The It Books of March 2026

Summary

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Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: The It Books of March 2026

Hosts: Jeff O’Neal & Rebecca Schinsky
Release Date: March 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Schinsky spotlight the “It Books” of March 2026: the new releases making the biggest waves in the literary world. This recurring feature pits ten buzzy titles against each other in a bracket-style showdown, evaluating them by “It-ness”—a blend of critical acclaim, sales potential, cultural relevance, and more. The hosts discuss what makes a book the talk of the month, highlight emerging trends, and offer candid commentary on the sometimes idiosyncratic nature of literary buzz. Notably, they crown Louise Erdrich’s short story collection, Python’s Kiss, as the It Book of March.

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How the "It Books" Showdown Works

• Jeff selects 10 notable new releases for the month and presents them one by one.
• Rebecca decides whether the newcomer advances, “knocking out” the reigning title.
• The process continues until they crown the It Book of March.
• The rubric is both “rigid and fuzzy”—considering buzz, critical reception, author track record, cultural relevance, sales, and potential staying power.

"It's some combination of buzz, critical acclaim, track record of the author, topical relevance, you know, whatever else it might be. It cannot really be just one thing."
— Jeff O’Neal [03:10]

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Major Discussion Highlights & Key Books

1. The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehman

• Release: March 24 (Crown)
• Genre: Cracked (surreal/comedic) historical fiction
• Premise: Anne Boleyn wakes up—beheaded—after her execution and seeks justice.
• Hosts’ take: Zany premise reminiscent of George Saunders; interest piqued due to Lehman's poetry background (Iowa Writers’ Workshop). Concise length (320 pages) is a plus.
• Notable Quote:

  “Waking up beheaded is some George Saunders business. And this could be really interesting and weird.”
  — Rebecca [10:43]

• Advances? Only as a starter; soon supplanted by more mainstream competition.

2. A Far Flung Life by M.L. Stedman

• Release: March 4
• Genre: Historical fiction (Australian, post-WWII)
• Pitch: Family saga on an Australian sheep station, with nods to East of Eden.
• Hosts’ take: Book club catnip, strong “floor” for potential. Title and cover draw directly from Stedman’s previous mega-hit, The Light Between Oceans.
• Quote:

  “Don’t count out the book club crowd, though, because they will pay attention to something like that.”
  — Rebecca [14:38]

• Advances? Briefly, due to book club appeal, but lacks excitement for broader, deeper impact.

3. Whidbey by T Kira Madden

• Release: March 5
• Genre: Literary thriller/crime
• Synopsis: Three women connected by the murder of one man. Elevated, “literary” take on the genre.
• Buzz: Major lists (NYT, Vogue, Esquire, Book Riot), major blurb from Adam Johnson.
• Hosts’ take: “Sticky” pitch, literary cachet, and BookTok potential trump standard historical fare. Madden’s prior memoir had critical kudos (Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls).
• Quote:

  “Literary thriller, that crime vibe, I think has an edge over just sort of like middle of the road historical fiction right now.”
  — Rebecca [18:14]

• Advances? Yes, on the strength of awards and book club potential.

4. Chain of Ideas by Ibram X. Kendi

• Release: March 12
• Genre: Nonfiction (history/politics)
• Subject: Authoritarianism and the “Great Replacement” theory.
• Hosts’ take: Kendi’s reputation has recently been clouded by public controversy over mismanagement at his anti-racist center; now faces skepticism and “friction” in the market.
• Quote:

  "It’s the kind of thing that can put a little friction on your it books’ exit velocity."
  — Jeff [24:14]

• Advances? No—acknowledged for potential awards attention, but lacks current broad appeal.

5. Kids by Liza Minnelli

• Release: March 10
• Genre: Celebrity memoir
• Buzz: Announced print run of 550,000 copies, but Minnelli’s last culturally powerful moment was decades ago.
• Hosts’ take: Not Barbra Streisand or Britney Spears-level cultural interest. Unlikely to grab critical or award attention, mostly just “sales and buzz.”
• Quote:

  “It’s pretty unlikely to get nominated for awards… So we’re really just talking about sales and buzz for Liza Minnelli.”
  — Rebecca [26:09]

• Advances? No.

6. Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami

• Release: March 17 (Knopf)
• Genre: Literary fiction, in translation (Japan)
• Synopsis: Two girls bond while working in Tokyo’s bar scene, uncovering darker depths in their friendship.
• Hosts’ take: Kawakami has serious literary bona fides, but translated lit often faces an uphill battle in mainstream American attention.
• Quote:

  "A thriller is easier to sell. Literature in translation is just a little bit harder to sell—even if the author has been nominated for awards."
  — Rebecca [29:17]

• Advances? No; both hosts intrigued, but not likely to go “IT” mainstream this month.

7. Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich (WINNER)

• Release: March 24
• Genre: Short stories, literary fiction
• Overview: Erdrich’s first story collection, centered on ordinary characters—tribal newsletter editors, bird lovers, teachers, dreamers.
• Hosts’ take: Universally acclaimed (“walks like a duck and quacks like a duck” for major awards and potential); deserving more mainstream recognition; “Nobel conversation” author.
• Quotes:

  “She automatically takes this round. I’m really excited about this one. And seeing what Erdrich does in shorter form…”
  — Rebecca [32:37] “If you were to ask me to pick, would I rather have a new Ann Patchett book or a new Erdrich book out, I would pick the Erdrich book…”
  — Jeff [31:27]

• Advances? Erdrich’s collection becomes the clear frontrunner.

8. Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

• Release: March 4
• Genre: Upmarket commercial fiction
• Synopsis: 1970s Rochester, NY; two families’ lives shift after a woman’s sexual reawakening.
• Hosts’ take: Excellent “upmarket” pitch, good for book clubs; may outsell Erdrich, but lacks “It” depth and award potential.
• Advances? No.

9. Son of Nobody by Yann Martel

• Release: March 18 (Norton)
• Genre: Historical “meta” epic, dual timeline (Trojan War retelling)
• Hosts’ take: Martel’s major moment (Life of Pi) is now a generation ago; attempts to leverage Greek myth trend but lacks current cachet.
• Quote:

  “There’s an entire generation and a half of readers who do not know Life of Pi for the sensation that it was.”
  — Rebecca [39:16]

• Advances? No; Rebecca “looks forward to Jeff’s review.”

10. In the Days of My Youth, I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod

• Release: March 10 (Doubleday)
• Genre: Memoir, nonfiction
• Synopsis: The complex legacy of a charismatic, flawed father; literary father-son storytelling.
• Hosts’ take: High personal enthusiasm (for both hosts!), critically promising, strong adaptation potential. Still, not enough to dethrone Erdrich this month.
• Quotes:

  “What if Don Draper was your dad and you were a New Yorker writer?”
  — Jeff [41:33] “Did you have to sweat just a little there? Personally, yes, I’m very—this sounds like right up my alley as well.”
  — Rebecca [41:57]

• Advances? No—Erdrich holds.

11. The Keeper by Tana French (Bonus Book)

• Release: March 24
• Genre: Crime/Detective (Cal Hooper #3)
• Synopsis: Former Chicago detective in rural Ireland; Tana French’s recurring series.
• Hosts’ take: Hugely popular among genre fans; third book in a series rarely catches “It” crossover. French not quite at household-name status (e.g., Grisham, Patterson), but close.
• Quotes:

  “It's hard to make the third book in the series really an it booky thing… She has not broken, I mean, she’s broken mainstream containment... but not a household dinner table kind of name recognition.”
  — Rebecca [46:59]

• Advances? No.

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Final Winner: Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich

Erdrich’s first story collection is crowned the It Book of March 2026—a consensus pick for literary merit, mainstream and critical potential, and excitement for the craft on display.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Poetry is about essentially two things: ‘Man, time sure is a bitch… and so is love.’”
  — Jeff [02:18]

• “Cracked historical fiction as a new subgenre… Hamilton’s Overcoat would have been a great episode title.”
  — Rebecca [11:23]

• “I think for awards potential, best book of the year potential... in the spirit of it bookiness we have to go with Erdrich here.”
  — Rebecca [35:22]

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Trends & Meta-Observations

• Short story collections by major authors have “It” potential when the author is in the Nobel conversation.
• Celebrity memoirs need more than nostalgia to truly break out (Britney/Cher-tier heat still required).
• Translated fiction is on the rise but has trouble crossing over in a big, “It” way without extraordinary circumstances.
• Sequels and series are hard to make “It” unless crossing over into rarefied, genre-defining space.
• Nonfiction/cultural analysis can be derailed by author reputational issues, even without “cancellation.”
• Book club picks still drive huge discoverability for “book club historical fiction.”
• Major awards and critical acclaim have staying power in the “It” conversation.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [09:53] The Beheading Game (Rebecca Lehman)
• [12:49] A Far Flung Life (M.L. Stedman)
• [16:06] Whidbey (T Kira Madden)
• [19:54] Chain of Ideas (Ibram X. Kendi)
• [25:01] Kids (Liza Minnelli)
• [28:05] Sisters in Yellow (Mieko Kawakami)
• [30:25] Python's Kiss (Louise Erdrich)
• [34:46] Lake Effect (Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney)
• [36:51] Son of Nobody (Yann Martel)
• [41:09] In the Days of My Youth… (Tom Junod)
• [44:50] The Keeper (Tana French)
• [47:56] Quickfire on anticipated books & Goodreads trends
• [50:39] Discussion on Christina Applegate, Jenny Lawson memoirs, and other titles

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Brief Guide to the Hosts' Tone

Jeff and Rebecca are bookish insiders—wry, candid, and deeply knowledgeable, peppering their lists with inside jokes (“Hamilton’s Overcoat”), sincere enthusiasm (“I’m so excited for this, I could barely breathe”—Jeff on Junod), and clever literary asides. Their playful bracket approach brings warmth and personality to a field often dominated by dry lists.

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Useful For:

• Readers seeking curated, critically-minded new releases
• Book club organizers and lit circles planning reading lists
• Publishing/marketing professionals monitoring buzz
• Award season watchers and those following literary trends

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For more coverage of weekly releases, sign up for Book Riot’s newsletter or listen to their All the Books podcast.

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Transcript

[Rebecca Schinsky]

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[Jeff O'Neill]

You.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

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[Jeff O'Neill]

Maybe it's Maybelline Foreign. This is the Book Riot Podcast. I'm Jeff o'. Neill.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And I'm Rebecca Schinsky.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And today on the Book Riot Podcast, it's the it books of March 2026. Rebecca. Because that means, believe it or not, it is.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's March.

[Jeff O'Neill]

At what point in the year do you stop saying, I can't believe it's X already? April. Like, March. Because I know.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't think that point exists for me.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Just, I can't believe it's November already.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But yeah, I can't believe we're at the end of the year. At the end of March, I will be doing I can't believe we're a quarter of the way through the year. And then there's like a little wiggle room. We'll get to summer. I'll have some more existential terror, and then the fall. But I was just with a friend over the weekend talking about, like, I can't believe, like, oh, yeah, the plane ticket home says March 2nd. Because it's March and time is passing. Here we are.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I. I have a few of my own tics that I'm trying to diminish. And one of them is if it's nice outside saying, boy, isn't it nice outside.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But Kurt gonna get what wants you to say that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, I can notice it. Can I mix it up a little bit? Do I have to be, like, in a woody on automaton where you pull my string, I see if it's 64 degrees or nicer, and Dad's like, boy, isn't it nice outside?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So we just need different phrases in there to mix it up.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Just, let's mix it up. And I don't want to be the sort of person that talks about, boy, time is sure as going passing, huh? And you know, one of those things because, you know, there was someone once said, I think it was one of my early poetry teachers, like, you know, poetry is about essentially two things is man, time sure is a bitch and so is love. And that's all of it. And I was like, yeah, you know, can you play something other than the hits over and over again? But anyway, it's March. The eight books format is something we cooked up a while ago. I don't really remember what. Just something to do. We were looking at, I think talking about new releases other than saying here's a bunch of interesting books that we're just going to name some books. I select 10 books. Generally speaking, I've select 10 this month. I present them one at a time to Rebecca and she decides if that book advances or if it's knocked out by the newcomer here, of course, the first book will automatically advance until we crown an IT book of the month. The rubric for this is both feltly rigid and very fuzzy. We know what we're talking about. It's some combination of buzz, critical acclaim, track record of the author, topical rele. You know, whatever else it might be. It cannot really be just one thing. One reason the number one book on Goodreads, like the most anticipated book generally isn't is it could generally is only one quadrant which is going to be sales. Generally those kinds of things are not. We're talking could win award.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Is it good? Will it sell? Will people like it? Will there be.

[Jeff O'Neill]

May it last more than 10 or 15? Like, does it have a chance to be a book that we remember beyond something that a bunch of people read? This is no shade on the books that aren't considered or lose. It's just that's what we're playing with this particular game at this point. Anything else I need to tell people? This might be their first IT book episode.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No, I think that's it. You'll hear us how the elimination round works. Every now and then when there's like a clear winner of the month going in, you will fudge the lineup so that we're not just running the table for. For the whole episode. I don't. I don't know that there did not

[Jeff O'Neill]

do that this month.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay, so they're randomly ordered and we'll. We'll just get into it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I apologize. Ahead of time.

[Unknown Female Speaker]

Big month.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Edelweiss is being a little funny this morning. I rely on the Edelweiss to give me pub dates and other things. So I'll do the best I can here. Let's see out in the Zero to well Read feed right now. Speaking of it, books certainly will be on the hot list. That's something we do over on the Patreon, though. Not much.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's coming to the main feed.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Coming to the main feed. We'll talk about a little bit later. Project Hail Mary is over on Zero to well Read. We get a turn to talk about a book that we really enjoy, admire. There's a lot to talk about.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. It was so fun to revisit it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Coming to theaters near you. The early buzz has been tremendous. I'm very, very much looking forward to. Rebecca was just telling me I need to get my IMAX tickets and it's too late for the 70 millimeter. I was going to go see here. But we're very excited about Project Hail Mary, Rebecca.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes, we are. And I think you're going to be on spring break the week after it comes out. But Vanessa will be here with me. We'll be doing a full, you know, book versus movie sit situation on one of the Wednesday episodes here in the main feed when the movie comes out. So I cannot wait.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm very excited. All right. With that, we're going to get into our first book, but not before our first sponsor break.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Rebecca Schinsky]

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[Jeff O'Neill]

I feel like this is a more Random is not the right word. It's also not the wrong word, I don't think. Kind of a scattershot where I'm feeling a little bit all over the place with my selections here. Maybe it was a weaker month in terms of it book things. There's still a lot of interesting things, but it wasn't chock a block with things like, oh my God, that has to go in. So a little bit of my own idiosyncrasy may have leaked in. I guess more than normal. Idiosyncratic no matter what.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Sometimes we have, you know, a few for us on the list.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes. The first one up today is out March 24th. It is coming out from Crown. It's called the Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehman. It is historical fiction. And I'm going to read the synopsis here. We all know what happened to Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. What if she woke up the day after execution and took it upon herself to seek justice?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This feels very Royal Tenenbaums to me. Like, we all know that General Custer died at the Battle of Little Bighorn,

[Jeff O'Neill]

but this book, what if he didn't? Yeah.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So it begins hours after her beheading. She wakes up beheaded in a makeshift coffin. And apparently things happen there. So I don't know, I thought this sounded maybe fun. I don't know.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Waking up beheaded is some George Saunders business. And this could be really interesting and weird.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think the cracked historical fiction is a really fun genre. Yeah. Lincoln and the Bardo. But I even think there's a little bit of like, what's. What's the thing on Broadway now that's about Mary Todd Lincoln. Oh, Mary, right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, yeah. Oh, Mary.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's sort of taking it. Taking the piss out of history and commenting on it. Having a lot of fun at the same time. Maybe these kinds of books are coming out from a little bit outside of Hamilton's Overcoat a little bit. Right. Because those are dealing with real events, but it's taking a different spin on things that have happened. So I could be pretty fun.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. I like cracked historical fiction as a new subgenre. And Hamilton's Overcoat would have been a great episode title.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Seven years ago we used to do that and we still come. Yeah. Hamilton's Overcoat's pretty good.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think this. I'm glad this is on the list. This sounds Fun and weird and zany. And if it's good, it could be a really great time.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. So the other thing that I wanted to proffer to you here, to me, this is my first experience with this author. I know nothing about her. When I see MFA in poetry from the Iowa's Writers Workshop to write something like this, I'm pretty interested in this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The language has potential to be. That could be very good. Writing in a weird, zany premise like this is making me feel really good about the George Saunders reach.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes, I agree with you. And then the last, the coup de kraken for my interest in this. 320 pages.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But you do love to see it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I do love to see it. So that's the Beheading Game by Rebecca Layman out March 24th. For people scribbling down for your listening. I thought so. Okay, up next, did you read the Light Between Oceans? Does that, does that mean any meaning to you?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, I'm aware of it. It was a bestseller for a billion years. And it's the flavor of historical fiction that I'm just not interested in personally. But also went over the shinsky hype meter to a place of like, I just cannot get excited about it went so mainstream. But I do know that ML Steadman has a new book called that's what

[Jeff O'Neill]

that is what we're talking about here. It's on sale today. Actually is recording this so as it comes on the main feed, it'll be out already. Australian World War II fiction is all kind of. I really know about the Light Between Oceans. This one got me a little more interested for a couple of reasons. One, the COVID has an old timey windmill. And as a, as a kid who grew up in Kansas playing zip, driving across Kansas to Colorado billions of times and being on the lookout for windmills, I always like a windmill. That.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

What is that too?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, did you ever play this game where you just like count windmills? Like zip, there's a windmill. Zip, there's a windmill on. Okay. Well, the being the cosmopolitan that you are, you would know about our country

[Rebecca Schinsky]

from 45 minutes east of where you grew.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Listen, it's a, it's a, It's a real 45 minutes. Yeah. I grew up in a college town. I'm just, I'm just joking here. But we did spend a lot of time driving back and forth to see my grandparents.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Literally just in college. There's a whim. It's just windmill counting.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. And you would count and whoever got the most would have bragging rights, which, when you have three brothers and you're eight, it matters. And you know, 12 and whatever, it really does matter. So there's that. But this is set historical fiction. It's set in remote Western Australia, 1958, where generations of the McBrides have lived on a vast sheep station. If you don't know, in Australia, they call ranches stations. That confused me a great deal when I first saw a sheep state. Like, what is this military, which is station there? It's a million acres of arid land that they raise sheep on and they get into some things that happen. So a little east of Eden, it feels like to me, of Western Australia. 448 pages. So my curiosity here, it does. Does the light between oceans have any juice? Does anyone know M.L. steadman wrote the Light Between Oceans? Even for the people that read it? Rebecca?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't know about the author name recognition, but the COVID designs look like far flung life. Looks like the light between oceans. And I'm pretty sure it even says, like, by the author of the Light Between. Like they're banking on title recognition more than author name. It's been a while, though, since the light Between Oceans. Don't count out the book club crowd, though, because they will pay attention to something like that. This is actually an interesting pairing up against the beheading game because that premise is more interesting. And if it's done well by a poet, that's also the kind of thing that might get some awards, juice, critical

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

acclaim,

[Rebecca Schinsky]

maybe it could sell. But ML Stedman, there is real book club potential that'll get nominated for some goodreads Choice Awards. I think I'm gonna give the edge here to ML Stedman.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think that's essentially right. By the way, the inciting incident here is when the patriarch, Phil McGrath McBride SW swerves to avoid a kangaroo. So it's really not shying away from the Australianness of it. So there you go. So I guess I feel like the floor of this is higher. A Far Flung life. If the beheading game is super fun and cool, it could, I think it. I don't know if Far From Life's gonna win any awards. Maybe the other one has some chance to do something or be an adaptation or something else going on.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But I agree with you that the book club effect is going to be be real here. Okay, up next, T. Kira Madden is a Hawaiian author and this novel is called Whidbey, and it's a thriller, but it also converses with the classics, quote unquote. You can't see me doing air quotes here. This is Adam Johnson's blurb who has won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, I will admit here. When I was reading the synopsis for this, I thought this was another. There's a group of women out on vacation and one of them dies or divulges a terrible secret. And I think this is that. But maybe elevated. Right. A portrait of three women connected through one man in the aftermath of his murder. A stunning literary achievement. An explosive and highly anticipated debut novel from beloved war memoirist Kira Madden. There is a multicast recording. They're sinking some money into that. On the. On the whole thing would be Island My under. If I know. I think it's off the coast of Washington. It's way out there in the San Juans, which I like that setting. The main character's name is Birdie Chang. And apparently these women get together to find out. I didn't want to. I feel like I'm in spoiler territory pretty quick, even in the synopsis here. A most anticipated book. New York Times, People Vogue, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, US Today Book, Riot Lit Hub and a bunch of others. So at literary crime elevation. I don't know Rebecca. And it's way up there on the Goodreads list, I should say too. That matters for this. Like it's. It's on these lists like it's number 50, which for Goodreads debut novel is up there. So I don't know where this is coming from. Good job. Publicists are marketing. What do you make of this? What else?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I've seen this on all the lists. Sort of had my eye on it because I can do. I'll do a couple, like thrillers a season and I want them to be elevated. So Whidby has been on my personal shortlist for that. The Adam, like getting blurbs from literary folks like Adam Johnson. It could be. This is great. And it really meets that elevated literary mode. It could also be that, like they have the same agent or their agents or friends or who knows?

[Jeff O'Neill]

I would assume that actually at some point. Yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Who knows, like, what that connection is? Batikira Madden does have chops. And literary thriller, that crime vibe, I think has an edge over just sort of like middle of the road historical fiction right now. More likely to catch on for the booktok crowd. There's a little more. There's just a little more. Like you could sink your teeth a little more into it. I think. I think I'm gonna give this round to Whidby.

[Jeff O'Neill]

She wrote Madden wrote a memoir called Long Live the Fatherless Tribe of Fatherless Girls.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Which was National Book Critics Circle finalist, the Leonard Prize for debut book and also I think in New York Times pick for that month as well. It was on my consider listening to at one point list and I just didn't get around to it. So I don't know what to say about that. Yeah, I think this is interesting. I'm going to keep an eye on this. I'm a strong. This is a very strong possibility that I will actually read this book. I'll say I'll throw the beheading game in there. I'm going to need the Far Flung Life to get some rave reviews for me to get into that one though. Have you ever heard of this Australian TV show McLeod's Daughters? Have you ever heard of it? This was one of Michelle's early marathon watching experiences. It's essentially an Australian soap set on a ranch.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

A patriarch dies and leaves their sheep station to a couple of daughters. The McLeod, the titular McLeod's daughters. And it's a bunch of women running a ranch.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And that sounds like a great time.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's a great time. It gets bad. It gets bad pretty quickly. Still enjoyable, but there's a couple.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The situation gets bad or the show gets bad.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The show gets like even more soapy and absurd. At some point one of the main characters leaves the show because she's chasing like the. The actress chases her dream of being a pop sensation. So anyway. But I do have a fondness for now having been exposed to the realities, the unrealities I guess may be more likely of running a sheep ranch in Australia. So I'm sympathetic to that. All right, all right, we're going to move on. Yeah. McLeod's daughter streaming probably somewhere at this point. So we. The next up is Chain of Ideas, the new book from Ibram Kendi. The subtitle is the Origins of Our Authority and Authoritarian Age. He of course wrote Stamped from the beginning and this one has been. This one's really about the great replacement theory. I guess that's the simplest way of putting this here and he is putting that as the center of this new authoritarian age. This is non fiction, of course. Kendi got into, I don't want to say a scandal necessarily, Rebecca, but he got a bunch of money to run a thing and it didn't turn out to go very well. I'm just not sure we are on this kind of book right now with Ibram X. Kendi, what is your sense of people's Appetite.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, it's a good question. I think if Isabel Wilkerson's name were on the COVID of this book, we'd be having a different conversation. But there's just like unsettledness around Kendi. I could even hear it in my voice. I could hear it in yours because it wasn't necessarily that he did anything shady, but the sort of the conversation around it, there's a little bit more of a cloud around his work. I think it's also bound to happen, though, when you're a black scholar who writes about the kinds of things that he writes about and we live in the society that we live in, that you're going to take some heat. And I honestly am not sure. Like, I don't know enough about the situation to know how much of that is fair and justified and how much of it really is just racism at the bottom of it. Yeah, I think he will do a big press tour on this and a bunch of podcast interviews and there will be great conversations about his work and great replacement theory and how it ties to what we're seeing in today's political landscape. I don't know what the appetite for this for a book is like. How many people are going to buy and actually engage with a big like Kendi's not an easy read. I think T. Kira Madden has the edge here. But I would expect Kendi to be nominated or in the conversation for some of the big awards for some of the best nonfiction of the. Well, I. We'll just have to see how it goes, I guess. I haven't seen a lot of press about this. I haven't been getting a lot of like, publisher materials about it. Sometimes that's a signal. Sometimes it's just that my email address didn't get to the right people. So who knows. But I. I think this is a hard landscape to put a book like this out into.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think so too, though I. Maybe it'd be welcomed by certain corners of. Of the reading public. If you want to do a Google here again, it's. It sounds like regular academic stuff. So Kendi got a huge grant to found the center for Anti Racist Research. Yeah, center for Anti research research in 2020. Hot off the heels of his rise to be a public intellectual to talk about issues of racism, historical racism and current racism in the US A few years later, they laid off half the staff of that. There was a public outcry from ex employees about mismanagement. The charter for that ran out. After five years, it closed down and he's moved on to Howard. So this is not a, this is not a grand malfeasance. It sounds like maybe this grew pretty quickly and it was, it's more complicated. There was a bunch of money involved, so I think it took the bloom off the rose a little bit. But this is not a canceled situation.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. And I think a lot of it was the Internet doing things that the Internet does. And like, from what you've just read, that sounds a lot to me like what happens in nonprofits and what happens in academia. But if you don't know that this is pretty par for the course, it can look like, well, you fired a bunch of people and therefore you must automatically be terrible and bad and the Internet should be mad at you.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. But it's the kind of thing that can put a little friction on your it books. Exit velocity. That's I guess what I'm trying to say here for both.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. So we'll, we'll keep Tkira Madden going for one more round at least.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I have been doing this long enough to know I at least need to head fake towards big time celebrity memoirs of a certain ilk. And I have learned in the Britney Spears, Cher, Matthew McConaughey that there's a certain kind of celebrity that if they have a memoir out, especially if they had one out before, you need to pay attention. I don't know what to do with Liza Minnelli's cultural currency, but she has a new book out March 10th called Kids. Wait till you hear this. An announced print run. A very specific announced print run of 550,000 copies. Interesting.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Interesting.

[Jeff O'Neill]

448 pages. And it's Liza Minnelli's memoir, Rebecca. It's not Barbra Streisand, it's not Britney. But also she has a long and storied career at this point. What do you do with a memoir? It's a great situate a book like this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, I think when the Britney Spears memoir came out, it went pretty far in the that month's it books. But that was Britney Spears, that there's a lot of cultural interest and power and heat for her. Liza Minnelli. I'm already seeing some buz this among some of the folks that I follow. I think that it's going to be popular probably not as much as like Cher because Cher is Cher, but Liza Minnelli has a devoted fan base and certainly has some interesting stories. I guess we'll see how juicy the stories from the memoir are. And like what gets leaked into Interviews and profiles, because that will determine the longer tale of it. I feel very weird bumping Liza Minnelli up against something like T. Kira Madden. This is always hard in an it in the middle of this game. And so neither of these is likely to be the IT book of the month.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm going to carry Whidbey forward for one more round. I'd be surprised. It's hard for a celebrity memoir to do the things that. To do a lot of the things that an IT book needs to do. Like, it's pretty unlikely to get nominated for awards. Patti Smith's Just Kids is one of the rare exceptions for that. It's not going to get a big book club pick. They don't really do memoirs. Probably not going to be critically acclaimed. So we're really just talking about sales and buzz for Liza Minnelli. So from that perspective, Whidbey has more chances to ring more bells.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. I don't know. Like, when. When you think of Liza Minnelli and you're like, this is her sing, it's cabaret. We're talking cabaret. Like, what else are we talking about at this point? Like, she did 21 episodes of Arrested Development 12 years ago, 15 years ago.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think the idea of Liza Minnelli,

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think that's what it is, too. I think what it is to the 1979 Muppet show, you know, big, big in my house back then. Anyway, it's. It's a tricky situation because I think she's an icon, but it's been 20 years since she's done anything that really was about more than just being Mysa. Liza Benelli and an episode of Glee or something like that. Which, nice work, if you can get it. I'd love to take that kind of a career path if I could get it. All right, we're going to move on here. Oh, this is interesting. I had a couple of meetings recently in which the subject of the strength of sales of Japanese translated fiction came up. So there's a little bit of which bias is that availability bias and recency, too, probably. Recency bias. Availability bias is around recency bias, as you've thought about it recently. Anyway, so I've been looking for it, and there's a lot more of it than I really realized, and it's selling quite well. Meiko Kawakami has been nominated for the International Booker Prize for Heaven. And there's a new book coming out. Right.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So this is called Sisters in Yellow. It is out March 17th from Knopf, and essentially the Main character's name is Hannah. She's 15, she's living at home. She's got really nothing going on. She's hostessing at a local dive bar. And then this person appears older and offers to set up a new bar. And you come be a part of this. And then maybe things aren't as kosher as maybe you would want to be. It's a story of friendship and betrayal, teenage dreams and adult cruelties. So that is sisters in yellow. 448 pages.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay,

[Jeff O'Neill]

great cover. I like the plot here and maybe it's because I'm, you know, I'm still writing the palaver. Brian Washington hired, like want to read about Tokyo bars? I'm like, I think I'm into this. So I don't know, help me figure this out.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This sounds good to me too. Gosh, I don't know. Less name recognition than T. Kira Madden.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Because the tribe of fatherless girls did go pretty far. A thriller is easier to sell. Literature in translation is just a little bit harder to sell. Even if the author has been nominated for awards. I think just something about just the simple fact that this book was not originally written in English puts off some English speaking readers, makes them think it must be harder when that's not necessarily the case. But this could get another award nomination for this author. It could pick up some booktok juice, but so could T. Kira Madden. I think T. Kira Madden just has the edge here on a really sticky pitch. But I would like to see this book go some places. It sounds really interesting.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm inferring that Kimiko and Hana are sisters because of the title, but the synopsis doesn't suggest that. So I'm a little confused. Enduring friendship and deep betrayal. Sisters in Yellow. I don't know. So maybe the nature of their relationship is a little fuzzy. That would be interesting to me as well.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, so thought I'd put that one out there. My sense is that would be probably makes the most sense, you know. Okay. Up next, short stories. One of the great short One of our modern masters has a new book out. This is a story of 2026. This month it's Python's Kiss by Louise erdrick. Come out March 24th. I don't know what to say about Louise Erdrich at this point except that I think she does walk like a duck and quack like a duck. For more underrated than should be given her abilities and track record. I mean, no Barbara Kingsolver, but we

[Rebecca Schinsky]

can give her my Barbara Kingsolver prize for Underrated.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Louise Edric is the current winner of the Barbara King Solver Little Lebowski Achievers Club. And again, for those of you listening, this kind of show that might be like, what are you talking about? Everyone knows Louise Erdrich. She's one. Yes, I know. I'm talking. We're not talking about us. We're talking about the kinds of people that are interested in cultural in a general sense, and they will read.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Do the members of your book club know who Louise Erdtrude is?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Maybe like, she's on the other side of the Ann Patchett meridian. I would say at this point, yes. In terms of name recognition and shouldn't be. I think I prefer on the whole, if you were to ask me to pick would I rather have a new Ann Patchett book or a new Erdrick book out, I would pick the Erdrick book, I think. And it's not, you know, it's. They're in the same ballpark, but it's pretty clear cut for me. This is a book of short stories by Louise Erdrich. She has never written a book of short stories before. She has won a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, though, as you might imagine, a lot of them are in and around tribes. One of them is a tribal newsletter editor whose son tells her a story that nothing or experience can encompass. That was all I needed to know because you know what newsletters they write an editor, we get a story. Is it true? I'm into this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

All I need to know is that it's Louise Erdrich short stories I'll be really interested in. I just finished reading Lauren Groff's Brawler and I'm in a like, yeah, short stories by great literary writers. Put them in my veins kind of mode. Also, she's the only author we're going to talk about today whose name is regularly in the conversation for a Nobel someday.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Absolutely.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So she automatically takes this round. I'm really excited about this one. And seeing what Erdrich does in shorter form, I find her writing to be like, to pack a powerful punch just in a regular novel. But to see. I'm really interested in what she'll do in a more condensed format. Yeah. And you got newsletters, you got people writing in about things. She's just, I think also Louise Erdrich is just interested and curious about the culture around her. And so every book, it's not like every book changes genres, but every book has her same sensibilities, but will bring in new flavors, new items to explore. I'm here for it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Stories of ordinary, ordinary people. Bird lovers, artists, grade school teachers and romantics.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

What else do you want?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Nice job blurb writer. Ending with the romantics there. Yeah, I agree that one should move on now. Let's see if anything can challenge it, Rebecca, because I think it might be a little tough. But I don't know. I got a couple other things here. See what happens when Cynthia Dupree Sweeney's the Nest came out a long time ago. That was the eight book of that month. It was a debut commercial fiction kind of messiness here. And it has carved out a career. I don't know if it's gone better or worse. I don't know if she's over underachieved. The early promise of the Nest. It's just very difficult to be a commercial writer of any kind. The new book is called Lake Effect. It is now out as of the recording of this. A tender portrait of two families forever challenged by one love struck decision that reverberates for decades. This is 1977 in Rochester, New York. One of the characters is given a copy of the Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friends and can no longer dismiss the nearly non existent intimacy of her marriage. So there's a midlife awakening that happens to this person. I think this is a very good idea for a lot of kinds of readers that might pick up a book by Lake Effect. I'm trying not to be paint with too broad a bush if you're what I'm saying there, Rebecca. But I think there's. This could resonate. It is.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think it could too.

[Jeff O'Neill]

288 pages.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what. I don't have a sense of Sweeney's name recognition. Like it's been a while since the Nest, the novel that she wrote in between. Or maybe there's been a couple. I read at least one more since then. I thought it was good company.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Probably.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes, good company. She's a good. I mean the Nest was kind of one of the ultimate like rich people problems novels. And I love a, you know, rich family falling apart kind of vibe. Good Company was fun. This sounds like it's pitched for people who are maybe interested in All Fours. But All Fours was a little spicy.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think that's not the best way

[Rebecca Schinsky]

of putting it, which is not bad. All Fours was weird in a bunch of ways. I don't know. It'll probably outsell a book of short stories by Louise Erdrich. But for awards potential. Best book of the year. Potential. Sweeney's more likely to get picked for a book club than Erdrich is. But I think in the spirit of it bookiness we have to go with Erdrick here.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The COVID is trying to tell me a story and I'm not sure what it is. I think it kind of looks to me like if you went a little further into the illustrated cartoon route, it's a modern contemporary romance kind of a title of like a couple of people wearing nice clothes. But also it's like if David Hockney did one of those. So it's really trying to have its cake and eat its too when coming to this is elevated but also it's stories about.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think that's ladies and dudes together. Sweeney is upmarket commercial and that cover is a really good communication of that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But I wouldn't expect. This is not romance. I wouldn't expect to have the ever after happy for now in this particular book. Okay, where are we gonna go now? Oh yeah. I really didn't know what to do this with this one Rebecca. Like literally nothing because Life of PI was a phenomenon like international huge giant book. Yann Martel's it broke containment in a huge way. Anglian made it into a pretty interesting movie. A fable. Yeah, A one of one. Right. And so you really don't know what to do next with one of the

[Rebecca Schinsky]

great like twist endings of contemporary fiction.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes, yes. Life of PI won the Booker in 2002, which feels like a million years ago because it was to mind in my look at my contributor bio there is not another book book mentioned here. So I think he did a couple other things. I don't know, maybe there was a book of other.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think there was maybe a short story collection. I've read at least one other Yan Martel book in the last 23 years.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Right. But I. The good people at Norton are trying to memory hole for us. I think those books or maybe they don't own the rights of those books because it's not mentioned anything else here. They want you to think Jan Martel, Life of PI. Here's another big one here which. Okay, that might be the best.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And what's the title of this one?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Son of Nobody. I'm sorry, I went right to Son of Nobody. And here's another reason. I don't know what to do with it because they have short circuited my interest pathways by this synopsis. A brilliant retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of two commoners. An ancient soldier and a modern scholar. Right.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, because there's the whole I am nobody thing. Right?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes, right. And then so there is this, I think fictitious Greek epic called the Zoad, which is in free verse that follows a goatherd son who leaves his wife and family to fight with the Greeks. Or sort of a nobody. Right. A commoner story. He's not one of the great captains or kings or princes. And it's lost until the other character, Harlow Dunn, a Canadian academic, discovers it 30 centuries later. So it takes readers from the plains of Troy to the halls of Oxford, which. Rebecca. I don't know. I'm weak in the knees.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is for me.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I don't know what to do with this. Help me figure out what to do with the 352 page son of Nobody by Jan Martell. Does hot Greek summer help us? The Odyssey? I don't know what to do here.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't know if hot Greek summer helps us or if it just. If the Odyssey is just going to soak up all the attention for all the Greek things for a while. But not the worst attempt, not the worst timing to put out a book related to the Trojan War. I'm giving this one to Louise Erdrich for being Louise Erdrich. It's been a long time since Life of PI. Like there's an entire generation and a half of readers who do not know Life of PI for like, for the sensation that it was.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You could have graduated from, been born and graduated from college since Life of PI.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And without knowing what that book was and how big it was. So I think it's hard to trade on Martel's name. But I will look forward to your review of this and then I will decide from there if I'm going into it or not. But Louise Erdrich carries the round. I hope you have a great time with Son of Nobody. Get all your dopamine.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. I'm very curious to see about this, this next if that one wasn't a for me. Well, second, sorry, I'm gonna back up for a question for you.

[Unknown Female Speaker]

You.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Is Life of PI a 0 to well read contender?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think so, yeah. It's on the long list.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It was a big deal. It was a big deal. And it's cool. It's cool.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Big fun allegory.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So if I could sneak in that Martell book as maybe not just a complete sought to my own interest. I don't think I can do that with the next book.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Wait, what did you sneak it in on a Trojan horse.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh yeah. Except you don't say that though, right? You know, is this whole thing just a huge Trojan horse? To get me to talk about one book that I. And maybe no one else is gonna. That's not really. I don't. I think that's underselling this. So let me tell you about. In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man, which I believe is a Led Zeppelin reference. It's a memoir by Tom Junode, who has. Is a National Magazine Award winner journalist, has won a James Beard Award, so a writer. Writer. And you know, we like, like to hear these kinds of books that are coming out to do a non fiction. Especially when it's a memoir. Especially when it's Fathers and Sons, about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image. The many secrets he had and his son's obsessive quest to uncover them, and ultimately the true meaning of manhood.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Ooh, put this on the shelf next to. In the early. Was it the early Times? The Tad Friend.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The Tad Friend, Yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

What a great book.

[Jeff O'Neill]

416 pages, March 10th from double day.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And emotionally, an emotional detective stories powered by a series of cascading revelations. I'm so excited for this, I could barely breathe.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Sounds like a great audiobook experience.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes, yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Fathers and Sons. And he's charming and philandering.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Right. What if Don Draper was your dad and you were a New Yorker writer?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, my God. Do we think Bobby Draper grew up to be a New Yorker writer?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

What?

[Jeff O'Neill]

So. And Tom do you know, didn't write for the New Yorker, but he wrote for GQ and Esquire.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's the vibe, though.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's the vibe.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Louise Zurdich is still gonna win this month, but did you have to sweat a little?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Did you have to sweat just a little there?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Personally? Yes, I'm very. This. This sounds like right up my alley as well.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Cool.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm glad to know.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Beautiful. The Day in The neighborhood about Mr. Rogers was based on his article in Esquire. So if you remember that story. Story.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay. And this has potent adaptation potential.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Absolutely.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Maybe book clubby potential. A writer of that caliber could end up on some best of the year kinds of lists. So we'll see how the press tour goes for him, but I'm in. I just, you know, sorry you had to compete against Louise Erdrich.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's okay. We're. We're. Tom and I are happy to be considered. This is my book now.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's like everybody wanted the Marty supreme jacket. This one comes with like a flat cap and a flannel.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's tax season, and at Lifelock, we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it. Guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This episode is brought to you by Peloton Break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, Powered by Peloton iq. With real time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence, helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, pull, push and go. Explore the new peloton cross training tread [e-mail] Is there a baby in your

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[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, last up, another one I don't know what to do with. Not because it doesn't belong here, but

[Rebecca Schinsky]

wait, that was 10 books already.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I know, Rebecca, you're not supposed to count.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I have to keep track so I know what we're doing here. Okay, sorry. So we get a bonus book?

[Jeff O'Neill]

We get a bonus book. I don't know. I will. I and many other people. This might sell more copies than any Other book on the list, the Keeper by Tana French, which is the third. I believe it is the third installment of her Cal Hooper miniseries. Cal Hooper being a retired Chicago detective who has moved to the boonies in Ireland.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is the one where you're famously like, has Tana French ever been to Chicago?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Can you just. You could just say thanks. You can just say former Chicago detective. This is not bare levels, references to Chicago's, like, street life and, like, cultural reference points and everything like that. I don't know. I've enjoyed both of these books. If you said he's from Sheboygan, the teeming Metropolitan, the Malibu of the Midwest, Sheboygan, as I've learned. Would anyone know the difference? And you know what? Frankly, I don't care. It doesn't matter because I like what French does in these books. The first two were the Searcher, then the Hunter, and then this is the Keeper. I've got a note out here. For people that write series like this, I think they wildly overestimate our ability to keep straight.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, 100%. Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Maybe it doesn't matter which one, what the order was, but I would like them to be different.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I agree.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Can you tell me this one, or

[Rebecca Schinsky]

could we just go to, like, number one in this series? Number two, just put it on the COVID Tana French, number one. These are the books in the woods. Number two.

[Jeff O'Neill]

If we still had annotated, I would devote a whole annotated to the marketing genius of Sue Grafton's, like, Emmy's for Murder series, you know, for people who don't know she wrote a series of murder mysteries for Alibi. Each one of them was A is for X. And you just knew the order. It was just there. And you. But you never say it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

There was who. The other mystery writer who. It was like numbers. There was the one for the money. Janet Ivanovich. Yeah. One for the money and then two for something else. And she. Right.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I don't think it followed a similar.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It did. It was all the numbers. Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right. Well, there you go. So not to tell. Town of French is doing great, but if this is pretty difficult, you can't. The Searcher, the Hunter, I have no idea.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And the third book in a series, like, it'll sell very well. You're right. But it's. It's hard to make the third book in the series really an it booky thing. Tana French will get nominated for some goodreads Choice Awards, maybe some of the specialty mystery stuff, but still pretty niche. Like, she has not Broken. I mean, she's broken like mainstream containment in that like people who read like God of the woods had read Tana French as well. But not a household dinner table kind of name recognition.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like who even does? I mean, I guess that's true. Richard Osmond broke that. I mean, he sold so many copies so fast.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So I think, well, like the Grisham's of the world, the James Pattersons of the world. She's kind of right there, but not.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

She could break in there, but hasn't quite yet. So the month goes to Louise Erdrich. But good luck to Tana French and you with your Trojan horse story and Fathers and Sons. What a good one. And we got a new Terry Tempest Williams book that came out today.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, you were very excited.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's a good time to be me as well.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I. I want to do a quick look at the top 10 most anticipated Goodreads books because there we got a couple notes when I was talking in one of our recent IT books episodes about could you get someone who reads romance or romantasy to come in and give you some heat? And I understand that point of view also. This is our show and that's not what we're doing here. But I also think most of these books don't break out. But say example, a new Abby Jimenez book. The night we met, number one, already more than a quarter million shelvings. A lot of people are going to read that book because they love Abby Jimenez and I have no reason to doubt they have reasons to, but there's just a lot of these and it's gonna break out more than that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Happy. I mean, good for Abby Jimenez that she's like in the Emily Henry zone now where folks who like her and like the rom com are just gonna pick up her new books. Yeah, yeah. Great to be her, but not a four quadrant IT book kind of potential.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, there's a new freedom McFadden.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Number three.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

There's always a new freedom, McFadden.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, there's a. This one was. This one struck me because this felt like a blast from the past. It's called to cage a wild Bird. It's number six here. Enter the brutal world of Enlock, a prison where the wealthy hunt the inmates for sport. Doesn't. I remember the dystopian mode, so I thought that was interesting. See, so high up there. The. The clearest romantasy spreads whole thing is the wings that bind. Number seven on the list, Briar Boleyn. It's a third in that particular series. There's some. I don't know, there's some other kind of romantasy crime, kind of wannabe Liane Moriarty style. Far Fung Life did come at number 10.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I didn't want to tell you that because I thought it was interesting to hear. See here at the end. But the difference between number 10 and one in Shelvings, this is 55,000 shelving. So it's 1/5 the number one. It's just quite a bit different here. Whidbey is 15, which I thought was very interesting.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's interesting.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The keeper at number 16. Let's see here. I'm kind of out mean. There's a bunch of stuff. There's a bunch of stuff that's, as you might expect, romantasy, commercial romance. Marie Benedict's got another historical fiction one called the Daughter of Egypt. There's just so many of them at this point, it's hard to feel excited about any particular one of them. I did have this question for you. Christina Applegate's memoir and Jenny Lawson's new book are number 34 and number 35. Was I wrong not to include either of them or at least consider either of those books for the it books, the 11.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I don't know Christina Applegate. I've kind of been looking at that because she had. Is it ms? She had a big diagnosis?

[Jeff O'Neill]

I believe so, yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And that she's been very open about. I mean certainly an interesting story and she's been an actress for a million years and she's had quite a life. I think it will. It's like what we were saying about celebrity memoirs earlier. Like it kind of depends on what is in the book for how much interest will there be. Jenny Lawson I have been wondering about because she was so big in our early blogging days, like the Bloggs was huge. Her first book was a really big deal. I. I have not continued to see buzz around like Jenny Lawson content. But I don't know if I'm just in the wrong corners of the Internet. Like Jenny Lawson is from whence we get the term of like I. I don't have enough spoons for that. That's where that comes from when people talk about not having enough energy, particularly when you're dealing with like mental illness or chronic illness. And so very, very few people have just invented language that took on its own life on the Internet and that broke containment. There are people, I would venture that more people using that language today don't know that it came from Jenny Lawson than do know But I, I just. Because of that, like, it's so disconnected from her. I don't know what the appetite for another book from her is like.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

But will.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I mean, if it's doing pretty well on Goodreads, maybe I've underestimated that interest and we'll see how the sales go. But in terms of the it book potential, not likely for awards contention, not likely for, you know, big book club kinds of stuff. But I mean, she's so funny that, like, a Jenny Lawson press tour can be a great gift to readers.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think. I guess the, the highest version of this is something like David Sedaris, which is you have fans in a brand name that people recognize. When a new book out, they pay attention. But it's hard to break out of that orbit, right, because people feel like they know what they're gonna get and maybe they're right and wrong. Like, may we all be cursed with such success where you can sell a whole bunch of books but not, you know, be in the awards consideration. Like, it's the Jennifer Weiner complaint from when we first started doing this of like, you sell a bunch of books, you have a bunch of fans, you, you make a lot of money, you have a wonderful career that 99.9% of writers would kill for. But there is this. There's sort of the, the super premium extra VIP room that you would like to be in, which is the kudos, the, the acclaim and the just shine that comes from being considered an artiste, an artist, a genius, like that kind of stuff. And that's not fair. And I don't know that there's no objectivity to it, but it's a phenomenon that definitely does happen here. I'm gonna throw others I just considered. People like to know. People did ask and you just tell us about more books that are coming out. So I just did include. Include a few others here. Alice Hoffman has a book of essays out called the Best Dog in the World. Colon Essays on Love. That's something that people want to know if you do not know. Alice Hoffman is the writer of. I guess Practical Magic is probably her most famous book and a couple of sequels to that. But Son of Nobody was number 77 on the Goodreads list. 16,000 shelvings at this point.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

There's a big biography of Judy Blume out this.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

By Mark Oppenheimer.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm not putting biographies on here, unfortunately. That's interesting.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

But yeah, I'm looking at my list too. Lindy West's new essay collection, Adult Braces

[Jeff O'Neill]

I had her right next to Jenny Lawson, like kind of in a similar vein. I think there are fewer Lindy west books. Yes, but that's interesting there too. I guess. That's. Oh, Corey Stamper has a new book out. She wrote Word by Word, which was a great language a million years ago. And when I interviewed her, she I asked what your next book is. She's like, no, I got obsessed with color. So it's out. So it's coming out March 31st. True Color the Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color From Azure to Zinc Pink. I will read this with extreme prejudice. Looking forward to that. Yeah, that's it. You can choose email. Well podcastookriot.com we're going to be back with a new show. Come up here pretty quick, Rebecca, anything you can Join the Patreon patreon.com Book Riot podcast what else do we want to tell people about?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Well, if you're listening and you're thinking you just want to know more about books that are coming out every Tuesday in our flagship newsletter we highlight some of the week's biggest new releases and it's usually five to 10 titles so there's a link in the show Notes notes here. Or you can just go to Book Riot and find the newsletter sign up. But that will give you new releases every week. And All Access members, which is bookriot.com join get access to our New Release Index, which is a curated catalog of big like 100 or so new releases every week. And you can build your own watch list and keep track of stuff. But sort of the Book Riot flavor of curation. You don't have to drink from the Edelweiss fire hose. We'll do it for you you. But those are some options as well if you're looking for just more of what's coming out without having to go through all of the the Goodreads piles yourself.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And if you like new book release information and you like pods, we probably don't shout off as well. We know we have a whole pod just for that. All the books comes out every Tuesday in which Book Riot editors pick some stuff and say here's the interesting stuff coming out this week. Both that on the highest level, that sort of general purpose interest, but also their own picks and taste within there. It's always a good time. I'm on there in months where there are five Tuesdays they deign to invite.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You're on the fifth Tuesday. Yeah, I don't sit in on all the books anymore, but I do most of the curation for the flagship newsletter picks, so.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, cool. Thanks, Rebecca. We'll talk to you later.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is a good month.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. As always, the Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Talk to you later.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

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