Mid Lit

It's all right there in the title, folks! Celeste Ng's debut novel, "Everything I Never Told You," is about all the things that go unsaid in a family... and ruin the relationships as a result. The kids. The parents. The siblings. No one is talking in the Lee household! Is this kind of poor communication still a thing? Find out in our latest episode, with special guest Mel Geter from the Curlyyop Reads Booktube. 

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Mid Lit is back for Season 2, and we're jumping into a book that burns the house down, literally... In Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" you know from the very beginning that the Richardson family will lose it all by the end of the book, you just aren't sure why or how. We'll talk about motherhood, the 90s, and whether or not it's OK to ever steal a baby. Also, is this chick-lit? You decide.

Want to read along? Check out our book list and get a copy of your own. 

Have you ever wondered what it's like to live with someone who is obsessed with Volvos, doesn't trust anyone who can't drive a stick, and yells about the Undertoad all the time because of a two-decade-long obsession with John Irving? Well, here's your chance to find out. In this mini-episode, Theresa interrogates her other half about that time she made him listen to "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and whether or not he thinks she is more or less obsessed with Owen than she is with "Gilmore Girls." Oh, and you'll learn how they ended up with an armadillo in their living room. 

It's time for another mini-episode, and this time we're tackling an author we think is overrated. Jonathan Franzen has received heaps of praise, prestigious awards, and plenty of backlash from women who aren't feeling the current de facto leader of the "Dude Writers." We compare Jenny Fields to Patty from "Freedom" and discuss why we'll take a pill-popping Jack Kerouac over bird-watching Franzen. But it wouldn't be a Mid Lit episode if we didn't explore some wild tangents. So please tune in to learn why we might be buying Jonathan Franzen's next book despite having no desire to actually read it (hint: it has to do with Colin McEnroe and neti pots) and how we end up talking about Kurt Vonnegut, Jennifer Weiner, Joyce Carol Oates, and a tiny restaurant on the cape called Jack's Outback where all the literati and Jim Chapdelaine used to go to be abused by the staff. 

She was a crotchety southern belle with a problematic history and love of the grotesque, but Flannery O'Connor made us laugh. Join us for a quick talk about "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find," arguably O'Connor's most famous works. Is there a little bit of Hulga in you? Do you find yourself sympathizing with the Misfit instead of that annoying family? Then you've come to the right place. Tune in to take a dive into the Southern Gothic world of Flannery O'Connor. And check out our Freethinking Women list on Bookshop.org.

You can't talk about Mid Lit without talking about Stephen King. "The Stand" is a King classic, but only a sadist would ask a guest to read that weighty tome. Instead, we asked Kevin Flynn from "Crime Writers On" and "These Are Their Stories: The Law & Order Podcast" to spend roughly 9 hours of his life watching the latest mini-series based on the book and then chat with us about his thoughts and feelings. Take a deep dive into the perplexing economy of New Vegas and ponder the mystery of the new ending and why King took this opportunity to double-down on the problematic Mother Abagail character. 

We've come to the end of Season 1, but before we set the bears free forever, we have some great personal John Irving stories to share. From one friend's profound experience with a John Irving commencement speech to writer Rand Cooper's bromance with Irving that spans two continents and at least a decade. (Salman Rushdie and Erica Jong also make cameos!) Theresa and Rebecca also get into everything from their favorite characters to which book Rebecca should read next. And there are plenty of tangents to be explored, so don't miss a minute.

The World According to Garp was a huge hit way back in the early 80s. People went to the theaters in droves to see Robin Williams in a wrestling uniform. But one of our special guests got to hop on a boat and head to the set of the film long before anyone else saw the movie. Hear all about Colin McEnroe's trip to the movie set, why Carolyn Paine felt the presence of the undertoad all through the film, and why Jim Chapdelaine will only watch basketball these days. 

The World According to Garp changes John Irving's life, turning him into a full-time writer and best-selling author. This book was, perhaps, ahead of its time, even if Irving worried that his novel about "sexual hatred" (or the politics of sex, sexuality, and gender) would be outdated by the time it came out. Sadly, it's more relevant than ever, but that doesn't mean Garp didn't have an impact on the world. Tune in to hear from Colin McEnroe, host of WNPR's Colin McEnroe Show, and rockstar Jim Chapdelaine, to hear about how they felt about Garp when the book came out and how they feel about it now. 

Rob Lowe. Jodie Foster. Beau Bridges. Tiny baby Seth Green.  With a cast like that it had to be a hit, right? Not quite. Apparently, the American public didn't embrace Susie the Bear and Sorrow the taxidermied dog in this film adaptation of John Irving's novel. Tune in to find out what our resident movie critic Carolyn Paine thinks of this movie that Rob Lowe thought would be "his Dirty Dancing" (shut your mouth, Rob Lowe... there's only one Swayze and only one Johnny Castle). Be prepared for bears...lots of them.