We asked the past year’s podcast-guests for the favorite books they read in 2018 and the books they hope to read in 2019 for our special year-end Guest List episode! Nearly three dozen guests participated, so listen to the show to hear about their picks, and use this page to check out all the books, as well as their past episodes! (And there’s a bonus conversation with Bill Kartalopoulos, editor of the Best American Comics series!)
(Photo of Jesse Sheidlower‘s bookshelves by me; Jesse was a 2018 guest, but he didn’t write back for this episode. Booo . . .)
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If you’d like a guide to the episode, detailing the order of the speakers and when their segments begin, please scroll to the bottom of the page.
The Guests
Jerry Beck (8:55)
- Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History – J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein
Jerry’s 2019 goals
- Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History – J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein (it’s gonna take him a while)
Christopher Brown (33:25)
- The Guantánamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside the Law – ed. Jonathan Hafetz & Mark P. Denbeaux
- Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States – James C. Scott
- The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century – Walter Scheidel
Chris’ 2019 goals
- Infinite Detail: A Novel – Tim Maughan
Dave Calver (39:45)
- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – David Sedaris
- Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
- Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters – John Waters
Roz Chast (39:00)
- Convenience Store Woman – Sayaka Murata
- Skylark – Dezso Kosztolanyi
- Godsend: A Novel – John Wray
Roz’ 2019 goals
- Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery – Richard Hollingham
Mark Dery (23:55)
- Heidegger on Being Uncanny – Katherine Withy
Michael Gerber (21:20)
- Caesar: Life of a Colossus – Adrian Goldsworthy
- Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome – Shawn Levy
- Julian: A Novel – Gore Vidal
- Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine – Joe Hagan
Cathy B Graham (13:40)
- Vanity Fair – Thackeray
Cathy’s 2019 goal
- In Search of Lost Time – Proust
Dean Haspiel (27:10)
- Kill or Be Killed – Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
- The Perfume Burned His Eyes – Michael Imperioli
Dean’s 2019 goal
- White – Bret Easton Ellis
Steven Heller (7:00)
- 1984 – Orwell
Steven’s 2019 goal
- The Iron Heel – Jack London
Richard Kadrey (25:50)
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Iain Reid
- Survivors’ Club – written by Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen, with art by Ryan Kelly
Richard’s 2019 goals
- Wanderers: A Novel – Chuck Wendig
- The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick – Mallory O’Meara
Paul Karasik (18:00)
- To Be a Slave – Julius Lester
- Arbitrary Stupid Goal – Tamara Shopsin
- Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers – Ricky Jay
- The Train – Georges Simenon
Paul’s 2019 goals
- The Goat-Getters: Jack Johnson, the Fight of the Century, and How a Bunch of Raucous Cartoonists Reinvented Comics – Eddie Campbell
- The Origins of Comics: From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay – Thierry Smolderen
Bill Kartalopoulos (1:50:00)
- Grip, Vol. 1 – Lolly Westvind
- Dognurse – Margot Ferrick
Bill’s 2019 goal
- Mademoiselle Bambu – Pierre Mac Orlan
Ken Krimstein (14:05)
Ken’s 2019 goal
- R. Crumb’s Dream Diary – Robert Crumb
Nora Krug (12:00)
- No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo – Redmond O’Hanlon
Nora’s 2019 goal
- More Philip Roth
John Leland (22:30)
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think – Hans Rosling
- These Truths: A History of the United States – Jill Lepore
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century – Timothy Snyder
John’s 2019 goal
- In the Distance – Hernan Diaz
Alberto Manguel (6:20)
- The Bride from Odessa: Stories – Edgardo Cozarinsky
Alberto’s 2019 goals
- Kafka: The Years of Insight – Reiner Stach
- Kafka: The Decisive Years – Reiner Stach
Hal Mayforth (37:50)
- Arthur & George – Julian Barnes
- Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel – George Saunders
- The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
- The March: A Novel – EL Doctorow
- The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
- The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Hal’s 2019 goals
- More Dickens & Twain
Dave McKean (20:25)
- A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube – Patrick Leigh Fermor
- Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates – Patrick Leigh Fermor
- The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos – Patrick Leigh Fermor
Dave’s 2019 goal
- The Golden Age – Cyril Pedrosa
Mark Newgarden (19:20)
- Up in the Old Hotel – Joseph Mitchell
- Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey – Mark Dery
- R. Crumb’s Dream Diary – Robert Crumb
Audrey Niffenegger (38:20)
- The Life of Stuff: A memoir about the mess we leave behind – Susannah Walker
- To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death – Mark O’Connell
- Gwen – Goldie Goldbloom
- Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook – Mark Bray
Audrey’s 2019 goals
- Palatino: The Natural History of a Typeface – Robert Bringhurst
- The Museum of Lost Art – Noah Charney
- Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present – Alison Matthews David
Jim Ottaviani (30:30)
- Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
- H Is for Hawk – Helen MacDonald
- Jesus’ Son: Stories – Denis Johnson
- Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance – Alex Hutchinson
- Game Time: A Baseball Companion – Roger Angell
- I Will Be Complete: A Memoir – Glen David Gold
- Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel – George Saunders
- Hawkeye: Private Eye – Kelly Thompson & Leonardo Romero
- Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth – Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell
- The Complete Peanuts: 1985-2000 – Charles Schulz
- You & a Bike & a Road – Eleanor Davis
- Berlin Book Three: City of Light – Jason Lutes
- How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels – Karasik & Newgarden
Jim’s 2019 goals
- Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
- How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler – Ryan North
- Some more Cormac McCarthy
Robert Andrew Parker (20:00)
- The Soldier’s Art: Book 8 of A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell
Shachar Pinsker (33:05)
- The Ruined House: A Novel – Ruby Namda
- How the Other Half Looks: The Lower East Side and the Afterlives of Images – Sara Blair
Nathaniel Popkin (12:25)
- Cove – Cynan Jones
- The Chandelier – Clarice Lispector
- The Barefoot Woman – Scholastique Mukasonga
- Götz and Meyer – David Albahari
Chris Reynolds (17:35)
- Born Liars: Why We Can’t Live without Deceit – Ian Leslie
Chris’ 2019 goal
- More by Cordwainer Smith
Lance Richardson (16:05)
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays – Alexander Chee
- The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World – Maya Jasonoff
Lance’s 2019 goals
- Lots of books related to his Peter Matthiessen book
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom – TE Lawrence
- These Truths: A History of the United States – Jill Lepore
JJ Sedelmaier (7:50)
- Pen, Paper & Printing Ink – Andrew King
David Small (11:15)
- Welding with Children: Stories – Tim Gatreaux
David’s 2019 goal
- some short novels by Thomas Mann
Willard Spiegelman (32:00)
- Stoner – John Williams
Willard’s 2019 goal
- Bleak House – Dickens
Levi Stahl (40:05)
- The Library Book – Susan Orlean
- Something Wholesale – Eric Newby
- The Cherry Tree – Adrian Bell
- River – Esther Kinsky
- Home Sweet Homicide – Craig Rice
- The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World – Sarah Weinman
- Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel – Lawrence Osborne
- Sunburn: A Novel – Laura Lippmann
- I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara
- The Infinite Blacktop: A Novel – Sara Gran
- Under an English Heaven: An Ellie Kent Mystery – Donald E. Westlake
- The Man on a Donkey – H.F.M. Prescott
- The Corner That Held Them – Sylvia Townsend Warner
- The Broken Earth Trilogy – NK Jemisin
- Ancestors in the Attic: Including My Great-Grandmother?s Book of Ferns and My Aunt?s Book of Silent Actors – Michael Holroyd
- The Golden State: A Novel – Lydia Kiesling
- Motherhood: A Novel – Sheila Heti
- Weedeater: An Illustrated Novel – Robert Gipe
- Lost Empress: A Novel – Sergio De La Pava
- Compulsory Games – Robert Aickman
- The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction – Ellen Datlow (ed.)
- Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl – Uwe Johnson
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays – Alexander Chee
Lavie Tidhar (37:10)
- Noon: 22nd Century – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Mark Ulriksen (32:20)
- The Circle – Dave Eggers
- The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America – Erik Larson
- Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things – Loudon Wainwright III
Mark’s 2019 goals
- A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
- The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think – Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods
- A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel – Amor Towles
- The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels – John Meacham
Irvin Ungar (37:30)
- Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn – Daniel Gordis
- Showdown At Possum Trot – David Watts
Henry Wessells (4:00)
- Lion City – Ng Yi-Sheng
- Unholy Land – Lavie Tidhar
- The Mere Wife: A Novel – Maria Dahvana Headley
- An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories – Andy Duncan
Henry’s 2019 goals
- works by Sir Thomas Browne
- Infinite Detail: A Novel – Tim Maughan
Gil Roth (42:00)
- Tropic of Kansas: A Novel – Christopher Brown
- House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row – Lance Richardson
- I Will Be Complete: A Memoir – Glen David Gold
- Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey – Mark Dery
- A Conversation larger than the Universe: Readings in Science Fiction and the Fantastic, 1762-2017 – Henry Wessells
- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home – Nora Krug
- The New World: Comics from Mauretania – Chris Reynolds
- All The Answers – Michael Kupperman
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays – Joan Didion
- The Rings of Saturn – WG Sebald
- Victory: An Island Tale – Joseph Conrad
- The Line of Beauty: A Novel – Alan Hollinghurst
Gil’s 2019 goals
- A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power; Means of Ascent; Master of the Senate; The Passage of Power – Robert Caro
Guest List Sequence
Henry Wessells – 4:00
Alberto Manguel – 6:20
Steven Heller – 7:00
JJ Sedelmaier – 7:50
Jerry Beck – 8:55
David Small – 11:15
Nora Krug – 12:00
Nathaniel Popkin – 12:25
Cathy B Graham – 13:40
Ken Krimstein – 14:05
Lance Richardson – 16:05
Chris Reynolds – 17:35
Paul Karasik – 18:00
Mark Newgarden – 19:20
Robert Andrew Parker – 20:00
Dave McKean – 20:25
Michael Gerber – 21:20
John Leland – 22:30
Mark Dery – 23:55
Richard Kadrey – 25:50
Dean Haspiel – 27:10
Jim Ottaviani – 30:30
Willard Spiegelman – 32:00
Mark Ulriksen – 32:20
Shachar Pinsker – 33:05
Christopher Brown – 33:25
Lavie Tidhar – 37:10
Irvin Ungar – 37:30
Hal Mayforth – 37:50
Audrey Niffenegger – 38:20
Roz Chast – 39:00
Dave Calver – 39:45
Levi Stahl – 40:05
Gil Roth – 42:00
Bill Kartalopoulos – 1:50:00
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