we're headed out to the baseball diamond for today's episode of how to win the lottery as we talk about the art of fielding by chad harbach. after bobby shares a big announcement he should have saved for our patreon, we talk about harbach's ability to capture the beauty of baseball and write a book about predation without really writing a book about predation. we also try to figure out who the main character is in the art of fielding (a question compounded by a bold move that the book makes) and talk about the terrifying nature of an inciting incident in the narrative. then, we welcome in the honorable judge matt erdely to judge a book by its cover (and to get a world series preview for a matchup that will have concluded long before this episode is released) before bobby talks about his "unbelievably handsome man" of a teacher as we try to cast guert affenlight.
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