FictionMatters

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit fictionmatters.substack.comWelcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I ask writers to share a book that matters to them. I read it and we deep dive into the world of the text, exploring story, craft, and the way a great book can become part of someone. You’ll hear your favorite authors on their favorite authors and come away with expertly curated reading lists.Today, Julie Buntin, author of Famous Men and Marlena, joins me to talk about Carol Shields’s Pulitzer-winning novel The Stone Diaries. This is one of the best books I’ve read all year and getting the chance to talk about the book’s emotional and intellectual prowess with Julie was an absolute joy. The Stone Diaries is a birth to death novel told with technical assurance and stylistic originality—its innovative without ever making the reader feel like their witnessing a trick or gimmick. It’s moving in the truest sense of the word, helping readers to see the world in an slightly altered state upon finishing. Julie’s insights into the book, both personal and analytical, helped me appreciate it all the more and understand better how she herself is able to bring such depth and complexity to her work. I also got the chance to ask Julie about her wonderful new novel Famous Men. This is book that takes a story you think you know and continues adding layers until you realize you’re reading something infinitely more complex than you could have imagined. It was such a treat to get to hear all of the pieces that Julie pulled together in crafting this work and what made the writing process so different from her first book, Marlena.You can purchase Famous Men, Marlena, and Carol Shields’s The Stone Diaries on Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books! Julie Buntin’s new novel, Famous Men, is out now from Random House. Her debut, Marlena, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, an Indie Next pick, a Nevada Statewide Read, a Michigan Notable Book, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. Buntin’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The New York Times, among other publications, and has been translated into nine languages. She's the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and was the winner - for Famous Men - of the Ellen Levine Fund for Writers Award from the New York Community Trust. Her collaborative nonfiction project, Notes to New Mothers, co-edited with Rebecca Dinerstein Knight and published by W.W. Norton, is an independent press bestseller. Previously, Buntin was an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult. She has taught creative writing at NYU, Columbia University, the Yale Writers’ Workshop, and elsewhere. Now, she writes and teaches in Ann Arbor, where she is an associate professor at the University of Michigan.Connect with Julie: Website | Instagram | Famous Men on Bookshop * Roald Dahl Collection* The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis* Redwall by Brian Jacques* Stephen King* Annie Ernaud* Tove Ditlevsen* Elena Ferrante* Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo* I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy* Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling* Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan* Great Expectations by Charles Dickens* Such a Fun Age by Kylie Reid* The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields* To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf* Marlena by Julie Buntin* Tara Nichols on Instagram* Famous Men on Audio* Zuckerman Unbound by Phillip Roth* Brandon Taylor’s sweater weather* “That Crafty Feeling” by Zadie Smith*This post contains affiliate links.

Welcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.Laura B. McGrath is Assistant Professor of English at Temple University, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books. She also writes the popular publishing substack, TextCrunch.In today’s episode, Laura joins me to talk about Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife. I absolutely loved reading this book and it is a novel that absolutely must be discussed so I was thrilled to get the chance to deep dive into it with Laura. We talked about what makes a good publishing novel and how this particular book illuminates gender disparities in the literary world, while saying something much broader about what it means to be a woman and a wife. Of course we also we dive into Laura’s book Middlemen, which is all about the unique role literary agents play in the contemporary American publishing landscape. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I found Laura’s discoveries fascinating and I think any reader of contemporary fiction will as well. While we do talk about the end of The Wife, we save that for the last few minutes of our conversation and give ample warning before we we into spoilers!You can find Middlemen on Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books! This is a peek behind the curtain of a very opaque industry and if you love books, I think you’ll find it extremely interesting.Connect with Laura: Website | Instagram | Substack | Middlemen on Bookshop This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.Sarah Wang is the author of New Skin (Little Brown, 2026), which was named a best book by NPR, Apple Books, and was featured in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, People, and Bloomberg. She has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the London Review of Books. Wang is a MacDowell Fellow, a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow, a PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a Sewanee Writer’s Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar, a Tin House Scholar, and the winner of a Barbara Deming Award. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College.In today’s episode, Sarah joins me to talk about Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School. I loved this book, and processing my reading with Sarah made it all the richer. We delved into the mind-bending world of psychoanalytic theory and speculated on what the book is saying about language, masculinity, and trauma. Then we dive into Sarah’s debut novel New Skin. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I was thrilled to get to ask Sarah all of my questions, but also appreciated the questions she asked me about my experience reading her book. While we do get into some specifics about The Topeka School, we don’t include any spoilers for New Skin and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book.You can find New Skin in your favorite bookshop now! This is a highly original debut that I hope more readers will pick up!Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | New Skin on Bookshop | New Skin on Libro.fm This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them.Shannon Sanders is the author of The Great Wherever (Holt, July 2026) and the linked short story collection Company (Graywolf, 2023), which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named one of the best books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly and Debutiful, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including One Story, The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and has received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.In today’s episode, Shannon joins me to talk about Toni Morrison’s Jazz, and I felt honored to unpack this complicated and beautifully rendered novel with her. Then we dive into Shannon’s new novel The Great Wherever, which is out Tuesday, July 7th, and yes that is tomorrow if you’re listening to this episode the day it drops. I had the great privilege of reading an early copy of The Great Wherever and I have to say it’s one of the best family novels I’ve read in a long time and I loved the originality Shannon brings to the narrative structure. While we do get into some specifics about Jazz, we don’t include any spoilers for The Great Wherever and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book.You can find The Great Wherever in your favorite bookshop on July 7th. I also have to give a strong push for Company, Shannon’s linked short story collection which was one of my favorite books of 2023. Aubrey’s family appears in Company as well so if you fall in love with them, you need to pick a copy of that as well!* The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders* The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin* The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar* Holes by Louis Sachar* The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin* Mary Downing Hahn* The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald* Lord of the Flies by William Golding* Toni Morrison* Octavia Butler* Chinua Achebe* Agatha Christie* The God of the Woods by Liz Moore* Tana French* Company by Shannon Sanders* Jamel Brinkley* Deesha Philyaw* Pemi Aguda* Three Women by Lisa Taddeo* Ghost Lover by Lisa Taddeo* The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Donnie Walton* Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi* Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn* Ann Patchett* Jonathan Franzen* Jazz by Toni Morrison* Beloved by Toni Morrison* Paradise by Toni Morrison* On Morrison by Namwali Serpell* The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison* Corregidora by Gayl Jones* Kindred by Octavia E. Butler* Dominion by Addie E. Citchens* The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers* The World Doesn’t Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott* The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne*This post contains affiliate links. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the FictionMatters podcast. Today I’m talking about the best books of the year (so far) with my co-host Liz Hein. This year’s reading has been strange for me, but I feel very excited about the books Liz and I are sharing as well as the books we have to look forward to in the back half of the year.As always, I would love to hear your favorite books of the year so far! Drop your favorites in the comments below!Books & Links* Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash* Seek Immediate Shelter by Vincent Yu* Canon by Paige Lewis* Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel* Ply by Hernan Diaz* Under Story by Chloe Benjamin* Ruins by Lily Brooks Dalton* Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen* Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke* The Things We Never Say Elizabeth Strout* Strangers by Belle Burden* Adult Braces by Lindy West* The Rise of Ragebait Lit by Maris Kreizman* James by Percival Everett* Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman* John of John by Douglas Stuart* The Watch Podcast* 18:40 Brawler by Lauren Groff* 22:06 Kin by Tayari Jones* The Deserters by Mathias Ennard* 26:04 Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky* The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky* 28:46 Whistler by Ann Patchett* Tom Lake by Ann Patchett* 32:18 Departures by Julian Barnes* The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey* 35:14 Vigil by George Saunders* Lincoln and the Bardo by George Saunders* 38:51 Transcription by Ben Lerner* Audition by Kate Kitamura* 41:14 Land by Maggie O’Farrell* Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy* 46:16 She Who Remains by Renee Karabash* The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje***This post contains affiliate links. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fictionmatters.substack.com/subscribe