Booked.

490 - The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni

Back into our normal rhythm, here's our 10th book review of the year, The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni. This book came as a recommendation from Alma Katsu when we had her on to talk about her latest book The Deep. After the review we catch up on what we've been watching. Come back next week for a review of Michael David Wilson's debut novella The Girl in the Video!

489 - Grady Hendrix interview

You're probably tired of us by now. We just can't help ourselves. This time, we grabbed some time with Grady Hendrix to talk about his book that just dropped, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. It was an excellent conversation that we hope you enjoy as much as we did! Coming soon: a review of The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni!

488 - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

We're back again. Already. With another book review! This time, it's all about the neighborhood moms taking on vampires. And don't worry, we're continuing our break-neck pace of episode posting, because we'll be posting an interview with Grady Hendrix before the week is out! Then, the following week we'll be talking about The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni. Then maybe an interview with her. And somewhere in all of that, maybe we'll get some sleep.

487 - Josh Malerman interview

Here's a surprise extra episode! Much like Josh Malerman surprised the world with the release of a serialized novel on his website, we are surprising the same world by dropping an unannounced interview! It's an amazing and inspiring conversation, so strap in for a huge conversation!

486 - Max Barry interview

So we got a narrow 30 minute window to chat with Max Barry, and this is the discussion that came of it. We spent most of the time talking about his new book Providence. It was a great conversation. If you're looking for more, you can go waaaaaaay back to our interview with Max in September of 2011, where we talk to him about his book Machine Man, neuroplasticity, and a lot more. Enjoy!

485 - Providence by Max Barry

We're back with a Max Barry review! This is his latest, a sci-fi book where the future citizens of the Earth venture out into space to fight a terrifying alien race, relying heavily on an AI powered ship to get the job done. Not usually our glass of lemonade, but we both actually really enjoyed it. Check back very soon for our interview with Max Barry, which should post within a day or two of the review.

484 - Ninth Anniversary

In which we really try to not be boring, we talk about the unavoidable current events, and Livius gets a little to zipper friendly.

483 - That Left Turn at Albuquerque by Scott Phillips

We're back with a review of the latest from Scott Phillips: That Left Turn at Albuquerque. Now I know you're thinking it's a biography of Bugs Bunny, but you're a little off. It's a really tight and entertaining crime novel about a lawyer who gets up to some shady shenanigans. And guess what? Next week is our ninth anniversary episode! Hit us up on our voicemail, and we may add it to the episode. 773-599-1057.

482 - Alma Katsu Interview

We're back super fast with an interview with Alma Katsu! The first of hopefully many excellent interviews in 2020 for Booked. If you've been paying attention, we reviewed Alma's book The Deep in the previous episode, and dropped a little spoiler talk as well over on our Patreon. Next episode: a review of That Left Turn at Albuquerque by Scott Phillips!

481 - The Deep by Alma Katsu

We're back with our latest review for 2020 - our second review of a book by Alma Katsu. The first one we talked about, The Hunger, was about the infamous Donner Party. This time, The Deep tells a story about passengers of the ill-fated Titanic, and how maybe something supernatural is influencing what happens on the ship. Stick around for tons more content, as we're about to drop an interview with the author herself, as well as Spoiler Talk for the review on our Patreon!

480 - Interlude

In which we discuss reading goals, libraries, the final 2020 Stoker nominees, throwback reviews, the passing of a literary giant (and the ensuing poor media coverage), smart water bottles, state abbreviations varying based on the style guide you follow, and take a peek at what's up next episode.

479 - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

We're back with our second Patreon pick of the year. This time, Misty Bennett has chosen another Blake Crouch book, Dark Matter! While matters of national security prevented Misty for joining us for the review, we still had a great chat about science, multiple universes, and collecting pee in jars. Head over to our Patreon and give just $1/month for Spoiler Talk for Dark Matter, which is almost half the length if this episode!

478 - The Sopranos by Alan Warner

It's our first Patreon pick of 2020! Jesse Lawrence shares with us one of his favorite authors. It's a story about a group of small town school girls with a plan to go wild in the big city when they attend a choir competition. There's shenanigans aplenty, and a whole lot of fun. Very Scottish fun.

Supporting us at the $10/month tier on Patreon gives you the chance to choose a book for us to review once a year (and you can choose to join us on the review!), so if you've got something you've been dying to talk about, now is your chance!

477 - Slow Bear by Anthony Neil Smith

We're back with another book review. And this episode sees us again reading the latest from an author from the very beginning of the podcast. This time, we're tackling the new novella Slow Bear, by Anthony Neil Smith. Neil was on the podcast a couple time back in the day, and we reviewed a few of his novels as well. If you're into Noir stories, you'll probably want to check this out.

476 - How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleischmann

We're back with another book review! This time it's a book about a woman in Alaska who gets a clue about what happened to her sister that disappeared 20 years ago. This is our first book of 2020 that we're doing a spoiler talk for, so check out our Patreon for that. Also, we do a good amount of talk about what we've been watching, and some of the movie recommendations will be a surprise! Next week we're reviewing a new novella by Anthony Neil Smith.

475 - Interlude

We're back with an Interlude episode. In this one, we talk about buying used books, libraries, and why we don't have theme music. Coming next week: a book review. For sure.

474 - Bad People by Craig Wallwork

We're back with our first review of 2020, and it's Bad People by long-time friend of the podcast, Craig Wallwork. We reveal what we thought of the book using our brand-new rating system. And if you want to learn more about our new rating system, check out our video on YouTube where we go into detail about what it is and how it works. Hope you enjoy!

473 - Decade In Review

You read that right. We review an entire decade. From Angry Birds to Vine, from Gangnam Style to Harambe, From fidget spinners to Pokemon Go, from Brexit to Pepe, we cover it all.

Actually no, we only talked about things that happened on the podcast. Reviews and stuff. Because that's what you're here for.

Thank you for almost a decade of support! We appreciate you more than we could ever express!

472 - Is this the best book of 2019? Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

Through a series of math exercises and arcane rituals, the Booked. fellas discovered that Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is considered by a majority of people who make lists to be the best book of 2019. Well, we wanted to know for ourselves. Is this the best book we read in 2019? Tune in to find out. And stick around, there's certainly some spoiler talk for this baby.

471 - 2019 Office Holiday Party

Happy holidays from the Booked. team! We're back with a tradition as old as time. Our annual Christmas episode. What do we do in these Christmas episodes? We talk about a Christmas movie - this year it's Home Alone. Then we do some gift exchanges, and other holiday themed talk. It's a lot of fun, so grab some egg nog and check it out. And if you want to see the video version, head to our Facebook page to check it out there. Happy Holidays!

470 - Richard Chizmar interview

Hot on the heels of our review of the Gwendy books by Richard Chizmar and Stephen King, we were lucky enough to get some time to talk with Richard about writing the Gwendy books, collaborating with a literary legend (and other), running Cemetery Dance for THREE DECADES, and a lot more. We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did!

469 - Interlude

We're back with an interlude episode. This time, we talk a little about mouth health, Twin Peaks, House of Leaves, and some books we're excited about for the coming year. I know it sounds like we're talking about the hot topics of the 90s and 2000s, but seriously this is some hot-off-the-press conversation.

468 - Gwendy's Button Box and Gwendy's Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar and Stephen King

Don't worry, Robb's back.

Oh yeah, and we're reviewing not one, but TWO books this episode. The Stephen King/Richard Chizmar co-authored book Gwendy's Button Box and Chizmar's solo follow-up Gwendy's Magic Feather. It's great to be back in the saddle again, and we chose a couple great books for Robb to come back to.

467 - Terror Mannequin by Douglas Hackle with guest reviewer Frank Edler

The most important thing for you to know about this episode is that Robb is not in it at all. Not even for one second.

Um. Yeah that's about it. Livius talks about a book I guess, with that dude from Bizzong.

466 - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

We've been waiting for eight years to get our hands on a new book by this author. We read Erin's first novel The Night Circus in the first year of this podcast, and it was probably one of our first favorites. It's certainly a love that has endured over the years.

Did we absolutely love the follow-up effort? YES. So have a listen to what we thought was so great about it, and if you support our Patreon, there's some spoiler talk as well. But I'll warn you, spoiler talk contains spoilers!