Hoo boy am I having a lot of thoughts lately about how maybe we should take a break from telling women to do less, and spend that time and energy telling men to do more. This is just one of my many ideas for making the world a better place; please vote for me for president. In the meantime, here are some links! Frankly, I think a great parenting move would be for parents of kids of all genders to focus on being attentive to the needs of others. But oh my God, yes, men do not clean up spills…
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Let the bells ring out the news that Whiskey Jenny read a book where the protagonist tells a whole bunch of lies to everyone else in the book all the time and she didn’t hate it. Gin Jenny is very excited because it feels like this opens up new worlds of book reading. This episode, we’re chatting about book slumps and how terrible they are but also how to end them; and then we review Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey, a book that both of us liked even though one of us usually doesn’t like books about lying liars.…
Leave a CommentAdele Joubert is a good girl. Her white father pays her school fees at Keziah Christian Academy, and Adele is permitted in the ranks of the wealthiest girls at the school — until one year she isn’t. Suddenly she has lost her place among the popular clique, and she has to share a room with ferocious Lottie Diamond, who is unequivocally at the bottom of the school’s pecking order. But in living with Lottie, Adele slowly begins to realize the ways that power and injustice function in her world — and the ways she can fight it. I want to…
Leave a CommentUnexpectedly, the Jennys are not a fan of the Lord of the Rings appendices. I feel like I remembered them being more interesting (and less racist) than it turns out they are?? Anyway, we’re chatting about the appendices, and despite all the boredom there are several truly shocking revelations. Bonus Episode 9 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…
Leave a CommentI figured out nonrepresentational art in the spring of 2009 at the Tate Modern. I was there with my mother and a close friend, and the friend asked my mother– (Bear with me; I will get to Time War in a minute.) –what a particular piece of art meant. My mother said, “You don’t have to worry about that. You just have to look at what the artist made, and see if it resonates anything in you. And if not, maybe you weren’t the audience for it.” This advice was not directed at me, a person too proud to admit…
Leave a CommentThe Millions did release their massive book preview for the second half of 2019, and honestly, dayenu, but there are other links here too, for you to enjoy! Be blessed! The second half of 2019 Millions Book Preview is here at this link. Let the glad songs of rejoicing resound throughout the land! Here at this link is a deep dive into the cultural concept of Essex, a place I lived and was briefly incredibly happy. Rich people are the worst: Brooklyn preschool edition. “Many of the older feminist utopias sound like delightful fantasies until you learn the price of…
Leave a Commenttl;dr, this is the sweetest book I’ve read all year, and I see no prospect of any book knocking it out of that spot in the back half of the year, and you absolutely must read it After numerous sightings of Mariko Tamaki’s latest, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, I broke down and bought it from an indie bookstore near the beach. Endcaps work! Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is about a girl called Freddy whose extremely cool sort-of girlfriend, Laura Dean, keeps breaking up with her. No matter how many times Laura Dean proves herself to…
Leave a CommentI decided to start having hope on Wednesdays, and by actual total coincidence, this podcast is specifically about books that give us hope. HOPE SYNERGY. This week we’re chatting about Whiskey Jenny’s incredibly food-related accomplishments, the books that make us feel hopeful, and Lauren Wilkinson’s Cold War spy thriller American Spy. (Short review: Not enough spying.) You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, or download it directly to take with you on the go! Episode 120 Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around. 0:59 – What we’re reading 3:41 – What we’re…
Leave a CommentI hope everyone had a good Fourth of July! I spent mine reacquainting myself with Howard Zinn, which is an extremely patriotic use of a patriotic holiday. If you haven’t read his A People’s History of the United States, (you should and) the thrust of his argument is that it’s the people who have driven change and progress in this country. The powerful have tried for stasis, and over and over again, the people haven’t let them get away with it. Laborers formed unions; former slaves kept talking and fighting until people listened; women organized and marched and starved themselves…
Leave a CommentWe did it, friends! We made it through another week! I hope we all have wonderful, soothing, unstressful plans for this weekend, with all our favorite foods and drinks. We deserve it like crazy. Garbage in, garbage out: A really straightforward and helpful look at the ways algorithms become biased. Jia Tolentino is one of my all-time faves, and this is a piece about The Westing Game, so I am about as happy as it is possible for a person to be. Remember that thing where Sherrilyn Kenyon said her husband was poisoning her? Lila Shapiro has been reporting it…
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