Slate's Audio Book Club. Stephen Metcalf, Katie Roiphe, and John Burnham Schwartz discuss the novel Independence Day by Richard Ford. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe discuss the novel The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe discuss the nonfiction book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by journalist Michael Pollan. We recommend, but don't insist, that you read the book before listening to this audio program.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe discuss the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe discuss the novel Everyman by Philip Roth.

Slate's Audio Book Club. Critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe discuss the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan. Thanks to the Housing Works Book Store Cafe in New York City for providing the venue for this month's club meeting.

Slate critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe sit down at the Housing Works Used Book Cafe in New York's Soho neighborhood to discuss The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion's memoir of the year following the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne, during which her daughter also came close to death.