Episodes

Brian and Barbara review the novel Platform Decay by Martha Wells, the eighth book in her award-winning "Murderbot Diaries" science fiction series, and number eight on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of May 24, 2026. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Bestseller episode #39, recorded 10/3/2026

Brian and Barbara review The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, the only book to make the New York Times hardcover fiction list every week of the year 2026 so far. . Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! bestseller episode #38, recorded May 31, 2026

Brian and Barbara review the novel Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall, a Reese's Book Club pick and one of the top performing books of 2025 according to the New York Times hardcover fiction list. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! bestseller episode #37, recorded February 7, 2026

Brian and Barbara review the suspense novel Never Flinch by Stephen King, number one on the June 15, 2025 New York Times hardcover fiction list. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! bestseller episode #36, recorded 8/10/2025

Brian and Barbara review the novel Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, number one on the July 20, 2025, New York Times hardcover fiction list, and GMA Book Club pick for June, 2025. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode #35 of bestseller, recorded 7/21/2025

Brian and Barbara review the suspense novel The Perfect Divorce by Jeneva Rose, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of May 4, 2025. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! episode #34 of bestseller, recorded June 28, 2025

Brian and Barbara review Kristin Hannah's 2015 World War II novel, The Nightingale, which spent 82 weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction list at the time of its initial release, and re-entered the list on March 9, 2025, when reissued in a deluxe, ten-year-anniversary hardcover edition. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! bestseller episode #33, recorded May 17, 2025

Brian and Barbara count down the top ten performing hardcover fiction bestsellers of 2024, and review #BookTok sensation Rebecca Yarros's megahit novel, Iron Flame, the second book in her planned five volume romantic fantasy series, "The Empyrean." Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it, or regift it! episode #32 of bestseller, recorded March 30, 2025.

Brian and Barbara review the suspense novel The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, 28 weeks and counting on the New York Times hardcover fiction list. Twenty minutes with us and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! episode #31 of bestseller, recorded 2/1/2025

Brian and Barbara review the novel James by Percival Everett, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of December 29, 2024. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! episode #30 of bestseller, recorded 12/31/2024

Brian and Barbara review the novel Funny Story by Emily Henry, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction lists of May 12 and May 19, 2024. episode #29 of bestseller, recorded November 30, 2024.

Brian and Barbara review the book Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of June 23, 2024. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode # 28 of bestseller, recorded on October 5, 2024

Brian and Barbara review the book You Like It Darker by Stephen King, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of June 9, 2024. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode # 27 of bestseller, recorded on September 17, 2024

Brian and Barbara review the book Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, 53 weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction list from May 22, 2022, to August 4, 2024. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode # 26 of bestseller, recorded on July 30, 2024

Brian and Barbara review James McBride's new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, the Barnes & Noble fiction book of the year for 2023 and a New York Times bestseller for 37 weeks. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode #25 of bestseller, recorded on June 22, 2024.

Brian and Barbara review the book The Women by Kristin Hannah, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list since February 25, 2024. In her new novel of historical fiction, Kristin Hannah takes us to the era of the Vietnam War, following Frances Grace McGrath (“Frankie”) as she tries to make her family—especially her Dad—proud by joining the Army as a combat nurse. After two tours of duty, Frankie comes home a changed person, now a skilled surgical nurse with deep, life-long friends,...

Brian and Barbara review the book First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, number five on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of January 21, 2024, and the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick for January, 2024. Evie, the main character in this debut suspense novel, is a thief—a high end thief, who goes undercover to steal art, jewels, proprietary business secrets, or whatever her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, tells her to get her hands on. She’s very good at what she does, but her latest job is … compl...

Brian and Barbara introduce ten new bestselling novels that entered the New York Times hardcover fiction list in January of 2024. Twenty minutes with us and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! bestseller episode #22, recorded 2/24/2024

Brian and Barbara review Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, number five on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of November 12, 2023, and the Oprah Bookclub pick for October, 2023. Two-time National Book Award winning novelist Jesmyn Ward invites us to descend into the hell of race-based slavery in the antebellum South, telling the story of Annis, a young woman separated from her mother in the Carolinas and sold into the brutal sugar production economy of Louisiana. Episode # 21 of bestseller...

Brian and Barbara complete the review of 2023 by recognizing the hardcover fiction bestsellers with the highest (and lowest) social media ratings, counting down the top ten best selling bestsellers of the year, and sharing our favorite books of the year just past. Twenty minutes with us, and you'll know whether to read it ... or regift it! Episode #20 of bestseller, recorded 1/22/2024

Brian and Barbara take a look back at the 191 books that made the New York Times bestselling hardcover fiction list last year, choosing the best of the best of 2023. With "Bestie" awards given in categories such as "Best Opening Line," "Best Cover Design," "Best Social Media Response," "Best Selling Book of the Year," and, of course, "Best Book of the Year" (not necessarily the same as biggest seller of the year), we help you figure out whether to read them ... or regift them. Episode 19 of be...

Brian and Barbara review the book Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich, number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list of November 19, 2023. Stephanie Plum, Trenton, New Jersey’s most famous fictional detective, is back in her thirtieth adventure, this time trying to apprehend a fugitive who thought a good way to escape the tedium of his assembly line job at the local button factory would be to commit armed robbery of a jewelry store. Can Stephanie track him down and get paid before her ren...

Brian and Barbara review the book The Exchange by John Grisham, number one on the November 5 and November 12, 2023, New York Times hardcover fiction lists. Attorney Mitch McDeere, having escaped a mob-corrupted Memphis law firm at the end of author James Grisham’s 1991 breakthrough novel The Firm, resurfaces fifteen years later in Manhattan, now a junior partner in the largest international law firm in the world. Mitch returns to Memphis to seek a reprieve for a convicted killer, then heads ove...

Brian and Barbara review the book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, one of the bestselling hardcover fiction books of 2023. Childhood friends Sadie and Sam meet up again in Boston of the mid-1990s—Sadie an MIT undergrad, Sam at Harvard—and discover they make a great videogame design team. Zevin’s coming of age novel, named to multiple “Top Books of 2022” lists, follows the challenges and triumphs of Sadie and Sam as tech whizzes and as human beings while the world of vide...