The Book XChange Podcast

Episode 59: Read Around the World - Mexico

In our second "Read Around the World" episode (the first being Episode 55), we turn our focus to our neighbors just south of us... the rich, fascinating, troubled and beautiful mystery that is Mexico. We touch on famous Mexican writers such as Paz, Fuentes and Ruflo, but also recommend titles in different genres (comic novels, crime novels, thrillers, reportage, histories) in our effort to cover as much literary ground as we can. We even hit a few recent "buzzy" books that have garnered a lot of attention and acclaim - but do they pass muster with the BXC twins? That's the burning question the world needs to know! As always, thanks for listening - we hope you enjoy this second literary excursion to other parts of the world. There will be more!

Episode 58: Ghosts!

One of our "!" episodes (after "Thriller!" and "Monsters!," check the archive for those) which, we think, means a wide-ranging and rollicking ride through a popular genre of books. In this case, spectral encounters and paranormal activity... from dusty old classic haunted house tales to meta/modern freakouts that play with cliches and conventions, we do our best to cover it all. Do your hosts believe ghosts actually exist? Debatable... but we can certainly prove the existence of great writing featuring ghosts, and we do it here on Episode 58. As always, thanks for joining in on the conversation...! 

Episode 57: The BXC Reviews ”Catch-22” by Joseph Heller

Another episode-length discussion of a single novel we've deemed worthy of extra attention! This time around, the lads discuss an American classic neither of us were at all familiar with, Joseph Heller's world-famous debut novel Catch-22. We share our own personal impressions, talk about the impact it has had on the culture, compare and contrast it to other war novels, and debate whether or not it deserves a #7 ranking (!) on the Modern Library "Top 100 Novels of All Time" list.
**We apologize for a few audio gaps that appear in this episode. As we're recording, we aren't sure whether any/all the glitches we hear are going to appear in the final output. There's really nothing we can do about them as they are a glitch in the app we are using. We hope it is not too much of a distraction.**

Episode 56: Fathers in Literature

We're a bit late here as far as the calendar goes, but the subject of fathers and fatherhood will never get stale. We had intended to publish this episode to align with Father's Day, but... June got away from us a little bit. That said, Jude and John talk about some of their most notable father figures in literature, and recommend books that explore the mystery, challenge and promise (broken or unbroken) of paternity in one way or another. As always, we also discuss books we've been reading lately and tease the upcoming episode 57 of the podcast, in which a prominent classic American novel will be discovered, at least by your humble hosts, for the first time.

Episode 55: Read Around the World - Australia, New Zealand & Tasmania

This time out, the BXC brothers begin their new occasional series, "Read Around the World," and set their sights on books from/about Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. These episodes will be your literary "travel guides" to places we may never get to visit in person, but have indeed visited in our imaginations and reading lives. We had a blast touring this region, and recommend quite an array of writers and works for adventurous readers to dive into. Enjoy - who knows where the next excursion will take us? Next time on the BXC: we explore fathers and fatherhood in literature! (P.S. We apologize once again for the less than optimal audio quality. We keep working with what we have to make it better, but we have opted to get the content out there rather than wait on it.)

Episode 54: The BXC Reviews ”The Passenger” & ”Stella Maris” by Cormac McCarthy

Our occasional "BXC Reviews" series returns with an in-depth discussion of the TWO new novels from the highly regarded American writer Cormac McCarthy. Since our show's inception we've been looking for a chance to discuss McCarthy's work, and while this episode isn't a deep dive into his whole catalog, it is an extensive (and spoiler-filled) discussion of the pair of novels he released at the end of last year, his first published work in 16 years.
**We love hearing from our listeners! Please reach out to us with feedback, reading suggestions or anything else at bookxchangetwins@gmail.com**
BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
...and most of the published novels and plays of Cormac McCarthy, especially the new novels "The Passenger and "Stella Maris"

Episode 53: The Return! (What We’ve Been Reading)

We are thrilled to be back, after a long hiatus, with a brand new episode in which your co-hosts Jude and John discuss some of the best books we read while we were on break. A little bit of Irish writing, poetry, a few science fiction selections, ancient civilizations, some social satire... there's quite a variety of titles here as regular followers of the show have come to expect. We know that the audio is a bit unpolished; we are still learning how to use our new podcast app and we do have some technical limitations. But we figured it's more important to get new content out there than to obsess over the details. Thanks so much to you all for your patience and for listening to the show. Please don't forget to throw us a positive star review on Spotify and other channels such as Apple or Google, it's easy and will really help us to build things back up. Hope you will enjoy the conversation!
BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
Autobiographies, R. S. Thomas
Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi
Faith, Hope and Carnage, Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan
Small Things Like These and Foster, Claire Keegan
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong
The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler
The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century, Olga Ravn
Sucker, Daniel Hornsby
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, Annalee Newitz

April 2023 update: the Book XChange podcast returns?? (teaser)

After an extended hiatus due to technical challenges, Jude and John Lovell tease the return of the Book XChange podcast. Readers and book lovers around the world, buckle up! We hope to start bringing you new episodes very soon... Want to suggest a topic for an upcoming episode? Please do email us at bookxchangetwins@gmail.com. We're eager to get The Great Conversation going again!

August 2022: An Update from the Book XChange Podcast

We've been forced to take an indefinite hiatus from recording, but hopefully this is NOT the end of the BXC podcast! John Lovell delivers an explanation of why we haven't recorded new episodes in a little while. Thanks for listening, and stay with us! -The BXC Twins

Episode 52: Most Anticipated New Books (still to come in 2022)

This time around, the Book XChange looks forward to the rest of 2022 - and discusses books we haven't read, but hope to soon once they hit the shelves. We've loaded up the current episode with titles we are most anticipating as the rest of the year unfolds, and why we're looking forward to them. Fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, graphic novels... it's all fair game here. In some cases, we are looking forward to new titles from world-renowned writers - in others, we may be reading new authors for the first time. Hopefully listeners will come away with some books to look forward to later on in 2022, and of course, we'd love to hear any of your recommendations for forthcoming titles. Thanks for continuing to support the Book XChange, and happy reading...
Website: anchor.fm/book-change
Email address: bookxchangetwins@gmail.com
MUSIC BY YOUNG WOLF, VOIDZ PANDA
BOOKS DISCUSSED/MENTIONED/RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE:
What Jude is currently reading/plans to read next:
'The Sinister Pig,' Tony Hillerman -
'Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness,' Kristen Radtke -
What John is currently reading/plans to read next:
'The Bone People,' Keri Hulme -
(Undisclosed) -
Books still coming in 2022 that we discussed in this episode:
'The World as We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate,' Ed. Amy Brady & Tajja Isen -
'Afterlives' (and 'Paradise'), Abdulrazak Gurnah -
'The Twilight World,' Werner Herzog -
'Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis,' Annie Proulx -
'Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks,' Patrick Radden Keefe -
'Demon Copperhead,' Barbara Kingsolver -
'Victory City,' Salman Rushdie -
'Night of the Living Rez: Stories,' Morgan Talty -
'The Philosophy of Modern Song,' Bob Dylan -
'Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story,' Bono -
Untitled memoir by Geddy Lee -
'The Last Days of Roger Federer (and other Endings),' Geoff Dyer -
'An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us,' Ed Yong -
'We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power,' Caleb Gayle -
'The Passenger' and 'Stella Maris,' Cormac McCarthy -
Planned next episode of the Book XChange podcast:
For Episode 53, Jude and John will recommend their favorite science fiction books, and discuss the genre in general.