After a brief hiatus we’re back to discuss our favorite books of 2026 so far. We also maybe gush a little too much about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Actually, if we’re being honest, most of this episode is about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Our producer warned we might alienate people who haven’t read it yet, but we prefer to think of it as recruiting.

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Between Two Fires - Christopher Buehlman

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinnamin

Whistler - Ann Patchett

London Falling - Patrick Radden Keefe

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Kin - Tayari Jones

Violent Masterpiece - Jordan Harper

John of John - Douglas Stuart

Land - Maggie O’Farrell

Mare - Emily Haworth-Booth

Glyph - Ali Smith

Paradiso 17 - Hannah Lilith Assadi

Transcription - Ben Lerner

Vigil - George Saunders

We're baaaaaaaack! Sorry for the wait yall, life comes at ya real quick. As always, we wait until the actual end of the year to make it through everything we want to read so if you think this is late just remember everyone else copped out and made lists too early. That's what we tell ourselves. So in this episode we catch up on some book news and then present our top 5 books of the year (each) plus books we're looking forward to in 2026.

Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode:

David Szalay - Flesh

Rabih Alameddine - The True True Story of Raja The Gullible

Rachel Reid - Heated Rivalry Series

Mark Z. Danielewski - Tom’s Crossing

Jess Walter - So Far Gone

Lucas Schaefer - The Slip

Addie E Hitchens - Dominion

Sean Hewitt - Open, Heaven

Katie Riley - Ruth

Torrey Peter - Stag Dance

Virginia Evans - The Correspondent

Daniel Kraus - Angel Down

Brian Goldstone - There Is No Place For Us

George Saunders - Vigil

Douglas Stuart - John of John

Patrick Radden Keefe - London falling

Jesmyn Ward - On Witness and Repair

Daniel Mason - Country People

Ben Lerner - Transcipt

Whoops! We skipped a month. Consider it our summer vacation. But we’ve got a big one this episode.

Here’s the deal: if there is one book you should read this year it’s Brian Goldstone’s “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America” The book is an incredible work of journalism as it “…follows five families in Atlanta as they struggle to find stable housing while navigating low-wage work, predatory landlords, a lack of tenant protections, and a system that prioritizes profit over people's basic need for a home.” We’re honored to have Brian on the pod with us to talk about his experience writing such an emotionally taxing work. 

But first: James Joyce’s love for farts. 

Intro:

Olga Tokarczuk - The Empusium

Joyce Carol Oates - Fox

V.E. Schwab - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

S.A. Cosby - King of Ashes

Jess Walter - So Far Gone 

Jess Walter - Beautiful Ruins 

JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Series 

James Joyce - The Selected Letters of James Joyce 

Brian Goldstone - There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America

Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

Hugh Raffles - The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time

Katherine Boo - Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Adrian Nicole Leblanc - Random Family 

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Matthew Desmond

Rachel Aviv

Barbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimed 

Peter Rossi- Down and Out in America: The Origins of Homelessness

Ezra Klein - Abundance 

Toni Morrison - The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

Ocean Vuong fans beware, Nolan has SOMETHING TO SAY about Emperor of Gladness. After weeks venting in the chat he's finally able to let it out on air. After that we're joined by Dan Ozzi, the best-selling author of Sellout, co-author of Fahrenheit 182 (Mark Hoppus' memoir) and co-author of Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!'s memoir). And some special shit talking on James Frey. What we do best!

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Ocean Vuong - Emperor of Gladness

Ocean Vuong - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous 

Keith McNally - I Regret Almost Everything

Kevin Nguyen - My Documents

Natsu Kirino - Out 

Tash Aw - The South 

Lori Ostlund - Are You Happy?

Maxin Loskutoff - Old King

Taylor Jenkins Reid - Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 

Dan Ozzi - Sell out 

Mark Hoppus with Dan Ozzi - Fahrenheit 182

Laura Jane Grace with Dan Ozzi - Tranny

Nick Tosches - Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story

Our band could be your life

Larry Livermore: How To Ru(i)n A Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records 

Silke Tudor & Jack Boulware - Gimme Something Better 

Peter Guralnick - Last Train To Memphis

Sam McPheeters - Mutations

Scott McClanahan - The Incantations of Daniel Johnston 

Lawrence Burney - No Sense in Wishing

Bud Smith - Teenager

Sinéad O’Connor - Rememberings

Steve-O - Professional Idiot

Pamela Anderson - Love, Pamela

State by State with the State

Shanon and Nolan dive into our recent Homesteading obsession and chat with the very funny (with the best laugh) writer and actor Mitra Jouhari about her journey from The Daily Show to Big Mouth – plus her very questionable, very intense Anne Frank phase.

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones

Stag Dance - Torrey Peters

The Antidote - Karen Russell

Open, Heaven - Seán Hewitt

The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy

Ocean Vuong - The Emperor of Gladness

The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides

Intersex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Fresh Complaint - Jeffrey Eugenides

Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon

The Lying Game - Ruth Ware

The Coin - Yasmin Zaher

The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden

Stay True - Hua Hsu

The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank

Night - Elie Wiesel

Atonement - Ian McEwen 

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

On Writing - Steven King

This one’s a long-time-coming! We finally have our buddy, Cord Jefferson, on the pod. We know Cord from our NY days when he was at Gawker but you might know him from winning an Oscar for adapted screenplay for American Fiction, which he also directed and which was based on Perceival Everett’s Erasure. Cord also won an Emmy for writing that really good episode of The Watchmen about the Tulsa Massacre. We talk to him about possibly winning an E-G-O, desert noir, how much of a badass Perceival Everett is and much more. 

Books and Authors Mentioned in this Episode:

Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers - You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers - What is the What

Christina Rivera Garza - Death Takes Me

Allegra Goodman - Isola

Charlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark Shore

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count 

Tory Peters - Stag Dance

Tory Peters - Detransition, Baby

Leila Lalami - Dream Hotel

Leila Lalami - The Other Americans

Percival Everett - Erasure

Alan Moore - Watchmen

Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven 

Walter Van Tilburg Clark - The Ox-Bow Incident

Percival Everett - God’s Country

Percival Everett - James 

Samantha Harvey - Orbital

Maxim Luskatoff - Old King 

Lion Feuchtwanger - The Oppermanns

Sebastian Haffner - Defying Hitler

James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room

Philip Roth - The Human Stain 

James McBride - The Good Lord Bird

Colson Whitehead - Nickel Boys

Robert Jones Jr - The Prophets 

Isaac Asimov - Foundation

Ted Chiang - Exhalation

Kurt Vonnegut

Follow Cord: @cordjefferson

Follow Us: @youshouldprobablyreadmore

We did it. We got our new favorite Crime Daddy on the pod.

Jordan Harper joins us to talk LA, Punks vs Nazis, the Ozarks and Noir. We love him.

RIP to Nolan's cat Edie & Jordan's dog Ellroy

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett 

The Vegetarian - Han Kang 

We Do Not Part - Han Kang

The Last King of California  - Jordan Harper 

Everything Must Go: Stories We Tell Ourselves About the End of the World - Dorian Lynskey 

Gliff - Ali Smith

Witchcraft For Wayward Girls - Grady Hendrix 

My Best Friend’s Exorcism - Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix

The obscene bird of night - José Donoso

Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez

Playworld - Adam Ross

Onyx Storm - Rebecca Yarros

The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA - Jesse Katz

Harriet The Spy - Louise Fitzhugh

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

The Great Brain (Series) - John Dennis Fitzgerald

Stephen King 

Hunter S Thompson 

The Drifters - James A. Michener 

LA Confidential - James Ellroy

Cormac McCarthy

Red Riding (Series) - David Peace

S.A. Cosby

Dare Me - Megan Abbott

Beware the Woman - Megan Abbott 

The Contortionist’s Handbook - Craig Clevenger

Everybody Knows - Jordan Harper

David Sedaris

James Baldwin

Mary Shelley

Follow Jordan online at @jordan_harper_Yo

and follow us @youshouldprobablyreadmore

When we say Best of the Year we mean the WHOLE damn year (we need all the time we can get to read all the books from all the other lists!) so here it is, in mid-January, our Best of 2024 roundup. We’re joined by a very special guest, our friend and fellow bookclub member, Addison Kirst, owner of des pair books in Echo Park, Los Angeles. 

Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode:

Sally Rooney - Intermezzo

Percival Everett - James 

Miranda July - All Fours 

Richard Flanagan - Question 7

Yael vanderwooten - The Safe Keep

Trisha Romano - The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture

Dolly Atherton - Good Material

Claire Dederer - Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma 

Robert Plunket - Love junkie

Louis Ferdinand Celine - War 

 Elizabeth Beller - Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

Kaveh Akbar - Martyr! 

Rachel Kushner - Creation Lake

Garth Greenwell - Small rain

Mark Twain - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

William Faulkner 

 Louis Ferdinand Celine - Journey to the End of the Night

H.G. Wells

Rebecca West

Anton Chekhov

Richard Flanagan - Death of a River Guide 

Rick Rubin - The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Cookie Mueller - Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black

Sofia Coppola - Archive

Simone de Beauvoir - The Woman Destroyed 

 Otessa Moshfegh - Homesick For Another World 

James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room 

Eve Babitz - Sex and Rage  

Sarah J Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses 

Bram Stoker - Dracula 

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein 

Salman Rushdie - Knife -

Elif Shafak - There are Rivers in the Sky  

Liz Moore - God of the Woods 

Martin MacInnes - In Ascension

Charles Burns - Final Cut

Danzy Senna - Color Television

Tony Tulathimutte - Rejection

Jordan Harper - Last King of California 

Hanif Abdurraqib - There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

Stefan Zweig - Beware of Pity 

Magda Szabo

Stacy Horn - Killing fields of East New York

Nicholas Carr - Superbloom 

Karen Russell - The Antidote 

Sarah Silgar - Vantage Point  

Ali Smith - Gliff

Emma pattee - Tilt 

Han Kang - We Do Not Part 

Florence Knapp - The Names 

Joyce Carol Oates - Fox / Butcher

Rebecca Yarros - Onyx Storm

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count

S A Cosby - King of Ashes

Jon Savage -  The Secret Public

Samantha Harvey - Orbital

Got something to say? Hit us up at @youshouldprobablyreadmore

Buy your books from @despairbooks

www.despairbooks.com

It’s our One Year Anniversary! Thank you all for listening to our lil pod this past year and for your comments and engagement with it. It's been really fun talking (and shit-talking) books and we're excited to continue this into next year- starting with our "Best of 24" list in January (you know we take every day we can get to try to get through all of these!). 

This episode is just Shanon and Nolan- discussing the books we’re reading, Luigi, Cormac & other book news plus a hot new crime author daddy we’re obsessed with. 

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Mariana Enriquez - Our Share of Night

Mariana Enriquez - A Sunny Place for Shady People 

Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter 

Jason de Leon - Soldiers and Kings 

Jordan Harper - Last King of California 

Jordan Harper - She Rides Shotgun

Jordan Harper - Everybody Knows 

Dr. Seuss - The Lorax

100 Years War on Palestine 

Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol

Louisa May Alcott - Little Women

Glenn Beck - A Christmas Sweater

Welp...we recorded this one before the election. But don't worry we cut out all the hopeful parts!

Surprise Surprise, Shanon and Nolan both have a new favorite book of the year + a special election edition of Bad Reads. Then they're joined by Tony Tulathimutte to discuss the agony of writing his insanely popular book, “Rejection.”

Books and Authors discussed in this episode:

Kamala Harris - The Truths We Hold

Donald Trump - The Art of the Deal

Dick Cheney - In My Time

Walter Isaakson - Elon Musk

Elif Shafak - There are rivers in the Sky 

Tamora Pierce - The Song of the Lioness series 

Tony - Rejection 

Tony - Private Citizens 

Mark Leary - Interpersonal Rejection

Philip Roth books 

Roald Dahl books 

Louis Sachar - Sideways Stories from Wayside School