Ep 443 - Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff (Bonus Episode)

Matt Ruff's 2016 novel about two Black families fighting the forces of evil riffs on Lovecraftian fiction by focusing in on the cosmic horror that is America's racist past, present, and future. We dive into each of the interconnected stories and spend some time comparing the overall vibe to that of HBO's recent TV adaptation.

Find our how to join us for bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Ep 442 - The Last Wish (Introducing The Witcher), by Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, which means he travels the realm witching. What does that mean exactly? It's a little unclear! But Sapkowksi's protagonist and the world he inhabits have proven popular enough to warrant several novels, videogames, and screen adaptations. Toss a coin to your podcast, why don'tcha?

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

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Ep 441 - Demon Theory, by Stephen Graham Jones

If you wanted more of your books to be metatextual pseudo-screenplays then Demon Theory is for you! If you do not want your books to be that, however, Demon Theory may not be for you.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Ep 440 - The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux

The Opera's alive with the sound of music! It's time to dive into the serialized story-slash-novel that spawned one of the most successful musicals of all time. (The one by Andrew Lloyd Webber, maybe you've heard of it?)

It's pretty different, it seems?

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Ep 439 - Revenge of the Russian Ghost (Choose Your Own Adventure), by Jay Leibold

This week we choose to travel to Mother Russia to make jingoistic jokes and hang out with Rasputin, every 90s kid's favorite historical figure! Not sure what's going on with the voices in this one.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Ep 438 - Midnight Sun (A Twilight Novel), by Stephenie Meyer

Welcome to Spooktober 2020! What's scarier than a story about a teenage girl who falls in with a family of vampires? 160 more pages than the original story and it's all from the sad vampire boy's perspective!

Meyer's companion novel to the original Twilight reminds us what we did and didn't like about the series, as well as fleshes out a bit of the story from Edward's gleaming eyes. But, really, it's just very long.

For more on the Quileute Move to Higher Ground Project, head to mthg.org.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

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Genie Babies - Episodes 3 & 4

Welcome to another episode of Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights). 

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In the first half, you'll hear us discuss the beginning of a "wacky" night with three sisters and their houseguests. In the second, we'll conclude the tales of the dervishes and get to the bottom of some magic mysteries.

Stories covered in Nights 28-69 include: The Story of the Porter and the Three Ladies, which includes tales from three dervishes, two ladies, and a nosy caliph.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Ep 437 - Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, et al

This week we answer the question on everyone's minds: why, the last man? This mid-2000s graphic novel imagines a world without men, a specific kind of apocalypse with a different flavor from The Leftovers or other "what if X suddenly disappeared from Earth forever" fiction.

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Ep 436 - How Much of These Hills Is Gold, by C Pam Zhang

C Pam Zhang's Booker Prize-listed debut novel focuses on a family of Chinese immigrants working coal mines, panning streams, and laying railroads in the American West. Her characters, myth-making, and lyrical style work to correct the historical record with specificity and humanity.

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Ep 435 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon's 2007 alternate history novel is a murder mystery featuring a hard-boiled detective, though neither the detective nor the murder mystery are the most memorable parts of it. The alternate history part, along with Chabon's prose, are enough to make up for whatever other shortcomings the novel might have.

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