The Bookening

2020. It was such a great year that our show is still remembering it, talking about the best scenes, biggest surprises and best books they read in 2020. WILL BRANDON FINALLY CONFESS HIS LOVE FOR DUNE?????? ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Who was the best hero of the year? Who was the best heroine? Who was the best supporting character? Probably one of the sandworms from Dune, right? Probably all the answers come from Dune. In any case, our heroes are looking back on every book they read in 2020 and singling out the best of the best. Gandalf, Natasha, Atticus Finch, and others are all in the running. YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS IT!  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

What is the best Christmas passage in literature? Nathan attempts to determine this crucial piece of information, in discussion with famed Irish poet, Brandon.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

2020 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 2020 just as much as we did.In any case here's a short episode with the list of books we'll be reading in 2021, and a bit of discussion about them. Yay!Oh, fine, here's the list in written form: January: The Brothers Karamazov February: Northhanger Abbey March: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory April: Invisible Man (Ellison) May: Watership Down June: Howl’s Moving Castle + Ready Player 2 July: Rebecca  August: Hamlet September: A Room With a View or A Passage to India October: Spoooooky Stories November: Ender’s Game December: Fathers and Sons January: A Tale of Two Cities  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Brandon provides some much-needed context on Frank Herbert and Dune, and Nathan and Jake make their arguments for why this novel is pretty okay, if you like that sort of thing. With a very special emergency guest appearance by Brandon's young daughter, who knows exactly what the fox says.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Fear is the mind-killer. Or is it this novel? One of our fearless trio might want to argue that. But two of us really liked it. WHO CAN THAT BE? AND WHAT EVIDENCE WILL THEY BRING? Like it or lump it, there's a reason why Dune is one of the seminal works of twentieth century sc-fi myth-making. And our heroes are figuring out why. Will Jake tie it to Star Wars? Will Nathan describe the plots of 109580580 Dune sequels? Will Brandon be ready-player-done with the whole thing? LISTEN TO FIND OUT!!! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This Giving Tuesday support great works of awesomeness like the Bookening RIGHT HERE! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

BRANDON IS AN IRISH POET. Happy Thanksgiving. In today's minisode, Nathan discusses Thanksgiving with newly published Irish poet, Brandon.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Is it true that women make the best party members? What did Orwell get wrong about sexual politics and the politics of sex? Is the character of Julia plausible? Is this book sexist? Is it good in general? Obviously, it's a good bit of political prophecy, but is it a good, y'know, novel?  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Was George Orwell a great prophet, or even a good one? Did he see the future of society accurately, or not so much? Those are the very issues that The Bookening is figuring out in this very episode, our second in a series on 1984. Our heroes talk about historical revisionism, doublespeak, all that good stuff. Fun times, fun times.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★