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We've resurfaced!  Even though we haven't exactly been super busy reading behind the scenes, we figured we'd bring everyone back to speed with a recap of what we've been reading and doing for the past year. Our favourite reads, most surprising books of 2023, DNFs, reading goals for 2024... you know the drill.  Also, if anyone asks what we got each other for our 2023 Book Box, the answer is we don't know; we're late and have bad memories. 

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 are. We hope your reading is going well, too :) cw: pet loss, talk of mental illness

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 of Indigenous voices and experiences. 

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 and I suggest you forget it ever existed. It's a book about heteronormative assumptions and giving excuses for rape because it feels good.  Look, consent is sexy. That's it, that's all. 

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 (somebody tell me what the difference is) with quick banter and uncomfortably timed animal excretions. 

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 this book, what are you doing? Go read it! mouth noises sponsored by THC and olives 

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. Kuang (as part of #asianreadathon), a brutal fantasy about war and the fallout that comes from living through it.  Now featuring an exclusive Book Rant experience:  Percussions by Taïga Harmonics by Taïga Water Acoustics by Taïga Interpretive gymnastics by Taïga Theft by Taïga Chaos by Taïga ??? by Taïga Dog, go to sleep or something.

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 really that great, anyways, so...) Also, yes, Jess said Gary Oldman instead of Gary Marshall. It's okay, it's a mistake. Get over it. 

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 Tricia Levenseller)

(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 selling us propaganda about how feminist and progressive her books are. No, Rhysand, you didn’t invent feminism. No, Cassian, trapping a ‘female’ in your house and ogling her breasts and forcing her into exercise isn’t a form of therapy.  Ugh. And now they’re making a tv series out of this? Move aside, Outlander, here come the tanned dudebros with wings.  On a much happier note, Vee reads the genderqueer and imaginative and age-inclusive The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg, which is the first novel in Lemberg’s much loved Birdverse world. It’s like a coming of age novel for two queer 60 something year olds, but they’re not coming of age so much as affirming their true selves in the face of people who don’t accept them. Also magic and lore and a whole symbiosis between story and world and magic and mechanics and ugh. Go read it, it’s wonderful. 

Happy Black History Month! And also Black Future Month! Vee reads the incomparable genius N.K. Jemisin with her book of short stories, How Long 'Til Black Future Month, and Jess reads the magical and relevant The Midnight Bargain by Canadian author C.L. Polk. We talk about SJM controversy, reading vibes, and generally struggle. Like, it's February. It's rough. Black Lives Matter ✊🏿

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 A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and talks about the controversy surrounding the book, from first impressions and heightened emotions to opinions developed after taking in other people's perspectives and just, you know, giving it time.  Oh, and of course, we gush about Bridgerton and The Story Graph!