Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss their most anticipated books of 2025 with Rohan Maitzen, English Professor at Dalhousie University, critic, and writer of the Novel Readings blog.

For our next episode, we will discuss Mobility by Lydia Keisling. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late January.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Widening the Skirts of Light: Essays on George Eliot by Rohan Maitzen
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Gliff by Ali Smith
• The Stone Door by Leonora Carrington
• Opus Siniestrus by Leonora Carrington
• Lili Is Crying by Helene Bessette
• Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Radio Treason The Trials of Lord Haw-Haw, the British Voice of Nazi Germany by Rebecca West
• The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
• Zone by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
• The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Frank Wynne
• Exophony: Voyages Outside the Moher Tongue by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
• Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani
• Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada, translated from the Japanese by Susan Bernofsky
• Makeshift by Sarah Campion
• The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, translated from the German by Philip Boehm
• The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya
• Wildcat Dome by Yuko Tsushima, translated from the Japanese by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
• Love in Exile by Shon Faye
• The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
• So We Died: A Memoir of Life and Death in the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania by Levi Shalit, translated by Veronica Belling, Ellen Cassedy and Andrew Cassel
• The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
• Sun City by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal
• Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative by Hershel Parker
• Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1, 1819-1851) by Hershel Parker
• Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 2, 1851-1891) by Hershel Parker
• Melvill by Rodrigo Fresan, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Mobility by Lydia Keisling

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Dorian, and Frances as they discuss OVERSTAYING by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will welcome Rohan Maitzen to the podcast to join us in discussion about the books we are most looking forward to in the new year. We would love to have you join us for our conversation coming to you in late December.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls
• Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals by Ronnie A. Grinberg
• Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls
• The Philosophy of Translation by Damion Searls
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• One Shot Harry by Gary Phillips
• Ash Dark As Night by Gary Phillips
• Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice

You might also be interested in:

• “The Cares of a Family Man” by Franz Kafka – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cares_of_a_Family_Man
• Struwwelpeter –  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
• The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_(short_story)

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Rebecca, and Dorian as they discuss FRAGMENTS OF A PARADISE by Jean Giono, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss OVERSTAYING by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late November.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Fragments of a Paradise by Jean Giono, translated from the French by Paul Eprile
• Hill by Jean Giono, translated from the French by Paul Eprile
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy
• To and Fro by Leah Hager Cohen
• Gifted by Suzumi Suzuki, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
• Melvill by Rodrigo Fresan, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
• Mother Archive: A Dominican Family Memoir by Erika Morillo
• Salvage: Readings From the Wreck by Dionne Brand
• Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls

You might also be interested in:

“The Autobiography of J.G.B.” by J.G. Ballard – https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/05/11/the-autobiography-of-j-g-b

Information on the Tom Jones read-along: https://readingkatebriggs.substack.com/

Rebecca’s review of Gifted: https://wordswithoutborders.org/book-reviews/gifted-suzumi-suzuki-allison-markin-powell/

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Rebecca, and Dorian as they return from their vacations, and discuss some of their summer reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss THE HOUSE IN PARIS by Elizabeth Bowen. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late September.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss
• Day by Michael Cunningham
• Orbital by Samantha Harvey
• Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
• L’Assommoir by Émile Zola
• Germinal by Émile Zola
• Nana by Émile Zola
• Like Love by Maggie Nelson
• An Image of My Name Enters America by Lucy Ives
• All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld
• Drifts by Kate Zambreno
• A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel, translated by Gwendolyn Harper
• All Fours by Miranda July
• Mammoth by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches
• Passages by Ann Quin
• Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel by Yoko Tawada, translated by Susan Bernofsky
• Opacities by Sofia Samatar
• The Little Man From Archangel by Georges Simenon
• Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villareal
• In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
• Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
• Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison
• The Future by Catherine Leroux
• Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, translated by Heather Cleary
• The Past by Tessa Hadley
• The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

This third bonus episode of the podcast is a conversation that Rebecca and Frances recently had with writer and podcaster, David Naimon while Dorian recharges his depleted battery in the wilds of Canada. We are devoted listeners to David’s fine work on Between the Covers, and as you listen in here, we feel confident that you will appreciate the intelligence, the generosity, and the empathy that makes his work irresistible to us.

You might also be interested in:

David’s Crafting With Ursula series: https://tinhouse.com/th_podcast_cat/crafting-with-ursula/

These five recent episodes of Between the Covers that are favorites of Frances and Rebecca:

Naomi Klein – Part 1 https://tinhouse.com/podcast/naomi-klein-doppelganger/ and Part 2 https://tinhouse.com/podcast/naomi-klein-doppelganger-part-two/

Kate Zambreno and Sofia Samatar – https://tinhouse.com/podcast/kate-zambreno-sofia-samatar-tone/

Anne de Marcken – https://tinhouse.com/podcast/anne-de-marcken-it-lasts-forever-and-then-its-over/

Mathias Énard – https://tinhouse.com/podcast/mathias-enard-the-annual-banquet-of-the-gravediggers-guild/

Kate Briggs – https://tinhouse.com/podcast/kate-briggs-the-long-form/

We mention this new podcast Hey, It’s Me, hosted by Rachel Zucker and Mike Sakasegawa: https://www.heyitsmepodcast.com/about

We mention the newsletter Involutions of the Seashell, an epistolary exchange between Lori Feathers and Anthony Garrett on Marguerite Young’s novel MISS MACINTOSH, MY DARLING. https://missmacintosh.substack.com/

And finally, we think you also might enjoy reading David’s book, Ursula K Le Guin: Conversations on Writing. https://www.ursulakleguin.com/conversations-on-writing

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss THE WEDDING by Dorothy West, and chat about their current reading.

Summer is upon us, so we are setting ourselves free just a little bit. July and August will feature some bonus content as well as a wrap-up conversation about our summer reading. Look out for details about these conversations on our social media accounts. Our next regularly scheduled episode will be in September when we will discuss A HOUSE IN PARIS by Elizabeth Bowen. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you as the first signs of fall arrive.

We are holding a contest! We’ve each picked six books we’re excited to read this summer. You can check out all the books at our store. But who chose what? Which books have caught Rebecca’s eye? What’s Dorian checking out? Which titles are calling to Frances?

Match titles with reader, and send your responses via DM to the One Bright Book twitter account or email at onebrightmail@gmail.com. 

Entries due at noon on July 4th, central time. Open world-wide. 

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• The Wedding by Dorothy West
• The Living Is Easy by Dorothy West
• Colored People: A Memoir by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Any Person Is the Only Self: Essays by Elisa Gabbert
• Emergency by Daisy Hildyard
• The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard
• Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale by Paul Yamazaki
• The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century by Josh Cook
• All Fours by Miranda July
• Kala by Colin Walsh
• The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

You might also be interested in:

• Notes From a Small Press, Anne Trubek – https://notesfromasmallpress.substack.com/
• “Shades of Difference” by Susan Kenney (NYT review in year of publication) – https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/books/shades-of-difference.html

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Dorian, and Rebecca as they discuss LA BÊTE HUMAINE by Émile Zola, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss THE WEDDING by Dorothy West. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late June.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola, translated with introduction and notes by Roger Pearson
• L’Assommoir by Émile Zola, translated by Brian Nelson and edited by Robert Lethbridge
• Germinal by Émile Zola, translated by Peter Collier and With an Introduction by Robert Lethbridge
• The Masterpiece by Émile Zola, translated by Thomas Walton and translation revised and introduced by Roger Pearson
• Nana by Émile Zola, translated by Helen Constantine and Edited by Brian Nelson
• Pot Luck by Émile Zola, Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Brian Nelson
• Doctor Pascal by Émile Zola, translated by Julie Rose, edited by Brian Nelson
• The Octopus by Frank Norris
• Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Wool, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann by Harriet Baker
• Henry, Henry by Allen Bratton
• The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
• The Wedding by Dorothy West

You might also be interested in:

• “Is It Even Good? Brandon Taylor Reads Zola” – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/brandon-taylor/is-it-even-good
• Further pursuing your knowledge of literary zombie novels

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Dorian, Rebecca, and Frances as they discuss DURING THE REIGN OF THE QUEEN OF PERSIA by Joan Chase, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss LA BÊTE HUMAINE by Émile Zola. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late May.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase
• The Evening Wolves by Joan Chase
• Bonneville Blue by Joan Chase
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
• Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni
• Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young
• The Wedding by Dorothy West
• Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
• La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola

You might also be interested in:

• “Is It Even Good? Brandon Taylor Reads Zola” – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/brandon-taylor/is-it-even-good
• “The Longest, Least-Remembered Great American Novel” by Ryan Ruby – https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-longest-least-remembered-great-american-novel