As much as we love hearing from authors on “The Book Review” podcast, there are precious few who have read more than our staff book critics — Jennifer Szalai, Alexandra Jacobs and Dwight Garner. The three came on the show to talk about some of their favorite books of the year so far, as well as a few of the titles that helped shape their reading lives.

Books discussed on this episode:

• “Nothing Random,” by Gayle Feldman
• “Will and Attention,” by Meghan O’Gieblyn
• “The Disappearers,” by Marlon James
• “American Hagwon,” by Min Jin Lee
• “Lives Other Than My Own,” by Emmanuel Carrère
• “To the Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf
• “The American Way of Death,” by Jessica Mitford
• “Class: A Guide Through the American Status System,” by Paul Fussell
• “The Great War and Modern Memory,” by Paul Fussell
• “American Fried,” by Calvin Trillin
• “Alice, Let’s Eat,” by Calvin Trillin
• “Third Helpings,” by Calvin Trillin
• “On Fire,” by Larry Brown
• “Betsy-Tacy,” by Maud Hart Lovelace
• “Betsy-Tacy and Tib,” by Maud Hart Lovelace
• “Rabbit, Run,” by John Updike
• “Into the Wood Chipper,” by Nicholas Enrich
• “Cool Machine,” by Colson Whitehead
• “The Oyster Diaries,” by Nancy Lemann
• “Biological War: A Scenario,” by Annie Jacobsen
• “Nuclear War: A Scenario,” by Annie Jacobsen
• “The Story of Your Life,” by Kathryn Jezer-Morton
• “Transcription,” by Ben Lerner
• “The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek,” by Andrew Durbin
• “Contrapposto,” by Dave Eggers
• “Brother of the More Famous Jack,” by Barbara Trapido
• “Love and Hydrogen,” by Jim Shepard
• “Trash!: A Garbageman’s Story,” by Simon Paré-Poupart

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For Min Jin Lee, the process of writing fiction usually begins with a deep dive into reality. She spends years researching, traveling and interviewing people.

That process underscored her belief that education was a common and central value for Koreans in diaspora. But it was also a complicated value, one that often resulted in extreme competitiveness and impossible expectations.

In her new novel, “American Hagwon,” she tells the story of the Kohs, a middle-class family of five. The parents are fixated on attaining the best possible education for their children, thinking it will guarantee success and upward mobility. But when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hits, they find themselves having to start over as immigrants in America.

This week, Lee returns to “The Book Review” podcast to talk about how education and community play out across her sprawling new novel, which our critic Alexandra Jacobs said “demands to be pressed into friends’” hands.

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Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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