Strange and Beautiful Book Club – Details, episodes & analysis

Our delayed monthly book club episode where we discuss "The Quantum Thief" by Hannu Rajaniemi. Did we both love it? Is there a percentage of made up words that Rachel simply cannot tolerate? How many books did Rachel read while actively delaying reading this one?

What is life anyways?

Listen and find out? (Maybe not the life one)

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

Matt and Rachel are headed out on the road! Please listen for information on which shows will be on break until October!

• Strange and Beautiful Book Club - On break until October 2024
• Feast, Sheath, and Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast - On break until October 2024
• Ger Can Get It - Regular Episodes
• The Dead Do Not Podcast: A Lexx Rewatch - Regular Episodes (returning July 22nd, 2024)

Thank you! Join us on Patreon (link below) to follow us on our trip!

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

"Anguish" is a 1987 horror film directed by Bigas Luna. The movie revolves around a mentally unstable mother, who hypnotizes her son John to commit murder and harvest eyes for her collection. The mother is portrayed as a controlling and manipulative figure, and John becomes increasingly disturbed as he struggles with his mother's influence. The film explores themes of psychological manipulation, the blurred lines between reality and illusion, and the consequences of unchecked obsession. As the story unfolds, viewers are drawn into a surreal and unsettling narrative that challenges perceptions of sanity and morality.

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

I absolutely adored this book. I thought the concept was interesting, the execution was flawless, and the journey that Alex goes on was heart-breaking, inspiring, and believable. The conceit of time-travel is not new but the way that James Goodhand shapes it in this novel made it feel seamlessly fresh and integral to the story rather than a plot device to make an otherwise boring world intriguing. The main character, Alex, is living his life out of order and must unpack each day to put together scattered pieces of what has happened to him in the time between and how can he get back the future he'd hoped to have.

This novel would appeal to fans of fantasy, science fiction, or even real life fiction because, at it's core, it's a story about a man who was moving through life blind to the consequences of his choices until he is forced to confront them through chance and bizarre circumstance. What he does afterwards is where all the heart in this story lies and it will make you cry, scream, and cheer for Alex. Sometimes in the same chapter. 

I had no idea from page to page what I was going to find and it was an absolute delight to live in mystery just like the main character and to watch him assemble the pieces of himself and create something better. 

Read this book. Right now.  

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

The 2002 film "Solaris" is a psychological science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem. The movie stars George Clooney as Dr. Chris Kelvin, a psychologist sent to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris. Upon arrival, Kelvin encounters strange phenomena, including the appearance of his deceased wife, Rheya, played by Natascha McElhone. As Kelvin grapples with his own guilt and grief over Rheya's death, he confronts the enigmatic forces at play on the station and on the planet itself. The film explores themes of memory, love, and the nature of reality, all set against the backdrop of a haunting and atmospheric space station. Soderbergh's "Solaris" is a contemplative and visually striking adaptation of Lem's novel, known for its introspective tone and minimalist style.

Did we like it or were we just in it for nude scenes? (George Clooney naked eating noodles isn't a hard sell). Was it a better adaptation than the 1972 movie? Did anyone read the book or did they all just get the gist and go full into "erotic problems in space" as Lem put it?

Listen to find out!

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

We finally did it. After over a dozen episodes of Dune content, we made it to the epic release of Denis's Dune: Part 2! What did we think? Did we like it? Was it worth all the time and hype? Is one of Tim's legs shorter than the other? Trust Strange and Beautiful to ask the truly important questions around here. 

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

"Solaris" is a 1972 Soviet science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, based on the novel of the same name by Stanisław Lem. The film follows psychologist Kris Kelvin, played by Donatas Banionis, who travels to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris. There, he encounters strange phenomena that seem to be manifestations of his own memories and desires. As Kelvin delves deeper into the mysteries of Solaris, he grapples with questions of identity, love, and the nature of reality. The film also stars Natalya Bondarchuk as Hari, Kelvin's deceased wife who mysteriously reappears on the station. Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is renowned for its philosophical themes, atmospheric cinematography, and meditative pacing.

Did we agree? Do we like the "meditative pacing" or is that just another name for dragging on endlessly for no particular reason? Was it a good adaptation?

Listen to find out!

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

A book recommendation from Rachel and Matt! The Unknown Best: Book 1 by Matt Wilkening! Get it here!

But success is a paradise, and a paradise which one cannot leave is a prison. So when Mike finds himself mysteriously thrust into a war-ravaged far future, occupying the body of a hapless highschool girl with no knowledge or understanding of the world around him, he does what he always does— turns lemons into lemonade.

Mike flees from the utopia of his causal nose into the dystopia of the world around him. He adopts the identity of his new body in perverse defiance of the mystery it poses. He enlists in the future-military to pilot a giant mech against the bug-monsters and the killer robots. He befriends the friends of the highschooler whose life he usurped, and uses them as the brick and mortar of a fate which he architects unknowingly. He’s unhinged. He’s sociopathic. But can he find a reason not to be when dystopia and utopia are one and the same?

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

Rachel and Matt discuss the novel "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem which has been adapted into film twice (episodes incoming!) was it an easier read than Star Maker? Did we think this author was also on some really good hallucinogens? You'll find out!

There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network!

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Listen to us chat our way through the greatest scifi tv show ever made on We Are All Kosh - A Babylon 5 podcast

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Riverside.fm is a video/audio recording platform built for podcasters. Check them out today for uncompressed audio and video recording, unlimited transcription services, AI Social Media clips, teleprompter and on screen scripts, and a bunch of other cool stuff too. Make long distance podcasting 100x easier. (Don't work harder, work smarter)

Rachel and Matt mostly talk about "Radius" from 2017 but also sort of talk about a lot of unrelated stuff too. 

From Wikipedia: 

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Join us on Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ

Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!). It's like sitting down with girl friends to chat about hot book boyfriends but in podcast format! Listen now at Feast, Sheath, Shatter: A Book Chat Podcast

Love Movies, TV Shows and Books in the Fantasy, Scifi, and Horror genre and want to hear more? Check us out at The Strange and Beautiful Book Club where Rachel and her husband Matt discuss all things genre-related.

Longing for a simpler time in the police procedural genre AND love Vampires? Matt and Rachel also review the classic television show Forever Knight on their podcast, Come in 81 Kilo.

Not getting enough sweaty 90s sexcapades from your television and movie content? Listen to Meg and Rachel discuss the finer points of Geraint Wyn Davies' career over at Ger Can Get It!

You can also:
Join us on Instagram here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork/⁠⁠⁠
Join us on Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork
Find us on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz9ENwKdHrm57Qmu8L4WXwQ