

Bowie Book Club Podcast
Greg Miller & Kristianne Huntsberger
Two friends have had a book club for a very very long time. It was mostly an excuse to drink and gossip. In January of 2016, they found renewed purpose in their sadness over the death of David Bowie. They decided to stop mucking around and actually get some reading done - from the list of books that he loved.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 22, 2024 • 42min
Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild
speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has
reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read a book mostly about conferences on the astral plane, Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune.
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Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!)
Stuff We Talked About
Sane Occultism by Dion Fortune
Angie Bowie's Backstage Passes
Bowie: A Biography by Mark Spitz
The Demon Slayers by Sam Kestenbaum
The Roadside Picnic video game IS REAL
What Are We Reading
Greg:
Moonbound by Robin Sloan
This Must Be the Place by Jesse Rifkin
This Rancid Mill by Kyle Decker
Kristianne
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
HIM by Geoff Ryman
The Modern Craft by Askew and Tarbuck
What Song Did We Choose?
What's Up Next
Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky
Permalink

Jun 17, 2024 • 39min
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Orlando by Virginia Woolf, a book that essentially proves that David Bowie and Tilda Swinton are one person.

May 20, 2024 • 57min
A Grave for a Dolphin by Alberto Denti (and the end of Season One!)
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read (sort of) A Grave for a Dolphin by Ally Teeth (or Alberto Denti, Duke of Pirajno, if you must), a story about a manic pixie dream fish and the marine biologist (at least that's what AI thinks) who loved her.

Apr 22, 2024 • 47min
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, an overheated occult pot-boiler that manages to keep the hot esoteric gobbletygook flying for over 400 pages! Spoiler alert: Greg wrote this description and it may (does) not reflect the views of the other half of this podcast.

Mar 25, 2024 • 40min
Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey
Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey - interviews with foundational artists of soul music asthey deal with aging, and (in the case of Screaming Jay Hawkins) serve drinks out of a skull or something.

Feb 26, 2024 • 50min
Private Eye
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild
speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has
reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Private
Eye, a half-serious, half-silly
British political magazine that is the ultimate in IYKYK.
Subscribe!
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Facebook
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Our Bookshop
Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!)
The list of books we'll be choosenating Season Two from are also up on Bookshop! If you have ideas of books we could add, let us know!
Stuff We Talked About
Guardian article - "People trust Private Eye and what they read in it"
Private Eye: The First 50 Years
Maximum Rock and Roll
The Stranger - Seattle's Only Newspaper
What Are We Reading (and when and where)?
Greg:
Secret History by Donna Tartt (and the original Secret History by your boy Procopius!)
Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham
Will Oldham on Bonnie "Prince" Billy edited by Alan Licht
Kristianne:
Wolf in White Van by John Darinielle
The Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner
What Song Did We Choose?
2nd place song!
What's Up Next
Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey

Jan 22, 2024 • 43min
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Darkness at
Noon by Arthur Koestler, a tale of human pyschology under duress that makes a fitting end to the Russian books that
Bowie had on his list.
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Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!)
Stuff We Talked About
Orwell's essay on Koestler and Darkness at Noon
The other "Russian" books on the list: A People's Tragedy, Master and Margarita, Into the Whirlwind, Coast of Utopia and (of course) Octobriana
Pushing Ahead of the Dame on the song we chose (through the Cranial Scalding method) - "What's Really Happening"
What Are We Reading (and when and where)?
Greg:
The Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala
Circe by Madeline Miller
Historia by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez et al (Greg managed to butcher both the name of the book and the author! Ugh)
Kristianne:
Low Moon by JASON
Starling House by Alix Harrow
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
What Song Did We Choose?
What's Up Next
The last few of the Bowie list!
Private Eye - we're working on this next.
Nowhere to Run by Gerri Hirshey
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
A Grave for a Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno (if we can find a copy we can afford!]
Permalink

Dec 18, 2023 • 48min
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild
speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has
reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read The Hidden
Persuaders
by Vance Packard, a quaint little preview of the non-stop psychological prodding we endure now.
Subscribe!
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Follow us! (Not in a creepy way)
Mastadon
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Our Bookshop
Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!)
Stuff We Talked About
Salon article on the book
article on Bowie's brief spell as an ad man in The Drum
our episode on A People's Tragedy
What Are We Reading
Greg:
The Pickwick Papers (of course!) by Charles Dickens
Rim of Morning by William Sloane
Gone to the Wolves by John Wray
Kristianne:
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
Julia by Sandra Newman
Our Best of 2023!
Greg:
Fingersmith in a 3-way split with White Noise and 42nd Parallel
Dreaming as Delerium by J. Allen Hobson
The House with a Clock In Its Walls by John Bellairs
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Kristianne:
also Fingersmith!
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Thistlefoot by Gennarose Nethercott
East of Eden by Johnny Steinbeck
Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson
What Song Did We Choose?
What's Up Next
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Nov 27, 2023 • 40min
Beyond the Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
Welcome to another episode of the **Bowie Book Club**, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Beyond the Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto - if you like art, philosophy and the philosophy of art, you might get through this a little easier than we did.

Oct 30, 2023 • 35min
Strange People by Frank Edwards
Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild
speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has
reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read Strange
People
a rundown of all the freaks, geeks and mentalists you'll ever want to
encounter.
Subscribe!
iTunes | RSS |
Stitcher
Follow us! (Not in a creepy way)
Mastadon
Facebook
Instagram
Web Presence
Our Bookshop
Visit our lists on bookshop.org and help support the podcast (and independent bookstores too!)
Stuff We Talked About
The Weekly World News - "The World's Only Reliable News Source"
Nightmare Alley)
Strange Stories and Amazing Facts
David Bowie in New York documentary
The Three Arts bookstore
The Booksmith bookstore
The Poughkeepsie Seer
Brion Gysin
The Changing Light at Sandover - ok its not all Ouija, but it feels like it.
What Are We Reading?
Greg:
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
We Have Always Lived In the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House
Kristianne:
Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
What Song Did We Choose?
Alternate song!
What's Up Next
Beyond the Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto


