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This past week’s episode of Riverdale is entitled “There Will Be Blood.”
We were hoping there might be some fun references to the 2007 film — an oil well explosion, maybe, or a Daniel Day Lewis cameo — but it turns out the only thing Riverdale really has in common with PTA’s purported masterpiece is… milkshakes.
The title isn’t completely off base, though. We were promised blood, and there will... be blood.
Sorry. Let’s just start the recap.
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While the whole squad has feelings about Ava Duvernay's new film A Wrinkle in Time, Susan and Mary bring you two perspectives out of four!
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Over the summer, Mary and I read Becky Albertalli's The Upside of Unrequited for our Summer YA Book Club. If you didn't read our blog post about this novel or don't recall what we said, we both loved it, and we both said we really needed to get around to reading her first novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda one of these days.
So now picture me at the beginning of this week, Monday, March 12. It's nearly a year later, and Simon has been sitting on my shelf just waiting for me to make time for him, and the film version of the novel Love, Simon is set to hit theaters THIS COMING WEEKEND. So I do what any responsible grad student would do. I shirk all responsibilities, brew a cup of tea, snuggle into the couch with my cat and my Pua stuffed animal, and I read this book.
Dear reader, I could not put it down. I finished it in one sitting. And now that I've read the book and seen the movie adaptation, I need to talk about it.
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It’s the best episode of the cycle
(besides makeovers – ahem – Tyovers): GO SEES!
Selfie Mail from Tyra says they’re gonna “take a walk in the real world” and everyone’s just like “thank god we get out of this house.”
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Local independent bookstores
help foster a sense of community, and that's what drew me to Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia.
The first time I walked through their doors during the Decatur Book Festival many years ago, I could see that this bookstore was doing more than selling Children's and Young Adult books. They were promoting a literary community in Decatur for children, adults, and even dogs (more on the dogs later). Little Shop of Stories is the type of bookstore that I walk into knowing I'm going to end up finding at least one or two things I have to buy. It's the type of place I recommend to friends whenever they're visiting from out of town and looking for something fun to do. Because, as corny as this might sound, it's more than a bookstore. It's a fun place to be.
This past weekend while I was in Atlanta visiting friends and family, I had an opportunity to sit down with Justin Colussy-Estes to talk more about Little Shop of Stories, what makes this store so awesome, and its connection to the Decatur community.
Othersode #12: Weekend at Area X / Annihilation
Join the squad as we journey deep into Area X for our long-awaited discussion of ANNIHILATION! In this episode, we tackle Alex Garland’s trippy adaptation of the Jeff VanderMeer novel, and we ask all of the important questions: What is this film “about”? How does it compare to the book? Does Alex Garland think all relationships take place primarily in bed? Was Oscar Isaac’s accent switch intentional, or is this a Nic Cage in Con Air situation? The answers you crave and more lie ahead… just try not to get any Shimmer in your ears.
Click through for table of contents and show notes!
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Riverdale is back, baby,
and the BSG team is back on it again. Well, Mary and Kelli are back, anyway, recapping this trash show until the cows come home.
Riverdale’s 27th chapter is entitled “The Hills Have Eyes.” If we’re to believe that this entire show is actually the novel Jughead is writing, does that mean he’s naming all of his chapters titles after movies? In that case, it’s even more of a gimmick than we thought. Here at BSG, we’ve been referring to this episode by a much different name — Chapter 27: “Sex Weekend.” Feel free to steal that for the second draft of your manuscript, Juggy.
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BSG #12: Zombie Carolina / American War
This week, the squad tackles global warming and animosity between the North and South. Are we talking about the past? Are we talking about the present? Neither! We're discussing America in the year 2073 as the country is in the middle of its second Civil War. Join us as we discuss Omar El Akkad's novel American War, which gave us a lot of material to talk about. Then we read listener feedback about The Book of Speculation, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and our favorite: Fifty Shades Freed!
Click through for table of contents and show notes!
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I will readily admit that I am one of those people who loves to watch the Oscars almost as much as I love to talk trash about the Oscars. I’ve heard many like-minded people equate the Oscars to “the Super Bowl for movies,” and after some thought, I can pretty much get on-board with this comparison. Sure, there are some huge differences — the Super Bowl is an event where teams are playing live to win something they actually deserve, whereas the Oscars are an arbitrary set of awards determined by a bunch of rich old white people — but when it comes to the excitement of the viewing experience, the amount of alcohol consumed throughout the ceremony, and the excessive pettiness of my Twitter timeline during the show and in the days to follow, I honestly can’t think of two more similar events.
A week from tonight, the 90th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will air on ABC. Despite the fact that I’ve watched the Oscars every year for as long as I can remember, this will be the first time I officially make my predictions in a public forum (and what could be more public than this, our extremely famous and well-known blog?). I want to do my best to be correct, but I also want to give some love to the films I actually liked, so I’m going to format this post the way a lot of writers do: for each category, I’ll give my official prediction, and then I’ll give the film that would win it if were up to me.
This intro is starting to run about as long as I expect Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue will, so let’s get into it, shall we?
Othersode #11: A High Budget Movie About Average Sex / 50 Shades Freed
On a very sexy edition of #BookSquadGoals, the squad breaks down the new film Fifty Shades Freed, the so-called "climax" of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. Join us as we discuss the strange plot, the use of ice cream during sex, pop sensation Rita Ora, and the utter lack of chemistry between the film's leads. We take a look at what this franchise gets wrong about BDSM and answer the most important question: Is this movie sexy? Plus, hear what's on the#BookSquadBlog (there's LOTS of great stuff right now!) and learn about our next book for the upcoming full episode, American War by Omar El Akkad.
Click through for table of contents and show notes!
Read moremade with love by emily, kelli, mary, and susan. <3 thanks to Katelyn Elaine Photography for our group photos.