Between The Covers

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.

This week, Jay goes rogue and chooses a whole trilogy of books as the next entry on his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. He and Stacey discuss the theology behind what Pullman never meant to be young-adult literature, even if the main characters are young people. The page-turning fantasy novels are a very engaging delivery dev...

Something in the King Arthur canon was bound to make it onto Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and this week Jay and Stacey discuss the linked novellas that comprise this modern classic, the historical influences on White and the new takes that make this novel officially Lovable. Chaos Reader finally gets reading again with one of the New York Times best fiction bo...

This week our married authors discuss Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, the most recent entry on Jay Ruud’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. The novel focuses on the jealousy and obsession that come to the narrator Maurice after his lover Sarah ends their illicit relationship for her own reasons in the tumultuous time after WWII has ended in England. Chaos reader c...

A coming-of-age story about two boys, Owen and John, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in rural New Hampshire. While the premise may seem unremarkable and relatable, there is nothing normal about Owen. Chaos Reader also checks in with a recommendation for Princess Diana-philes.

This week’s entry on the 200 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list is Things Fall Apart by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. We talk about Okonkwo, whose life is destroyed by colonialism’s effects on his community. Even if it sounds heavy, Jay makes a case for its lovability and ranks it on his ongoing list. Chaos Reader also checks in.

Jay and Stacey discuss the iconic, influential novel (novella?) by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. The journey of the plot is also a journey of the soul for the characters and their country, as well as an indictment of colonialism. Chaos Reader also reports for duty.

Jay and Stacey discuss Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, entering the life of the mind of Clarissa Dalloway and her social set in this watershed novel of the early 20th century. Chaos reader talks about her own novel, Mr. Catherine. 

This week's entry on Jay Ruud's 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel, Night Watch, a time-traveling fantasy on a flat planet that considers the nature of power, the repetition of history and the role of the moral individual in relationship to autocratic government. And it's funny! Jay considers how he chose this novel from the pantheon of Pratchett's...

Jay's entry on his 100 Most Lovable Books List this week is one of Stacey's most loved books ever. Join them for their discussion of 1870s New York and its moneyed high society as Wharton's Newland Archer navigates his own conflicting desires for social convention or social rebellion. And chaos reader picks up another favorite reread as well.