We are delving into a topic today and it's the 'M' word... yup marriage. Having read Sue Miller's Monogamy and Sarah Crossan's Here is the Beehive almost back to back we were taken aback by how many similar themes it touches. So join us as we peel back the layers of matrimony like the proverbial onion, it's pungent and there might be tears but cooked long and slow it might be still be a dish worth committing to.

After a month's break, our TBRs are bursting and though our heart's go to everyone who is putting out a book this year, our hearts rejoice that there are so many tasty, tasty books to sink our teeth into (even if we moan that it's impossible to read them all). We kick back with nerding out on Super Thursday and what it means for all the people involved in the publishing world and then sink into some book highlights in collaboration with Definitely Books as usual.

Zen Cho is back with a brand new novella called The Pure Order of the Moon Reflected on Water. She calls it a tropical wuxia, inspired by martial arts yarns and period C-dramas, follow her band of merry bandits as they careen around a fantasy take on Malaya's emergency with a kung-fu nun in tow. It's rip-roaring, tender in places and way... way... too short. We ask her all the questions!

We hung out on a thunderous afternoon with Julya Oui and talk campfire tales, the private life of Silobans and the fact that there's really nothing to be afraid of. Having exorcised her demons on her page she cheekily says, "it's someone else's problem now..."

As everyone knows, there are too many books being released atm. As a spillover from last week's episode since we could not fit everything in an hour this week we thought you might like to know the stuff we really liked reading lately plus more interesting books to sink your teeth into.

We chill out with each other, over some delicious beverages and talk about happenings in the book world. Everything from ConZealand to is Rothfuss going to finally finish his book to the Booker Longlist. Also listen to Honey trying to convince Diana to read Midnight Sun even though deep, deep down inside she secretly wants to. Heh.

Hanna Alkaf is back with her first middle grade novel The Girl and the Ghost. A little girl inherits and peleset (generational spirit) from her bomoh grandmother and makes it her friend. But Pink (what she named her peleset) is made of darker stuff. Can a friendship between a girl and a ghost survive the pains of adolescence? We talk supernatural, young betrayals and the creative life during MCO. You don't want to miss this episode. A longer version of the interview with some juicy bits can be found on our Patreon page. Do check out how to subscribe at Patreon.com/tbntpod

Kevin Kwan's romp-com has big stilettos to fill. After the Crazy Rich Asian trilogy, everyone is waiting with bated breath what the next glittery read would be. Well wonder no more! In Sex and Vanity we are back in the world of the super rich with an outlandish wedding (a Kwan specialty) and this time he's set it in Capri and New York. Listen to our episode this week and check out what we thought...

Bumper episode coming up folks! This week we have a whopper so sit back, relax and let Rutger pretty much take you through his book about a hopeful history of us. It's fascinating and his theories are backed by tons of research. If there is one non fiction book you should pick up this year, this might be it because God knows we need a bit of brightness with the year we've been having. There is much here to chew on and also some great bits where you can see how life can be treated differently and your relationship with the people around you.

We chatted with Yeoh Jo-Ann the author of Impractical Uses of Cake with Elaine from Lit Books. This was supposed to be a live event but well, that pesky little virus happened to we ended up doing a FB LIVE instead. Sigh... there would have been cake if there was an event. Still... it was a cool conversation about male protagonists vs female, Singapore as back drop, cake and how has it been writing during the pandemic. Enjoy!