Book Club For Masochists: A Readers Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re discussing Summer Reading and Challenges! We talk about summer reading programs, struggling with reading during a pandemic, why we’re bad at naming our podcast, ever expanding to-read lists, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Announcements We’ve started doing retrospective lists of books by people of colour for genres we covered  on old episodes. You can find a list of the lists here. Our stream of the visual novel BAKED:MAGIC Bingo sheets for Book Club for Masochists Or try this link 15 Historical Romance Novels by People of Colour (Link) An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole Let Us Dream by Alyssa Cole Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin Stars in Their Eyes by P

This episode we’re discussing Entertainment Non-Fiction! We talk about what does (and doesn’t) count as entertainment, how we’re bad at watching TV, whether people are now turning non-book sources for analysis of media (e.g. watching videos on YouTube), and how many bananas are in a bunch. You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Read This Month As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer Jim Brown: Last Man Standing by Dave Zirin Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Tu

Battle of the Books 2020! It’s the one time a year that we all read the same book! We each pitch a title and our listeners vote and decide on which it will be. Our possibilities include Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, Best of all Possible Worlds by Karen Lord, My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capó Crucet, and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Which book should we all read? Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (RJ’s pick) Best of all Possible Worlds by Karen Lord (Meghan’s pick) My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education by Jennine Capó Crucet (Anna’s pick) An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (Matthew’s pick)   Vote for which book we all read! (deadline is July 1st)   Our Shortlists RJ Upright Women Wanted by Sara

This episode we’re discussing Literary Fiction! We talk about books that win awards, writing as art, reading books because other people think they’re good, whether YA literary fiction exists, literary fiction vs literary merit, real vs unreal reading, the pandemic allowing us to check out quick read books for months at a time, the BDSM awards, bookshelf bragging, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Read This Month   We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler Spoilers for this book in the podcast! A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion Plainsong by Kent Haruf On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong Other Media We Mentioned Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher Us Conductors by Sean Michaels The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Lord of the Flies by

This episode we’re talking about Comfort Reads! We discuss what makes something a comfort read, re-reading books, Animal Crossing, nostalgia, horror movies, problematic faves, listening to music on repeat, and more! Plus: Special guest stars galore! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Comfort Reads Discussed The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling Dear Prudence (and the other Slate advice columns) Captain Awkward Carolyn Hax Ask A Manager Dear Sugar Dumbing of Age by David Willis Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran YU + ME = Dream by Megan Rose Gedris Books by Tamora Pierce Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling The Others series by Anne Bishop Books by Mary Roach Books by Sarah Vowell Books by David Sedaris Get Fuzzy series by Darby Conley Read online Cul de Sac by Rich

This episode we’re discussing non-fiction Library and Information Studies books! We talk about how useful we find webinars, reading things for our jobs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, comic books, digital preservation, difficulties accessing digital material through libraries, feminist pedagogy, debunking misinformation, how we track articles and things we want to read, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Recommend “Smelly Knowledge”: An Information Audit of the Sunnydale High Library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Rebecka Sheffield “Computer’s don’t smell” Comics and Critical Librarianship: Reframing the Narrative in Academic Libraries edited by Olivia Piepmeier and Stephanie Grimm The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation by Trevor Owens Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction by

We’re talking about Books and Stuff! Yes, it’s time for one of our occasional “media we actually enjoyed” episodes. We talk about baking, sentient suits of armour, short stories, webcomics, podcasts, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things we Recommend The Space Traders by Derrick Bell (archive.org link to story) Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree Thomas Delicious in Dungeon, vol. 1 by Ryoko Kui Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden Webcomic version Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer  Webcomic version The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, and Tod

This episode we’re talking about Historical Fiction! We discuss how far in the past something has to be before it counts as historical fiction, whether reading fiction is supposed to be enjoyable, anachronisms and inaccuracies (both purposeful and accidental), and historical pandemics. Plus: Someone’s power goes out half way through the recording! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Read The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez Review in The Guardian Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross Tom Thomson, esquisses du printemps by Sandrine Revel Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin Lavinia (Wikipedia) Tidelands by Philippa Gregory Ot

This episode we’re talking about Objectifying Books! We discuss how books make the places we live feel like homes, how and when we give away books, paperbacks vs hardbacks, judging books by their covers, book smells, arranging bookshelves, fake books, books as design elements, what we use as bookmarks, the underpants of a book, and more.   Plus: What we do with books that misbehave! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Media We Mention Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men (podcast) X-Statix Omnibus by Peter Milligan, Mike Allred, and others (Amazon says it’s 3.5 Kg / 7.8 pounds) Books on my shelf that I have not read by Anna Ferri Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions by Alberto Manguel The Wild Swans by Thomas Aquinas Maguire (blog post) The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen (Wikipedia)

In this episode we’re talking about Climate Change and Climate Crisis Non-Fiction! We talk about being depressed, capitalism, actions individuals can take, and more! Plus, we ask the important question: Are scientists people? You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Helen Brown Things We Read Un autre regard sur le climat by Emma On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal by Naomi Klein The Climate Report: National Climate Assessment-Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States by US Global Change Research UN’s IPCC Special Report on 1.5 degrees of Global Warming  SOS: What You Can Do to Reduce Climate Change by Seth Wynes  Losing Earth: A Recent History by Nathaniel Rich History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times by Mary Francis Berry UN’s IPCC Climate Change and

This episode we're discussing Ratings, Reviews, and Tags! We talk about subject headings, our most used tags, malicious metadata, how we use star-based rating systems, the value we see in bad reviews, art styles that are morally wrong, and more! Plus: A data-driven analysis to find the most unfinished book on Goodreads! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Media We Mention My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force  The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Guillermo del Toro’s Penguin Horror line Yotsuba&!, Vol. 11 by Kiyohiko Azuma Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Links, Articles, and Things Folksonomy (Wikipedia) Tag (metadata) (Wikipedia) Library of Congress Subject Headings (Wikipedia) BiblioCommons (Wikipedia) OverDrive (Wikipedia) Hoopla (Wikipedia) BoardGameGeek’s list of top games Sc

This month we’re reading the genre of Chick Lit Romance. Does it exist and if so, what should it be called? Plus: The poor portrayal of library jobs in fiction, not being able to connect with people in novels who are desperate to get married, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), World of Warcraft romances, post-feminist fiction, picking books based on the cover, and more! (Our apologies for use of the word "real" in relation to biological families in this episode. Adopted families are real families too.) You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Things We Read Dear Emma by Katie Heaney When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri ‘When Katie Met Cassidy’ Is The Lesbian Chick Lit Romance Of The Summer The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis  Nappily Ever After by Trisha R. Thomas

This episode we’re talking about our 2020 Reading Resolutions and Intentions! We discuss how we are bad at reading resolutions, loot boxes filled with books, giving up books two pages from the end, setting aside time to read, reading bingo, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards  Media We Mention Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games by Jon Peterson All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders Autonomous by Annalee Newitz Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor  Links, Articles, and Things Translated books subscription Meghan didn't buy Popular DNF books on Goodreads 2020 Reading Resolutions and Intentions Bingo Square Bullet Journal (Wikipedia) Hark! The Holiday Music Podcast Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men Romance

This month we’re discussing the non-fiction genre of Arts! We discuss “capital-A” art, creating, consuming, and destroying art, library hold-list hacks, Video Game Club for Masochists, woo woo, and scraping ideas off of the sides of artist Faraday cages. You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards | Kaya Fraser Things We Read Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Irvin Painter Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks Me Artsy edited by Drew Hayden Taylor Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert Gorey's Worlds by Edward Gorey Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey by Karen Wilkin Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey by Edward

It’s our Best of 2019 episode! Of course, these are not necessarily the best things published in 2019, but instead the best things we read for the podcast (including everything from Bizarro Fiction to True Crime) and the best of everything else we read. Join us! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Favourite Non-Fiction read in 2019: For the podcast:  Anna:  Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore The Mental Load: A Feminist Comic by Emma Episode 084 - Political Non-Fiction Matthew:  The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements by Gord Hill The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill RJ:  I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara Episode 080 - True Crime Meghan:  The Fact

This month we’re discussing Adventure Fiction! We talk about bears (and bear fighting), spies, secret tunnels, robots, survival, thrillers, male romance, geese, pirates, stolen smartphones, shipwrecks, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards | Robert Hamaker Things We Read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy There are ten sequels to this book! And spin-offs! Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Muppet Treasure Island - Professional Pirate (featuring Tim Curry) The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss Robinsonade (Wikipedia) Pirates! by Celia Rees The Wild Robot by Peter Brown The Anomaly by Michael Rutger Matthew forgot this bit of the book that he also really hates:  “We were guaranteed a spread in Ancient American magazine, and maybe a mention in Obscure Academic Quarterly A

In this episode we’re talking about Other People’s Faves (that we do not like)! Yes, it’s time for our hot takes and unpopular opinions! We discuss all the pretty spider girls, not finishing books, hate reading, and waiting to read the next book in a series. Plus: Fish venting! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Media We Mention (Some of these we like and some of them we do not like…) Wanted (2008 film) (Wikipedia) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Wikipedia) - The play we mention The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien The Princess Bride by William Goldman The film version (Wikipedia) Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman The TV version (Wikipedia) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Great

This month we’re discussing Psychology! We discuss psychedelics, rodent-based experiments, citations and footnotes, and books that turn out to be not what we expected. Plus: Why some of us don’t eat cephalopods!  You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards | Amanda Wanner Things We Read How to Change your Mind by Michael Pollan Not the Monty Python guy, that’s Michael Palin Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor and Michelle Hamilton How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays by Mandy Len Catron To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This (New York Times article) Quirkology: The Curious Science Of Everyday Lives by Richard Wiseman How Dogs Think: What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do by Stanley Coren Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger Other Minds: The Octopus, the Se

Good evening, and welcome to The Midnight Library! Please enjoy this special spooky bonus poetry episode, just in time for Halloween!  Featuring Matthew Murray | Meghan Whyte | RJ Edwards | Anna Ferri You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. Music:  Grand Toccata And Fugue In D Minor pt.1 by by Johann Sebastian Bach Performed by Pattman, G. T. on the Liberal Jewish Synagogue Organ, St. John's Wood, London Here’s part two! Samples: Thunder3 by Josh74000MC Attic door creaking by jymdavis Cardboard Box Opening by Coral_Island_Studios DoorCreaking11 by Zabuhailo BUSSATA (door knocking) by gambler9 Chiming clock by urupin Vinyl record needle static by joedeshon Wind space howling effect  by alexkandrell (I think that's all of them...) Next Week on Book Club for Masochists: A Readers' Advisory Podcast: Join us again on Tuesday, November 5th we’ll be talking about the non-fict

This episode we’re discussing the topics of Suspending Your Disbelief and Trick or Treaters’ Advisory (e.g. Halloween costumes)! We discuss how we read realistic fiction differently from more outlandish fiction, characters acting out of character, super selfish teenagers, and how many costume elements we have in our closets. Plus: We’re confused by people who choose not to read fiction! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Contest! We hit 50,000 total downloads! Tell us your favourite episode! Either through email or social media! Win a sticker! (And a book?) Media We Mention Murder, She Wrote (Wikipedia) The Hunger Games (series) (Wikipedia) Gotham Academy (Wikipedia) The Goddess of Fireflies by Geneviève Pettersen Mr. Dressup (Wikipedia) Links, Articles, and Things Suspension of disbelief (Wikipedia) Epi