Iris Murdoch Enters the Chat

In the final week of the countdown recap, we share the books that comprise the top 10 novels on Jay’s Most Lovable Novels List. See where your favorites land, and go back to our original air dates, which we share in this episode, to hear longer discussions on each book. Programming Note: We’re taking a break between seasons and will be back around the holidays to launch our new season.

This week we slow down the countdown to cover only 15 novels of the list to make time for the final 10 next week. We comment on each book from 25 to 11 and share the original air date of that novel’s episode. Which books will Chaos Reader put on her TBR list?

We’re getting closer to the top of the list with this episode covering Jay’s most lovable novels. We share each book from 75 to 51 with the original air dates and a few choice comments. Chaos Reader decides if Jay has sold her on each entry… or not.

We continue walking through the final rankings of Jay’s List of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language that we covered one by one for the past two years. This week, we discuss nos. 75 to 51 along with the original air dates for each book.

This week we begin walking through the final list’s rankings, as Jay slowly built the ranked list of his 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language over two years of podcasting. In this episode, we talk about nos. 100 through 76, what’s lovable, whether Chaos Reader has or will read them and when each book's episode originally aired.

Jay completes his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language with A.S. Byatt’s Possession. The novel about academics and poets in parallel timelines engages the reader on many levels. Chaos Reader shares the next phase of the podcast. A note on the sound: We apologize for the scratching noise listeners may hear in the podcast this week. We will make sure it doesn’t happen again!

This week’s entry on Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Irish Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea. Jay discusses the allusion of the title and Murdoch’s philosophical themes, making the case for this worthy book. Chaos Reader checks in on her adventures with The Neapolitan Quartet.

Jay’s pick this week is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, a book that could be maddening or it could be one of the 100 Most Lovable Books in the English Language if you approach it ready for the ride. Chaos Reader is very enthusiastic about a newly published mystery novel.

The Magus was John Fowles’ first novel, but his third to be published, and its postmodern, metafictional format focuses on a young British teacher on a Greek Island who falls in with an unreliable local mastermind, Conchis. Chaos Reader discusses an academic history book she and Jay are reading aloud.

Jay’s pick this week for his list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, a novel about a young man’s coming of age in Nottinghamshire, as he navigates his relationships with two very different women in the shadow of his brother’s death and his mother’s attentions and strong personality. Chaos Reader talks about a recent TV series rewatch in which the characters are often shown reading books in their spare time.