Ranked #1
Ursula K. Le Guin : Words Are My Matter
Ursula K. Le Guin : Words Are My Matter
“Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see... Read more
14 Feb 2017
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1hr 13mins
Ranked #2
Sheila Heti : Motherhood
Sheila Heti : Motherhood
“This book is going to change how we think about life and women forever; like ancient Greek philosopher level of describ... Read more
1 Jun 2018
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1hr 28mins
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Ranked #3
Jesse Ball : How to Set a Fire and Why
Jesse Ball : How to Set a Fire and Why
Jesse Ball’s blistering novel tells the story of a teenage girl who has lost everything—and will burn anything. Lucia’s ... Read more
17 Aug 2016
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1hr 7mins
Ranked #4
Tin House Live : Rebecca Makkai on The Ear of the Story
Tin House Live : Rebecca Makkai on The Ear of the Story
Given at the 2019 Tin House Summer Workshop, Rebecca Makkai’s craft talk “You Talkin’ to Me?: The ‘Ear’ of the Story” lo... Read more
25 May 2020
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54mins
Ranked #5
Carmen Maria Machado : Her Body and Other Parties
Carmen Maria Machado : Her Body and Other Parties
“Cross-pollinating fairy tales, horror movies, TV shows, & a terrific sense of humor, Machado’s work reminds me at d... Read more
1 Feb 2018
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1hr 28mins
Ranked #6
George Saunders : Tenth of December
George Saunders : Tenth of December
“George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You’ll Read All Year,” declared the cover of the New York Times Magazine seve... Read more
14 Feb 2013
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29mins
Ranked #7
Garth Greenwell : Cleanness
Garth Greenwell : Cleanness
“Garth Greenwell, whose first book is a masterpiece, amazingly has written a second book that is also a masterpiece. The... Read more
14 Feb 2020
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1hr 49mins
Ranked #8
Ursula K. Le Guin : Steering The Craft
Ursula K. Le Guin : Steering The Craft
Ursula K. Le Guin believes we cannot restructure society without restructuring the English language, and thus her book o... Read more
1 Oct 2015
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58mins
Ranked #9
Richard Powers : The Overstory
Richard Powers : The Overstory
“This book is beyond special. Richard Powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that in... Read more
1 Nov 2019
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1hr 30mins
Ranked #10
Mary Ruefle : My Private Property
Mary Ruefle : My Private Property
“Mary Ruefle’s careful, measured sentences sound as if they were written by a thousand-year-old person who is still genu... Read more
22 Jul 2017
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1hr 13mins
Ranked #11
Marlon James : Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James : Black Leopard, Red Wolf
“Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory... Read more
4 Mar 2019
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1hr 22mins
Ranked #12
Brian Evenson : A Collapse of Horses
Brian Evenson : A Collapse of Horses
A stuffed bear’s heart beats with the rhythm of a dead baby; Reno keeps receding to the east no matter how far you drive... Read more
30 Mar 2016
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59mins
Ranked #13
Ted Chiang : Exhalation
Ted Chiang : Exhalation
“Ted Chiang has no contemporary peers when it comes to the short story form. His name deserves to be mentioned in the sa... Read more
1 Jul 2019
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1hr 10mins
Ranked #14
Kelly Link : Get in Trouble
Kelly Link : Get in Trouble
Kelly Link has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by Neil Gaiman a... Read more
4 Mar 2015
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52mins
Ranked #15
Zadie Smith : Grand Union
Zadie Smith : Grand Union
“Grand Union is an unusual creature, combining all the experimental exuberance of a writer discovering a form with the t... Read more
21 Oct 2019
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54mins
Ranked #16
Colson Whitehead : Zone One
Colson Whitehead : Zone One
Host David Naimon speaks with award-winning writer Colson Whitehead about his new novel Zone One, described as a “wry ta... Read more
29 Dec 2011
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21mins
Ranked #17
R.O. Kwon : The Incendiaries
R.O. Kwon : The Incendiaries
“Every explosive requires a fuse. That’s R. O. Kwon’s novel, a straight, slow-burning fuse. To read her novel is to foll... Read more
1 Nov 2018
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1hr 11mins
Ranked #18
Maggie Nelson : The Argonauts
Maggie Nelson : The Argonauts
An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family. Maggie Nelson binds her... Read more
29 Jul 2015
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54mins
Ranked #19
Christine Schutt : Pure Hollywood
Christine Schutt : Pure Hollywood
“Nobody writes like Schutt . . . and her latest collection is the perfect entry point for readers new to her work . . . ... Read more
1 Apr 2019
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1hr 39mins
Ranked #20
Neal Stephenson : Seveneves
Neal Stephenson : Seveneves
A catastrophic event renders the Earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around th... Read more
20 May 2015
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49mins