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You Must Read This "You Must Read This" presents conversations with writers about the books they love to read and recommend.
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You Must Read This

Writers recommend their all-time favorite books

Tuesday

Review

All Aboard Historical Thriller 'Finland Station'

Author Aravind Adiga was not interested in stuffy classics or long, drawn-out historical accounts. But Edmund Wilson's history of socialism, To the Finland Station, proved to be anything but dull — it's electrifying.

All Aboard Historical Thriller 'Finland Station'

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Friday

Review

'Book Of Disquiet' Reveals A Reclusive Author's Soul

Author Fernando Pessoa may have been a loner who lived most of his life in a single room in Lisbon, Portugal. But he wasn't alone: He created numerous literary alter egos. Rabih Alameddine describes Pessoa's work, The Book of Disquiet, as one of life's great miracles.

'Book Of Disquiet' Reveals A Reclusive Author's Soul

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Tuesday

Review

The Unexamined Life Examined In 'Mrs. Bridge'

Best-selling mystery novelist James Patterson may be known for his thrillers, but the little book that profoundly influenced his writing was far less conspicuous. Mrs. Bridge, the tale of a Kansas City husband and wife, would stay with him forever.

The Unexamined Life Examined In 'Mrs. Bridge'

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Thursday

Review

A Cape Cod Connection In 'The Outermost House'

When she needs inspiration for writing about the natural world, author Lucinda Fleeson opens Henry Beston's 1929 classic: The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod.

A Cape Cod Connection In 'The Outermost House'

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Monday

Thursday

Review

A Wild, 'Burning' Journey Back To Old Mexico

Author Oscar Casares never used to be a reader — until the excitement of The Burning Plain and Other Stories showed him what he had been missing.

A Wild, 'Burning' Journey Back To Old Mexico

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Tuesday

Thursday

Review

'Sargasso' Re-Imagines The Madwoman Of 'Jane Eyre'

Jean Rhys' 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea endeavors to create a back story to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Though author Sara Paretsky usually resists such "vampire novels," she fell hard for Rhys' heart-chokingly urgent tale of Rochester's Madwoman.

'Sargasso' Re-Imagines The Madwoman Of 'Jane Eyre'

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Monday

When It Comes To Food, You Can't 'Beat This' Book

Review

When It Comes To Food, You Can't 'Beat This' Book

According to author Elizabeth Berg, Beat This! is more than just a cookbook — it's a humor book, a self-help book and a kind of bible.

When It Comes To Food, You Can't 'Beat This' Book

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Thursday

Review

Bradbury's Fiction Reignites An Author's Faith

Author Alice Hoffman says the world rendered in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 "is a place of great heart and wisdom, a universe of huge imagination where nothing is off-limits."

Bradbury's Fiction Reignites An Author's Faith

Listen · 3:22
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Tuesday

Review

A Delightfully Evil Tale Of Pirates And Children

Finding a book that makes you feel like a kid again is no easy feat, but author Andrew Sean Greer says he found just that in Richard Hughes' A High Wind in Jamaica.

A Delightfully Evil Tale Of Pirates And Children

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Monday

Review

Head In A Fog? Reach For 'Herzog'

There's a little thing author Jeffrey Eugenides does when he can't write. When he's feeling sleepy, when his head is in a fog, he reaches across his desk, digs under the piles of unanswered mail, and unearths his copy of Herzog by Saul Bellow.

Head In A Fog? Reach For 'Herzog'

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Tuesday

Review

In Praise Of Ondaatje's Gloriously Intoxicating 'Lion'

Author Kamila Shamsie owns two copies of Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion so that no matter where she is, she can always slip into the novel's vital, heart-stopping world.

In Praise Of Ondaatje's Gloriously Intoxicating 'Lion'

Listen · 3:55
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Monday

Review

Iceland's Stoic, Sardonic 'Independent People'

The main character in Halldor Laxness' novel Independent People is querulous, contrary, hard-hearted and stubborn — but author Christina Sunley can't get enough of him.

Iceland's Stoic, Sardonic 'Independent People'

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Monday