Can we contain all of Tony Kushner's award-winning Angels in America, a Gay Fantasia on National Themes in one podcast? Probably! First we'll talk about Part I: Millennium Approaches, then we'll talk about Part II: Perestroika. And along the way we'll cover Roy Cohn, how to stage an angel, and the Kushner-to-Spielberg Pipeline.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 538 - Angels in America, by Tony Kushner

What if the kids who fell into that wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe all came back to the real world and needed extensive therapy to deal with the things they had seen and done? Welcome to Every Heart a Doorway, where a strong central conceit helps cover for a somewhat rushed mystery narrative.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 537 - Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1), by Seanan McGuire

Tell me about a Complicated Man. Mishima's breakthrough coming-of-age novel about sexuality in late Imperial Japan has a powerful narrative voice and prose style. But the legacy of his work and his political goals has led to him being a bit of an "enigma" (as one listener referred to him) -- to put it lightly.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 536 - Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima

The Scarlet Letter is often included as part of a high school reading curriculum because it's good at teaching people about symbolism, and it's good at teaching people about symbolism because it uses a half-dozen symbols roughly 700 times apiece. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 535 - The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

What if thirty years of history took place JUST beyond the doors of your hotel? And what if you weren't allowed to leave that hotel? And, get this, the hotel is in Moscow.

The beloved bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow fills its historical fiction with charming characters that you want to root for. But can we (or should we) figure out what it's trying to say?

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 534 - A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles

Welcome to our newest show-within-a-show! In case you can't tell by the name, we're reading a selection of eight spooktacular books from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. Some Patreon supporters get these episodes monthly, but every two months we'll combine them for general consumption.

In Episode 1, we do some table-setting on the series, Stine, and Scholastic books -- then we dive into the first entry in this long-running series of kids' horror books: Welcome to Dead House.

In Episode 2, we try to figure out what kind of grow operation Dad's got cooking up in the basement in Stay Out of the Basement! 

Find out more about how to get these episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

Also, here's the full GOOSEBUMS reading list:
Welcome to Dead House
Stay Out of the Basement
Monster Blood
Say Cheese and Die - Again!
Night of the Living Dummy
The Haunted Mask
A Night in Terror Tower
Egg Monsters from Mars

 

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GOOSEBUMS, an R.L. Stine's Goosebumps miniseries - Episodes 1 & 2

Whether you're a fan of Netflix's Bridgerton series or you just want an Austen novel with more modern language and more explicit sex scenes, the first novel in Julia Quinn's series about the Bridgerton family has something for you. Just, uh, watch out for the nonconsensual sexual encounter!! Oops!! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 533 - The Duke & I (Bridgerton #1), by Julia Quinn

Who wants to celebrate April with some modernist poetry??? This month, we allude to many of the allusions in T.S. Eliot's landmark poem.

Thank you to the Patreon supporters who joined us as we navigated this tricksy poem. Find out how to join us for bonus recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 532 - The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot (Bonus Episode)

August Wilson wrote a whole bunch of plays, all of which contain dialogue and take place at certain points in history. He's most notable for his Pittsburgh aka Century Cycle, so we decided to talk about one of the standouts: Fences.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 531 - Fences, by August Wilson

The first of four books in the Circle of Magic series, Sandry's Book feels a bit less self-contained than first-books-in-a-series normally do. You'll meet likable and well-drawn characters, but be prepared to finish the series if you want a more satisfying story.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 530 - Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic #1), by Tamora Pierce

The inspiration for the hit trilogy of DreamWorks films is rather different than you might expect. It's still about a boy named Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, but the original has more burping, farting, and Dragonese than the films dared to show -- which is odd because those are the guys what made Shrek.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 529 - How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell

The thrilling conclusion to the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest continues most of the plot threads introduced in the previous book. If you thought that The Girl Who Played With Fire was lacking in secondary and tertiary characters, boy have we got good news for you! 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 528 - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (Millennium #3), by Stieg Larsson

This award-winning novel by a real writer's writer has elicited a broad range of responses, with some folks praising the prose and structure and others bouncing off its characters and style. But maybe that range of reactions was inevitable given the way Trust Exercise explores the slipperiness of memory and narrative.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 527 - Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi

Is The Winter's Tale a tragicomedy? A dramedy? A romance? A problem play? Who knows! But we can say for certain it's a play about a king who gets jealous and makes bad decisions. Also a bear eats someone.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 526 - The Winter's Tale, by William Shakespeare

Truly great butlers are work-focused automata, occupied only on maintaining and increasing the reputation of their employer. But what if there were more to life than that? This week, we follow one butler as he comes to exactly that realization.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 525 - The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

Enjoy the FINAL EPISODE of our latest show-within-a-show! We read Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes a few chapters at a time. Some Patreon supporters got these episodes monthly, but every two months we combined them for general consumption.

These episodes cover Chapters 48-74 of Part Two aka The End of the Story.

In Episode 13, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza bid goodbye to the Duke and Duchess of Prankdom...for now.

In Episode 14, we bid goodbye to Don Quixote and Sancho. And we learn just how mad Cervantes was about that unofficial Quixote sequel.

Next up: GOOSEBUMS, a Goosebumps miniseries!

Find out how to get these longreads episodes monthly at patreon.com/overduepod.

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Jagged Little Mill, a Don Quixote miniseries - Episodes 13 & 14

It's time to go back to school, where professional scientists Melody and Erin from the Heaving Bosoms podcast can help us talk about Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis. This STEAMy romantic comedy is one heck of a romp, and we have a heck of a time recounting it.

Caveat lictor: This episode is marked explicit because this book includes adult material!

You can find more from our new friends at the Heaving Bosoms podcast here.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 524 - The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood (w/ Heaving Bosoms)

This week, Glory Edim of Well-Read Black Girl fame joins us to talk about Deesha Philyaw's inaugural short story collection. We also chat with Glory about her work with WRBG and some of her favorite interviews.

You can find more from Glory and Well-Read Black Girl at their website or on their podcast. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 523 - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw (w/ Glory Edim from Well-Read Black Girl)

My podcast is a fish. Faulkner's 1930 modernist "tour de force" (his words) takes one family's journey to bury its matriarch and splinters it into over a dozen increasingly-disjointed perspectives. The book's structure and characters are memorable but boy howdy are they difficult.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Ep 522 - As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

The State of our Podcast is strong! We just have a few announcements to make that wouldn't fit onto a regular episode.

In this special edition podcast update, we drop the details on our next longread project GOOSEBUMS, discuss some tweaks to our Patreon project, and thank you all for making the show the success that it is!

To find out more about our Patreon changes, head on over to this post. 

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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