The Bookening

Click here to make sure Jake and Brandon's kids don't starve! WARNING: This episode contains frank talk about some of the gross sexual stuff from the book. It's nothing makes us think we need to mark this episode as "adult" or anything, but it may not be the best one to listen to with your kids in the car. Anyhow, trouble was a-brewin' on last week's episode, as some of our heroes like Ernest Clin...

Click here to make sure Jake and Brandon's kids don't starve! THIS WILL NOT, WE REPEAT, THIS WILL NOT BE A REPEAT OF WRINKLE IN TIME , EVEN THOUGH IT SOUNDS LIKE IT MIGHT BE EARLY ON. SOME OF US MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE ACTUALLY LIKED THIS BOOK. Our heroes discuss Ready Player One , a book that may or may not end up being the impetus for one of the bigger disagreements in Bookening history. They also d...

It's another episode of The Lookening! Happy Ides of March Eve! (Assuming you're listening to this on the day it comes out). In this episode our heroes nobly and humbly undertake a task that made sense when they decided to do it. And that task is to review A Wrinkle in Time . Not the book. They already reviewed that. Just last episode. No, they're reviewing the movie. They love you and work hard f...

Support our heroes here! Our heroes review Madeleine L'Engle's beloved (by some) fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time . They'll do the movie next week. Strangely enough, this is the second novel our heroes have discussed that was published in 1962 and features temptation, supernatural evil, emasculated fathers, coming of age, and love conquering all. The other one was Something Wicked This Way Comes an...

If Pride and Prejudice is a book that every young person who is dating should read, Mansfield Park is a book that every parent should read. It's full of wisdom, yo! So is this episode, thanks to the efforts of our heroes! Here are the things that happen: 00:00 Music, our heroes introduce themselves, etc. 02:18 Donor Shout-Outs 06:58 Mansfield Park is a book for parents 08:46 Manners vs. morals 11:...

In this special bonus clip that we're posting today for some reason, The Mysterious Phantom and Virginia Woolf attempt to discredit Jane Austen's greatness. Fortunately Jake and Brandon are having none of it! Support this amazing podcast here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sign up here to support our heroes! Mansfield Park is a thorny novel. It plays with the form in challenging ways. It takes some discernment to read it properly. Today our heroes talk about these challenges, as well as the question of why Henry and Mary suck. Because they do suck, dear listener. Here are some things our heroes discuss in this amazing episode: 00:00 Our heroes are awesome 06:21 Dono...

Sign up to support our podcast here! Happy Valentine's Day, Bookeners! Fanny Price is not a popular heroine. She's weak, passive, and afraid for most of the novel. She achieves her victory through something almost like diffidence. And yet, our heroes at The Bookening unreservedly love her. They think she's kinda great. In today's episode, they attempt to convince you of the same thing. Also we dec...

Support us here on Patreon! FANNY FOREVER! This is an episode of the greatest literature podcast ever on the subject of Mansfield Park by the one and only Jane Austen. This first episode includes the following things: 00:00 Nathan says something silly while the music starts to play 00:43 The music stops playing and our heroes talk of many interesting things 08:32 Donor Shout-outs!!!!!!!!! 14:02 Co...

Support The Bookening here! What's this??? An episode of The Lookening!!!! Aka our heroes are reviewing a movie. What is said movie you ask? It's Shadowlands. According to our pals at Wikipedia , " Shadowlands is a 1993 British biographical drama film about the relationship between Irish academic C. S. Lewis and American poet Joy Davidman, her death from cancer, and how this challenged Lewis's Chr...

Our heroes continue their epic journey through all the books they read in 2017. They award prizes for the best line, best setting, worst book, best book and more! Nathan makes it sound like next week is Mansfield Park but that is actually the first week of February. Next week is somethin' special. Enable Brandon's gambling addiction by supporting us on Patreon here! ★ Support this podcast on Patre...

Support us on Patreon! Our heroes are looking back on all the books they read in 2017 and awarding the coveted Bookening awards of excellence in such categories as: Coolest male character Coolest female charcter Worst female villain Worst male villain Most evocative image. ... And more! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Our heroes continue to discuss Til We Have Faces, and decide that the ending freaks them out. Here's some things that happen: 1:15 Donor Shout-outs 3:24 Our heroes introduce themselves 6:09 Our heroes discuss Master and Commander for some reason 8:36 Our heroes discuss terrible children's movies, specifically Shrek, for some reason 10:20 Our heroes are still bitter about Winnie the Pooh 10:46 We a...

Our heroes dig into the semi-wonderful, but also kinda icky story of CS Lewis , and his final novel Till We Have Faces . Things that happen in this episode: 00:36 Our heroes are awesome 05:40 Donor Shout-outs 11:12 Contextual Texan 14:33 Biography 17:05 The Irish Influence 19:38 Childhood 22:10 Weird Unmentionable Things About Lewis's Past 26:26 WAR! 27:25 Back to Oxford 30:59 Til We Have Faces 32...

This episode requires a bit of explanation. What happened was that our heroes gathered together to record their 2017 year-in-review. But, as you'll hear, one thing led to another, and before they knew it, they had recorded an episode on Star Wars, and why this new movie (with its abandonment of the traditional Star-Warsian mythological underpinning) is probably a death knell for the franchise. We...

Drumroll ... our heroes reveal the complete book list and talk about what to expect on The Bookening Season 3 for 2018. Full list here! Support us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Our heroes continue to discuss Dubliners by James Joyce, which they didn't care for, plus "Araby" and "The Dead" which they did. Sorry for the weirdness with Brandon's microphone 1/3 of the way in. That was a thing that happened. Support us here! 00:00 Short introduction thing 00:45 Somebody from something else is here 04:52 Donor Shout Outs 08:12 Epiphanies, or Lack Thereof 17:55 Realism, or Lack...

Apologies, we were going to do our 2018 booklist this week, but for boring behind-the-scenes reasons it ended up making more sense to do Dubliners first. However, if you want to get reading for 2018, we're doing CS Lewis's Til We Have Faces in January and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen in February. Throw us a couple bucks on Patreon! THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THIS EPISODE: 00:45 Our heroes are awesome!...

Our heroes are joined by old pal Dani McNeilly to have some fun and give their thoughts on the Kenneth Branagh movie of Murder on the Orient Express . The actual film discussion starts around the 19:00 mark, but our heroes discuss lots of VERY important things before that, and give an actual up-to-date list of donor shout-outs. If you want to check out the world's only competing Christian podcast...

We're taking this week off to be with our families and all that sort of crap, but here's twenty minutes of our heroes attempting to make the announcement that we're taking this week off to be with our families and all that sort of crap. Enjoy! And happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for all our awesome listeners! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This episode is a second episode about Martin Dressler. Things that happen include: 00:00=EVERYTHING IS AWESOME 2:45=DONOR SHOUT OUTS 4:44=MARTIN DRESSLER AS A DUDE 9:45=ART AND THE AMERICAN DREAM AND STEVE JOBS AND WALT DISNEY 25:30=WHAT ON EARTH WAS MILLHAUSER DOING WITH THIS NOVEL? 30:16=THE WOMEN IN THE NOVEL 40:49=IN WHICH OUR HEROES ADDRESS THE CONCERNS OF ANDREW HENRY, WHO THINKS MILLHAUSER...

IT'S WHAT EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR THE WHOLE YEAR, OUR DISCUSSION OF MARTIN DRESSLER BY STEVEN MILLHAUSER, WAHOOOOOOO!!!! That's right, our heroes are talking Steven Millhauser, that poet of the uncanny creeping at the edges of the mundane (he' s not actually a poet). This is one of Nathan's favorite books we read this year ... BUT SHOULD IT BE???????? Over the next couple weeks, our heroes i...

Our heroes and friend Andrew conclude their epic discussion of the one and only Ray Bradbury ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this episode our heroes discuss the short stories of Ray Bradbury with their pal Andrew Henry. Andrew has 10890591805098 good insights on Ray Bradbury (example: Bradbury was really good at describing smells) and 150815180 good insights on fiction and writing in general. So, if you do the math, what that means is: whether you like Ray Bradbury or don't like Ray Bradbury, this is a good episode f...

Things that happen in this episode: Halloween puns! (00:00) The depiction of EVIL (06:00). Daddy issues. (28:00). Fun fact: per some random article by the Imaginative Conservative, SWTWC touches on the following (from a list of the 102 Great Ideas that Mortimer Adler says a great novel can touch upon): Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Courage, Custom and Convention, Desire, Duty, Emo...