Another week, another set of stories that are tough to be witty about! This week we are continuing our series on Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado by discussing "Real Women Have Bodies" and "Eight Bites", two stories dealing with the beauty standards women face and the resulting harm that befalls them. This is another heavy one so listen at your own discretion! Next week we will be finishing our series on this book with a discussion on "Mothers" and "Difficult at Parties". Surely those aren't also deeply emotional, right?

"When Can a Woman Who Kills Her Abuser Claim Self Defense?" by Rachel Louise Snyder

Other works discussed this episode:

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022)

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

Oh boy, time for a doozy! This week we are kicking off our series on the short story collection Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. This series will be a little different than most, where instead of breaking the entire book down over three episodes we will instead be fully exploring only one or two of the short stories for each of the three parts. This week we start with the opening story "The Husband Stitch", a grueling depiction of the entitlement men feel over the lives and bodies of women. We still have fun looking at the plot and context, but do be aware of the content warning at the top! Next week we will be covering "Eight Bites" and "Real Women Have Bodies" and we will be excited to see you again then!

Tulane's Timeline of the History of Sexual Violence in the U.S.

Other works discussed this episode:

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

So, anybody feeling Jello Shots? Or perhaps want to attend a Broadway show? If you're looking for a man who can do both, look no further than the late, great satirist Tom Lehrer! In this episode we break down the interesting life history of Lehrer, as well as examining some of his most popular satirical songs. Was he the Bo Burnham of his time? Is he better at math than us? Was he on a first name basis with multiple rappers or only the one? Tune in to find out, then come back next week when we start our series on Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado!

Other works discussed this episode:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

Your two favorite public library supporters are back to finish our series on Kirsten Miller's book Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books! In Part 1 we summarized the plot of the book, in Part 2 we discussed the context behind the book, and now in Part 3 we will be using what we have learned to analyze, rate, and rank this book! After that we will be leaving this fantasy world of book banning behind and entering the real world where surely we have solved that problem by now, right?

Donate to Little Free Libraries

Other works discussed this episode:

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Bite Me by Renee Rapp

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

We are back again with Part Two of our series on Kirsten Miller's book Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books! If you missed Part One, go back and check it out for a plot summary of this excellent recent release (or better yet, pick up a copy and read it yourself!). In this part we will be familiarizing ourselves with the context behind the book, namely the history of book bans in America! There is an unfortunately long history of book censorship around the world and in America that has culminated in a strange surge in the past few years. What led us to this point? Is it really as serious as some people say? Can we vote to take away a person's teaching license? Find out all this and more on this week's episode?

Donate to Little Free Libraries

Donate to the ALA

Bookshop List of Books Vicki Baggett Wants Banned

Other works discussed this episode:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

How many of you have been personally victimized by Lula Dean? We are back with part one of our most contemporary book series to date! In this first part we will be looking at the plot of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, brushing you up on all that happens to get ready for the context we will discuss in part two and the analysis in part three. This is a great book that we both loved, so be sure to check it our if you haven't already!

Donate to Little Free Libraries

Other works discussed this episode:

2666 by Roberto Bolano

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

It's podcast vacation time and we are participating in silent viewing time! In this in between books week we are talking about the 1921 silent file The Kid by none other than Charlie Chaplin. This movie with both a smile and a tear follows a found family of a man and a boy who are doing their best to make it work when they don't have two pennies to rub together. It is a great time and a fun conversation, so join us to hear all our thoughts on this slapstick classic!

Other works discussed this episode:

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

The Book Series by a TERF

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!

And how did we then face the odds, of man's rude slapstick, yes, and God's? By making a three part podcast series about it. We are sending off Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut with one last episode, examining the themes and relating them to the context to see if this book is still any good! Are any of the themes still relevant? Are the messages worth heeding? Is the most mediocre Vonnegut still really good? Tune in to hear our thoughts!

Other works discussed this episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

"The Last Book I Loved: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick and the Shifting of Cultural Values" by Lily Houston Smith

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky to stay up to date on upcoming episodes.

Want to support our podcast and a local bookstore? Check out our page on Bookshop.org to pick up any book we cover on the show, or our personal favorites!