Two high school English teachers provide financial advise for your Xmas season through books: The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford (2008) VS Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben (1998).

No matter what happens, we're all winners. All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Alicia Miles (2021) vs Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (2021).

In this abbreviated episode we chit-chat about Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908).

The long awaited and final episode in our three-part food series is served: Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson (2012) vs An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (2009).

Part two of our three part food series continues with Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat (2017) vs Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (2011).

On the first episode of our three part food trilogy we chat about Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (2000).

On this abbreviated episode we chat about Levels of the Game by John McPhee (1969).

Joe's weekly in memoriam, child labor ideas for Audible, and a tell-all interview with the car that hit Stephen King. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (2016) vs On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (2000).

Happy spooky season! The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2007) vs Nancy Drew, The Quest of the Missing Map by Carolyn Keene (1942).

Fall weather, ribs and blatant pandering on this weeks episode. The Age of Anxiety Poem by W. H. Auden (1947) vs The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011).