The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday this summer, giving Americans a chance to reflect on the nation’s past and imagine its future.

Who better to help us make sense of this moment than Jill Lepore? The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, longtime staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” joined the “Book Review” podcast to recommend some reading for the occasion. She also revisits the politics and drama of America’s previous birthdays, and discusses how a dystopian novel may be the most relevant read about the country right now.

After that, Elisabeth Egan, an editor at The Book Review, lays out some of the summer’s most anticipated beach reads.

Books Discussed on This Episode:

“We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution,” by Jill Lepore

“The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,” by Jill Lepore (forthcoming)

“American Scripture,” by Pauline Maier

“Bicentennial,” by Mark Stein

“Gliff,” by Ali Smith

“Yesteryear,” by Caro Claire Burke

“Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage,” by Belle Burden

“Whistler,” by Ann Patchett

“The Things We Never Say,” by Elizabeth Strout

“Man Overboard!,” by Kathleen Rooney

“American Fantasy,” by Emma Straub

“A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck”: Sophie Elmhirst

“The Shampoo Effect,” by Jenny Jackson

The “Nantucket” book series, by Elin Hilderbrand

“Cool Machine,” by Colson Whitehead

“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth,” by Patrick Radden Keefe

“How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University,” by Theo Baker

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“Yesteryear,” Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, tells the story of Natalie Heller Mills: an ultrasuccessful tradwife influencer who posts about her life on Yesteryear Ranch, a homestead where she grows her own food, tends to cows and chickens, raises her six children and models a particular brand of conservative Christian womanhood. But not all is as it seems. Behind the cameras, nannies care for the children, Natalie shops for the types of groceries she decries online, she detests her husband with his manosphere beliefs, and she’s on the cusp of being exposed by a rogue video producer.

One day she wakes up and discovers she has been transported to 1855, forced to live the pioneer persona she has been performing online. How did she get there? How can she escape? And what does her misery mean about the lifestyle she has embraced for profit?

"Yesteryear" was met with fanfare after it was published in April. Even before the book was released, it was scooped up for a film adaptation that Anne Hathaway is set to star in and produce. The novel was selected as a “Good Morning America” Book Club pick; Burke appeared on “Late Night With Seth Meyers”; and the book has spent more than a month on The Times’s best-seller list.

Everyone, it seems, is talking about “Yesteryear.” But does it live up to the hype? On this episode of the Book Review Book Club, the host MJ Franklin discusses the book with his colleagues Jennifer Harlan and Joumana Khatib.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

• “Running Out of Time,” by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• “Gone Girl,” by Gillian Flynn
• “The Power,” by Naomi Alderman
• “Eileen,” by Ottessa Moshfegh
• “The Compound,” by Aisling Rawle
• “Hot Girls With Balls,” by Benedict Nguyen
• “Just Watch Me,” by Lior Torenberg
• “A Good Person,” by Kirsten King
• “The Guest,” by Emma Cline

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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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