we continue our campus season with prep by curtis sittenfeld, the first book on the pod that’s new to bobby. we talk about its spanning breadth (in a relatively tight package), lee as a reluctant and naive narrator, and our the novel’s lack of narrative darkness. we also talk about how unsexy prep is (and whether that’s good or bad), who high school books are actually written for, and the elements of class and race contained in the novel. also: bobby absolutely refuses to do the one job he’s been tasked with (but continues to relate everything to the o.c.) and we unveil both our wiki-based plan for world podcast domination and the secret tagline we’ve always had for the show.
reading list for season two
the bell jar by sylvia plath, 11/4
prep by curtis sittenfeld, 11/18
the art of fielding by chad harbach, 12/2
nickel boys by colson whitehead, 12/16
the virgins by pamela erens, 12/30
my education by susan choi, 1/13
giles goat-boy by john barth, 1/27
end zone by don delillo, 2/10
loner by teddy wayne, 2/24
the secret history by donna tartt, 3/10
sweet days of discipline by fleur jaeggy, 3/24
college novel by blake middleton, 4/7
real life by brandon taylor, 4/21
the instructions by adam levin, 5/5
the idiot by elif batuman, 5/19