
Episode 168 - Holiday Romance
Explicit content warning
02/07/23 • 69 min
It's almost Valentine's Day, so this episode we’re talking about Holiday Romance! We discuss what counts as a holiday, Christmas, nostalgia, 1st vs. 3rd person narration, and how all the stories we read are “fine.” Plus: There’s only one bed!
You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.
In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards
Things We Read (or tried to...)
- Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
- Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
- Someone to Trust by Mary Balogh
- Yule Planet by Angel Martinez
- Alaskan Holiday by Debbie Macomber
Other Media We Mentioned
- The Red Satin Collection by Giselle Renarde
- The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer (the Hanukkah one Jam mentioned)
- Casper Gets His Wish by R. Cooper (the elf one Jam mentioned) (from Episode 063: Cheap eBooks)
- The Frontier Romance: Environment, Culture, and Alaska Identity by Judith Kleinfeld
Links, Articles, and Things
- Hark! Episode 328: Brand Synergy
- When Is ‘Cuffing Season?’
- New Christmas Movies You Can Stream This Season (2022)
- How to watch all 172 new Christmas movies in December
- Quiz: What Queer Holiday Romance Should You Read?
- Escape from the Holidays
- 24-hour comic (Wikipedia)
20 Holiday Romance books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) Authors
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.
- The Holly Dates by Brittainy C. Cherry
- Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
- Sweet on You: A Filipino Romance by Carla de Guzman
- Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
- Kwanzaa Angel by Shirley Hailstock
- Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera
- Amor Actually: A Holiday Romance Anthology by Adriana Herrera, Alexis Daria, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Mia Sosa, Priscilla Oliveras, Sabrina Sol, and Zoey Castile
- Merry Inkmas by Talia Hibbert
It's almost Valentine's Day, so this episode we’re talking about Holiday Romance! We discuss what counts as a holiday, Christmas, nostalgia, 1st vs. 3rd person narration, and how all the stories we read are “fine.” Plus: There’s only one bed!
You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.
In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards
Things We Read (or tried to...)
- Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
- Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
- Someone to Trust by Mary Balogh
- Yule Planet by Angel Martinez
- Alaskan Holiday by Debbie Macomber
Other Media We Mentioned
- The Red Satin Collection by Giselle Renarde
- The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer (the Hanukkah one Jam mentioned)
- Casper Gets His Wish by R. Cooper (the elf one Jam mentioned) (from Episode 063: Cheap eBooks)
- The Frontier Romance: Environment, Culture, and Alaska Identity by Judith Kleinfeld
Links, Articles, and Things
- Hark! Episode 328: Brand Synergy
- When Is ‘Cuffing Season?’
- New Christmas Movies You Can Stream This Season (2022)
- How to watch all 172 new Christmas movies in December
- Quiz: What Queer Holiday Romance Should You Read?
- Escape from the Holidays
- 24-hour comic (Wikipedia)
20 Holiday Romance books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) Authors
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.
- The Holly Dates by Brittainy C. Cherry
- Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
- Sweet on You: A Filipino Romance by Carla de Guzman
- Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
- Kwanzaa Angel by Shirley Hailstock
- Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera
- Amor Actually: A Holiday Romance Anthology by Adriana Herrera, Alexis Daria, Diana Muñoz Stewart, Mia Sosa, Priscilla Oliveras, Sabrina Sol, and Zoey Castile
- Merry Inkmas by Talia Hibbert
Previous Episode

Episode 167 (version 2) - 2023 Reading Goals & 2022 Reading Report
(Hello! This is a re-upload. The first version had a syncing error that snuck in at the very end of the editing process. We've re-exported it and this version sounds much better!)
This episode we’re talking about our 2023 Reading Goals! We discuss intentions, resolutions, anti-resolutions, and give a report on how well we fulfilled our reading goals last year.
You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.
In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards
2022: Year of Book Two
2023 Resolutions
- Matthew:
- Read more non-fiction
- Meghan:
- Quit trying to read fiction when she doesn’t feel like it
- Read more of what she owns (borrow less from the library)
- Anna:
- Read more graphic novels
- Take pictures of favourite reads
- Jam:
- Theme for the year: Intention
- Return to tracking picture book reading
Media We Mentioned
- Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, narrated by Kim Mai Guest, Johnathan McClain, Candice Moll, Lincoln Hoppe, Donnabella Mortel, Jonathan Todd Ross, Erin Spencer & Steve West
- Illuminae Files (books 1-3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, narrated by Moira Quirk
- Steven Erikson
- Witch Hat Atelier, Vol 1 by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler
- Delicious in Dungeon, Vol 1 by Ryoko Kui, translated by Sébastien Ludmann
Links, Articles, and Things
- Which Pokemon are the Most Goth?
- Matthew reviews his manga reading from 2022 on Twitter
- List of One Piece manga volumes - Wikipedia
25 Dystopian Fiction books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors to help our listeners diversify their readers’ advisory. All of the lists can be found here.
- Leila by Prayaag Akbar
- Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- Caster by Elsie Chapman
- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
- Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
- The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
- Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez
- The Ones...
Next Episode

Episode 169 - What is a Book? (Part 2)
This episode we’re continuing our conversation from last year and talking about What is a Book? We talk about hypertext, instruction manuals, visual novels, campfire stories, and more!
You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.
In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards
Media We Mentioned
- DC Pride 2022 #1
- Tic Tac Tome: The Autonomous Tic Tac Toe Playing Book by Willy Yonkers
- Homestuck (Wikipedia)
- Doki Doki Literature Club! (Wikipedia)
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (Wikipedia)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Wikipedia)
- Lasers & Feelings
- Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Links, Articles, and Things
- Episode 144 - What is a Book?
- I read all 337 books in Skyrim so you don't have to
- Episode 108 - Visual Novels
- Choose Your Own Adventure (Wikipedia)
- Demian's Gamebook Web Page
- KineticNovel (Wikipedia)
- Hypertext fiction (Wikipedia)
- HyperCard (Wikipedia)
- Flip Book (Wikipedia)
- Desert Bus for Hope
- Microform (Wikipedia)
- Rice writing (Wikipedia)
- Matthew was just wrong about this
- Changes to new editions of Roald Dahl books have readers up in arms
- Jaffa Cakes: Legal Status (Wikipedia)
- That time the X-Men’s humanity was put on trial in a real court of law
- Fountain (Duchamp) (Wikipedia)
20 Books Adapted into Film/TV by BIPOC Authors (and 7 Being Adapted Soon)
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker | The Color Purple (1985)
- The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor | The Women of Brewster Place (1989 mini-series)
- Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, translated by Carol & Thomas Christensen | Like Water for Choc...
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