Feminist Book Club: The Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

We all know that books can help us escape the real world and they can also demonstrate how we might show up in the world as our whole selves. This episode celebrates both ends of this spectrum. Sally kicks us off with some of her favorite quick horror novellas, a perfect escape for this time of year. Then Nox tells us about the impact the book Fat Girls Hiking had on her. Finally, Ashley chats with Jayne Allen, author of The Most Wonderful Time, a holiday romcom with depth.

Bite-Sized Fright for Spooky Season (0:21)

Novellas are perfect for a sick day, a readathon, or when you are utterly overwhelmed by life and need a quick read to pull you out of reality for a bit. As the weather cools down and we snuggle into spooky season, Sally’s got some short, creepy books for you to check out.

Fat Girls Hiking (6:18)

Nox shares a review of Fat Girls Hiking: An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability by Summer Michaud-Skog. Nox discusses how this book impacted her as a fat, disabled, person of color. She shares some parts that really resonated with her and inspired her, as well as a few places that could use a little more depth. Overall, this book is highly recommended!

Identity, Joy, and Travel with Jayne Allen (16:10)

In this spoiler-free conversation, Ashley and Jayne Allen discuss Jayne’s novel The Most Wonderful Time, how it is more than a holiday novel, and how through newness and tough conversations, the story comes to life.

Books/Resources Mentioned

Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker

Graveyard Shift by M. L. Rio

Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine

Fat Girls Hiking by Summer Michaud-Skog

The Most Wonderful Time by Jayne Allen

Support this episode’s hosts

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Nox: Instagram // Twitter // TikTok

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Jayne Allen: Instagram 

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.

Renee and Mariquita didn’t know what they were getting into when they decided to discuss the book One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon. Tune into this discussion for an overview of Yoon’s first adult novel, a thriller in the vein of The Stepford Wives, but stick around for Renee and Mariquita’s experience being humbled by Black readers’ reviews.

Books/Resources Mentioned

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Do Better by Rachel Ricketts

Renee’s interview with Rachel, author of Do Better

Goodreads review from Cydney

Support this episode’s hosts

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

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.

Get your TBRs ready because we’re discussing three books you won’t want to miss! Jordy reviews Made For You by Jenna Satterthwaite, Renee reviews All This and More by Peng Shepherd, and Mariquita sits down with Rachelle Bergstein to chat about her book The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us. This episode will have you thinking about the kinds of entertainment media that makes us all who we are.

Made For You – AI Women and The Bachelor (0:21)

Jordy sits down to discuss Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite. This book is The Bachelor meets artificial intelligence meets murder mystery. This story will have you ponder the ethics and morality of creating humanlike robots all while feeling empowered by reclaiming individual autonomy.  

Renee’s Reading Corner: All This and More (5:40)

If you’re feeling a little nostalgic for the Choose Your Own Adventure books we had growing up, you’ll want to check out Peng Shepherd’s latest novel All This and More. Renee reviews the book and shares why you might love it too.

What a Friend We Have in Judy (9:11)

Mariquita interviews author Rachelle Bergstein about her book The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us. Over the course of the discussion they cover the importance of Blume’s ability to destigmatize menstruation and masturbation, the evergreen relevance of censorship and book bans, and where accountability ends and censorship begins. 

Books and Resources Mentioned:

Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite 

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy 

The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore 

All This and More by Peng Shepherd

The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein 

Women from the Ankle Down by Rachelle Bergstein 

Brilliance and Fire by Rachelle Bergstein 

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume 

Deenie by Judy Blume 

Forever by Judy Blume 

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe  

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson 

Superfudge by Judy Blume 

Then Again Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume 

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer 

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Jordy: Instagram // TikTok 

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Rachelle: Instagram // website // twitter 

Follow Mariquita: Instagram // Threads 

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.

After trying – and failing – to lean in and girlboss our way to success, what comes next? Ashley and Sally chat with Samhita Mukhopadhyay (former executive editor for Teen Vogue) about what we can take away from those movements, how community is key to a workplace revolution, and insights from her book The Myth of Making It.

Books and Resources Mentioned:

The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning by Samhita Mukhopadhyay

Having It All by Helen Gurley Brown

Phillip Cardi’s interview with Samhita on Unholier Than Thou

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Samhita: Instagram // Substack

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

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.

Move over non-fiction, we’ve got three novels that tackle big social issues in today’s episode! From violence against women in Murder After the Night Before, racist property laws in What You Leave Behind, and climate change in Troubled Waters, today’s episode proves that fiction can teach us and inspire us just as well, if not better, than non-fiction. 

The One with the (Un)Likable Female Character with Katy Brent (0:21)

Do we need to like our main characters or can we just accept that we’re all a bit like Rachel’s trifle from Friends? In this segment, kindly sponsored by HarperCollins, Sally talks with Katy Brent, author of The Murder After the Night Before. They chat about unlikeable female characters, what we gain from true crime, and Katy’s favorite thrillers.

Heirs Property in What We Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris (16:55) 

Renee gushes about the new legal thriller What We Leave Behind by one of her favorite thriller authors Wanda M. Morris. To provide context for the premise of the book, she dives into what heirs property is, what makes it so complicated, and how it can impact the inheritance and legacy of Black families.

Lineage, Food, and Climate Change with Mary Annaïse Heglar (25:41)
Ashley speaks with the author of Troubled Waters, Mary Annaïse Heglar, about how food can be a connector among characters, how place is pivotal for storytelling, the history of climate change that we try to forget, and cli-fi as a literary genre.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent

How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Hidden Homicides podcast

You by Caroline Kepnes (and the tv show)

The Boys

Killing Eve

Troubled Waters by Mary Annaïse Heglar

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

Renee’s podcast interview with Wanda M. Morris (from 2022)

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Katy Brent: Instagram

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Mary Annaïse Heglar: Instagram

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.

Pride Month may be over for 2024, but we’ll never stop reading and recommending queer lit! Especially when the books are as good as the two in this episode. First up, tune into Rah fanboi-ing all over TJ Alexander as they interview the author about their new book Triple Sec. Then join Mariquita and Sam in a discussion of Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg, with themes of love, grief, queerness, embodiment, and so much more.

More Poly Rom-Coms Please: Discussing Triple Sec with TJ Alexander (0:21)

Are you tired of typical romance novels that don’t showcase diverse relationship styles? Have you considered reading Triple Sec? In this segment, Rah sits down with TJ Alexander to discuss the inspiration and creation behind the newly released polyamorous rom-com, Triple Sec. Tune in to hear about TJ’s process in creating diverse characters, the future of poly rom-coms, and why this book should be on your summer beach read TBR.

Echoes of Queerness in Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg (24:49)
Mariquita and Sam chat about Emma Copley Eisenberg’s recently released Housemates, a book about queer love and art and their intersection. Mariquita and Sam discuss the book’s continuum of queer artists, its embodied embrace of fatness, and more.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander

Chef’s Choice by TJ Alexander

Second Chances in New Port Stephen by TJ Alexander

Triple Sec by TJ Alexander

I’ll Have What He’s Having by Adib Khorram

The Prospects by KT Hoffman

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

More on Berenice Abbot and Elizabeth McCausland 

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph

Follow TJ Alexander: Instagram // Website

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Sam: Twitter // Instagram 

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 love supporting women’s righteous anger… and let’s be real, it feels really good to be angry from time to time. In this episode, join Kenesma as she speaks with Defne Suman about her new book Summer Heat and the themes of anger, reconciliation, and family during Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus. Then stay tuned to hear Ashley and Rah thoughtfully discuss their experience watching the new film Furiosa: A Mad Max Story.

Summer Heat: An Interview with Defne Sumner (1:03)

One of our book club moderators Kenesma sat down with Defne Suman to discuss her latest novel Summer Heat, recently translated from Turkish into English and publishing in the US in a couple of weeks. This book is set alternately between 2003 and 1974 and follows Melike and her lovers, as the reader experiences the personal and the political through her eyes.

Furiosa Frenzy  (27:49)

Ashley and Rah are back with another film discussion! This time, they're diving into the recently released film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Join them as they share their thoughts on the action-packed prequel, explore the depth beyond the explosions, and celebrate the portrayal of the female lead. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the Mad Max Universe, this episode promises insights for this thrilling installment.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

Summer Heat by Defne Suman

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Kenesma: Instagram

Follow Defne Suman: Website

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph

Today’s episode is sponsored by The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent from HQ Digital, an imprint of HarperCollins. 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.

Pride Month is here and we've got our queerly beloveds on our minds. In this double header, you'll first hear Rah and Jordy discuss their favorite sapphic romances and why they love a good WLW love story. Then, Ashley and Mhairie tackle the question of whether we can ever separate a piece of art (such as a certain nostalgic magical series) from the artist when they actively harm the people we love.

Queerly Beloved - Sapphic Stories to Light Up Your Pride Month (1:47)

Happy Pride Month! We don’t need an excuse to read sapphic romances, but if you're looking for one, this is the perfect month to dive in! Tune into this segment where Rah and Jordy discuss a few of their favorite sapphic romances and books with sapphic romances in the background. Get ready to have your TBR list bursting with books that showcase some delightful WLW antics.

The FBC Community asks, Can we separate art from the artist? (20:46)

Ashley and Mhairie delve into a question from a Feminist Book Club community member posed in our online community : how do you deal with authors whose beliefs go against your own yet their books were some of the most meaningful to you? The conversation includes what cancel culture means, accountability culture, and if you can separate art from the artist. 

Books/Resources Mentioned:

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date by Ashley Herring Blake

The Fiance Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur 

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 

Outdrawn by Deanna Grey

No Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall - (listen to Nox’s Review here!) 

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton

Chlorine by Jade Song

Payback’s a Witch and In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma Alban

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Here we go again Alison Cochrun

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph

Follow Jordy: Instagram

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Mhairie: Instagram

Today’s episode is sponsored by Thank You, More Please by Lily Womble from Legacy Lit and The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent from HQ Digital, an imprint of HarperCollins. 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 truly in the golden age of book adaptations but move over, Reese Witherspoon, Patricia Highsmith is the reigning queen. Tune in to listen to Renee, Ashley, and Mariquita thoughtfully and hilariously discuss the 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, as well as the 1999 film, and the new Netflix series. They compare and contrast the three texts, dive into the enduring themes of queerness in each, why the book withstands the test of time, Matt Damon vs. Andrew Scott, and all the aspects they loved in the latest series. Finally, they attempt to answer the question, “What the hell is Mr. Ripley’s talent anyhow?”

Books/Resources Mentioned:

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999 film)

Ripley (2024 Netflex series)

The Guest by Emma Cline

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Mindhunter (TV series)

Sugar (TV series)

Bad Sisters (TV series)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (film)

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Today’s episode is sponsored by Thank You, More Please by Lily Womble from Legacy Lit and The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent from HQ Digital, an imprint of HarperCollins. 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.

When Sally mentioned in our team Slack that she was considering reading the six books on the short list for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Renee chimed in that she’d already read two of them. Like the true feminist nerds they are, they teamed up to read three each. In this podcast episode, Sally and Renee rank the six books and make a prediction for which one will win the prize later this week.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma by Noreen Masud

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

Special thanks to Melville House for providing a complementary copy of A Flat Place.

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Today’s episode is sponsored by Thank You, More Please by Lily Womble from Legacy Lit and Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America by Shefali Luthra from Doubleday. 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.