EP12: Making Choices, Good and Bad
Four Books a Fortnight
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 should have read "Butter," instead. Also, there is a Sarah J. Maas discussion in this episode for no good reason. This fortnight, we read: "American Fantasy," by Emma...
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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!
info_outlineThis week, Hannah is on vacation, Sam is working hard, but both have two books to talk about and we mostly like them. Yes, there's some embarrassing stuff where Sam has no idea about major biographical elements of the authors he's praising profusely, but let's pretend it's not happening in the moment.
On the agenda this week:
- "A Marriage at Sea," by Sophie Elmhirst, which is a real-life story about a couple who decided to just drop out of society and "live a more interesting life." So, they bought a boat, then crashed it against a whale, and then somehow survived for months in a life raft. It's wild. But ultimately a treatise on fame.
- "Death of the Author," by Nnedi Okorafor, which Sam thinks is the best book he's read this year so far and criminally under-talked-about. It's sci-fi, family drama, social commentary, and so much more. Also, Sam was wrong. Nnedi is 51. Older than him. He's dumb.
- "A Dog in Georgia," by Lauren Grodstein, which Hannah likes a lot, and not just because she was in a writing class with Lauren a while back. It's lighter than "We Must Not Think of Ourselves," which is more to her skillset. And, yes, it's about looking for a lost dog in the country of Georgia, but, yes, everyone agrees that's weird.
- "The Third Rule of Time Travel," by Philip Fracassi, which Sam mostly enjoyed, but was sort of a "Netflix original" of a time-travel novel. Very readable! Entertaining! But maybe doesn't stick the landing. And it's a dude writing a woman, but it's a fine.