When a book's plot and characters don't break a ton of ground in and of themselves, you're left hoping that the writing and the perspective will be enough to make a book interesting—luckily for us, Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation is insightful and entertaining despite its narrow scope and well-trod material.
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Aug 17
Ep 763 - Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
This story is a giant bag of cotton candy, which we mean mostly as a compliment. It's a romance-adjacent found family story set in a cozy coffee shop set against a D&D-flavored backdrop, a place where almost no one is really a villain and the one person who comes close gets the e ... Show More
55 m
Aug 10
Ep 762 - Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
Is it a novel? A collection of stories? A story cycle? A monograph?? It doesn't matter. This one's an award-winner. Strout's a masterful episodic storyteller, diving quickly into the deep end with characters we've met just pages before. However, the titular Olive looms much large ... Show More
1h 10m
Nov 2023
Audiobook Mixtape 3: Gift Ideas from the Ologists’ Brains
<p>You like Ologists. Ologists write books. You like books, so let’s dive into a new, curated sampler platter from your favorite guests’ books.. Fill your ears with dark carnivals, boney catacombs, Rocky Mountain bears and wolves, flies you should love, maggots that make you beau ... Show More
1h 21m
Aug 2022
Jenny Lawson is Broken (In the Best Possible Way)
Jenny Lawson is a funny writer, but that label doesn’t tell the whole story. In her three books, her "parenthetical ramblings" are hilarious glimpses into her razor sharp wit that keep you laughing long after you put the book down. At the same time, Jenny Lawson deals with deep d ... Show More
42m 7s