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It's Been a Minute

Sexy & Spiteful: the best books to read this summer

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.68.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's summer! Which means Brittany is going to be... 1) outside, 2) chilling, and 3) reading. So it's once again time for It's Been a Minute's annual summer books episode!

Celebrated romance authors Bolu Babalola and Emily Henry return to the show to discuss their summer reading recommendations, ranging from spiteful and salacious to sweet and spicy.

Books discussed in the episode:
Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord
Casanova LLC by Julia Whalen
The Wickedest by Caleb Femi
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Matriarch by Tina Knowles

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Ira Glass of This American Life.

0:02.2

Each week on our show, we choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme.

0:07.3

All right, I'm just going to stop right there.

0:08.8

You're listening to an NPR podcast.

0:10.2

Chances are you know our show.

0:11.9

So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately.

0:17.4

Some big, epic emotional stories and some weird funny stuff too. Download us,

0:22.7

this American life.

0:26.4

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about

0:32.3

what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

0:46.1

Yeah. culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. It's summer, baby.

0:48.6

And I don't know about you, but this summer, I am going to be outside.

0:53.9

I am going to be chilling. I am going to be chilling.

0:56.3

I'm going to be reading.

0:58.7

Which means it's time yet again for it's been a minute's annual sizzling summer books

1:04.2

episode, where two incredible authors tell us all about their recommendations for spicy summer reads.

1:13.5

There's romances, there's breakups, there's fights, there's a stabbing.

1:17.7

Oh my gosh, a stabbing.

1:20.2

This year we're bringing back one of my favorite duo, Bolu Babolola.

1:24.7

So happy to be back.

1:26.0

And Emily Henry.

1:27.3

Thank you.

...

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