Two Month Review

The only book podcast you'll ever want. They actually offer in-depth analysis of the books they're reviewing. It's basically like all the conversations you wish you had with friends about the books you read. The people who host the show & the guests they have on are funny, entertaining, and knowledgable. The podcast overall allows for a more interesting reading experience if you keep with each episode. Highly recommend giving it a go.

The hosts deserve credit for promoting challenging/unusual fiction, especially in translation, but the delivery is hard to listen to. Analysis is minimal and rarely goes beyond “best bits” and inarticulate, chortling college-boy-level enthusiasm. The co-host, Brian, has little to say; Chad can occasionally be roused to make interesting connections about the text at hand; but both can just as easily spend half an hour on what Pink Floyd meant to them in high school and other topics only distantly related, if at all, to the text being discussed. And, despite constant appeals for thoughts and questions from listeners, they appear to ignore them—YMMV. Guests on the podcast are usually scrambling to keep up with the inane chatter — Rachel Cordasco (2017) was an exception in this regard, as she was successful at making interesting observations about the book being discussed and didn’t get diverted by the boys’-club hi-jinks — no doubt the show could use more female guests. I realize the show generally promotes books Open Letter or Dalkey are publishing, so one can’t expect much in the way of discussion of the books’ weaknesses, but listening, you’d think all of the books covered were equally good and without flaw. The books —and their authors — deserve better.

Truly one of the best book podcasts out there! In depth, meaningful discussions of awesome books in translation paired with a lot of fun banter between the hosts and invite guests.

For anyone interested in deep & insightful conversations (with great humor) about translated literature this podcast is essential.