This week, Paul and Trevor discuss short books (fiction): what makes them special? Which authors specialize in brevity? How have short books impacted our lives as readers?  We each share five or our favorites, as well as a ton of great listener recommendations.

And be sure to stick around for a fun giveaway and a preview of an upcoming episode where we each assign the other a short novel. We hope you’ll read along with us!

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Episode Links

All of the books brought up in this episode!

  • St. Sebastian’s Abyss, by Mark Haber
  • The Other Name, by Jon Fosse
  • Woman Running in the Mountains, by Yuko Tsushima
  • The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith
  • The Promise, by Damon Galgut (not In A Strange Room. Oops!)
  • Midlife: Humanity’s Secret Weapon, by Andrew Jamieson
  • When Women Kill, by Alia Trabucco Zeran
  • Anita Brookner
  • Penelope Fitzgerald
  • The Hare, by César Aira
  • Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
  • The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
  • Alexander’s Bridge, by Willa Cather
  • The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
  • The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
  • Hurricane Season, by Fernanda Melchor
  • A Month in the Country, by JL Carr
  • Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
  • So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
  • Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle
  • Devil House, by John Darnielle
  • Universal Harvester, by John Darnielle
  • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
  • Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor
  • Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill
  • Sparky!, by Jenny Offill
  • Weather, by Jenny Offill
  • Last Things, by Jenny Offill
  • Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton
  • Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson
  • Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson
  • Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson
  • The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace
  • Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell
  • The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares
  • Ennemonde, by Jean Giono
  • Aphasia, by Mauro Javier Cárdenas

About the Podcast

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every few weeks we are talking about some bookish topic or another.

Please join us! You can subscribe at Apple podcasts or go to the feed to import to your favorite podcatcher. You can also listen to us on YouTube, if that’s your thing (though I’m still trying to figure that out, so be patient if there are some strange uploads and re-uploads).

Many thanks to those who helped make this possible! If you’d like to donate as well, please visit our Patreon page. We have been reworking the Patreon, and I’m excited that I figured out how to get Patreon subscribers early access to our episodes! Every supporter has their own feed that he or she can use in their podcast app of choice to download our episodes a few days early. We are also working on bonus episodes for certain tiers, since we really want to show our thanks. Please go check it out!

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