how to win the lottery: a book club podcast

welcome to pennsylvania! before talking about blood on the forge by william attaway, joey starts things out with a pennsylvania quiz for shreds, who then offers some historical context for this novel (and others that it’s in conversation with). we talk about the novel’s exploration of masculinity through big mat, the unspoken love triangle at the core of the story, and the looming sense of dread hanging over all three moss brothers. we talk about how the novel evokes the landscape: blue color work, dirty and sweaty, using the language of the place. shreds mentions how the union busting feels like a mirror to 2026 events. we talk about the linguistic power of names (and slurs and other derogatory phrases), the shared trauma and ptsd of life in those times, and the cinematic nature that would lead to an adaptation — including who we’d like to see adapt it.

reading list for season twenty-two

blood on the forge by william attawayappointment in samarra by john o’haraways to hide in winter by sarah st. vincent

it’s time to draw another card and figure out how we’re spending the next six weeks (or more!) of our lives. it’s time for our seventh state module and, once again, telling sufjan stevens to suck shit. after running through a brief history of the states we’ve covered so far (and the level of success), we make our guesses and predictions for what fate will hold for us. then, it is decided: pennsylvania, which is a a state we can go to! easily. shreds reveals our titles.

reading list for season twenty-two

blood on the forge by william attawayappointment in samarra by john o’haraways to hide in winter by sarah st. vincent

our un/adaptable season concludes with the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger, which is cinematic, yet never adapted. (shreds explains why.) we talk about having not read this for a while… and, wow! what a book. shreds offers insight into salinger’s background (and his intentional choice to not write a war novel, as well as how that relates to kurt vonnegut’s experience re: slaughterhouse-five. we discuss catcher as a book about trauma (in many ways), its status as one of “the” high school books (and one of the most-banned books), and how it leads to so many books we love. joey talks about the sadness of holden’s (for lack of a better phrase) career aspiration. shreds laughs about phoebe’s single puff on a cigarette. we praise the novel’s willingness to introduce great characters and not return to them later. salinger defends digressions, and shreds defends salinger defending digressions. we ask: where’s the salinger vault?

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilsonthe sugar frosted nutsack by mark leynerdetransition, baby by torrey petersantkind by charlie kaufmanthe chain by adrian mckintyyour name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneffthe memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyderthe catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our final “adaptable” book is the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder. this one feels somewhat unadaptable, but given that our next (“unadaptable”) book is inherently adaptable, we are maintaining a balance. we talk about what charlie kaufman can bring to the adaptation, why this is the exact right type of story to adapt, and what lily gladstone could bring to this role.

we detail how the memory loss on the island likely works (and why it doesn’t quite seem to add up), how the novel is reminiscent of george orwell’s work, and whether the story is global by design or if we’re missing details that make it specific to japan. we talk about the meta chapters (the story within the text), whose ending is more preferable (the narrator or r’s), and the cumulative effect of the text and the subsequent removal of memories.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilsonthe sugar frosted nutsack by mark leynerdetransition, baby by torrey petersantkind by charlie kaufmanthe chain by adrian mckintyyour name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneffthe memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyderthe catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our next undaptable novel is your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff, which is a very tough book to discuss — and also one that feels like a culmination of our podcast so far. we talk about how modern the book feels, the specific in-jokes she’s making to the literary world, and how the authors treat their readers with kindness. we sort of struggle to describe what this book is “about,” and we discuss whether or not dewitt and gridneff lost the plot. joey offers a brief joke watch recap. egg’s email inspires a lot of varied conversation, both about this book and otherwise. does this book make more sense as a 2008 or 2025 release, or is that irrelevant? does the large text section show up even bigger in large print editions? once again, we excitedly preview the table for fortune module.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilsonthe sugar frosted nutsack by mark leynerdetransition, baby by torrey petersantkind by charlie kaufmanthe chain by adrian mckintyyour name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneffthe memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyderthe catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger