#smart podcast‚ trashy books

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (6-12 Oct 2024)

clyde you were the mvp of this entire series

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Every Door Opens (notoska) - Part 1 of We Made Ourselves - 74K, post WS angsty slow burn getting together fic - very delicious

🥰 Melt Into, Melt Until (notoska) - Part 2 of We Made Ourselves - 79K, stucky, post-getting together, lots & lots of slooooooow sex (positive) (very positive)

🥰 The Blood Contract (ikft) - 75K, Suits vampire AU - author's description: "What if we did Suits but half the characters were vampires for no discernible reason? What if that ended up changing very little … Because nothing screams satire like a bunch of lawyers who are also vampires." - great worldbuilding. first in a series but does stand alone

😍 A Man Takes His Sadness Down to the River (The Consolation of Philosophy) series - parts 1-3 (dorian_burberrycanary) - first 3 fics in a series of 4 works (40K out of 151K total) - a marvelous stucky post-EG/TFATWS fix it (knowledge of TFATWS canon not required)

💖💖 +136K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Unorthodox (LearnedFoot) - Suits: Mike/Harvey, 6K - enjoyable alt-meeting AU

Something Else When I See You (emchant3d) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 5K - 🔥🔥🔥

Normal (LearnedFoot) - Suits: Mike/Harvey, 9K - amnesia fic just never gets old!

Bon Voyage (spqr) - Doctor Odyssey: Max/Avery/Tristan, 11K - been fervently hoping someone would write this OT3 since ep 1 aired. Truly blessed this writer (one of my faves) took it on.

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

In Deep: Life at the Bottom of the Ocean With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 4

Dr. Odyssey - s1, e3

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s1, e1-2

The Sam Sanders Show - Sasheer Zamata on Queerness, Witches, and Disney

Handsome - Drew Barrymore asks about bats in caves

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #8

The Sam Sanders Show - Monét X Change: Drag, Politics, and Opera

Dirty Laundry - s4, e5

Gastronauts - s1, e1

Elementary - s2, e9-19

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Pop Culture Happy Hour - A Different Man

Code Switch - Ask Code Switch: Is it a preference or fetish?

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Dear Wait Wait: How do I keep my kid from biting people?

Vibe Check - The Vibe Coven

The Sporkful - How Cascatelli Ended Up In A German Museum

Pop Culture Happy Hour - SNL, Late Night, And The Election

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - Pop Culture Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Basic But We Love It

Death, Sex & Money - Bonus: Two Sex Columnists on Tapping into Turn-Ons

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Saturday Night And What's Making Us Happy

Dear Prudence - I Spread A Rumor That Alienated My Friends and Mentor. Help!

Dear Prudence - Prudie Plus: My Partner is Kind, Generous…and a Trump Voter. Help!

It's Been a Minute - Is the free speech debate dead? Plus, the devil! Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - 636. Swordcrossed Cozy Romantasy with Freya Marske

⭐ Today, Explained - Pennies don’t make cents

99% Invisible - Christiania

Ologies - Momiology (MUMMIFICATION) with Kara Cooney & Salima Ikram

Re: Dracula - October 11: Freedom of Soul

Sibling Rivalry - The One About Diddy

It's Been a Minute - The SMACKDOWN: Techno vs. Aaliyah vs. Motown

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Juliana Hatfield covers

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

[drchucktingle]

podcast 'smart bitches trashy books' has always been so kind to chuck and DANG this was a treat going back to talk on camp damascus and tingler theory and art and art criticism and i was so moved by this talk. thank you for proving love to me buckaroos it was a dang honor

LISTEN TO EPISODE HERE

[yazthebookish]

— Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (Podcast episode with SJM to talk about ACOSF - March 5th, 2021)

We already know the original cast got crumbs in ACOFAS, so I can name three characters that got an obvious set up in ACOSF for future books: Gwyn, Emerie, and Eris.

[nesta-is-my-queen]

There seems to be a lot of Nesta hate on social media so I’m gonna show some Nesta love using with SJM’s own words/analysis of Nesta, paraphrased from her interview with Smart Podcast Trashy books episodes 395 & 447 ❤️

To every Nesta out there—climb that mountain - Sarah J Maas 🖤

Art by: @searland_art; commissioned by @melphsreads on Instagram 🥰

PART I

[songofthesibyl]

I think there is a misconception when speaking of mental illness in regards to Tamlin and Nesta, that is reflective of the discourse in mental health in general. When there is compassion for their struggles, it is received in one of two ways—that it is at the expense of those they hurt because of it, whether the character intended that hurt or not; and that the characters are victims of an affliction and can’t be blamed for anything they do.

In other words, it is a way to play the victim and to not have to take responsibility. The thing to remember is that having a disorder/disability/disease etc. does not make someone a good or bad person: it does not strip them of the consequences of their actions. But it does go towards explaining why they behave and act as they do. SJM from episode 447 of the Smart Bitches Trashy Books podcast:

“…it’s not that I sat down and I was like, I want to write a book about mental health. It’s just, Nesta was that character who, she had gone through stuff, and she wasn’t a perfect person, and I have zero interest in writing about sweet little perfect people and their problems…”

“I mean, and there are some characters in this book [ACOSF] that, I don’t want to spoil things, but, like, you can kind of tell, like, how I’m setting them up for future books? But I just think I’m so curious all the time about, like, why—like, even if someone’s an asshole, like, why? Like what makes them tick? [Note that she said this specifically about Tamlin in an interview I posted earlier.] Like, even before I went into therapy I wanted to know, like, why are these characters like that? Like, you know, what’s their secret backstory that led them to act this way? And, you know, sometimes it’s, you know, they’re just an asshole, but then sometimes they actually do have, like, you know, reasons why. And Nesta, in this book, I didn’t want to excuse her past behavior, and I deliberately…wrote her in the previous books in such a way where, like, I kind of…knew…what she had gone through, but I, like, I didn’t want to make her this, like, nice sweet sister. Like, that wasn’t interesting to me. There wasn’t conflict, and, you know, it didn’t drive the plot anywhere. But I, I wanted Nesta to be able to own up to her mistakes in the past, but also start reflecting on where, where some of that destructive behavior comes—like, self-destructive and then also, like, hurtful towards other people. Where does that…where does that come from? And I, I didn’t sit down, like, intentionally thinking like, you know, I can mess with people’s minds and make them love Nesta! It was just, she’s the kind of character that I’m drawn to, where she acts a certain way—like she, it’s like the tip of the iceberg.”

So people who are drawn to Nesta, and even Tamlin, are recognizing these things. Like the author, they might identify—to an extent, of course—with their mental health struggles. SJM, in this same interview, about Nesta:

“It seems like, you know, Nesta’s mental health journey has resonated with a lot of people, and that means the world to me, ‘cause I—so even though I began writing this years ago, I wound up deciding that I was just kind of like [going to] go back to page one and rewrite nearly everything, and a big part of that decision was that during those years that the story kind of sat in my mind, I went through, like, my own mental health journey and struggle…”

In the real world, if someone hurts you, mistreats you, you aren’t really going to care all that much why—I certainly didn’t when I was in those situations. But with fiction, you can explore these ideas, and spend time with these characters the way the author did and does. And identify, or again simply feel compassion, with certain aspects of their journey, as is described above. I’ve seen people identify Nesta and Tamlin’s destructive tendencies, both outward and inward, their depressive tendencies, but be confused why they don’t just act, when they know the right thing to do, and often even want to do it. In the real world, I’ve heard many times—I get depressed, but I don’t let it get to me; if you’re depressed/anxious/etc just stop being that way. The point is that these people struggle with just turning it off—it’s not an excuse, but an honest assessment of their mental state. People with mental health disorders are often difficult to deal with and be around. They can be self-focused, they can be hurtful. Not always—but they can be. It’s understandable that if someone was around someone like that they wouldn’t particularly care about their struggles. But for those that are, or have been in the midst of a mental health disorder, they can understand the difficulty in getting out of that headspace and doing the work to heal, to be able to cope. That journey, whether in the middle of it (Nesta) or the start of it (Tamlin, if SJM isn’t going the route of “he’s just an asshole,” which is still up in the air at this point)—is what is identified with. Even if they haven’t hurt someone—having unhealthy coping mechanisms, screwing up their lives and feeling like it’s hopeless it will ever get better—people identity with these things as well. It’s very personal, of course. But it isn’t about being innocent, and it isn’t about being justified in being hurtful.

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn!! Can I ask you an unorthodox question not related to kidlit but instead about ... adult romance???? :) I've read in previous posts you enjoy reading adult romance novels and just wondered if you have any advice to new adult romance authors - even if it's just things to avoid and/or things you'd like to see being written in adult romance that you don't see much or enough of???? I've never written in this genre before but a lot of my other genres have heavy romance subplots so thought I'd try my hand at a full on romance story for a change. Also open to any other resources you can recommend but wanted to pick your brain so to speak too!! Hope it's ok to ask this here as I know you mostly answer about kidlit. Thanx. xx

I'm sorry to say that I really, truly, know next to nothing about writing or selling Romance.

I do read it -- but I have pretty specific things I like and authors I auto-buy, I'm not reading widely across the whole genre. So I have NO idea if the authors I personally like and read a lot of are any indication of what the market generally is doing or interested in or whatever.

My only suggestions, then: Follow a lot of Romance people on socials, follow the Romance conversations (podcasts you might check out: Fated Mates and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books). If you are lucky enough to be near Brooklyn or LA, go to the Ripped Bodice. Get great book recommendations. READ A LOT. Like -- A LOT a lot. Figure out where YOUR book would fit in the market, because it's quite a big market with all kinds of different niches! When you find books that seem like YOUR kind of books -- look at who publishes them, and check out the author's website or acknowledgements to see who represents them!

Different romance imprints can often have pretty specific likes, dislikes, "rules" etc -- for example, here are the different imprints at Entangled and Harlequin -- you'll note that every imprint has different length and "steam" and style requirements. When you've figured out what kind of a book YOU are writing, you'll have a good idea of what the "rules" are around that kind of book, which publishers publish them, which agents rep them, etc.

(Oh and please -- you gotta have a HEA. No happy ending? Not a romance. It might be a great book -- BUT IT AIN'T A ROMANCE.)

[bookclub4m]

Episode 184 - Horror

This episode we’re discussing the fiction genre of Horror! We talk about fear, control, Goosebumps, bad dogs, horror-comedy, creepypasta, the apocalypse, lizard romance, and more! 

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Straight by Chuck Tingle

Mister Magic by Kiersten White, narrated by Rebecca Lowman

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

The Wicked Unseen by Gigi Griffis

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Leech by Hiron Ennes

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen edited by Ellen Datlow

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit: Fazbear Frights #1 by Scott Cawthon and Elley Cooper

Sadako at the End of the World by Koma Natsumi

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus, Book 3 by Eiji Otsuka and Yamazaki Housui

Things We Read (but didn’t talk about in this episode)

Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki! by Kanako Inuki

Résumé With Monsters by William Browning Spencer

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Carmilla: The First Vampire by Amy Chu and Soo Lee

Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw

A Song for the Quiet by Cassandra Khaw

The Helios Syndrome by Vivian Shaw

Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum

Other Media (& Authors) We Mentioned

Captain Britain And MI13, Volume 3: Vampire State by Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, and Mike Collins

Stephen King

Misery

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Cujo

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Alien: Isolation (Wikipedia)

Dead Space (2008 video game) (Wikipedia)

R.L. Stine

Goosebumps

Fear Street

Junji Ito

The Enigma of Amigara Fault - “T-this is my hole! It was made for me!”

Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu

Emily Carroll

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Smart Podcast Trashy Books: 579. Punk Rock Writing with Chuck Tingle

Candle Cove by Kris Straub

Candle Cove (Wikipedia)

SCP Foundation 

SCP-087

The SCP Foundation: Declassified (YouTube)

The Ring (2002 film) (Wikipedia)

We talked more about the novel The Ring in Episode 078 - Supernatural Thrillers

Crapshots Ep608 - The Old Ones (YouTube) 

Links, Articles, Etc.

Episode 176: Fantasy

Episode 123: Psychological Horror

Does the Dog Die?

Matthew’s spooky phone case is a variant of this one

Matthew did a “31 Spooky Manga” challenge a few years ago and read a different spooky manga every day in October.

The Midnight Library: Episode 001 - Halloween Poetry

Sound Effects

Big Thunder And Distant Thunder Rain Birds by morvei01

Dramatic Organ, A by InspectorJ

bats1 by sofie

Pigeons (St Stephens Green, Dublin) by iainmccurdy

31 Recent Horror Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

This list features horror fiction by BIPOC authors published within the last 3 years.

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Morena-Garcia 

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

Manmade Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

Chlorine by Jade Song

Midnight Storm Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories by Alex Soop

There's No Way I'd Die First by Lisa Springer

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth 

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, November 7th when we’ll be discussing the non-fiction genre of Crafts and Crafting!

Then on Tuesday, December 5th we’ll be talking about the genre of Suspense Fiction!

[smartbitches]

This week on the podcast, my guest is Mimi Matthews talking about her book The Lily of Ludgate Hill.

Y'all there is so much pining in this book. PINING.

Mimi is a really, really fun guest and if you like historical romances, or were (or are!) a horse girl, you'll like this. We do talk about loss (some characters are pining for the past) and about death and grief, but it's mostly hopeful and entirely about loving someone after they're gone.

Happy Friday, y'all!

You can find Smart Podcast Trashy Books wherever you get podcasts, or, you can listen right here:

[irrigos]

bit late but 6, 7, 35 for that ask game

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

I guess the obvious one is that my writing isn't very good. Or, more specifically, that I'm not actually good at conveying the things I want to convey. Are these characters actually sounding distinct from each other, or do they all sound exactly the same? I can say that I Eliot is charming and fake, that Morgan is smart but impulsive, that Jacob is patient and well-reasoned, but like... does any of that actually come across in my writing?

I've mentioned it before on here I think (and definitely i bring it up too much on my main lol) but I used to be on an actual play podcast, and the way people reacted to me/my characters honestly really shook my confidence in my own storytelling abilities. My character was a bard (so, high charisma) and i tried to play her as smart and charming even though she was also kind of a trashy mess, and everyone from my GM to our audience insisted she was dumb and everyone hated her?? The way people treated me made me really afraid to actually post any creative work ever again, because people would hold me to impossible standards, make me justify the decisions of my costars, and other than that, entirely ignored me. After the show ended (and we deleted all the episodes lol syonara you weeaboo shits, etc) i really felt like i was never going to be creative in public again, because I just didn't have the emotional fortitude to withstand it. If people were only going to pay attention when they wanted me to explain why a man I worked with did something problematic (I don't know! Ask him!), and otherwise, pretend I'm not there at all, like... why bother, you know?

So I guess my other fear is having to go through that again. It took me 4 years after the end of that show to start posting Book of Red Murder because i was genuinely just too afraid. (Thankfully everyone has been very nice, so thank u all)

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

sometimes u make an oc kiss and thats pretty good. and sometimes you share ur writing and people start calling you names because you made your fake little guys sad and u get to laugh at them

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

i can't really think of any!! i love properly implementing writing rules and when i fuck it up, i get sad. of course, it depends on what you define as "writing rules", because i love using sentences fragments but i also hate when a gun appears in act one but doesnt go off by act 3, yknow?

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (22-28 Sep 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Before Midnight (Nero Wolfe #25) (Rex Stout, author; Michael Prichard, narrator)

🥰 The Golden Age of Murder (Martin Edwards, author; Leighton Pugh, narrator) - in-depth look at The Detection Club members during the 'Golden Age of Detective Fiction' (between the world wars)

😍 Pizza-verse series (Closer) - 65K, Suits AU where "in an alternate universe, Harvey's still the best closer in New York but Mike's not a runner for Trevor: he's a pizza deliveryman, Harvey's favorite pizza deliveryman. And Harvey's discovery that Mike's more than he lets on will change everyone's lives… told and retold through Mike, Donna, and Harvey's point of view, with new scenes and reactions each time." - absolute banger series, love it so much

💖💖 +170K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Only the Good Die Young (ZenaidaMacroura) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 23K - excellent shrunkyclunks with EMT!Bucky/Cap!Steve who are both absolute awkward disasters

t'aimer sur les bords du lac (burning_brighter) - MCU: Stucky, 17K - a really good post-EG AU cabin fic where they finally get their shit together

Breathtaking and Absolute (alocalband) - Check Please!: NurseyDex, 3K - truly lovely getting together fic

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

In Deep: Life at the Bottom of the Ocean With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 2

Dr. Odyssey - s1, e1

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #6

Monét's Slumber Party - s1, e6

Handsome - Hannah Berner asks about inner voices

Dirty Laundry - s4, e4

Adventuring Academy - "Edit While They're Killing It (with Zac Oyama)" (s5, e4)

D20: A Starstruck Odyssey - s12, e14-18

D20: Adventuring Party - s8, e14-18

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Normal Gossip - Romancing the Stoned with Jenée Desmond-Harris

How To Do Everything - Haircuts in Space, Tutus, and the Nasal Ranger

NPR's Book of the Day - In 'Who's That Girl?' Eve reflects on her time in a male-dominated hip-hop industry

Short Wave - Solving The EV Battery Recycling Puzzle

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Demi Moore's Film The Substance

�� The Sporkful - The Inside Story Of How Taco Bell Created The Big Cheez-It

Code Switch - Ask Code Switch: Do bike lanes cause gentrification?

Normal Gossip - MFAs and Other Mistakes with Brittany Luse

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Small Town, Big Story: The Giant Omelet of Abbeville, LA

Re: Dracula - September 24: Asleep or Awake, Mad or Sane

Short Wave - Harnessing The Ghost Particles Blasting Through You

Dinner’s on Me - Mena Suvari

If Books Could Kill - Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Death, Sex & Money - Bob the Drag Queen says Polyamory is Expensive

⭐ 99% Invisible - Cue the Sun!

It's Been a Minute - The SMACKDOWN: Serena Williams vs. Muhammad Ali vs. Trina

Short Wave - The Reality Of OCD

Code Switch - Latinos are moving to the far right. Paola Ramos thinks she knows why

NPR's Book of the Day - In the new book 'Want,' Gillian Anderson collects other women's sexual fantasies

Vibe Check - I Have A Dream

⭐ Decoder Ring - Calling Dick Tracy! It’s Warren Beatty Again

Re: Dracula - September 25: Bloofer Lady

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - "blah, blah, blah…"

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Small Town, Big Story: The Pennsic Wars of Slippery Rock, PA

Ologies - Modern Toichographology (MURALS & STREET ART) with Conrad Benner

Consider This - Meet the man in charge of prosecuting war crimes

Re: Dracula - September 27: This Great Un-Dead

It's Been a Minute - An identity crisis at the heart of the election; plus, disrupting biracial fantasies

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - 634. Climbing Mt. Fuji with Courtney Milan

Endless Thread - Defrauding Big Tech

ICYMI - ICYMI Plus: Why Are People Turning On Chappell Roan?

Re: Dracula - September 28: Some Rational Explanation

Overinvested - Ep. 306: English Teacher

The Allusionist - Tranquillusionist: Ex-Constellations

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Got My Back Against the Record Machine

Who Killed the Video Star: The Story of MTV - ep 1-3

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Easy Mornings: Hindi

Good Vibes Only

Feel Good Mix #1

Feel Good Mix #2

Weird Tales of The Ramones (1976 - 1996) [Ramones] {2005}

[malkaleh]

I've recently begun listening to podcasts, and I was wondering if you have any recs! Most recently finished Wolf 359, a fictional dramedy about a space station orbiting the star Wolf 359 8 light years from earth, but I'm open to anything!

So all my podcast listening is non fictional but I will put some fictional ones that I’ve heard of/friends have enjoyed first:

The Magnus Archives: fictional horror podcast. I looked into it and it’s very much Not For Lils but people I know who like horror have said it’s extremely good.

Welcome To NightVale (and the same people who made it also made another fictional podcast): fictional podcast about a small town with Weird Happenings.

The podcasts I listen to/am listening to right now:

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: primarily a podcast about romances novels/books but also dives into all sorts of other things/books within the romance genre.

Not Just The Tudors: Susannah Lipscombes podcast on all sorts of history things around The Tudor/Stuart period - not just in England/Europe and not just about The Tudors (I actually find the non Tudor episodes some of the coolest).

You’re Wrong About: Essentially takes a cultural/news event and discusses what society got wrong about it.

Double Love: Reading through an absolutely batshit book series called Sweet Valley High. I had never read or really heard of the books before listening but the hosts are So Funny.

Dan’s Snows History Hit: a podcast with all kinds of history that i find very easy listening/entertaining.

History Rage: each episode has an historian ranting about what people get wrong about their specialist area. Just discovered and find it absolutely delightful so far.

[mermaidsirennikita]

do you follow any blogs about romance novels or i guess books in general that you could recommend me to follow? thanks in advance

I don't really follow book blogs. I listen to Fated Mates, Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop's podcast, and that's a great resource. You get book breakdowns based on tropes, book recs, some industry insight..

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is a good resource to check out! You might also want to look into romance.io, which is a site that's like... Goodreads, but just for romance novels. I am BEGGING more people to use the heat level rating system with that site, because it's my favorite thing about that sight--but it's clearly not used by everyone.

[nesta-is-my-queen]

There seems to be a lot of Nesta hate on social media so I’m gonna show some Nesta love using with SJM’s own words/analysis of Nesta, paraphrased from her interview with Smart Podcast Trashy books episodes 395 & 447

To every Nesta out there—climb that mountain - Sarah J Maas

Art by: @searland_art; commissioned by @melphsreads on Instagram 🥰

PART II

[bookclub4m]

Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted

This episode it’s time for One Book One Podcast as we discuss the novel Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. We talk about spoilers, horse operas, spoilers, relationships, spoilers, queer coming-of-age stories, and spoilers. Plus: Spoilers!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

The Book We Read

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Other Media We Mentioned

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Wikipedia)

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Wikipedia)

The Walking Dead (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Links, Articles, and Things

Horse Opera

Episode 029 - Westerns

Smart Bitches Trashy Books review of Upright Women Wanted

Between the Coats: A Sensitivity Read Changed my Life by Sarah Gailey

Jam’s Upright Women Wanted film cast comprised of internet tabletop roleplayers:

Esther: Becca Scott

Cye: Erika Ishii

Bet: Krystina Arielle

Leda: Ashley Johnson

Amity: Aabria Iyengar

12+ International Noir Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle

The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas

The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim

The Carnivorous City by Toni Kan

Real World by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Philip Gabriel

Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

A Death in Denmark by Amulya Malladi

Nothing Is Lost by Cloé Mehdi, translated by Howard Curtis

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Morena-Garcia

My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Sam Bett

I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Louise Heal Kawai

Plus many in the Akashic Books noir series, including:

Kingston Noir edited by Colin Channer

Haiti Noir edited by Edwidge Danticat

Manila Noir edited by Jessica Hagedorn

Nairobi Noir edited by Peter Kimani

Baghdad Noir edited by Samuel Shimon

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Join us again on Tuesday, October 3rd get ready for Halloween because we’ll be talking about the genre of Horror!

Then on Tuesday, November 7th we’ll be discussing the non-fiction genre of Crafts and Crafting!

[smartbitches]

Coming on October 6, 2023 on the podcast: Romantic Times Rewind!

We're creating a series of podcast episodes where we look back at old issues of RT Book Reviews and Romantic Times Magazine. WOO HOO!  

Amanda and I are going to re-read old issues of RT, and record two episodes about each one. One issue will be looking at all the reviews by genre in a particular issue, and the other will look at the features, ads, and book covers inside.

I’ll be posting images and screengrabs from the issue on Smart Bitches, and here on Tumblr so you can play along at home.

Plus, if you’re a member of the Patreon, you’ll have access to the complete issues we’re looking at, so you can read with us - and tell us which books from back issues you’d most want to read!

Most humbly, I ask: if you have back issues of RT Book Reviews or Romantic Times, print or digital, and you’d like to send them to be, PLEASE get in touch with me - sarah AT smart bitches trashy books.com. I’m scouring eBay magazine vendors and trying to gather as many as I can, and right now I have some from 2014, 2015, and 2016. 

So hold on to your nostalgia and get ready for Romantic Times Rewind!