It's our 10 best books of 2020. This week's episode was recorded on November 23rd via Zoom

in front of a live audience online. Please forgive some hiccups and sound quality and

the longer length. We hope the books and conversations are worth it. Joining me in this episode

are a number of my fellow editors at the Booker View, Tina Jordan, Greg Cole's, MJ Franklin,

Gal Beckerman, Lauren Christensen, Emily Aiken, Dave Kim, and Elizabeth Egan, as well as my podcast

comrade Norms, John Williams. Good morning everyone. I'm Pamela Paul, editor of the New York Times

Booker View. Welcome to the best books of 2020. We're so happy to have all of you here with us today.

We're thrilled to have so many people join us from so many places. This is the benefit of doing this

here in Zoom as opposed to in the time center in New York City. We have time subscribers joining us

this morning from every single state plus more than 50 countries including Argentina, New Zealand,

and Denmark. And before I start a big thank you, your subscriptions to the times are what allow us

and our colleagues to do our work. Choosing the 10 best books of the year is a year long process.

And believe it or not, we've already started on 2021. Your subscriptions help make this work possible.

And we thank you for that. Speaking of my team at the Booker View, I'd like to welcome some of my

colleagues on the desk who are joining with me today. Dave Kim, MJ Franklin, Lauren Christensen,

Emily Aiken, John Williams, Elizabeth Egan, Galbachermann, Tina Jordan, and Greg Coles.

Before we get into the list, I'm going to talk very briefly about what we mean by a best book

and how we go about choosing them. For us, a best book is a book that stands on the merits of

its pros and its storytelling and succeeds on the terms that the author sets out for it. It's a

book that might be of the moment, but it's a book that we also think transcends the moment and

will stand the test of time. We don't choose these books because we necessarily agree with them,

support a political or ideological message forwarded by them or personally like the authors.

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