Secret Life of Books

Song of Solomon (1977) propelled Toni Morrison into mainstream recognition as a major American writer, not just of her own generation but all generations, past present and to come. Song tackled something close to the “whole” of African American history, weaving multi-generational stories that included Africa itself, the southern landscapes of plantation slavery and the Civil War, and the post-abolition north. It’s a family chronicle, focusing on the life story of the well-to-do Macon Dead III, aka “Milkman,” who grows from boy to man in 1930s and 40s Michigan. The book brilliantly combines mythology, history, domestic and magical realism.
Song of Solomon quickly became famous, expressing a growing awareness among American readers in the late 1970s that the Black civil rights movement of the past 3 decades was, at best, a partial success. One of Morrison’s signature qualities was to focus on writing about Black characters for Black readers, in ways that moved beyond the tropes, devices and storylines that white readers could understand and that previous generations of Black writers had been able to immerse themselves in,
In this episode, the second in our series on the great Nobel Laureate, we continue the story of how Morrison disrupted virtually all existing expectations about how a Black woman novelist would sound. In Song of Solomon she chose a male protagonist to retell a deep history of African cultural magic, annexing the names, stories and language of the Christian Bible to create a story that refuses to do anything that readers of other American retellings of biblical epics were expecting.

Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob
Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With all the fuss and fanfare around Wuthering Heights, we’re worried Emily Bronte is getting more than her fair share of attention. So today we shift the SLOB-light to her younger sister Anne, author of the remarkable The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, published in 1848. Anne wrote it in a whirlwind after the successes of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, determined to prove herself a Bronte in talent and spirit.
And though Anne is now the least celebrated of the Bronte trio, Tenant at the time of its publication it was considered the most shocking in the Bronte collective oevre. Anne had fearlessly pulled back the veil on marital infidelity, domestic violence, alcoholism, and the systemic torments of Victorian masculinity and marriage laws.
Listeners will spot fascinating overlaps with many of the key scenes and motifs in Emily’s and Charlotte’s writing — like the fact Lord Huntingdon, the violent villain of Tenant, shares his initial with Heathcliff; that he sometimes bears an odd resemblance to Mr. Rochester, and that Wildfell Hall itself has the same initials as Wuthering Heights. But Tenant of Wildfell Hall is also uniquely its own creation, and today Sophie and Jonty get to work unpacking what makes it so extraordinary.
To wrap this Bronte mini-series up we ask, should Tenant of Wildfell Hall be classed as peak Bronte, the equal of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre? And should Emerald Fennell be making Tenant the next stop on her raunchy, irreverent period adaptation-spree?

Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob
Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special bonus episode about the blockbuster phenom of Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday celebrations. Sophie’s guest is Professor Devoney Looser, one of the world’s leading Austen scholars, and the author of the brilliant Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, about the unscripted, occasionally unhinged world that Jane Austen really knew, and which influenced her writing.
We talk about why the Austen obsession has only gone from strength to strength, and Devoney looks ahead to Austenmania in 2026, with new screen adaptations coming to delight the fans.

Get the Book:
Devoney Looser, Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, St Martin’s Press, 2025.

More fun coverage:
From Alexandra Schwartz, a SLOB guest, in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/newsletter/the-daily/jane-austens-uncommon-compassion
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/16/books/jane-austen-250th-birthday.html
Listen to our episode about Mrs. Dalloway with Alex Schwartz
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best Valentine’s Day ever! SLOB’s “Wuthering Heights” watch-party. Sophie and Jonty take it character by character – inanimate characters included — to decide who are the winners and who are the losers in the Fennell-Robbie-Elordi mash-up adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel. And in the episode’s gripping second half they move onto the really meaty questions: race, class, sex, domestic violence, and pets.
As the movie poster says, Come Undone - with SLOB - this Valentine's season.

Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob
Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The storm clouds are gathering in anticipation of the Valentine’s Day release of Emerald Fennell’s raunchy film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The film has been described by one critic as “very horny, very sumptuous, and very demented.” Margot Robbie looks set to change the way we read this beloved classic, well, if not forever, for a few weeks during awards season.
It’s fair to say that anyone remotely connected to the world of classic literature is standing by, getting ready to jeer.
And it’s also fair to say that the film has propelled Wuthering Heights to become the most read classic of 2026. The New York subway, the London Tube and many other transport systems worldwide are dotted with earnest young people, proudly nose-deep in their Penguin Wuthering Heights.
If SLOB has a motto, it’s be prepared. To ready our devoted listeners for the big V. Day release, we’ve recorded a brand-new episode on Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte’s novel, which may just be the most unhinged, genre-busting, unputdownable classic in English, is back, bigger, better, and balmier than when SLOB recorded our first episode back at the very beginning of this podcast.
We drink deep, but always with our trademark cheeky humor, in Emily Bronte’s biography, the secrets behind the book’s writing, and why the Heathcliff-Catherine love-story it is most definitely not GOATED, as the kids say.

Become a subscriber by signing up at Apple: http://apple.co/slob
Or join our Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/c/secretlifeofbookspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.