
Podcast: Ep553: It's Still Summer. Let's Talk Road Trip Books.
August 1, 2025
Author(s): The New York Times
Podcast: The Book Review
1 / 1It's Still Summer. Let's Talk Road Trip Books.
- 1. It's Still Summer. Let's Talk Road Trip Books.
About
Summer is the season for road trips, and also for road trip stories. Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” may be the most famous example in American literature — but there are lots of other great road trip books, so this week the Book Review’s staff critics Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai presented readers with a list of 18 of their favorites. On this episode of the podcast they chat with host Gilbert Cruz about the project, their picks and the top-down, wind blown, carefree appeal of the road trip narrative as a genre. Books discussed in this episode: “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” by Jesmyn Ward “Lost Children Archive,” by Valeria Luiselli “I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home,” by Lorrie Moore “Tramps Like Us," by Joe Westmoreland “Driving Mr. Albert,” by Michael Paterniti “Gypsy: A Memoir," by Gypsy Rose Lee “The Dog of the South,” by Charles Portis “All Fours,” by Miranda July “Hearts,” by Hilma Wolitzer “The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life,” by John le Carré “Machine Dreams,” by Jayne Anne Phillips “Lonesome Dove,” by Larry McMurtry “Lolita,” by Vladimir Nabokov “The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck “The Price of Salt,” by Patricia Highsmith 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.
Podcast

The New York Times
The world's top authors and critics join host Gilbert Cruz and editors at The New York Times Book Review to talk about the week's top books, what we're reading and what's going on in the literary world. 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. Listen to this podcast in New York Times Audio, our new iOS app for news subscribers. Download now at nytimes.com/audioapp