【Australia】

There are Australiafew books that capture the pursuit of — and utter disenchantment with — the American Dream as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Written in 1925, The Great Gatsbyfollows Nick Carroway as he tells the tale of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy yet enigmatic man living on the Long Island Sound struggling to win back the love of his life Daisy. In an effort to reconnect with Daisy, Gatsby tries to infiltrate the exclusive world of New York's elite, forcing readers to ponder: is the American Dream still possible and for whom?

Inspired by Gatsby's place in the canon of books we all read in high school, we chat about our favorite high school books on MashReads-- including Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison, and Catcher In The Ryeby J.D. Salinger.

And, as always, we close the show with recommendations:

• Aliza recommends Pod Save America, Lovett or Leave It, and the other podcasts from Crooked Media.

• Peter recommends the new Mystery Science Theater 3000reboot on Netflix and Slate's Political Gabfestas a counter to Aliza's recommendation of Pod Save America.

• MJ recommends "Touring the Galleries of Vin Diesel’s Facebook Page With Art Critic Jerry Saltz," a New York Magazine article where art critic Jerry Saltz deconstructs the (very weird) art Vin Diesel posts on Facebook.

Next week, in honor of its 50th anniversary, we will be reading S.E. Hinton's classic The Outsiderswith S.E. Hinton herself. We hope you'll join us.

And if you're looking for even more book news, don't forget to follow MashReadson Facebook and Twitter.