141: Carrie's War
Ross Cleaver discusses Carrie’s War (what is it good for?), Nina Bawdwin’s 1973 children’s book about evacuations, skulls, and grumpy Welshmen.
Episodes
Sophomore Lit
A podcast about your 10th grade reading list, hosted by John McCoy.
Episodes
140: The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Grab a whisky and soda and put your leg up. My dad and I discuss Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936). Bonus content: a visit to the Hemingway Home in Key West!
139: Beloved
Jelani Sims returns to discuss the literal and metaphorical ghosts of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved (1987).
138: Great Expectations
I have good feelings about this one! Zach Powers returns to discuss desparate criminals and mysterious benefactors in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861).
137: A Christmas Carol
There are many podcasts from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited. John and Marina discuss Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843).
136: Stuart Little
This is one weird mouse book. Phil Gonzales and John discuss E. B. White’s Stuart Little(1945).
135: Thanksgiving Special: The Wreck of the Hesperus
It’s Thanksgiving, so of course Rob, John, and Dan drink and discuss “The Wreck of the Hesperus” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1842).
134: Macbeth
Probably best not to listen to this episode while you’re in a theatre. Shannon Campe and John discuss Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1605-ish).
133: The Picture of Dorian Gray
The podcasts that the world calls immoral are podcasts that show the world its own shame. Tamar Avishai and John discuss Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1831).
132: The Canterbury Tales
Those smale foweles maken melodye got nothin’ on us: Kathy Campbell and John discuss Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400).
131: Beowulf
The original Farewell to Arms. Nathan Alderman discusses Beowulf (c. 1000).
130: Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh, a king, at Uruk. It’s not just a Star Trek meme. Gregory Fried talks ritual sex, heavenly bulls, and sneaky snakes in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
129: The Metamorphosis
Gregor’s mother warned him about days like this. Jason Snell discusses Franz Kafka’s inescapable novella, The Metamorphosis (1915).
128: Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street
Audrey Lazaro discusses Mellville’s 1853 story, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” one of the top three bits of scrivener fiction ever.
127: The Egypt Game
No, I won’t make a Bangles joke. Erin Gambrill discusses Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game (1967).
126: Bambi, a Life in the Woods
Bambi’s not so cute in this gritty new reboot. Glenn Fleishman discusses Felix Salten’s 1923 parable about what goes on in the woods. Also we talk a lot about copyright.
125: At the Mountains of Madness
Climb ev’ry mountain—except these mountains, they’re nuts. Phil Gonzales discusses H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness,” written in 1931 and published in 1936.
124: Under Milk Wood
To begin at the beginning: David Loehr is back in the slow, black, crowblack, podcast-bobbing sea to discuss Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1954).
123: The Bell Jar
New Year’s is a time for optimism, but instead Christy Admiraal discusses Sylvia Plath’s 1963 roman à clef, the Bell Jar. Also, John totally gets the dates wrong for this book’s complicated publishing history.
122: Christmas Special: Gift of the Magi
But I sold my Zune to buy you this podcast! Marina and John discuss hair, watches, and O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”
121: Thanksgiving Special: Burma-Shave
It’s turkey time / once again / Dan and Rob / dive right in / we discuss / Buma-Shave!
120: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)
Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a podcast, for example, where Bill O’Donnell discusses Jerome K. Jerome’s very silly Three Men in a Boat (1889).
119: Peter Pan
Grab on to your happy thought and join Shannon Campe in discussing James Barrie’s complicated children’s novel Peter Pan (1911), originally called Peter and Wendy.
118: Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River…wider than a mile. Okay, now that we have that out of our way, join Lisa Schmeiser as we discuss Edgar Lee Master’s poetic collection *Spoon River Anthology *(1915).
117: The Dispossessed
Anarchy in the U. K. (LeGuin)! David Woken talks a lot of politics and a little story as we discuss The Dispossessed (1974).
116: Kerouac and Ginsberg
Gena Radcliffe and John don’t blab any drab gab—they chatter hep patter about Jack Kerouac’s “October in the Railroad Earth” (1957) and Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” (1954-55).
115: Flowers for Algernon
I no I wil be smart won day. Until thin I will diskus Daniel Keyes’s epistolary novel Flowers for Algernon (1966) with Jason Snell.
114: Dracula
Please invite in Jelani Lee and Matt Skuta to discuss Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). We can’t start until you do.
113: Hans Christian Andersen
Let’s all hunker around this match and discuss some of the tales by Hans Christian Andersen. David Loehr returns.
112: George Orwell Essays
It’s phraseology and pachyderms, as Daniel Daughetee discusses Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” (1946) and “Shooting an Elephant” (1936).