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Author: Gin Jenny

Romance round-up

All right, friends, I’ve been sadly remiss in reading and reviewing romance novels in this space, and we’re going to take a moment and correct that. I’ve got two novels and two novellas for you today, mostly from old faves but with one new author discovery. (The new author discovery is embarrassing because omg Shana Galen has been around forever and it’s weird that I haven’t read any of her books before. Don’t judge me, just recommend me which Shana Galen books I need to read next.) Trust Me, Laura Florand The angst scale has clarified a lot of things…

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Shortly Ever After: September

The accidental theme of this month’s Shortly Ever After is perspective, and the vastly different worlds we inhabit depending on where we’re standing. (I’m trying so hard not to say anything about These Troubled Times ™ because it’s beginning to seem like I have lost the ability to write a blog post without referencing These Troubled Times ™, but I swear to God I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it!) While I do love SFF for its mad ideas about what could be or might be someday, I also love its ability to make me…

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Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, Sheba Karim

The short version of this review is that Mariam Sharma Hits the Road is a gem and a treasure that I want to hug very hard directly in its face. Did y’all know about Sheba Karim and not tell me? Is that the situation? Because it’s very hurtful if so. When Mariam’s friend Ghaz ends up on a sexy billboard in Times Square, Mariam and their third BFF Umar come up with a scheme to rescue her from her furious, abusive parents: They take her on a road trip to New Orleans, where this year’s Islamic Association of North America…

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Review: A Dangerous Crossing, Ausma Zehanat Khan

What do y’all think it says about the year we’ve been having me that I glanced at Ausma Zehanat Khan’s bio on the back flap of A Dangerous Crossing, saw that she has her Ph.D. in international human rights law, and thought “gosh I wish she’d write some novel-length post-CACW Avengers fanfic”? Um, but anyway, this is the fourth book in her Esa Khattak / Rachel Getty series about a Canadian police inspector and his right-hand woman, who are always investigating crimes to do with human rights violations. A Dangerous Crossing sees Esa and Rachel headed to Greece in search…

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More Harassment Links than I Would Prefer: A Links Round-Up

No lie: I was looking at the bottom of this links round-up and thinking that it was pretty smart of me to corral all the harassment and assault writing in one big paragraph. Then I scrolled back up to the top and realized there were more harassment links because APPARENTLY nobody can just OBSERVE APPROPRIATE BOUNDARIES. I sure love boundaries, y’all. Here are some links. Some contain harassment; I wish they did not but if wishes were fishes, eh? A personal account from a former teaching assistant to Avital Ronell, the NYU professor accused of harassment. The brilliant Carol Anderson…

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Reading the End Bookcast, BONUS: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society: The Movie!

WELP that was an absurdly long subject line, and I must say that I side with Juliet’s editor, played by the delightful Matthew Goode:

image description: Matthew Goode makes a face and says "Crikey, that's quite a mouthful."

TRUER WORDS, Matthew Goode! Listeners should know that I asked Whiskey Jenny if she felt we could wrap up our thoughts on the Netflix movie of The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society in a cool 30 minutes of recording, and she said, “I don’t think that’s realistic.” We are not masters of terseness.

You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!

Bonus Episode 3

Thanks so much to our Patreon subscribers for making this possible!

Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. If you like what we do, support us on Patreon. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).

Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcripts by: Sharon of Library Hungry

Transcript is available below the jump!

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Me, elsewhere

Happy Monday, friends! We’re gearing up for another doozy of a political week, but I’m over at Lady Business this week with my new column for The YA Agenda. Check out all the new releases I’m excited for in September, plus an interview with A Blade So Black author L. L. McKinney!

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep. 107 – Fall Book Preview and Vanessa Hua’s A River of Stars

Friends in the Carolinas and Virginias, the thoughts of this podcast are with you. Please stock up on flashlights and batteries, don’t store important documents in the dishwasher, and buy plenty of good booze to see you through. Or if you’re in an evacuation zone, please please evacuate. Meanwhile, here’s some stormy day podcast listening for everyone. We’re doing a seasonal book preview — always one of my favorite types of episodes to record! — and reviewed Vanessa Hua’s debut novel A River of Stars.

River of Stars

You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!

Episode 107

Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around.

1:56 – What we’re reading
3:30 – What we’re cooking/eating
5:40 – LOTR Reread: The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapters 6-11
20:54 – Summer book preview check-in
22:23 – Fall book preview
31:22 – River of Stars, Vanessa Hua
42:09 – What we’re reading next time

Here are the books we mentioned.

A Duke by Default, Alyssa Cole
The Girl from Everywhere, Heidi Heilig
The Two Towers, Chapters 6-11 of Book 3
Armistice, Lara Elena Donnelly (fanfic post!)
Witchmark, CL Polk
The Poppy War, RF Kuang
Temper, Nicky Drayden
Undead Girl Gang, Lily Anderson (podcast!)
On the Come-Up, Angie Thomas
Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li
The Ensemble, Aja Gabel
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan (podcast!)
Transcript, Kate Atkinson
Life after Life, Kate Atkinson
A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson (podcast!)
The Best Bad Things, Katrina Carrasco
Zero Sum Game, SL Huang
“The Little Homo Sapiens Scientist,” SL Huang
Waiting for Eden, Elliot Ackerman
Hearts Unbroken, Cynthia Leitich Smith
Retablos: Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border, Octavio Solis
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells
All Systems Red, Martha Wells
The Royal Runaway, Lindsay Emory
Eternity Girl, Magdalene Visaggio
River of Stars, Vanessa Hua
One Red Paperclip blog
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Kite Maker,” Brenda Peynado link

Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. If you like what we do, support us on Patreon. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).

Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcripts by: Sharon of Library Hungry

Transcript is available under the jump!

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Review: 84K, Claire North

I’ve been trying to recapture the magic of Claire North’s second novel, Touch, for three books now. Harry August was like Diet Touch, The Sudden Appearance of Hope was a bit boring, and The End of the Day dragged so much I didn’t finish it. “Ah well,” I said to myself, “so Claire North is a one-hit wonder for me. SO BE IT.” And then just when I thought I’d gotten out, she lured me back in with 84K, a dystopian novel in experimental-but-not-too prose about a man who leaves his comfortable life behind in favor of burning down the…

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Rebranding, for Good and Evil: A Links Round-Up

Well, the end of August is finally here, and you know what that means: FOOTBALL IS COMING BACK. Admittedly I have mixed and complicated feelings about both college and professional football, but I also really love watching it. So, uh, yeah. I have reached no conclusions on this matter. Meanwhile, have some links; autumn is coming. This article on fanfiction’s rebranding in the past few years is excellent, and features Naomi Novik saying many intelligent things. What it’s like for women who flee North Korea. The librarians who track down the books their patrons only sort of remember. Since I…

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