Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

In our last episode of the season, Marlon and Jake take on the worst books by the best authors—or at least, authors they usually love. They discuss why a journalist’s instincts can be both a gift and a curse when writing fiction, the importance of a great editor, writers who seem more interested in ideas than people, and novels that try so hard to be current they end up aging badly. Tune in for a conversation about literary misfires and wasted genius. Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches  The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe  Orlando by Virginia Woolf Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing The Golden Bowl by Henry James My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer Quicksand by Nella Larsen The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth Hotel by Arthur Hailey Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins Peyton Place by Grace Metalious Whirlwind by James Clavell Gai-Jin by James Clavell The Breast by Philip Roth Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré A Perfect Spy by John le Carré The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee Until August by Gabriel García Márquez Heartburn by Nora Ephron Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer  The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer India: A Wounded Civilization by V. S. Naipaul The Power Broker by Robert Caro Terrorist by John Updike  

Marlon and Jake discuss the books they’d banish from school reading lists—not ban but give a well-earned time out. They consider why the Bible shouldn’t make the cut, why mythology deserves to expand beyond the Greeks and Romans, and what kinds of books actually resonate with high school readers. Plus: why being a great book doesn’t necessarily make something a great book to teach—and whether length should matter. Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper Mythology by Edith Hamilton Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck The Pearl by John Steinbeck “Who Am I This Time?” by Kurt Vonnegut King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard Benito Cereno by Herman Melville The Tempest by William Shakespeare The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy by Douglas Adams The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare As You Like It by William Shakespeare Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Animal Farm by George Orwell 1984 by George Orwell The Trial by Franz Kafka Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Look Back in Anger by John Osborne Butley by Simon Gray The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham

Marlon and Jake take on violence in fiction: what makes it effective, what makes it gratuitous, and whether “gratuitous violence” is even a useful distinction. Tune in as they discuss the difference between violence on the page and on screen and why extended cruelty can be harder to stomach than violence itself. Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper. Lord of the Flies by William Golding All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy The Godfather by Mario Puzo The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 2666 by Roberto Bolaño Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Hamlet by William Shakespeare King Lear by William Shakespeare Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Marlon and Jake explore the power of setting in novels—and why the best stories feel like they couldn’t have happened anywhere else. They discuss settings that become characters in their own right, fictional worlds they’d love (or absolutely hate) to inhabit, and books that made unexpected places fascinating. Plus: why a modern-day Captain Nemo might just be a tech bro. Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper. Amerika by Franz Kafka Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall Moby-Dick by Herman Melville Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake Dubliners by James Joyce The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow A Room with a View by E. M. Forster Macbeth by William Shakespeare Dune by Frank Herbert The Last Man by Mary Shelley Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Marlon and Jake explore the books that have helped define who they are, choosing four that capture different parts of their personalities and lives. They unpack how reading can shape our understanding of identity, community, and growing up—and change the way we see ourselves and each other. Tune in as they reflect on books they encountered at exactly the right (or wrong) time and the stories that made the world around them feel a little bigger. Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper. Amadeus by Peter Shaffer Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer The Lion in Winter by James Goldman The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf The Red and the Black by Stendhal The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin The Aspern Papers by Henry James Persuasion by Jane Austen A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange Sula by Toni Morrison The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley