Back to normal! No guests this week, just a bunch of books to talk about, including some big names. Is Sam's mic kind of wonky early? Yes. Just get by that. It doesn't last long. And you really want to hear about:

- "Great Big Beautiful Life," by Emily Henry, which is just enough different from her previous beach reads to make a great beach read. It's a ridiculous biography contest set in Georgia.
- "The Name of this Band is R.E.M.," by Peter Ames Carlin, which Sam found a little boring, but it's hard to tell if that's just because R.E.M. is a boring band.
- "Raising Hare," by Chloe Dalton, which really is about raising a bunny, but not a bunny, a hare, which is a different mysterious kind of animal. Better than that sounds, though.
- "Everything is Tuberculosis," by John Green, which has a terrible name, but is very readable because John Green can write like crazy. This leads to talk about Reddit forums detailing woo-woo mom forum posting, for reasons, and discussion of the term "vlogger."
- "Whyte Python World Tour," by Travis Kennedy, an absolutely absurd and often funny tale of a hair-metal band secretly working for the CIA to bring down the Wall in the late 1980s. Sam doesn't know what to make of it.
- "Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries," by Heather Fawcett, which is delightful, about an academic cataloging faeries in Norway. It's cozy and quite charming.

Also, no, we didn't get this posted in time for Bookstore Day or the Literary Festival, but just try to look past that. It's already happened and you missed it. But there will be other stuff that's awesome in the future, we promise.

Okay, Hannah's back, but that doesn't mean we're done with guest hosts! This week we're joined by author Nina MacLaughlin, editor of the brand-new New England Literary News newsletter, and we've got the Newburyport Literary Festival on the brain (oh, and sorry, Nina, about putting you on the spot various times, but we did enjoy, "there's just so much garbage being published"). And Indie Bookstore Day, too! But we talked about lots of books, as well, including:

- "Jailbreak of Sparrows," by Martin Espada - a poet who will be a Newburyport, where we are selling books, BTW.
- "Little Great Island," by Kate Woodworth - which has "Road to Dalton" vibes and a great cover (another Maine book, yes).
- "Lobster," by Guillaume Lacasble - easily the weirdest book Sam has read in a while, with, yes, lobster sex.
- "On the Calculation of Volume (Book II)," by Solvej Balle - a continuation of Book I, still awesome, but could have moved forward more.
- "Sad Tiger," by Neige Sinno - a very heavy memoir that manages to still be quite beautiful.

And make sure to stay to the very end for some great New England poet recommendations!

Hannah's been busy grinding out elementary school book fairs (drug-dealer mentality for the win), so the John Updike's Ghost podcast has put in a call to the bullpen, and out walks ... Cyndle Plaisted Rials! Cyndle is a writer and creative writing teacher who teamed with Sam on a book earlier this year, as well as the Beer & Weed project, so you know she's ready to go. She has not, however, read "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Of Mice and Men," so weird stuff is on the way.

Here's what she and Sam had to chat about this week:

- "All the Pretty Horses," by Cormac McCarthy — Sam has never read this, but it's awesome. If you've never read it, you should do it now. Just be prepared for very few commas.
- "Lady Macbeth," by Ava Reid — Cyndle finds this a little better than Shakespeare's historical works, anyway. It's a little bit of a "Wicked" situation and it might help to read the original; what is Lysander doing in this book? Decent audiobook.
- "Pickleballers," by Ilana Long — A racy book about people who play pickleball and like to bang. Sam laughed a few times, but didn't manage to finish this. Still, if you like romantic comedies, this is fine.
- "Rejection," by Tony Tulathimutte — You might have seen the story "The Feminist"? That's the lead story in this collection, which is a serious collection of bad dudes. And hyper-online.

It's Daylight Savings and we are alternately miserable and happy about it. Which is a good reflection of the books we've read this week. We love them and not! Here's what's on the agenda:

- "Wild Dark Shore," by Charlotte McConaghy — if you like one of her books, you're going to like this one. Hannah's a big fan. Nevermind the sleeping with the seals.
- "A Thousand Splendid Suns," by Khaled Hosseini — also, like "The Kite Runner," not a memoir. Sam was confused. Kinda miserable. Hope the U.S. doesn't wind up like this.
- "Lion," by Sonya Walger — she's "Penny" from "Lost," and here she is with an autobiographical novel. The lion in question is her father, who's a crazy rich guy.
- "How To Lose Your Mother," by Molly Jong-Fast — did everyone else know that Erica Jong was Molly's mom? Read this, regardless, because Molly can write like hell.
- "I Heard There Was a Secret Chord," by Daniel Levitin — an exploration of music therapy and why it works. Sam was already a convert, but you should read it if you're not.
- "Parable of the Sower," by Octavia Butler — after some confusion with how this dovetails with the Patternist novels (it doesn't), we come around to discussion why this novel is must-read.

It's a very special episode this week, as we're joined by Sabrina Baeta, senior program manager on the Freedom to Read team at PEN America, an organization founded by authors more than 100 years ago to protect the freedom to write and read whatever you want. Sabrina's here to talk about book bans, which are a priori uncool, and which she works to defeat. There have been more than 10,000 efforts in the past year alone to ban individual books in school settings across the United States, and efforts to ban books are increasing rapidly, particulary books for younger kids. That's bad. So, we all read some banned books, including:

- "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole
- "Queer Ducks," by Eliot Schrefer and Jules Zuckerberg
- "A Court of Mist and Fury," by Sarah J. Maas
- "Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe
- "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini
- "The Fire Next Time," by James Baldwin
- "James," by Percival Everett
- "Red, White, and Royal Blue," by Casey McQuiston

Y'all, there are some really good arguments against banning books in this episode and some great discussion of the power of literature. You need to listen to it!

Did you get your photo taken with Rabbit the Bookstore Cat Cutout? If not, you probably missed our 5th Birthday Party. Too bad. But not worries: There will be more parties. This week, Sam is caught up in the new Haruki Murakami, but Hannah luckily has three books to talk about, so it's not a disaster. Here's the lineup:

- "Fourth Wing," by Rebecca Yarros — Hannah's been saving it and it reminds her of the time we discovered Philip Pullman (but, no, it's not that good). Perfect vacation reading.
- "The City and Its Uncertain Walls," by Haruki Murakami — Sam is wondering if Haruki is trolling us at this point. Cats! Spaghetti! A record store! Teenage girls! But it's still oddly compelling.
- "The Collaborators," by Michael Idov — Hannah thought this was pretty good. It's international espionage. With Russia. It's just not always clear why we're supposed to care.
- "The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You," by Neko Case — Hannah is highly enamored of this, and doesn't think it matters if you can name a song by her. Some messed up shit happens in Neko's life.

Also, no, we didn't get our act together to post this in time for Valentine's Day. It's nobody's fault.

It's another episode of "John Updike's Ghost After Dark," a wild and crazy recording that finds Sam with a blanket on his lap and Hannah reading books infused with the number three (and using the word "tome"). We move from Anne Tyler (don't worry, she's a little bit funny) to weird French YA and cover a lot of ground in between, including:

- "Three Days in June," by Anne Tyler (Sam thinks he read "The Accidental Tourist")
- "Infinite Jest," by David Foster Wallace (just touching on it, really)
- "Beta Vulgaris," by Margie Sarsfield (kinda like "Lazy City," except totally crazy with evil sugar beets, and a little bit like "Banal Nightmare," except scary instead of funny)
- "The Three Lives of Cate Kay," by Kate Fagan ("it's all so ridiculous," romantic without being a romance, a book that makes grand statements; this Kate woman is crazy impressive)
- "The Bookshop," by Evan Friss (Sam mispronounces his name, sorry; this one is a little close ot the quick; please remember that Sam considers "weirdos" a compliment)
- "The Missing of Clairdelune," by Christelle Dabos (completely out-there French YA, so good)
- "Water Moon," by Samantha Sotto Yambao (completely you-there Japanese YA, so good; "this book delivers" and is NOT cozy)

Also, come to our 5th birthday party. You'll know when it is if you listen to the end.

It's the post-holiday lull, which luckily gives us plenty of time to plan our 5th Birthday party! Hannah's buying the cake, Sam is DJing. Don't miss it. You have to listen to find out when it is. When you arrive, we can talk about these books (and others):
- "Dream Count," by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Hannah is a little perplexed by this much-awaited big deal, with its women being idiots about men; the marketeers are struggling)
- "Good Girl," by Aria Aber (this book is going to be hot; maybe even as good as Morgan Talty's cover blurb, but not because of the sex stuff, which is, in fact, done well)
- "A Sea of Unspoken Things," by Adrienne Young (there's a twin-magic thing that Hannah is not really feeling)
- "Heartbreak is the National Anthem," by Rob Sheffield (this is music-writing at its best, a celebration of what we love about pop music as a collective thing)
- "The Queens of Crime," by Marie Benedict (featuring much discussion of when, exactly, Agatha Christie disappeared and then reappeared)

And, of course, so much more.