We’re back and kicking off 2025 with our annual Superlatives episode. Today, we’re excited to highlight stand-out books from 2024. We’ve got eight superlatives lined up that highlight our favorites, least favorites and everything in between. Plus, we’re looking back on our podcasting journey through 2024 and give you some behind-the-scenes insight to our reading lives. Stick around because we’ve got two big announcements to wrap things up!

Special Announcement (Timestamp 58:20)

Link to Announcement video on Patreon

Books Mentioned

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

James by Percival Everett

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday

Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

The Wedding by Dorthy West

Taiwan Travelogue by Shuang-Zi Yang

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

Emma by Jane Austen

Say You’ll Be Mine by Nayina Kumar

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Quarterlife by Devika Regge

Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Sandwich by Katherine Newman

Blue Sisters by Coco Melores

Also Mentioned

Classics We Love & Loathe Episodes

Fiction Matters Paperback Summer Reading Guide

Liz Moore on New York Times Podcast

As the summer reading season comes to a close, we’re turning our eyes to fall. With Chelsey on maternity leave, we’ve made some thoughtful adjustments to our plans and structure here at Novel Pairings. Our goal is to ensure that we stay connected and continue to foster the amazing community we’ve built together. The best way to stay connected this fall is through our Patreon community; we’re excited about the bonus episodes, discussion based classes and book club events we have planned!

On today’s episode, we revisit last summer's buzzy book reviews from our Patreon archives. Each summer, we sit down for a conversation where we share our thoughts on the latest buzzworthy books we've read. Today, we're re-airing last summer's discussion on popular titles, which features some unconventional opinions on well-known works.

Follow us on Instagram @novelpairingspod and subscribe to our newsletter at novelpairings.substack.com.

Books Mentioned

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’ Donaghue

The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Saddiqi

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Loot by Tania James

Also Mentioned

Our Town on YouTube

Chelsey's Recipe for a Summer Romance Reading Guide

Sara's Reading in Public newsletter on long books and active attention

In today's recap episode, we discuss Book One of The Custom of the Country (that's chapters 1-10 if your book is not divided into books). This episode includes detailed discussion of the plot and characters introduced in this first section of the novel, so spoilers abound. We discuss our initial impressions of the unforgettable character that is Undine Spragg, how well this book would translate to the screen, a close read of a mythology reference, and what we've learned about parenting from this portion of the novel because we desperately want to avoid raising Undines!

Some more background on this episode: twice a year, we choose a big bucket list classic to read together as a community. For every book we read, we dust off our English teacher skills to break down plot, themes, style, and more in recurring recap podcast episodes.

We have our Big Book Summer Read Along of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables on the horizon and we’d love for you to join us! We do know that it can be hard to sign up for a subscription community if you don’t know what you’re getting so we wanted to give you a taste for what we do in our Patreon Classics Club by putting two of our recent recap episodes here on the main feed. Over the winter months, we read Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country and we think it would make for a great summer read if you haven’t read it yet.

If you love these two episodes, head over to our Patreon at patreon.com/novelpairings. Enrolling at the $10 Literature Scholar level will get you access to the rest of our Custom of the Country recap series, the corresponding classes, our entire Odyssey recap series from last summer, and all of our previous bonus episodes and class recordings. Plus, you'll get access to our current summer recap series of Les Misérables.

Books Mentioned:

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Eloise at The Plaza by Kay Thompson

Also Mentioned:

Gossip Girl

Today’s episode is a special one! Twice a year, we choose a big bucket list classic to read together as a community. For every big book we read, Chelsey and Sara dust off their English teacher skills to break down plot, themes, style, and more in recurring recap podcast episodes.

We have our Big Book Summer Read Along of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables on the horizon and we’d love for you to join us! We do know that it can be hard to sign up for a subscription community if you don’t know what you’re getting so we wanted to give you a taste for what we do in our Patreon Classics Club by putting two of our recent recap episodes here on the main feed. Over the winter months, we read Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country and we think it would make for a great summer read if you haven’t read it yet.

If you love these two episodes, head over to our Patreon at patreon.com/novelpairings. Enrolling at the $10 Literature Scholar level will get you access to the rest of our Custom of the Country recap series, the corresponding classes, our entire Odyssey recap series from last summer, and all of our previous bonus episodes and class recordings. Plus, you'll get access to our current summer recap series of Les Misérables.

In today's first recap episode, we discuss the introduction materials from the Penguin Classics (Sofia Coppola & Sarah Blackwood) and Scribner (Brandon Taylor) versions of the text. You do not need to read the intros in order to listen to this episode. Future recaps will include plot spoilers, of course, but this introduction episode is completely spoiler-free! We discuss initial impressions of the introductions, lenses and questions for guided reading, literary relevance and contemporary comparisons, and three big things to look for as you read.

Books Mentioned:

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Also Mentioned:

The Buccaneers

Bridgerton

The Gilded Age

Downton Abbey

Today, we’re wrapping up our spring season with Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, a theme-driven novel that recreates the social world of an elite liberal arts college, exploring issues through nuanced satire on race, class, and beauty. We dig into the stories of the Belsey and Kipp families and Smith’s use of the academic setting to discuss identity and social satire. Our pairings for On Beauty include callbacks to previous classic episodes, essays by Zadie Smith, and surprising historical fiction.

Our Slow Down Summer Read Along of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is starting soon! Just like our readalongs for The Odyssey and The Custom of the Country, you can expect exclusive Patreon content, including book clubs and classes, to guide you through this ginormous classic. We’d love for you to join us! Go to patreon.com/novelpairings to sign up.

Books Mentioned:

Howard’s End by E.M. Forster

There is Confusion by Jessie Redmon Fauset

Passing by Nella Larsen

Members Only by Sameer Pandya

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo