A Bitch's Guide to Books

Elisabeth and Yi ring in this next month of episodes on dystopia with some mixed media—Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Black Mirror’s episode “USS Callister.” Then we play word association games around dystopian words and make some points that almost hit the mark. Like they’re fine. Short enough that you’ll forgive it.    

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Yi and Elisabeth talk obsession as romance, sex positivity on college campuses, and the place of erotic fiction in mainstream lit. Take a shot everytime one of us says “sex,” “problematic,” or “upsetting” and let us know down in the reviews if you get your stomach pumped!  

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Elisabeth and Yi talk fantasy porn, female agency, graphic and biologically inaccurate sex scenes, and exclusively white representation in fanfiction! You know it’s good when we’re covering such revered works as “The Bad Boy Hit Me In The Face With A Baseball Bat.”

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Yi and Elisabeth devolve into feverish stuttering about Audrey Niffenegger’s command of the English language. They explore love as fateful and predetermined. Is it really love if you already know it’s going to happen? What would it be like to have sex for the first time with your future husband time travelling into your past? This and more in this bite-sized episode.
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Elisabeth and Yi are BACK and BETTER than ever. This month, we’re talking all things love and sex. Is love stupid? Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter,” Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and Chen Chen’s “For I Will Consider My Boyfriend Jeffrey” give us some answers.
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A one hour finale WITH an unnecessary segment of us celebrating one half-season eating cake? You asked for it, and you got it! Elisabeth and Yi reflect on their college experiences with Caroline Kitchener’s memoir Post Grad and talk about some taboo topics like transferring, loneliness, and imposter syndrome. College is great!

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Content warning: sexual violence, physical/sexual abuse.
You voted for a bonus section on Perks’ Aunt Helen. Yi and Elisabeth talk about how people in positions of power are often given a free pass for shitty behavior because something shitty happened to them. They recognize their own complicity in a system of oppression and invisibilization of victims. They get HEATED.

Teenagers have things to say, as this book beautifully illustrates! Elisabeth and Yi agree—they were teens not too long ago. This episode, they talk about awkwardness, self indulgence, people pleasing, and the ways in which Charlie expresses love. 
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Long time no see! This episode, Elisabeth and Yi talk about having a realistic and pessimistic world-view, how nothing’s really real, and debate about the significance (if any) of Weena in H.G. Well’s Time Machine.

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Yi and Elisabeth re-explore womanhood as sin with the 2010 adaptation of the Scarlet Letter, Easy A. They talk about sex-positive environments, modern day empowerment, and how much more REAL the movie is to them eight years later.
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