Book Club for Masochists: a Readers' Advisory Podcast

Gardens! Plants! Growing things! Can we do it? Probably not! But we read books about it anyway. We talk about houseplants we've killed, the appeal of beautiful pictures of plants, and failing to grow things. Plus: Another chance to enter our contest!

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)

• Lone Pine Publishing
• 37 Houseplants Even You Can't Kill by Mary Kate Hogan
• Bunch Up!: A Step-By-Step Guide for Budding Florists by Irene Cuzzaniti, Irene Rinaldi
• Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures by Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi
• Cougar Annie's Garden by Margaret Horsfield
• Tiny World Terrariums: A Step-by-Step Guide to Easily Contained Life by Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow
• Terrariums Re-Imagined: Mini Worlds Made in Creative Containers by Kat Geiger
• Terrarium Craft: Create 50 Magical, Miniature Worlds by Amy Bryant Aiello, Kate Bryant, and Kate Baldwin
• The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure by Adam Leith Gollner
• Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted by Justin Martin
• Art of the Olmsted Landscape by Bruce Kelly

Books We Mentioned

• Monster Manual
• Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
• Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance by Patricia Rain
• Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel
• Secrets of Saffron: The Vagabond Life of the World's Most Seductive Spice by Pat Willard
• American Pests: The Losing War on Insects from Colonial Times to DDT by James McWilliams
• Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive by Mark L. Winston
• Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui
• Rutabaga the Adventure Chef by Eric Colossal
• Blood Flag by Steve Martini

Links, Articles, and Things

• Vellum ("is prepared animal skin or "membrane" used as a material for writing on")
• Hooker's Onion
• Folly ("is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of garden ornaments usually associated with the class of buildings to which it belongs")
• Legends of the coco de mer (Wikipedia article)
• Rambutan (after more research, Matthew thinks he loaded Longan onto the truck)
• Our list of potential genres for the podcast
• Photos of our plant babies

Questions

• Do you read books about gardening? How do you choose them?
• How many houseplants have you killed?
• What's your favourite plant?

Contest!

To celebrate 15,000 total downloads of our podcast we're having a contest! Retweet one of our tweets about episode 34 or episode 35 of this podcast any time during August, 2017, and you'll have a chance to win some books or comics!

Prizes include Moonstruck #1, Moonshine vol. 1, I Hate Fairyland vol. 2, Howtoons: Tools of Mass Construction, Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips, Run by Ann Patchett, and Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell (plus probably some other stuff).

We can neither confirm nor deny that this is extra stuff we have from ALA and other conferences. (Though all the above listed titles are unread.)

Number of prizes will depend on number of entrants.

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

Join us again on Tuesday, September 5th, when we'll talk about Podcasts.

Then come back on Tuesday, September 19th, when we'll be discussing Experimental Fiction!

We give an update on how our reading resolutions for the year are going, talk about recent reads (and watches) we've enjoyed, and briefly discuss San Diego Comic-Con. Plus: Enter our contest to win fabulous prizes!

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 Mentioned

• Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Waters, Shannon Watters, Brooke A. Allen, and others
• Ooku by Esme Shapiro
• Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura
• B.R.U.H.: Black Renditions of Universal Heroes by Markus Prime
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevskii
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
• Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory
• Tortall Universe (series) by Tamora Pierce
• • Tempests and Slaughter (out February 2018)
  • Tortall: A Spy's Guide (out in October)
  • Alanna (the Song of the Lioness series)
  • Wild Magic (the The Immortals series)
  • Terrier (the Beka Cooper series)
  • First Test (the Protector of the Small series which includes Page and Squire)
  • Trickster's Choice (the Daughter of the Lioness series which includes Trickster's Queen)
• Circle of Magic (series) by Tamora Pierce
• My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame
• G-Men (magazine): "G-men was founded in 1994 to cater to gay men who preferred "macho fantasy""
• Gentlemen of the Shade: My Own Private Idaho by Jen Sookfong Lee
• Vi by Kim Thúy (I don't think Meaghan actually named this one)
• The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (out August 15th)
• Written in Red by Anne Bishop
• The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley
• God's War by Kameron Hurley
• The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley (Meaghan misnamed this "The Geek's Guide to Feminism")
• The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
• Red Spider White Web by Misha Nogha
• Moonstruck by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, and Laurenn McCubbin (here's the Goodreads page of the first volume, but that's not out until January 2018)
• Sumage Solution by G.L. Carriger
• H.P. Lovecraft's the Hound and Other Stories by Gō Tanabe

Links, Articles, and Things

• 24 in 48 Readathon
• The Book Riot Insiders Insider-Only Forum is where the Tamora Pierce readathon is happening
• My Own Private Idaho
• Criminal Minds
• Sailor Moon (anime)
• Hello Sailors by Moonage Kingdom (parody video of Hello Bitches by CL)
• American Gods (TV)
• The Dressmaker (movie)
• Fashion Police
• San Diego Comic-Con Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians
• • Matthew was on Picture Books for Grown-Ups: Why Graphic Novels Matter to Adults
  • Anna was on Read-Alikes: What to Suggest When Patrons Have Already Read Smile and The Walking Dead

Questions

• Are there any "bicycles in space" books!?
• Do you like Princess Jellyfish?
• How are your reading resolutions for the year going?

Contest

To celebrate 15,000 total downloads of our podcast we're having a contest! Retweet one of our tweets about episode 34 or (when it comes out) episode 35 of this podcast any time during August, 2017, and you'll have a chance to win some books or comics!

Prizes include Moonstruck #1, Moonshine vol. 1, I Hate Fairyland vol. 2, Howtoons: Tools of Mass Construction, Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips, Run by Ann Patchett, and Island of the Blue Dolphin by Scott O'Dell (plus probably some other stuff).

We can neither confirm nor deny that this is extra stuff we have from ALA and other conferences. (Though all the above listed titles are unread.)

Number of prizes will depend on number of entrants.

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, August 15th, when we'll be discussing Gardening! (And farming! And stuff about plants in general.)

Then come back on Tuesday, September 5th, when we'll talk about our favourite podcasts!

This episode we talk about Legal Thrillers! We discuss how much time lawyers should spend in the courtroom, if we'd prefer to read about a lawyer or a barista investigating a murder, and tariff laws and sci-fi/fantasy cultures. Plus: Tabula rasas and table lamps!

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)

• Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone (recommended)
• Blood Flag by Steve Martini
• The Pelican Brief by John GrishamBut Remember Their Names by Hillary Bell Locke
• Hell Gate and Silent Mercy by Linda Fairstein
• She Hulk: Law and Disorder by Charles Soule, Javier Pulido, and Ron Wimberly (recommended)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Vol 1+ 2) by Kenji Kuroda (Matthew recommends it, he even read more after the episode!)

Books We Mentioned

• The Client by John Grisham
• The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
• Black Water Rising and Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
• The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter

Links, Articles, and Things

• How many novels has John Grisham written? 37 as of this year. But 16 are since 2010, so he's really started pumping them out. (Five of them aren't legal thrillers.)
• Kay Hooper is one of many authors who write Romantic Thrillers
• The Phoenix Wright manga is based on a series of games (or are they Visual Novels?)
• Marvel asked a court to rule that the X-Men were not human
• Jaffa Cakes were categorisation as cake or biscuit for VAT

Questions

• Do legal thriller exist in other languages/cultures?
• Do any libraries break out their legal thrillers into its own section?
• Do you want Blood Flag? Email us! Please?

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

Join us again on Tuesday, August 1st, when we'll catch you up on how our Reading Resolutions for 2017 are going and what we've read recently that hasn't been for the podcast.

Then come back on Tuesday, August 15th, when we'll be discussing Gardening! (And farming! And stuff about plants in general.)

Time for a special bonus episode (which apparently happen every sixteen episodes?) where we talk all about what we did at BookExpo America and the American Library Association Annual Conference. Plus: Reviews and previews of upcoming books we're excited about. (If you just want to hear about upcoming books skip to 21:54.)

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 | Matthew Murray

Books We Mentioned

Many of the books we discuss this episode are not yet published, but are books we are looking forward to. Check their release dates and place holds or make purchase requests at your local public library!

• From DC's Young Animal Imprint
• • Doom Patrol, Volume 1: Brick by Brick
  • Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, Vol. 1: Going Underground
  • Shade, the Changing Girl, Volume 1: Earth Girl Made Easy
  • Mother Panic, Volume 1: Work in Progress
• Balance: A Dizzying Journey Through the Science of Our Most Delicate Sense by Carol Svec
• Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
• Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. by Danielle S. Allen
• Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate by Zoë Quinn
• The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera
• David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music by Darryl W. Bullock (Discussed more in Episode 31: LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)
• Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
• Artemis by Andy Weir
• Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen
• The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

Links, Articles, and Things

• The schedule for the 2017 Library Journal Day of Dialogue with all the author panels listed
• For those who want just a little psyching up for The Tiger's Daughter there's a little announcement or, if you want more, the first 4(!) chapters.
• One attendee's experiences of both BookExpo America and the American Library Association Annual Conference this year (w/ charts from the show organizer, ReedPOP)
• The comicjam minicomic that Matthew mentioned he edited at ALA

Questions

• Did you attend either of these events (or ones like them)? Share your experience!
• What book or comic that is yet to come out this year are you most excited about?
• Do you do a library podcast and do you want to have a presence at the ALA Annual Conference? (Contact us!)

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, July 18th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of Legal Thrillers!

Then come back on Tuesday, August 1st, when we'll catch you up on how our Reading Resolutions are going and what we've read recently that hasn't been for the podcast.

In this 40 minute (short!) episode we try to define reading slumps and reading fatigue, talk about reading as a job, extol the wonders and magic of giving up on books, and discuss choosing what to read next. Plus: Matthew finds a way to complain about the comic book publishing industry (because of course he does).

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 We Mentioned

• Sex the Paranormal: Human Sexual Encounters with the Supernatural by Paul Chambers
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (recommended)
• Crying Freeman by by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami

Links, Articles, and Things

• Reader's Fatigue (What Are You Reading?, post by friend of the podcast Alan Woo)
• When Your Reading Life Falls Apart (Book Riot)
• 5 Things My Six-Month Long Reading Slump Taught Me (Book Riot)
• Reading Fatigue And The Marginalized Reader (Book Riot)
• Reading Slumps: What's That All About? (Tales from the Reading Room)
• The OTHER Reading Slump (All About Romance)
• How to Break Out of a Reading Slump (Bookish)
• Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney

Questions

• Why does Meghan keep saying "Schlump"?
• How do you deal with the times when you don't want to read? (Clearly "not-reading" is not an answer.)
• Has anyone never had a reading slump?

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, July 18th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of Legal Thrillers!

Then come back on Tuesday, August 1st, when we'll catch you up on how our Reading Resolutions are going and what we've read recently that hasn't been for the podcast.

Just in time for LGBT Pride Month, this episode has us discussing LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction books! We talk about queer Canadians, own voices, the importance of cultural context, and how this is our newest episode ever (in terms of publication dates for books). Plus: Anna and Matthew will be at the American Library Association conference in Chicago this weekend. Tweet at us if you'll be there and want to say "Hi!".

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)

• The Lesbian Lexicon by Stevie Anntonym (recommended)
• Queer Game Studies edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw (Matthew mistakenly called this Queer Gaming)
• David Bowie Made Me Gay by Darryl W. Bullock (out November 21st, 2017) (recommended)
• Outlaw Marriages by by Rodger Streitmatter
• Queers Were Here: Heroes & Icons of Queer Canada edited by Robin Ganev and RJ Gilmour (recommended)
• • Scott Thompson (of The Kids in the Hall)
  • LOOK: Lesbian Organization of Kitchener
  • LOOT: Lesbian Organization of Toronto
• The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care edited by Zena Sharman (recommended)
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (recommended)
• The Life and Times of Butch Dykes (series) by by Eloisa Aquino
• The Case of Alan Turing: The Extraordinary and Tragic Story of the Legendary Codebreaker by Éric Liberge and Arnaud Delalande (recommended)
• My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi (recommended)
• • Goodreads review that suggestions Nagata Kabi is "non-binary and possibly asexual"
• Cities vol. 1 by Anand Vedawal (recommended)
• The Prince of los Cocuyos by Richard Blanco

Books We Mentioned

• On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
• Fun Home and Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel
• Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (that page shows the terrible cover) (recommended)
• Two or Three Things I Know for Sure and Skin: Talking about Sex, Class and Literature by Dorothy Allison
• Forward by Abby Wambach
• Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee (recommended)
• My Body is Yours by Michael V. Smith (recommended)
• Female Masculinity by J. Jack Halberstam
• Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme edited by Ivan E. Coyote and Zena Sharman
• Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (recommended)
• Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan E. Coyote (recommended)
• Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg
• Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (recommended)
• Princess Jellyfish (series) by Akiko Higashimura (recommended)
• DAR (webcomic) by Erika Moen
• How to be a Guy (series of articles) by Jay Edidin (recommended)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Our list of genres
• QUILTBAG definition on Wiktionary
• LGBT Pride Month
• QZAP: The Queer Zine Archive Project
• Mass Effect
• • Kaiden Alenko
• Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian
• Broad City
• The Imitation Game
• Otokonoko: A frustratingly brief WIkipedia article about crossdressing in Japan

Questions

• Do you want a postcard? Email us your address!
• Will you be at ALA in Chicago? Let us know!
• Got any recommendations for asexual non-fiction?

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

Join us again on Tuesday, July 4th, when we'll talk about Reading Exhaustion and Reading Slumps (or maybe a super secret surprise).

Then come back on July 18th when we'll be discussing Legal Thrillers!

We talk about when, why, (whether), and what we Reread, and what does it all mean? Plus: format shifting for rereads, plays vs. scripts, cover versions of fiction, and the suck fairy.

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 Mentioned

• Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton
• The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss
• The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
• The BPRD: Hell on Earth series by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, and others
• • A spinoff of the Hellboy series by Mike Mignola and others
• The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
• Grendel by John Gardner (Jessi said "John Green", but she meant this one)
• Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
• Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
• On Trails by Robert Moor
• Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
• The Great Alta series by Jane Yolen
• • Sister Light, Sister Dark
  • White Jenna
  • The One-Armed Queen
• Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon
• The Nintendo Adventure Books series
• The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
• Romeo and/or Juliet by Ryan North
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• LaFayette and the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
• • And the movie based on the play
• The Others series by Anne Bishop
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, graphic novel adaptation by Tony Parker
• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• The Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé
• If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• • And the Hulu show
• The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
• • The movie with Megan Follows
  • Anne, the new TV show
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Links, Articles, and Things

• The Suck Fairy
• 10 Reasons We Reread Our Favorite Books by Sara Jonsson (Barnes & Noble blog)
• The Seven Basic Plots
• The Six Main Arcs in Storytelling, as Identified by an A.I.
• A Brief Guide to Tintinology

The magic sound used by Matthew in our endtro is "fairy magic wand" by Robinhood76 from freesound.org.

Questions

• Do you reread books? Why (or why not)? How often?
• What's a book you wish you could read again for the first time?

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, June 19th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of QUILTBAG/LGBTQ+ NonFiction!

Then come back on Tuesday, July 4th, when we'll talk about Reading Exhaustion and Reading Slumps.

Yee-haw! Episode 29 has us reading Westerns! We discuss whether Westerns need cowboys, if stories featuring Mounties count as Westerns (maybe?), the idea of black hats and white hats, and Mr. Coffee Nerves! Plus: Matthew shows his ignorance of US history and everything rural.

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

Recommended

• The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout
• True Grit by Charles Portis
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
• Far Out & Far Out 2 (in French) by Gautier Langevin and Olivier Carpentier

Did Not Finish

• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Riders of The Purple Sage by Zane Grey

Links and Stuff

• The Lone Ranger Matthew's pretty sure he watched this version.
• The space western BraveStarr in action
• Lucky Luke by Morris (and others) (Belgian Comic)
• The Sixth Gun by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt
• Firefly and Serenity
• The most recent Jonah Hex series ran for 70 issues from 2006 - 2011, All Star Western then ran for a further 34 issues from 2011 - 2014. None of you care.
• Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Ríos (Matthew was wrong, there are 10 issues)
• Loveless by Brian Azzarello and others
• Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (Genreflecting Advisory Series) by Diana Tixier Herald, edited by Wayne A. Wiegand (There are more recent editions; this is just the one we have with the essay Anna read and recommended.)
• Maple syrup rustlers
• • Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve
• Dudley Do-Right
• Mountie pulps are called "Northerns" or "Northwesterns" and apparently Zane Grey was influential in this genre too! There are some serious fans who keep track of this stuff!
• Heritage Minutes: Sam Steele - the RCMP of the Wild West
• There is also a cool podcast episode from Library and Archives Canada on Canadian Pulps! You should listen to it!
• Due South - our Canadian '90s moment
• The Spur Award (& the winners) from the Western Writer of America Awards
• When Matthew says what sounds like "beh day", he's actually saying "bd", with a terrible French Accent, for "bande dessinée", meaning the Franco-Belgian comic tradition
• Zane Grey is fascinating
• The Wikipedia page for Riders of the Purple Sage is elaborate (and spoilery)
• Postum shows up in old restaurant menus and in a marketing campaign using Mr. Coffee Nerves. Search for it in New York Public Library's historical menus.

• Zorro, a story and character that existed long before Antonio Banderas
• Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
• • Or, if you are like Matthew, instead you could watch Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or read the comics called Xenozoic Tales
• The Oregon Trail game (a Western?). Play it on archive.org!
• Cowboy Batmans can be seen in:
• • Batman: The Blue, The Grey, and the Bat
  • Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4

Say "Hello"

Upcoming events we'll be attending. Tweet at us if you'll be there!

• LA Zine Fest, May 28, 2017 (Anna and Matthew)
• LJ Day of Dialogue, Book Expo America, & Book Con, May 31-June 4, 2017 (Anna)
• ALA Annual Conference, June 23-26, 2017 (Anna and Matthew)

Questions

• Do cattle rustlers still exist?
• Does a Western have to be historical?
• Can anyone tell us about any Spanish Language tradition of literature similar to Westerns?
• Is Oregon Trail (the game) a Western?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Westerns people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter, and join our Facebook Group!

Join us again on Tuesday, June 5th for an episode on rereading.

Then come back on Tuesday, June 19th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of QUILTBAG/LGBTQ+ NonFiction!

While we planned on talking about all the non-bookclub stuff we read, this turned out to be an Accidental Romance episode! We talk about romances in video games, romance novels (both bad and good), romance manga, and movies we watch with our partners. Plus: Meaghan really loves bicycles. (That counts as a romance, right?)

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Things mentioned (in order of appearance)

• Persona 5 (Recommended)
• Rain World
• Stardew Valley
• Red Dead Redemption
• While the World Is Still Asleep (The Century Trilogy #1) by Petra Durst-Benning, translated by Edwin Miles
• Every Cyclist's Guide To Canadian Law by Craig Forcese and Nicole LaViolette
• Ultralight Bike Touring and Bikepacking: The Ultimate Guide to Lightweight Cycling Adventures by Justin Lichter and Justin Kline
• A Guide to Falling Down in Public: Finding Balance On And Off The Bicycle by Joe Kurmaskie
• This Road I Ride: Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself by Juliana Buhring (Recommended)
• Not Without My Sister by Kristina Jones, Celeste Jones, and Juliana Buhring
• Yowamushi Pedal Omnibus vol. 4 by Wataru Watanabe (Recommended)
• Decelerate Blue by Adam Rapp
• What a City Is for: Remaking the Politics of Displacement by Matt Hern
• The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
• The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story by Ann Rule, audiobook read by the author
• Close to You by Kara Isaac
• Public domain romance comics featuring librarians! (Well, a couple of them aren't romance comics, but they still have librarians!)
• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (Recommended)
• Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie
• The Others series by Anne Bishop (Recommended)
• A page from Runaways vol. 2 #1 (not mentioned in the episode, but relevant to the discussion)
• The Edge series by Ilona Andrews
• Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey
• The Anatomist's Wife (Lady Darby Mystery #1) by Anna Lee Huber
• A Kiss at Midnight (Fairy Tales #1) by Eloisa James
• If I Only Had a Duke (The Disgraceful Dukes #2) by Lenora Bell (Recommended)
• Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (Recommended)
• Princess Jellyfish Omnibus vol. 1 by Akiko Higashimura (Recommended)
  • Episode 1 of the anime: Subtitled. Dubbed.
  • Live action movie trailer

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Matthew said "War", but meant "Romance")
• Josei manga
• Tokyo Tarareba Girls by Akiko Higashimura (the Josei manga by this author that is about women in their 30s seeking and finding love)
• Nevada by Imogen Binnie
• Ride the Divide (Recommended)
• Hell on Wheels
• Yell for Cadel
• Fixation (link to trailer) (Recommended)
• Bicycle Polo
• The Impossible Hour
• Flying Scotsman
• History of the Hour Record for bicycling
• You Never Bike Alone
• Critical Mass
• World Naked Bike Ride
• The Void (Recommended)
• Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Recommended)
• List of adaptations of works by Stephen King
• We All Float Down Here: A Burlesque Tribute to Stephen King
• Who's on First?
  • Abbott & Costello performance (Recommended)

Questions

• What are you into reading/watching/playing/or listening to?
• What media do you suggest that we check out?
• Can you recommend (or even name) any early Canadian writers or literature?

Check out our Pinterest boards and Tumblr posts for all the books people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter, and join our Facebook Group!

Join us again on Tuesday, May 16th when we'll be talking about Westerns!

Then on Tuesday, June 6th when we'll discuss Rereading Books!

In this episode, Non-Fiction Audiobooks! Join us as we discuss the power of narrators, the problems of technology, and what to do while you're listening to an audiobook. Also: We actually enjoy things!

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Recommended

• Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule, narrated by Michele Pawk (6 hr edition, which Jessi listened to) or narrated by Barbara Caruso (19 hour edition, if you prefer unabridged)
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, narrated by Scott Brick
• Information Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age by Cory Doctorow, narrated by Wil Wheaton
• Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman, narrated by the author

Read/Listened

• The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin by Bob Harper and Greg Critser
• The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker, narrated by Chris Patton
• Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more by Arthur Goldwag, narrated by Fred Sanders
• Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us by Jesse Bering, narrated by the author

Did Not Finish (DNF)

• The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff, narrated by Eliza Foss (Recommended)
• Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English, narrated by David Colacci (Recommended)
• Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen, narrated by the author (maybe try the 6 hour abridged version instead of the 15hr unabridged version Matthew tried)

Meghan's Many DNFs

• Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life by 50 Cent and Jeff O'Connell, narrated by Cary Hite
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown, narrated by Karen White
• Rising Strong by Brené Brown, narrated by the author
• The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer by Skip Hollandsworth, narrated by Clint Jordan
• My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, narrated by the author

Links and Stuff

• Humble Bundle
• LibriVox - free public domain audiobooks read by volunteers
• Audible is one of many sites where you can buy MP3 audiobook downloads
• A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman
• Audie Awards
• Beaver butt (i.e. Castoreum) has been historically used in perfumes and as "natural flavour" in foods
• Stacy Schiff has won a lot of awards (including a Pulitzer for a biography of Vladimir Nabokov's wife, Vera) (Wikipedia)

Questions

• Do you listen to audiobooks?
• How important is the narrator to your enjoyment?
• What do you do while listening to audiobooks?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Non-Fiction Audiobooks people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter, and join our Facebook Group!

Join us again on Tuesday, May 2nd for our semi-regular "things we read that aren't for the podcast (except now they are)" episode.

Then come back on Tuesday, May 16th, when we will inflict upon you the genre of Westerns!