book podcasts

 

Town & Country magazine rounded up some great book podcasts for literature lovers looking to step outside the book—from a grown-up version of Reading Rainbow to conversations recorded live from the most famous bookstore in Paris to a project centered on immersive poetry reading. There's something for everyone here—just as long as you love to read!

NPR's Book of the Day

Released daily, NPR's Book of the Day podcast is an under 15-minute listen on good reads and book news. As NPR describes, "Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times—or temporarily escape from them—we've got an author who will speak to you, all genres, mood and writing styles included."

Well-Read Black Girl

In 2015, Glory Edim launched Well-Read Black Girl—a book club turned literary festival turned podcast. The first episodes feature conversations with Min Jin Lee, Tarana Burke, Anita Hill, and Jacqueline Woodson. The podcast includes interviews with WRBG Book Club members, Black booksellers, and more.

Debutiful

Debutiful is a website and podcast where readers can discover new authors through interviews and recommendations. Hosted by Adam Vitcavage, the show only features debut authors—and their fresh voices are key. If you're someone who loves reading the acknowledgements section—there's nothing better—this podcast truly delivers.

The Maris Review

Maris Kreizman is the author of the bestselling Slaughterhouse 90210: Where Great Books Meet Pop Culture. On her podcast, she talks to authors you should know about their own books and the books they love, the shows and films they’ve watched, the music they’ve listened to, and the links they’ve clicked.

The Book Review

The New York Times Book Review is legendary. Each week, authors and critics join host Pamela Paul and editors at Times Book Review to talk about bestselling books, what they're reading, and what's going on in the literary world.  O’Neal Library posts the weekly NYT Best Seller list on our Shelf Care page at https://oneallibrary.org/adults---reading-recommendations. (updated each Monday morning!)

Overdue

Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to pick up. Hosts Andrew Cunningham and Craig Getting work through their backlog and share with each other what they've been reading. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy children’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.

Celebrity Memoir Book Club

New York comedians Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton read celebrity memoirs so you don't have to. Each episode features a different celebrity memoir—from Emily Ratajkowski's My Body to Will Smith's Will—and Claire & Ashley are simply hilarious.

Storykeepers Podcast

Storykeepers: Let's Talk Indigenous Books is a monthly podcast hosted by Jennifer David and Waubgeshig Rice. Each episode, they're joined by a guest host to discuss books by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit authors. Their goal is to "bring conversations about Indigenous books to a wider audience in an audio book-club format." And though they release only one episode a month, it's worth the wait.

Hey YA

This podcast from Book Riot focuses exclusively on young adult literature. Hosts Erica Ezeifedi and Tirzah Price discuss great new YA books and favorite classics, and cover book news, adaptations, and so much more.

The Writer's Voice

Ever wanted to hear a New Yorker writer read their story to you? Look no further than The Writer's Voice, where New Yorker fiction writers read their stories from the magazine. A recent favorite was Matrix author Lauren Groff reading her story "Annunciation" from the February 14 & 21, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.

Books & Boba

Books & Boba is a book club dedicated to spotlighting books written by authors of Asian descent. Every month, hosts Marvin Yueh and Reera Yoo pick a book by an Asian or Asian American author to read and discuss on the podcast. They also interview authors and cover publishing news. Notably, they read a wide-range of genres—from fantasy to memoir—so there's something for everyone.

Novel Pairings

Novel Pairings is a podcast "dedicated to making the classics readable, relevant, and fun." Each episode, hosts Sara and Chelsey discuss one classic book and share recommendations for more contemporary reads that feature similar themes.

Three Percent

The Three Percent podcast, presented by the University of Rochester’s translation program, hopes to bring attention to books in translation—with the goal that "reading literature from other countries is vital to maintaining a vibrant book culture and to increasing the exchange of ideas among cultures."

Harry Potter and the Sacred Text

This podcast is so much more than a Harry Potter book club. Rather, as the hosts explain, "this podcast creates time in your week to think about life’s big questions. Because reading fiction doesn’t help us escape the world, it helps us live in it." Hosted by Vanessa Zoltan and Matthew Potts, the show "allows listeners to find meaning through a secular text that they love" by re-reading the Harry Potter books.

On the Road with Penguin Classics

On the Road with Penguin Classics is a literary podcast that takes a stroll around the world's favorite books. In each episode, author Henry Eliot travels to a different literary location to explore a book in the company of remarkable readers.

Book Friends Forever

Ever wanted to know about children's book publishing secrets? Look no further, because best friends Grace Lin and Alvina Ling have the podcast for you. Grace is NYT bestselling author and illustrator and Alvina is the VP and Editor-in-Chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Friends to Lovers

Each week, hosts Mackenzie Newcomb and Lily Herman use romance novels as a jumping off point to talk about sex, relationships, dating, and love. The podcast is presented by Bad Bitch Book Club, an online book club community.

Borrowed

The Brooklyn Public Library's flagship podcast, Borrowed, is hosted by librarian Adwoa Adusei and director of marketing Krissa Corbett Cavouras. Each episode doesn't feature a book review or interview, but rather, stories from Brooklyn—stories from the library, Brooklyn history, and more. Even if you've never been to Brooklyn, you will like Borrowed. Plus, each episode comes with a reading list.

The LRB Podacst

The LRB Podcast brings you weekly conversations from The London Review of Books. It's not specifically all about books, but covers everything from Elizabethan True Crime to anti-vaxxers, so you know you will be tuning in to a fascinating conversation.

The Worst Bestsellers

In The Worst Bestsellers, writer Kait and librarian Renata read bestselling books in an attempt to understand their appeal. As the disclaimer on their website reads: "We want to be clear about something: we’re not snobs, honestly. If somebody only ever reads James Patterson books, or vampire books, or magazines: more power to them, we say. We’re reading these books because we’re curious about what’s popular, and also, reading these books gives us a better idea of what’s popular and how to give good readers advisory. We make jokes about the books we read, but our intent is never to make fun of readers."

What Should I Read Next?

What Should I Read Next? helps you figure out your next book. Each week, Anne Bogel, who blogs under the name Modern Mrs Darcy, interviews a reader about the books they love, the books they hate, and the books they're reading now. Then, she makes recommendations about what to read next.

BULAQ

BULAQ is an English-language podcast about contemporary writing from and about the Middle East and North Africa. Hosts Ursula Lindsey and M Lynx Qualey talk about books written in Aleppo, Cairo, Marrakech, and beyond, looking at the Arab region through the lens of literature. The podcast is named after a neighborhood of Cairo that hosted the first active printing press, the Bulaq Press, in the region.

Poetry Unbound

Poetry Unbound promises to be, a poetry ritual, "an immersive reading of a single poem, guided by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Unhurried, contemplative and energizing." The show releases new episodes on Monday and Friday, about 15 minutes each, with the goal of helping you "anchor your life with poetry."

LeVar Burton Reads

Think Reading Rainbow, but for adults. That's it, that's the show: In every episode, host LeVar Burton invites you to take a break from your daily life, and dive into a great story. LeVar’s narration blends with gorgeous soundscapes to bring stories by Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury and more to life.

SFF Yeah!

SFF Yeah! is a biweekly podcast from Book Riot dedicated to science fiction and fantasy. Hosted by Jenn Northington and Sharifah Williams, the show focuses in on the sci-fi and fantasy literary world, and you will end every episode with so many new book recommendations.

The Stacks

Host Traci Thomas invites authors on the show to discuss books as a lens to understand culture, race, and politics. A recent episode featured Rachel Lindsay, the first Black Bachelorette and author of Miss Me With That.

Shakespeare and Company: Writers, Books and Paris

Shakespeare and Company's podcast is recorded live from their bookstore in the heart of Paris, and features conversations and readings with a wide range of authors. Since opening in 1951, Shakespeare and Company—an English language bookstore in France—has been a meeting place for anglophone writers and readers. It's a Left Bank literary institution, and now it's available from anywhere in the world.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/g39137355/best-book-podcasts/

ancient civilizations

 

The next Books & Beyond meeting will be Tuesday, March 29 at 6:30pm in the library’s conference room.  If you’d like to attend online instead, register your email at https://www.oneallibrary.org/event/5494758.  The topic of discussion will be Academy Award-winning films.  Watch one, read about one, read or listen to the book it was adapted from…the choice is yours.

This week, BAB met to talk about ancient civilizations.  Have a look!

Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs: 100 Discoveries That Changed the World edited by Ann R. Williams

Blending high adventure with history, this chronicle of 100 astonishing discoveries from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the fabulous “Lost City of the Monkey God” tells incredible stories of how explorers and archaeologists have uncovered the clues that illuminate our past.

Venus and Aphrodite: History of a Goddess by Bettany Hughes (not yet available in the JCLC system, request via Interlibrary Loan)

Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.

The Inheritors by William Golding

From the author of Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors is a startling novel of the lost world of the Neanderthals, and a frightening vision of the beginnings of a new age.

Dance of the Tiger by Bjorn Kurten (not available in the JCLC system, request via Interlibrary Loan)

Kurten draws on recent anthropological discoveries and his vivid imagination to create a compelling novel of life thirty-five thousand years ago, telling the story of Tiger as he seeks revenge for a savage attack on his tribe.

Written in Stone: A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language by Christopher Stevens

In snappy, lively, and often very funny chapters, Written in Stone uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors and shows how they are still in constant use today - the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.

(Great Courses) Ancient Civilizations of North America

In 24 exciting lectures, you’ll learn about the vibrant cities of Poverty Point, the first city in North America, built about 3,500 years ago, and Cahokia, the largest city of ancient North America. You’ll explore the many ways in which the Chacoan environment provided cultural and religious focus for peoples of the southwest. And you’ll learn about the Iroquoian source of some of our most basic “American” values. 

(Great Courses) Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed

Immerse yourself in this epic story with 48 exhilarating half-hour lectures that cover the scope of Mesoamerican history and culture. Although the Spanish eventually conquered all of Mesoamerica, much remains of the original cultures. This course is the ideal way to plan an itinerary, prepare for a tour, or simply sit back and enjoy a thrilling virtual voyage.

(Great Courses) Lost Worlds of South America

Take an adventurous trek to these wilds of South America and the great civilizations of the ancients. In 24 eye-opening lectures, you'll take an in-depth look at the emerging finds and archaeological knowledge of more than 12 seminal civilizations, giving you rich insight into the creative vision and monumental achievements of these wellsprings of human life.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In the company of the strangely alluring Mayan god of death and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

Acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization.

Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick by David Frye

Alternately evocative, amusing, chilling, and deeply insightful as it gradually reveals the startling ways that barriers have affected our psyches. The questions this book summons are both intriguing and profound: Did walls make civilization possible? And can we live without them? 

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline

A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age―and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.

Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek

Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period and explores the political and social systems, as well as the technical and cultural innovations, which made this land extraordinary. 

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Red: A History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey

The brilliantly told, captivating history of red hair throughout the ages and across multiple disciplines, including science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, literature, and art.

·         In medieval historian Michael McCormick’s opinion, the worst year to be alive was 536.

Life as We Knew It by Sarah Beth Pfeffer

Miranda's disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the Moon closer to the Earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all, hope, in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life.

Melancholia

Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine's sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire's best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind...

Don’t Look Up (requires Netflix subscription)

Two astronomers go on a media tour to warn humankind of a planet-killing comet hurtling toward Earth. The response from a distracted world: Meh.

The Toilet: An Unspoken History

It's a problem as old as civilization itself, the unspoken question on the pages of every history book. From the latrines of the Roman age to the conveniences of the future, this documentary takes its viewers on a full sanitary experience, visiting countries as diverse as China, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, India and Britain, meeting all manner of people who work... with toilets.

This Podcast Will Kill You

Grad students studying disease ecology, Erin and Erin found themselves disenchanted with the insular world of academia. They wanted a way to share their love of epidemics and weird medical mysteries with the world, not just colleagues. Plus, who doesn't love an excuse to have a cocktail while chatting about pus and poop?  We discussed the rabies episode in particular.

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik

In this fascinating exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years in the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies.

The documentary I was trying to remember is Chasing the Equinox and it is a National Geographic documentary on Disney+.  Description: “The ancients hid the secrets of their incredible knowledge of astronomy in their temples and palaces, built to align with the sun, on the same day, all over the world. Revealing our species' obsession with the sun, across thousands of years and every continent, this is architectural magic on a cosmic scale.”

Nag Hammad’i Library

The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient books (called "codices") containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important discovery includes many primary "Gnostic Gospels" – texts once thought to have been entirely destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define "orthodoxy" – scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth. 

·         The Holy Bible

 

HBO's The Gilded Age

 

Breathlessly awaiting the next episode of HBO’s The Gilded Age? Get your fix of ballroom intrigue with one of these!

To Watch:

BBC’s Buccaneers

Deemed nouveau riche and shunned by elitist New York society, sisters Nan and Virginia St. George, along with their friends Lizzy Elmsworth and Conchita Closson (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), try their luck in London. The girls' New World spontaneity and impertinence constitute nothing less than a social invasion of Old-World society and they soon find themselves courted by a coterie of fascinated admirers. But as the old and new worlds come to clash, something has to give.

The Forsyte Saga

Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novels by John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga is an epic and highly praised series spanning three generations of the powerful Forsyte family at the turn of the 20th century. Beneath the family’s imposing veneer lies a festering core of unhappy and brutal relationships. Damian Lewis (Homeland) stars as greedy, tormented Soames Forsyte with Gina McKee (Notting Hill) as his reluctant bride, Irene.

The Bostonians

Boston, 1876: At a Women's Movement meeting, fiercely independent Olive (Vanessa Redgrave) becomes mentor to gifted young orator Verena (Madeleine Potter) - who soon attracts the amorous attentions of Olive's Southern cousin Basil (Christopher Reeve). The contesting demands of courtship and sapphic friendship in this love-triangle in all but name are further complicated by New York society matron Mrs. Burrage, who tries to secure Verena for her son. Merchant Ivory explores the subtle power struggles between sex, class and the Women's Movement at the heart of Henry James' classic novel with delicate precision and a marvelous sense of social milieu.

The Magnificent Ambersons

A brilliant, moving portrayal of an aristocratic American family in what many critics consider a masterpiece equal to Citizen Kane. Based on a novel by Booth Tarkington, the drama begins in the 1870s when the Amberson family is at the height of its wealth and prestige. But the day arrives when all the Ambersons are stunned by the truth of their financial ruin.

A Room with a View

Based on E.M. Forster's novel of requited love. A young, independent-minded, upper-class Edwardian woman who is trying to sort out her burgeoning romantic feelings, divided between an enigmatic free spirit she meets on vacation in Florence and the priggish bookworm to whom she becomes engaged back in the more corseted Surrey. Funny, sexy, and sophisticated, this gargantuan art-house hit.

The Wings of the Dove

A young society woman's love for a common journalist presents her with an impossible decision: leave him or marry and face a life of poverty. Events take an unexpected twist when she befriends a lonely young heiress whose own tragic secret offers an irresistible but dangerous solution.

Hello, Dolly!

Musical set in the 1890's about a professional matchmaker who meets her match.

Howards End

Margaret and Helen Schlegel are sisters from a well-educated European family. A series of events brings them into a relationship with the very English Wilcox family. Both families also come into contact with Leonard Bast and his wife, a couple near the lowest tier of the rigid class system. Leonard's desire for cultural and intellectual status attracts the attention of Helen. Margaret must reconcile her independent spirit with her desire for companionship and a comfortable place in Edwardian society. Her moral strength is eventually able to resolve the tangle of opposites.

Vanity Fair

Based on Thackeray's satire of the beautiful and clever but poor Becky Sharp, who is determined to earn her place in society.

Age of Innocence

A ravishing romance about three wealthy New Yorkers caught in a tragic love triangle, the ironically-titled story chronicles the grandeur and hypocrisy of high society in the 1870's.

The Heiress

Directed with a keen sense of ambiguity by William Wyler, this film based on a hit stage adaptation of Henry James's Washington Square pivots on a question of motive. When shy, emotionally fragile Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland, in a heartbreaking, Oscar-winning turn), the daughter of a wealthy New York doctor, begins to receive calls from the handsome spendthrift Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she becomes possessed by the promise of romance. Are his smoldering professions of love sincere, as she believes they are? Or is Catherine's calculating father (Ralph Richardson) correct in judging Morris a venal fortune seeker? A graceful drawing-room drama boasting Academy Award-winning costume design by Edith Head, The Heiress is also a piercing character study riven by emotional uncertainty and lacerating cruelty, in a triumph of classic Hollywood filmmaking at its most psychologically nuanced.

Washington Square

Catherine, a lonely young woman, is swept off her feet by the handsome Morris Townsend. Suspicious of the young man's true intentions, her father threatens to disown her if she follows her heart and marries against his wishes.

To Read:

FICTION

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

 Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

The Address by Fiona Davis

After a failed apprenticeship, working her way up to head housekeeper of a posh London hotel is more than Sara Smythe ever thought she'd make of herself. But when a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the grand New York apartment house The Dakota, leads to a job offer, her world is suddenly awash in possibility--no mean feat for a servant in 1884. The opportunity to move to America, where a person can rise aboveone'sstation. The opportunity to be the female manager of The Dakota, which promises to be the greatest apartment house in the world. And the opportunity to see more of Theo, who understands Sara like no one else. and is living in The Dakota with his wife and three young children.

Cartier’s Hope by M.J. Rose

New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man's world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its legendary curses.

Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell

Newport, Rhode Island, August 1895: She may be a less well-heeled relation, but as second cousin to millionaire patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, twenty-one-year-old Emma Cross is on the guest list for a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts' summer home. She also has a job to do--report on the event for the society page of the Newport Observer. But Emma observes much more than glitz and gaiety when she witnesses a murder. 

The Social Graces by Renee Rosen

A peek behind the curtain at one of the most remarkable feuds in history: Mrs. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Astor's notorious battle for control of New York society during the Gilded Age.

A Well Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler

Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted against desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman. Meet Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, living proof that history is made by those who know the rules-and how to break them.

NONFICTION

The Husband Hunters: American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy by Anne de Courcy

A deliciously told group biography of the young, rich, American heiresses who married into the impoverished British aristocracy at the turn of the twentieth century – the real women who inspired Downton Abbey. Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times.

Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha Sandweiss

Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth-century western history. Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, bestselling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, King was named by John Hay "the best and brightest of his generation." But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for thirteen years he lived a double life-as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd. 

When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age by Justin Kaplan

Endowed with the largest private fortunes of their day, cousins John Jacob Astor IV and William Waldorf Astor vied for primacy in New York society, producing the grandest hotels ever seen in a marriage of ostentation and efficiency that transformed American social behavior. Kaplan exposes it all in exquisite detail, taking readers from the 1890s to the Roaring Twenties in a combination of biography, history, architectural appreciation, and pure reading pleasure.

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach

A captivating biography of America's first female tycoon, Hetty Green, the iconoclast who forged one of the greatest fortunes of her time.

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr

When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed a property listing for a grand estate that had been unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled into one of the most surprising American stories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Empty Mansions is a rich tale of wealth and loss, complete with copper barons, Gilded Age opulence, and backdoor politics.

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation.

powerful books from contemporary Black authors

Read some of the best fiction and nonfiction by contemporary Black authors, including books in every genre from literary fiction to personal memoirs.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s death and her hidden past—a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back by by Terry McMillan

How Stella Got Her Groove Back is full of Terry McMillan’s signature humor, heart, and insight. More than a love story, it is ultimately a novel about how a woman saves her own life—and what she must risk to do it.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

An unexpected teenage pregnancy pulls together two families from different social classes, and exposes the private hopes, disappointments, and longings that can bind or divide us from each other, from the National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice, featuring an introverted young man from Alabama. Black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi’s stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Memorial by Bryan Washington

A funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you’re supposed to be, and the limits of love.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations—a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

The award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self brings her signature voice and insight to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history.

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning.

No Heaven for Good Boys by Keisha Bush

Set in Senegal, this modern-day Oliver Twist is a meditation on the power of love and the strength that can emerge when we have no other choice but to survive. Drawn from real incidents and transporting readers between rural and urban Senegal, No Heaven for Good Boys is a tale of hope, resilience, and the affirming power of love.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

From James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, one of the most anticipated novels of the year: a wise and witty tale about what happens to the witnesses of a shooting.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer

With penetrating insight, ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking performance—fresh, versatile, and captivating.

Here for It by R. Eric Thomas

In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world.

Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans

From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity.

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? brilliantly subverts the traditional romantic comedy with an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love. Wry, acerbic, moving, this is a love story that makes you smile but also makes you think–and explores what it means to find your way between two cultures, both of which are yours.

When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Barry (publishing Feb 22)

This luminous novel moves across a windswept Mongolia as estranged twin brothers make a journey of duty, conflict, and renewed understanding. Quan Barry carries us across a terrain as unforgiving as it is beautiful and culturally varied, from the western Altai mountains to the eerie starkness of the Gobi Desert to the ancient capital of Chinggis Khaan. As their country stretches before them, questions of faith—along with more earthly matters of love and brotherhood—haunt the twins.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

From the celebrated author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers comes a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an American oil company.

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James (publishing Feb 15)

In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In Moon Witch, Spider King, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him.

Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of Trevor Noah’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Set against London’s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that strives to restore the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.

Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith

In Ordinary Light, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith tells her remarkable story, giving us a quietly potent memoir that explores her coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter.

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons

From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age—a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

From Samantha Irby, beloved author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, a rip-roaring, edgy and unabashedly raunchy new collection of hilarious essays.

What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris

A dazzling and moving novel about family, identity, and race, What the Fireflies Knew poignantly reveals that heartbreaking but necessary component of growing up–the realization that loved ones can be flawed and that the perfect family we all dream of looks different up close.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The bestselling novel from the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele follows a young woman from Nigeria who leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected.

(www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/books-by-contemporary-black-authors)