The Idle Book Club
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
The Idle Book Club 28: NW
21 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Chris discuss NW, Zadie Smith's sprawling tale of the London working class. It's a re-read for both co-hosts, and they loved it just as much...
The Idle Book Club 27: Jesus' Son
29 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of Denis Johnson's passing, Chris and Sarah discuss Jesus' Son, the author's bleak yet beautiful collection of stories centered around the...
The Idle Book Club 26: A Sight for Sore Eyes
28 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Rendell is known as a crime novelist, but in A Sight for Sore Eyes she stretches the genre's trappings into a taut and thrilling class-infused ge...
The Idle Book Club 25: The Long Goodbye
29 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah and Chris discuss The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler's classic noir crime novel. It's a cynical, gripping tale of twists and turns, and it's a w...
The Idle Book Club 24: The Handmaid's Tale
26 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
With Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale soon to reach a larger audience than ever thanks to a television adaptation, we decided to take on the nove...
The Idle Book Club 23: Silence
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Shusako Endo's Silence is a classic of modern Japanese literature, a reflection on faith and humanity that is sweeping and ambitious as well as intens...
The Idle Book Club 22: Wuthering Heights
30 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If you've never read Wuthering Heights, it probably isn't what you expected. And if you haven't read it since high school, it's worth revisiting this ...
The Idle Book Club 21: The Sellout
31 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
For the final Idle Book Club of 2016, Sarah and Chris wrestle with The Sellout, Paul Beatty's very dark satire on race relations in modern America. Ne...
The Idle Book Club 20: I Love Dick
27 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Kraus' I Love Dick is an experimental novel that blurs the line between fiction and memoir. In the years since its release, it has experienced a...
The Idle Book Club 19: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
01 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What DO we talk about when we talk about love? Whatever it is, from Raymond Carver's point of view, it's not very rosy. Join Sarah and Chris as they d...
The Idle Book Club 18: Runaway
17 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Idle Book Club tackles Sarah's favorite author, the prolific and award-winning short story writer Alice Munro. It's no surprise that Sarah loved t...
The Idle Book Club 17: The Sympathizer
13 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month, Sarah and Chris discuss Viet Thanh Nguyen's ambitious and bleakly comic debut novel, The Sympathizer. The story of a Vietnamese communist ...
The Idle Book Club 16: Mr. Fox
09 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the Idle Book Club discusses Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox, a 2011 book that blurs the line between novel and short story collection. Join us, a...
The Idle Book Club 15: The Man in the High Castle
10 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Sarah have their first Philip K. Dick experience (in book form, anyway) with The Man in the High Castle, an ambitious and bleak alternate hi...
The Idle Book Club 14: Everything I Never Told You
13 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Everything I Never Told You is another story in the "mysteriously dead girl" genre—so how does it stack up? Sarah and Chris discuss the story's them...
The Idle Book Club 13: Never Let Me Go
10 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Something sinister and tragic is at play in an English countryside boarding school, and we're going to spoil it all. Join Chris and Sarah for their di...
The Idle Book Club 12: Umberto Eco
23 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Sarah stop into the studio for an impromptu podcast in honor of Umberto Eco, the Italian semiotician and author of esoteric novels including...
The Idle Book Club 11: Fates and Furies
09 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The first full episode of the new Idle Book Club season tackles Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, a novel depicting two surprising sides of a marriage—...
The Idle Book Club 10: The Idle Book Club Returns
31 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Idle Book Club is back! After a two-year hiatus, we're ready to start discussing books again each month, with one returning host and one new one. ...
The Idle Book Club 9: Summer Reads
09 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
After a scheduling hiccup (snafu? derailment? disaster?) the guys are back to bring you their summer reading selections. On offer this month: The Spy ...
The Idle Book Club 8: Cosmicomics
12 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This month, Italo Calvino sends Chris and Sean swirling through time and space with his enchanting book of short stories. The nuances of literary tran...
The Idle Book Club 7: By Blood
11 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Sean and Chris have mixed feelings about By Blood, a San Francisco-set novel told from a disturbing and compelling voyeuristic perspective, but they u...
The Idle Book Club 6: The Crying of Lot 49
08 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Chris, Sean, and Jake start to fill a hole in their reading history as they dive into Pynchon for the first time. Enjoy their inexpert but enthusiasti...
The Idle Book Club 5: The Great Gatsby
11 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Pop the champagne and don a pink seersucker because it's an Idle Thumbs reunion. Nick Breckon has traveled from the far eastern states to join Chris, ...
The Idle Book Club 4: Evidence of Things Unseen
22 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Sean are transported to post WWI America with the masterful Marianne Wiggins as their guide. While not without its hiccups, Evidence of Thin...
The Idle Book Club 3: Telegraph Avenue
10 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Sean dig into Michael Chabon's latest, Telegraph Avenue. While swept up by Chabon's prose, they can't quite get over some aspects of the plo...
The Idle Book Club 2: Cloud Atlas
05 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Chris and Sean heap praise upon the masterful David Mitchell, revel in their favorite passages of the book, and ponder the importance (or lack thereof...
The Idle Book Club 1: The Sense of an Ending
14 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
The Idle Book Club kicks off with discussions of the impermanence of memory, the importance of perspective, and what it means to be telling someone el...