The Bookening

What would happen if Jane Eyre teamed up with Reepicheep the Mouse, or the White Witch fought King Henry from Shakespeare? You'll find out in this very episode of The Bookening, as our heroes finish up their fantasy draft of different characters and objects and settings from 2019's booklist. Be sure to go to our Twitter or Instagram this Friday after 12pm to vote on which of the novels our heroes came up with is the best. Support us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Our heroes announce their entire booklist for 2020. Yay! Then they begin an awesome fantasy draft of all the characters and objects from the novels this year. It's a lot of fun, don' skip it. Here's our list: Feb—Sense and SensibilityMarch—Johnny Tremain/ Trumpet of the Swan April—Moon and Sixpence May—Waiting for Godot June— To Kill a Mockingbird July— Dangerous Laughter August — The Hollow Crown, Part 2 Sept — Never Let Me Go October — horror stories (TBD) November — 1984December—Brothers KaramazovSupport us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Let's get this out of the way. This episode was recorded late at night and is fairly slaphappy. But once it gets going, our heroes do discuss their individual top 7 things about Narnia, and, we daresay, provide some good insight into what makes Narnia so darn magical. Support us here!  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A novel that's profane and silly and over the top and pretty much a masterpiece--Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Our heroes have plenty of thoughts about this one, as they finally delve into the nitty gritty. Is this an angry novel? Is it political? Is it good for Christians to read the darn thing? Will it become part of the canon? Why does Brandon like it so much? Listen to find out. Next week, we'll wade into Narnia one last time, and then we've got some stuff to wrap up the year before 2020 begins with War and Peace (a wonderful novel that is totally worth the effort, by the by). Support us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's part 2 of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Kind of. Also the story of how Nathan got married. You'll hear a disclaimer at the beginning of this show. Not because there is anything bad, but because we ended up spending an hour being friends and getting all personal and stuff. This book holds a dear place in more than one of our lives, for reasons you will hear. So, yeah, not a lot of literary analysis in this one, but if you like Nathan, Brandon, and Jake, and want to hear some stories about important things that may or may have happened to them, you should like this episode. Plenty of analysis of Midnight's Children next week. Support us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Now with audio glitch corrected!The Bookening discusses one of the most important books of the latter half of the twentieth century, and one that they are pretty excited to talk about, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Postmodernism, magical realism, the history of India, and more inform a Contextual Texan that Brandon had a lot of fun preparing, and you should have an equal amount of fun listening to. Listen now! And here's the interview with Rushdie that Brandon recommended.Support us here! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Okay, so, let's get this out of the way. There is a huge run of positive energy coming up very soon with Midnight's Children, War and Peace, and then Sense and Sensibility. But today is not that day. Today our heroes are discussing midcentury theater, as represented by two behemoths, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Yay! Support us here! (Get us up to $1000 a month by January so we can make 2020 the year of Tolkien) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Our heroes recorded this episode at the end of a long session and they may or may not have been a little stir crazy, as you'll hear. However ... Now THIS is how you write a horror story. After a weeklong foray into scary short stories, our heroes finally hit gold with Algernon Blackwood's much-anthologized "The Willows." And believe us, it's much-anthologized for a reason. The reason being that ... it's great! It taps into real fears, with subtlety and taste. Nice to end our week Spook-tacular on a high note. Support us here please and thank you!Music: Signs In The Fields by cinematicwaves licensed by a Creative Commons 3.0 license. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

"Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness. Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books, or upon awed watches in twilight groves of grotesque, gigantic, and vine-encumbered trees that silently wave twisted branches far aloft."Oh brother. It's Part 4 of our Halloween Spook-tacular, and we're reviewing H.P. Lovecraft's "The Outsider", which, really, is not a very good representative example of Lovecraft's work. Oh brother. Support us here!Music: Signs In The Fields by cinematicwaves licensed by a Creative Commons 3.0 license.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sredni Vashtar went forth,His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white.His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death.Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful.Happy All Hallow's Eve Eve, fiends! Here's a truly weird little item for ya! In this episode The Bookening reads Sredni Vashtar by Saki (H. H. Munro). It's a good story by a good writer who people aren't as familiar with as they should be.  It's also part 3 of our weeklong Spook-tacular! Support us here, today, right now, if you want us to march around the courthouse dressed like swans, blowing trumpets! Music: Signs In The Fields by cinematicwaves licensed by a Creative Commons 3.0 license.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★