This show originally aired on Nov. 26, 2018
It’s time for Forum’s annual holiday books show! Listeners and New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul share their favorite books of 2018. What was your best read and why?
Pamela Paul’s Recommendations: Fiction
- “Friday Black” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- “House of Broken Angels” by Luis Alberto Urrea
- “The Hazel Wood” by Melissa Albert
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- “Lake Success” Gary Shteyngart
- “The Overstory” by Richard Powers
- “The Perfect Nanny” by Leila Slimani
- “The Witch Elm” by Tana French
Pamela Paul’s Recommendations: Nonfiction
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Harari
- “Ali: A Life” by Jonathan Eig
- “Arthur Ashe” by Raymond Arsenault
- “Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts
- “Educated” by Tara Westover
- “Frederick Douglass” by David Blight
- “Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World” by Ramachandra Guha
- “She Has Her Mother’s Laugh” by Carl Zimmer
- “The Dinosaur Artist” by Paige Williams
- “The Tangled Tree” by David Quammen
Listener Suggestions Mentioned on Air: Fiction
- “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles
- “Boxes for Katje” by Candice Fleming (Children’s book)
- “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens
- “Fruit of the Drunken Tree” by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- “Gilead” by Marilyn Robinson
- “Golden Hill” by Charles Spufford
- “Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh
- “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn
- “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and Secrets of the Heart” by James R. Doty
- “Marlon Bundo” by John Oliver (Children’s book)
- “The Girl Who Slept With God” Val Brelinsky
- Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- “Who Fears Death” by Nnedi Okorafor
Listener Suggestions Mentioned on Air: Nonfiction
- A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives by Kelly Borgan
- An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India by Shashi Tharoor
- “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
- “Big Chicken: he Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats” by Maryn McKenna
- “Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays” by Zadie Smith
- “Crossing the Continent” by Robert Goodwyn
- “Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully” by Frank Ostasteski
- “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover
- “God Save Texas” by Lawrence Wright
- “How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease” by Michael Gregor
- “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan
- “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson
- Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures” by Mary Ruefle
- “Prisoners of Geography” by Tim Marshall
- “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations” by Ronan Bergman
- “She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World” by Chelsea Clinton
- “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” by Ibram Kendi
- “Ten Arguments for Shutting Down Your Social Media Right Now” by Jaron Lanier
- “The Fifth Risk” by Michael Lewis
- “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean
- “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo
- “Whose Boat is This” by Stephen Colbert