The Re-Enchantment Book Club

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the “If Only” feeling, beauty in the midst of bleakness, the call to adventure, the cost of idealism, director’s cut conspiracies, and the idiocy of semicolons.
 
What We’re Reading:
Letters to a Diminished Church by Dorothy L. Sayers
Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays by C.S. Lewis
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
 
Other Mentions:
“All the Pretty Little Horses” (lullaby)
“All the Wild Horses” by Ray Lamontagne 
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes 
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Psalm 107
 
Next episode we will be discussing The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the scandal of grace, beautifully hyperlinked symbolism, the cosmic story arc, the nature of true value, the power of chocolate kisses, and the polite consumption of buttermilk.
 
What We’re Reading:
Stoner by John Williams
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
The Iliad by Homer
Other Mentions:
Psalm 131
 
Next episode we will be discussing All the Wild Horses by Cormac McCarthy. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the duality of man, the gamble of letting Death narrate your story, the power of words to bring life or death, picking a good Pilsner, and cologne ads.
 
What we’re reading:
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
The Great Passion by James Runcie
How God Became King by N.T. Wright
Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
A Theory of Everything (That Matters) by Alister McGrath
Other Mentions:
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Prophets by Abraham Heschel
Fred Rogers
 
Next episode we will be discussing The Gilded Six Bits by Zora Neale Hurston. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

The Dead by James Joyce

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss our thought-tormented age, early 20th century Irish politics, the polarizing Modernist legacy of James Joyce, the magic of Thin Places, the tension between a blaze of passion and a life of long fidelity, and whether or not it’s ok to bake a little baby Jesus into your King Cake for this year’s Epiphany Feast.
 
Mentioned in this episode:
 
In Defense of Sanity by GK Chesterton
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre
You Are not Your Own by Alan Noble 
Thin Places
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
“This is Water” by David Foster Wallace
 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

In this special Yuletide episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the supremacy of It’s a Wonderful Life, the clash of Two Kingdoms, Dickens’s delight in language, the role of repentance & remembrance in true conversion, the call for a renaissance in heartfelt sentiment, and the coziness of mulled wine.
 
Mentioned in this episode:
It’s a Wonderful Life (dir. Frank Capra)
Adaptations of A Christmas Carol (Wiki page)
G.K. Chesterton’s Introduction to A Christmas Carol (1922)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
 
Join us next episode where we will discuss the short story The Dead by James Joyce.
 
*Due to some technical difficulties, you may notice poor sound quality at times during this episode. We apologize for the inconvenience and will have the issue resolved for subsequent episodes* 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra
 
 

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the difficulty of the short story form, O’Connor’s punishment of hypocrites & use of the grotesque, Nietzsche’s view of monsters, the dreadful irony of grace, and gas-station snacks.
What we’re reading:
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.
The Christian Imagination ed. by Leland Ryken
 
Next episode we will be discussing A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

In this special Halloween episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss their favorite spooky stories, Bradbury’s polarizing prose, the struggle with time & mortality, evil’s inexplicable mystery, and the importance of avoiding carnivals.
Scary Story Picks:
The Bear & the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
“Click-clack the Rattle Bag” by Neil Gaiman
Other Mentions:
John Mark McMillan - “God is Young”
Next episode we will be discussing A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss the complex & bittersweet relationship with Home, the pronunciation of “Kunstlerroman,” getting to know your neighbors, the line between poetry & prose, Mexican street food, and whether this book is technically even a novel.
What we’re reading:
Trust by Hernan Diaz
100 Poems by Seamus Heaney
The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Other Mentions:
The Iowa Writer’s Workshop (MFA program)
 
Next episode we will be discussing Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

In this episode, Jordan and Brendan acknowledge their limited perspective; they also discuss the slow & frustrating work of justice, the effects of dehumanization, Gaines’s use of seemingly futile repetition, and the power of southern comfort food.
What we’re reading:
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
The Great Tradition ed. by Richard Gamble
Creator Spirit by Steven Guthrie
 
Next episode we will be discussing The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. We hope you join us! 
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra
 
 

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

In this debut episode, Jordan and Brendan discuss homesickness, pretentious German words, Lewis’s profound love of horses, the “around the corner” feeling, cockney accents, and the absurdity of adulthood.
What we’re reading:
The Need to be Whole by Wendell Berry
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
Other Mentions:
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Sehnsucht”
 
Music by Brendan Michael and Will Berry
Podcast Graphic designed by Alex Morra