FictionMatters

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Readers, November is just around the corner and with that comes a certain level of anxiety about meeting our reading goals. Whether that’s a number of books or number of pages, or simply a desire to feel like we chose books well for ourself throughout the year, we all want to finish the reading year strong.

In this vein, one of the fun traditions that has developed on Instagram and is now crossing over to Substack is the creation of a “ten before the end” list. These lists are just what they sound like. They’re typically made somewhere in the final quarter of the year and involve making a priority TBR pile of ten books a reader wants to get to before the calendar turns.

I have resisted this for the past couple of years because I find that as soon as a make a list like this, I stop wanting to read any of the books I’ve included. But this year I decided to give it another go, because there are just so many good 2026 books and I don’t want to get to the last week of December and feel like I didn’t read the books I really wanted to.

Joining me in today’s episode is Maddie Stough. Maddie is the community manager of the FM Literary Society over on Patreon and while we have a lot of books we love in common, Maddie also reads quite differently from me. I was eager to hear what she’s prioritizing for the rest of the year and was delighted by the variety she brought to the table!

I hope you enjoy listening, and we would love to know what book(s) you’re prioritizing for the remainder of 2026, so drop the titles in the Substack comments!

Readers, I’ve heard that you all want more podcast episodes from FictionMatters and I hear you! I’ve got some very exciting Books That Matter interviews coming up, and am also looking forward to experimenting with other types of episodes and discussions. If there’s anything in particular you’d be interested in me putting out, please never hesitate to make requests!

We spend the first bit of this episode chatting about the popularity of ten before the end lists, our typical strategies for choosing books, and how we made our lists. To get right to the books, skip to minute 15.

Maddie’s ten before the end:

* The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty

* The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

* John of John by Douglas Stuart

* American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

* The Disappearers by Marlon James

* May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry

* Partita by Barbara Kingsolver

* The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon

* A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghíofra

* Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Sara’s ten before the end:

* American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

* A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

* The Group by Mary McCarthy

* The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard

* Arendal by Karl OVe Knausgaard

* Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li

* Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel

* The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker

* Fair Ones by Lydia Millet

* The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar

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Welcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I ask writers to share a book that matters to them. I read it and we deep dive into the world of the text, exploring story, craft, and the way a great book can become part of someone. You’ll hear your favorite authors on their favorite authors and come away with expertly curated reading lists.

Today, Layne Fargo, author of The Favorites, Temper and They Never Learn, joins me to talk about Emily Brontë’s haunting classic Wuthering Heights. This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I love how messy and slippery and complicated it is—how every time I read it I notice something new and change my mind about what I think the book is “really” doing. I’ve wanted to talk about this strange and brooding novel with Layne since I read her brilliant reimagining of WH set in the world of Olympic ice dancing, and I loved talking with her about why this novel endures and why it’s still puzzling us centuries after its publication.

I also got the chance to ask Layne about The Favorites and learn how a totally different project and a Wuthering Heights reread developed into this gripping bestseller. If you’re a reader, you’ll love this peek behind the curtain, and if you’re a writer, you’ll love the lessons buried in Layne’s lived experiences.

You can purchase The Favorites, Temper, They Never Learn and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights on Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books!

Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living. She’s the bestselling author of the novels Thehttps://bookshop.org/a/1173/9780593732069Favorites, They Never Learn, and Temper, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages as well as optioned for film and TV. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner, their pets, and an ever-expanding collection of books she’s definitely going to read before she dies.

* East of Eden by John Steinbeck

* East of Eden

* Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

* Wuthering Heights (1992)

* Novel Pairings Episode 166. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

* The Favorites by Layne Fargo

* Wise Children

* Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

* The Interestingsby Meg Wolitzer

* Saltburn

* Windward Heights by Maryse Conde

* What Souls are Made Of by Tasha Suri

* The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell

* FictionMatters Interview with Layne Fargo

* Anna K by Jenny Lee

* Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s Moulin Rouge at PyeongChang 2018

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com

Welcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I ask writers to share a book that matters to them. I read it and we deep dive into the world of the text, exploring story, craft, and the way a great book can become part of someone. You’ll hear your favorite authors on their favorite authors and come away with expertly curated reading lists.

Today, Julie Buntin, author of Famous Men and Marlena, joins me to talk about Carol Shields’s Pulitzer-winning novel The Stone Diaries. This is one of the best books I’ve read all year and getting the chance to talk about the book’s emotional and intellectual prowess with Julie was an absolute joy. The Stone Diaries is a birth to death novel told with technical assurance and stylistic originality—its innovative without ever making the reader feel like their witnessing a trick or gimmick. It’s moving in the truest sense of the word, helping readers to see the world in an slightly altered state upon finishing. Julie’s insights into the book, both personal and analytical, helped me appreciate it all the more and understand better how she herself is able to bring such depth and complexity to her work.

I also got the chance to ask Julie about her wonderful new novel Famous Men. This is book that takes a story you think you know and continues adding layers until you realize you’re reading something infinitely more complex than you could have imagined. It was such a treat to get to hear all of the pieces that Julie pulled together in crafting this work and what made the writing process so different from her first book, Marlena.

You can purchase Famous Men, Marlena, and Carol Shields’s The Stone Diaries on Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books!

Julie Buntin’s new novel, Famous Men, is out now from Random House. Her debut, Marlena, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, an Indie Next pick, a Nevada Statewide Read, a Michigan Notable Book, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. Buntin’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New York Times, among other publications, and has been translated into nine languages. She's the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and was the winner - for Famous Men - of the Ellen Levine Fund for Writers Award from the New York Community Trust. Her collaborative nonfiction project, Notes to New Mothers, co-edited with Rebecca Dinerstein Knight and published by W.W. Norton, is an independent press bestseller. Previously, Buntin was an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult. She has taught creative writing at NYU, Columbia University, the Yale Writers’ Workshop, and elsewhere. Now, she writes and teaches in Ann Arbor, where she is an associate professor at the University of Michigan.

Connect with Julie: Website | Instagram | Famous Menon Bookshop

* Roald Dahl Collection

* The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

* Redwall by Brian Jacques

* Stephen King

* Annie Ernaud

* Tove Ditlevsen

* Elena Ferrante

* Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

* I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy

* Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

* Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan

* Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

* Such a Fun Age by Kylie Reid

* The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

* To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

* Marlena by Julie Buntin

* Tara Nichols on Instagram

* Famous Menon Audio

* Zuckerman Unbound by Phillip Roth

* Brandon Taylor’s sweater weather

* “That Crafty Feeling” by Zadie Smith

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Welcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Laura B. McGrath is Assistant Professor of English at Temple University, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books. She also writes the popular publishing substack, TextCrunch.

In today’s episode, Laura joins me to talk about Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife. I absolutely loved reading this book and it is a novel that absolutely must be discussed so I was thrilled to get the chance to deep dive into it with Laura. We talked about what makes a good publishing novel and how this particular book illuminates gender disparities in the literary world, while saying something much broader about what it means to be a woman and a wife. Of course we also we dive into Laura’s book Middlemen, which is all about the unique role literary agents play in the contemporary American publishing landscape. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I found Laura’s discoveries fascinating and I think any reader of contemporary fiction will as well. While we do talk about the end of The Wife, we save that for the last few minutes of our conversation and give ample warning before we we into spoilers!

You can find Middlemenon Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books! This is a peek behind the curtain of a very opaque industry and if you love books, I think you’ll find it extremely interesting.

Connect with Laura: Website | Instagram | Substack | Middlemenon Bookshop

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Sarah Wang is the author of New Skin (Little Brown, 2026), which was named a best book by NPR, Apple Books, and was featured in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, People, and Bloomberg. She has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the London Review of Books. Wang is a MacDowell Fellow, a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow, a PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a Sewanee Writer’s Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar, a Tin House Scholar, and the winner of a Barbara Deming Award. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College.

In today’s episode, Sarah joins me to talk about Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School. I loved this book, and processing my reading with Sarah made it all the richer. We delved into the mind-bending world of psychoanalytic theory and speculated on what the book is saying about language, masculinity, and trauma. Then we dive into Sarah’s debut novel New Skin. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I was thrilled to get to ask Sarah all of my questions, but also appreciated the questions she asked me about my experience reading her book. While we do get into some specifics about The Topeka School, we don’t include any spoilers for New Skin and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book.

You can find New Skin in your favorite bookshop now! This is a highly original debut that I hope more readers will pick up!

Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | New Skinon Bookshop | New Skinon Libro.fm

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Shannon Sanders is the author of The Great Wherever(Holt, July 2026) and the linked short story collection Company (Graywolf, 2023), which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named one of the best books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly and Debutiful, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including One Story, The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and has received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.

In today’s episode, Shannon joins me to talk about Toni Morrison’s Jazz, and I felt honored to unpack this complicated and beautifully rendered novel with her. Then we dive into Shannon’s new novel The Great Wherever, which is out Tuesday, July 7th, and yes that is tomorrow if you’re listening to this episode the day it drops. I had the great privilege of reading an early copy of The Great Wherever and I have to say it’s one of the best family novels I’ve read in a long time and I loved the originality Shannon brings to the narrative structure. While we do get into some specifics about Jazz, we don’t include any spoilers for The Great Wherever and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book.

You can find The Great Wherever in your favorite bookshop on July 7th. I also have to give a strong push for Company, Shannon’s linked short story collection which was one of my favorite books of 2023. Aubrey’s family appears in Company as well so if you fall in love with them, you need to pick a copy of that as well!

* The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders

* The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

* The Wayside School Seriesby Louis Sachar

* Holes by Louis Sachar

* The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin

* Mary Downing Hahn

* The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

* Lord of the Flies by William Golding

* Toni Morrison

* Octavia Butler

* Chinua Achebe

* Agatha Christie

* The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

* Tana French

* Company by Shannon Sanders

* Jamel Brinkley

* Deesha Philyaw

* Pemi Aguda

* Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

* Ghost Loverby Lisa Taddeo

* The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Donnie Walton

* Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

* Gone Girlby Gillian Flynn

* Ann Patchett

* Jonathan Franzen

* Jazzby Toni Morrison

* Belovedby Toni Morrison

* Paradise by Toni Morrison

* On Morrisonby Namwali Serpell

* The Bluest Eyeby Toni Morrison

* Corregidoraby Gayl Jones

* Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

* Dominionby Addie E. Citchens

* The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers

* The World Doesn’t Require Youby Rion Amilcar Scott

* The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters podcast. Today I’m talking about the best books of the year (so far) with my co-host Liz Hein. This year’s reading has been strange for me, but I feel very excited about the books Liz and I are sharing as well as the books we have to look forward to in the back half of the year.

As always, I would love to hear your favorite books of the year so far! Drop your favorites in the comments below!

Books & Links

* Lost Lambsby Madeline Cash

* Seek Immediate Shelterby Vincent Yu

* Canonby Paige Lewis

* Exit Partyby Emily St. John Mandel

* Ply by Hernan Diaz

* Under Story by Chloe Benjamin

* Ruins by Lily Brooks Dalton

* Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen

* Yesteryearby Caro Claire Burke

* The Things We Never Say Elizabeth Strout

* Strangers by Belle Burden

* Adult Bracesby Lindy West

* The Rise of Ragebait Lit by Maris Kreizman

* James by Percival Everett

* Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

* John of Johnby Douglas Stuart

* The Watch Podcast

* 18:40 Brawlerby Lauren Groff

* 22:06 Kin by Tayari Jones

* The Desertersby Mathias Ennard

* 26:04 Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky

* The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

* 28:46 Whistler by Ann Patchett

* Tom Lakeby Ann Patchett

* 32:18 Departuresby Julian Barnes

* The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey

* 35:14 Vigil by George Saunders

* Lincoln and the Bardoby George Saunders

* 38:51 Transcription by Ben Lerner

* Audition by Kate Kitamura

* 41:14 Landby Maggie O’Farrell

* Wild Dark Shoreby Charlotte McConaghy

* 46:16 She Who Remainsby Renee Karabash

* The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje

***This post contains affiliate links.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.Today, I’m joined by Rob Franklin.

Rob Franklin is the author of Great Black Hope, which was published in June 2025. A national bestseller, his debut novel was nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence — it was named a “Best Book of the Year” by TIME, Vogue, NPR, and Vanity Fair, among others. A co-founder of Art for Black Lives, Franklin holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU’s Creative Writing program. He teaches writing at School of Visual Arts and edits fiction for Joyland. He lives in New York.

In this episode, Rob and I discuss Richard Siken’s debut poetry collection, Crush. Not only was this my first time reading Crush, I had never even heard of it before Rob’s recommendation. I found this collection to be urgent and astonishing. I’m so grateful to Rob for bringing it to my attention and for this fascinating discussion about poetic language, the development of taste, and the interplay between writer, reader, and text. I hope you love this conversation and that getting to know Rob as a reader encourages you to go pick up Great Black Hope–it’s an excellent summer read!

Books and Links

* Crush by Richard Siken

* The Perks of being a Wallflowerby Stephen Chbosky

* Claudia Rankine

* Citizen by Claudia Rankine

* Mark Doty

* Terrance Hayes

* Lighthead by Terrance Hayes

* Ben Lerner

* Zadie Smith

* Katie Kitamura

* Raven Leilani

* Transcription by Ben Lerner

* Open Cityby Teju Cole

* Donna Tartt

* Joan Didion

* Hilton Als

* White Girls by Hilton Als

* Bluets by Maggie Nelson

* “You Are Jeff” by Richard Siken

* True Gritby Charles Portis (Audiobook read by Donna Tartt)

* The Secret Historyby Donna Tartt

* Edmund White

* Auditionby Katie Kitamura

* Mary Oliver

* W.H. Auden

* Chloe’s Scene by Jay McInerney

* What I Saw at Taylor Swift’s Delirious Eras Tour by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow Company Worth $250 Million by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* Another Country by James Baldwin

*This post contains affiliate links.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast; this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Nora Lange. Nora’s debut novel Us Fools was awarded the The Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, named a best book of 2024 by The Boston Globe and NPR, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Believer, BOMB, Hazlitt, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from Brown University and is a fellow at USC’s Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities. She recently moved to Salt Lake City with her family.

In this episode, Nora and I discuss Rachel Cusk’s classic motherhood memoir, A Life’s Work as well as Nora’s new short story collection, Day Care, which published on April 7th Additionally, we both get a little personal about how motherhood has impacted our creative lives and Nora shares how her recent reads are all connecting back to her current work in progress.

Books and Links

* Day Care by Nora Lange

* When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

* Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey

* The Dry Hearthttps://bookshop.org/a/1173/9780811228787by Natalia Ginzburg

* A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk

* All Foursby Miranda July

* Live Flesh movie directed by Pedro Almodóvar

* How Pregnancy and Childrearing Alter Our Perception of Time and Aging (Lit Hub)

* The King’s English Bookshop

* Us Fools by Nora Lange

* Joan Didion

Connect with Nora

* Website

* Instagram

* OrderDay Care

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Your girls are back! This Olympics was too dramatic to keep our commentary in the group chat so we’re back on mic to debrief it all. We chat through every event sharing our highlights and heartbreaks as well as answering some of your questions along the way. Plus we give some tips on how to keep up with the world of figure skating in between Olympic Games.

You can follow Layne Fargo on Instagram and Substack. If you’re currently experiencing ice dance withdrawal, get yourself a copy of The Favorites and then read all aboutThe Ice Queens, coming in 2027.

You can follow Denne Michele Norris on Instagram and keep up with her work at Electric Literature through their IG and website. Her debut novel When the Harvest Comes is out now and will release in paperback in April.

Read, Watch, Listen

* The Nice Capades

* The Runthrough

* The Runthrough Ice Dance Lore Part 1

* Surya Bonaly’s 1998 Olympic free skate

* Ryan Bradley’s celebratory backflip

* Ilia and Adam’s synchronized backflips

* Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier free dance

* Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnak free dance

* Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko free dance

* Adam Siao Him Fa Olympic short program

* Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara free skate

* Alysa Liu Olympic free skate

* Amber Glenn Nationals short program

* So You Want to Watch Figure Skating

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. This is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll talk with writers about reading to learn about their tastes, their habits, and the books that matter to them.

Today, I’m joined by Alli Hoff Kosik. Alli is a full-time writer and editor. For seven years, she independently produced and hosted The SSR Podcast. Alli holds an MFA from Temple University and lives in Philadelphia with her family. Her debut novel Too Blessed to Stress comes out March 3rd.

Alli has long been one of my favorite readers on the internet. Her fun and thoughtful examination of middle grade classics in the SSR Podcast is a wonderful example of conversational criticism and how every book, no matter the genre or intended audience, can be read with care and insight. Today, we get to apply that same framework to one of Alli’s favorite novels, Prepby Curtis Sittenfeld. Then, she shares a bit about her own debut novel, Too Blessed to Stress. Kiley Reid calls Alli’s debut “a delightful satire full of tenderness and heart” and I couldn’t agree more. Watching Alli make the leap from public reader to published author has been incredible and I highly recommend listening to her Behind the Scenes ofToo Blessed to Stresspodcast all about her process.

Too Blessed to Stress is out March 3rd, and you can preorder it now from Bookshop.org or your favorite indie bookstore.

Books and Links

* Too Blessed to Stress by Alli Hoff Kosik

* The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

* What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang

* The Wangs Vs. The World by Jade Chang

* Prepby Curtis Sittenfeld

* The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D.Salinger

* Bloomabilityby Sharon Creech

* American Wifeby Curtis Sittenfeld

* The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

* Under the Influenceby Noelle Crooks

* Workhorse by Caroline Palmer

* Kylie Reid

Connect with Alli

* Instagram

* Is This a Thing?

* Getting It Alli Together

* Pre-Order Too Blessed to Stress

*This post contains affiliate links.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan have begun. The torch is lit and the figure skating team event is underway. As you may know, I’m a former figure skater, and I love the winter Olympics. And so, I couldn’t resist asking two of my favorite authors and fellow figure skating fans to join me to share our Olympic enthusiasm and give you a little preview of what to watch for.

Layne Fargo is the bestselling author The Favorites, They Never Learn, and other fierce stories for fearless femmes. She is an ice-dance superfan and just announced a forthcoming novel, The Ice Queens, set in the same high stakes ice dance world as The Favorites. She lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.

Denne Michele Norris is the editor and chief of Electric Literature, winner of the 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. She is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. Last year, Denne released her debut novel, When the Harvest Comes as well editing and publishing the essay collection Both / And. A former figure skater herself, she is currently at work on a writing project that features figure skating.

These women are two of my favorite people to talk about this sport with. They are knowledgeable, fiercely funny, and willing to talk shit when shit needs to be talked. I hope you love this conversation as much as I did and that it adds some joy into your Olympic viewing.

Links

* Follow Layne on Instagram and Substack

* Follow Denne on Instagram and at Electric Literature

* The Favorites by Layne Fargo

* When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris

* Both / And by Denne Michele Norris

* Glitter and Gold

* Deanna’s Dream

* Jane Torville and Christoper Dean’s “Bolero”

* Michelle Kwan’s “The Red Violin”

* Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”

* Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s “Moulin Rouge”

* Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

* Ice Princess

* The Cutting Edge

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Happy reading!

Sara

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Welcome to Books That Matter. Today, I’m joined by A. Natasha Joukovsky.

a. natasha joukovsky is the author of the novels The Portrait of a Mirror and Medium Rare (forthcoming March 2026). Her writing has been published in Literary Hub, The Common, and Still Alive, and she writes the “quite useless” Substack newsletter. Natasha holds a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She lives in Washington, DC.

In today’s episode, Natasha and I talk about her theory of choice novels, different flavors of myth retellings, and why Evelina by Frances Burney is a book that matters to her–and to Jane Austen. Later we get into Natasha’s sophomore novel Medium Rare, a sharp, funny, piercing social novel about a mid-tier lobbyist who flies too close to the sun with a potentially perfect March Madness bracket. I adored this novel and I appreciate it all the more after this conversation. Medium Rare is available now for preorder.

Books and Links

* Evelinaby Frances Burney

* Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

* Pippi Longstockingby Astrid Lindgren

* Ramona Quimbyby Beverly Cleary

* Emmaby Jane Austen

* Mansfield Parkby Jane Austen

* Middlemarch by George Eliot

* The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

* The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

* The House of Mirthby Edith Wharton

* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

* Beloved by Toni Morrison

* The Age of Choiceby Sophia Rosenfeld

* Metamorphosesby Ovid

* Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

* The Portrait of a Mirrorby A. Natasha Joukovsky

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack: How to read like a novelist

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack:The Austen Math cumulative report

* Jane Austen’s Bookshelfby Rebecca Romney

* Rebecca Romney on Pawn Stars

* The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

* Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

* The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

* The Mayor of Casterbridgeby Thomas Hardy

* Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

* Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

* House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Fleishman Is in Troubleby Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* The Book of Anne by H.A.Thurston

* Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

* Prodigalsby Greg Jackson

* Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

* The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

* The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

* Circeby Madeline Miller

* The Sellout by Paul Beatty

* The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

* Ars Longa, Via Brevis by Russell Bittner

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Welcome to Books That Matters. Today, I’m joined by Anika Jade Levy. Anika is a writer from Colorado, a founding editor of Forever Magazine, and an instructor in the Writing program at Columbia. Her fiction and reporting have appeared in The Paris Review, Vogue, Playboy, GQ, Interview Magazine, and elsewhere. Her debut novel Flat Earth came out from Catapult in 2025.

In today’s episode, Anika and I chat about voice in fiction, the male literacy crisis, and why The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger is a book that matters to her. Later we get into Anika’s novel Flat Earth, a raw and funny novel that excels at capturing both voice and place. Anika shares about the novel’s origins as a stream of consciousness exercise, how art and ideas are contagious, and her hopes for her future writing .

You can find links to Anika’s work and the books she recommends in the show notes. Alright let’s get into my conversation with Anika Jade Levy.

Books and Links

* Forever Magazine

* Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy

* The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

* Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

* The Babysitter at Rest by Jen George

* Dorothy Project

* Books That Matter with Jade Chang

* Taipei by Tao Lin

* Leave Society by Tao Lin

* NYT Review

* Guardian Review

* Kirkus Review

* UnHerd Review

* That text

* Female Loneliness Epidemic by Danielle Chelosky

* “Worst Friends Forever” - Kazou Robinson’s review of Flat Earth

* Anika at Aspen Lit Festival

* Anika’s Review ofShadow Ticket

* Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

* Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

* Rayne Fisher Kwann and what it means to be woman’d

* “I’m Crazy” by J.D. Salinger

* Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

* At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard

* “The Sentence is a Lonely Place” by Gabrielle Lutz

* Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

* A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)

* Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt

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This episode needs no introduction. Today Liz and I are share our favorite books of the year--all new releases. This was a weird year in books, but we each managed to come up with lists we feel excited to share and champion before the new year. As always, we hope you’ll let us know about your best books in the Substack comments.

If you want to hear Liz and I talking about books all year long, now is a great time to upgrade your subscription. With a paid membership, you’ll get our bonus superlatives episode and This Month in Books, our ongoing book discussion series. Subscriptions are 20% off through the month of December, so it’s the perfect time to join!

Alright, let’s get to it!

Books Mentioned

* Loved and Missedby Susie Boyt

* The Girl with the Louding Voiceby Abi Daré

* Hamnetby Maggie O’Farrell

* The Book of Longingsby Sue Monk Kidd

* Liz’s Ranking of her 100 Favorite Reads from the past 5 years

* Jamesby Percival Everett

* Heart the Loverby Lily King

* Wild Dark Shoreby Charlotte McConaghy

* 21:26 - Mother Mary Come to Meby Arundhati Roy (Liz’s #10)

* Hanif Abduraquib

* 24:15 - Days of Lightby Megan Hunter(Sara’s #10)

* 26:56 -The White Hotby Quiara Alegría Hudes (Liz’s #9)

* 32:31- Stag Danceby Torrey Peters (Sara’s #9)

* Detransition Babyby Torrey Peters

* 35:330 - The Antidoteby Karen Russell (Liz’s #8)

* Swamplandia!by Karen Russell

* 40:48 -The Devil Three Timesby Rickey Fayne (Sara’s #8)

* Medium Rareby Natasha Jouvkosky

* Natasha Joukovsky on “the choice plot”

* 44:28 - Endingby Maria Reva (Liz’s #7)

* 47:35 - Among Friendsby Hal Ebbott (Sara’s #7)

* A Sport and a Pastimeby James Salter

* 51:05 - The Lack of Light by Nino Haratischvili(Liz’s #6)

* The Eighth Lifeby Nino Haratischvili

* 55:10 - Foxby Joyce Carol Oates(Sara’s #6)

* 1:00:18 - People Like Usby Jason Mott (Liz’s #5)

* Hell of a Bookby Jason Mott

* 1:05:46 - Minor Black Figuresby Brandon Taylor(Sara’s #5)

* 1:11:02 - Tom’s Crossingby Mark Z. Danielewski (Liz’s #4)

* House of Leavesby Mark Z. Danielewski

* 1:17:41 - Flashlightby Susan Choi(Sara’s #4)

* 1:19:12 - Seascraperby Benjamin Wood(Liz’s #3)

* 1:22:00 - Seduction Theoryby Emily Adrian(Sara’s #3)

* 1:26:15 - North Sun, or the Voyage of the Whale Ship Estherby Ethan Rutherford(Liz’s #2)

* Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

* 1:31:42 - The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken(Sara’s #2)

* My Workby Olga Ravn

* The Employeesby Olga Ravn

* 1:37:35 - The River Has Rootsby Amal El-Mohtar (Liz’s #1)

* 1:42:30 - Auditionby Katie Kitamura(Sara’s #1)

* The Directorby Daniel Kehlman

* Tyllby Daniel Kahlman

* The Wildernessby Angela Flournoy

* The Mobius Bookby Catherine Lacey

* Flat Earthby Anika Jade Levy

* Universalityby Natasha Brown

* The Pilgrimageby John Broderick

* Hunchbackby Saou Ishikawa, translated by Polly Barton

* Sad Tigerby Neige Sinno

* One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against Thisby Omar El Akkad

* Dead and Aliveby Zadie Smith

* Original Sinsby Eve Ewing

* Sarah’s Bookshelves Superlative Episode

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Jade Chang to talk about the nostalgia of childhood reading, the blurring of genres, and why The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston is a book that matters to her. Later we get into Jade’s sophomore novel What a Time to Be Alive, a thoughtful and pacey story about grief, grifting, and growing up set in an LA we don’t often see on the page. Jade shares about losing the original manuscript for this novel (I was shocked!) and why she values writing about how we actually live now.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book. There are a couple brief audio hiccups in this episode, but please bear with us as they don’t last long! As has become tradition, this episode is overflowing with books so be sure to check out the book list and links in the show notes. You can find What a Time to Be Alive and Jade’s debut The Wangs Vs. the World wherever you browse for books. Alright let’s get into my conversation with Jade Chang.

Books and Links

* The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

* In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

* Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo

* Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shosin

* Shopsins

* My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

* Just Kids by Patti Smith

* The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

* The Tattooed Potato by Ellen Raskin

* The Mysterious Disappearance of Noel (I Mean Leon) by Ellen Raskin

* From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

* Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

* The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

* The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

* The Idiot by Elif Batuman

* Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

* Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

* Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Hadix

* Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

* Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal

* The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

* The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

* In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

* What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang

* The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang

* Joan Didion

* Eve Babitz

* The Hours by Michael Cunningham

* A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

* Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Alright readers I hope you enjoyed this episode of books that matter with Jade Chang. You can find links to What a Time to Be Alive, The Woman Warrior, and all the books mentioned in the show notes or substack post. If you want more FM podcast content consider becoming a paid Substack or Patreon subscriber. Paid subscribers get at least two additional podcasts each month, including my ranked reading recap and this month in books with Liz Hein. As always, thanks for listening and I’ll be back soon to help you find more books that matter.

*This book contains affiliate links.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast; this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into the books that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Rickey Fayne. Rickey’s debut novel The Devil Three Times is currently shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and one of my personal favorite debut novels of the year. In this episode, Rickey and I talk about the value of reading classic literature, the books he returned to when he started thinking he wanted to write, and why Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is the book that matters to him. Then we get into his novel The Devil Three Times. Rickey shares where he began with his expansive project, why he isn’t a short story writer, and how a planned dissertation influenced the novel he eventually wrote.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book. There is one moment where Rickey worries he’s giving away the end of Song of Solomon, but I promise it’s too vague to be a real spoiler! This episode is overflowing with books so be sure to check out the book list and links in the show notes and then pick up your copy of The Devil Three Times at your favorite bookshop.

Books Mentioned

* Loca by Alejandro Heredia

* Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

* Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

* Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

* House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

* Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

* Summer by Edith Wharton

* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

* Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Marukami

* Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

* A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

* All of Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones

* The Known World by Edward P. Jones

* Jane Austen

* Charlotte Bronte

* Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

* Sula by Toni Morrison

* The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

* The Black Book by Middleton A. Harris

* On Morrison by Namwali Serpell

* Toni at Random by Dana A. Williams

* The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne

* Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

* Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

* The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the Fiction Matters podcast. This is Books That Matter, an author interview series where we’ll get to know writers as readers and talk about the books that matter to them.

Since this is the first in this new series, I’m going to pause our regular intro to give a little bit of background information on the series and how it came to be and what I’m hoping to do here.

So for quite some time, I’ve been wanting to do more author interviews on my Substack. First of all, it’s a way to shine a light on writers that I love, and it’s a way for me to get to know more about writing and reading in general and the writers I really admire in particular.

But to be quite honest, I’ve always had kind of a complicated relationship with author interviews. I can be a little bit precious about my own reading. As a reader, I really like to do the interpretive work. I like to make meaning out of a book in terms of how I connect with it, how I see it. I guess I’m kind of a self-centered reader in that regard and how I approach reading fiction. And so sometimes I can avoid author interviews because I just I don’t want to know too much that influences how I read the book.

But at the same time, I love listening to authors talk and I love talking with authors. I find the conversation so fascinating because I think that writers read a little bit differently than regular readers, or at least I’ve noticed that a lot of writers read differently than I do personally. And so I’m always fascinated to hear about what they read, how they read, and the types of books that they enjoy and how that then translates into their own work.

So I have been thinking about how to host author interviews and I thought, maybe I would like to talk to writers, but talk to them more as readers and in particular about the books that have really shaped or influenced or mattered to them in some way. I have actually been doing this similar series and a series that goes by the same name over on Patreon for years where I talk to literary society members of the Patreon group about books that matter to them. And so now, starting today, I’m going to be bringing a similar series called Books That Matter to Substack, where I will be talking with authors about a book that matters to them, and in doing so, hoping to get to learn a little bit more about their reading lives.

I’ll also, of course, be talking to them about their writing lives and their own books, but the focus is going to be a little bit more on reading. And I’m still figuring out this whole series, exactly what it’s going to look like, how often it’s going to come out, all of that. Right now, it will just be kind of spontaneously as I find and reach out to authors who I really want to speak with. And you might notice the episode format or at least kind of discussion points shift a bit between episodes as I get into a groove, as I figure out my stride and what really works for these conversations.

But the goal is going to remain the same, to get to know writers as readers and writers. discover new to us books that matter or learn about books that maybe we readers already know and love, but learn how they matter to a particular writer in a different way.

So I hope you’re excited for this series. I’m so excited. I have some great guests lined up for you over the next few weeks and months and today, for the inaugural episode, I’m joined by Emily Adrian. Emily is the author of Seduction Theory, a metafictional campus novel that explores loyalty, betrayal, and writing craft through a story that’s both extremely clever and highly entertaining. In the first part of this episode, you’ll hear about Emily’s reading life, how learning to read made life snap into focus, and why Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark became an instant favorite. Later we get into her 2025 release Seduction Theory. She shares how the narrator of the book emerged as she wrote and (remarkably without any spoilers!) how she added to the ending right before her book went on submission.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book, and I hope you will because this was a very fun conversation! Alright after that long preamble, let’s get into my conversation with Emily Adrian.

If you prefer to listen in a podcast player, here are instructions to make sure you have linked your FictionMatters subscription to your app of choice. You can also view the entire transcript of our conversation by playing this episode in your desktop browser.

Links & Timestamps

* Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian

* Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

* Sigrid Nunez

* Susan Choi

* Heart the Lover by Lily King

* Vladimir Nabokov

* Muriel Spark

* Joy Williams

* Alice Munro

* Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

* The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

* 12:18 - Loitering with Intent Discussion

* 32:21 - Seduction Theory Discussion

* Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

* Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

* The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

* God and Sex by Jon Raymond

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It’s time! Liz Hein and I are here with our annual Best Books of the Year (so far) episode and this one is FUN. The literary landscape looks different and 2025, and we are reveling in it. Last year, a few exceptional books dominated the conversation—and both Liz and my favorite books of the year. This year, our lists have much more variety, and while we’re both still looking for our under-the-radar gem of the year, it was a treat to be surprised by each other’s list and to have favorites that felt like our favorites rather than everyone’s favorites.

Free subscribers, you’ll find a 20 minute preview of this episode in your inbox, app, or browser. If you love listening to Liz and me chat about books, considering upgrading your subscription to get our book discussion episodes every month!

Because of travel and busy summer schedules, this Best Books episode is our June This Month in Books, but we’ll be back to share all of our thoughts on June and July reading next month! After listening, please do head to the comments to tell us all about your best books of the year (so far). New and shiny or backlist gems, I want to hear about the best things you've been reading in 2025!

***As a reminder, you can find the transcript and closed captions for this episode by listening in a browser. You can also find this episode by searching for FictionMatters on Spotify. Thanks for listening!