Book Rant

So, uh, it's been a while.

We figured we should release something to let you know where we've been and what we've been reading. And to give some life updates and let you know where this podcast is going.

We're not officially back from our hiatus (although we never really announced that we were on a hiatus... so were we ever officially on one?). But we felt like chatting about books! So here we...

Listen,  I think we just needed to have a chill episode. 

So, here it is.  A chill episode. 

Vee talks about an old favourite, Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison, and thinks about how books change over time and reveal new secrets with age. 

Jess discusses the importance and heartbreaking reality of This Place: 150 Years Retold, a graphic novel exploring the last 150 years of so-called Canada through the lens...

cw: rape

In this month's role reversal, Jess reads a book of essays and Vee reads (really awful) alien smut!

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino is highly recommended book of personal essays exploring the ways that capitalism has ruined everything. Guest appearance by Foucault.

Ice Planet Barbarians: A Scifi Alien Romance by Ruby Dixon (not her real name) is... not recommended. In fact, it's atrocious...

Sometimes you just need to get up at 5AM and beautifully read, ya know?

Vee recounts her experiences reading This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, a wonderfully crafted sapphic romance about post-human time travelling agents... need I say more?

And Jess gushes about the book that actually broke her reading slump: Beach Read by Emily Henry, a contemporary romance/romantic comedy (so...

It was bound to happen. Jess is finally out of her reading slump and dove straight into Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - which of course meant that we needed to sit down with some drinks and a pipe and chat about what we thought about this book.

We by no means covered even half of the theories or ideas that this book brings up, so if you have anything to add, hit us up on Twitter or Instagram! If you haven't even read thi...

In case anyone is wondering: no, Jess didn’t get her reading chair back. The saga continues. I’m personally even wondering if the chair ever existed. Or maybe it was adopted and is now living a totally different life with another family. Maybe in Italy. I hope it’s happy.

Jess reads Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco, a witchy enemies-to-lovers book set in pre-unification Italy, and Vee reads The Poppy War by R.F. K...

Are book to movie/tv/theatre/videogame adaptations ever good?

We start to answer this question in our latest minisode... and then get sidetracked by talking about which adaptations we've liked and disliked. Important stuff, you know.

We're not (fully) sober in this episode, so if you're not comfortable with that, no problem. You can skip this one. Drink and smoke responsibly. (But also it's not...

Day 829 of our reading slump.

Things are looking bleak. The books on the shelves don't vibe with us. Our library books are being returned without ever having been read. We barely know how to read anymore. Do we just hold the books in our hands? Or is there another step? We can't remember.

Please, send help.

(Also, Vee reads Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Jess reads Daughter of the Pirate King by...

(well, when opposites get compared)

Tag along another unhinged episode of emotionally charged ranting! It’s great, though. Don’t be scared.

Jess reads/rants about Sarah J. Maas’ latest book in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR #4? 5? ACOSF #1?), which follows the coerced romance of Nesta and Cassian. It’s weird and creepy and SJM isn’t even aware of it because she and her fans keep sel...

Jess and Vee both read books like nothing they've read before, even though Vee has already said that about the same author and - well,  Jess is probably right. She often is.

Jess reads The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, a beautifully written story about a woman from the 18th century who makes a deal with night to live forever - but where no one will remember her. An instant classic!

Vee reads ...

It's that time of year again... when your brain is mush from all the reading you've been trying to stuff into the last few days of the year, because you haven't quite come to terms with the fact that you won't reach your reading goal for this year and that good habit you tried to pick up last, oh, what, a month or two, and you're too ashamed to even admit your shame to yourself.

Sound familiar? It&...

'Tis December, which means it's time to rant about our Book Box books! (If that makes no sense to you, listen to the last episode - or, at least, the last ten minutes of it) Well, rant may be a strong word, because we loved both of our books.

Vee reads (most of,  sorry!) Circe by Madeline Miller, a retelling of the goddess Circe's story that upheaves the world and smashes the patriarchy and just, gosh, it&ap...

It's... our November episode! In December! Because reasons!

We hope that our sporadic upload schedule (sorry about that) is made up for (we hope) with two amazing books - and our Christmas Book Box unboxing! If you have no idea what our Christmas Book Box is, well, listen to the episode and you'll find out. Easy peasy.

Jess binges and gushes about the page-turned that is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah...

In this episode, Vee rationalises that she's reading a spooky Halloween book because all fantasy, if you think about it, is an exploration of the Other. Right? And what is Halloween but a showcase of those things that we avoid and reject and therefore become afraid of? Am I convincing anyone? Probably not.  

A Dreamer's Tales by Lord Dunsany (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany) is a unique e...

So, this happened.

Back in episode 8, Jess read A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, the second (and most popular) book in her A Court of Thorn of Roses series. She specifically did not recommend the book to Vee and told her that she wouldn’t like it. 

But then Vee went ahead and read the series, because torturing herself by reading books she doesn’t like is a particularly fun hobby of hers. 

And thus this episode was born. An e...

In our most incoherent, tangental, sleep deprived, and overall nonsensical episode yet, we delve into two very different YA books and how they impact the way we read.

Jess rants about the trash fire that is Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer, which recounts the events of the first Twilight book from the perspective of Edward Cullen who, let's he honest, is a creepy serial killer. (sorry to any Twilight fans out there, bu...

Do you ever have that thing happen where you pick up a book and it's just what you wanted to read at that exact moment? Yeah. That's what happened when Vee read A Sense of the Mysterious by Alan Lightman, a wholeheartedly human book about the artful balance between science and the practice of it. 

Jess talks about (via audiobook, because AUDIOBOOKS ARE BOOKS) Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitiv...

The universe may have attempted to stop us from getting this episode to you, but we did it. Might be a week late, but here you have it, anyways.

Maybe we were cursed by the same witches who tried to hex the moon?

Anyways.

Jess gushes about the historical mystery with a soupçon of thriller energy that is Kate Morton's The Lake House. Elements of Atonement and Diane Setterfield meet in this trans-centu...