Close Reads Podcast

Welcome back to our discussion of Emily St. John Mandel’s award-winning, best-selling contemporary novel, Station Eleven.

Topics of conversation on this first episode include:

* the winding way in which the book reveals itself

* the moral universe (and telos) that the book seems to be setting forth

* Mandel’s unique ability to craft characters which seem alive

* and much, much more.

Happy listening!

Welcome to a new series here on Close Reads, in which we’re digging into Emily St. John Mandel’s award-winning, best-selling contemporary novel, Station Eleven, a book which became eerily prescient during peak Covid days. Topics of conversation on this first episode include:

* the experience of reading a book which fictionalized events which almost seemed to actually have happened (sort of) . . .

* why this novel was so popular (including during Covid lockdowns)

* the parallels between the events of the play within the book and the events of the book itself

* and much more

Happy listening!

Close Reads Podcast HQ is a community-supported endeavor. If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to ensure we can keep making the content you enjoy.

As is our custom here on Close Reads, we’re concluding this series on Francois Mauriac’s Vipers’ Tangle by answering some of your questions. We talk about Mauriac’s bibliography and biography, conversion stories in literature, Louis’ evolving heart, and much more! Thanks for tuning in and happy listening!

Now that we’ve read all of Mauriac’s Vipers’ Tangle, we can discuss the details. So in this episode, we dig into the degree to which we can trust the narrator as the novel goes on, the degree to which his children are malicious, and the degree to which he’s truly changed/saved in the end. And so much more. Happy listening!

Flannery O’Connor’s fiction has been described as “gothic,” “violent,” “unsentimental,” even “grotesque.” Yet it is also often described as funny. How can both be true? Well in this episode the whole gang is back together to discuss that very question during a live recording that took place at our recent “Close Reads on the Road” event in Concord, NC. So join us as we explore O’Connor’s famous story, “Good Country People” and try to ascertain where the humor in her work comes from and why it matters. Happy listening!

Close Reads Podcast HQ is a community-supported endeavor. If you like what you hear, please consider subscribing.

Welcome back to Close Reads. This week we’re discussing the way Vipers’ Tangle shift gears in this section and what it means for our understanding of the characters, the goals of the book, and our interaction with it. Plus: lots of conversation about Isa and marriage. Happy reading!

Welcome back to Close Reads! This week we discuss why Vipers’ Tangle isn’t better known, the degree to which the book wants to be sympathetic with the narrator, where we’re supposed to trust his perceptions, and some areas the book might fall short of being truly great (to David, anyway). Happy listening!

This week we kick off a new book with some conversation about Sean’s obsession with Graham Greene, why books about spiritual struggle are so compelling, whether this book has an unreliable narrator, and the difference between a novelist who is Catholic and a Catholic who is a novelist. Happy listening!

You had questions about Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont—we have answers. Thanks so much for participating in this series of this episodes and happy listening!

The reading list for 2025 is officially official! After a lively nominating season and much debate (which you can hear in this episode), we have chosen nine books to discuss next year. We’re heavy on classics this year, by design—and we’re going to take our time as we read them.

If you’d like to hear how these books came to be chosen (and the books that didn’t quite make the cut), click that “play'“ button to check our “Great Winnowing” conversation. Here’s to a great year of reading together!

A few notes:

* You can click here buy these books through Goldberry Books.

* The complete schedule, with dates and number of weeks per book, will be relased later this year. We do not yet know the order in which we will read them (including which will be read first).

* The first subscriber-exclusive book for 2025 will be The Betrothed, an Italian novel by Alessandro Manzoni. We will announce the second title soon.

* The titles in our monthly series on mystery fiction will be announced in early October

Happy listening!