EP44: Cockroaches, Art Thieves, and J.M. Coetzee

Live from the Book Shop: John Updike's Ghost

Hannah has returned from driving Aunt Janet to Connecticut with new furniture that is perhaps exciting only for us, but it's now much less likely you'll stumble into the non-fiction table and knock a lot of books to the ground. Also, lots of books this week, including "Infested," by Angel Luis Colón, the first book from MTV Fear (which is a real thing and Sam liked it); and "The Puzzle Master," which Hannah doesn't remember ordering, but is an enjoyable combo package of traumatic brain injury and Jewish mysticism and creepy dolls. How do we sell these books to our readers? Horror is hot everywhere else. Then we move into an old-guy-having-sex book by J.M. Coetzee, "The Pole"; and then the much better "The Art Thief," by Michael Finkel, who really is a terrific storyteller, about a real-life master thief who's hard not to like ("prisons for artwork" is amazing). Oh, and Sam has now read "Warrior Girl Unearthed," too, and so should you because you need to appreciate the level of moral bankruptcy it describes, and Hannah, did, indeed read "When Women for Dragons" for Book Club, but, well, only one person showed up, so we're going to talk about it some more (it's mostly about wanting to roast Brett Kavanaugh in fire).