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All Episodes

Books of Some Substance — 116 episodes

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Title
1

114 - The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso

2

113 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (2 of 2)

3

112 - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1 of 2)

4

111 - Light Years by James Salter

5

110 - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

6

Season 3 Books Announcement

7

108 - Control, Revisited: Six Novels of Power, Freedom, and Surrender

8

107 - Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

9

106 - The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

10

105 - Malina by Ingeborg Bachmann

11

104 - Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee

12

103 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (2/2)

13

102 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1/2)

14

101: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

15

Season 2 Books Announcement

16

100 - End of an Era

17

Special Announcement

18

99 - László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (Guest: Derek Maine)

19

98 - Jon Fosse's Melancholy I-II

20

97 - Franza Kafka's Diaries (Guest: Ross Benjamin)

21

96 - Marcel Proust's Time Regained (In Search of Lost Time #6)

22

95 - Henri Lefebvre's The Missing Pieces (Guest: Tom Comitta)

23

94 - Anton Chekhov's Difficult People (Guest: Bob Blaisdell)

24

93 - Marcel Proust's The Captive & The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time #5)

25

92 - Han Kang's The Vegetarian

26

91 - Marcel Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah (In Search of Lost Time #4)

27

90 - Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (Guest: Seth of WASTE Mailing List)

28

89 - Marcel Proust's The Guermantes Way (In Search of Lost Time #3)

29

88 - Alexander Theroux's Fables (Guest: George Salis)

30

87 - Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle

31

86 - Marcel Proust's Within a Budding Grove (In Search of Lost Time #2)

32

85 - Franz Kafka's Short Stories (The Judgment, A Country Doctor, In the Penal Colony)

33

84 - Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time #1)

34

83 - Bohumil Hrabal's Closely Watched Trains

35

82 - Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths

36

81 - Renata Adler's Speedboat

37

80 - W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants

38

79 - George Saunders' Tenth of December (Guest: Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts)

39

78 - W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn

40

77 - Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (Guest: Aatif Rashid)

41

76 - Hermann Hesse's Siddartha

42

75 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 4

43

74 - Santiago Gamboa's Necropolis (Guest: Mark Haber)

44

73 - Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (Guest: Ned Russin of Title Fight and Glitterer)

45

72 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 3

46

71 - Hafiz's The Gift (Guest: Valerie June)

47

70 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 2

48

69 - Cormac McCarthy's Suttree (Guest: Jesse Cash of ERRA)

49

68 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 1

50

67 - Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (Guest: George Salis)

51

66 - Amy Hempel's Collected Stories (Guest: Alfred Brown IV)

52

65 - Kōbō Abe's The Box Man

53

64 - Clarice Lispector's The Chandelier

54

63 - Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters (Guest: João Reis)

55

62 - Jean Cocteau's The Holy Terrors (Guest: Alexis Marshall of Daughters)

56

61 - Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves Examined

57

60 - M. John Harrison's Viriconium (Guest: Brett Campbell of Pallbearer

58

59 - J.G. Ballard's High-Rise (Guest: Alex Edkins of METZ)

59

58 - Hubert Selby Jr.'s The Room (Guest: Michael Berdan of Uniform)

60

57 - John Steinbeck's East of Eden Examined

61

56 - Ted Hughes' Crow Examined (Guest: Steve Von Till of Neurosis)

62

55 - Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich Examined (Guest: Dylan Desmond of Bell Witch)

63

54 - John Steinbeck's Cannery Row Examined

64

53 - Milan Kundera's The Joke Examined

65

52 - William H. Gass' Omensetter's Luck Examined

66

51 - Erecting Words: William H. Gass' Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife

67

50 - Death by Abstraction: Albert Camus' The Plague

68

49 - Hell Yeah, Sex Week: Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

69

48 - Space Anarchy!: Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed

70

47 - Avuncular Bumbler: Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin

71

46 - Turpitude Dude: Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading

72

45 - The Substance of Influence: Ross Farrar of Ceremony on Saul Bellow

73

44 - The Substance of Influence: Catherine Flynn on James Joyce

74

43 - Watt the Hell?: Samuel Beckett's Watt

75

42 - Didi Up Before You Gogo: Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

76

41 - The Substance of Influence with Caleb Michael Sarvis

77

40 - #nihilism: Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (Guest: Kathleen Founds)

78

39 - A Good Misfit Is Hard to Define: Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find

79

38 - The Substance of Influence with Chaya Bhuvaneswar

80

37 - The Miserable Pulp of Decay: László Krasznahorkai's Satantango

81

36 - This Fruit Is Dynamite!: Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes (Guest: Roanne Kantor)

82

35 - The Last Super Blood Wolf Moon: László Krasznahorkai's The Last Wolf

83

34: United in Putrification: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (Guest: Summer Star)

84

33 - The Dance: Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (Guest: Dean Rader)

85

32 - The Substance of Reality: César Aira's The Literary Conference

86

31 - This is the End(ing): Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms

87

30 - Hemingway Short Story Month: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

88

29 - Hemingway Short Story Month: Hills Like White Elephants

89

28 - Hemingway Short Story Month: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

90

27 - Hemingway Short Story Month: The Killers

91

26 - Everything He Hated Was Here: Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater

92

25 - Fly Uncomfortably: Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

93

24 - A Disrupting Darkness: Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

94

23 - No, I Wouldn't Call It That: Heinrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

95

22 - Mirrors: On the Adaptations of Solaris

96

21 - The Time of Cruel Miracles: Stanisław Lem's Solaris

97

20 - Needs More Booster Drive: Stanisław Lem's Fiasco

98

19 - La Chingada Muerte: Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio Cruz

99

18 - The Aura of Influence: How Carlos Fuentes Wrote Aura

100

17 - Second Sight: Carlos Fuentes' Aura

101

16 - It's Cold Out There: James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

102

15 - The Cup of Trembling: James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

103

14 - Once Hate is Gone: James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son

104

13 - Obscure Revelations: Eileen Chang's Naked Earth

105

12 - War for Love: Eileen Chang's Love in a Fallen City

106

11 - Ultimate Truthiness: Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game

107

10 - Sent Into Dark Corners: Hermann Hesse's Klingsor's Last Summer

108

9 - A Warped Tour of Cynicism: Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt

109

8 - Sorry Sinclair: Sinclair Lewis' Early Business Stories

110

7 - End Without End: Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain

111

6 - Between Poetry and Prose: Kawabata's Palm of the Hand Stories

112

5 - Life and Living with Henderson the Rain King

113

4 - Death and Dying with Saul Bellow

114

3 - The Master and Margarita

115

2 - Heart of a Dog

116

1 - Their Eyes Were Watching God