Can We Just Read, Please

Explicit content warning

04/28/21 • 54 min

Day 829 of our reading slump.
Things are looking bleak. The books on the shelves don't vibe with us. Our library books are being returned without ever having been read. We barely know how to read anymore. Do we just hold the books in our hands? Or is there another step? We can't remember.
Please, send help.
(Also, Vee reads Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Jess reads Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller)

Previous Episode

When Opposites Attract

(well, when opposites get compared)
Tag along another unhinged episode of emotionally charged ranting! It’s great, though. Don’t be scared.

Jess reads/rants about Sarah J. Maas’ latest book in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Silver Flames (ACOTAR #4? 5? ACOSF #1?), which follows the coerced romance of Nesta and Cassian. It’s weird and creepy and SJM isn’t even aware of it because she and her fans keep selling us propaganda about how feminist and progressive her books are. No, Rhysand, you didn’t invent feminism. No, Cassian, trapping a ‘female’ in your house and ogling her breasts and forcing her into exercise isn’t a form of therapy.

Ugh. And now they’re making a tv series out of this? Move aside, Outlander, here come the tanned dudebros with wings.

On a much happier note, Vee reads the genderqueer and imaginative and age-inclusive The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg, which is the first novel in Lemberg’s much loved Birdverse world. It’s like a coming of age novel for two queer 60 something year olds, but they’re not coming of age so much as affirming their true selves in the face of people who don’t accept them. Also magic and lore and a whole symbiosis between story and world and magic and mechanics and ugh. Go read it, it’s wonderful.

Next Episode

Jess & Vee (Incoherently) Discuss: Book Adaptations

Are book to movie/tv/theatre/videogame adaptations ever good?
We start to answer this question in our latest minisode... and then get sidetracked by talking about which adaptations we've liked and disliked. Important stuff, you know.
We're not (fully) sober in this episode, so if you're not comfortable with that, no problem. You can skip this one. Drink and smoke responsibly. (But also it's not really that great, anyways, so...)
Also, yes, Jess said Gary Oldman instead of Gary Marshall. It's okay, it's a mistake. Get over it.