Wow, you guys, it’s a new week of Elinor Glyn, and the revolver from Dmitry has already made its second appearance. So much sooner than I had expected! The idyll (???) that Paul and the lady are living in faces its first obstacle when she finds the revolver on Paul’s person. She divines that Dmitry would only have handed it over to Paul if there had been IMMINENT DANGER, which in turn means that she and Paul have to get out of dodge. Paul finds this extremely sexy and has no follow-up questions. She decides to go to a secondary…
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So I saw a headline about how we should read books that offend us, and I thought “wow that content is almost certainly going to annoy me, I should not click it.” Reader, I clicked it. The author, Brian Morton, and I agree on a lot, including the idea that books may contain offensive stuff (the example he uses is Edith Wharton’s anti-Semitism) at the same time they also contain beautiful writing and paradigm-shifting insight. We agree that the morality Overton window is constantly changing, and what seems okay in one social context can seem horrifyingly immoral in another social…
Leave a CommentI’ve had so few accomplishments in 2018, but one thing I’m proud of is successfully incepting myself into the world of short fiction. Last year I read like, three short stories. This year I read close to three hundred, and I got so into it that I commissioned a logo about it. It’s rare in a month of short story reading that I’ll have a clear best-of, but in December I did. Zen Cho writes deceptively gentle and adorable stories that draw from Asian mythology — deceptively gentle because they pack a hell of an emotional punch. “If at First…
Leave a CommentOkay, none of these links have anything to do with my godchild. I am just high on love because the least cuddly child on earth not only gave me an enormous hug without prompting, but the hug also lasted ~75 seconds. It was the best. I love that kid so much. ANYWAY ON TO THE LINKS. Some of these are old because I have been getting lax with my links round-ups, but they’re still good, I think! The internet is not a shared space of equality. It’s as segregated as the real world. US vs UK book covers of 2018.…
Leave a CommentOkay, I got distracted and forgot to write about the first six chapters of Elinor Glyn’s 1907 trashy book Three Weeks, but luckily Alice, the host of the readalong, had it covered. I’m going to catch us up REAL QUICK on all the action of the first six chapters and then get into the second six. The book opens with this introduction for American readers: And to all who read, I say—at least be just! and do not skip. No line is written without its having a bearing upon the next, and in its small scope helping to make the…
Leave a CommentThe 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!
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
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
“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!
Leave a CommentWell, 2018 is finally over, my friends. I saw a Twitter poll that was like “how equipped are you to handle 2019 as compared to 2018” and I legitimately did not know how to answer it. At this exact moment, coming off a vacation in which I gave and received many presents, possessed of a majestic goals board and a brand new planner, I am feeling very equipped to deal with 2019. However, let it not be forgotten that I felt this same way in January 2018, whereupon I was promptly hit by a car and broke my neck. I…
Leave a CommentChristmas celebrators amongst us, I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday! Today is the day for reading books and relaxing and perhaps listening to podcasts? In service of that end, the Jennys bring you a bonus episode in which we watch the Netflix original movie The Princess Switch and recap every glorious moment of it for you. Enjoy!
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 under the jump!
Leave a CommentHappy podcast day, and strap in for what Whiskey Jenny described as a “very English lit class” recording. We’re chatting about the tone of books and when it works for us and doesn’t, and then we dive into Esi Edugyan’s latest novel, Washington Black. (We loved it.) You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!
Here are the time signatures if you want to skip around.
0:57 – What we’re reading
2:19 – What we’re listening to
4:40 – Tone in books
24:15 – Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
42:51 – What we’re reading next time!
And here are the things we discussed on this podcast!
“Brothers in Arms,” copperbadge
Miranda in Milan, Katherine Duckett
How Did This Get Made podcast
Limetown podcast
Limetown is actually being adapted for Facebook Watch? which is apparently a streaming service that exists?
Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh
Salman Rushdie
HHhH, Laurent Binet
The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
Chime, Franny Billingsley
Confessions of the Fox, Jordy Rosenberg
Kate Atkinson
Vladimir Nabokov
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
the Coen Brothers movies
Dear Committee Members, Julie Schumacher
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, Kate Leth and Brittney Williams
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ryan North and Erica Henderson
The Woman Next Door, Yewande Omotoso
Notwithstanding, Louis de Bernieres
Undead Girl Gang, Lily Anderson
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
“Yellow Eyes,” Rayland Baxter
Rayland Baxter’s interview about the song
The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater, Alanna Okun
Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915, Jackie Sibblies Drury
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!
Continue readingReading the End Bookcast, Ep. 111 – Tone in Books and Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black
Leave a Comment The kingdom of Dahomey had lady warriors and that is baller af.
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