

Sophomore Lit
John McCoy
John McCoy and a guest host read books you might have been assigned in high school, or college, or other stuff you might have read when you were a kid. The theming is loose!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 24, 2024 • 25min
169: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
 Cigars are always trouble. Marina McCoy discusses Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972).
John McCoy  with Marina McCoy
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Dec 6, 2024 • 1h 1min
168: The Time of Your Life
 Sometimes you want to go where everybody is a thread in the fabric of the human condition. Also they know your name. Phil Gonzales discusses William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life (1939).
John McCoy  with Phil Gonzales
Show Notes & Links
The Time of Your Life (1976)
The John Houseman directed television version for Theater in America, with Kevin Kline and Patti Lupone.
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Nov 27, 2024 • 25min
167: Thanksgiving Special: Comfort Reads
 Hey, things are tough. The McCoy Bros, Rob, John, and Dan, discuss the books that get them through.
John McCoy   with Rob McCoy and Dan McCoy
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Nov 19, 2024 • 44min
166: The Owl Service
 Ross Cleaver returns to talk owls, plates, and Welsh mythology in Alan Garner’s The Owl Service (1967).
John McCoy  with Ross Cleaver
Show Notes & Links
Owl Service dinner plate
The titular service plate with its owl flowers.
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Oct 25, 2024 • 58min
165: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 This episode has many omissions, and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate. Jacob Haller tries to make sense of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).
John McCoy  with Jacob Haller
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Sep 26, 2024 • 49min
164: Lysistrata
 What’s more cultivated and genteel than classical theater? David Loehr discusses Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.)
John McCoy  with David J. Loehr
Show Notes & Links
Lysistrata Jones
Trailer for the 2011 Broadway musical
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Sep 5, 2024 • 54min
163: The Twenty-One Balloons
 Because twenty would be too few and twenty-two would be ridiculous. Shaenon K. Garrity discusses William Pène du Bois’s The Twenty-One Balloons (1947).
John McCoy  with Shaenon K. Garrity
Referenced Works
The Twenty-One Balloons
Show Notes & Links
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Aug 13, 2024 • 46min
162: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
 Rain Main meets Air Bud. Dan McCoy discusses stims and happy endings and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003).
John McCoy  with Dan McCoy
Show Notes & Links
Dan McCoy's Special Interests
My brother’s newsletter mentioned in the episode.
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Jul 15, 2024 • 58min
161: A Canticle for Leibowitz
 This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a bunch of monks sitting around copying stuff. Jelani Sims returns to discuss Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).
John McCoy  with Jelani Sims
Referenced Works
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Show Notes & Links
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Internet Archive has all episodes of the 15-part NPR Playhouse adaptation which aired in 1981.
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Jun 21, 2024 • 44min
160: Why I Live at the P.O.
 Stick some stamps on the top of our heads. Deborah Stanish discusses Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941)
John McCoy  with Deborah Stanish
Referenced Works
Why I Live at the P.O.
Show Notes & Links
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