The Book Review

There are few living writers as closely associated with a genre as Stephen King is with horror. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, 70 novels and hundreds of short stories, King has terrified generations of readers with books like “Carrie,” “The Shining” and “It” while also writing across multiple genres like fantasy, science fiction and crime — producing books that resist easy categorization.

One of those is “The Talisman,” the 1984 fantasy novel King co-wrote with the author Peter Straub (“Ghost Story”). It follows a 12-year-old named Jack Sawyer who discovers that he can move between our world and a parallel one called the Territories. Seventeen years later, King and Straub returned to Jack in the sequel “Black House.” They always intended to write one more book together.

Straub died in 2022, before they could. But King is now publishing that third novel in the series, “Other Worlds Than These,” with Straub still credited as his co-author. The book comes out Oct. 6. To write it King has returned not only to the world they created together but also to Straub’s writing itself, rereading his old friend’s work and trying to channel his voice on the page. In it, Jack Sawyer is much older. And the new book, like “Black House” before it, incorporates King’s epic, sprawling Dark Tower series. Part of the story is also inspired by the crimes of the 1950s mass murderer, Charles Starkweather.

This week, King joins the “Book Review” podcast to talk about finishing the series without Straub, their decades-long friendship and collaboration, his resistance to being defined solely as a horror writer and why, after more than half a century of published books, he still feels compelled to chase the next story.

Books Mentioned on This Episode:

• “The Talisman,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Black House,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Other Worlds Than These,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Ghost Story,” by Peter Straub
• “The Hero’s Journey,” by Joseph Campbell
• “Redheaded Peckerwood,” by Christian Patterson
• “The Gunslinger,” by Stephen King
• “The Eyes of the Dragon,” by Stephen King
• “The Stand,” by Stephen King
• “The Dead Zone,” by Stephen King
• “Firestarter,” by Stephen King
• “Mr. Mercedes,” by Stephen King
• “Survivor Type,” from “Skeleton Crew,” by Stephen King
• “Deliverance,” by James Dickey
• “To the White Sea,” by James Dickey
• “Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe
• “Dune,” by Frank Herbert
• “Floating Dragon,” by Peter Straub

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Credits

The “Book Review” podcast is hosted byand produced by,and. The show was mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks toand.

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Paul Yoon’s new novel, “Etna,” follows a haunted, battle-scarred war veteran who wants desperately to go home. He also happens to be a dog — a mixed-breed shepherd trained to sniff out bombs for an unnamed military in the throes of an unnamed conflict — and he has no idea where he is anymore, or if his old farm is even still standing after so much violence. Undeterred, he ventures into the great unknown, to somehow find his way back.

The result is a powerful story about survival, the brutal cost of war and what it means to step forward after calamity.

On this episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses the novel with his colleagues Elisabeth Egan and Scott Heller. You can follow along, and add your own comments to the discussion here.

Other books (and poems, and a movie) mentioned in this episode:

• The “Odyssey”
• The work of E.E. Cummings
• The film “A Dog’s Purpose,” directed by Lasse Hallström (adapted from W. Bruce Cameron’s novel, also named “A Dog’s Purpose”)
• “The Vulnerables,” by Sigrid Nunez
• “The Eyes and the Impossible,” by Dave Eggers
• “Angel Down,” by Daniel Kraus
• “Marley & Me,” by John Grogan
• “Flush,” by Virginia Woolf
• “Doggerel,” by Reginald Dwayne Betts
• “Dog Show,” by Billy Collins
• “Deaf Republic,” by Ilya Kaminsky
• “An Immense World,” by Ed Yong
• “Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel
• “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy

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Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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MJ Franklin is in the host chair this week, in for Gilbert Cruz. MJ spoke with New York Times book critic Dwight Garner about Marlon James’s new novel, “The Disappearers.” Dwight recently reviewed the book, calling it "the novel of the decade, if not the century." With praise like that, the review itself has become a topic of conversation. Dwight talks about the novel, the moment he realized it was a masterpiece and, more broadly, his approach to criticism.

We also have a wide-ranging conversation with John Green, the best-selling author. Green is known for his young adult novels, but he makes his adult-fiction debut with “Hollywood, Ending.” We discuss the book, fame and the titles that made an impression on him when he was young.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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If you were a reading adult in the early 2000s, you probably tackled, or at least heard about, “The Corrections,” Jonathan Franzen’s best-selling and much discussed book.

The novel won the National Book Award, was a Pulitzer finalist, and an Oprah Book Club pick.

The book arrives at its 25th anniversary this month, and in today’s episode of the “Book Review” podcast, host Gilbert Cruz talks with Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a writer for The New York Times magazine and novelist, about why this novel is so essential to modern American literature. And that’s not just her take: “The Corrections” ranks fifth on our list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, as voted on by hundreds of influential readers.

“The Corrections” is a book about America at the turn of the century; it was published just before 9/11. Brodesser-Akner, who admits to having read the novel 20 times, says that Franzen’s work “became the defining book of America’s golden moment, which ended on Sept. 10.”

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Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Credits

The “Book Review” Podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz, produced by Amy Pearl, Sarah Diamond and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is mixed by Pedro Rosado. Special thanks to Dahlia Haddad.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Jordan Baker said it best: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”

In just one short sentence, the character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” sums up that wonderful feeling of anticipation that comes with autumn. For bookish people, the season comes with its own set of expectations; some of the year’s biggest books are released in September and October. On this episode of the “Book Review” podcast, Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin join our host, Gilbert Cruz, to go over some of the titles they’re most looking forward to.

Books discussed on this episode:

• “The Disappearers,” by Marlon James
• “The Radiance,” by Ayad Akhtar
• “American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey From Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump,” by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark
• “Switzy,” by Emma Cline
• “The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia,” by Robert Kolker
• “Dead Beat,” by Leigh Bardugo
• “American Hagwon,” by Min Jin Lee
• “Mazywood,” by Tananarive Due
• “Public Access Afterworld,” by Jane Schoenbrun
• “Other Worlds Than These,” by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• “Partita,” by Barbara Kingsolver
• “Music Against the Night,” by Yiyun Li
• “The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War and the Making of the Modern World,” by Nathaniel Philbrick
• “The Occidental Book of the Dead,” by T. Geronimo Johnson
• “The Brightness,” by Chad Harbach
• “Stations,” by Louise Kennedy
• “On the Calculation of Volume (Book V),” by Solvej Balle
• “Dodge City,” by Patrick DeWitt
• “Under Story,” by Chloe Benjamin
• “Our Noble Selves,” by Kate Atkinson
• “Taipei Story,” by R.F. Kuang
• “Exit Party,” by Emily St. John Mandel
• “Ply,” by Hernan Diaz
• “Hollywood, Ending,” by John Green
• “No Land to Stand On: Notes From Detention,” by Mahmoud Khalil
• “Life Out of Order,” by Audrey Niffenegger
• “Every Story Is a Love Story,” by Imbolo Mbue
• “Peck & Peck,” by Bonnie Garmus
• “A Court of Splintered Harmony,” by Sarah J. Maas
• “Take My Word for It,” by LeVar Burton
• “Promise Me, America,” by Joe Biden

Listen to and Follow ‘The Book Review’

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We Want to Hear From You

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to thebookreview@nytimes.com.

Credits

The “Book Review” podcast is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Amy Pearl, Sarah Diamond and Patricia Sulbarán. The show is mixed by Pedro Rosado.

Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad and Brooke Minters.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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