Ep 096 - Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Brabdury

It's not October anymore, but we've gone back to the spooky story well this week to read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Unlike The Martian Chronicles, the Bradbury book we read back in Episode 28, Wicked is a single coherent story, and it's about what happens when a mysterious and vaguely menacing carnival rolls into town.

Join us for a discussion of aging, father-son relationships, Boy Meets World, and why Andrew has sworn off making fun of people who tweet about sports.

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Ep 095 - Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville

At last, we've caught our White Whale!

Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick, a Leviathan of the American literary canon, chronicles the journey of the Pequod, a whaling ship helmed by the fanatical Captain Ahab. Narrated by Ishmael (of the infamous "Call me" opening line), Moby-Dick straddles the lines between fact and fiction, adventure and essay -- all the while never abandoning the hunt of ol' Moby.

Join us this week as we discuss the particulars of the American Limerick Renaissance, childhood mishaps, commissions (of the ship and sub variety), "shipping", and the wonders of spermaceti.

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Ep 094 - The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt, a recent recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Goldfinch, broke onto the literary scene over twenty years ago with her debut novel The Secret History.

Set at a small Vermont college not unlike Tartt's alma mater, The Secret History explores how a singular tragedy forever defines the lives of six Classics students. 

Tune in as we discuss Bacchanalian rites, persona curation in the age of social media, dramatic irony in "whydunits", and 2015: The Year of the Fishman.

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Ep 093 - Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Usually books try to make you root for the protagonist. Even if he or she is flawed in some crucial way, most stories try to make you feel something for the person whose mind you're inhabiting. That is not the case in Vladmir Nabokov's Lolita.

This week we share with you an uncomfortable discussion about how it feels to read a book told from the perspective of an unrepentant pedophile—how do you feel about him? How do we feel about him? How does he feel about him? The difficult subject matter is just one of the things that has earned Lolita its place in the literary canon.

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Ep 092: A Kidnapped Santa Claus/Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

What're the holidays without children's stories? Every year, families gather around their yule rocks and Festivus poles to hear their favorite tales of holidays past -- which means it's rare that anyone discovers a new seasonal story.

Enter L. Frank Baum's A Kidnapped Santa Claus and Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel and Trina Schart Hyman. One's a fairy tale about saving Christmas from a bunch of Daemons, the other's about saving Hanukkah from a bunch of Goblins. So...similarities.

Save the holidays with us as we discuss Banta Claus, trolling goblins, and hilarious Hershel of Ostropol.

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Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
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A Kidnapped Santa Claus
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Ep 091 - In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

Truman Capote's Capote's "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood chronicles the mass murder of a family in rural Kansas by two runaway parolees. inspired by a 300-word newspaper article, it basically created the "true crime" genre, making it the grandpappy to the zeitgeist-conquering podcast Serial. 

Often times chilling, moving, and morbidly fascinating, In Cold Blood dances back and forth over the line between being a compelling narrative and being exploitative. It seems worth asking what it means to "enjoy" a story like this. And what role does the author play in its telling?

Also covered on this episode: Pop-pops, teens, Quebec separatism, and child-proof locks.

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Ep 090 - Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

We hope you like awesome horses and sobbing cowboys, because this week special guest host Casey Johnston is walking us through Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

It's a kind-of-subversive western that blends cowboy archetypes with some Grapes of Wrath-ish wandering. We also talk about the freelancing life, and what happens when you read books because you saw them in your dad's car.

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Ep 089 - The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

For the second week in a row, we've decided to read a book about a dystopian society—Animal Farm was about the oppressed overthrowing and then becoming the oppressors, but The Handmaid's Tale is about an already oppressed group getting even more oppressed.

Margaret Atwood has a lot to say about women and feminism in this book, and we've got a lot of things to say about pie and misunderstand about Canada. Also on the docket: sexy John Adams, the LongPen, and analogies about Lost.

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Ep 088 - Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Old Man Stalin Had A Farm...E-I-E-I-O....

What happens when you mix the Russian Revolution with a bunch of farm animals and (more than a dash) of dystopian bummers? 

George Orwell's Animal Farm! 

Come listen to us learn the joys of rewriting history, selling your friends for whisky money, and holding whips in your trotters.

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Ep 087 - Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Have you read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, or seen the major motion picture currently in theaters? Because if not, you probably should turn back: we're in full-on spoiler mode this week, and this story hinges on its twists. 

Also on the show this week: Christmas Creep, the writing process, and our brand-new Tickle Me Mario doll.

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