The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast

In this special centenary episode of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast, we're shaking things up with an Ask Us Anything celebration! Join us as we answer listeners’ questions covering everything from our favorite books and authors to the behind-the-scenes moments of the podcasting process. We’re answering it all, sharing some fun stories, and offering a glimpse into what’s next for the show—more books!Whether you’ve been with us since episode one or are a recent listener, this milestone episode is for you. Tune in for the answers to your burning questions and to celebrate 100 episodes of literary adventures with us!The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

We’re joined by the amazing poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert to discuss some of the books that we think about all the time. We each share three books that are always on our minds and discuss the many reasons some works become such and important part of who we are.Which ones would you pick?ShownotesBooks* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert* The Word Pretty, by Elisa Gabbert* The Hurting Kind, by Ada Limón* 77 Dream Songs, by John Berryman* The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith* A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster* Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks* Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, by Cal Newport* An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, by George Perec, translated by Marc Lowenthal* A Month in Sienna, by Hisham Matar* How to Cook a Wolf, by M.F.K. Fisher* A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson* Ducks, Newburyport, by Lucy Ellmann* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky* Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky* Too Serious Ladies, by Jane Bowles* Sabrina, by Nick Drnaso* Emma, by Jane Austen* The Wild Iris, by Louise Glück* Survey Says, by Nathan Austin* The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell* Atonement, by Ian McEwan* The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. SimmsOther* Elisa Gabbert’s Poetry Column in The New York Times* Every book I read in 2024, with commentary, by Elisa Gabbert* Lost Highway, d. David Lynch* Mulholland Dr., d. David Lynch* Episode 36: Epic Books* Backlisted Podcast on Notes from Underground* Episode 25: Jane AustenThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

From glistening skyscrapers and bustling downtowns to dark alleys and creeping urban decay, cities are endlessly complicated and diverse. And so are the books that take place in urban settings. This week, we share some of our favorite city books and chat about what makes these environments so fascinating. What are your favorites?ShownotesBooks* Pink Slime, by Fernanda Trías, translated by Heather Cleary* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust* Wind and Truth, by Brandon Sanderson* The Suicides, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen* Zama, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen* The Silentiary, by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen* Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith* The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros* A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy* The City and the City, by China Miéville* Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo* The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula K. Le Guin* My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, translated by Anne Goldstein* Lush Life, by Richard Price* Solenoid, by Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu, translated by Sean Cotter* Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolfe* Ask the Dust, by John Fante* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Máquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa* Anniversaries, by Uwe Johnson, translated by Damion Searls* Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck* Ulysses, by James Joyce* New York Trilogy, by Paul Auster* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke* It, by Stephen King* The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides* Open City, by Teju Cole* Bleak House, by Charles Dickens* The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larsen* Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz, translated by Trevor Le Gassick* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon* Berlin Alexanderplatz, by Alfred Döblin, translated by Michael Hoffman* Down and Out in London, by George Orwell* City of Saints and Madmen, by Jeff Vandermeer* Cairo Trilogy, by Naguib Mahfouz, translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne M. Kenny, and Angele Botros Samaan* The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrell* London, by Edward Rutherford* Dublin, by Edward Rutherford* New York, by Edward Rutherford* Paris, by Edward RutherfordThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

To kick off the new year, we discuss some of he 2025 new releases we’re most excited about. We also share our personal 5 in ‘25—five books (new or old) that we can’t wait to read this year.What are yours?ShownotesBooks* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPhee* On the Evolution of All Political Parties, by Simone Weil, translated by Simon Leys* Wind and Truth, by Brandon Sanderson* The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones* The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman* Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright* Attila, by Aliocha Coll, translated by Katie Wittemore* Attila, by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Wittemore* Death Takes Me, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker* Time of the Flies, by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle* Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by * The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana* Is a River Alive, by Robert Macfarlane* Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane* The Hour of the Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, by Terry Tempest Williams* A Life on Paper, by George-Olivier Châteaureynard, translated by Edward Gauvin* The Messengers, by George-Olivier Châteaureynard, translated by Edward Gauvin* stay with me, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken* Love, by Hanne Ørstavik, translated by Martin Aitken* The Unworthy, by Augustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses* The White Bear, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin* A Fortunate Man, by Henrik Pontoppidan, translated by Paul Larkin* Hellions, by Julia Elliott* The Deserters, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell* Compass, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell* Zone, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell* Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell* Street of Thieves, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell* The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, by Mathias Énard, translated by Frank Wynne* Universality, by Natasha Brown* The Death of Virgil, by Hermann Broch, translated by Jean Starr Untermeyer* The Sleepwalkers, by Hermann Broch, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir* A Month in the Country, by J.C. Carr* The Adventures of China Iron, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre* Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence* The Dying Grass, by William T. Vollmann* The Ice-Shirt, by William T. Vollmann* Inferno, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander* Purgatorio, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander* Paradiso, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander* Purgatorio, by Dante, translated by D.M. Black* Paradiso, by Dante, translated by D.M. Black* The Divine Comedy, by Dante, translated by Allen Mandelbaum* The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson* The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson* Too Much of Life: The Complete Crônicas, by Clarice Lispector, translated by Margaret Jull Costa* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan* The Bridges, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan* The Seed, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Kenneth G. Chapman* The Hills Reply, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan* The Story of the Stone, by Cao Xueqin, translated by David Hawkes* The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods* The Mountain Lion, by Jean Stafford* Wolf Hall, by Hilary MantelThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

For our final episode of 2024, we finish our annual best of the year extravaganza! Here we are joined by more friends sharing their favorite reads of the year as we go through our top five.Happy New Year! We will see you in 2025!ShownotesBooks* The Overstory, by Richard Powers* Septology, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls* A Shining, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls* Boathouse, by Jon Fosse, translated by May-Brit Akerholt* Scenes from a Childhood, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls* Trilogy, by Jon Fosse, translated by May-Brit Akerholt* Aliss at the Fire, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls* Morning and Evening, by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls* We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver* Big Brother, by Lionel Shriver* The Stripping of the Altars, by Eamon Duffy * Scenes from Clerical Life, by George Eliot* Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot* Possession, by A.S. Byatt* Parade’s End, by Ford Madox Ford* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens* Frog, by Stephen Dixon* I., by Stephen Dixon* The MANIAC, by Benjamín Labatut* When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamín Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West* A Game of Hide and Seek, by Elizabeth Taylor* Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor* Angel, by Elizabeth Taylor* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken* The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, by Beth Brower* A Touch of Mistletoe, by Barbara Comyns* Mr. Fox, by Barbara Comyns* Cold Nights of Childhood, by Tezer Özlü, translated by Maureen Freely* Your Little Matter: My Mother, a News Item, by Maria Grazia Calandrone, translated by Antonella Lettieri* My Favorite, by Sarah Jollien-Fardel, translated by Holly James* Götz and Meyer, by David Albahari, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac* Escape from Berlin, by Catherine Klein* February 1933: The Winter of Literature, by Use Wittstock, translated by Daniel Bowles* Pilgrimage, by Dorothy Richardson* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstory* The Tunnel, by William H. Gass* A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories* All That Glitters, by Orlando Whitfield* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber* Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver* If on a winter’s night a traveller . . . , by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver* The Baron in the Trees, by Italo Calvino, translated by Ann Goldstein* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope* Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope* The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope* Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter* The Call of the Wild, by Jack London* “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London* Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life, by Sofia Samatar* Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner & Rosamond Lehmann, by Harriet Baker* Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, by Naomi Klein* A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria, by Caroline Crampton* A Month in the Country, by J.L. Baker* The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy* Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy* Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy* Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthyThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

Trevor and Paul are back with the fourth annual best of the year extravaganza! In Part I, we count down the first half of our en favorite reads of 2024—and we are once again joined by a cast of friends and listeners who share some of their top books and best reading experiences of the year! Another great chance to grow your TBR pile for 2025!ShownotesBooks* The Postcard, by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover* Gabriëlle, by Anne Berest and Claire Berest, translated by Tina Kover* Two Hours, by Alba Arikha* Crooked Seeds, by Karen Jennings* Fathers and Fugitives, by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns* Not Even the Dead, by Juan Gómez Bárcena, translated by Katie Whittemore* Not a River, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott* The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada, translated by Chris Andrews* Dead Girls, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott* Brickmakers, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert* Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman* Rhine Journey, by Anne Schlee* About Looking, by John Berger* The Inkal, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius* Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo, translated by Douglas J. Weatherford* The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes, by K.C. Constantine* The Premier, by Georges Simenon* Two Thousand Million Man-Power, by Gertrude Trevelyan* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay* A County Doctor, by Franz Kafka* Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Angélica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin* Sons, by Robert De Maria* Brothers, by Robert De Maria* Fletch, by Gregory McDonald* Bedlam, by Charlene Elsby* Quarry, by Max Allan Collins* A Tiler’s Afternoon, by Lars Gustfsson, translated by Tom Geddes* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, translated by * Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry* The Carrying, by Ada Limón* Picnic, Lighting, by Billy Collins* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker* Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón* The Hurting King, by Ada Limón* You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, compiled by Ada Limón* Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West* Clear, by Carys Davies* Malena, by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Philip Boehm* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken* Last Words from Montmartre, by Qin Miaojin, translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich* The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes, translated by Kate Briggs* Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917 - 1922, by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated by Jamey Gambrell* The Power of Gentleness: Meditation on the Risk of Living, by Anne Dufourmantelle, translated by Katherine Payne and Vincent Sallé* Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood, by Lucy Jones* Question 7, by Richard Flanagan* The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan* Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming* H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald* The Goshawk, by T.H. White* The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller’s Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece, by Laura Cumming* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud* James, by Percival Everett* The Trees, by Percival EverettThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

Since his death in 2022, we have been wanting to dedicate an episode to Spanish novelist Javier Marías, a master of the distrusting, long sentence. We had a lovely time reflecting on his books, which we could read again and again.What is your favorite Javier Marías book?ShownotesBooks* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope* Great Fear on the Mountain, by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, translated by Bill Johnston* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens* Three Days in June, by Anne TylerThe Works of Javier Marías* Los dominios del lobo (1971)* Voyage Along the Horizon (1973), translated by Kristina Cordero* El monarca del tiempo (1978)* El siglo (1983)* The Man of Feeling (1986), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* All Souls (1989), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* While the Women Are Sleeping (1990), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* A Heart So White (1992), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me (1994), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* When I Was Mortal (1996), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico (1996), translated by Esther Allen* Dark Back of Time (1998), translated by Esther Allen* Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear (2002), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Your Face Tomorrow 2: Dance and Dream (2004), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Your Face Tomorrow 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (2007), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* The Infatuations (2011), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Thus Bad Begins (2014), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Berta Isla (2017), translated by Margaret Jull Costa* Tomás Nevinson (2021), translated by Margaret Jull CostaThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!SubscribedMany thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

What books have you wanted to reread as soon as you finished them? Inspired by this fascinating prompt from our friend Nora, we decided to dive into this fun topic. We talk about the categories of books that inspire immediate rereads, share a few of our own examples, and discuss when (or if) we’ve ever actually done it. What books have inspired you to turn the last page and immediately go back to the beginning?ShownotesBooks* Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, by Rebecca Solnit* Absolution, by Jeff Vandermeer* Doctor Thorne, by Anthony Trollope* The Wood in Midwinter, by Susanna Clarke* On the Calculation of Volume, by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara Haveland* Minor Detail, by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette* Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier* Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones* The Warden, by Anthony Trollope* Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke* The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated by Ruth L.C. Simms* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* Moby-Dick: or, The Whale, by Herman Melville* The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein* Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson* David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens* Bleak House, by Charles Dickens* Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen* Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen* A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens* The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens* Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson* A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson* The Ghost Writer, by Philip Roth* The Counterlife, by Philip Roth* Zuckerman Unbound, by Philip Roth* The Anatomy Lesson, by Philip Roth* The Prague Orgy, by Philip Roth* American Pastoral, by Philip Roth* I Married a Communist, by Philip Roth* The Human Stain, by Philip Roth* The Taiga Syndrome, by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana* The Walk, by Robert Walser, translated by Christopher Middleton and Susan Bernofsky* Splitting and Order, by Ted Kooser* Picnic, Lightning, by Billy Collins* James, by Percival Everett* So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell* Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell* The Chateau, by William Maxwell* Felix Holt, by George Eliot* Lies and Sorcery, by Elsa Morante, translated by Jenny McPheeOther Links* Nora’s Instagram Post* One Bright Book* Episode 49: Rereading* Episode 76: Author Completionism* Episode 77: PoetryThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

We love talking about essays so much, we decided to do it again! This week, we pick up where we left off a few episodes ago, chatting about more of our favorite essayists and collections. We also share a few from our essay TBR piles. What are some of your favorites?ShownotesBooks* Greenglass House, by Kate Milford* Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford* The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin* The Unforgivable, by Cristina Campo* You Like It Darker, by Stephen King* Every Arc Bends Its Radian, by Sergio De La Pava* A Naked Singularity, by Sergio De La Pava* Ghosts, by Edith Wharton* Europe in Sepia, Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams* Karaoke Culture, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by David Williams* Muzzle for Witches, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać* Thank You for Not Reading, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth, with contribution from Damion Searls* Fox, by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać and David Williams* An Elemental Thing, by Eliot Weinberger* A Chance Meeting: American Encounters, by Rachel Cohen* Sightlines, by Kathleen Jamie* The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, by Elif Batuman* The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay* The Book of (More) Delights, by Ross Gay* Pulphead, by John Jeremiah Sullivan* Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace* A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write, by Melissa Pritchard* The Common Reader, by Virginia Woolf* War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy* The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky* Felix Holt: The Radical, by George Eliot* Middlemarch, by George Eliot* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden* Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young* Angel in the Forest, by Marguerite Young* The Peregrine, by J.A. BakerOther Links* Episode 39: Scary Books That Kept Us Up at Night* Electric Lit: Our Favorite Essays and Stories About Horror Films* Three Percent Podcast: Lori Feathers on Marguerite Young* ObliteratureteesThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

This week, we’re joined by our good friend Mark Haber to discuss his wonderful books, including the brand new Lesser Ruins. Fittingly, this episode features numerous digressions into literary influences and loves, coffee, music, art, travel, and much more!ShownotesBooks* The Cemetery of Untold Stories, by Julia Alvarez* The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence* Fog at Noon, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg* Difficult Light, by Tomás González, translated by Andrea Rosenberg* Living Things, by Munir Hachemi, translated by Julia Sanches* Vacated Landscape, by Jean Lahougue, translated by K.E. Gormley* The God of Endings, by Jacqueline Holland* Melvill, by Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Will Vanderhyden* Attila, by Aliocha Coll, translated by Katie Whittemore* Attila, by Serena, by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Whittemore* Deathbed Conversions, by Mark Haber* Reinhardt’s Garden, by Mark Haber* Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, by Mark Haber* Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber* An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, by César Aira, translated by Chris Andrews* The Netanyahus, by Joshua Cohen* Ada, by Mark Haber (forthcoming 2026)* 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer* Ten, by Juan Emar, translated by Megan McDowell* Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence, by Geoff Dyer* Compass, by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte MandellOther* Episode 31: New Directions, with Mark Haber* Wakefield Press* LitHub: “Mark Haber on the Beauty of Digression”* Southwest Review: “How to Read Kafka,” by Mark HaberThe Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, you can do so on Substack or on our Patreon page. These subscribers get periodic bonus episode and early access to all episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. Please go check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe