The Erlking, Over the Garden Wall, and Kindness in the Face of Death

May 12, 2020 Mary

Fairy tales are part of the world’s vocabulary, with tales of various types spreading from continent to continent. There’s a Chinese version of “Cinderella,” for example, and an Italian version of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Something about the home-away-home structure of fairy tales is written into our brains as children and continues to stick with us as we grow up. Each semester when I teach a unit on fairy tales, college students are shocked to realize (or re-learn, maybe) that the tales that seemed so innocent when they were children are filled with death, ruin, and depravity. Those parts--the truly dark parts of fairy tales--always get glossed over in the Disney versions.

Little Fires Everywhere: A Conversation About the Series Part I

May 10, 2020 Janet Dale

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! Since motherhood and what it means to be a mother are central themes in the miniseries Little Fires Everywhere, today seemed like a good day to bring this conversation to you. In the first part of Janet and Emily’s conversation, they focus on two of the mothers (Mia and Elena), their families, and some of the differences between the book and the miniseries.

Spoilers for the book and the show to follow.

Five Absolutely Terrible Films I've Watched While Social Distancing

May 9, 2020 Kelli

Still from Pretty Little Stalker (2018) — Still from *Pretty Little Stalker* (2018)

One of my favorite pastimes is watching terrible movies with friends. I find it more fun than watching good movies with friends, because when I’m watching a good movie, I actually want to pay attention to it, which seems a little counterintuitive when I’m with a group of people I want to engage with. This preference has really crystallized for me during this pandemic, where contact with most of my social circle is limited to the digital realm. When my friends and I get together over Houseparty, we don’t want to watch anything important that we have to pay close attention to, but we also don’t want to sit around and talk about how scary the world is and how miserable we are. All we want, really, is to watch awful movies and provide each other with running commentary about how awful they are.

So, here are five absolutely fucking terrible movies I’ve watched with friends while social distancing — all of which are available to stream on Netflix right now, if you’re feeling masochistic. I’m going to include some comments from my friends about some of these films, starting with this quote from my friend Allan, who was present for all five viewings: “All of these movies are so utterly forgettable that I originally asked to be excluded from this article as I had no recollection of having watched any of them.” In contrast, my friend Kelly, who watched only 15 minutes of one of these movies with us, said of the experience: “I don’t anything anymore.” That turned out to be a typo, but it resonates with me anyway.

Survivor S40: e13 "The Penultimate Step of the War"

May 8, 2020 Todd & Mary

Well, we’re here, the quote unquote “penultimate step of the war.” I gotta say, it feels like this war has been about to start for most of the season, but here we are yet again. In our fantasy league, Mary is still winning, and Todd is still in second place, but here in the real game, the player that nobody picked, Tony (along with Wendell), is still in the game and is still making moves, and he seems to be in a pretty good position moving into this final, although that could all change depending on who comes back from the Edge. Without further ado, let’s break down what happened last night.

Listen to Your Heart E4: Nice Guys Finish Last

May 6, 2020 Mary & Emily

Mary: Welcome back for more loud kissing and petty arguments. It all starts...right now!

Othersode #40: God's Plan for This Mouse / Devs / Our 3rd Birthday!

May 4, 2020 The Squad

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It has been predetermined that you will listen to this episode. This week on #BookSquadGoals, we examine *Devs*, the FX series on Hulu. We discuss determinism vs. free will vs. multiple universes, religion, the characters, and all the Alex Garland-ness of the series, including his casting choices. Plus, it’s our third birthday! We exchange “Secret Santa” birthday gifts and celebrate three years of podcasting fun! Read along for our next #bookpisode on *Ninth House* by Leigh Bardugo on May 18. That episode will also have an extra special interview with Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series! For our next #othersode on June 1, catch up with HBO’s series *Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children*, and get ready for another author interview with Mary Kay McBrayer about her debut book, *America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster.* Send any listener feedback to thesquad@booksquadgoals.com or DM us on Instagram or Twitter @booksquadgoals!

Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!

YA Book Club: Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi

May 3, 2020 Mary & Emily

Guess what? Mary and Emily are back again. This time, we’ve got a brand new YA BOOK CLUB for you. And oh boy, it’s a book. Don’t read on unless you’re okay with having the whole book spoiled for you. We say go ahead and let it be spoiled. Sorry, we didn’t like this one. Let’s get into it!

Listen to Your Heart E3: Romantic Compatibility

April 29, 2020 Mary & Emily

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This week on Listen to Your Heart, the performances finally begin! But does everything go as smoothly as planned? Will the contestants have romantic compatibility? What does romantic compatibility even mean?! Read on to hear Emily and Mary’s recap of this dramatic (as always) episode.

April Showers Bring May (Poems About) Flowers

April 28, 2020 Susan

National Poetry Month is almost over, and because of the current pandemic, April feels like it didn’t really even happen this year. Our normal springtime activities have been halted, and we haven’t been able to truly enjoy this season as we usually would. Today, I’m turning to poetry to channel that spring energy and feelings of hope that should come with seeing the world blossom, even if we’re not getting to experience it fully this year. Here are five poems about flowers to carry you into May and bring a bit of beauty to your quarantined spring.

Why Did I Just Watch All Seven Seasons of New Girl?

April 26, 2020 Kelli

In our present moment, a lot of people are re-watching things that bring them comfort, which makes perfect sense. Everything is weird and scary, and there’s nothing like some pop culture comfort food to bring your head to a place of temporary normalcy.

Unfortunately, I can’t really use COVID-19 as an excuse for what I’ve been consuming, because I started long before we realized just how global this pandemic was going to get. In early January, I was going through a pretty rough period of anxiety and depression. I wanted to watch something that was both comforting and new to me, perhaps something I’d popped in and out of while it was on network television but had never fully committed to because it was decidedly un-good. I knew what it had to be. New Girl.

I’m not sure why it was so clear to me. Maybe it’s because of the neverending thirst for Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) on Twitter. Maybe it’s because I feel like we, as a society, did Zooey Deschanel dirty by writing her off as “too quirky.” Maybe it’s because I hate myself. But whatever the case, I made it to the finale yesterday, and do you want to know something? I cried.

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