Rounding up the year’s weird book news, plus our most popular episode.

Another fabulous year in podcasting concludes with our annual Year in Review, as Kirkus correspondent Michael Schaub joins editor-in-chief Tom Beer and host Megan Labrise for a merry discussion of the year’s weird book news and the announcement of our most popular episode.

Schaub—who writes Kirkus’ Seen & Heard column, delivering the book news you need to know on the daily—takes Tom and Megan on a guided tour of 2022’s most entertaining, strangest, sexiest, and cringiest true stories. This year’s list includes the continuing adventures of Joyce Carol Oates on Twitter, phantasmagorical film director Darren Aronofsky’s middle-grade debut, Margaret Atwood wielding a flamethrower, and blue-eyed heartthrob Paul Newman’s own spicy, dicey posthumous memoir.

This garrulous fest is followed by the announcement of the year’s most popular episode: It’s the Fall Preview episode featuring powerhouse journalist Beth Macy! In August, the two-time Kirkus Prize finalist joined us to discuss Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis (Little, Brown, Aug. 16), which builds on her groundbreaking work in Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, offering insights and potential solutions. She and Megan discussed the unsung heroes of the opioid crisis, actions regular people may take to help decrease deaths of despair and increase treatment options for people battling substance use disorders, the success of the Hulu adaptation of Dopesick, what it’s like to be the answer to a Jeopardy clue, and much more.

Thanks to our sponsors:

How to Survive Ghosts, Cats, and Psychopaths by Diana K.C. Gill

East Winds by Rachel Rueckert

The Blackest Blue by Luna Wright

Karma Under Fire by Love Hudson-Maggio

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.