Welcome to May! Can you believe it? We are officially five months into 2019. BookLover’s Con is this month. Are any of you attending? If so, the SBTB team hopes to see you there. I’m excited to see how the first year of BLCon goes and I’m even more excited to be in New Orleans.
…
Did you know May is National Masturbation Month? Join Bawdy Bookworms for a themed bingo contest, complete with prizes!
…
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch is being adapted for television! Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (the duo behind Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End) are behind this one.
…
Author Amy Andrews is over at Frolic.Media to convince you all why funny sexy is the best sex in romance. Do you agree? What are you favorite funny sex scenes in romance?
…
No shame in letting spring cleaning infiltrate your inbox! I loved this thread on decluttering your email and have vowed to set aside time to tackle this.
I dunno who needs to hear this but, there's no reason for you to have one THOUSAND unread emails in your inbox, half of which are spam from 5 years ago.
take 10 mins a day to mass delete, unsubscribe, filter and respond as needed. consider it spring cleaning. you can do this.
— Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh) April 25, 2019
…
Game of Thrones fans, please enjoy this McSweeney’s post on Jon Snow getting his 23andMe results.
..
Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I can not think of a better pair for “Rivers of London”. Waiting for more with bated breath.
@DonnaMarie I agree, I can let wait to see who they cast as Peter!
In so excited for Rivers of London and I really hope they don’t whitewash it! I love the books and the graphic novels are an excellent adaptation of their world.
I am probably in the 1% who have never watched “GoT” (too much gruesome for me) but I cracked up at that Jon Snow DNA exchange and have shared it with my fan-friends — which are legion.
Not really into GOT since I never read the books or the show, but I am into grim tones. It’s like something for my sad moods to wrap around.
I’ve been reading Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides and it is like eating a tiramisu with a cup of tea at a hole in the wall diner. It’s beautiful and sad and it hurts my heart.
It’s 1am now and I’m joining the bad decisions book club with this title.
I recently discovered NPR’s Rough Translation podcast, which is really interesting. But the reason I’m posting about it is that their season ender is called Austenistan and the Bitches should give it a listen. The over-arching idea of Rough Translation is to explore questions and ideas that are familiar to Americans in the context of other cultures. Austenistan is about the lives of a pair of sisters in Pakistan who are devoted Austen fans and a reporter whose family is (also) Islamic, and the way in which Austen has informed their lives and marriages. There’s angst (including divorce) and a couple of HEAs — one of which is romantic. The podcast website is https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510324/rough-translation .
@Jill Marie: I’m entirely with you on not watching GoT, but since my husband is a fan of both the books and the show, and because it’s so omnipresent, I get a lot of the memes and humor associated with the show, and I forward a lot of them on to him. It’s so strange to be semi-fluent in a world of entertainment that is 2500% NOT for me, enough that I get the humor, but don’t watch or read the original material. Glad to know I’m not alone!
@Jill Marie, @SB Sarah: Oh, thank god, more people who don’t watch Game of Thrones! This warms the cockles of my frozen heart! (Also, Sarah, I respect your husband’s reading choices, but I couldn’t even make it halfway through the first book, & so had zero desire to watch the show.)
GoT avoiders unite!
You may enjoy this podcast episode where Retta talks about why she quit watching it. (She plays Donna on Parks and Rec. “Treat Yo Self!”)
NPR Ask Me Another
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=60157040&refid=asa
^^ and here’s a link from NPR’s website instead of my stitcher app
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510299/ask-me-another
@ Franchesca Ramsay, have you been keeping a side-eye on my inbox? Admittedly I have not cleaned it out since my husband’s illness just because I’ve had too much going on; but yes, if I can spend 15-20 minutes a day on my (accidental) Pinterest account, I can spend just as much time on my inbox. Point taken.
Glad to hear I’m not the only GOT avoider. I’m depressed enough, I don’t need additional darkness, thanks very much.
Speaking of darkness, fans and fanfic writers of villains unite: MAJOR contention over a truly awful issue of Marvel’s new Darth Vader comic arc this week. Here’s the play-by-play from a female fan: https://twitter.com/PoeHotDameron/status/1121154475173933056/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1121154475173933056&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fio9.gizmodo.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1121154475173933056%26autosize%3D1 Followed by commentary from both sides: https://www.themarysue.com/star-wars-vader-dark-visions-problematic/ , https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-this-weeks-darth-vader-comic-is-causing-controversy-1834311320
I’m very excited about the Rivers of London adaptation. I think the Pegg/Frost team would do a great job. (I’ve seen Hot Fuzz sooo many times!).
I’m not watching GoT either. I’ve read up to book four (I think). I’ll probably read the rest at some point.
Another GoT virgin here—with plans to stay that way. I’ve read plenty of Wars of the Roses historical fiction and non-fiction, I don’t need to add dragons.
Anyway, sorry to post late, but here are a couple of interesting links: (1) the toll toxic masculinity takes on women and (2) why do schlubby guys always get the “hot girl” (me: sense of entitlement—or, possibly, two generations worth of beer commercials).
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a27259689/toxic-masculinity-male-friendships-emotional-labor-men-rely-on-women/
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/5/2/18526370/long-shot-rom-com-knock-up-loser-gets-girl
I also can’t watch got. The first time I watched, there was a graphic assault scene, so the show got a big nope from me.
It’s the same reason I don’t watch outlander. I read Redheadedgirl’s reviews and was glad I stayed away from that.
Thank you, @EC Spurlock–those threads about the Star Wars comic were very informative! And ugh–so awful!