Emily and Michael are two old friends who want to know: What have you read lately?... more
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Dear Reader episodes:
September 04, 202011. W, or The Memory of Childhood / Trust Exercise. Michael struggles with an unconventional mashup of holocaust memoir and
sports-based dystopia in Georges Perec’s W, or The Memory ofChildhood, while Emily is captivated by the sexualpolitics of Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise, yetfrustrated by its open-ended narrative. They talk about trauma, memory, agegaps in dating, and visualizing the things you read.Show Notes.Georges Perec: W, or The Memory of Childhood.
Susan Choi: Trust Exercise.
If you enjoy this podcast and are able to, please consider supporting us (and
our network) on Patreon. Thanks!...more November 28, 201910. The Innocents / French Exit. Michael is captivated by the brutality and isolation of pre-modern
Newfoundland in Michael Crummey’s TheInnocents, while Emily delights in the “tragedy ofmanners” and the woes of bored rich people fallen on hard times in PatrickdeWitt’s French Exit. They talk about puberty,death, forgiveness, the neuroses of the wealthy, and how to be friends in the21st century.Show Notes.Michael Crummey: The Innocents.
Patrick deWitt: French Exit.
Michael's bodybuilding
routine (hisshow happened!).Support Dear Reader on Patreon and chat with
us about books on our members-only Slack!...more October 17, 20199. My Sister, the Serial Killer / Middlemarch. Michael posits that George Eliot’s Middlemarch
(“the most Victorian of Victorian novels”) is the anti-Atlas Shrugged, whileEmily considers just how much thicker blood is than water with OyinkanBraithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer.They talk about sibling bonds, literary awards, adolescent reading habits, andtrying to be a good person.Show Notes.Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer.
George Eliot: Middlemarch.
The Spouter-Inn’s episode on Middlemarch
and bonus episode with Michael!Brittany Runs a Marathon
[trailer].Virginia Woolf: Orlando.
Megan Gail Coles: Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun
Club.Michael discusses Megan Gail Coles’s novel in episode
7.Michael Crummey: The Innocents.
Support Dear Reader on Patreon and chat
about books with us in a members-only Slack!...more August 26, 20198. Carrying the Fire / City of Girls. Michael joins his name-twin on the greatest adventure undertaken by humankind
and finds him companionable, warm, and wise in Carrying theFire, while Emily breaks down the walls of the“chick lit” ghetto to revel in City of Girls, asurprising story of feminine sexual liberation. They talk about utopianprojects, the curse of popularity, non-traditional chosen families, and thevalue of blending the sciences and the humanities.Show Notes.Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins.
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner.
Dear Columbia, Michael Collins’s short
personal reflection on Columbia, the command module he piloted in orbit aroundthe moon.Michael Collins narrates a Google
Doodlefor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission.Support Dear Reader on Patreon.
...more July 13, 20197. Blindness / Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club. Emily strongly recommends an encounter with the disorienting bleakness and
collapse of Nobel Laureate José Saramago’sBlindness, while Michael strongly recommends anencounter with the soul-wracking cruelty and violence of Megan Gail Coles’sSmall Game Hunting at the Local Coward GunClub. They talk about a relentless duty of careforced on women, social breakdowns, Portugal, misogyny, and vulnerability.Show Notes.Blindness by José Saramago.
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by
Megan Gail Coles.The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.
Michael’s essay At the Back of the
Closet.Agnes Ayer’s ABCs of Amazing Women by Jenny Higgins.
Support Dear Reader on Patreon and chat
about books with us on a members-only Slack....more May 31, 20196. Newfoundland Portfolio / Convenience Store Woman. Michael thinks about history and community through reading Newfoundland
Portfolio, a collection of obituaries by J.M.Sullivan, while Emily considers the abnormality of the hypernormal anddifferent ways of being happy in Sayaka Murata’s Convenience StoreWoman. They talk about Newfoundland, independentbookstores, summer reading, the service industry, and problematic attitudestoward low-prestige jobs.Show Notes.Newfoundland Portfolio: A History in Portraits by
J.M. Sullivan.Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.
Lanier Phillips, the
African-American sailor who was rescued from a shipwreck by Newfoundlanders inthe 1940s.Our twitter account
You can support Dear Reader on Patreon and
access bonus bits, a members-only Slack group, and more!...more April 30, 20195. An Artist of the Floating World / The House of the Spirits. Michael picks at the banality of evil portrayed in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An
Artist of the Floating World, while Emilydesperately wants to finish Isabel Allende’s enchanting work of magicalrealism, The House of the Spirits, but isprevented from it by living on a windswept rock in the North Atlantic. Theytalk about art that depicts difficult and unpleasant things, spoilers, moralculpability, second-guessing your tastes, and history repeating itself.Show Notes.An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
...more March 30, 20194. Kid Gloves / The Thin Place. Emily thinks the world would be a better place if everyone read Lucy Knisley’s
graphic novel account of her difficult pregnancy, KidGloves, while Michael rhapsodizes aboutexperiments in empathy and postmodern mysticism spurred on by Kathryn Davis’sThe Thin Place. They talk about myths andmisconceptions of pregnancy, pain, sex ed, medieval mysticism, and whetherreading teaches empathy.Show Notes.Kid Gloves by Lucy Knisley.
The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis.
The Dollop’s “Childbirth in
America” podcast (in part abouttwilight sleep).Lucy Knisley’s Instagram.
Judy Blume by Amanda Palmer.
...more February 26, 20193. literally show me a healthy person / The Wife. Michael found the formal experiments and wild content of Darcie Wilder’s
literally show me a healthy person to becompelling but not without knots, while Emily enjoys the nuance of MegWolitzer’s novel The Wife. They talk aboutdelayed adolescence, the unacknowledged genius of the wives of ‘great’ men,representation and appropriation, and the twitter aesthetic. Also, Dear Readerobserves Michael’s birthday!Show Notes.literally show me a healthy person by Darcie
Wilder.The Wife by Meg Wolitzer.
Transcription by Kate Atkinson.
...more February 01, 20192. The Penelopiad / Circe / The Lonesome Bodybuilder. Emily found Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad to
be a missed opportunity, especially when compared to Madeline Miller’sCirce, while Michael was delighted by YukikoMotoya’s unsettling and strange short stories in The LonesomeBodybuilder. They talk about the characters on themargins of great stories, what book to bring to the hospital, adaptating theclassics, and what to do with novellas. Emily’s new baby (hooray!) makes abrief cameo.Show Notes.The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.
Circe by Madeline Miller.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg.Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
Persuasion by Jane Austen.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Middlemarch by George Eliot.
...more
FAQs about Dear Reader:
How many episodes does Dear Reader have?
The podcast currently has 12 episodes available.