Announcing the line-up for Literary Guise: Season 3, returning March 6th.  We  also preview our new format. All our monthly novels will be tackled in one long-form episode on the 1st Monday of the month. The third Monday of the month we will reserve for dramatic readings/discussions of classic short stories, literary field trips, and general tom-foolery. 

Just two guys, in that gray twilight between Christmas and New Year's Eve, sipping Seagrams Escapes in a mostly empty bar.. talking about all the books we've read this year with you, our loyal listeners. We also talk about a book so bad that it's gotten a mention in TWO seasons' worth of recaps. 

Literary Guise will return in March with all new episodes!
And a new episode announcing our line-up (with more listener input than ever before) will be airing in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. We won't really be gone. We'll just be suffering through dry Janurary.

As an end of the year gift to ourselves and the Literary Guise community, we read one of our favorite short stories and analyze its themes over drinks at the Stardust Lounge.

One of our favorite episodes: where we get to talk about literary greats like Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, Colson Whitehead, and Amor Towles... along with discussions of masculine nature vs the reality of male nurturing. We also try to get to the bottom of why it is so important for men to navigate ventilation vents with shower rods or why it is paramountto always check your loose cash for transmitters.

"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?"
In conjunction with Cormac McCarthy's first novel released in 16 years, we're reviewing one of his all-time classics (and the brilliant Coen Bros film it inspired) "No Country for Old Men." 
The unconventional typographical choices, odd plotting, hyper-violence, and deep life philosophy inherent in its pages are all covered in this episode (along with a behind the scenes peek at which members of the podcast have mustaches and which among us have a deep appreciation for the startlingly homo-romantic Zegna commercials starring Javier Bardem and Dev Patel)

We finish up our Listeners' Choice for 2022, "All Quiet on the Western Front," on a bright note as things are looking up for our German boys in the trenches... just kidding, this novel just gets unrelentingly bleak right up until the soul-voiding ending (probably one of the most memorable closing lines in literary history). Although it does say something about the nature of humanity that we have to nearly destroy ourselves before we can begin to understand the nuance of our condition. Ugh, even that thought depressed us. Friends, we need some more cheery fare to read! What's our final book of the year? Cormac McCarthy? ...crap.

What does it say about men that it took war, in many cases, for our emotional barriers to finally breakdown? Why did it take months in a foxhole being bombarded day and night before men could form true, meaningful friendships and even express platonic love for their fellow man?
Why are the men who brag the most about patriotism and personal bravery also the men who never served during war?
And what can we do to better understand the sacrifices of those who served?
We ask these questions and far less insightful ones as we continue to explore Erich Maria Remarque's all-time classic.

Our listeners' choice for this season is one of the most famous novels of all time, the first true anti-war novel, the bleak, the unrelenting: All Quiet on the Western Front. Tune in for conversations about men in war --  a very different picture of masculinity than anything we've read before. Read along with us or watch the just released Netflix film. And if you pick up the e-reader version, you're in for a treat, as we discover mid-episode. 

We wrap up our month-long look into the career of a distinctly American author. His collected works are further summarized. Natural comparisons to another Literary Guise favorite, Chuck Palahniuk, are made. Drinks are consumed; business cards are exchanged. 

“I was never much of a fan of Literary Guise, at least not until the 31st episode of their 2nd season, a hyper-pop EDM new disco fantasia entitled, “Bret Easton Ellis: American Genius (Part 3: ‘American Psycho’)” Before that I had always found their sound a little too niche, a touch too twee. But on Part 3 they really hit their mainstream sensibility stride. The rich, sonorous baritone of Zac Kellian blends exquisitely with Gordy Macallan’s delectable wordplay and the crisp timbre of Eric Bennett’s sound mixing really brings out the ebullience of the duo’s chemistry that had always been lurking, just beneath the surface. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go return some videotapes.” —Patrick Bateman*

*Yes, we’re doing a full episode on American Psycho. The novel. The movie. The Sequel: American Psycho 2: All American Girl. Yes, there are going to be in-jokes and easter eggs galore. This is the work that solidified our nascent friendship and one that continues to inspire debate on the nature of masculinity and the best way to secure reservations at Dorsia.