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Reading the End Posts

Me, elsewhere

Happy Monday! October is three-quarters over, and I am once again over at Lady Business to talk about young adult fiction I love and am excited for. To nobody’s surprise, I have seized this opportunity to talk about an actually completely middle-grade book that I already talked about in this space but I’m not over it yet. Pop on by and check it out!

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Snails in Dollhouses: A Links Round-Up

WELP I have gotten behind on my links, which means a bunch of these are old. On the other hand, the passage of time has lost all meaning and the news cycle is now 3.2 seconds, so the important thing is probably just that I included some snails in dollhouses for y’all’s Friday. Have a wonderful weekend! These are just some motherfucking snails inside some motherfucking dollhouses. Why casting Nagini as an Asian woman is so offensive. Ron Charles considers whether we still need Banned Books Week, and reaches no real conclusion. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a writer I adore, talks about…

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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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Review: In the Vanishers’ Palace, Aliette de Bodard

Friends, I am very, very choosy about my “Beauty and the Beast” retellings. To the best of my recollection, the only one that I have ever loved is Robin McKinley’s Beauty.1 I liked Uprooted, but I loved it best when it was doing things other than retelling “Beauty and the Beast.” I hear good things about W. R. Gingell’s Masque, but I am not pinning my hopes on it. So when I tell you that I was blown away by Aliette de Bodard’s novella In the Vanishers’ Palace, a queer retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” I want you to…

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Me, elsewhere

It’s the best kind of day: Black Sails recap day! I’m over at Lady Business recapping Season 1, Episode 4 of Black Sails in my Sailing the High Squees column with Lady Business editor Jodie. Hop over and check it out! Watch Black Sails if you don’t already!

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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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Review: Castle Hangnail, Ursula Vernon

Do you miss Eva Ibbotson? Do you weep softly into your handkerchief that she has died and we will never have another one of her books? Do you want to love Eva Ibbotson but she hates fat people too much? BOY DO I HAVE A BOOK REC FOR YOU. (Castle Hangnail is so cute (but not saccharine!) that I’m going to write the summary in short declarative sentences. If I try to make you read longer sentences about Castle Hangnail‘s plot, the adorability will be too much for you and you will die in the middle.) Castle Hangnail and its…

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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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