Hannah and Michael dive into Danielle Steel’s fugue state, discussing her wild life, digging into her 1987 multigenerational novel Kaleidoscope, and surveying the weirdly prudish Steel oeuvre. They also chat about what else they're reading.

Books mentioned:  Melissa Clark, Dinner in an Instant; Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach; Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad; David Lodge, Changing Places; Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Movie mentioned:  Kaleidoscope (1990 made for TV movie) starring one of the Charlie’s Angels.

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Inaugural episode!  Hannah and Michael dive into Lee Child’s best selling Jack Reacher series, tackling different books: Killing Floor and Echo Burning.  They try to decide on the world’s most boring crime, encounter lawyers who make surprising fashion choices, and take a wild ride through Reacher’s universe of dude justice.  They also dig into their “White Whale” books--books they’re always chasing and can’t quite catch up to--and talk about what else they’re reading.

Books mentioned: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Power Broker by Robert Caro, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Ulysses by James Joyce, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life by Sally Bedell Smith, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, Days Without End by Sebastian Barry, Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan.  

Movies/TV mentioned: Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher, The Crown.

Josh Lucases mentioned: 1.  

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