Morgan and Gavia discuss their favorite new books from the past calendar year, ranging from the bestselling Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, to a brilliant hidden gem for fans of queer historical fiction, and new releases in a variety of genres including sci-fi, memoirs and mythic fantasy.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan diverge on Greta Gerwig's new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. They assess Gerwig's structural changes to the book, compare this iteration of the story to its previous adaptations, and discuss the film's marvelous troupe of actors including Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Timothée Chalamet.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss the second installment of Philip Pullman's follow-up trilogy to His Dark Materials, The Secret Commonwealth, which finds Lyra Silvertongue studying at Oxford as a young adult. They discuss the novel's relationship to the earlier books, Pullman's new ideas about daemons, and second-book-in-a-trilogy problems.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia cap off the podcast's summer book club with a discussion of Elizabeth Gaskell's Victorian romance North and South. They compare the novel to other nineteenth century marriage novels and evaluate its depiction of the industrial revolution and overwrought male emotions.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss their summer book club pick, Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch. They reflect on the book’s unusual treatment of policing, break down time travel tropes, and situate Night Watch in the larger context of the Discworld series.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan revisit their childhoods with Philip Pullman's new novel La Belle Sauvage, the first installment of his new trilogy The Book of Dust, a companion to His Dark Materials. They discuss this book's relationship to Pullman's earlier trilogy, earnest children, frightening villains, Oxford, and—for some reason—Edmund Spenser's living situation.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan change it up by diving into the latest novel by master spy novelist John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies, which marks his final return to the world of George Smiley and the Circus. Topics discussed include the novel's relationship to its predecessors, le Carré's difficulties writing women, Morgan's le Carré fandom, and Brexit.
Read More