

Close Reads Podcast
Goldberry Studios
Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader co-hosted by David Kern, Heidi White, Sean Johnson, and occasionally Tim McIntosh. We read good books and talk about them.
This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. This is not an experts show: we’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. Our goal is have empathetic and intelligent conversations about good books.
Close Reads is produced by Goldberry Studios, the podcast wing of Goldberry Books, a family-run indie bookshop in Concord, NC. closereads.substack.com
This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. This is not an experts show: we’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. Our goal is have empathetic and intelligent conversations about good books.
Close Reads is produced by Goldberry Studios, the podcast wing of Goldberry Books, a family-run indie bookshop in Concord, NC. closereads.substack.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 25, 2025 • 50min
Wuthering Heights: Final Chapters
We’ve come to the end of Emily Bronte’s novel and so we’re here to discuss, well, how it ends. Up first: Sean’s opinion. Then we discuss the impact of the late-stage POV-shift, whether this is a ghost story, the fun-to-discuss questions at the core of the book, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Aug 18, 2025 • 1h 9min
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 22-28
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation about Emily Bronte’s novel! This week we discuss whether it’s too melodramatic, Heathcliff’s malevolence, Cathy’s kindness to pathetic Linton, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Aug 11, 2025 • 60min
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 15-21
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s novel! This week we’re discussing the degree to which the book is a love story, the strange circumstances of a particular character’s death and another character’s birth, the inevitability of the narrative (and it’s structure), and much more! Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Aug 5, 2025 • 1h 2min
Close Reads Live: A Special Tenth Anniversary Discussion of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Ten years ago, on the first ever episode of Close Reads, we discussed “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” the famous story by Flannery O’Connor. Last weekend, at our tenth anniversary party, we revisited it and we’re excited to share that discussion with you now. So whether you’ve been listening all along or whether it’s first time, thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Thanks so much to everyone who has helped shape the show for so long, from co-hosts and guest hosts to listeners from all over the world—and, of course, Logan! We couldn’t do it without you. Cheers! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jul 29, 2025 • 1h 7min
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 11-14
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s classic novel. This week we discuss the roots of the characters’ various issues, Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s sense of connection to one another, the profound sense that there is nothing solid upon which the characters can stand, Nelly’s seeming disdain for Cathy, and much more! Happy listening? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jul 22, 2025 • 56min
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 7-10
Welcome back to our ongoing series on Emily Bronte’s classic novel. This week we’re discussing whether the book includes either a protagonist or an antagonist, how we should interpret the narration of Nelly, who we most sympathize with, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jul 14, 2025 • 1h 2min
Wuthering Heights: Chapters 1-6
Welcome to a new series! As we kick off our conversations on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, we discuss the genius of the Bronte sisters, the somewhat disorienting nature of the book’s framing device, the way Bronte creates atmosphere, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jul 2, 2025 • 1h 30min
The Great Gatsby: Q&A Episode
As always, you had plenty of great questions about our current book and on this episode we did our best to answer a bunch of them. Thanks for tuning in to and participating in this series. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jun 25, 2025 • 1h 17min
The Great Gatsby: The Final Chapters
It’s a bit late, but better late than never, right? Apologies for the delay! The upload speeds weren’t great in the English countryside. All the same, we’ve come to the end of The Great Gatsby, which means it’s time to talk about some of the most memorable passages in American literature. Join us as we dig in. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Jun 16, 2025 • 55min
The Great Gatsby: Chapter 4-6
Welcome back to our series on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, in which we discuss his best novelistic skills, including his ability to deal in subtext while also creating mood. Plus: the way the book explores the dissonance between desire and reality, whether any of these characters have any interest in (or capacity to see) higher things, and much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe