Avsnitt
-
Happy Pride Month! In this episode Trevor and Paul share some of our favorite works of LGBTQIA+ literature (and films)—works that have moved us, challenged us, and expanded our sense of the world. We reflect on how queer literature has shaped our understanding over the years and discuss the importance of lifting up these voices—especially in a moment when so many are under threat.
Join us in a heartfelt conversation about storytelling, solidarity, and the power of books to open us up to the lives of others. As two people who don’t speak from within the queer community, we approached this conversation with deep admiration, gratitude, and care, hoping to honor the writers and stories that have meant so much to us.
What are some of your favorite LGBTQIA+ books?
We’ve got some fantastic author-focused episodes lined up for the foreseeable future, and we want to give you plenty of time to dive in if you’d like to read along with us. These episodes come around every ten episodes, and with our bi-weekly release schedule, you'll have a few months to get ready for each. Here’s what we have in store:
* Episode 115: Kazuo Ishiguro
* Episode 125: Flannery O’Connor
* Episode 135: William Faulkner
* Episode 145: Elizabeth Taylor
* Episode 155: Naguib Mahfouz
There’s no rush—take your time, and grab a book (or two, or three) so you’re prepared for these as they come!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
Want to share your thoughts on these upcoming authors or anything else we’re discussing? Join us over on Discord! It’s the perfect place to dive deeper into the conversation—whether you’re reading along with our author-focused episodes or just want to chat about the books that are on your mind.
We’re also gearing up for our second novella book club, where we'll be reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin at the start of July. It’s a fantastic book, and we’d love to have you join the discussion. It’s a great space to engage with fellow listeners, share your insights, and discover new perspectives on the books you’re reading.
Shownotes
Books
* The Book of Mutter, by Kate Zambreno
* The Light Room, by Kate Zambreno
* Drifts, by Kate Zambreno
* A House and Its Head, by Ivy Compton-Burnett
* Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot
* The Guermantes Way, by Marcel Proust
* Manservant and Maidservant, by Ivy Compton-Burnett
* Angels in America, by Tony Kushner
* The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
* Brokeback Mountain, by Annie Proulx
* The Song of Achilles, by Madeleine Miller
* Circe, by Madeleine Miller
* Desert of the Heart, by Jane Rule
* The works of David Seders
* Bluets, by Maggie Nelson
* The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson
* You Better Be Lightning, by Andrea Gibson
* A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood
* Hearstopper, by Alice Oseman
* The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith
* Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith
* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
* The Line of Beauty, by Alan Holinghurst
* Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
* Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeannette Winterson
* The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makai
* I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makai
* All Down Darkness Wide, by Seán Hewitt
* The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters
* The Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters
* Dancer from the Dance, by Andrew Holleran
Films
* The Hours, d. Stephen Daldry
* Brokeback Mountain, d. Ang Lee
* Desert Hearts, d. Donna Deitch
* A Single Man, d. Tom Ford
* Carole, d. Todd Haynes
* Paris Is Burning, d. Jennie Livingston
* All About My Mother, d. Pedro Almodóvar
* Happy Together, d. Wong Kar Wai
* Portrait of a Lady on Fire, d. Céline Sciamma
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
In this episode, Paul and Trevor check in on our 2025 reading goals—where we’ve succeeded, where we’ve faltered, and most importantly how our goals are impacting our reading experience. Are we setting ourselves up for success, or are we creating unnecessary pressure? We dive into the positives and potentials pitfalls of reading ambitions, exploring what’s working for us. Tune in for a reflective conversation on how to make reading goals meaningful.
Plus, we announce the winner of our May giveaway and reveal our June giveaway challenge with another silly performance!
We’ve got some fantastic author-focused episodes lined up for the foreseeable future, and we want to give you plenty of time to dive in if you’d like to read along with us. These episodes come around every ten episodes, and with our bi-weekly release schedule, you'll have a few months to get ready for each. Here’s what we have in store:
* Episode 115: Kazuo Ishiguro
* Episode 125: Flannery O’Connor
* Episode 135: William Faulkner
* Episode 145: Elizabeth Taylor
* Episode 155: Naguib Mahfouz
There’s no rush—take your time, and grab a book (or two, or three) so you’re prepared for these as they come!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
Want to share your thoughts on these upcoming authors or anything else we’re discussing? Join us over on Discord! It’s the perfect place to dive deeper into the conversation—whether you’re reading along with our author-focused episodes or just want to chat about the books that are on your mind.
We’re also gearing up for our second novella book club, where we'll be reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin at the start of July. It’s a fantastic book, and we’d love to have you join the discussion. It’s a great space to engage with fellow listeners, share your insights, and discover new perspectives on the books you’re reading.
Shownotes
Books
* Is a River Alive?, by Robert Macfarlane
* The White Bear, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin
* A Fortunate Man, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin
* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
* Deathbed Confessions, by Mark Haber
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
* In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
* The Sunlit Man, by Brandon Sanderson
* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy
* Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy
* The Prime Minister, by Anthony Trollope
* The Duke’s Children, by Anthony Trollope
* The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope
* Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot
* Schattenfroh, by Michael Lentz, translated by Max Lawton
* Blinding, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter
* Omensetter’s Luck, by William H. Gass
* Herscht 07769, by Lászlo Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet
* Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
* Mr. Fox, by Barbara Comyns
* A Touch of Mistletoe, by Barbara Comyns
* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden
* On the Calculation of Volume, I, by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. Haveland
* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann
* The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods
* Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
* To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
* The Waves, by Virginia Woolf
* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
* Rhine Journey, by Ann Schlee
* Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend, by Rebecca Romney
* Evelina, by Frances Burney
* The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
* Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
* The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro
* The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro
* A Pale View of Hills, by Kazuo Ishiguro
* Your Absence Is Darkness, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton
* The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
Saknas det avsnitt?
-
In this episode we’re shaking things up with Bookshelf Roulette! No pre-planned selections—just pure randomness. Using a random number generator, we each pick a few books from our shelves and dive into spontaneous discussions. Did we read them? Do we love them? Do we remember them? From forgotten gems to books we’ve been meaning to get to, we explore what’s lurking in the corners of our collections. Tune in for some unexpected literary discoveries, personal stories, and maybe even a few surprises as we take a fresh, unplanned look at what’s on our shelves.
What surprises are hiding on your bookshelf? Join in the fun—pull out a random book, whether you follow our rules or come up with your own way to pick, and share what you find with us! From forgotten classics to books you’ve been meaning to read, we’d love to hear about the unexpected gems in your collection.
We’ve got some fantastic author-focused episodes lined up for the foreseeable future, and we want to give you plenty of time to dive in if you’d like to read along with us. These episodes come around every ten episodes, and with our bi-weekly release schedule, you'll have a few months to get ready for each. Here’s what we have in store:
* Episode 115: Kazuo Ishiguro
* Episode 125: Flannery O’Connor
* Episode 135: William Faulkner
* Episode 145: Elizabeth Taylor
* Episode 155: Naguib Mahfouz
There’s no rush—take your time, and grab a book (or two, or three) so you’re prepared for these as they come!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
Want to share your thoughts on these upcoming authors or anything else we’re discussing? Join us over on Discord! It’s the perfect place to dive deeper into the conversation—whether you’re reading along with our author-focused episodes or just want to chat about the books that are on your mind.
We’re also gearing up for our second novella book club, where we'll be reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin at the start of July. It’s a fantastic book, and we’d love to have you join the discussion. It’s a great space to engage with fellow listeners, share your insights, and discover new perspectives on the books you’re reading.
Shownotes
Books
* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber
* Your Absence Is Darkness, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton
* Three Summers, by Margarita Liberaki, translated by Karen Van Dyck
* Great Granny Webster, by Caroline Blackwood
* The Short Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick
* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
* Gould’s Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan
* Question 7, by Richard Flanagan
* Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym
* Hopscotch, by Julio Cortázar, translated by Gregory Rabassa
* The Nose and Other Stories, by Nikolai Gogol, translated by Susanne Fuso
* Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol
* A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, and Life, by George Saunders
* The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
* The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
* First Love, by Ivan Turgenev
* The Forgery, by Ave Barrera, translated by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers
* Cautery, by Lucía Lijtmaer, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy
* On Earth as It Is Beneath, by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan
* Chilco, by Daniela Catrileo, translated by Jacob Edelstein
* The World We Saw Burning, by Renato Cisneros, translated by Fionn Petch
* The Oppermanns, by Lion Feuchtwanger, translated by James Cleugh
* The Aesthetics of Resistance, by Peter Weiss, translated by Joachim Neugroschel
* Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner
* A Start in Life, by Anita Brookner
* Providence, by Anita Brookner
* Look at Me, by Anita Brookner
* Proustian Uncertainty: On Reading and Rereading In Search of Lost Time, by Saul Friedländer
* Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to In Search of Lost Time, by Eric Karpeles
* Monsieur Proust, by Céleste Albaret, translated by Barbara Bray
* Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp, by Józef Czapski, translated by Eric Karpeles
* Strike Your Heart, by Amélie Nothomb, translated by Alison Anderson
* Pétronille, by Amélie Nothomb, translated by Alison Anderson
* Life Form, by Amélie Nothomb, translated by Alison Anderson
* The Neapolitan Quartet, by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein
* H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
* Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
* Is a River Alive?, by Robert Macfarlane
Other
* The Eclipse Viewer Podcast
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
In this episode, Trevor and Paul are joined by Chris Via of Leaf by Leaf to celebrate the experience of reading big books. From the books that once intimidated us to the ones we now can't imagine our overburdened shelves without, we dive into what makes a book feel "big." Along the way, we share personal stories, favorite strategies for tackling doorstoppers, the books that stretched us as readers, and reflect on why some big books stay with us for life. Whether you're a lifelong lover of big books or someone who's still building up your wrist strength, this is an episode for you.
We’d love to hear from you, too—what are your favorite big books? Which ones are still looming on your to-be-read pile, daring you to pick them up? Let us know!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
An easy place to respond to our question above is over on Discord!
We’re creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas—and other books things. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we’d love to have you.
Shownotes
Books
* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Anthony Briggs
* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer
* The Guermantes Way, by Marcel Proust
* FEM, by Magda Carneci, translated by Sean Cotter
* Blinding, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter
* Solenoid, by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter
* Novel Explosives, by Jim Gauer
* Bookwork: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt
* The Recognitions, by William Gaddis
* The Dying Grass: A Novel of the New Perce War, by William T. Vollmann
* Faust, Part One: A New Translation with Illustrations, by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, translated by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner
* Invidicum, by Michael Brodsky
* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann
* The Aesthetics of Resistance, by Peter Weiss, translated by Joachim Neugroschel
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Great Granny Webster, by Caroline Blackwood
* Pilgrimage, by Dorothy Richardson
* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
* Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
* Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
* Nausea, by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Richard Howard
* Schattenfroh, by Micheal Lentz, translated by Max Lawton
* The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks
* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Andrew R. MacAndrew
* It, by Stephen King
* The Stand, by Stephen King
* Shogun, by James Clavell
* Tom’s Crossing, by Mark Z. Danielewski
* Women and Men, by Joseph McElroy
* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* The Blue Room, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Deborah Dawkin
* Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon
* Ulysses, by James Joyce
* 4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster
* Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
* Shadow Ticket, by Thomas Pynchon
* The Tunnel, by William H. Gass
* A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth
* The Golden Gate, by Vikram Seth
* The Story of a Life, by Konstantin Paustovsky, translated by Doug Smith
* The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, translated by Royall Tylor
* A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
* The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara
* Stone Upon Stone, by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnston
* Needle’s Eye, by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnston
Other
* Leaf by Leaf
* Episode 1: Bucket List Books
* Episode 99: Books We Think About All the Time, with Elisa Gabbert
* The Untranslated: Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
What happens when a writer turns silence, fear, grief—and love?—into novels that are barely a couple hundred pages but echo for days? Whether it’s love withheld, misplaced, or mourned, Ørstavik’s novels speak to each other through unspoken longing and the disorienting nature of grief—with a quiet, cumulative power that’s hard to shake. In this episode, we explore the devastating brilliance of Hanne Ørstavik, the Norwegian author whose emotionally precise novels—Love, The Pastor, Ti Amo, and Stay with Me (neither of us has read The Blue Room, but we have it on order)—have deeply moved and unsettled us.
We dig into what makes Ørstavik’s emotional landscapes so haunting, and why these books, though spare on the surface, feel endlessly deep. From unspoken longing to the disorienting nature of grief, these novels speak to each other in unexpected and beautiful ways.
We’d love to hear your thoughts: Have you read any of Ørstavik’s work? Which novel struck you most—or which are you most curious to read?
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
An easy place to respond to our question above is over on Discord!
We’re creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas—and other books things. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we’d love to have you.
Shownotes
Books
* Love, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* The Pastor, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* Ti Amo, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* Stay with Me, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann
* The Bear, by Andrew Krivak
* The Sojourn, by Andrew Krivak
* The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
* The Blue Room, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Deborah Dawkin
* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber
* First Love, by Ivan Turgenev
* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
* The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
* Within a Budding Grove, by Marcel Proust
Other
* Reading in Translation: Narrating and Translating Love and Grief in “TI AMO”: Norwegian Author Hanne Ørstavik and English Translator Martin Aitken in Conversation with Nataliya Deleva
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
It’s time for another publisher-centric episode, and it’s another stunner—we’re heading to Latin America (via Scotland!) to talk about the brilliant Charco Press! We dive into what makes Charco Press such a standout: their dedication to bringing contemporary Latin American literature to English-language readers, their thoughtful support of authors and translators, and, yes, their absolutely gorgeous books.
We each share three Charco titles we love and three more we can’t wait to get our hands on. There’s something for everyone—from the surreal to the political, the tender to the explosive. Plus, we announce the winner of our March giveaway and introduce an amazing new prize for April: a 2025 bundle of Charco Press books! You do not want to miss this one.
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
We’re creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas, starting with First Love by Ivan Turgenev in April. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we’d love to have you. The discussion will unfold gradually, so you can read at your own pace and jump in whenever you're ready. It’s a great way to connect with fellow readers, explore new works together, and deepen your appreciation for the novella form.
For the first book, the schedule will be as follows:
* April 6: Start of the book through Section 9
* April 9: Section 10 through Section 16
* April 13: Section 17 through the end
Shownotes
Books
* On the Calculation of Volume I, by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland
* The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
* Fated, by Benedict Jacka
* Cursed, by Benedict Jacka
* First Love, by Ivan Turgenev
* The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada, translated by Chris Andrews
* Dead Girls, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* Brickmakers, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* Not a River, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* Catching Fire: A Translation Diary, by Daniel Hahn
* Never Did the Fire, by Diamela Eltit, translated by Daniel Hahn
* Homesick, by Jennifer Croft
* The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez
* The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
* An Orphan World, by Giuseppe Caputo, translated by Sophie Hughes and Juana Adcock
* Dislocations, by Sylvia Malloy, translated by Jennifer Croft
* Elena Knows, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle
* A Little Luck, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle
* Fish Soup, by Margarita García Robayo, translated by Charlotte Coombe
* The Distance Between Us, by Renato Cisneros, translated by Fionn Petch
* Time of the Flies, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle
* Two Sherpas, by Sebastián Martinez Daniell, translated by Jennifer Croft
* Trout, Belly Up, by Rodrigo Fuentes, translated by Ellen Jones
* Fresh Dirt from the Grave, by Giovanna Rivero, translated by Isabel Adey
* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
* A Perfect Cemetery, by Federico Falco, translated by Jennifer Croft
* Cautery, by Lucía Litmaer, translated by Maureen Shaughnessy
* The Delivery, by Margarita García Robayo, translated by Megan McDowell
* The Forgery, by Ave Barrera, translated by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers
* Restoration, by Ave Barrera, translated by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers
* Die, My Love, by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Sarah Moses and Carolina Orloff
* Feebleminded, by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff
* Tender, by Ariana Harwicz, translated by Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff
Other
* The Book Club Review Podcast
* Charco Press Website
* Episode 74: Canadian Literature, with Jerry Faust
* Episode 88: Women in Translation, with Robin Myers
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
In this episode of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast, we’re joined by Rohan Maitzen to explore the multifaceted world of historical fiction. Rohan guides us through the genre, unpacking its many layers and surprising complexities. From timeless classics to unexpected gems, we share some of our favorite examples from the genre and discuss how historical fiction challenges our perceptions of the past and sparks conversations about the present, all while whisking us away to another time. Whether you're drawn to sweeping epics or intimate character studies, tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that will enhance the way you think about historical fiction!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
We’re creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas, starting with First Love by Ivan Turgenev in April. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we’d love to have you. The discussion will unfold gradually, so you can read at your own pace and jump in whenever you're ready. It’s a great way to connect with fellow readers, explore new works together, and deepen your appreciation for the novella form.
For the first book, the schedule will be as follows:
* April 6: Start of the book through Section 9
* April 9: Section 10 through Section 16
* April 13: Section 17 through the end
Shownotes
Books
* Widening the Skirts of Light: Essays on George Eliot, by Rohan Maitzen
* Middlemarch for Book Clubs, by Rohan Maitzen
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot
* Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
* The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett
* My Lady Jane, by Cynthia Hand
* Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood
* All Fours, by Miranda July
* Mrs. Death Misses Death, by Salena Godden
* Telephone, by Percival Everett
* Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend, by Rebecca Romney
* Evelina, by Frances Burney
* Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
* The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
* The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey
* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
* Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since, by Walter Scott
* Adam Bede, by George Eliot
* Romola, by George Eliot
* The Cater Street Hangman, by Anne Perry
* The Whitechapel Conspiracy, by Anne Perry
* Kindred, by Octavia Butler
* An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, by P.D. James
* The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
* Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
* The Young Mary Queen of Scots, by Jean Plaidy
* Murder Most Royal, by Jean Plaidy
* Lives of the Queens of England, by Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland
* Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
* Siege of Krishnapur, by J.G. Farrell
* Troubles, by J.G. Farrell
* The Singapore Grip, by J.G. Farrell
* Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell
* A Long Long Way, by Sebastian Barry
* Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
* Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks
* The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
* My Lady Of Cleves, by Margaret Campbell Barnes
* Child of the Morning, by Pauline Gedge
* The Eagle and the Raven, by Pauline Gedge
Other
* Episode 64: Victorian Literature
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
Introducing the Mookse and Gripes Novella Reading Group! Through this year, we’re reading three novellas about love, longing, and leadership gone slightly off the rails. In this episode, we kick things off with some bookish banter before unveiling our new novella reading group on Discord. We have a short intermission for a special new game with a giveaway and then share the three novellas we’ll be reading in 2025, diving into why we chose these books.
Join us as we celebrate the art of the novella. We hope you’ll read along!
Join the Mookse and the Gripes on Discord
We’re creating a welcoming space for thoughtful, engaging discussions about great novellas, starting with First Love by Ivan Turgenev in April. Whether you want to share insights, ask questions, or simply follow along, we’d love to have you. The discussion will unfold gradually, so you can read at your own pace and jump in whenever you're ready. It’s a great way to connect with fellow readers, explore new works together, and deepen your appreciation for the novella form.
For the first book, the schedule will be as follows:
* April 6: Start of the book through Section 9
* April 9: Section 10 through Section 16
* April 13: Section 17 through the end
Shownotes
Books
* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber
* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden
* Like a Sky Inside, by Jakuta Alikavazovic, translated by Daniel Levin Becker
* The Case of Cem, by Vera Mutafchieva, translated by Angela Rodel
* Your Absence Is Darkness, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton
* Small Rain, by Garth Greenwell
* Command Performance, by Jean Echenoz, translated
* Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
* To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
* The Waves, by Virginia Woolf
* The Voyage Out, by Virginia Woolf
* Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel, by Mark Hussey
* Trafik, by Rikki Ducornet
* We’re Safe When We’re Alone, by Nghiem Tran
* Cecilia, by K-Ming Chang
* Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
* Chess Story, by Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg
* The Guest Cat, by Takashi Hiraide, translated by Eric Selland
* The Stepdaughter, by Caroline Blackwood
* Great Granny Webster, by Caroline Blackwood
* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
* Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
* The Body, by Stephen King
* The Long Walk, by Stephen King
* First Love, by Ivan Turgenev, translated by Isaiah Berlin
* Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin
* The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
* The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
Other
* Episode 27: Short Books, Fiction
* “Ten haunting, atmospheric novellas I highly recommend”: JacquiWine’s Journal
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We’re glad you’re here, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on this literary journey!
A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they’re released to the public. We’d love for you to check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
In this special centenary episode of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast, we're shaking things up with an Ask Us Anything celebration! Join us as we answer listeners’ questions covering everything from our favorite books and authors to the behind-the-scenes moments of the podcasting process. We’re answering it all, sharing some fun stories, and offering a glimpse into what’s next for the show—more books!
Whether you’ve been with us since episode one or are a recent listener, this milestone episode is for you. Tune in for the answers to your burning questions and to celebrate 100 episodes of literary adventures with us!
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
We’re joined by the amazing poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert to discuss some of the books that we think about all the time. We each share three books that are always on our minds and discuss the many reasons some works become such and important part of who we are.
Which ones would you pick?
Shownotes
Books
* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert
* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert
* The Word Pretty, by Elisa Gabbert
* The Hurting Kind, by Ada Limón
* 77 Dream Songs, by John Berryman
* The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith
* A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster
* Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks
* Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, by Cal Newport
* An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, by George Perec, translated by Marc Lowenthal
* A Month in Sienna, by Hisham Matar
* How to Cook a Wolf, by M.F.K. Fisher
* A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein
* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
* Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann
* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Too Serious Ladies, by Jane Bowles
* Sabrina, by Nick Drnaso
* Emma, by Jane Austen
* The Wild Iris, by Louise Glück
* Survey Says, by Nathan Austin
* The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman
* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
* Atonement, by Ian McEwan
* The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms
Other
* Elisa Gabbert’s Poetry Column in The New York Times
* Every book I read in 2024, with commentary, by Elisa Gabbert
* Lost Highway, d. David Lynch
* Mulholland Dr., d. David Lynch
* Episode 36: Epic Books
* Backlisted Podcast on Notes from Underground
* Episode 25: Jane Austen
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
From glistening skyscrapers and bustling downtowns to dark alleys and creeping urban decay, cities are endlessly complicated and diverse. And so are the books that take place in urban settings. This week, we share some of our favorite city books and chat about what makes these environments so fascinating.
What are your favorites?
Shownotes
Books
* Pink Slime, by Fernanda Trías, translated by Heather Cleary
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust
* Wind and Truth, by Brandon Sanderson
* The Suicides, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen
* Zama, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen
* The Silentiary, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen
* Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
* The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
* A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy
* The City and the City, by China Miéville
* Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo
* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula K. Le Guin
* My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, translated by Anne Goldstein
* Lush Life, by Richard Price
* Solenoid, by Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu, translated by Sean Cotter
* Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolfe
* Ask the Dust, by John Fante
* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Máquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa
* Anniversaries, by Uwe Johnson, translated by Damion Searls
* Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
* Ulysses, by James Joyce
* New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster
* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
* It, by Stephen King
* The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
* Open City, by Teju Cole
* Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
* The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larsen
* Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz, translated by Trevor Le Gassick
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
* Berlin Alexanderplatz, by Alfred Döblin, translated by Michael Hoffman
* Down and Out in London, by George Orwell
* City of Saints and Madmen, by Jeff Vandermeer
* Cairo Trilogy, by Naguib Mahfouz, translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan
* The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell
* London, by Edward Rutherford
* Dublin, by Edward Rutherford
* New York, by Edward Rutherford
* Paris, by Edward Rutherford
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
To kick off the new year, we discuss some of he 2025 new releases we’re most excited about. We also share our personal 5 in ‘25—five books (new or old) that we can’t wait to read this year.
What are yours?
Shownotes
Books
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
* On the Evolution of All Political Parties, by Simone Weil, translated by Simon Leys
* Wind and Truth, by Brandon Sanderson
* The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
* The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright
* Attila, by Aliocha Coll, translated by Katie Wittemore
* Attila, by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Wittemore
* Death Takes Me, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker
* Time of the Flies, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle
* Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by
* The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana
* Is a River Alive, by Robert Macfarlane
* Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane
* The Hour of the Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams
* A Life on Paper, by George-Olivier Châteaureynard, translated by Edward Gauvin
* The Messengers, by George-Olivier Châteaureynard, translated by Edward Gauvin
* stay with me, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* Love, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken
* The Unworthy, by Augustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
* The White Bear, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin
* A Fortunate Man, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin
* Hellions, by Julia Elliott
* The Deserters, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
* Compass, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
* Zone, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
* Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
* Street of Thieves, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
* The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, by Mathias Énard, translated by Frank Wynne
* Universality, by Natasha Brown
* The Death of Virgil, by Hermann Broch, translated by Jean Starr Untermeyer
* The Sleepwalkers, by Hermann Broch, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir
* A Month in the Country, by J.C. Carr
* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
* Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence
* The Dying Grass, by William T. Vollmann
* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann
* Inferno, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander
* Purgatorio, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander
* Paradiso, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander
* Purgatorio, by Dante, translated by D.M. Black
* Paradiso, by Dante, translated by D.M. Black
* The Divine Comedy, by Dante, translated by Allen Mandelbaum
* The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
* The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
* Too Much of Life: The Complete Crônicas, by Clarice Lispector, translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud
* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan
* The Bridges, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan
* The Seed, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Kenneth G. Chapman
* The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan
* The Story of the Stone, by Cao Xueqin, translated by David Hawkes
* The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods
* The Mountain Lion, by Jean Stafford
* Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
For our final episode of 2024, we finish our annual best of the year extravaganza! Here we are joined by more friends sharing their favorite reads of the year as we go through our top five.
Happy New Year! We will see you in 2025!
Shownotes
Books
* The Overstory, by Richard Powers
* Septology, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
* A Shining, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
* Boathouse, by Jon Fosse, translated by May-Brit Akerholt
* Scenes from a Childhood, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
* Trilogy, by Jon Fosse, translated by May-Brit Akerholt
* Aliss at the Fire, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
* Morning and Evening, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
* We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
* Big Brother, by Lionel Shriver
* The Stripping of the Altars, by Eamon Duffy
* Scenes from Clerical Life, by George Eliot
* Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot
* Possession, by A.S. Byatt
* Parade’s End, by Ford Madox Ford
* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
* Frog, by Stephen Dixon
* I., by Stephen Dixon
* The MANIAC, by Benjamín Labatut
* When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West
* A Game of Hide and Seek, by Elizabeth Taylor
* Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor
* Angel, by Elizabeth Taylor
* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken
* The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, by Beth Brower
* A Touch of Mistletoe, by Barbara Comyns
* Mr. Fox, by Barbara Comyns
* Cold Nights of Childhood, by Tezer Özlü, translated by Maureen Freely
* Your Little Matter: My Mother, a News Item, by Maria Grazia Calandrone, translated by Antonella Lettieri
* My Favorite, by Sarah Jollien-Fardel, translated by Holly James
* Götz and Meyer, by David Albahari, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac
* Escape from Berlin, by Catherine Klein
* February 1933: The Winter of Literature, by Use Wittstock, translated by Daniel Bowles
* Pilgrimage, by Dorothy Richardson
* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstory
* The Tunnel, by William H. Gass
* A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories
* All That Glitters, by Orlando Whitfield
* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber
* Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
* If on a winter’s night a traveller . . . , by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
* The Baron in the Trees, by Italo Calvino, translated by Ann Goldstein
* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope
* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope
* Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope
* The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope
* Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter
* The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
* “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London
* Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life, by Sofia Samatar
* Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner & Rosamond Lehmann, by Harriet Baker
* Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, by Naomi Klein
* A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria, by Caroline Crampton
* A Month in the Country, by J.L. Baker
* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy
* Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy
* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy
* Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
Trevor and Paul are back with the fourth annual best of the year extravaganza! In Part I, we count down the first half of our en favorite reads of 2024—and we are once again joined by a cast of friends and listeners who share some of their top books and best reading experiences of the year! Another great chance to grow your TBR pile for 2025!
Shownotes
Books
* The Postcard, by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover
* Gabriëlle, by Anne Berest and Claire Berest, translated by Tina Kover
* Two Hours, by Alba Arikha
* Crooked Seeds, by Karen Jennings
* Fathers and Fugitives, by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns
* Not Even the Dead, by Juan Gómez Bárcena, translated by Katie Whittemore
* Not a River, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada, translated by Chris Andrews
* Dead Girls, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* Brickmakers, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert
* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert
* Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman
* Rhine Journey, by Anne Schlee
* About Looking, by John Berger
* The Inkal, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius
* Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo, translated by Douglas J. Weatherford
* The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes, by K.C. Constantine
* The Premier, by Georges Simenon
* Two Thousand Million Man-Power, by Gertrude Trevelyan
* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay
* A County Doctor, by Franz Kafka
* Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Angélica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin
* Sons, by Robert De Maria
* Brothers, by Robert De Maria
* Fletch, by Gregory McDonald
* Bedlam, by Charlene Elsby
* Quarry, by Max Allan Collins
* A Tiler’s Afternoon, by Lars Gustfsson, translated by Tom Geddes
* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, translated by
* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
* The Carrying, by Ada Limón
* Picnic, Lighting, by Billy Collins
* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker
* Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón
* The Hurting King, by Ada Limón
* You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, compiled by Ada Limón
* Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West
* Clear, by Carys Davies
* Malena, by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Philip Boehm
* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken
* Last Words from Montmartre, by Qin Miaojin, translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich
* The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes, translated by Kate Briggs
* Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917 - 1922, by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated by Jamey Gambrell
* The Power of Gentleness: Meditation on the Risk of Living, by Anne Dufourmantelle, translated by Katherine Payne and Vincent Sallé
* Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood, by Lucy Jones
* Question 7, by Richard Flanagan
* The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
* Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming
* H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
* The Goshawk, by T.H. White
* The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller’s Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece, by Laura Cumming
* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan
* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud
* James, by Percival Everett
* The Trees, by Percival Everett
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
Since his death in 2022, we have been wanting to dedicate an episode to Spanish novelist Javier Marías, a master of the distrusting, long sentence. We had a lovely time reflecting on his books, which we could read again and again.
What is your favorite Javier Marías book?
Shownotes
Books
* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope
* Great Fear on the Mountain, by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Bill Johnston
* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
* Three Days in June, by Anne Tyler
The Works of Javier Marías
* Los dominios del lobo (1971)
* Voyage Along the Horizon (1973), translated by Kristina Cordero
* El monarca del tiempo (1978)
* El siglo (1983)
* The Man of Feeling (1986), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* All Souls (1989), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* While the Women Are Sleeping (1990), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* A Heart So White (1992), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me (1994), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* When I Was Mortal (1996), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico (1996), translated by Esther Allen
* Dark Back of Time (1998), translated by Esther Allen
* Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear (2002), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Your Face Tomorrow 2: Dance and Dream (2004), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Your Face Tomorrow 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (2007), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* The Infatuations (2011), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Thus Bad Begins (2014), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Berta Isla (2017), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
* Tomás Nevinson (2021), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Subscribed
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
What books have you wanted to reread as soon as you finished them? Inspired by this fascinating prompt from our friend Nora, we decided to dive into this fun topic. We talk about the categories of books that inspire immediate rereads, share a few of our own examples, and discuss when (or if) we’ve ever actually done it. What books have inspired you to turn the last page and immediately go back to the beginning?
Shownotes
Books
* Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, by Rebecca Solnit
* Absolution, by Jeff Vandermeer
* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope
* The Wood in Midwinter, by Susanna Clarke
* On the Calculation of Volume, by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland
* Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
* Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
* Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope
* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
* The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* Moby-Dick: or, The Whale, by Herman Melville
* The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein
* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
* Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
* Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
* Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
* A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
* The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens
* Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
* A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson
* The Ghost Writer, by Philip Roth
* The Counterlife, by Philip Roth
* Zuckerman Unbound, by Philip Roth
* The Anatomy Lesson, by Philip Roth
* The Prague Orgy, by Philip Roth
* American Pastoral, by Philip Roth
* I Married a Communist, by Philip Roth
* The Human Stain, by Philip Roth
* The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana
* The Walk, by Robert Walser, translated by Christopher Middleton and Susan Bernofsky
* Splitting and Order, by Ted Kooser
* Picnic, Lightning, by Billy Collins
* James, by Percival Everett
* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
* Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell
* The Chateau, by William Maxwell
* Felix Holt, by George Eliot
* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee
Other Links
* Nora’s Instagram Post
* One Bright Book
* Episode 49: Rereading
* Episode 76: Author Completionism
* Episode 77: Poetry
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
We love talking about essays so much, we decided to do it again! This week, we pick up where we left off a few episodes ago, chatting about more of our favorite essayists and collections. We also share a few from our essay TBR piles. What are some of your favorites?
Shownotes
Books
* Greenglass House, by Kate Milford
* Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford
* The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
* The Unforgivable, by Cristina Campo
* You Like It Darker, by Stephen King
* Every Arc Bends Its Radian, by Sergio De La Pava
* A Naked Singularity, by Sergio De La Pava
* Ghosts, by Edith Wharton
* Europe in Sepia, Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams
* Karaoke Culture, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams
* Muzzle for Witches, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać
* Thank You for Not Reading, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth, with contribution from Damion Searls
* Fox, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać and David Williams
* An Elemental Thing, by Eliot Weinberger
* A Chance Meeting: American Encounters, by Rachel Cohen
* Sightlines, by Kathleen Jamie
* The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman
* The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay
* The Book of (More) Delights, by Ross Gay
* Pulphead, by John Jeremiah Sullivan
* Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace
* A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write, by Melissa Pritchard
* The Common Reader, by Virginia Woolf
* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* Felix Holt: The Radical, by George Eliot
* Middlemarch, by George Eliot
* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland
* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* Angel in the Forest, by Marguerite Young
* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker
Other Links
* Episode 39: Scary Books That Kept Us Up at Night
* Electric Lit: Our Favorite Essays and Stories About Horror Films
* Three Percent Podcast: Lori Feathers on Marguerite Young
* Obliteraturetees
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
This week, we’re joined by our good friend Mark Haber to discuss his wonderful books, including the brand new Lesser Ruins. Fittingly, this episode features numerous digressions into literary influences and loves, coffee, music, art, travel, and much more!
Shownotes
Books
* The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez
* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence
* Fog at Noon, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg
* Difficult Light, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg
* Living Things, by Munir Hachemi, translated by Julia Sanches
* Vacated Landscape, by Jean Lahougue, translated by K.E. Gormley
* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland
* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden
* Attila, by Aliocha Coll, translated by Katie Whittemore
* Attila, by Serena, by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Whittemore
* Deathbed Conversions, by Mark Haber
* Reinhardt’s Garden, by Mark Haber
* Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, by Mark Haber
* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber
* An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, by César Aira, translated by Chris Andrews
* The Netanyahus, by Joshua Cohen
* Ada, by Mark Haber (forthcoming 2026)
* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer
* Ten, by Juan Emar, translated by Megan McDowell
* Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence, by Geoff Dyer
* Compass, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell
Other
* Episode 31: New Directions, with Mark Haber
* Wakefield Press
* LitHub: “Mark Haber on the Beauty of Digression”
* Southwest Review: “How to Read Kafka,” by Mark Haber
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
This week’s episode is all about essays! From nature writing, to reviews and criticism, to personal reflections and familiar essays, this form offers something for everyone. In this episode, we share our thoughts and experiences, including our go-to varieties and favorite examples. What are yours?
Shownotes
Books
* The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill
* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy
* We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman
* The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
* Herscht 07769, by László Krasznahorkai, translated by Ottilie Mulzet
* The Emporium: A Health Resort Horror Story, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert
* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert
* Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, by Anne Fadiman
* At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays, by Anne Fadiman
* Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love, edited by Anne Fadiman
* Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader, by Viviane Gornick
* Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
* The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison
* Make It Scream, Make It Burn, by Leslie Jamison
* The Hall of Uselessness, by Simon Leys
* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
* The Death of Napoleon, by Simon Leys
* The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams
* When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice, by Terry Tempest Williams
* Erosion, by Terry Tempest Williams
* Finding Beauty in a Broken World, by Terry Tempest Williams
* The Wild Places, by Robert Macfarlane
* Leap, by Terry Tempest Williams
* Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, by Terry Tempest Williams
* The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick
* The Uncollected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick
* Seduction and Betrayal, by Elizabeth Hardwick
* The Fun Stuff, by James Wood
* Widening the Skirts of Light, by Rohan Maitzen
* Feel Free, by Zadi Smith
* On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
* On Beauty and Being Just, by Elaine Scarry
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe -
We all have those books that are waiting in the wings, begging for a chance to make their way off the shelf and into our hands. This week, we chat about why some books seem to get stuck on the sidelines, even though we always think they’ll be the next one up. We discuss some of the reasons this happens and each share five of our own benchwarmer books, doing our best to justify why we keep ignoring their pleas to “put me in coach!”
Shownotes
Books
* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay
* Proust Was a Neuroscientist, by Jonah Lehrer
* The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
* Circe, by Madeline Miller
* To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolfe
* Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
* The Human Stain, by Philip Roth
* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy
* Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy
* Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
* Absalolm, Absalom!, by William Faulkner
* Baudolino, by Umberto Eco
* The Gormenghast Novels, by Mervyn Peake
* Strong Motion, by Jonathan Franzen
* The Twenty-Seventh City, by Jonathan Franzen
* Night Watch, by Jayne Anne Phillips
* The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Books) Saved My Life, by Andy Miller
* We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen
* The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
* Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence
* Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
* Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
* Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
* Hurricane Season, by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes
* Hons and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford
* Romola, by George Eliot
* The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen
* At Play in the Fields of the Lord, by Peter Matthiessen
* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker
* Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen
* Tigana, by Guy Gabriel Kay
* Up in the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell
* The Last Colony, by John Scalzi
* Old Mans’ War, by John Scalzi
* The Ghost Brigade, by John Scalzi
* Zoe’s Tale, by John Scalzi
* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust
* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Anthony Briggs
* The Expendable Man, by Dorothy B. Hughes
* Felix Holt, the Radical, by George Eliot
* Phineas Redux, by Anthony Trollope
* Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope
* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope
* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy
Other Links
* Jack’s Instagram Post
* Episode 31: New Directions, with Mark Haber
* Episode 6: Our Fantasy Past (and Future?)
The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!
Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out!
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe - Visa fler
