The Bookening

A new episode of our podcast's here Nathan and Brandon and Jake sit around (Probably drank a whole gallon of beer Based on the way that they started to sound)Reading the poems that were written by greats Don't ask us why Jake had to say Dylan, Or Nathan likes mystical bullcrap by Yeats Or everyone cries when Brandon gets Milne in—That's how it goes when recording a show Things will just happen that you don't expect You've got all the places you wanted to go But somehow your plans will always get wreckedThen at 2 in the morning, while working on it, You decide that the intro MUST be a sonnetComing maybe next week, if we can pull it off, _Emma _by Jane Austen  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Don't worry, _Emma _is still coming. (!!!) It'll be up in the next few weeks, as soon as our heroes get through this emergency poetry series. Why an emergency poetry series? Well, for one thing, these episodes do take a lot of work to produce, and our heroes have lives and full-time jobs and blah blah blah. Our heroes needed a little extra time to get into the grove of a novel-a-month again. Especially after the awesome but behemoth _Anna Karenina. _Moreover, our heroes love poetry, and they wanted to make a case to you, the listener, that you should read more poetry. Poetry rocks. It was good enough for King David after all. And the Living God chose to include more than 150 poems in His book of books.So poetry is not just for pretentious effeminate losers. In fact, it's not for pretentious effeminate losers at all. They may try to ruin it from time to time, but they can't. Because poetry rocks. If you think you don't like poetry, it's because you've either read the wrong poetry, or your heart is two-sizes two small. Either way, it's time to man up and read some poetry. Or at least listen to Nathan, Brandon, and Jake do so for the next few weeks.Coming super soon, we swear, _Emma _by the Great Jane Austen  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Per Wikiepdia, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is "commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city." Thanks for the help, Boys! (Their citation for that assertion is gradesaver.com—maybe we should just do our research there).Anyhow, _Anna Karenina _is indisputably one of the great novels, but a lot of people bash their heads against it. It's long, it's about adultery on the one hand, and prosaic family life on the other, and it has many, many digressions into Russian land politics of the 1860s. It's problematic for feminists because its heroine tries to live a progressive dream life, and it doesn't quite work out. It's problematic for Christians because its heroine tries to live a progressive dream life, and for a while it's kinda dreamy, even if it doesn't quite work out. Fortunately, our heroes are on hand to sort it all out for you in this Russian-novel-length single shot of pure Bookening goodness. Nathan proves that he should never attempt a Russian accent, Jake remembers college ministry students who could have learned a thing or two from Kitty, Brandon ponders whether every happy family is alike or unalike or somewhere inbetween, and if you listen closely you can probably hear some birds fly into the window of the house where our heroes find themselves recording. We'll get back to our regular schedule of 2-3ish (maybe 4 sometimes if we can swing it) episodes a month starting in February. Happy New Year!Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Coming next month, _Emma _by Our Lady Jane.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

2016 was a pretty great year here at The Bookening. We haven't been paying a ton of attention to what's going on in the outside world, but we assume everyone else loved 2016 just as much as we did.In any case here's our final episode of the year. Our heroes look back upon (and do some earnest bickering about) all the books they read this year. They also look ahead to the books they'll be reading in 2017. Below is the complete list, and Happy New Year!January—_Anna Karenina _by Leo Tolstoy February—Emma by Jane AustenMarch—That Hideous Strength by C.S. LewisApril—As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner May—Winne the Pooh by A. A. MilneJune—_Heart of Darknes_s by Joseph ConradJuly—Labyrinths by Jorge Luis BorgesAugust—A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Immortal BardSeptember—My Antonia by Willa Cather October—Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray BradburyNovember—Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser December—The Dubliners by James Joyce  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

With the Christmas season in full swing, and the New Year fast approaching our heroes spend some time looking back on the books they've read in 2016 and the things they've learned. Don't worry, it's not a clip show.What it actually is is an awards show. Each of our heroes surveys the fields of everything we read this year and announces his pick for such categories as Best Male and Female Character, Biggest Surprise of the Year (positive and negative), and Best Villain.More awards coming next week, including the prestigious Bookening Best Book of the Year award! And our heroes announce the full book list for 2017.Coming next month, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Merry Christmas everybody! From Nathan, Jake, Brandon, and all your friends at Warhorn Media. :) We start the New Year with Anna Karenina. Pay attention for some fun surprises before that though... ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's A Christmas Carol. Yay!_ _Merry Christmas from The Bookening!Today our heroes discuss that odious old sinner, Ebeneezer Scrooge—and the sinner who created him, Mr. Charles Dickens. Unlike the socially conscious entertainers of today (say, George Clooney), Mr. Dickens knew how to make his points so charmingly that you sort of want to go along with him—even when he's hammering you over the head with them. Or do you?Will Jacob Mentzel be more like Jacob Marley, and say "humbug" to this humble tale? Will Nathan obsess over the spooks and phantoms, or find a little Christmas cheer? Will Brandon join with his younger self in loving Dickens or give in to the more critical appraisals of modern scholarship?You'll have to listen to find out. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Coming next month, Leo Tolstoy's kinda mind-blowing Anna Karenina. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The epic conclusion of our series re: _Gilead _by Marilynne Robinson. Our heroes examine John Ames, Jack Boughton, the nature of true godliness, and cheap redemption versus earned redemption in storytelling. Also ... WILL THE MYSTERIOUS PHANTOM PREVAIL???????????Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Coming in December,  _A Christmas Carol _by Charles Dickens. And, hey, _Anna Karenina _is a big book and a great one. Get reading now, so you can join our discussion come January.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Midwest was still a very new thing for me. I got a voice in my head. It was the funniest thing. I mean, [I’d] been reading history and theology and all these things for a long time. And then I was in Massachusetts, actually, just [waiting to spend] Christmas with my son[s]. They were late coming to wherever we were going to meet, and I was in this hotel with a pen and blank paper, and I started writing from this voice. The first sentence in that book is the first sentence that came to my mind. I have no idea how that happens. I was surprised that I was writing from a male point of view. But there he was.—_ Marilynne Robinson, from an interview conducted by President Obama_Our heroes discuss their first modern (as in, the author is still alive) novel: Mailynne Robinson's _Gilead. _Also they discuss the nature of best friendship, the first PG-13 movie they ever saw, and why Denny Elfman's _Batman _score was far superior to the music for the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Complications ensue when they are accosted by the dreaded Mysterious Phantom.Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Coming in December, a yuletide spectacular to close out the year, as our heroes discuss _A Christmas Carol _by Charles Dickens ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It's another flesh-creeping festival of the uncanny, as our heroes discuss everything there is to discuss about Bram Stoker's Dracula.Just for fun, here's some snippets from original reviews of _Dracula _back in 1897, some of them complimentary, some of them not so much:Its strength lies in the invention of incident, for the sentimental element is decidedly mawkish. Mr Stoker has shown considerable ability in the use that he has made of all the available traditions of vampirology, but we think his story would have been all the more effective if he had chosen an earlier period. The up-to-dateness of the book — the phonograph diaries, typewriters and so on — hardly fits in with the mediaeval methods which ultimately secure the victory for Count Dracula’s foes. (The Spectator)The German man of science is particularly poor, and indulges, like a German, in much weak sentiment. Still, Mr. Stoker has got together a number of “horrid details,” and his object, assuming it to be ghastliness, is fairly well fulfilled. (The Athenaeum)[T]he short way of dealing with vampires is to destroy them ... A shorter and more certain cure seems not to have occurred to the eminent men of science who figure in Mr. Stoker’s pages. The vampire depends  for his “peskiness” simply on his canines. Why not call in a dentist to play the part of the God from the Car? He could sterilise the fiercest vampire. But if the learned German Van Helsing had seen this obvious cure Mr. Stoker could not have written a grim, weird, and fascinating story, and that would have been a thousand pities. (Country Life)One of the most curious and striking of recent productions is a revival of a mediaeval superstition, the old legend of the “were-wolf,” as illustrated and modernised by Mr. Bram Stoker, in the book which he entitles “Dracula.” (Hampshire Advertiser)The recollections of this weird and ghostly tale will doubtless haunt us for some time to come ... Tribute must also be paid to the rich imagination of which Mr. Bram Stoker here gives liberal evidence. Persons of small courage and weak nerves should confine their reading of these gruesome pages strictly to the hours between dawn and sunset. (The Daily Mail)We have been reminded how easy it was in the ages of credulity to avoid overstepping the boundaries of belief. But in Mr. Bram Stoker a writer has arisen who intrepidly assumes that mediaeval gullibility is in full survival. (The Argus)Mr. Bram Stoker should have labelled his book “For Strong Men Only,” or words to that effect. Left lying carelessly around, it might get into the hands of your maiden aunt who believes devoutly in the man under the bed, or of the new parlourmaid with unsuspected hysterical tendencies. “Dracula” to such would be manslaughter. (Pall Mall Gazette)Coming in November: our heroes will look deeply into their own souls as they discuss _Gilead _by Marilyn Robinson. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★