What Makes a Good Book?

Parul Sehgal is a book critic for The New York Times. “I write about books, I review books, but in a sense, to do my job at a newspaper also puts that pressure on a piece to say: why should you read or care about this? You’re trying to tweeze out what is newsworthy, what is interesting, what is vital about this book….My job is I think to be honest with the reader and to keep surfacing new ways for me and for other people to think about books. New vocabularies of pleasure and disgust.” Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode. parulsehgal.com @parul_sehgal Sehgal's archive at the New York Times [17:11] “Mothers of Invention: A Group of Authors Finds New Narrative Possibilities in Parenthood” (Bookforum • 2015) [17:20] “In Letters to the World, a New Wave of Memoirs Draws on the Intimate” (New York Times • 2019) [17:33] “#MeToo Is All Too Real. But to Better Understand it, Turn to Fiction.” (New York Times • 2019) [24:18] Longform Podcast #354: Jia Tolentino [41:39] “Peter Luger Used to Sizzle. Now It Sputters.” (New York Times • 2019)

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