Table of (Mal)Contents

Dave and I are back in the studio while Barnabas is still off doing something else. So, we're joined by our friends, Nick Rynerson and James Kinnard, to talk about our reading through different seasons of life. Listen in as we discuss:

• How our reading habits grew and changed from high school through adulthood
• If teen boys will successfully impress girls by reading eastern philosophy
• Books we read in high school that we ended up liking
• What happens when a middle-schooler reads Camus
• If Bloomington counts as a suburb of Chicago
• The problem with self-appointed experts

As always, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode

Herzog by Saul Bellow

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Dune by Frank Herbert

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

Dave's back from vacation, Barnabas is off doing something else, and we're uncomfortable in the studio with a special guest: our friend Nick Rynerson. Nick is the chief creative officer at Useful Group (a digital marketing agency you'll be hearing more about in the future); more importantly he loves to read—and he adores Wendell Berry.

So we're going to talk about that.

Listen in as we discuss:

• How Nick fell in love with Wendell Berry's writing (but really doesn't want to sound like he's a stalker)
• If Barnabas is actually funny on Twitter or is it because we know his tone
• If your life has to be a hot mess to be a brilliant writer
• Why we need to recapture a sense of presence when we live so much of our lives in front of screens
• What you need to go into reading Berry's work knowing
• Why you should read physical books and not eBooks
• Who Nick wants to punch in the face as part of the Jack Reacher Sucker Punch of the Week

As always, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode

• Wendell Berry's books:
  • The Unsettling of America
  • Nathan Coulter
  • A Place on Earth
  • Jayber Crow
  • Hannah Coulter
  
  

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

The Old, Weird America by Grell Marcus (previously published as Invisible Republic)

Midnight Rising by Tony Horowitz

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson
Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

It's rabbit trails, non sequiturs, and listener questions on today's episode! Dave continues to allegedly be on vacation during this episode, leaving it to us to discuss these important issues:

• Is Cat Lady Dave played out?
• Have we ever deliberately destroyed a book?
• What are some of our favorite international authors?
• If we could write the history of or a tell-all on anything, what would it be?
• What are a few of our favorite words that sound like something else entirely?

As always, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

The books we mention (positively) on this episode

Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson

The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

It finally happened: I (Aaron) finished the book I've been struggling to read for months, and Barnabas and I decided to talk through it while Dave was on vacation. (Because that's what friends do.) Listen in to a surprisingly earnest discussion about family dynamics, what Dave's doing on vacation, and our desperate need for coffee:

• Why all of Pat Conroy's books are an emotional rollercoaster
• The risks of writing honest memoirs (even if that memoir is told as a work of fiction)
• Why it's a huge mistake to order iced coffee (or coffee in general) from Chick-Fil-A
• The difference between experiencing spoilers in books and movies
• What Stephen Ambrose captured about the character of young men in the 1940s that seems to be missing in our generation
• Which podcast blend from Lagares Coffee Roasters is the best one (hint: it's ours)
• How this podcast is saving a listener from living in squalor
• Barnabas's thoughts-and-prayers request

As always, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books discussed on this episode

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, Beach Music, South of Broad, The Death of Santini, and A Lowcountry Heart by Pat Conroy

The Pat Conroy Cookbook

Poland by James Michener

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

Things get super-nerdy—and even more middle-aged—on this episode of the show as Andrew Osenga joins us for a great conversation about science fiction, westerns, and being cat or dog people. Listen in as we discuss:

• Why Star Trek: The Next Generation looked like a Holiday Inn circa 1994
• How we really feel about John Steinbeck
• Why westerns are great to read, and what makes a great western
• If mindless violence really has a place in books
• The parallels between westerns and sci-fi
• The sci-fi storytelling trope Andrew hates
• The book Amy Grant told Andrew he had to read

Andrew Osenga is a musician, songwriter, producer, and host of The Pivot, where he sits down with artists, authors, and non-profit leaders to talk about moving from one career or passion to another.

Thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories by Elmore Leonard

The Trail Driver by Zane Grey

Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

The Son by Philipp Meyer

Deadwood by Pete Dexter

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

True Grit by Charles Portis

A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

As you can imagine, we're all getting older and (theoretically) maturing. Well, one of us is, at any rate. In honor of my (Aaron's) 40th birthday (on August 21st), and the tendency for guys to start chucking their lives in an attempt to recapture their youth as soon as they officially become middle-aged, we decided to talk through the idea of midlife crises related to reading. Listen in as we discuss:

• How our reading habits have changed as midlife approaches
• Sparkly vs dark-and-brooding vampires
• Neil Gaiman and Nick Hornby as the literary equivalents of midlife crises
• If there was ever such a thing as "the good old days"
• Why an ordinary life is a good thing

All this plus gift-giving in the studio!

A few of the books mentioned on this episode

Boring by Michael Kelley

Ordinary by Tony Merida

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara

Nick Hornby's works

South of Broad and The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Destiny and Power by Jon Meacham

Bonus Content: "Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream" by Chase Repogle

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

We're back in the sauna/podcast studio for another round of Q&A thanks to our friend Andy Whisenant and the fine folks at Goodreads. Listen in as we dig into the following questions:

• Who are our favorite sidekicks—and do Ron and Hermoine qualify?
• If we were starting book clubs, what is the first book we would introduce to our audiences?
• What do our favorite books have in common?
• Which books do we have on our shelves that we really feel like we should have read, but haven’t?
• How would we describe the books we’re reading in three words?

Thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode:

The High Divide by Lin Enger

Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Civil War by Shelby Foote

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (I think you know who it's by)

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @MalContentsPod

Be sure to use the Amazon affiliate links above to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the show.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

It grieves all three of us on this podcast when anyone walks away from the Christian faith. Joshua Harris' recent announcement of his "deconstruction" of his faith is just one of many that each of us—Barnabas, Dave, and me—know of and are affected by to varying degrees.

He isn't the only one, of course. There are so many (former) pastors that have either rejected the faith entirely, or through their behavior, been revealed to be out of step with the message they proclaimed. So what should we do with the books they wrote that we maybe found helpful once upon a time? Listen in as we discuss

• Should we get rid of books based on the author's character?
• Can (and should) we separate the message from the individual sharing it?
• What hope do we have for authors who reject the gospel they once proclaimed?
• How should we respond as we learn about the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of historical figures?

All this plus sucker-punching, and our updates on what we're reading.

Thanks to Gospel-Centered Discipleship for sponsoring this episode. If you're an aspiring writer who wants to learn from the likes of Jen Wilkin, Hannah Anderson, Jared Wilson, and our own Barnabas Piper, sign up to take part in their new writers cohort at tailored.coach/gcdwriters.

And, of course, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode:

Pappion by Henri Charriere

Eric Lidell: Something Greater than Gold by Janet and Geoff Benge

Not Forsaken by Jennifer Greenberg

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show.
• If you know someone who would benefit from listening, share the show on your favorite social media network.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @malContentsPod

We use affiliate links from Amazon to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the podcast. Be sure to purchase a book or ten that we talk about on every episode.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

Over the last several months, we've mentioned a lot of works of historical fiction, but we've never really talked about historical fiction much at all: it's purpose, some of our favorite works, and does it include room for speculative fiction, too. So, now we're going to! Listen in as we discuss:

• The difference between period fiction and historical fiction (and if we're just splitting hairs on this)
• If alternative history works (e.g. "What if JFK was never assassinated?") count as historical fiction
• Buzz Aldrin sucker punching people
• What are a few good recommendations for those looking to start reading historical fiction
• Dave's accusation that someone might have said a word that we would not dare say on a family-friendly show like this one

Thanks to Gospel-Centered Discipleship for sponsoring this episode. If you're an aspiring writer who wants to learn from the likes of Jen Wilkin, Hannah Anderson, Jared Wilson, and our own Barnabas Piper, sign up to take part in their new writers cohort at tailored.coach/gcdwriters.

And, of course, thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

A few of the books we mention on this episode:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick

The Frozen Hours by Jeff Shaara

The Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk

Alaska by James Michener

Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show.
• If you know someone who would benefit from listening, share the show on your favorite social media network.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @malContentsPod

We use affiliate links from Amazon to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the podcast. Be sure to purchase a book or ten that we talk about on every episode.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.

There are certain books so good they can only be described as transcendent. Others are cultural phenomena, but are best described as… well, you'll find out as we discuss The Notebook.

That's right—all three of us have finally (mostly) read this book, and today, Barnabas, Dave, and I are talking about our experience in the most PG-12 episode of the show yet. Listen in as we discuss:

• Why Nicholas Sparks is one of the worst famous writers any of us have ever read
• What the movie would be like if Ryan Gosling's and Rachel McAdams' characters were played by ordinary looking actors instead of beautiful ones
• If we should read books with good romance
• The unhealthy expectations books like The Notebook create about relationships, marriage and sex
• Our dramatic readings of random passages of the book
• A better phrase than "dumpster fire"

Thanks to our friends at Lagares Coffee Roaster for partnering with us to make the Table of (mal)Contents blend. Order all the bags you can handle today.

Today's bonus content and challenge:

Read: "'The Notebook' is a dumpster fire and I didn't realize it 15 years ago" by Carly Mellenbaum

Your Challenge: If you read and really loved The Notebook, tell us why by tagging @malContentsPod on Twitter. We'll share our favorites on an upcoming episode and send you a book by one of us that we guarantee is better than The Notebook.

As always, be sure to leave a creative and entertaining 5-star review on Apple Podcasts—one that we can't help but read on the air! And, if you have a question for us to answer on a future episode of the show, call our hotline at 615-538-7473 and leave us a message.

A few of the books we mention on this episode:

Keeper by Greg Rucka

Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth

The Pioneers by David McCullough

Detective Comics #1000: The Deluxe Edition by Peter Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Scott Snyder, Jim Lee, et al.

Sharing and supporting the show

• Leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This only takes a second and will go a long way to helping other people find the show.
• If you know someone who would benefit from listening, share the show on your favorite social media network.
• Give us a follow on Twitter at @malContentsPod

We use affiliate links from Amazon to help us pay for the costs of producing and hosting the podcast. Be sure to purchase a book or ten that we talk about on every episode.

Interested in sponsoring Table of (mal)Contents? Let's talk via email or DM @malContentsPod on Twitter.