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Book Riot - The Podcast
The Hot List for May 2026
00:47:55
Jeff and Rebecca talk about what books are making waves as summer gets rolling.
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- [00:00]
Rebecca Schinsky
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- [01:12]
Jeff O'Neill
This is the Book Riot Podcast. I am Jeff o' Neill and I'm Rebecca Schinsky. Hot list time again, Rebecca. We're coming into the second most interesting time of the publishing season, which is summer really now through what mid June I guess last week? Through mid June.
- [01:28]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, like this through mid June and then late August. We do get a little early fall stuff has been creeping into late August. We're trying to sneak in some of the big books of fall even before Labor Day now. So but this is a really just buzz filled time and things are moving really quickly. I started our notes for this recording last week before I took pto. I came back this morning to like double check the bestseller list and see if anything had changed and a lot of things had shifted around. This list is pret pretty different than it was just six days ago with one more week of new releases hitting bestseller lists. Having changed things. So things it's just everything's in flux right now in this time of publishing. There are a few big titles that have been big for a while and they're going to stay big for a while. But a lot of things coming out having a big bump, maybe ebbing back. It's kind of, it's really a fun season to watch.
- [02:21]
Jeff O'Neill
I had a question for you maybe for getting the put it here before we get into the meat of it. If there was a single edition of the Odyssey Say out. Do you think you would be selling. Would it. Do you think it'd be charting right or in unaggregate all these Odysseys and
- [02:36]
Rebecca Schinsky
it's a great question.
- [02:37]
Jeff O'Neill
Gutenberg's and, you know, there's a million things and used and whatever, like. But if there was a project Hail Mary where it's like basically ip, do you think that would be enough to put it on the list? Because my sense of the Odyssey, it's going to be huge. Yeah, I think some people are going to read it. Are they going to read it like this? I don't know. I'm curious what you think.
- [02:53]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think it's a little early right now. The movie's not out until July 17th, so I don't think we'd be seeing it. Maybe we'll get a bump when the first like really big trailers go live. Maybe. But you're right that the proliferation of editions and the many different translations make that hard to track. Penguin Classics is getting in on it. I guess you can see this, but nobody else can. They have a new illustrated edition of the Robert Fagels translation that I have a copy of. Yeah, yeah. So they're definitely going to be marketing it. There's probably going to be a movie tie in cover. I'm not sure who got the rights to that.
- [03:30]
Jeff O'Neill
Great question. Great question.
- [03:32]
Rebecca Schinsky
But we'll see mid July when we do. The hot list will be right at the time where if the Odyssey is going to hit bestseller lists or start having a book moment, we'll be seeing it. But honestly, I would be thrilled and surprised.
- [03:46]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. I wonder if I went into my local pals today and went to the poetry section and looked at the Odyssey, which edition, which new editions they would have in store. People may not know this, but even though the original Ancient Greek is out of copy, it sounds so silly to even say out loud.
- [04:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [04:03]
Jeff O'Neill
Translations are still subject to copyright. So the Fagels, the Fitzgerald, the Emily Wilson that we like anything, you know, I think standard copyright rules apply. So most of the modern translations are still going to be a copyright. And there's. I think there's three or four of them. There's a Stanley Lobardo edition, who's a KU professor I knew a little bit. I don't know that circulates quite as much. Anyone can translate it. But if a Penguin or a St. Martin's or someone or Folio Society put some marketing and frankly thinks a distribution muscle, not even marketing like. So they get it. They have an edition on the shelves at Barnes and Noble or wherever or the indie bookstores like what is the Raven and Lawrence or what is Josh's print like that'd be interesting. Which odyssey is he stalking and why? I'd be curious to know something about that.
- [04:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, I actually have kind of an answer to this. I was in my local Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago buying a stack of classical literature reasons related to my job and you know, I'm grabbing the Iliad and the Aeneid and I grabbed the Inferno and they did have the Fagles Odyssey and the Emily Wilson Odyssey just in my local. So we'll see. I came up on the Robert Fitzgerald translation. I didn't see that in Barnes and Noble. I don't know. There are so many. I I bet we will see good comparisons of the different translations and reader's guides start to come out.
- [05:23]
Jeff O'Neill
There's people fall in love with different translations and rightly so. John Keats, I think it was Keats wrote this so fell in love with a guy named Chapman's Homer that he wrote a poem about the translation. Much have I traveled in the realms of gold around many something seen but never felt. I don't remember but he writes I remember writing a poem. I believe it's Keats's poem to Chapman's Homer. So this is a psychosis slash obsession slash good hearted and brainy fun that goes back a long time. If you've got a favorite translation, choose an email podcast@bookriot.com if you have another moment. We want to make sure that Book Riot is doing what you want it to do. Rebecca for the recommendations, news industry stuff, deep dives, what you the feedback you give us helps us decide what to do, what our media kit says, how many people are listening to us, who they are and how we represent all the people that go on to do our sponsors and other partners. So if you have a minute, we have a survey that everyone who takes a survey will be entered to win a dollar fifty Thriftbooks gift cards. Get yourself a couple translations. There'll be a link in the show notes. I'm going to put a link in the show notes for this one. Should I read bookriot.com 2026survey if you, if you if you're the kind of person that types into your phone listening to pods, you could do it that way. But thank you for your time and it really does help us present a good foot forward to our advertisers and clients. But also what are you guys reading? Are you doing audiobooks? What genre should we covering a lot of stuff there. So thanks everyone if you're willing to help us out there. Okay Rebecca, let's do our first sponsor break and get in the hot list.
- [07:06]
Sponsor Voice
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- [09:33]
Rebecca Schinsky
This episode is sponsored by eleven Reader. It's an award winning audio app with more than a hundred thousand premium titles. Stick around after the show to hear an excerpt from their upcoming audiobook edition of the Odyssey. You know that feeling when you're excited about a new book, you hit play on the audiobook and the narrator just kills it. And not in a good way. Maybe the voice doesn't fit the story, maybe it's flat. Sometimes the ebook doesn't even have an audio version yet. 11 reader helps with that. It's a brand new audiobook app that features over 100,000 titles, from bestsellers to hidden gems, guilty pleasures. You name it, and here's what's making it different. For many of those titles, you can choose the voice. With over a thousand stunningly natural narrators, you pick the one that fits the story. They have iconic voices like Michael Caine, Burt Reynolds, or Maya Angelou. With voices that read to you aloud, you can set a sleep timer. You can even add background soundscapes so that thriller actually sounds tense and the romance actually sounds warm as you drift off to sleep. The best part is it starts at 8.25amonth for 20 hours of premium audiobook listening. And no limits on turning your own text like PDFs or documents into stunning audiobook quality listening. Try it for free search 11 reader on the app Store or visit their website to get started with 10 hours. Yours for free 11 reader that's 11 reader in the app store to get 10 hours for free. Start today Again, stick around after the show to hear an excerpt of the Odyssey, their new audiobook production.
- [11:03]
Jeff O'Neill
Things that are still on the Hob Simmering away in the slow cooker. What do you have, Rebecca? What are carrying over from last?
- [11:09]
Rebecca Schinsky
Theo of golden is the number one story still. This is probably going to be the publishing story of 2026, even though it came out in 2025 or one of the big ones. It's number one currently on the New York Times is combined print and ebook fiction one on Publishers Weekly's overall bestseller list. Last week we were talking on the, you know, newsy Book Riot podcast show and it had lapped the Correspondent in weekly sales. It was selling twice as much. The Correspondent has fallen off the PW lists and has dropped down to number 11 on the new York Times combined print and ebook fiction number six on hardcover fiction. So it's still holding on to those New York Times lists. But the PW lists are more straightforward about number of copies sold and the Correspondent or sorry, the New York Times list includes a little editorial discretion. Somewhere, somehow there's there's a secret sauce that nobody actually knows. So interesting to see Theo golden continuing to just own the bestseller list right now and project Hail Mary still cooking,
- [12:12]
Jeff O'Neill
still very theater, still Earning. I have two little bits and bobs on Theo golden and the Correspondent. The first is on a recent show where I gave my take review opinion on Theo of Golden. I suggested that I had a stinking suspicion that there could be. The Christian readership is getting involved and I had anecdotal evidence. Someone say to me they think that might be happening as well. Someone heard about it in their church circles. Someone who's sort of a civilian reader say everyone I know at church is reading this. That makes a ton of sense to me and there is a lot of tinder to burn in that area. I don't know that that people know that Christian publishing is a huge part of the American publishing industry. So if something can cross over, that's one of the reasons that Da Vinci Code became such a huge thing. Some people thought it was Satanist or whatever, but like it became a thing that people who go to church buy through bookstores, talk about in their book clubs. At church becomes a thing that's a huge hub of recommendations and sometimes these books catch on in that particular way. So there's that. The Correspondent. I have another thought which is there is a new deluxe edition with spreads. I'm wondering if there's two ISBNs and so on the PW list it's getting divided whereas the New York Times is stitching it back together in aggregate. Maybe Odyssey style. If it were just one edition or I spin. I think it's still selling quite well. I'm seeing it all over the place. So that's my.
- [13:39]
Narrator 1
I'm wondering about that.
- [13:40]
Rebecca Schinsky
That's a really good catch of the Correspondent. I think that's totally possible and we complain about that every year at the end of the year on the PW list with these special ed where it's like I think at one point there were three different editions of. Was it fourth wing or one of the fourth wings.
- [13:54]
Jeff O'Neill
Right. Yeah. I think Iron Flame maybe had three different.
- [13:57]
Rebecca Schinsky
Three editions of the same title in the top 10 PWs of the year. And we were like just collapse them. It's the same book. Please, come on. I heard a sweet story about the Correspondent over the weekend. I was with extended family at Anise's graduation and one of my sisters in law said that she and her best friend both just read it and now they are exclusively communicating by written letter.
- [14:17]
Jeff O'Neill
I knew this was happening. I'm sure there's stories. I knew exactly where the story was going. Once you said that particular I. I even myself, I recognize sometimes that I am having experience that other Or I can recognize how other people are going to feel even if I don't feel it. Does that make sense? So I was reading this book like this is going to launch a million pen pals or, you know, rekindled correspondence. Most of them will fall away after a time or two, but I bet we're going to get some that really endure. And it's. It's charming there, there's parts of it charming. I. I don't know if people remember. I prefer the Correspondent quite considerably to Theo Golden. I think if the Correspondent were written straight, it would be pretty standard fare. But the letters and emails and stuff back and forth there are fun. It becomes a bit of a puzzle.
- [15:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
It's a really fun way to put in there.
- [15:04]
Jeff O'Neill
I have a recommendation. I was thinking about this. I was talking with our colleague Clint this morning. I was like, I want to rec. For people who like both of these books. I think people like them for similar ish reasons. Older protagonists who are a little bit, I don't know, isolated or separate from people and other things from their life and history. And really both of them are about the. The, you know, stitching that back together, mending those rifts and finding ways through it, through sort of gimmicky stuff. Now, letters aren't really gimmicky, but the gimmick of the book and the over golden, the plot thing is actually a legitimate gimmick. My thought would be now again, you have to be more of a literary kind of person. Someone who likes say Terry Tempest Williams or Mary Oliver. Some like Rebecca, but Helen Garner's the Season, which I talked about last fall. It's her memoir, but she is an older person now and the story of that is her over the course of a season, like getting involved and paying close attention to her grandson's Australian football team. So a lot of the same themes are involved right at the end of your life. Trying to find connections, sort of seeing the sunset element, finding beauty and joy, but also realizing that things are changing. I found it quite moving. I have. I have two kids right now who are getting into sports and I've. I've actually thought of that as a cipher. So like, what is my relationship? Why am I caring about this? How to care about this is interesting. And Garner such a beautiful writer. So again, this might be. You had to have at least mitered in English to really not get it necessarily. But people who want the. Of golden may not like this, but it's doing a similar thing and that's the flavor I want Rebecca I've been
- [16:36]
Rebecca Schinsky
thinking about along those lines. Our Souls at Night by Candy.
- [16:40]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, I thought of Haru too. I was thinking plain song, but our souls night.
- [16:43]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, yeah. Plain song. Either of those. Like, really that takes seriously people at the older people at the end of their lives that need for community and connection and in some of the cases, romance or a new kind of exploring love and just really like soft, gentle. There's nothing really spiky about them, but they're so beautifully written that you do get that. Like, not as literary as Helen Garner, but a wonderful pick.
- [17:09]
Jeff O'Neill
Anyway. So that's.
- [17:11]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [17:12]
Jeff O'Neill
I wondered at the time return. We get things like A Man Called Ove was like this. Like this. There is this. These. This does happen. It's not quite the same thing as like, people forget that teenage girls yearn. And so we're always surprised when a publishing phenomenon. But I think there is a sub phenomenon that recycle that like cicadas. Like, it's not the super cycle of cicadas, like the fantasy stuff, but there's a sub cycle of cicadas around people getting older, trying to reckon with their lives, thinking about what they have done right and they've done wrong. And ultimately they're like, not sad books. The version I like is Old Men Waiting to Die and they're a lot sadder and like, oh, my God, what I'd done, that's what like, really gets me going. Apparently I don't need anyone to do the therapy. I get it, I hear it, I see it. But this is a thing that does happen from time. Like, death Comes by. The Death Comes for the Archbishop by will of Catholic. This thing happens over and over again. So it's interesting to see. So I was trying to connect the dots there.
- [18:07]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [18:07]
Jeff O'Neill
Speaking of things that come back, like cicadas, this is more like the mayflies, Rebecca, because every May they fly off the shelf. What book are we talking about?
- [18:15]
Rebecca Schinsky
It's oh, the Places yous'll go by Dr. Seuss. Not a best seller for the first four and a half months of the year. And then once we get to mid May, oh, the Places yous'll Go start selling so many copies through graduation season that it will be on the bestseller list for most of the rest of the year. It has reappeared. The cicadas have returned, Jeff.
- [18:33]
Jeff O'Neill
They have returned.
- [18:35]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, the Places you'll go sold 42,000 copies last week alone. And we are on the early tip of graduation season. We got. Colleges are going, high schools. We have high school, probably months of high School graduation.
- [18:49]
Jeff O'Neill
Did you sell in high school? I've never. I assumed that, but I guess I never really.
- [18:53]
Rebecca Schinsky
It feels more schooly to me, but I guess it's probably also doing some work at, like, at the other lower graduations, like from elementary into middle school, maybe middle school into high school, maybe even preschool into elementary school. Like, they're just. It's just a reliable pick. And because it's a children's book, you can give it to just about anyone and then.
- [19:12]
Jeff O'Neill
No, you shouldn't. But you should.
- [19:14]
Rebecca Schinsky
You shouldn't. You can do better than other places you'll go.
- [19:16]
Jeff O'Neill
I promise you, the pumpkin spice latte of graduation gifts are the places you'll go.
- [19:21]
Rebecca Schinsky
And this month, also, notably, there are some new titles appearing on bestseller list that will probably only appear on them this month because of Mother's Day, but I just wanted to shout those out. One is, mom, I want to hear your story. It's a new expanded edition of A Mother's Guided Journal to Share Her Life and Her Love by Jeffrey Mason. There's also the Mother Daughter Book Club by Susan Patterson and James Patterson, and then a book called Through Mom's Eyes, Simple Wisdom from Mothers who Raised Extraordinary Humans by Chanel Jones. And so all of those on various bestseller lists right now. But I expect in another week or two, certainly by the time we get to the June hot list, we won't be seeing those.
- [19:58]
Jeff O'Neill
I'm not so sure that Yesteryear by Carol Claire Berkman wasn't also selling some Mother's Day gifts as people.
- [20:04]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think it was.
- [20:05]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, that certainly makes a lift here. So we've talked about this on the show before, the pitches. It's a novel. Trad Wife Influencer wakes up in 1855 already has sold more than130,000 copies. Good Morning America Book Club. And like you, I have seen people trying to decide. We've gotten some emails about yesteryear saying, don't like the representation of religion. Do some research. I don't know, but it's got the juice, Rebecca. It's got the juice right now. I'll be very curious to see. I read two pages of this in the bookstore the other day, and it didn't help me decide whether or not I was gonna read. I was hoping it was gonna be like a real yes or real no. I was like, okay, it's kind of what I thought it was gonna be like for two pages. So I don't know. I'm not sure what else I'm gonna need from the social proof where it's out there Vector to decide to read this where are you at on your interest in yesteryear?
- [20:54]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think that I wish I had read it before it came out. This is the Rebecca Jones this is my classic problem. I'm so like constantly allergic to hype. I don't know. I was interested in the concept. I've read way too many reviews and sub stacks and book scene book talk videos at this point and enough of them are from smart people whose thinking I usually align with and appreciate being like this book is actually pretty shallow that I would have liked to have read it so I could have my own take. But the longer that it's out there, the more it's feeling to me like an interesting premise without a whole lot to back it up. Like it's only been out for six weeks and now booktok is already backlashing on hey, it turns out this book isn't actually very good. So I don't know, maybe I will be open to a reconsideration if it shows up on some reputable best of lists at the end of the year, but I think we're going to continue to see conversation about it. It's going to stay buzzy probably at least through mid summer. This is a really summer reading kind of feeling book. But I think I'm personally out unless or until a voice I really respect gives me a nudge.
- [22:08]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, I've kind of gone all the way around on this because I think I even mentioned this in a Deals Deals Deals last year a couple years ago when you're rounding this up because I the pitch is great. Like this is a great pitch. It sounds like maybe that's the book. Right? Which is okay, I get that. But is the that's what I was thinking. Is the pitch that good? Because you wake up in 1855 and it's not going to be as easy as you thought. Like what's the next sentence? Like I so when I was reading it's like okay, this makes sense as a straight ahead premise. I almost feel like that premise is so straight ahead. Obvious isn't the right word, but like interesting or low hanging fruit maybe is a way to put as a premise that I need someone like a Jennifer Egan or Patricia Lockwood to come weirded up because like I get it, trad wife ensuing is not the same as living 1855. Do I need to read the book to get that? But I feel like a different author, maybe just doing more about gender and nostalgia and capitalism. All that stuff. It doesn't sound like this book is doing that second order thinking that maybe I would be most interested in.
- [23:13]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, I think the discourse around it is more interesting than the book itself at this point. Naomi Kanakia wrote about it on her sub stack this morning and I think this was the most interesting piece that I have read about it where she really lands on like that. There's a cathartic element to it that if you're a person who kind of hates these women who are doing the trad wife influencer thing, there is a way of reading the book that is kind of cruel to this main character and maybe that is satisfying or meets some need to see this woman who is like. I mean I think trad wives are bad and harmful too, but maybe it's satisfying some underlying need to like to see that woman brought low or have to suffer through whatever she suffers through on the page. But Kanaki is reading of it was like also this is not very good, but I see what it's doing for people.
- [24:00]
Jeff O'Neill
I think that's a better way of saying it's like I get the next sentence was tradwife influencer wakes up in 1855 showing that TradWife influencing is garbage. Like I already get it. Like what's the thing I don't get already? And I'm feeling like that's not going to offer much for the. For me there. Something that did offer something to me and offered to the Pulitzer committee is angel down by Daniel Krause, which of course won the Pulitzer Prize to the delighted surprise by people who have read the book and confusion. And who is that to most other people? Daniel Cross has another book coming out this summer. It sounds like a straight ahead kind of a genre thing. I'm very interested in this. This is again, maybe not going to sell a whole bunch of things, but you win the poetry, you get on the list for a little while. And I was trying to think of a Krause analog, right. Because he writes Whale Fall which getting turned into a movie. He co wrote the Shape of Water novelization slash screenplay with Guillermo del Toro. He's done some other stuff. He's worked in video games. And as you know, Rebecca, I really like to find like a historical antecedent for someone's career or book or sort of story that we see. I was having a really, really hard time.
- [25:09]
Rebecca Schinsky
That's kind of exciting.
- [25:10]
Jeff O'Neill
Which is exciting. I do this very gently and very lightly because many a prognosticator has electrocuted their credibility on this rail of saying maybe but you look at the multiple genres. This person never won an award of this. But you look at the multiple genres working in and out of, you know, sort of crossing between horror, science fiction, commercial, literary. I whisper into the wind. Do you hear what I'm going?
- [25:38]
Rebecca Schinsky
Are we going?
- [25:38]
Jeff O'Neill
I whisper into the wind. Stephen King now again, it's not a one to one, but sort of got. You got a galaxy brain yourself into seeing. He can write these books that people like on a genre level, but then elevate it at certain levels to doing something else. Stephen King is now his own genre. And that's where I think we might be looking at Daniel Krause of like a best selling award winning, super respected genre. A genre writer writing. Again, I don't love the implied value judgment into literary from genre rather than up into. Whereas a lot of the literary writers you and I like best, they write. They start in literary and write into genres. So he's kind of coming the other way, which I find very interesting. So that's my, that's my take for you on Daniel Krause. What do you think about that? Is that unfair? I mean, it's early, I don't know.
- [26:27]
Rebecca Schinsky
I mean, I've not read Krause, but I'm intrigued. And I'm gonna do Whale Fall when the movie comes out. This sounds like it's in a zone that I will enjoy. Definitely. People were very excited about him. And that blend of literary and genre is really fun and in kind of all directions. But Kraus does seem to have interesting ideas and they're all over the place. And I just really enjoy that not knowing what a writer is gonna do next. Like you go from the concept of Whalefall into this like World War I. And there's an angel who has actually fallen to earth in Angel Deli. He's like, what does his idea board look like?
- [27:04]
Jeff O'Neill
I don't know. What didn't he do? What did he discard as too strange?
- [27:07]
Rebecca Schinsky
Right? Yeah, yeah, but that's really fun to see.
- [27:11]
Jeff O'Neill
Also, the new Star wars movie is coming out next weekend. My expectations are low. I'm looking to have a good time at the theater. I'm gonna watch Star wars till I die. Though I will say it's been a while since I was juiced to see a Star wars movies. Like, I can't, you know what this is gonna be. And my son and I were playing a game the other day of like, who would we like to make a Star War? And I've said on the show that Ames loved Angel down. Also really liked Whalefell. And we're like, what was Daniel Krause's Star War be like? They would never make it in a million years. But it would certainly enliven what seems to be a little bit of a chasing its tail end creative IP right now. Speaking of ip, I just put this in here because we have talked for a lot really since the beginning of the show, continuing to beat the drum for don't forget, you know, you don't get don't forget about Dre, do not forget about DAV Pilkey, don't forget about Jeff Kinney and these middle grade graphic novel comic like funny books that have sold like gangbusters for a decade now. They've supported millions of bookstores and they're on libraries everywhere. And I wanted to note with interest that the number one best selling book in this category last week, at least according Publishers Weekly, was a babysitter's club graphic novel called dawn on the coast, which I don't ever recall seeing reach these kind of heights. I don't either paying attention to it. So I could have missed it, but I wanted. If we've missed it, okay, I want to get to it now. If we haven't, it's no either way. I was like, it's outselling those books. There's new ones in most of those series now. Again, they're not new new. But 25,000 copies for babysitters Club is not a joke.
- [28:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
Nothing to sneeze at. That's really great. And that 25,000 copies also makes me think that's a successful pre order campaign right there.
- [28:54]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, that's a great. Yeah. I wonder how they can you maybe people have like orders like my kids want them and as soon as they come in order them for me or how that's going to go. Anyway, I'll note that with interest if you have a relationship or someone in your life does with the Babysitters Club graphic novel, be curious to hear if that's a relatively new phenomenon or not. I know the books have been huge, but these graphic novels seem like they're breathing new life. There was a Netflix series a couple years ago. I know.
- [29:18]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, and it was wonderful.
- [29:19]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, Michelle and Rowan really liked that. I caught a couple episodes. Look cute. I'm not. I think I would have taken the loss on guessing Calamity Club sales or what do you think? So 27,000 copies in the first week. Certainly nothing compared to what the Help of would eventually do. Though I don't think the Help of did that the first week it had a steamroller kind of effect. Number four New York Times hardcover. Number 10 PW. Overall, the reviews have been pretty mixed. I have not read it. You said there's a saggy middle to the Calamity Club, which is 100 pages of like tar pit for regular readers to get stuck in. Perhaps that they cannot pass it on because they're getting stuck. I'm curious to hear about that. This is maybe the name recognition pre sell first day. People want to check it out. I saw it at Target, so I don't know. Rebecca, where are you at? What's your sense of the buzz around Calamity Club?
- [30:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think that this is pre orders. This was a huge preorder campaign. They've been publicizing this book for months. It says from the author of the Help on the COVID A ton of people loved the Help and are still thinking fondly about it even though it's been 17 years. So I'm going to be watching for how long? The Calamity Club sits on bestseller lists. Was this a big first week because they are just clocking all those pre orders and then it falls off. Or, or will it continue to go? If it's as baggy as the reviews say and kind of as uneven, it's. It won't have the universal reception that the Help had at its time. Like, the Help was just huge when it came out. I. I don't know. I think 27,000 in the first week is higher than I would have guessed.
- [30:50]
Jeff O'Neill
I think so too.
- [30:51]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, I would have lost on that one.
- [30:52]
Jeff O'Neill
I think so too. Up next, the America 250 stuff is coming hot and heavy and it's showing up on the list as well. This is, this is a very smart idea. Constitutional law professor and co host of Strict Scrutiny podcast. It's an annotated guy of the Constitution. The author is Melissa Murray. Number three New York Times hardcover nonfiction print ebook. Very cool to see. Jill Lepore won the Pulitzer Prize a couple weeks ago. The the storm is gathering here. Someone wrote. Someone wrote into about my, I don't know, sort of B B plus take on this land is your land by Beverly Gates. Saying what I really wanted is Mary Roach's American road trip. And I just want to say to that person, I feel so seen and it makes me uncomfortable. But you did. You did that, right?
- [31:43]
Rebecca Schinsky
That would be a great poll. Yeah. I have a copy of this Melissa Murray US Constitution because, like, how long is it?
- [31:50]
Jeff O'Neill
Like, like how much?
- [31:53]
Rebecca Schinsky
And she does context for all of the amendments as well, so there's sort of like plain spoken translations of the the full Constitution and then some context for the amendments. 11,000 copies sold to date. So that's also as you're listening, like 11,000 copies will get you to number five, number five hardcover nonfiction list here in the spring. And this is the best selling of the books in the run up to America's 250 so far that I've seen. To my chagrin, it is being outsold this week by a book by Fox News host Brett Baier.
- [32:27]
Jeff O'Neill
I'm not talking about that, but we
- [32:28]
Rebecca Schinsky
will not be putting Brett Baier on the hot list for reasons of our personal values. But Melissa Murray is wonderful, really smart. I've learned a lot from Strict Scrutiny, which covers mostly the Supreme Court and the culture around it. But of course the Supreme Court is dealing with questions of the Constitution. So she's just incredibly qualified and I think a perfect writer for a book like this. I'm looking forward to spending some time with it.
- [32:53]
Jeff O'Neill
Always hard to know what to do with entry into a long running series, especially where it hasn't really broken into the mainstream. Even though Ana Huang's King of Gluttony, which is part of the Kings of Sin, contemporary romance is about as big of a seller as you can get without breaking into the mainstream. I would say, Rebecca, if you're a little bit more then people start thinking about it like you know, the Abby Jimenez's or the Emily Henry's, but it's not quite that yet in my sense but it's just in there and those who really like this really like it. 50,000 copies in its first week, as you note here, 67,000 now. Also a pre order situation. It's a paperback original. People know it's coming big on social so people are ready to rock. I'll be curious to see if if it does anything else or the people are going to be in this book. It's going to sell 100, 150,000 copies. But be it's to going to do it in the first seven weeks and then people are going to move on to the next installment in their series.
- [33:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
This is one of those titles that I was talking about at the top of the show that moved around when I made the notes last week. It was much higher on both the PW and the New York Times lists. And since we had another week of releases and sales since then it's dropped but 50,000 copies in its first week and then another 17,000 in its second week. So like that's not too shabby at all. But it does really show you. Like the sixth book in a series is going to be driven by dedicated readers of the series who are trying to pick it up as soon as it has come out. I don't anticipate this will still be on bestsellers by the June hot list, but it will be replaced by some other big contemporary romance or romantasy.
- [34:20]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, what you could see. And this is a nice transition to our next one, which is if the first book in a series, when a new book is coming out, is picking up traction, that means, you know, the whole thing is being elevated. And that is certainly happening with Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Deniman, the eighth installment, which I've already forgotten the name of, which is out now is new last week or the week before. Parade of Horrible.
- [34:41]
Rebecca Schinsky
Parade of Horribles, right?
- [34:43]
Jeff O'Neill
Something like that. I'm getting confused with the basket of deplorables maybe.
- [34:46]
Rebecca Schinsky
Sorry that I. I brought that name space pollution to us.
- [34:50]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, no, it's okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna think of that forever. We've talked about this before. A self publishing wed phenomena that has now turned into a full on cultural force. This has crossed the chasm, unlike the Anna Huang series, into regular. People are seeing this, they're hearing about, they're picking it up. It's on the front table of Barnes and Noble, it's at Target. It's the number one best selling book of my local powers. Like it's everywhere right now. I think it's a really fun, a really smart summer reading idea for people. I think it's. I'm gonna probably read this on a plane. I would imagine sometime. I'm gonna get to this pretty soon. It's all over the place. I think there's a lot of stories about Deniman. When the new book came out, sort of this was a chance that we did this ourselves a little bit. I did this in the flagship newsletter as well. But like this is here and there's going to be a movie eventually, a TV shows like this is a property. I'll be super curious to see how this proceeds.
- [35:40]
Rebecca Schinsky
The really interesting thing is that Parade of Horribles, which came out May 12, is not yet on bestseller lists. So there's something fascinating happening with the reader's patterns here. Where the first book, Dungeon Crawler Carl, is number six on the New York Times trade paperback list. It's number 14 on their combined print and ebook list. It's at number five on the PW trade paper list. And then multiple other books in the series are also on those various New York Times and PW lists, but it's not the same titles crossing to the different lists, which is also interesting. Very interesting to see Parade of Horribles not selling as fast as Dungeon Crawler Carl, because I think that this is still just, it's still picking up steam and people are just hearing you've got to go read these books. And so they're going back to the first one. The first one sold more than 250 copies so far this year. So we're probably looking at half a million, if not more over the course of 2026. And eventually the subsequent books in the series will also catch up to bestseller list. Parade of Horribles will make it, I think by the end of the year. But it's, it's really fascinating that book 8 is out and there are a bunch of people still just finding out about it and going back to book one to start over. Or to start the beginning.
- [36:55]
Sponsor Voice
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- [38:15]
Rebecca Schinsky
This episode is brought to you by Quince. Working from home means that my getting dressed calculus is a little different than most people's. I need something that feels comfortable enough to wear all day at my desk. Looks pulled together on video calls, but can also go straight to lunch with a friend or go to dinner out without having to change. The Quince 100% European linen popover mini dress is doing all of that for me right now. I like it so much. I have it in two colors. It's breathable, it moves well. It looks like I tried, but it doesn't actually require much of me. And that is exactly what I need when I'm going from work, from home to important calls to dinner out. And that's the whole thing with Quince. The fabrics feel genuinely premium linen pieces starting around $30 and everything is priced 50 to 80% less than comparable brands because Quince works directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middlemen. You'll end up double checking the price every time because you won't be able to believe it. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com bookriot for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com bookriot for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com bookriot all new drinks are now
- [39:37]
Jeff O'Neill
at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry
- [39:41]
Narrator 1
Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping Boba.
- [39:46]
Jeff O'Neill
To crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry
- [39:49]
Narrator 1
Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire?
- [39:57]
Jeff O'Neill
Try them all now at McDonald's. Refreshers contain caffeine. Copyright 2026 the Coca Cola Company. Sprite is a registered trademark of the Coca Cola Company. If you had to guess by the end of next year, okay, what will have sold more copies? DCC number one or Theo of Golden?
- [40:15]
Sponsor Voice
Oh,
- [40:19]
Rebecca Schinsky
I'm going Dungeon crawler. Carl number one.
- [40:22]
Jeff O'Neill
I think so too.
- [40:23]
Rebecca Schinsky
Theo of Golden. We're sitting at just over a million total in the seven months since Atria put it out. And this is 250 year to date on DCC book one. But it also sold a ton last year and there are seven more books. Yeah, yeah. My money's on Matt Deniman.
- [40:44]
Jeff O'Neill
I mean I'm not saying all the editions, just the number one installment. I think so too.
- [40:48]
Rebecca Schinsky
I. Oh yeah.
- [40:49]
Jeff O'Neill
You're often wrong about how long a few of golden like hit can last. But we're often wrong. Wronger. I am about one of these genre phenomenons being a huge thing forever and I'd be very curious to see.
- [41:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah, it also depends on like if we start to see trailers for the I think it's Hulu has the rights for the animated series based on this. That will juice up sales as well.
- [41:15]
Jeff O'Neill
Well if. If someone isn't crashing a few of golden Christmas time release for whatever platform it may be too late but Father's Day next year or something.
- [41:26]
Rebecca Schinsky
I am shocked that there hasn't been news about that yet.
- [41:30]
Jeff O'Neill
He talked about. I'm curious about why. I wonder if they think there is a movie there. What is it a theatrical movie. There's not a lot happens like we're going to get to something else. That's a book phenomena doing quite well on Netflix but it's much higher concept. It involves a talking octopus but that's kind of the zone.
- [41:50]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah but like the Correspondent got the book or the adaptation the film announcement with Jane Fonda like two weeks after.
- [41:58]
Jeff O'Neill
It's a great. It's a great point. Probably is recording there's going to be an announcement about it. I mean that's how imminent it feels like.
- [42:05]
Rebecca Schinsky
We have manifested those before by talking about how. How nothing has happened yet. It's. It's just genuinely surprising that. That it's been a juggernaut for seven months now and that we haven't seen anybody snap it up for anything like from your description of it it sounds ripe for like Netflix holiday Hallmark Zone.
- [42:27]
Jeff O'Neill
Right. Yeah. I don't. Again, I keep. Well, I'll say more about when you get to Remarkable Bright Creatures. Maybe that's a good transition. But we've got a. We've got a sponsor in between. Rebecca, why don't you take.
- [42:37]
Rebecca Schinsky
We do. This is our Everyone's Talking about segment. It's presented by Random House and this month's featured title is Strangers by Bell Burden, which has spent 17 weeks on the bestseller list. It's a really juicy buzzy divorce memoir. The subtitle is A Marriage Memoir but really about how and why this marriage fell apart. And it's currently sitting at number one on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction list. Number three on PW's hardcover nonfiction list. That's a pretty big feat for a work of nonfiction that's been out for several months.
- [43:12]
Jeff O'Neill
A non celebrity memoir.
- [43:13]
Rebecca Schinsky
Doing that is pretty remarkable. Yeah. But there is celebrity juice because Gwyneth Paltrow is going to star in an upcoming adaptation. It's sold 127,000 copies so far as we're recording just. And I'm starting to see it like all over my feed of people that I follow who are not book people. They are hearing about Bellbird and this is like a Juicy Divorce memoir is perfect to read by the pool or on the plane, and that seems to be where a lot of people are hearing about it. I have seen it in airport bookstores and I've heard that the audiobook edition is really excellent as well. Burden reads that audiobook edition and it's currently available in Spotify Premium. So there's a lot of places that you can bump into this. But a big, big word of mouth
- [43:55]
Jeff O'Neill
hit this year, so it's only seven hours and three minutes. So not even using half of your Spotify Premium HIM audio credits if you want that. Strangers by Build burn in your ears. So thanks to Random House for sponsoring the Hot List this week. Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen these are, I'm about to say a bunch of words Rebecca and I definitely understand and I'm super plugged into book two of the World Wolves of Ruin series. Sorensen is the pen name of the writing do of Eliza Phillips and Annie Paige. Stone throwing directly back into my face my earlier contention this year of like multiple author things tend not to do anything. This is number two on the New York Times print and ebook list. Hardcover fiction number one hardcover fiction pw overall, 54k copies in the first week. This is book two, which is interesting because the first one hasn't come and gone without much, but I think maybe like On a Huang, let's talk to me in three weeks. Like this is one of those Hollywood blockbusters that there's a huge opening weekend but then it declines by 60, 67, 70% and sort of comes and goes.
- [45:02]
Rebecca Schinsky
I do think that's what these things tend to do. Yeah, I think this is another big pre order. Nevesa Allen's Game on is in a similar position. It's the, I think third book in a series and it hit the bestseller list with a big first week and it has been consistently dropping since. But that's, that's not bad. Like it's actually quite a testament to how dedicated the readership of these books is that these fans are gonna go and pre order the next book as soon as it's announced and then it will show up on their doorsteps, you know, nine months later. It happens sometimes with literary fiction, but not nearly as much. Like my favorite example was the Testaments by Margaret Atwood, which had a huge first week and then kind of we all figured out it wasn't very good and it dropped off. But the romantasy ones, I don't think it's a reflection of readers reactions to it so much as the Folks who really want it, want it on day one. They want to read it, they want to not get spoiled by the Internet. And then many of them want to be able to participate in the conversations on social media as quickly as possible.
- [46:02]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. I think one reason these series get big advances because not just that the first book is going to sell 100 billion copies, is that you could sell three and sell 200, 200,000 copies apiece, even if, like, that's a high ceiling. But it's not Theo of Golden Breakout possibility. But it's a pretty. Can be a pretty reliable return if you can get past that first book at the same time. You know, I hadn't thought about this, but Remarkably by Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is also in this. I need to name this genre, but it is the older person, isolated, alone, with a good heart. And either something happens to them or they initiate some sort of protocol to re. Engage with the world and the world embraces them. I think old people fantasy is what I'm calling because this is a fantasy of older people. Right. I am alone. I could be alone. But if I just meet the right octopus or the right person comes to town. Don't you have that feeling like if just the right cephalopod slithered its way into my life, everything could be different for you, Rebecca.
- [47:08]
Rebecca Schinsky
I mean, listen, I'm just over here waiting to. To meet the right patch of moss. But I.
- [47:12]
Jeff O'Neill
Right.
- [47:13]
Rebecca Schinsky
I respect the octopus loving community.
- [47:15]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah. This is emotional hentai. This is what this is right now. Just people being like they're suckers for it really is really what I'm saying here.
- [47:24]
Rebecca Schinsky
Anyway, if you don't know what hentai is, don't Google it. We're so.
- [47:28]
Jeff O'Neill
I don't even. I'm just saying words. I'm not even sure what I'm saying. But this is the same genre. This is the same genre.
- [47:35]
Rebecca Schinsky
I think I'm gonna call this like old folks getting back out there or like getting their groove back or something like that. Because I think that it's. For many of the readers, it might be a fantasy that this is a thing that could happen in their lives, but the. It is also a thing that does happen. Older people do find ways to reconnect and form community, and not always with an octopus, but sometimes in Facebook comments.
- [48:00]
Jeff O'Neill
But that's not what we're looking for here. Prefer. I prefer the octopus rather than the Facebook comments. Reconnect.
- [48:05]
Rebecca Schinsky
I mean, this was a huge book, a huge novel. When it came out in hardcover, it stayed on bestseller. Lists. It's in paperback now. Number six on the PW paperback fiction list, number eight on New York Times combined lists. And like, just incredibly steady sales for a book that came out four years ago. It's being buoyed by the Netflix adaptation, which stars Sally Field. And the Octopus is voiced by Alfred Molina. Just like.
- [48:29]
Jeff O'Neill
And Lewis Pullman is great. The family and I watched it. We.
- [48:32]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, yeah, you did. Okay.
- [48:33]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah.
- [48:34]
Rebecca Schinsky
Had anybody in your house read it?
- [48:36]
Jeff O'Neill
No, I was going to and now I'm not going to. And I don't know what that means, but I think I kind of got it.
- [48:42]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah.
- [48:42]
Jeff O'Neill
The. The critics of the. The book, fans that are critics of the movie. Not enough Octopus. But I'm going to. I'm here to tell you the suspension of disbelief you can do in a book just does not play as well. But this is another book. It's not. I mean, seriously, it's like the Correspondent. Were it not for the Octopus, this would be pretty straight of straight ahead kind of Hallmark stuff.
- [49:05]
Rebecca Schinsky
She just got a job at an aquarium and made some friends, and they were all friends.
- [49:09]
Jeff O'Neill
And someone. Someone blows into her life and it turns again. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but, like, the Theory of Golden parallels are sort of, frankly, kind of shocking structurally, anyway. But Sally Field, I mean, come on. And Lewis Pullman is charming as I'll get out. And it's set in one of these little beautiful northwest lake towns that sort of you. You're going to be damp the whole time, but the coffee is going to be good. It's going to be immaculate moss and sweaters. It's going to be great. I think that makes it. I saw that it was like the number one movie on Netflix last week, and to the point where I don't know why I do this, but part of my morning Internet ritual is I go to IMDb and look at the movie news, but I also see, like, whose birthday it is. Like, you scroll down to the bottom of the, like, who's. And then like, they have a little star meter thing. And Sally Field and Lewis Pullman, like, 2 and 6 last week for a couple days, I'm like, oh, my God. People are watching the remarkably bright creatures at that site. Okay, you want to take us home with one more selection?
- [50:04]
Rebecca Schinsky
Yeah. Our last one is Back Talker by Kimberly Williams Crenshaw. You might not recognize her name, but if you have heard about critical race theory or the concept of intersectionality, you know her work. She is the scholar who popularized intersectionality, and she contributed significantly to the creation of critical race theory. Backtalker is her personal memoir, number 14 on the New York Times combined list, 14 on the hardcover nonfiction list. Major profiles and interviews. And that is, I think, a key story about Backtalker and Crenshaw is. I think we're going to continue to see this over the. At least the next month or two, but maybe the course of the year. A really significant figure that this is an interesting time for this book to come out. And she has a lot to say both about the life that led up to this kind of thinking and being drawn into that kind of scholarly work, and then also how it's been received. But really, I'm looking forward to reading this. I think I'm actually going to listen to it. But the profiles and interviews have been so interesting to see.
- [51:08]
Jeff O'Neill
Maybe you'll be around for award season for the awards that have, like a memoir, autobiography kind of category of some kind. I was gonna see how long. Do you know how long the audiobook is if you looked at it?
- [51:19]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, I looked. It's either 11 or 13 hours. It's on the longer end.
- [51:22]
Jeff O'Neill
Oh, 16 hours. Yeah. It's a long one.
- [51:24]
Rebecca Schinsky
Oh, yeah. Even longer than I thought.
- [51:26]
Jeff O'Neill
So there's our hot list. If you've got feedback for us, something we missed or something you say, you know what? That's not. That's not a book that is out there in the world. You can choose email podcastookriot.com I will say, if you're a fan of learning more about the US Constant Constitution, stay tuned for one of our other feeds coming later this summer. Yeah, Rebecca, anything else before we get out of here, we should tell people about.
- [51:51]
Rebecca Schinsky
I would like to hear your submissions for what we should name the genre of old people getting back out there. We need work on something a little catchier. So send us those. A podcast at Book Riot.
- [52:01]
Jeff O'Neill
I mean, Emotional Hentai is evocative. People remember,
- [52:06]
Rebecca Schinsky
does have that going for it. I'm just not sure what else it has going for it.
- [52:15]
Jeff O'Neill
Yeah, not all. Not all good. Not all press is good press. I think that was maybe.
- [52:20]
Rebecca Schinsky
We are proud members of the Airwave Podcast network. Are they proud to have us today? Anybody's guess.
- [52:28]
Jeff O'Neill
It's like that. That there's. There's a famous like line from an Apple PR person who they were being asked about some product that had been updated for a million years and their response was that is a product in our lineup. Maybe Airwaves today is like that is a podcast, but the Book Riot podcast is a podcast in our network for now in parentheses. All right, Rebecca, thank you so much.
- [52:51]
Rebecca Schinsky
Thanks y'.
- [52:52]
Jeff O'Neill
All.
- [52:59]
Rebecca Schinsky
Thanks so much for listening today. Hope you enjoy this audiobook excerpt from the Odyssey by Homer, of course, produced by Our sponsors at 11 Reader Book
- [53:09]
Narrator 2
1 Visit of Athena to Telemachus Tell me, O Muse, of that sagacious man who, having overthrown the sacred town of Ilium, wandered far, and visited the capitals of many nations, learned the customs of their dwellers, and endured great suffering on the deep. His life was oft in peril, as he labored to bring back his comrades to their homes, he saved them not, though earnestly he strove. They perished all through their own folly, for they banqueted madmen upon the oxen of the sun, the all o' er looking son, who cut them off from their return. O Goddess, virgin child of Zeus, relate some part of this to me now. All the rest, as many as escaped the cruel doom of death, were at their homes, safe from the perils of the war and sea, while him alone, who pined to see his home and wife again, Calypso, queenly nymph, great among goddesses, detained within her spacious grot in hope that he might yet become her husband. Even when the years brought round the time in which the gods decreed that he should reach again his dwelling place in Ithaca. Though he was with his friends, his toils were not yet ended. Of the gods all pitied him, save Poseidon, who pursued with wrath implacable the godlike chief Odysseus. Even to his native land among the Ethiopians was the God far off the Ethiopians, most remote of men, two tribes there are one dwells beneath the rising one beneath the setting sun he went to grace a hecatomb of beeves and lambs, and sat delighted at the feast. While in the palace of Olympian Zeus the other gods assembled, and to them the father of immortals and of men was speaking. To his mind arose the thought of that Aegisthus, whom the famous son of Agamemnon, Prince Orestes, slew of him, he thought, and thus bespake the gods.
- [55:02]
Narrator 1
How strange it is that mortals blame the gods, and say that we inflict the ills they bear, when they by their own folly, and against the will of fate, bring sorrow on themselves. As late Aegisthus, unconstrained by fate, man, married the queen of Atreus son, and slew the husband just returned from war. Yet well he knew the bitter penalty, for we warned him. We sent the herald Hermes, bidding him neither slay the chief nor woo his queen. For that Orestes, when he came to manhood and might claim his heritage, would take due victim vengeance for Atreides slain. So Hermes said. His prudent words moved not the purpose of Aegisthus, who now pays the forfeit of his many crimes.
- [55:59]
Narrator 2
At once Athena, the blue eyed goddess,
- [56:02]
Narrator 3
thus replied, O father, son of Kronos, king of kings, well he deserved his death. So perish all guilty of deeds like his. But I am grieved for sage Odysseus, that most wretched man, so long detained, repining and afar from those he loves, upon a distant isle girt by the waters of the central deep, a forest isle, where dwells a deity, the daughter of wise Atlas, him who knows the ocean to its utmost depths, and holds upright the lofty columns which divide the earth from heaven. The daughter there detains the unhappy chieftain, and with flattering words would win him to forget his Ithaca. Meanwhile, impatient to behold the smokes that rise from hearths in his own land, he pines, and willingly would die. Is not thy heart Olympian touched by this? And did he not pay grateful sacrifice to thee beside the argive fleet in the broad realm of Troy? Why then, O Zeus, art thou so wroth with him?
- [57:08]
Narrator 2
Then, answered cloud, compelling Zeus, my child,
- [57:12]
Narrator 1
what words have passed thy lips? Can I forget godlike Odysseus, who in gifts of mind excels all other men, and who has brought large offerings to the gods that dwell in heaven? Yet he who who holds the earth in his embrace, Poseidon pursues him with perpetual hate because of Polypheme, the Cyclops, strong beyond all others of his giant race, whose eye Odysseus had put out. The nymph Thoosa brought him forth a daughter, she of forces ruling in the barren deep, and in the COVID of o' erhanging rocks she met with Poseidon. For this cause the God who shakes the shores, although he slay him not, sends forth Odysseus, wandering far away from his own country. Let us now consult together and provide for his return. And Poseidon will lay by his wrath for vain it were for one like him to strive alone against the might of of all the immortal gods.
- [58:23]
Narrator 2
And then the blue eyed Athena spake again.
- [58:26]
Narrator 3
O father, son of Kronos, king of kings. If such the pleasure of the blessed gods, that now the wise Odysseus shall return to his own land, let us at once dispatch Hermes, our messenger, down to Ogygia, to the bright haired nymph, and make our steadfast purpose known to bring the sufferer Odysseus to his home. And I will haste to Ithaca and move his son, that with a resolute heart he call the long haired Greeks together, and forbid the excesses of the suitor train who slay his flocks and slow paced beeves with crooked horns. To Sparta I will send him and the sands of Pylos to inquire for the return of his dear father. So a glorious fame shall gather round him in the eye of men.
- [59:13]
Narrator 2
She spake and fastened underneath her feet the fair ambrosial golden sandals, worn to bear her over ocean like the wind, and o' er the boundless land. In hand she took, well tipped with trenchant brass, the mighty spear, heavy and huge and strong, with which she bears whole phalanxes of heroes to the earth. When she, the daughter of a mighty sire, is angered. From the Olympian heights she plunged and stood amongst among the men of Ithaca, just at the porch and threshold of their chief Odysseus. In her hand she bore the spear and seemed the stranger Mentes, he who led the Taphians. There before the gate she found the haughty suitors. Some beguiled the time with draughts, while sitting on the hides of beeves which they had slaughtered. Heralds were with them, and busy menials, some who in the bowls tempered the wine with water, some who cleansed the tables with light sponges, and who set the banquet forth and carved the meats for all. Telemachus the godlike was the first to see the goddess as he sat among the crowd of suitors, sad at heart, and thought of his illustrious father, who might come and scatter those who filled his palace halls and win new honor and regain the rule over his own.