Literal Neighbors

This week, we read Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, a multigenerational story that (episode spoiler ahead!) one reviewer thinks we get way too intimate with. We ruminate over the mafia, discuss caring for permanently injured family members, plan for our summer break, and we even eventually remember the format of our own show!

This week, we read Kirsten Miller's The Women of Wild Hill, and this is a rare occasion where both the one- and five-star reviews make the book sound equally appealing. We're also discussing the housekeeping tactics of ghosts and wondering if they have a skincare routine, or a "GRWM while I inspire generations to take down the patriarchy and billionaire class" that we can check out.

This week, we're digesting Herman Koch's The Dinner, and we're just wondering exactly how long a Dutch dinner is. Long enough for some field trips, flashbacks, and lots of pinky-pointing, and after all that, we aren't entirely sure what we ate.

This week, we read Esi Edugyan's Washington Black, and if you've ever thought that stories about enslaved boys in the 1800s really needed some more scenes of the Arctic circle, we have great news for you. We're diving (see what we did there?) into some of the emotions and growth our main character experiences, debating some choices some characters make, and wondering what can be in store for this guy since we leave him at the ripe old age of (checks notes)...18.

Listen, some people can get a burger when they were expecting pizza and still really, really enjoy the burger. Some people will have pizza or nothing. So if you pick up this 'lesbian vampire drama' and expect to have something extra spicy delivered, but instead you end up with a juicy, pg-13 burger -- you should give it a shot. And by burger, we mean this week's read, V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil. And by PG-13, we mean 'scenes that you'll be terribly embarrassed by if your kids accidentally hear'.

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang has some surprises in it, but perhaps the biggest surprises are our coverage of math and spelling this week. We're also discussing the amenities in our recording space, surprising displays of affection, a bit about how we'd handle that #sponcon life, and who our last phone calls would be -- or if we'd even intended to make them at all.

This week we revisited old friend of the pod Gabrielle Zevin, and read The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. This book has us learning New England geography, some music history, and a little bit about the Marvel universe, all while we sing the praises of good chocolate and the merits of sending your neighbor home when they've had too much sugar and caffeine.

This week we're talking about Lisa Ko's The Leavers, work mistakes, being too silly, and the merits of layered tops. We'll meander through our thoughts about this book and the characters, their actions (or lack thereof), and their reasoning, and we'll top it all off with some talk about the thrilling world of being an adult with an extra day off.

Come sit by the fountain, we need to bestow our thoughts onto you about Allan Levi's Theo of Golden. We're going to sketch out our feelings about it for you, and we ain't holding back, so grab a cup of the best coffee ever and get ready.

This week, we read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, and we are really digging around for some levity, so we really want to point out that greeting people across a large space with your hands raised in a "W" was probably never actually cool. Coates' short read framed as writing to his son gives us plenty to talk about and, somehow, a refreshing lack of optimism.