Left Shelf

Did you ever imagine yourself wearing a trenchcoat, walking through the silent streets of Berlin at night, a lonely man who has seen too much and who knows little of love? A man who is too skilled with a bottle of whiskey, too forlorn and just too darn familiar with the cold? Well, lucky, you no longer have to imagine because Le Carré’s most famous spy novel The Spy Who Came In From The Cold depicts all those elements among an intricate web of spies and lies...

Busy, busy, busy.  In this week’s episode, we are busy discussing the cult classic “Cat’s Cradle” with Mike from the Turn Leftist podcast. It’s obvious from the very first chapter why this Vonnegut novel is a fan favorite - a new religion called Bokononism, the end of the world brought about by a chemical called ‘ice-nice’ and of course, an eccentric cast of characters...

Jackson Jackson, from this week’s story What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie, is a homeless Native American living in Seattle on a quest to win back an ancestral regalia. The simultaneously lighthearted and tragic tone of the story led us to discussing topics around loss and identity, about creating values outside of the commodity chain and the warmth and kindness in the story that exists in spite of the bleak realities.

You can read What You Pawn I Will Redeem (free) here...

Even though the Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro just came out with a new book, we’re returning to one of his older works Never Let Me Go. In this episode, we’re incredibly excited to talk about our favorite author and book - what Ishiguro’s writing symbolizes, why he’s so freaking good at what he does and what we can learn from the characters of Never Let Me Go.

You can read “Never Let Me Go” (free) here. You can also watch the movie for free here...

Tune in for a spooky Left Shelf episode this week where we go over two harrowing short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. We talk about the troubled life of H.P. Lovecraft and his even more troubling works - both in terms of blatant racism and xenophobia but also in terms of themes pertaining to existential fear. 

You can read “At the Mountains of Mountains” here and “The Shadow over Innsmouth” here...

If you’ve ever wondered how to curse capitalists and empower the working class, then you have come to the right book. The Factory Witches of Lowell has all of those components and more! Listen as we talk to the author about magic, feminism, and unionizing. 

The Factory Witches of Lowell is available in print, eBook, or audiobook. Through Folx, you can find a local independent bookstore at https://www.indiebound.org/indie-store-finder if you prefer to buy that way...

The Indian subcontinent has a complicated history of colonialism and political conflict. In this week’s episode, we explore the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and Bangladeshi independence as experienced by an Indian immigrant living in the United States. Tune in as we talk about the history of that region and explore what it means to be an immigrant in America when crises are going on in your home country.

You can read the short story here...

What is the nature of suffering and is it good? Why is how mental illness was treated in Russia in the late 1800s similar to how it is viewed today? These and many more questions will be answered with our big brains in this week’s episodes of Left Shelf, where we go over Chekhov’s Ward No. 6. It revolutionized Lenin, and maybe it will revolutionize you too.

You can read the short story here...

Dear Lorrie Moore, 

If you are listening (which we know you are), we were really trying to be nice. But we will not apologize for the violence. 

Tune in to this week’s episodes to hear about how a political piece seems to be devoid of all politics and to hear us vent about boomers. 

You can read the short story here.  The one where she goes off on millennials is here. The deranged lib story you can find here...

Che Guevara - the man, the symbol, the legend. Join us as we discuss who Che Guevara was before he became the revolutionary he is known for today. We read “The Motorcycle Diaries”, a journal of Che’s travels throughout South America, and explore the Pan Latin Americanism and Humanism presented in his writings. 

You can read the whole book here...