Episode 22 – The Target
The Worst Bestsellers
Worst Bestsellers
4.5 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2015
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kait, Renata, and their guest Nick (@polykinetic) read The Target by David Baldacci. It’s the story of CIA assassins and neo-Nazis and North Korean prison camps, but most of all, it’s the story of the power of maternal love. Actually, most of all, it’s the story of USA! USA! USA! Our discussion of this book is perfect to play over loudspeakers at your Memorial Day BBQs, or any other time you need to feel a searing burst of patriotism.
Content warning: This book contains scenes of sexual assault and we discuss those scenes in this episode.
Readers advisory: Here.
Special note: Thanks so much to Malia for donating to support our charitable causes! If you live in Bloomington, Indiana, check out their chapter of the Forever Young Adult book club!
Also, we’re taking a short survey to see how you guys feel about our podcast!
Candy pairing: Kait says a birthday party goody bag, Nick says Bazooka Joe, Renata says Pop Rocks.
Coming up next: The Greek Tycoon’s Blackmailed Mistress by Lynne Graham.
* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the worst bestsellers, where we read about juvenile CIA grudges so you don't have to. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm Kate. |
| 0:17.8 | And I'm Renata. |
| 0:19.0 | And for this episode, we read The Target by David Baldacci |
| 0:22.0 | joining us is our friend Nick an advertising copywriter and struggling part-time |
| 0:26.8 | assassin welcome Nick hey-oh yay thanks for joining us for this |
| 0:34.1 | possibly string of smaller assassin short stories tied together into novel form, possibly. |
| 0:43.3 | Yeah, this is the third book in a series, but it feels like it could be like books three through eight of the series, all tacked into one. |
| 0:54.7 | Yeah, where each book is about 60 pages long. |
| 0:58.5 | Either that or like, it could be compressed down to like one movie trailer. |
| 1:02.8 | Like, there's not a lot of content in there. |
| 1:07.9 | Yeah, and so, we were talking a little bit before about how I don't really understand why the action book really exists as a concept. |
| 1:17.3 | Like to me, I mean, I like an action movie for sure. |
| 1:21.3 | I would love to watch some of these fights happen, like, you know, just ninjas kicking like 10 people at once. That sounds |
| 1:28.6 | awesome. But when it takes like two pages to describe it, I'm just skimming at on board. I don't |
| 1:33.5 | really understand why this is a book and not a movie. Or like at least two pages of descriptions |
| 1:38.8 | at least is attempting to describe what's happening. Often, it's a complete lack of description. |
| 1:45.3 | It's like, the door was locked, then the door was unlocked. |
| 1:49.3 | And it's like, you have to, something in between happens. |
| 1:52.6 | Is it magic? |
| 1:54.1 | Maybe. |
| 1:55.3 | Might be magic. |
... |
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