Lev Grossman returns to the podcast after a nine year break. That’s a long time! Since he was here last, he wrote his Arthurian magnum opus, The Bright Sword, and he chats about it, along with a good name for a cocktail sword, God, Merlin, and how he likes to be in conversation with someone else’s work. Plus, he brings along Phillip K. Dick’s UBIK, a bizarre sci-fi classic that’s on the verge of fantasy itself.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Holly Gramazio drops by via the magic of Zoom to talk her magical summer blockbuster of a book, The Husbands. She gets into its origin as a computer game, a lack of supernatural solutions, and why it used to have the moon falling apart. Plus, she brings along the surreal-but-still-relatable Zito Madu’s The Minotaur at Calle Lanza, and reveals she’s just been to Venice. Read on, compadres!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Slotover, host of The Book Club Review podcast, joins me in the Damn Library all the way from London! Drinks are had, New York is discussed, along with two different worlds of New York reportage, Helene Hanff’s Letter from New York, and Joseph Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel. Such a joy!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melissa Mogollon zooms in to talk her debut Oye, and all the fun she had writing it. That means we talk how her friends are like her sisters, the unusual structure that always felt like it could fail, and how she might write a sequel from the sister’s perspective. Plus, she brings along Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing, a book that was great to revisit, and is informing her on how to connect digitally as she releases her book.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our old pal Drew (of Voyage into Genre) is back! We talk about how the internet used to be, how Drew broke his slump, some literal tea discussion, RPG and video games, and general book chatter. The usual, served up just how you like it, in podcast form.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fiona Warnick, author of the charming novel The Skunks, drops by to talk animals and metaphor, how her creative writing program helped her with this book, writing smooth, and more than that, because we also get into Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, which inspires a deeper dive into the work of Heti and her influence.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christopher goes through some stuff he read and some stuff he wants to read. Got any modern pirate book recommendations?contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexandra Tanner shares the Damn Library physical space, sitting in the chair across from me and everything. She discusses her sibling’s influence on Worry, writing for an audience of one, money, moms, and more. Plus, she brings Kathryn Scanlan’s Aug 9 - Fog for book club. Listen closely and you’ll hear books mentioned now and again.contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Damn Library co-owner Sarah sits to chat about all the things that makes one pick up a book only to put it back down again. A list of reading pet peeves that touches on everything from subject matter, to stylizations, tropes, design choices, and more. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Lyon returns to talk about her new novel, Fruit of the Dead, and how it wasn’t always a Persephone myth retelling, she found that along the way. Plus, we get into the “generative fill” of reading, and I pontificate on dust mote fiction, inspired by the fetid summer heat within the pages of Tessa Hadley’s The Past. Read along!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

GennaRose Nethercott returns to talk about her brand new story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart, stealing details from her friends, telling stories from the periphery, and how each tale in the book is about yearning. Also, thanks to Sabrina Orah Marks’ Happily, we discuss all form of fairy tales, and how they can tubocharge your selling power, you just have to ask us how. Real good listenin’!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kirsten Bakis makes her podcast airwave debut to discuss her brand new novel, King Nyx. And it’s a doozy. Kirsten reflects on sideways stories and how she first “met” the real life inspiration for her main character, and some reflections on how things have changed in publishing since she first debuted 27 years ago with her modern classic, Lives of the Monster Dogs. Listen up and listen good!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marie-Helene Bertino returns to the Damn Library to discuss her latest triumph, Beautyland. Marie-Helene goes into how she creates some of the book's indelible, otherworldly moments, and why the book's writing process was charmed. Plus, she brought along The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a book that is much more powerful when you're not translating it for french class. Books are back, baby!contribute! https://patreon.com/smdbfor drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.commusic: Disaster Magic(https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Into the Damn Library Sarah and Christopher go again, to review their respective years on reading, pull out the highlights, and make plans for the year to come. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for the full gift list, every drink recipe, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Deck The Halls Chris Hayes Music Remix

Sarah joins Christopher in the Damn Library she co-owns to drink martinis and talk about good ideas for holiday gifting, from books to subscriptions to games to cocktail accoutrements and more. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for the full gift list, every drink recipe, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Drew Broussard, Hudson valley author, Golden Notebook bookseller, host of Voyage Into Genre, and former host of this show, jumps into his old chair in the Damn Library and it’s like he never left. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Amy Kurzweil stops into the Damn Library, physically, to talk about the physical object of her new graphic memoir, Artificial: A Love Story, which largely concerns AI. We discuss capturing the details of her screens, the open question of the future, and what we keep from the past to get there. Plus, we delve into the many joys of Jason Lutes’ Berlin, a modern masterpiece. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Edan Lepucki visits the virtual Damn Library by the power of the internet to discuss her intergenerational time travel novel, Time’s Mouth. We get into all the fun stuff, like time travel mechanics, Reichian therapy, making fortresses, Santa Cruz, and how she’s seeing her career at this point. Plus, we talk about The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love, a book that Edan helped name. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Jennifer Baker steps into the physical reality of the Damn Library and thankfully brings along her infectious laugh and passion for books. We chat all about the long road of writing her new novel Forgive Me Not, her hopes for how it’s received, and how curiosity drives her fiction while anger can drive her nonfiction. Plus, she brought along Akwaeke Emezi’s incredible Pet. A perfect visit! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Mona Awad visits the Damn Library via the casual magic of web video for a third go round, this time for her bedeveling, garnet-bedazzled Rouge. She talks about putting her characters through the ringer, horror stories showing you a path, Tom Cruise, beauty cults, and more. Plus, both Mona and Christopher extoll the many virtues of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, and how it came at exactly the right time. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Stacey Mei Yan Fong drops into the Damn Library for a slice of pie and a pie-inspired cocktail and lots of impassioned talk of pie and baking and her new cookbook 50 Pies 50 States. Plus, behind the scenes of morning shows! And Stacey introduces Christopher to the joys of John Waters through his memoir Carsick. Have a slice! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

Henry Hoke makes a visit to the physical space of the Damn Library to talk his novel Open Throat, and allowing P-22 to become “me-22,” as well as the rest of his work, plus the novella Potted Meat by Steven Dunn, and the power of short weird books in general. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)

I’m just hanging out in the Damn Library talking about some books I just got in the mail, and the books I’m taking on vacation. Is this a good idea? Only time will tell. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Into the Damn Library Christine Grillo zooms, and what do we talk about? Her inventive, touching, hopefully not too prescient Hestia Strikes a Match, plus all that went into it, like parents and politics and fireplace decor. Plus, she brings along the archly funny and itself harrowing Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. Books, you better believe it! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Slotover, co-host of the podcast The Book Club Review, zooms into the Damn Library and chats book podcast reading, how many books she will get to before she dies, the driving philosophy of what she wants her show’s conversations to be like, why we should articulate what we don’t like about books, the magic of Dick Francis, the perennial fun of will-they-won’t-they, and so much more, including deep dives into the novellas they traded, Kate's Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan and Christopher's Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher Morley. A book lover’s feast! Bon appetit! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Makkai drops into the Damn Library a few months after her newest smash hit novel I Have Some Questions For You hit the shelves, chatting about critiquing/celebrating the podcast world, how podcasters are the new detectives, writing a campus novel when you live on campus, and so much more, including just how it feels to be where she's at in her career at this point. Plus, we delve into her 84 Books Project and Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brendan Slocumb has a seat in the hyperspace universe of the Zoom Damn Library to talk his new historical musical thriller Symphony of Secrets, and of course some Violin Conspiracy, getting into creating a world of historical music, how his violin discipline helps him as a writer, and more. Plus, he gets to talk up his debut panel friend Eli Cranor’s Ozark Dogs, and how the literary world has welcomed him. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ling Ling Huang stops by the universe of the Zoom Damn Library the day after her book, Natural Beauty, graces shelves. She talks about writing the book in her Notes app, living the classical music life, how she surprised her parents with her book deal, getting shots in her butt for her beauty industry employer, and so much more. Plus, she brought along the Korean bestseller I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, so of course we have to talk about therapy, and how this book surprises you with its ending. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The one and only Kelly Link zooms into the Damn Library hypserspace to talk her spectacular new collection, White Cat, Black Dog. She gets into how the new collection got its footing in fairy tales, how she loves ghost stories but has never seen a ghost (and that’s okay), and discuss the magic of David Macaulay’s Motel of the Mysteries. She brought along Megan Giddings’ incredible The Women Could Fly, and we discuss how real its magic feels, and how books get tied to the place you read them. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Idra Novey actually drops by the Damn Library IN PERSON to discuss her stunning new book, Take What You Need, creating an artist’s practice, torching things, and short novels. Also, she brought along César Aira’s On Contemporary Art to accompany the art on display in the text of her book. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former co-host, writer, and podcast journeyman Drew Broussard sits down to talk about, what else? Books. The Tournament of Books, inventing rather than referencing art within fiction, the problem with thriller titles these days… it’s all out on the table. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nita Prose drops into the Damn Library to illuminate her runaway hit novel, winner of a Goodreads Choice Award, The Maid, and all the ways she used her past as an editor and her knowledge of the tropes of mystery writing reused to create it. Plus, she brings along Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair, because who can ever get enough Agatha Christie? contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antiquarian Bookseller and TikTok star Tom Ayling zooms on in to the Damn Library discuss the world of antiquarian books, and the world of book-centered TikTok, two worlds that are far more complementary than you’d imagine. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah joins me in the Damn Library she co-owns to chat about favorite reads of 2022, both books published this year and books experienced this year. Plus, the HarperCollins union is on strike! If you’d like to help out, check out this page here to donate to the strike fund, and check out more information at this link roundup. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alison Watts zooms through the Damn Library hypserspace from Japan to talk the new novel she translated, The Boy and the Dog by Seishu Hase, as well as the life of a translator. Plus, we talk the prevalence of Japanese cat fiction, the ascendancy of dog fiction, canine noir, and so much more. Plus, she brings along (and does some light spoiling of) Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars, a shaggy dog of a post-apocalyptic novel. Quite a hang! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ashley Hutson, author of Christopher’s favorite novel of 2022, One’s Company, drops into the Damn Library to discuss the joy of writing a novel based on a favorite sitcom, writing a novel chronologically and then interweaving it, and how publishing a novel is quite different than the dream of publishing a novel. Plus, she brings along Lindsay Hill’s Sea of Hooks, which leads into a robust recommendation section of a few extremely sad and difficult books. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Wilson zooms in from his mountain to discuss his thrilling new novel, Now is Not the Time to Panic, and that means going into writing teenagers, the pre-Internet world, and magic disappearing as one gets older, and how that’s okay, along with a whole lotta other stuff. Plus, he brings along Blair Braverman’s Small Game, which means survival talk and reality television.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legendary comic artist and writer Kate Beaton drops into the Damn Library and talks about her monumental achievement — her new memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, and all that comes with it, including excavating memories, showing her parents a painful past, and how comics can be a type of memory palace. Plus, she brings along Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter, and we both talk about how we get spooked and how dogs are great. You gotta listen! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GennaRose Nethercott drops in, no strings, for a discussion of her new novel Thistlefoot, puppetry, research, cootie catchers, and the muchness of novel writing. Plus, she brings along Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, which starts a discussion of just how great she is, and how influential her work has become. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anthony Marra zooms into the Damn Library and attempts to turn the tables on interviewing, to some avail. Of course he gets into his new novel, Mercury Pictures Presents, how research fuels his writing, and how he wants to do the opposite of what he did the last time. Plus, he brings along Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, which is a great novel to revisit as Candy House is making the rounds. You know there's more than that too, you oughta tune in! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Living Legend Tom Scharpling drops into The Damn Library to chat about the paperback release of his national bestseller, It Never Ends, and his recent 24-hour Best Show episode triumph. There are discussions of legacy, mystery, what it was like to work together on the book, and the bizarre temporal reality created from writing something and then waiting forever for it to appear on shelves. Plus a lot more. Tune in! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This week's sponsor: Bombas. Get 20% off your purchase at bombas.com/smdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew returns to discuss his new show, Voyage into Genre, working at a bookstore, and Christopher's mad musings on which child survivalist would win in a battle royale. Plus other things too! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This week's sponsor: Bombas. Get 20% off your purchase at bombas.com/smdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angela Ledgerwood, of the podcast Lit Up drops in, physically, in person, actually inside the Damn Library, and it's a meeting of the podcast minds. Of course Christopher smokes a negroni for the both of them and tongues get wagging. Angela surprises herself to be the blockbuster loving, self-help recommending guru that she ends up being. And she also talks about a lost Richard Flanagan episode of LIT UP that indirectly led to her recommending the book. Strap in! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This week's sponsor: Bombas. Get 20% off your purchase at bombas.com/smdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mat Johnson launches into the Damn Library Zoom Zone to discuss his new novel, Invisible Things. We get into conspiracies, surprising yourself with your writing, teaching, writing funny, and a bunch of other stuff, including Claire North’s Notes from a Burning Age, and getting your sci-fi terms right. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This week's sponsor: Bombas. Get 20% off your purchase at bombas.com/smdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elaine Hsieh Chou drops into the Damn Library Hyperspace Zoom Zone to chat her incredible new campus satire, Disorientation. We get into the world of academia, writing villains, and of course, why she wrote this book three times. Plus, she brings along Matthew Salesses’ Craft in the Real World. and we talk about the wisdom found therein. And lots more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are three more interviews with featured readers! So fun to talk about bookstore ownership, how being an agent affects reading, the trials and tribulations of Topo Chico, and bad advice from The Rules, along with many other subjects besides. Many thanks to Moti from Montreal, Canada, Erin from Portland, and Jacob from Pittsburgh for chatting books with me! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are the first three (of six!) mini interviews with So Many Damn Books Readers, talking favorite recent reads, current reading projects, and giving a book to a famous person, amongst many other bookish subjects. My thanks to Michael for Portland, Daniella from London, Canada, and Noah from NYC for hanging out and chatting books. Part two goes up next week! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah, partner of Christopher and co-owner of the Damn Library, drops into some of the space she pays rent for to chat about working with the backlist for Penguin Random House, the world of publishing unionization efforts, and of course, what drinking a French 75 feels like. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara Nović webcams into the Damn Library Zoom Zone to talk her new novel, True Biz. We discuss the limitations of prose in comparison to ASL, how she tried to mimic ASL on the page, some fantasies of Eyeth, and the propulsive nature of short chapters. Also a lot of other stuff. Plus, Sara brought along The Days of Afrekete by Asali Solomon, a book that both agree is "a feat of engineering" just like the NYT said. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sasha Fletcher physically drops in to the Damn Library. In the flesh. Christopher and Sasha are actually in the same room, chatting over cocktails. This is great, because Sasha’s novel Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World is a very fun book to discuss without any zoom lag, and the conversation ranges from the Medicis to the purposes of art to the agony of first drafts. Plus, Sasha brings along When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, which elucidates the beauty and savagery of math and physics. Giddy up! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark steps into the Damn Library Pocket Universe and covers a lot of ground, both real and metaphysical. We get into why most pandemic novels don't focus on pandemics, how he put together some of the more wild chapters, and of course robot dogs. And then he brings out Brenda Peynado's The Rock Eaters, a collection of short stories that takes the figurative and makes it have weight - so of course Sequoia talks on what makes for a successful short story. Listen up! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dana Stevens stops into the Damn Library to talk about her new book, Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, and it allows for lots of subject hopping, from the birth of movie reviews to Buster Keaton's model trains to the trick of describing movies dynamically. Plus, she brings along Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, a fascinating posthumous tome from a prolific contemporary of Keaton who Dana Stevens is also obsessed with. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: CDH, Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sara Gran joins Christopher in the Damn Library to talk The Book of the Most Precious Substance, which is wildly exciting - her books are some of the most cited in So Many Damn Books history. They get into plants, and spells, and the lure of rare book buying. Plus, Sara goes into what made her decide to self publish this book after so many years in the industry. And then she brings Generation Lost by Elizabeth Hand to discuss, a novel about not having a camera at the right time, amongst other things, Get into it! (also, some fun news for the Claire DeWitt fans!) contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew is saying goodbye and vacating his role as co-host. That means one last episode with all the normal trappings, plus a wander into a chat about how the reading this year went, and if he achieved any goals he wanted to achieve when we started. Join us on this chilly, nostalgic stroll. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eugene Lim stops by the Damn Library to discuss his novel Search History, which sends the conversation careening from AI to authenticity to writing theatrically to songwriting to rainy day ideas, and that spiral leads (as it often does) to discussing César Aira and his work, particularly Conversations. Listen up! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uli Beutter Cohen, stops into the Damn Library for the third time, but for her first time as an author. She wrote Between the Lines: Stories from the Underground, and she talks about the culmination of her project of interviewing people about the books they're reading underneath the clamoring city, teases her pop-up store underneath Union Square (open until December 12th 2021!), and more. Plus, she brought us Wintering by Katherine May, a book that was sorely needed by all three folks. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gus Moreno joins Christopher and Drew in the Cosmic Horrorspace of the Zoom Damn Library to talk about This Thing Between Us. First they get into how he wrote about what scares him to write through grief. Then it breaks out into writing dogs, and writing every day, and writing about haunted houses leading to writing about haunted smart speakers. Plus, he brought along The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, a classic novella that contains the blueprints for a horror universe. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang out and chat about books, which is to be expected. Having just celebrated Halloween, they get into what they did to celebrate the holiday, scary reads, and Drew has an October Country update as well as a life update about new employment. Also, Christopher finds a long lost book title. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ruth Ozeki steps on into the Damn Library Hyperverse to shine. We talk about her latest opus, The Book of Form and Emptiness, and how books are magical, and accessing her teenage self, and an unexpected turn of narrative luck with snowglobes, along with many other things. Plus she brings us Walter Benjamin's essay, "Unpacking My Library" and we talk about what book collecting means to all of us. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexandra Kleeman is back in the Damn Library! For the third time! This visit, she's brought along her new novel, Something New Under the Sun! We are thrilled to discuss the menace of water that doesn't taste right, online forums, and what she'd write if she could add to it, and so much more, including André Gide's Marshlands, which renders a writer's life in relatable terms. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew talk about getting rid of books, and trying to be more in the present, and the logic of owning a lot of books. Also, a digression into Gary Paulsen's work. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this one, we had two producers of the new McSweeney's issue into the Damn Library hyper-verse: Julie Shapiro from Radiotopia and Claire Boyle from McSweeney's. We talk all about this "box of stuff" they produced - from how it feels to curate the 64th edition of this storied literary magazine, to putting audio together, to collaboration, and more. Plus, Christopher and Drew get to talk about some of the stuff they've loved that McSweeney's has done over the years. Y'all oughta listen up and listen good. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb This week's sponsor: Right now, we’re offering listeners of this program a free 60-day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/SMDB for your free trial. for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mona Awad joins the guys in the zooming Damn Library to talk her new novel, All's Well, which means talk about Shakespeare, and destiny, and magic happening, and chronic pain - all the fun stuff. Then she brought Sara Gran's Come Closer and everyone got to be possessed by the demon that is Sara Gran's writing style. Can you hear that scratching too? contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) This week's sponsor: Right now, we’re offering listeners of this program a free 60-day trial. Go to try.scribd.com/SMDB for your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meredith Westgate sets the Damn Library Hyperspace glittering, talking with us about The Shimmering State. The trio of us get into the fabric of memory, the joy of the unreliable narrator, how the book is a litmus test for if you like Los Angeles, and also a bit about adapting her own work for the screen. Plus, she brings us Tim Krabbé'sThe Vanishing (also known as The Golden Egg) and everybody gets to be unsettled. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew are joined in the zoom hysperspace universe with writing duo Laura Blackett & Eve Gleichman, creators of the inventive rom-com thriller, The Very Nice Box. They all get into how Gleichman and Blackett's partnership started, the joys of creating a sideways satire, and the desire to create warmth in the pages even as the book becomes a thriller. Then, they sink their chompers into Kristen Arnett's With Teeth, and how it makes you feel on the edge of a panic attack the whole time. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rosecrans Baldwin drops into the Damn Library's online zoom space to chat all about Los Angeles, the subject of his new book, Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles. We get into many of the things that make up Los Angeles, how it's different from Paris, and how the book's structure was inspired by Wittgenstein. He also brings along Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: Memories and the City, and we all talk about melancholy before we talk about hot tubs and granola bars. Get right in, the water's fine. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew finally conquer Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels, talking (and mildly spoiling) all five of the novels concerning Highsmith's most famous creation. They get into why he's a charming character, and also why reading all five in a row might be needlessly punishing. Plus, a lot of Dune by Frank Herbert talk at the end! Books! You can talk about them a lot! for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Loan Le is hanging in Zoom Hyperspace with the guys, and since she's a triple threat (writer, editor, reader) there is tons to cover. First, the pleasures of the food writing in A Pho Love Story, and writing teenagers on the brink. Then, what it's like to go from professionally editing books to writing and back again. And finally, with her reader hat on, she brought John Searles' Help for the Haunted, and we talk slippery time and why Loan believes in ghosts. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When A.E. Osworth drops into the Damn Library to talk about their novel We Are Watching Eliza Bright, that means we get to really talk about the Internet, since that's where their novel is largely set. This is also how we talk about video games, and epistolary novels, and the process of getting a couple different choruses on the page. Plus, we talk about Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This, another Internet novel, getting very into the megabytes of how these two books treat their online spheres. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spring has sprung and we're in the mood for adventure, so we asked K.M. Szpara to join us in the Damn Library for as close to an adventure as we can get these days: chatting about adventure novels! We talk about Kellan's new novel First, Become Ashes, and BDSM, and cults -- and then everybody geeks the hell out about Jurassic Park, because it's worth a re-read (or three, or seven). Isn't comfort reading nice? contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  countdown timer by Rainbow Timers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Herein, Christopher and Drew discuss how video games and assigned reading can help get the reading going, possible reading themed architectural additions to Drew's house, and how Spring reading is here! Plus some fun recommendations from Patreon listeners! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's March again, which has a different meaning this year but it also still means that it's TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS TIME! With a ca-caw to you, and to you too, the guys do a bit of prognostication that will almost certainly prove to be wrong. But what's a sports-adjacent literary experience without a little bit of ridiculous superstition to go with it? PS if you don't know about the ToB, check out the primer at TheMorningNews.org! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It happens to all of us, at one point or another, and there's no shame in admitting it: Christopher's in a reading slump. So the guys talk about it, about the latest pandemic wall, about finding joy whenever and wherever a person can. It's a reading snapshot, but sometimes that means there isn't any reading! There isn't even a regular cocktail this time, which you know means we're getting down to Business. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Thank you to this episode's sponsors: Get 25% off your first two orders on Literati Kids at literati.com/smdb. Mulholland Books presents Joe Ide's new thriller, Smoke Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jenny Offill, author of Weather (now out in paperback) joins the Damn Library through the internet tubes. Christopher makes a second drink for the book (after he and his wife Sarah discussed it during one of the early pandemic eps), there's talk of How Things Have Changed and the writing process, and Jenny sends us to warmer climes with her book club pick: Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys get caffeinated, distantly, with Mateo Askaripour to talk about his fantastic debut novel, Black Buck. They chat about telling your own story even if someone else is telling a similar one, about weaving life into art, and about how fiction is more fun than non-fiction. Plus, an out-of-print classic for Book Club that deserves to be brought back: Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guess who zooms in this time? It's George Saunders himself, certified MacArthur Genius, launching his new book about writing and Russian short story masters, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. Christopher and Drew ask him about what teaching taught him about writing, how he keeps the world fresh, and what he'd like to do if he weren't a writer, along with what a master Tolstoy was. Na Zdorovie! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/SMDB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hash out their agreed upon top 5 of the year, and then throw out two additional titles each. Lists are weird. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection; and Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/somanydamnbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang out and talk what they got up to for the holiday, open their annual presents to one another, and talk about why Goodreads is probably fine, amongst other bookish subjects. visit somanydamnbooks.com for book lists and recipes! support us on patreon! patreon.com/smdb This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instead of doing a big holiday episode and taking a break, the guys decide to celebrate by putting out some little tidbits to keep everyone company through these darkest, shortest days! First up: Stocking Stuffers from the Public Domain! Drew reads A.A. Milne's request for a standardization of Christmas gifts and Christopher dives into a mini history of Christmas tree innovations. It's a hoot and a half. This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection; and Betterhelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/somanydamnbooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Temple drops into the Damn Library via webcam, and we all chat about calendars, and the dreams of being a writer as well as the dream of online book recommendation, and knowing you'll rewrite your first draft. Of course we also discuss her novel The Lightness, and how summer camps are kind of proto-cults, and how you end up putting everything into your debut, because of course there will be more. Plus, she brought us the anti-beach read Kōbō Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, and we can still taste the sand. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  This episode is sponsored by Amazon Publishing, publishers of the new Faraway Collection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the big 1-5-0 and since it also happens to be the holiday season, we opened the phone-lines to some of our Patreon supporters to help recommend some books for their wishlists or to pick up for their loved ones! Imagine Christopher and Drew in a big ol’ telethon studio, with phones ringing off the hook and the number flashing across the bottom of the screen… except they’re in their respective homes, doing this on Zoom. Feat. appearances by Patrons Moti, Jacob, Bonnie, Erin, Chris, Lee, Charlie, Veronika and Michael! Our thanks to them for joining and to all of our listeners. We are glad we made 150 of these, and we are excited to make more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One Story managing editor, creative writing teacher, and writer of her own work: Lena Valencia wears many hats. She zooms on in to the Damn Library and Drew and Christopher pick her brain on writing scary things, what makes a good One Story submission, and how she tries to listen to the advice she gives her students. And we talk about her recent publications in Catapult's Tiny Nightmares and Epiphany lit mag. Plus, we discuss Megan Cummins' If the Body Allows It, and the underground world of the university/small press ecosystem. Hooray for short stories! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew discuss House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski at 20 years, Drew returning to the house and Christopher there for the first time. Plus, the pleasures of ergodic fiction, 3-D fiction, discussions of the Internet and how it fails us, and horror films and horror novels. It's spooky season, and the episode is bigger on the inside. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rumaan Alam zooms around into the online void paradox that is the Damn Library to talk about his new novel, Leave the World Behind. Grocery shopping, writing a glue trap, personal detail, hypertext, and careful language choices, all populate a very far-ranging conversation that veers from teeth to AirBnB foibles. Plus, Rumaan brought Want by Lynn Steger Strong along, and we talk about why it's like a ripe fruit, and that opens up even further avenues, like literary friendships and books as dreams. Get ready to hear a podcast about reading! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew prognosticate and pontificate about the Super Rooster. Drew might have a scoop. Christopher just won't read Wolf Hall. Listen, and then let us know your predictions! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A zoom session with Raven Leilani gets us into all sorts of things, from candles to disco to painting to amorality, and how you have to come to the page as though you don't think anyone will read it. Also nail polish. And so much more. Plus, Raven brought us New People by Danzy Senna, which was tense and surprising and similarly casual about breaking and entering. Let's go. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Megha Majumdar zooms from her library into the virtual Damn Library so that we can all talk about her bestseller, A Burning. We talk about what makes an Amaro, juggling three character's POVs, the life of an editor/writer, and the context of things online, as well as parallels of hope. Plus, we discuss the urgent message of Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship by Anjan Sundaram, and why any of us write. Zoom, there it is. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew talk about why people might not want to read classics and books from "Best of the Year" lists, and hope folks can learn to trust their reading instincts. Plus, some talk of blueberries, education, difficult sci-fi, and a tiny ode to Aimee Bender. Zoomin' on up. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi (https://soundcloud.com/hotelhiouchi)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lindsay Ellis zooms on in to the Damn Library with her recently-NYT-best-selling Axiom's End! We talk ~around~ the plot of her novel, the joys of writing about 2007, who would be allowed to adapt it as a musical, and more. Plus, we talk about the second book in Orson Scott Card's Ender Saga, what to do with authors who turn out to be bad people, and how sometimes you have to write a first book before you can get to the second. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Zoomin' Damn Library welcomes the good friends and co-hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman, who are both now newly minted authors of Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. So of course we talk friendship, and how the scientific studies weren't quite there like they thought it would be, and how you write a book together, and about being honest about the hard stuff. Plus, we get to talk about how great Octavia Butler is, and how prescient Parable of the Sower is. Listen up! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Damn Zoom Library hosts Quan Barry, author of the malevolently delightful 80s high school sports movie of a novel, WE RIDE UPON STICKS. She talks about how her witchcraft is home-brewed, how she juggled eleven characters' voices, and how being a poet helped her focus the timing of the book. Plus, she brings Kei Miller's AUGUSTOWN about which everyone gushes! Also the inside scoop on being an awards judge! Oh oh, it's magic! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher chat with Hilary Leichter in three different Damn Libraries for another first of its kind digital episode - our first Zoom guest! We discuss Hilary's novel TEMPORARY which leads to talk about things like gig work, her love of pirates, and how the book started as a short story. Plus, pandemic stuff and how the police need to be defunded, as well as some love for the modern fairy tale constructions of Sabrina Orah Mark's WILD MILK. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew won the annual Tournament of Books bet and chose Ali Smith for this year's "backlist" episode, so the guys read THE ACCIDENTAL in a nod to this fall's SuperRooster Tournament of ToB Champions. It's still pandemic times, too. (NB: This episode was recorded in late May, just before police brutality protests went national. SMDB proudly stands with the protestors and we believe black lives matter.) contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher actually talk at one another in this one. The very first episode of So Many Damn Books where Christopher and Drew aren't actually in a Damn Library together. The resulting episode is probably the closest to what it's actually like to hang out with them when the microphones are off. How books are providing comfort, project reading, Stephen King, audiobooks, and culling shelves all get touched on, along with lots of other bookish subjects. Stay safe, we love you. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and his wife Dani are sheltering in place, so it's their turn to record an episode (without Christopher) about their happy history exchanging gifts on St. Jordi Day, and their relationship in books. Drew shares the story of how Lauren Groff bless/cursed them at a book signing, they discuss how their senses of humor aren't always aligned on the page, and they get into their lives as members of an in-person book club too. Nice. Stay safe and stay home and stay sane, all. We love you. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew read a little something from the public domain, by Christopher Morley and Mark Twain, respectively, then recommend a couple of things. for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nozlee Samadzadeh hosted Christopher and Drew for her "Zoom After Hours" discussion of The Morning News' 2020 Tournament of Books, and it was such a nice time that we are putting it out for all of you to listen to. They discuss that final, get into the tournament's history, Andrew Womack shows up for some surprising Super Rooster Tournament Revelations, and other commentariat join in the fray. It's a good time. Take care, everyone! for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and his wife Sarah are social distancing/self-isolating, so they record an episode (sans Drew) about Jenny Offill's oddly prophetic Weather. They discuss the grim, fascinating distance of Offill's voice, and can't stop drawing parallels from her muted disaster/emergency to our own. Plus, they get a little bit into how books are the foundation of their relationship. Stay safe and sane, all. We love you. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Longtime friend Jordan Kisner drops into the Damn Library for everyone to celebrate the release of her debut essay collection Thin Places! We discuss the term "thin places" and many of its permutations, not wanting to write about your mom, being able (or not) to recognize your own mind, the joy of an egg white cocktail, and whether or not it's okay for Harriet the Spy to've broken into all those houses. We also talk about whether or not we would've (...or did, Drew) broken into our neighbor's houses. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew talk about the Tournament of Books this year, explain why they like it and also why lots of things have changed since they started following it, make some predictions, and also talk about beer drinking and weird superstitions. Need it be said? Ca-caw! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League, editor of The Paris Review, stops by The Damn Library, and everyone gets to talk about all things baseball, including Emily's story of a harrowingly long game. Christopher makes a bonkers cocktail and gives a slight history lesson with his recipe. Plus, Emily goes into some of the best things involved with writing about/watching baseball, as well as cutting out 25,000 words in a single edit. Then (CW: suicide) we get into Anelise Chen's So Many Olympic Exertions, and we all talk about things that felt good to quit. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew decide to catch up with things that have been adapted from books and made into movies. Alternate universe Weber adaptations are supposed upon. The future of adaptation form and delivery is discussed. They also rage against the machine by telling you which books to pre-order from the machine, and suggest some possible adaptations at the end. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  This episode is sponsored by the Inner Monkey podcast. Start listening at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inner-monkey/id1440076093. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What better way to start the year than looking back at the stuff that we liked from last year? This episode, we talk about our top 8 books of the year. Like the top 8 for Myspace, only Tom isn't involved! It's a lot of nonfiction, which is crazy! Listen in, and also get in touch to tell us what your top books of the year were. We love to hear it! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi https://hotelhiouchi.bandcamp.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of this audio is from Christopher and Drew recording the SMDB holiday album! They even included some actual tunes: three seasonal classics with a bookish twist plus one original Christmas tune. They did end up discussing books amongst the singing, finding time to talk about some of their favorite books of the decade, and the merits and drawbacks of such lists, as well as give each other presents. Merry Merry and Happy Holidays to one and all. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Music by: Christopher and Drew, the Moose Masquerade Choir, Dani Lencioni, Ethan Helm, and Andrew Sheron at Conveyor Studios -- along with Millstones for his Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix) and O Tannenbaum recorded by Dan Lerch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Racculia stops into the Damn Library and she brings lots of laughter. We all talk about how her new novel is her Indiana Jones novel, and how it's a Westing Game novel too, and maybe a couple other novels. The details of Boston and creating her own Holmes character are also up for discussion. Plus, all three talk about details of Ling Ma's Severance with reverence. And more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi https://hotelhiouchi.bandcamp.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helen Phillips jumps right into the surreal and strange place that is the Damn Library. She's well used to it, since she's the person who wrote The Need, which we all talk about, and its depiction of motherhood, and the weird, and many other vague details that we dance around since we really don't want to spoil anything. We also talk about Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream, which has no baseline of normalcy, and maybe the original title in Spanish makes more sense for it. Get into it. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang out and talk books. You know, like they usually do. They invite you to their 5th Birthday Party for the podcast (!!!) which is at King Tai Bar, in Brooklyn, on November 13th, at 7pm, and you're invited. They also talk some Harry Potter, some Stephen King, a honeymoon vacation reading disaster, and dreams in books. Plus, other things. Thanks for listening! Here's to 5 more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jami Attenberg is in the midst of starting of her book tour when she drops into The Damn Library to discuss her new novel, All This Could Be Yours. We talk about New Orleans, and time, and being a writer online, and how it feels to be on her seventh book, and running a writing prompt in the summer, amongst other things. She brings us Sarah M. Broom's The Yellow House and we talk about New Orleans in Broom's context and the project of recent history. It's all happening! Plus an invitation at the end for NYC-local listeners. Stay tuned! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lisa Brennan-Jobs drops into the Damn Library to discuss Small Fry, her coming-of-age memoir about growing up the daughter of Christian Brennan and Steve Jobs. We get into the slipperiness of memory, the selfishness of memoir, and the loneliness of childhood, as well as whether her book is actually "California Gothic." She brings us Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping and of course the unconventional childhoods described within makes us connect it back to her book. Plus, so much more. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Courtney Maum drops into the Damn Library to imbibe a tequila and mezcal cocktail and talk about her new novel Costalegre. She gets into her past as a tequila promoter, we talk about how Peggy and Pegeen Guggenheim ended up fictionalized in her novel, and we discuss the travails of the social media side to writing. We also dive into The Age of Disenchantments by Aaron Schulman, discovering the Paneros and the unexpected mirror they hold to modern life.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew enjoy a fall-tinged cocktail and get wistful about going back to school. Christopher's mom's new library prompts a discussion of all types of books you read for school, from the chores to the books from the canon that meant something to the books we ought to call our anti-canon. Chime in! Please tweet, instagram, email us, and tell us your own personal additions to the canon. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Random House Copy Chief Benjamin Dreyer stops into the Damn Library to talk to Christopher and Drew about his new utterly correct style guide, Dreyer's English, as well as working as a copy chief, the reading life of someone dedicated to books as he is, and which editorial meetings leave him floating. Also, we discuss what his next book will be! Then we get into Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House and if anyone got scared while reading it, plus, what it's like to edit an author who isn't there to correct you. One for the books! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The night before Toni Morrison passed away, Mira Jacob came by the Damn Library to discuss her new graphic memoir Good Talk and Morrison's Sula. Fueled by tequila and champagne, we get into how playing with paper dolls felt like freedom when compared to writing an essay, and how her son feels about being not-famous, and trying to heal her family through her work. Plus: why Mira reads Sula all the damn time and how Morrison sets your head on fire. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew get into one of Christopher's dear favorite novels, Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, and why Drew just couldn't finish. They also touch on what type of books you want to read in front of an air conditioner, the satisfying design of the NYRB and Spurl Editions, and Drew explains his method for getting rid of 100 books from his shelves. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew are in the Damn Library just on their lonesome to talk the city's One Book, One New York choice, Patti Smith's Just Kids. They get right into how it describes a lost New York, and how you might be too old for it at one point, and just old enough for it at another. They also discuss their Top 6 books of the year so far! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mona Awad drops by the Damn Library to discuss her new novel Bunny with Christopher and Drew. They get into fairy tales, and making magic real, and the horror potential of the MFA workshop. Plus, Mona brings an old favorite of hers, Rebecca Godfrey's The Torn Skirt, which feels like a fever, and Mona talks about how some books feel like home. Plus other stuff! It's a good one, bunny! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alternative comics legend Seth drops into the Damn Library on his tour for his career-defining Clyde Fans. He and the guys get into the medium of comics itself, and the things it's good at expressing in the realm of human emotion, as well as why you don't really draft a comic page like you think. The joy of designing a book is touched upon, and channeling Charles Schulz. Plus, Seth brings Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse to discuss, and everyone gets into how it illuminates the small things to create something entirely itself. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erin Somers stays up with the Damn Library to talk her new novel, Stay Up With Hugo Best. Everyone gets into phantasmagoric Late Night universe making, and then into how there's meaning in melancholy, and sometimes it's better to buckle down even when things aren't going right. And then they talk Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding, and the melodrama, and the pianos, and the slapstick without slapstick comedy of it all. The best day of their lives! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Myla Goldberg drops by the Damn Library and immediately gives Christopher and Drew two new business ventures. And that's before they even start talking about her new book, Feast Your Eyes, and its museum catalog form, where she got the photographs, how geniuses shouldn't be assholes, and the photographer as subject for fiction. Plus, she brought Jesse Ball's novel Census, and it leads to a discussion of what it's like to go door to door, along with lots else besides. Get into it. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lauren Wilkinson shows up in the Damn Library to talk about her novel American Spy, and everyone gets into the ways in which this is like a spy novel, and it isn't, and the portrayal of real life people, and how to grapple with your fears by putting them in a book. Plus, we get into the melodramatic, surprisingly-still-timely Passing, Nella Larsen's novel about being undercover in a different way, first published in 1929. We get into its ambiguous ending (it came out in 1929, so spoilers, deal with it), and speculate. Intrigue! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leanne Shapton drops by the Damn Library for a spook-filled episode to discuss her new collection, Guestbook: Ghost Stories. Christmas wrapping paper, first stage appearances, tennis, and being haunted all get some airtime along with lots of other segues and divergences (including the first recorded dip into the Damn Library), plus everyone gets rapturous about Miriam Toews' weighty and excellent new novel, Women Talking. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tournament! It's over! And now we go over just what happened, and how it feels, and what books we hope are maybe in the tournament next year, as well as talk about that looming Mega Rooster... Ca-caw! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another week of the Tournament of Books, another grouping of recaps, plus predictions about the week ahead! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Halle Butler joins Christopher and Drew in the Damn Library to discuss her new novel, The New Me, and how she thought of domestic thrillers while she wrote it, and tried to create comedy out of millennial burnout and not having the clearest picture of yourself. Plus, she brings in Samuel Beckett's Molloy, and there's a robust discussion of voice and sucking stones, amongst other subjects. Also, what's that song she's talking about? contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tournament of Books 2019 continues apace! We talk about the zigs and the zags of the opening round, and where we think that the zigs and zags will come next week. Zigs and zags! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's tournament of books time again, so here's a recap of what went down this week, along with the expected wild speculation. A caw-caw to all of you. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After reading Ian Parker's "A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions" piece from the New Yorker, Christopher and Drew get into unreliable narrators and what they hold (or are purported to hold). Drew talks about his love of midlist thrillers, and Christopher supposes that every narrator is an unreliable narrator. There's a fair amount of love for Robin Sloan and his love of silly URLs, too. Plus, ya know. More. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlie Jane Anders teleports into the Damn Library for a very sci-fi episode around her new novel, The City in the Middle of the Night. Anders talks tidally locked planets, the gargantuan effort it took to write her new novel, being accurate vs. writing a good story, and things to buy when you're about to go on book tour. Plus, she brought an Ursula K. Le Guin novel, Five Ways to Forgiveness, and everyone gets to talking about the seductive world of writing sci-fi, and how Le Guin is a master. Also, there's more than that! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchi Soundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Thompson Walker drops in to dream a little dream with Christopher and Drew in the dreamy Damn Library to discuss her new novel, The Dreamers. They discuss outbreak fiction, writing about college, and what-if scenarios, as well as Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which prompts a discussion of writing about sci-fi premises through non sci-fi means. And so much more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew decide on their shared 4 favorite reads of the year, and add in one personal pick. But they don't stop there! They mention a couple 2018 reads that are next up on their lists, a favorite read in 2018 but not published in 2018, and ya know, more of those silly types of list categories. It's good to be back. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Hotel Hiouchi Twitter/Insta/Facebook: @HotelHiouchiSoundcloud: Hotel Hiouchi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew give gifts, and then talk about the gifts that So Many Damn Books is giving to non-profits, and finish up with some good gift books to get other people in these last few shopping days. Merry merry! contribute to the patreon: patreon.com/smdb music: Dan Lerch - O Tannenbaum Chris Hayes - Deck the Halls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMz1ukOyyo8 Millstones - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Lethem drops into the Damn Library and the guys are damn excited to have him. They talk about Lethem's new one, The Feral Detective, of course, but they also talk about his work as a whole, and how his books are in conversation with each other, along with a tangent into timeliness and how lucky he feels. Then they get into Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book, a classic unclassifiable Japanese work, began in the year 990. Translation conversation, and what a "pillow book" is, ensues. One for the ages! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a celebration of stories in translation (both linguistically and narratively), indie bookstores, and bourbon on the latest SMDB when Preti Taneja joins the guys in the Damn Library. Her debut novel, We That Are Young, provokes conversation about India and King Lear while her book-club-pick Frankenstein in Baghdad gets the room talking about translation. Plus, Drew mentions spooky reading! Again! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All the way from Iceland, Sjón joins the guys in a Damn Library annex, aka the FSG offices. The conversation ranges from ghosts to unicorns, from golems to Frankensteins, from self-representation to translation, as they discuss the maximalist, fabulist fable Codex:1962. They also talk Christian Kracht's The Dead, the light and the dark, and the wisdom/folly of using historical figures, amongst other subjects. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For their 100th episode extravaganza, Drew and Christopher put together a list of their 100 most beloved/most meaningful/most important books, contributing 50 each. Listen as they go through (some of) them. They also try a couple new segment ideas! Stay tuned through the whole thing for a very exciting announcement... tote: http://www.somanydamnbooks.com/totes/smdb-tote contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher host HarperCollins' senior art director for a chat about book cover design, the hipness of text, trends in design, and more, plus how everyone has a Murakami phase, and some surprising things about the behind the scenes of book making. Also, they discuss The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, the idiocy of war, and who should play Švejk in a movie.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang out with a whiskey+tea cocktail and just give themselves over to the book chat. First: BUY YOURSELF A TOTE! The "My Other Car is a Book" tote is now available for your purchase. Then they get into vacation reading, never reading the books you mean to read, Shakespeare novelizations, professional obligations, and how many narratives one mind can hold. It's real bookish, you'll like it. tote: http://www.somanydamnbooks.com/totes/smdb-tote contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic)     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew bring back the One Book, One New York episode for another go, this time reading the city's choice of Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach. They talk its pleasures, and diving costumes, and the possibilities of New York, as well as the genre of historical fiction, and their ideal choices for next year. And of course, they recommend a lot of other things to read, as is their wont. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

R.O. Kwon buzzes in with her buzzy book, The Incendiaries, and the guys get to talk to her about stuff like campus novels, North Korea, how likely they would be to join a cult, and also Rachel Khong's Goodbye Vitamin, and how to write lightly about devastation, a re-read for D+C that inspires a chat about seeing it in a new light.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Megan Abbott returns to the Damn Library for her new book Give Me Your Hand, and Christopher cooks up a color changing cocktail to celebrate. The guys get into Megan's dual jobs as novelist and tv writer, her thriller philosophy, and how writing people who are smart rather than brawny is a challenge. They also talk Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry, its relation to Phillip Roth, and some of their own desert island discs. And lots more! contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Hodgman joins the gentlemen in the Damn Library to talk about all sorts of things, from a Borges scholar posing for a picture to reading rehab after being a professional literary agent. A blueberry-based beverage is enjoyed. We talk his new book, Vacationland, as well as his performance career, becoming a character, and lots of other things that will delight and surprise. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic - Late to the Station (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang in the Damn Library and talk about the books they've liked so far this year, the books they are going to read next, and some of the books they are excited about that are soon to be in the world. The book titles come fast and furious, TBR piles climbing as high as the temperatures. contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic - Easy Life (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah Pittard drops back into the Damn Library after writing and editing and publishing an entire new novel called Visible Empire! While drinking a cocktail featuring guava and egg white, she and the guys get way into 1962, how you need to make sure your ex knows where you got your ideas from, and how you should always kill the dog, amongst other topics. They also all discuss Ralph Ellison's classic novel Invisible Man, and how the speeches are excellent, it's devastating, but there's also nice parts.  contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic - Get Raining (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Danler drops by the Damn Library for a second go around, this time to talk the Sweetbitter television adaptation she created, now on Starz. We discuss the Disneyland of production, why writers' rooms are great, and how she doesn't really live in Los Angeles like her house would imply. Plus we got into Lorrie Moore's Anagrams, and its satellite stories, and the forgotten voids of the 80s. Christopher and Drew also overpromise on tote bags.   contribute! https://patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com music: Disaster Magic - Get Raining (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time ever, a graphic memoirist stops by the Damn Library in the form of Amy Kurzweil, author of the graphic memoir Flying Couch! She also draws New Yorker cartoons! Listen as we chat about form and tone, board games and heartbreak, and more. We also get into Riad Sattouf's Arab of the Future, and why the graphic memoir is such a great medium! We hope it DRAWS you in! music: Disaster Magic - Pier 6 (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew hang out and explain themselves. They also talk their jobs, and formative reading experiences, and other subjects. music: Disaster Magic - Pier 6 (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Ames, writer of novels like Wake Up, Sir and I Pass Like Night, as well as series creator of Bored to Death and Blunt Talk, sits down in the Damn Library to talk his new pulp novella, You Were Never Really Here, as well as how he wrote funny to please his mom, actors he has loved working with, and why pulp interested him. We also get to chatting about Leonard Gardner's Fat City and terrible cases of second-novel-itis. Also, stop using straws. music: Disaster Magic - Room (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew talk about PEN's 2018 World Voices Festival - check out their website of events! https://worldvoices.pen.org/schedule/ music: Disaster Magic - Desert Snake and Coconut Crab (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com   This minisode was sponsored by PEN America - www.pen.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ruth Curry joins the guys in the Damn Library fresh off her #TOB18 judge-ship to chat about all sorts of things, like balancing her reading life and her work life, what she reads for at Emily Books, and why she has a Tiny Letter. We also get to chattin' about Sigrid Nunez's The Friend, which is a book about academia and dogs, so of course everyone has a lot to say. music: Disaster Magic - Boston (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh my gosh! It's over! Listen to me and Drew talk about what we thought about the Tournament this year, and also, a couple books we really wish had been in the tournament! Bok bok to you! Become a sustaining member of the Tournament! https://themorningnews.org/page/membership Visit www.somanydamnbooks.com for drink recipes, book lists, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh my gosh it's still the tournament and we are feeling the madness! Listen to us talk about what's gone on so far, and also, some of the past tournament injustices! Become a sustaining member of the Tournament! https://themorningnews.org/page/membership Visit www.somanydamnbooks.com for drink recipes, book lists, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew wrestle up Gabe Habash to drink, chat, and be merry. Christopher serves everyone a very strange cocktail based on Habash's Stephen Florida, then dive right into the very strange headspace of Mr. Florida. They discuss plot points vs. follow points, Moby Dick, and more, before falling for the dual plots of Iris Murdoch's The Nice and The Good. More Murdoch and much more in general, too! music: Disaster Magic - Desert Snake and Coconut Crab (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew prognosticate! The first round is still underway, but we still wanted to talk about what's gone on so far, and what might happen for the end of the round. Become a sustaining member of the Tournament! https://themorningnews.org/page/membership Visit www.somanydamnbooks.com for drink recipes, book lists, and more!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Darnielle, lead singer of the Mountain Goats and writer of Universal Harvester and Wolf in White Van, sits down in the Damn Library for a far-ranging conversation covering everything from addiction to translated fiction. They talk about being frightened and why John writes, along with a myriad of other things. John also brings Mathias Énard's one-sentence novel Zone (translated by Charlotte Mandell) to the guys, and they discuss hypnosis and dispel some 90s nostalgia.  music: Disaster Magic - Volkswagen Folklore (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute to our patreon! patreon.com/smdb for book lists, drink recipes, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even though the Tournament won't officially start until after this episode has been posted, we're champing at the bit to get some prognostications going. So, for all you other ToB diehards - this one's for you. 9 minutes of tournament talk with Christopher and Drew. Get into it (and check back next week for some recapping and further predictions)! #tob18   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Lyon sits down in the Damn Library as the first guest of 2018. She presents her incredible new novel Self-Portait with Boy, and the guys ask questions about it, like about camera research, and changing DUMBO, and other New York-type things. Then they all discuss Eileen Myles' Afterglow and discuss how much of this "dog memoir" worked, and how much was just Eileen Myles-ing around. music: Disaster Magic - Get Raining (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute to our patreon! patreon.com/smdb for book lists, drink recipes, and more, visit: somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katherine Faw drops into the Damn Library to talk about things like drugstore sushi, writing about women with ambition, and nail art. Then they all chat about Fleur Jaeggy's Sweet Days of Discipline and how it subverts the expectations of the normal boarding school novel. Tequila is consumed. music: Disaster Magic (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute! pateron.com/smdb look for book lists, drink recipes, and more! somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew chat about their Top 6 books of 2017 - the 4 books they both agree on, and then 2 that only one of the guys puts on the top of the pile. They also pontificate on the book that'll win the 2018 Tournament of Books, and list some things they are looking forward to this year. music: Disaster Magic - Room (https://soundcloud.com/disaster-magic) contribute over at patreon.com/smdb book lists, drink recipes and more over at somanydamnbooks.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uli Beutter Cohen (Subway Book Review), Bianca Bosker (Cork Dork), and Nozlee Samadzadeh (TMN's Tournament of Books) join Drew and Christopher in the Damn Library for a holiday-tinged book club discussion of Tom Hanks' Uncommon Type. Hanks' status as America's Dad is discussed, as well as Christopher's status as a father, amongst other subjects like, do happy people get to make art? Can happy people make good art? And why does Tom Hanks get to write a book? visit somanydamnbooks.com for book lists and drink recipes! contribute to the patreon: patreon.com/smdb Dan Lerch - O Tannenbaum Millstones - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix) "Jazzy French" Music - bensound.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

E. Lockhart settles into the Damn Library for a long chat about Genuine Fraud, her new novel, as well as touching on her other works, like Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and We Were Liars. Then John Green's new book, Turtles All the Way Down is considered, along with his depiction of a mental spiral, and what he taught us this time around, amongst many other topics. 15 seconds of a song: France Gall - Teenie Weenie Boppie support the show! patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So Many Damn Books heads to the movies and sees Kenneth Branagh's (mustache's) Murder on the Orient Express, based on the Agatha Christie novel. What you want in an adaptation is discussed, as well as dream adaptations, and adaptations the guys are looking forward to seeing. But, you know, books are better. 15 seconds of a song: Beck - Broken Train contribute if you'd like: patreon.com/smdb for drink recipes, book lists, and more, visit somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carolyn Murnick joins the guys in the Damn Library to discuss her memoir, The Hot One: a memoir of friendship, sex, and murder. Along with discussing that subtitle and the cover, the trio discuss Pop Culture's helpfulness in navigating murder and courtrooms, as well as whether we had that friend that went down a path we couldn't follow. Claire Dederer's Love and Trouble: a Midlife Reckoning is also on the table which prompts the question: how do you interact with authors whose lives you know intimately before you've actually said hello? 15 seconds of a song: The Blow - True Affection contribute! patreon.com/smdb for book lists, drink recipes, and more, visit somanydamnbooks.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New to Brooklyn (having moved here from Spain), Edgar Cantero drops by the Damn Library with some Meddling Kids and discusses with Drew and Christopher his detective phase, coming up with his style, and why it's easier to write car chases in English. They all discuss which Enid Blyton Famous Five book they read and why the 40's British teen sleuth adventure series never quite made a splash in the States. A cocktail with a Mountain Dew ice cube is consumed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To celebrate the 75th episode of So Many Damn Books, Christopher and Drew bring the Damn Library to the FSG offices to talk to Robin Sloan about his novel Sourdough and Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs. Food vs tech, analog vs digital, specific pop culture details vs vague description, and many other divergences are all discussed. Robin Sloan makes a very important proclamation about art projects within novels. Don't miss this one. And thanks for being here for episode 75! 15 seconds of a song: The Go! Team - The Wrath of Mikey contribute! patreon.com/smdb check out book lists, drink recipes, and more, over at somanydamnbooks.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Amelia Gray stops by the Damn Library, Christopher turns a drink blue again, and they discuss her new book, Isadora. Particularly: what it was like to write a book about a dancer during a time when she wasn't dancing. A quote about dancing is misattributed. Plus, we get into Nell Zink's fearlessness in her novel, Nicotine, about activists and squat housing. Also: Amelia Gray starts an exquisite corpse in our iTunes reviews. book lists, drink recipes, and more over at somanydamnbooks.com contribute at: patreon.com/smdb 15 seconds of a song: Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Without a guest, the guys make good on their TMN Tournament of Books bet- Drew chose Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. They talk about what matters in a noir, Lethem tackling Tourette's, and enjoying a book about where you live, amongst other subjects. Also: Patreon listener recommendations! contribute: patreon.com/smdb drink lists, book lists, and more: somanydamnbooks.com 15 seconds of a song: Lounger - Dogs Die in Hot Cars Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Samantha Hunt drops by the Damn Library, the guys try to put a shadow in her drink but just end up with something more blood colored. They discuss her story collection, The Dark Dark, the Normas in one's life, and ticks, as well as transcending genre. The story collection she suggested, Chavisa Woods' Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country, also transcends genre, and the trio can't stop deciding on favorite stories.  15 seconds of a song: Say Hi - Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh support the show! patreon.com/smdb book lists/drink recipes at somanydamnbooks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Damn Library, Christopher gets an egg white cocktail egg-zactly right for Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin and also All About Eggs. He and Drew also chat with Rachel about the inner/outer voice of the critic, using family as inspiration, and eschewing categorization. Then they all dish on how much they liked Mary Robison's Why Did I Ever. 15 seconds of a song: The Magic Numbers - Don't Give Up The Fight contribute over at patreon.com/smdb! get book lists, drink recipes, and more over at somanydamnbooks.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rosecrans Baldwin, who indirectly provided the beginning for the SMDB podcast, stops by the Damn Library to talk about his exceptional "HBO series of a novel," The Last Kid Left. Youth is discussed, as well as getting characters right, stopping into a memory-laden Barnes and Noble, and reading The Economist in bed. Also, Rosecrans tells a story about how reading Graham Greene helped him meet his wife, before he and the guys discuss Brighton Rock. Tequila is consumed. contribute and get extra content! http://patreon.com/smdb drink recipes and book lists at http://somanydamnbooks.com 15 seconds of a song: Beulah - If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MARLENA MARLENA MARLENA! Julie Buntin drops into the Damn Library to talk her terrific debut novel, Marlena, and gets into whether she's a Marlena or a Cat, if there's a real Spicy Bob's Pizza, and what she was hoping to get to at the core of her characters. Plus, she and the guys get really into Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki, which isn't a noir even if it seems like it. 15 seconds of a song: Chet Faker - Gold contribute and help the show: patreon.com/smdb find drink lists and recipes at somanydamnbooks.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love (and also Tampa) joins the guys in the Damn Library to talk surveillance state and let the guys bring up the dolphin sex, and the importance of first sentences. They also talk about Randa Jarrar's Him, Me, Muhammad Ali, a collection of short stories that includes both crows and reading your Mom's diary, amongst other subjects. Crassness is celebrated, and everyone has a dolphin delightful time. get cool stuff, contribute to our patreon: patreon.com/smdb book lists and drink recipes at somanydamnbooks.com 15 seconds of a song: I Am Not a Robot - Marina & The Diamonds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elif Batuman joins Christopher and Drew in the Damn Library, and they all imbibe a drink called "The Dissertation" which can smack the words off the tip of your tongue. They discuss Batuman's The Idiot, and being nicer to your college self, and how you can end up a Dostoyevsky acolyte by accident, almost. They also delve into Swann's Way, the first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (translated by Lydia Davis) and answer: how is this Paris if there isn't the Eiffel Tower? 15 seconds of a song: Vampire Weekend - Campus hey, support the show: http://patreon.com/smdb  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys decide to participate in One Book One New York, get on the bandwagon, and finally read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. They discuss Obama, getting bloggers right, and what it's like for a city to read along together. Plus, they launch a patreon. support the show if you'd like! https://www.patreon.com/smdb book lists and more at http://www.somanydamnbooks.com/episodes//episode-sixty-six-onebookny-americanah Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste saunters into the Damn Library with gusto. She and the guys discuss books that make you want to get pregnant, Burgundy drinking songs, and getting her first hater. Plus, they delve into Joan Didion's South and West, and discuss its essential notebook-ness. write us an iTunes review! 15 seconds of a song: Jim Noir - Eanie Meany support our patreon! https://www.patreon.com/smdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Melissa Febos stops by the Damn Library to talk about her new book "Abandon Me," Christopher goes "Beyond Booze" for the drink, and Drew is also there, because of course he is! They talk pop psychology, gift giving, and everyone having different versions of a memory, amongst other topics. Then they move on to Elena Passarello's "Animals Strike Curious Poses" and marvel at her modern bestiary.    Part of a song: Unit 4+2 - Concrete and Clay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nozlee Samadzadeh-Hadidi, producer of The Tournament of Books for The Morning News, drops by the Damn Library to help wrap up this year's tournament with Christopher and Drew. Drinks are drunk, ancient history is drudged up, least favorites are spilled, and Nozlee even explains how she edits judgments for spoilers when she hasn't read the books. visit somanydamnbooks.com for book lists and drink recipes! 15 seconds of a song: Sondre Lerche - It's Too Late Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just before winning a Whiting Award, Kaitlyn Greenidge brought her debut novel "We Love You, Charlie Freeman" to the Damn Library. She confesses to hating animals, amongst other deep explications, and then we switch to talking the genre of "sexy-ckens" with Sarah Waters' "Tipping the Velvet," a novel whose filthy title is only the start of the sex within its pages. 15 seconds of a song: Javelin - Nnormal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Lee takes a dip into the Damn Library, talking his novel High Dive over a cocktail named after chlorine that surely doesn't taste like chlorine. The ensuing discussion includes fatherhood, pool water, and political awakenings - particularly those of Antonio Tabucchi's "Pereira Maintains." Or does he declare? Of course, Drew and Christopher take a break to chat about the Tournament of Books.   15 seconds of a song: Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Francine Prose joins C+D in the Damn Library for some lively talk of theater that misses the mark, thwarted ambitions, and following the characters of her newest novel, Mister Monkey. They also get into Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson, and Francine heartily recommends a foreign film that will "change your life." And of course there is a brief Tournament of Books interlude. (Caw!) 15 seconds of a song: TOPS - Way to be Loved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher take a break from tournament reading to enjoy some books that break the mold, namely Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice and Sarah Manguso's Ongoingness. The merits of breaking the mold is discussed, along with other topics, like the Disney Vault and Arrested Development. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Other than this sentence, not a single reference to Valentine's Day is in this podcast. Megan Abbott stops by the Damn Library with her newest novel, You Will Know Me. We discuss prodigies and the grit of teenage gymnasts, and then dismount the pommel horse into the quarry of Patricia Highsmith's slow burn suburban thriller, Deep Water. Drinks are consumed, dark jokes abound.   (buy our shirt): https://teespring.com/stores/so-many-damn-books   15 seconds of a song: "Wedding in Finistere" - Jens Lekman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a long hiatus, Drew and Christopher are back in the Damn Library, explaining what the Tournament of Books is, why they like it, and what seems like the favorite to win this year.  New logo by Jefferson Wiggins. jeffersonwiggins.com GO BUY A TSHIRT: https://teespring.com/stores/so-many-damn-books 15 seconds of a song: Free the Bees - Chicken Payback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Snowed in, the guys decide to record an episode, because why not? They discuss L. Frank Baum, and then an unexpected visitor shows up in the form of Uli Beutter Cohen, founder of Subway Book Review and co-creator of the new literary newsletter Eye Level. Drinks are drunk, halls are decked, christmas trees are discussed at length. Happy Holidays from So Many Damn Books! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this one, the guys look to escape their lives for a bit with some epic fantasy, and they do so via a duologetic ticket to Leigh Bardugo's Grisha-verse. After they extoll the book's virtues and consider the difficulties of escapism, they jump into their Top 6 of 2016. 15 seconds of a song: Lou Rawls - "Merry Christmas Baby" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The indomitable, incomparable Lisa Lutz stops by the Damn Library for a career retrospective. Drew and Christopher very nearly contain their rabid fandom and talk the Spellman Files series, "The Passenger," "Heads You Lose," and "How to Start a Fire," as well as why it might not have been the best choice to read Georges Simenon's "Dirty Snow" right around the election. Also, the cocktail doesn't necessarily need booze in it! 15 seconds of a song: The Boy Least Likely To - "Be Gentle With Me" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew are joined by Jade Chang to chat about a road trip, writing what is most challenging, and aliens. Jade likes how cozy it is in the library and the guys love how cozy "The Wangs vs. The World" is as a novel. Then the aliens, because Margaret Wappler's Neon Green is about aliens, sort of.  15 Seconds of a Song: Ashes of American Flags - Wilco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathleen Donohoe drops by the Damn Library to talk about her book, Ashes of Fiery Weather, and all the historical disasters contained within, as well as her personal connections to Brooklyn. Surprise '98 National Book Award winner Charming Billy by Alice McDermott is also discussed, and parallels are unlocked, like funerals! and Bridies! 15 seconds of a song: Maria Taylor's "Irish Goodbye"     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah Pittard stops by the Damn Library to drink a classic cocktail bastardized by a substituted ingredient and discuss her book "Listen to Me" and Iain Reid's "I'm Thinking of Ending Things." Dread is discussed, as well as what makes for a good thriller, and Hannah explains why none of anything matters at all! Other fun revelations too! 15 seconds of a song - "Willow Weep for Me" by Muzzy Marcellino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew invite Teddy Wayne to the Damn Library, and he brings along his new "zeitgeist-y" novel, Loner, as well as Rebecca Schiff's short story collection The Bed Moved. The literary reader's intelligence is praised, the drink is overtly symbolic, and technology in fiction is discussed in earnest. This is our 50th episode! To celebrate, leave us a nice rating on iTunes, and share our show with a close friend! 15 seconds of a song: Reggie and the Full Effect - "Congratulations Smack and Katy"  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew are joined by returning guest Alexandra Kleeman. They all drink a cocktail named after a character who moonlights in both her short story collection "Intimations" and, maybe, within Robert Coover's "Pricksongs and Descants." They discuss being a person-person, talk fiction-fiction, and why puzzle-stories are sometimes best left unrevisited. Amongst other things. 15 seconds of a song: Julien Dore - Les Limites Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew drink Firewhiskey Juleps and get feisty about the new story in the Harry Potter-verse. Fan fiction, Sherlock Holmes, and second Death Stars are amongst the subjects mentioned. No one gets hurt. 15 seconds of a song: Harry and the Potters, "Save Ginny" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew sit down with a whiskey drink sweetened with the blood of maraschino cherries, and discuss Donna Tartt's marginalized sophomore novel, The Little Friend. Unjustly pushed to the side? Or lesser entry in the Tartt Canon? They also briefly discuss show spin-offs. 15 seconds of a song: Adam Green - "Friends of Mine"   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Hanczor, chef at Egg in Williamsburg, drops by the damn library with Tortilla Espanola and the tale of serving a meal inspired by Zora Neale Hurston's classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The connection of food and fiction is discussed. Drew gets worked up by Hemingway, Christopher eats food to spite characters sometimes. Evan recommends cookbooks, too. 15 seconds of a song: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew decide it's never too early for list making, and choose six favorites from the year to date (2016). Then they get out their crystal ball and look forward to books coming out for the rest of the year. Summertime reading, awayyyyy! 15 seconds of a song: The Monkees - You Bring the Summer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher tackle YA through the 2001 classic Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and the 2016 Printz Award Winner, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. Grand theories are posited, the state of YA is considered, the line between YA and regular lit is blurred. No one gets hurt and everyone's happy.   15 seconds of a song: Regina Spektor, "Us" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephanie Danler, author of the highly recommended Sweetbitter, joins the guys in the Damn Library for a chat about anything and everything. Food, identity, sex - you name it, they talk about it. TWO cocktails are imbibed and Maggie Nelson's exceptional Bluets is unanimously praised. 15 seconds of a song: "The Clearest Blue" - CHVRCHES Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Chee stops into the Damn Library for a Lilliet and a discussion of his novel The Queen of the Night. Drew and Christopher ask after pop culture parallels and fidelity to nonfiction. They also discuss Garth Greenwell's What Belongs to You and whether or not you're a sucker to fall in love with a prostitute. 15 seconds of a song: I Love Paris - Sam Butera and the Witnesses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher see if they can draw any comparisons between the current election and Hunter S. Thompson's other Fear and Loathing book. Not the one that he goes to Las Vegas. Gonzo journalism is discussed, but sadly, not Gonzo from the Muppets.  Fifteen Seconds of a Song: "American Girl" - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And that's a wrap! What a tournament of books that was! Tournament of Books producer Nozlee and former contestant (with his book A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall) Will Chancellor stop by the Damn Library to talk believability, tooth truths, good tourney moments, and much more! 15 Seconds of a song: Taki Rari - Yma Sumac  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher talk their brackets and re-reading. They wax nostalgic on the week past and dive deep into the remaining match-ups as we head into the finals. Plus, a bookish wager on who will take the Rooster home. 15 Seconds of a song: The Aquabats - Magic Chicken! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katy Waldman stops by the Damn Library to drink "The Rooster" and prognosticate. Jane Austen keeps getting updated, the trio relives the first round of the TOB's ups and downs, and then a deep dive into Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff somehow reveals which presidential couple is most like the Underwoods from House of Cards. And more!   15 Seconds of a Song: Modest Mouse - Wild Packs of Family Dogs     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Angela Flournoy, author of the Turner House, stops by the Damn Library, fresh off her Tournament of Books win in round one against Ban en Banlieue. She and the guys talk where she was when her novel published, whether or not she believes in ghosts, and how it was to write in Iowa. And of course they all discuss Tournament happenings and could-happens. 15 Seconds of a song: Kamasi Washington "Rerun" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's tournament time!! Christopher drinks a Slaughtering Mary, Drew and Maris Kreizman don't. They all discuss Maris' book/blog Slaughterhouse 90210 and Kickstarter, and then delve into the complexities of The Invaders by Karolina Waclawiak. There's also a little ToB prognostication. CAWWWWW! 30 Seconds of a song: "Frenchy" from the 30 Rock OST. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over a round of Dark and Particularly Stormys, Drew and Christopher have the pleasure of chatting, friendly-like, with Mark de Silva, author of Square Wave, out now from Two Dollar Radio. Jazz is discussed! So is Donna Tartt! And Misogyny! And how Bret Easton Ellis got to be the way he is! And so much more.    15 seconds of a song: The Beach Boys, "Catch a Wave" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Van Den Berg stops by the Damn Library to talk about her novel Find Me and Yoko Tawada's The Naked Eye. We also find out what tv show she can't stop repeating, and discuss a lot about getting lost, both physically and in translation. Plus, she talks Tournament of Books - her favorites and who might win!   15 seconds of a song: "Charade" by Si Zentner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher and Drew can't contain their excitement - the short list for the Morning News' ToB 2016 is here, and they are discussing every title. They also explain this whole tournament business, talk snubs and loves, and teach you a new cocktail to make. Amongst other things. 15 seconds of a song: A Band of Bees "Chicken Payback" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew and Christopher talk about what books they were given for Christmas, 2016 reading goals, experimentally designed books they love, and then Eli Horiwitz's The Pickle Index which they tried to experience it every which way it came out. App recommendations commence. Review us on iTunes! Share! Retweet! 15 seconds of a song: Jim Dooley's Pushing Daisies Score Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The damn hosts choose 4 books they loved in 2015, and one book each that the other didn't read/love. Also, one to grow on. Bye-bye, 2015! You were a year. 15 seconds of a song: The Jackson 5 - Never Can Say Goodbye Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marie-Helene Bertino stops by the deck hall'd Damn Library in full seasonal good cheer to talk about her novel, 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas. Holiday music is played. A Little Life is discussed. Butter is pondered. Gifts are given! A very happy holiday from So Many Damn Books! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Britt stops by the Damn Library to explain the deeper meanings of why Luke Skywalker Can't Read (which is also the title of his new essay collection). The guys then discuss a classic Star Wars novel - Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn - over Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters. They also cover Christmas. And Ryan pitches a Dickens movie. 15 seconds of a Song: R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexandra Kleeman takes So Many Damn Books down the rabbit hole as Drew and Christopher discuss her novel, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, as well as the novel The Blind Owl. Everyone gets unsettled. 15 Seconds of a Song: Lucy Rose - Middle of the Bed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The two nonmaj/muggles discuss Harry Potter spinoffs, whether or not they listen to music when they read, and Carrie Brownstein's memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. ~15 seconds of a song: Sleater-Kinney "The Fox" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher institutes a new buying books rule for himself, Drew likes scary books, and they both have very different opinions on City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg and Purity by Jonathan Franzen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The gentlemen discuss their favorite book they've read for the podcast so far, a few books they'd like to see in the next Tournament of Books, and tell you how to win a copy of City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. Amongst other things.   15 seconds of a song: Selena Gomez - Birthday Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Drew under quarantine (he caught the plague), the guys call on Will Chancellor to step in. He returns to the Damn Library to go deep with Christopher on Jesse Ball's latest novel, "A Cure for Suicide". 15 Seconds of a Song: Del Amitri, "Roll to Me" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vanessa Manko drops in to talk about how writing is like dancing, her novel The Invention of Exile's editing journey, and they all discuss The English Patient, and suggest a novel they'd like to see made into a movie.   Fifteen seconds of a song: Fountain's of Wayne, "Mexican Wine" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Isaac Fitzgerald skates by the Damn Library and joins the guys to talk about his Pen & Ink series, Kathleen Alcott's "Infinite Home", and the joys of recommending books. Hilarity ensues. Also maybe some 80s metal.   Fifteen Seconds of a Song: Belle & Sebastian, "Wrapped Up in Books" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys introduce a new segment ("Reading Comprehension"), which leads to some serious questions. They also discuss their summer reading habits, the Man Booker longlist, and Christopher continues to shame Drew for not reading "A Little Life".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which Drew and Christopher wonder what spumoni is (it's ice cream), talk about the books they bought, discuss Elena Ferrante and the first book in her Neapolitan saga, and they recommend books to each other, like usual.   15 seconds of a song: Mama by Lunchmoney Lewis   also featured: Money by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer break is over and the guys return to the Damn Library to discuss graphic novels, comics, brimping, and Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky's "Sex Criminals".   15 Seconds of a Song: "Desire", Years & Years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BuzzFeed Literary Editor Saeed Jones drops by the Damn Library to talk about his PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award-winning collection "Prelude to Bruise", Claudia Rankin's incendiary "Citizen: An American Lyric", and whether or not art can change the world.  15 Seconds of a song: AG Cook, "Beautiful" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which Lev Grossman visits the Damn Library to talk about his Magicians trilogy and (one of his) favorite book(s) of all time: Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". 15 Seconds of a Song: "Magic" by Ben Kweller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Guys discuss the business of recommending books, then they discuss Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a @biblioracle recommendation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which Catherine Lacey (author of "Nobody is Ever Missing") drops by the Manhattan branch of the Damn Library! Drinks are made, bathtubs are revealed, and escape is discussed (among many other things). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys chat with ToB Commish Kevin Guilfoile about the ToB and his writing, then get some friends from the commentariat on the phone including Neighbors73, BradMcGinty, Melanie, and itsonlyzach.  The ToB is over, long live the ToB! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More Surprises and More Upsets in the Tournament! Jeff VanderMeer discusses "Annihilation" and the ToB! Predictions for the final! Featuring The Aquabats - Fight Song (still) and Laura Shigihara - Zombies On Your Lawn (from the Plants vs. Zombies OST) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One year of Friendship Surprises and Upsets in the Tournament of Books John Warner talks his role in the tourney, McSweeney's, and "Tough Day for the Army" The Biblioracle Chooses a Book Recommendations Featuring The Aquabats - Fight Song (still) and The Mountain Goats - Choked Out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall" The Settlement, a "Brave Man"-inspired cocktail Will Chancellor is Very Smart ToB15 prognostications and considerations Recommendations Featuring The Aquabats - Fight Song and Cindy Lauper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Star: Luke Wiget Event Books "The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell Recommendations Farewell to Luke and the DoctorDR studio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Teaser Audiobooks "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng Interview: Emily St. John Mandel (author of "Station Eleven") Recommendations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen King, Stephen King, Stephen King First King Favorite King Stephen King's "Revival" Recommendations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year! Non-Fiction Celebrity Memoirs "Not That Kind of Girl" by Lena Dunham Recommendations 15 Seconds of a Song: The Blow, "Come On Petunia" / The Guys Sing The Police Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reading Habits Literary Awards Missing Person by Patrick Modiano Drew and Christopher's Top 5 of 2014 Lists 15 seconds of a song: DJ Deville's Auld Lang Syne Remix recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY. sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"A Christmas Carol" Postertext Giveaway (Tell your friends to listen to the show on social media and email us about it at [email protected] to enter!) Holiday Stories Pastiches The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King Parting Recommendations Tournament of Books XI Wishlist 15 seconds of a song: Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler's "Zombie Christmas" recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY. sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holiday Theme Music! Second Chance Authors Gimmicks Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix Parting Recommendations recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY. sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Future Library Project, Margaret Atwood, and authors we think should be included next Games in Books Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle Parting Recommendations recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY. sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome Back Kids Series to Revisit The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer & The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman Parting Recommendations recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY.sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introductions Classics Revisited Dystopia Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Parting Recommendations recorded at the Dr. Doctor studio in Brooklyn, NY.sound engineer: Luke Wiget Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices