our “you” module is winding down, so it feels like the perfect time to cover a book that shouldn’t be in the module at all: the night circus by erin morgenstern. first, though, we talk about the film magazine dreams (with heavy spoilers): what makes it a mess, what went wrong, and how shreds would have ended the movie.

then, we pivot to the night circus to discuss our issues with the text on its own and for the module. shreds explains how it made its way into the module in the first place. joey talks about the biggest issue in writing about illusionists. we both agree on how the second-person could have worked. we talk about how the text is humorless, sexless, and themeless, as well as the recipe of three things that add up to a thing that shreds hates. joey explains how it’s like the hunger games (and every other “baby’s first uprising” book). shreds has an issue with time. egg writes in to talk about the book’s assumption that you just deeply “know” tarot.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson