The best books of 2023
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2023
⏱️ 40 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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This fall, W bez invites you to our upcoming live events. |
| 0:05.0 | Join us in person for smart discussions, heartfelt storytelling, and more. |
| 0:09.0 | Check out the full calendar now at W be easy.org |
| 0:12.6 | slash events. |
| 0:13.6 | From W be easy Chicago, this is Nurdette. 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. |
| 0:34.7 | Later this month we're going to talk about the best podcasts and TV shows of |
| 0:39.2 | 2023 but today it is all about books and I am so excited about our guests for this one. |
| 0:46.8 | With us today we have Andrew Limbong, he's a reporter on NPR's Arts Desk and hosts |
| 0:51.1 | the Book of the Day podcast Andrew hello. |
| 0:54.0 | Yo, what's up? |
| 0:55.0 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:56.0 | Oh my gosh, thrilled to have you. |
| 0:57.0 | Also here is Muwa Messer. |
| 0:58.0 | She hosts Barnes and Nobles book podcast, Pored Over Mua, hello. |
| 1:02.0 | Hi, it's so good to see you guys. Oh my gosh, what a treat. Okay, so since |
| 1:06.4 | y'all are both like professional readers, I'm very curious how many books you |
| 1:12.2 | read in a given year. |
| 1:13.7 | Like, I mean, I assume you're keeping track somehow, Andrew. |
| 1:17.0 | Oh, let me pop up the spreadsheet. |
| 1:19.2 | You got a spreadsheet? |
| 1:20.1 | Amazing. |
| 1:21.1 | Let me not say my password. |
... |
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