how to win the lottery: a book club podcast

the second book in our second great american novel module is the demon by hubert selby, jr. does it pair well with the sound and the fury? that’s what we’re discussing. first, though, we check in with shreds to see if this is the novel that he remembered reading, what his history with it is, and what it inspired him to want to do. we talk about the book’s punctuation and hubert selby jr.’s sort of...

our second great american novel module kicks off with the sound and the fury by william faulkner. joey explains his difficulties with parsing the text and how he approached it, while shreds talks about the character he identifies with. we explore a time when authors were less afraid to reckon with big ideas — as well as the authors still doing it now. we also ask, with regards to the text’s experi...

we’re back to find out what will be in store in our next great american novel module. also, we wonder: could we run out? does shreds enjoy reading? after a refresher on how this works (and teasing future great american novel modules), we discuss whether or not this is what the podcast “should” be, and if these mini-modules are the purest version of what we do. then, we roll the die, which yields a...

after covering her work for the past several episodes, we talked to danielle chelosky. we asked about fiction vs. nonfiction (specifically with regard to the right way to read her work), nonfiction being treated by reviewers as gossip, and how danielle attempts to capture the feeling of specific moments without seeming cringe. she talks about how she chooses which form her writing will take, her t...

it’s another double dip of danielle chelosky’s writing this episode, as we cover baby bruise and female loneliness epidemic. after lamenting what twitter has become (and what we lost), we talk about the title of chelosky’s short story collection, how frank o’hara’s meditations in an emergency relates to the work, and how we continue to approach her work as though it’s not auto-fiction. we talk abo...

our danielle chelosky module continues with pregaming grief, her first published piece of long-form writing. we talk about its ties to cheat, whether it could (canonically) be in the gossip girl universe, and how auto-fiction relates to this novel, her work as a whole, and the wider literature. we explore pregaming grief as a covid-era novel, albeit not a book about the disease itself, as well as...

our danielle chelosky module kicks off with a pair of chapbooks that she self-published: cheat and show me your face. (it’s our first-ever “two books in one podcast” episode, and we do our best to keep ’em separated.) we talk about how both titles are very sexual and sexualized, but almost devoid of joy and not at all sexy, by design. we explore the similar content told in two very different style...

we’ve done it. we’ve closed the big account, ghostbusters-style, and landed another author focus module. this time, we’re talking about the work of danielle chelosky. we discuss other authors whom we’ve spoken with who have praised her work and what we believe we can expect from her work. shreds describes how we will put together questions for her to answer. reading list for season fifteen cheat a...

we’re closing out our ohio module with ohio by stephen markley, who honored us by naming this book after our module. we talk about the impact of the title and writing about where you’re from, how the deluge serves as somewhat of a retroactive pre-read for this book, and how markley is one of the best social realist authors of our time. we talk about what the end suggests and why it “must” end this...

our ohio module continues with outside in by doug cooper and some “ohio facts” (island facts?) about the town of put-in-bay. after learning about island culture in ohio — we want to go so bad — we talk about an inciting incident that the novel does not reflect on at all, how shep shows no signs of darkness at all (and no flaws), and our issues with dialogue and the female characters in the novel....

our ohio module keeps on truckin’ with both a pop quiz about the state and a discussion of omensetter’s luck by william gass. we talk about the difficulty in reading the novel (and how the first two sections sort of fake you out a bit), what william gass is “doing” in this text, and why regional writing tends to be set back in time. shreds explains why the novel made him feel unbearably sad and ho...

our ohio module kicks off with a known quantity: the undeniably great debut novel from toni morrison, the bluest eye. after briefly reflecting on the states so far, we talk about famous people from ohio as well as whether the bluest eye feels specific to ohio. we talk about its thematic ties to ryan coogler’s sinners, as well as the text’s generational trauma and its characters who can afford to b...

it’s time for another card drawing on lottery pod, and even though we don’t say it in this episode: suck shit, sufjan stevens. after we struggle to remember which states we’ve already covered, we make picks and predictions for both the states that we’re most excited about and the states we think will come up in the drawing. (spoiler: shreds is almost right.) we figure out what we’re reading. shred...

we’re closing out our second-person module with one of our strongest books yet: open water by caleb azumah nelson. after talking about the pitt (and the mount rushmore of tv), we talk about the lack of irony in open water and the way its naturalistic style makes you forget it’s written in second-person. we talk about the way nelson writes about media (and how it feels like a barry jenkins movie),...

our penultimate book in the “you” module is a man asleep by georges perec, which is a return to form as it’s once again french as hell. we talk about how it compares to suicide by édouard levé and the malady of death by marguerite duras, as well as the refreshing nature of variation in the module. shreds talks about the other short story in the collection (things) and the act of lucid dreaming. we...

our “you” module is winding down, so it feels like the perfect time to cover a book that shouldn’t be in the module at all: the night circus by erin morgenstern. first, though, we talk about the film magazine dreams (with heavy spoilers): what makes it a mess, what went wrong, and how shreds would have ended the movie. then, we pivot to the night circus to discuss our issues with the text on its o...

shreds continues to physically fall apart on our latest episode as we talk about the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida. joey rejoices as we finally hit a book this module that he loves, and we wonder if there’s a module we can built around the central element in this novel that he loves. we talk about how young and modern this novel feels, its connection to the last book we covered, and ho...

our episode about how like a god by rex stout starts with joey immediately killing one of shreds’ bits, setting a vibe. after talking about dave “storyteller” grohl, we talk a lot about shakespeare (including whether hamlet is required reading) before shreds gives this podcast our “ian mckellen on wtf” moment. we talk about how this feels like a philip roth novel, the dislikeable protagonist (ampl...

the malady of death by marguerite duras is likely the shortest text we’ve covered on the main feed so far. like suicide last week, it’s also european as all hell. after celebrating the 100th book covered on our show, which we missed, we pivot into the malady of death. horny module alert! we explore the mystery behind this book’s publication, try to determine how much wine could we drink, and expre...

the next book in our second-person module is suicide by édouard levé, which kicks off a mini-module of shorter writing that is also european as hell. after discussing a gem of a film we discovered on the criterion channel, we talk about suicide‘s up-ending afterward and the manipulation found within the text. we discuss suicide as the defining moment in anyone’s life who dies that way and why it’s...

welcome back to the penn badgley module. today’s episode is the most “normal” book we’ve read in a while: bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney. we talk about the novel’s deadpan humor, whether it feels tied to the 1980s, and how the main character ends the book while still sort of spiraling. we explore the current irony of a plot about fact-checking and computers making life easier, the arc to...

our next second-person novel is if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino, which features an all-time great first chapter. before we talk about the novel, though, we simply must talk about the season 5 trailer for “you.” we then talk about incarnations of the text’s “gimmick” in other mediums, whether this is a “horny book for dudes,” and how long a postmodern text can exist before its sc...

it’s time for another season of lottery pod, and today’s theme reveal is news to everyone, including joey. (well, not everyone. shreds knows. he made it.) we discuss the theme as structure (rather than content), the inspiration for this theme, and the only book most people know that fit this theme. we talk about our goal of aiming for something less depressing, shreds teases modules that he create...

after covering four of his novels — 300,000,000, aannex, void corporation, and uxa.gov — we talk to blake butler about his work. note: there are spoilers in this conversation (at least as much as you can spoil blake’s work.) we ask him about what he focuses on when he reads, his double book launch, and whether his nonfiction writing helps inform his fiction writing. we learn how miles davis inspir...

the final book in our blake butler module is uxa.gov, which may be his hardest-to-understand book we’ve covered. we talk about why we thought it would be more approachable, as well as why we should know better by now. we discuss the premise and whether it feels or reads like a film being described, the importance of font choice in the printing, and the value of the violence that blake creates in h...