Author Caro Claire Burke stands in a bookstore and answers a series of rapid-fire questions from an off-screen interviewer. For each question (e.g., 'Best audiobook?', 'Best classic?'), she provides a specific book recommendation, and an image of the book's cover appears on screen as she explains her choice. This Q&A format continues through various categories, covering books that make her laugh or cry, best adaptations, non-fiction, and her next anticipated read.
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Yesteryear author Caro Claire Burke joins us Under the Cover!
Caro’s gripping debut novel, Yesteryear, is about a tradwife influencer whose life is seemingly perfect - until she wakes up in an uncanny version of the past. It was an instant bestseller in the UK and US and is already being adapted by Anne Hathaway.
We loved meeting Caro at Funny Weather, a beautiful new bookshop in North London, to hear about her favourite reads (and the beloved book she couldn’t finish!)
📜 Caro’s list:
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, read by Michelle Williams
East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Anything by Patricia Lockwood
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Gone Girl, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The poetry of Ada Limón
The Message and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Luster and Material by Raven Leilani
Transcript
Best audio book. Britney Spears' memoir narrated by Michelle Williams. It is an unbelievable artistic experience to listen to Michelle Williams simultaneously embody Britney Spears, but also elevate her and honor her. Best classic. Anything by John Steinbeck. I think Best of Eden is a great entry point, but Grapes of Wrath will really, sock you in the stomach too. Which book makes you laugh? Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, but anything by Patricia Lockwood is guaranteed to make me laugh out loud. Which book makes you cry? Shuggie Bain made me cry pretty extensively by Douglas Stewart. He's another writer that I feel like we are watching like, a future artist of the canon at work, which is always so exciting. Best adaptation? I think Gone Girl was adapted very well, and that was a very hard good to adapt because it's very interior. Best nonfiction? Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katharine Boo. It's about this encampment city in Mumbai. It reads like the best novel you've ever read, but it's real. It's real people, and you get this glimpse into another life that kind of changed my understanding of what journalism could do. Which book do you always come back to? Most recently, I have been reading In Memoriam by Alice Wynne on loop. I think that's one of the best books of the last decade. Is there a book you couldn't finish? Yeah. You know what book I couldn't finish was A Little Life. At the point that I was reading it, it was just too heavy for me, and I like heavy stuff. Is there a book you give as a gift? Ada Limon. Her poetry is so beautiful, so accessible, such a great way to start appreciating poetry, and so I give her collections out a lot. Which book would you save from a fire? Anything by Ta Nehisi Coates, I probably would save from a fire. Fire. Between tier World and Me, The Message, I just think he writes with such moral clarity without being a moralizer, which is the hardest needle that a person can thread. What are you excited to read next? Raven Leilani has her sophomore novel coming out, and I'm ecstatic for that. I thought that Better was a revelation, and so I'm really excited to read her next book.
