Novels with Nightcaps

In the episode, Allie and Melinda discuss their reads for April Mystery Month and May Mental Health Month, which include:

Your favorite bookish duo then play a game of "Cast the Movie" for Thursday Murder Club. Mr. Spielberg, we've done the hard part for you! This episode's tangents include librarians, Twilight fanfic, the Manhattan Project, Chicago vs. NYC, and more.

In the first episode of Season 2, Allie and Melinda:

In part 2 of the Season 1 finale, Allie and Melinda discuss the bookclub's pick for Women's History Month (What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang) and Outlawed by Anna North. Allie and Melinda are a little sauced during this one, so tangents abound!

In part 1 of the Season 1 finale, Allie and Melinda discuss the bookclub's pick for Black History Month (The Color Purple by Alice Walker) and Reclaiming Her Time: The Power of Maxine Waters by Helena Andrews Dyer and R. Eric Thomas. Also, Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert inspires a lively discussion about the proper way to spell some choice words, and what makes for a good romance book cover...

Melinda and Allie discuss some Sci-Fi for January, as well as some non-fiction picks, lots of barking dogs, technical issues, and as always, booze! This month's Sci-Fi reads include Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. The non-fiction reads this month were How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Dr. Yuvall Noah Harari, Educated by Tara Westover, and She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Live Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh. 

In this "better-late-than-never" holiday special, Melinda and Allie compare how they did on their 2020 reading goals, while discussing some of their standout reads of the year, including Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. They also catch up on what they read for Non-Fiction November/Native American Heritage Month/National Novel Writing Month, including: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Betty by Tiffany McDaniel, and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.

In this somewhat spoopy Halloween episode, Allie and Melinda discuss a couple of their recent classic reads, including Brunch with Books' club picks for Banned Book September and Victober: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. 

Other recent creepy reads discussed include a 2020 South African post-apocalyptic debut The Down Days by Ilze Hugo, the southern/Appalachian noir thriller The Line That Held Us by David Joy, and Simone St. James' most recent supernatural mystery, The Sun Down Motel.

But it's not all doom and gloom! Melinda and Allie also chat about some of the cozy and heartwarming books they recently finished this fall, including the 2020 group memoir The Toni Morrison Book Club, I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson, and Angie Thomas' follow-up to The Hate U Give: On The Come Up (currently being adapted for the big screen!). 

Melinda and Allie are back to chat about their most recents reads from Romance Month, featuring Brunch with Books' August bookclub pick, The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons, and the runner-up, Beach Read by Emily Henry. 

Then they take a dive into Fredrik Backman's backlist with A Man Called Ove, before discussing some recent political (yet steamy?!) reads inspired by the upcoming elections, including Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld and Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump.

Other books discussed include: 

Melinda and Allie discuss some of their recent anti-racist reading picks, including So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo and their bookclub selection for July, Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur. They also chat about the books they chose for one another in their most recent "Trash the TBR" segment (Dawn by Octavia Butler and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton), as well as a throwback favorite (Where'd Ya Go Bernadette by Maria Semple) and a controversial new release (My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams).

In this episode, Allie and Melinda drink pink sangrias in celebration of Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas and Melinda's 35th birthday while discussing recent reads from Arlan Hamilton, Toni Morrison, Lily King, and more. As always, they trash each others TBRs, but this time with a twist that puts reading like their astrological signs to the test.