Welcome to a new episode of The Book Report! This week Mike and Janet talk about six literary villains they liked even though they weren’t supposed to.
Discussed in this episode: Jurassic World; Jeffrey Eugenides’s burn book; Janet in high school, again; crooked politicians; and what possibly could have been so bad about the tsarist regime.
The Book Report The Book Report is everyone's favorite weekly, literary show. Hosted by Janet Potter and Michael Schaub.
Welcome to a new episode of The Book Report presented by The Millions! This week, Janet and Mike discuss a new novel about female assassins. Janet knows a lot about female assassins because she is one.
Discussed in this episode: The Regional Office Is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales, psychics, martial arts, office politics, irresistible book critics, action movies, Kelly Link.
Not discussed in this episode: Janet and Mike’s plans to attack the regional office of The Millions. (Don’t tell Lydia.)
Welcome to a new episode of The Book Report presented by The Millions!
This week, Mike talks about Jean-Patrick Manchette’s The Mad and the Bad, and we beg American publishers to bring more violent nihilism to the literary scene. We are kind, gentle people, but sometimes we like reading about murderers, and there is nothing wrong with that. At least according to Mike’s therapist. (Mike’s therapist is a dog.)
Also discussed in this episode: Care Bears, hacksaws, plane crashes, orphans, insane asylums, France, spoiled brats, Breaking Bad, Cormac McCarthy, Chuck Palahniuk, and morals.
Not discussed in this episode: the fact that the original French title of this book is O dingos, O chateaux!, which is possibly the best title ever, rainbows, ponies, cookies, and hugs.
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Happy New Year, everybody, and welcome back to The Book Report presented by The Millions! We hope that all of you had a great 2014. But we know you didn’t, because 2014 was a stupid garbage year, and nothing good happened, except the founding of The Book Report presented by The Millions, which ruled, but otherwise, let’s just all agree never to discuss 2014 ever again. Moving on!
Discussed in this episode: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, Bob Marley, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, profanity, destination weddings, violence, Cool Runnings (dir. Jon Turteltaub), Roberto Bolaño, William T. Vollmann.
Not discussed in this episode: For the first time in this show’s history, there is actually nothing not discussed in this episode. Somehow, we actually talk about literally everything. And it’s only, like, five minutes! Honestly, we’re just as surprised as you are.
Welcome to a new episode of The Book Report presented by The Millions! This week, Janet and Mike talk about Fox Tooth Heart, the new short story collection from author John McManus.
Discussed in this episode: alcohol, Thanksgiving, family, black humor, teenage boys, poverty, drugs, rock stars, psychic elephants, Thomas Jefferson and what a jerk he was, Virginia, cruelty, gay bars.
Advice given in this episode, but cut for time: If you’re reading this book during a family Thanksgiving, for the love of God, skip “Cult Heroes.” Just trust us. By all means, read it, but not when you’re within 100 miles of your father.
Welcome to The Book Report presented by The Millions! This week, Janet and Mike talk about a man named Georgie who makes bad decisions and a man named Woodrow (well, Tommy, actually) who made good decisions. For the most part.
Discussed in this episode: Turtleface and Beyond: Stories by Arthur Bradford, Wilson by A. Scott Berg, Christmas trees, wood chippers, Fargo (dir. Joel Coen), George Saunders, Michael Chabon, Gary Shteyngart, Woodrow Wilson, the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Reconstruction, Janet’s nerdy ruler with the names of all the American presidents, chronic intestinal problems, diarrhea, James Garfield, “trouble in Central America,” Theodore Roosevelt, World War I, and Charles J. Guiteau.
Check out Janet’s presidential biography blog for more coverage of executive diarrhea, and some of Mike’s recent book reviews here and here.
Not discussed in this episode: Woody Guthrie, Woody Allen, Woody Woodpecker, “Civil War” by Guns N’ Roses (how did we miss that?), Garfield the cat, Mondays, lasagna, Abu Dhabi, Leon Czolgosz, and Stephen Sondheim.
Say what?! The Marriage Plot is about DFW, JE, and Mary Karr? I really need to go back and reared it. Really like this series. — reaching for the Beowulf directly.
Great episode! I had heard about the Wallace character in The Marriage Plot (and it was pretty obvious when I read it), but didn’t know about the triangle with Mr. Eugenides. Loved the book. Bold choice of Nixon as likable villain. He did like bowling. So he’s got that going for him.
Janet scores empathy points for Frankenstein & the Romanovs.
Mike makes an inspired choice with Nixon who, coincidentally, played a helluva piano.
But nobody picks Raskolnikov? Come on! DFW but no RRR? He’s like a 3rd-year MFA’er going into debt and…murder!
Re: Grendel–Mike should check out hot-shot 70s author John Gardner’s “Grendel,” which is an examination of 12 big ideas of civilization from the perspective of the “monster” who channels J. P. Sartre. Gardner was a short-lived literary lion back then, sort of a cross between John Irving, Robert Pirsig and Robert James Waller (!)
He died young (late 40s) in a motorcycle accident, which may have kept him from being as well-remembered as he deserves to be.
How about Count Fosco in The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. He is so charming, witty and enlivens every page he is on, as opposed to the cardboard hero and heroines. And speaking of Counts, there is another I can think of who also brightens up the story he is in by his rare but very entertaining presence.