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Slate's Audio Book ClubOur critics discuss Beloved.

By Andy BowersPosted Wednesday, July 19, 2006, at 1:34 PM ET

Click here to play or download Slate's July Audio Book Club (MP3 format)* or click here to subscribe to Slate's book club podcast on iTunes.

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Pull up a chair, grab your cup of coffee or glass of wine, and settle in for Slate's latest Audio Book Club. This month our club members—critics Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, and Katie Roiphe—discuss a modern classic: Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Beloved was recently crowned by the New York Times Book Review as the best novel of the last 25 years. It also won the Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most-taught novels on college campuses.

Our critics discuss not only the merits of the book itself, but also the expectations that inevitably build up around such an acclaimed work, and how much they shape our reactions to it. Click here to listen to the discussion.

And remember, you can always find our previous book clubs, either through our Audio Book Club podcast feed (iTunes link here; RSS link here), or by clicking the links below:

Everyman, by Philip Roth

Saturday, by Ian McEwan

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

We welcome your comments on the Audio Book Club or any of our podcasts. E-mail us at .

* If clicking on the link doesn't start the audio playing on your system, or if you prefer to download it, try right-clicking (Windows) or holding down the Control key while you click (Mac), and then "save" or "download" the audio file to your hard drive. (Return to top of page.)