Between The Covers

The Magus was John Fowles’ first novel, but his third to be published, and its postmodern, metafictional format focuses on a young British teacher on a Greek Island who falls in with an unreliable local mastermind, Conchis. Chaos Reader discusses an academic history book she and Jay are reading aloud.

Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, a novel about a young man’s coming of age in Nottinghamshire, as he navigates his relationships with two very different women in the shadow of his brother’s death and his mother’s attentions and strong personality. Chaos Reader talks about a recent TV series rewatch in which the characters are often shown reading books in their spare time.

John Galsworthy’s chronicle of the “new money” Forsyte family is Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. The Forsyte Saga focuses on Soames Forsyte, a “man of property,” who seems to have succeeded at wealth but never seems to learn how to be happy. Chaos Reader starts a new novel in a famous tetralogy.

Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is this week’s pick for Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. This British novel isn’t as well known in the United States, but it should be. Chaos Reader finishes another novel. Note: Jay occasionally misidentifies Winterson in the podcast, and for that he is deeply apologetic. 

Jay’s choice this week is Old Filth, a 2004 novel by British writer Jane Gardam. The book focuses on Sir Edward Feather’s quest to understand the life he has lived in the second half of the twentieth century. Chaos Reader FINALLY finishes a book.

Jay’s pick this week in the final 10 of his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Andrea Levy’s Small Island, a 2004 novel that explores the experiences of the Windrush generation of Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom through four narrators. The book addresses many big ideas through careful attention to the daily lives and dramas of a white couple and a Jamaican couple in mid-century London. Chaos Reader is doubling her efforts to return to her former reading addiction.

This week’s addition to Jay’s 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list is Wilkie Collins' Victorian proto-detective, gothic novel The Woman in White. Wilkie’s chosen structure of multiple narrators puts the reader into the role of juror, working to discern what really happened from the various voices and agendas in the text. Chaos Reader responds to yapping in the zeitgeist about Nolan’s Odyssey.

This week we're taking a break from our 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list to join in the world's current Odyssey Era. Jay and Stacey share their enthusiasm for the book and talk about tips for selecting a translation as well as why The Odyssey by Homer is so lovable and a joy to read.

Of John Updike’s four Rabbit books, Jay has chosen the first, Rabbit, Run, to include on his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. The 1960 novel introduces readers to Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom and this broken promise of his adult life. Chaos Reader is still enjoying almost nothing happening in The Eustace Diamonds.

Martin Amis’s 1984 novel Money: A Suicide Note is Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Though the main character, John Self, is thoroughly detestable, Amis’s novel is thoroughly enjoyable because of the author’s command of voice and craft. Chaos Reader is in her slow reading era.

Jay’s choice this week is another historical fiction novel, this one set in turn-of-the-millenium Rome, I, Claudius by Robert Graves. The epic follows 80 years of violent Roman politics when dark-horse Claudius emerges as the surprise winner of the emperor’s laurels. Chaos Reader focuses on her Roman Empire, Vogue Magazine of the 1980s and 1990s.

This week Jay cheats and names a tetralogy (four books) to his list as one entry, Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End. The chronology addresses the WWI era from the intimate life of its protagonist. Chaos Reader is still reading the Wintour biography.

  William Styron’s 1979 tragedy, Sophie’s Choice, is the book Jay is naming this week to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English. He and Stacey discuss the profound pain of the novel as well as the objections readers have made to Styron's decisions in crafting the book. Chaos Reader updates Anna Wintour’s life as she continues reading a biography about her.

  Jay’s choice this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is another world-famous detective novel, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. While this may not be the Christie novel others choose as her greatest, Jay makes his case. Chaos Reader checks in with her progress on The Eustace Diamonds.

  Jay makes the case for Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles for this week’s addition to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Holmes is a key figure in Western Culture, and we examine the appeal and Conan Doyle’s craft in creating him as well as Holmes's partnership with Dr. Watson. Chaos Reader checks in on the biography she’s reading.

Jay’s choice this week is John Kennedy Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces, a premier novel of southern American literature and a predictor of the "male loneliness epidemic." Jay talks about how this novel stays relevant and where it hasn’t held up as well, even though it’s still worthy of a spot on his Most Lovable Novels list. Chaos Reader checks in on her progress with a biography of Anna Wintour.

Jay chooses Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man for his list this week. The celebrated novel addresses the Black experience in the first half of the twentieth century in America, but it hasn’t lost its relevance. Chaos Reader starts a new book consistent with the current Zeitgeist.

Muriel Spark’s iconoclastic education novel is Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Set in 1930s Edinburgh, the novel focuses on six girls who are assigned to Miss Brodie, and her radical teaching style makes a mark on them at 10 years old and well beyond. Chaos Reader shares her final update on the Ian McEwan novel she’s been reading.

This week Jay’s entry on the list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Ken Kesey’s seminal novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which grapples with the power of systems against the individual human mind and various responses to the forces of the powers that be. Chaos Reader doesn’t achieve her goal, and checks in on Trollope.

But not this week! Jay names The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and—spoiler alert!—he LOVES talking about them. Stacey won’t let him spoil them all for you, though, dear listener. Chaos Reader makes a promise.

It’s fitting for Jay to follow up last week’s pick of A Passage to India with Paul Scott’s novel The Jewel in the Crown, as this first novel of Scott’s Raj Quartet has definite references to Forster’s earlier work as Scott chronicles the friction among people of differing races and classes in mid-century India. Chaos Reader updates her progress reading Ian McEwan’s latest novel.

E.M. Forster’s 1924 novel A Passage to India is Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. The nuance and opacity of this unflinching look at interpersonal relationships when empires are involved feels particularly relevant today. Chaos Reader shares a TV show she’s reading… in French.

Jay kicks off Season 3 of Between the Sheets with William Golding’s 1954 novel about boys stranded on a remote island, and their collective and individual responses to their situation. The novel’s themes are timeless. Chaos Reader checks in with Ian McEwan’s newest novel.

  In the final episode of Season 2, Jay names Mary Shelley’s 19th century gothic-horror novel FRANKENSTEIN to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and Chaos Reader checks in AGAIN with Gerald Ford’s biography, in which the author has entered the chat. BETWEEN THE COVERS will be taking a break between seasons, but we’ll be back later this spring to finish the list of 100 most lovable novels.

  Saul Bellow’s comic, yet philosophical novel Henderson the Rain King is Jay’s most lovable novel this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Henderson’s mid-life crisis and the resulting international journey leads to a greater exploration of his own inner self. Chaos Reader checks in on her progress reading a biography of Gerald Ford (still).

  Jay’s lovable novel this episode is AMERICAN PASTORAL by Philip Roth, in which the hero, Seymour “Swede” Levov, struggles to understand his life in late 20th  century America, and how the 1960s still reach into his family to trouble and unsettle him and those he loves. Chaos Reader introduces a new book she’s just picked up, one of Trollope’s Victorian-era Palliser novels, to fulfill her goal of having a long-book reading year. NOTE: Jay erred when he called Swede’s wife, “Donna.” Her name in the novel is “Dawn.”

  Jay makes his case that The Crying of Lot 49 is the most lovable of Thomas Pynchon’s novels as he dives into the plot of the 1966 conspiracy-theory, suspenseful novel. (It’s also Pynchon’s shortest novel.) Chaos Reader checks in on the progress she’s making in Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain.

  This week, Jay’s pick is the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, which focuses on a violent teen subculture and a dystopian society’s attempt at reformation. Chaos Reader updates her progress on the biography she’s reading of Gerald Ford.

  Jay’s entry this week to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Thomas Hardy’s 1892 novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and it raises issues 21st century readers are still grappling with. Chaos Reader discusses her reading goals for 2026. A NOTE ON THE SOUND: We discovered a mic issue after we recorded, so we know the sound is off on this one, but it wasn’t possible to fix in editing. We apologize and hope you’ll stick with this episode anyway.

  This week’s entry on Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is William Makepeace Thackeray’s VANITY FAIR, often considered the Victorian domestic novel that kicked off this sub-genre of fiction. Jay talks about why he has so much affection for the 1848 book that follows the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley through British society. Chaos Reader checks in on the biography she’s reading of Gerald Ford.

Jay chose Anthony Doerr’s CLOUD CUCKOO LAND for this episode’s lovable novel.  While the plot sounded a bit wackadoodle to Stacey, Doerr’s deft ability to link the book’s different narratives to a common theme that booklovers can relate to makes an effective case for its lovability. Chaos Reader discusses her personal reaction to being in a musical based on Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

  Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel GULLIVER’S TRAVELS is Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and Stacey admits she had a very narrow view of what the book was like to read or what it is really about. (Spoiler: It’s not a children’s story.) Chaos Reader discusses a recent New Yorker essay that made an impact on her.

  Walter Scott’s IVANHOE: A ROMANCE is Jay’s choice for his 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list this week. A 19th century example of medievalism, the book takes readers back to England in the Middle Ages and influenced how people think of this era today and significantly influenced 19th, 20th and 21st fiction to come. Chaos Reader buys a collection of poems by Margaret Atwood.

Jay chose Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN for this week’s lovable novel (which is also a lovely Christmas read) and surprises Stacey with the backstory of how it got written and how some savvy young readers green-lit the manuscript to get it published. After this discussion of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy’s passage from girlhood to womanhood in Civil War-era New England, Chaos Reader picks up a biography of Gerald R. Ford about his passage from Congressman to President.  

This week Jay enters Jack London’s 1903 naturalist fiction novel The Call of the Wild, which Stacey was surprised to learn is not a children’s or young-adult novel. London’s dog hero Buck and his struggles highlight many issues inherent in a growing industrial economy as it trickles down to the creatures upon whom the work depends. Chaos Reader revisits Exit Interview for an update.

Jay convinces Stacey to read James Baldwin’s 1953 semi-autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, a coming-of-age novel that grapples with race and religion in mid-twentieth century America. Chaos Reader gives a progress report and shares a tribute to a big influence in her reading life after his recent passing.

This week, Jay puts Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman on his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. Stacey wants to know how he chose from Erdrich’s extensive list of works, because she too loves this American author and her entire canon. Chaos Reader checks in on her progress reading the Irish novel The Star of the Sea.

William Faulkner’s southern gothic novel Light in August is Jay’s pick for his 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list this week, and he and Stacey discuss the 1932 modernist work with its themes of race, sex, class and religion in the interwar American South, and why this is the book of Faulkner’s canon Jay selected. Chaos Reader shares a Diane Keaton tribute in the wake of the beloved actress’s recent passing.

This week, Jay makes the case for John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as not only a relevant and cogent book for anyone who follows current events, but also as a book that is lovable—a joy to read. Chaos Reader checks in with the memoir of a corporate-America refugee.

This week is the first time Jay surprises Stacey with a selection for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, when he chooses Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw. Jay has been negging James since Jay was in graduate school, and Stacey wasn’t that taken with the novella when they recently read the book together. Who do you agree with? Chaos Reader checks in on the anthology of Marie Howe poetry she’s been enjoying.

Jame Joyce’s Ulysses seems to be on every single reading and novels list, but it’s not on Jay Ruud’s. He chose Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man instead, because it actually is lovable. Chaos Reader discusses another existentialist work, Waiting for Godot.

This week, Jay names Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: A Romance to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English. Even though it’s one of the most banned books in the United States, there is a lovable novel to be read here, one that closely considers America’s Puritan past in a way that is still relevant today. Chaos Reader shares her progress in The Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor.

Jay joins Ernest Hemingway and many others in his love of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and this week it gets added to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. He and Stacey discuss its lovability and its “bannability” as one of the most banned novels in the United States. Chaos Reader finally joins the party for a very popular novel she hasn’t picked up until now.

Jay puts his second Dickens novel on the list this week, Bleak House, published in 1853. The looooong book uses many characters, two narrative points of view and several suspenseful plots to keep the reader turning pages to travel deeper and deeper into early industrial England, in which cultures are clashing and litigants are fighting in a decades-long lawsuit in Dickens’ masterful social criticism that still remains a delight to read. Chaos Reader picks up a new novel for a trip she’s taking soon.

Jay adds Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English this week. This long Victorian novel, which was initially serialized and then published in 1875, focuses on the greed and dishonesty of all facets of life in the second half of the 19th century in Great Britain by following a financial scammer and his marks. Chaos reader talks about a New York Times listicle that is currently running her life.

Named for the Dark Lord who created the One Ring, this trilogy is about the individuals who work together to save their society when the power to destroy them and their communities is building. Two of the smallest, least worldly characters embark on a journey only they can make, compelled by duty, and motivated by love. LOTR is one of the best-selling books of all time, and Jay and Stacey have plenty to say on this trilogy, that was originally conceived as one book (which is Jay’s defense for putting three books on his list as one entry). Chaos “Reader” has been doing a series rewatch and talks about why she loves Sex and the City. A note on the sound: We had some file issues with the production, so listeners may notice a change in the sound in the last few minutes of the episode. We apologize.

Jay shares with Stacey why he selected Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective novel The Maltese Falcon for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and they continue their discussion from last week’s talk about the hardboiled detective novel and how Hammett helped create the genre. Chaos reader introduces Henry James to the chat.

This week, Stacey and Jay discuss the 50th book on Jay’s list of the Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective novel The Big Sleep. Our culture’s dark and complicated detective trope comes from this brilliantly written crime story. Chaos Reader dips into a how-to book for a big life change.

Jay adds Lewis Carroll’s companion novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass to his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English. He and Stacey talk about the delightful prose in the children’s book and some of the reasons it’s enchanting for adults, as well. Chaos Reader talks to Jay about his Substack, which is one of her newest reading pleasures.

This coming-of-age tale still ranks on Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in English, because even as a retiree, the tale of “buccaneers and buried gold” still moves him with its imagination and insight. Chaos Reader shares one of her recent writing projects.