
Author Mitchell S. Jackson returns for our book club discussion of Ling Ma’s post-apocalyptic novel Severance. On this episode we try to piece together the story’s timeline, unpack the ending, and we cast the TV show adaptation. We also discuss quote marks, capitalism, and the role of religion throughout the novel.
There are spoilers on this episode.
Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our December book club pick will be.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

- Severance by Ling Ma
- Fly by Mitchell S. Jackson
- University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Jenna Johnson
- “Ep. 291 I’ve Never Read for Pleasure with Mitchell S. Jackson” (The Stacks)
- Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
- Aaron Rodgers
- Contagion (Steven Soderbergh, 2011)
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- Pepsi
- Coca-Cola
- Rodrigo Corral
- Blackouts by Justin Torres
- American Gun by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson
- Stephanie Hsu
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan, 2022)
- Jesse Plemons
- Friday Night Lights (NBC)
- Ted Cruz
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- The Bear (FX)
- Jeremy Allen White
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- The Stacks 2023 Gift Guide
- The Stacks 2023 Book Gift Guide
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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