A story about a young woman trapped in an underground prison with 39 other women sounds like it could be a stone cold bummer, and it isn’t not that. But this translated French novel from 1995 also hits some affirming, human notes, and it’s those aspects of it that help explain why it’s found new life via word of mouth and BookTok.

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Perhaps befittingly, Anne Patchett's fourth novel changed the trajectory of her career. The award-winning Bel Canto centers on 58 people (a combination of hostages and militants sequestered in an unnamed country), many of whom spend the time cut off from the outside world meditating on the paths their lives did and didn't take. Many welcome the opportunity to sit, reflect, grow, and change -- all without the added pressure of the real world. But the tragedy, of course, is that they cannot keep the outside world at bay forever.

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Did you ever wonder why the name "Jeeves" has always been inseparable from the concept of "a very good butler"? It's because of these short stories (plus more short stories, plus several novels) by English novelist P.G. Wodehouse.

Hapless gadfly Bertie Wooster relies on his man Jeeves for just about everything, from clothing advice to getting his various dim-bulb friends out of money-related scrapes. And if they fight sometimes, that's OK, because Bertie always eventually realizes that Jeeves was right to be upset about whatever they were fighting about.

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Did you know that the classic 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer was actually based on a propulsive young adult thriller from 1973? Lois Duncan's original novel isn't too interested in bloody kills, however. It's more focused on how young people build their identities: around their regrets, around their parents, and around tragedies.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting, including one job that will prove to be her toughest yet!

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Here's the full Sit Me Baby One More Time reading list:

• Kristy's Great Idea
• Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
• The Truth about Stacey
• Mary Anne Saves the Day
• Dawn and the Impossible Three
• Hello, Mallory
• Jessi's Secret Language
• Welcome to the BSC, Abby

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An official offshoot of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Choose Your Own Nightmare books cropped up for a couple of years in the mid-90s, an (alleged) response to the popularity of our old friend RL Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stine’s somewhat longer-lived Give Yourself Goosebumps sub-series would launch just months after the first Choose Your Own Nightmare book, but it’s fun to read CYOA originator Edward Packard take a stab at something more explicitly spooky than the original series.

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Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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Everybody loves our old friend Ray Bradbury! This time we’re taking a spin with his first short story collection Dark Carnival, a smattering of spooky tales that wound up scattered across a number of other collections throughout Bradbury’s career.

Stories discussed in this episode include:

The Small Assassin

The Dead Man

Skeleton

The Scythe

The Emissary

The Homecoming

Uncle Einar

The Lake

The Jar

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

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A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge some of your preconceived notions.

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.

Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.

Follow @overduepod on Instagram and Bluesky

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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.