Literary Disco

On today's episode, we welcome one of our favorite authors on the podcast, George Saunders, to discuss his latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which takes a close look at seven Russian short stories and offers insight on reading and writing. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the Faraway Collection. Download now at Amazon.com/FarawayStories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod take on the year 2020 and all its glory and misery. Each of them picks the best thing they read in 2020 for the podcast and the best thing each read on their own... if they found any time to read on their own. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the Faraway Collection. Download now at Amazon.com/FarawayStories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's special holiday episode, Rider, Tod, and Julia discuss the work of storyteller and humorist Jean Shepherd, whose book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash formed the basis for the classic 1980 film A Christmas Story. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the Faraway Collection. Download now at Amazon.com/FarawayStories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, in a special parents only episode, Rider and Julia discuss the works of poet, songwriter, cartoonist, and all-around Renaissance man of children's literature, Shel Silverstein. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the Faraway Collection. Download now at Amazon.com/FarawayStories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A massive art installation in the New Mexico desert. A Manson-like cult leader whose followers barricade themselves inside. An artist plagued by guilt, and a lonely teenager with violent intentions. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss Scott O'Connor's literary thriller Zero Zone—and why the 1970s was the ideal decade for this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we embrace the melodrama, the secret, the amnesia, the surprise relative, the multiple personality disorder, the rape, the recasting, the coming back from the dead, the love, the murder, and the marriages (!), as we talk about all things soap opera with special guests Natalie Zea and Travis Schuldt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, as the election looms in America and tensions run high, Julia, Rider, and Tod talk about what they're reading that is bringing them peace, what's helping them stay calm, or at least distracting them from an incessant, terrifying news cycle. Rather than just their own ideas, they asked listeners to chime in with what they're reading for comfort -- and resulted in a whole lot of responses! Settle in with a glass of wine and try to relax with Literary Disco before November 3rd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might remember the 1979 cartoon film adaptation? Or maybe the 1999 Canadian TV series? Or the 2018 British miniseries--or maybe the play or role-playing game? Or maybe you read the original novel Watership Down, written by Richard Adams, published in 1972. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss this epic book that centers on a small group of rabbits that leave their home and roam all of a few acres to find a new warren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod read and discuss Jericho Brown's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, The Tradition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod read and discuss the essay "Hojoki: or, An Account of My Hut," written in the 13th century by the Japanese poet and essayist Kamo no Chōmei. about his time living in a ten-foot by ten-foot hut in the mountains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss book six, seven, and eight of George Eliot's Middlemarch, bringing an end to our long and oft-delayed quarantine read of this nineteenth-century masterpiece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, with another short break from Middlemarch, Julia, Rider, and Tod talk about Jenny Offill's latest novel Weather. They also discuss the beauty of the "bidet life" and the adjustment of fearing everything. This week's episode is sponsored by HelloFresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/80literarydisco and use code 80literarydisco to get a total of $80 off, including free shipping on your first box. Additional restrictions apply, please visit HelloFresh.com for more details.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The return of Literary Disco! Today, we continue our march through Middlemarch as we read the George Eliot classic and book five, The Dead Hand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod do an old-fashion bookshelf revisit where each of them take a volume for their shelves and bring it up for discussion. Julia's pick: The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel Rider's pick: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Tod's pick: Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life by John Martin Fischer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week is part four of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, in another departure from our Middlemarch read, we will read one of the new Choose Your Own Adventure books, which unlike the beloved books from the 80s, the new Choose Your Own Adventure novels are based on the lives of historical figures, except that they are all spies! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week is part three of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode, as a quick respite from our reading of Middlemarch, Julia, Rider, and Tod each present a poem to discuss. Julia presents "The Mower" by Philip Larkin; Rider presents "No worst, there is none" by Gerard Manley Hopkins; and Tod presents "Go Make Something Old" by Matthew Zapruder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week is part two of our #Quarantine read of George Eliot's long and intimidating classic novel from the nineteenth century, Middlemarch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bob Dylan released something new during the pandemic: Murder Most Foul, a seventeen-minute long song that begins with John F. Kennedy's assassination. This week, Julia, Rider, and Tod discuss the lyrics, Dylan in general, and Dylan's surprising Nobel Prize in Literature. What a trickster... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices