Welcome to our newsletter! This is our first go at such a thing, but we think it might be a good way to get the word out about current episodes (with full shownotes), upcoming episodes, polls, giveaways, etc. Twitter and Instagram and The Mookse and the Gripes website are great for somethings, but this feels a little more contained. We welcome your feedback!
Our latest episode: Our Dustiest Books
This week we released Episode 28: Our Dustiest Books. In this episode, Paul and I tackle a topic suggested by listener Jerry Faust: what books have sat on your shelves unread the longest?
Back in our Comfort Reads episode, Paul talked about the comfort of having unread books on your shelf, the promise they hold. Sometimes we don’t want that sense of possibility to end! Other times, the excitement to read one book is replaced by another, and then another, and so on.
Whatever the reason, unread books can sit unnoticed for a long time, just blending in with the background, so it was very nice to go to the shelves and look for books that have been collecting dust for far too long, clean them up, and spark that excitement to read them.
What books have sat unread on your shelf the longest? Do you find that causes anxiety or comfort? We’d love to hear from you!
We also announce the winner of our Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont giveaway!
You can listen to the podcast here, or you can access it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you might listen to podcasts.
Go to the bottom of this newsletter for the shownotes.
Our next episode: Assigned Reading II
On Saturday May 28, we will be sitting down to record our discussion of the two short novels we assigned ourselves in Episode 27: Short Books, Fiction. Paul assigned Mauro Javier Cárdenas’s Aphasia and I assigned Jean Giono’s Ennemonde, translated from the French by Bill Johnston. We have not shared our thoughts with each other yet, but I can tell Paul is nervous about his recommendation, and I’ll just throw out there that Ennemonde is its own strange puzzle. I can’t wait for that discussion!
This episode will be out for Patreon supporters on Tuesday, May 31, and for everyone on Thursday, June 2.
Upcoming Schedule
June 2: Episode 29: Assigned Reading 2
June 16: Episode 30: UNKNOWN!
June 30: Episode 31: UNKNOWN!
We have a lot of topics we’re excited to choose from, but we also welcome any an all suggestions. We will work to keep this more up to date for future newsletters.
Random Tidbits
On Tuesday, May 24 we will be releasing our first Patreon Only episode. It does not subtract from the regular episodes in any way, but we wanted to add something extra for our Patreon supporters (because we are really grateful for the support!). It’s a chatty catch-up, where Paul and I talk about where we are on some of our 2022 reading projects, and Paul corners me to tell him how I’m doing on three big books: Don Quixote, The Books of Jacob, and David Copperfield!
If you’re interested in becoming a Patreon supporter, please click here. Supporters at all levels get access to bonus episodes and get early access to regular episodes.
Episode 28 Shownotes
Episode Links
Library of America American Science Fiction Box Sets
All of the books brought up in this episode!
The Famous Magician, by César Aira
Bullfighting, by Roddy Doyle
The Last Days of Roger Federer, by Geoff Dyer
And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie
The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon
Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon
Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon
Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope
The Warden, by Anthony Trollope
Letter From an Unknown Woman, by Stefan Zweig
The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk
The Black Prince, by Iris Murdoch
The Green Knight, by Iris Murdoch
Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges
Pilcrow, by Adam Mars-Jones
Cedilla, by Adam Mars-Jones
Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol
Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
Midaq Alley, byNaguib Mahfouz
The Cairo Trilogy, by Naguib Mahfouz
Voss, by Patrick White
The Vivisector, by Patrick White
Troubles, by J.G. Farrell
Riders in the Chariot, by Patrick White
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
The Red and the Black, by Stendhal
The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
The Island of the Day Before, by Umberto Eco
Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce
Aphasia, by Mauro Javier Cardenas
Ennemonde, by Jean Giono
About the Podcast
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every few weeks we are talking about some bookish topic or another.
Please join us! You can subscribe at Apple podcasts or go to the feed to import to your favorite podcatcher. You can also listen to us on YouTube, if that’s your thing (though I’m still trying to figure that out, so be patient if there are some strange uploads and re-uploads).
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, please visit our Patreon page. We have been reworking the Patreon, and I’m excited that I figured out how to get Patreon subscribers early access to our episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. We are also working on bonus episodes for certain tiers, since we really want to show our thanks. Please go check it out!
Excellent. This is the main thing I would have changed about the podcast. Having the books mentioned in show notes. It's a godsend for other podcasts like Backlisted. Means I can settle back and enjoy the show without worrying about missing a title. Appreciate the extra effort guys.
Hearing about Roddy Doyle in your last episode made me want to recommend Life Without Children, Doyle's latest story collection. This one too features mostly middle-aged men in some kind of crisis, but they are all set in the early days of the pandemic, adding a whole new level of pressure. Marriages hang in the balance here, as well as moments of long reckoning.
I listened to the audiobook and agree that Doyle is so good at narrating his own work.