Back Room Book Talk

Come join Alyx and Annie as they try to keep it together. Maybe one day a podcast will not devolve into chaos.

Books mentioned:

Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle

Delicious in Dungeon

Devour Me by Emily Rath

Stitched by Eli McCann

There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood by Rasheed Newson

Frenchman Flat by Jon Else

Love Virus by Jacci Turner

Country of Under by Brooke Shaffner

I Punched an Alien and Now We’re in Couple’s Therapy by Kimberly Lemming

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Babel by RF Kuang

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido

A Little History of Economics by Niall Kishtainy

The Devils by Joe Abercromie

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Desert Talon by Karin Lowachee

Vagina Obscura by Rachel Gross

Out of the Neon Closet by Dennis McBride

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40, vol 2 by Mamita

Candy Color Paradox by Isaku Natsume

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

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Alyx interviews Annie about romance novels!

Alyx’s silly sections:

* J.R. Ward and that rep tho

* Sandra Brown and is it really dub con if it’s the 90s?

* Karen Marie Moning and why you can totally drop into book 5

This is our final backlog…hopefully we’ve caught up by now! fingers crossed

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

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Alyx talks about Mars House (finally).

Enjoy the chat (even though we’re microdosing hell).

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Recorded on 3/22/26

We talk about community and why we think it’s so important!

Hey! Three done in a row! Aren’t you so proud of us?

There are many silly moments left in... it was a chaotic morning! XD

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Recorded on 2/8/26

Join us for a discussion on the point of books in dark times.

Two videos referenced in the podcast:

"The Strangers' Case" Speech from Sir Thomas More

Stephen Colbert on Mike Johnson and Pope Leo XIV

Definitely the only book referenced:

Mars House by Natasha Pulley

(Please count how many times Alyx brings up Mars House and let Annie know. Annie counted three… but definitely feels like it’s more!)

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Recorded on 2/8/26.

Here we talk about history books!

Also, we promise… one day… we’ll have a consistent schedule… maybe…

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

We are marking this one M for mature! We are going to be discussing spicy things and are being very explicit in the episode. 18+ and listen at your own discretion.

Books mentioned:

* North How Much is Your Love by Maem

* Words of Silk by Sandra Brown

* Hades Calculus by Maria Ying

* I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

* The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward

* Sex Wizards Series by Alethea Faust

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Back Room Book Talk. One indie bookstore, two readers, infinite strong opinions. Sit with Alyx and Annie for a little reading catch up.

Thanks for joining us!

Books mentioned in this podcast:

* A Little History of Music Robert Philip

* South Beside the Sky

* There is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

* Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

* Before We Were Trans by Dr Kit Heyam PH D

* Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary

* The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

* Hades Calculus by Maria Ying

* The Themis Files Trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Back Room Book Talk. One indie bookstore, two readers, infinite strong opinions. Sit with Alyx and Annie to discuss the internet and why they think it ties into people’s desire for physical media.

Thanks for joining us!

Books mentioned in the podcast:

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Music Credit: Clips from Autumn In The Air by Lo-Fi Astronaut used throughout.

Get full access to Thistle & Nightshade at thistleandnightshade.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to episode three of Back Room Book Talk! Join us today to discuss the literacy crisis and some steps you can take to help kiddos gain a love of reading.

Here are some links for further reading:

More about the current crisis:

* https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/child-illiteracy

* https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/12_10_2024.asp

* https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

More about No Child Left Behind and the Every Child Succeeds Act:

* https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/no-child-left-behind-an-overview/2015/04

* https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/the-every-student-succeeds-act-an-essa-overview/2016/03

* https://www.understood.org/en/articles/the-difference-between-the-every-student-succeeds-act-and-no-child-left-behind

Resources for Families

* https://www.connectionsacademy.com/support/resources/article/helping-kids-synthesize-information-for-reading-comprehension/

* https://www.k5learning.com/reading-comprehension-worksheets/first-grade-1/comprehension-exercises/who-what-where-when-why

* https://www.unr.edu/cll

* https://nnlc.org/

* https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/laws-preschool-grade-12-education/title-I

* https://www.washoeschools.net/directory/business-financial-services/title-i

* https://www.washoeschools.net/directory/child-find

* https://www.lexercise.com/tests/dyslexia-test

Nevada Authors mentioned in this episode:

* Teri Farley, author of the Phantom Stallion Series

* Brad McMullen, author and illustrator of Stitched Tales

* Naseem Jamnia, author of The Glade

* Jarret Keene, author of Decide & Survive

* Nanda Reddy, author of A Girl Within A Girl Within A Girl

Thanks for joining us!

Hey all! Annie here! I wanted to expand some of my thoughts: 1) because I think a mile a minute and my brain can’t always keep up and 2) I was starting to get a cold when we recorded this and my brain was dead!

Oral vs Written Word

We have long had a history of discrediting oral storytelling in the West. This has often come at the expense of indigenous cultures. Their view of history, science, how the world was made was “less valid” then the written word (even though most of the ancient stories were an oral story first). So, when Jarret mentioned a shift away from the written word toward more oral forms of information, I had to pause and ask myself: Am I limiting my understanding of storytelling and information-sharing to a relatively recent invention? (Yes, writing is an invention.)

As I mention in the podcast, ultimately I felt that they were actually two very different conversations. Yes, oral storytelling and information communication is a valid form of expression, but separately, we have an issue where an alarming amount of children cannot read at a functional level and cannot comprehend what they are consuming appropriately.*

The People are Not Informed

The No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2002 and replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2014. And yet, here’s what people focus on: “Bush left these kids behind.” But no, Bush isn’t the one leaving the kids behind—he left their parents, aunts, uncles, older brothers, sisters, and cousins, as well as other supportive adults behind. The Obama-era legislation that was supposed to fix the problem didn’t.

Let’s be clear: people love their kids. Both pieces of legislation were passed with the idea that “the kids are our future.” But they both exposed the flaws of their respective parties. Bush’s approach was punitive, with strict adherence to standardized measures. Obama’s, while loosening federal oversight, still relied heavily on testing to make sure those measures were followed. Neither one addressed the real issues, and now—well, the kids still can’t fucking read.

Language

Talk with your kids! Have that back and forth conversation to help model language comprehension. “We are unlikely to understand something we read if we cannot understand the same ideas when they are spoken or read aloud to us” pg. 17 (from Moats, Louisa Cook, and Carol A Tolman. LETRS : Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. Volume One. Units 1-4. Dallas, Tx, Sopris West Educational Services, 2019.)

Science is Real! But… Maybe We Need to Trust Teachers?

The Science of Reading is the current trend sweeping through the education system. It’s based on solid research and can be very effective in teaching kids how to read. But my concern is that this obsession with data-driven practices puts us in a cycle of bad curricula and wasted millions. How do we prove that a curriculum is working? By administering a test, of course! And so, the cycle of test-taking and test-failing continues, over and over.

Instead of getting stuck in this loop, why not trust that we’ve been teaching kids to read for centuries? Yes, some of it is boring, repetitive rote work—but that’s part of the process. Many of these methods were pushed aside in favor of newer, supposedly more engaging ways to teach reading. The result? Kids paid the price.

*I’m not sure how to cite a TikTok, but earlier today (9/29/25), Hank Green posted a video expressing alarm over a statistic circulating that 60% of people in the U.S. are functionally illiterate. This would mean they cannot read or write their own name, fill out basic forms, or function in everyday life. Hank was particularly frustrated that people were so concerned about this statistic, which, ironically, only proves the point both the statistic and I are trying to make: people are given information but lack the skills to properly interpret it and discern whether it’s real or not. That’s what reading comprehension is all about. And that is genuinely alarming.

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