our danielle chelosky module continues with pregaming grief, her first published piece of long-form writing. we talk about its ties to cheat, whether it could (canonically) be in the gossip girl universe, and how auto-fiction relates to this novel, her work as a whole, and the wider literature. we explore pregaming grief as a covid-era novel, albeit not a book about the disease itself, as well as how this informs the plot. chelosky’s description of older lovers hit a bit too close to home for us. we talk about her ability to write characters without condemning them (but in a way the reader likely will), her ability to write about a difficult state of mind, and the (limited) use of technology in this novel. shreds praise the very sudden ending. what’s blake middleton been up to? we wonder.

reading list for season fifteen

cheat and show me your face by danielle chelosky
pregaming grief by danielle chelosky
baby bruise and female loneliness epidemic by danielle chelosky

our danielle chelosky module kicks off with a pair of chapbooks that she self-published: cheat and show me your face. (it’s our first-ever “two books in one podcast” episode, and we do our best to keep ’em separated.) we talk about how both titles are very sexual and sexualized, but almost devoid of joy and not at all sexy, by design. we explore the similar content told in two very different styles/formats (plus the mixed media found in show me your face), how one text is technology-agnostic (while the other much more “of the time”), and how people of a certain generation learned to write through sites like livejournal and xanga. we talk about putting a version of you (that isn’t really you) online and how elements learned in show me your face make cheat more sad in retrospect. egg writes in to share similar (yet totally opposite) experiences. we imagine how inspiring and empowering it must have been to be a young writer in nyc around 2012. what would happen if chelosky added a kaiju to this narrative? we discuss.

reading list for season fifteen

cheat and show me your face by danielle chelosky
pregaming grief by danielle chelosky
baby bruise and female loneliness epidemic by danielle chelosky

we’ve done it. we’ve closed the big account, ghostbusters-style, and landed another author focus module. this time, we’re talking about the work of danielle chelosky. we discuss other authors whom we’ve spoken with who have praised her work and what we believe we can expect from her work. shreds describes how we will put together questions for her to answer.

reading list for season fifteen

cheat and show me your face by danielle chelosky
pregaming grief by danielle chelosky
baby bruise by danielle chelosky

we’re closing out our ohio module with ohio by stephen markley, who honored us by naming this book after our module. we talk about the impact of the title and writing about where you’re from, how the deluge serves as somewhat of a retroactive pre-read for this book, and how markley is one of the best social realist authors of our time. we talk about what the end suggests and why it “must” end this way, as well as markley’s ability to create characters (especially ones who are morally unclear), whether this text could exist about its flashbacks, and the different segments reading as different forms of genre fiction. shreds breaks down the maurice claurett reference, joey shares some final ohio facts, and we get a new author pitch via email. we look back at the ohio module that was.

reading list for season fourteen

the bluest eye by toni morrison

omensetter’s luck by william gass

outside in by doug cooper

ohio by stephen markley

our ohio module continues with outside in by doug cooper and some “ohio facts” (island facts?) about the town of put-in-bay. after learning about island culture in ohio — we want to go so bad — we talk about an inciting incident that the novel does not reflect on at all, how shep shows no signs of darkness at all (and no flaws), and our issues with dialogue and the female characters in the novel. we explore the q&a found at the end of the text, as well as the noticeable lack of editors. is “the name game” really transgressive? shreds talks about what this novel has in common with 1980s comedies, then makes a twin peaks connection. we compare outside in to bret easton ellis’s less than zero, and we look at doug cooper’s other novels. producer meg “the egg” writes in a damning email.

reading list for season fourteen

the bluest eye by toni morrison

omensetter’s luck by william gass

outside in by doug cooper

ohio by stephen markley

our ohio module keeps on truckin’ with both a pop quiz about the state and a discussion of omensetter’s luck by william gass. we talk about the difficulty in reading the novel (and how the first two sections sort of fake you out a bit), what william gass is “doing” in this text, and why regional writing tends to be set back in time. shreds explains why the novel made him feel unbearably sad and hopeless — and how surprised he was by the way gass’s life turned out. we discuss the afterward (and whether or not it’s true) and how william gass (among others, including authors we have already read like john barth) pushed the postmodern genre forward. we talk about casting an adaptation and create an ambitious new module idea, because why would we ever want to do anything the easy way?

reading list for season fourteen

the bluest eye by toni morrison
omensetter’s luck by william gass
outside in by doug cooper
ohio by stephen markley

our ohio module kicks off with a known quantity: the undeniably great debut novel from toni morrison, the bluest eye. after briefly reflecting on the states so far, we talk about famous people from ohio as well as whether the bluest eye feels specific to ohio. we talk about its thematic ties to ryan coogler’s sinners, as well as the text’s generational trauma and its characters who can afford to be nice. why isn’t joey bothered when his least favorite trope in movie-making pops up in books? we discuss. we admire toni morrison’s mastery of dialogue — especially kid dialogue, as well as kid behavior. we talk about her writing this novel from the perspective of an editor and the merits of introducing great literature to high school students (even if it’s lost on them). egg writes in a great email.

reading list for season fourteen

the bluest eye by toni morrison

omensetter’s luck by william gass

outside in by doug cooper

ohio by stephen markley

it’s time for another card drawing on lottery pod, and even though we don’t say it in this episode: suck shit, sufjan stevens. after we struggle to remember which states we’ve already covered, we make picks and predictions for both the states that we’re most excited about and the states we think will come up in the drawing. (spoiler: shreds is almost right.) we figure out what we’re reading. shreds recaps fantasy baseball news from eight months ago. (note: after recording this episode, we decided to swap in the bluest eye by toni morrison for beloved.)

reading list for season fourteen

the bluest eye by toni morrison

omensetter’s luck by william gass

outside in by doug cooper

ohio by stephen markley

we’re closing out our second-person module with one of our strongest books yet: open water by caleb azumah nelson. after talking about the pitt (and the mount rushmore of tv), we talk about the lack of irony in open water and the way its naturalistic style makes you forget it’s written in second-person. we talk about the way nelson writes about media (and how it feels like a barry jenkins movie), how good he is at describing music, and the good lineage of books with “water” in the title. we ask: what would this be like if it was set in the u.s.? we admire the amazing circumstance of the main characters’ meeting, how glad we are at what this book did NOT become, and the shortcut nelson uses to existing art (and the intertextuality it has with other modern media). would this make a good movie? we reflect back on the mixed bag of a module.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson

our penultimate book in the “you” module is a man asleep by georges perec, which is a return to form as it’s once again french as hell. we talk about how it compares to suicide by édouard levé and the malady of death by marguerite duras, as well as the refreshing nature of variation in the module. shreds talks about the other short story in the collection (things) and the act of lucid dreaming. we discuss perec describing the act of playing solitaire, whether the end is a call to action (or defeatist), and life as a street performer. shreds talks about bosho’s hakus (and how different “english haikus” are), and then he predicts the title of elif batuman’s next novel.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson