The Worst Bestsellers

Writer Kait and librarian Renata read bestselling books in an attempt to understand their appeal and, barring that, to become the Crow and Servo of the book world. New episodes every other Monday. Visit WorstBestsellers.com for our readers advisory booklists and other fun stuff.


All Episodes

Episode 237 – This Present Darkness

  The devil made us read This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti. Fortunately, we were #blessed to be joined by Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart, who helped safely guide us through this Christian thriller.

Episode 236 – Icebreaker

Ice, ice, baby! Annie Cardi, author of Red, returned to the podcast to discuss the sexy skater Booktok sensation Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. Join us as we skate back to college and dirty talk our way into the Olympics! Content … Continue reading →

Episode 235 – Sanctuary

  Nora Roberts Month continues! Heidi and Emily from Romancing the Shelf podcast returned and took us back to the 90s with the vintage romantic thriller Sanctuary. Sadly, this book has zero plates of casual pasta but it does have … Continue reading →

Episode 234 – Nightwork

Our Lady Nora Roberts has written a book about a handsome criminal who admires good architecture and casual pasta? We’re so back. Our friend and Nora Roberts expert Christine has returned to discuss Nightwork with us.

Episode 233 – Bests of 2023

Once again, we’ve managed to sneak in a few good books this year! Here are our favorite books we read in 2023 (regardless of publication year. Long live backlist titles!) Footnotes: Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2023 (featuring Renata’s picks for … Cont…

Episode 232 – The Woman In Me

We finished our adventures with the Time Traveler’s Wife but decided to linger in the 2000s for awhile longer. Friend of the Show (and the Internet’s Best Friend) Margaret H. Willison joined us to discuss Britney Spears’s memoir The Woman In … Continue…

Episode 231 – The Time Traveler’s Wife

We held our annual Patreon Choice poll and our Beloved Patrons chose to send us back in time to 2003 with The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Since the book is prominently set in Chicago, we were #blessed to be … Continue reading →

Episode 230 – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

  A cautionary tale: too many people complained about this book online so we were dumped into an arena and forced to publicly defend it to the death. Mackenzi Lee, author of many Best Bestselling books including The Gentleman’s Guide … Continue reading →

Episode 229 – Practical Magic

Spooky season is here, so we were joined by Lily Sparks, author of the Teen Killers Club trilogy (including the latest book, Teen Killers at Large) and the upcoming The Merciless King of Moore High. We got witchy with the … Continue reading →

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