The Lord of the Rings isn’t an Allegory, but it is Applicable
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...
9 Sep 202559min
A Hardboiled MacGuffin: The Maltese Falcon
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 discus...
2 Sep 202545min
Shut Your Response Hole: Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep
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 c...
26 Aug 202544min
Go Through the Looking-Glass to Wonderland with Alice … and Us
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 ...
19 Aug 202538min
Step with Us to the Original Pirate Tale: Treasure Island
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 an...
11 Aug 202545min
A Post-Modernist Tale Inspired by an OG Novel: The Sot-Weed Factor
This week’s addition to the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list is John Barth’s Sot-Weed Factor, which Jay loves and Stacey hasn’t read (you might not have either…but you may want to ...
5 Aug 202540min
“The most perfect” novel, Tom Jones, a Foundling
Jay Ruud and Stacey Margaret Jones discuss an OG novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding, a picaresque novel from the early days of the whole genre of novel writing. Why is it ...
29 Juli 202546min
Come Away to Wuthering Heights With Us
This week Jay has chosen Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and he and Stacey discuss it along with last week’s entry, Jane Eyre, by...
22 Juli 202543min
