The NewlyReads

Today's episode is a Kylie pick! Is it a street filled with mangoes? A street on a mango? A street for mangoes? The only possible way to know is to listen!

Dan makes Kylie read Paul Theroux's 1981 novel about a man who drags his family down with him as he pursues his dream of total self-sufficiency. Hopefully Dan doesn't have similar plans for Kylie and their cat children... Come on a journey upriver as The NewlyReads debate whether Allie Fox is an interestingly flawed character or just a tiresome egomaniac, examine how Theroux's travel writing clarifies the novel's ideas, and decide whether ice is really civilization. 

Thanks to a generous grant from Indiana University, we were able to make a major equipment upgrade. Starting with this episode, you can hear us even more clearly as we argue about critical theory and character arcs! 

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Do you hear that sound? That constant sound in the background? It's the long silence since we went on vacation. Well, we're back! This is our last episode with our old recording equipment, and we used it to discuss a classic: Don DeLillo's White Noise. Next episode: new fancy tech that we will spend the intervening weeks learning how to use.

The NewlyReads will return on October 2!

Dan makes Kylie read Barbara Kingsolver's debut novel, The Bean Trees (1988). They discuss the tradition of scientist-turned-writers, wonder why B-side books sometimes stick with them more than an author's "major work," and debate the virtues of wide-open Midwestern plains!

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Kylie makes Dan read James Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956). They discuss Baldwin's unique prose style, why his essays get more attention than his fiction, and the history of black American writer-activists and analyze why Baldwin's novel about doomed love, repressed sexuality, and the difficulty of defining Americanness feels so timeless. 

A visit from the longest episode yet. A NEW SEGMENT appears: the Sentence Breakdown. 

Here at The NewlyReads we have a core tenet: Thou shalt not dunk on thy books. This week, Daniel gets dangerously close to sinning against that core belief, our cats make not one but TWO appearances, and we try to solve the mystery: Wait, wasn't this all about Waldegrave?

Dan makes Kylie read another doorstop novel, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 (2017). They discuss the history of climate fiction, the challenges of crafting multiple protagonists, and Robinson's play with traditional literary genres. Also, Dan confesses that he never read a book that Kylie loaned to him years ago...

Follow our Instagram @thenewlyreads or email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!

Dan invites Kylie to discuss the tradition of pandemic literature and the new crop of fiction that's attempting to make sense of the coronavirus. Not just another pair of podcasters griping about being locked inside, The NewlyReads discuss Katherine Anne Porter's 1939 Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Albert Camus's 1947 The Plague, and several novels and short stories published in the last few months. They also ruminate on why literature is essential during crises like this and whether or not COVID will lead to new literary genres.