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

You Must Read This

Writers recommend their all-time favorite books

Wednesday

Gutter To The Stars: A Testosterone Fueled Romp

book cover detail hide caption

toggle caption

Review

Gutter To The Stars: A Testosterone Fueled Romp

If someone's not being killed or beaten, he's being shaken down, spied on, bedded, or seduced in James Ellroy's American Tabloid. Author Adam Levin says it will have you admiring J. Edgar Hoover's sleazy connivances and cheering for the violent downfall of the Kennedys.

Gutter To The Stars: A Testosterone Fueled Romp

Listen · 4:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/147262381/147756312" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

A Depressive Diarist Chronicles His Descent
istockphoto.com

Review

A Depressive Diarist Chronicles His Descent

How much do we read into ourselves when we write a diary? Author Patrick DeWitt recommends the dark, deep journal of a man suffering from a nervous breakdown.

A Depressive Diarist Chronicles His Descent

Listen · 3:56
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/137047128/147165025" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Monday

Monday

Review

A Revolution On The Page: Finding Identity In Poetry

When Roya Hakakian moved from Iran to the U.S., she didn't think any poet in her adopted country could top the ones whose work she grew up with. But then she discovered a piece that blew away her prejudices. It was "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

A Revolution On The Page: Finding Identity In Poetry

Listen
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/144791539/145474014" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity
istockphoto.com

Review

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity

Author Alex Gilvarry recommends Max Frisch's I'm Not Stiller, a novel that intertwines a classic tale of mistaken identity with high comedy and postwar seriousness.

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity

Listen · 3:42
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/141981758/144633237" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Monday

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past
Elegies Promo

Review

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past

Can a book of elegies rise above maudlin morbidity? Author Stewart O'Nan says yes — and he recommends a great one by Christie Hodgen. It's a book that will break your heart, and warm your soul.

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past

Listen · 3:54
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/143164875/145130439" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic
Other

Review

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic

As it turns out, Raymond Chandler isn't the only writer who can channel the dark charisma of deceptively sunny California. Author Hector Tobar recommends John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that captures the grit and glamor of Los Angeles' past.

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic

Listen · 3:59
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/142310625/144395027" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

Review

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

The best books don't just get inside a character's psyche, they get in the reader's head, as well. Author Ismet Prcic recommends Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, a funny, provocative, cerebral novel that explores the meaning of violence.

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

Listen · 3:59
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/141353500/142418263" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

Review

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

Can the mishaps of three seriously misguided Victorian gentlemen still provoke laughter? More than 120 years after its first edition, author Julia Stuart says Jerome K. Jerome's classic caper, Three Men in a Boat, is still a delightful read.

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

Listen · 4:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/141239721/143168650" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

Review

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

In the bucolic setting of The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, the joys and pitfalls of sibling rivalry are given new life. Author Amy Waldman says the book's sparse prose and stark setting provide the backdrop for a moving story of familial resentment.

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

Listen · 4:00
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/141437673/145934011" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Wednesday

Review

Drunk On Words: A Literary Escape From Adolescence

The romantic power of words has the uncanny ability to lead us through the aches and pains of growing up. Author Leah Hager Cohen recommends Brian Hall's The Saskiad, a coming-of-age tale with a bookish twist.

Drunk On Words: A Literary Escape From Adolescence

Listen · 3:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/140812892/141293837" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

A Life-Changing Book With A Fierce, Feisty Heroine

Critics originally described it as a "housewife's choice" when it won the Booker Prize in 1987, but the feisty female protagonist in Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger is a "little wife" to no one. Author Moni Mohsin explains why the unexpected verve of this novel is worth its weight in pages.

A Life-Changing Book With A Fierce, Feisty Heroine

Listen · 3:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/140598095/140822798" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript