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BONUS EPISODE: Consider the Kondo

We are now in a brand new, experimental condition in which we, the Jennys, release bonus episodes that have to do with — wait for it — THE NEWS. Sort of. This week, we’re talking about Marie Kondo and her book and her Netflix show and all the books she is not forcing you to give away (so everybody settle down). Bonus Episode 6 Thanks so much to our Patreon subscribers for making this episode 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,…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep. 112 – 2018 in Review

The best thing about 2018 was the day it ended, and the second-best thing about it was recording this podcast. It’s our Year in Review! The Jennys talk through the highs and lows of our 2018 reading, then chat about the New Year’s Resolutions we failed and succeeded at, and the New Year’s Resolutions we’ve decided on for 2019. You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!

Episode 112

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

1:02 – What we’re reading
2:26 – The best of what we learned in 2018
4:15 – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Book 5, Chapters 1-4
17:42 – Books we got for Christmas
20:17 – What we read in 2018
31:49 – Update on 2018 resolutions
40:28 – 2019 resolutions

What we talked about:

The Blackhouse, Peter May
Nick of Time,
Anne Lindbergh
The Return of the King, JRR Tolkien
the tweet about Faramir that makes me cry-laugh
Remember Who You Are, Paula Brown Stafford and Lucy T. Grimes
The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle, Malinda Maynor Lowery
Accidental Birds of the Carolinas, Marjorie Hudson
Giant Days, John Allison
Misfit City, Kirstin Smith and Kurt Lustgarten
A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, Toby Green
Rude Mechanicals, Kage Baker
Jane Eyre (BBC version)

Whiskey Jenny’s worst: A Kind of Intimacy, Jenn Ashworth
Gin Jenny’s worst: The House at the Edge of Night, Catherine Banner (but The Nakano Thrift Shop as a runner-up)
Whiskey Jenny’s best: The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Gin Jenny’s best: Washington Black, Esi Edugyan

Books we unexpectedly disliked

The Royal Runaway, Lindsay Emory
The Cruel Prince, Holly Black

Books we unexpectedly loved

The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Pyromantic, Lish McBride
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi

Books we wish had gotten more attention

The Ensemble, Aja Gabel
Zero Sum Game, SL Huang
Blanca and Roja, Anna-Marie McLemore

Best dude teams in books

Ready to Roll, Suzanne Brockmann
Endurance, Alfred Lansing
Check Please, Ngozi Ukazu

Best book title

Rafe, A Buff Male Nanny, Rebekah Weatherspoon
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
How Long Til Black Future Month?, NK Jemisin

Best book cover

Tess of the Road, by Rachel Hartman
Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li

City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg
Kay from Not Now I’m Reading is our fanfic guru!
Renay from Fangirl Happy Hour is our SFF guru!
World War Z, Max Brooks
Wives of the Leopard, Edna Bay
The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, Donald Wright
A Separate Peace, John Knowles
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Miss Wyoming, Douglas Coupland
Eleanor Rigby, Douglas Coupland
The Great Brain, John D. Fitzgerald

Commission art from Ira!

Stet,” Sarah Gailey
The Kite Maker,” Brenda Peynado
Extracurricular Activities,” Yoon Ha Lee
Especially Heinous,” Carmen Maria Machado
Always Open, the Eureka Hotel,” Jamey Hatley
Fandom for Robots,” Vina Jie-Min Prasad

2019 Resolutions for Whiskey Jenny

1) Keep an eye on diversity of personal reading.
2) Read three books by Native American authors.
3) Read three books by queer authors.

2019 Resolutions for Gin Jenny

1) Read four histories of four African countries.
2) Read 15 of my own books (purchased before 2019), of which 10 are fiction.
3) For every nonfiction book of my own that I read, I can then check one 1 nonfiction book from the library. NO MORE.
4) Read 40% non-American authors.

2019 Podcast Resolutions

1) Have seven guests, of which two are authors!
2) Read at least one book by a nonbinary author.
3) Read at least one book by an indigenous author.

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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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.110 – Holiday Gift Guide 2018

Happy holidays, podworld! The Jennys are here to suggest gifts for you to buy for your loved ones — not just those who love books but those who love books slightly less than infinity! Wow such variety, we are podcast geniuses.

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

Episode 110

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

1:04 – What we’re reading
2:40 – Jennys’ Holiday Gift Guide
3:30 – Gifts for listeners’ loved ones

What We’re Reading

World War Z, Max Brooks
Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey, Edna Bay

Whiskey Jenny’s Gift Ideas

A subscription to The Second Shelf

Prints from The Great British Baking Show (by Tom Hovey)

Literary Classics Calendar

Gmorning, Gnight: Little Pep Talks for Me & You, by Lin-Manuel Miranda

the cast recordings of Hadestown and Six: The Musical

Gin Jenny’s Gift Ideas

postcards by Paul Lewin and the Public Domain Review

Giant Microbes

Castle Hangnail, by Ursula Vernon

a mulled wine kit!

book embossers from The Print Mint

Book Gifts for Listeners

Ellen’s 11-year-old:

Escape to Witch Mountain, Alexander Key
Dactyl Hill Squad, Daniel Jose Older
Larklight, Philip Reeve
Book of Enchantments, Patricia C. Wrede

Ellen’s older kid:

Archer’s Goon or The Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, Mackenzi Lee
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (novel), Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Where’d You Go, Bernadette,
Maria Semple (with the spoiler that Whiskey Jenny recommends)

Ellen’s mom:

A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourn
Vanessa and Her Sister, Priya Parmar
The Sirens Sang of Murder, Sarah Caudwell
Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz

Chelsea:

Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly
Lonely Werewolf Girl, Martin Millar
The Ensemble, Aja Gabel
I’ll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson
Good and Mad, Rebecca Traister

Renay’s mom:

The Convenient Marriage, Georgette Heyer
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
Overturned, Lamar Giles
Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty

Renay’s partner:

The Liminal People, Ayize Jama-Everett
The Rook, Daniel O’Malley
(The Hot Ones on YouTube)
Leviathan Wakes, James S. A. Corey
Endurance, Alfred Lansing
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

Renay’s friend:

Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
White Tears, Hari Kunzru
Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg
Jane Doe, Victoria Helen Stone
I Can’t Date Jesus, Michael Arceneaux

Glynis’s husband:

Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear
Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
(comics)
The Vela, Yoon-Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, S. L. Huang, and Becky Chambers
Endurance, Alfred Lansing
Mars Evacuees, Sophia MacDougall

Glynis:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black
Pyromantic, Lish McBride
Zero Sun Game, S. L. Huang
Borderline, Mishell Baker

Maureen’s mom:

Love Walked In, Marisa de los Santos
The Beautiful Ones, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourn
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
The Camelot Caper, Elizabeth Peters

David’s wife:

The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler
Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

Free-floating recs from Whiskey Jenny:

The Mothers, Brit Bennett
The Color Purple, Alice Walker

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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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.109 – Bookish Skeletons and Forcening Boat Squad John

The holidays are in full swing chez Jennys, and we are back with many exciting holiday newses. Chief amongst our pieces of news is that we are bringing back the Holiday Gift Guide, wherein we suggest books for you to buy your loved ones. Fill out the form here! (Your deadline for submissions is December 7th.) Meanwhile, we are also finishing The Two Towers, admitting to bookish skeletons in our closets, and reading Suzanne Brockmann’s Ready to Roll, AKA, Boat Squad John.

Ready to Roll

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

Episode 109

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

1:34 – What we’re reading
4:00 – What we’re listening to
6:48 – Lord of the Rings Readalong – The Two Towers, Book 4, Chapters 6-10
15:19 – Bookish skeletons in our closet
29:48 – The Forcening, Part Two: Ready to Roll, Suzanne Brockmann
43:42 – What we’re reading next time!
44:30 – Preview of holiday programming

And here are the things we discussed on this podcast!

Jane Doe, Victoria Helen Stone
Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li
Pandora Christmas station
the Roches – We Three Kings
Peter, Paul, and Mary – A Holiday Celebration
Table Manners (a podcast)
The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Macbeth, William Shakespeare
Rafe, the Buff Male Nanny, Rebekah Weatherspoon
The Count of Monte Cristo
YOU CAN WATCH THE WISHBONE VERSION ON YOUTUBE
A Genius for Deception, Nicholas Rankin
Sourcery, Terry Pratchett
Greensleeves, Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
Ready to Roll, Suzanne Brockmann
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
Holiday gift guide submission form, once more
The Princess Switch (Netflix movie)
All the holiday movies, a list compiled by Vulture

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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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep. 108 – Culling Books and Forcening The Color Purple

Lo, I have triumphed against the odds and am bringing you this episode on Wednesday, albeit a scootch later than I intended. This time, we’re talking about culling books (if, why, when, and how) and kicking off the 2018 Forcening with Alice Walker’s classic and one of my all-time favorite books, The Color Purple.

The Color Purple

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

Episode 108

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

1:00 – What we’re reading
2:18 – What we’re learning
6:05 – LOTR Reread: The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapters 6-11
15:53 – Culling books!
27:37 – The Third Annual Forcening commences with Alice Walker’s The Color Purple
48:24 – What we’re reading for next time

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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Reading the End Bookcast, BONUS: A Roundtable on Genderbent Twilight

Today is a very blessed Wednesday, because we are bringing you a bonus episode with not one! but two! special guests. Friends of the podcast Ashley and Robert came to Louisiana along with Whiskey Jenny, and we somehow talked them into reading Genderbent Twilight, AKA Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, by Stephenie Meyer, for our September bonus episode.

Genderbent Twilight

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 4

Note: We kept saying genderswapped about this book, and I’m annoyed with myself because I actually greatly prefer genderbent, which does not carry the connotation of there being only two genders. So, bother. I am sorry about that, and I will be more attentive to language hygiene next time. Discontented-mouth emoji from me.

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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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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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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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep. 106 – Historical Fiction and Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox

It’s Wednesday, and we’ve missed you! This week we’re nattering about historical fiction as a prelude to talking about a wonderful new historical novel, Jordy Rosenberg’s deeply strange and painstakingly researched Confessions of the Fox. Plus, we pick up the Lord of the Rings readalong with some more complaints about racial coding and some very noisy opinions about Treebeard and his greatness.

Confessions of the Fox

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

Episode 106

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

2:21 – What we’re reading
6:31 – LOTR Reread: The Two Towers, Book 3, Chapters 1-5
22:20 – Historical fiction dos and don’ts
34:00 – Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg
48:44 – What we’re reading next time

Here’s a list of books we mentioned!

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourne
The People in the Trees, Hanya Yanagihara
The Seagulls Woke Me, Mary Stolz
Master and Commander, Patrick O’Brian (PS here’s a tweet from the author of Check Please that is SPOT FORKING ON about Master and Commander)
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
On Sal Mal Lane, Ru Freeman
Birds without Wings, Louis de Bernieres
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (streaming on Netflix)
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh (first book in the Ibis Trilogy)
The Last Brother, Natacha Appanah
Jane Austen and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Stephanie Barron
Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg
A River of Stars, Vanessa Hua

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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Reading the End Bookcast BONUS: The Saddest Children’s Books

I’m going to say right up front that Whiskey Jenny only cries once in this episode, and I hope all y’all are impressed about that. For this month’s bonus episode (thank y’all again so much for your support), we decided to talk about the saddest books we read as kids, and Whiskey Jenny ONLY CRIES ONCE. (YES we included Where the Red Fern Grows. Come on.) (Gin Jenny, an automaton, cries zero times. She did get teary on Twitter today thinking about the characters in new Star Wars, though.) You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below,…

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