The Eye of the Best Books of the Year Storm Approaches

Summary

Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: The Eye of the Best Books of the Year Storm Approaches
Date: October 27, 2025
Hosts: Jeff O’Neill & Rebecca Schinsky

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Overview

This lively episode delves into the kickoff of “Best Books of the Year” season, a much-anticipated time in the book industry. Jeff and Rebecca explore how lists from Amazon and Barnes & Noble are formulated, their implications, and what makes for a meaningful “Best of” pick. They also break down recent reading adventures, new literary adaptations, and industry legal battles, all while sharing their trademark wit and book nerd camaraderie.

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Best Books of the Year Lists: Season Begins

[01:00–07:50]

• The hosts reflect on the growing wave of “Best Books of the Year” lists, noting the process starts earlier every year.
• Both feel better prepared this year due to more intentional frontlist reading, decreasing the feeling of being overwhelmed by unread major titles.
• Quote: “I’ve decided just to give myself to the existential vertigo and let this season happen. It’s the way of radical acceptance.”
  — Rebecca [01:13]
• Discuss how lists are created, focusing on Amazon’s approach of publishing their unvarnished Number One picks from the past 25 years, organized by category (e.g., sports, novels), without excuses or second-guessing.
• Both respect Amazon’s boldness in picking a #1 book each year (as opposed to the more demure, unranked Book Riot lists).
• Compare Amazon’s process (editor-driven) to Barnes & Noble (bookseller voting), highlighting surprising picks and the tension between curation and consensus.
• Quote: “Say what you will about the platform...these are real people picking these and they are not told by...the whatever to pick this book or do whatever. They have an actual lot amount of freedom over there.”
  — Jeff [05:50]
• Rebecca notes Amazon’s picks often balance upmarket literary fiction with narrative nonfiction; they’re not just “art awards” or popularity contests.
• The hosts appreciate the transparency and the range represented, even when disagreeing with specific selections.

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Book Riot Content & Housekeeping

[07:50–13:45]

• Shoutouts to Book Riot’s flagship newsletter, with features like art heist book recommendations inspired by current Louvre “vibes” in popular culture.
  • Quote: “I love a heist book. It was such a good idea...I was just all caps, yes, do that one.”
    — Rebecca [07:22]
• Update on “Zero to Well Read,” their adjacent podcast which recently tackled "Hamlet" and will soon take on "A Christmas Carol" (thanks to enthusiastic listener ratings/reviews).
• Giddy discussion of podcast milestones and the evolving format, with requests for audience feedback on balancing historical context with book discussion.
  • Quote: “These episodes could be five hours long if we let ourselves.”
    — Rebecca [11:19]
• Hint at ambitious future plans, possibly diving into hefty books like “Lonesome Dove” or “Infinite Jest,” with community voting as a potential Patreon perk.

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Dissecting B&N and Amazon Best Book Lists

[15:15–27:37]

Critiquing Barnes & Noble Lists

[15:15–20:39]

• Both critique Barnes & Noble’s many “Best of” lists by genre, wishing for one definitive overall list ("one list to rule them all").
• Noting the order of lists is revealing—fiction, gift books, and mystery/thriller are prioritized.
• In-depth reactions to the fiction list, with surprise at the top pick:
  • Surprise: “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser—a debut, in translation, at the top with little prior buzz.
    • Quote: “What a great day to be Thomas Schlesser. You wake up and you’re not just on the Barnes and Noble Best Fiction of the Year list, but you’re at the top of it for reasons that are undiscernable.”
      — Rebecca [19:39]
  • Least surprising: “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a known bestseller.

Deep Dive Into Select Categories

• Biography:

  • Surprise at the inclusion of the Kenny Chesney biography alongside more obvious picks (e.g., Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, Matthew McConaughey).
  • Discussion of how these choices blend true literary merit and commercial appeal.
  • Quote: “Poems and Prayers [by Matthew McConaughey] is a memoir. Sure, why not? You can just put them. Whatever. It’s a book by a famous person. That’s nonfiction, I think.”
    — Jeff [23:01]

• Gift Books:

  • Both pick potential gift books from the list, balancing personal preference and “Swiss army knife” utility.
    • Rebecca picks "Traveler’s Atlas of the World" and “Good Things” by Samin Nosrat.
    • Jeff opts for “Puzzlemania” for broad appeal and notes the enduring popularity of puzzle books.
  • Quote: “The beautiful thing about this is that these are books that are gifts for people who don’t have to like books. They just have to be interested in stuff.”
    — Rebecca [25:23]

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News, Adaptations, & Legal Updates

[29:06–34:22]

Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” Receives Rave Reviews

• Discuss unexpected critical enthusiasm for del Toro’s adaptation starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi.
• Question Netflix’s decision to release it after Halloween.
  • Quote: “Why is Netflix on Halloween, you coward?”
    — Rebecca [30:35]
• Comment on cinematic timing, release strategy, and audience anticipation.

Texas Reader Act Ruled Unconstitutional

• Federal judge blocks law requiring vendors to rate and recall books for school libraries as unconstitutional.
• Bananas requirements like vendor ratings and recalls of “previous sales” were logistically impossible and likely designed to suppress access.
  • Quote: “Even in a Fahrenheit 451, like alternate universe...is it literally possible to do this?”
    — Jeff [33:29]
  • Rebecca speculates law’s impossibility was part of the intent.
• Direct readers to Kelly Jensen’s deep-dive coverage at Book Riot.

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Recent Reading

[35:07–42:24]

Jeff's Pick:

• “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” by George R.R. Martin
  • Prompted by news of HBO adaptation.
  • Praises the novellas as accessible, less violent, and standalone—invites people who want to try Martin without diving into the main series.
  • Quote: “If you’ve never read George R.R. martin, this is a really good...And you’ve been wanting to try, but you don’t want to go into the incomplete tales of Song of Ice and Fire.”
    — Jeff [35:34]
  • Makes peace with Martin’s “maybe someday” promises about writing more.

Rebecca's Picks:

• “Replaceable You” by Mary Roach (audio)

  • Entertaining and gross-out exploration of medical prosthetics—flaps, noses, and all.
  • Mary Roach’s conversational, weird science writing described as “radioactive” for dinner conversations.
    • Quote: “You almost need like a decompression chamber to encounter other people after meeting Mary Roach.”
      — Jeff [39:31]
  • Recommends Roach’s interview with Roman Mars on 99% Invisible for a taste.

• “The Unveiling” by Quan Barry (in progress)

  • Horror story, “Get Out”-esque, set in Antarctica with a young Black protagonist.
  • Rebecca is hooked: “I’m halfway through it and I have no idea where it’s going.” [41:21]

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Final Thoughts & Looking Ahead

[42:24–43:44]

• As year-end looms, Jeff and Rebecca discuss making “opportunity cost” decisions about what to read before 2026.
• Teasing a future Patreon segment: books they most want to get to before “the flood is coming and the ship is sailing.”
• Thank listeners for their engagement, ratings, and feedback; excitement about Book Riot’s new podcast and newsletter projects.
  • Quote: “We’re having a great time and it feels really good to know that it’s landing with you all.”
    — Rebecca [43:44]

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Notable Quotes, Moments, & Timestamps

• “Best Books of the Year season has begun. This is like a week earlier than it started last year...It’s the way of radical acceptance.” — Rebecca [01:13]
• “Say what you will about the platform...these are real people picking these.” — Jeff [05:50]
• “I love a heist book...I was just all caps, yes, do that one.” — Rebecca [07:22]
• “These episodes could be five hours long if we let ourselves.” — Rebecca [11:19]
• “What a great day to be Thomas Schlesser. You wake up and you’re not just on the Barnes and Noble Best Fiction of the Year list, but you’re at the top of it for reasons that are undiscernable.” — Rebecca [19:39]
• “Why is Netflix on Halloween, you coward?” — Rebecca [30:35]

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Segment Timestamps

• Best Of Season kicks off: [01:00–07:50]
• Amazon/B&N List discussion: [15:15–27:37]
• B&N Fiction, Biography, Gift Books deep dives: [17:01–27:37]
• frankenstein adaptation reviews: [29:06–31:53]
• Texas Reader Act legal update: [32:09–34:22]
• Recent Reading: [35:07–42:24]

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In this episode, Jeff and Rebecca provide a candid, humorous, and insightful look at the forces shaping book recommendations, how retailers and media “curate” taste, and what it means to make year-end book choices—as readers and as an industry. Their transparent, nerdy, and supportive dynamic makes for a delightful listen (or, in this case, read) for anyone who loves to talk books.

Transcript

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[Jeff O'Neill]

This is the Book Riot podcast. I'm Jeff O'. Neill.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And I'm Rebecca Schinsky.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And Rebecca Best Books. I mean we.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's, it's happening, baby.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The Death Star is no longer on the horizon. It's firing off the main reactors and like they're pulling the levers and their weird helmets and it's time. It's time.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Best Books of the Year season has begun. This is like a week earlier than than it started last year. I did go back and check, but I've decided just to give myself to the existential vertigo and let this season happen. It's the way of radical acceptance. Jeff.

[Jeff O'Neill]

We've been meeting, we've been reading more front list. I've been reading more front list this year too. So I'm caught less by surprise. There are fewer things I'm like, oh my God, I haven't read all this stuff. And whatever. I know, I know what I haven't read where in years past. A big oh my God, look at all the things I haven't read. A little bit of a difference.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I share that feeling. I'm starting to. I have like a little stack squirreled away in my office of galleys that I thought I would have gotten to already, but that I have not gotten to and that I hope to pick up at the end of the year when I'm doing my cleanup reading. But I have the same feeling. I think I got to the books that were the highest priority for me this year. I've been really happy with how my reading has shaken out again. As I was saying last week influenced a lot by zero to well read. And I'm really seeking out the high caliber stuff that's gonna ring all of my bells. But it's here. We are 10 weeks away. I believe today 70 days away from 2026.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Let's see, promo stuff. Year of Magical Thinking is going to come up again today, but in the Patreon feed, if you're not subscribed and you're interested in checking it out. We did 20 years of. Well, we didn't spend 20 years reading it, but on the 20th anniversary we reconsidered Joan Didion's classic memoir of grief and mourning, with which are different things, importantly, that we learned about and talked about on that show. You can find that in the Patreon feed as well. One of the top news stories today is Amazon. They just listed the 25 books that were their number one picks. Like anyone could have done this. I wish we would have done this and just done a boast about it. But they did that. So what we're going to record today for the Patreon that's going to go in the feed late this week, early next week, we're going to be power ranking the 10 best of those and then three idiosyncratic odysseys, wish youh Had Do Over. The thing I like about what they did is they didn't redraft. Like, these are the books we picked and it's just what it is, which I kind of like. Rebecca, what do you think about it?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I like that too. I really like that that they did that. They also like, did some category things of like the best of the sports books we've picked, we've picked over 25 years. The best of the novels that we've picked over 25 years. But they just put up the picks. They didn't offer explanations or excuses or any backpedaling. They just let them be what they are. And as I, I wrote in today's flagship news, I really respect that Amazon saddles up and makes a number one book of the year pick every year. Very few publications or retailers do it. I don't always agree with their pick, but it's always interesting. And like we don't even on on.com on bookriot.com, we do not come in with a number one of the year. You and I might each weigh in with a favorite here on the pod, but we do our own book Riot list unranked. And I really respect that Amazon, like has the guts every year to come out and say this is the book of the year. Barnes and Noble also declares a book of the year. Sometimes they take two different philosophies on them. The Barnes and Noble one is voted by booksellers. We should get that one in another couple of weeks. But, yeah, it was interesting to me to see and surprising. Like, some of the Amazon picks. I think actually two of them were books I had never heard of.

[Jeff O'Neill]

There are some strange ones. So we're going to dive all the way into that there. I mean, I've spoken with them before. They did an interview. What they're trying to do is they, this is not art awards. They're somewhere between, like, the bookseller awards on Barnes and Noble. They want the median Amazon book buyer to see this list, pick something off it that strikes them as cool, and have a great reading experience. So it tends toward upmarket literary nonfiction, sort of narrative nonfiction. Great. That's totally fine. The picks on the whole, I think, are very, very solid.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I do, too. Yeah, it was overall a very solid list. And I appreciate that they apply a wide lens to what book of the year can mean that often it is that big marquee fiction title or like, you know, there's a year where it's Educated by Tara Westover, the memoir that just ruled the year, but really ruled the decade in which it was published. And sometime sometimes it's anchored to political and current events or informed by what's happening out on the streets. And I appreciate that, that they don't seem to just have like one strict rubric or one customer that they're trying to reach.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Interesting. In the branding, the packaging of this list, they are highlighting that it's handpicked reads from the Amazon Books editors. Because one comment that we've gotten when we share the news we talk about the list is like, it's just an algorithm. Put what you think about Amazon to the side for a moment. As a, you know, the Borg of American technological retail. I know that's hard to do. That's a big. You got to use both hands to put that to the side over there. But I think they have. The editors at Amazon Books have the single best job in books because really what they do in the Spotify Audiobooks team has a similar job. They sit around and read books and look through them and they're really trying to find stuff people like. I don't. I don't think this is what people imagine. They're like, reading the slush pile or maybe look at working the library. But this is actually the gig where you. And again, they've got to put their money where their mouths are and make some selections. But, like, these are real humans picking that. Say what you will about the platform, and I entertain and hold with at least one of my Hands those as well. But these are real people picking these and they are not told by the whatever on the whatever to pick this book or do whatever. They have an actual lot amount of freedom over there. Again, take it for what's worth. That's the Patreon Other things. Rebecca mentioned the flagship newsletter. We continue to write that you were writing about this, giving some commentary on it too. Also in today's newsletter, I did some art heist book recommendations because everyone in my house is in Louvre land and I had to give Rebecca, had you heard of any of those? Did you look at that list? I mean, I'm sure you've heard of.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I had heard of a couple of them. Of course, now that I'm not looking at the newsletter in front of me, I don't remember what all of them were, but I have heard of several of them. I think we've talked about them. I'd read at least one of them. And you know, like I'm just over here trying to live my best. Mindy Kaling in Ocean's Eight Dreams. But I love a heist book. It was such a good idea when we were kicking around ideas for the newsletter and you're like, I could do this thing or I could do this other thing or I could do heist books. I was just all caps, yes, do that one.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So there are five picks over there. We'll put a link in the show notes. You can see that list and sign up and get that in the mail. It's funny, we were, we watched Ocean's 8 before this heist. Like just like the last 12, like 14 days we'd watched it. Oh, and we were talking the car the other day about which of the endings would you pick? Right. Because there's always the here's what they did with their money. And I think to a person, everyone in my household picked Mindy Kaling eating croissants in the front of the Eiffel Tower.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's hard to argue with that choice.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's very difficult to argue from there on. Zero to well read in the feed right now. Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, that cursed Dane. We had so much fun doing this last week. We put out a call here and then I put on the header of that show a challenge to the listenership to get us to 150 ratings. And I'm so pleased that as of right now we are at, you know, less than, less than a week later at 230ish. Somewhere in there ratings and then some also very nice reviews There. Please come check it out. We will. We have unlocked for ourselves the opportunity, the obligation, the great joy. Do you want to say what it is going to be?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, we're gonna do A Christmas Carol. Christmas Carol, which is gonna make the question about could you adapt this with one person and all the Muppets really fun or possibly moot.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think we're continuing to evolve this show. We're having a wonderful time doing a lot of people finding. Also, please, if you haven't and you're inclined at all to go rate and review the show. Thank you so much. It really does help. We continue to be floating around like the second page of the new and worth looking at. And the more that stays up there, the more people are gonna find us. But a lot are finding that show. So thank you so much. I think depending on the. The book we're talking about, maybe we should have like a pool of questions or categories we pick from that's appropriate because I was thinking some of them are very difficult. The Muppet one is funny to think about, but the one we're recording tomorrow is like my least favorite of the Muppet ones. Oh, for a variety of reasons. But maybe we should do something like, especially this one, because it is one of the great unadapted books that have come out in my lifetime. Like, famously great unadapted book. Maybe we should add one for. Should this be a musical, prestige, limited series or feature film? And we can decide which of those things we want it to be. So we're playing with it. One question we have, especially for those of you who are listening to the show, is we've gotten some feedback that some people don't like as much introduction, historical context or literary history bio of the authors. They want us to get into the book quicker. Rebecca and I were talking about this right before we were recording. I hear that. I can certainly understand that. But what we're trying to figure out is what the right mix is. Or do more people like that. We do more kind of, I don't know, intro. Welcome to Elizabethan England. Welcome to the world of Harper Lee. Welcome to the state of YA and things like that. I'm assuming if people have read the book and know something about the book, they're ready to go quicker. One of the things we're trying to balance is we know a lot of people have only heard of this book, you know, in any particular thing. Now Hamlet maybe have some more, but that's one where the more they've heard about it, maybe the more misconceptions they have. So we want to make what people want to make. Rebecca, we are happy to nerd out and talk. You know, I will. I will go down rather than.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

These episodes could be five hours long if we let ourselves.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But if you're the kind of person listening and will take the time to email us, we want to hear from you, you. And we're still playing, we're still experimenting, we're having a great time doing it, but is by no means a fixed and finished product.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And we are. This season will wrap up. The final episode of this season will air on November 25th. We'll have the Christmas Carol episode in the feed in December. We might have some other fun extras. And then we have already started programming winter and spring of 2026. And it is. Man, I am excited.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I have 12 weeks of lonesome dove. So that's March through June. 12 weeks of lonesome Dove. That's when.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's when we get to 2300 Apple reviews.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, oh. What do we need to unlock? Like, for real, like, no pink Internet, pinky swearing.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, I think in the, in the possible future where there's a dedicated Patreon for zero to, well read, one of the perks might be voting on like a summer feature or voting on.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Voting on how many episodes the Lonesome Dove read will be 52.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

If we, if we're going to read a thousand pages, are we going to read Infinite Jest or A Lonesome Dove? Like, let the people have a voice.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Because we haven't really talked. We haven't really tackled a doorstopper yet. The one recording tomorrow is long, but I wouldn't. It doesn't have that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's a compelling read. Yeah, yeah. And. And it's, you know, we started recording months in advance of the release of this first season. We're going to give ourselves a little break before the winter, and we're going to. We're trying to stay ahead of things, but the prim hesitation on both of our parts to pick up something that is the size of Infinite Jest is being able to plan around reading that and doing a good job with it with all of the other competing demands on our reading time. So I think we'll get to some doorstops. I mean, we're going to tackle the Odyssey next summer, but we're still figuring out how we're going to do that. So thanks to everybody. Like, this has been such an exciting and fun launch. I cannot tell you the dopamine hit that I've been getting in the mornings when I check Apple podcasts. And we are right there in number two on the books page, right behind NPR Fresh air. It might not last forever, but man, and they don't. It's good. While I've got it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I know Terry Gross does a lot of book stuff, but NPR Fresh Air being number one in books is like, that's tough. But I hear you. I see. And I'm not that mad, but maybe a little. All right, let's get into the news of the week after this break.

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[Jeff O'Neill]

You know, I hadn't added something to my things I would change were Izar of books. But I have to tell Barnes and Noble we need one list. Man, we cannot do. Rebecca How? I can't even count.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I counted them for the for the flagship music.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it would be one thing if there were the list of lists, like here's our legitimate top 20, like regardless of genre or whatever. But these are there's best fiction and then gift books, mystery, thriller, biographies, picture books, young reader books, young adult, science fiction, fantasy, history, horror, romance, cookbooks, business books, sports, personal development, science and technology, ebook series, I don't know, audiobooks and Spanish language.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, it's a lot of lists. Like just this is where the Amazon tactic is superior to me because they will give us when their list rolls out probably in mid November, Amazon will give us their like 20 best of the year across genre and they will also do all of these categories as will PW. We love the PW list because they will also do their top 10 and then a whole bunch of category ones. I'm here for all, like for a bunch of specific categories. I totally understand why a retailer like Barnes and Noble or Amazon wants to do that. I think it's interesting and very revealing that the top three category lists on this Barnes and Noble page are fiction, gift books and mystery thriller. Like, that tells you something about their.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's not alphabetized. They just chose to do it that way.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. That tells you about something about their priorities. But I do want also one list to rule them all, like the best of the best and then get into these categories.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Let's pick three of these categories and we'll pick sort of the most surprising and least surprising inclusion. Not best or worst, just most. This is on the fly, hitting to Rebecca. We obviously have to do fiction. You want to go first?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. So fiction first of all. There's also no obvious organizing principle inside these lists. They're not alphabetical by title or by the author's name, and they're not numbered. So, like, is the book at the top of the list their favorite?

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's ISBN number? I guarantee you it's something like that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Did it just win the straw poll? Like, who knows? But the. The top. The book that is on top of the fiction list is a debut novel called Mona's Eyes by Thomas Schlesser. It's an exploration of art and beauty through a young girl's museum, adventures with her beloved grandfather. This makes their Best fiction of the year list. It is a debut novel. I have never heard of it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

In translation from Europa Editions. Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And it's in translation and it's from Europa, but it's a debut and it's on their best fiction list. But it was not in the finalist for Barnes and Noble Discover confounded. Yeah. Which just was interesting to me. You would expect the Discover nominees to be in this list and I wonder, was it just in seventh place? Because they did six finalists on that one. So that was the biggest surprise to me was I don't know anything about this book. So I cannot weigh in on do I think it belongs on this list or not. But I had not seen this anywhere and I love to be surprised. Like, this is great. And what a great day to be Thomas Schlesser. You wake up and you're not just on the Barnes and Noble Best Fiction of the Year list, but you're at the top of it for reasons that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Are undiscernable and Your book is about going to museums and we're all talking about the Louvre right now. So the slug here is 10 year old Mona and her beloved grandfather have only 52 Wednesdays to visit 52 works of art and commit to memory all that is beautiful in the world. Tuesdays with Maury meets All the beauty in the world. Kind of a situation we've got going on here. Here the comp in the Barnes and Noble description is Elegance of the Hedgehog and the little Paris bookshop. So this is not European art writing. This is more of the. Well, I mean, I guess the, the comps is Tuesdays with Mori or the elegance of the hedgehog. I like the elegance of the hedgehog very well. I will tell you this. I'm not sure I'm going to read this, but my dad, dad, if you're listening earmuffs, you will be getting this for your birthday and or Christmas because he loves art museums and this is just the kind of thing I think he will like. So there. Yeah, that's the biggest surprise.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I want to watch an adaptation of this. That sounds charming as hell.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Also it's so nice that Go with the pearl earring is in the public domain. Everyone gets to use that for their book cover. Yeah, that's the COVID least surprising selection, I guess at this point. Again, this is a long list. So a lot of the, A lot of our stuff we talked about Wild Dark Shore, Guardian of Thief, which you just said on, I saw on Instagram he said your favorite book of the year.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Favorite book of October.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, October. Pardon me. Pardon me. Kaplan's plot flashlight. You know, audition. Katie Kitamura. So I'm guessing my least surprising. I think it's probably Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, don't you think that's the least surprising? It's popular, it's pretty good and they want to move some units. So I think that's the least surprising.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's. It's that or maybe the loneliness of Sonja and Sunny Kieran Desai, because that's just been everywhere this year. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and Guardian and a Thief are now like neck and neck for my bets of landing with Book of the Year.

[Jeff O'Neill]

From there. What other category do you want to tackle?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Let's tackle biography maybe. Yeah, let's do something we know some things about.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. I was going to say we're going to be out of our depth very quickly. I'll go first here. I think the biggest surprise to me, I think probably the Kenny Chesney biography I have no idea. I know nothing about him. But it's pretty rare that there's a great. Maybe it's super revealing, but when you have a. With this looks like it's for the fans, which I don't think it's bad. But is it up there with the Arundhati? Like. I don't know. Shoot. Shoot me an email podcast.com if I'm being crass. And classes, which is if this is.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The bar that we're setting that your memoir has to belong in the same class as the R. But I'm saying.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Are there 20 that. That are. I mean the rest are Bourdain. There's Tim Curry's.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

There's Kamala Harris's also where it's important to remember that the Barnes and Noble list is intended to help shoppers. Like the one at the top here is Paul McCartney. Matthew McConaughey appears. Cameron Crowe, Patti Smith, the Atwood, Lionel Richie, Tim Curry, vagabond. One of the coolest book covers of the year. He's not smoking on it, but he should be just to continue your. Your situation there.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think only because it wouldn't stay lit in the wind. He's clearly in. He's all scarfed up and on a pier somewhere wearing some sweet.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm not surprised because I read it and I don't think it belongs in the category. But I am interested that for sales reasons and name recognition reasons, they didn't put the Elizabeth Gilbert memoir in here.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Clearly.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think a lot of like moms and aunts and women in people's lives that you kind of know and want to give a book to but don't know that well. I think a lot of people are going to get that Elizabeth Gilbert memoir this year.

[Jeff O'Neill]

There isn't a big, I guess the look by Michelle Obama, which is a memoir.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I guess coffee table memoir.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Some category fraud. Possibly. But there isn't an equivalent of like the Streisand or something for the moms out there, I think the least surprising inclusion is Poems and prayers by Matthew McConaughey. His last book sold a billion, I think. A billion. Let me check. Yeah, a billion copies.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Approximately 1 billion.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Poems and Prayers is a memoir. Sure, why not? You can just put them. Whatever. It's a book by a famous person. That's nonfiction, I think.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Awake by Jen Hatmaker. Also very unsurprising. I read this. It's really great and huge name recognition among maybe the white hot center of the Barnes and Noble customer.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Let's do gift books for fun. And rather let's do it this way if we were. But we have to Swiss army knife one of these books just we have to give a gift books to someone out there in the world. Which of these books are we picking? I'll run through there real quick while you think. You're welcome, dear. New York by Brandon Stanton. This is the fellow that's in charge of humans New York. It's basically humans New York with more stuff. Puzzle Mania, Wordle Connection, spelling minis and more. An invigorating compendium of mental glee and stimulation from puzzle making masterminds, big coffee table puzzle book, Dog Only Knows portraits of dogs, paintings. Great. Always remember a sequel to the Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

They are gonna ride that pony forever, aren't they?

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's a horse. Thank you very much. Let's give him his props. The Travelers Atlas of the World from National Geographic. Must see travel destinations and top adventures to take. I think they saw Atlas Obscura. National Geographic was like, we could do that. Probably. They've done other ones before. Entertaining by Martha Stewart. Good Things by Samin Nosrat. Chanel Haute Couture by Sofia Coppola. A companion to a documentary. She's never going to beat the rap of being a snob. She did a Marie Antoinette thing and a Chanel vanity project, so I don't.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Think she's trying to beat the rap of being a snob.

[Jeff O'Neill]

No, I'm just saying it's gone now. You. It's gone. The Language Lovers in Lexapedia. An A to Z of linguistic curiosity is the hairstylist on the back of my. That one's for the nerd right there by Joshua Blackburn. The Hidden Seasons. A Calendar of Nature's Clues by Tristine Gouley. The wonders of natural world are explored in intricate, stunning detail. Okay. And then an illustrated book in the she that Shall Not Be Named series. And Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stuart Reynolds. Okay. Sight unseen. Someone who likes books. You want to give me a gift? Where are you going with this?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Someone who likes books? I mean, the beautiful thing about this is that these are books that are gifts for people who don't have to like books. They just have to be interested in stuff.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, let's put it this way. They wouldn't mind getting a coffee table book as a gift.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm going with the National Geographic Traveler's Atlas of the World.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You're giving it to yourself. I hear you.

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[Rebecca Schinsky]

I am. But I got one of these in the mail recently. I actually, I haven't looked. They might be sponsoring something coming up. I don't know. It was either like either that's why they sent it to me or someone over there knows what happens in Shinsky land. It is gorgeous and it would do the thing of like what a coffee table book is supposed to do where you can just flip it open and there is something interesting or beautiful to see on any page. I mean I would also give Good Things by Samin Noserrat that's not as Swiss Armyish because you have to want to cook things. But I got this on the day that it came out. I am in the hive for Samin. The recipes are terrific and the whole thing is built around you want to have people over and you want to have good food on the table but not be stressed out and have it be casual. She's been doing a thing where every week she has just whoever is available from her group of friends come over for dinner and the recipes are pulled from that. Everybody wants more person to person time and less phone time. Good Things is a good one for that. Those are my. Those are my two heavily biased by my personal preferences.

[Jeff O'Neill]

This isn't necessarily my personal preference, but just knowing what the people in my life do like the number of people that do wordle connections be mini like in a day. I think I'm going puzzle mania for one. I think people enjoy that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Are you guys on the Pips game now in the New York Times?

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's just straight logic. I'm not into the straight logic puzzles.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's just. I'm in shape rotation. Okay. I'm happy. I mean that's great. It's just not. I need a. I need language. I think maybe the Hidden season a calendars of nature's clues would be interesting for as a flip through. You can keep there.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That looks beautiful.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I bet they will sell a lot of copies of Lessons from Cats for surviving fascism.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, we're gonna take another break.

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[Jeff O'Neill]

So sometimes trailers lie. Are the reviews actually good? You put this in there and I didn't go double check. They're actually good.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, this is a New York Times review and an NPR review of the new Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein adaptation with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi playing the monster. And we have both been like, this does not look great. But the reviews are very this is the movie Guillermo del Toro was made like, was born to make. Glenn Weldon especially has a good time with the puns in the NPR review. I haven't done a deep dive on a bunch of big critical reviews. This one's not going to get theater time for me. But I had been skeptical of like will I even give it Netflix time? And at this point I think I'm going to give it a shot on.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Rotten Tomatoes, which is a flawed it's, you know, Goodreads. But for movies with including critics, the letterboxd I guess is more the goodreads. Anyway, Rotten Tomatoes 86 Tomatometer. That's from critics and 99% yeah, from the Vox Populi is jazzed about that. So there you go. Metacritic generally favorable 78, which is pretty good. User score of 76. Metacritic tends to attenuate. So like it sounds worse but it feels like it's about this. I mean, hard to do better than 99% on the popcorn meter. Is that on Netflix now? Is it?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I know it's got to come out. It hits Netflix on November 7th.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think that is absolute nuttiness.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Why is Netflix on Halloween, you coward?

[Jeff O'Neill]

That makes absolutely no sense.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think they were really not sure how it was going to be received because we were kicking around doing a zero to well read episode of it. And we've been trying to anchor the ones that are connected to movies or pop culture events to like the release day or the timing of that or.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The week before so you can get ready for it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And even in like early August, they had not announced an actual release date for Frankenstein. And I remember being like, come on, you cowards, just put it out on Halloween. Like, what are we doing here?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, I guess if it's in, maybe it's in theaters for Halloween. So if the real heads are going to go out and see it and people maybe are trick or treating and stuff, I don't. It feels to me like I would put it out the week before Halloween, give people 10 days to watch it, get in the move, they can start doing word of again. Your your point is well taken that if it's bad, word of mouth can work to your detriment. But it's wild to me it's not out right now because I, if my household is any judge, we are super ready for Halloween stuff. Rowan is bouncing off the walls for Stranger Things Season 5, by the way, Just one data point. We were driving around and Kate Bush came on the radio and all the trees are like red and orange. She's like, why isn't happening. It's viscerally angry that Stranger Things is not available to watch.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I love that. You know what I love for you and me, especially while the Louvre heist is happening, is that Kelly Reichert's the Mastermind with Josh o' Connor about an art heist is coming out this week. I love this for us.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Speaking of things that we love for us, the federal judge has ruled that requiring booksellers to rate content of books is unconstitutional. And I've got to say I'm glad, but more relieved because if this isn't unconstitutional, then we're really in trouble.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. This is a piece about the Texas Reader act that's been in the courts since 2023 when it was passed by the Texas Legislature. Kelly Jensen at Book Riot, of course, has a whole long story that you can dive into about it that will be in the show notes. But there were primarily two components components of this act. The first was that like, the first requirement was that any book vendor of any kind would have to rate the contents of a book for, like, sexual explicitness before the school district and school libraries would be able to buy from them. The second component is even more bananas Crazed. It is bananas. It would also require vendors to recall any previous sales of books that were deemed unlawful, and all vendors would need to submit their ratings to the Texas Education Agency. But how do you do this? Even in a Fahrenheit 451, like alternate.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Universe, just Logistically, like, is it literally possible to do this?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Right. Like, let's imagine that they find the Bluest Eye to be unlawful because of the rape scene that it contains.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Then does the bookstore or book distributor that the school library bought all their copies from, or like, God forbid, there's an English teacher who's been teaching the Bluest Eye and the district has bought classroom copies and like, there are hundreds of them floating around the district. How are they supposed to recall? This is insane.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, this is.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And you know what I think, like, as I'm talking about it, I think that law was probably written with the knowledge that it was insane and not the desire to make people actually execute the recall. But the point being that the recalls would be impossible to execute and therefore, sorry, you just can't have books.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And I don't know if this explicit part of these legal challenges, like, sometimes I agree, maybe a win, an outright win isn't the only goal. But moving the Overton window towards something like this, maybe voluntary or whatever else is going on. But glad to see this. You can read more link in the show notes bookriot.com listen over there. Now it's time to talk about recent reading brought to you by thriftbooks. More than 19 million books. You could. No. No ratings over there. Not yet. And God willing, it's gonna stay that way. Used books, new books, books we're getting into gift buying season games, actual games, not books about games. That's how. That's how nerdy I am. I'd rather read a book about game than a play a game with other people. That's where I'm at, at my life.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And in fact, the other people component there, that's.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, they're fine. Free shipping on orders of over $15 in the US and every purchase gets you closer to a free reading rewards, which you certainly could use to pick up a copy of Hamlet or To Kill a Mockingbird or something like that over there. And you should. I'll go first this time. Just because you have a couple. I've only have one. I don't do this very often.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I was surprised to see this in the notes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So there was a trailer for the new series called the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on hbo, which is set in the Game of Thrones universe. It is. It's a collection of three novellas by George R.R. martin featuring dunk and Egg. So a hedge knight, sort of a lowborn knight, and then his squire. I'll say no more about it because it gets in spoiler territory. Pretty quickly set about a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones trailer came out. Looks great, by the way. I mean I've watched some of House of Dragon. It's I don't really like, but there was a vibe that I liked to this. I was like, you know what, I should go put this on hold before it gets nuts because maybe I'll get to read it by the time. I don't know what other people's experience was like right now, but I can find almost nothing immediately on Libby. Like it's long hold times all the way around. It's funding. It's a bunch of different things. No shouts to libraries or Libby. That's just the way it is. But I was like, let me go put it on hold. And much to my surprise, it was available right then. So I borrowed it. And then I like, let's let me read a few paragraphs. It's right there. I was at lunchtime and I blew through the first novella in about an hour. Like it just, it just kind of happened. It was a lot of fun. It's great. If you've Never read George R.R. martin, this is a really good. And you've been wanting to try, but you don't want to go into the incomplete tales of Song of Ice and Fire. You know, the Chronicle, like House of the Dragon stuff is actually kind of tough slebbing to be honest with you. It's more of a chronicle. This went down super easy. You don't really need to know anything. It's way down on the violence and like, you know, sex with your siblings scale that you saw in some of the early series and nicely illustrated even in the, in the audiobook again, Occam's Razor I had to put on the shelf because George, bless his heart, has said he wants to write nine of these. Oh. On this series. And I'm like, you know what? It's not even. It's just a different frame of reference here for dealing with this. I'm not going to go. These are standalones. You can stop at any time time. Like there's not a cliffhanger between them. Like you're going to want to read them all three in a row because it literally will take you, you know, in evening. But I really enjoyed it. I'm really looking forward to the series. It's six 30 minute episodes that takes on the first novella. Very grounded. It was, it was terrific. And I can see how you get sucked into these. I was talking to Ames about it. Like the thing that this Taught me more than anything is I cannot pick up the Game of Thrones owns books because if I do o' Neill I'm gonna read and I'm gonna get to the end of them and I'm gonna be so mad at myself at George R.R. martin. Johannes Gutenberg is not. Is gonna catch astray. Just everyone involved in this process. I'm gonna be mad. So I just can't. I want to, but I can't do.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It is one of your greatest moments of self awareness.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And here I am reading the first of nine novellas of which there are only three.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Listen. We are imperfect humans.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's true. Yeah. So that's what I. That's in addition to some first edition reading and other stuff that was my leisure reading for the week.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I finally got to on audio Replaceable youe by Mary Roach. After you especially talked about how great and fun it was. I knew some of this like the science, it's wild stuff. It is wild. The science of all the different things that we've done to try to replace human body parts. The stuff about noses where like the initial attempts to surgically give something someone new nose involved sewing like sewing skin from your own inner bicep onto your face while that flap of skin was still connected to your arm. So your arm is like stuck up by your face with your head turned like you're sniffing your own armpit. And you're just like that for a couple weeks while it heals until they.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Take it's blood flow. Right. Essentially. So it can take blood flow.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I know I had listened to that on the way to a friend's house and we got to dinner with her kids who were 14. And I was like listen, listen to this. Like nobody, nothing is better for dinner time. Hey, did you know with 14 year old boys than Mary Roach you almost.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Need like a decompression chamber to encounter other people after meeting Mary Roach. Because you're like radioactive with.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

With yes. And just weird shit. And it's one of those like it really. Mary Roach always gives me Bader Meinhof syndrome for like now I start to see the thing everywhere. But I had just never paid that much attention to how this is really all over the place. People have dentures, people have like fake hips, our glasses replacement knees, eyes, like all, you know, all of these things that we know about. But then we have all of this incredible science that just never occurs to us. Like just yesterday a person that I was seeing for like an aesthetic service was telling me that her mom recently had cancer in her jaw. Had to have her whole jaw removed and they replaced it with parts of her scapula. Amazing stuff. And I was just like, the spirit of Mary Roach is with us. It's so good. And it's only like five and a half hours on audio.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's great if you want. It's not that long and it's very readable. But if you even want a taste, if you've never done Mary Roach before and you're worried and you're thinking about it. She did an interview with roman Mars on 99% invisible for this book. And apparently they've been friends for a long time. Like shared an office space. Like this is nothing I knew about. 35 minute interview. He does a really good job. And to get a flavor of her, talking about she is exactly who you hope, think and want her to be. Just super game body, serious, like area diet and like trying, you know, she went to these pig farm. The farms isn't even right. In China they have facial recognition for the pigs to keep track of them.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Like 5 rise.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's like a skyscraper.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's amazing.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's amazing. Yeah. That's a terrific book. And then the unveiling. I don't even remember what this book is. What's the unveiling?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is the Quan Berry.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, I just took a picture of this. I'm so dumb. Yeah. Yes, the quandary. Was it good?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm halfway through it and I'm ready to say it's good. I had to pause so that I could catch up on zero to, well, reading. But it's. It's about a young black woman who is in Antarctica on a very expensive cruise. Everyone else is there for tourist reasons, but she is there scouting locations for a film that she is helping to produce. She is the only person of color who is not working for this tour company. And things get weird. Things start to happen. And this is a horror story set in Antarctica that actually earns the get out comparison. There is a while there after get out came out that like every novel that dealt with race in any dark way had a get out comp. And I'm a little skeptical of those because I've been burned by them a few times. But this one actually earns like the vibe of get out. That sort of sinister. We don't know what's happening. It's creepy and surprising and like I'm halfway through it and I have no idea where it's going. So I'm gunning for Quan Berry.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I don't know if we have any spots in the Patreon before mid November we should look at, I was thinking maybe we could do one where we list like, the eight books we want to get to from 2025, because this is the time of year where you really got to do some opportunity cost calculations. Because you and I tend to flip the calendar. And I'm so sorry to anyone who didn't get on the ark, but the flood is coming and the ship is sailing.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, the calendar is pretty full. We have an episode for the ones we didn't get to. So, like, we could swap that out. The ones we missed is when we usually do.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, we'll have missed them by then. Yeah. Well, maybe as part of that, we can compile a list of, you know, ahead of time. Here's the ones we wanted to get to, the ones we got into in time, and here's the unicorn that got left. And that's why we don't have unicorns anymore. Shoot us the email podcastookriot.com find shownotes bookriot.com listen. Add in those show notes. You can find a link to the Patreon, the flagship newsletter. Sign up over to zero to well read. We're just. We're playing with house money with the ratings and reviews past our goal. Thank you so much. I was thinking about stretch goals, like just keep them rolling in out of the goodness of your heart. We really appreciate that. Also would love your feedback, especially about the right balance between so you want to read Hamlet and here's Hamlet when we do those episodes. Rebecca, anything else you can think of today?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No, just thank you so much to everybody who's been supporting it. This is a huge fall for us with the major new projects, the zero to well read and the big new newsletter. And we are. We're having a great time and it feels really good to know that it's landing with you all. So thanks for rolling with us.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Totally. All right, Rebecca, I'll talk to you soon.

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[Jeff O'Neill]

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