Book Club for Masochists: a Readers' Advisory Podcast

This episode we're reading Family Sagas! Do they have to be incredibly long? Do they have to be boring? Plus: We talk about diversity, reading books from earlier time periods, and we say farewell (for now) to a host.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify (new!) or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books We Read This Month

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
• Moonglow by Michael Chabon
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
• • Fried Green Tomatoes (movie)
• The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
• • Wikipedia article

Books and Other Media We Discuss

• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• • Note: Matthew has never read these and has no idea what he's talking about.
• Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan
• Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Beowulf
• Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
• Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
• McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
• McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Total Recall

Links, Articles, and Things

• Inside North Korea's bubble in Japan
• Liberty Osaka (Osaka Human Rights Museum)
• Michael Chabon Returns With a Searching Family Saga (The New York Times)
• Fried Green Tomatoes (the food)
• Magical Negro (Wikipedia)
• Magical Negro (TV Tropes)

Questions

• Send us questions for our 50th episode!
• Ask us for reading suggestions!
• Do you like family sagas? Why?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, February 6th for our episode on our 2018 Reading Resolutions!

Then come back on on Tuesday, February 20th for our episode about Non-fiction Creative Writing Books!

It's time for our Best of 2017 episode! We'll talk about our favourite things we read for the podcast, our favourite things we read that weren't for the podcast, and lots more! Please note, while many of the titles we recommend were published in 2017, this is our list of best of that we read in 2017, so there is some older material on the list as well.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Top Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

• The Argonauts (2015) by Maggie Nelson (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Jessi

• The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2016) by Stacy Schiff (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Matthew

• Prose: The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA (2017) by Doug Mack (Episode 039 - Non-Fiction Travel)
• Comic: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (2017) by Nagata Kabi (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Meghan

• In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote, narrated by Scott Brick (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Fiction

Anna

• Death in the Vines (2013) by M.L. Longworth (Episode 025 - Detective Fiction)
• The Snowman (2011) by Jo Nesbø (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Jessi

• Stardust (1998) by Neil Gaiman (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Matthew

• Prose: Autonomous (2017) by Annalee Newitz (Episode 041 - Dystopian Fiction)
• Comic: Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind (1982-1994) by Hayao Miyazaki (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Meghan

• The City and the City (2009) by China Miéville (Episode 025 - Detective Fiction)

Top Non-Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

• American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land (2017) by Monica Hesse

Jessi

• Tomboy Survival Guide (2016) by Ivan Coyote (we mention this one in Episode 021 - Coming-of-Age and Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Matthew

• Prose: Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate (2017) by Zoe Quinn (mentioned in Episode 032.5 - BookExpo America and the American Library Association Annual Conference)
• Comic: Lighter than my Shadow (2017) by Katie Green (Episode 040 - Precipitation in Video Games)

Meghan

• Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues (2016) in Canada by Chelsea Vowel
• • Métis in Space podcast with Chelsea Vowel and Molly Swain

Fiction

Anna

• The Queen of Blood (2016) by Sarah Beth Durst (Episode 040 - Precipitation in Video Games)

Jessi

• The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) by Katherine Arden (mentioned in Episode 034 - Reading Resolutions)

Matthew

• Prose: Red Spider White Web (1990) by Misha (mentioned in Episode 034 - Reading Resolutions)
• Comic: Giant Days (2015-present) by John Allison and Max Sarin

Meghan

• Next Year for Sure (2017) by Zoey Leigh Peterson

Other recommendations

Anna

• From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
• Lucky Penny (2016) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota (Episode 021 - Coming-of-Age)
• Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us: A Johnny Wander Collection (2017) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota
• Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (2016) by Patrick Phillips
• • The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2016) edited by Jesmyn Ward
  • The Fire Next Time (1992) by James Baldwin
• Clean Sweep (2013) by Ilona Andrews (and the rest of that series)
• Spill Zone, vol. 1 (2017) by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland
• • Volume 2 is being serialized as a webcomic (frustratingly the site seems to be setup so that you cannot link directly to pages, so to get to the beginning of volume two hit the previous chapter link a few times)
• HiLo, vol. 1: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth (2015) by Judd Winick
• • Here's the full panel (Read-Alikes: What to Suggest When They've Already Read Smile & The Walking Dead) from the Comics Conference for Educators and Librarians that Anna mentioned

Jessi

• Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (2014) by Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell
• Queers Were Here: Heroes & Icons of Queer Canada (2016) edited by Robin Ganev and RJ Gilmour (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)
• Green River, Running Red (2007) by Ann Rule (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)
• The Hating Game (2016) by Sally Thorne (Episode 028 - Accidental Romance)

Matthew

• Three Parts Dead (2012) by Max Gladstone (Episode 33 - Legal Thrillers)
• True Grit (1968) by Charles Portis (Episode 29 - Westerns)
• The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt (Episode 29 - Westerns)
• No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee (specifically issue #9)
• Matthew's longer list of favorite comics he read in 2017 is below

Meghan

• Turning (2017) by Jessica J. Lee (Non-fiction memoir)
• See What I Have Done (2017) by Sarah Schmidt (Fictionalized true crime)
• Dreams of Shreds and Tatters (2015) by Amanda Downum (New Weird)
• Need for the Bike (2011) by Paul Fournel, translated by Allan Stoekl (non-fic BICYCLES)
• Blue Light Yokohama (2017) by Nicolás Obregón (Mystery)

Matthew's List of Top Comics he Read in 2017 that weren't his top picks (Anna's recommendations were also good!)

• Monstress vols. 1-2 by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (2016-2017)
• • This is an insanely epic (and beautiful) fantasy. You should read it!
• No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee
• • No, I haven't read volume 3 yet...
• Omega Men: The End is Here (2016) by Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Toby Cyprus, and Ig Guara
• Invincible vols. 23-24 (2017) by by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and Nathan Fairbairn
• • It's superheroes meet Dragonball Z, except much bloodier. It's ending with volume 25, and I'm kind of sad about that.
• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2016) by Sonny Liew
• • Despite really liking this, I don't think it should have won the Eisner for "Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia"
• The Private Eye (2015) by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente
• • As much as I enjoyed this, I don't think the hardcover is worth $50.
• 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank (2017) by Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss
• • I was supplied with a review copy by the publishers.
• Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea (2017) by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni
• Delicious in Dungeon vol. 1 (2017) by Ryoko Kui
• Yowamushi Pedal vols. 3-4 (2016) by Wataru Watanabe
• • Bicycles!
• Demon vols. 1-4 (2016-2017) by Jason Shiga
• • The first volume is the best and, to be honest, this series is kind of gross, so be warned...
• Order of the Stick: How the Paladin Got His Scar (2017) by Rich Burlew
• • This was a reward only given to backers of the 2012 Kickstarter so you can't actually buy or read it, but it's really good!

Questions

• What were your favourite reads of 2017?
• What would you recommend to us?
• Is there a supernatural gardening book you could recommend to Jessi?
• What is "Clean Sweep"?
• • A curling related cozy mystery?
  • A high school hijinx sports novel?
  • A romance novel about a chimney sweep who is reforming himself after his criminal past?
  • Something else?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on January 16th for our episode on Family Sagas!

Then come back on February 6th for our episode on our Reading Resolutions for 2018!

In this episode we chat about what happens when books go from page to screen in Adaptations! In the process we argue about lots of stuff (as usual) and you learn more than you ever wanted to know about manga sound effects! Plus: psychic sidekicks, librarian in-jokes, our faith in Ellen DeGeneres, and what we want to see adapted for the screen.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books and Other Media We Read This Month

• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki; Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (movie 1984)
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman; The Princess Bride (movie 1987)
• The Snowman by Jo Nesbø; The Snowman (movie 2017)
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman, illustrated Charles Vess; Stardust (movie 2007)
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones; Howl's Moving Castle (movie 2004)
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik; adaptation in potentia
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness; A Discovery of Witches (TV series 2018)

Books and Other Media We Discuss

• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; Fight Club (movie 1999)
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, translated by Yuji Oniki; Battle Royale (movie 2000)
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien; Lord of the Rings (movie trilogy 2001-3)
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick; Blade Runner (movie 1982)
• A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick; A Scanner Darkly (movie 2006)
• Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery; Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (tv mini-series 1985 & 1987) (I've never watched two more recent sequel/prequels, and I never will)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Pride and Prejudice (BBC mini-series 1995); Pride and Prejudice (movie 2005)
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien; The Hobbit (movie trilogy 2012-14)
• Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell; Wives and Daughters (mini series 1999)
• Persuasion by Jane Austen; Persuasion (movie 2007)
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen; Northanger Abbey (movie 2007)
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; A Clockwork Orange (movie 1971)
• The Bloodettes/Les Saignantes (movie 2005)
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman; Good Omens (TV series 2018?)
• Hellboy: An Assortment of Horrors (short stories collection) edited by Christopher Golden, art by Mike Mignola; Hellboy (movie 2004)
• The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean; Adaptation (movie 2002)
• Ponyo (movie 2008); The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
• The Coldest City by Anthony Johnston; Atomic Blonde (movie 2017)
• Her Space Opera by Katie Longua, music by Accumulator - a comic with a code to download related music
• Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley; Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (movie 2010)
• Fullmetal Alchemist series by Hiromu Arakawa; there are a number of different adaptations in films and video games and more, but Jessi is referring to Fullmetal Alchemist (anime 2003-4) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009-10)
• A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin; Game of Thrones (TV series 2011-)
• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter (film series 2001-2011)
• Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and various artists
• Papillon by Henri Charrière; Papillon (movie 1973) AND Papillon (movie 2017) which is a remake of the 1973 film and Meghan didn't even know it existed (layers of adaptation!!)
• Criminal Minds (TV series 2005-)
• Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker; Mindhunter (TV series 2017-)
• Suicide Squad (comics); Suicide Squad (movie 2016)
• The Alienist by Caleb Carr; The Alienist (TV series 2018)
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman; American Gods (TV series 2017-)
• Jodorowsky's Dune (documentary 2013)

Adaptations We Want to See

• Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, specifically more adaptations from this universe since three live action ones exist:
• • The Color of Magic (mini series 2008), based on The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic
  • Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (movie 2006), based on Hogfather
  • Going Postal (mini series 2010), based on Going Postal
• China Miéville - just everything

Links, Articles, and Things

• The Metabarons: A Rape Comic - Here's the piece about Alejandro Jodorowsky and how he is scum
• Remembering the Time Alejandro Jodorowsky Raped a Woman in the Name of Art

Questions

• Do you seek out movie adaptations of books or avoid them?
• Do you read the books that movies you like are based on?
• Did anyone get Meghan's Library joke?
• What makes a good adaptation (or a bad adaptation)?
• Where's the line between adaptation and something that is "inspired by" an existing text?
• What's a book or comic you'd love to see adapted?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on January 2nd, for our Best of 2017 episode!

Then come back on January 16th for our episode on Family Sagas!

We're going back in time this episode as we talk about our Childhood Favourites! (Or childhood favorites for the Americans.) We talk about problematic faves, Matthew drones on about X-Men comics, and we can't figure out a book we've all read and enjoyed. Plus: Mysterious clunking noises and sloppy editing!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books and Other Media

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
• Garfield by Jim Davis
• Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson
• Alfie Gets in First by Shirley Hughes
• Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
• Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut by Margaret Atwood, illustrated by Maryann Kovalski
• The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Jane Ray
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Mayer, illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft
• Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird, illustrated by Helen Craig
• Rabbit and Skunk and Spooks by by Carla Stevens, illustrated by Robert Kraus
• • Halloween 2017 Google Doodle
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, illustrated by Adam McCauley
• Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
• Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne
• Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
• Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sami Suomalainen
• Thomas' Snowsuit by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
• Goosebumps by R.L. Stine
• The Beano
• • The UK Dennis the Menace
  • Dennis the Menace to stop bullying 'gay' Walter (article)
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Young Indiana Jones
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (based on the TV show)
• Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal
• Baby-sitters Club by Ann M. Martin
• • The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels adaptations by Raina Telgemeier
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
• Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
• Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
• Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
• Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
• Excalibur
• The Dandy
• The Topper
• The Beezer
• Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
• Age of Apocalypse
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Dragon Ball Z
• Dorothée Magazine (French Wikipedia)
• Sailor Moon
• Ranma ½
• The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé
• Lucky Luke
• Asterix and Obelix by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
• Babar the Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• • The Book of Dust is a prequel, published in October 2017, to the His Dark Materials trilogy
• The Ruins of Ambrai by Melanie Rawn
• Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• Matilda by Roald Dahl

Links, Articles, and Things

• Matthew tried searching for something about locks in the UK, but ended up finding websites talking about canals
• The nostalgic beauty of the Scholastic book fairs
• Bandes dessinées
• The Halloween episode of our podcast

Questions

• What are your childhood favourites?
• How problematic are they looking back?
• Do you still have copies of any of them? Why or why not?
• Isn't the list of titles this month way too long?

Check out our Pinterest boards and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, December 19th when we'll be discussing the "genre" of Books Turned into Movies and TV Shows!

Then come back on January 2nd, for our Super Special Best of 2017 episode!

This episode, Dystopian Fiction! And some of us are considerably more excited about it than others. We talk about the difference between oppressive and consumerist dystopias, how things that were shocking or innovative in fiction in the past may no longer be seen as such, and whether we live in a dystopia. Plus! Special guest senior foreign correspondent, Amanda, reporting in after being undercover in the overthereland!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi | Amanda Wanner

Dystopian books we read for the podcast

• Steeple by Jon Wallace
• The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
• • (The Midwich Cuckoos was turned into Village/Children of the Damned not Children of the Corn)
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr.
• • Literary criticism on the portrayal of the body (Wikipedia section)
• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
• • In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood
• Zone One by Colson Whitehead
• The Destructives by Matthew De Abaitua
• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
• Wool by Hugh Howey

Other dystopian books we mentioned

• Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Matthew briefly mentioned this in our Space Opera episode)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Celsius 233)
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Tripods series by John Christopher
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
• The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• Divergent by Veronica Roth
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Bees by Laline Paull
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
• The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie
• Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
• Black Mirror (TV show)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Goodreads' Dystopia section
• Huxley vs Orwell webcomic by Stuart McMillen
• • An adaptation of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
  • An explanation of why it's not on McMillen's website
• 100 Great Works of Dystopian Fiction
• International Upset: 11 Dystopian Novels from Around the World
• Social credit ratings in China

Questions

• Do you think our current world is a dystopia?
• I live in a dystopia, what should I do?
• What counts as dystopia?
• • Is all post-apocalyptic fiction dystopian?
  • Is all cyberpunk fiction dystopian?
• Any alternative history dystopic recommendations?
• Why would you/would you not describe historical events/books as dystopias?
• Please write a 1000+ word essay on the relationship between Christian dispensationalism and the Western dystopian literary history. I will send you special mail?!
• What book recommendations do you have for someone living in a dystopia?
• What goes on the Book Club for Masochists bingo sheet?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, December 5th when we'll be discussing Favourite Childhood Books!

Then come back on Tuesday, December 19th when we'll be discussing the "genre" Books Turned into Movies (and TV shows)!

In this weirdly chill episode, we talk about memoirs and track cycling and magical fantasy and female relationships and six-legged octopuses. Plus: The mystique of a book club in which you might actually read a book you enjoy.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray

Books and Other Media

• Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi
• The Weekend Effect: The Life Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork by Katrina Onstad
• Unplugged: Evolve from Technology to Upgrade Your Fitness, Performance, Consciousness by Brian Mackenzie, Andy Galpin, and Phil White
• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
• Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
• Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green
• The Rider by Tim Krabbé
• The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst (Anna mistakenly calls this The Blood Queen)
• Malazan Book of the Fallen (series) by Steven Erikson
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch (video game)
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland
• • Read the webcomic
• Present by Leslie Stein
• Pandemic Legacy Season 1 (board game)
• Bring Your Own Book (party game)
• Simon and Martina (YouTube video series)
• From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

Links, Articles, and Things

• Quality Time app
• Cycling Track Men's Team Pursuit Gold Medal Finals - 2012 Olympics
• Lucy Knisley apparently also has a book about her high school experiences in the works, as well as the one Matthew is totally unexcited about on her recent pregnancy and new baby
• Snakes and Ladders (board game)
• Blog post about building a Raspberry Pi powered Readers' Advisory Machine in which there is a photo of Anna and Matthew playing The Game of Life: Pirates of the Caribbean – At World's End (Matthew clearly forgets what the actual rules were, but they were terrible)
• PHX Zine Fest
• Books on my shelf I have not read & Two-Fisted Library Studies (zines made by Anna and Matthew)
• Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix
• Our bonus episode on the American Library Association Annual conference and BookExpo America 2017

Questions

• Is the second book being a dud the "curse of the trilogy"?
• What is the best worst board game you have ever played?
• Do you ever recommend YouTube channels to your friends? What channels?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, November 21st, when we'll be talking about Dystopian Fiction!

Then come back on, December 5th when we'll be discussing Favourite Childhood Books!

Pack your bags, because it's time for our episode about non-fiction Travel books! We talk about haunted libraries, North Korea, Komodo dragons, and lightning farms. Plus: Technical difficulties!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books We Read (or tried to)

• Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley
• Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
• Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Ella Morton, and Dylan Thuras (and the website!)
• The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Doug Mack
• Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen
• White Sands by Geoff Dyer
• Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
• Eerie America: Travel Guide of the Macabre by Eric R. Vernor and Kevin Eads
• Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries by Mark Leslie
• My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth by Wendy E. Simmons
• Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle
• • Also try out Delisle's other books Burma Chronicles and Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China
• Atlas of Cursed Places: A Travel Guide to Dangerous and Frightful Destinations by Olivier Le Carrer
• Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham
• America in an Arab Mirror: Images of America in Arabic Travel Literature: An Anthology edited by Kamal Abdel-Malek

Links, Articles, and Things

• PHX Zine Fest! October 22nd! We'll be there. Come say "Hi".
• Palmyra Atoll - the only incorporated part of the USA that's not a state (and for an uninhabited island, this is a surprisingly long and interesting Wikipedia article)
• Next Goal Wins (documentary)
• Fa'afafine
• LibGuide on Haunted Libraries
• Aokigahara/Suicide Forest

Questions

• What sort of travel books do you like to read?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Non-Fiction Travel books we mentioned, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, November 7th, when we'll be discussing recent books we've read that weren't for the podcast!

Then come back on Tuesday, November 21st, when we'll be talking about Dystopian Fiction!

It's October which means it's time for our Halloween episode! We talk about our favourite spooooooky movies, books, comics, video games, and more! Plus: Early Canadian history!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books (& relevant links)

• Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix
• • The Little People (Nazi Leprechauns)
  • Armageddon Film FAQ by Dale Sherman; which was mentioned way back in Episode #11 on Religion (fiction), of all things
• Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
• The Girl Under the Bed by Dave Chua and Xiao Yan
• Uzumaki by Junji Ito
• Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu by Junji Ito
• Urban/Paranormal Fantasy for non-spooky Halloween reading:
• • Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
  • Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews
  • The Mediator series by Meg Cabot
  • The Voodoo Killings by Kristi Charish
  • Women of the Otherworld series by Kelly Armstrong
  • Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Stephen King and horror, maybe-horror, and not-at-all-horror books:
• • The Stand
  • On Writing: A Memoir of Craft
  • Desperation
  • Under the Dome
  • Gunslinger (Dark Tower Series)
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
• Stephen King's progeny, Joe Hill, writes great horror books too:
• • The Fireman
  • Heart-Shaped Box
  • NOS4R2
  • Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
• Wytches, Vol. 1 by Scott Snyder and Jock
• The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag
• Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman
• • Art by Camille Chew (and more witches)
  • How To Make Calling Yourself a Witch Your Whole Personality
• The scare your child(hood self) silly section:
• • Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell
  • The Little Giant Book of "True" Ghost Stories: 84 Scary Tales by Arthur Myers, John Macklin, Margaret Rau, and Jim Sharpe
  • The Ghost Wore Gray by Bruce Coville
  • Other ghost books from Anna's childhood include Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, Ghost Cadet by Elaine Marie Alphin, and A Ghost in the Window by Betty Ren Wright (and a lot of other books by Betty Ren Wright)
  • Goosebumps by R. L. Stine
  • Fear Street by R. L. Stine
  • Christopher Pike
• Haunting at Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• The House on the Borderland by Richard Corben, Simon Revelstroke, and William Hope Hodgson
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• • Comic version adapted/art by P. Craig Russell
  • Unheimlich and the uncanny
• ZombieWorld: Champion Of The Worms by Mike Mignola and Pat McEown
• • Tintin
  • Yves Chaland
  • Ligne Claire
• Liō by Mark Tatulli
• • Slug Theater
  • Salt girl
• Kitaro and the Great Tanuki War by Shigeru Mizuki
• • Mokumokuren

Movies

• It Follows (no clowns)
• It (clowns)
• The Cabin in the Woods
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
• Evil Dead
• • Evil Dead the Musical
• Ginger Snaps
• Ginger Snaps Back
• The Lure ("evil mermaids that run a nightclub, and also vampires are involved")
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Coraline (the movie)

Video Games

• Dead Space
• Gone Home
• PT
• Silent Hill
• Anatomy
• Matthew managed to combine two different streaming shows
• • Let's Nope (horror games, sometimes terrible)
  • Watch+Play (many genres including horror, always terrible)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Halloween tombstones made by friend of the podcast Colleen Frakes
• The Wikipedia page for Jack-o'-lanterns includes photos of some made from turnips
• Upper Canada and Lower Canada
• • Upper Canada Village
• Photo from the cocktail party in an abandoned hospital Matthew mentioned
• Selkie
• Jump scare

Questions

• Is it worse to see horrible images or have to picture them in your mind?
• Do you read things for Halloween?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all our Halloween favourites, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 17th, when we'll talk about Non-Fiction Travel.

Then come back on Tuesday, November 7th, when we'll be discussing recent books we've read!

This episode we talk about Experimental Fiction and stumble all over our words and can't pronounce anything right. We explore experimental comics, wonder at what point experimental fiction stops being experimental, and are amazed at how a book with no plot at all can break through a reading slump.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Books (and things) We Read (or tried to)

• The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
• Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
• 17776: What football will look like in the future by Jon Bois
• Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
• Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson (and yes, Anna hasn't a clue how to pronounce this)
• Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra
• How to be Both by Ali Smith

Books We Mentioned

• Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley or…
• Ulysses by James Joyce (the obvious example Anna should have used of experimental fiction just becoming a "classic" of literature"
• Gertrude Stein
• To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• Greyshirt: How Things Work Out (from Tomorrow Stories) by Alan Moore and Rick Veitch (Matthew wasn't totally right in how he described it, but it's been years since he read it).
• Here by Richard McGuire
• The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
• Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
• Suicide Forest by Dave Baker and Nicole Goux
• Promethea by Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III
• Longshot Comics: The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers by Shane Simmons
• Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North
• Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
• Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
• Abahn, Sabana, David by Marguerite Duras, translated by Kazim Ali
• Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Breaking the Sequence: Women's Experimental Fiction edited by Ellen G. Friedman and Miriam Fuchs (the book of literary essays about women writing experimental fiction)
• S. by J.J. Abrams, Doug Dorst
• Building Stories by Chris Ware (collected ephemera comic)
• Blindness by José Saramago
• A Void by Georges Perec (Book without the letter E)
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
• There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby by by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
• Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
• The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
• Mary Roach

Links, Articles, and Things

• Our Episode on Metafiction
• Experimental literature (Wikipedia)
• Ellen Hopkins (writes YA novels in verse)
• Jessi made a booklist once long ago for those who are into experimental fiction
• Experimental Fiction article from mapliteracy.org (The definition that Meghan quotes)
• David Foster Wallace calls Wittgenstein's MIstress "pretty much the pinnacle of modern experimental fiction" and also calls out a few other "underappreciated" novels
• There are so many amusing reviews of Wittgenstein's Mistress on Goodreads:
• • Like this one
  • And this one
  • Or even this one

Questions

• What counts as experimental fiction?
• What's your favourite experimental fiction?

Contest

Winners, please contact us with your addresses!

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Experimental Fiction books we read, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 3rd, for our Halloween episode when we'll be talking about our favourite spoooOOOOooooky books.

Then come back on Tuesday, October 17th, when we'll be discussing non-fiction Travel books!.

This episode we talk about our favourite podcasts! Weightlifting, comics, poetry, wrestling, books, and more! Plus: Tales of living in the woods in Alaska, radio dramas, cosplay, and Belgian hip hop!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray

Podcasts We Chose as...Favourites?

(We start to talk about specific podcasts at 16:32)

• Anna
• • Pop Culture Happy Hour
  • Book Riot Podcasts - there's a lot on this list, and these are just the active ones
  • (Anna's favorite Book Riot Podcasts)
    • All the Books
    • Get Booked
  • New York Times - Book Review Podcast

• Meghan
  • IndieFeed Performance Poetry
  • Kitchen Sisters
  • Barbell Shrugged

• Matthew
• • Wait, What?
    • Baxter Building (Fantastic Four podcast)
  • House to Astonish
  • Sidewalk Slam (on YouTube, too)

• Jessi
  • The Read
  • Sooo Many White Guys (we repeatedly say this wrong at one point)
  • My Favourite Murder

Our Bonus Podcast Shout-out:

• Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men
• Overdue
• The Worst Bestsellers
• So Many Damn Books
• The Adventure Zone
• The Oral History Podcast
• The Coode Street Podcast
• What Should I Read Next
• Criminal

Links, articles (and a lot more podcasts that we mentioned)

• All Songs Considered - This is the NPR podcast about new music that Anna could not remember the name for.
• Belgian Hip Hip - Stromae performing Papaoutai from Racine Carrée
• BBC Radio 4 Extra - The BBC channel that is pretty much all spoken word material.
• Bleak Expectations (info)
• Vinyl Cafe (info) (episodes)
• • The Turkey episode, officially called "Dave Cooks the Turkey"
• Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion
• The Shadow (info) (episodes)
• Superman (info) (episodes)
• • An article about how the Superman radio show fought the KKK
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe radio show (info)
• Types of podcasts
• Books on the Nightstand
• Bookrageous
• S. S. Librarianship
• Reading Lives (retired Book Riot podcast)
• You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
• Welcome to Night Vale
• Serial

Questions

• What type of podcasts do you like most (men, whispers, millennials, too long)?
• How do you listen to podcasts? Can you recommend any apps?
• Suggest an awesome podcast we should be putting in our ears!

Contest Winners

Please, contact us with your address!

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Podcasts we listen to, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, September 19th, when we'll talk about Experimental Fiction.

Then come back on Tuesday, October 3rd, when we'll be discussing our favourite Halloween books!