Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast

We’re back! With more of your questions! We’re going to talk about tv shows we recommend, book recs of course, mayonnaise of course, summer treats, and middle school favorites.Thanks to Laura B, Karelia, Christina B, and Phoebe for the questions!...Music: purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arielle Zibrak is the author of Guilty Pleasures, a new book in the Avidly Reads series from New York University Press. She’s also a former editor of romance fiction, and a professor of 19th century popular fiction. Her new book - which is terrific - examines the concept of the “guilty pleasures” and seeks to unpack and answer the question, “What is it about ribald romance novels, luxurious interior design, and frothy wedding dresses that often make women feel their desires come with a shadow of shame?”This is one of those conversations that made my brain go all jiffy pop with bunches of ideas. I hope you enjoy it as well!You can find Avidly Reads: Guilty Pleasures wherever you get your books, and I’ve got links in the show notes, too....Music: purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’re going to talk about food safety law, and the history of women who probably poisoned their husbands. Allegedly.Mikki Kendall, on Twitter as @Karnythia and the author of Hood Feminism, is an eager historian into the mysteries of what women got away with, and so we cover poison clusters, dying of fever, and the poisons hanging out in your back yard. This conversation was inspired by two Twitter threads, and I’ll link to both.As Mikki said in an email after we recorded, “we have evidence of poison clusters with inorganic poisons from autopsy reports & you can look at death record indexes when hunting for clusters of odd deaths.”CW/TW: Food safety, horror stories, actual murder, questions about what’s in vaguely labeled food, and discussions of signs of intimate partner and child abuse....Music: purple-planet.comShow notes with book info: https://bit.ly/463MikkiKendallTwitter thread about food safety law: https://twitter.com/Karnythia/status/1395581960785911808?s=20Twitter thread about MURDER: https://twitter.com/Karnythia/status/882012566070939648 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I asked the Patreon community what they’d like to ask Amanda and I, and howdy damn, I got some really thoughtful and fun questions! In this conversation, we’re talking about astrology, apps, allergies, and all the book recs. If you like hanging out while we chat, this episode is for you. Thanks to everyone in the Patreon community for their questions!...Music: purple-planet.com...Show notes, links and book recs: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=podcast&p=100162 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catherine and I chat with Lois McMaster Bujold (!!!) about The Assassins of Thasalon. If you like the Penric & Desdemona books as much as we do (which is a LOT) you’ll love this episode!We cover the origin story of Penric and Desdemona, how her retirement partially rests on self publishing, and how much manga she’s reading and watching - with recommendations.Thank you to our Patreon community for the transcript, and to Laura G., Francene, Jamie, and Agnes for the questions!...Music: purple-planet.comFull show notes with links to books: http://bit.ly/461McMasterBujold Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author and actor Preslaysa Williams joins me to talk about her new book, A Lowcountry Bride, which she calls “a love letter to Charleston.” We discuss the beauty and pain of complicated history, the process of writing this book over ten years, and the weirdness of seeing your younger self in animated gifs.Find the books and show notes: ...Music: Purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tara and I exclaimed at each other about Dr. Jen Gunter’s latest book, The Menopause Manifesto, so we figured we should exclaim at her, too. In this conversation, we cover the book, the facts and science about menopause, and the history of how predatory patriarchal bullcrap has influenced how we think, talk, and learn about menopause. We also talk about pseudoscience, getting health advice from Facebook and Instagram (bad idea jeans), and curly hair!TW/CW we talk briefly about weight changes during menopause, and how people in medicine treat people based on weight (not good). That section is at about 27:00 in and lasts for two minutes....Music: purple-planet.com...Check out Tara's review of The Menopause Manifesto: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/the-menopause-manifesto-by-dr-jen-gunter/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest this week is author Hudson Lin (she/her) whose new book Hard Sell is out 25 May! Hard Sell is a trope-tastic queer romance between Daniel and Tobin, who have a secret affair while working opposite sides of a business deal. Lin and I talk about the writing process and how she portrays Daniel’s professional burnout in the story (no spoilers, I promise). We also discuss why Lin thinks romance is a revolutionary genre, and how it’s disruptive to existing power structures. Plus: book and Netflix recs galore! Show Notes: http://bit.ly/458HudsonLinMusic: purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colin Dobson-Fox is the co-host and producer behind one of my favorite YouTube channels, Foxes Afloat, which recently reached over 100k subscribers (a very big deal in YouTube Land). Colin and his husband Shaun live aboard a narrowboat in the UK, and produce weekly vlogs of their travels, and their lives, including Colin’s life with autism and with mental illness.This is a bit afield of my usual interviews, but I was fascinated by Colin’s editing process as he takes over 40 hours of film and edits to a 15-30 minute vlog. So this episode is partly about editing and shaping a story of their own lives week to week over the past three years, but also about being a public figure in a small piece of the internet. We also talk about how his relationship with his husband Shawn started (don’t miss that part) (Seriously, goodest part).Vlogs (and blogs, and podcasts, and writing) are as much about crafting the story as they are about shaping and editing that story, and the overlap between what the Foxes do and what I do was too tempting not to explore. I hope you enjoy my quiet fangirl squeeing and our conversation....Music: purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sing along with us! Reach into the deep vault of your memory, and sing TV themes as we attempt to stump one another. We also start by talking about cat vomit because of course we do. We cover all the great children’s tv themes, teen crushes, songs that come with instant Pavlovian responses, and more. So if you were craving some bizarre and enjoyable silliness, this is your episode. (We hope you sing along!) Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3QVu4uQWfueMK0uPhUnNan?si=ecdd25bbf2e84023...Music: purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.