You Don’t Know Lit

In honor of Ian and Joe being on vacation, here's a rerun of the YDKL classic covering America's most popular genre: Big City books. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952) vs Native Son by Richard Wright (1940).

Blood of Victory by Alan Furst (2022) vs The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (1963).

Mrs. Doubtfire bookspired by Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine (1987) vs The French Dispatch bookspired by An Editor’s Burial: Journals and Journalism from the New Yorker and Other Magazines by Wes Anderson (2021).

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000) vs The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown (2013)

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie (1993) vs The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich (2005).

Hey, hey, hey it's part two of rewrites! On Beauty by Zadie Smith (2005) loosely based on Howards End by E.M. Forster (1910).

Got book? This week you get two, kinda. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966), a companion novel for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847).

Keeping this description little. Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang vs The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943).

Two Litheads enter literary Thunderdome, two Litheads leave Thunderdome richer for having participated. This week, two recommendations face-off: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013) vs Kiss the Girls by James Patterson (1995).

This week, two owls explain Taoism to a rabbit. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (1982) vs The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974).

Today we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Newberry Award AKA that weird bronze seal on some of those books you read in middle school. The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg (1996) vs A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (2000).

Controversial Flannery O'Connor has entered the chat. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor (1953) vs Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor (1962).

We're honored to have Michael Branch join us to discuss his most recent book On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World's Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer (2022).

It's a cold drop, like Beyonce would do. Too Many Butlers: Chapter One

Fives Guys. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980) vs Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976).

Who says a series has to be complete before you can discuss how good it is? Not us. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007) vs The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (2011).

If you're like us, you've heard a lot about Ukraine but don't really know anything about Ukraine. So here's two (asterisk) books about Ukraine: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen (2012) vs Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (1996).

This week, we briefly cover the universe. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2003).

Pew, pew, pew. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985) vs Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985).

Sorry for the late episode! Enjoy this abbreviated cop-out episode: No Friend But the Mountainsn by Behrouz Boochani (2018).

Bark, boats, Bildungsroman. Our 50-part state series continues with Maine. The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee (1975) vs The Cider House Rules by John Irving (1985).

Endless regret, Wilhelm screams, and Ian quits. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020) Vs. The Lincoln Highway: A Novel by Amor Towles (2021).

We're kicking off this 50-part series about states with the best state and that state without question is Florida. Oranges by John McPhee (1967) vs To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway (1937).

Washington V Lincoln. FINALLY. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017) Vs Finding George Washington: A Time Travel Tale by Bill Zarchy (2020)