The Library Coven

it’s that time again! see below for a massive link round up (some of the books link to our bookshop affiliate page) Fiction we couldn’t put down (Jessie) The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree Wildfire by Hannah Grace The Golden Frog Games by Claribel A Ortega Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood School Trip by Jerry Craft (kelly) Babel by RF Kuang Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman Beloved by Toni Morrison  Everything by Andrea Gibson Fav re-reads (J) The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (and ACOTAR)  (k) The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang New-to-us Authors (Jessie) Chloe Liese – The Wilmot Sister series Hannah Grace – Maple Hills series (kelly) Melissa Febos Katherine May so many substack peeps (in no particular order, and not necessarily new but needed to rec them somewhere) Marcela Onyango, Feel the News Anna Brones, Creative Fuel  Jami Attenberg, CRAFT TALK Ayesha Kahn, Cosmic Anarchy Jesse Meadows, Sluggish Bailey Richardson, Art Dogs Margaret Killjoy, Birds Before the Storm Margeaux Feldman, CARESCAPES Becca Lee, The Haunted Librarian Fariha Róisín, How to Cure a Ghost Nate Stevenson, I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand Laura K, Normal Island News Fanny Priest, Resourced Marlee Grace, Monday Monday Luca J. Davis, I love love, anything is possible Chris La Tray, An Irritable Métis Raechel Anne Jolie, Radical Love Letters Fav ships (J) The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches #TrueConfessions (k) gonna read Ursula K. Le Guin. I’m part way through a lot of things, as is my nature as a reader: for example, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler, The Milky Way by Moiya McTier, The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.  (J) really looking forward to Tempest of Tea, which we’re reading for the podcast in 2024. And Ali Hazelwood has a book coming out that’s dual POV called Not in Love, and I’m really interested to see her write a full book in dual POV. Nonfiction Books We Loved (kelly) Girlhood and Body Work: the Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos Wintering and Enchantment by Katherine May Motherhood by Sheila Heti I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Pageboy by Eliot Page In the autism subgenre #SpecialInterest…Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price, Neuro Tribes by Steve Silberman, and Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker.  Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue by Les Feinberg, infamous transcestor.  Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice by Raj Patel and Rupa Marya is a staple on my nightstand bookstack, and I’m slowly working my way through it. Cannot recommend enough. Every chapter is a banger.  Anthology Make the Golf Club a Public Sex Forest – edited by Lyn Corelle and jimmy cooper. Exactly what it sounds like. Creative nonfiction, erotica, historical essays, all in the context of abolishing the depraved scourge on the landscape that is a golf course. I have a vendetta against golf courses, ppl.  All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive by Rainsford Stauffer  Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon. (Jessie) More Than a Glitch by Meredith Broussard Not Free, Not for All by Cheryl Knott about libraries in the Jim Crow era Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap  Revolution in Our Time by Kekla Magoon was a super powerful history of the Black Panther Party written for young adults Blackbirds in the Sky  by Brandy Colbert was a very insightful history of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Racism with Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva which focuses on racism in institutions. Our favorite shows (Jessie) GBBO and it was one of my favorite seasons, Professionals, the American Baking show, and the holiday eps Ramy season 3 That Damn Michael Che Abbot Elementary The Last of Us Never Have I Ever – fin...

This week we are discussing the graphic novel Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall (with additional contributions by Bex Glendining and Ariana Maher). This story follows a wide cast of characters in 1930s Mississippi, where magic is restricted based on race and class. Broom racing is outlawed by the state, but clandestine competitions offer much needed prize money. Mattie and Emma are two Chocktaw youth trying to evade detection by the authorities so they don’t get sent to government boarding school. So they learn to race and make connections with some queer and trans role models along the way.  Many thanks to Lee & Low Books for reaching out to us and sending an ARC! We both got physical copies from our respective libraries for this episode. Recommend if you like… Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker Artie and the Wolf Moon by Olivia Stephens Crumbs by Danie Stirling Fast and Furious franchise (lol)  A smol selection of sign language resources and Deaf/HoH creators Bill Vickers’s youtube channel El Deafo by Cece Bell (graphic novel and now adapted on AppleTv+) Nakia Smith Otis Jones Phelan Conway Re: residential schools (mega content warning) “History of US Indian Boarding Schools”  Interactive map of residential schools The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report (2022) As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Reach out to us on Instagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

This week we are discussing Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, which was suggested by patron and friend-of-the-show Deanna. Both of us loved Acevedo’s novel-in-verse The Poet X, but we had some differing opinions about this newly released adult novel.   Recommend if you like… magical realism, generally Isabel Allende Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez and/or The Inheritance of Orquidia Divina by Zoraida Córdova (winding, multigenerational narratives) The book k mentions about the Mirabal sisters is called En el tiempo de las mariposas (In the Time of the Butterflies) by Julia Álvarez. Trujillo regime information The Dictator Next Door: the Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic 1930-1945 by Eric Paul Roorda The Dictator’s Seduction: Politics and Popular Imagination in the Era of Trujillo by Lauren H. Derby “About Trujillo” – primer by the Chicago Public Libraries Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (documentary on Netflix) As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Reach out to us on Instagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

Season 6 has officially begun! We’re back with a historical fiction novel suggested by our beloved patron Grey (@grey_reads on insta): The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas. This is a retelling of the legend of Mulan from Chinese folklore.  Recommend if you like… Mulan retellings, generally (Disney films included) Hafsah Faisal’s novels (We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars) Beneath the Moon by Yoshi Yoshitani Classic martial arts texts/films like Legend of the Condor Heroes and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon re: writing systems, oral traditions, and grappling with “civilization” Further reading on the development of writing systems in China The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wenigrow really is mind blowing if you want to un/re-learn all there is to know about ancient humans and how we developed. in the episode, k says oral traditions have been around for tens of thousands of years…and that is on the lower end of estimates chest binding resources tips and things to know, including safety considerations application for free binder for youth (age 24 and under) and another free binder program (no age max.) As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Reach out to us on Instagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

A few weeks ago, J and I had the pleasure of interviewing Rachael Lippincott in advance of her upcoming release Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh (August 29, 2023 from Simon & Schuster). You might know Rachael as a co-author of Five Feet Apart, which was also made into a film. We haven’t read her newest novel yet, but we both enjoyed our respective interview prep reads – Jessie even cried (!! *gasp* lol) listening to The Lucky List. We hope you enjoy this little surprise between seasons of the show 🙂

We’re finishing out Season 5 strong with this discussion of Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen. Simidele has been transformed into a Mami Wata (aka mer-person) by the orisa Yemoja, tasked with gathering souls of Africans who fall, jump, or are thrown into the sea from enslavers’ ships. Chaos ensues when Simidele strays from the brief and rescues Adekola (or Kola for short) from drowning. There’s a quest, a trickster figure, cool side characters, and the book is bursting with magic inspired by various African folklores, mythologies, and cultures.  We both loved this book, from the unique premise and character development to the expansive world building that completely immersed us (no water pun intended! #shocking for k, lol). Content Warning (from the front matter of the book itself! we love to see it!): “Skin of the Sea blends fifteenth-century history with fantasy, and there are depictions of violence, enslavement, death, and suicide.” Whether you’re new to the show or a long-time listener, thank you for joining us! We’re taking a break for now (length TBD), so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts… just in case there are any surprise drops on the feed 😉 Recommend if you like… Children of Blood and Bone series by Tomi Adeyemi  Black Panther comics and films [for the littles] Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah Jones and Renée Watson. Illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. The Little Mermaid slash mermaids in general The Deep a novella by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Huston, and Johnathan Snipes “Venus in Two Acts” by Saidiya Hartman (free article PDF) “Mathematics in Black Life” by Katherine McKittrick (free article PDF) The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel the mer-mazing docuseries that kelly mentions is Merpeople (on Netflix) As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Reach out to us on Instagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

In this penultimate (!) episode of season 5, we’re discussing A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin. The novel tells the story of Ning, a young girl who is headed to the capital to compete to become the empire’s new master in the magic and art of tea making. Ning has an ulterior motive, hoping to gain the princess’s favorite to potentially save Ning’s older (and currently poisoned) sister. There are lovely gardens and amazing sensory descriptions that captivated both of us. Not to mention it has one of the most BEAUTIFUL covers!  Please consider supporting this work on Patreon for early episodes and a direct line to J & k via the podcast Discord.  Recommend if you like… any kind of story with like a competition to find the best… whatever.  Perhaps books in the Grishaverse series by Leigh Bardugo (J agrees with this suggestion from the book’s marketing copy) Gen-Mai Cha is the tea Jessie mentions Here is a helpful tea resource: Chinese Teas 101  As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Reach out to us on Instagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

Episode 82 is dedicated to Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, which follows Tarisai, a half-ehru half-human, girl who is bound by choices her mysterious and mostly absent mother has made. We discuss empire and the imperative to assimilate, fantasy parenting fails, and ofc we have thoughts about magical travel technologies!  We LOVE a duology (yay brevity!), and the sequel, Redemptor, is already out. Have you read it? Should we read it in a future season? let us know! Drop us a line in the comments or reach out to us onInstagram (@thelibrarycoven) or via email ([email protected]). Please consider supporting this work on Patreon for early episodes and a direct line to J & k via the podcast Discord.  Recommend if you like… Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine #throwback A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (aka ACOTAR #2 – episode 21) As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Drop us a line in the comments or reach out to us on twitter, Instagram (@thelibrarycoven), or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

In this episode, we discuss The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi, which was recommended to us by Melisa, one of our patrons (hey!!). Please consider supporting this work on Patreon for early episodes and a direct line to J & k via the podcast Discord.  Note: this is an adult fantasy novel that has a lot of explicit violence on the page. Repeat, this is not young adult / YA! The Final Strife tells the story of mainly Sylah, who was trained from a young child to be a rebel with the Sandstorms, but things kind of fall apart when the family who trained her is murdered, and we see what her life has become as an adult and she’s helping a wealthy girl, Anoor, train to become a warden. Chaos ensues. Recommend if you like… The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (episode 15) Maya Motayne’s novels Nocturna and Oculta (episode 41 and episode 65) Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne – also adult fantasy, also rec’d by our lovely patron Melisa (episode 69) Jasbir Puar is currently a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Her books are Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007) and The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017) –– this latter one is what kelly quotes in the episode. Jessie mentions the book Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon Here is the Book Riot article Jessie refers to about the sexist miscategorization of women fantasy authors. As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Drop us a line in the comments or reach out to us on twitter, Instagram (@thelibrarycoven), or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)

It’s episode 80!! That means we’ve done 80 of these long-form book reviews and discussions over the past 5+ years. Whether you’re just finding the show or have been here since the early days, we’re glad to be in your orbit.  In this episode, we discuss Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray. Koffi, an indentured beastkeeper with hidden powers, and Ekon, a warrior-in-training with an empathetic side, decide to work together to find the shetani, a dangerous and powerful beast living in the jungle. Of course, what they’ve been told by society is complete BS, and the two teens have to choose between old dreams and their new understandings/relationships. Recommend if you like… Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (episode 2!) The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta (episode 74) Zahrah and the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor (episode 71) Hafsa Faizal’s We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars (episode 32 and episode 54, respectively). Book 1 in particular also fits into the subgenre of enemies-t0-lovers-looking-for-something-in-the-woods. kelly mentions the “erotics of unmasking” section of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s book The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs. k just looooves this work in general and can’t recommend it enough. Jessie mentions the article from Schalk and Kim – “Reclaiming the Radical Politics of Self Care: A Crip-of-Color Critique — that she read for a class about what self care is and what it isn’t. As always, we’d love to be in discussion with you, magical people. Drop us a line in the comments or reach out to us on twitter, Instagram (@thelibrarycoven), or via email ([email protected]). Access complete show notes on our website, thelibrarycoven.com. We really appreciate ratings and reviews on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platforms. Help us share the magic by spreading the word about the podcast! You can support our labor by leaving us a one-time tip on Ko-fi or purchasing books from our Bookshop! Better yet, become a monthly patron via Patreon and you can unlock a bunch of exclusive perks like access to our community of reader-listeners on Discord. Our cover art is by the talented artist nimsby. The podcast theme song is “Unermerry Academy of Magics” by Augustin C from the album “Fantasy Music”, which you can download on FreeMusicArchive.com. We support #LandBack. The Library Coven is recorded and produced on stolen indigenous land: Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Ute (kelly) and Chickasha, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Mascoutin, Miami, Mesquaki, Odawa, Ojibwe, Peankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Wea (Jessie)