If you’ve ever listened to the podcast, you know me, but you may or may not know that I have a PhD in English with an emphasis on disability studies and children's literature. That all means that I spent a lot of time thinking about how fat bodies are represented in literature for young people, which led me to so many great resources!
Read moreThe Bachelor s28E9: An Underwater Cave Situation
Kelli: Hello, and welcome back to another week of The Bachelor, sponsored by The Golden Bachelor. This week, Mary joins me again to give points to Emily’s team, because my team is dead. Take it away, Mary.
Mary: Here we are in Tulum, the most romantic place. Well, not too romantic for Joey at the beginning of the episode. Instead, he’s feeling weepy about his experience on The Bachelorette with Charity. It was hard for him to feel so connected to Charity, then heartbroken to be sent home. I mean, I get it, it would be hard, but also… should you put all your eggs in the Bach basket? They know each other for like, two weeks, right? I don’t know I’d bet my life on that.
Read moreThe Bachelor s28E8: It’s Not Like You’re Gonna Lose Your Hearing Over It
Kelli: Hello and welcome to another late recap of Joey’s season of The Bachelor! We’ve reached HOMETOWNS, which is famously the most boring episode of every season. Today, in Emily’s stead, I am joined by Mary. Mary, how has this season been treating you? Who’s your pick for the win?
Mary: You know, I didn’t expect to like Joey as much as I do. He didn’t really leave an impression on me in Charity’s season, but now he’s a bit more charming. That said, there’s something off-putting to me about his Extreme Direct Eye Contact. And how he says “thank you for sharing” to everything anyone says.
I’ve been enjoying the season so far, but I’ve been a little irked at all the Maria drama. It’s really not that serious! My pick to win is probably Daisy, but Kelsey has made some strides recently too.
Read moreFinally Approaching the Last Battle: A Wheel of Time Update
Mary: Well, here we are with another Wheel of Time update. It feels like we haven’t made one in forever (okay, since August 2023), but a lot has changed in terms of where we are in the series. Do you want to explain where we are now, Todd?
Read moreHazbin Hotel Believes in Redemption
From Paradise Lost to The Powerpuff Girls to The Binding of Isaac to Cuphead, the devil has always been one of the most interesting characters in media. Every grad student has a lightbulb moment when they realize Satan is the best part of Milton, and from there on, he just keeps popping up to make stories more interesting. And if Lucifer is so interesting, what’s the rest of Hell like?
Read moreReceipts, Proof, and Timelines that RHOSLC is More Complex Than You Think
I’m a huge fan of trashy reality TV. Whether it’s The Bachelor or 90 Day Fiance, I just love seeing people portray what they claim to be their normal lives. Can anyone captured on film 24/7 be completely authentic? Reality television has storylines. It has characters – a villain, a hero, a goofball – and it’s naive to think that producers and editors don’t put a lot of time into determining who will play what role each season. That said, some shows pique my interest more than others.
Read moreIs Caroline Calloway a Scammer?
In 2020, I preordered Caroline Calloway’s debut book, Scammer.
For anyone familiar with Calloway’s tendency to shirk responsibility for her blunders (in a cute, whimsical way, of course), the fact that I actually received Scammer in 2023 after months of messaging the author online should come as no surprise.
Read moreSlogging Through Wheel of Time
Todd: The time has come for another Wheel of Time reading update, and this time Todd (me) is here! To quickly recap, Mary and I spent more than a year “reading” Winter’s Heart before finally finishing it this summer and then zooming through Crossroads of Twilight. We have now almost finished the prologue of Knife of Dreams and we have some thoughts! I will let Mary kick things off by asking this: now that you are through it, how bad was the dreaded “slog”?
Read moreYA Book Club: Burn Down Rise Up by Vincent Tirado
Mary: Whew, hello. Here we are to talk about Vincent Tirado’s Burn Down, Rise Up. This is their first novel, but they had another one come out in May of this year.
The book follows Raquel, a teen who’s undergoing several crises all at once. Her mother is in the hospital with a deadly, mold-like infection and getting worse every day, and her friend Charlize’s cousin Cisco has gone missing. On top of all that, Raquel has the average teen stuff going on—will her crush like her back?—etc. Soon, the group of friends discovers a dangerous game that might be behind the recent disappearances—as well as Raquel’s mom’s condition. The only way to stop what’s happening is to dive into the game for themselves and face the atrocities of the past.
Spoilers to follow.
Read moreSpider-Man Still Rules: Across the Spider-Verse
Mary: I’m SO pleased to be talking about the follow-up to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s been difficult waiting these past few years for Across the Spider-Verse because the first one was an absolute favorite of mine. I saw it in theaters 3 times, forcing different people to go with me each time.
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