Learning from books you dislike

Welcome to Books That Matter. Today, I’m joined by A. Natasha Joukovsky.

a. natasha joukovsky is the author of the novels The Portrait of a Mirror and Medium Rare (forthcoming March 2026). Her writing has been published in Literary Hub, The Common, and Still Alive, and she writes the “quite useless” Substack newsletter. Natasha holds a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She lives in Washington, DC.

In today’s episode, Natasha and I talk about her theory of choice novels, different flavors of myth retellings, and why Evelina by Frances Burney is a book that matters to her–and to Jane Austen. Later we get into Natasha’s sophomore novel Medium Rare, a sharp, funny, piercing social novel about a mid-tier lobbyist who flies too close to the sun with a potentially perfect March Madness bracket. I adored this novel and I appreciate it all the more after this conversation. Medium Rare is available now for preorder.

Books and Links

* Evelina by Frances Burney

* Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

* Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

* Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary

* Emma by Jane Austen

* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

* Middlemarch by George Eliot

* The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

* The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

* The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

* Beloved by Toni Morrison

* The Age of Choice by Sophia Rosenfeld

* Metamorphoses by Ovid

* Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

* The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack: How to read like a novelist

* A. Natasha Joukovsky on Substack:The Austen Math cumulative report

* Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney

* Rebecca Romney on Pawn Stars

* The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

* Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

* The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

* The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

* Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

* Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

* Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

* House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

* Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

* The Book of Anne by H.A.Thurston

* Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

* Prodigals by Greg Jackson

* Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

* The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers

* The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

* Circe by Madeline Miller

* The Sellout by Paul Beatty

* The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

* Ars Longa, Via Brevis by Russell Bittner

*This post contains affiliate links.

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