We give the amazing chapter titles within "From Russia with Love" their due homage.
We rank the movie Bonds.
We finish our Martinis.
We do just about everything BUT talk about the plot. Because, well... Bond got homophobic. But at least homosexuality is being addressed in the 1950s? Maybe that's progress??

This concludes our 4 episode series on James Bond...

But...

Literary Guise Will Return.

Trigger Warning! (No, not the name of the next Bond movie) It was bound to happen, but this novel from the 1950s gets racist and sexist, who knew? We tackle some of the problematic sections of Fleming's novel head-on and examine what our responsibility as men in 2021 is to combat these toxic behaviors and mentalities. But we promise it won't be a drag. Literary Guise is a place for good discourse and drinks, after all. Every novel has to be put in context with the time and place in which it was written.

Full Moon Killers! Asexual Soviet Torture Experts! Chess Champions! What won't this Bond novel throw at us? 

We continue to dissect JFK's favorite novel, Ian Fleming's "From Russia with Love." We discuss the improbability of a sex scandal really bringing down the United Kingdom (spoiler, it won't... also maybe a clue why Kennedy loved it so much?) The difference between the literary and the film Bond is explored and we delve into what it means to be a war instrument without a war to fight.

Will Bond's MeToo comeuppance take place 70 years early?  Tune-in to find out!

Bond... James Bond! We're exploring one of the Western world's premier archetypes for masculinity in Ian Fleming's "From Russia with Love."  We talk about how to properly massage an assassin, what makes a good Vesper Martini in the modern-era, and what Ian Fleming was going through when he wrote this gem. 

Did you know this was intended to be the last Bond novel? (Thank goodness it wasn't).  This was also intended to be the last episode of Literary Guise, but then we realized we had to finish the book and that we actually have a full season already produced, so I guess we will keep going, just as *spoiler* James Bond will return. 

In this episode we wrap up Amor Towles' epic and  over-indulge on drinks: which may explain the  Gremlins and Flintstone's references... but doesn't nearly go far enough to explain the highly questionable Hulk Hogan impression. 
We also answer the age-old question: In which Las Vegas Hotel would you want to raise your surrogate daughter?

Does The Count suck? Or does Zac just not understand the gentlemanly "rules of civility?" (Amor Towles call-back!) In this episode *spoiler* we're still in the hotel, but there's another relationship with a young girl that honestly isn't weird, but by now people in the Metropol are for sure talking. Also there's a gun fight, but it's told in backstory. 

This episode we talk about male agency... and caviar. Gordon talks a lot about caviar.
Convenient plot devices! Random hook-ups! Potentially problematic relationships with young girls! Part 2 of Amor Towles modern classic has it all.

Stock up on your vodka, because for the next two months we're going to Russia!
 For the month of April, we're reading Amor Towles's 2016 best-seller: "A Gentleman in Moscow." In this episode we introduce the novel and talk of great mustaches, caviar, and the Russian Revolution.
But mostly, mustaches.

"Air." We finish our exploration into the Korean War with the heartbreaking final section of James Michener's "The Bridges at Toko-Ri." We also get really excited about one scene in particular. Two Words: Catapult Room. You know we're going to talk a lot about a scene with that much razor-sharp machismo. We also discuss the feasibility of constructing a catapult room in one's own home, for the DIY man. 

"Land." We continue with our discussion of Michener's "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," tackling some serious subjects: misogyny, racism, hetero-normative thinking, the sacrifice men have been asked to make over the centuries, etc. We also talk about a bar with a flying cocktail cart and an elevator band. This episode/chapter has it all.