'm sure it's going to be good. I'm sure I'll learn something. I guess I'm just not.

Rebecca Schinsky (15:03)

It doesn't feel like.

Jeff O'Neill (15:05)

Yeah, it doesn't feel urgent. It doesn't feel like appointment reading. I would be more interested in this if it were a bunch of people writing about Morrison. A whole book of one person's reading of a single author, even Morrison. I don't know if it's my attention brain. I just like. I just like to mix it up a little bit too. My own. My own appetite for literary criticism can come and go. And I guess right now I'm not feeling like I want to spend a lot of time with this. I mean I'm looking forward to. Don't get me wrong, I would have it on the 20, but I don't think 10 for me right now.

Rebecca Schinsky (15:44)

I think I've got space for it also because I didn't do The Nicholas Boggs 900 page Baldwin biography last year. So I have some room in my heart.

Jeff O'Neill (15:53)

Or you didn't do the Jim Harrison biography and there's some other stuff that I did.

Rebecca Schinsky (15:56)

Yeah, I've got some room for it right now. Always excited about her.

Jeff O'Neill (16:01)

This were a straight biography though having. Sorry, now that you say that because we also don't have that. And that one. I think if it was a straight up. Here's Tony, right? We had the Tony at random that came out last year, which I started and I didn't get all the way through because I want to do that again. They don't feel timely because these are books for all time, which is great. But you know, a soup to nuts Morrison by a serious biographical writer that might be number one on my list if that when that. Whenever that comes out. Because I want to know all the.

Rebecca Schinsky (16:29)

Things I really like. The thing that you said a few minutes ago about a collection of like a bunch of writers thinking about Morrison. And I think I really want that as a doctor documentary. Like I want to see Fran Leibowitz talk about her friendship with Toni Morrison. And then I want Toni Morrison's like some. Someone who edited her to talk about that and some of her peers to talk about her in that way and sort of like a whole well rounded portrait.

Jeff O'Neill (16:52)

There is a Toni Morrison documentary that's not unlike that that exists. I don't remember the name of it. Literary criticism doesn't do well on film. I wish it did because then I would get Ken Burns and the whole. I would love them to do Harlem Renaissance or whatever they want to do over there. Yeah. Again, the other thing too. And I find. And this is going to sound obvious, though I don't think it is. I really only vibe with literary criticism if I've read the book somewhat recently and I've read all of Morrison, but it's been 20 years since I read Tar Baby. It's been 15 since I read Song, Song of Solomon. So I think you take it piece by piece and that's why it has a longer shelf life. That this book will be my. On my shelf probably as long or longer than anything else we're going to talk about, but it just. It just doesn't have juice. Slow burner. Slow burner. That's good. It's okay.

Rebecca Schinsky (17:40)

Okay. Our third release though, does have juice. Kin, a novel by Tayari Jones, coming out February 24th. I know you're really excited about this one. Why don't you tell me about Kin?

Jeff O'Neill (17:52)

Well, it's been a while since we've gotten Terry Jones and she had an American marriage, which I think. I don't remember exactly, but it was a lot on a lot of end of year list.

Rebecca Schinsky (18:04)

I don't think it's on the New York Times Best of like of the 21st century.

Jeff O'Neill (18:08)

Yes. Huge book. And that in Silver Sparrow. Those came out pretty quickly. Again, maybe I just read them in short order. So it's a little hard as things get compressed. But Terry Jones is. I think she is a little more book club friendly than say Jesmyn Ward, but still writes these really interesting, complicated portrayals of black people and black relationships. And so these are sisters Vernice and Annie, and they grow up in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. And they re. They're raised by their aunt and sort of things happen to them. Mothers and daughters, friendships, sisters being a woman, being black, being in the South. I think we've had some investigations of this recently, which I really liked. We talked about the Wilderness by Angela Flournoy. I really liked Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambuga, which I read over the last week. It doesn't feel like the subject matter I'm interested in, but it's not like, wow, look at this take on something we haven't read about recently. At least I haven't. But I'm here for Terry Jones. Rebecca. I guess that's as simple as it for me. I don't need to know what this is about.

Rebecca Schinsky (19:23)

Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. I'm just in for Tayari Jones and she real it book potential here. Like she lives in the zone. You were saying she is a little bit more book club friendly. But I think this is like a stealth magic trick that Tayari Jones is able to pull off because her writing is pretty literary, very well crafted. She takes on, you know, big challenging kinds of subject matter and like. And big like universal and sprawling themes sometimes. But it anchors it in the kind of story that it's like it's not quite giving your dog the pill inside the piece of cheese because everything about it is pleasurable. But I think she's able to get a really. She just secures a really wide readership for herself and it's. I'm so glad to see it. But like one of those rare writers who lives in the zone of book club friendly but also won't be surprised at all if she gets nominated for some awards and appears on the show the Kingsolver Zone. Yes.

Jeff O'Neill (20:19)

We should just call it the Kingsolver Zone.

Rebecca Schinsky (20:20)

Yes. Tyree Jones should be on my list of underrepresented, appreciated, underrated authors.

Jeff O'Neill (20:25)

Like yeah, I mean not as underrated as Barbara Kingsolver, of course.

Rebecca Schinsky (20:28)

Who is.

Jeff O'Neill (20:29)

Who is Barbara? Who as everyone says here, very much looking forward to that. Do we know. Do you have a page count in front of you? Oh, I was just trying to look it up.

Sponsor Narrator (20:36)

It is.

Rebecca Schinsky (20:39)

368.

Jeff O'Neill (20:40)

Great, terrific, solid, wonderful, wonderful. Just, just on my own personalist, this was just outside my top 10 for the year. Just outside. And I think maybe as it gets closer, after I get into it, I maybe forgotten how much I like Terry Jones. Like my head and my heart are maybe having a little bit of misremembrance dissonance about it.

Rebecca Schinsky (21:01)

I think when it's a Saturday morning and I have the galley of this, I'm going to end like no plans for the day. I'm going to be so happy to just spend the day reading Tyree Jones and like it could be a one sitting for sure. Just a long sitting. Leave me alone. Let me sink into this.

Jeff O'Neill (21:20)

Yeah, I guess you know my 10 and I'll maybe I'll do them quickly at the end but like I'm kind of solving in how I thought about this is how excited am I to crack the book open. And a lot of that is what is going to. What is this going to be like? Literally, like, what is this going to be like? So that's why George Saunders is an easy one. Because it literally could be anything at this point. Whereas someone like Terry Jones. And there's a lot of. There's a lot of authors like this. I really like them, but I kind of know. I feel like I know what I'm going to get and that's good. But in terms of this particular ranking, it's more like opening a Christmas present. Like, it could be. I could be really disappointed by some of these things because I literally am not sure that's not true. For every single pick, the floor on.

Rebecca Schinsky (22:01)

Tyree Jones is high.

Jeff O'Neill (22:02)

Is what high? Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's a great way of putting it. Okay, where do you want to.

Rebecca Schinsky (22:06)

What's next one also February 24th, so Tyree Jones and Lauren Groff, same day. It's a good day to be us. Brawler new collection of short stories comes in. At 288 pages, this is fully one where I don't need to know what it's about. It's a. And I, I just recorded a short form video for us where I'm like, if the phrase Lauren Groff short stories doesn't make you excited, I don't know what to do for you. Like, just skip ahead a couple of minutes. I'm actively trying to not know very much about this. I don't want to pick up a log line of any of the stories. I don't want anybody to tell me, you know, what any of the quirks are of this. I just want to jump into the Lauren Groff zone because it's been several years and two very weird books since we had a Lauren Groff short story collection. The last short stories were Florida. I really loved those. But then we got Matrix and then we got something with Wild in the title. And those were such like real pivots level ups for her. Matrix just felt like Lauren Groff reintroducing herself to us in some ways. So I don't know what to expect from Brawler talking about the like, what is this going to be feeling? And I'm just 100% in. I can't wait.

Jeff O'Neill (23:28)

Yeah, you said there's nothing else to be said here. I have avoided reading any synopses or like there's a story about. I don't know. The only thing I've seen is a cover. It's called Brawler. But it has someone in a swimming cap. Swimming. So sure. Don't know. Whatever. Lauren Groff a real advent calor of literary strangeness. Anytime you open a Lauren Groff book. I had this on my personal list just in case. Number five for the year. It's my most anticipated.

Rebecca Schinsky (23:54)

Yeah. This is probably in my top five as well.

Jeff O'Neill (23:57)

Yeah.

Rebecca Schinsky (23:59)

Number five in terms of release date. Another collection of short stories. A bunch of our favorite writers are doing short stories this season and I love it for them that they're so established that it's like it's just short story time. If you love of Lauren Groff's novels and you have not read her short stories, I hope that you'll go do that. This will be the first collection of short stories I've read by Louise Erdrich. It's called Python's Kiss. Comes out on March 24th. Once again, I'm trying not to know things. 240 pages. Louise Erdrich doing Louise Erdrich things. Which can be anything from like pretty grounded historical fiction to kind of weird speculative climate focused mystery.

Jeff O'Neill (24:40)

Yeah. Mystery stories. Yeah. Murders, all kinds of stuff.

Sponsor Narrator (24:43)

Yeah.

Rebecca Schinsky (24:44)

And it was. It's been written over the past two decades. Like these are two decades worth of stories. So anything could happen here.

Jeff O'Neill (24:52)

Yeah.

Rebecca Schinsky (24:53)

Which is a great feeling.

Jeff O'Neill (24:54)

I don't have a sense of Erdrick short story experience, I don't think. Is this her first collection of short stories? Did you look? I tried to find that. She has a lot of books and I have not read them all, so I may miss that. But I think it might be her first collection of short stories as far as I can tell.

Rebecca Schinsky (25:14)

I think it might be two some.

Jeff O'Neill (25:16)

I'm just sort of going through. These look like they're up, man. There's like four or five I haven't read. I think Last report on miracles at Little no Horse and the Master Butcher Singer Club. I have not read those.

Rebecca Schinsky (25:28)

Yeah. I've got work to do on Erdrick. Completionism also.

Jeff O'Neill (25:31)

Yeah. She writes for very consistently, like every two to three years you get an Erdrich novel. So over the course of a 20, I think a 30 year career now she's got a dozen novels or so I think I've read about.

Rebecca Schinsky (25:42)

And pretty consistently on the list of people who write in English that might be contenders for the Nobel.

Jeff O'Neill (25:48)

Yep. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I think Erdrick, all joking aside, she's won big book awards, doesn't have a signal adaptation. And I think that matters for profile. Honestly, I didn't have this on my top 10 just because I wasn't sure about an airdrie experience and I have a lot of unread air drink so I. I could always find another air drink if I was looking for one.

Rebecca Schinsky (26:12)

That's true.

Jeff O'Neill (26:12)

Just to say why I didn't have it higher but definitely one of the book I'll be reading this year.

Rebecca Schinsky (26:16)

All right, number six coming out April 7th. This one is for the dads. London falling. A mysterious death in a gilded city and a family search for truth by Patrick Radden Keefe, one of our guys. Jeff, tell me about London falling.

Jeff O'Neill (26:33)

Well, as far as I know, it's a 19 year old son of a wealthy London family gets killed and it's an investigation of class and family in London. And again, you make exceptions for some people. I don't love a someone got murdered. Let's do a true crime about it it But Keith, again, I will read whatever. He's a brand author for me and he will be. He will do more research than anybody else. He will contextualize it and put into a larger frame, more interesting than other people and then write beautiful sentences all at the same time. I don't know what else you want from a commercial upmarket literary nonfiction writer that does reportage, does it all. Patrick Radenke and also models for J. Crew. So I hate him and I love him.

Rebecca Schinsky (27:26)

That was a very exciting day for me.

Jeff O'Neill (27:29)

Congratulations to all of you. And bad luck for the dads out there. Good and bad news that Pat and Rad and Keefe exists for all of us.

Rebecca Schinsky (27:37)

I love it that his profile actually like that was the really exciting thing. That J. Crew spread was great. But that a writer, a New Yorker writer's profile has become large enough that J. Crew is like, let's put this guy in ads and people will know who he is. This is good for books.

Jeff O'Neill (27:52)

Yeah. Can I suggest Hilton ols for J. Crew out there. Also a very cool person who photographs beautifully. I was doing some research for something the other day and there was profiles and headshots like, man, that looks like someone who can talk and be cool and interesting. And I would be.

Rebecca Schinsky (28:11)

And indeed, Hilton also can do all of this.

Jeff O'Neill (28:13)

My first thought of and I've always been impressed by him. I was like, that's one of those writers I'd be very. I feel intimidated to interview. I'm more comfortable interviewing writers than I used to be. I feel like I would be very nervous. I don't know that I. I don't know I have the caliber of intellect to hit with Hilton all exactly correctly. But you know Imposter syndrome is real, but also sometimes you're just not as smart as other people. That happens, unfortunately.

Rebecca Schinsky (28:39)

And, and the process of figuring out which of those two things it is.

Jeff O'Neill (28:44)

Yeah, right. And, and you. I will know it happens. I. I will recognize when it happens, unfortunately. When you live with someone smarter than you, you get used to that feeling.

Rebecca Schinsky (28:52)

The dawning realization, wait, this was not imposter syndrome.

Jeff O'Neill (28:56)

No. Oh no.

Rebecca Schinsky (29:00)

I will text Michelle after this and be like Jeff said, you're smarter than him.

Jeff O'Neill (29:04)

Oh, she knows. You don't have to tell her that.

Rebecca Schinsky (29:07)

Sometimes we just need to hear it, you know? Also coming out April 7th. Another of our shared favorites with a collection of My Dear you by Rachel Kong, most recently of the Real Americans, which a novel I really loved. I think you were pretty high on Real Americans too.

Jeff O'Neill (29:24)

I interviewed her. It was good. I liked it.

Rebecca Schinsky (29:26)

Okay, great. Again, at this point, Rachel Kong is on my list. Like one of my writers. She's got three novels. I've really loved them all. I don't need to know what the short stories are about. And this will be her first short story collection, so I'm very curious. Like her novels already feel like they have great economy of language to me. Like pretty taut. She doesn't waste a lot of space. Her books are all under 300 pages. I think everything moves. So I'm really interested in seeing her work in an even shorter, more compressed form.

Jeff O'Neill (30:00)

At this point in my list, I was short storied out in terms of the number of things I'm excited for. I really like her. I will be interested in seeing this. I may need to see some reviews of this if I'm going to pick this up right away or at all, frankly, if I'm being perfectly honest. I don't know. I just know know books come hard and fast. I'll be the taste reviews and another short story collection in a year where I'm going to be doing a lot more short stories than I normally would. I'm not sure.

Rebecca Schinsky (30:22)

Yeah, I love short stories and I've been. I haven't read as many of them the last couple of years, so this kind of feels like a real embarrassment of riches to me this season. This brings us to number eight on our release date order Go Gentle by Maria Semple, April 14. We haven't seen her in a while, Jeff.

Jeff O'Neill (30:44)

Yeah, and we talked about this. I guess we're spoiling a little bit. The winner preview draft. If people haven't listened necessarily, we talk about her and this book where you go Bertadette is one of the great Swiss army recommendations of all time. We are due for an update. Can we put that in the podcast calendar? Swiss Army Rex, just like Br Pod Swiss Army Rex. We can get back into it because we need to. We need to re. Re engage with some of the stuff that we've kind of put on the shelf because we got so not. We're always wanting to recommend it, but we felt like we were going back to the well too many times and this is one I think we took. We put back on the shelf and maybe we need to bring it time.

Rebecca Schinsky (31:21)

To dust it off. Yeah.

Jeff O'Neill (31:23)

And this one hits a lot of what I want Maria Semple to do. What I liked about where you go to Bernadette, which is interesting, neurotic people being interesting and neurotic on some sort of quest, adventure or problem. And that sounds like what happens here. This is on my long list. Not my top 10 for the year. Just because the last two. I'm not even sure I read the one that came out before this because the. The one I read what were right afterward you go, Bernadette was okay. And then the reviews for the third one weren't great. And so I just passed on it. So I cannot say based on our own definition of our writer. She is not one of my writers yet. But the description of this and maybe I'm just ready to give it another crack. I'm feeling optimistic about this one. Maybe it's the new year, I don't know. How about you?

Rebecca Schinsky (32:08)

I'm also feeling optimistic about this one. I've had a couple calls with publicists from the big houses going into this season and her publisher is really stoked. Has a bright pink cover, very eye catching. The main character's name is Adora Hazard, which I just. I appreciate you.

Jeff O'Neill (32:26)

Maria Semple, such an ass name right there.

Rebecca Schinsky (32:28)

Yeah. But she's a stoic philosopher and divorce living in New York on the Upper west side. And she has discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have. She's got a teenage daughter. She has the freedom of being solo in her life, likes her job. And she has assembled a coven of like minded women who live on the same floor in a legendary apartment building. And then she has a chance meeting with a handsome stranger. I think this is the middle aged lady book that I want. Like All Fours was not the middle aged lady book that I want. This is the pitch for me at least like going in this sounds like it will come like straight down the middle right into the shinsky wheelhouse.

Jeff O'Neill (33:17)

I once described in trying to pitch where you go Bernadette in simple. Kind of in a bigger way to someone as somewhere between Amy Sherman Palladino and Nora Ephraim. A little more of the zaniness of Sherman Palladino, who wrote Gilmore Girls and a bunch of other stuff. And Efron's real Upper west side. I don't know. She's very put together. Or Efron. She has appearance of being put together. Simple. Semple's characters don't always have their pants all the way on in a very fun and interesting way.

Rebecca Schinsky (33:51)

Yes, I think zany is the right word there. Like, quirky will get tossed around about a Maria Semple character, but that's a little too Zooey Deschanel. These are not manic Pixie Dream girl.

Jeff O'Neill (34:04)

No characters. No.

Rebecca Schinsky (34:06)

But yeah, zany. A little daffy. Like smart, but daffy.

Jeff O'Neill (34:12)

Yeah. Ambitious and unsatisfied at the same time. Smart and silly. I like all these things. So I'm. I'm very much hoping. I'm pulling this real hard to be good. I really want to like this.

Rebecca Schinsky (34:27)

Yeah, me too. Me too. So, yeah, I don't know if it's you like.

Jeff O'Neill (34:31)

Oh, good.

Rebecca Schinsky (34:31)

I would say this feels like a make or break Maria Semple book in my reading life.

Jeff O'Neill (34:36)

Well, the synopsis is such that if we don't enjoy it or don't find ourselves, like, excited for the next work, what synopsis could we get right that would get us excited? Frankly, I don't know if it's you or Google, but we've been fighting over the spelling of this because it is not on repair. That is not what this book is called.

Rebecca Schinsky (34:55)

It's not. You're right. It was me.

Jeff O'Neill (34:57)

I kept correct, but I had to double take because the correct title is On Witness and respair, which gets a. Is that the Jeff Chanery's music I hear coming in?

Rebecca Schinsky (35:07)

Yeah. I'm gonna have to Google this.

Jeff O'Neill (35:09)

So it's an archaic word meaning on restoring hope, which feels very Jesmyn Ward.

Rebecca Schinsky (35:15)

It does. Yeah. This is the new Jesmyn Ward essay Collection coming out May 19th on Witness and not Repair. All right.

Jeff O'Neill (35:23)

We are not going to be the only people on the Internet that get this wrong. Autocorrects all over the place are going to be going nuts on this because I don't think it's something that's on there. Listen, I. As I've thought more about our 2025 reading, you called out that I not had. Did not have dead on the live in my top 10. And I said at the time maybe on a technicality, because a lot of it I had read before. But in terms of the book I felt the most glad to have read, the most respairing, I don't know, for the reading and writing process. That one continues to stick in my head. And Jesmyn Ward is not a similar kind of writer to Zadie Smith, other than they're both amazing. Like, they do different things and they write differently. But a book of Ward essays might be, though all that I'm looking for to read this year. That might be all I'm looking for. Honestly, I have this very high up.

Rebecca Schinsky (36:14)

For my A George Saunders novel and a book of Jesmyn Ward essays. Like what more do we what more.

Jeff O'Neill (36:19)

I have this number three, Everything Else.

Rebecca Schinsky (36:22)

Everything else is gravy. This is collected creative nonfiction from Jesmyn Ward. So we'll see. Some of these pieces, I'm sure have been published elsewhere. But she's I mean, right up there. You might be seeing some other Jesmyn Ward titles on other podcasts that we produce later in the year.

Jeff O'Neill (36:42)

Yes, yes.

Rebecca Schinsky (36:44)

As I think about programming the fall, one of our best, most important voices and a real treat because she doesn't publish a book that often.

Jeff O'Neill (36:53)

No skips for Jesmyn Woods.

Rebecca Schinsky (36:55)

Yeah, no skips.

Jeff O'Neill (36:56)

No skips.

Rebecca Schinsky (36:57)

May 19th. And then last on our top 10 again, topping out in July. July 7th country people by Daniel Mason, author of Northwoods A Year in the Life of a Family as they strike out into the unknown, AKA Verm, leaving all the comforts of home behind a rollicking, lyrical novel.

Jeff O'Neill (37:23)

So we love Northwoods.

Rebecca Schinsky (37:24)

Yes.

Jeff O'Neill (37:25)

And a lot of people love north woods. And I don't know. I'm very this is number 10 on my most anticipated for 2026. But I don't know what I'm going to get here because I can't imagine it's going to be like north woods again, because that was its own singular reading experience. It is is technically a novel, but more like a series of related vignettes over time. It's a story of like 50 acres of an apple orchard, which, again, sounds boring and strange.

Rebecca Schinsky (37:53)

It's an impossible book to give an elevator pitch.

Jeff O'Neill (37:55)

Yeah, it's really strange. And so this a novel like this requires something different than that. And so I don't. That was my only Daniel Mason under my belt. Having said that, if you can write North Woods, I have no idea what you can and can't do. So there I am with Country People. Rebecca.

Rebecca Schinsky (38:11)

Yeah, that was Northwoods was one of the great surprises of my reading year, the year that it came out. And I have continued to think. My friend Josh Christie at Print, a bookstore in Portland, Maine, was telling me he read it right before I did. And it was like the way he described it was the thing that tipped me over on, okay, I've got to go read it this weekend. And he said it reminded me of the things a book can do. Yeah, and one of those books that, like, is just surprising and reminds you of how expansive and unusual the very best kinds of literary fiction can be, but also accessible. Like, it was different and surprising, but it's not performatively weird. It's not trying to make it hard for you to follow. It's just like, look at this cool trick. And when I saw Train Dreams last year, a lot of the Train Dreams film felt like an echo of the same feelings of reading. Woods, lots of trees, lots of like, here's one happy house in one place. And look at it through the seasons and look at these people in it as they move in and out and the life that happens in and around them. I don't care what Country People is about. I was going to be into the next Danielson novel no matter what.

Jeff O'Neill (39:24)

Yeah, I was ready for whatever Daniel is going to do. And coming in at a near perfect Jeff score of 336.

Rebecca Schinsky (39:32)

Beautiful.

Jeff O'Neill (39:33)

Another writer that. That if this one is awesome or at least very good, there's four or five other Daniel Masons that I have not read same, which is very exciting to me. So. All right, that brings us to our 10.

Rebecca Schinsky (39:47)

That's our 10. I'll read them back quickly for folks. Vigil by George Saunders On Morrison by Namwali Serpell Kin by Tayari Jones. Brawler by Lauren Groff, Python's Kiss by Louise Erdrich, London Falling by Patrick Radden. Keefe My dear you by Rachel Kong, Go Gentle by Maria Semple, Unwitness and Respare by Jesmyn Ward and Country People by Daniel Mason. Got some shout outs to do. We've got some other personal most anticipated, but shout outs for the fall. We're gonna have such a good time in the fall. Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead. The the third and final book in his Harlem trilogy. Exit Party by Emily Stanton.

Jeff O'Neill (40:31)

Oh, I think that's July. That's not fall.

Rebecca Schinsky (40:32)

Oh, no, you're right, that's July. It's like July or August.

Jeff O'Neill (40:35)

July 7th, I believe. 21st.

Rebecca Schinsky (40:37)

Pardon me, 21st. Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel is sometime in September. Don't know what it's about, don't need to know, don't care, don't look.

Jeff O'Neill (40:46)

I don't care.

Rebecca Schinsky (40:46)

Emily St. John Mandel and then this was an exciting discovery to me. American Hag 1 by Ming Jin Wei, the author of Pachinko, a new Min Jin Lee novel for the first time since Pachinko, also in September.

Jeff O'Neill (41:00)

Very exciting. There I'll go my 10 anticipated. This is the whole year, so the top five we've all we've talked. Well, no, that's not correct. Number one, Vigil by George Saunders. Number two, Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel. Unwitness and Respaired by Jesmyn Ward. Country People by Daniel Mason Brawler by Lauren Groff Transcription by Ben Lerner. American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee, Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead and Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochil Gonzalez. Again, this is. I'm just excited to read this. I'm really hoping she can channel the I lived in Brooklyn in the. In the aughts and did stuff and I like her. So that's on mine. And then the last one is I Needed a dad Book Nonfiction weirdness but the Depths of Wikipedia Dispatches from the last good place on the Internet. Annie Ruarda. So she has been doing this social media account called Depths of Wikipedia for a long time. I've always wanted a book version of this, and the tweet that sticks in my head is that she noted that the Ship of Theseus entry to Wikipedia has been edited sufficiently that nothing remains from the original Theseus entry. And if you don't get that, that's fine. But if you do you understand why I'm looking forward to the Depths of Wikipedia by Annie Ruardo.

Rebecca Schinsky (42:12)

That's amazing. Just a couple other shout outs from the Shinsky Wheelhouse Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupree Sweeney, author of the Nest that Should Be Upmarket Commercial family drama fiction. The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams, which I will talk about in 17 other places. I love her. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood. She wrote a Stone Yard devotional, and this is a dystopian story that's being comped to the Handmaid's Tale. So like, that's exciting. But also, let's be careful out there. Careful Screen People by Megan Garber. Let's talk about technology and what it is doing to us. Us Inside the Box by David Epstein, who wrote Range, one of my favorite books.

Jeff O'Neill (42:59)

Oh, yes. I didn't know.

Rebecca Schinsky (43:00)

I didn't.

Jeff O'Neill (43:01)

What's that? So what's that about?

Rebecca Schinsky (43:02)

It's like, let me double. Like I don't have the tab. Open it. Is how constraints make us better. So doing creative work inside guardrails and how guardrails are good for us. We get a new Maggie o' Farrell in June called Land. We get a new Tia Williams romance in June called the Missed Connection. Very excited about both of those. This is a good looking year. 26 is much more exciting to me than 25 was.

Jeff O'Neill (43:33)

I've got two more we haven't mentioned. Again to pile on to the embarrassment of short story riches. Ruth Ozeki's the Typing Lady.

Rebecca Schinsky (43:39)

Yes, that's on my list.

Jeff O'Neill (43:40)

Comes out June. That's a collection of short stories. And there's a new Ann Patchett novel, Whistler, coming out in June, which she's maybe gone all the way around for me in terms of, like, so reliable and so familiar and so prolific that I kind of take Ann Patchett for granted. And I shouldn't because I always enjoy an Ann Patchett book.

Rebecca Schinsky (43:58)

Yeah, I had that experience with Tom Lake where I think the press around Tom Lake was so big that I delayed a little bit in reading it. And then when I got there, I was like, right, Ann Patchett.

Jeff O'Neill (44:09)

Yes. She knows what she's doing.

Rebecca Schinsky (44:11)

Right. Why would I ever just not pick up Ann Patchett on release date? I've got a galley of Whistler and. And it's going to be, I think, a struggle to save it for June at this point.

Jeff O'Neill (44:22)

I don't know what it's about. There's a horse on the COVID with no writer.

Rebecca Schinsky (44:25)

Oh, it is about a.

Jeff O'Neill (44:27)

No, I didn't say it did. I say wanted to know. Thank you very much.

Rebecca Schinsky (44:30)

Maybe the people want to know, Jeff, but that's fine. I guess we'll make it okay.

Jeff O'Neill (44:33)

You can just tell them. Then I'll disassociate you earmuffs.

Rebecca Schinsky (44:36)

It's about a woman who in her adulthood is reunited with the man who was briefly her stepfather when she was a child. And Aunt Patchett doing complicated family things.

Jeff O'Neill (44:47)

I'm guessing they rode horses together.

Sponsor Narrator (44:49)

Probably.

Jeff O'Neill (44:50)

I'm gonna throw that out there. Yeah. Ann Patchett. Do I have anything else? I'm trying to see what else. I think we covered everything that was on my. I've got a bunch of, like, maybes, and this is. Sounds kind of weird. And I'll listen to it on audio and give myself 30 minutes. But that's not what this show is. This is our most anticipated Just maybe could be interested is a completely different and totally unwieldy situation to podcast about. All right, I think that brings us to the end of our show today. You can find the show notes@bookwright.com listen but honestly it's just easier to look in the podcaster that you're listening to right now because all of the notes are there. Join us over on Patreon for ad free early episodes for one level and then you also can get our bonus content including the winter preview draft over there, which is one of our probably our signal Patreon event of the year that we do a few times a year. Check this out on Zero to well Read. We've got a full slate of title lineup stuff. I have no when is this episode?

Rebecca Schinsky (45:46)

This comes out on Monday the 5th. So our debut of the 2026 season for zero to well read will be tomorrow January 6th.

Jeff O'Neill (45:54)

Tomorrow, January 6th. Which we had a really good time. We're not going to tell you what it is. Go check it out. An all timer, an all time class classic that a lot of people have read over there. Rebecca, anything else we need to tell the people about?

Rebecca Schinsky (46:05)

No, I'm, I'm excited for this year. I think this is going to be a good one.

Jeff O'Neill (46:09)

If you do find yourself able interested to come to pals on January 22, I will be talking to Gabriel Talent about his new novel Crux, which is a story of friendship. I see it appearing on a lot of most anticipated lists of the year so far. We didn't really include it here because we, you know, we're going to take talk. I'm going to talk to him about it so it gets a shout out here.

Rebecca Schinsky (46:29)

Anyway, I'm going to read it on the plane on Sunday. We have a business trip in New York next week, so maybe we can. I'll talk to you about it over dinner.

Jeff O'Neill (46:36)

Yeah, if you've got books that we missed that you're most excited about or the things that we've noticed or mentioned that like yep, this is the one for me. She's an email podcastookriot.com or if you've got anything else out there. We had someone over at Zillow Read said that their book club is reading Midnight's Children and thank God we did an episode about it. So we're out here helping people.

Rebecca Schinsky (46:53)

Rebecca, what a bold, brave book club choice.

Jeff O'Neill (46:56)

That's either brave or uninformed because there's no middle ground where you know what you're getting into and you're not brave.

Rebecca Schinsky (47:03)

Can I just tell you in my reread of Lincoln and the Bardo. Speaking of book clubs, now that we're just at the end of the show and things are happening, the first or one of the first book club guide questions at the back of my paperback is, which of the ghosts did you most relate to? And I just. Friends, let's not do that to George Saunders. There's so much.

Jeff O'Neill (47:27)

Is that not just a version of how would you be as a boatman? Do you like my question better? Yes, than that. Okay, thank you very much. It's nice of you to say. I'm worried that that's Jeff's version of which of the ghosts do you relate to the most?

Rebecca Schinsky (47:39)

How would you be as the boatman of sticks? Is like an order of magnitude more interesting as a question.

Jeff O'Neill (47:45)

It's a nice thing they would have said to me. Order of magnitude. It's a new year. Maybe that's a segment we should. I mean, we got plenty of segment ideas of zero to well read like, actually good book of questions.

Rebecca Schinsky (47:56)

Oh, I'll think about that.

Jeff O'Neill (47:59)

Yeah, we can think about that. Which of these characters should be a Muppet? Is obviously number one, the boatman. That's a Muppet. Which Muppet would you like as a boatman?

Rebecca Schinsky (48:10)

Oh.

Sponsor Narrator (48:13)

None.

Rebecca Schinsky (48:14)

Nobody's particularly soothing.

Jeff O'Neill (48:16)

Beaker. No, not Beaker. Oh, come on. What's the guy's name? Is it Scooter? What's the guy with glasses that always has a clipboard? Come on. I think that is Scooter. Scooter. He seems like he's got his together. He knows what's happening. He's like, you know, a little frazzled because that's what happens when you're the stage manager. But he also gets the show done on time. Scooter will do.

Rebecca Schinsky (48:37)

Really. Back in the saddle here to start 2026. All of our vibes and multitudes are on display.

Jeff O'Neill (48:43)

Which Muppet would you like is the boatman. I really need to be kept off the mic. All right, Rebecca, thank you so much. I'll talk to you later.

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