Latest news with #JoumanaKhatib
New York Times
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
2 Books for Birthday Introspection
By Joumana Khatib Dear readers, The approach of my birthday always leaves me a little blue; the occasion is a sour cherry on top of my usual two scoops of critical scrutiny and second-guessing about my life. This year is no different. But I find myself leaning more toward introspection than self-loathing. I can't account for how I've used the past 30-odd years, to say nothing of the previous 12 months, but I'd like to better understand how exactly I got to where I am. These books, each in its own way, model the type of precise self-dissection I strive for. (I can practically feel the snap of the rubber gloves on my hands.) And I like to think they chime with the indelible literary project the Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux set out to accomplish: 'I shall carry out an ethnological study of myself.' Ready to begin? —Joumana 'Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?,' by Lorrie Moore Fiction, 1994 I'm nakedly pandering to myself here, because reading Moore blisses me out as predictably as Xanax. But this is, word for word and paragraph for paragraph, one of the most enjoyable novels about what-ifs I have on my shelves. Plus, it opens with a delectable bit of food writing — about brains: My husband likes the vaporous, fishy mousse of them. They are a kind of seafood, he thinks, locked tightly in the skull, like shelled creatures in the dark caves of the ocean, sprung suddenly free and killed by light; they've grown clammy with shelter, fortressed vulnerability, dreamy nights. Me, I'm eating for a flashback. We can taste those flashbacks ourselves. The ensuing story is a romp through the counterfactual realm. The narrator, Berie, realizes she no longer loves her husband, and begins to imagine alternative lives: What if she were in Paris, but attached to someone else? Perhaps someone who wouldn't confuse 'arrondisement' with 'aggrandizement'? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Best Books of the Year (So Far)
We're halfway through 2025, and we at the Book Review have already written about hundreds of books. Some of those titles are good. Some are very good. And then there are the ones that just won't let us go. On this week's episode of the podcast, Gilbert Cruz and Joumana Khatib talk about some of the best books of the year so far. (Check out our full accounting of the best books of the year so far and save the titles that interest you most to your reading list.) Here are the books discussed in this week's episode: 'King of Ashes,' by S.A. Cosby 'The Director,' by Daniel Kehlmann 'A Marriage at Sea,' by Sophie Elmhirst 'Careless People,' by Sarah Wynn-Williams 'Isola,' by Allegra Goodman 'The Catch,' by Yrsa Daley-Ward 'Daughters of the Bamboo Grove,' by Barbara Demick 'The Sisters,' by Jonas Hassen Khemiri 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,' by Stephen Graham Jones 'Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin,' by Sue Prideaux 'Raising Hare,' by Chloe Dalton 'To Smithereens,' by Rosalyn Drexler 'The Fate of the Day,' by Rick Atkinson 'Flesh,' by David Szalay 'Things in Nature Merely Grow,' by Yiyun Li 'These Summer Storms,' by Sarah MacLean We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@
New York Times
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Best Summer Reads, as Recommended by the Book Review
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. An exploration of New York City's past. A beloved novel about a group of women in the publishing industry in the 1950s. An oral history of an indie rock band's 'iconic' third album. No summer is complete without a scintillating read. And who better to ask for recommendations than The New York Times Book Review team? To kick off the summer, Times Insider asked writers, editors and other members of the Book Review to choose the reads they'll take to the beach, barbecue and every place in between. Below are their responses, which have been edited for clarity. Joumana Khatib, editor and writer of the Books newsletter What book are you reading this summer? 'After Julius,' by Elizabeth Jane Howard Why do you love it? I'm enjoying it so much that I am planning to graduate to Howard's 'The Cazalet Chronicles,' the multibook series for which she is best known. I stumbled upon Howard only recently — criminally recently — and admire her ruthless social observations and wit. I think she captures the experience of precarity, whether emotional, financial, social, in incredibly fine detail. Who do you recommend it for? Anyone who appreciates the dramatic potential of a weekend in the countryside. Jennifer Harlan, service editor What book are you reading this summer? 'The Best of Everything,' by Rona Jaffe Why do you love it? This novel had been in my to-read stack for years but moved to the top when both Jennifer Egan and Candace Bushnell sang its praises for our Read Your Way Through New York City project. The book was published in 1958, and there are plenty of fun midcentury details — the fashion, the luncheonettes, the shockingly cheap apartments — but it also feels remarkably modern. You follow five young women who meet while working at a publishing house, and the ways they navigate love and sex and bad dates and heartbreak and awkward office parties all feel totally at home in this century. It's moving and very funny, and perfectly captures what it feels like to be a young woman making a life for herself in the city. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Book Club: Let's Talk About ‘The Safekeep'
MJ Franklin, who hosts the Book Review podcast's monthly book club, says that whenever someone asks him what book to read next, Yael van der Wouden's 'The Safekeep' is his go-to recommendation. So he was particularly excited to discuss the novel with a fellow editor at the Book Review, Joumana Khatib, and Anna Dubenko, a passionate reader who heads The New York Times newsroom's audience team, for this week's episode. (We've also been talking about the book with readers online. Join that conversation here.) Set in the Netherlands in 1961, 'The Safekeep' is the kind of book it's best not to know too much about, as part of the delight is discovering its secrets unspoiled. As our reviewer coyly wrote in her piece about the novel, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 (alongside former Book Club picks 'James' and 'Orbital'): 'What a quietly remarkable book. I'm afraid I can't tell you too much about it.' Here are some other works discussed in this week's episode: 'The Torqued Man,' by Peter Mann 'The Little Stranger,' by Sarah Waters 'Mice 1961,' by Stacey Levine 'The New Life,' by Tom Crewe We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Spring Preview: A Few Books We're Excited For
Every season brings its share of books to look forward to, and this spring is no different. On this week's episode the host Gilbert Cruz and his colleague Joumana Khatib talk about a dozen or so titles that sound interesting in the months ahead. Books discussed on this episode: 'Dream Count,' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'Sunrise on the Reaping,' by Suzanne Collins 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,' by Stephen Graham Jones 'Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools,' by Mary Annette Pember 'Great Big Beautiful Life,' by Emily Henry 'John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs,' by Ian Leslie 'Yoko: A Biography,' by David Sheff 'Searches,' by Vauhini Vara 'Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America,' by Michael Luo 'Rabbit Moon,' by Jennifer Haigh 'Mark Twain,' by Ron Chernow 'Authority,' by Andrea Long Chu 'Spent,' by Alison Bechdel 'Fish Tales,' by Nettie Jones We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@
