It might not be the flashiest part of Strangers, but it's worth taking a quick look at why Burden's prose functions so well. Also! My sense of specific thing that makes this far more than a cautionary tale about women and personal finances. AND! My own personal crusade about how we should describe this woman while recommending this book to everyone we know.

Andrew Sean Greer is one of those writers who wrote a book that is so uncommonly GOOD that everything after it pales in comparison. Less--with its propulsive plot, its sneaky narrator and its incredible twist--continues to be an enormous favorite of mine. VILLA COCO might stand in the shadow of that earlier work, but so much is working well here. Especially if you're someone who starts it and feels it lag, this lecture is for you. It picks up! And if you have the real strangths of the novel in mind, it'll be all the more CHARMING. NO SPOILERS! A GOOD PRE-READING lecture!

Moore is SO GOOD that the last half of the lecture is just me doing my favorite party trick! I think of two numbers, then go to the first number's corresponding page and the second number's line. Then I sit back and just revel (explaining all the while) in the author's sheer genius. Truly, every single line in this slim cult classic could inspire its own lecture. Listen in now to how Moore pulls off this hilarious, inventive, dark and ultra-intelligent first novel.

Famously, the enduring appeal of 84, Charing Cross Road rests on its correspondence between an American TV-writing woman and a British bookseller. But what if the slim volume's real power comes mostly just from the independent, iconoclastic, sassy and powerful Helene? Or from Helene and all the other female voices in this delightful favorite? Treat yourself today! (If you haven't read it, you might take the hour to do so before listening. No spoilers, really, but we get pretty in depth.)

Much has been made of Nelio Biedermann's wunderkind status. And there are plenty of reasons people are calling his debut novel "virtuousic" and "astonishing." It was SO fun to look at why much of this novel really worked, and why much of it . . . didn't.

Famously, the 240 "propositions" BLUETS produce a genre-bending, poetic, heady, broody, completely INGENIOUS work. Whether you've read it a dozen times or picked it up or, tried it and thought, what is happening here, listen in to more fully appreciate SO MUCH about its structure, its fascinating narrative stance, its HUMOR and the radical thing Nelson is doing by foregrounding all those old, white, male philosophers. This was such a gratifying lecture to record. Seventy-six minutes from now, you could--thanks to Nelson--feel inspired, humbled and a little smarter.

This controversial page turner is SO engaging. Find out why I think that's the case (from a literary perspective) while also allowing me to provide some forensic-style info as to the book's original shape (IT WAS MAYBE SEMI-UTOPIC!), what is actually going on in the assault scene (it's complicated) and what we might make of the ending. This lecture was SO fun (and weirdly short). Listen in now!

The Blue Flower is considered Fitzgerald's masterpiece, and for good reason. It's challenging--an entirely different approach to historical fiction, with subtle, nuanced, gorgeous prose. She makes late-1700s Saxony feel immediate and accessible and you FEEL so much for these people. Listen in to fully appreciate how she produces a book that readers go back to again and again, gaining so much more every single time.

Tune in to hear why James's 1880 New York novel might be all of the above--plus funny! The close look at the innovative, wry narrative stance is reason enough to spend an hour thinking about this slim book. Not to mention the excellent characterization, the use of satire and the send up of the Gothic meddlesome spinster aunt! Treat yourself now!

I can't remember the last time a novel evoked such strong--and opposing!--reactions. This 2018 novella appealed back then but my re-reading was even more satisfying. Listen in to hear the many ways Murata is a master of satire. Maybe more interestingly, take a fascinating look at sexuality in the novel via two other Murata essays. Indulge yourself in talk about this smart, unique novel now!