Ep 239 - From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg

We're at the tail end of Children's Book Week, so we thought it appropriate to discuss E.L. Konigsburg's Newberry Award-winning book From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

The story follows two kids who run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discover a love of Italian sculpture, and meet a kooky old lady who loves secrets.Other talking points include: exercising sucks, children can be miserly, and bus mistakes. Also please visit butteryeggs.org.

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Ep 238 - Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer

NOTE: A short stretch of fairly explicit sex talk earns this one the "Explicit" tag, though as usual we avoid cussing. You've been warned! 

This week, we illuminate everything about Jonathan Safran Foer's debut novel. It's not Andrew's cup of tea, exactly, but we try our best to dive into where it works, where we think it doesn't quite get there, and why Foer has a reputation for being "overrated" in some literary circles.

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Ep 237 - Skateboard Tough, by Matt Christopher (Special Bonus Episode)

Welcome to our rad, bad, extra-jumbo bonus episode on Matt Christopher's Skateboard Tough! It's a jumbo episode because we spend at least 10 minutes reading the titles of every sport book for kids he wrote.

This episode attempts to answer the burning question in all of our hearts: what does Skateboard Tough even mean???

Included with your download: surprisingly serious conversation about childhood experiences and the importance of being seen, Matt Christopher's minor league woes, and activist journalism.

The song at the end is a snippet of Lupe Fiasco's Kick, Push, a song you should've heard by now.

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Ep 236 - Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go explores the inner lives of teens as they learn, love, and realize their full potential as... something you need to read/listen to find out. This intimate novel flirts with disturbing science fiction elements, but our buddy Kaz keeps the tone eerily calm and comfortable.

Join us for a conversation about clone teens, clone butts, genre boundaries, and our first memories of death. If you haven't noticed, our podcast is weird.

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Ep 235 - Silas Marner, by George Eliot

Craig returns this week for a talk about George Eliot (pen name for Mary Anne Evans) and her novel Silas Marner, which starts out as a bummer but gradually becomes an uplifting little story. We also talk about Craig’s vacation and the Baldwin brothers, among other things.

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Ep 234 - The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

Craig’s on his long-delayed honeymoon this week, so Andrew’s wife and other best friend Suzannah is filling in this week to tell you all about Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Did you know that Dumas has upwards of 40 mistresses? Did you know that this book was published in 18 pieces over the course of a couple of years, and that it’s over 1,000 pages long? Did you know that someone actually helped write parts of many of Dumas’ books and never got any official credit for it? Did you know that the Count himself is a Jigsaw-esque murderous vengeance machine? All this and more on this week’s Overdue! 

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Ep 233 - Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell (Bonus Episode)

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is most notable for its uniquely structured narrative, so it's only appropriate we made this the first book we cover while livestreaming for patrons!

Other topics include Tom Hanks' henna tattoos, Yoko Ono husbands, and our favorite Disney princes. That's right, princes.

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Ep 232 - The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

This week we dive into Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, a quasi-autobiographical (but still fictional) novel about womanhood, depression, and identity. We also discuss the unfortunate circumstances of Plath's early death, country mice moving to big cities, and metaphorical chemistry equipment.

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Ep 231 - The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

This week the boys join Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club and read (fictional) stories about the Chinese-American children of Chinese immigrants; they also attempt to navigate some choppy waters around the book’s potential perpetuating of Chinese and Chinese-American stereotypes and the reaction to the 1993 film based on the book.

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Ep 230 - Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Live in Philly)

Well shiver me timbers, it's a live show! They say that dead men tell no tales, but Robert Louis Stevenson sure told a great tale in Treasure Island.

Things reach a fever pitch (literally) during our live show at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Topics include pirate radio, Jimbo and Mr. Hands, the game Desert Island, and our favorite entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

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