The Book Review

Art, Outrage and How the Culture Wars Began

In April 1989, a newspaper clipping about an art exhibit landed in the mailbox of the Rev. Donald Wildmon, the founder of a conservative evangelical group, the American Family Association. Partly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the exhibit included a now-infamous photograph by Andres Serrano that showed a crucifix submerged in Serrano’s own urine. Incensed, Wildmon sent a copy of the photo to every member of Congress, setting off a battle led by the Christian right over what contemporary art could be and who should receive federal funding for it. Isaac Butler, an author and cultural historian, walks through this and other pivotal moments in the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s in his new book, “The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars.” Butler spoke to the Book Review’s editor, Gilbert Cruz, about how these fights unfolded and what they meant for the artists themselves. He sat down to write the book, he said, when “it really felt like the culture wars of the ’80s and ’90s that I grew up in were repeating again.” Books and plays discussed on this episode: “The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars,” by Isaac Butler “Measure for Measure,” by William Shakespeare “Transgressions: The Offences of Art,” by Anthony Julius “It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic,” by Jack Lowery “The Devil Finds Work,” by James Baldwin “Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz,” by Cynthia Carr “Elia Kazan: A Life,” by Elia Kazan “Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War and the Fight to End Slavery,” by Richard Kreitner “The Kindness of Strangers,” by Salka Viertel “The Talmud: A Biography,” by Barry Scott Wimpfheimer “My Last Sigh,” by Luis Buñuel 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. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Best Books of the 21st Century: Ryan Holiday on ‘The Road’

In 2024, The New York Times Book Review gathered more than 500 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and literary enthusiasts to help pick the best books of the 21st century [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html] so far. One of those books was Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road,” which came in at No. 13 [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html#book-13?smid=url-share&referringSource=deeplink]. That book tells the story of a man and his young son trying to survive in a postapocalyptic United States. Like other books by McCarthy, it combines ornate prose with moments of unforgettable violence. It is also a moving story of love and parenthood under the most extreme circumstances. One of the people who voted on our best books list was Ryan Holiday [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/authors-top-books-21st-century.html#ryan-holiday?smid=url-share&referringSource=deeplink], author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, host of the “Daily Stoic” podcast and owner of the Painted Porch Bookshop in Bastrop, Texas. We recently invited him on the “Book Review” podcast to talk about “The Road,” and how its meaning changed for him after he became a father. Books Discussed on This Episode: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy “No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy “All the Pretty Horses” by Cormac McCarthy “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy “The Odyssey” by Homer “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Children of Men” by P. D. James “The Plague” by Albert Camus “Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius “Of Boys and Men” by Richard Reeves “Outdoor Kids in an Inside World” by Steven Rinella “Letter to His Father” by Franz Kafka “Range” by David Epstein “Good Inside” by Becky Kennedy “Wild Dark Shore” by Charlotte McConaghy “Death Be Not Proud” by John Gunther “The Revenant” by Michael Punke Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Summer Book Recommendation Bonanza

June is here and the long summer days are stretching out ahead, which means it’s time to settle in front of the air-conditioner with a pile of books. (Just us?) But which ones should you read this summer? The “Book Review” podcast’s Gilbert Cruz talks with the Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the titles they’re most excited about. Books discussed in this episode: “Red Sheet,” by James Ellroy “Villa Coco,” by Andrew Sean Greer “They All Fall in Love at the End,” by Haili Blassingame “Whistler,” by Ann Patchett “As If,” by Isabel Waidner “The Housewives Underground,” by Kaitlyn Tiffany “Nebraska,” by Monica Datta “Cool Machine,” by Colson Whitehead “The Mortons,” by Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld “Country People,” by Daniel Mason “Fixer Chao,” by Han Ong “Biological War,” by Annie Jacobsen “We Were Forbidden,” by Jacqueline Harpman “The Amateur,” by Chris Bohjalian “A Tender Age,” by Chang-rae Lee “The Jackal,” by Joby Warrick “A Moment in the Sun,” by Shane White “A Sudden Flicker of Light,” by David Thomson “Rabbit, Fox, Tar” by P.C. Verrone “The Au Pair,” by Teddy Wayne “Land,” by Maggie O’Farrell “Sublimation,” by Isabel J. Kim “Cloudthief,” by Nathaniel Rich “Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep,” by Paul Tremblay “You Won’t Get Free of It,” by Rachel Aviv “Awake Awake,” by Fiona Mozley “Triage,” by Claudia Rankine “Catch the Devil,” by Pamela Colloff “Helpless,” by Jessica Knoll “Life of M,” by Rachel Cusk Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Transcription,' by Ben Lerner

Ben Lerner’s slender new novel, “Transcription,” is just 130 pages long, yet it cracks open some of our most colossal and enduring philosophical questions. The novel is told in three parts. We open with an unnamed narrator going to interview his mentor, Thomas — an acclaimed artist in his 90s who also happens to be the father of one of the narrator’s friends, Max — for a magazine. Before the interview, however, the narrator’s phone breaks and he has no way to record their conversation. Rather than reschedule, he proceeds with the interview and only pretends to record Thomas as they talk. The second section flashes to the future. Thomas has died, and the article that our narrator wrote has become enshrined as the final interview with the iconic artist. At a symposium in Madrid, the narrator confesses that his interview was reconstructed rather than transcribed — a revelation that dismays the other guests and infuriates Max. Then we flash again. In the final section, the narrator talks to Max, who discusses his own complicated relationship with Thomas and technology, including how the internet and other digital tools impacted his family during several crises. Through these scenes, “Transcription” asks a series of questions: How does technology mediate our lives? How does it bring us together or pull us apart? Is there a difference between what’s real and what’s true? It also becomes a potent and poignant study of fatherhood and what it means. On this episode, MJ Franklin discusses “Transcription” with fellow Book Review editors Gregory Cowles and Alexandra Jacobs. Other books mentioned in this episode: * “Leaving the Atocha Station,” “10:04” and “The Topeka School,” by Ben Lerner * “The Dance of Anger,” by Harriet Lerner * “Reporting,” by Lillian Ross * “Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art,” by Virginia Heffernan * “In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss,” by Amy Bloom * “No One Is Talking About This,” by Patricia Lockwood * “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr * “Universality,” by Natasha Brown * “White Noise” and “The Body Artist,” by Don DeLillo * “A Hunger Artist,” by Franz Kafka * “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” by Jennifer Egan * “Asymmetry,” by Lisa Halliday * “Trust,” by Hernan Diaz * “The Mezzanine” and “Vox,” by Nicholson Baker * “Outline,” by Rachel Cusk * The books of Virginia Woolf Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Ezra Klein Show: Michael Pollan’s Journey to the Borderlands of Consciousness

Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Ezra Klein Show,” originally published on March 31. Ezra interviewed author Michael Pollan, whose best-selling books include “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan’s latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646644/a-world-appears-by-michael-pollan/] came out earlier this year. It’s an exploration of what consciousness is, and the book is — as our review [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/books/review/a-world-appears-michael-pollan.html] put it — “highly pleasurable to read.” Mentioned in the episode: “The Descriptive Experience Sampling method [https://www.hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu/hurlburt-akhter-2006.pdf]” by Russell T. Hurlburt and Sarah A. Akhter “What Is It Like to Be a Bat? [https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Nagel_Bat.pdf]” by Thomas Nagel The Hidden Spring [https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393542011] by Mark Solms Descartes’ Error [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297609/descartes-error-by-antonio-damasio/] by Antonio Damasio “The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought [https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38694?login=true]” by Kalina Christoff and Kieran C. R. Fox Book Recommendations: The Blind Spot [https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048804/the-blind-spot/] by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser and Evan Thompson Ducks, Newburyport [https://www.galleybeggar.co.uk/paperback-shop/ritegxpqvavi286gp91sd0he23hzx4] by Lucy Ellmann Being You [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566315/being-you-by-anil-seth/] by Anil Seth You can find transcripts and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast], and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html]. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Kim Freda. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Michelle Harris, Rollin Hu, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Listen to and Follow the “Book Review” Podcast Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-book-review/id120315179?mt=2] | Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/1q3tsOS9XhqgSslnyZyKV6] | Amazon Music [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d9314635-147c-409a-ae6a-fdf8358caee5/the-book-review] | YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdMrbgYfVl-vT4J7V1XT3MD5GCSebQJay] | iHeartRadio [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/326-the-book-review-28076603/] 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 [thebookreview@nytimes.com]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts [http://nytimes.com/podcasts] or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher [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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.