Overdue
Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. Join Andrew and Craig each week as they tackle a new title from their backlog. Classic literature, obscure plays, goofy children’s books: they'll read it all, one overdue book at a time.
Episodes
Ep 771 - The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones
Spooktober continues with this Rez Gothic slasher from Stephen Graham Jones. A vengeful spirit hunts down four young Blackfeet men for a past transgression on their reservation, prompting reflection on whether or not they'd ever have become "good Indians."Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at http
Ep 770 - She Waits Where Shadows Gather, by Michelle Tang
A classic haunted house tale, full of ghosts and bugs and ghosts who can boss around bugs. I swear the presence of time travel was not something I gravitated to on purpose this time. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 50% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and
Ep 769 - Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein
Heinlein's sci-fi classic is rather different from the campy satire of Paul Verhoeven's 1997 adaptation. You can ask similar questions of both. Do they gleefully depict fascism? Do they glorify militarism and violence? Do they successfully subvert either? In our experience, both versions of Starship Troopers seem...complicated. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overdue
The Sillymarillion Ep 04 - The Black Gate Opens (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in October 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project THE PRYDAINGER ZONE (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.Morgoth is back ba
Ep 768 - Retro, by Jessica M. Goldstein
They'll never write a time travel story that Andrew won't try! This week's riff on the formula includes megalomaniac tech billionaires, millennial malaise, and an astoundingly dangerous amusement park in northern New Jersey.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 50% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lera
Ep 767 - Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
Shhhh...this episode is confidential. The kitchen secrets divulged by bad boy chef Anthony "Tony" Bourdain will Rock Your World. Or will they? This breakout essay collection laid much of the foundation for modern popular understanding of American restaurant culture, but some of its lessons may not feel so fresh today. Instead, it may best be viewed in the context of Bourdain's larger medi
Ep 766 - Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay
This classic of twentieth-century Australian literature isn't a Whodunnit. It isn't a Howdunnit. It's barely a dunnit at all. It's a certifiable Whahappen?? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and&n
Ep 765 - Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #3), by Tamsyn Muir (w/ Meghan Winch)
Do you like lesbian necromancer space operas but find all the grieving, brooding, and in-fighting a bit hard to sift through? Well then do I have the book for you! What began as Tamsyn Muir's concluding entry in her trilogy of The Locked Tomb evolved into a full novel of its own with the charming Nona at its center. Is it easier to understand than prior entries in the series? Of course no
The Prydainger Zone Ep 00 - Lloyd Alexander and his Chronicles, an introduction
For this new show-within-a-show, Andrew and Craig will learn all about The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. We'll read the five books in this classic children's fantasy series, then close out with an extra episode on the Disney adaptation The Black Cauldron.In this episode, you'll hear us discuss Andrew's background with the series, how Alexander came to write Prydain, and the We
Ep 764 - Waist Deep, by Linea Maja Ernst
This is a book about what happens when a formerly tight-knight group of longtime friends rents a house in the woods for a week. Having to deal with your friends' significant others is one possible hazard; having to deal with a decade's worth of pent-up horniness and anxiety and yearning is another.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your firs
Ep 763 - Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
This story is a giant bag of cotton candy, which we mean mostly as a compliment. It's a romance-adjacent found family story set in a cozy coffee shop set against a D&D-flavored backdrop, a place where almost no one is really a villain and the one person who comes close gets the ending they deserve. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Blues
Ep 762 - Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
Is it a novel? A collection of stories? A story cycle? A monograph?? It doesn't matter. This one's an award-winner. Strout's a masterful episodic storyteller, diving quickly into the deep end with characters we've met just pages before. However, the titular Olive looms much larger than the others we meet, compelling us to wonder if the collectionovelcyclegraph isn't a bit uneven.Our theme
Stop! Homer Time: The Odyssey (2026)
Sing, O Muse, of an adapted poem - specifically Homer's Odyssey as adapted for the silver screen by filmmaker Christopher Nolan. That's right, we went to an actual movie theater to see the blockbuster film that everyone is talking about (including friend of the show Emily Wilson). And don't worry, our personal Age of Bronze isn't collapsing - we'll be back to books next week. You can read
Stop! Homer Time: The Iliad - Chatting with Emily Wilson
With the recent release of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and buzz around Emily Wilson's translation of Homer, we thought we would unlock this special Stop! Homer Time episode originally released to Patreon supporters in early 2024.In November 2023, the acclaimed translator returned to the show to chat with us as we embarked upon our Iliad read. She spoke with us about her process, what
Ep 761 - On the Calculation of Volume (Book I), by Solvej Balle
Welcome to the 18th of November, friends! What's that you say? It's not the 18th of November for you? Well it is for us! Over and over and over again. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Ep 760 - The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison's debut novel traces the tragedy of a young girl named Pecola Breedlove and the community that failed her. By splintering the book's perspective across the community of Lorain, she humanizes everyone and exonerates no one. Not an easy book, but a rewarding one.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website
Ep 759 - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
Join us friends, for a real paradigm shift. Andrew and Craig's synergy reaches levels never before seen as they proactively seek to understand the meaning behind this self-help titan. We'll also discuss our most upsetting dairy-related prose since the Krampus egg-nog thing. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Pri
Ep 758 - Forrest Gump, by Winston Groom
Life is like a box of podcasts, you sort of know what you're gonna get (e.g. host-read ads, friends talking books, hot takes about books that inspired movies). Winston Groom's picaresque romp Forrest Gump inspired a juggernaut of a movie in the mid-90s - but it's really a rather different story than the one told onscreen. Did you know Gump went space??This episode is sponsored by Squaresp
Ep 757 - Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
New achievement! Record a podcast about Dungeon Crawler Carl!The thought of having to write flavor text in Dungeon Crawler Carl’s “achievement description” voice bums me out so I’m going to skip that part of the joke. Reward: You get to listen to the podcast we recorded about Dungeon Crawler Carl. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and
The Sillymarillion Ep 03 - Of Elves and Stewed Curses (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in August 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.Let us talk about Men, b
Ep 756 - Private Rites, by Julia Armfield
Rain, rain, go away, come again another day--oh. You're never going away? You're going to flood the world and make it very damp for a trio of sisters as they parcel out their dead father's legacy a la King Lear But Wetter? Sounds like you're the rain from Julia Armfield's Private Rites, an intimate novel about familial traps that happens to have a horror card or two hiding up its sleeve.T
Ep 755 - Audition, by Katie Kitamura
Have you ever read a book where you haven't been entirely sure what happened in the book? Where you haven't been sure what's "real," and if you can tell what's "real," you can't tell who the book is "real" for? Have you ever felt like the whole world is a stage, and that we are merely players? If you answered "yes" to all these questions, you might be the target audience for this one. Ou
Ep 754 - Legend of the White Snake, by Sher Lee (w/ Heaving Bosoms)
Here we go again: another collaboration with Heaving Bosoms! Buckle up for a supersized episode on this folklore inspired YA fantasy by Sher Lee. Special thanks to our guests Melody and Sabrina from Heaving Bosoms for joining us to discuss snakes, lost contacts, love, and Chinese myth. We have a lot of questions about snakes! Do we get all the answers? Listen along to find out.Our theme m
Ep 753 - You Are a Millionaire, by Jay Leibold (Choose Your Own Adventure #98)
Living in our age of elite impunity made us want to imagine what it must be like to have one million US dollars (approximately $2.6 million, when adjusted for inflation). Luckily, there's a book series that lets you choose to be anything you want to be, as long as what you want to be exists within one of several scripted narrative paths of steadily escalating goofiness.This episode is spo
The Sillymarillion Ep 02 - The Choices of Master Fëanor (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in July 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.The Elves are here, and it
Ep 752 - Daisy Jones and The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In 2019, author Taylor Jenkins Reid released her sixth novel Daisy Jones & The Six, a fictional oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-esque 70s rock band. In May 2026, Andrew and Craig from Overdue recorded a podcast about the author, her novels, the themes and points of inspiration that helped make Daisy Jones a bestseller. This is an aural history of that recording.Our theme music was com
Ep 751 - Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer
Less a story about AI, and more "what if that Star Trek episode about whether Data was a person was also exploring the concept of domestic abuse?" Greer writes a short punchy novel that is occasionally uncomfortable but thoughtfully constructed, not unlike a sentient humanoid robot might be.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purch
Ep 750 - Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
In the not-so-distant future, Andy Weir will write a novel about a Competent Man getting into trouble and then getting himself out. Then it will be made into a major motion picture starring a relatively bankable movie star. Then Overdue will (probably) read the book. That's what happened with The Martian, and that is what's happening this week with Project Hail Mary -- a novel about a sci
Ep 749 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and Other Stories), by Eric Carle
To celebrate this year's Children's Book Week, we're discussing the work of children's author and illustrator Eric Carle, whose colorful art and innovative prints have delighted our children (and us!) for years. Since they're each pretty short we decided to talk about a bunch of them, including:1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (with Bill Martin, Jr
Ep A03 - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Annotated)
Around 25 minutes into this episode, Andrew and Craig take a mysterious elixir that turns them into younger versions of themselves with worse microphones and less research under their belts. Oh no! I hope they can find the ingredients to turn themselves back! Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSe
The Sillymarillion Ep 01 - A Shortcut to Ilúvatar (J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion)
For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in June 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.In the beginning, Eru Ilúv
Ep A02 - Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (Annotated)
Our stroll down memory lane continues this week, but we come provisioned with Present-Day Overdue research and context. This week, 2026 Andrew and Craig talk about Mary Shelley and the legacy of her most famous work while 2013 Andrew and Craig deal primarily with the story, including the titular Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. (Even past us knew that Frankenstein is the doctor, okay??).
Ep A01 - Dune, by Frank Herbert (Annotated)
We're revisiting our past this month, adding Present-Day Overdue research and context to a few old episodes that didn't have them. This week, 2026 Andrew and Craig talk about Frank Herbert and the extended Dune-iverse while 2013 Andrew and Craig do their best to talk about the book. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com/overdue.Our theme m
Special Collections: Twilight (2008)
This isn't a belated April Fool's joke. We really did watch the movie Twilight, and we're really here to talk about it. Why are Edward and Bella SO strange? How is it that all of the side characters come off as more human than they do in the books? Why is the vampire running like that?? Sometimes over on the Patreon (patreon.com/overduepod) we discuss movies and TV under the Special Colle
Ep 748 - MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker and W.C. Heinz
MASH is the book that inspired the movie that inspired the show M*A*S*H, which is set in an active war zone but doesn't have a ton to say about war. If you wanted to read about the exploits of a bunch of meatball surgeon wiseacres, though, it is not completely without its charms. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyA
Sit Me Baby One More Time Bonus - The Baby-Sitters Club: The Movie (1995)
Ho-na-na-na Hey-ey! It's time to talk about the 1995 film adaptation of the series, directed by Melanie Mayron and written by Dalene Young. We mostly enjoyed it, though we have to acknowledge how hard it is to squeeze full plots for each BSC member into one 94-minute movie. Also, what is the deal with Kristy's dad? Why is he so stinky?Enjoying this longread series? Keep an eye out for THE
Ep 747 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1, by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Before everyone's favorite heroes in a half-shell wore brightly colored bandanas and ate pizza for every meal, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were black-and-white underground vigilantes. Eastman and Laird drew on a variety of influences to create something that starts with the energy of self-serious parody before transitioning into the violent yet goofy comic series that would ultimatel
Ep 746 - Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock, by Maud Woolf
This week we've commissioned all thirteen of our clones to record thirteen other versions of this podcast, because we're just such busy guys that we can't do them all ourselves. So are you listening to us, or the clones? And if you're listening to clones, which ones??Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on O
Ep 745 - Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom
I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's grey and - wait, Morrie's here. Tuesday's not so bad after all! Mitch Albom's breakthrough account of his meetings with the late Morrie Schwartz includes some moving lessons about how facing death head-on can help you lead life to the fullest. It also includes some observations by Albom that really threw Craig for a loop.This episode is sponsored b
Ep 744 - Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
This week's book examines the Asian-American experience through the age-old phenomenon of Hollywood typecasting. And there's an intentionally porous line that separates this book's "reality" from the rest of it, which kind-of-sort-of takes place inside of a formulaic police procedural. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 08 - Welcome to the BSC, Abby! (The Baby-Sitters Club #90)
We jump way ahead in the sequence of the series (but not in the lives of our sitters, who remain stubbornly trapped in the Eighth Grade Time Loop), well into the books' ghostwritten era. This week we meet Abby, an acerbic new member of the Club, and we also meet ghostwriter Nola Thacker, who wrote over a dozen main-series BSC books during the original run.Here's the full Sit Me Baby One M
Ep 743 - The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
Paul Beatty took the Booker Prize in 2015 with this satirical novel about a grieving man’s attempts to put his small town back on the map. The book lampoons the notion of a post-racial America, touching the fourth rail of "political correctness" with outlandish scenes of segregation and slavery. It's a real high-wire act of a premise that he mostly pulls off??Head to MarleySpoon.com/
Ep 742 - Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2), by Rachel Reid
Ilya Rozanov. Shane Hollander. Two of hockey's greatest young goal scorers are also trying to score...with each other?? Reid's breakthrough hockey romance has become a true pop culture phenomenon, so we figured it was time to lace up the skates and see what the puck is going on with this most heated of rivalries. Happy belated Valentine's Day!This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go t
Ep 741 - Monk & Robot, by Becky Chambers
Usually when robots gain sentience in fiction, they rise up and slay or otherwise subjugate their human creators, but this week's book dares to imagine what might happen if they stood up, looked around, said "thanks but no thanks," and left. It also ponders the meaning of existence, just for good measure.Monk & Robot collects two previously published novels: A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Ep 740 - Three Lives, by Gertrude Stein
Three lives, all alike in indignity. Stein's debut book is a collection of stories about three working-class woman at the turn of the 20th century. In it, we see the beginnings of her unique literary voice - full of repetition, repetition, poetic vernacular, and repetition.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a
Tokyo Drifters Ep 0 - Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo, an introduction
For this new show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew will travel to Neo-Tokyo to meet Akira, created by Katsuhiro Otomo. We're going to read this classic manga across six episodes, then close out with an extra episode on the groundbreaking 1988 film adaptation.This is a preview of a series we’ll be running exclusively for our Patreon supporters over the next few months; we won’t release them
Ep 739 - Fun With Dick and Jane, and other stories
See Andrew and Craig. See Andrew and Craig read. Read, Andrew and Craig, read! The Dick and Jane characters are still widely known, even though their heyday as The Main Way American Kids Learn How To Read has long since passed. Join us for a discussion of how these (now public domain!) characters came to be, the method of reading instruction they embody, how they came to dominate American
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 07 - Jessi's Secret Language (The Baby-sitters Club #16)
Another month, another new member of the BSC! This time it's Jessi, ballerina extraordinaire, who also happens to be adept at learning languages. And her first big job involves learning sign language so she can babysit Matt Braddock, whose family just moved to town. Soon everybody in Stonybrook is learning to sign! Plus there's a whole parallel story about Jessi's ballet school. And reall
Ep 738 - Glorious Exploits, by Ferdia Lennon
Sometimes you just want to get together with your friend and enlist prisoners of war into putting on a production of Euripides in the quarry, am I right? This is a broadly relatable thing that lots of people have thought about doing. Right? Right??This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Head to
Ep 737 - The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple #1), by Agatha Christie
The public domain comes for us all and today it's come for Miss Marple, the elderly busybody and amateur sleuth that Agatha Christie created in the 1920s. In her first proper novel, Marple assists a vicar in uncovering the truth behind a murder that occurred in his own home (also known as a vicarage). How does Marple do it? With a keen understanding of Human Nature.This episode is sponsor
Ep 736 - Consider the Consequences!, by Doris Webster and Mary Alden Hopkins
We’ve been known to choose an adventure for ourselves every now and again, but rarely have we delved into the history of the “gamebook” genre. Until now! Join us for an abbreviated run through Consider the Consequences, in which players can quickly ruin the lives of three young adults who All Have Their Own Stuff Going On. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squaresp
Ep 735 - American Girl: Meet Samantha, by Susan S. Adler & Meet Addy, by Connie Porter
It's time to meet Samantha and Addy, two American Girls from the toy brand of the same name. Their time periods and journeys are rather different, but they are united by one thing: American Girl founder Pleasant Rowland's quest to inspire girls to learn AND to accessorize.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 06 - Hello, Mallory (The Baby-sitters Club #14)
We jump forward in the series a bit this month, not too deep into the series (and not into the era where the series was primarily ghostwritten), but past the “we’re still setting up each of the core club-members” phase.This book is all about Mallory, a younger aspiring BSC member whose membership is jeopardized by a run of bad luck and some mildly unreasonable expectations from the other
Ep 734 - Kidnapped by the Krampus, by Emily Shore
Happy Hornydays everyone! This extremely explicit dark holiday romantasy is sure to land someone on the naughty list. Please note that this story about Twyla and her adventure into the world of Krampus is very much Not For Kids. But does it give adults everything they want for Christmas?Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and B
Ep 733 - The Bookshop, by Penelope Fitzgerald
Knowing absolutely nothing else about it, you might guess that a story called "The Bookshop" would a light and cozy novella about how books are magical and that the places where they are sold are sacred spaces. There are lots of books that are like that! But this most certainly is not one of them. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of
Ep 732 - Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo
Darkness, imprisoning me / All that I see, absolute horror / I cannot live, I cannot die / Trapped in myself, body my holding cellThese lyrics from Metallica's "One" were inspired by this classic anti-war novel (this is relevant, we promise). It's unique perspective and focus on the irreparable harm that war inflicts on the individual set it apart from the other anti-war text's we've read
Ep 731 - Still Life (Inspector Gamache #1), by Louise Penny
There has been a murder! A murder in a small Quebecois village where everyone knows each other and most people seem to be either artists or café proprietors! Luckily Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and the Sûreté du Québec are on the case, there to be avuncular and reassuring and blur the line between friend and law enforcement professional.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to&n
Ep 730 - An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
What starts as a dismaying story about a wrongful conviction turns into a deep meditation on loyalty, marriage, and independence. Given the subject matter, you might expect a mystery or a courtroom drama. Instead, Jones offers up a moving account of a couple just trying to find a future that will have them.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Insta
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 05 - Dawn and the Impossible Three (The Baby-Sitters Club #5)
Our newest BSC member, Dawn, has a lot to juggle in her debut as a series protagonist. Her mom is dating Mary-Anne's dad. She's low-key feuding with Kristy, the BSC President. And she's been hired by a mother of three who just does NOT have her life together. What a trial by fire!These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of them ahead of time (an
Ep 729 - I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
A story about a young woman trapped in an underground prison with 39 other women sounds like it could be a stone cold bummer, and it isn’t not that. But this translated French novel from 1995 also hits some affirming, human notes, and it’s those aspects of it that help explain why it’s found new life via word of mouth and BookTok. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to
Ep 728 - Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
Perhaps befittingly, Anne Patchett's fourth novel changed the trajectory of her career. The award-winning Bel Canto centers on 58 people (a combination of hostages and militants sequestered in an unnamed country), many of whom spend the time cut off from the outside world meditating on the paths their lives did and didn't take. Many welcome the opportunity to sit, reflect, grow, and chang
Ep 727 - My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
Did you ever wonder why the name "Jeeves" has always been inseparable from the concept of "a very good butler"? It's because of these short stories (plus more short stories, plus several novels) by English novelist P.G. Wodehouse. Hapless gadfly Bertie Wooster relies on his man Jeeves for just about everything, from clothing advice to getting his various dim-bulb friends out of money-rela
Ep 726 - I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan
Did you know that the classic 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer was actually based on a propulsive young adult thriller from 1973? Lois Duncan's original novel isn't too interested in bloody kills, however. It's more focused on how young people build their identities: around their regrets, around their parents, and around tragedies.Our theme music was composed by Nick
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 04 - Mary Anne Saves the Day (The Baby-Sitters Club #4)
Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting, including one job that will prove to be
Ep 725 - The Haunted Baby (Choose Your Own Nightmare #13), by Edward Packard
An official offshoot of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Choose Your Own Nightmare books cropped up for a couple of years in the mid-90s, an (alleged) response to the popularity of our old friend RL Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stine’s somewhat longer-lived Give Yourself Goosebumps sub-series would launch just months after the first Choose Your Own Nightmare book, but it’s
Ep 724 - Dark Carnival, by Ray Bradbury
Everybody loves our old friend Ray Bradbury! This time we’re taking a spin with his first short story collection Dark Carnival, a smattering of spooky tales that wound up scattered across a number of other collections throughout Bradbury’s career. Stories discussed in this episode include:The Small AssassinThe Dead ManSkeletonThe ScytheThe EmissaryThe HomecomingUncle EinarThe LakeThe
Ep 723 - Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove
A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge some of your preconceived notions.This epis
Ep 722 - The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy of nature?" And when every animal is personified...well...those simple bare necessities begin to reveal themselv
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 03 - The Truth About Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club #3)
The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everything.These episodes posted first for our Pat
Ep 721 - The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
Some of us read a book. Some of us research the author and the historical context. Some of us sit in front of our microphones and record a podcast. Some of us edit it together and upload it to the website. Some of us write the description that goes up with it. Boy I hope this bit works!Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bl
Ep 720 - Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Perhaps Elizabeth Gaskell’s best-known work, Cranford chronicles the lives of some Victorian era LMMs (Ladies of Modest Means). Their customs and relevance may be waning as Industrialization advances, but that doesn’t mean they won’t find ways to entertain us with their wit, their foibles, and their heart.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue fo
Ep 719 - The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi
For anyone who’s ever loved a movie or TV show where people in silly outfits pretend to be giant city-crushing lizards and/or robots, this week’s book plays around in a pretty entertaining space. If the references to the mid-to-late-2020 stretch of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election date it a little, and if every single named character talks exactly the same, it’s st
Ep 718 - The Four Million, by O. Henry
The name O. Henry is synonymous with more than just a candy bar. It's become shorthand for a brief, punchy tale that ends with a magical little twist. And this collection, his second published, contains such classic examples as the "Gift of the Magi" and "The Cop and the Anthem." Can you guess the ironic twist ending of this podcast? This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to sq
Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 02 - Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2)
The Club has been humming along for two months until a spat of terrifying phone-based burglaries have our sitters sittin' scared! Also, it's Claudia time! Between gigs, she must repair her relationship with her sister and figure out how to catch the eye of the dreamiest poet around: Trevor Sandbourne.These episodes posted first for our Patreon supporters! If you want to hear the rest of t
Ep 717 - Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum
As a reader, you cannot get upset if you read a book called "Bad Summer People" and it's filled with terrible people and all the stuff that they do to each other over the course of One Fateful Summer. You are allowed, of course, to get upset if you summered in the same place as the author and you recognize the town and all the people in it and also maybe yourself.Our theme music was compo
Ep 716 - An Extraordinary Union (Loyal League #1), by Alyssa Cole
The secret Union organization Elle Burns spies for swears by the four Ls: Loyalty. Legacy. Life. Lincoln. But what about…Love? Enter Malcolm MacCall, a brash but lovable Scot posing as a Confederate soldier. And the rest, as they say, is historical fiction. Also it’s a pretty successful romance novel!Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram&n
Ep 715 - Mrs. Caliban, by Rachel Ingalls
We've all heard this story before—giant fish man escapes secret laboratory, giant fish man takes up with unfulfilled housewife, fish man and housewife have deeply meaningful affair, lots of people die. Tale as old as time! Suffice it to say the characters in Mrs. Caliban have a very different reaction to a giant fish than the characters in Jaws. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Gi
Ep 714 - Jaws, by Peter Benchley
The first blockbuster movie started with a blockbuster book about a fish busting up blocks in a small seaside town. Anyone familiar with Steven Spielberg's movie will recognize the basic plot of Benchley's original novel Jaws -- there's just a lot more chum in the water.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-m
Ep 713 - Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan
You know how sometimes you just want to bro out with your cool hot dad? How sometimes you just need to concoct a scheme where you encourage your casual boyfriend and your dad's casual ex-girlfriend to pretend to be in a relationship together, so that your dad gets jealous, so that he leaves his current more-serious girlfriend, who is really harshing your buzz by asking you to be introspec
Ep 712 - The Trial, by Franz Kafka
He is Franz Kafka! Franz Kafka! He wrote The Trial. It’s a book about byzantine bureaucracy bearing down on lil old Josef K. Less of it takes place in a courtroom than you’d think.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on&nb
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