EP94: Lesbian Vampires and Pencil-Heart Readers

This week, Sam and Hannah are back from a heavy Memorial Day Weekend of reading, and Hannah's books, in particular, are once again well-coordinated. Even if they're a little hard to describe. Also, this is a solid Pride episode, sort of by mistake. Here's what's on tap: - "The Book of Records," by Madeleine Thien, which is as meaty a read as we've had in a while, full of philosophical truths and a building made of time. This is great stuff.  - "Erasure," by Percival Everett, who is legitimately among the most important writers working today. This is the book that was made into the movie "American Fiction," but, as you might imagine, is even better than the movie.  - "I'll Tell You When I'm Home," by Hala Alyan, who this time delivers a memoir grappling with her family's history of immigration, escaping Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion and coming to the U.S. This book shows you what generational trauma means.  - "The Phoenix Pencil Company," by Allison King, a data privacy professional who's crafted a magical text about a family that can read pencil hearts (they stab it into their veins) that's perfect for Pride month. It's weird, yes. But new and different.  - "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil," by V.E. Schwab, which is an ode to Anne Rice — a vampire book — but doesn't really follow Rice's vampire rules, exactly (they're all lesbian vampires, which is different). The second half of this is pretty great.  - Oh, and we're not going to tell you which book it is we disliked so intensely. See if you can figure it out. And there's no real good reason why this didn't get posted before June 10, other than Sam being in Iceland and not feeling like posting it. Sorry.