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Bookrageous Episode 34; Funny Books

Intro Music; Ffunny Ffriends — Unknown Mortal Orchestra

What We’re Reading

Jenn

[1:01] Gods Without Men, Hari Kunzru, March 6 2012

[4:00] The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Shehan Karunatilaka, May 8 2012

[7:20] We digress about how hard it is to sell sports novels, even when they’re awesome

Rebecca

[8:50] Re-reading Toni Morrison in advance of Home (May 8 2012); The Bluest Eye

[11:35] Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway, March 20 2012

[12:25] Religion for Atheists, Alain De Botton, March 6 2012

[13:30] The 20% Doctrine, Ryan Tate, April 1 2012

[14:15] No Cheating, No Dying, Elizabeth Weil

Josh

[19:54] The Yard, Alex Grecian, May 29 2012

[21:50] The Truth of All Things, Kieran Shields, March 27 2012

[23:00] The Book Club Cookbook, Judy Gelman, Vicky Levy Krupp, March 1 2012

[25:00] The Lifespan of a Fact, John D’Agata, Jim Fingal; final essay, What Happens There, The Believer, January 2010

[27:15] The Mark Inside, Amy Reading, March 6 2012

[28:20] Arcadia, Lauren Groff, March 1 2012

—

Intermission; I’m So Proud That I’m a Cockney — Rick Hardy  —

Funny Books

[31:00] How I Became a Famous Novelist, Steve Hely; Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy Kaling

[31:40] The Magicians, Lev Grossman

[33:51] Mr. Funny Pants, Michael Showalter

[34:41] Bossypants, Tina Fey

[35:38] David Sedaris

[36:00] Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson

[37:03] George Carlin

[37:45] Mary Roach

[38:28] The Princess Bride, William Goldman

[39:15] Stoner, John Williams

[40:25] Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell

[40:35] To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis; Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K Jerome

[41:49] The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

[42:25] Kurt Vonnegut

[42:58] Skippy Dies, Paul Murray

[44:26] Christopher Moore (A Dirty Job)

[45:05] WTF with Marc Maron

[45:22] The 50 Funniest American Writers, Andy Borowitz

[46:00] Catch-22, Joseph Heller; Mark Twain

[46:45] Zone One, Colson Whitehead; Skippy Dies some more

[48:36] The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt

[49:44] Straight Man, Richard Russo

[50:45] The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs

[51:57] The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway

[52:30] Why British writers and comedians are funnier (is it the accent?)

[53:50] Kids books!: Beware of the Frog, Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, Caps for Sale, I Want My Hat Back, Extra Yarn, Skippyjon Jones, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and other Mo Willems, Sandra Boynton

[56:50] Socksquatch, Frank Dormer

[58:19] Why Not Me, Al Franken

[1:00:02] Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seth Grahame

[1:01:40] Jane Austen; Charles Dickens and Salman Rushdie

[1:02:41] China Mieville, particularly Kraken

[1:03:01] Jenn officially goes off the rails about all things British, including Cockney slang, with apologies to everyone ever, and in particular China Mieville. (She has not been able to corroborate that story about his name with anyone else, although she swears she didn’t make it up.)

[1:07:56] Blueprints of the Afterlife, Ryan Boudinot; How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu

—

Outro; Ffunny Ffriends — Unknown Mortal Orchestra

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