Live from the Book Shop: John Updike's Ghost

This week, Sam and Hannah are back from a heavy Memorial Day Weekend of reading, and Hannah's books, in particular, are once again well-coordinated. Even if they're a little hard to describe. Also, this is a solid Pride episode, sort of by mistake. Here's what's on tap:

- "The Book of Records," by Madeleine Thien, which is as meaty a read as we've had in a while, full of philosophical truths and a building made of time. This is gre...

This week, as Sam preps to go to Iceland, we've got some of our favorite books of the year so far, with Gatsby references all over the place, general indictments of people with more money than they need, and a call back to the Beat era. Here's what we've got on tap:

- "Mansion Beach," by Meg Mitchell Moore, a retelling of Gatsby with a gender reversal and a good reminder that Fitzgerald, himself, was a bit of a "beach read" writer...

Oh, was the sound crappy last week? Well, we've fixed that. New mic! Holy smokes! You're really going to like this. It's so much better. And now that we're done with Newburyport Literary Festival and Independent Bookstore Day, it's all systems go heading into summer, and we've got lots of books to talk about, including: 

-  "The Lion Women of Tehran," by Marjan Kamali, who was the star at Newburyport, and who really captured the au...

Back to normal! No guests this week, just a bunch of books to talk about, including some big names. Is Sam's mic kind of wonky early? Yes. Just get by that. It doesn't last long. And you really want to hear about:

-  "Great Big Beautiful Life," by Emily Henry, which is just enough different from her previous beach reads to make a great beach read. It's a ridiculous biography contest set in Georgia. 
- "The Name of this Band is R.E...

Okay, Hannah's back, but that doesn't mean we're done with guest hosts! This week we're joined by author Nina MacLaughlin, editor of the brand-new New England Literary News newsletter, and we've got the Newburyport Literary Festival on the brain (oh, and sorry, Nina, about putting you on the spot various times, but we did enjoy, "there's just so much garbage being published"). And Indie Bookstore Day, too! But we talked about lots ...

Hannah's been busy grinding out elementary school book fairs (drug-dealer mentality for the win), so the John Updike's Ghost podcast has put in a call to the bullpen, and out walks ... Cyndle Plaisted Rials! Cyndle is a writer and creative writing teacher who teamed with Sam on a book earlier this year, as well as the Beer & Weed project, so you know she's ready to go. She has not, however, read "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Of Mice ...

It's Daylight Savings and we are alternately miserable and happy about it. Which is a good reflection of the books we've read this week. We love them and not! Here's what's on the agenda:

- "Wild Dark Shore," by Charlotte McConaghy — if you like one of her books, you're going to like this one. Hannah's a big fan. Nevermind the sleeping with the seals. 
- "A Thousand Splendid Suns," by Khaled Hosseini — also, like "The Kite Runner,...

It's a very special episode this week, as we're joined by Sabrina Baeta, senior program manager on the Freedom to Read team at PEN America, an organization founded by authors more than 100 years ago to protect the freedom to write and read whatever you want. Sabrina's here to talk about book bans, which are a priori uncool, and which she works to defeat. There have been more than 10,000 efforts in the past year alone to ban individ...

Did you get your photo taken with Rabbit the Bookstore Cat Cutout? If not, you probably missed our 5th Birthday Party. Too bad. But not worries: There will be more parties. This week, Sam is caught up in the new Haruki Murakami, but Hannah luckily has three books to talk about, so it's not a disaster. Here's the lineup:

- "Fourth Wing," by Rebecca Yarros — Hannah's been saving it and it reminds her of the time we discovered Philip ...

It's another episode of "John Updike's Ghost After Dark," a wild and crazy recording that finds Sam with a blanket on his lap and Hannah reading books infused with the number three (and using the word "tome"). We move from Anne Tyler (don't worry, she's a little bit funny) to weird French YA and cover a lot of ground in between, including: 

- "Three Days in June," by Anne Tyler (Sam thinks he read "The Accidental Tourist")
- "Infi...

It's the post-holiday lull, which luckily gives us plenty of time to plan our 5th Birthday party! Hannah's buying the cake, Sam is DJing. Don't miss it. You have to listen to find out when it is. When you arrive, we can talk about these books (and others):
- "Dream Count," by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Hannah is a little perplexed by this much-awaited big deal, with its women being idiots about men; the marketeers are struggling)
- ...