The Best Books of 2025 with Jake Morrissey

Bonnie Garmus is back! On this week's episode of You Are What You Read, we are excited to welcome the author of the blockbuster, Lessons in Chemistry, with her irresistible and delightful new novel, PECK & PECK. You all read Lessons in Chemistry: the Good Morning America Book Club Pick, a Goodreads Choice Best Book of the Year, one of Time magazine’s top 100 books of the 21st century, and the Apple TV limited series. PECK & PECK brings readers to the publishing world of 1980s New York City when a young man’s life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are excited to welcome Ari Emanuel to the podcast with his New York Times bestselling memoir, ROLL THE CALLS. Ari Emanuel is one of Hollywood’s most accomplished, feared—and funny—dealmakers who has some stuff he wants to get off his chest… He is the CEO and Executive Chair of TKO, the Executive Chairman of WME Group, and the Founder and Principal Investor of MARI. As Hollywood’s best-known super-agent—the inspiration for “Ari Gold” in the classic TV drama Entourage—he’s paid to speak for his A-list clients, not himself. Now, for the first time, the agent, the mogul, the fero­cious power broker, speaks for himself, about himself, and about the game of life in ROLL THE CALLS.

On this week’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are joined by bestselling author Kurt Andersen with his new novel, The Breakup. Kurt’s work includes: Evil Geniuses, Fantasyland and the novels True Believers, Heyday and Turn of the Century, among other books. He contributes to The New York Times and was host and co-creator of Studio 360, the Peabody Award–winning public radio show and podcast. Kurt also co-founded Spy magazine. In this conversation and in Kurt's novel, he offers us a portal into a different world, one overcoming crisis and division but ultimately still searching for hope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are thrilled to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Barbara Kingsolver, with her new novel, PARTITA. Barbara is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, The Bean Trees, The Poisonwood Bible, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Demon Copperhead. Barbara is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has received the National Humanities Medal and, most recently, the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She is the founder of the Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Residence in Pennington Gap, Virginia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of You Are What You Read, we are not only welcoming guest author Marlon James to the show, we are also welcoming his editor, and our dear friend, Jake Morrissey. Marlon and Jake are here to talk about Marlon’s new novel, The Disappearers, the electrifying story of the murder of a gay man in 1980s Jamaica and its far-reaching consequences. Marlon James is the Booker Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Seven Killings and the bestselling and National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf. James has been named one of Time magazine’s one hundred most influential people in the world. His editor, Jake Morrissey, Executive Editor at Riverhead Books, co-hosts with James the podcast, Marlon & Jake Read Dead People. Jake also edits authors Anne Lamott, James McBride, and Daniel Pink, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices