Laura and Madeline discuss whether Catherine Lacey tackled too much in her novel The Answers. Do her characters find "answers" to questions regarding love, relationships, chronic pain, and enlightenment?

Laura and Madeline discuss their love/hate relationships with the main characters of the novel Conversations With Friends. What does Irish author Sally Rooney have to say about love, relationships, and professional success as seen through the millennial lens?

Laura and Madeline discuss open relationships and gender dynamics in Sarah Dunn's novel The Arrangement.

Laura and Madeline discuss Marlena, the coming of age novel with a dark twist by Julie Buntin.

Madeline and Laura discuss Celeste Ng's bestseller Little Fires Everywhere. We dive into the suburban 90s, are we delighted by these vingettes, or did we feel scolded by the after-school-special tone. 

Laura and Madeline discuss Shelia Heti's work of auto-fiction, Motherhood. Is it too navel-gazey? Is it a novel-as-therapy? Or did we love the introspective, ponderous book. Listen to find out.

Laura and Madeline discuss Lionel Shriver's disturbing novel We Need to Talk About Kevin. Did the story put us off of parenthood forever, or did we find Shriver's worldview pathologically pesimisstic. 

Laura, Madeline and special guest Marty discuss Andrew Sean Grier's Pulitzer Prize winning comedic novel Less. We talk about what worked for us, what didn't and why we thought it won the Pulitzer.

Madeline and Laura discuss Tayari Jones' 'An American Marriage'. Does the emotional Oprah's Book Club pick live up to the hype? Listen as we discuss the novel which addresses an individuals encounter with the criminal justice system and the ripples that touch that person's community.

If you were told the date of your death, how would it shape your present? Laura and Madeline discuss fate, freewill, life and death while analyzing Chloe Benjamin's 2018 novel The Immortalists.