The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark is our latest read, and our last read before we take a few weeks off for spring break. One of us loved this book, and one of us really and truly did not, and that’s what makes for a fun book club ch

On Having No Head by Douglas Harding & What If We Didn't Have An Eight Inch Ball

Mar 3rd, 2020 22m 54s

One day in the early 1940s Douglas Harding, an English architect, was hiking in the Himalayas when he had a shocking realization…he had no head. He realized that we can’t see what he called the eight inch ball on the top of our body, except by

Silence by John Cage & Why There Is Always Sound

Feb 18th, 2020 31m 58s

Silence by John Cage is a collection of lectures and stories. Some are written in vertical columns. Some have, let’s call it interesting, spacing. And some, as Cage will tell you, have piano accompaniments, street noises, and the like. There wa

Strange People by Frank Edwards & Is "Freak" Really The Right Word?

Feb 4th, 2020 29m 47s

A “monkey girl”, sleepless people (one named David Jones - not our David Jones), water diviners, an author who was a channeled spirit, psychic detectives, and so many more “Strange People”. This collection of stories relayed by Frank Edwards wi

The Divided Self by R.D. Laing & Why This Book Seemed Personal

Jan 21st, 2020 28m 14s

To start with, Laing states that the basic purpose of this book is to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible. The full title is The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Okay, what’s the definition of exi

All The Emperor's Horses by David Kidd, aka Peking Story

Jan 7th, 2020 31m 16s

If you follow us on Twitter you know that we’re reviewing All The Emperor’s Horses in one episode. And you know that this read is also found under the title Peking Story, which is the newer version with a chapter added at the end, which was wri

Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse & Why Two Ways of Thinking Aren't Better Than One

Oct 22nd, 2019 22m 4s

We typically split our reads in half and record two episodes per book here on the pod, but Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse was such a quick read that we felt one episode would do the job. The story is in the title, Billy is a liar. He’s a 19 yea

The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Part 2 & Why The Prince Is Really A Serval

Oct 8th, 2019 21m 9s

We’re wrapping up The Leopard, so you may wonder, “What the heck is that animal in the photo? It doesn’t look like a leopard.” You would be correct! It is, in fact, not a leopard. It is a serval. A much smaller feline, it is the symbol on the T

The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Part 1 & Why the Prince is Swoon-worthy

Sep 24th, 2019 29m 1s

The Leopard, by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, is an historical fiction novel centered around Prince Fabrizio (the leopard) and a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy in 1860 that is threatened by the forces of democracy and revolution. One of us swoon

On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Part 2 & Why Your Feelings About Sal and Dean Might Change Over Time

Sep 10th, 2019 27m 29s

We’re wrapping up our journey with Sal and the gang with the second half of On The Road by Jack Kerouac. And we are a house divided. One of us liked it, one of us not so much. There were some beautiful life lessons, mostly learned by watching t

On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Part 1 & Why Bowie Might Be A Dean

Aug 27th, 2019 24m 22s

We’re going On The Road with Bowie as we read Jack Kerouac’s classic. And in some very specific instances, we did feel we were seeing a Bowie connection in one of the characters. For us, in the first part of the book, it was Dean, and we'll tel

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, Part 2 & Why We're Living in the 1950s

Aug 13th, 2019 32m 45s

We’re wrapping up The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, and yes, there are more case studies. Loads of them. And they’re actually quite interesting, but to inject a little fun into the second half of our discussion, we’ve decided to try somet

The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, Part 1 and Why We Are Johnny

Jul 30th, 2019 30m 37s

We’re diving in to The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, an examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by advertisers and media. The book was first published in 1957 and is chock-full of case studies that took place in the 1

A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno, Part 2 & Why Our Way Isn't The Only Way

Jul 16th, 2019 25m 53s

We’re wrapping up A Grave For A Dolphin discussing some of the most beautiful and heart wrenching love stories we’ve come across. There’s the tale of young Hassib who is the most tragic character in a true love story we have ever read. From the

A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno, Part 1 & Why We Should Talk To The Animals

Jul 2nd, 2019 26m 58s

Ten year old Alberto Denti di Pirajno met a man at a retirement party he attended with his mother who was celebrating fifty years of making Punchinello’s noses. Fifty years at this job. Making puppet noses day in and day out. Unimaginable! The

Room At The Top by John Braine, Part 2 & Why We Still Love Joe

Jun 18th, 2019 35m 43s

We continue riding on Joe’s emotional rollercoaster. There’s true love. There’s loss. There are affairs and fights. And, some of the things that Joe says has us wondering if maybe we hate him. But, he knows who he is. He calls himself out on hi

Room At The Top by John Braine, part 1 & Why The Thin White Duke Is Everywhere

Jun 4th, 2019 28m 45s

Okay, we know we said that our previous read was our favorite yet. Let’s just say that Room At The Top is our favorite fiction book on the list thus far. And a Bowie character clearly comes to mind while reading this book! Clearly. We see him i

The Outsider by Colin Wilson, Part 2 & Why We Think Bowie Was Not An Outsider

May 21st, 2019 36m 15s

What can we say? This is our favorite book, yet! By the end of The Outsider, we felt as though we could almost see Bowie’s thought process as he read it. In part two of the book, we were introduced to more Outsiders, some of whom seemed to have

The Outsider by Colin Wilson, Part 1 & Why This Book Is The Most Bowie Thus Far

May 7th, 2019 34m 57s

At first we didn’t get it, then we got it…in a big way. There are bits of this book that feel very Bowie. In so many interviews, we can see that part of his genius was that he was always searching. So are the various types of Outsiders describe

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Part 2 & Why We Are No Longer Charmed

Apr 23rd, 2019 35m 4s

If you listened to our last episode you know that, while we knew ol’ Humbert Humbert was a horrible human being, we still found him humorous and quite sharp. Well friends, in part two H.H. has lost his charm. We see him for what he is, an incre

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Part 1 & Why We Have Conflicting Emotions

Apr 9th, 2019 36m 52s

This book is timely, given the release of the Leaving Neverland documentary and the Me Too movement. It’s the story of a middle aged literature professor / poet named Humbert Humbert, who is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl whom he calls Lolita

Diamond Dogs and 1984

Mar 20th, 2019 27m 21s

Are you a Diamond Dogs fan, or not so much? Does it correlate to how you feel about George Orwell’s 1984, the inspiration for the album? We can recognize 1984 as a great work. We can agree it’s a great work, and be very happy not to have to rea

1984 by George Orwell, Part 2 & And Why Now May Not Be The Best Time To Read This Book

Mar 5th, 2019 34m 9s

Well, we are back at it again with 1984. And we are so ready to be finished with this book. In the current political climate, it all hits a little too close to home. What we've learned from Winston and Julia is that when the mind just changes o

1984 by George Orwell, Part 1 & Why It's Killing Us

Feb 19th, 2019 33m 41s

We read it as kids, and now we're revisiting it. 1984 by George Orwell. Originally published in 1949, it seems only to grow more relevant with time. And that is a frightening statement. Friends, to put it mildly, we are terrified. And while thi

The Street by Ann Petry, Part 2 & Why It's So Frustrating

Feb 5th, 2019 38m 4s

We're talking about the second half of The Street, by Ann Petry. And we have feelings. More specifically, we were bothered. On so many levels. The second half of this wonderful book really struck some nerves with both of us, and we’re letting i