The best books of 2023
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.6 • 924 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are reflecting on a year of reading by tallying up the books that we just can’t stop thinking about. Two professional readers – Miwa Messer, host of Barnes & Noble’s book podcast Poured Over, and Andrew Limbong, host of NPR’s Book of the Day podcast – join us to share their best of the year lists.
Here are the books mentioned in the episode. For pictures, links and more details, head to our website!
Andrew’s picks:
‘Landscapes’ by Christine Lai
‘Poverty by America’ by Matthew Desmond
‘Roaming’ by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
‘Ringmaster’ by Abraham Josephine Riesman
Miwa’s picks:
‘Loot’ by Tania James
‘Ordinary Notes’ by Christina Sharpe
‘Open Throat’ by Henry Hoke
‘Chain Gang All-Stars’ by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Greta’s picks:
‘The Vaster Wilds’ by Lauren Groff
‘The Country of the Blind’ by Andrew Leland
‘The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi’ by Shannon Chakraborty
‘Same Bed Different Dreams’ by Ed Park
Listener picks:
‘The Fragile Threads of Power’ by V.E. Schwab
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson
‘Land of Milk and Honey’ by C Pam Zhang
‘In the Lives of Puppets’ by TJ Klune
‘Monsters’ by Claire Dederer
‘Black River Orchard’ by Chuck Wendig
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still |
| 0:06.1 | watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you, |
| 0:12.7 | soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making, |
| 0:18.0 | Stories Without End from WB EZ Chicago. |
| 0:25.7 | Join me as I share how the genre began, their social impact, and why these stories endure. |
| 0:28.3 | Listen, wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:50.2 | From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend and another year is almost coming to an end, which means now is the perfect time to sit back, relax, and reflect on some of the best stuff that came out this year. |
| 0:54.7 | Later this month, we're going to talk about the best podcasts and TV shows of 2023. But today, it is all about books. And I am so excited about our guests for this one. |
| 1:02.2 | With us today, we have Andrew Limbong. He's a reporter on NPR's Arts Desk and hosts the |
| 1:06.8 | Book of the Day podcast. Andrew, hello. Yo, what's up? What's up? Thanks for having me. |
| 1:11.1 | Oh my gosh. Thrill to have you. Also here is Miwa Messer. She hosts Barnes & Noble's book |
| 1:14.7 | podcast, poured over. Miwa, hello. |
| 1:17.3 | Hi, it's so good to see you guys. Oh my gosh. What a treat. Okay, so since you all |
| 1:22.1 | are both like professional readers, I'm very curious how many books you read in a given year. Like, I mean, I assume you're |
| 1:30.7 | keeping track somehow, Andrew. Oh. Let me pop up the spreadsheet. You got a spreadsheet? Amazing. |
| 1:35.9 | Let's see. Drive. Let me not say my password. I mean, what you want to? That's fine. |
| 1:43.6 | 44. 44. 44. Yeah. 44. Okay, that's fine. 44. |
| 1:45.0 | 44. |
| 1:45.7 | Yeah. |
| 1:46.7 | 44. |
| 1:47.4 | Okay. |
| 1:48.1 | That's nice. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Greta Johnsen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Greta Johnsen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.