EP22: Hope Punk, the Women Who Run the Bestseller List Now, and Why David Mitchell is Better after Hallucinogens

Live from the Book Shop: John Updike's Ghost

Hannah has found some Hope Punk: "A Psalm for the Wild Built"! It is not actually dystopian fiction, but we don't let that stop us from talking about dystopian fiction as well (which doesn't just mean set in the future!). Why is dystopian fiction attractive? Are we writing it for the same reason? How is it a response to utopian fiction (the HG Wells book Sam was thinking of is "Men Like Gods")? This leads in to a talk about "Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" and how reading habits might be changing with the different ways people are consuming and purchasing art in general (Sam's impersonation of a Gen Zer is perhaps not very accurate). Hurrah for Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emily Henry, and Colleen Hoover! This moves, somehow, into Japanese fiction ("Bullet Train" and "Twilight World") and "Wool," which Hannah is correct that other people don't consider YA either. Then Sam decides that you tend to like David Mitchell more if you've done hallucinogens, Hannah argues you can't be a good writer without being an avid reader and talks about re-readering "Picture of Dorian Gray" (not "Portrait," as Sam incorrectly corrects Hannah, like a jerk), we pitch Mosin Hamid's "The Last White Man" as the next Book Club pick, and we wrap things up with some party ideas.