Note: I received a copy of Landline from the publisher for review consideration. Two days before Christmas, Georgie tells her husband Neal that she can’t go with him and their two daughters to spend Christmas with his family in Omaha. A tremendous opportunity has come up for her and her writing partner, Seth, and they have to stay in L.A. and write six episodes of their new television show. After Neal leaves, Georgie begins to fear that she’s damaged her marriage beyond repair. But at her mother’s house, she finds that if she calls using her mother’s rotary phone, she…
24 CommentsReading the End Posts
First of all, this isn’t book-related, but I don’t know how I can lead with anything else because this is what I’ve mostly been thinking about all this week and last week: Following the police shooting of yet another unarmed black man (kid, actually), in Ferguson, everything is horrible. Here’s Brittany Cooper talking about how tired she is of these stories as they come one after another, seemingly forever. And here’s Greg Howard talking about the militarization of the police force and the criminalization of young black men, and here’s Jelani Cobb on anger and weariness. Y’all, this makes me…
10 CommentsThe Jennys foolishly discuss fictional schools, classes, and teachers, without the benefit of Randon’s presence; but we have a lot of opinions even without his two cents on what makes a good teacher. Then we review Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), which tore Gin Jenny’s heart apart and which Whiskey Jenny was not wild about. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 27 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if…
4 CommentsBibliobio is hosting a Women in Translation Month right now, to call attention to the gender disparity in books translated into English, and to celebrate the works of female international authors whose books are being translated into English. It’s a wonderful initiative, even if you are like me and you have a hard time with books in translation, and you should definitely check out the hashtags for the month (#WITMonth or #WomeninTranslation) to see what folks are reading! I have struggled long and hard to write a post about the first book I read for Women in Translation Month, and…
35 CommentsFirst of all: The absurdly delayed results of my Alias Hook giveaway! Random.org picked a winner, and it is Jeanne! Of Necromancy Never Pays! Congrats, Jeanne, and I will ask the publisher to send a copy of the book your way. Secondly, I decided to do a links round-up post today, of bookish and nerdy and feminist stuff that interested me this week. I always love link round-ups, and this week I got jealous enough to make one of my own. In honor of the release of Marvel’s weirdest movie yet, Guardians of the Galaxy, I give you two conflicting…
31 CommentsThe Jennys return to talk book-to-movie adaptations in the upcoming months! We discuss some of the movies that are coming up, and then we review Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and then we play what some have called the greatest game ever on the podcast. (Judge for yourself.) You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 26 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…
3 CommentsHave y’all ever thought about that before? I had not! But I was reading the 2013 Best American Science and Nature Writing, edited this year by Siddhartha Mukherjee, and an essay by Michelle Nijhuis from Scientific American blew my mind out of the back of my skull. Someone has to decide which animals go extinct! Even if that is not the exact decision that gets made, it’s effectively still true: When resources are finite (and they always are), choosing to save one species means you have chosen not to save another one. If you aren’t in denial about this truth,…
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