Between The Covers

Jay convinces Stacey to read James Baldwin’s 1953 semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, a coming-of-age novel that grapples with race and religion in mid-twentieth century America. Chaos Reader gives a progress report and shares a tribute to a big influence in her reading life after his recent passing.

This week, Jay puts Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman on his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Stacey wants to know how he chose from Erdrich’s extensive list of works, because she too loves this American author and her entire canon. Chaos Reader checks in on her progress reading the Irish novel The Star of the Sea.

William Faulkner’s southern gothic novel Light in August is Jay’s pick for his 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list this week, and he and Stacey discuss the 1932 modernist work with its themes of race, sex, class and religion in the interwar American South, and why this is the book of Faulkner’s canon Jay selected. Chaos Reader shares a Diane Keaton tribute in the wake of the belov...

This week, Jay makes the case for John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as not only a relevant and cogent book for anyone who follows current events, but also as a book that is lovable—a joy to read. Chaos Reader checks in with the memoir of a corporate-America refugee.

This week is the first time Jay surprises Stacey with a selection for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, when he chooses Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw. Jay has been negging James since Jay was in graduate school, and Stacey wasn’t that taken with the novella when they recently read the book together. Who do you agree with? Chaos Reader checks in on the a...

Jame Joyce’s Ulysses seems to be on every single reading and novels list, but it’s not on Jay Ruud’s. He chose Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man instead, because it actually is lovable. Chaos Reader discusses another existentialist work, Waiting for Godot.

This week, Jay names Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: A Romance to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English. Even though it’s one of the most banned books in the United States, there is a lovable novel to be read here, one that closely considers America’s Puritan past in a way that is still relevant today. Chaos Reader shares her progress in The Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Conno...

Jay joins Ernest Hemingway and many others in his love of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and this week it gets added to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. He and Stacey discuss its lovability and its “bannability” as one of the most banned novels in the United States. Chaos Reader finally joins the party for a very popular novel she hasn’t picked up unti...

Jay puts his second Dickens novel on the list this week, Bleak House, published in 1853. The looooong book uses many characters, two narrative points of view and several suspenseful plots to keep the reader turning pages to travel deeper and deeper into early industrial England, in which cultures are clashing and litigants are fighting in a decades-long lawsuit in Dickens’ masterful social critici...

Jay adds Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English this week. This long Victorian novel, which was initially serialized and then published in 1875, focuses on the greed and dishonesty of all facets of life in the second half of the 19th century in Great Britain by following a financial scammer and his marks. Chaos reader talks about a New York Tim...

Named for the Dark Lord who created the One Ring, this trilogy is about the individuals who work together to save their society when the power to destroy them and their communities is building. Two of the smallest, least worldly characters embark on a journey only they can make, compelled by duty, and motivated by love. LOTR is one of the best-selling books of all time, and Jay and Stacey have ple...

Jay shares with Stacey why he selected Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective novel The Maltese Falcon for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and they continue their discussion from last week’s talk about the hardboiled detective novel and how Hammett helped create the genre. Chaos reader introduces Henry James to the chat.

This week, Stacey and Jay discuss the 50th book on Jay’s list of the Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective novel The Big Sleep. Our culture’s dark and complicated detective trope comes from this brilliantly written crime story. Chaos Reader dips into a how-to book for a big life change.

Jay adds Lewis Carroll’s companion novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English. He and Stacey talk about the delightful prose in the children’s book and some of the reasons it’s enchanting for adults, as well. Chaos Reader talks to Jay about his Substack, which is one of her newest reading pleasures.

This coming-of-age tale still ranks on Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English, because even as a retiree, the tale of “buccaneers and buried gold” still moves him with its imagination and insight. Chaos Reader shares one of her recent writing projects.

This week’s addition to the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list is John Barth’s Sot-Weed Factor, which Jay loves and Stacey hasn’t read (you might not have either…but you may want to after listening). Chaos Reader shares a new anthology that she and Jay have stories in.

Jay Ruud and Stacey Margaret Jones discuss an OG novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding, a picaresque novel from the early days of the whole genre of novel writing. Why is it lovable? Find out with Stacey, who hasn’t read it, as Jay shares why he just loved reading it. Chaos reader gives an update on Sinead O’Connor’s memoirs.

This week Jay has chosen Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and he and Stacey discuss it along with last week’s entry, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. Chaos reader shares her experiences with Sinead O’Connor’s memoir Rememberings.

This week's entry on the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (listen to the pod to learn her pen name for initial publication), which Jay and Stacey discuss after having recently reread the novel aloud together and traveling to the Brontë family home in West Yorkshire, UK. Chaos reader shares a contemporary Irish novel they bought recently in Dublin. 

J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel still has insight and meaning for us today as it grapples with how colonial power trickles down and through the individuals who administer it. Jay talks about how he selected this from Coetzee’s catalog of titles, and Stacey swoons over its selection, as she is a Coetzee completist. Chaos Reader starts a new book of poems.

This week, Jay shares in-depth why the disturbing dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a lovable book, even as it envisions a future for the United States that is peak patriarchy. Chaos Reader reports on her presidential-biography reading project.

Jay’s List of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English finally gets to one of his favorite writers when he discusses P.G. Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters, from which our culture gets the well-known Jeeves figure. Chaos reader goes again to the cookbook shelf for a volume by someone Americans love to hate.

This week’s 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language entry is Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, which Stacey knew was about a war, but not which war. Jay shares why it made his list and how it's as meaningful today as it was in 1895 when it was published. Chaos reader talks more about Richard Nixon by John A. Farrell.

This week’s entry on the 100 Most Lovable Books in the English Language List is Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead… This beloved instant classic is popular for a reason. While it updates the eternally relevant Dickensian themes of David Copperfield, it also brings us something totally new and completely American. Chaos reader has also started a biography of a very American figure.

Jane Austen set out to write a novel with an anti-hero: “A heroine whom no one but myself will much like,” she wrote about her goals for the book, so why is Emma so lovable? Of course, we couldn’t discuss this enjoyable book without spending time on the equally lovable film adaptations. Chaos reader shouts out a podcast, because, well… chaos.