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Three Percent Podcast Launches "Two Month Review"

After six years and almost one hundred and thirty episodes, the Three Percent Podcast is expanding to include new weekly “Two Month Review” mini-episodes.

Each “season” of the Two Month Review podcasts will highlight a different Open Letter book, reading it slowly over the course of eight to nine episodes. Featuring a rotating set of literary guests, from authors (Jonathan Lethem is scheduled for the episode airing 6/29) to booksellers, critics, and translators, the individual episodes will recap a short section of the book and use that as a springboard to talk about literature in a general sense, pop culture, reading approaches, and much more.

On one level, each season will provide a wealth of opportunities to dig into a book, to read it slowly and thoughtfully—an important concept at a time in which a lot of book conversation revolves around list-making, with the majority of new titles receiving only passing mention before the next new title is available. By supplementing these weekly podcasts with a variety of different posts on Three Percent, and public conversation on a GoodReads Forum, each season will result in a sort of primer for the book in question, an almost real-time, long-running book club.

The podcasts will also try to capture the tone and feel of weekly TV-recap podcasts by treating the novels respectfully, but not reverentially. Discussion about great books need not be deadly serious, and the levity of the podcast will help make it accessible to everyone—even if you’re not reading along.

Rodrigo Fresán’s The Invented Part will be the first featured book (episodes released every Tuesday from 5/16 through 7/27), and Guðbergur Bergsson’s Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller will be the second (8/3-9/28).

Three Percent Podcast co-host—and Open Letter publisher—Chad Post will be joined by Brian Wood (short story writer, mastermind behind the satirical ROC in Your Mouth podcast) to talk about The Invented Part, and poet-translator Lytton Smith will come on for the Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller discussions.

To support this new venture, both The Invented Part and Tómas Jónsson, Bestseller are available through the Open Letter website at a 20% discount. Just use the discount code 2MONTH at checkout. Both books are available now and will ship immediately.

All “Two Month Review” podcasts will appear in the Three Percent Podcast feed as well as under this Two Month Review tag.

If you have any questions—or guest suggestions—feel free to contact Chad Post at chad.post@rochester.edu.

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Season One Schedule: The Invented Part by Rodrigo Fresán

May 16th: Introduction to The Invented Part
June 1st: “The Real Character” (pgs. 1-45)
June 8th: “Place Where the Seas Ends” (Part I) (pgs. 46-98)
June 15th: “Place Where the Seas Ends” (Part II) (pgs. 99-207)
June 22nd: “Place Where the Seas Ends” (Part III) (pgs. 208-229)
June 29th: “A Few Things You Happen to Think About” (pgs. 230-300)
July 6th: “Many Fêtes, or Study for a Group Portrait with Broken Decalogues” (pgs. 301-360)
July 13th: “Life After People” (pgs. 361-403)
July 20th: “Meanwhile, Once Again” (pgs. 404-439)
July 27th: “The Imaginary Person” (pgs. 440-547)



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