Overdue

If you want to relive the 2008 financial crisis, this is the book for you! Behold the Dreamers is the story of the crash through the eyes of immigrants who work for bankers, but Imbolo Mbue resists making any individual character into a hero or villain. That might not always be satisfying, but it makes for a more nuanced story. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy...

NOTE: This episode does contain explicit language. Welcome back to our good friends Margaret and Sophie! They're here to tell you all about Erich Segal's classic tearjerker Love Story. Get ready to hear about tears, jerks, and unfortunate fate of the original cool girl. Other talking points include: saying you're sorry, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and preposterous privilege. See Privacy Policy at https:/...

This week we solve a mystery with the Hardy Boys, the indistinguishable sons of a famous detective. They’ll conquer men in wigs, slightly worse detectives, and Hobo Johnny on their way to earning a thousand bucks. Good night! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

The Diary of a Young Girl, frequently referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, chronicles the author's time hiding with her family during the German occupation of Amsterdam in the 1940s. It's also a shockingly personal account of a young woman's quest for self-knowledge. Anne shows remarkable candor as she battles to be her best self while enduring the most trying of circumstances. See Privacy Poli...

Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad is slave fiction with just a hint of magical realism mixed in to heighten the stakes. Whitehead uses a slightly fluid sense of time and location to better highlight the links between the institution of slavery and race in America throughout its history. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/pri...

The experiment continues! It's the show-within-a-show where we read Emily Wilson's new translation of The Odyssey a few books at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than they do about most books. These episodes cover Books 4-7 of The Odyssey. First, Telemachus gets oiled up and talks to some more people about his dad, and the gods finally free Odysseus from his long torment. But he'll...

You may remember Dennis Lehane's 2001 novel Mystic River from the award-winning 2003 film of the same name. What elevates this murder mystery from other crime procedurals is its attention to human detail, its exploration of our collective moral failings and how they intersect. LISTENER BEWARE: We do spoil the heck out of the ending so that we can get into a conversation about youth violence and th...

Just what the heck is a Ya-Ya, anyway?? We tackle this and other topics—including physical abuse, parenthood, midlife crises, and other topics we have little-to-no direct experience with—as we cover Rebecca Wells' best-known novel. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

V.E. Schwab's popular Shades of Magic series started with this novel about Kell, a magic man with a magic jacket, and Lila, a thief who dreams of becoming a pirate. They're brought together against forces conspiring to destroy *multiple* Londons, and their journey is one of power, blood magic, and hidden potential. Talking points include Multiple Clevelands, elemental magics, powerful bloodlines,...

This week's episode on Brian Jacques' Redwall was recorded live at the 6th Annual Philadelphia Podcast Festival. Thanks to everyone who was able to join us and to the festival for having us back! We hope you enjoy our wide-ranging discussion about this animal adventure, which includes a quiz about GWAR, good mice and bad rats, the questionable size of ANYTHING, and how badly we stan for Constance...

You know Aristotle, the Greek philosopher from the 4th century BCE? What if he was a detective who helped solve mysteries? That's exactly what's going on in Margaret Doody's 1978 novel Aristotle Detective .  This episode was recorded live over the Internet with some of our Patreon supporters in the audience. Find out more about our Patreon project at patreon.com/overduepod . See Privacy Polic...

We didn’t plan to discuss Cristina Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans during a particularly fraught period in the United States’ immigration debate. But if this book or our discussion can help anyone develop more empathy for those who come to the US from elsewhere, it will have done its job (or one of its jobs, anyway).  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pr...

What was it about the first Mistborn book that netted Brandon Sanderson a job wrapping up the Wheel of Time series? That's the central question we attempt to answer in our discussion of Brando Sando's acclaimed novel. Join us for a discussion of allomancy, burning orange soda, fantasy heists, self-help magicians and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notic...

Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke’s first successful novel, starts as a story about a surprisingly chill (if mysterious) alien invasion, but eventually it’s also about the end of the human race. It’s not the aliens’ fault, for once! But they’re definitely, you know, AROUND for it.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-no...

Margaret Craven's 1967 novel I Heard the Owl Call My Name is about a young Anglican vicar's work with a First Nations parish in British Columbia. The simplistic tale centers on the problems facing a culture at risk of disappearing and the work of those who fight to save it. Talking points include white saviors, romanticized myths, and a run of tree puns that will leaf you breathless. ALSO: Come se...

Welcome to a new experiment! For this new show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew will be reading Emily Wilson's new translation of The Odyssey a book at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than they do about most books. Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. First you'll hear our introduction to the show (and the tr...

What would you do if you could suddenly zap someone with an electrical charge? What would you do if someone you knew could do it, but you couldn't? What would you do if the world got flipped entirely upside down because said electrical power inverted the world's power dynamics? Well, you're about to find out! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://...

We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our 300th episode than with a *biting* discussion of Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster hit Twilight. Will klutzy cipher Bella Swan and perfect baseballboy Edward Cullen make it? Can you practice abstinence in the world that gave rise to Fifty Shades? And when you become a vampire, does it make you HOT? Find the answers to these questions and more in our t...

We head back to the Choose Your Own Adventure well this week to solve some rock and roll mysteries - will we get brainwashed by a cult? Will we save rock and roll? You'll have to listen to find out! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

If your kid's all strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? PIGGLE-WIGGLE! Betty MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series chronicles a kindly magical lady as she helps all manner of parents with all manner of difficult children. Won't bathe? Make them a garden! Won't share? Make them a pariah! Join us as we celebrate Children's Book Week 2: A Podcast and share our concerns about parenting in...

For April, we covered W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz, a dense yet moving novel about a man discovering his stolen past. The book's themes get a little heavy at times, but thankfully our rowdy chat is always ready to help lighten the mood. Talking points include death by pun, stolen time, and Craig's "real" name. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...

Who better to help us discuss Grace Metalious' 1956 novel about small-town scandal than a couple of Big Apple librarians like Gwen Glazer and Frank Collerius? Our friends from The Librarian Is In were in Philly, so we invited them over for an uncut discussion of misbehaving teens, skeletons in cellars, and...jimmy caps. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice...

Kezia Saint Martin is an unwilling heiress, a woman who uses multiple pseudonyms so she can do the work she loves. Lucas John is a paroled convict, a strapping Patrick Warburton type who fights for reform in the prison system. Danielle Steel's 1977 novel Passion's Promise shows us how these two unexpected lovers are both alike: the prison of society's expectations is literally the same as actual p...

"I read a book one day and my whole life changed," opens Orhan Pamuk's best-selling novel The New Life. Like much of Pamuk's work, The New Life dives deep into how art helps and hinders our efforts to process the world, drawing specifically on the tensions of the East-West dichotomy. Other talking points include dangerous buses, life-changing books, and in-fiction fiction. See Privacy Policy at ht...

Put another quarter in the coin slot folks, because it's time to talk about Ernest Cline's Ready Player One. Topics include bad fan culture, the narrowness of the characters' "exhaustive" knowledge of 80s popular culture, and why the critical response to this book has shifted so much in just a few short years. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https:/...