Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle (2024) VS The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives by Ernest Scheyder (2024)    

Camino Ghosts by John Grisham (2024) vs Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (2001)

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (1974) vs Tiger on a Tree by Anushka Ravishankar (1997)

James by Percival Everett (2024) VS The Most by Jessica Anthony (2024) 

The Pelican Brief by John Grisham (1992) VS The Rainmaker by John Grisham (1995)

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher (2014) VS Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (2001)

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (2001) VS Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (2019)

The Fight by Norman Mailer (1975) vs Just Add Water: My Swimming Life by Katie Ledecky (2024)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (2014)

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2001)

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (2005)

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (2010)

Raft of Stars: A Novel by Andrew Graff (2021)

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (1956)

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (1978)

Travel back in time to episode 26 to when Armie Hammer wasn't yet a cannibal and JD Vance was still a prick. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) vs Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance (2016) 

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)

String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis by David Foster Wallace (2014)

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy (1973)

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (2005)

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (1979) vs The Firm by John Grisham (1991)

Pity the Beast by Robin McLean (2021)

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (2024)

The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist (1944) The Dwarf is a 1944 novel by Pär Lagerkvist. It is considered his most important and artistically innovative novel. The main setting is a fictionalized version of Milan. The character Bernardo of the novel is a fictionalized version of Leonardo da Vinci, who served as a court artist and military architect in Milan from 1482 to 1499. The novel depicts the Italian Renaissance through the eyes of a misanthropic assassin.

Locke & Key written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (2008)

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport (2019) VS So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson (2015)

Literary Rivals: Feuds and Antagonisms in the World of Books by Richard Bradford (2014) VS Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland  by Patrick Radden Keefe (2019) 

Basking in our 200th episode for one more week as we take this week off. Throwing it back to our first episode with Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937) VS The Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1937).

We're joined by William Fliss - Marquette University's Tolkien Archivist and co-curator for the exhibition J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript at the Haggerty Museum of Art on Marquette’s campus. Marquette owns the manuscripts for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Farmer Giles of Ham, and Mr. Bliss as well as research collections totaling over 11,000 pages.

The Testing of Luther Albright: A Novel by MacKenzie Scott (2005) VS Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton (1992)

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (2021)

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown (2012)

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) VS The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (1909)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022)

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (2016) VS The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)

Circe by Madeline Miller (2018)

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (1976)

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (2010) VS DisneyWar by James B. Stewart (2005)

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (1912) VS The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (1975)

Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (1928)

The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight by Andrew Leland (2023) VS A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall (2023)

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (1928)

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (2003) VS Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (2017)

Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates (1985) vs Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (2001)

The Father Christmas Letters by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1976)

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finke (2023)

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (2023)