Literary Guise: A Book Club for Modern Men

In this special episode, we move the discussion out of the Stardust Lounge and into the soulless void of a podcast studio... mostly to address the first three seasons' alcohol budget imbalance. We share our thoughts about the New York Times "Best Books of the 21st Century." A list which includes works by Alison Bechdel and Cormac McCarthy. (Does McCarthy PASS the Bechdel test? The answer will not surprise you.) We talk a lot about the books we've read, admit to the books we shamefully have not, and nitpick the list based on odd, arbitrary fixations we've developed over years of reading  books and then podcasting about them... but by now you would expect nothing less. 

We talk about our favorite reads in 2023 and the conversations they inspired. We discuss changes (Gordon in NYC, Zac in lawful marriage) and brainstorm tentative plans for the future of the podcast. We speculate why no one listened to our Death Wish episode (an episode no one asked for and certainly no one wanted), congratulate ourselves on some truly stellar book choices and some well received readings, and inevitably go off on tangents about Hitchcock, Steven Seagal being an absolute joke of a man, and ABC's 1991 sitcom "Dinosaurs." See if you can also catch our subtle tribute to the film, "Clue."
We'll be taking a hiatus while we discuss the future and hope you'll stick with us down the road.

...Literary Guise Will Return!

25+ years of friendship, 3 years of co-hosting a podcast, and we finally reached the pinnacle of the craft when it comes to literary conversation: that is to say, talking about a book without really talking much about the book. We close out our third season with one of the Great American Novels-- and true to Fitzgerald's artistic vision, we use the boozy shenanigans of Jay, Nick, Daisy, Tom, Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, et al as a jumping off point for  conversations about the human condition and the state of the American dream. At least that's how we hope it turned out... there were many martinis involved. Or to put it another way: our boats were against the current, but we beat on, born back ceaselessly into gin-fueled talents. 

As a man, how often do you think about... The Civil War? Well, if you've joined us on this season three book club, the answer is likely often. Join us as we discuss the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic from author Michael Shaara, about the generals of Gettysburg and the brooding, emo moods that define them

A dramatic reading of a Halloween classic from the father of the short story, the inventory of horror, and the progenitor of the modern mystery! He also married his cousin and  died wearing another man's clothes for some mysterious reason... Edgar Allan Poe did it all

The Maltese Falcon! The Thin Man! Nick and Nora Charles, Sam Spade, The Continental Op... even Noir as a genre... so much greatness to come out of one author with such a small, but refined, body of work. Join us as we fanboy more than usual over one of our shared favorite authors. Pour your favorite style of martini into a Nick and Nora glass, and read along with us as we cover Red Harvest, Maltese Falcon, Glass Key, and The Thin Man... along with drunken asides about 1970s "Trop Rock" legend Bertie Higgins who we recently became obsessed with after watching him chain-smoke his way through all his videos. What does he have in common with the architect of the modern mystery? Perhaps that's the greatest mystery of them all (spoiler: it's just lots of drinking.)

We've caved under our own pressure for content and a few too many boozy Manhattans... here's our contribution to the ubiquitous world of ranked lists on the internet: the literary men we admire most. (It's only 10 because we'd be hard pressed to even name 15... virtue, integrity, and general self-awareness typically don't make for interesting characters). But these 10 are awesome and interesting in their own way! Enjoy!

How much can we pack into one episode? Southern race relations? Gender identity? Paragons of masculine virtue? Great literary drinking buddies? *A bonus 90 second rant on "Go Set a Watchman" WITH cursing* This episode is crammed with some of our favorite topics, suitable for our Back to School special as we both revisit this icon of American Literature. 

Wherein we discuss Death Wishes 1-5, the remake, Death Hunt, and everyone's favorite  Bronson movie, made 15 years after his passing, Death Kiss. What do these dreary, nihilistic films have to say about the role and capacity of violence in the modern man? Whatever the answer, they forgot it halfway through the plot of the original and it only went downhill from there. Join us on this love/hate exploration of 70s grit and 80s excess through everyone's favorite deadpan mustache: Charles Bronson

Another listener suggestion, giving us the chance to talk about one of the great South American writers, and indeed, one of the great writers of all-time. Why did he choose to write a Lolita clone as his swan song? Why do men struggle so much with aging? What is the best cream for rear-end itching? These questions will all be talked in one of our more challenging episodes to date.