This collection of short stories runs the gamut from biblical fiction to sci-fi mockumentary to "short story that inspired a very successful film named Arrival." Recurring themes include Creation, Thought, and Perception. Pretty heavy stuff! But Chiang tackles it all with creativity and flair. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squares…

Have podcast, will (time) travel! This is the time travel book-slash-romance novel you write when you’re enamored with a hot old-timey boat guy and his doomed Arctic exploration. It’s got a whole lot going on, for better or worse! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Pri…

This is a podcast, recorded by two nincompoops, full of the novel The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, signifying...something? a recording in which we discuss the Modernism the italics the three sons the Mother the golf course the South and is Craig sick who knows this consciousness won't stream itself you know This episode is sponsored by S…

The Hunger Games are back, and so are we! Remember Haymitch Abernathy, the occasionally sympathetic drunk from the original Hunger Games trilogy? Well, here he is as a young man, being ground into dust by his authoritarian government and its media apparatus. Collins really wants to make sure that you Get It This Time. Our theme music was composed b…

We're up on the International Space Station this week, floating around with our coworkers/friends, looking at the earth as it speeds by multiple times a day. We're not really "doing" anything in like, a "narrative" sense. But it's a vibe, man. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky Advertise on Ov…

GREETINGS LISTENER. HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY? IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE BOOK SUPERCOMPUTER BY EDWARD PACKARD? Sometimes people make mistak. YES THEY DO. SHALL WE PLAY A GAME(BOOK)? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. Our theme music was comp…

Welcome to the infinite halls of Piranesi’s House. Don’t mind the flooded basement, or the cloudy attic, or the fact that staying here more than a day starts to really take a toll on your memory. Piranesi’s got it all written down, so he knows everything there is to know about the House. Or does he? This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give onl…

It's not every day you run across this skillful an abridgment of S. Morgenstern's classic tale of love and adventure, one that was also turned into a beloved feature film of the same name. But there's something weird going on here. Both author and abridger are editorializing a LOT, and I'm not sure I can even find the kingdom of Florin on a map. Oh…

The time has come...to become...Animorphs! We had a blast diving into this 90s sci-fi hit for Scholastic. The kids: they become animals. The stakes: they become apocalyptic! Complete our listener survey at gum.fm/overdue. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis. Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky Advertise on Overdue See Privacy Poli…

How does one construct an identity? And what must you sacrifice to forge one all your own (and who is most impacted by your choices)? Bennett's acclaimed novel The Vanishing Half meditates on these questions and more in a story about passing, sister/motherhood, and acting. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for …

This book's heavier social commentary is... leavened? Heightened? By being juxtaposed with some borderline-goofy corpse-hiding heist stuff. We think it works! Not all reviewers of the book agree. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/overdue and get on your way to being your best self. Our theme music …

Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel The Nickel Boys tells a haunting story of two young men whose identities are forever changed by their experiences at a brutal institute for boys in 1960s Florida. It's not easy subject matter, but Whitehead's wonderfully economic prose keeps it engaging all the way to the downright surprising end. This epis…

Sometimes you read a book that you heard about in high school, something that was taught as a sort of historical document that helped to explain why things are the way they are today. But sometimes it turns out that the book is actually about a whole lot of other stuff too! Including lots of (apparently) live debates about politics and food safety!…

Over 100 tales of trauma, inspiration, and a vague sense that Positive Thinking may not be all it's cracked up to be! This collection (and its surrounding media empire) can be heartwarming, but nothing quite as heartwarming as a sodium-rich can of condensed chicken soup with noodles. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/o…

A prime example of the "healing fiction" genre, Before The Coffee Gets Cold has uncharacteristically low stakes for a time travel novel: no future of humanity to save, no butterfly effects, no risk of destroying the present by altering the past. It's more concerned with simpler questions: if you had just a little more information about things that …

New year, new podcast ideas! Time for a few announcements that won't fit into a regular episode. In this special edition podcast update, we share some tweaks to our Patreon project. This includes the new Dusty Bookshelves newsletter, monthly Q&A streams, and more! Also, we'd like to thank you all for listening and for supporting the show. For more …

In this award-winning novella, T. Kingfisher asks, "What if you DIDN'T want to wake Sleeping Beauty?" The protagonist Toadling is most certainly not the princess in question. She is, however, an "interesting, but sad" fae creature who tells her tale with a moving mix of warmth and tragedy. Complete our listener survey at gum.fm/overdue. This episod…

Imagine waking up one day to find out that you're the heir to the throne of a tiny fictional European country. Now imagine that, after that, you still need to navigate the choppy waters of high school! Also you're flunking Algebra, which has somehow created an opening for your teacher to date your mom. Oh no! Complete our listener survey at gum.fm/…

For this year's Happy Hornydays celebration, we go under the covers undercover with the FBI on a fast-paced mission to infiltrate the Zicari Crime Syndicate. This steamy little novella is more criminal than Christmas, but it still makes for a fun conversation about professionalism, brotherhood, and limousine intimacy. Complete our listener survey a…

It's time to jack in and try to decode one of the ur-texts of cyberpunk: William Gibson's Neuromancer. It's got everything you'd expect from a cyberpunk story (hackers, cybernetic enhancements, malevolent AI constructs) while also being the one of the reasons you have those expectations in the first place! This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. …

Ironically this week we are succumbing to gravity, reading the book that is the source material for a musical that is the source material for a pair of major motion pictures. But if the musical or movie Wicked led you to the book Wicked, we are here to tell you: these things are not the same! This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online the…

What if a play didn't need a "plot" to move you? What if all it needed was a gun on a wall and a bunch of artists besot with unrequired love? That is what Chekhov's The Seagull accomplishes. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain. This episode is also sponsored b…

It's the conclusion of our show-within-a-show dedicated to Emily Wilson's new translation of Homer's The Iliad. We read it a few books at a time and had a more in-depth chat about it than we do about most books. This episode covers Books 20-24. Episode 09: Everybody's "favorite" guy Achillies is finally back on the battlefield! The gods want this t…

Sing, goddess, of the creativity of Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles. This romance/war history deftly combines the existing canon of Greek epic and myth with a moving story about young Patroclus and his love Achilles. We read a lot of myth this year (including The Iliad) so we have a lot of feelings! This episode is sponsored by Aura…

Misanthropy, anxiety, and societal alienation? In this economy?? This week's book and author aren't the most uplifting podcast subjects we've ever covered, but our discussion ended up being an oddly cathartic way to help process election results and the feelings downstream from election results. This episode is also sponsored by Squarespace. Go to …