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Hello all. I am back with some more fantasy series (?) to recommend (or not), but before I jump into all that I want to do a quick catch-up of the series that I mentioned last time (besides the ones I quit reading).
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Credit: Craig Sjodin, ABC
We start where we left off last week, which seems like a given, but it’s actually not. Remember two weeks ago, we ended in the middle of a group date. And then when we came back last week, we just started in the middle of some power walking like group dates and group date roses don’t even matter. But no, ABC is honoring my sanity this week, and we’re starting where we left off, which is with MJ talking over Jessenia about how she represents PEACE and LOVE. “My actions speak louder than words,” MJ says. “I lead by example,” she says again. And again, I have to stress that these words don’t inherently MEAN anything. What actions are you speaking of, MJ? Who are you leading? What is your example?
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For February’s YA Book Club pick, we talk about This is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey. We’ve waited on this one for a long time, so let’s just jump right in.
Emily: This is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey is one I’ve been excited to talk about for some time, but we decided to wait for a bit to cover it because the publication date got pushed back. Thanks, Covid. But it’s finally out, and we’re both ready to tell everyone our thoughts! Woo! Thanks to Quirk Books for the advanced copies of this book. These opinions are our own. Oh, one more disclaimer: this book is hard to discuss without spoilers, so spoilers are coming.
Mary: The novel follows Jess, a teenage girl living the 90s dream. She’s got it all: posters of Scott Wolf on her wall, lots of YM magazines, two best friends, and a big choice on her hands. Two boys—yes, two!—want to date Jess. One is friend Tyler, who she accidentally bonked in the head with a ball in 4th grade, and the other is Patrick, the popular soccer star at Swickley high. Jess’s friends keep pressuring her to give Patrick a chance, but why? Jess just doesn’t get it.
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Have you been excited about seeing Saint Maud? So have we! And it feels like we’ve been waiting forever. But the movie is finally out, friends, and Mary and Emily are here with their thoughts. Please be warned: spoilers to follow.
Emily: This movie is one Mary and I have been looking forward to seeing for some time, so we’re excited to finally get to chat about it. Saint Maud is the feature directorial debut of Rose Glass, who wrote and directed this movie. The story is a character study in a lot of ways. It follows Maud, a young woman who has recently converted to Roman Catholicism, although the religion she practices takes on a lot of qualities that are unique to her and have nothing to do with the Catholic church, which is something I’d love to dive into more.
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Othersode #50: The Women Tell All / Our 100th Episode!
It’s our 100th episode! Our hundredpisode! Our hundo-sode! Join us as we look back on our favorite books, movies and TV shows we’ve covered—as well as our least favorite things (because we do love to hate on stuff from time to time). We also listen to a few clips of our favorite moments and memories from the past four years and read some listener feedback about their favorite show topics. As always, we catch up with what’s on the Book Squad Blog, including TV recaps, movie reviews, and a new installment of Queer Girl Book Club! Read along with us for our next Bookpisode on Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi on 2/22, and watch Nomadland for our next Othersode on 3/8! Thanks for being with us for 100 episodes! Here’s to hundreds more!
Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!
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Kelli: Hello! This week is Susan’s birthday, Susan’s husband’s birthday, and their anniversary, so she is taking a well-deserved break. I am stepping in to fill her shoes, and let me just say: what a week it is.
Emily: You really picked a doozy of an episode to sub in on, Kelli. But it should give us plenty to discuss. So let’s get to it.
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Tiffanie DeBartolo has followed many artistic pursuits throughout her life: she is the founder of the independent record label Bright Antenna, cofounder of the ShineMaker Foundation, a filmmaker, and the author of three novels.
Her most recent book, Sorrow, follows musician Joe Harper, a man quite unlike Tiffanie in that his life has been a series of intentionally-missed opportunities, artistic and otherwise. Tiffanie spoke to me about Sorrow, the inspiration behind it, and what it takes to write from a truly empathetic perspective.
(Warning: spoilers for Sorrow to follow!)
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Emily: It's round 4 of lesbian books for lesbians. JK lesbian books are for everyone.
Kelli: It's true. Today we are talking about my pick, The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave!
(Spoilers ahead… or should we say spoilers ahoy?)
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Emily: Hi everyone! Before we get into the episode, we want to acknowledge two things. First of all, this blog post is late, we know. Susan and I both have normal jobs that we unfortunately have to prioritize over these Bachelor recaps because we actually get paid to do this other stuff. So sometimes real life gets in the way, and these recaps won’t happen on time. We’re sorry.
Thing #2: Yes, there were five new women added to the show this week. We drafted the new women onto our teams at the end of the episode, so stay til the end to see who we picked. We won’t start counting their points until next week’s episode. And with all that out of the way, let’s jump in to WEEK 4 of The Bachelor!
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Warning: This is a movie where we’re not supposed to believe Jamie Dornan is a boring old dad.
Today, Todd and Mary discuss Synchronic, the new movie from directors Benson and Moorhead, which is all about time travel, family, and how the past sucks.
Read moremade with love by emily, kelli, mary, and susan. <3 thanks to Katelyn Elaine Photography for our group photos.