
Book Riot - The Podcast
News in the world of books and reading, including hot industry releases, adaptations, publishing industry events, and more with Book Riot’s Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Shinsky.Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America and home to a host of media, from podcasts to newsletters to original content, all designed around diverse readers and across all genres.
Latest episodes

Jan 30, 2020 • 52min
Talking Through the Publication of AMERICAN DIRT
In this episode, Rebecca Schinsky, Vanessa Diaz, and Jeff O'Neal discuss the publication of American Dirt.
This episode is sponsored by:
Book Riot Insiders.
The Novel Gazing Podcast
Libro.fm
The Read Harder Challenge
Relevant Links:
Dear Oprah Winfrey
American Dirt was supposed to be a publishing triumph. What went wrong?
Flatiron apologizes for American Dirt rollout mistakes, cancel book tour
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Jan 27, 2020 • 1h 14min
Watching WATCHMEN
Jeff and Rebecca talk about HBO's stunning adaptation of WATCHMEN.
This episode is sponsored by:
Book Riot Insiders.
The Novel Gazing Podcast
Libro.fm
The Read Harder Challenge
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Jan 22, 2020 • 1h 1min
Winter/Spring 2020 Preview Show
Jeff and Rebecca preview titles coming out in the first four months of 2020 with a little Buy, Sell, Hold.
This episode is sponsored by:
Book Riot Insiders.
The Novel Gazing Podcast
Libro.fm
Books discussed in this episode:
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey
Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump
Weather by Jenny Offill
Anna K by Jenny Lee
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
New Waves by Kevin Nguyen
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
The City We Became by NK Jemisin
Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
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Jan 20, 2020 • 53min
Addendum to the Scolding
This week, Jeff and Rebecca talk about the new head of the ABA starting the gig, Crawdads with a triple crown, more talk about returning Audible credits, and much more.
This episode is sponsored by:
The Novel Gazing Podcast
Flatiron Books, Publisher of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey, published by Avon Books
Book Riot Insiders
Links discussed in this episode:
Crawdads won the triple crown of sales in 2019
Follow-up: Audible & publishers have settled the suit over captions
Follow-up: Loudon County officials vote to keep protested LGBTQ books in schools
Record number of library systems top 1 million digital checkouts in 2019
Game of Thrones spin-off coming in 2022
Hero of the week: St Louis teen starts book subscription service for black boys
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Jan 13, 2020 • 58min
The Dr. Seuss Complex
Jeff and Rebecca discuss the best-selling books of 2019, Obama's 2019 reading recs, the RWA meltdown, and more.
This episode is sponsored by:
Libro.fm
The Read Harder Challenge
Book Riot Insiders
Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
Links discussed in this episode:
RIP Sonny Mehta
Bestsellers of 2019
Obama’s favorite books of 2019...and they were finally not just on FB
The RWA has a racism problem
Romance Writers problem matters because people are watching
The Implosion of the RWA
Avon & Harlequin pull out of RWA in response:
https://twitter.com/avonbooks/status/1214925842830299136?s=20
https://twitter.com/sparkjoyromance/status/1214931763409117185?s=20
Book Culture update
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Jan 6, 2020 • 1h 14min
The Books of the Decade
Jeff and Rebecca are joined by Amanda Nelson to pick the books the defined the 2010s.
This episode is sponsored by:
Spalding University
The Severed Moon by Leigh Bardugo
The Read Harder Journal
Books discussed in this episode:
50 Shades of Grey by EL James
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Becoming by Michelle Obama/Fear by Bob Woodward
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
the Elena Ferrante quartet (My Brilliant Friend)
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur
Dogman Volume #1 by Dave Pilkey
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Hunger by Roxane Gay
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Dec 23, 2019 • 59min
2019 Year in Review
Jeff and Rebecca look back that the stories that made 2019 in books and reading. Plus, some of their favorite non-book things of the years.
This episode is sponsored by:
Book Riot’s YA Instagram
The Read Harder Journal
Sips by
Libro.fm
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Dec 16, 2019 • 1h 2min
Reverse Bermuda Triangle
Jeff and Rebecca talk about the Goodreads Choice Winners, Bill Gates' recommended books for 2019, more wrong-headed prison books news, and more.
This episode is sponsored by:
Sips by
The Read Harder Journal
Switched On Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters
Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding
Book Riot's YA Instagram
Links discussed in this episode:
Fresh round of resignations at the Nobel Prize for Lit
Goodreads winners
The Critics Version
Amazon charts of 2019
Bill Gates’s End-of-Year book list
West Virginia will charge prisoners by the minute to read ebooks
And Kansas still unfairly bans books in prisons
Audiobooks predicted to overtake ebooks in UK
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Dec 9, 2019 • 1h 20min
2019 Holiday Recommendation Show, Part 2
Jeff and Rebecca wrap up their annual Holiday Recommendation show.
This episode is sponsored by:
The Great Courses Plus
The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
Book Riot's Read Harder 2020 Challenge
Books and authors recommended in this episode:
Marge Piercy
Mary Oliver
Elizabeth Bishop
Top Gun by Dan Pedersen
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isbell Wilkerson
Building Stories, Salt Fat Acid Heat,
Saga Compendium 1
Monstress
Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan
All You Can Ever Know
2am at the Cats Pajamas,
The Little Bookstore at Big Stone Gap
Different Seasons
Last Woman Standing
My Sister the Serial Killer
The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz,
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
Dan Brown!?!
Nature Fix,
Braiding Sweetgrass
On Trails
Preparing the Ghost
One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman
The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
Vegan for Everybody
Oh She Glows
Afro-Vegan
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo
CITY OF BRASS by SA Chakraboty
Folk of the Air series by Holly Black
City of Girls
Rich & Pretty
HOW TO BAKE EVERYTHING by Mark Bittman
Sister Pie
Small Victories
Dining In
HOW TO and WHAT IF by Randall Munroe
The $64 Tomato by Bill Alexander
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Heritage by Sean Brock,
Best Cook in the World,
Buttermilk Graffiti
From Scratch by Tembi Locke
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Dec 1, 2019 • 1h 12min
2019 Holiday Recommendation Show, Part 1
Jeff and Rebecca tackle the first batch of listener recommendation requests for the 2020 holiday season.
This episode is sponsored by:
Opus X One - Obsidian Detective by Michael Anderle
Bibliostyle by Nina Freudenberger
Feminist Book Club Box + Podcast
The Great Courses Plus
She Said
So You Want to Talk About Race
Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
Dear Madam President
Wolfpack by Abby Wambach
Power of Meaning
Bored & Brilliant
The Adventurer’s Son
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
The Master Plan by Chris Wilson
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom by David Blight
Hourglass by Dani Shapiro
How to Be Married
Mating in Captivity
Marriageology by Belinda Luscombe
The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind
Hammerhead by Nina Maclaughlin
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
Best American Food Writing 2019
Taste of Country Cooking
Notes of a Young Black Chef by Kuame Onuawachi
Burn the Place by Iliana Ragan
Storied Life of AJ Fikry
84 Charing Cross Road
Shadow of the Wind
Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Jasmine Guillory
Alyssa Cole
Helen Hoang
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Most Fun We Ever Had
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Beyond the Bedroom Wall by Larry Woiwode
Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Perfect Little World
Celeste Ng
Daisy Jones & The Six
Go Like Hell by AJ Baimie
How to Build a Car by Adrian Newey
What It Is Like to Go To War by Karl Marlantes
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