The Power of a Great Title

Episode 54

Would a book by any other name smell as sweet? This week, we have fun talking all about titles: How much do they matter? Are they truly art or more of a marketing tool? Do certain genres lend themselves to better titles? We also share (more than) a few of our favorites! What are your top titles?

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Upcoming Episodes

While the schedule might change, here is what we are looking at for the next several episodes.

• Episode 55: Barbara Pym (June 1)

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Shownotes

Books

• Returning Light: 30 Years of Light on Skellig Michael, by Robert L. Harris

• The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods

• The Shining, by Stephen King

• The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Ex-Wife, by Ursula Parrott

• Solenoid, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter

• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell

• Our Share of Night, by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell

• Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

• Mouthful of Birds, by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

• Braiding Sweet Grass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• The Illiterate, by Ágota Kristóf, translated by Nina Bogin

• The Notebook, by Ágota Kristóf, translated by Alan Sheridan

• The Proof, by Ágota Kristóf, translated by David Watson

• The Third Lie, by Ágota Kristóf, translated by Marc Romano

• Cold Nights of Childhood, by Tezer Özlü, translated by Maureen Freely

• Animal Farm, by George Orwell

• Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell

• Don’t Look at Me Like That, by Diana Athill

• Instead of a Letter, by Diana Athill

• Written on Water, by Eileen Chang, translated by Andrew F. Jones

• The Fawn, by Magda Szabó, translated by Len Rix

• The Door, by Magda Szabó, translated by Len Rix

• Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit

• Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

• Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, by Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland

• Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

• The Stronghold, by Dino Buzzati, translated by Lawrence Venuti (originally The Tartar Steppe)

• A Love Affair, by Dino Buzzati, translated by Joseph Greene

• My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard

• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• The Winter of Our Discontent, by John Steinbeck

• East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

• The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

• As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

• The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner

• Intruder in the Dust, by William Faulkner

• For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

• A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

• The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

• A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway

• Tomás Nevinson, by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• A Heart So White, by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• Your Face Tomorrow, by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me, by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• Thus Bad Begins, by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

• Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

• Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

• Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

• What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson

• A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor

• Everything that Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor

• The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O’Connor

• Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor

• A Late Encounter with the Enemy, by Flannery O’Connor

• Why Do the Heathen Rage, by Flannery O’Connor

• “Brokeback Mountain,” by Annie Proulx

• Them Old Cowboy Songs, by Annie Proulx

• “The Half-Skinned Steer,” by Annie Proulx

• “People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water,” by Annie Proulx

• “What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?” by Annie Proulx

• “Tits-Up in a Ditch,” by Annie Proulx

• “Job History,” by Annie Proulx

• The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx

• Memento Mori, by Muriel Spark

• The Ballad of Peckham Rye, by Muriel Spark

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark

• Not to Disturb, by Muriel Spark

• The Abbess of Crewe, by Muriel Spark

• Loitering with Intent, by Muriel Spark

• A Far Cry from Kensington, by Muriel Spark

• The Girls of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark

• Aiding and Abetting, by Muriel Spark

• The Snobs, by Muriel Spark

• “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe

• “The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe

• “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe

• “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe

• “The Pit and the Pendulum,” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Some Tame Gazelle, by Barbara Pym

• Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym

• Jane and Prudence, by Barbara Pym

• Less Than Angels, by Barbara Pym

• A Gate of Blessings, by Barbara Pym

• No Fond Return of Love, by Barbara Pym

• Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym

• The Sweet Dove Died, by Barbara Pym

• A Few Green Leaves, by Barbara Pym

• An Unsuitable Attachment, by Barbara Pym

• Crampton Hodnet, by Barbara Pym

• An Academic Question, by Barbara Pym

• Civil to Strangers, by Barbara Pym

• It, by Stephen King

• Pet Sematary, by Stephen King

• The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

• A Headful of Ghosts, by Paul Tremblay

• The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James

• Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice

• “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

• In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes

• The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

• Hard Rain Falling, by Don Carpenter

• Black Wings Has My Angel, by Elliott Chaze

• They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy

• The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain

• Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler

• The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy

• Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith

• He Died with His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond

• Fatale, by Jean-Patrick Manchete, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith

• The Mad and the Bad, by Jean-Patrick Manchete, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt

• Into Thin Air, by John Krakauer

• Into the Wild, by John Krakauer

• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick

• When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West

• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks

• Annals of the Former World, by John McPhee

• Encounters with the Archdruid, by John McPhee

• We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, by Philip Gourevitch

• One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa

• Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa

• Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa

• News of a Kidnapping, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• Living to the Tell the Tale, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• Memories of My Melancholy Whores, by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• Weep Not, Child, by Ngugi wa Thiong-o

• Devil on the Cross, by Ngugi wa Thiong-o

• Petals of Blood, by Ngugi wa Thiong-o

• A Grain of Wheat, by Ngugi wa Thiong-o

• The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, by Alan Stilltoe

• Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray

• Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

• Dirty Snow, by Georges Simenon, translated by Marc Romano

• The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, by Georges Simenon, translated by Sian Reynolds

• Journal of a Solitude, by May Sarton

• Plant Dreaming Deep, by May Sarton

• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot

• Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaid Singing, by May Sarton

• A Shower of Summer Days, by May Sarton

• Faithful Are the Wounds, by May Sarton

• As We Are Now, by May Sarton

• The Magnificent Spinster, by May Sarton

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst

• Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

• The Snow Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

• The Little Engine That Could

• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

• The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers

• Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

• And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

• The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

• A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers

• The Discovery of Heaven, by Harry Mulisch, translated by Paul Vincent

• Good Morning, Midnight, by Jean Rhys

Other

• Nora’s Instagram Reel

• Episode 37: Hotel Novels

• Backlisted: Archive Books Special

• Tea or Books Episode 40: How Do We Arrange Our Bookshelves

• Books Unbound 173: Top Books of 2022

• Lost Ladies of Lit 138: Ursula Parrott — Ex-Wife with Marsha Gordan

• “My Sad Dead,” by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell, from the February 13 & 20, 2023 issue of The New Yorker

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About the Podcast

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another.

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