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 introduces Dream and his whole deal over the first 8 issues.

In Episode 2, we dig into the second book The Doll's House (which actually came out first). Dream is on the hunt to track down some rogue underlings, and a woman named Rose learns a lot about her family. Also there's a Cereal Convention!

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Heidi, Heidi, Heidi! Everyone's talking about this adorable ragamuffin, a precocious child who lights up every life she touches like a ray of God's perfect sunshine. This week we learn that living in a hut in the Swiss Alps is better than living in a city, and that if you roast a piece of cheese just right it sounds like the best food you could ever eat. 

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.

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WE FIND OURSELVES SHOOK BY THIS ROLLICKING RATTLING RIDE ALONG THE RAILS OF THE GHOST TRAIN.

This bonus episode was part of our Do Overdue 10th Anniversary Spectacular, in which we revisited books from earlier in the run of our show. It was also recorded with a live Patreon supporter audience online. 

Find out how to join us for future bonus episodes at patreon.com/overduepod. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We finally read a play by Volunteer State Williams! Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a rumination on a family falling apart in the South. It's also an interesting example of how revisions and rewrites can shape a story's legacy.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This is a twist on a time travel story where the relationship between two enemies-turned-frenemies-turned-lovers takes center stage, leaving the actual mechanics of the time travel and all the world-building mostly unexplained. The dual authorship—each author wrote the chapters for one of the two characters—adds another interesting wrinkle.

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.

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For our fourth Do Overdue episode, we revisit our first trip to Austenland and Jane Austen's final novel, a book Craig liked but didn't fully grok ten years ago.

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For our third Do Overdue episode, we return to a book that Andrew wanted to like more than he did, Donna Tartt's debut novel about murder at a small-town college. It went better the second time, thankfully! 

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.

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The graveyard shift in this haunted not-IKEA proves rather spooky! This bonus episode was recorded live with an audience of our Patreon supporters. Find out how to join us for future bonus recordings at patreon.com/overduepod

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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To celebrate ten (10) years (!!) of Overdue, this month we'll be re-doing some episodes based on books we read way back in the show's early years. This week we revisit our first-ever episode, talking about men, isolation, and tragic best friends who triumph against the odds.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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In honor of our 10th (!) podcasting anniversary, this month we'll be re-doing some episodes based on books we read way back in the show's early years. This week we revisit our second-ever episode, talking about love, cholera, and the time when both of those things could happen simultaneously.

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.

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Secret societies, extraterrestrial cultures, VR games, HARD SCIENCE- Liu Cixin's award-winning novel has it all. It's also set against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution, grounding the story not only in science but in history as well.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Super-dense fantasy isn't everyone's cup of tea, and even people who enjoy that kind of tea can sometimes find individual cups of tea that aren't to their taste. Still, any book with lion and bird people in it can't be all bad.

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.

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Enjoy a bonus episode of our spookiest show-within-a-show yet! We read a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, and then we realized there was a movie!

This episode was originally released in November 2022. Some Patreon supporters get longread episodes monthly, but every two months we release them for general consumption.

And our next longread project is SAND BY ME, a reading of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Natty Bumppo is here to guide you through the wilderness of a Canonical White Guy's famous adventure tale. Maybe he can help us track down why it became the template for some less-than-helpful stereotypes based on dubious historical records. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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You've got more Qs and we've got more As! This time around we talk more about our reading habits and our day jobs, our personal achievements in 2022, and the ASMR podcast that could have been.

For more information on our bonus episodes, visit patreon.com/overduepod.

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Are you a spy? If you are, you have to tell us. Are you a 6th grader? Well then, tell us if you identify with Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet, a girl with a keen but (perhaps overly) righteous eye just trying to get through adolescence.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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.

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If you like Jane Eyre but you eye Mr. Rochester and his marital history with some skepticism, Wide Sargasso Sea is an entry in the field of “critically acclaimed fanfic” that might speak to you.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Happy Hornydays everyone! We're back with another celebration of the winter solstice and the corresponding need to cuddle up with someone to keep warm. Come with us to a Christmas village where a Christmas cop hooks up with a Christmas cop-out.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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.

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The "cold" in this classic spy novel is a metaphor, but it's still a chilling book for a chilly season! If you like double-, triple-, and possible quadruple-crossings and hate happy endings, this is a book that you'll want to bring in from the cold. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Look out the window. Do you see a love triangle? Characters that embody turn-of-the-century tensions? Or do you see a boring courtyard? Best ask for a new room, perhaps one with a view.

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The year may be ending, but some things are just beginning! Time for a few announcements that won't fit into a regular episode.

In this special edition podcast update, we drop the details on our next longread project SAND BY ME, remind you that we have a Q&A Bonus Episode coming up on 12/22, tease some plans for January and February, and thank you for listening this year!

For more info on the Patreon and how to get bonus episodes early, head to patreon.com/overduepod

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Not many authors jump from writing technical manuals to writing intense hard-to-categorize fiction about killing and becoming God, but apparently more people should try it! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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.

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We've talked about National Treasure Beverly Cleary on the show before, but we haven't spent time with her most indelible character, one Ramona Quimby. Recorded on the eve of Craig's new-dadhood, we're joined by TV critic and parenting expert Kathryn VanArendonk to discuss yard apes, sick days, and how differently the book hits from the other side of the parent/kid divide.

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After the last food-related book we read, we figured we'd do a book about a tasty fried snack. Just a normal snack! Definitely nobody getting eaten in this book. At least not until toward the end. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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.

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Enjoy another episode of our spookiest show-within-a-show yet! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

Ep 7 - A NIGHT IN TERROR TOWER
Eddie and Sue get into trouble during a trip to London in this spine-tingling tale of history, magic, and time-travelling burger lovers.

Ep 8 - EGG MONSTERS FROM MARS
Jovial Bob Stine is back again with another scary tale about...eggs? Also there's a rogue scientist operating outside the confines of petty things like academia or morality.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

Also, here's the full GOOSEBUMS reading list:

1. Welcome to Dead House
2. Stay Out of the Basement
3. Monster Blood
4. Say Cheese and Die - Again!
5. Night of the Living Dummy
6. The Haunted Mask
7. A Night in Terror Tower
8. Egg Monsters from Mars

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've crash-landed on the mysterious Planet of the Dragons, and suddenly you find yourself drafted into another culture's war by the very first sentient being you run into. Oh well! Guess you have nothing better to do! It's a classic Choose Your Own Adventure setup.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week, Andrew's wife Suzannah sits in for Craig to discuss BookTok darling Casey McQuiston's book One Last Stop. An unlikely combination of gay romance and sci-fi elements, this one is the rare romance novel that will keep readers guessing. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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.

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Dear diary: Today we talked to our friend Natasha from the UNSpoiled podcast about a high-school-aged vampire novel with a popular screen adaptation. No, it's not Twilight. 

The UNSpoiled! podcast: https://www.unspoiledpodcast.com/
UNSpoiled! on Twitter: https://twitter.com/unspoiledshow

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Sometimes, a book comes along that is the exact combination of horny, spooky, and appetizing that makes you need to come on your friends' book podcast and talk about it. A Certain Hunger is about sex and cannibalism, in that order, and we needed a total of four people to help process it in an hour-or-so of airtime.

Christina Tucker on Twitter
Kamille Washington on Twitter

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Your best friend passes away unexpectedly. Via witchcraft, you bring them back to life unexpectedly. Two of your ALSO-dead casual acquaintances/frenemies ADDITIONALLY come back to life unexpectedly. And the person that caused all these deaths is the least expected thing of all.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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You'll be on pins and needles for this one! The book that the Hellraiser series is based on, The Hellbound Heart introduces a race of not-quite-humans who can't tell the difference between pleasure and pain and so decide to get REALLY horny for pain! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Carmilla is a double-whammy: an English-language vampire novel that predates Dracula by nearly three decades, and an edit from Carmen Maria Machado that both underlines the story's gay subtext and has a bit of fun with readers while doing it. Just try not to take her notes too literally and you'll be fine, probably. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our spookiest show-within-a-show yet! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

Ep 5 - NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUMMY
Twin girls Kris and Lindy fight over whose ventriloquist dummy is better...until they realize the real contest: which dummy is more haunted??

Ep 6 - THE HAUNTED MASK
Carly Beth's friends like to scare her. But this Halloween she'll scare their faces off! (And maybe hers too??)

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

Also, here's the full GOOSEBUMS reading list:

1. Welcome to Dead House
2. Stay Out of the Basement
3. Monster Blood
4. Say Cheese and Die - Again!
5. Night of the Living Dummy
6. The Haunted Mask
7. A Night in Terror Tower
8. Egg Monsters from Mars

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This love-letter to sci-fi, libraries, and friends forged through literature is also a fairy tale of sorts about a young girl saving her world. Is the magic real? Probably! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Wilde's fairy tales probably aren't the best-known of his works, but that doesn't mean they don't get a little Wilde-y. Just don't expect many happily-ever-afters.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What's up homeslice? We baked up a real feast for you this time. Quit loafin' around and bite into this episode on James Beard, baking, and bread. We even baked our own bread and tasted it on-air!

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 Nick Lerangis.

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This podcast is taking off and it's got a lot of **bad guys** on it! 

Actually...it's just us. As usual. But we are talking about a surprisingly faithful novelization of Con Air, one that really reinforces how much the motley crew of character actors elevated the 1997 film.

Con Air is our Patron's Choice episode for September. Find out how to vote on future Patron's Choice selections at patreon.com/overduepod

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's us, back again with the first book in a (planned, as of this writing) multi-book fantasy series! The Lost Dreamer has a lot of neat ideas and a unique setting, but its abrupt ending and dearth of distinct supporting characters make it less strong than it could be. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What do lawyers, airports, and thrillers have in common? They're all relevant to John Grisham's breakout novel The Firm! A Stepford-y secret, high-end copy machines, brilliant young law school grads -- this book has it all.

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This week's book, the first in a four-book series by the pseudonymous Elena Ferrante, is about the friendship of two Italian women across many years and many phases of life. You won't BELIEVE which friend ends up being the brilliant one! 

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This is a podcast about books.
This podcast is specifically about the book Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson.
It's a book full of short, declarative statements.
That is ultimately about loneliness.
Mostly.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome back, cats and kittens! We have another MEW episode for you to listen to right MEOW! 

The Cat Who Saved Books is a book about books for book lovers. It does have a talking cat in it, and the cat kind-of-sort-of sets events in motion that leads to the saving of books. But "The Teenager Who Saved Books, And Also A Cat Was There Sometimes" is not as good a title. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week, Anne Bogel of What Should I Read Next? and Modern Mrs. Darcy joins us to talk about one of Graham Greene's most well-known "entertainments." It's time to answer the question: can a political spy thriller set in just before the Cuban Revolution be too silly? 

You can find more from Anne at her website or on her podcast.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our spookiest show-within-a-show yet! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

Ep 3 - MONSTER BLOOD
If you're like the kid in Monster Blood, you, too have been horrified by the prospect of needing to find progressively bigger containers for a slowly growing puddle of goop.

Ep 4 - SAY CHEESE AND DIE - AGAIN!
An evil camera with some sick splat stats returns to trouble some teens! Can our hero overcome his hubris or will he be doomed by his desire for revenge on his teacher?

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

Also, here's the full GOOSEBUMS reading list:

1. Welcome to Dead House
2. Stay Out of the Basement
3. Monster Blood
4. Say Cheese and Die - Again!
5. Night of the Living Dummy
6. The Haunted Mask
7. A Night in Terror Tower
8. Egg Monsters from Mars

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This Man Booker Prize-winning novel has one question at its core: what if Thomas Cromwell wasn't quite the jerk we thought he was? Henry VIII's right-hand man definitely does dirty deeds on behalf of the King, but Mantel creatively fills in blanks in the historical record to imagine a man who wasn't so bad.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week we take a bloodydamn dive into the depths of a society living on a terraformed Mars hundreds of years into our future. The humans of this alternate reality are, get this, enforcing a rigid caste system that benefits a privileged few, and it's our meathead hero's job to infiltrate that society and take it down from the inside.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Killing Time is a classic Star Trek novel most notable for its "interesting" publication history. Della Van Hise was an OG fan fiction author who got the chance to bring her particular skills and interests to an official novel featuring Kirk, Spock, and a few other fan favorites.

Also, Andrew brought slides? 

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 Nick Lerangis.

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It's time to talk about expectant fatherhood. But whose? You'll have to listen to find out!

For our previous discussion of pending parenthood, tune into Ep 347 - What to Expect When You're Expecting

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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In the world of hardboiled detectives, no one is harder boiled than Sam Spade, a guy who loves to get one over on both the criminals AND the cops while also romancing dames. 

Find out how to vote on future Patron’s Choice episodes at patreon.com/overduepod

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Can we contain all of Tony Kushner's award-winning Angels in America, a Gay Fantasia on National Themes in one podcast? Probably! First we'll talk about Part I: Millennium Approaches, then we'll talk about Part II: Perestroika. And along the way we'll cover Roy Cohn, how to stage an angel, and the Kushner-to-Spielberg Pipeline.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What if the kids who fell into that wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe all came back to the real world and needed extensive therapy to deal with the things they had seen and done? Welcome to Every Heart a Doorway, where a strong central conceit helps cover for a somewhat rushed mystery narrative.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Tell me about a Complicated Man. Mishima's breakthrough coming-of-age novel about sexuality in late Imperial Japan has a powerful narrative voice and prose style. But the legacy of his work and his political goals has led to him being a bit of an "enigma" (as one listener referred to him) -- to put it lightly.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The Scarlet Letter is often included as part of a high school reading curriculum because it's good at teaching people about symbolism, and it's good at teaching people about symbolism because it uses a half-dozen symbols roughly 700 times apiece. 

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What if thirty years of history took place JUST beyond the doors of your hotel? And what if you weren't allowed to leave that hotel? And, get this, the hotel is in Moscow.

The beloved bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow fills its historical fiction with charming characters that you want to root for. But can we (or should we) figure out what it's trying to say?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. 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, Stine, and Scholastic books -- then we dive into the first entry in this long-running series of kids' horror books: Welcome to Dead House.

In Episode 2, we try to figure out what kind of grow operation Dad's got cooking up in the basement in Stay Out of the Basement! 

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

Also, here's the full GOOSEBUMS reading list:

1. Welcome to Dead House
2. Stay Out of the Basement
3. Monster Blood
4. Say Cheese and Die - Again!
5. Night of the Living Dummy
6. The Haunted Mask
7. A Night in Terror Tower
8. Egg Monsters from Mars

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you're a fan of Netflix's Bridgerton series or you just want an Austen novel with more modern language and more explicit sex scenes, the first novel in Julia Quinn's series about the Bridgerton family has something for you. Just, uh, watch out for the nonconsensual sexual encounter!! Oops!! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Who wants to celebrate April with some modernist poetry??? This month, we allude to many of the allusions in T.S. Eliot's landmark poem.

Thank you to the Patreon supporters who joined us as we navigated this tricksy poem. Find out how to join us for bonus recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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August Wilson wrote a whole bunch of plays, all of which contain dialogue and take place at certain points in history. He's most notable for his Pittsburgh aka Century Cycle, so we decided to talk about one of the standouts: Fences.

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The first of four books in the Circle of Magic series, Sandry's Book feels a bit less self-contained than first-books-in-a-series normally do. You'll meet likable and well-drawn characters, but be prepared to finish the series if you want a more satisfying story.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The inspiration for the hit trilogy of DreamWorks films is rather different than you might expect. It's still about a boy named Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, but the original has more burping, farting, and Dragonese than the films dared to show -- which is odd because those are the guys what made Shrek.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The thrilling conclusion to the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest continues most of the plot threads introduced in the previous book. If you thought that The Girl Who Played With Fire was lacking in secondary and tertiary characters, boy have we got good news for you! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This award-winning novel by a real writer's writer has elicited a broad range of responses, with some folks praising the prose and structure and others bouncing off its characters and style. But maybe that range of reactions was inevitable given the way Trust Exercise explores the slipperiness of memory and narrative.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Is The Winter's Tale a tragicomedy? A dramedy? A romance? A problem play? Who knows! But we can say for certain it's a play about a king who gets jealous and makes bad decisions. Also a bear eats someone.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Truly great butlers are work-focused automata, occupied only on maintaining and increasing the reputation of their employer. But what if there were more to life than that? This week, we follow one butler as he comes to exactly that realization.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy the FINAL EPISODE of our latest show-within-a-show! We read Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters got these episodes monthly, but every two months we combined them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 48-74 of Part Two aka The End of the Story.

In Episode 13, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza bid goodbye to the Duke and Duchess of Prankdom...for now.

In Episode 14, we bid goodbye to Don Quixote and Sancho. And we learn just how mad Cervantes was about that unofficial Quixote sequel.

Next up: GOOSEBUMS, a Goosebumps miniseries!

Find out how to get these longreads episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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It's time to go back to school, where professional scientists Melody and Erin from the Heaving Bosoms podcast can help us talk about Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis. This STEAMy romantic comedy is one heck of a romp, and we have a heck of a time recounting it.

Caveat lictor: This episode is marked explicit because this book includes adult material!

You can find more from our new friends at the Heaving Bosoms podcast here.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week, Glory Edim of Well-Read Black Girl fame joins us to talk about Deesha Philyaw's inaugural short story collection. We also chat with Glory about her work with WRBG and some of her favorite interviews.

You can find more from Glory and Well-Read Black Girl at their website or on their podcast. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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My podcast is a fish. Faulkner's 1930 modernist "tour de force" (his words) takes one family's journey to bury its matriarch and splinters it into over a dozen increasingly-disjointed perspectives. The book's structure and characters are memorable but boy howdy are they difficult.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The State of our Podcast is strong! We just have a few announcements to make that wouldn't fit onto a regular episode.

In this special edition podcast update, we drop the details on our next longread project GOOSEBUMS, discuss some tweaks to our Patreon project, and thank you all for making the show the success that it is!

To find out more about our Patreon changes, head on over to this post. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week we talk about the 1985-1995 comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by way of the 1992 collection The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes. The strip is totally inseparable from a discussion of its medium and the merchandising-averse guy who made it. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Join us in the Everglades as Florida Boy rummages through the bayou in search of adventure! Will we make it out alive? Will we win the war? Tune in to find out!

Thank you to the Patreon supporters who joined us as we made these adventurous choices. Find out how to join us for bonus recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This mystery novel featuring Perveen Mistry (get it?) is also an engrossing work of historical fiction. We learn about different religious and family structures in 1920s Bombay, and we also learn about how the story's split timeline impacts the narrative. Also, Cyrus sucks. Boo Cyrus.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We bring our weirdest and most chaotic vibes to our conversation about Black Buck and the forces that inform it, whether that's a bad thing or not is sort of up to you! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Roll of thunder, hear our podcast! We're talking about Taylor's Newbery-winning novel about the Logan family working to survive in the Jim Crow South. Also, Andrew makes a joke about The Sims to try and liven things up.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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In response to the McMinn County, TN's unanimous decision to ban Art Spiegelman's Maus from its 8th-grade curriculum last month, we've both re-read the book to encourage a conversation about its continued importance and (sadly) relevance. Also, did you know that Art Spiegelman helped make Garbage Pail Kids? 

We've made donations to HIAS Pennsylvania and The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia this week.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We're sharing a special preview of the new podcast, Well-Read Black Girl from Pushkin Industries.

Well-Read Black Girl is the literary kickback you never knew you needed. Glory Edim, author and founder of the Well-Read Black Girl community, sits in deep, honest and close conversation with authors like Tarana Burke, Anita Hill, Gabrielle Union, Elizabeth Acevedo and more. You’ll also meet book club members, literacy advocates, and Black booksellers to hear what they’re reading and what it means to be well-read.

In this preview, Glory talks with Korean American author and teacher Min Jin Lee. Min talks about how reading can radicalize young people — in a good way — and how, through storytelling, we can approach a "new reality” by creating a version of the world we want to see.

You can listen to Well-Read Black Girl at https://link.chtbl.com/wrbgoverdue.

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Clare Bell's novel about prehistoric big cats with language, culture, and fire is also a pretty engrossing adventure about being cast out from your home and discovering the world around you. Time to join the clan of the Red Tongue!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our latest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 27-47 of Part Two.

In Episode 11, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet a Duke and Duchess familiar with Quixote's adventures. LARPing and pranks ensue.

In Episode 12, the Duke and Duchess continue to deceive our heroes. There's a wooden horse, a bag of cats, and a governorship (finally).

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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The former hosts of Appointment Television join us this week to talk about Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the book version of the TV show Peacock's Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. This book makes that show and all other Dan Brown books seem actually kinda better by comparison?

Follow Kathryn VanArendonk on Twitter.

Follow Margaret H. Willison on Twitter.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Yaa Gyasi's debut novel tracks the lasting impacts of the slave trade across multiple generations and continents, through the eyes of two half-sisters and their descendants. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Where did his animal-talking abilities come from? Why is he worshipped by animals all over the world? Why does this book talk about money so much? And why did so few of us read Dr. Dolittle in grade school?

This week, we tried to answer these questions (and more) with Alli from the SSR Podcast, a great show you should check out! You can also listen to our previous SSR Podcast collab: Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots with the Bailey School Kids.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Two horrible dudes double team one sexy lady in this horny, Christmas-adjacent story. This episode is EXTREMELY explicit, so buckle up!!

For more on our bonus episodes, head to patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We return to the Dragon Tattoo-niverse this week to discuss the second book of the Millennium trilogy, and to talk about each of the three dozen-or-so named characters tucked inside this book. 

Need a refresher on Lisbeth and Mikke? Listen to our 500th episode on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We learn the art of military strategy, deception, and fire from Michael Nylan's 2020 translation of this classic text. We start by going in-depth on the contemporary political references in Nylan's Introduction to this edition, and then we go blow-by-blow and nugget-by-inspirational-nugget through Master Sun's timeless wisdom.

Here's translator Michael Nylan writing about the book for LitHub: "The Art of War is Actually a Manual on How to Avoid It."

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Jennifer Government is one of those near-future satirical works that probably felt a lot farther from reality back when it was originally written. Barry's predictions feel distressingly spot on here in 2021, and his prescience isn't exactly comforting. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Sometimes a book is so meta it sort of breaks your brain! How to talk about a book that is all beginnings and no ends? How to discuss a book that enlists You, the Reader, in its chicanery? We try to get on the wavelength with Calvino's text. You be the judge of if we get there.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Sandra Cisneros' first novel is a collection of rapid-fire vignettes about childhood and friendship and race and America. We also check in with the darker side of our recurring guest host, the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This contemporary Victorian story is chockablock with twists and turns, backstabs and broadsides, as well as Dickensian pornfiends. It also features a steamy lesbian romance between two women desperate to escape their own circumstances. We dive into what makes Fingersmith memorable, as well as where its structure overstays its welcome.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our latest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 10-26 of Part Two.

In Episode 9, someone enchants "Dulcinea" and Don Quixote fights a mysterious new foe. 

In Episode 10, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza attend a wedding and do battle with a puppet show.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Groundhog Day meets the apocalypse in this week's book, in which the end of the world is approaching at an ever-faster pace through each of Harry August's successive lifetimes spent on earth. Hope you like paradoxes! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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DeLillo's award-winning breakthrough novel is a satirical rumination on the fear of death while living in a hyper-consumerist America inundated with information delivered by modern technology. Did we mention it was written in the 80s?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week's book observes society from the outside, asking occasionally uncomfortable questions about what it means to "progress" and to "fit in" and who gets to decide whether a person is doing those things.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We close out Spooktober with a cornucopia of spooky stories from a state we both have a relationship to. Join us for a conversation about ghostly grandpas, paranormal presidents, and spectral students.

For more on our bonus episodes, head to patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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For the Big 500, we go to Sweden to solve a murder and also some financial crimes. And much like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, we also go on at some length about the specs of classic Macintosh computers.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Eight stories. Eight women (and plenty more). Eight experiments in genre and form that each explore modern horrors. Carmen Maria Machado's debut short story collection is filled with weird fiction and intimate nightmares, making it a fitting entry for Spooktober 2021.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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A run-down mansion decades past its former glory, a headstrong heroine, a creepy family, and mushrooms all come together to form a perfect, spooky storm in this week's episode.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Spooktober continues! A narrator wanders rooms in his old house, telling the reader stories about his life. Is he an old man responding to a psychological evaluation? Is he a ghost recounting (and selectively editing) his best and worst memories? Will we ever know peace from the miasma of possibilities?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Spooktober 2021 kicks off with a book about a jerk who turned himself invisible and then was still a jerk! The titular invisible man is a forerunner to a hundred comic book villains, who all suffered some kind of scientific mishap at their own hands and then took it as an excuse to become Evil. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our newest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 43-52 of Part One, and the Prologue and Chapters 1-9 of Part Two.

In Episode 7, a few more ancillary characters get their moment in the sun before Don Quixote's companions "enchant" him and bring him home. But Cervantes has heard that Quixote rode again! If only those stories were out there somewhere...

In Episode 8, apparently everyone in Don Quixote's world knows about the novel Don Quixote now? And they sure have opinions!

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Natasha from the Unspoiled podcast joins us this week to hatch a podcast about Eragon, a book that borrows freely from every other fantasy/sci-fi story that existed as of its creation in the early 2000s. 

Find more from Unspoiled here!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's time to solve the mystery of the Boxcar Children! (Or is it The Box-Car Children?) Warner's novel about a quartet of self-sufficient kiddos underwent a major revision 20 years after its debut AND it spawned dozens of mystery-focused sequels despite there not really being a mystery in the original. Tune in to hear about our own secret hideouts and to learn about Andrew's favorite new website for author research.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Craig and Andrew said they would record the podcast themselves. This very modern episode about a very modern novel discusses Woolf's signature writing style, the regrets of a postwar British people, and when (or where) you might find yourself Thinking Big.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning is mostly concerned with big historical questions like "what if nationality had nothing to do with geography" and "what if a boy could make toys come to life," but it also deals with things like "what if noticing gender were a fetish" and "what if all the world's leaders were secretly slamming each other." 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Everybody get up it's time to read now. We got a podcast goin' now. Welcome to the Space Jam!

Join us as we talk about a storybook edition of the 1996 cartoon basketball commercial Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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After 488 episodes, we finally return to ol' Johnny Steinbeck. East of Eden mixes autobiography, pastoral fiction, and Biblical allegory -- a cocktail that has dismayed critics and excited audiences for decades. We dig into what works in this sprawling story and what might leave some readers wanting more.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This book is a work of "faction" (that's "fact" plus "fiction") about Richard Nixon's interactions with the physical manifestation(s) of Uncle Sam in the run-up to the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. So, uh, a weird one.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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There are small flames all over the place! Well, specifically all over a family's house in Shaker Heights, OH in the late 1990s. Ng's bestselling sophomore effort dives into two different but intertwined families whose lives are flip-turned-upside-down by a conflagration of personal mysteries, teenage desires, and a tense adoption case.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Everyone! There's been a MURDER! And the person who committed it is still listening to THIS VERY PODCAST!!

While we try to figure this out you should definitely listen to us talk about Hercule Poirot, the unassuming-ish detective who is here to discover your deepest darkest secrets and chew bubblegum and is all out of bubblegum.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Join us for a trip back to Sherlock Holmes Times, as Melody and Erin from the Heaving Bosoms podcast help us talk about Kristen Callihan's Moonglow. The second book in the Darkest London series, Moonglow brings the romance and the supernatural lore in a way that keeps all four of us talking.

You can find more from our new friends at the Heaving Bosoms podcast here.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our newest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 28-42.

In Episode 5, Don Quixote rejoins the party. and everyone decides to shack up in the only inn/castle in all of Spain. Secondary characters step into the spotlight with their own stories, including a novel-within-a-novel called The Man Who Was Recklessly Curious.

In Episode 6, Don Quixote takes the backseat for a few more chapters. We have to close the book on Cardenio's Crew, finish the story of the Two Friends, and meet a few more ancillary characters who just love this inn.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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In this kid goth Victorian house, objects talk...but only to the people who can listen! Find out what happens to Clod Iremonger and Lucy Pennant in this creepy-yet-kid-friendly novel about a bunch of people who live near (and develop a symbiotic relationship with) trash.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The House of the Spirits is a multi-generational, lightly-magical-realism-y Chilean novel that eventually ends up being about Piochet's military coup, but it's also about the importance of studying events over a long span of time to come to a deeper understanding of why things happen the way they do. Something we could all stand to do more of, honestly.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This sensational punk novel from 1993 got attention because it depicts a LOT: drug use, sex, and all sorts of deviance in late 20th-century Edinburgh. You may even be familiar with the film adaptation starring a young Obi-Wan Kenobi!

We also discuss Welsh's connections to (and opinions of) local government, the joy of the beautiful game, and why Craig's cultural references stop in the mid 2000s.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We've got lesbian necromancers! We've got spooky mansion murder mysteries! We've got MEMES! What else could you need in your space fantasy? How about a lively chat debating the pronunciation of "Doge"?

Find out more about our bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's beach season! And that means it's time for beach reads (whatever that means). We discuss the loose meaning of this genre-slash-marketing-term-slash-state-of-mind, plus a very recent book about a Russian spy who has made it to the top of a fictional (but all-too-recognizable) American tech company.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours is a late 20th-century homage to and interrogration of Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. One woman writes it, one woman reads it, and one woman lives it. Now you can listen to us talk about it!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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If you want to read a book where a well-adjusted character responds well to questions about their own sexuality, Giovanni's Room ain't it! But its depiction of one character's internal conflict is still compelling and relevant decades after its release.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Celebrated author and essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates entered the world of fiction in 2019 with The Water Dancer. A combination of his appreciation for superheroes and his years spent researching the Antebellum South, it's a book that tries to marry critique of American history with supernatural adventure. It also argues pretty hard for the power of remembrance.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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If you've ever read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and thought to yourself "this book is an interesting read except for the part at the end where Tom Sawyer shows up" then buddy I have a book podcast for you (it's this one).

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week we choose our own lunar adventure! Join us as we learn some moon facts, climb on moon rocks, and make some choices about whether or not to meet Moon Separatists.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Carolyn Keene wasn't a real person, and we suspect that the Secret of the Old Clock might not actually meet the technical definition of a "mystery"? But dang if that plucky Nancy Drew and her confident stride aren't fun to talk about anyway.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Enjoy another episode of our newest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 15-27.

In Episode 3, Don Quixote, the Knight of the Sorrowful Face, and his companion Sancho Panza - after getting their butts kicked up and down the Spanish countryside - bicker about the necessity of getting their butts kicked up and down the Spanish countryside. 

In Episode 4, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza lose their donkey (or do they?) before encountering the scorned lover Cardenio. Time to learn this raggedy man's backstory!

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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It's disorienting to read the tenth book in a longrunning detective fiction series without reading any of the books that came before, but Gaudy Night is noteworthy because its heroine Harriet Vane is a precursor to many many women found in today's mystery novels. Just come prepared for the romantic parts and the parts about English high society that all make it take longer to figure out who did the crimes.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Tom Sawyer, a 19th-century amalgam of Zack Morris and Dennis the Menace, has much to teach us about the joys of boyhood and adventure in the pre-Civil War United States. Twain, by extension, has plenty to teach us about racial stereotypes and how they can bog down even the most charming of adventure stories.

Check out our previous Mark Twain episode on The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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April's bonus episode uses Caroline Paul and Wendy MacNaughton’s illustrated sort-of-memoir Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology as a springboard to talk about being a Cat Person, loss, pandemic brain, and the fact that more books for adults should be illustrated.

Find out more about our bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What is Pippi Longstocking? A precocious nine-year-old child with a healthy disregard for The System? A Terminator? An elder god who dabbles in mortal affairs, eternally developing tests for us and finding us wanting? The answer might be "all of the above.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Téa Obreht's award-winning debut novel is about a doctor in a war-torn Balkan country, piecing together her grandfather's life one story at a time. Is it a magical realism? Is it mostly about animals? Is it surprisingly resonant with our Current Societal Moment™? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this week's episode.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Join us as we journey down a dark corridor to a parallel world where we are friends and host a book podcast together but our eyes are shiny black buttons and we give you a vaguely uneasy feeling when we invite you to listen to us... forever.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This isn't an episode of Overdue, it's a Feed Drop! We wanted to share with you an episode of The History of Literature, a podcast about great stories and why we love them.

To use host Jacke Wilson's words, the show "takes a fresh look at some of the most compelling examples of creative genius the world has ever known." It's brought to you by the folks at the Podglomerate.

You can find more info on The History of Literature here.

And don't worry, there'll still be a regularly scheduled episode of Overdue on Monday. But in the meantime, enjoy listening to this discussion of this classic Russian novel!

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Clearly it is time we covered Beverly Cleary! In addition to her numerous books starring Ramona Quimby, the late titan of children's fiction penned several novels about a mouse named Ralph who rides a motorcycle. Not quite sure what else you need to know, to be honest. There's a kid named Keith. He and Ralph become friends. Also, we solve the energy crisis thanks to Ralph's motorcycle.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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"What if the Axis Powers won World War II?" is one of the most-asked questions in all of speculative fiction, but Jo Walton's Farthing asks "what if Britain didn't exactly LOSE World War II, but ended up sliding into fascism anyway?"

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This isn't an episode of Overdue, it's a Feed Drop! We wanted to share with you an episode of Storybound featuring Tommy Orange reading his short story "Copperopolis" with sound design by Ryan Dann.

Storybound is a radio theater program from the folks at Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate. Each episode is a chance to hear a contemporary author read their own work, designed with immersive sound environments.

You can find more info on Storybound here, and you can read more about the author and composer here.

And don't worry, there'll still be a regularly scheduled episode of Overdue on Monday. But in the meantime, enjoy listening to a professional writer professionally read their own words!

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What if Cinderella didn't fall for Prince Charming? What if she developed a rich, endearing relationship with the King's Huntress instead? Malinda Lo's retelling of Cinderella blends cultural traditions and remixes key tropes, but also remains true to the folk tale's reverence for love and magic.

(Listen, the big boat was floated while we were recording this episode. Our jokes were timely when we made them.)

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! We're reading Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 1-14.

In Episode 1, we do some table-setting on the author and translation, and then we dive into the first four chapters of the story. In Episode 2, our hero recruits the squire Sancho Panza and goes tilting after some windmills. Also we hear a whole story about a guy who died from lovesickness.

Join us as we meet this errant knight-errant!

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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What if Death was a job, that a guy did? On a Pale Horse has an interesting theology and viewpoint on morality, even if the book's women characters are paper-thin and Piers Anthony is kind of a jabroni.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's time to post at the top of the key and shoot some literary hoops! Pick and roll with us into a poetic novel about brotherhood, family, and passing the rock. Alexander's poetry in The Crossover is eclectic and energetic, which makes for a fun read whether you stan LeBron James or Nikki Giovanni or both!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We don't actually get to the center of the earth this week, but we do TRY to get there, and that has made all the difference. Fans of Craig's French accent get a lot to chew on in this one.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's been a couple of years, so we figured it was time for another listener Q&A! This time we tackle hard-hitting questions like "what kind of books does your baby like" and "what is the best pasta shape." 

For more information on our bonus episodes, visit patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What if the celebrated author of a classic children's novel wanted to write about Adult issues like spinsterhood, pariah-hood, and being told you only have a year to live? L.M. Montgomery asked this question of herself as she sat down to write The Blue Castle. Join us for a discussion of obnoxious families, fairy tales, and botched diagnoses.

Check out our previous L.M. Montgomery episode on Anne of Green Gables.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Returning guest Kamille Washington joins us this week to chat about A Promised Land, the first in former President Barack Obama's (planned) two-part presidential autobiography. We talk about the functions these books serve, both for the writer and the reader, and whether this book's recounting of Obama's early presidency squares with our experience with and memory of it a decade later (apologies to our listeners without a working knowledge of US politics, this one might be a little inaccessible).

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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N.K. Jemisin's award-winning Broken Earth trilogy concludes with two powerful magic users trying to harness the moon to bring about an apocalypse to end all apocalypses. We discuss how this book decides to stick its landing, including the impressive detour it takes to do an audacious amount of world-building for a closing entry in a series.

Just coming to the series now? Check out our episodes on the previous books: The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Gene Wolfe is a sci-fi author's sci-fi author, best known for his descriptive language and a penchant for unreliable narrators. To attempt to discover the REAL meaning of The Ziggurat, we take a break in the middle of this episode to read the story again. It only sort of helps.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We're celebrating the fiction-filled and fictional holiday of Short Story Week by sharing two short stories with y'all this week. First up is The Comet, a speculative sci-fi tale by civil rights activist and writer W.E.B. DuBois from his collection Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. After that is Woeful Tales from Mahigul, a short story collection within a short story collection by Ursula K. Le Guin from her collection Changing Planes.

Check out our previous LeGuin episodes on The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and The Dispossessed.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's time to read a prominent work by a preeminent Canadian (specifically Québécois) author! Join us in Montreal in 1942 and meet a family with lots of problems but lots of heart.

Tremblay's known for insightful and whimsical character work, so it's fitting that we spend the bulk of the episode delving into the novel's deep roster of memorable characters. Also Canadian history is pretty interesting!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ancillary Justice is a novel take on sci-fi's "collective consciousness" trope. What if, when cut off from the rest of its collective, an individual member of a collective consciousness just went on existing as an individual? And also what if they were thrust into the center of high-stakes intergalactic political drama?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The second entry in N.K. Jemisin's award-winning Broken Earth series is centered on a mother/daughter pair of magic users, each learning new ways to use their abilities to heal their shattered world. It is, of course, the second book in a planned trilogy, so we discuss how well it sets up events that will be delivered on in the next book.

Just coming to the series now? Check out our episode on the first book: The Fifth Season.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's a bit late, but this year we trade a sexy holiday book for a murder mystery holiday book. After a local businessman/pervert turns up dead, it's up to Holly White and her friends in the town of Mistletoe, Maine to figure out who did it and to clear her best friend's name. 

Find out how to join us for bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It's not referenced as often as George Orwell's 1984, but Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is in some ways a dystopia that's closer to our current reality: a society modeled around a production line, designed to pacify its citizenry while maximizing consumption in whatever way possible. Or maybe that's just our read on it!!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to the finale of Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights). 

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes early, but we always release them for general consumption later on. In this closing episode, we share stories we've yet to discuss as well as some not included in our edition.

Stories covered include: Aladdin, Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves, the Story of the Golden Apples, and more.

Programming note: keep an eye on our social feeds for the announcement of our next longread project.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember."

Maggie O'Farrell's prize-winning novel Hamnet is one of remembrance -- a work of historical fiction about guilt, loss, and the people who live in the margins of a Great Author's biography. Come to marvel at how skillfully O'Farrell shunts William Shakespeare off-stage, stick around for the randy apple storage scene.

Thank you all for listening to our show this year!

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Hey dicks and dames, this week we ankle down to the hoosegow to talk about Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. You better hope we can finish talking about it before we get our clocks punched!

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Our friend Sophie Brookover (co-author of Two Bossy Dames) joins us this week to discuss Never Tell, a romantic thriller written under a nom de plume by prominent politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams. It's about a talented criminal psychologist trying to move on from a violent past and the reporter she falls for after that past catches up with her.

Learn more about Stacey Abrams and her work in Georgia at fairfight.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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If you're into really focused, plot-driven fantasy, the vague and dreamy world of Palimpsest might not be for you. But if you're into people made out of bees and horny trains that adhere to no schedule but their own, you might just be able to spend a few nights there.

Note: this episode bears the Explicit tag because we do talk about some Adult Situations.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to another episode of Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights). 

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In the first half, you'll hear us discuss what misfortunates befall a beloved hunchback and the stories his assailants use to save themselves. In the second, we meet a garrulous barber and his many unfortunate brothers.

Stories covered in Nights 102-170 include: The Story of the Hunchback Parts 1 & 2, which include tales from several subjects of the King of China and a barber who won't shut up.

Programming note: this is our penultimate episode of Genie Babies. Our next and final installment will be a mix of closing thoughts and stories we didn't have time to cover.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our podcast turns its lonely ears to you. Woo-woo-ooo

The Graduate is a story about the ennuied Benjamin Braddock, the provocative Mrs. Robinson, and the affair they embark upon that upends their lives. The iconic 1967 film adaptation is perhaps more famous than Webb's book, but the novel does contain all of the classic lines and moments you remember. Even the wedding and the bus at the end!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The Buried Giant is a sort of inversion of a typical fantasy novel - instead of a young person setting out to change the world, we get some aging heroes at the end of the Arthurian era trying to decide how everything is going to wind down.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This Pulitzer Prize-winning play is about two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, and the elaborate con that is their shared history. Tune in for a conversation about Suzan-Lori Parks' place in American theater, some patter from the street game three-card monte, and the open question that haunts your hosts: who is top dog of Overdue?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Is Chrestomanci a type of magic? A government office? A person? Find out in the first of Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci novels. Join us for a discussion of the nine-lived Cat and his sister Gwendolyn, magical pranks, and mystical multiverses.

Looking for more DWJ? Check out Ep 201 - Howl's Moving Castle.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Matt Ruff's 2016 novel about two Black families fighting the forces of evil riffs on Lovecraftian fiction by focusing in on the cosmic horror that is America's racist past, present, and future. We dive into each of the interconnected stories and spend some time comparing the overall vibe to that of HBO's recent TV adaptation.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

Find our how to join us for bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, which means he travels the realm witching. What does that mean exactly? It's a little unclear! But Sapkowksi's protagonist and the world he inhabits have proven popular enough to warrant several novels, videogames, and screen adaptations. Toss a coin to your podcast, why don'tcha?

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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If you wanted more of your books to be metatextual pseudo-screenplays then Demon Theory is for you! If you do not want your books to be that, however, Demon Theory may not be for you.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The Opera's alive with the sound of music! It's time to dive into the serialized story-slash-novel that spawned one of the most successful musicals of all time. (The one by Andrew Lloyd Webber, maybe you've heard of it?)

It's pretty different, it seems?

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week we choose to travel to Mother Russia to make jingoistic jokes and hang out with Rasputin, every 90s kid's favorite historical figure! Not sure what's going on with the voices in this one.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to Spooktober 2020! What's scarier than a story about a teenage girl who falls in with a family of vampires? 160 more pages than the original story and it's all from the sad vampire boy's perspective!

Meyer's companion novel to the original Twilight reminds us what we did and didn't like about the series, as well as fleshes out a bit of the story from Edward's gleaming eyes. But, really, it's just very long.

For more on the Quileute Move to Higher Ground Project, head to mthg.org.

For more on voting in the 2020 election here in the United States, head to votesaveamerica.com.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to another episode of Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights). 

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In the first half, you'll hear us discuss the beginning of a "wacky" night with three sisters and their houseguests. In the second, we'll conclude the tales of the dervishes and get to the bottom of some magic mysteries.

Stories covered in Nights 28-69 include: The Story of the Porter and the Three Ladies, which includes tales from three dervishes, two ladies, and a nosy caliph.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we answer the question on everyone's minds: why, the last man? This mid-2000s graphic novel imagines a world without men, a specific kind of apocalypse with a different flavor from The Leftovers or other "what if X suddenly disappeared from Earth forever" fiction.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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C Pam Zhang's Booker Prize-listed debut novel focuses on a family of Chinese immigrants working coal mines, panning streams, and laying railroads in the American West. Her characters, myth-making, and lyrical style work to correct the historical record with specificity and humanity.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Michael Chabon's 2007 alternate history novel is a murder mystery featuring a hard-boiled detective, though neither the detective nor the murder mystery are the most memorable parts of it. The alternate history part, along with Chabon's prose, are enough to make up for whatever other shortcomings the novel might have.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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What if all we knew about alien culture was their garbage? Or is it their garbage? The Strugatsky brothers' most famous novel is about a world where stalkers crawl through hazardous Zones for precious artifacts. Also it's about hope, bureaucracy, and our relationship to the unknown.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We just couldn't resist another trip to Panem! This origin story for the trilogy's primary villain, Coriolanus Snow, takes us all the way back to the 10th Annual Hunger Games. Things are a little less flashy, but no less deadly. Struggle along with us through the hunger, through the games, and through the limits of fiction told through the antagonist's eyes.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

Find our how to join us for bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Join us and our possibly imaginary gigantic anthropomorphic rabbit for a discussion about a play that just HAPPENS to be about a man who is friends with a possibly imaginary gigantic anthropomorphic rabbit. Funny how that works out!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We've all heard that a tree grows in Brooklyn. But what ELSE grows there? A love of reading? A bootstraps narrative? We get to the root of the mystery this week on Overdue.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Eggs is a book that has eggs in it, but also adolescent pain and friendship. Eggs!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Lauren Oliver's first novel is about a teenage girl forced to relive the last day of her life over and over again. What can she change? What should she change? And how will she change? Find out the answers to those questions and more (namely, how all time loop fiction is beholden to the 1993 film Groundhog Day) in this week's episode.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Children of Blood and Bone takes familiar fantasy tropes and puts them in a new context, which makes them unexpectedly poignant and powerful. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to Genie Babies, a magic carpet ride of a podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On our newest show-within-a-show, we're reading Husain Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights (also known by its westernized title, The Arabian Nights). 

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. In the first half, you'll hear us discuss the some of the background scholarship as well as the stories that setup the collection. In the second, we'll dive deeper into some nested tales where demons truly thrive. In both halves, we'll grapple with the heaping helpings of misogyny that accompany these wild tales!

Stories covered in Nights 1-27 include: The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad, His Visier's Daughter; The Story of the Merchant and the Demon; and The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon, which includes tales about King Yunan, a talking parrot, a She-Ghoul, and a stony prince.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Everything happens for a reason in James McBride's new novel. It's September of 1969 and a doddering Brooklyn deacon just shot the neighborhood's top drug dealer. The events set in motion touch every member of the community - from its 102-year-old founder to the fire ants in the boiler room - and help them build a future as the world changes around them.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Can our podcast truly capture the depth of a renowned Brazilian novelist's final work? This question mirrors one asked by the narrator of The Hour of the Star, whose attempts to portray a young woman's pitiable existence are hindered by his fears that he will never do her story justice.

Also, Craig talks into a sock.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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The Games may have ended, but we're still hungry! We travel back to Panem for the close of Collins' trilogy about Katniss, Peeta, and revolution. It's time to talk (a)political messages, rickety love triangles, the limits of a hero's POV.

If you aren't caught up on our Hunger Games journey, go give Episode 400 or Episode 410 a listen!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Sometimes a book is about exactly what it says on the cover. Oyinkan Braithwaite's debut novel is plenty dark but surprisingly funny, exploring sibling dynamics heightened by the fact that there is serial killing involved.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Craig loves dinosaurs, so Andrew let him talk for an hour about Steve Brusatte's recent book for dino devotees. Time to talk T-Rexes, Sauropods, and graphic depictions of the end of the world with our live Patreon chat.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

Special thanks to the Patreon supporters who joined us in the live chat. For more info on how to participate in bonus episode recordings, head to patreon.com/overduepod.

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Special guest Margaret H. Willison joins us this week to talk about the consensual, gay, historically accurate romance novels of KJ Charles.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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How could a dream upend your life? Would you stop eating meat? Embark on a ruinous affair? Desert your family?

Han Kang's The Vegetarian asks visceral questions about our capacity for violence and what'd be willing to give up to be rid of it.

Our new theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Candide is a novella-length takedown of the idea that we are living in the best of all possible worlds, as ordained by God. These days it's hard to believe we need a whole book about this but it's pretty funny anyway?

Our new theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Noted symbologist Robert Langdon has to "solve" a "mystery" that "references" Dante's Inferno! Let's see if he can crack the clues before the whole world succumbs to a transhumanist disease (yes, that's a real sentence that makes real sense.) For context, this was originally released in late May for some of our Patreon supporters.

***

As we say in the pre-show, we've donated to the Marshall Project, which seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.

If you are able, we would encourage you to also support those fighting for the rights of Black folks in the face of escalating police violence. More donation links and educational resources can be found at: blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

Consider ordering some books from Black-owned independent bookstores. LitHub has a great list.

Want to support a beloved bookstore in Minneapolis? Help Uncle Hugo's rebuild.

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This week we read an (1) explicitly autobiographical (2) non-fiction (3) graphic novel, things we don't usually do! But we try to have a useful discussion anyway. This episode, like most of our shows, does not pass the Bechdel Test.

Our new theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Welcome to the last official installment of HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On this episode, we wrap up our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every other month we release them for general consumption. This episode carries us to the end where we meet a Who's Who of Biblical heroes and stare directly into the face of God (Paradiso XXVIII-XXXIII). Then it's time to reflect on our ascension from Hellboys to Heavenlads.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Jhumpa Lahiri's second short story collection focuses on the experiences of second- and third-generation Bengali-Americans, people caught between the futures they're trying to build and the pasts they're trying to honor. Her direct, compelling writing style makes these slices of life particularly affecting, as do the characters and the misfortunes that befall them.

Our new theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. We hope you dig it!

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Orlando is an English nobleman in the 16th century who, by the end the Woolf's tongue-in-cheek biography of the character, is an English noblewoman in the 20th century. It's quite a journey for all involved!

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My grandmother asked me to tell you about this podcast. It's about a book by Swedish author Fredrik Backman, and it's about a precocious young girl named Elsa and her quest to deliver her Granny's letters of apology.

It's a fairy tale - of sorts. It's also a story about coming to grips with the world's complications, with the ways in which we are all more than we appear at first glance, and with grief.

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Llama Llama Red Pajama

On a podcast with his mama!

We read llama books to kids

To make them close their small eyelids.

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What's a boy to do when his dad is the bumbling Chief of Police? Solve crimes, of course! Join us as we solve The Mystery of How Donald J. Sobol Wrote Detective Fiction for Kids!

Special thanks to the Patreon supporters who joined us in the live chat. For more info on how to participate in bonus episode recordings, head to patreon.com/overduepod.

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Fair warning: this book's a bit of a bummer! Agee's autobiographical A Death in the Family centers on the aftermath of the automobile accident that took his father's life in 1915. It's a poetic exploration of grief and trauma -- which may not be everyone's cup of tea these days! Ways we try to lighten the mood include: It's a Wonderful Life musings, Andrew's Heavenly Dogs, and a bunch of words that Craig may or may not have made up.

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For this, the highest of holy days, we've revisited the Choose Your Own Adventure-verse with R.A. Montgomery's Smoke Jumpers. Come for the information about what it's like to be a trainee firefighter, stay for the ranger who sounds a whole lot like Strong Bad.

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The arena calls our name again, and we must volunteer as tribute! It's time we talked about Suzanne Collins' second novel about the dystopic land of Panem and their annual Hunger Games. Tune in for a discussion of revolution, game design, and underbaked love triangles. Plus, Andrew goes a-Googlin'!

If you aren't caught up on our Hunger Games journey, go give Episode 400 a listen!

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Welcome to another installment of HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! We're continuing our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we combine them for general consumption. This combo episode carries us further into space where we meet some friars and Dante's grandpa (Paradiso X-XVIII) before inching closer and closer to God (Paradiso XIX-XXVII). We argue about God, learn about love, and cower before a giant eagle.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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The Shadow of the Wind is a complex noir-ish mystery set in post-WWII (and post-Spanish Civil War) Barcelona. Come for the endearing characters, stay for the Byzantine explanation of what is going on!

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Katherine Arden's debut novel is a potent mix of Slavic folklore, Russian history, and good old-fashioned fantasy. We dig into which of those ingredients work best within the scope of The Bear and the Nightingale's story, but first we take a moment to debut Andrew's new classic catchphrase.

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When Andrew read The Colour of Magic, people suggested that the beginning of the Discworld series was not necessarily the best place to start. Guards! Guards!, the eighth book in the series, is the start of its own contained-ish arc. According to our listeners and many readers, this serves as a more suitable jumping off point.

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There are some cars you just shouldn't get into! Michel Faber's thriller Under the Skin is about Isserley, the driver of one such dangerous vehicle. Why do all the men who get into her car disappear? Is she even really human? Are you? Hop in for the answers to these questions and more!

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Friday Black, a debut collection of short stories by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, deftly employs hyperbole to make the reader notice horrors of American life that have become less-noticeable through repetition. It’s also going to resonate with anyone who has spent any amount of time working retail on the day after Thanksgiving.

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We had a blast processing this novelization of the hit film Sonic the Hedgehog! Did you know it's based on a video game?! Gotta read fast!

Special thanks to the Patreon supporters who joined us in the live chat. For more info on how to participate in bonus episode recordings, head to patreon.com/overduepod.

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This week’s episode is our recent live show crossover event with Appointment Television at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The Appointment Television and Overdue crews gather together to discuss the recent TV adaptation and compare it to the book from which it (and the film, and the ill-starred musical) sprung. Whether we figure out the relative superiority of books or TV as competing artistic formats is left up to the listener.

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In this challenging novel, award-winning author Toni Morrison explores how utopias are defined (and perhaps undermined) by their boundaries. The all-black town of Ruby, Oklahoma survived for decades by cordoning itself off from the outside world. But what happens when the outside world starts gnawing at the people inside?

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This week's book is a cozy mystery, but for kids! Author Kate Racculia joins us for a discussion of The Westing Game, which was a major inspiration for her own work (and is a completely wild read, besides).

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What better way to celebrate a milestone episode than to make a bunch of teenagers fight each other to the death? Join us as we discuss the first entry in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, taking particular delight in its worldbuilding and its protagonist Katniss Everdeen. We also get into some of the film-informed Discourse that has surrounded the series since its release, and of course we take time to get our celebrities all mixed up.

(Special note: Want to come see us live with our friends from Appointment Television? Head to bit.ly/booksortv for info on our live show at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH on Thursday, February 20th. It's free!)

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Welcome to Febuwary! This week’s episode is a follow-up of sorts to Episode 291, in which Andrew read Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind. The Wind Done Gone is labeled a “parody” for legal reasons but it feels somewhere in between a sequel and a critique, acknowledging the strong characters of the original but tearing down its rose-tinted nostalgia for the antebellum American South. 

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Welcome to another installment of HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! We're continuing our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we combine them for general consumption. This combo episode carries us to the top of Mt. Purgatory (Purgatorio XXIII-XXXIII) and up into the stars (Paradiso I-IX). We walk through fire, visit a Garden of Eden, and meet some truly charming moon people.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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In the future, all of mankind will be confined to an underground silo, wondering when and if the world outside will ever be habitable again. But if things aren't as bad as they seem? And what if everyone in the silo isn't as alone as they think?

That's the premise of Hugh Howey's Wool, a collection of stories woven together into a novel about secrets, duties, and revolution. Time to talk about climate change and what makes a short story compelling!

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The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids commence with a new teacher who just MIGHT be a vampire! It's time to get to the undead bottom of this...or is it?

We recorded this week's show with Alli from the SSR Podcast, a great show you should check out if you want a trip down memory lane to your middle school library. We were really honored to be included in SSR's "Manuary" lineup this year, and we hope you enjoy this hot collab!

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To put it mildly, a lot of stuff has happened since we released our episode on The Handmaid's Tale back in 2014. Among that stuff is the release of The Testaments, the 2019 sequel to the original book and a companion piece of sorts to the Hulu television series.

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It is better to be feared than loved. The ends justify the means. King Louis sucked. These are the (clearly) famous quotes from Machiavelli's classic yet innovative work of political science. It's time to talk power, political satire, and the wonderful translation by Tim Parks.

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Inspired by the raunchy humor and biblical events of Christopher Moore's take on Jesus, we recorded a rowdy bonus episode with our rollicking Patreon chat. 

Want to join us for the next bonus recording? Head to patreon.com/overduepod to find out how.

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The Mists of Avalon is a seminal work of fantasy fiction that centers the women of Arthurian legend such as Morgan Le Fay. Its author was a terrible person. We talk about the terrible stuff first, and then we try to unpack why the book has entertained and resonated with so many.

Also - don't spend any money on this book! Donate to www.rainn.org instead.

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Book one in the one-book Sexy Sylvie series isn’t about a sexy Hanukkah miracle where one night’s worth of personal lubricant lasts for eight nights, but we had fun with it anyway.

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The Eyre Affair is the book that you would get if Ready Player One were about literature instead of the 1980s, and also if Ready Player One was more engaging or half as clever as it thought it was.

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George Selden wrote a charming story about a charming cricket named Chester who just charms the pants right off everyone living in New York City - including a cat and a mouse. And the illustrations by Garth Williams are also charming!

You know what's not so charming? Liverwurst.

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Andrew's got the week off so Craig's wife Laura joins the show again to talk about Kate Grenville's award-winning novel The Secret River.

The story is an an attempt to tell more truthfully the British settlement of Australia, as through the eyes of one man sent to the penal colony that would ultimately become the country we know today. The violence he witnesses - and participates in - against Aboriginal people defines him as well as the generations that come after.

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Welcome to another installment of HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! We're continuing our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we combine them for general consumption. This combo episode carries us through the first two thirds of the Purgatorio, covering Cantos I-XXII. We climb up God's "Learn Your Lesson" mountain, meet a bunch of Dante-thirsty paparazzi, and encounter one "hell" of a Virgil stan.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Elements of Ayn Rand's Objectivist worldview hold a lot of sway in conservative American politics, so we go back to one of Rand's most significant works to see what all the fuss is about.

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This week, we're joined once again by Gwen and Frank from the New York Public Library's The Librarian Is In podcast, this time to talk about Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and the movie of the same name). It's a discussion of narrator reliability, "boy books," and the long and fruitful career of Louise Fletcher.

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What's up, daddio? Dig this, you cool cats: a podcast, burning with the soul of American individualism and the poetry of the open highway. Kerouac's legendary novel defined the Beat Generation, and it's chock-a-block with hallmarks of the era. Join us for a road trip back to the late 1940s -- an era of sweaty jazz, discarded marriages, and Benzedrine.

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James Henry Trotter has a hard life. He's suffered loss. He's been mistreated. But things start looking up when a giant peach and a menagerie of bug friends come into his life! Roald Dahl's classic story of a typically-sized boy and his atypically-sized fruit is a real crowd-pleaser, even if there's a bunch of stuff we didn't remember from our childhoods.

Natasha from the UNSpoiled! Show joins us to kick off Remember November festivities, wherein we read books at least one of us has read before. Breaking our own rules - how rebellious!

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This is Halloween. This is Halloween! Halloween. Halloween.

Join us for a bonus episode that includes a frightening chat, horrifying drawings, and a spooky spelunk through the world of Tim Burton's (children's book?) The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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Stop me if you've heard this one: a strange man who runs a motel with his mom (maybe) commits several murders before people get wise to him. At least one of them is in a shower. It's very creepy. Were you thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho? Well we're not talking about it! This is a book podcast, silly!

Actually we do talk a bit about what the movie lifted from the book, but we also dive into topics such as the murders that inspired Bloch, Norman Bates' murder swamp, and the prolific writer/musician Chet Williamson.

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Come on into our spooky kitchen and let us cook you up a big steaming bowlful of creepypasta! This week's book began life as a series of Reddit posts that were later Kickstarted into a book self-published on Amazon, which is maybe the most early-2010s sentence that has ever been written. Join us for a lesson in creepy story etymology, and also a lesson in Skinhorse, the inside-out horse.

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Ever wanted to marry a ghost? Then boy do we have a book for you! Spooktober continues with Yangsze Choo's debut novel about a young woman in late 19th-century Malaya who winds up promised to a spectral groom.

It's a fun book that is almost overflowing with hallmarks of different genres. Coming-of-age concerns, supernatural fantasy, historical fiction, romance: it's got a lot going on! But the heart of it all is Li Lan's entertaining exploration of the afterlife, its characters, and its bureaucracies.

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We rip our way into Spooktober 2019 with From Hell, a 90s graphic novel from writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell about Jack the Ripper. The book presents one (possible, but unlikely) solution to the mystery, and our research leads us through a lot more.

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Please, sir, I want some more podcast! Dickens' classic novel about a lovable urchin named Oliver Twist is equal parts social novel, mystery, and bildungsroman -- or so Charlie thought. We dive into what works and doesn't work about its depictions of London in the Industrial Revolution, Oliver's moral compass, and the titular twist.

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Welcome back to HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! We're continuing our journey through Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we combine them for general consumption. This episode carries us through the back half of the Inferno, covering Cantos XVII-XXXIV. We travel through the Malebolge, meet a demon biker gang, and climb down the Devil himself!

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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The God of Small Things is about family, and loss, and India, and the caste system, and all of its disparate plot lines and character arcs come together in the end like a Seinfeld episode but with more tragedy.

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"What if women ended the Peloponnesian War, am I right?" asks Aristophanes in his classic comedy Lysistrata. Famous for its depiction of a sex strike that brings the warring Greek states to their unsexed knees, the play has been remixed countless times as generations of artists adapt its core conceit to their own times. So we figured we'd go back to the old Prince of Comedy himself to see what all the fuss is about.

Talking points include comedies of bad manners, Ancient Greek props, and the "lioness on a cheese grater."

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It's time to play some games! Craig's sister Jillian read Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games, one of several entries in his Culture series that explores a hegemonic utopia influencing as much of outer space as it can. Banks' ideas gameplay may be primarily analog, but he still manages to represent cultures and worlds with digital creativity.

Andrew may be away, but we still find time to joke about names, make some Gatsby references, and chat about Starcraft.

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Join us as we attempt to bring Pullman's epic god-fightin' trilogy to a close! We start with a brief recap of the first two books, and then we dive into what does and doesn't work for Andrew in the final installment. Train your spyglass on the Fall of Man, cut through bear armor with your subtle knife, and follow your golden compass to the origin of Dust.

Additional talking points include Andrew's new partyboy son, motorcycle elephants, and the debut of a new segment: Andrew's Dad Moment.

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Friend of the show Christina Tucker (Unfriendly Black Hotties, PCHH, her new newsletter, etc.) joins us to chat about Jeff VanderMeer's novel Annihilation. It's the first of his Southern Reach trilogy, a Weird Science Fiction romp through a mysterious zone called Area X.

We've got our own Area X going, replete with chicken sandwiches, Edward James Olmos, and a fun-loving chat of supporters.

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This week we welcome Renata and Kait from The Worst Bestsellers to talk about Becky Chambers' first entry in the Wayfarer series: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It's a book that's equal parts cozy AND sexy, with plenty of aliens for you to meet and/or have...stirrings about.

Our conversation takes the long way from Star Trek to the Secret, exploring what it's like for folks who usually read Bad books to actually read a Good one.

Caveat lictor: sometimes you have to swear in space!

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The titular Tarzan of the titular Apes is a lot more than "Me Tarzan. You Jane." And Edgar Rice Burroughs is here to tell you all about how and why it's because he's the sire of an English nobleman.

Join us for a chat about the lost city of Tarzana, the Ernest filmography, and the invention of stabbing.

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Andrew's Appointment Television co-hosts Kathryn VanArendonk and Margaret H. Willison join us for a chat about siblings, rivalry, and this classic of modern parenting lit from Adele Faber and Elain Mazlish.

At the time of recording, Andrew's fatherhood was looming on the horizon, so Kathryn kindly shared with us how relevant the book felt to her own parenting experience. And don't worry, Craig and Margaret had plenty of wisdom to share as well.

Caveat lictor: Margaret's here, so there's swearing.

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It's time to make some more choices! Thanks to a benevolent small business owner, we've been transported back to the time of Arthurian legend and must face the biggest choice of all: food service or secretarial work!

Actually, we make plenty of fun choices in Ellen Kushner's CYOA riff on the Knights of the Round Table. So join us for a bunch of boons, magic, and mannerpunk!

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Philip Pullman followed up The Golden Compass with The Subtle Knife, the adventure of Lyra and Will on their quest to uncover the secret of Dust and (maybe, just maybe) save the world from evil forces within the Church. Like a lot of Second Stories in a Trilogy, the book builds on its predecessor's world by introducing new friends and foes and ending with a cliffhanger that ensures you'll come back for Book Three. We just have one question for Mr. Pullman: where are the bears?

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Welcome to HELLBOYS, a Divine Comedy podcast from the boys here at Overdue! On our newest show-within-a-show, we're reading Robert and Jean Hollander's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy a few cantos at a time.

Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. First you'll hear our introduction to the show (and the translation) and our chat about Inferno I-VII. Then our journey alongside Virgil and Dante continues with an episode on Inferno VIII-XVI. Talking points include violent punishments for violent people, Dante's (literal) burn book, and Hollander's helpful student Edward.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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The horror, the horror! It's time to talk about colonialism, y'all. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has inspired plenty of stories about a dude diving deep into nature to find another dude, so we figured we'd get to the...heart...of the matter. Listen and learn what exactly the horror, the horror means and why some notable writers want nothing to do with this classic text of 19th-century imperialism.

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Behind Closed Doors is about a relationship that seems too perfect to be true - except that instead of arguing about the “right” way to load the dishwasher and the way the other person leaves cabinets hanging open all the time, Jack Angel is a full-on sociopath who locks his wife Grace in a windowless basement room and plans to do the same to her younger sister. It’s hampered a bit by dry, straightforward prose, but it’s a page-turner nevertheless.

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"What if the Napoleonic Wars but with magic?" is a great elevator pitch for Susanna Clark's sprawling novel, but it only scratches the surface of what Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has to offer. Footnotes, Farnums, and factoids abound in this fun work of historical/alternate fiction.

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CW: This week’s book revolves around sexual assault, which we discuss in the episode. We don’t read the specific passage and we try to be as general as possible, but feel free to skip this one if you’re not up to it.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak is a pitch-perfect account of what it’s like to be Awkward In High School, in ways that are both funny and sad. That a two-decade-old novel still feels so relevant to our current cultural moment probably speaks poorly of us. 

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This episode, instead of a book we read YOUR questions! Topics range from the five characters you'd meet at an Overdue dinner party to what makes a great diaper. We also have a blast chatting with our livestream audience.

As always, thanks to our Patreon supporters for making these bonus episodes possible! Visit patreon.com/overduepod to find out how you can support the show.

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Michel Faber's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White has been hailed as a Dickensian novel with a saucy, modern narrator. How exactly does he pull that off in an epic story steeped in the history of Victorian London? And how does he play with our own expectations of the period? Find out in this week's episode!

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In this week's episode, we talk about the very nature of what makes a superhero (or an anti-hero, or a supervillain) a superhero (or anti-hero, or supervillain), in between talking about our ideal Father's Day and how Harry Potter and the D&D alignment chart informs how people of a certain age think about all fictional characters.

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Lorraine Hansberry's classic play A Raisin in the Sun endures for its insightful portrait of a black family in Chicago fighting for a better life. Inspired by her own family's experience with racial housing discrimination, it's a complex piece about who gets to get ahead, how, and why.

And of course, we had to balance the gravity of this gem from Hansberry's brief but momentous career with a deep dive on where raisins come from.

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Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived In The Castle shares some qualities with her best-known short story The Lottery; both feature small New England towns that are the site of some unfortunate mob action. Join us for a conversation about non-supernatural creepiness, unreliable narrators, and early flights.

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Our voyage ends with Book 24, which includes one more amazing Odysseus lie and a heaping serving of deus ex machina. Then it's time to reflect on our journey from high school English students enduring a long reading assignment to olive-oiled men who love a good epic poem. Thanks for joining us on this trek through Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's Odyssey!

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Caveat lictor: this episode contains mild spoilers for Drowning Ruth.

Christina Schwarz's debut novel weaves together three main threads: historical fiction, melodramatic mystery, and sisterhood. The result is an interesting portrait of women in Depression-era Wisconsin striving for self-determination.

Additional talking points include knock-knock tips, Jonathan Franzen's Oprah complaints, and the Tooth Fairy's pyramid scheme.

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Madeline Miller's Circe is a great chaser for Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey, and it's an excellent exploration of a mythological character who has often been maligned. Miller's Circe is modern but also instantly recognizable and easy to reconcile with her classical depictions.

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We're almost at the end of our long journey, but before we wrap up with Book 24 and our closing thoughts, we took some time to sit down with Emily Wilson and chat about her wonderful translation of Homer's Odyssey. Among other topics, we talked with her about her process, Telemachus' entertaining whining, and why all these boys are oiling themselves up all the time.

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Look...if you had one shot (or one opportunity) to undo everything Lee Harvey Oswald ever wanted - in one moment - would you capture it or just let it slip?

Stephen King's time-traveling doorstop of a novel 11/22/63 takes us back to the good ol' days when men were men who made plans to assassinate presidents. Discussion points include time travel rules and how much time travel rules, past slang and past meats, and the introduction of Craig's new timehopping bud.

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We kick off May by looking back to the middle of March, courtesy of George Eliot's brick of a novel about an insular English community. Discussion topics include: marriage, weird inheritance rules, and the phrase "pleased as Punch."

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Just a heads up - this one has explicit language!

David Wong's John Dies at the End is a slacker comedy-slash-cosmic horror adventure that may not be for everyone. Talking points include our own hangups as readers of comedy writing, political incorrectness, and the legacy of Cracked magazine's SHUT UP jokes. Oh - and ska.

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This year's Children's Book Week - on the eve of the podcast's first child, no less - is about Raymond Briggs' weirdly existential and British Fungus the Bogeyman, and the much lighter and sillier Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri.

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Scott Lynch's 2006 debut novel is a "sword and sorcery crime novel" about a gang of thieves who get caught up in a power struggle for the fate of their city. The Lies of Locke Lamora bumps up against issues of class and privilege, but it's mostly a story about cool thieves doing cool cons.

Talking points include Omar Little, fantasy theatrics, and crossing the double-crossers.

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Ironically, running out of time to read George Eliot's Middlemarch gave us the time to get to H.G. Wells' foundational sci-fi novella The Time Machine, in which he invents the very concept (or at least the modern nomenclature) of a time machine. Wells' protagonist is, surprisingly enough, able to make guesses about sentient life from 800,000 years in the future that just happen to align with his present-day worldview.

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Our journey through Stephenie Meyer's world of werewolves, vampires, and teens has come to a close! We wrap up the story of Bella, Edward, and Jacob with Breaking Dawn. It's a book that could probably be at least two books and definitely suffered by the odd pacing of the series' prior entries.

Join us for a discussion of the mind internet, fan fiction and world-building, and just how much we HATE werewolf imprinting.

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In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses surprising humor and sci-fi wit to portray one man's experience of the horrific bombing of Dresden. But don't worry - you needn't have read Slaughterhouse One through Four to keep up with our episode on this classic.

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Here we go! We're closing in on the end, talking about Books 20-23 of Emily Wilson's Odyssey translation.

Odysseus and Penelope pray before the Suitor Bowl. Athena eggs on the suitors. Telemachus yells at his mom. Everyone competes in an archery contest. Then it's time to kill some suitors! Our Heroes' utter lack of mercy doesn't play especially well in Wilson's translation, but that's by design. 

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This week's book takes us up to space, where the human race fights sentient lizards and hamsters and befriends a fast-talking all-powerful AI. It's sometimes as fun as it sounds! Sometimes not.

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It may not be that classic Audrey Hepburn joint, but Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's quite the fun, poignant portrait of a young socialite named Holiday Golightly.

Join us for a morning feast of names, symbolism, and crimes - the three food groups!

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Our SECRET SURPRISE BOOK this week is related to a SECRET SURPRISE LIFE EVENT for one of your co-hosts! Which one? You'll have to listen to find out!!

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Nnedi Okorafor's magical teen story Akata Witch centers on a young woman named Sunny who discovers that she has magical powers. She then enlists in an after-school magic club with the rest of her coven and sets off to play soccer and save the world. Join us for a discussion of buckeyes, magic schools, and more -- all with the help of a very rowdy patron chat.

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What if kids could live in a world where it was Christmas every day? What if the only way to get there was in a creepy car driven by a deathless vampire man? Joe Hill's NOS4A2 asks these questions and more! It's also the first of his books to engage more directly with the work of his father, a little guy named Stephen King.

Other talking points include The Post 2 (spoilers), beard secrets, and Andrew's spine-tingling take on Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

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This is a book all about empathy, which is occasionally odd given that its author has had Some Issues extending empathy to certain people over the years. Andrew also has some trouble reading a book made of paper.

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You want to be popular? You want your ideas to be heard? You want to get a great job? Then Dale Carnegie has the tips for you! His best-selling self-help volume How to Win Friends and Influence People has been helping business men for decades, so we decided to sit down and go over a few of the particulars.

PS We've also got a hot tip for anyone looking to get more chips at their office cafeteria.

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Richard Wright's Native Son has been called a "pamphlet" or "protest novel" by writers like James Baldwin, and while there are sections of the book that justify the label, Bigger Thomas and his deeds and motivations defy easy summation.

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Octavia Butler's Dawn imagines a future where humans are a rung lower on the food chain than usual. And after nearly extinguishing itself in nuclear fire, humanity's only hope is a mysterious alien species that has rescued them for specious reasons. It's a story about oppression and identity, bolstered by Butler's excellent world-building.

Note: Tune in after the episode ends for a preview of Mythology, a new podcast from the folks at Parcast.

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This week's book, which can be enjoyed by kingkillers and non-kingkillers alike, manages to be filled with meta-references to fantasy fiction without being annoying, which is rare enough to be the stuff of fantasy all by itself.

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Odysseus is still old and Telemachus still wants to help kill suitors! In these episodes of our show-within-a-show, we cover books 16-19 of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. We've got beggars, sad dogs, Instagram filters, and destructive nannies. What more could you want?

Remember, some Patreon supporters get these episodes early every month. Find out more at patreon.com/overduepod

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Louise Erdirch's National Book Award-winning novel The Round House is the story of a thirteen-year-old boy seeking justice for a terrible crime committed against his mother. Unfortunately, arcane laws and good old-fashioned racism stand in his way. It's a powerful book about one young man's growth, about the limits of and hopes for tribal law, and about the perils facing too many Native women. Also there's Star Trek and some grandparents making dirty jokes.

Content warning: The Round House is about a case of sexual assault. We don't read explicit passages, but the event does come up in our discussion.

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If you can't stand how hot these werewolves are, get out of the kitchen! This week we head back to Forks for the third of the four main Twilight books, and while we had kind of made our peace with reading these in our New Moon episode, we question the wisdom of that decision this time around.

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The Golden Compass (aka The Subtle Knife) has cute soul-Pokémon, multiple universes, and armored battle bears, so what's not to like?

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How is sex different than love? Is privacy a necessity for human identity? For political identity? DOES GOD POOP?

With the help of Milan Kundera, we attempt to answer these questions and more in this bonus episode on his classic novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Also, be sure to listen post-outro to experience the horrors of a Google Hangout gone wrong.

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This week we're joined by friend of the show (and one half of the hit newsletter Two Bossy Dames) Sophie Brookover to talk about Vladimir Nabokov's epic literary troll novel Pale Fire. The author may be dead and the reader is most certainly bad, but that doesn't mean we can't have a great time talking about Vera Nabokov, John Shade stans, and botched assassination attempts.

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The whole team at Overdue wishes you and yours a very horny Christmas and a sultry New Year with Stefanie London's A Dangerously Sexy Christmas, a book that is equal parts dangerous AND sexy!

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This week's episode is a recording of our live episode from the New England Library Association in Rhode Island in October. We talk about Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, which you may also remember from the Disney movie of the same name.

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Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver successfully melds and renews a whole stack of classical fairytales in a story that is anchored by women and deals with real-world anti-Semitism without ever feeling too heavy.

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Minecraft, one of the most popular games on the planet, has lots of lessons to teach us! Lessons about persistence, about ingenuity, about punching trees. In this kid-friendly novel, Max Brooks details the "true story" of his own experiences on a Minecraft island, weaving together nuggets of wisdom with the game's particular flavor of discovery.

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The boys are back in town! Odysseus and Telemachus make it home to Ithaca in this episode of our show-within-a-show, which covers books 12-15 of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. We've got sirens, vaping, swineherds and some god-granted old dude cosplay.

Remember, some Patreon supporters get these episodes early every month. Find out more at patreon.com/overduepod

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The Wheel of Time turns, and we release a new podcast episode. This week, we close out Remember November with a look at the first book in a, um, fourteen book fantasy series with which Andrew is intimately acquainted. The Wheel Of Time has its issues but if you want to talk about extremely detailed magic systems and meticulously crafted fantasy worlds, you’re in the right place!

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Travel with us back to the Jazz Age and meet Irene and Clare, two women who practice "passing" to get by in New York City. The tragic characters of Nella Larsen's insightful novel Passing show us how suspicions and social status can conspire to bring about a terrible end between friends. Other talking points include the Harlem Renaissance, Arby's vs. Applebee's, and boy oh boy how we wish Larsen had written more books.

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When we talk about judging books by the standards of their time, we’re usually dealing with books that have been written many many decades ago, but Lynne Reid Banks’ The Indian In The Cupboard isn’t far removed from our own childhoods. It’s easy to see why the book resonates with kids, but it’s also frustrating to see Banks acknowledging the gap between pop culture depictions and reality even as she feeds into so many stereotypes.

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Remember November commences with us revisiting John Knowles' A Separate Peace. This book about a broken leg boy bored Craig to peaces in high school, but it turns out some books resonate more strongly than you might think.

Tune in for a conversation about male friendship, stairs and trees, and Kurt Vonnegut's fourth cousin Norb.

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What's spookier than doing a CYOA book with a live bonus episode audience? CHANGING THE COURSE OF HUMAN HISTORY! Actually, this adventure wasn't TOO spooky but we did meet our least favorite passenger on the Titanic: Jessica.

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This week we revisit a classic Spooktober trope, the haunted house! Richard Matheson's Hell House definitely does not belong in the upper echelon of haunted house fiction - though it's a page-turner that forwards some interesting theories about the causes of haunting, it's also gratuitously sexually violent in some ways that don't feel great!

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This week's episode, on Thomas Olde Heuvelt's English-language debut novel, is a good reminder: don't accuse a woman of being a witch, kill her, and then taunt her as she despondently traipses through your small town. Bad things will happen. This seems pretty self-evident but apparently it's not.

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R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series has been spooking tweens since 1992, selling millions of copies and spawning numerous offshoots and film projects. This week we discuss one of the earliest in the series: Say Cheese and Die!

Find out what happens when a group of kids stumble upon an evil camera and just can't. stop. taking. PICTURES!

We apologize in advance to any fans of the early 90s Ford Taurus. We kid because we love.

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What's scarier than an authoritative government that censors and corrupts its artists? The literal devil! This week we're talking about The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, a seminal work in the 20th-century Russian canon and an exploration of just how weird stuff needs to get for the devil to introduce you to Pontius Pilate.

Spooky talking points include witch cream, vices, and Joseph Stalin's Haunted House.

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Welcome to Spooktober 2018! Our first book this year is Carrie, Stephen King’s first published novel. Even if you know what happens—and you have probably at least encountered the pigs-blood-prom-night thing through cultural osmosis at this point—the way King builds to and follows that iconic scene keeps this book plenty spooky.

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After reading a whole bunch of books, we’ve finally gotten to the odyssey part of the Odyssey! Giants, dead people, sort-of-goddesses—these books have it all.

Remember, some Patreon supporters get these episodes early every month. Find out more at patreon.com/overduepod

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Just like Bella can't resist her vampire beau Edward, we couldn't resist returning to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. So we sharpened our fangs and grew out our wolfbeards for a lengthy discussion of the second book in the series, New Moon.

We bemoan the dearth of quality humans in Bella's life. We discuss our #TeamJacob leanings despite some concerns about his "Nice Guy" persistence. And we express our frustration with a book that doesn't WANT to be a metaphor for power dynamics despite being about a teenage girl DEALING WITH SUPERNATURAL MONSTER BOYS.

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What can be said about Thomas Pynchon's postmodern classic Gravity's Rainbow? Well, it's nearly a thousand pages long so what CAN'T be said, am I right??

Join us for a slightly longer than normal conversation about sexual antics, post-war war machines, and the difficulty of Difficult Books About Difficult Men.

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Louis L'Amour's The Walking Drum, a historical novel set circa the 12th century in Europe and the Middle East, is less concerned with being an adventure story and more concerned with telling the reader about worlds that are different from their own. Mathurin Kerbouchard isn't always the most complex character, but the things he learns, the places he goes, and the people he meets all come together to form a novel that evokes American Westerns but is set far away from the American West.

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How far would YOU go for your kids? asks Craig DiLouie in Suffer the Children. Would you listen to a whole podcast about KIDS WHO EAT BLOOD?!

This episode was recorded live over the Internet with some of our Patreon supporters in the audience. Find out more about our Patreon project at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Johnny Tremain is sort of Revolutionary War fan-fiction and sort of World War II propaganda, but it nevertheless remains a part of the canon because it shows us a side of these characters that most elementary school history books exclude. Natasha from the Unspoiled podcast joins us for a journey through this occasionally extremely violent childhood classic.

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If you want to relive the 2008 financial crisis, this is the book for you! Behold the Dreamers is the story of the crash through the eyes of immigrants who work for bankers, but Imbolo Mbue resists making any individual character into a hero or villain. That might not always be satisfying, but it makes for a more nuanced story.

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NOTE: This episode does contain explicit language.

Welcome back to our good friends Margaret and Sophie! They're here to tell you all about Erich Segal's classic tearjerker Love Story. Get ready to hear about tears, jerks, and unfortunate fate of the original cool girl.

Other talking points include: saying you're sorry, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and preposterous privilege.

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This week we solve a mystery with the Hardy Boys, the indistinguishable sons of a famous detective. They’ll conquer men in wigs, slightly worse detectives, and Hobo Johnny on their way to earning a thousand bucks. Good night!

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The Diary of a Young Girl, frequently referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, chronicles the author's time hiding with her family during the German occupation of Amsterdam in the 1940s. It's also a shockingly personal account of a young woman's quest for self-knowledge. Anne shows remarkable candor as she battles to be her best self while enduring the most trying of circumstances.

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Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad is slave fiction with just a hint of magical realism mixed in to heighten the stakes. Whitehead uses a slightly fluid sense of time and location to better highlight the links between the institution of slavery and race in America throughout its history.

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The experiment continues! It's the show-within-a-show where we read Emily Wilson's new translation of The Odyssey a few books at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than they do about most books.

These episodes cover Books 4-7 of The Odyssey. First, Telemachus gets oiled up and talks to some more people about his dad, and the gods finally free Odysseus from his long torment. But he'll make it home now, probably! Probably. Then we chill with Odysseus as he meets the lovely Phaeacians.

Remember, some Patreon supporters get these episodes early every month. Find out more at patreon.com/overduepod

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You may remember Dennis Lehane's 2001 novel Mystic River from the award-winning 2003 film of the same name. What elevates this murder mystery from other crime procedurals is its attention to human detail, its exploration of our collective moral failings and how they intersect.

LISTENER BEWARE: We do spoil the heck out of the ending so that we can get into a conversation about youth violence and the American cultural conversation about guns. Unless you're just DYING to read it, we think you should press ahead and enjoy the episode. We even have fun talking about Mystic Pizza and Boston!

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Just what the heck is a Ya-Ya, anyway?? We tackle this and other topics—including physical abuse, parenthood, midlife crises, and other topics we have little-to-no direct experience with—as we cover Rebecca Wells' best-known novel.

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V.E. Schwab's popular Shades of Magic series started with this novel about Kell, a magic man with a magic jacket, and Lila, a thief who dreams of becoming a pirate. They're brought together against forces conspiring to destroy *multiple* Londons, and their journey is one of power, blood magic, and hidden potential.

Talking points include Multiple Clevelands, elemental magics, powerful bloodlines, and how to snag that million dollar podcast deal.

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This week's episode on Brian Jacques' Redwall was recorded live at the 6th Annual Philadelphia Podcast Festival. Thanks to everyone who was able to join us and to the festival for having us back!

We hope you enjoy our wide-ranging discussion about this animal adventure, which includes a quiz about GWAR, good mice and bad rats, the questionable size of ANYTHING, and how badly we stan for Constance the Badger.

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You know Aristotle, the Greek philosopher from the 4th century BCE? What if he was a detective who helped solve mysteries? That's exactly what's going on in Margaret Doody's 1978 novel Aristotle Detective. 

This episode was recorded live over the Internet with some of our Patreon supporters in the audience. Find out more about our Patreon project at patreon.com/overduepod.

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We didn’t plan to discuss Cristina Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans during a particularly fraught period in the United States’ immigration debate. But if this book or our discussion can help anyone develop more empathy for those who come to the US from elsewhere, it will have done its job (or one of its jobs, anyway). 

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What was it about the first Mistborn book that netted Brandon Sanderson a job wrapping up the Wheel of Time series? That's the central question we attempt to answer in our discussion of Brando Sando's acclaimed novel.

Join us for a discussion of allomancy, burning orange soda, fantasy heists, self-help magicians and more.

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Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke’s first successful novel, starts as a story about a surprisingly chill (if mysterious) alien invasion, but eventually it’s also about the end of the human race. It’s not the aliens’ fault, for once! But they’re definitely, you know, AROUND for it. 

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Margaret Craven's 1967 novel I Heard the Owl Call My Name is about a young Anglican vicar's work with a First Nations parish in British Columbia. The simplistic tale centers on the problems facing a culture at risk of disappearing and the work of those who fight to save it.

Talking points include white saviors, romanticized myths, and a run of tree puns that will leaf you breathless.

ALSO: Come see us in Philly on June 23rd! Tickets available at bit.ly/overdue2018.

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Welcome to a new experiment! For this new show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew will be reading Emily Wilson's new translation of The Odyssey a book at a time and having a more in-depth chat about it than they do about most books.

Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption. First you'll hear our introduction to the show (and the translation) and our chat about Book 1. Then our journey across the wine-dark sea continues with our episode on Books 2 & 3. Talking points for that one include rowdy town council meetings, Athena's god moments, and Poseidon slash-fiction.

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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What would you do if you could suddenly zap someone with an electrical charge? What would you do if someone you knew could do it, but you couldn't? What would you do if the world got flipped entirely upside down because said electrical power inverted the world's power dynamics? Well, you're about to find out!

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We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our 300th episode than with a *biting* discussion of Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster hit Twilight.

Will klutzy cipher Bella Swan and perfect baseballboy Edward Cullen make it? Can you practice abstinence in the world that gave rise to Fifty Shades? And when you become a vampire, does it make you HOT?

Find the answers to these questions and more in our tricentennial extravaganza!

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We head back to the Choose Your Own Adventure well this week to solve some rock and roll mysteries - will we get brainwashed by a cult? Will we save rock and roll? You'll have to listen to find out!

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If your kid's all strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? PIGGLE-WIGGLE!

Betty MacDonald's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series chronicles a kindly magical lady as she helps all manner of parents with all manner of difficult children. Won't bathe? Make them a garden! Won't share? Make them a pariah!

Join us as we celebrate Children's Book Week 2: A Podcast and share our concerns about parenting in the magical 1940s.

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For April, we covered W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz, a dense yet moving novel about a man discovering his stolen past. The book's themes get a little heavy at times, but thankfully our rowdy chat is always ready to help lighten the mood. Talking points include death by pun, stolen time, and Craig's "real" name.

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Who better to help us discuss Grace Metalious' 1956 novel about small-town scandal than a couple of Big Apple librarians like Gwen Glazer and Frank Collerius?

Our friends from The Librarian Is In were in Philly, so we invited them over for an uncut discussion of misbehaving teens, skeletons in cellars, and...jimmy caps.

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Kezia Saint Martin is an unwilling heiress, a woman who uses multiple pseudonyms so she can do the work she loves. Lucas John is a paroled convict, a strapping Patrick Warburton type who fights for reform in the prison system. Danielle Steel's 1977 novel Passion's Promise shows us how these two unexpected lovers are both alike: the prison of society's expectations is literally the same as actual prison!

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"I read a book one day and my whole life changed," opens Orhan Pamuk's best-selling novel The New Life. Like much of Pamuk's work, The New Life dives deep into how art helps and hinders our efforts to process the world, drawing specifically on the tensions of the East-West dichotomy.

Other talking points include dangerous buses, life-changing books, and in-fiction fiction.

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Put another quarter in the coin slot folks, because it's time to talk about Ernest Cline's Ready Player One. Topics include bad fan culture, the narrowness of the characters' "exhaustive" knowledge of 80s popular culture, and why the critical response to this book has shifted so much in just a few short years.

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Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mystery series stars Kinsey Millhone, a no-nonsense private eye operating in California. "A" is for Alibi is the first book for feature Kinsey, so we spend much of the episode talking about how it sets up the series and how Kinsey fits into the pantheon of crime fiction protagonists. Also, Andrew comes up with his OWN alphabetic mysteries.

This podcast cannot be used for evidence in a court of law.

PLUS: We updated our Patreon project! Check it out: patreon.com/overduepod

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