Overdue

When a book's plot and characters don't break a ton of ground in and of themselves, you're left hoping that the writing and the perspective will be enough to make a book interesting—luckily for us, Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation is insightful and entertaining despite its narrow scope and well-trod material. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/o...

Bring on the battalion of Dad Books! Cornwell started writing the Richard Sharpe novels because he wanted something like Horatio Hornblower on land. Well, we haven't read any Hornblower yet but we can attest that this book sure is about a British rifleman fighting in the army during the Napoleonic Wars! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listene...

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! We're working our way through Neil Gaiman's signature graphic novel series THE SANDMAN. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In Episode 5: A GAME OF YOU, the story is about Barbie, her fantastical dreams, Barbie's friend Wanda, their neighbors Hazel and Foxglove, a vengeful wit...

Imagine a version of the spaceship from Wall-E, but with racial and class divisions that mirror those in our own society. That's a (dramatically oversimplified) one-line summary of what's going on in this week's book. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangi...

It's episode 600, baybee!!! To celebrate, we're embarking on a voyage through Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, some middle-grade fantasy-but-in-the-real-world fiction that passed us by when it came out in 2005. We'll be reading the first five books in the series, starting with The Lightning Thief. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See Privac...

We're talking Mondays. We're talking lasagna. We're talking annoying dogs and bumbling owners. We're talking Lyman -- wait what? Join us as we dive into the Garfield deep lore (and learn to make a Garf of our very own). Want to join the chat for future Bonus Episodes? Head to patreon.com/overduepod Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? If you're a wizard of Earthsea, you can make it smell however you want if you know it's TRUE name. LeGuin's beloved fantasy novel is notable for how it plays both against and into common fantasy tropes, delivering a proper hero's journey without the same Sturm und Drang we've come to expect in the genre. ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us for our 600th episode rec...

We've covered vaguely spiritual self-help books before on the show, but The Alchemist is unique insofar as it attempts to wrap the broad platitudes of a The Secret up in a there-and-back-again adventure story. Please listen, as long as it fits with your Personal Legend.  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Pr...

Our Patron's Choice Poll for June had a theme: Junebugs! And this novel by Weiss about a roach colony attempting to assert control over the apartment in which they live is uhh...well it won the poll. So Craig read it. And now he's going to talk about it. Caveat lictor: this book is a strange one (also it's got more explicit sexual content than you might expect!) This episode is sponsored by Better...

It's summer, and we all need water to live, two things that make Sarah Moss's Summerwater feel timely this week. One other thing the book reflects is the Simmering Anxiety of Our Times!  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://ar...

Meet Gulliver, a traveling English surgeon. First he's big, then he's small. Next he's wise, then he's a Yahoo! To wit, Swift's seminal satire is realer, grosser, and really grosser than either of us knew. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertis...

This week’s book tackles aging and writing and the author’s determination to write a book about a gay character who is allowed to experience joy. These are all themes that hit us where we live as we trundle into early middle age ourselves. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.co...

Flog the jib and shiver me timbers, it's time to set sail with the first of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels  Master and Commander.  It's equal parts ship jargon, ship action, and shipmen (aka sailors) pondering themes of isolation and authority. Plus, we get to the bottom of who exactly is the master and who is the commander. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Ove...

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! We're working our way through Neil Gaiman's signature graphic novel series THE SANDMAN. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In Episode 3: DREAM COUNTRY, Gaiman needed a bit of a break after the Doll's House arc, and the result was a series of one-shots that contributed bits an...

This week: a non-fiction book that sometimes reads a lot like fiction, The Orchid Thief is only a little about the titular thief and a LOT about Florida and its history and its denizens. Plus, "orchidelirium," the part of the 19th century where the English aristocracy would just go wild for these bad boys. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/list...

Mamma Mia! Let's-a go back to the 1990s and discuss Todd Strasser's novelization of the 1993 film adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. videogame franchise. It all makes about as much sense as the sentence you just read! This episode was recorded with some of our Patreon supporters watching live. Find out how to join us for future episodes at patreon.com/overduepod . Our theme music was composed by...

This novel about a wizarding school and its teen magicians feels like the finale of a series that you've heard about but haven't read. Which is...sort of the point? Born out of an in-universe work of fan fiction from a different Rowell novel, Carry On  provides a great opportunity to dig into what helps a story inspired by another story succeed. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online...

Several People Are Typing was mostly written pre-pandemic but failed to garner publisher interest until a virus locked us all inside our homes with nothing to turn to but our jobs and our friend-Slacks. It manages to perfectly encapsulate what it feels like to use Slack for anything, with a dash of creepypasta for good measure. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue S...

To celebrate this year's Children's Book Week, we decided to discuss the work of children's author and illustrator Sandra Boynton, whose board books we both have and which are well known for their fun illustrations and whimsical poetry. Since they're each pretty short we decided to talk about a bunch of them, including: 1. Doggies 2. Dinosaur Dance! 3. Barnyard Dance! 4. Pajama Time! 5. Blue Hat,...

We're talking about candy for the second week in a row, but this time the candy is literal, and the building is a factory and not a house. Willy Wonka is a mad candy scientist who flouts labor regulations and inflicts misery on children he deems insufficiently deserving. It's a fantabulous, scrumdiddlyumptious romp! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudi...

It only took 500-or-so episodes to revisit the world of Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. We did, of course, have to wait for Egan to write her sequel (sort of) novel. This follow-up to a post-postmodern classic is focused on memories (digital and otherwise) and relationships (virtual and otherwise). It's got "what if the Meta but for everyone's memories" okay?? Our...

This week's book is all about duality: science against magic, love vs. hurt, book about middle school alienation and also near-future climate apocalypse. And also there are birds!  Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.co...

This week, Vanessa Zoltan from the podcasts Harry Potter & the Sacred Text and Hot & Bothered joins us to chat about Sally Rooney, her 2018 novel Normal People, our approaches to reading, and what it felt like when email really  meant something. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self. Our the...

O podcast! O books! O episodes about hard-scrabble immigrants eking out an existence on tough Nebraska land. Cather's work - rich in memorable prose and compelling characters - could stand to be better known, but it still has blind spots common in American frontier fiction. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis . Advertise on Overdue See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See...

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! We're working our way through Neil Gaiman's signature graphic novel series THE SANDMAN. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In Episode 1, we do some table-setting on the series, and Gaiman -- then we dive into the first trade paperback Preludes & Nocturnes, which introduce...