BSG #55: Off the Beaten Grid / Earthlings

June 14, 2021 The Squad

71b+kaloTdL.jpg — BSG #55: Off the Beaten Grid / *Earthlings*

Join us on our spaceship for our discussion of *Earthlings* by Sayaka Murata. We talk about the various pressures women face, society as a monster, the strange and complicated characters, body hair, and that wild ending. Next we get into some listener feedback on *Ready Player Two* and *Make Up Break Up*, and then we catch up with what’s on the blog! Tune in on June 28th for our third installment of Book Squad Games, and read along for our next Bookpisode about *The Chosen and the Beautifu*l by Nghi Vo on July 12th!

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

The Bachelorette S17E1: What's in the Box?!

June 10, 2021 Susan & Emily

Bachelorette season is officially upon us, everyone! And Susan and Emily are back to recap the season and play everyone’s favorite game: Fantasy Bachelorette. If you’ve followed any of our recaps from previous seasons, you know how this goes. But in case you’re new here. On week one, Susan and Emily draft their teams. In the following weeks, we recap the episode and get points for our boys.

So how did this draft shake out? Check out our picks and our thoughts on the dudes after night one. And come back next week for our first full-on recap of the season!

The Bachelorette First Impressions: It's Cat Lady Season!

June 6, 2021 The Squad

The Bachelorette is back for a new season, and although Susan and Emily backed out of recapping the end of the last season of The Bachelor, we’re cautiously optimistic. Chris Harrison is gone, we’ve got two of our favorite Bachelorettes of all time (Tayshia and Kaitlyn) hosting, and we’ve finally got a CAT LADY as the Bachelorette. We Stan.

The only disappointment so far? Some how Bao, who was an early fan favorite when the cast was initially announced, didn’t make it to the final cast list. Frankly, this is appalling and we here at Book Squad Goals (or at least Emily) find it a little hard to get excited about any of these other dudes now that Bao is out of the picture. For real, Bao for Bachelor.

But anyway. We’re going to try to get excited about this cast anyway. Here we are doing our best.

Queer Girl Book Club: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

June 1, 2021 Kelli & Emily

Kelli: Welcome back to Queer Girl Book Club! This time we read Honey Girl, the debut novel from author Morgan Rogers.

Honey Girl follows Grace, a newly-minted doctor of astronomy who is unsure about her next steps in life after spending eleven years working towards accomplishing this goal. On a vacation to Las Vegas, she meets Yuki, a New Yorker, and they drunkenly get married that night. Grace decides that instead of heading straight for the career path she's been planning, she'll spend the summer in New York getting to know Yuki and avoiding reality.

Emily, I'm going to get this out of the way now: we both really wanted to like this book, and neither of us did.

Emily: Right. So you know, maybe just for the fun of it, before we talk about the myriad of reasons this book didn't work for us, should we maybe say a few things about what did work and why we were interested in reading it in the first place?

Kelli: Sure! Obviously, this is Queer Girl Book Club, and for me, the main draw here was the lesbian romance.

Emily: Yes, clearly part of the draw was lesbians.

Othersode #54: I Totally Had Sex: A Hatepisode / Ready Player 2

May 31, 2021 The Squad

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YA Book Club: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal

May 22, 2021 Mary & Emily

Hello and welcome to Bellows, Pennsylvania.

Mary: Welcome and helloooooo! This time on YA Book Club we’re talking about Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal. The novel follows Priya, a young med school student who has to take a break from school after contracting Lyme disease. While staying with her parents, Priya makes several friends online via Tumblr, and they form a support group for people with chronic illnesses. Her best friend out of the group, Brigid, is reluctant to talk about her chronic illness. As Priya and Brigid grow closer, they learn more about each other and explore what it means to be chronically ill in a world that doesn’t really accomodate for that. From here on out, there will be spoilers!

Now, Pose: Aesthetics and Masculinity in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

May 20, 2021 Mary

I recently jumped into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, an anime I’ve heard about for a long time but had never given a chance. I knew two things about it going in.

First, it’s an action show in the tradition of Shonen Jump manga. Most episodes feature elaborate fights and lots of screaming and naming of one’s attacks. Secondly, I knew that the internet deemed many of the characters of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure queer icons with audacious fashion taste. I had to watch it.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure does a few things very well, but it has a ways to go in a couple of areas. I’m going to break it down in this handy dandy list of things you need to know about, what else, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

BSG #54: The Twist is Misogyny / Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 / Interview w/ Ethel Rohan

May 17, 2021 The Squad

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

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