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Overdue

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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 childen’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.


Episodes

Ep 643 - Holes, by Louis Sachar

Holes! We all need 'em, we all love 'em. This is a book where a boy is sentenced to dig a bunch of holes out in the desert because he was accused and convicted of a crime he didn't commit. That's bad! But he also discovers a little something about himself and his family, and makes a new friend. That's good! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Apr 15, 20241 hr 7 min

Ep 642 - Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo

Lo's award-winning novel seeks to shine a light on marginalized experiences from mid-century San Francisco. What's most impressive is how she's synthesized all of her research into a couple of fresh, compelling characters - allowing the story to honor the historical record without feeling overly bound by it. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C...

Apr 08, 20241 hr 10 min

Ep 641 - CliffsNotes, by Clifton Hillegass

Every week, one of our hosts reads a book and tells the other person (and you, the audience) about it. This week's book is about the topic of war and also the topic of peace. It has characters and themes. Find out more about all of this and more on this week's Overdue! This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram...

Apr 01, 20241 hr 12 min

Stop! Homer Time: The Iliad - Episodes 3 & 4 (Books 5-9)

For our latest show-within-a-show, we'll revisit Ancient Greece through Emily Wilson's new translation of Homer's The Iliad. We'll be reading it a few books at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than we do about most books. These two episodes cover Books 5-9. Episode 3: These three books include: gods intervening directly on the battlefield, a new Greek hero emerging, the Trojan hero getting a boost from Ares, Hector's wife and son, and a duel with no resolution. It's action packed ...

Mar 30, 20242 hr 46 min

Ep 640 - Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

The first rule of podcasting is DON'T TALK ABOUT PODCASTING. The second rule of podcasting is please tell everyone about podcasting and specifically about this episode in which we cover Chuck P's notorious novel about masculinity, terrorism, and getting punched in the face. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Inst...

Mar 25, 20241 hr 18 min

Ep 639 - There There, by Tommy Orange

There There sets itself apart by being a book by and about indigenous Americans in an explicitly contemporary, urban setting. It's also got a neat perspective-shifting structure and interconnected characters. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Pol...

Mar 18, 20241 hr 2 min

Ep 638 - The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew #4), by Carolyn Keene (Bonus Episode)

This bonus episode was recorded on LEAP DAY! So we leapt into The Mystery at Lilac Inn with our good friend young sleuth Nancy Drew! Let's play some Hot or Not, I guess?? Also we're talking Odies 2023! To join us for future bonus recordings, head to  patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Mar 16, 20241 hr 15 min

Ep 637 - The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White

The third and final of White's whimsical children's books about animals, The Trumpet of the Swan asks important questions like: How do swans learn English? How can we better provide accommodations for those who need them? And how much money could a swan earn at a jazz club in the 1960s? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @...

Mar 11, 20241 hr 11 min

Ep 636 - The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis

Modern readers often experience C.S. Lewis as "the Narnia guy," but he's also one of the 20th century's foremost Christian apologetics. The Screwtape Letters, written from the point of view of a demon whose object is to send souls to Hell, is a deeply Christian work but its appeal comes just as much from Lewis' insight into what makes humanity tick. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme...

Mar 04, 20241 hr 6 min

Ep 635 - Jazz, by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s second novel in her beloved Beloved trilogy, Jazz introduces the reader to a trio of characters united by an incident of tragic romance. Will the freewheeling optimism of the Jazz Age set them on the path of redemption or will they be bound to their painful pasts?  This episode is sponsored by Factor. Head to factormeals.com/overdue50 and use code overdue50 to get 50% off delicious, ready-to-eat meals. This episode is also brought to you in part by Eavesdrop: Conversations A...

Feb 26, 20241 hr 13 min

Ep 634 - The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3), by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson returns for another road trip across a mythological United States. Plenty of new characters are introduced -- and some of them survive! This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Not...

Feb 19, 20241 hr 9 min

Ep 633 - Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5), by Martha Wells

Our month of sequels continues with the first full-length novel in Martha Wells' Murderbot series. The book's extra length leaves it room to dig into themes that the novellas had only nodded at, and also has a whole bunch of extra murderbots in it. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky Adv...

Feb 12, 20241 hr 10 min

Ep 632 - Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #2), by Tamsyn Muir

To kick off a month of sequel coverage, we get bone deep in the Locked Tomb follow up Harrow the Ninth. This obtuse but compelling sci-fi/fantasy tome plays with perspective, doubles down on the space wizards, and challenges the reader NOT to notice oddly specific meme references. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on Instagram and B...

Feb 05, 20241 hr 9 min

Ep 631 - The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die, by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

An early-90s Bengali novel that was translated into English relatively recently, The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die has a lot going for it, but as with many books the thing we'll remember the most is the murderous horny ghost aunt. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Jan 29, 202456 min

Stop! Homer Time: The Iliad - Episodes 1 & 2 (Books 1-4)

For our latest show-within-a-show, we'll revisit Ancient Greece through Emily Wilson's new translation of Homer's The Iliad. We'll be reading it a few books at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than we do about most books. These two episodes cover Books 1-4. Episode 1: The Iliad drops us right into the middle of the action, where "the middle" is 9 years into a 10 year conflict and "the action" is a couple of easily-affronted guys who instantly get mad at each other. Then we're trea...

Jan 26, 20242 hr 33 min

Ep 630 - Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson

Move along, everyone. Nothing to see here. No women navigating adult friendships and their identities as parents. No jabs at men in power who work overtime to cover up their shame. And definitely no kids that catch on fire. Move along! Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Jan 22, 202456 min

Ep 629 - The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen (Bonus Episode)

Time to celebrate winter with a chilly fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Also we're talking Disney's FROZEN! To join us for future bonus recordings, head to  patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Jan 19, 20241 hr 12 min

Ep 628 - The Witch Elm, by Tana French

The Witch Elm has Dublin, and it has murder, and it has a squad of detectives, but despite all that it is not a book in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. This riff on her classic crime novel formula focuses instead on some of the suspects, namely Toby Hennessey, who doesn’t know if he can’t remember things because of head trauma or because for most of his life he’s been able to get by without acknowledging the existence of systemic problems.  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp....

Jan 15, 20241 hr 8 min

Ep 627 - Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence

Banned in many countries until the 1960s, David Herbert Lawrence's 1928 novel is both racier and tamer than you might imagine. What more would you expect from a book that uses both "the love experience" and [BLEEP] to describe, well, adult behavior? Caveat lictor: this episode features discussions of Adult Situations. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privac...

Jan 08, 20241 hr 2 min

Ep 626 - The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne

Happy 2024, and happy Public Domain day! Time finally caught up to US copyright law a few years ago, and the result has been a steady trickle of new creative work that’s available for anyone to modify and adapt. This year’s Big One is the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, but the new batch of PD stuff also includes this week’s Pooh book, as well as Tigger himself. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califo...

Jan 01, 202456 min

Ep 625 - Her Night With Santa, by Adriana Herrera

You can't spell Horny without Ho(-Ho-Ho)! In this year's Happy Hornydays celebration, one of the people finding love during the holiday season is Santa herself. That's right, this is an F/F steamy short featuring a gender-swapped Kristina Kringle and the niece (???) of Melchior (????) the Magi (?????). Sadly, the extremely promising lore goes somewhat underexplored. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your way to bei...

Dec 25, 20231 hr 7 min

Ep 624 - Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

This generation-spanning epic explores the experience of a Korean family living in Japan throughout (most of) the 20th century. We talk about Lee's use of time, her penchant for "minor" characters, and the recent adaptation of Pachinko for Apple TV+. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Dec 18, 20231 hr 6 min

Ep 623 - Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake

Despite being fairly well-versed in 20th-century fantasy, Mervyn Peake and his Gormenghast series has flown completely under our radar until now. It's a strange, florid, disjointed book with some fascinating character portraits, and also the most detailed description of a dude taking a bite of a pear that we have ever read. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was comp...

Dec 11, 20231 hr 4 min

Sand by Me: Neil Gaiman's The Sandman - Books 9 & 10

Our previous show-within-a-show concludes! In this longread project, we worked our way through Neil Gaiman's signature graphic novel series THE SANDMAN. Some Patreon supporters got these episodes monthly, but every two months we combined them for general consumption. If you haven't heard, our current longread project is Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's ILIAD. That's right - STOP! HOMER TIME is back! But first, our final Sandman episodes. In Episode 9: THE KINDLY ONES, things come to a head ...

Dec 09, 20233 hr 52 min

Ep 622 - Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

In this episode, two gamers sit down to talk about one of the buzziest books of 2022. Zevin's blockbuster novel spans 30 years of advancement in technology and in the friendship of Sadie and Sam, two gifted game designers working out how they fit into each other's lives. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Dec 04, 20231 hr 14 min

Ep 621 - All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1), by Martha Wells

When you make an AI too smart, you also give it anxiety and depression and an appetite for serialized television. These are the things that motivate Murderbot, the protagonist of the many Murderbot Diaries stories that Martha Wells has released in the short time between 2017 and now. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise o...

Nov 27, 202357 min

Ep 620 - The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2), by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and his pals are back in another mythology-packed middle-grade adventure story, this time (mostly) patterned after the voyages of our old pal Odysseus. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Nov 20, 20231 hr 4 min

Ep 619 - The Stranger, by Albert Camus

Mssr. Merseault only likes a few things, unfortunately he must live his life doing plenty of other things for people he doesn't particularly care about. Such is the story of this seminal work of 20th-century fiction and absurdist philosophy. Join us as we grapple with an indifferent universe (and a compelling translation by Matthew Ward). Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at htt...

Nov 13, 202355 min

Ep 618 - A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny (Bonus Episode)

What if a dog was your POV character? What if that dog's owner was JACK THE RIPPER? What if there was a game but you didn't know who was playing? All of these questions and more get asked in our Spooktober bonus episode. To join us for future bonus recordings, head to  patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-inf...

Nov 10, 20231 hr 2 min

Ep 617 - Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros (w/ Heaving Bosoms!)

We joined Melody and Sabrina for episode 300 of Heaving Bosoms, where we all chatted about the made-to-order, big-on-TikTok, new-adult romantasy that is Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing. (It may be about the fourth wing, but it's the first of a planned five books). Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....

Nov 06, 20233 hr 41 min