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Your producers for this episode are:

• Tony
• David
• Anna
• Darrell
• Jolie
• Lena
• Holden
• Scott
• Tee
• Pip
• Eric
• Sam

This episode was recorded on January 29th, 2021.

Knopf Publishing Group

Plot Summary – Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.

Quick Thoughts:

• Scott is a Fake Book Guy(TM)
• Lightweight read
• No magic realism. Which is weird.
• What is the Pilgrimage. Where is it?
• Crime?
• Striving upward is evil, creativity is good.
• Betrayals and letting go as recurring issues.
• Awkward sex in lucid dreams (check your Murakami bingo cards).
• Show tropes.
• In relation to other works by the author.
• Scott is not threatening you.

“One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony.” 

Next Time: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Published: 1987

Viking

Plot Summary – Once upon a time – there was terror and dragons and princes… evil wizards and dark dungeons… and an enchanted castle and a terrible secret. With this enthralling masterpiece of magical evil and daring adventure, Stephen King takes you in his icy grip and leads you into the most shivery and irresistible kingdom of wickedness… The Eyes of the Dragon.

Quick Thoughts:

• Not enough dragons.
• Better than the Last Unicorn. SHUT IT!
• We don’t care about this book’s sausagefest.
• Morgenstern-y (totally a real word).
• disbelief suspenders under strain.
• Tower lore intensive.

Recorded: 10/25/14

“Oh, I suppose all men of intelligence know how fragile such things as Law and Justice and Civilization really are, but it’s not a thing they think of willingly, because it disturbs one’s rest and plays hob with one’s appetite.” 

Next Time: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Published: 2014

Ballantine Books

Plot Summary – Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:

1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew

And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions.

From the mind and pen behind the acclaimed Scott Pilgrim series comes a madcap new tale of existential angst, everyday obstacles, young love, and ancient spirits that’s sharp-witted and tenderhearted, whimsical and wise.

Quick Thoughts:

• Extra Life
• Sam stomps on a beautiful segue, ruins Christmas
• Quasi-autobiographical
• Groundhog Day stuff
• Regret monsters
• Recurring Themes
• how unsympathetic is Katie?
• Jungian stuff

Recorded: 09/7/14

“Adult life is terrible, Hazel. Never grow up. 

Everything’s complicated, and there are too many rules …” 

Next Time: Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Published: 1991

Random House

Plot Summary – Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated, intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom. He is twenty-six years old and living his own American Dream.

Quick Thoughts:

• White People Problems.
• Everybody Got AIDS an’ Shit.
• It’s all a metaphor for society.
• Name Dropping.
• No characters, barely.
• Scott Writes a better sequel.
• Dick Measuring by proxy stereos.
• 80’s nostalgia that’s still relevant and applicable. for once.
• not picky enough about the murdering and cannibalism.

Recorded: 07/28/14

“All it comes down to is this: I feel like shit but look great.” 

Next Time: Seconds by Brian Lee O’Malley

Published 2014

Strange Chemistry

Plot Summary – Natividad is Pure, one of the rare girls born able to wield magic. Pure magic can protect humans against the supernatural evils they only half-acknowledge–the blood kin or the black dogs. In rare cases–like for Natividad’s father and older brother–Pure magic can help black dogs find the strength to control their dark powers. 

But before Natividad’s mother can finish teaching her magic their enemies find them. Their entire village in the remote hills of Mexico is slaughtered by black dogs. Their parents die protecting them. Natividad and her brothers must flee across a strange country to the only possible shelter: the infamous black dogs of Dimilioc, who have sworn to protect the Pure. 

In the snowy forests of Vermont they are discovered by Ezekiel Korte, despite his youth the strongest black dog at Dimilioc and the appointed pack executioner. Intrigued by Natividad he takes them to Dimilioc instead of killing them.

Now they must pass the tests of the Dimilioc Master. Alejandro must prove he can learn loyalty and control even without his sister’s Pure magic. Natividad’s twin Miguel must prove that an ordinary human can be more than a burden to be protected. And even at Dimilioc a Pure girl like Natividad cannot remain unclaimed to cause fighting and distraction. If she is to stay she must choose a black dog mate. 

But, first, they must all survive the looming battle

Quick Thoughts:

• No plot.
• Structure; do it better.
• World building; do it.
• Gratuitous Spanish mixed with made up fantasy setting terminology. No context cues for either.
• 105 pages and then no…
• for no one.

Recorded: 06/27/14

Next time: American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis

Published: 2006

Tor

Plot Summary – A science-fiction thriller set in a place and time as exciting and strange as any far-future world: San Diego, California, 2025.

Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer’s patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he’s starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts . Living with his son’s family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access–through nodes designed into smart clothes–and to see the digital context–through smart contact lenses. 

With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination. 

In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert’s son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot. 

As Robert becomes more deeply involved in conspiracy, he is shocked to learn of a radical change planned for the UCSD Geisel Library; all the books there, and worldwide, would cease to physically exist. He and his fellow re-trainees feel compelled to join protests against the change. With forces around the world converging on San Diego, both the conspiracy and the protest climax in a spectacular moment as unique and satisfying as it is unexpected.

Quick Thoughts:

• Two novels here, one is really good.
• Dangling shit
• What is Rabbit?
• Robert Gu, least sympathetic protagonist ever?
• Good futurism and interesting setting.
• Where are the animals?
• Where are the poor people?
• other characters are also there, and maybe interesting

Recorded: 05/26/14

“So much technology, so little talent.” 

Next Time: Black Dog by Rachel Neumier

Published: 1966

Vintage

Plot Summary – .Combining two distinct yet interwoven parts-one set in ancient Jerusalem, one in contemporary Moscow-the novel veers from moods of wild theatricality with violent storms, vampire attacks & a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes as the meeting of Pilate & Yeshua, & the murder of Judas in the moonlit garden of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like reality of Moscow. Its central characters, Woland (Satan) & his retinue-including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; & a writer known only as The Master, & his passionate companion, Margarita-exist in a world that blends fantasy & chilling realism, an artful collage of grostesqueries, dark comedy & timeless ethical questions. Though completed in 1940, The Master & Margarita wasn’t published in Moscow until 1966, when the 1st part appeared in the magazine Moskva. It was an immediate & enduring success: Audiences responded with great enthusiasm to its expression of artistic & spiritual freedom.

Quick Thoughts:

• Scott is not a hipster, just cooler than popular fiction. There’s a difference
• The Devil went down to Moscow…to screw with people… for some reason.
• ‘Pretty Goshdarned Russian’ literature.
• Bad intentions and good results.
• Jesus; really nice crazy guy
• Black Mass(?) Dead dude party. Being a witch is fun.
• Talking Cats and psychopaths
• I give up on Russian names
• Shout-outs to Faust
• Satire hasn’t aged well/osmosed into popculture well.
• Sympathy for the Devil. Not literally, just the Stones tune.
• ‘Manuscripts don’t burn’

Recorded: 05/28/14

“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if 
evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows 
disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the 
shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. 
Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because 
of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You’re stupid.” 

Next Time: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Published 1966

Ace Books

Plot Summary – Scoundrel Cugel is sent far away, by a magician he has wronged, to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, he journeys across wastelands home to Almery. With a cult group on a pilgrimage, he crosses the Silver Desert, and meets more danger and betrayal as he betrays others.

Quick Thoughts:

• The End (of the reading list) is nigh, suggest something
• Bastards
• Evil wizard stuff
• Demon stick, no demon carrot
• Achievements
• Botched somatic components
• ambiguous rape
• antique language
• Inevitable Tolkien comparison

“Excellent; all is well. The ‘everlasting tedium’ exactly countervenes the ‘immediate onset of death’ and I am left only with the ‘canker’ which, in the person of Firx, already afflicts me. One must use his wits in dealing with maledictions.”

Your Hosts:

• Jim
• Scott

Recorded 03/31/14

Next Time: the master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Published: 2013

Tor

Plot Summary – Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Quick Thoughts:

• [wanted: show note guy. apply within.]

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” 

Your Hosts:

• Krissy
• Sam
• Scott

Recorded 02/26/14

Next time: Cugel the Clever by Jack Vance

Published: 2012

Doubleday

Plot Summary – When scientists with warped imaginations accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain’s animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies with a penchant for pre-dinner sex with their victims, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation.

Abattoir worker Terry Borders’ love life is crippled by the stench of death that clings to his skin from his days spent slaughtering cows; teenage vegan Geldof ‘Scabby’ Peters alternates between scratching furiously at his rash and baiting his overbearing New Age mother; and inept journalist Lesley McBrien struggles forlornly in the shadow of her famous war correspondent father and the star journalist at the Glasgow Tribune.

When Britain begins a rapid descent into chaos and ministers cynically attempt to blame al-Qaeda, Lesley stumbles upon proof that the government is behind the outbreak. During her bumbling quest to unveil the truth, she crosses paths with Terry and Geldof, and together they set out to escape a quarantined Britain with the evidence and vital data that could unlock a cure for the virus.

Standing in the way are rampaging hordes of animals, a ruthless security agent and an army ready to shoot anybody with a case of the sniffles on the off-chance the virus has mutated.
Three losers. Overwhelming odds. A single outcome: the world is screwed.

Quick Thoughts:

• [this space for lease]

“Somewhere out there, the cows were waiting.  And they were hungry.”

Your Hosts:

• Krissy
• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

Recorded: 01/27/14

Next Time: Vicious by V. E. Schwab

Published: 1962

William Heinemann Ltd.

Plot Summary – In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to “redeem” him—the novel asks, “At what cost?”

Quick Thoughts:

• [now hiring: show note guy]

“Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles.” 

Your Hosts:

• Jim
• Lena
• Scott

Recorded: 01/08/13

Next Time: Apocalypse Cow by Michael Logan

Published: 1968

Roc

Plot Summary – The unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world, and sets off to find the others. She meets Schmendrick the Magician–whose magic seldom works, and never as he intended–when he rescues her from Mommy Fortuna’s Midnight Carnival, where only some of the mythical beasts displayed are illusions. They are joined by Molly Grue, who believes in legends despite her experiences with a Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. Ahead wait King Haggard and his Red Bull, who banished unicorns from the land.

Quick Thoughts:

• [forthcoming]

“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.” 

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

Recorded: 11/25/13

Next Time:  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Published: 2012

HarperCollins

Plot Summary – In his latest novel, the immortal Moore takes on the Great French Masters. A magnificent “Comedy d’Art” from the author of Lamb, Fool and Bite Me, Moore’s Sacré Bleu is part mystery, part history (sort of), part love story, and wholly hilarious as it follows a young baker-painter who joins the dapper Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the supposed suicide of Vincent van Gogh.

Quick Thoughts

• [forthcoming]

“The Painting is not shit,’ said Lucien.

‘I know,’ said Henri. ‘That was just part of the subterfuge. I am of royal lineage; subterfuge is one of the many talents we carry in our blood, along with guile and hemophilia.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

Recorded 10/25/13

Next Time: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Picks:

Jeff

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2. Frozen
3. Black Nativity
4. Thor: The Dark World
5. Homefront

Lena

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2. Frozen
3. Homefront
4. Delivery Man
5. Black Nativity

Art’s House picks:

• Jeff & Lena – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Host:

• Scott

Recorded: 11/11/13

Published: 1998

Del Rey

Plot Summary – Renowned throughout the land of Ankhana as the Blade of Tyshalle, Caine has killed his share of monarchs and commoners, villains and heroes. He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.

At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet–and bound to keep his rage in check.

But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds . . .

Quick Thoughts

• [forthcoming maybe]

Now that it’s too late, now that I lie here dying on this bloodstained sand, I finally get it.

I understand, now.

I understand. I know what he meant. My father told me that to know
the enemy is half the battle. I know you, now. That’s right.

It’s you.

All of you who sit in comfort and watch me die, who see the twitch of
my bowels through my own eyes: You are my enemy.

Corpses lie scattered around me, gleanings left in a wheat field by a careless reaper. Berne’s body cools beneath the bend of my back, and I can’t feel him anymore. The sky darkens over my head—but no, I think that’s my eyes; Pallas’ light seems to have faded.

Every drop of the blood that soaks into this sand stains my hands and the hands of the monsters that put me here.

That’s you, again.

It’s your money that supports me, and everyone like me; it’s your lust that we serve.

You could thumb your emergency cut-off, turn your eyes from the screen, walk out of the theatre, close the book . . .

But you don’t.

You are my accomplice, and my destroyer.

My nemesis.

My insatiable blood-crazed god.

Ah, ahhh, Christ . . . it hurts .

Your Hosts:

• Chris 
• Dirk
• Scott

Recorded: 09/26/13

Next Time: Sacré Blue by Christopher Moore

Extra Life

Chris’ Web Presence

Published: 2002

Scribner

Plot Summary – The story begins in western Pennsylvania in 1979, when a mysterious figure parks a vintage Buick Roadmaster at a local gas station, then disappears forever. The police discover that the Buick isn’t a car at all but rather a Buick-shaped enigma: self-healing; impregnable to dents, dirt, and scratches; composed of unidentifiable materials; and containing a completely nonfunctional engine. Confronted with a mystery of unprecedented proportions, the troopers of Barracks D claim the Buick for themselves and spend 20 years attempting to understand its nature, purpose, and provenance.

Quick Thoughts

• [forthcoming]

It’s funny how close the past is, sometimes. Sometimes it seems as if you could almost reach out and touch it. Only who really wants to?

Your Hosts

• Lena
• Scott

Recorded: 08/29/13

Next Time: Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover

Published: 1996

Washington Square Press

Plot Summary –  The irresistible tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune who also happens to be one heck of a nice guy. Cold-blooded murder just isn’t Thomas Lang’s cup of tea. Offered a bundle to assassinate an American industrialist, he opts to warn the intended victim instead — a good deed that soon takes a bad turn. Quicker than he can down a shot of his favourite whiskey, Lang is bashing heads with a Buddha statue, matching wits with evil billionaires, and putting his life (among other things) in the hands of a bevy of femmes fatales. Up against rogue CIA agents, wannabe terrorists, and an arms dealer looking to make a high-tech killing, Lang’s out to save the leggy lady he has come to love…and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.

Quick Thoughts:

• [forthcoming]

“There’s an undeniable pleasure in stepping into an open-top sports car driven by a beautiful woman. It feels like you’re climbing into a metaphor.” 

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Scott

Recorded: 07/25/13

Next Time: From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

 Vote on what should be added to the to-read pile 

Published: 2010

Small Beer Press

Plot Summary – Paama’s husband is a fool and a glutton. Bad enough that he followed her to her parents’ home in the village of Makendha—now he’s disgraced himself by murdering livestock and stealing corn. When Paama leaves him for good, she attracts the attention of the undying ones—the djombi— who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.

Quick Thoughts:

• [forthcoming]

All my tales are true, drawn from life, and a life story is not a tidy thing. 

Your Hosts:

• Jim
• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

recorded 06/26/13

Next time: The Gunseller by Hugh Lawrie

Published: 2001

William Morrow

Plot Summary – Days before his release from prison, Shadow’s wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm or preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Quick Thoughts:

[forthcoming]

“Hey,” said Shadow. “Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are.” 
The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.
“Say ‘Nevermore,'” said Shadow.
“F— you,” said the raven.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Pedro
• Scott

Recorded 05/30/13

Next Time: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Your Host:

• Scott

Recorded 21/6/13

Published: 1992

Vintage

Plot Summary – Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father’s record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. 
It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Scott

Recorded 04/25/13

Next Time: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Published: 1992

Bantam Books

Plot Summary – In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s Cosa Nostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”

Your Hosts:

• Sam
• Scott

This episode was recorded 03/28/13

Next time: South of the Border West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Subjects discussed:

• Nietzsche Grandfather of Cyberpunk
• Expressionism
• Noir protagonists
• Cyberpunk themes
• How this all fits with Snow Crash
• why steampunk is not a genre

Recorded: 04/27/13

Your Host:

• Scott

Recorded: 18/04/13

Published: 2005

Lulu MWS Media

Plot Summary – Fans of Spider-Man, silver age comics, and alternate history will enjoy this novel of teen angst and metahumans! This coming of age story is set in an alternate 1980’s, where people with amazing abilities make themselves known. Can young Nathan Charters find himself in this uncertain new world? Who is he, where did he come from, and is he part of a remarkable new minority…or just a misfit among misfits? Brave Men Run is at once gripping and emotional, shocking and intelligent.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Brave men run…in my family”

Your hosts:

• Lena
• Tony
• Scott

This episode was recorded: 02/28/13

Next Time: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Host:

• Scott

Recorded 05/03/13

Published: August 2009

Viking

Plot Summary – Quentin Coldwater is brillant but miserable. He’s a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he’s still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless.

Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he though it would.

Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“You can’t just decide to be happy.”

“No, you can’t. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want? Do you want to be the asshole who went to Fillory and was miserable there? Even in Fillory? Because that’s who you are right now.”

There was something true about what Alice was saying. But he couldn’t grasp it. It was too complex, or too simple. Too something…It was strange: he’s thought that doing magic was the hardest thing he would ever do, but the rest of it was so much harder. It turned out that magic was the easy part.”

Your Hosts:

• Becca
• Lena
• Scott

The episode was recorded: 02/07/13

Next time: Brave Men Run by M W Selznick

Published: April 1999

Viz LLC

Plot Summary – A class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan – where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller – Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“Kazuhiko could have taken his gun and aimed it at the person behind them. But Sakura wouldn’t want that. What she wanted was to leave this world quietly before they got sucked into this horrible massacre. Nothing was more important to him than her. There was no room for compromise. If this were what her trembling soul wanted, then he would follow her. Had he been more eloquent he might have described his feelings as something like, “I’m going to die for her honor.”

Their two bodies danced in the air beyond the cliff, their hands still clasped together, the black sea under them.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

This episode was recorded: 01/03/13

Hosts:

• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

Recorded: 01/16/13

Published: 2011

Harper Voyager

Plot Summary – Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian.

These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling—will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest . . . and she’s prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray.

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Books and Braun—he with his encyclopaedic brain and she with her remarkable devices—must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot . . . or see England fall to the Phoenix!

Quick Thoughts:

Scott needs to be quiet and read what we tell him to read!

• Fluffy swords and sorcery is good.
• Comparison of Phoenix Rising and Lethal Weapon.
• Yes, that’s what I said.
• Librarians… quiet, studious, tea lovers.
• The easiest way to get out of a corset?  Duh, a knife!
• Corset wearing also depends on level of boobage.
• Books & Braun = Scott & Sam, especially if Sam can have explosives.
• Teasing for the 2^nd book was teased!
• Bad-ass Italian assassin lady, of course.
• Scott sums up the plot in two sentences.
• Slow start for first couple of chapters, then it steamrolls.
• In which Prince Lord Fontlebottom Receives a Guest… or Batman.
• Lena mixes up chapters.  There’s a surprise.
• The settings are vivid and a great backdrop to the story.
• A good introduction to Steampunk for the novices.
• World takeovers via Steampunk, human-boned robots.  Yeah!
• The hunting scene.  That happened.
• Adjectives are good, use them.
• Crazy Victorian secret societies need orgy scenes.
• It’s a dude-oriented orgy.  You don’t hear that very often, do you?

“She groaned as her face turned to press against the rosewood floor. “Welly, remind me to order a better mattress for my bed. This one is far too firm.”

“Oh, Eliza,” Wellington gasped, now remembering why he was in these lush surroundings. “No broken nose, I hope.”

“S’all right,” Braun slurred. Her voiced dropped to a whisper. “My ample bosom broke my fall.” – 

Your hosts for the episode:

• Lena
• Krissy
• Sam
• Scott

Remember to vote on the for the next round of books here.

Author: Terry Pratchett

Publication date: 1996

Victor Gollancz

Plot Summary – ITS THE NIGHT BEFORE HOGSWATCH.  AND IT’S TOO QUIET.
Where is the big jolly fat man?  Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho?  The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker…Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won’t be a morning.  Ever again…

The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too).

As they say:  You’d better watch out…

Quick thoughts:

• Lena admits to sometimes being confused by the faculty, the assassins and the auditors.
• Death was a cool dude.
• Sam’s favorite character is Susan and… who knew the Tooth Fairy had a land of its own?
• Jack Frost is a punny guy!  AND he likes ferns.
• Don’t say “moist” to Sam, please.
• He’s a sociopath, just not the ravenous, bloodthirsty kind.  That’s a good thing, right?
• Death of Rats is adorable.
• Bilious, the Oh-god of hangovers and the sock-eating monster and the gnome that leaves warts on your feet.
• Children don’t go hoppity-skip unless they’re on drug.
• Grumpy Albert the gnome, trying to be Death’s voice of reason… but Death is as matter-of-fact as they come.
• Sure, we’d all burst into giggle fits if Death was handing out presents!
• Kids need to believe the small stuff to get through the big stuff.
• Tooth fairy = boogey man?  Old gods do new jobs.
• Who doesn’t want to hang out with the cheerful fairy?
• TEE-TIME, we’re calling him TEE-TIME!!
• Banjo, Bongo… something like that.
• The Unseen University is not Hogwarts.
• Not a difficult read, recommended by all of the hosts!
• Being able to tap into your “child at heart” makes this a really fun read.
• I want a pony in my bedroom!
• Soul cake duck??  Twilight Zone Easter bunny, maybe?
• Who better to be the voice of Death than Christopher Lee?
• Final thoughts – READ IT.

Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. and yet… and yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some… some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged. – Hogfather

Your hosts for the episode:

• Lena
• Scott
• Sam

this episode was recorded: 10/25/12

Remember, in addition to the various contact methods on this website you can also join us on Goodreads.com where you can also join the chatter and suggest future books.

Help a pair of podcasters in need. Kevin and Jen of the Walking Eye lost their home. Go to this link to pitch in.

Publication Date:  8/17/1996

W. W. Norton

Plot summary –The main character/narrator is the protagonist, a jet-lagged automotive product recall specialist who struggles with insomnia.  He finds a measure of relief by attending several support groups for seriously ill people.  In one of the groups he meets Marla Singer, a woman who attends these support groups for similar reasons, but she is a reminder that he is a fake in these groups.  Soon after, the narrator meets the mysterious Tyler Durden.  After a consensual fist-fight in the parking lot of a bar, they move in together and soon begin an underground fighting club.  This blossoms into anti-consumerist ideas and a second underground group, this one more violent/destructive at its core.  When the narrator sets out to find Tyler, who seems to have gone missing, he is confronted with the reality that there is no Tyler Durden… that Tyler is a personality created during his periods of insomnia.

Quick thoughts –

• Some of the hosts might not be terribly enthusiastic about this one.
• Chapter 6 was the original short story… worth reading.
• Scott wants to compare it to The Stranger (Camus) or anything by Sartre, but it can’t be done.
• It’s a cult of personality, especially when recruiting for Project Mayhem.
• If you’re watching the movie… don’t eat brownie mix, or anything, during the liposuction scene.  You’re welcome.
• Things start to come alive when the narrator begins to realize who Tyler Durden is.
• Forced edgy, forced clever, but it doesn’t quite work on paper.  The transfer to film worked better.
• Scott’s scary tales of insomnia.
• There is a lack of a cohesive world; everything revolves around the narrator, but there were some bright spots of descriptive visualization.
• Marla Singer – real person or another personality?
• We make A LOT of comparisons to the film… get used to it.
• The main character is deeply flawed, but not “deep.”
• A satire of anti-consumerism?
• Space monkeys.
• Soap, as your buried heroes and washing society clean.  Also it’s feeding them their own kids.
• Working class people taught that they’ll have a level of success, but they learn that it’s just not true.
• When the narrator is flying around the country looking for himself/Tyler, he’s put up obstacles that keep him from finding what/who he is looking for but there isn’t much sympathy for the narrator.
• The themes ring true, but the characters do not.
• It’s an anarchist movement with a surprisingly large number of rules.
• The parts of the story that are meant to be edgy, come off more as self-consciously edgy or childish.
• Comments on Fight Clubs started up after the book/movie.
• Who is this book really meant for?
• Brief discussion on how the movie ending deviates from the book ending.
• This is our final stand against consumerism.

How everything you ever love will reject you or die. Everything you ever create will be thrown away. Everything you’re proud of will end up as trash. – Fight Club

Your hosts for this episode:

• Lena
• Scott
• Paul

This episode was recorded 9/27/2012

Any and all comments can be left by:

• Voice mail (618-207-4794)
• Google Call Me button (on this very page)
• Add a comment to the podcast post
• Add a comment on the Back Seat Book Club group in Goodreads
• Email us at backseatproducers@gmail.com

• Snow Crash
• Scott Pilgrim
• Fatal Fury
• Count Zero
• Summer Wars
• Cory Doctorow
• War Games

Publication date:  8/16/2011

Random House

Plot summary – In the near future, the world is falling apart, the recession has all but crumbled the nations of the world and OASIS, a virtual reality universe of both games and everyday life (and escape from life).  Ray Halliday, the creator of OASIS, dies, and leaves a cryptic will stating that his entire fortune, and OASIS, to the first player to uncover a series of clues and pass through secret gates.  Wade is a 17 year-old high school student who finds solace from his impoverished home life in the many worlds of OASIS and is the first to find and complete one of Halliday’s clues.  Life takes a drastic and fantastic turn as he is not only thrust into the spotlight but also targeted by a big bad conglomerate that also has its eyes on winning Halliday’s prize.

Quick thoughts –

• The bastard offspring of Snow Crash and Scott Pilgrim with 80’s references for the sake of 80s references and a happy ending.
• It’s like a big MMO, where you can watch everyone else’s winnings and failings.
• The character of Wade is likable because he’s a pitiful, relatable “loser,” who tried to rise about his surroundings.
• Cline’s conversational style of writing was easy to follow and necessary because the main character is only 17, with comparisons made to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games as other books that have that same conversational style.
• The camaraderie between the game-playing characters started as very remote and wary and turned into close friendships, even before the characters met in person was also relevant in today’s society and seemed to be drawn from how many people live and meet today.
• The characters are all flawed, and remain so through the story, which speaks of the more realistic tone of the story.
• Which 80s references felt necessary to the plot and which one seemed more like name-dropping for the sake of adding as many 80s references as possible?  They Might Be Giants: “No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful”
• Was the depiction of Shoto and Daito a representation of the Japanese nerd stereotype or did it cross the line into a racist stereotype?
• Wade infiltrating IOI is one of the best parts, but it’s also filled with flaws.
• If Ready Player One is made into a movie, how do you translate the game play into a film format for the big screen?  And, would this movie work as a video game?
• Can the characters be called socially autistic or socially awkward because of their environment?
• A fun story, a quick read, enjoyable but not too deep.
• The hosts couldn’t come to a concession to who this book is for…teens/young adults, gamers, adults who remember the 80s references, anyone who’s looking for a light, fun read.
• Did the hosts pick up any 80s things while reading… a bit of Rush, The Last Starfighter, Tron, Duran Duran, Oingo Boingo, Back to the Future theme.
• Is Ladyhawke awesome-awesome or 80s cheesy awesome?
• Frankie Says Relax!
• SilverHawks!
• What do you call Dolly Parton doing the backstroke?
• All this is lost, like tears in the rain.
• Leg warmers, blue with little white hearts.
• Massive social statements in Family Ties.

I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn’t know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is -real-. — Halliday

Your Hosts for this episode were:

• Lena
• Scott
• Paul
• Becca
• Sam

This episode was recorded: 8/31/2012

Welcome to the introduction episode of Back Seat Book Club!

Back Seat Producers is e-x-p-a-n-d-i-n-g and we’re happily starting a monthly Book Club podcast.

The regular hosts will be

• Scott
• Lena
• Becca
• There will also be various additional hosts for each recording, depending on schedules and books

The first six books on our schedule are:

1.  Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

2.  Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

3.  Hogfather (Discworld #20) – Terry Pratchett

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

4.  Phoenix Rising (Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #1) – Philippa Ballatine & Tee Morris

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

5.  Battle Royale – Koushun Takami

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

6.  The Magicians (The Magicians #1) – Lev Grossman

Audible link

Amazon link

Barnes & Noble link

Author link

Here is our Goodreads Back Seat Book Club group link.

We’re tentatively scheduling each episode/review for the first Saturday of each month.  We encourage comments on the backseatproducers.com website.  You can also leave us a voicemail at 618-207-4794 or use our free Google “Call Me” feature in the upper left of this website.  We also have a Goodreads.com Back Seat Book Club group that is open the public.  We hope you’ll join us and let us know what you think.  We plan on having feedback episodes for each book and, hopefully, author interviews whenever we can get them.

Also, Back Seat Quickies is going to start including book reviews, so if any one wishes to send us a quickie, please do!

Thanks and we hope you enjoy our new podcast!