A Deadman's Books

Whenever Victor Frankenstein tests the limits of what science can do with a mishmash of various human body parts, he creates a monster that he becomes disgusted with. Grieved with tts rejection by its creator, the monster seeks love and acceptance leaving a trail of destruction and murder across Europe. We're asking the tough questions. How do we compare a work that reaches back like this to its m...

When Christopher and his mom move to a new city to leave her abusive boyfriend, he meets someone new. This "nice man" leads him to the site of an unfinished treehouse in the woods that secret leads to another world. We're asking the tough questions. What's the right amount of supernatural for horror? Can a book be long just for the sake of being long? What's with all of those baseball gloves and t...

When supernatural "somethings" begin to appear around the globe, just the sight of them drives people mad beyond reason leading them to brutally kill themselves and any others within their destructive path. Pregnant from a one-night stand, Mallory loses her sister and parents to the phenomenon and must seek out a new family of sorts. However, when someone gets in that the group thinks won't be tha...

When Rosemary goes back through her life, she sees the steps that she took to become the person that she is, and her problems are problems that we all deal with. Comparisons to other parents, questions about marriage and relationships, an examination of our relationship with our own parents. Gerber delivers a coming of a age story with a character that feels real and authentic. This week, Barbara...

When the Her Majesty's Secret Service is knowingly baited into a trap, the send their best man for the job...James Bond. As Bond travels to Turkey for the job, he meets all different types of characters along the way which leads him to ask the question: what makes the good guys the good guys? Jason Crockett joins us on our 50th episode as we look over Ian Fleming's famous novel and ask the tough q...

In this special episode, we crossover and give you a look at our good friend Jason Crockett's new podcast, Second Stage. In Second Stage, Jason will look at plays that are overlooked in the classroom. He asks questions like what might be the reasons that we do not teach them, the merit that they provide in the class, and how would we teach them if we got the chance. Give him a follow on Spotify, A...

When the Yoo family finally gets all of their members to America, their patriarch Pak begins a business in which he owns a hyperbolic chamber that is used to allegedly help heal children with autism and other afflictions called the Miracle Creek Submarine. However, one day when the sub goes for one of its "dives", a horrific accident happens in which it explodes leaving a child and another child's...

When the evil dragon Smaug sleeps in his stolen kingdom and treasure, a group of Dwarves seek out the help of wise Gandalf the Grey to help them retrieve it. Little did they know that Gandalf's plan all along was to leave the chances of regaining their home back to the most unassuming of all of Middle Earth's creatures: A Hobbit. Jason Crockett joins us today as we look back on this literary class...

In the 17th century, Jesuit priests attempted to spread Christianity throughout Japan despite enormous oppression from the Japanese emperor. In Shusaku Endo's novel, Silence, Endo takes the stories of various monks from that time period and combines them to create a fictionalized retelling of the experiences that all of those involved went through. With this novel, Endo presents questions that man...

In 2009, the University of Tennessee hired Lane Kiffin to take over as head football coach after legendary coach Phillip Fulmer left the program. It had been 17 years since the Volunteers had a new coach. In 2010, Kiffin was gone and ensued a decade of chaotic, dysfunctional decisions that dragged one of college football's most storied programs to depths it had never seen before. This week, we are...

This week, two Titanic lovers? experts? enthusiasts? get together as Hannah Randolph sits down and talks with us about Walter Lord's nonfictional account, A Night to Remember. A Night to Remember is the definitive retelling of the tragic night that The Titanic slipped beneath the waves. Lord uses passengers and officers first hand accounts to reconstruct the horror of what happened in the North At...

After a tragic accident driving down the backroads of East Tennessee, Knoxville native Pete Kreis looked to pursue his dream of becoming a champion of the Indianapolis 500. Starting his career in the late 1920's, Pete became one of the hottest young drivers in the circuit, even having strong showings at Formula 1's European Grand Prix at Monza. However, a developing reputation of being a hard-luck...

The end has come. 2025's Big Summer Read has met its finale. What a ride it has been. In this final check-in Jason Crockett sits down with us and answers the tough questions. Is Nick Andros a static character? How can we use our characters as examples of overcoming addiction? What does it feel like to reach your true self? We answer these and more in today's episode. Thanks for listening! This epi...

This week, we take a field trip through the beautiful streets of St. Augustine. We will talk about our walk down Marine Street, past the infamous Athalia Ponsell Lindsley house. We will also discuss other parts of the city that were mentioned in Elizabeth Randall's 2015 book about the murder and case of Athalia Ponsell Lindsley. Thank you for listening! Resources from today's episode: A Murder in...

When Jacksonville socialite Athalia Ponsell Lindsey moved into her home on Marine Street in St. Augustine, Florida, she was met with a neighborhood that wanted to push her out. After on-going feuds with some of her neighbors, Lindsley was murdered on her doorstep on January 23, 1974. Her murderer was never convicted. This week we sit down and speak to author Elizabeth Randall who researched this m...

Today, Jason Crockett and James Seibers join us as we discuss the second part of Stephen King's The Stand, "The Dreams". We're asking the tough questions. What separates the good guys from the bad guys? What happens when we are growing as people and we are faced with decisions that could define the new us or reinforce the old? What does it look like when you choose winning over being good? We talk...

Jason Crockett joins us as we discuss the various stops we made along the way in our local community that could be found in Troy D. Smith's novel, Good Rebel Soil. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Jason Crockett joins us as we get a chance to sit down with author Dr. Troy D. Smith to discuss his book, Good Rebel Soil. This book is a fictionalized retelling of the legend of Champ Ferguson. A Confederate guerilla who stormed the areas of the Upper Cumberland in Tennessee. Dr. Smith talks to us about his reasonings for writing the book, his writing process, and his thinking behind h...

To celebrate American ingenuity on the week of July the 4th, Jason Crockett and I sit down and talk about Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City which covers the birth, planning, and execution of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Behind this ingenuity however is an insidiousness as America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes, was lurking about the streets of Chicago, seducing and devouring any woma...

Painter Val Welch is sent to Dawes, Wyoming where he is a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal working in the WPA. In this program, Welch is painting a mural in the local post office of Dawes. While in Wyoming, Welch is housed with rancher John Long and his wife Eve. Welch takes his journey to the mountain west expecting to paint. What he doesn't expect is that he will be sent on a mission to...

We check in on this year's Big Summer Read, The Stand by Steven King. We will be looking at what we are listing as part 1 or chapters 1-35. We're asking the tough questions. How much does this book feel like 2020? How much does this book feel like summer of 2025? Who is emerging as our protagonists of the story? Jason Crockett joins us as we answer these and more for our special episode in which w...

The name Jefferson Davis is synonymous with the Civil War, rebellion, and many other things. However, what is the story behind his wife during this rise to power, wartime, and the escape? Charles Frazier gives us a fictionalized retelling based in fact and research on the life and times of the first lady of the Confederacy, Varina Davis. Frazier's novel looks at complexity of race, politics, and w...

When logger Grainier returns from work in the Pacific Northwest to his cabin in Idaho, he finds that a wildfire has swept through and not only taken the forest with it, but also his home and family. Denis Johnson's Train Dreams gives us brief glimpses into the hermit life that Grainier leads after that as he seeks answers to his wife's death and what could have been with his daughter. We bring thi...

Luce has been caretaker of an estate in the woods of Appalachian North Carolina. After her sister is murdered, she takes in her niece and nephew who witnessed the murder. However, the children won't speak. Unbeknownst to her, their father is the murderer and is under the assumption that the money is dead wife had is hidden with their children. In Frazier's Nightwoods, we sit back and witness the s...

Get ready for 2025's Big Summer Read. We sit down and discuss the upcoming read-together of Stephen King's The Stand. Read along with us! We will be doing check-ins every 300 pages, and we are looking to end with a culminating episode. Read with us, and let us know. We'd love to hear your thoughts as well. Thanks for listening! A Deadman's Books theme song: Surfing! by automaticbananas Hosted on A...