This week: a non-fiction book that sometimes reads a lot like fiction, The Orchid Thief is only a little about the titular thief and a LOT about Florida and its history and its denizens. Plus, "orchidelirium," the part of the 19th century where the English aristocracy would just go wild for these bad boys.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Mamma Mia! Let's-a go back to the 1990s and discuss Todd Strasser's novelization of the 1993 film adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. videogame franchise. It all makes about as much sense as the sentence you just read!

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Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This novel about a wizarding school and its teen magicians feels like the finale of a series that you've heard about but haven't read. Which is...sort of the point? Born out of an in-universe work of fan fiction from a different Rowell novel, Carry On provides a great opportunity to dig into what helps a story inspired by another story succeed.

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Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Several People Are Typing was mostly written pre-pandemic but failed to garner publisher interest until a virus locked us all inside our homes with nothing to turn to but our jobs and our friend-Slacks. It manages to perfectly encapsulate what it feels like to use Slack for anything, with a dash of creepypasta for good measure.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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To celebrate this year's Children's Book Week, we decided to discuss the work of children's author and illustrator Sandra Boynton, whose board books we both have and which are well known for their fun illustrations and whimsical poetry. Since they're each pretty short we decided to talk about a bunch of them, including:

1. Doggies
2. Dinosaur Dance!
3. Barnyard Dance!
4. Pajama Time!
5. Blue Hat, Green Hat
6. Moo, Baa, La La La!
7. The Going to Bed Book

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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We're talking about candy for the second week in a row, but this time the candy is literal, and the building is a factory and not a house. Willy Wonka is a mad candy scientist who flouts labor regulations and inflicts misery on children he deems insufficiently deserving. It's a fantabulous, scrumdiddlyumptious romp!

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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It only took 500-or-so episodes to revisit the world of Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. We did, of course, have to wait for Egan to write her sequel (sort of) novel. This follow-up to a post-postmodern classic is focused on memories (digital and otherwise) and relationships (virtual and otherwise). It's got "what if the Meta but for everyone's memories" okay??

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week's book is all about duality: science against magic, love vs. hurt, book about middle school alienation and also near-future climate apocalypse. And also there are birds! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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This week, Vanessa Zoltan from the podcasts Harry Potter & the Sacred Text and Hot & Bothered joins us to chat about Sally Rooney, her 2018 novel Normal People, our approaches to reading, and what it felt like when email really meant something.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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O podcast! O books! O episodes about hard-scrabble immigrants eking out an existence on tough Nebraska land. Cather's work - rich in memorable prose and compelling characters - could stand to be better known, but it still has blind spots common in American frontier fiction.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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