Overdue

Come on into our spooky kitchen and let us cook you up a big steaming bowlful of creepypasta! This week's book began life as a series of Reddit posts that were later Kickstarted into a book self-published on Amazon, which is maybe the most early-2010s sentence that has ever been written. Join us for a lesson in creepy story etymology, and also a lesson in Skinhorse, the inside-out horse. See Priva...

Ever wanted to marry a ghost? Then boy do we have a book for you! Spooktober continues with Yangsze Choo's debut novel about a young woman in late 19th-century Malaya who winds up promised to a spectral groom. It's a fun book that is almost overflowing with hallmarks of different genres. Coming-of-age concerns, supernatural fantasy, historical fiction, romance: it's got a lot going on! But the hea...

We rip our way into Spooktober 2019 with From Hell, a 90s graphic novel from writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell about Jack the Ripper. The book presents one (possible, but unlikely) solution to the mystery, and our research leads us through a lot more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Please, sir, I want some more podcast! Dickens' classic novel about a lovable urchin named Oliver Twist is equal parts social novel, mystery, and bildungsroman -- or so Charlie thought. We dive into what works and doesn't work about its depictions of London in the Industrial Revolution, Oliver's moral compass, and the titular twist. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pr...

Welcome back to HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! We're continuing our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we combine them for general consumption. This episode carries us through the back half of the Inferno, covering Cantos X...

The God of Small Things is about family, and loss, and India, and the caste system, and all of its disparate plot lines and character arcs come together in the end like a Seinfeld episode but with more tragedy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

"What if women ended the Peloponnesian War, am I right?" asks Aristophanes in his classic comedy Lysistrata. Famous for its depiction of a sex strike that brings the warring Greek states to their unsexed knees, the play has been remixed countless times as generations of artists adapt its core conceit to their own times. So we figured we'd go back to the old Prince of Comedy himself to see what all...

It's time to play some games! Craig's sister Jillian read Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games, one of several entries in his Culture series that explores a hegemonic utopia influencing as much of outer space as it can. Banks' ideas gameplay may be primarily analog, but he still manages to represent cultures and worlds with digital creativity. Andrew may be away, but we still find time to joke about...

Join us as we attempt to bring Pullman's epic god-fightin' trilogy to a close! We start with a brief recap of the first two books, and then we dive into what does and doesn't work for Andrew in the final installment. Train your spyglass on the Fall of Man, cut through bear armor with your subtle knife, and follow your golden compass to the origin of Dust. Additional talking points include Andrew's...

Friend of the show Christina Tucker (Unfriendly Black Hotties, PCHH, her new newsletter, etc.) joins us to chat about Jeff VanderMeer's novel Annihilation. It's the first of his Southern Reach trilogy, a Weird Science Fiction romp through a mysterious zone called Area X. We've got our own Area X going, replete with chicken sandwiches, Edward James Olmos, and a fun-loving chat of supporters. See Pr...

This week we welcome Renata and Kait from The Worst Bestsellers to talk about Becky Chambers' first entry in the Wayfarer series: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It's a book that's equal parts cozy AND sexy, with plenty of aliens for you to meet and/or have...stirrings about. Our conversation takes the long way from Star Trek to the Secret, exploring what it's like for folks who usually rea...

The titular Tarzan of the titular Apes is a lot more than "Me Tarzan. You Jane." And Edgar Rice Burroughs is here to tell you all about how and why it's because he's the sire of an English nobleman. Join us for a chat about the lost city of Tarzana, the Ernest filmography, and the invention of stabbing. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19....

Andrew's Appointment Television co-hosts Kathryn VanArendonk and Margaret H. Willison join us for a chat about siblings, rivalry, and this classic of modern parenting lit from Adele Faber and Elain Mazlish. At the time of recording, Andrew's fatherhood was looming on the horizon, so Kathryn kindly shared with us how relevant the book felt to her own parenting experience. And don't worry, Craig and...

It's time to make some more choices! Thanks to a benevolent small business owner, we've been transported back to the time of Arthurian legend and must face the biggest choice of all: food service or secretarial work! Actually, we make plenty of fun choices in Ellen Kushner's CYOA riff on the Knights of the Round Table. So join us for a bunch of boons, magic, and mannerpunk! See Privacy Policy at h...

Philip Pullman followed up The Golden Compass with The Subtle Knife, the adventure of Lyra and Will on their quest to uncover the secret of Dust and (maybe, just maybe) save the world from evil forces within the Church. Like a lot of Second Stories in a Trilogy, the book builds on its predecessor's world by introducing new friends and foes and ending with a cliffhanger that ensures you'll come bac...

Welcome to HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On our newest show-within-a-show, we're reading Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. First you'll hear our introduction to the show (and the translation) a...

The horror, the horror! It's time to talk about colonialism, y'all. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has inspired plenty of stories about a dude diving deep into nature to find another dude, so we figured we'd get to the...heart...of the matter. Listen and learn what exactly the horror, the horror means and why some notable writers want nothing to do with this classic text of 19th-century imperia...

Behind Closed Doors is about a relationship that seems too perfect to be true - except that instead of arguing about the “right” way to load the dishwasher and the way the other person leaves cabinets hanging open all the time, Jack Angel is a full-on sociopath who locks his wife Grace in a windowless basement room and plans to do the same to her younger sister. It’s hampered a bit by dry, straigh...

"What if the Napoleonic Wars but with magic?" is a great elevator pitch for Susanna Clark's sprawling novel, but it only scratches the surface of what Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has to offer. Footnotes, Farnums, and factoids abound in this fun work of historical/alternate fiction. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-n...

CW: This week’s book revolves around sexual assault, which we discuss in the episode. We don’t read the specific passage and we try to be as general as possible, but feel free to skip this one if you’re not up to it. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak is a pitch-perfect account of what it’s like to be Awkward In High School, in ways that are both funny and sad. That a two-decade-old novel still feels s...

This episode, instead of a book we read YOUR questions! Topics range from the five characters you'd meet at an Overdue dinner party to what makes a great diaper. We also have a blast chatting with our livestream audience. As always, thanks to our Patreon supporters for making these bonus episodes possible! Visit patreon.com/overduepod to find out how you can support the show. See Privacy Poli...

Michel Faber's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White has been hailed as a Dickensian novel with a saucy, modern narrator. How exactly does he pull that off in an epic story steeped in the history of Victorian London? And how does he play with our own expectations of the period? Find out in this week's episode! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at ht...

In this week's episode, we talk about the very nature of what makes a superhero (or an anti-hero, or a supervillain) a superhero (or anti-hero, or supervillain), in between talking about our ideal Father's Day and how Harry Potter and the D&D alignment chart informs how people of a certain age think about all fictional characters. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California...

Lorraine Hansberry's classic play A Raisin in the Sun endures for its insightful portrait of a black family in Chicago fighting for a better life. Inspired by her own family's experience with racial housing discrimination, it's a complex piece about who gets to get ahead, how, and why. And of course, we had to balance the gravity of this gem from Hansberry's brief but momentous career with a deep...

Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived In The Castle shares some qualities with her best-known short story The Lottery; both feature small New England towns that are the site of some unfortunate mob action. Join us for a conversation about non-supernatural creepiness, unreliable narrators, and early flights. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://a...