In celebration of National Poetry Month, singer-songwriter and poet Valerie June calls into the podcast and chats with Nick about her love of The Gift: Poems by Hafiz (Renderings by Daniel Ladinsky), the relationship between lyrics and poetry in her own work, and viewing the world through a positive lens. Additional topics include: Townes Van Zandt, time (i.e. what is it really?), and whether we humans will ever grow out of our comfort in discomfort.

Valerie has just released her new record, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, and a new collection of poetry, Maps for the Modern World. The two complement each other extremely well and just might be the medicine you need for all that ails you.

David, Nathan, and Nick continue their journey through Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, this time tackling Volume Two. Characterized by a little less war and a lot more peace, this volume offers plenty of saucy romance, costume-fueled shenanigans, and overly long hunting scenes. Listen in as we recap the many love triangles, discuss the nature of moral fiction, and reveal who most identifies with the character of Anatole.

If you are reading along with us: Do not give up the good fight! Episodes on Volume Three and Volume Four to come in May and June of 2021.

Nick chats with Jesse Cash, guitarist and vocalist of the progressive metal band ERRA, about Cormac McCarthy on this latest episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast. The book at hand is Suttree, a tale of a troubled man who has left an affluent past to live in a dilapidated houseboat and hang out in the underbelly of society. The two discuss McCarthy’s masterful use of both complex and simple sentences, the vague origin of Cornelius Suttree’s deeply embedded pain, and also whether or not an artist needs misery in order to create.

ERRA’s new self-titled record is available now via UNFD. And you can learn a thing or two about shredding by following Jesse Cash on Instagram.

David, Eric, and Nick discuss Volume 1 of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in the first of four episodes on the heaviest of heavy books.  Topics include: War and Peace as the ur-text for all war novels to come, the nature and role of translation, and how Tolstoy’s realism can be surprisingly light and humorous when dealing with dark subjects.

But the question remains: Are there more casualties on the battlefields of Schöngrabern and Austerlitz or in the soirées of Moscow and St. Petersburg? Grab a fifth of vodka, listen in, and decide for yourself.

Read along and look for episodes on War and Peace: Volumes 2 - 4 in April, May, and June 2021.

George Salis, author of Sea Above, Sun Below joins David to discuss The Satanic Verses, the controversial, exuberant, magical, and magnificent novel by Sir Salman Rushdie.

They discuss the poetry, the allusions, and the history of this "Everything" novel in their own labyrinthine and interconnected way.

Meet Alfred Brown IV, educator and vocalist of the LA hardcore punk band Dangers. He’s into Amy Hempel. Like, really into Amy Hempel. Listen in for a deep conversation covering everything from the unintended emptiness of slogan-heavy lyrics to Hempel’s short story rhythm to questioning the need to categorize any type of writing — fiction, non-fiction, memoir, et al. — as anything other than just prose.

Make sure you check out Alfred Brown IV as well as his work in Dangers and Cultural Materials. Oh, and grab a copy of that Hempel collection and signal to the world that you are most definitely on the correct wavelength.

Dear World, Kōbō Abe sees your absurdity and raises you one box! A box to live in, specifically. And a box to meld with the psyche of the inhabitant. If it’s not clear, we’re talking about Abe’s 1973 novel The Box Man, a how-to guide on how to construct your own box in which to dwell and/or a challenging narrative (or, perhaps, narratives?) on the nature of voyeurism and anonymity in modern society.

Don’t worry, it’s not quite clear to Nathan, David, and Nick either. Listen in for another rousing discussion in which the irrational becomes rational, the meaningful becomes meaningless, and the absurd becomes commonplace. Just don't expect to leave knowing who the narrator(s) is (are).

Clarice Lispector’s 1946 novel The Chandelier is the topic of fervent discussion for David, Nathan, and Nick in this latest episode. Not for the faint of heart (but perhaps for those near to wild ones), this modernist work probes a deep abyss of metaphysical questions including, but not limited to: What is anything? etc. etc.

Forever dividing a single moment of time into increasingly smaller slices of moments in time, Lispector asymptotically approaches the concept of defining a single instant and leaves the reader dizzy from attempts to tag along.  Life is beautiful, but do we expect a writer to curate this beauty or to hook us up to the firehose and come back a few days later? Even if there isn’t an answer, The Chandelier’s got enough poetic imagery and deep questions to make anyone feel something.  Just exactly what might not be clear.

On this episode of the podcast, David is joined by author and translator João Reis, author of The Translator's Bride, to talk about lovable literary scamp, the warm and cuddly and optimistic Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters: A Comedy.

They discuss the common aspects of Bernhard's style in general—a monologic riff rife with musical patterns of recursive invective as dark as it is humorous—and Old Masters in particular, which aims its hatred at, among other things: museum guides and their “art twaddle,” Russian tourists, public bathrooms, reading too much of a book, nature, newspapers, Austrian culture, the ubiquity of music, the idea of a happy childhood, crowds, teachers, housekeepers, politicians, Heidegger, Beethoven, all the old masters, and the failure of art to be nothing better than a survival skill "to cope with this world and its revolting aspects."

In this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, Nick chats with Alexis Marshall, vocalist of the noise rock band Daughters, about Jean Cocteau’s 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles (or as it is known in its English translation: The Holy Terrors). Topics of discussion include: Marshall's own approach to writing poetry and lyrics, how The Holy Terrors is a direct allegory of Cocteau’s addiction to opium, and how the atmosphere of this book is both nightmarishly dream-like and kinda like the amplified drama of a reality show.

Daughters’ latest record, You Won’t Get What You Want, is available via Ipecac Records (editor’s note: It is easily one of my favorites of the 2010s). Alexis Marshall’s new solo single Nature in Three Movements is out now. The Heartworm Reader, Vol. 1 is available today and features a few poems from Marshall (as well as a few from past guest Ross Farrar of Ceremony).

Happy reading. Happy listening. Stay surreal out there.