M.J. Franklin
Appearances
The Daily
The Year in Books
Hey, it's Michael. Today, our coverage of the year in arts and in culture continues with guest host Melissa Kirsch speaking to Times critics, reporters, and editors. Take a listen. I think you're going to like it.
The Daily
The Year in Books
You never ask a books editor how many books they read. Listeners, that is a mystery that we'll have to talk through in person. I'm MJ Franklin. I'm an editor at the New York Times Book Review. And a book I loved in 2024 is Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufy Thorpe. It is about a 19-year-old student, Margot, who gets pregnant by her college professor, then gets dumped and loses her job.
The Daily
The Year in Books
So to make ends meet, she starts an account in OnlyFans, which is a website best known for sex work. And you just follow Margot as she's trying to step into adulthood, as she's trying to make ends meet, as she's trying to kind of come into her own power.
The Daily
The Year in Books
Underneath this very playful, zany, colorful plot, there's a really sharp commentary about gender and power, about sexuality and shaming, about the demands that we put on young women to become mothers, but then how as a society we don't support motherhood anymore. And it all comes together in this book that is playful and layered and smart. I've been recommending it to everybody.