Save Me From My Shelf

The fifth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Grapes of Wrath episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-fifth episode, we recap John Steinbeck's 1939 Dust Bowl adventure, Biblical allegory, and socialist manifesto, The Grapes of Wrath. It's all pigs, sex, and pooping (a shocking amount of pooping). We discover the show's second mono-butt-cheeked character, Abby develops a backup plan for a life of crime, and Daniel goes on a rant about topsoil.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'Woody' on guitar and harmonica, by Daniel Jenkin-Smith.

The forth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Time Machine episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our last episode, we went into the past. Now, in our fifty-fourth episode, we go way, way into the future with H.G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895). We workshop Save Me From My Shelf: On Ice!, turn into feral, biting Morlocks, and wonder what the hell is going on with time travel romances, both generally and in the Year of Our Lord BOOBIES.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'Gnossienne No. 1', Erik Satie.

The third episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Ivanhoe episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-third episode, we cover the first proper Historical Novel™, Sir Walter Scott's extremely boring, Ren Faire-style medieval romp, Ivanhoe (1819). In this episode, Abby gets ghosted by her best friend and medieval scholar, Justine. Scott talks about nothing but clothing, pork, and boobs, and Daniel enjoys (?) all the invented names, the porn parody that would write itself, and all the tournaments which are really just medieval versions of Super Smash Bros.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'The Ballad of Robin Hood'.

The second episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Rebecca episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-second episode, Valentine's Day Special, AND Ash Wednesday spectacular, we look at Daphne Du Maurier's Cornish Gothic romance-tragedy-thriller, which is also a courtroom drama, police procedural, ghost story, and psychosexual horror. Daniel sings Edith Piaf, Abby references Nick at Nite shows, and we have the return of a great breakfast spread (separate from all the pilchard chat).Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Phil Harris Orchestra, 'The Vamp' (1932).

Abby and Daniel launch their first episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Scarlet Letter episode.