This week’s episode features a new occasional segment tentatively called “Letters to the Editors” (help us come up with something better!). So click play and tune in as we give the floor to a few listeners who disagree with us . . . and then let conversation flow, of course. Happy listening!

This week on the show, Sean is forced to confront some . . . questions . . . about The Warden presented by David and Heidi (and David suggest a narrative theory that is definitely worth taking seriously). Happy listening!

Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to ensure we can keep on making the content you value.

Welcome to conversations on a new book, which is in a genre we seem to turn to at least once a year: a novel about (or from the perspective) of a clergyman. We’ve done books on Catholic priests, country ministers, Orthodox monks, and others. In Anthony Trollope’s The Warden, we encounter a warden that is connected to the Church of England and who is thus caught between two sides in a war of Victorian Social Justice. So join in as we kick off this series by discussing it’s representation of competing duties pitted against each other, what makes the warden a compelling protagonist, and Trollope’s approach. Happy listening!

Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a subscriber to make sure we can keep producing the content you value.

It’s Q&A time! This week David, Heidi, and Sean discuss the end of Wodehouse’s Summer Lightning, then dig into some listener questions. Topics of conversation include Shakespeare’s influence on Wodehouse, his “formula", and much more. Happy listening!

Up next: The Warden, chapters 1-5

Welcome back to Wodehouse Wintertime here at Close Reads, where David, Heidi, and Sean are discussing Summer Lightning. And in this episode—after sharing some favorite passages—conversation gets into how to discuss and think about a writer like Wodehouse on a podcast that takes reading seriously. Happy listening!

It’s Wodehouse season here at Close Reads! Kick off 2024 by joining David, Heidi, and Sean for a deep dive into the world of Blandings Castle—of scorned lovers, scorned aunts, and scorned appetites; of best-laid plans and foiled plots; of butlers and bad actors and bumbling misanthropes. Live, laugh, love, or whatever. Happy reading and happy new year!

Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber so we can keep on making the content you love.

In our final episode of 2023 David, Heidi, and Tim attempt to answer your questions about Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Happy listening—and Happy New Year!

Billy Wilder’s The Apartment is one of the great holiday movies, one of the great romantic comedies, and one of the great screenplays, so here at the end of the year we offer up our favorite film to watch between Christmas and New Years. We’re making this one available to all, so we hope you enjoy—listening-wise. Happy new year!

Our annual holiday tradition is back! Join us we share our respective top five favorite reading experiences of the year. Some of them are new books, some are classics read with a fresh perspective (or for the first time), but all of them are the kind of books we are excited to discuss and share. And we hope this episode adds to your Christmas cheer during this delightful (but busy) weekend. Merry Christmas from all of us at Close Reads!

Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. If you like what we’re up to, please consider becoming a subscriber.

As we come to the end of China Achebe’s novel, we’re discussing whether it ends in a satisfying fashion, contemplating the POV shift in the final chapter, and thinking about the complex role of both the Church and the civil authorities that infiltrate the villages as the story comes to an end.

Next week: We share our favorites reading experiences of 2023!

Close Reads is a community-supported endeavor. If you like what we’re up to and find it valuable in some way, please consider subscribing so we can keep on making the content you enjoy.