Book Riot - The Podcast

Rebecca mentioned that the correspondent has received no awards or recognition. That is not correct. It is a finalist for the women’s prize for fiction. It won the pin Hemmingway debut novel of the year. There’s no comparison between the correspondent and Theo of Golden. I agree Theo is right contrite. With weak writing, but that is certainly not the case with the correspondent she is a serious talented writer. It would certainly be worth your time to read it.

I’m more into books than most of the people I know- and I work in a library, so I know a lot of bookish people. I’m so into books that recently, after a gummy when I randomly opened Goodreads, I let the FEELINGS of so many books I’ve loved wash over me for awhile. I’m so into books that I’m still angry that my favorite book reviewer, Ron Charles, was fired by The Washington Post, and I signed up for his Substack about a minute after I found out about his firing. I discover a book by a favorite author is going to be coming out and I positively stalk Netgalley and Edelweiss until I find and download it. So Jeff and Rebecca are my people. I’m a fairly recent listener. I first knew I liked this podcast when they were talking about their most anticipated books of 2026, and they were all MY most anticipated- Lauren Groff, Tayari Jones, Louise Erdrich. When they love a book, I can hear in their voices that they share my excitement. On another podcast they do, Zero to Well Read, they talked about Gilead, a book that means so much to me, and Go Tell It on the Mountain, a book I only read for the first time recently that I found electrifying. Then - this was the coup de grace- in talking about Pulitzer winners, they shared their love of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Kavalier and Clay, The Known World, The Night Watchman, other books that are lodged in my heart and psyche. They spoke about these books with vivid precision and reverence. They care about reading diversely, too, as I do. This is one of my favorite podcasts now. I’m going back and listening to episodes from last year, too.

Why on earth would you discuss books you haven’t read (the Don DeLillo discussion). Why have on a host who hasn’t read the book(s)? Just comes across as disrespectful of both subject and audience. Ugh.

I love this podcast but recently I was so disappointed to hear an advertisement for a generative AI narrator program. You have spent a long time talking about how prompters creating books with generative AI aren’t authors, just prompters, but you don’t extend that thought process to another art form?!

Omg! Jeff moving in and out from the microphone is so distracting. I couldn’t concentrate on what you were saying listening to your voice sounding close and far away.