We’re previewing spring’s hottest books with special guest Cynthia Weiner.

On this episode of Fully Booked, we take a look at the most anticipated books of spring 2025 in fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. It’s shaping up to be a promising year packed with exciting new titles, and our editors are on hand to share a few of their favorites.

But first, I welcome special guest Cynthia Weiner, author of A Gorgeous Excitement (Crown, Jan. 21)—one of this season’s most eagerly awaited debut novels. Weiner, who lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, is a Pushcart Prize–winning short story writer and assistant director of the Writers Studio in New York City. A Gorgeous Excitement is inspired by her experience growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in the 1980s and her personal connection to an infamous murder. Kirkus calls it “carefully paced and beautifully written” and says “this edgy coming-of-age novel succeeds on all counts.”

Here's a bit more from our starred review: “In an author’s note prefacing her terrific debut, Weiner explains that she was inspired by her experiences during the summer of what became known as the Preppy Murder in Central Park. Her title quotes Sigmund Freud’s characterization of the effects of cocaine, a reference that occurs to her intelligent, articulate, insecure protagonist, Nina Jacobs, as she’s about to try the drug for the first time with her new friend Stephanie. It’s the summer before Nina leaves for college at Vanderbilt, and she spends her days temping at office jobs.…By night, she hangs out with her friends at a bar called Flanagan’s, where they don’t card the underage patrons. There, she meets an extraordinarily handsome but moody boy named Gardner Reed, with whom she and every other girl in the place are wholly infatuated.…Weiner’s recreation of the period and the milieu—the headlines, the music, the products—is like a perfect pointillist painting, all the tiny details adding up to a richly textured, authentic impression of the city as it was in that decade. Each of her young female characters is fully three dimensional. With the strong young characters and the skin-crawling atmosphere created by creepy men, crimes in the news, porn shops, and overheated adolescent sexuality, the book recalls another excellent true crime–inspired novel, Emma Cline’s The Girls.”

Weiner tells me why she decided to include an author’s note at the beginning of the novel and how she approached writing fiction inspired by real events. We discuss the many obsessions of 18-year-old protagonist Nina Jacobs, including preppy heartthrob Gardener Reed­, who’s less of an insider than he appears to be. We talk about girlhood, friendship, and societal pressures; writing about drug use; the provenance of the title; the fun of revisiting the music, fashion, movies, and clubs of the 1980s; short stories versus novels; and Weiner’s hope for the book.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Old as Stone, Hard as Rock: Of Humans and War by Alessandro Sanna, trans. by Ammiel Alcalay (Unruly)

Oasis by Guojing (Godwin Books)

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Pantheon)

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (Pantheon)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Bellosio by John F. Shekleton

SOS Podcasts by Rosamaria Mancini

Warning by Gene J. Miller

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches From Outer Space! by I.S. Noah

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