EP63: Jamaica, Southie, and Points in Between

Live from the Book Shop: John Updike's Ghost

It's a late-night edition of John Updike's Ghost and Hannah and Sam are ready to rock and roll. First up is Tana French's new thriller, "The Hunter," a follow up to "The Searcher," which Hannah hasn't read, but she wasn't bothered by this. Brilliant audiobook experience. Sticking with violent acts, Sam talks about how seeing the new Bob Marley movie (awesome) got him reading Marlon James' "A Brief History of Seven Killings" (also awesome), and how they make an amazing one-two punch. Also involving people getting shot and not dying, but a little closer to home, Hannah has read "All Souls," by Michal Patrick MacDonald, a story of growing up in Southie in the late 1970s (busing! racists!), which was a great community, but ultimately really not great (though does trigger Sam doing his Southie accent). And speaking of bad communities that probably felt good at the time, Sam has read the new Pete Rose book, "Charlie Hustle," by Keith O'Brien ("Fly Girls," "Paradise Falls"), and is excited to talk about it with Keith and Chad Finn at the Newburyport Literary Festival. Do you like Pete Rose? Read this book and see if that's still true (also, Sam mentions "Big Red Machine," but the book is actually just called "The Machine"). Finally, Hannah LOVES "James," the new re-telling of Huckleberry Finn, from Percival Everett. You need to read it now, whether you've read the Mark Twain recently, or not at all. Are you one of those readers who thinks Finn is too sacred retell? Don't be. Oh, and there's a coda for "Holly," where Sam explains why it's not as bad as he thought (the "other book" is "If It Bleeds," short stories).