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Books of Some Substance

Join hosts David Southard and Nathan Sharp as they explore the books that shape our world. Whether you’re a lifelong book lover or just starting your reading journey, join along to discover literature that has the power to inspire, challenge, and transform our lives.
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Now displaying: Category: literature podcast

Welcome to the Books of Some Substance (B.O.S.S.) Podcast.

Read the books, take a listen.

Jun 23, 2017

你好 (Ni hao) Comrades! Join us,  kan-pu Nathan, Nick, and David, for another full length episode of Deep Cultural Propaganda from American Imperialists (aka The Books of Some Substance Podcast).

Dystopian literature and discussions of authoritarianism abound, and few things were more dystopian than living under the slow-crushing boot of authoritarian Maoist China. On this episode, witness the true confessions of Nick's Obscure Relations with straight-edge militant punk bands, Nathan's deviant modes of Thought Mobilization, and David's Disgorging of Bitter Fluid.  

We highly recommend you find yourself a copy of Eileen Chang's Naked Earth, give it a read, and listen along.

If you are interested in joining up and receiving bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read or check out Nick's novella), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/ 

 

FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER  

May 24, 2017

Time to dust off your favorite huqin record. As the gramophone spins, the huqin's wail tells a story too desolate for words-oh! why go into it? Well, on this episode we explore Chang's desolate story "Love in a Fallen City" and parse why we think she bothers going into it. Join us as we discuss war, freedom, the deception of twice-over whoredom, sandflies, and the subtleties of love and Chang's narrative. 

 

If you are interested in joining up and receiving bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read or check out Nick's novella), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/ 

 

FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER  

 

Eileen Chang (張煐) [1920-1995] may now be most known for her novella Lust, Caution after Ang Lee adapted it into a popular film, but her two novels critical of the communist society that she fled The Rice Sprout Song and Naked Earth are becoming more widely read. B.O.S.S.'s next book will be Naked Earth. 

 

Dec 14, 2016
9 - A Warped Tour of Cynicism: Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt

Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to another full length episode of the Books of Some Substance Podcast. On this episode: Nathan finds in Babbitt a flapper-ite hipsterish cesspool of nihilism; David allows a groan (or seven) of tedium to escape him, as he finds “substance” to have escaped from the novel itself; and Nick, having enveloped himself in far more Lewis than Zenith's house-call doctor would recommend, finds the realism, clever vernacular, and biting satire not only lasting in historical interest but entirely relevant to today’s vapid excesses. Dive in. The world is yours!

 Links:  

Our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/

Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksOfSomeSubstance/

Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/booksosubstance

 Nick’s book PWR VOL: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/imprint-list/pwr-vol and https://www.amazon.com/pwr-vol-Nick-Scandy/dp/0998188808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481669327&sr=8-1&keywords=PWR+VOL

 

David’s story: https://tahomaliteraryreview.com/current-issue-2/

Nov 16, 2016
8 - Sorry Sinclair: Sinclair Lewis' Early Business Stories

Welcome back! The B.O.S.S. Podcast returns!

As we gear up for Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt, we open up a forgotten time capsule to read about the rise of white collar work at the beginning of the 20th Century, a world looking to sell you on pep! vim! zip! and zing! but ultimately dreary. Nothing really changes. 

 

On this shortened episode, and more so than usual, Nick guides Nathan and David through the stories "Snappy Display" and "Way I See It."

ALSO! We are happy to announce the beginnings of B.O.S.S. Underground Press and our first release: PWR VOL written by our very own Nick Scandy, illustrated by Aaron Zonka, and scored by mini and the Bear. 

Episode Music: "chemical.static.hum" by mini and the Bear  

Join the B.O.S.S. Book Club for cool artwork and to get in on the conversation: www.booksofsomesubstance.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksOfSomeSubstance/

On Twitter: @BooksOSubstance

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His most popular novels are Main StreetBabbittElmer Gantry, and It Can't Happen Here. Like many writers, he drank himself to death. 

Aug 16, 2016
7 - End Without End: Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain

The mountain grumbles, Shingo mumbles. But it is hard to hear him over the sound of the dishes.

On this full length episode we discuss Yasunari Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain and try to come to terms with the dying patriarch’s aimless drift towards the end. Is it apathetic existentialism? Good old-fashion failure? The culture of post-war Japan? Personal defeatism? Idiocy? Anger? Or an odd replication of nature’s non-action?

As always, read the novel and give us a listen.

Join the B.O.S.S. Book Club for cool artwork and to get in on the conversation: www.booksofsomesubstance.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksOfSomeSubstance/

On Twitter: @BooksOSubstance

Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) is a Japanese novelist who won the Nobel Prize in 1968. His most famous novels are Snow CountryThousand Cranes, and The Sound of the Mountain. His work is often poetic, lyrical, and melancholic.

 

Jul 18, 2016
6 - Between Poetry and Prose: Kawabata's Palm of the Hand Stories

Memory as time travel. Enigmatic lovers. The comfort of objects. A ghostly romantic comedy. Each, one of Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm of the Hand stories under discussion. Each description merely a scratch at the surface of meaning and depth found in these subtle, quiet works.

On this shortened episode, as B.O.S.S. prepares for Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain, David, Nathan, and Nick look at four of the reductionist vignettes: “A Sunny Place,” “Sleeping Habit,” “The Silver Fifty-Sen Pieces,” and “Immortality.”  

Between poetry and prose lies a different form. Between the past and the future is the now. Within the now is all time, all meaning. Or, something like that…

As always, read the stories and give us a listen.

Join the B.O.S.S. Book Club for cool shit and get in on the conversation: www.booksofsomesubstance.com

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BooksOfSomeSubstance/

Follow us on Twitter: @BooksOSubstance

May 31, 2016
5 - Life and Living with Henderson the Rain King

From death and dying to life and living. On this full length episode, we examine the humor, the horror, the existential, the wonder, and even the disagreeable in the lost and found (and possibly changed) madcap protagonist Eugene Henderson of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. 

With Nathan out sick, Nick and David are joined by Eric Heiman, official B.O.S.S. Book Club member and unofficial Bellow buff. 

As always, read the book and give us listen. 

Check out: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/

Follow us on twitter: @BooksOSubstance

Apr 15, 2016
4 - Death and Dying with Saul Bellow

It’s an exceptionally smart man who isn’t marked forever by the theories he reads in passing from books, and we aren't all that smart. 

On this shortened episode, we discuss the Bellow short stories "Leaving the Yellow House" and "A Silver Dish." There's rugged individualism. There's death and dying. There's the spin from that great wheel of fortune we all eventually spin and the bright, shiny electric one Nick may spin on broadcast television.

As always, read the stories and give us a listen.

Check out http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/ 

Follow us on twitter @BooksOSubstance 

Feb 20, 2016
3 - The Master and Margarita

In this episode, we talk through the (beautiful?) mess of madness that is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Listen as Nick argues against the false binaried balance of Good and Evil, as David floats in the abeyance of cold medicine, and as Nathan grows into the role of curmudgeon and questions the punk-rockitude of Nick and David. 

Feb 20, 2016
2 - Heart of a Dog

David, Nathan, and Nick discuss Mikhail Bulgakov's satiric novel Heart of a Dog and come to some conclusions on the difficulties of understanding and changing our natures, whether proletariat or bourgeoisie, man-dog or mad-scientist. 

Feb 20, 2016
1 - Their Eyes Were Watching God

The premier episode of the B.O.S.S. (Books of Some Substance) Podcast! Join Nick, David, and Nathan--three bearded white dudes--as they talk about Zora Neale Hurston's black, feminist novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and try to figure it all out. 

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