Book Club for Masochists: a Readers' Advisory Podcast

It's episode 239 and time for us to discuss The Forest of a Thousand Eyes written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read

• The Forest of a Thousand Eyes written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett

Other Media We Mentioned

• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Solaris by Stanisław Lem
• Solaris (film)
• Island of Whispers written by Frances Hardinge and illustrated by Emily Gravett
• Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
• The Dark Crystal
• Labyrinth
• Coraline
• Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe
• Animorphs by K. A. Applegate
• Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
• Spirited Away
• Choose Your Own Adventure
• Finish It Podcast
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark written by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell
• Alice in Wonderland
• Corpse Bride
• Beetlejuice
• Edward Scissorhands
• Planet of the Apes
• The Secret of NIMH
  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH written by Robert C. O'Brien, illustrated by Zena Bernstein
• Grimms' Fairy Tales
• Aesop's Fables
• The Ojja-Wojja written by Magdalene Visaggio, drawn by Jenn St-Onge
• The Subway Peddler from The Wiz
• Return to Oz
• The Witches
• The NeverEnding Story
• Fear Street by R. L. Stein
  • Christopher Pike wrote a lot of YA horror, but not as a series
• Five Nights at Freddy's
  • presenting five nights at freddys lore like i understand it by Haley Whipjack
• Eerie, Indiana
• Poppy Playtime
• Bendy and the Ink Machine
• Garten of Banban
• Amanda the Adventurer
• Hilda by Luke Pearson
• Hilda (cartoon)
• Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama

Links, Articles, and Things

• Picaresque novel
• Derry (from Stephen King fiction)

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, November 3rd when we'll be discussing Taiwanese Fiction (as suggested by Jessqi).

Then on Tuesday, November 17th we'll be discussing the second Battle of the Books winner: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz.

It's episode 238 and time for Halloween! Join us as we talk about the genre of Cosmic Horror! We discuss the differences between "a cosmic horror" and "cosmic horror", creepy noises, reading series out of order, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Blindsight by Peter Watts
• The Croning by Laird Barron
• Remina by Junji Ito
• Beyond the Bounds of Infinity: An Anthology of Diverse (Cosmic) Horror edited by Vaughn A. Jackson and Stephanie Pearre
• The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
• Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Tindalos Asset by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Other Media We Mentioned

• The Midnight Pals
  • Comedic fiction about various horror writers that started as Twitter threads. There are collected editions.
• Crapshots Ep608 - The Old Ones
  • "Everything sucks now that the great old ones have risen."
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
  • We didn't actually mention any specific books by him, but here's the one Matthew was thinking about
• The Last Days of New Paris by China Miéville
• Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Stalker directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
• SCP Foundation
• There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
• The Backrooms
• Backrooms directed by Kane Parsons
• Trapped in the Backrooms || Crapshots Ep725
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  • Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Hellboy by Mike Mignola and others
• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
• The Horror at Red Hook by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito
• Comprehensive List of Cosmic Horror (IMDB)
• Control (video game)
• Dead Space
• The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
• The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau
• The Mountain Goats - Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Links, Articles, and Things

• Episode 019 - Weird Fiction
• Episode 115 - New Weird
• Lovecraftian horror (Wikipedia)
• Conan the Barbarian (Wikipedia)
• Cthulhu Mythos (Wikipedia)
• List of Cthulhu Mythos characters (Wikipedia)
• Libro.fm's Audiobook Listening Copy Program
• Providence Athenaeum
• Arkham Horror (board game)
• Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
• Abbott and Costello
• Space!!! (Tim Curry)
• Anxiety (Academia) - Matthew's playlist of music that makes him anxious

16 Cosmic Horror Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
• Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes
• You've Awoken Her by Ann Dávila Cardinal
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
• A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Bowman
• The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim, translated by Sean Lin Halbert
• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
• Up From The Deep by Vaughn A. Jackson
• This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
• Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
• Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker
• The Flock of Ba-Hui and Other Stories by Oobmab, translated by Arthur Meursault and Akira
• Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn
• They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
• Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 20th we'll be talking about The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett.

Then on Tuesday, November 3rd we'll be discussing Taiwanese Fiction!

It's episode 237 and time for us to talk about Post-Apocalyptic Fiction! We discuss the apocalypse, the post-apocalypse, the post-post-apocalypse, androids, dystopias, breaking into people's houses, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• The Fireman by Joe Hill
• Wool by Hugh Howey
• The Ragpicker by Joel Dane
• Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, vol. 1 by Hitoshi Ashinano
• Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, narrated by Julienne Irons

Other Media We Mentioned

• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Moon of Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• The Passage by Justin Cronin
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
• Scorpio by Marko Kloos
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
• Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
• Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhouse
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
  • Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted
• Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
  • No TV series, but there were several movies
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
• Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
• Silo (TV series)
• Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
• Earthdivers by Stephen Graham Jones, Davide Gianfelice, and others
• Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
  • Episode 083 - The Fifth Season

Links, Articles, and Things

• Libro.fm Audiobook Listening Copy Program
• 'We've Already Survived an Apocalypse': Indigenous Writers Are Changing Sci-Fi
  • Matthew was wrong, the "We've already survived an apocalypse" quote is from Rebecca Roanhorse
• Waffle House Training - Pull Drop Mark Order Calling Method
  • Not Denny's!

20 Post Apocalyptic Novels by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Murder at the End of the World by Akane Araki
• Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney
• The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
• The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• Zulus by Percival Everett
• Trinity Sight by Jennifer Givhan
• The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
• Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
• The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
• Severance by Ling Ma
• The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• Not With a Bang by Temi Oh
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
• This is the Year by Gloria Munoz
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
• Metatron's Children by Chy Ryan Spain
• Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías
• Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 6th when we discuss Cosmic Horror!

Then on Tuesday, October 20th we'll be talking about The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett.

It's episode 236 and time for our summer media update! Join us as we talk about books, games, and comics we've recently enjoyed.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Matthew
  • Mister Invincible by Pascal Jousselin
  • The Jellyfish by Boum
  • How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King
• Meghan
  • Read Weird
    • Open Wide by Jessica Gross
    • Devil House by John Darnielle
    • Pour un paquet de Player's by Daniel Grenier
  • Meghan Tries to Read a Series
    • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
    • Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines series) by Marko Kloos
    • The Greatcoats by Sebastien de Castell
  • NonFiction standouts
    • Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephan King by Caroline Bicks
    • Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games by Kawika Guillermo
    • A Truce is Not Peace by Miriam Toews
• Jam
  • A Small Change by Rae-Hyeon Kim
  • Cain Culto
    • Chismosa (w Jarina De Marco)
    • BASTA YA (w Xiuhtezcatl and Snow Tha Product)
    • a plague, a pestilence
    • BIMBAMBAU
  • Jam's May/June/July playlist and spreadsheet
  • Cannon by Lee Lai
• Anna
  • Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library!
  • Curious Archive
    • The Most Powerful Type of Worldbuilding (Moldy Worldbuiding)
  • Coriander Noodles Spicy Beef Flavor Soup Base

Other Media We Mentioned

• Miike Snow - Genghis Khan
• Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
• Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
• Mea Culpa - Dark Hours
  • "About an hour later, once it became clear to me that the web app I had launched using Claude was strikingly similar to his open source project, even reproducing a bug he had later fixed, it was clear that there wasn't anything to do except to redirect the domain directly to him and kill any plans I had to launch an iOS app for the project."
• The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott by Zoe Thorogood
• Mercy Thompson (series) by Patricia Briggs
• Alpha and Omega (series) by Patricia Briggs
• The "tandem read" books by Sarah J. Maas are Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. There are some horrifying reading guides to these. Apparently the author doesn't recommend doing this!
• Gender Reveal podcast
  • The Lee Lai episode is "bonus content" but you can download the trasncript

Links, Articles, and Things

• Forest of (Multiple Nouns)
• Episode 142 - Sequels and 2022: The Year of Book Two
• Episode 167 - 2023 Reading Goals & 2022 Reading Report
• Boiling point of water with elevation

15 Arts Non-Fiction Books by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time by Teju Cole
• Imperfect Solidarities by Aruna D'Souza
• Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man by C.E. Gatchalian
• Truly Tribal: Contemporary Indigenous Tattooing edited by Dion Kaszas
• The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam by Lana Lin
• A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar
• Graphic Design Rules: Hints and Tips to Improve Your Designs by Chen Meihuan
• Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity by Gerald McMaster
• Poor Artists by Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente
• Art of Protest: Creating, Discovering, and Activating Art for Your Revolution by De Nichols, illustration by Diana Dagadita, Olivia Twist, Molly Mendoza, Saddo, and Diego Becas
• I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays by Nell Irvin Painter
• Me Artsy edited by Drew Hayden Taylor
• The Best of Roy Henry Vickers: 80 Selected Works by Roy Henry Vickers
• 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by Ai Weiwei
• Van Gogh on Demand: China and the Readymade by Winnie Won Yin Wong

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, September 1st we'll be discussing Post Apocalyptic fiction! (As suggested by nikkinaboo.)

Then on Tuesday, October 6th we'll be talking about Cosmic horror! (As suggested by soitgoes4two.)

It's episode 235 and time for us to talk about Celebrity Memoirs! We discuss who counts as a celebrity, non-celebrity memoirs, creative non-fiction, memory, success, survivorship bias, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
• You with the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate
• Elsa Lanchester, Herself by Elsa Lanchester
• Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks
• My Wonderful World Of Slapstick by Buster Keaton and Charles Samuels
• Finding Me by Viola Davis

Other Media We Mentioned

• Lessons from a Lifetime: 90 Years of Imagination and Activism by David Suzuki
• Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
• Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A '90s Rock Memoir by Melissa Auf der Maur
• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• iCarly
• Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
• Married... with Children
• Bride of Frankenstein
• Pandora's Box
• Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler
• Sherlock Jr.
• Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson
• Awake by Jen Hatmaker
• A Truce That is not Peace by Miriam Toews
• The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You by Neko Case
• That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You by Elyse Myers

Links, Articles, and Things

• Department Store
• Hudson's Bay (department store)
• Hypermarket
• MeToo movement
• Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang Book Trailer
• Gilean Douglas Fonds
  • Collection of digitized photos including ones from the sets of One Stolen Night, The Fortieth Door, Rupert of Hentzau, Quincy Adams Sawyer, Oliver Twist, Robin Hood, and this specific Hall Room Boys film.
• Charlie Chaplin
• Tom Mix
• Laurel and Hardy
• Abbott and Costello
• Groucho Glasses
• Hays Code

33 Celebrity Memoirs by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve by Drew Afualo
• Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance by Simone Biles
• She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
• A Thousand Threads by Nehneh Cherry
• Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra Jonas
• Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu
• Connie: A Memoir by Connie Chung
• Let Love Have the Last Word by Common
• Transcendent by Laverne Cox
• Simply More by Cynthia Erivo
• Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
• In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
• Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday
• Accidentally on Purpose by Kristen Kish
• We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu
• Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome by Aparna Nancherla
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
• Unprotected by Billy Porter
• Some New Kind of Kick by Kid Congo Powers
• Truly by Lionel Richie
• The Universal Tone: My Life by Carlos Santana
• The Race to Be Myself by Caster Semenya
• A Tale of Two Omars: A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out During the Arab Spring by Omar Sharif Jr.
• The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley
• All the Way: My Life on Ice by Jordin Tootoo
• Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood by Danny Trejo
• I, Tina by Tina Turner
• Just as I Am by Cicely Tyson
• Sidesplitter: How to Be From Two Worlds at Once by Phil Wang
• Great Falls, MT: Fast Times, Post-Punk Weirdos, and a Tale of Coming Home Again by Reggie Watts
• Scenes from My Life by Michael K. Williams
• Cack-Handed by Gina Yashere
• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 18th when we'll be giving our summer media update!

Then on September 1st we'll be discussing Post Apocalyptic fiction!

What Book Should We Read? (Click to vote by July 31st!)

• Anna's Pick - Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic (2025)
• Matthew's Pick - Starter Villain by John Scalzi (2023)
• Jam's Pick - Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (2025)
• Meghan's Pick - The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge (2025)

Listen to Episode 233 - Battle of the Books 2026 to hear what we had to say about each of the books!

It's episode 234 and time for us to talk about Novels in Verse! We discuss rhyme, meter, interiority, whether any of us understand poetry and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

What Book Should We Read? (Click to vote by July 31st!)

• Listen to Episode 233 - Battle of the Books 2026

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Goodlord: An Email by Ella Frears
• Dreaming of You: A Novel in Verse by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
• Dear Mothman by Robin Gow
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• The Call-out: A Novel in Rhyme by Cat Fitzpatrick
• Here Is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan
• The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo
• Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead

Other Media We Mentioned

• The Bronze Horseman by Alexander Pushkin
• Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
• Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem Is Translated by Eliot Weinberger
• We Computers: A Ghazal Novel by Hamid Ismailov
• Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers
• Finding Baba Yaga: A Short Novel in Verse by Jane Yolen
• Beowulf
• Project Hail Mary (film)
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Aniara (film)
• Aniara: A Revue of Man in Time and Space by Harry Martinson
  • There are two different English translations!

Links, Articles, and Things

• Metre (poetry)
• Episode 182 - Lyric Poetry
• Concrete poetry
• Iambic pentameter
• We should be excited that spoken word is reinventing literature
• Selena
• Tejano music
• Epistolary novel
• List of countries by tertiary education attainment
• Stacey Kade (S. A. Barnes)
• Tommy Pico

17 Novels in Verse by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• The Fragments That Remain by MacKenzie Angeconeb
• Eureka by Victoria Chang
• The Last One by Fatima Daas, translated by Lara Vergnaud
• The Emperor's Babe by Bernardine Evaristo
• Syncopation by Whitney French
• King of the Neuro Verse by Idris Goodwin
• Beaver Hills Forever by Conor Kerr
• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lại
• Dreaming of You by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
• Here Comes the Dogs by Omar Musa
• The Perfect Nine: the Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo
• Ain't Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds with artwork by Jason Griffin
• Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
• Death's Country by R. M. Romero
• Saints of the Household by Ari Tison

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 4th when we'll be talking about the genre of Celebrity Memoirs as suggested by Kjs4658

Then on August 18th, we'll be giving our summer media update.

It's episode 233 and time for Battle of the Books 2026! Which book will we all read and discuss? You decide!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

What Book Should We Read? (Click to vote by July 31st!)

• Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic (2025)
• Starter Villain by John Scalzi (2023)
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (2025)
• The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge (2025)

Runners Up

• Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women by Victoria Smith (2024)
• How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom by Johanna Hedva (2024)
• The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (2018)
• Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas (2024)
• How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva (2026)
• Cannon by Lee Lai (2025)
• Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky (2023)
• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz (1995/1998)
• Stoner by John Williams (1965)

Other Media We Mentioned

• Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara
• Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly
• How to Read Now: Essays by Elaine Castillo
• How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler
• Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis
• How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King
• Miike Snow - Genghis Khan
• 007 First Light
• You Only Live Twice
• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
• Redshirts by John Scalzi
• The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Links, Articles, and Things

• Episode 215 - Battle of the Books 2025
• Episode 220 - How Far the Light Reaches
• Volcano Lair (TVTropes)
• Vancouver SkyTrain
• Matthew's favourite Vancouver SkyTrain update YouTube channel

15 Adventure Fiction Books by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• So Wild a Dream by Win Blevins
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
• God's Country by Percival Everett
• Valiant Ladies by Melissa Grey
• Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo
• Escape from Baghdad by Saad Z. Hossain
• A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
• The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley
• Will's Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• The Barren Grounds by David Robertson
• Travelers Along the Way: a Robin Hood Remix by Aminah Mae Safi
• Stranded by Nikki Shannon Smith
• The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, July 7th when we'll be talking about Novels in Verse!

Then on Tuesday, August 4th we're discussing Celebrity Memoirs! (As suggested by Kjs4658.)

It's episode 232 and time for us to talk about coming of (old) age!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
• The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• Real Estate by Deborah Levy
• Becoming Crone by Lydia M. Hawke
• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Correspondent by Virgina Evans
• Shadow Life written by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu

Other Media We Mentioned

• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
• Frieren: Beyond Journey's End by Kanehito Yamada
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab
• The Witches Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
• Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye written by Gerard Way and Jon Rivera, art by Michael Avon Oeming
• Catwoman: Lonely City by Cliff Chiang
• Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• What Makes Olga Run?: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives, by Bruce Grierson
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Links, Articles, and Things

• Irene Adler
• Library of things
• Commercial Drive
• Gavel
• UBC University Mace
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10 Coming of (Old) Age by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
• Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
• How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
• Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis
• Mr Katō Plays Family by Milena Michiko Flašar, translated by Caroline Froh
• Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu
• The Unbroken Coast by Nalini Jones
• Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall
• Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell
• In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, June 16th, when we'll each be pitching a book we think we should all read and you get to vote on which!

Then on Tuesday, July 7th we'll be talking about Novels in Verse!

It's episode 231 and time for us to talk about Sapphic Horror! We discuss which monster is the most sapphic, unrealistic reality TV shows, and how queer a book has to be to count as sapphic.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
• The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey
• Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen
• Night's Edge by Liz Kerin, read by Chase Sui Wonders
• Extasia by Claire Legrand
• The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
• Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
• Moonflow by Bitter Karella
• This World is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
• The Scourge Between the Stars by Ness Brown
• The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated by Gene Png

Other Media We Mentioned

• Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire edited by Amber Dawn
• Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
• When I Arrived at the Castle by E.M. Carroll
• Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories edited by Alan Ryan (contains Carmilla)
• Why was I invited to Beast Studios? by Folding Ideas
• Beast Games 2 Strong/Smart: an Exhaustive Review by Folding Ideas
• Killing Eve

18 Sapphic Horror by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
• Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta
• The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
• Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
• Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
• A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui
• Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris
• But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
• The Salvage by Anbara Salam
• The Plans I Have for You by Lai Sanders
• On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield
• I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
• Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
• Chlorine by Jade Song
• The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan
• We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado
• She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Give us feedback!

• Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, June 2nd we'll be talking about "Coming of (old) age," suggested to us by Meghan's mom.

Then on Tuesday, June 16th, we'll each be pitching a book we think we should all read and you get to vote on which!