Feminist Book Club: The Podcast

Amanda Montell, author of The Age of Magical Overthinking, is reviewed by Renee who praises the book's relatability. Jordy shares her cross-country road trip book adventures, including visits to bookstores and audiobook companions. Books discussed include The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, Siren Queen, and American Mermaid.

We’re big fans of getting uncomfortable with your reading life, whether that be reading about a topic that has been misunderstood for most of history or reading translated literature in a whole new format. In this episode, our contributors share two ways to get a little outside your comfort zone when it comes to reading.   Reframing and Reclaiming: Using Horror to Come into Power (1:47) Mariquita talks with V. Castro about her latest book, Immortal Pleasures, which reframes the life of La Malinche, the Nahua woman who translated for Cortes. Their discussion covers the role of horror in holding a mirror to the atrocities carried out against indigenous people and people of color, reclaiming the stories of women that heretofore had only been told by their abusers, and how telling our own stories can give us power. CW include rape, sexual content, and sexual violence   Manga Mania (18:17) Jordy, Rah, and Mhairie sit down to discuss their varying degrees of love and experience when it comes to all things manga and anime. In this discussion, they delve into a brief history of manga - including an overview of the genres, how they each got into manga, and a bookish discussion on the first volume of the Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama.     Books/Resources Mentioned: Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama Creepy Cat by Cotton Valent Ghostly Things by Ushio Shirotori My Cat is Such a Weirdo by Tamako Tamagoyama  Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi Demon Slayer by Koyoharu Gotouge. InuYasha by Rumiko Takahashi Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa Fruit Baskets by Natsuki Takaya Happy Marriage by Maki Enjōji How Manga Took Over American Bookshelves - from It’s Lit! on PBS A Brief History of Manga by Merri Kiwi   Support this episode’s guest and hosts: Follow V. Castro: Instagram // TikTok // Website // Twitter Follow Mariquita: Instagram // Threads Follow Jordy: Instagram // TikTok  Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph Follow Mhairie: Instagram   Today’s episode is sponsored by Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannan and Moral Code by Lois and Russ Melbourne. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting independent feminist media.   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.  

If there’s one thing Feminist Book Club does well, it’s demonstrating how beautifully complex and multifaceted feminists are. In this episode, you’ll hear Ashley and Tayler’s thoughts on the juggernaut that is Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (is it a country album?) and then you’ll learn a thing or two about how the government collects demographic data with our resident civil servant and data geek Natalia.    Giddy Up for Cowboy Carter (1:47) Ashley and Tayler kick us off with a discussion about Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Act II. The conversation includes their favorite songs on the album, the online chatter around Beyoncé’s version of Jolene, and whether celebrities are or should be activists. Come for the pop culture, stay for the critiques.   Data Collection is Feminist (24:17) Natalia talks about recent updates to how the government collects demographic data, what information is NOT collected and why any of this matters to you. Also mentioned: Are Middle Eastern People Really "White"? by Yasi Agah for Feminist Book Club Support this episode’s hosts: Follow Ashley: Instagram // Website Follow Tayler: Instagram // TikTok // Threads Follow Natalia: Instagram Today’s episode is sponsored by Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannan and Moral Code by Lois and Russ Melbourne. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting independent feminist media.   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

We're not saying Feminist Book Club is as culturally important to the Western world as The Golden Girls, but we're also not not saying that. In this episode, you’ll hear FBC founder Renee chat with Executive DIrector Sally about some of the struggles selecting our books of the month. Then you’ll hear Ashley review a little known Golden Girls spinoff called The Golden Palace.   Trials and Tribulations of Selecting FBC Books of the Month (1:47) If you’re just a podcast listener, you may not realize Feminist Book Club is a real book club! We have a subscription service where you can join us and receive our non-fiction and fiction picks every month in the mail or via audiobooks. That may seem straightforward, but it recently dawned on Renee just how complicated the process is while she was training Sally to be our new Executive Director.   The Golden Palace is a Golden Sitcom (23:37) Then Ashley talks about The Golden Palace, the spinoff to the sitcom The Golden Girls, and why the show cements itself as a comedic gold mine. Check out Ashley’s blog article about Designing Women here. Support this episode’s hosts: Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website   Today’s episode is sponsored by Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannan and Moral Code by Lois and Russ Melbourne. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting independent feminist media.   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Today’s episode is all about feeling a part of something, whether that’s a family lineage or a community of gamers. We all want to feel like we belong to something more, and our contributors today take that feeling in two totally different (but somehow complementary?) directions.   Intuition and Lineage with Chanel Cleeton (0:17) Ashley speaks with Chanel Cleeton, author of The House on Biscayne Bay. This conversation includes how Chanel wrote the main characters to grow with intuition, the unique world-building in this story, and the influence of her own family’s history on the book.   Women in TTRPGs (11:44) Then listen in as Nox shares her experiences participating in tabletop role-playing games (aka TTRPGs) and how the new book The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall felt so familiar to her own experiences in this community.     Books mentioned in this episode: The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall   Also mentioned: Girls Run These Worlds Hoards of Tales Support this episode’s guest and hosts: Follow Chanel Cleeton: Instagram  Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website Follow Nox: Instagram // Twitter // TikTok Today’s episode is sponsored by Broadleaf Books. Pre-order your copy of We Refuse to Be Silent: Women’s Voices on Justice for Black Men, edited by Angela P. Dodson today!   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Not every book is a slam dunk, but we’re going to discuss them anyways. However, when a book is good, it’s really good. In this two-part episode, you’ll hear Jordy, Mariquita, and Nox discuss a book that wasn’t quite their cup of tea as well as a glowing review from Renee of a recent release.    Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan mini book club discussion (01:56) First up, Jordy, Mariquita, and Nox sit down to discuss the romance (with a sprinkling of fantasy) book, Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan. This conversation dives into the believability of the romance between the two main characters, can our protagonist really smell a curse, and what’s with curse-breaking sex?  Review: Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet (19:38) Then listen in as Renee shares her thoughts on a recently released book that’s not getting nearly the attention it deserves. Say Hello to My Little Friend is (hilariously and accurately) described as Moby Dick meets Scarface. Renee shares why she loved it, how it’s feminist, and a hyper-specific niche it fits into.     Books mentioned in this episode: Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan The Roommate by Rosie Danan Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura  Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Support this episode’s hosts: Follow Mariquita: Instagram  Follow Nox: Instagram // Twitter // TikTok Follow Jordy: Instagram // TikTok  Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph Today’s episode is sponsored by Broadleaf Books. Order your copy of Radiant Rebellion: Reclaim Aging, Practice Joy, and Raise a Little Hell by Karen Walrond today! Today’s episode is also sponsored by Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy. Get your copy today!   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.  

In this double feature, we’re sharing a moving author interview as well as a review of an important non-fiction book.   Family Dynamics, Women’s Rage, and Korean-American Womanhood with Gina Chung (01:54) First up, Mariquita interviews author Gina Chung about her new collection of short stories, Green Frog. Along the way they discuss how women’s rage is acceptable only within certain parameters and never for women of color, how stereotypes of Asian women stifle full expression, and just what we owe our parents (and what they owe us).   Review: Against Technoableism by Ashlew Shew (26:16) Then listen in as Nox (and her sweet kitty Hazel!) shares her thoughts on the book Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew. This review will shed light on her opinions as a disabled person of not just this book but also the world, and how we can all do better for disabled people.     Books mentioned in this episode: Sea Change by Gina Chung Green Frog by Gina Chung Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement by Ashley Shew My Body is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church by Amy Kenny Support this episode’s hosts and guest: Follow Mariquita: Instagram  Follow Gina Chung: Instagram // Website // Twitter Follow Nox: Instagram // Twitter // TikTok Today’s episode is sponsored by Broadleaf Books. Order your copy of Black Women, Ivory Tower: Revealing the Lies of White Supremacy in American Education by Jasmine L. Harris today! Today’s episode is also sponsored by Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy. Get your copy today!   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.  

  Do you love books? Do you love movies? Do you love to celebrate and/or complain about book-to-movie adaptations? This is the episode for you!   In anticipation of the 96th Academy Awards, Sally watched all of the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay… and then read all the books they were adapted from. She’ll never get those 60+ hours of her life back, but she’s here to share the books worth reading, the movies worth watching, and her pick for who should win Best Adapted Screenplay.   Books Mentioned: American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin Erasure by Percival Everett Poor Things by Alasdair Gray The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan Support this episode’s hosts Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph   Today’s episode is sponsored by Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy. Get your copy today!   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Four Graphic Novels for 2024 (0:22) Looking for a graphic novel to pick up? In this segment Rah shares four graphic novels that are making their way onto shelves in 2024.    Recommended in this segment:  Freshman Year by Sarah Mai Tender by Beth Hetland Full of Myself by Siobhán Gallagher Mothballs by Sole Otero  Black Feminists Who Helped Me Unlearn My White Feminism (8:42) As a white woman raised in a white community, Renee’s feminism wasn’t very intersectional until she got to grad school. In this segment, she shares some of the key Black feminist writers who helped her unlearn her white feminism.   Recommended in this segment: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde Ain’t I A Woman by bell hooks Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba Unapologetic by Charlene A. Carruthers White Feminism by Koa Beck Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown Do Better by Rachel Ricketts Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey   Podcast episodes mentioned: Morgan Jerkins + ReneeMorgan Jerkins + NataliaKoa Beck + Renee Rachel Ricketts + Renee Support this episode’s hosts Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph   Today’s episode is sponsored by Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy, out March 12 from Gillian Flynn Books. Get your copy today!   Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.  

Tayler (she/her) sits down with Shayla Lawson (they/them), author of the new book How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir. Tune in as Shayla talks about  Blackness as nonbinary, shares an argument for lowercasing the b in Black, and so much more on the African Diaspora.   Get a copy of How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson here!    Check out Shayla’s other books: This is Major:  Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope (2020) I Think I’m Ready to See Frank Ocean (2018)  Books that Shayla is reading: Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin  Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Calle  Support our hosts & guests: Follow Shayla - Substack | Instagram Follow Tayler: Twitter | Instagram | TikTok Beyond the Box: Our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday   Check out our online community here!    This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.   Original music by @iam.onyxrose   Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.