You Should Probably Read More

After a brief hiatus we’re back to discuss our favorite books of 2026 so far. We also maybe gush a little too much about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Actually, if we’re being honest, most of this episode is about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Our producer warned we might alienate people who haven’t read it yet, but we prefer to think of it as recruiting.Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:Between Two Fires - Christopher BuehlmanNo Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthyThe Godfather - Mario PuzoBattle Royale - Koushun Takami Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt DinnaminWhistler - Ann PatchettLondon Falling - Patrick Radden KeefeThe Poisonwood Bible - Barbara KingsolverKin - Tayari JonesViolent Masterpiece - Jordan HarperJohn of John - Douglas StuartLand - Maggie O’FarrellMare - Emily Haworth-BoothGlyph - Ali SmithParadiso 17 - Hannah Lilith AssadiTranscription - Ben LernerVigil - George Saunders

We're baaaaaaaack! Sorry for the wait yall, life comes at ya real quick. As always, we wait until the actual end of the year to make it through everything we want to read so if you think this is late just remember everyone else copped out and made lists too early. That's what we tell ourselves. So in this episode we catch up on some book news and then present our top 5 books of the year (each) plus books we're looking forward to in 2026. Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode:David Szalay - Flesh Rabih Alameddine - The True True Story of Raja The GullibleRachel Reid - Heated Rivalry SeriesMark Z. Danielewski - Tom’s CrossingJess Walter - So Far GoneLucas Schaefer - The SlipAddie E Hitchens - DominionSean Hewitt - Open, HeavenKatie Riley - RuthTorrey Peter - Stag DanceVirginia Evans - The Correspondent Daniel Kraus - Angel DownBrian Goldstone - There Is No Place For UsGeorge Saunders - VigilDouglas Stuart - John of JohnPatrick Radden Keefe - London fallingJesmyn Ward - On Witness and RepairDaniel Mason - Country PeopleBen Lerner - Transcipt

Whoops! We skipped a month. Consider it our summer vacation. But we’ve got a big one this episode.Here’s the deal: if there is one book you should read this year it’s Brian Goldstone’s “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America” The book is an incredible work of journalism as it “…follows five families in Atlanta as they struggle to find stable housing while navigating low-wage work, predatory landlords, a lack of tenant protections, and a system that prioritizes profit over people's basic need for a home.” We’re honored to have Brian on the pod with us to talk about his experience writing such an emotionally taxing work. But first: James Joyce’s love for farts. Intro:Olga Tokarczuk - The EmpusiumJoyce Carol Oates - FoxV.E. Schwab - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight SoilS.A. Cosby - King of AshesJess Walter - So Far Gone Jess Walter - Beautiful Ruins JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Series James Joyce - The Selected Letters of James Joyce Brian Goldstone - There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in AmericaLarry McMurtry - Lonesome DoveHugh Raffles - The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost TimeKatherine Boo - Behind the Beautiful ForeversAdrian Nicole Leblanc - Random Family Keeanga-Yamahtta TaylorMatthew DesmondRachel AvivBarbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimed Peter Rossi- Down and Out in America: The Origins of HomelessnessEzra Klein - Abundance Toni Morrison - The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

Ocean Vuong fans beware, Nolan has SOMETHING TO SAY about Emperor of Gladness. After weeks venting in the chat he's finally able to let it out on air. After that we're joined by Dan Ozzi, the best-selling author of Sellout, co-author of Fahrenheit 182 (Mark Hoppus' memoir) and co-author of Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!'s memoir). And some special shit talking on James Frey. What we do best! Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:Ocean Vuong - Emperor of GladnessOcean Vuong - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Keith McNally - I Regret Almost EverythingKevin Nguyen - My DocumentsNatsu Kirino - Out Tash Aw - The South Lori Ostlund - Are You Happy?Maxin Loskutoff - Old KingTaylor Jenkins Reid - Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Dan Ozzi - Sell out Mark Hoppus with Dan Ozzi - Fahrenheit 182Laura Jane Grace with Dan Ozzi - TrannyNick Tosches - Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis StoryOur band could be your lifeLarry Livermore: How To Ru(i)n A Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records Silke Tudor & Jack Boulware - Gimme Something Better Peter Guralnick - Last Train To MemphisSam McPheeters - MutationsScott McClanahan - The Incantations of Daniel Johnston Lawrence Burney - No Sense in WishingBud Smith - TeenagerSinéad O’Connor - RememberingsSteve-O - Professional IdiotPamela Anderson - Love, PamelaState by State with the State

Shanon and Nolan dive into our recent Homesteading obsession and chat with the very funny (with the best laugh) writer and actor Mitra Jouhari about her journey from The Daily Show to Big Mouth – plus her very questionable, very intense Anne Frank phase.Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtryThe Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham JonesStag Dance - Torrey PetersThe Antidote - Karen RussellOpen, Heaven - Seán HewittThe Crossing - Cormac McCarthyOcean Vuong - The Emperor of GladnessThe Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey EugenidesThe Marriage Plot - Jeffrey EugenidesIntersex - Jeffrey EugenidesFresh Complaint - Jeffrey EugenidesBeautiful World, Where Are You - Sally RooneyThe Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas PynchonThe Lying Game - Ruth WareThe Coin - Yasmin ZaherThe Safekeep - Yael Van Der WoudenStay True - Hua HsuThe Diary of Anne Frank - Anne FrankNight - Elie WieselAtonement - Ian McEwen Atlas Shrugged - Ayn RandThe Fountainhead - Ayn RandOn Writing - Steven King

This one’s a long-time-coming! We finally have our buddy, Cord Jefferson, on the pod. We know Cord from our NY days when he was at Gawker but you might know him from winning an Oscar for adapted screenplay for American Fiction, which he also directed and which was based on Perceival Everett’s Erasure. Cord also won an Emmy for writing that really good episode of The Watchmen about the Tulsa Massacre. We talk to him about possibly winning an E-G-O, desert noir, how much of a badass Perceival Everett is and much more. Books and Authors Mentioned in this Episode:Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusDave Eggers - You Shall Know Our VelocityDave Eggers - What is the WhatChristina Rivera Garza - Death Takes MeAllegra Goodman - IsolaCharlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark ShoreChimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count Tory Peters - Stag DanceTory Peters - Detransition, BabyLeila Lalami - Dream HotelLeila Lalami - The Other AmericansPercival Everett - ErasureAlan Moore - WatchmenEmily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven Walter Van Tilburg Clark - The Ox-Bow IncidentPercival Everett - God’s CountryPercival Everett - James Samantha Harvey - OrbitalMaxim Luskatoff - Old King Lion Feuchtwanger - The OppermannsSebastian Haffner - Defying HitlerJames Baldwin - Giovanni’s RoomPhilip Roth - The Human Stain James McBride - The Good Lord BirdColson Whitehead - Nickel BoysRobert Jones Jr - The Prophets Isaac Asimov - FoundationTed Chiang - ExhalationKurt VonnegutFollow Cord: @cordjeffersonFollow Us: @youshouldprobablyreadmore

We did it. We got our new favorite Crime Daddy on the pod.Jordan Harper joins us to talk LA, Punks vs Nazis, the Ozarks and Noir. We love him. RIP to Nolan's cat Edie & Jordan's dog Ellroy Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:Bel Canto - Ann Patchett The Vegetarian - Han Kang We Do Not Part - Han KangThe Last King of California  - Jordan Harper Everything Must Go: Stories We Tell Ourselves About the End of the World - Dorian Lynskey Gliff - Ali SmithWitchcraft For Wayward Girls - Grady Hendrix My Best Friend’s Exorcism - Grady HendrixThe Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady HendrixThe obscene bird of night - José DonosoOur Share of Night - Mariana EnriquezPlayworld - Adam RossOnyx Storm - Rebecca YarrosThe Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA - Jesse KatzHarriet The Spy - Louise FitzhughThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark TwainThe Great Brain (Series) - John Dennis FitzgeraldStephen King Hunter S Thompson The Drifters - James A. Michener LA Confidential - James EllroyCormac McCarthyRed Riding (Series) - David PeaceS.A. CosbyDare Me - Megan AbbottBeware the Woman - Megan Abbott The Contortionist’s Handbook - Craig ClevengerEverybody Knows - Jordan HarperDavid SedarisJames BaldwinMary ShelleyFollow Jordan online at @jordan_harper_Yoand follow us @youshouldprobablyreadmore

When we say Best of the Year we mean the WHOLE damn year (we need all the time we can get to read all the books from all the other lists!) so here it is, in mid-January, our Best of 2024 roundup. We’re joined by a very special guest, our friend and fellow bookclub member, Addison Kirst, owner of des pair books in Echo Park, Los Angeles.  Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode: Sally Rooney - Intermezzo Percival Everett - James  Miranda July - All Fours  Richard Flanagan - Question 7 Yael vanderwooten - The Safe Keep Trisha Romano - The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture Dolly Atherton - Good Material Claire Dederer - Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma  Robert Plunket - Love junkie Louis Ferdinand Celine - War   Elizabeth Beller - Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Kaveh Akbar - Martyr!  Rachel Kushner - Creation Lake Garth Greenwell - Small rain Mark Twain - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn William Faulkner   Louis Ferdinand Celine - Journey to the End of the Night H.G. Wells Rebecca West Anton Chekhov Richard Flanagan - Death of a River Guide  Rick Rubin - The Creative Act: A Way of Being Cookie Mueller - Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black Sofia Coppola - Archive Simone de Beauvoir - The Woman Destroyed   Otessa Moshfegh - Homesick For Another World  James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room  Eve Babitz - Sex and Rage   Sarah J Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses  Bram Stoker - Dracula  Mary Shelley - Frankenstein  Salman Rushdie - Knife - Elif Shafak - There are Rivers in the Sky   Liz Moore - God of the Woods  Martin MacInnes - In Ascension Charles Burns - Final Cut Danzy Senna - Color Television Tony Tulathimutte - Rejection Jordan Harper - Last King of California  Hanif Abdurraqib - There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension Stefan Zweig - Beware of Pity  Magda Szabo Stacy Horn - Killing fields of East New York Nicholas Carr - Superbloom  Karen Russell - The Antidote  Sarah Silgar - Vantage Point   Ali Smith - Gliff Emma pattee - Tilt  Han Kang - We Do Not Part  Florence Knapp - The Names  Joyce Carol Oates - Fox / Butcher Rebecca Yarros - Onyx Storm Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count S A Cosby - King of Ashes Jon Savage -  The Secret Public Samantha Harvey - Orbital Got something to say? Hit us up at @youshouldprobablyreadmore Buy your books from @despairbooks www.despairbooks.com

It’s our One Year Anniversary! Thank you all for listening to our lil pod this past year and for your comments and engagement with it. It's been really fun talking (and shit-talking) books and we're excited to continue this into next year- starting with our "Best of 24" list in January (you know we take every day we can get to try to get through all of these!).  This episode is just Shanon and Nolan- discussing the books we’re reading, Luigi, Cormac & other book news plus a hot new crime author daddy we’re obsessed with.  Books and Authors mentioned in this episode: Mariana Enriquez - Our Share of Night Mariana Enriquez - A Sunny Place for Shady People  Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter  Jason de Leon - Soldiers and Kings  Jordan Harper - Last King of California  Jordan Harper - She Rides Shotgun Jordan Harper - Everybody Knows  Dr. Seuss - The Lorax 100 Years War on Palestine  Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Glenn Beck - A Christmas Sweater

Welp...we recorded this one before the election. But don't worry we cut out all the hopeful parts! Surprise Surprise, Shanon and Nolan both have a new favorite book of the year + a special election edition of Bad Reads. Then they're joined by Tony Tulathimutte to discuss the agony of writing his insanely popular book, “Rejection.” Books and Authors discussed in this episode: Kamala Harris - The Truths We Hold Donald Trump - The Art of the Deal Dick Cheney - In My Time Walter Isaakson - Elon Musk Elif Shafak - There are rivers in the Sky  Tamora Pierce - The Song of the Lioness series  Tony - Rejection  Tony - Private Citizens  Mark Leary - Interpersonal Rejection Philip Roth books  Roald Dahl books  Louis Sachar - Sideways Stories from Wayside School