Save Me From My Shelf

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-eighth episode, we once again cross the Atlantic for Harper Lee's 1960 novel of racial injustice, To Kill A Mockingbird . We get some long-overdue Cornish slander, delve into the American legalistic mindset, and mutter a lot about grits and yams. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode Theme: Daniel Jenkin-Smit...

The eighth episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Through the Looking Glass episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In the second part of our fifty-seventh episode, we recap Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass (1871) and discuss rare spatial reasoning issues, Abby's peasant background (which includes tunnel-corn), famous egg-men, and if a single move in chess is measured in speed or mobility. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode...

The seventh episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Alice's Adventures in Wonderland episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In the first part of our fifty-seventh episode, we regress to childhood and look at Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). We examine Lewis Carroll's sexual vs. artistic motives, take our first dive into nonsense literature, and celebrate confectionary, being mean to children, and Alice's criminal escalations. Cover...

The sixth episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Midsummer Night's Dream episode. You can hear us on an episode of Carl Sweeney's The Movie Palace here, in the last...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-sixth episode, we celebrate midsummer with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1605). We make a lot of (obvious) jokes about asses, Amazon, and fairy kink (despite not reading THE fairy kink book). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode Theme: Felix Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night's Dream 'Op 61' Hosted on...

The fifth episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Grapes of Wrath episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-fifth episode, we recap John Steinbeck's 1939 Dust Bowl adventure, Biblical allegory, and socialist manifesto, The Grapes of Wrath . It's all pigs, sex, and pooping (a shocking amount of pooping). We discover the show's second mono-butt-cheeked character, Abby develops a backup plan for a life of crime, a...

The forth episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Time Machine episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our last episode, we went into the past. Now, in our fifty-fourth episode, we go way, way into the future with H.G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895). We workshop Save Me From My Shelf: On Ice! , turn into feral, biting Morlocks, and wonder what the hell is going on with time travel romances, both generally and in th...

The third episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Ivanhoe episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-third episode, we cover the first proper Historical Novel™, Sir Walter Scott's extremely boring, Ren Faire-style medieval romp, Ivanhoe (1819). In this episode, Abby gets ghosted by her best friend and medieval scholar, Justine. Scott talks about nothing but clothing, pork, and boobs, and Daniel enjoys (?...

The second episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Rebecca episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-second episode, Valentine's Day Special, AND Ash Wednesday spectacular, we look at Daphne Du Maurier's Cornish Gothic romance-tragedy-thriller, which is also a courtroom drama, police procedural, ghost story, and psychosexual horror. Daniel sings Edith Piaf, Abby references Nick at Nite shows, and we have...

Abby and Daniel launch their first episode of SMFMS Bookends , the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf . Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Scarlet Letter episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our Season 5 opener and fifty-first episode, we return to Puritanical, repressed New England with Nathaniel Hawthorne's experimental, philosophical musing about adultery, guilt, religion, and haute couture, The Scarlet Letter (1850). Daniel debuts some strange accents and discusses his previous theatrical career. W...

In Save Me From My Shelf 's end-of-year wrap up for 2023, Abby and Daniel read listener letters, respond to audience questions, correct any Season 4 mistakes, and have a general retrospective on the past year on the podcast. Abby also reveals her tradition of Dark Christmas, Daniel is an unprepared boring bastard, and wee Donalbain makes a guest appearance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fiftieth episode and (anti-)Christmas special, we go into John Milton's Puritanical vision of the Fall of Man, Paradise Lost (1667) ... where Milton may just be of Satan's party. It's a world where God is both a mall security guard and the leader of a sex cult, and neither role explains his mysterious ways. Dan...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-ninth episode, we cover Edith Wharton's wintry New England romantic tragedy, Ethan Frome (1911). Abby goes to therapy live on the show, while Daniel obsesses over pickles and learns all about New England traditions (how maple syrup is made, sugar on snow, apple cider doughnuts). The hosts also both reveal...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-eighth episode, we tell the tale of ambition, revenge, murder, Irn-Bru, bad accents, respeck, balls, breastmilk, and other people's awesome tweets in William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (1606). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode Themes: 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' (Wikimedia Commons); 'Moorland' (Kevin MacLeod...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In the second part of our forty-seventh episode, we continue our recap of the short works of Edgar Allan Poe (1830s-40s): 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Cask of Amontillado', 'The Black Cat', and 'The Raven'. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode Theme: Camille Saint-Saëns, 'Danse Macabre' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-seven and big Halloween episode, we host our first anthology: the short works of Edgar Allan Poe (1830s-40s). In the first half of this anthology, we cover 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Fall of the House of Usher', and 'The Masque of the Red Death'. We also hear a lot about our hosts' Halloween costumes, lo...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-sixth episode--Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives (1972)--we move to the suburbs, eat a lot of Lobster Newburg, and watch nothing but Air Bud. Daniel also reveals his secret feminist tattoo, Abby puts out a dating advert, and we get a quick look-in from a legendary feminist: Grendel's Mother. Cover art © Cath...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-fifth episode, we delve into a world of cartoon references, James Bond-level panty dropping, questions for the BDSM community, and beards. Too many beards. It's Franz Kafka's 1925 paranoid, sadomasochistic dystopia, The Trial ! Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode Theme: Alban Berg, '4 Stucke, Op. 5', perfor...