You Should Probably Read More

You Should Probably Read More
  • 4.8 (24)
  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Reading books and talking shit - what co-hosts, besties, and fellow book nerds Shanon Kelley and Nolan Bellavance love to do best.

  1. JAN 14

    Best of 2025 with Shanon & Nolan

    We're baaaaaaaack! Sorry for the wait yall, life comes at ya real quick. As always, we wait until the actual end of the year to make it through everything we want to read so if you think this is late just remember everyone else copped out and made lists too early. That's what we tell ourselves. So in this episode we catch up on some book news and then present our top 5 books of the year (each) plus books we're looking forward to in 2026. Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode: David Szalay - Flesh Rabih Alameddine - The True True Story of Raja The Gullible Rachel Reid - Heated Rivalry Series Mark Z. Danielewski - Tom’s Crossing Jess Walter - So Far Gone Lucas Schaefer - The Slip Addie E Hitchens - Dominion Sean Hewitt - Open, Heaven Katie Riley - Ruth Torrey Peter - Stag Dance Virginia Evans - The Correspondent Daniel Kraus - Angel Down Brian Goldstone - There Is No Place For Us George Saunders - Vigil Douglas Stuart - John of John Patrick Radden Keefe - London falling Jesmyn Ward - On Witness and Repair Daniel Mason - Country People Ben Lerner - Transcipt

    44 min

  2. 08/30/2025

    "There Is No Place For Us" with Brian Goldstone

    Whoops! We skipped a month. Consider it our summer vacation. But we’ve got a big one this episode. Here’s the deal: if there is one book you should read this year it’s Brian Goldstone’s “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America” The book is an incredible work of journalism as it “…follows five families in Atlanta as they struggle to find stable housing while navigating low-wage work, predatory landlords, a lack of tenant protections, and a system that prioritizes profit over people's basic need for a home.” We’re honored to have Brian on the pod with us to talk about his experience writing such an emotionally taxing work.  But first: James Joyce’s love for farts.  Intro: Olga Tokarczuk - The Empusium Joyce Carol Oates - Fox V.E. Schwab - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil S.A. Cosby - King of Ashes Jess Walter - So Far Gone  Jess Walter - Beautiful Ruins  JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Series  James Joyce - The Selected Letters of James Joyce  Brian Goldstone - There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove Hugh Raffles - The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time Katherine Boo - Behind the Beautiful Forevers Adrian Nicole Leblanc - Random Family  Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Matthew Desmond Rachel Aviv Barbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimed  Peter Rossi- Down and Out in America: The Origins of Homelessness Ezra Klein - Abundance  Toni Morrison - The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

    1h 16m

  3. 06/21/2025

    "Let's go to Danzig's House" with Dan Ozzi

    Ocean Vuong fans beware, Nolan has SOMETHING TO SAY about Emperor of Gladness. After weeks venting in the chat he's finally able to let it out on air. After that we're joined by Dan Ozzi, the best-selling author of Sellout, co-author of Fahrenheit 182 (Mark Hoppus' memoir) and co-author of Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout (Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!'s memoir). And some special shit talking on James Frey. What we do best! Books and Authors mentioned in this episode: Ocean Vuong - Emperor of Gladness Ocean Vuong - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous  Keith McNally - I Regret Almost Everything Kevin Nguyen - My Documents Natsu Kirino - Out  Tash Aw - The South  Lori Ostlund - Are You Happy? Maxin Loskutoff - Old King Taylor Jenkins Reid - Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo  Dan Ozzi - Sell out  Mark Hoppus with Dan Ozzi - Fahrenheit 182 Laura Jane Grace with Dan Ozzi - Tranny Nick Tosches - Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story Our band could be your life Larry Livermore: How To Ru(i)n A Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records  Silke Tudor & Jack Boulware - Gimme Something Better  Peter Guralnick - Last Train To Memphis Sam McPheeters - Mutations Scott McClanahan - The Incantations of Daniel Johnston  Lawrence Burney - No Sense in Wishing Bud Smith - Teenager Sinéad O’Connor - Rememberings Steve-O - Professional Idiot Pamela Anderson - Love, Pamela State by State with the State

    1h 14m

  4. 05/22/2025

    "George Orwell, Get Me Outta Here!" with Mitra Jouhari

    Shanon and Nolan dive into our recent Homesteading obsession and chat with the very funny (with the best laugh) writer and actor Mitra Jouhari about her journey from The Daily Show to Big Mouth – plus her very questionable, very intense Anne Frank phase. Books and Authors mentioned in this episode: Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones Stag Dance - Torrey Peters The Antidote - Karen Russell Open, Heaven - Seán Hewitt The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy Ocean Vuong - The Emperor of Gladness The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides Intersex - Jeffrey Eugenides Fresh Complaint - Jeffrey Eugenides Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon The Lying Game - Ruth Ware The Coin - Yasmin Zaher The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden Stay True - Hua Hsu The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank Night - Elie Wiesel Atonement - Ian McEwen  Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand On Writing - Steven King

    1 hr

  5. 03/29/2025

    "Ghosted by Stevie Wonder" with Cord Jefferson

    This one’s a long-time-coming! We finally have our buddy, Cord Jefferson, on the pod. We know Cord from our NY days when he was at Gawker but you might know him from winning an Oscar for adapted screenplay for American Fiction, which he also directed and which was based on Perceival Everett’s Erasure. Cord also won an Emmy for writing that really good episode of The Watchmen about the Tulsa Massacre. We talk to him about possibly winning an E-G-O, desert noir, how much of a badass Perceival Everett is and much more.  Books and Authors Mentioned in this Episode: Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers - You Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers - What is the What Christina Rivera Garza - Death Takes Me Allegra Goodman - Isola Charlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark Shore Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count  Tory Peters - Stag Dance Tory Peters - Detransition, Baby Leila Lalami - Dream Hotel Leila Lalami - The Other Americans Percival Everett - Erasure Alan Moore - Watchmen Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven  Walter Van Tilburg Clark - The Ox-Bow Incident Percival Everett - God’s Country Percival Everett - James  Samantha Harvey - Orbital Maxim Luskatoff - Old King  Lion Feuchtwanger - The Oppermanns Sebastian Haffner - Defying Hitler James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room Philip Roth - The Human Stain  James McBride - The Good Lord Bird Colson Whitehead - Nickel Boys Robert Jones Jr - The Prophets  Isaac Asimov - Foundation Ted Chiang - Exhalation Kurt Vonnegut Follow Cord: @cordjefferson Follow Us: @youshouldprobablyreadmore

    1h 10m

  6. 02/24/2025

    "CRIME DADDY" with Jordan Harper

    We did it. We got our new favorite Crime Daddy on the pod. Jordan Harper joins us to talk LA, Punks vs Nazis, the Ozarks and Noir. We love him. RIP to Nolan's cat Edie & Jordan's dog Ellroy Books and Authors mentioned in this episode: Bel Canto - Ann Patchett  The Vegetarian - Han Kang  We Do Not Part - Han Kang The Last King of California  - Jordan Harper  Everything Must Go: Stories We Tell Ourselves About the End of the World - Dorian Lynskey  Gliff - Ali Smith Witchcraft For Wayward Girls - Grady Hendrix  My Best Friend’s Exorcism - Grady Hendrix The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix The obscene bird of night - José Donoso Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez Playworld - Adam Ross Onyx Storm - Rebecca Yarros The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA - Jesse Katz Harriet The Spy - Louise Fitzhugh The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain The Great Brain (Series) - John Dennis Fitzgerald Stephen King  Hunter S Thompson  The Drifters - James A. Michener  LA Confidential - James Ellroy Cormac McCarthy Red Riding (Series) - David Peace S.A. Cosby Dare Me - Megan Abbott Beware the Woman - Megan Abbott  The Contortionist’s Handbook - Craig Clevenger Everybody Knows - Jordan Harper David Sedaris James Baldwin Mary Shelley Follow Jordan online at @jordan_harper_Yo and follow us @youshouldprobablyreadmore

    1h 10m

  7. 01/18/2025

    Best of 2024 with Addison Kirst (des pair books)

    When we say Best of the Year we mean the WHOLE damn year (we need all the time we can get to read all the books from all the other lists!) so here it is, in mid-January, our Best of 2024 roundup. We’re joined by a very special guest, our friend and fellow bookclub member, Addison Kirst, owner of des pair books in Echo Park, Los Angeles.  Books and Authors mentioned in this Episode: Sally Rooney - Intermezzo Percival Everett - James  Miranda July - All Fours  Richard Flanagan - Question 7 Yael vanderwooten - The Safe Keep Trisha Romano - The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture Dolly Atherton - Good Material Claire Dederer - Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma  Robert Plunket - Love junkie Louis Ferdinand Celine - War   Elizabeth Beller - Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Kaveh Akbar - Martyr!  Rachel Kushner - Creation Lake Garth Greenwell - Small rain Mark Twain - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn William Faulkner   Louis Ferdinand Celine - Journey to the End of the Night H.G. Wells Rebecca West Anton Chekhov Richard Flanagan - Death of a River Guide  Rick Rubin - The Creative Act: A Way of Being Cookie Mueller - Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black Sofia Coppola - Archive Simone de Beauvoir - The Woman Destroyed   Otessa Moshfegh - Homesick For Another World  James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room  Eve Babitz - Sex and Rage   Sarah J Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses  Bram Stoker - Dracula  Mary Shelley - Frankenstein  Salman Rushdie - Knife - Elif Shafak - There are Rivers in the Sky   Liz Moore - God of the Woods  Martin MacInnes - In Ascension Charles Burns - Final Cut Danzy Senna - Color Television Tony Tulathimutte - Rejection Jordan Harper - Last King of California  Hanif Abdurraqib - There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension Stefan Zweig - Beware of Pity  Magda Szabo Stacy Horn - Killing fields of East New York Nicholas Carr - Superbloom  Karen Russell - The Antidote  Sarah Silgar - Vantage Point   Ali Smith - Gliff Emma pattee - Tilt  Han Kang - We Do Not Part  Florence Knapp - The Names  Joyce Carol Oates - Fox / Butcher Rebecca Yarros - Onyx Storm Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Dream Count S A Cosby - King of Ashes Jon Savage -  The Secret Public Samantha Harvey - Orbital Got something to say? Hit us up at @youshouldprobablyreadmore Buy your books from @despairbooks www.despairbooks.com

    50 min

  8. 12/21/2024

    Our One Year Anniversary

    It’s our One Year Anniversary! Thank you all for listening to our lil pod this past year and for your comments and engagement with it. It's been really fun talking (and shit-talking) books and we're excited to continue this into next year- starting with our "Best of 24" list in January (you know we take every day we can get to try to get through all of these!).  This episode is just Shanon and Nolan- discussing the books we’re reading, Luigi, Cormac & other book news plus a hot new crime author daddy we’re obsessed with.  Books and Authors mentioned in this episode: Mariana Enriquez - Our Share of Night Mariana Enriquez - A Sunny Place for Shady People  Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter  Jason de Leon - Soldiers and Kings  Jordan Harper - Last King of California  Jordan Harper - She Rides Shotgun Jordan Harper - Everybody Knows  Dr. Seuss - The Lorax 100 Years War on Palestine  Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Glenn Beck - A Christmas Sweater

    43 min
See All (20)

4.8
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

Reading books and talking shit - what co-hosts, besties, and fellow book nerds Shanon Kelley and Nolan Bellavance love to do best.

Information

  • Creator
    You Should Probably Read More
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © You Should Probably Read More
  • Show Website
    You Should Probably Read More

You Might Also Like