Overdue

The secret Union organization Elle Burns spies for swears by the four Ls: Loyalty. Legacy. Life. Lincoln. But what about…Love? Enter Malcolm MacCall, a brash but lovable Scot posing as a Confederate soldier. And the rest, as they say, is historical fiction. Also it’s a pretty successful romance novel! Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram &nbsp...

We've all heard this story before—giant fish man escapes secret laboratory, giant fish man takes up with unfulfilled housewife, fish man and housewife have deeply meaningful affair, lots of people die. Tale as old as time! Suffice it to say the characters in Mrs. Caliban have a very different reaction to a giant fish than the characters in Jaws. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online...

The first blockbuster movie started with a blockbuster book about a fish busting up blocks in a small seaside town. Anyone familiar with Steven Spielberg's movie will recognize the basic plot of Benchley's original novel Jaws -- there's just a lot more chum in the water. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

You know how sometimes you just want to bro out with your cool hot dad? How sometimes you just need to concoct a scheme where you encourage your casual boyfriend and your dad's casual ex-girlfriend to pretend to be in a relationship together, so that your dad gets jealous, so that he leaves his current more-serious girlfriend, who is really harshing your buzz by asking you to be introspective and...

He is Franz Kafka! Franz Kafka! He wrote The Trial. It’s a book about byzantine bureaucracy bearing down on lil old Josef K. Less of it takes place in a courtroom than you’d think. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on&nbsp...

We have convened a club whose charter is to learn about The Baby-Sitters Club. Join us as we met the Club's founding members and learn about Kristy's mortal enemy: her mom's new boyfriend. These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod. Here's the full  Sit Me Baby On...

Gay anti-fascist librarians roam a speculative future version of the western United States in this week's novella. It's pretty close to as cool as it sounds, though the book will probably leave you wanting more in the end. 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 compose...

For this new show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew will be learning about the world of Middle-Earth! We're going to read J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. In this episode, you'll hear us discuss the creation of this epic fantasy, including the work done Christopher Tolkien to wrestle his father's work into a form fit for publication. This is a preview of a series...

The late Edmund White’s breakthrough 1982 novel is the first in a trilogy of autobiographical novels that depict key eras in his life as a gay man. A Boy’s Own Story is, as you might expect, about a boy - a boy whose longing for the men in his life leads to powerful (though perhaps not entirely positive) self-understanding. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/over...

Good grief! It's time to talk about Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy - the whole gang. To give ourselves a solid cross-section of Charles Schulz's work on Peanuts, we read Volume 1 (1950-52) and Volume 10 (1969-70) of the Complete Peanuts collection. So we're able to track the evolution of Charlie Brown's pumpkin noggin, as well as Snoopy's ability to walk, think, and dance. We get our laughs! O...

We’re joined by Sammy and Emily of the TOO SCARY, DIDN’T WATCH horror movie podcast this week to talk about Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. None of us had an amazing time with this read, partly because the book seems to revel in its extreme violence and misogyny. But be sure to tune in to TSDW later this week to hear what we all thought about the Christian Bale-led movie adaptation! For more f...

Leslie Feinberg’s debut novel is an intersectional bildungsroman about Jess Goldberg, a butch lesbian navigating the constellation of oppression that was the United States in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. It’s an overtly political novel, and it argues that a certain level of bleak hope may be necessary for survival. This cold comfort is balanced, however, with Feinberg’s tender depictions of chosen famil...

James isn't so much a retelling or corrective of Huck Finn as it is an expansion, a conversation with, a delving -- or so says Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett. Tune in to find out what happens when an authors read Huck Finn 15 times and then starts putting pen to paper. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  betterhelp.com/overdue  and get on your w...

A dying preacher writes a (rather) long letter to his son. Another dying preacher’s son returns home, seeking…something. Salvation? Forgiveness? A balm? Robinson’s novel is a deeply considered portrait of a family of ministers, wrestling with the powers and limitations of their faith and fatherhood. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your...

This is another one of those historical books that could have resulted from a Wikipedia dive, this one's arguably based on a real historical event but with a non-real non-historical protagonist . Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priv...

Did you know the towering career of Joan Didion included several novels, many of which were driven by the same acerbic wit and insight that helped to anoint her as an essential voice in the New Journalism movement? Her second novel, Play It As It Lays , traffics in much of the same Hollywood/Los Angeles social destruction that powered her essays, but instead focuses in on the maddening, maddened M...

Booth Tarkington is one of only four authors to have won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, and he’s the only one of those four authors who nobody has ever heard of. His aggressively old-fashioned views and his stories’ general fluffiness have helped keep him from enduring fame, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a spark of something here. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online thera...

Everyone get into two lines, break your bread, brush your teeth, get into bed, and listen to our episode about Ludwig Bemelmans’ original series of Madeline stories. We talk about the art’s blend of sketchy and beautiful, the rise of Pepito, and the voice acting in 90s educational CD-ROM games. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your firs...

We have to go back. Back to FORKS! To celebrate 700 episodes of our show, we decided to celebrate the tenth anniversary of a companion novel celebrating the tenth anniversary of Twilight. Meet Beaufort and Edythe, who very much resemble Bella and Edward, and the rest of the genderswapped cast who inhabit this novel that is definitely not all different from the original novel at all, no way. ...

This collection of short stories runs the gamut from biblical fiction to sci-fi mockumentary to "short story that inspired a very successful film named Arrival." Recurring themes include Creation, Thought, and Perception. Pretty heavy stuff! But Chiang tackles it all with creativity and flair. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first...

Have podcast, will (time) travel! This is the time travel book-slash-romance novel you write when you’re enamored with a hot old-timey boat guy and his doomed Arctic exploration. It’s got a whole lot going on, for better or worse!   Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy a...

This is a podcast, recorded by two nincompoops, full of the novel The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, signifying...something? a recording in which we discuss the Modernism the italics the three sons the Mother the golf course the South and is Craig sick who knows this consciousness won't stream itself you know This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue &n...

The Hunger Games are back, and so are we! Remember Haymitch Abernathy, the occasionally sympathetic drunk from the original Hunger Games trilogy? Well, here he is as a young man, being ground into dust by his authoritarian government and its media apparatus. Collins really wants to make sure that you Get It This Time. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on&nbsp...

We're up on the International Space Station this week, floating around with our coworkers/friends, looking at the earth as it speeds by multiple times a day. We're not really "doing" anything in like, a "narrative" sense. But it's a vibe, man. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @overduepod on  Instagram  and  Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Policy...

GREETINGS LISTENER. HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY? IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE BOOK SUPERCOMPUTER BY EDWARD PACKARD? Sometimes people make mistak. YES THEY DO. SHALL WE PLAY A GAME(BOOK)? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to  squarespace.com/overdue  for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was composed by  Nick Lerangis . Follow @...