Four Books a Fortnight

This week, Sam is well-rested and well-read, having just returned from all sorts of nature-loving and unplugging from the rest of the world. Which left him ready to really love "Station Eleven," which checks all the boxes — and eager for Emily St. John Mandel's upcoming novel this fall. Similarly, Hannah was enamored by Milo Todd's debut, a WW2 novel that is not your average WW2 novel. "Voidverse"? It's a weird one. "The...

This episode we've got a lot of things on our minds! We open with a preamble that involves a little navel-gazing, which we hope you'll indulge. We know we are not always 100% on point, but that's sort of the point! Trust us that it's germane to the books we've read these past two weeks, including the absolute truth manifesto that Mac Barnett has released (see if you can figure out the sound effect Hannah chose here on first listen)...

This episode we come to you live from the Newburyport Literary Festival, which is a truly kick-ass event. But, don't worry: It's still just us talking about four books! They just happen to come from authors speaking at the Fest — including two poets! Hey, it only took us 14 episodes to get a couple books of poetry on this thing. But we've got a couple of great novels, too — People are dying in John Irving ways! And winn...

Folks, it's just all bangers this week, with four books we really enjoyed, all brand-new and ready to be given to your mom. We've got a love letter to Earth, a love letter to bad guys, a love letter to Brooklyn, and a love letter to Monica Lewinsky. And we loved the books. That doesn't happen all that often. The big revelation is that Hannah hasn't read Emily St. John Mandel; and, yes, we know that "Cloud Cuckoo Land" was not writt...

We open this week with a book that might not be for Sam, who is not a middle-aged woman, it turns out. Hannah is, but didn't really like it either. However, Hannah did love the trad-wife tale that is "Yesteryear," where 1855 isn't all it's cracked up to be. And Sam liked the new TC Boyle just as much — is there a better writer of people who make bad decisions. But then things finish up with a belly-flop. Oh well. Maybe Hannah...

If you're going to do a retelling of Cinderella, you gotta include some slippers, right? Apparently not! Liberties have been taken. And that's just the start of an episode that takes you from Shakespeare's England to the International Space Station — with a quick stop at Joan Didion's NYC apartment for a smoke. Man, can she write. We have some thoughts on what makes her so good and why some of that energy is missing nowa...

How do you know we're not just trying to sell books with this pod? Well, we fire up with a Carolyn Chute novel that's ... out of print. That's some business savvy! But Sam claims she's the Faulkner of the north (an important Mainer!) and you should really find a copy if you can. And, not to worry, the rest of these books are widely available. We've trotted out the Alarm Clock sound effect again, too, which means one of these books ...

This episode includes, among other things, "the most French thing editor Chris could find on the Internet." Can you guess which book that might be for? If not, you better listen, because we've got four very different books, despite two of them being written by women named Rebecca. Maybe we should do an episode in the future where all the books are written by someone with the same first name! Or one where all of them are set in Ipsw...

Do we sometimes read books because they have a hot-pink cover? We do. But we're glad we did! Kathy Acker is a crazy badass and her cult classic gets us started on a white-hot episode full of machine smashing and sea scraping. This is about as wide-ranging as an episode gets. This fortnight, we read:

1. "Blood and Guts in High School," by Kathy Acker
2. "The Infamous Gilberts," by Angela Tomaski
3. "Against the Machine," by Paul Kingsno...

Firing up with some craft talk, we quickly dive into the final installment in Philip Pullman's Golden Compass universe, which is, well, sad. For lots of reasons. But also incredibly powerful and full of love. Oh, and we've got a couple less weighty things, too, including a comic book and time travel novel with some "funny torture." Oh, and some "Heated Rivalry" chit-chat. This fortnight, we read:

1. "A Long Game: Notes on Wr...

We've got some great variety this week, from a Japanese novel exploring the nature of comedy to literary fiction set in Bristol, England, that explores the boredom of being a housewife in a really beautiful way. Also, big kudos to Sam for banging out a 700-page brick in two weeks and to Hannah for reading a book about, like, British royalty, that she rated with a vacuum cleaner's whine. This fortnight, we read:

1. "Spark," by Nao...

We shake it up this week with a philosophical text and some YA, plus a favorite backlist title of Hannah's that Sam experiences for the first time! Also, we get a treatise on the difference between a romance and a love story. This fortnight, we read:

1. "The Rest of our Lives," by Ben Markovits
2. "On Drugs," by Justin Smith-Ruiu
3. "Red as Royal Blood," by Elizabeth Hart
4. "Migrations," by Charlotte McConaghy

What sound effects di...