Overdue

What is Pippi Longstocking? A precocious nine-year-old child with a healthy disregard for The System? A Terminator? An elder god who dabbles in mortal affairs, eternally developing tests for us and finding us wanting? The answer might be "all of the above. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://...

Téa Obreht's award-winning debut novel is about a doctor in a war-torn Balkan country, piecing together her grandfather's life one story at a time. Is it a magical realism? Is it mostly about animals? Is it surprisingly resonant with our Current Societal Moment™? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this week's episode. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Priva...

Join us as we journey down a dark corridor to a parallel world where we are friends and host a book podcast together but our eyes are shiny black buttons and we give you a vaguely uneasy feeling when we invite you to listen to us... forever. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/priva...

This isn't an episode of Overdue, it's a Feed Drop! We wanted to share with you an episode of The History of Literature, a podcast about great stories and why we love them. To use host Jacke Wilson's words, the show "takes a fresh look at some of the most compelling examples of creative genius the world has ever known." It's brought to you by the folks at the Podglomerate. You can find more i...

Clearly it is time we covered Beverly Cleary! In addition to her numerous books starring Ramona Quimby, the late titan of children's fiction penned several novels about a mouse named Ralph who rides a motorcycle. Not quite sure what else you need to know, to be honest. There's a kid named Keith. He and Ralph become friends. Also, we solve the energy crisis thanks to Ralph's motorcycle. Our theme m...

"What if the Axis Powers won World War II?" is one of the most-asked questions in all of speculative fiction, but Jo Walton's Farthing asks "what if Britain didn't exactly LOSE World War II, but ended up sliding into fascism anyway?" Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-no...

This isn't an episode of Overdue, it's a Feed Drop! We wanted to share with you an episode of Storybound featuring Tommy Orange reading his short story "Copperopolis" with sound design by Ryan Dann. Storybound is a radio theater program from the folks at Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate. Each episode is a chance to hear a contemporary author read their own work, designed with immersive sound env...

What if Cinderella didn't fall for Prince Charming? What if she developed a rich, endearing relationship with the King's Huntress instead? Malinda Lo's retelling of Cinderella blends cultural traditions and remixes key tropes, but also remains true to the folk tale's reverence for love and magic. (Listen, the big boat was floated while we were recording this episode. Our jokes were timely when we...

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. These episodes cover Chapters 1-14. In Episode 1, we do some table-setting on the author and translation, and then we dive into the fi...

What if Death was a job, that a guy did? On a Pale Horse has an interesting theology and viewpoint on morality, even if the book's women characters are paper-thin and Piers Anthony is kind of a jabroni. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

It's time to post at the top of the key and shoot some literary hoops! Pick and roll with us into a poetic novel about brotherhood, family, and passing the rock. Alexander's poetry in The Crossover is eclectic and energetic, which makes for a fun read whether you stan LeBron James or Nikki Giovanni or both! Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.c...

We don't actually get to the center of the earth this week, but we do TRY to get there, and that has made all the difference. Fans of Craig's French accent get a lot to chew on in this one. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

It's been a couple of years, so we figured it was time for another listener Q&A! This time we tackle hard-hitting questions like "what kind of books does your baby like" and "what is the best pasta shape."  For more information on our bonus episodes, visit patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cal...

What if the celebrated author of a classic children's novel wanted to write about Adult issues like spinsterhood, pariah-hood, and being told you only have a year to live? L.M. Montgomery asked this question of herself as she sat down to write The Blue Castle . Join us for a discussion of obnoxious families, fairy tales, and botched diagnoses. Check out our previous L.M. Montgomery episode on Anne...

Returning guest Kamille Washington joins us this week to chat about A Promised Land, the first in former President Barack Obama's (planned) two-part presidential autobiography. We talk about the functions these books serve, both for the writer and the reader, and whether this book's recounting of Obama's early presidency squares with our experience with and memory of it a decade later (apologies t...

N.K. Jemisin's award-winning Broken Earth trilogy concludes with two powerful magic users trying to harness the moon to bring about an apocalypse to end all apocalypses. We discuss how this book decides to stick its landing, including the impressive detour it takes to do an audacious amount of world-building for a closing entry in a series. Just coming to the series now? Check out our episodes on...

Gene Wolfe is a sci-fi author's sci-fi author, best known for his descriptive language and a penchant for unreliable narrators. To attempt to discover the REAL meaning of The Ziggurat, we take a break in the middle of this episode to read the story again. It only sort of helps. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priv...

We're celebrating the fiction-filled and fictional holiday of Short Story Week by sharing two short stories with y'all this week. First up is The Comet, a speculative sci-fi tale by civil rights activist and writer W.E.B. DuBois from his collection Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. After that is Woeful Tales from Mahigul, a short story collection within a short story collection by Ursula K....

It's time to read a prominent work by a preeminent Canadian (specifically Québécois) author! Join us in Montreal in 1942 and meet a family with lots of problems but lots of heart. Tremblay's known for insightful and whimsical character work, so it's fitting that we spend the bulk of the episode delving into the novel's deep roster of memorable characters. Also Canadian history is pretty interestin...

Ancillary Justice is a novel take on sci-fi's "collective consciousness" trope. What if, when cut off from the rest of its collective, an individual member of a collective consciousness just went on existing as an individual? And also what if they were thrust into the center of high-stakes intergalactic political drama? Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at ht...

The second entry in N.K. Jemisin's award-winning Broken Earth series is centered on a mother/daughter pair of magic users, each learning new ways to use their abilities to heal their shattered world. It is, of course, the second book in a planned trilogy, so we discuss how well it sets up events that will be delivered on in the next book. Just coming to the series now? Check out our episode on the...

It's a bit late, but this year we trade a sexy holiday book for a murder mystery holiday book. After a local businessman/pervert turns up dead, it's up to Holly White and her friends in the town of Mistletoe, Maine to figure out who did it and to clear her best friend's name.  Find out how to join us for bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by&nbsp...

It's not referenced as often as George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is in some ways a dystopia that's closer to our current reality: a society modeled around a production line, designed to pacify its citizenry while maximizing consumption in whatever way possible. Or maybe that's just our read on it!! Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . See Privacy Policy at...

Welcome to the finale of Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights).  Some Patreon supporters get these episodes early, but we always release them for general consumption...

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember." Maggie O'Farrell's prize-winning novel Hamnet is one of remembrance -- a work of historical fiction about guilt, loss, and the people who live in the margins of a Great Author's biography. Come to marvel at how skillfully O'Farrell shunts William Shakespeare off-stage, stick around for the randy apple storage scene. Thank you al...