Between The Covers

A Twentieth Century Take on a Legendary King

Something in the King Arthur canon was bound to make it onto Jay’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language, and this week Jay and Stacey discuss the linked novellas that comprise this modern classic, the historical influences on White and the new takes that make this novel officially Lovable. Chaos Reader finally gets reading again with one of the New York Times best fiction books of 2024.

"A Record of Hate More than Love"

This week our married authors discuss Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, the most recent entry on Jay Ruud’s list of the 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language. The novel focuses on the jealousy and obsession that come to the narrator Maurice after his lover Sarah ends their illicit relationship for her own reasons in the tumultuous time after WWII has ended in England. Chaos reader checks in with a cookery book.

An Odd Best Friend with a God Complex

A coming-of-age story about two boys, Owen and John, growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in rural New Hampshire. While the premise may seem unremarkable and relatable, there is nothing normal about Owen. Chaos Reader also checks in with a recommendation for Princess Diana-philes.

Things We Love: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

This week’s entry on the 200 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language list is Things Fall Apart by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. We talk about Okonkwo, whose life is destroyed by colonialism’s effects on his community. Even if it sounds heavy, Jay makes a case for its lovability and ranks it on his ongoing list. Chaos Reader also checks in.

Journey into Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Jay and Stacey discuss the iconic, influential novel (novella?) by Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. The journey of the plot is also a journey of the soul for the characters and their country, as well as an indictment of colonialism. Chaos Reader also reports for duty.

Spend the Day with Mrs. Dalloway!

Jay and Stacey discuss Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, entering the life of the mind of Clarissa Dalloway and her social set in this watershed novel of the early 20th century. Chaos reader talks about her own novel, Mr. Catherine. 

The Best of Best-Selling British Author Terry Pratchett's Novels: Night Watch

This week's entry on Jay Ruud's 100 Most Lovable Novels in the English Language is Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel, Night Watch, a time-traveling fantasy on a flat planet that considers the nature of power, the repetition of history and the role of the moral individual in relationship to autocratic government. And it's funny! Jay considers how he chose this novel from the pantheon of Pratchett's prolific output. And Chaos Reader confronts her reading block. 
 
 

Return to Old New York Guided by Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence

Jay's entry on his 100 Most Lovable Books List this week is one of Stacey's most loved books ever. Join them for their discussion of 1870s New York and its moneyed high society as Wharton's Newland Archer navigates his own conflicting desires for social convention or social rebellion. And chaos reader picks up another favorite reread as well.

Our Lovable Novels Guide to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Jay and Stacey discuss the comedy-sci-fi twentieth-century classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, chatting about the first novel in the franchise, which is the gateway-drug to the international sales juggernaut of the six-novel franchise. And chaos reader weighs in with a novel that feels completely opposite of Hitchhiker, Jane Eyre.

Big Feelings in a Small British Town in George Eliot's Middlemarch

Jay and Stacey discuss a novel dear to both of their hearts, George Eliot's Middlemarch, where marriage, aspiration, ambition and social class shape the lives of characters in a small English community in the 1800s. Eliot has written of England's past in her lovable novel, just as Edith Wharton has written of the Old New York of her childhood in Chaos Reader's pick this week, The Age of Innocence.