Useless Doctors Book Club

WOOHOOO it's our 50th episode!!! Apparently Harshini's "wooo" at the beginning of this episode wasn't excited enough. Anyway, for this special episode, we read Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and watched the movie, released in 2022, together. The story follows a young woman, Kya, who grows up alone in North Carolina marshland and is later accused of murdering town sweetheart, Chase Andrews. How did the movie compare to the book? Is this another Triple Crown (5 stars from all of us)? Listen to find out!

This week on your favorite podcast we are discussing the book that Pooja chose, "The Dead Romantics" by Ashley Poston. The book follows a young romance novelist returning to her hometown after a tragedy when someone VERY unexpected shows up at her door. As we discuss this romance novelist's problems, we talk about "forced quirkiness", cardboard cutout love interests, and why millennial protagonists are always so stupid. Please enjoy our commentary on this ridiculous novel. You're welcome. 

In today's episode, we are reading another romance book, The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall, chosen by Sarah (the lover of rom coms). The book follows Freya Scott who is recently single after her long-term boyfriend left her the day before their wedding. Her best friends decide to give her a series of fun challenges for every wedding she attends that summer to get her mind off her heartbreak. Listen to hear our thoughts on these crazy challenges and whether we would ever do them! Bonus: could Sarah finally convince Harshini that not all romance books are bad?

In this week's episode, we read the promising fantasy book, The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. A cool title, right? In a society of book eaters, our main protagonist Devon fights her traditional role (and her enemies) with her son who happens to prefer eating minds to eating books. Harshini chose this book to see if she could change Pooja and Sarah's minds about fantasy books with one that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award. Did it work? Listen to find out!

Hello hello, the useless doctors are back for season 4! We are ringing in our new season with an experience of a book called "Patricia Wants To Cuddle" by Samantha Allen!  Pooja chose this book thinking we'd all like to read about the messy behind-the-scenes of a reality television dating show, and boy, were we surprised with what we ended up reading. Did we give this book a rose? Listen in to find out!

Hello everyone! Get ready because it's the last episode for season 3! In this episode we decided to switch things up a bit and watch the movie "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" which is based on the book "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" by Maria Semple. We picked this movie because some scenes were filmed in Pittsburgh where we all went to college so we could recognize some of the places. In the movie, Bernadette, a retired architect runs away from home to Antartica and the film follows her journey and her family's journey to find her. None of us have ever read the book but listen to hear our unfiltered thoughts about this movie!

Hello! In this episode we read the mystery Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia Manansala. The book follows Lila Macapagal who becomes a judge for Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant. When the head judge of the pageant is murdered, Lila works hard to figure out the killer. This book left us hungry and craving some Filipino food but will the mystery hit the mark? Listen to find out!

Welcome back to our listeners! On this week’s podcast, we discuss the book “The Portrait of a Mirror” by A. Natasha Joukovsky. This book tells the story of two couples, Wes & Diana, and Vivien & Dale, and how their lives change after they meet. During our discussion talking about the dramatic lives of the main protagonists here, we somehow end up drastically off-topic, ruminating over the value and use of bathrobes, whether pineapples on pizza are that big of a deal, and reiterating our vehement dislike for the book we read for last week’s podcast episode. If that sounds like your jam, then give episode 13 a listen!

For this episode, we read Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (author of the super popular book, The Love Hypothesis, featured in S1 Ep15). Picked by neuroscience PhD student Sarah herself, this book follows a new couple co-leading a neuroengineering project who are trying to figure out their feelings for each other. We made UDBC history in this episode, listen to find out how!

In this episode, we discussed the spooky, "And Then There Were None"-inspired thriller, Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. A family gathered for the grandma's 80th birthday discovers that someone is starting to take them out one-by-one and uncovers some dark secrets along the way. Warning: we spoiled quite a few other movies in comparing them with this book. Listen to hear our thoughts!