The myth of solitary genius and women writers

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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