The Year in Books

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Daily – "The Year in Books"

Episode Overview In the December 31, 2024 episode of The Daily by The New York Times, host Melissa Kirsch delves into the literary highlights of the year. The episode, guest-hosted by Melissa Kirsch, Deputy Editor of Culture and Lifestyle, features insightful discussions with Gilbert Cruz, Editor of the New York Times Book Review, contributions from various book critics, and an engaging segment with Dwight Garner on his commonplace book. This comprehensive exploration of contemporary literature offers listeners a curated look into the best books of 2024 and the most influential works of the 21st century.

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1. Best Books of 2024 with Gilbert Cruz

Selection Process Gilbert Cruz explains the meticulous process behind selecting the New York Times Book Review’s top 10 books of the year. “[We] meeting monthly. And at every one of those meetings, we're discussing books that we think are great,” Cruz shares ([02:14]). This ongoing dialogue ensures that the final list reflects a well-considered consensus after extensive debate and evaluation throughout the year.

Top Fiction Picks The fiction selections for 2024 include:

• All Fours by Miranda July
• Good Material by Dali
• Alderton James by Percival Everett
• Martyr by Kaveh Akbar
• You'd Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrique

Cruz highlights his personal favorite, You'd Dreamed of Empires, praising its imaginative portrayal of the first encounter between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma. “[It] is very funny. It’s very sort of descriptively written. Like there are smells and sights that pop off the page” ([02:47]).

Top Nonfiction Picks The nonfiction category features a diverse range of genres, including biography and history:

• Reagan by Max Boot
• Everyone Who Has Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer
• The Wide, Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
• I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sant
• Cold Crematorium by Josef Debrezeny

Cruz’s favorite nonfiction book, The Wide, Wide Sea, explores Captain James Cook’s final voyage in 1776. He describes it as a captivating tale set on the high seas, filled with adventure and peril. “[It] was sent to try to find the Northwest Passage… something bad happened to him. He died” ([03:50]).

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2. Best Books of the 21st Century

Curating the List Gilbert Cruz details the process of compiling the best books of the 21st century, emphasizing the reliance on a vast network of reviewers and literary experts. “[We] sort of lean on their expertise… we published a list of 100, which is a lot of books” ([05:04]).

Top Pick: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante At the pinnacle of the list is My Brilliant Friend, the first book in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. Cruz attributes its success to its profound depiction of female friendship and its compelling narrative that captivates readers across four volumes. “[It] capture female friendship in a way that is truly unique in 21st century literature” ([06:32]).

Surprising Entries Cruz points out unexpected inclusions such as 2666 by Roberto Bolaño and Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, noting their significant impact despite their challenging nature. “[2666] is a massive, slightly impenetrable literary work… it came in so high was surprising to me” ([07:23]).

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3. Book Critics Share Their Favorites of 2024

Melissa Kirsch invites several New York Times Book Review critics to recommend their favorite books of the year, providing a diverse array of genres and themes:

• MJ Franklin praises Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, highlighting its sharp commentary on gender, power, and societal expectations. “[It] is playful and layered and smart” ([12:00]).

• Jennifer Salai recommends When the Clock Broke by John Ganz, a nonfiction work delving into the tumultuous early 1990s in America. She notes its relevance to contemporary political climates. “[This] is a book that will continue to be relevant” ([13:18]).

• A.O. Scott highlights Modern Poetry by Diane Suess, commending its accessibility and inventive approach to poetry. “[You] don’t have to care or know anything about poetry to enjoy it” ([15:54]).

• Sarah Lyle selects The Hunter by Tana French, appreciating its exquisite writing and depth beyond typical thriller plots. “[Every turn of phrase has had care put into it. It heightens your senses” ([16:00]).

• Alexandra Jacobs endorses Candy Darling, Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr, a biography of the transgender pioneer Candy Darling. She lauds the book for capturing Darling’s vibrant and challenging life. “[It] sparkles like Candy Darling would wish” ([17:04]).

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4. Dwight Garner’s Commonplace Book

In an intriguing segment, Dwight Garner discusses his commonplace book—a personal collection of memorable quotes and passages.

Understanding the Commonplace Book Garner defines a commonplace book as “a book of quotes and lines and aphorisms… humans have had written language for 5,000 years” ([19:38]).

Personal Insights and Entries Garner shares notable entries from 2024, reflecting on books that resonated deeply with him:

• From Sheila Hetty's Alphabetical Diaries, he quotes: “No one at this point in history knows how to live” ([21:56]). He connects this to his reading philosophy of seeking understanding through fiction.

• From Salman Rushdie's memoir, Knife, Garner admires Rushdie’s resilience and humor amidst personal trauma: “[Salman] is still with us… a sign of his sanity” ([24:17]).

• From Honor Levy’s work, he shares a playful yet profound passage that captures the nuances of modern digital communication among youth ([24:43]).

Reflecting on the Practice Garner emphasizes the importance of writing down impactful lines to internalize and remember them. “[You] are sort of taking notes on how to live” ([23:33]).

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with acknowledgments of the production team and a brief advertisement, which are outside the scope of the content-focused summary. Throughout the episode, listeners gain a rich understanding of the literary landscape of 2024, discover diverse book recommendations, and gain a personal glimpse into Dwight Garner’s literary inspirations through his commonplace book.

Notable Quotes:

• Gilbert Cruz on the selection process: “[We] are discussing books that we think are great” ([02:14]).
• Cruz on You’d Dreamed of Empires: “[It] is very funny… smells and sights that pop off the page” ([02:47]).
• Gilbert Cruz on My Brilliant Friend: “[It] capture female friendship in a way that is truly unique” ([06:32]).
• Dwight Garner on Salman Rushdie’s memoir: “[Salman] is still with us… a sign of his sanity” ([24:17]).

This episode serves as an invaluable guide for readers seeking to explore the most impactful and celebrated literature of the year and beyond.

Transcript

[Michael]

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[Melissa Kirsch]

Today, our coverage of the year in arts and in culture continues with guest host Melissa Kirsch speaking to Times critics, reporters and editors.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Take a listen. I think you're gonna like it.

[Melissa Kirsch]

From the New York Times, this is the Daily I'm Melissa Kirsch, deputy editor of culture and Lifestyle. As we close out 2024, I'm talking with my colleagues around the newsroom about what they watched and listened to and read this year. Today, we're talking about books. I'll talk with Gilbert Cruz, the editor of the New York Times Book Review, about the best books of the year and the best books of the century. Then the Times book critics will join us with some of their favorites of 2024, and the critic, Dwight Garner will share some of the funniest, snappiest and most insightful writing he encountered this year. It's Tuesday, December 31st. Gilbert Cruz, hello, Melissa.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Hi.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Okay, so every year the staff of the New York Times Book Review puts out a list of the 10 best books of the year. It has just come out. Tell me about how that list comes together.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Sure. So a bunch of editors and critics over the course of the year really are meeting monthly. And at every one of those meetings, we're discussing books that we think are great. And these are books that sort of go through the wringer. We're really debating them over the course of the whole year. At the end of October, which is when this process ends, we take a vote, and these 10 books are the result of that vote.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Got it? Okay, so let's take a spin through the list.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Sure. Let's start with fiction, the five fiction books. Some of them might be familiar to you. All Fours by Miranda July, Good Material by Dali, Alderton James by Percival Everett, Martyr by Kaveh Akbar, and you'd Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrique.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Do you have a personal favorite from that fiction list?

[Gilbert Cruz]

I do, and I think it's the smallest book on this list. Actually, it is yous Dreamed of Empires by the Mexican writer Alvaro Enrique.

[Michael]

And.

[Gilbert Cruz]

And it essentially imagines the first meeting between Hernan Cortez and Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor, in what is now Mexico City in 1519. It is an imaginative, sort of psychedelic look at what that encounter might have been like. It's very funny. It's very sort of descriptively written. Like there are smells and sights that pop off the page. And again, it's slim. And that's important when you're reading a lot of books over the course of a year.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Right. What about the nonfiction list? What books are on there?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Sure. So nonfiction is a mix of biography, history. We have stuff like Reagan by Max Boot. It's about Ronald Reagan. Everyone who has Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer. The Wide, Wide Sea by Hampton Sides, which I will talk about in a minute. Cause I really loved it. I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sant. And then Cold Crematorium by Josef Debrezeny.

[Melissa Kirsch]

And so your favorite nonfiction selection, the Wide, Wide Sea.

[Gilbert Cruz]

So the Wide, Wide Sea is about Captain Cook. Captain James Cook. It's about his third and final voyage. He was sent in the year 1776, a year that we're all very familiar with, to the South Pacific to return a Polynesian man to his home island in the South Pacific. He was also sent to try to find the Northwest Passage, which is something that many explorers were looking for. It was not accessible at the time. And then something bad happened to him. He died.

[Melissa Kirsch]

That is bad.

[Gilbert Cruz]

That is bad. And I love this book so much because I just love tales set on the high seas. I love books about what it's like to be on a big boat with big sails, drinking grog, possibly getting scurvy, and not knowing what you're gonna encounter the next day.

[Melissa Kirsch]

I would love to read about possibly getting scurvy. So those are the best books of the year. But I want to talk to you about another project the Book Review tackled this year. You put out a list of the best books of the 21st century so far. How does one determine the best books of the last 25 years?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Well, the secret is that one does not. One relies on many other people. We decided to take advantage of the fact that we have access to thousands of authors who write reviews for us all the time and sort of lean on their expertise. These are all people that are extremely well read. So we sent a survey out to 1200 or so people. A lot of them were authors. Stephen King, Bonnie Garmus, Curtis Sittenfeld, R.L. stein. Then we had editors in the publishing industry, people that own bookstores, librarians, famous people. Who read a lot of books like Sarah Jessica Parker. We asked them what their 10 best books published in English since January 1, 2000 were. We didn't define best for them at all. We got back their responses, we added them all up and we published a list of 100, which is a lot of books, to be fair.

[Melissa Kirsch]

So it seems to me that if you're looking for a book to read, you could do a lot worse than to start with the number one book on the list, which is My Brilliant.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Friend by Elena Ferrante. My brilliant friend is. It's a book in translation, it's translated by Ann Goldstein, and it's the first in a four book series that we now refer to as the Neapolitan Quartet. The first book is about two young girls growing up in post war Italy in the 1950s.

[Melissa Kirsch]

And why do you think this book emerged as the number one book of the 21st century?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Well, so I don't know if you can cast your mind back to the time when, like, Ferrante fever was sweeping the literary world.

[Melissa Kirsch]

I can.

[Gilbert Cruz]

These books were coming out and people were obsessed with them. And I think something that is undeniable about these books for people who love them is that they capture female friendship in a way that is truly unique in 21st century literature. There is something sort of realistic about the way that these two young girls, and they grew up over the course of these four books, come together and pull apart and love each other and hate each other. It is, I think the first book takes a while to get into, but once you get into it, if you connect with it, you sort of just want to keep reading all four books.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Yeah, everyone I know loves these books. So were there any surprises on the list?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Absolutely. There's a book that came in at number 6, 2666 by the Chilean writer Roberto Bellagno. And it is one of these massive, slightly impenetrable literary works, partly having to do with the murder of hundreds of women in Mexico and partly to do with lots of other stuff. The fact that it came in so high was surprising to me. There was a book that came in at number eight called Austerlitz by WG Sebold, which is a book about a young man in mid century Europe. Sort of lusciously and beautifully written novel. This book came out in 2001. It was one of the oldest books on the list. Now, I don't know that it's particularly well known these days. I was surprised by how high it placed.

[Melissa Kirsch]

The list has a feature where you can check off the books that you've read. And at the end, it gives you a tally, like a score of how. How conscientious a reader you've been. So when this list was originally published over the summer, there were a lot of people online bragging about how many of the books they'd read.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah.

[Melissa Kirsch]

But some of us were a little surprised at how low our number was. I was wondering what you would say to somebody who was feeling perhaps a little bit sheepish about how few of these books they'd read.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I would say, flip that on its head and think about how much reading, how much wonderful, delightful reading is ahead of you. You can feel badly about this, or you can say, oh, my God, look at all these amazing books I want to read. But I did not. I'm looking at my tally right now, which I'm 100% not going to tell you what the number is, and it's embarrassing. I'm the editor of the New York Times Book Review. I should have read more books on our list than this.

[Melissa Kirsch]

But what I want to say is you can still be a reader who reads widely and curiously and not have read many books on this list. Right?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah. I mean, look, I bring up all the time. I still have not read Middlemarch by George Eliot, but I have read, I don't know, the Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Right. So which is more valuable? I don't think there's an answer to that. I think it's just where your taste leads you. And I will say, if you look at this list of 100 and you see only one or two books that you want to read that you've never read before, then we succeeded. We did this whole thing, and we found one book for you, the right book for you. Success.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Did you find a book on this list that you ended up really loving?

[Gilbert Cruz]

Absolutely. The one that stuck with me above all is Lincoln and the Bardo by George Saunders. A beautiful book, A book I should have read a long time ago. And it's a book that imagines Abraham Lincoln going to the cemetery where his son has been interred, and he is surrounded by a cacophony of voices, all these ghosts in the cemetery, and it was just so moving, so beautiful, so odd and bizarre in its own way. I was like, everyone needs to read this immediately. I just. I did. I fell in love with it.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Oh, how I love George Saunders.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Me, too.

[Melissa Kirsch]

So on that note, we're gonna take a break, and when we come back, we're going to hear from some of your Book Review colleagues about the best books they read this year.

[Gilbert Cruz]

I can't wait to hear that.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Thank you so much for being here, Gilbert.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Melissa, thank you for having me on.

[Melissa Kirsch]

We'll be right back. Hi, this is Lori Leibovich, editor of well at the New York Times. Everything that our readers get when they dig into a well article has been vetted. Our reporters are consulting experts doing the research so that you can make great decisions about your physical health and your mental health. We take our reporting extra seriously because we know New York Times subscribers are counting on us. If you already subscribe, thank you. If you'd like to subscribe, go to nytimes.com subscribe 2024, for me as a.

[MJ Franklin]

Reader, was an abundance of riches.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Today, we're talking about the best books of the year. We asked our colleagues at the Book Review to recommend some of the books they loved in 2024.

[Sarah Lyle]

My reading in 2024 was chaotic.

[A.O. Scott]

My reading in 2024 was kind of all over the place because my job is kind of all over the place.

[Jennifer Salai]

I read 70 books this year.

[Alexandra Jacobs]

I'm not telling you how many I read for pleasure.

[Sarah Lyle]

I read more than 100 books this year.

[MJ Franklin]

You never ask a books editor how many books they read listeners. That is a mystery that we'll have to talk through in person. I'm MJ Franklin. I'm an editor at the New York Times Book Review. And a book I loved in 2024 is Margot's got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. It is about a 19 year old student, Margot, who gets pregnant by her college professor, then gets dumped and loses her job. So to make ends meet, she starts an account on OnlyFans, which is a website best known for sex work. And you just follow Margot as she's trying to step into adulthood, as she's trying to make ends meet, as she's trying to kind of come into her own power. Underneath this very playful, zany, colorful plot, there's a really sharp commentary about gender and power, about sex, sexuality and shaming, about the demands that we put on young women to become mothers. But then how as a society we don't support motherhood. And it all comes together in this book that is playful and layered and smart. I've been recommending it to everybody.

[Jennifer Salai]

Hi, I'm Jennifer Salai and I'm the nonfiction book critic for the New York Times Book Review. And a book I loved in 2024 was when the Clock Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked up in the early 1990s by John Ganz. As somebody who grew up in the 1990s, you know, I had this idea of what the 1990s was. It was about Bill Clinton, it was about the end of the Cold War. There was a sense of just sort of this bland consensus that was coalescing around the middle. This book just shows us that there was a bunch of just stranger, weirder stuff that was happening back then. You know, you have David Duke, who was a grand wizard of the KKK who thought he might become president. Ross Perot actually ran as a third party candidate. You know, you had these right wing thinkers coming up with what was actually like an intellectual apparatus for the radical right. So when I first read the book in the summer, I was thinking, I think, of course, to the election ahead. But no matter who was going to win in the November election this year, this is a book that will continue to be relevant and I think provides like an interesting light on the sort of bewildering moment that we live in.

[A.O. Scott]

Hi, I'm A.O. scott and I'm a critic at large for the New York Times Book Review. A book that I really loved in 2024 was a collection of poetry by Diane Suess. The book is called Modern Poetry. And the thing that I really like about this book is that it's very accessible. This book in a very unusual and original and I think moving way, says reader, you may have no idea what the hell modern poetry is, but here's what it means to me. And what it means to her is so personal and revealing and funny. She's such an inventive poet just in terms of what she does with form, with rhyme, with language. And I think that you don't have to care or know anything about poetry to enjoy it. It serves almost as a kind of introduction to poetry in a funny way. Great book, Great book. Highly recommended.

[Sarah Lyle]

Hi, I'm Sarah Lyle and among other things, I'm the thrillers columnist for the New York Times Book Review. And a book I loved in 2024 was the hunter by Tana French. It's a mystery set in Ireland. A previous resident of this small community suddenly returns with a get rich quick scheme that upends everything and leads to calamities both small and large. A lot of thrillers really rise and fall on plot. You read them really to kind of find out what happened next. But what makes this book stand out to me is it's just exquisitely written. Every turn of fruit phrase has had care put into it. It heightens your senses, I think to the nuances of people's behavior and appearance. It's a great book for when you have a little bit of extra time and really want to enjoy what you're reading rather than race through.

[Alexandra Jacobs]

I'm Alexandra Jacobs and I'm a critic for the New York Times Book Review. And a book I loved in 2024 was Candy Darling, Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr. Candy Darling is a biography of the transgender pioneer and Andy Warhol intimate who lived only till 29 but had a sort of blazing, event filled life. This is someone who is radical in her very existence and an extremely conformist time in America. She was insisting on not only going through life as a woman, but as a star. And, you know, I think this book did her justice. It showed the beauty of her gorgeous, challenging, ironic, sardonic life. It's just a sparkling book. It sparkles like Candy Darling would wish.

[Melissa Kirsch]

If you were scrambling for a pen to write down those titles, here they are once again.

[MJ Franklin]

Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe.

[Jennifer Salai]

When the Clock Broke, Conmen, Conspiracists and How America Cracked up in the early 1990s by John Ganz.

[A.O. Scott]

Modern Poetry by Diane Suess.

[Sarah Lyle]

The Hunter by Tanner French.

[Alexandra Jacobs]

Candy Darling, Dreamer, Icon Superstar by Cynthia Carr.

[Melissa Kirsch]

When we come back, Dwight Garner cracks open his commonplace book. What's a commonplace book? We'll tell you all about it in just a minute. Hi, it's Alexa Wybell from New York Times Cooking. We've got tons of easy weeknight recipes and today I'm making my five ingredient creamy miso pasta. You just take your starchy pasta water, whisk it together with a little bit of miso and butter until it's creamy, add your noodles and a little bit of cheese. Hmm. It's like a grown up box of Mac and cheese that feels like a restaurant quality dish. New York Times Cooking has you covered with easy dishes for busy weeknights. You can find [e-mail] My colleague Dwight Garner is a book critic at the Times, and he's also a kind of literary scavenger. As he reads, he collects sentences that move him and he keeps them all in one huge document. This practice actually has a name. It's called Keeping a Commonplace Book. And Dwight is here today to talk about his commonplace book. Dwight, hello. Thank you for being here.

[Michael]

Thank you.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Okay, let's start with the basics. Explain the concept of a commonplace book.

[Michael]

Well, you know, it's a book of quotes and lines and aphorisms. You know, often they're philosophical or they're humorous or they're literary. And normally they're kept by one person. It's just, you know, humans have had written language for 5,000 years, and during most of that time, people have written down or kept in some form observations and bits of books that really appealed to them and stuck with them. And commonplace books have been around forever. I mean, Thomas Jefferson kept a famous one, and so did Virginia woolf. So did W.H. auden. And it's just a place to keep track of things that meant something to you while you're reading a book and.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Talk about, like, what spurred you to start writing down snippets that jumped out at you while you were reading.

[Michael]

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

[Melissa Kirsch]

So do you have any idea of how many quotes or sentences or lines you added in 2024?

[Michael]

Oh, God, I would say probably a thousand, you know, at minimum, because.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Wait a. Okay, I need you to, like, break down to me Dwight Garner reading, because I'm imagining you, like, with a keyboard next to you while you're reading. Or are you highlighting in the book?

[Michael]

I'm reading the book, and I'm highlighting. And then when I'm done with the book, I slap it down next to my laptop, and I flip through it page by page, and I type out the best quotes that I've marked in there. I find the act of typing something, typing a line, typing an observation, typing a great word, sort of fixes it in my mind a bit. I'm more likely to remember it.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Okay, so let's take a look at your commonplace book for 2024. Give me a line that you added to the book this year.

[Michael]

One of my favorite books this year was Sheila Hetty's Alphabetical Diaries. You know, Hetty is a really talented young Canadian novelist. And she had a nifty idea. She printed her journals, her diaries, in alphabetical order, so the sentences all just run from A to Z. And she wrote, no one at this point in history knows how to live. So we read biographies and memoirs, hoping to get clues. And I love that line, not because it's funny, but because it's the reason I think I started reading. You know, once upon a time in America, before Netflix, before the Internet, fiction was where we went to get news about how other people lived. You know, food wise, sex wise, relationships, marriages. That's where news was delivered. And it's not so true anymore, but for me, it still is. And I look for novels to sort of understand why we're here. A, and B, to understand how can I live better. I mean, just, you know, what lessons do you have? Sheila Hetty, for me. And she tends to have a lot. The title of her 2010 novel was great. It was, how should a person be? And in a way, I think every novel asks that. And the fact that she was great enough to title a novel, that is really terrific.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Mm. And it seems sort of like that's what you do when you're reading and when you're keeping your commonplace book. You're sort of taking notes on how to live. Do you think that way when you're reading that you're getting instructions?

[Michael]

You know, I really am. I think that a lot of people read and think about what the world means and why we're here and how we can, you know, experience life a little more fully. And that means the small things and the large things, and that's sort of what I look for and the kind of things that I put into my commonplace book.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Mm. Can we hear another one?

[Michael]

Let me see. One book I read this year that's really remained with me is Salman Rushdie's memoir, Knife. It's about how he was stabbed on stage in upstate New York in 2022. And, you know, it's a very dark and moving book. And he goes through enormous personal pain, physical pain, and yet the book is weirdly very funny. As he was being stabbed, he found himself thinking, oh, no, my Ralph Lauren suit. You know, he laughs about the fact that his surgeon's name was James Beard. You know, like the chef and cookbook writer. He writes, dear reader, never get a catheter. He wrote that his attacker looked like Novik Djokovic, the tennis. He wrote that on the upside, he lost 55 pounds, and his snoring and asthma improved.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Did it strike you while you were reading the Salman Rushdie book that, like, because his sense of humor was intact, like, his vitality was intact.

[Michael]

Yes. It was a sign of his sanity. You know, you felt, salman, you're still with us, you know? And he. You know, sometimes in his work, his humor fails him a bit, at least in recent years. So it was great to see him in his full glory in this recent memoir.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Mm. All right, let's hear another one.

[Michael]

This is from Honor Levy's book, my first book. He was giving knight errant, organ meat eater, byronic hero, haplogroup R1B. She was giving damsel in distress, pill popper, pixie, dream girl Haplogroup K. He was in his Fall of Rome era. She was serving 6th and final mass extinction event. Realness. His face was a marble statue. Her face was an anime waifu. They scrolled into each other.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Okay, Dwight, can you explain to me what any of that means?

[Michael]

Well, we're talking about two young people who are texting and using emojis. And in reality, what these characters are, they're just kids. And this is the dance of their courtship, in a way, online. Their mini courtship.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Mm.

[Michael]

It's a book largely about, you know, kids being online, young people being online, and what that feels like now to be sort of almost permanently online in a lot of the sentences. She's so up to date on the language and the lingo that half the time, you barely understand what she's saying. I had to run to the dictionary or at least to Google several times to sort of understand what she was saying. And the more you learn, the more you like it, because she just has a way. You feel like you're reading Ann Beatty about hippies in the early 70s reading honor levy on these young kids online now.

[Melissa Kirsch]

There is something pleasurable about spending time in that sort of like in an unfamiliar world and steeping oneself in the lingo of that world.

[Gilbert Cruz]

Yeah.

[Michael]

You know, it's just. And we're all there, right? We all are online, like, half the time. And yet you find a writer who can really describe it, who can really get you there. And that's what writing does for us. It's the thing where things you felt but never had anyone just nail it down, just, like, to get it right. And you say, holy cow, that's good writing. That's the kind of thing I want in my commonplace book.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Duy. This has been fascinating. Thank you for letting us peer inside your commonplace book.

[Michael]

Oh, what fun. Thank you.

[Melissa Kirsch]

Today's episode was produced by Tina Antolini and Alex Barron, with help from Cait Lopresti. It was edited by Wendy Dore, with production support by Frannie Carr Toth, and original music by Diane Wong, Marian Lozano and Dan Powell. It was engineered by Daniel Ramirez. Special thanks to Sam Sifton, Tina Jordan, Lauren Manley, Alicia Ba'etupe, Sarah Curtis, John White, Elissa Dudley, Olivia Waite, Paula Schumann and Sam Dolnick. That's it for the Daily hi, I'm Melissa Kirsch. Thanks for listening. At T. Rowe Price, global teams leverage extensive experience to see investment potential differently. Instead of fast answers, they understand that the true road to confident investing is curiosity. It's what drives them to ask smart questions about our ever changing world, like how can clean water transform farmland? Can healthcare innovations create a healthier world? How will AI be part of a new tomorrow? T. Rowe Price's curiosity runs deep, and with it comes the power to help you invest more confidently. Better questions, better outcomes T. Rowe Price Learn more@t rowprice.com Curiosity.