Overdue

A podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Updates Mondays.

Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig each week as they tackle a new title from their backlog. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy murder mysteries: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.

 

Ep 723 - Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove

A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge some of your preconceived notions.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 722 - The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy of nature?" And when every animal is personified...well...those simple bare necessities begin to reveal themselves.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Sit Me Baby One More Time Episode 03 - The Truth About Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club #3)

The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everything.

Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:

  • Kristy's Great Idea

  • Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

  • The Truth about Stacey

  • Mary Anne Saves the Day

  • Dawn and the Impossible Three

  • Hello, Mallory

  • Jessi's Secret Language

  • Welcome to the BSC, Abby

These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters. To hear our long-read project episodes when they first come out (or hear the rest of Sit Me Baby... right now), visit patreon.com/overduepod.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 721 - The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka

Some of us read a book. Some of us research the author and the historical context. Some of us sit in front of our microphones and record a podcast. Some of us edit it together and upload it to the website. Some of us write the description that goes up with it. Boy I hope this bit works!

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 720 - Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell’s best-known work, Cranford chronicles the lives of some Victorian era LMMs (Ladies of Modest Means). Their customs and relevance may be waning as Industrialization advances, but that doesn’t mean they won’t find ways to entertain us with their wit, their foibles, and their heart.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 719 - The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi

For anyone who’s ever loved a movie or TV show where people in silly outfits pretend to be giant city-crushing lizards and/or robots, this week’s book plays around in a pretty entertaining space. If the references to the mid-to-late-2020 stretch of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election date it a little, and if every single named character talks exactly the same, it’s still got neat ideas and a part where the evil billionaire antagonist is implied to have his face eaten off by a parasite from another dimension.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 718 - The Four Million, by O. Henry

The name O. Henry is synonymous with more than just a candy bar. It's become shorthand for a brief, punchy tale that ends with a magical little twist. And this collection, his second published, contains such classic examples as the "Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem." Can you guess the ironic twist ending of this podcast?

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Sit Me Baby One More Time Episode 02 - Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2)

The Club has been humming along for two months until a spat of terrifying phone-based burglaries have our sitters sittin' scared! Also, it's Claudia time! Between gigs, she must repair her relationship with her sister and figure out how to catch the eye of the dreamiest poet around: Trevor Sandbourne.

Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:

  • Kristy's Great Idea

  • Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

  • The Truth about Stacey

  • Mary Anne Saves the Day

  • Dawn and the Impossible Three

  • Hello, Mallory

  • Jessi's Secret Language

  • Welcome to the BSC, Abby

These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters. To hear our long-read project episodes when they first come out (or hear the rest of Sit Me Baby... right now), visit patreon.com/overduepod.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 717 - Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum

As a reader, you cannot get upset if you read a book called "Bad Summer People" and it's filled with terrible people and all the stuff that they do to each other over the course of One Fateful Summer. You are allowed, of course, to get upset if you summered in the same place as the author and you recognize the town and all the people in it and also maybe yourself.

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

Ep 716 - An Extraordinary Union (Loyal League #1), by Alyssa Cole

The secret Union organization Elle Burns spies for swears by the four Ls: Loyalty. Legacy. Life. Lincoln. But what about…Love? Enter Malcolm MacCall, a brash but lovable Scot posing as a Confederate soldier. And the rest, as they say, is historical fiction. Also it’s a pretty successful romance novel!

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.