EP11: Castles, Space, and Cigarettes ... no Slippers
Four Books a Fortnight
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 nowadays. Somehow, it hangs together better than you might think. This fortnight, we read: "Lady Tremaine," by Rachel Hochhauser "Hamnet," by Maggie O'Farrell "Blue...
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EP10: Oh Chute! Everything's Falling
Four Books a Fortnight
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 is seriously important. This fortnight, we read: "Letourneau's Used Auto Parts," by Carolyn Chute "The Fountain," by Casey Scieszka "Leviathan Falls," by James SA...
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EP9: The French and French Lick
Four Books a Fortnight
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 Ipswich, MA! Put a pin in that. Anyway, this fortnight, we read: "Murder Bimbo," by Rebecca Novack "The Memory of Babel," by Christelle Dabos "Family Drama," by...
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EP: Getting Bloody Smashing Machines
Four Books a Fortnight
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: "Blood and Guts in High School," by Kathy Acker "The Infamous Gilberts," by Angela Tomaski "Against the Machine," by Paul Kingsnorth "Seascraper," by Benjamin Wood What sound effects did we give each of these books? You'll just have to listen and find out!
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EP7: No More Daemons
Four Books a Fortnight
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: "A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction," by Elizabeth McCracken "The Book of Dust: The Rose Field," by Philip Pullman "George Falls Through Time," by Ryan Collett "Physics for Cats," by Tom...
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EP6: Do you think that's funny?
Four Books a Fortnight
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: "Spark," by Naoki Matayoshi "The Land in Winter," by Andrew Miller "The Will of the Many," by James Islington "The Heir Apparent," by Rebecca Armitage What sound effects did we give...
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EP5: Sex, Drugs, and Arctic Terns
Four Books a Fortnight
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: "The Rest of our Lives," by Ben Markovits "On Drugs," by Justin Smith-Ruiu "Red as Royal Blood," by Elizabeth Hart "Migrations," by Charlotte McConaghy What sound effects did we give each of these books? You'll just have to listen and find out!
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EP4: Bellyflopping into the Future
Four Books a Fortnight
It's all fiction all the time this episode and we mostly liked these books. Mostly. See which one gets the bellyflop splash! This fortnight, we read: "Television," by Lauren Rothery "The Listeners," by Maggie Stiefvater "House of Day, House of Night," by Olga Tokarczuk "Emergency," by George Packer What sound effects did we give each of these books? You'll just have to listen and find out!
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EP3: Go Deep! (sports and future crimes)
Four Books a Fortnight
We've got some biggies this week, from one of the leading Dad-gift books of the season to the latest from from a few literary powerhouses. See which one gets the whoopie cushion! This fortnight, we read: "American Kings," by Seth Wickersham "What We Can Know," by Ian McEwan "A Guardian and a Thief," by Megha Majumdar "The Four Spent the Day Together," by Chris Kraus What sound effects did we give each of these books? You'll just have to listen and find out!
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EP2: Not Crying (and another music book)
Four Books a Fortnight
Are you a cryer? Hannah is. But for some reason Ann Packer's brand-new tear-jerker didn't get the waterworks flowing. And, yes, Sam has another music book for you, but he swears it won't be every week! Also, we've got some sci-fi for you (and even some workplace sci-fi). This fortnight, we read: "Some Bright Nowhere," by Ann Packer "Tonight in Jungleland," by Peter Ames Carlin "The Memory Police," by Yoko Ogawa "The Employees," by Olga Ravn What sound effects did we give these books? You'll just have to listen and find out!
info_outlineThis 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 great stuff.
- "Erasure," by Percival Everett, who is legitimately among the most important writers working today. This is the book that was made into the movie "American Fiction," but, as you might imagine, is even better than the movie.
- "I'll Tell You When I'm Home," by Hala Alyan, who this time delivers a memoir grappling with her family's history of immigration, escaping Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion and coming to the U.S. This book shows you what generational trauma means.
- "The Phoenix Pencil Company," by Allison King, a data privacy professional who's crafted a magical text about a family that can read pencil hearts (they stab it into their veins) that's perfect for Pride month. It's weird, yes. But new and different.
- "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil," by V.E. Schwab, which is an ode to Anne Rice — a vampire book — but doesn't really follow Rice's vampire rules, exactly (they're all lesbian vampires, which is different). The second half of this is pretty great.
- Oh, and we're not going to tell you which book it is we disliked so intensely. See if you can figure it out. And there's no real good reason why this didn't get posted before June 10, other than Sam being in Iceland and not feeling like posting it. Sorry.