Overdue

We’ve been known to choose an adventure for ourselves every now and again, but rarely have we delved into the history of the “gamebook” genre. Until now! Join us for an abbreviated run through Consider the Consequences , in which players can quickly ruin the lives of three young adults who All Have Their Own Stuff Going On.  This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.co...

It's time to meet Samantha and Addy, two American Girls from the toy brand of the same name. Their time periods and journeys are rather different, but they are united by one thing: American Girl founder Pleasant Rowland's quest to inspire girls to learn AND to accessorize. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise...

We jump forward in the series a bit this month, not too deep into the series (and not into the era where the series was primarily ghostwritten), but past the “we’re still setting up each of the core club-members” phase. This book is all about Mallory, a younger aspiring BSC member whose membership is jeopardized by a run of bad luck and some mildly unreasonable expectations from the other Club mem...

Happy Hornydays everyone! This extremely explicit dark holiday romantasy is sure to land someone on the naughty list. Please note that this story about Twyla and her adventure into the world of Krampus is very much Not For Kids. But does it give adults everything they want for Christmas? Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Blu...

Knowing absolutely nothing else about it, you might guess that a story called "The Bookshop" would a light and cozy novella about how books are magical and that the places where they are sold are sacred spaces. There are lots of books that are like that! But this most certainly is not one of them. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your f...

Darkness, imprisoning me / All that I see, absolute horror / I cannot live, I cannot die / Trapped in myself, body my holding cell These lyrics from Metallica's " One" were inspired by this classic anti-war novel (this is relevant, we promise). It's unique perspective and focus on the irreparable harm that war inflicts on the individual set it apart from the other anti-war text's we've read for th...

There has been a murder! A murder in a small Quebecois village where everyone knows each other and most people seem to be either artists or café proprietors! Luckily Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the Sûreté du Québec are on the case, there to be avuncular and reassuring and blur the line between friend and law enforcement professional. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squ...

What starts as a dismaying story about a wrongful conviction turns into a deep meditation on loyalty, marriage, and independence. Given the subject matter, you might expect a mystery or a courtroom drama. Instead, Jones offers up a moving account of a couple just trying to find a future that will have them. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram...

Our newest BSC member, Dawn, has a lot to juggle in her debut as a series protagonist. Her mom is dating Mary-Anne's dad. She's low-key feuding with Kristy, the BSC President. And she's been hired by a mother of three who just does NOT have her life together. What a trial by fire! These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (and a bunc...

A story about a young woman trapped in an underground prison with 39 other women sounds like it could be a stone cold bummer, and it isn’t not that. But this translated French novel from 1995 also hits some affirming, human notes, and it’s those aspects of it that help explain why it’s found new life via word of mouth and BookTok.  This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squares...

Perhaps befittingly, Anne Patchett's fourth novel changed the trajectory of her career. The award-winning Bel Canto centers on 58 people (a combination of hostages and militants sequestered in an unnamed country), many of whom spend the time cut off from the outside world meditating on the paths their lives did and didn't take. Many welcome the opportunity to sit, reflect, grow, and change -- all...

Did you ever wonder why the name "Jeeves" has always been inseparable from the concept of "a very good butler"? It's because of these short stories (plus more short stories, plus several novels) by English novelist P.G. Wodehouse. Hapless gadfly Bertie Wooster relies on his man Jeeves for just about everything, from clothing advice to getting his various dim-bulb friends out of money-related scrap...

Did you know that the classic 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer was actually based on a propulsive young adult thriller from 1973? Lois Duncan's original novel isn't too interested in bloody kills, however. It's more focused on how young people build their identities: around their regrets, around their parents, and around tragedies. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerang...

Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting, including one job that will prove to be her toug...

An official offshoot of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Choose Your Own Nightmare books cropped up for a couple of years in the mid-90s, an (alleged) response to the popularity of our old friend RL Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stine’s somewhat longer-lived Give Yourself Goosebumps sub-series would launch just months after the first Choose Your Own Nightmare book, but it’s fun to re...

Everybody loves our old friend Ray Bradbury! This time we’re taking a spin with his first short story collection Dark Carnival, a smattering of spooky tales that wound up scattered across a number of other collections throughout Bradbury’s career.  Stories discussed in this episode include: The Small Assassin The Dead Man Skeleton The Scythe The Emissary The Homecoming Uncle Einar The Lake Th...

A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge some of your preconceived notions. This episode is s...

Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy of nature?" And when every animal is personified...well...those simple bare necessities begin to reveal themselves. Our t...

The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everything. These episodes posted first for our Patreon sup...

Some of us read a book. Some of us research the author and the historical context. Some of us sit in front of our microphones and record a podcast. Some of us edit it together and upload it to the website. Some of us write the description that goes up with it. Boy I hope this bit works! Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Blue...

Perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell’s best-known work, Cranford chronicles the lives of some Victorian era LMMs (Ladies of Modest Means). Their customs and relevance may be waning as Industrialization advances, but that doesn’t mean they won’t find ways to entertain us with their wit, their foibles, and their heart. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10%...

For anyone who’s ever loved a movie or TV show where people in silly outfits pretend to be giant city-crushing lizards and/or robots, this week’s book plays around in a pretty entertaining space. If the references to the mid-to-late-2020 stretch of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election date it a little, and if every single named character talks exactly the same, it’s still got n...

The name O. Henry is synonymous with more than just a candy bar. It's become shorthand for a brief, punchy tale that ends with a magical little twist. And this collection, his second published, contains such classic examples as the "Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem." Can you guess the ironic twist ending of this podcast? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespac...

The Club has been humming along for two months until a spat of terrifying phone-based burglaries have our sitters sittin' scared! Also, it's Claudia time! Between gigs, she must repair her relationship with her sister and figure out how to catch the eye of the dreamiest poet around: Trevor Sandbourne. These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahea...

As a reader, you cannot get upset if you read a book called "Bad Summer People" and it's filled with terrible people and all the stuff that they do to each other over the course of One Fateful Summer. You are allowed, of course, to get upset if you summered in the same place as the author and you recognize the town and all the people in it and also maybe yourself. Our theme music was composed by&n...