Book Fight

Tom and Mike welcome their first guest to the Book Fight basement to help them revisit Judy Blume's YA novel Forever. Topics include: sex ed, awkward teenage romance, and the relative merits of naming one's genitalia.

Direct download: Episode_4-Judy_Blume_Forever.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

Mike and Tom try to figure out what separates this novel from the thousands of others that traffic in bleak, amoral human landscapes. Tom shares a story about his 14-year-old self he’s never told anyone, including his wife. Mike admits that, as a young person, he romanticized a certain dark worldview that seems kind of silly, even embarrassing, to his 35-year-old self. And they both agree that this novel is a pretty good argument in favor of continuing to fund Planned Parenthood.

Direct download: Episode_3-Joan_Didion_Play_It_As_It_Lays.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:22pm EDT

Buddy Bolden was a jazz pioneer in turn-of-the-century New Orleans who at the age of 30 suffered a mental breakdown and was institutionalized. Topics include: the line between fact and fiction, the romanticism of mental illness, how hard it is to write well about music, and why teenagers continue to think Jim Morrison was a hero, rather than a giant asshole.

Direct download: Episode_2-M_Ondaajte_Coming_Through_Slaughter.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:20am EDT

For the first episode of Book Fight, Tom and Mike gathered in the Book Fight Basement to talk about Sam Lispyte's 2010 novel The Ask. Topics include: the limitations of ironic detachment, whether Holden Caulfield would be a tender lover, and why Tom can't be happy even at The Happiest Place on Earth.

Direct download: Episode_1-Sam_Lipsyte_The_Ask.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:52pm EDT

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