Books & Beer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:08 — 31.4MB)

Clarissa and Greg debate YA Literature: Clarissa on the pro side, Greg on the con. But they take a break from fighting to both praise the graphic novel From Hell.

Books Mentioned:

• The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• The Fault in our Stars by John Green
• A bunch of other YA books by Madeline L’Engle, Lois Lowry, and others
• From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

Pages Mentioned:

• Joel Stein arguing “Adults Should Read Adult Books”
• The Useless Mug
• 2 Lads Winery Cabernet Franc Rose

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:27 — 25.9MB)

Greg convinced Clarissa to read a book about Russian literature, and now they’re teaming up to try and convince you too!

Books Mentioned:

• The Possessed by Elif Batuman
• Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier
• Reporting by David Remnick
• Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
• The Marrowbone Marlow Company by Glen Taylor
• Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson
• Illuminations by Walter Benjamin
• River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit

Pages Mentioned:

• Elif Batuman’s favorite Russian literature

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:34 — 29.0MB)

Clarissa talks with Greg about one of her favorite authors, Alice Munro, as they try to pin down what makes her short stories special.

Books mentioned

• Selected Stories and Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
• Let’s Talk About Love by Carl Wilson
• Wasted by Marya Hornbacher
• The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor
• Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks
• The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:20 — 28.1MB)

Greg and Clarissa talk about the essays in John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Pulphead, and have to use a spoiler-warning for one polarizing piece.

Books mentioned

• Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
• River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit
• West of Here by Jonathan Evison
• Chasing the Flame by Samantha Power
• Bloodroot by Amy Green
• Inverted World by Christopher Priest
• The Trouble with Science by Lee Smolin

Pages mentioned

• Pictures of Tennessee cave art
• Kottke’s “human wormholes”
• Greg’s tweet quoting Marc Livengood 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:05 — 19.5MB)

Clarissa tries to convince Greg that The World According to Garp is a good novel, and that John Irving’s a great author.

Books mentioned

• The World According to Garp, A Widow for One Year, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Until I Find You by John Irving
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson including Master of the Senate and Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro
• Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Pages mentioned

• John Irving’s recurring themes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:14 — 25.3MB)

Greg hates on A Visit from the Goon Squad, while Clarissa tries to find out why he doesn’t generally like fiction as much as non-fiction.

Books Discussed, Mentioned, or Disparaged

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
• Franny and Zoey by JD Salinger
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson, including A Path to Power and Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro
• Before the Storm and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
• River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit