Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

Afleveringen

1. The Literary Hall of Shame

   8 september 2026 · 36 min

   Afspelen
   In our last episode of the season, Marlon and Jake take on the worst books by the best authors—or at least, authors they usually love. They discuss why a journalist’s instincts can be both a gift and a curse when writing fiction, the importance of a great editor, writers who seem more interested in ideas than people, and novels that try so hard to be current they end up aging badly. Tune in for a conversation about literary misfires and wasted genius. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper

   The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches

   In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches

   The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

   Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

   The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

   I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

   Orlando by Virginia Woolf

   Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

   A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

   Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

   The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

   The Golden Bowl by Henry James

   My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer

   Quicksand by Nella Larsen

   The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

   The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

   Hotel by Arthur Hailey

   Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins

   The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins

   Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

   Whirlwind by James Clavell

   Gai-Jin by James Clavell

   The Breast by Philip Roth

   Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

   Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow

   Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow

   A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré

   The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré

   A Perfect Spy by John le Carré

   The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett

   The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye

   Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

   Until August by Gabriel García Márquez

   Heartburn by Nora Ephron

   Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer

   The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

   The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

   India: A Wounded Civilization…

2. English Teachers, Look Away

   1 september 2026 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake discuss the books they’d banish from school reading lists—not ban but give a well-earned time out. They consider why the Bible shouldn’t make the cut, why mythology deserves to expand beyond the Greeks and Romans, and what kinds of books actually resonate with high school readers. Plus: why being a great book doesn’t necessarily make something a great book to teach—and whether length should matter. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper

   Mythology by Edith Hamilton

   Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

   The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

   The Pearl by John Steinbeck

   “Who Am I This Time?” by Kurt Vonnegut

   King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard

   Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

   The Tempest by William Shakespeare

   The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye

   The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

   “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges

   “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges

   Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

   The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis

   The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

   The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

   Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

   Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

   The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy by Douglas Adams

   The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

   The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

   The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

   The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

   The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

   As You Like It by William Shakespeare

   Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

   You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart

   A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

   Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

   Animal Farm by George Orwell

   1984 by George Orwell

   The Trial by Franz Kafka

   Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

   The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

   Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

   Look Back in Anger by John Osb…

3. In Defense of Gratuitous Violence

   25 augustus 2026 · 39 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake take on violence in fiction: what makes it effective, what makes it gratuitous, and whether “gratuitous violence” is even a useful distinction. Tune in as they discuss the difference between violence on the page and on screen and why extended cruelty can be harder to stomach than violence itself. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   Lord of the Flies by William Golding

   All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

   Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs

   Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

   Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

   The Godfather by Mario Puzo

   The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

   A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

   2666 by Roberto Bolaño

   Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

   Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

   The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

   Hamlet by William Shakespeare

   King Lear by William Shakespeare

   Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

   A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman

   Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

4. The Most Important Character Isn’t a Character

   18 augustus 2026 · 48 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake explore the power of setting in novels—and why the best stories feel like they couldn’t have happened anywhere else. They discuss settings that become characters in their own right, fictional worlds they’d love (or absolutely hate) to inhabit, and books that made unexpected places fascinating. Plus: why a modern-day Captain Nemo might just be a tech bro. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   Amerika by Franz Kafka

   Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

   Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

   Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

   Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian

   Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

   The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson

   The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

   We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

   Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis

   Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

   The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

   Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

   Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake

   Dubliners by James Joyce

   The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers

   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

   Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

   Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

   Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

   The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

   One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

   The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

   From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

   The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

   The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

   My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola

   The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

   Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

   A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

   Macbeth by William Shakespeare

   Dune by Frank Herbert

   The Last Man by Mary Shelley

   Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ing…

5. This Got More Personal Than We Expected

   11 augustus 2026 · 37 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake explore the books that have helped define who they are, choosing four that capture different parts of their personalities and lives. They unpack how reading can shape our understanding of identity, community, and growing up—and change the way we see ourselves and each other. Tune in as they reflect on books they encountered at exactly the right (or wrong) time and the stories that made the world around them feel a little bigger. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   Amadeus by Peter Shaffer

   Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer

   The Lion in Winter by James Goldman

   The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

   Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

   Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

   The Red and the Black by Stendhal

   The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

   Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

   Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

   The Aspern Papers by Henry James

   Persuasion by Jane Austen

   A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

   Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie

   Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter

   Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter

   For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

   Sula by Toni Morrison

   The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

   X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

   The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

   All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

   A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

   Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

   The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley

6. Why Does Great Literature Have Such Bad Sex?

   4 augustus 2026 · 36 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake dive into one of literature's trickiest subjects: sex. Why do some writers capture intimacy with honesty while others veer into the unintentionally hilarious? Along the way, they discuss why writing about sex is really writing about people, the differences between American and French attitudes toward sexuality in fiction, ghost stories as a vehicle for taboo desires, and the delicate balance between telling the truth and keeping readers engaged. Tune in for a conversation about why the best writing on sex is rarely just about sex. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

   “The Diamond Mine” by Nadine Gordimer

   The Late Bourgeois World by Nadine Gordimer

   Death of Venice by Thomas Mann

   The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

   Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig

   Miracle of the Rose by Jean Genet

   Maurice by E. M. Forster

   The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

   Ernesto by Umberto Saba

   Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

   London Fields by Martin Amis

   The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

   Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown

   G. by John Berger

   Flashman series

   Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

   The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis

   The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

   The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

   Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

   Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

   The Godfather by Mario Puzo

   Jaws by Peter Benchley

7. Writers We'll Never Read Again (Sorry, Faulkner)

   28 juli 2026 · 40 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake tackle the writers they have no interest in revisiting, asking when it's worth giving a beloved (or notorious) author another chance and when it's perfectly fine to walk away for good. Tune in as they debate literary canon, books that simply aren't for them, the difference between a difficult author and a difficult book, and why sometimes the most honest review is, "Nobody needs to go back to that" Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   The Executioner series by Don Pendleton

   Hotel by Arthur Hailey

   Airport by Arthur Hailey

   Wheels by Arthur Hailey

   The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey

   Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

   Shōgun by James Clavell

   Tai-Pan by James Clavell

   King Rat by James Clavell

   Whirlwind by James Clavell

   Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

   The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson

   Light in August by William Faulkner

   Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

   The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

   As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

   Pylon by William Faulkner

   In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

   Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote

   Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

   “Where Is the Voice Coming from?” by Eudora Welty

   The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers

   The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

   Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

   Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

   The Return of a Native by Thomas Hardy

   The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

   The Summer Before the Dark by Doris Lessing

   Children of Violence series by Doris Lessing

   Pentimento by Lillian Hellman

   Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman

   An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman

   The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

   The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

   Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara

   Butterfield 8 by John O’Hara

   A Rage to Live by John O’Hara

   Sophie’s Choi…

8. Is Jane Eyre Okay?

   21 juli 2026 · 36 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake explore why we're so eager to revisit the worlds of our favorite stories, asking whether great characters are better left where their authors left them—or if there's value in imagining what came before or after. Tune in as they unpack the appeal of sequels, the pitfalls of origin stories, and why some fictional worlds are more powerful when they remain a mystery. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content. https://sites.prh.com/riverhead-reader-newsletter

   A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes

   Lord of the Flies by William Golding

   Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

   The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon

   Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

   Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser

   Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

   To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

   The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding

   The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

   Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

   Lost Horizon by James Hilton

   Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

   Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

   The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

   Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

   Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

   David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

   The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

   Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

   Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

   A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

   Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

   Bleak House by Charles Dickens

   Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

   Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

   Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker

   The Tempest by William Shakespeare

9. Calling Bullshit on Dystopias

   14 juli 2026 · 43 min

   Afspelen
   Marlon and Jake dive into the world of dystopian fiction, unpacking what truly makes a dystopia—and whether some of the genre’s biggest ideas hold up under closer scrutiny. Along the way, they discuss why some dystopias feel more believable than others, how our understanding of these stories changes over time, and the real-world parallels that make them resonate long after the final page. Tune in as they explore how history, power, and human nature shape the worlds we imagine. Lees meer

   Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

   Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

   The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

   The Last Man by Mary Shelley

   1984 by George Orwell

   Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

   Pilgermann by Russell Hoban

   The Road by Cormac McCarthy

   Lord of the Flies by William Golding

   Pincher Martin by William Golding

   Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

10. Clearing the Cobwebs

    7 juli 2026 · 38 min

    Afspelen
    Welcome back for a new season! Marlon and Jake catch up on what they’ve been reading, writing, and working on, including Marlon’s new novel, and explore the books they return to when it’s time to create. They discuss the stories that inspire rather than intimidate, the surprising value of giving up on a book, and the writers they revisit to clear the cobwebs from their minds. Tune in to hear how reading shapes their creative process, from finding the right voice to discovering what makes great dialogue. Lees meer

    Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.

    “A Trifle from Life” by Anton Chekhov

    Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

    The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

    “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

    The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

    War Music by Christopher Logue

    The Odyssey by Homer

    The Oresteia by Aeschylus

    Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

    Maurice by E. M. Forster

    Ernesto by Umberto Saba

    Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

    New Hampshire by Robert Frost

    In Parenthesis by David Jones

    Civil War by Lucan

Alle 45 afleveringen →