The SBTB team is gathering in groups across many time zones to look back at the books, shows, and other essentials that got us through 2020, and to look ahead to 2021. Everyone brings a question to ask, so in this episode, Ellen, Elyse, Tara, and I talk books, Quarantimes, zoom exhaustion, and coping methods – and I stumble upon a potential new, unexplored fanfic.
…
Looking for a new podcast to try? May I suggest Boobies & Noobies?
Boobies & Noobies is the weekly podcast that asks novice romance readers to think outside the box.
Find Boobies & Noobies wherever you get your find podcasts!
…
Music: purple-planet.com
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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
I mentioned Episode 426. All About Murderbot with Martha Wells.
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Transcript
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[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 436 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell. Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. This week, and for the next few weeks, different members of the Smart Bitches team are gathering in groups across a whole lot of time zones to look back at the books and shows and other pieces of media that got us through 2020 and to look ahead to 2021. Everyone brings a question to ask, so we’re going to have different questions in each episode. In this one, Ellen, Elyse, and Tara and I talk about books, the Quarantimes, Zoom exhaustion, coping methods, and – you can tell me if you think I’m right about this – I’m pretty sure I stumble onto a new, unexplored possibility in fanfic. But you can let me know if you think I’m wrong about that.
You can email me at [email protected] and tell me, no, actually, I already wrote that fanfic – which would be awesome if you did, so definitely do that. [Laughs]
If you are looking for a new podcast to try, might I suggest Boobies & Noobies.
Kelly Reynolds: Hey, everybody! It’s Kelly, host of Boobies & Noobies, part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Every episode, I invite a romance-reading newbie to read and review their very first romance novel alongside me, a self-proclaimed romance novel addict. We’re talking everything from bisexual pegging –
[Laughter]
Podcast excerpt Kelly: We need more pegging on TV; we need it in books; we need it in real life! We need to talk about it!
Kelly: – to the deepest intricacies of relationships.
Podcast excerpt Kelly: It really is like we’re fighting for us.
Guest: Yes.
Podcast excerpt Kelly: Like, we’re, let’s fight –
Guest: That’s beautiful.
Kelly: We cover it all. Find and follow us on social media @boobiespodcast and catch up on previous episodes on your favorite podcast streaming platform.
Sarah: I will have links in the show notes at – you know the URL – smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast, where you can find Boobies & Noobies, or just search for it wherever you are listening to this podcast, unless you’re actually listening to it on the website, in which case, hello, thank you! How are you? Nice to see you today.
This podcast is brought to you by Headspace. Headspace is your daily dose of mindfulness in the form of guided meditations in an easy-to-use app that I love. Headspace is one of the only meditation apps advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation through clinically validated research, so whatever the situation, Headspace really can help you feel better! If you are feeling overwhelmed, Headspace has three-minute SOS meditations for you. If you need help falling asleep, Headspace has wind-down sessions for all of their members, and Amanda loves these. For parents, there’s morning meditations you can do with your kids. Headspace’s approach to mindfulness can reduce stress, improve sleep, boost focus, and increase your overall sense of wellbeing. I am still working through the course on managing anxiety, and I’ve also tried the Wake Up, which is a daily unique meditation for each morning. The course on anxiety has helped me immeasurably. I’m able to sort of identify when I feel anxious, how it makes me feel physically, emotionally, and then gain a little distance so that I can keep myself calm and content; I really like this app. Headspace is backed by twenty-five published studies on its benefits, six hundred thousand five-star reviews, and over sixty million downloads. Headspace makes it easy for you to build a life-changing meditation practice with mindfulness that works for you on your schedule, anytime, anywhere. And I have to say, this one really works for me. You deserve to feel happier, and Headspace is meditation made simple. Go to headspace.com/SARAH – that’s headspace.com/SARAH, S-A-R-A-H – for one free month trial with access to Headspace’s full library of meditations for every situation. This is the best deal available right now. Head to headspace.com/SARAH today!
I have a compliment in this episode. I love this so much! This compliment is for Barb P.:
You are more charming and entertaining than a gathering of eighteen baby goats wearing seasonal turtleneck sweaters – even without the sweaters!
If you would like a compliment of your very own, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges begin at one dollar. Every pledge helps support the show, keep us going, and make sure that every episode has a transcript and is accessible to everyone. Thank you again to our Patreon community for being awesome, and thank you, Barb P.!
This episode is also brought to you by HelloFresh, and hello, I have a coupon. That’s my favorite part of these spots: there’s coupons. Give yourself or someone you love the gift of stress-free, easy dinner prep with HelloFresh! HelloFresh offers convenient, no-contact delivery to your doorstep, which means fewer trips to the store, which I appreciate in the Quarantimes. The recipes in HelloFresh are easy to follow, with simple steps and pictures, and they don’t take more than about thirty minutes. The meals are delicious, and there is a ton of variety. They offer more than twenty chef-crafted options every week to choose from, over ninety percent of the ingredients are sourced directly from growers, and you can try new meals and make weekday evenings feel special! HelloFresh also pays attention to sustainable practices, which I totally dig! They are the first global carbon-neutral meal kit company, and the packaging that HelloFresh uses to ship your food is made almost entirely from recyclable and/or already recycled content. I still have ours, because I’m pretty sure that I can use every piece of that box again, plus the freezer packs. Now, I have tried three of HelloFresh’s most popular meals, and the Firecracker Meatballs were our favorite. I also like the reminder that mashed potatoes are great and I should eat them more often. And like I said, my son totally loved being in charge of dinner. If you would like to take a look at the awesome deal they’ve got, go to hellofresh.com/TRASHYBOOKS80 and use code TRASHYBOOKS80 to get eighty dollars off, including free shipping. That’s hellofresh.com/TRASHYBOOKS80, or use code TRASHYBOOKS80 to get eighty percent off, including free shipping! Yay, free shipping!
As you might imagine, we’re going to talk about a lot of books, but fear not: they’re all in the show notes. So let’s do this podcast with Ellen, Elyse, and Tara.
[music]
Sarah: It’s really nice to be able to talk, like, face-to-face almost!
Tara: Yeah.
Sarah: Although, Tara, I imagine you’re Zoomed out. You do like five Zooms a day, right?
Tara: Not on Sundays. [Laughs] So that’s okay!
Sarah: Wait, so it’s just one on Sundays? It’s just us?
Tara: Yes. Today it’s just you. Tomorrow I think I have six; on Wednesday I have more than ten.
Sarah: Ugh!
Tara: I’m in a company with a heavy meeting culture and on a team with an especially heavy meeting culture. I’ve started blocking my afternoons so I can get work done.
Ellen: I know those feelings. [Laughs]
Sarah: Please tell me these meetings aren’t each an hour, because that means your workday is like twelve and a half hours long.
Tara: No, no, some of them are half an hour, but when you have them stacked back-to-back –
Sarah: Yeah, you have, you have to, you have no transition time.
Tara: No.
Sarah: Oh, like, I’m, I’m actually a little nauseous on your behalf right now.
Tara: I get real tired by the end of those days, ‘cause I’m also an introvert with how I process information, and –
Sarah: Yes!
Tara: Yeah.
Elyse: Is it – also being an introvert – is it just me, or do you guys notice that, like, the Zoom meetings, that is way more draining than meeting in person –
Sarah: Yes.
Elyse: – which surprises me.
Ellen: Yeah, because everybody can look at everyone’s face at the same time. There’s not –
Sarah: There’s no break in the eye contact.
Ellen: – it is happening in a, in a group meeting, people are not all starting at everyone at the same time. At least for me, I find that to be very, part of what makes it so draining.
Tara: What I found helps a lot is that you can actually hide your self view on Zoom if you like –
Ellen: Okay.
Tara: – so you can look at everybody else, but then you don’t have the cognitive load of paying attention to your own behavior, and that makes –
Sarah: What is, and what is my hair doing, and why does my face look like that?
Tara: Right?
Sarah: I also read that there is a cognitive depletion in the fact that I can see you and I can hear you and I have some of my senses aware of your presence, but the subliminal senses are not aware of your presence, ‘cause you’re not physically here, so there’s no air current from your breath, there’s no temperature change based on where a person is, and so your brain, on a subliminal level, is very confused, and it creates a sort of, a cognitive dissonance of wait, there’s people here, but there’s not people here. There’s people here, but there’s not people here! And that depletes you faster. Now, I don’t know if that’s true for everybody, but I definitely think it’s true for me.
Tara: Well, and then there’s the extra load of oh, something’s wrong with my internet or your internet, and, like –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: – when you’re having to deal with that, like, things cutting in and out.
Sarah: Oh, that’s the worst.
All right, so tell me – Elyse, I’m going to start with you.
Elyse: Okay.
Sarah: Is there a book or a piece of media that got you through 2020?
Elyse: So my 2020 contribution was not a book; it was actually getting one of my coworkers hooked on romance novels.
Sarah: Oh-ho-ho, nice!
Elyse: So it, it got to the point to where, like – we use Teams, Microsoft Teams – and she and I were chatting about romance novels, and then she accidentally sent a message for me to my boss, so –
[Laughter]
Elyse: It was safe for work, but still. I got her into romance, and she has been devouring books, and we get to talk about them, and that’s just amazing.
Sarah: Was there one particular book that really, like, that, that really hooked her? Or is it a particular genre?
Elyse: She fell down the Sylvia Day Crossfire trilogy – it’s, well, it’s five books now, isn’t it? She, she liked that. She likes, I would say, like, more intense contemporary stuff; not so much, like, historical; but –
Sarah: So angsty, contemporary sex books.
Elyse: Yes. Correct.
Sarah: Niiice! Isn’t it lovely when you figure out what’s going to work for somebody, even if it’s not the thing that works for you? Like, oh, I know exactly what you’re going to like.
Elyse: Oh yeah, and then when, and I see a, you know, free books or books on sale and stuff, passing along links and stuff is nice.
Sarah: Oh yeah. That’s awesome! Well done!
Elyse: Thank you!
Sarah: Ellen, what about you? What, what got you through 2020?
Ellen: So normally I’m not actually much of a contemporary romance reader, but something about how, like, abnormal, like, daily life was this year –
Sarah: Little bit.
Ellen: – made me enjoy contemporary romance a lot more than I normally do? So one major one that just, like, really helped get me through 2020 is Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon. It was just so wholesome and, like, soothing and just, like, I was like, oh, I just need to read about, like, people, like, being normal and, like, having a good time and being, like, emotionally intelligent in 2020, so that’s my pick.
Sarah: And hot competence caretaking is a very specific flavor of caretaking, right?
Ellen: Oh, for sure.
Sarah: Oh yeah. And it’s –
Tara: And he can braid hair, and he can make quiche! Like, come on! Who doesn’t want that?
Sarah: Right?
Ellen: Yes. I was like, oh, yes, just give me this fantasy man.
Sarah: I mean, he probably makes better crust than, better, better piecrust than I do, and that’s not really saying much because I hate piecrust – it’s my nemesis? – but, like, a guy who’s fluent in quiche and in, and in child behavior and in, like, full home competency? Like, ooh, that’s nice. It’s so lovely!
Ellen: It’s like, I will do all the day home stuff so you can go do outside-the-home stuff. You love to see it.
Sarah: It’s so good, right? Awesome pick.
All right, Tara. Where are you? Are you in Tatooine?
Tara: I am in Tatooine! [Laughs] I love that you figured that out. My, the first time my vice president saw this, she said, is that Tibet? And I just started laughing.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Yes, that’s – I’ve, I’m remo-, I’m working really remotely right now; like, you have no idea.
Ellen: Thank you for the flexible work arrangement!
[Laughter]
Sarah: All right, so what’s your book? What got you through 2020?
Tara: Ugh. So I think one of the things that actually got me through 2020 was stepping outside of what I usually read? So I usually, you know, obviously read f/f romances, that’s most of what I end up reviewing, and this year I kind of hit my wall and was like, I’m so tired of this being all that I read! And so one of the – I’m, I’m not going to pick one of these books, but, like, one of the good things was finding YA fantasy, first of all, because I think, for the same reason, Ellen, you were just talking about, like, it’s just so different. It does not reflect this world, and so there’s none of that tension. I’m not reading about crowds and saying, oh my God, stop doing that! You’re all going to die of COVID! [Laughs]
But the book that actually literally got me through some of the roughest spots was Shit, Actually by Lindy West. I mean, I love Lindy West anyway, but that book was a Goddamn gift. Like, what a perfect year to have it released, and I didn’t go into it with a lot of expectations, except that I thought it would be reviews of movies – [laughs] – and it’s not that at all! It’s recaps of movies, which is so much better than reviews! And there were some of those, some of them I laughed until I was literally, like, weeping and shaking, and it was just the funniest thing. Like, the one for The Notebook had a couple of real good ones. The one for Twilight, I didn’t like these movies, and so it was amazing!
Sarah: I hated this! This is awesome!
Tara: Yeah! And then it was funny ‘cause I, when I got to the end, I went back to the introduction, and I read the introduction again, and actually, the introduction made me cry when I read it at that point, because she talks about how she wrote, like, she finished the, the book during the first six weeks of the COVID lockdown, and when she had pitched the book initially, she never imagined that it would be released in a time when movie nights with friends are not a thing, and so she hoped that people picking it up would feel like they were having a movie night with a friend, and I was just like – [tearfully] – that’s exactly what I feel like! But it was like, yeah, when RBG died and I felt like there was no hope for anything, like, that was a real, real bad, like, that was a real bad day.
Sarah: That was a pretty shitty evening.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Tara: Right? Like –
Sarah: I haven’t felt the crushing cascade of despair like that in a couple years, but oof.
Tara: No! So that was, like, I was reading a few that night; I was reading them through the summer when, like, we were agonizing over, do we send our kids into school or do we do the online option? It didn’t, like, so I could close out those days just with, like, some laughter and to let that stress out of my body. And so that’s a book that I feel like I really almost owe a lot to, because I’m just so grateful for it.
Sarah: That is really lovely, to be able, to be able to process all of that stress, knowing you have this laughter outlet that you can read in pieces because it’s essays!
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: They’re, they’re in discrete sections, so it’s not like you have to put it down and miss the next scene or figure out what happened; it’s all separate.
Tara: Exactly. So I would save it for good ti-, for, like, good days, and the last two, I actually read on the night of – was there only one debate between Trump and Biden?
Elyse: There were two.
Tara: Yeah, so I think it was during the actual one. Like, during that day, and I was like, I cannot pay any attention to this, and so I just finished that book – [laughs] – that day, and it was really the right choice. I was very happy about that.
Sarah: You make good choices, Tara.
Tara: Thank you; I try! I don’t always, but I try. [Laughs]
Sarah: So can I ask you a super nosy question?
Tara: Of course!
Sarah: I need you to represent all of Canada – I’m just kidding.
Tara: Sure.
Sarah: I want you to just recommend your- – [laughs] –
Tara: No, I’ll do both! I can, I can muster that audacity – no, I’m kidding. [Laughs]
Sarah: So what is it about our politics that upset you personally? Because you, I mean, you’re, you’re single citizen, right? You’re a Canadian citizen. Or –
Tara: Yeah.
Sarah: – are you dual, dual citizen?
Tara: No, I’m, no I’m a single citizen. My – fun fact – my family, my people have been in Canada for, like, more than three hundred years, so –
Sarah: Yes.
Tara: – we have a lot of new immigrants, like actually my husband Neil, he moved here when he was a little boy, but my family has been here before Canada was a country.
Sarah: So you have no moose in our fight.
Tara: No, but I’d like to – [laughs] – send one every so often!
Sarah: Listen, I’ve seen moose: they will fuck you up.
Tara: Right? Well, I’m not –
Sarah: If you would like me to direct the moose to the points of, like, greatest impact, just tell them to come to me and I’ll tell them where to go. They can hang out in my garage.
Tara: Some of them are –
Sarah: That would be the way station of the moose attack front! [Laughs] All right, so I love how we’re coordinating an international attack of moose –
Tara: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Sarah: – but what is it about our politics that, that is, that, that you’re very invested?
Tara: I would say, speaking for all of my people first and then myself specifically –
[Laughter]
Sarah: Sure, anything. Somewhere Trudeau is likely annoyed and he doesn’t know why? [Laughs]
Tara: First of all, we can’t, we actually can’t avoid it.
Sarah: That’s true; we are rather –
Tara: Right? Like, it’s –
Sarah: – annoying that way.
Tara: – it’s not just Canadians. It’s, the whole world was paying attention, because there’s also, like, really massive implications, like the United States is our greatest trade partner. And I suppose for me, I also grew up, like, right in a border region.
Sarah: Mm.
Tara: I, my parents live a thirty-minute drive from the Windsor-Detroit border.
Sarah: Ah!
Tara: And so I, I am, I am bilingual in temperatures. [Laughs] But on a, on a more personal level, why I was so invested is, I actually, I do have some family that live in the United States. I have a lot of friends that live there.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: You know, I’ve been, even before coming and being a part of, of this team, I’ve been a professional reviewer for a while and have made –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: – a lot of friends in the lesfic community, and, like, really good friends and people that I’ve gone and spent time with, and it was deeply disheartening to know that there’s a huge risk that many of them might have their marriages dissolved, that it’s going to be easier for them to get fired at work, that it’s –
Sarah: Yeah.
Tara: – going to be harder for them to get access to their hormones, and also it’s not just the US that’s been tilting towards fascism, and I just –
Sarah: No!
Tara: – worry about when is it Canada’s turn? And what do I have to worry about for my kids, who –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: – both identify pretty firmly as girls at the moment still, but what if, you know, one of them tells us someday that they’re trans? What if one of them wants to have an abortion, and then that turns into not a thing? I live in a province where our premier, which is basically the equivalent of a governor –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: – desperately wants to be a Republican governor and acts that way. We have the worst COVID incidence in the country right now and he’s hailing it as a great success, and I’m like, motherfucker, what are you doing?
[Laughter]
Tara: Like, how can you even say – like, what planet are you on? These are the numbers; why do we have the same daily numbers as a province that has four times the population?
Sarah: Yes.
Tara: So it’s kind of that, like, I don’t want Canada to go that way, and I don’t want the United States to go that way, because I want my friends and family to be safe.
Sarah: It’s really interesting because when you were talking about how devastated you were when Ruth, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, my first thought was, oh my gosh, me too! Wait, wait a minute.
Tara: I know.
Sarah: Wait a minute, you’re, you’re Canadian! You have a nice buffer from that! But one thing about being connected the way we are is we don’t have a buffer from caring about other people, but also it, it actually makes me feel, like, cared for to know how many people outside of the US are deeply caring about what happens to us? Because, I mean, we’re, we’re acting like we don’t care what happens to us, which is not the actual case, but it looks that way from the outside?
Tara: It was very disheartening and disempowering paying attention to your election because not only could I, did I not have a vote –
Sarah: Yeah.
Tara: – but also, it’s illegal for me to donate to other people’s campaigns, and the night RBG died I rage-donated all the rewards money that I had in my workplace giving software –
[Laughter]
Tara: – which was like more than four hundred dollars. I, I donated it all to the ACLU, because I thought, well, they at least fight for voting rights.
Sarah: Yeah. Thank you!
Tara: So it’s kind of that, like – right? It’s like, what could we do? [Laughs]
Sarah: Thank you for looking after us! I appreciate that.
Tara: Trying!
Elyse and Sarah: Yeah.
Sarah: Well, well, I mean, listen, we might need to come, come sneak into your backyard and have some, like, poutine and –
Tara: We can make that happen. I’ll, I’ll –
Sarah: Yeah, we might have to have like a little Smart Bitches tent in the yard!
[Laughter]
Tara: I’ll start building the extension!
Sarah: Yeah. Hello!
Elyse: I was going to ask about, like, for me, this year, definitely struggling to read, which is crazy, because that’s, like, my comfort thing? Right, and, like, I, my brain is just mashed potatoes.
Sarah: I struggled to read things that I hadn’t read before. I didn’t have the brain energy to build a whole new thing; does that make sense?
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Elyse: Totally.
Sarah: Yeah. But when you have been able to read, have you been able to read like a novella or something you’ve read before or something in audio? ‘Cause I would have to switch formats a lot to keep my brain engaged.
Elyse: I found, like, novellas were helpful. I probably read the Murderbot series like eleven billion times just –
Sarah: Oh yeah, me too. Mm-hmm.
Elyse: Yeah. But yeah, I just, like, mentally cannot, just kind of feel like shut off, if that makes sense.
Tara: It does. What I’ve been doing is, it’s been rare that I can read a book from beginning to end, and so I reverted back to my typical reading state when I was growing up, which is that I’ve just been constantly bouncing between books, so it’s taking me forever to finish a book? And I can tell I really like something when I’m compelled to continue reading it and not put it down and switch to the next thing, and so I have, at any given time there’s like romance, three different kinds of nonfiction – [laughs] – something, one of those YA fantasies probably, and then two books going in audio at any given time.
Ellen: Yeah, I’ve been having, like, new sort of like intense anxiety about, like, picking the next book I’m going to read. Like, it just –
Sarah: Oh yeah!
Ellen: – agonizing decision, and I don’t know if it’s, like, part of because, like, psychologically I’m just like in that doom space where there’s some subconscious thought that’s like, what if this is the last book I ever read? Which is kind of dark.
Sarah: No pressure! Good heavens, Ellen! [Laughs]
Ellen: Yeah, but, like, so I have a lot of anxiety over, like, picking the next book, even though –
Sarah: Yeah!
Ellen: – I’m like, oh, I have all these books from the library; I have all these books in my Kindle; and I, like, want to read them all, in theory, but just the thought of, like, picking one is just really hard sometimes. So mostly how I’ve been dealing with that is I’ve been, like, reading a lot of series, because there’s a natural kind of like, oh, I want to know what happens next. Like, I sort of know what I’m getting into, and I’m not, like, actually usually that big of a series person either, but I’m like, it, it’s, like, keeping me, it makes it easier to just pick what to read next.
Sarah: That makes a lot of sense. I’m, I have probably read Murderbot ten, fifteen times. If I can’t fall asleep and I need something to read, I just go back to that, and it, I’m, I’m, I’m like you, Ellen? I’m (a) scared with the pressure of my next book; I totally have that feeling; but also, what if the things that I’m rereading stop working? Then I’m totally screwed! Like, that’s it, I’m doomed! That’s a big scare.
Tara: That’s an evil voice in your head telling you that. [Laughs]
Sarah: Right? That’s, that’s a new anxiety voice that I did not anticipate for 2020, but apparently that’s, I have a reading anxiety voice now, which is great.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: Super wonderful; appreciate it a lot.
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Elyse: Well, I straight up just deleted my Goodreads challenge. Like, yeah, I’m not even going to try this year.
Sarah: Oh, I don’t, I, I, I don’t think any challenge, unless it’s going to give you incredible joy, is, is worth keeping up with. Like –
Elyse: No.
Sarah: – I’ve seen a couple people tweeting about this, and, and I’m, and I’m sort of on the fringes of my building rage. Like, you’re soon going to hear people talking about how you need to, you know, lose the quarantine pounds and lose –
Tara: Ugh.
Sarah: – the quarantine – and I’m like, I’m going to set shit on fire! [Laughs] I’m going to be mad! Screw challenge; screw all of this.
Tara: Do what you want with your quarantine pounds. Nurture them; comfort them.
Sarah: Oh yes.
Tara: Whatever!
Sarah: Put them in fleece-lined blankets is my recommendation.
Tara: Yes!
[Laughter]
Tara: Exactly! Put them in more comfortable clothes. Who cares?
Sarah: I so agree. I so agree. Elyse, was that your question for all of us?
Elyse: That was my question for all of you.
Sarah: That was a good question for all of us! Thank you!
All right, Ellen, what question do you have for us?
Ellen: Yeah, my question is, what is a new book – well, not book – what is a new author or series that you have discovered in Quarantimes? New to you. Doesn’t have to actually be new.
Sarah: My whole brain is like a Friends episode: the one with the thing that has the stuff – I actually have to pull up my reading spreadsheet, because otherwise I never remember anything, so somebody else has to go first. [Laughs]
Elyse: So for me, it was – and I don’t know if I’m saying her name correctly – Ann Aguirre [Uh-gwy-er]?
Sarah: Ann Aguirre [Uh-gee-ray], yeah.
Elyse: Like, beginning of this year, and this feels like it was a lifetime ago, I picked up Strange Love by her, and it is an alien romance with a talking dog in it, and this book is just amazing, and she just released another one, Bitterburn, that I read in one day, which it was like the most amazing Beauty and the Beast retelling, where Beauty actually gets, like, agency and not – her purpose isn’t just to not be shallow and overlook the Beast. Like, she’s got magical powers, and there’s the whole Gothic castle thing. It was just great.
Tara: I’m going to roll with a TV series, because I did not manage to get onto any series. I’m kind of the opposite of the rest of you in the sense that the pressure of a series is too much?
[Laughter]
Tara: Unless it’s TV, apparently, and –
Ellen: That’s how I normally am! Normally I’m like, too many books; not interested.
Tara: Right? Is this the –
Sarah: Now –
Tara: – time?
Sarah: Right, and now I’m like, wow, I can get all five books in one e-book from the library? Let’s just eat that whole book in one! Gulp.
Ellen: Mm-hmm, mm-mm.
Tara: Also, at the same time – I don’t feel like I can fully talk about these two separately – this was also the year that I discovered the joy of edible cannabis, because Go Canada.
Sarah: Oh, cheers, mate.
Tara: Right? So –
Sarah: Cheers.
Tara: – at first I started watching baking shows with it and then realized while it’s funny – baking and baking – that is a really bad choice.
[Laughter]
Tara: So I was like, I need to find something else, and I fell into the RuPaul’s Drag Race rabbit hole. I had never watched any of it before. My brother and his wife are massive fans, and he said, skip the first season; start with the second season and then go; and I did. I’m in season twelve; I’ve watched all the seasons of All Stars; and I just have the UK, Canada, and Holland left to watch; and it’s been amazing! I have so many drag queens that I love now, and, but also, some of RuPaul’s advice has been so helpful, and stuff that, like, you hear it and you’re like, well, that makes sense, but it’s like, sometimes you hear it and then, like, you actually hear it, like, right in your heart?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: And so the one for me was probably, I think it was last month, and I got to an episode where he said to, I can’t even remember which queen it was, ‘cause I’ve just been watching this show for four months, but he told one of them, repeat after me: what other people think of me is none of my business.
Sarah: Yes! Thank you.
Ellen: Ooh!
Sarah: Yes, so good!
Tara: And I had never heard it, heard it put like that before, but I was just like, wait. Wait, what? And then I backed it up and I listened to it again; I was like, oh shit! And I say it to myself all the time now! When I start to worry if, you know, this particular coworker thinks I’m not good at my job: who cares? I don’t have to care what they think about me, even if that’s true, and it’s probably not, and it’s just been the best, it’s just been the best thing. Mm-hmm.
Sarah: And it’s a little ironic that the advice is being given on a show where they’re judged?
Tara: Well, that is hilarious. And see –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Tara: – nobody else can see, but my little Shangela Funko POP! showed up. Here she is; isn’t she the cutest? I, I’ve started occasionally making im-, im-, impulse, I, impulse purchases while high, and that was one of them! But I really like it.
[Laughter]
Sarah: So in part of your advice for 2020 you would say, edible cannabis, baking shows, Drag Race, Funko POP!
Tara: Always.
Sarah: Yeah. Okay, I think that’s a good call.
Tara: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: Ellen, do you have an author that you discovered this year?
Ellen: So this year I’ve gotten really into sports anime and comics?
Sarah: [Gasps] Oh goodness, you have good choices ahead of you!
Ellen: Yeah. So one sort of, it’s one new-to-me author series is the Fence comic book series by C. S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad, and it, so it’s, it’s clearly very manga inspired, but it’s like Western, Western comic book series about, like, a, a sort of down-on-their-luck fencing school and, like, these two fencing rivals in the school, and it’s like very, like, touching and, like, homoerotic and competitive, and I love all those things about sports, sports stuff.
Sarah: I’m assuming you’ve seen Yuri!!! on Ice?
Ellen: Oh yes. That was what kind of like started –
Sarah: That led you down the rabbit hole?
Ellen: Yes, yes, exactly.
Smart Bitch: Ahhh!
Sarah: There are so many good things there. Like, you have so much ahead of you to enjoy?
Ellen: Oh yeah.
Sarah: [Squees]
Ellen: My, my brother’s already told me that now I need to watch Haikyuu!! so.
Sarah: All right, so I have been looking at my list of books I read this year, and I’ve narrowed it down to three! Good job, me.
All right, so one of the authors I discovered this year I discovered at the very beginning of the Quarantimes, and she died in 1995, so it’s, it was a bit of a late discovery. I’m, I’m really not on any kind of bandwagon here? I’m, I’m, I’m real late. I started reading the Brother Cadfael mysteries because they’re in Kindle Unlimited, by Ellis Peters. I loved it because all of a sudden I was in medieval Wales and shit was really hard in medieval Wales? And it was very comforting to be in medieval Wales while the beginning of the pandemic was happening around me and my, you know, my, my, all the schools were closed and everything was closed. We didn’t know what was happening, and it’s really comforting to read medieval Wales murder mysteries. I couldn’t possibly tell you why, but it was super comforting.
Elyse: That, they made it into a TV series too.
Sarah: I know; I’ve, I’ve been saving it in the, in, in case of emergency.
So the other author I discovered this year – again, I’m real late on this bandwagon – would be Martha Wells? Yeah. Real late on that. Real, real, I’m very tardy; I’m going to get sent to detention on this one; but wow, this is the perfect discovery. And when I did an interview with her and I was barely keeping my shit together – like, I was, like, tearing up and getting emotional, because her books were, for me, what Sanctuary Moon is for Murderbot in the series. Like, fuck all of this; I’m going to go watch media. Okay, fuck all of this; I’m going to go read Murderbot. Like, it was such, it was much like medieval Wales. Now, I want a crossover with Murderbot and Cadfael solving crimes.
Ellen: You need to start writing fanfiction, clearly. [Laughs]
Sarah: Do you think there – okay, have I stumbled upon a piece of fanfiction that hasn’t been written yet?
Ellen: I, I think there’s a solid chance!
Sarah: Oh my gosh! I feel like, like I have chills! I – [laughs] –
Ellen: You could, you could dominate this very obscure, currently nonexistent corner of fanfic!
Sarah: Murderbot/Cadfael solving cr- – oh my God. Okay, I have, I’m very excited now. I have to start pondering this.
And the other author that I discovered, who is a new author! This was their first book – [laughs] – so I’m not late!
Smart Bitch: Yay!
Sarah: I’m really proud of me for not being late! Was Natalie Zina Walschots and Hench. Hench was so good. Like, it was so good I made my husband read it, and I never do that. It was so good: she’s so mad, and she’s so good at getting cold, calculated revenge on people who she’s told are the good guys, who are not the good guys. Also very cathartic and satisfying. So I suck. I have three, but those are my three.
Tara, what question did you bring?
Tara: So the question that I brought is what book or – we’ll just open it to any media, ‘cause I know we’re all at different reading experiences this year – what had you hoped to enjoy, and it just, like, thrilled you beyond your wildest dreams?
Sarah: Oh, what a good question!
Elyse or Ellen: Oooh!
Ellen or Elyse: Hmm.
Sarah: I’m scrolling through my reading list again.
Tara: Do you want me to go first while you’re all choosing?
Sarah: Yes, please!
Tara: So the one for me was Who We Could Be by Chelsea Cameron, who is one of my favorite, like, they’re just one of my favorite f/f authors, because I know that I’m going to get something with no angst and, you know, just good chemistry, and this book was – or is, I sup-, it still is – an Anne of Green Gables reinterpretation, and I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables since I was in grade six. I devoured the series; I devoured the TV series; it just –
Sarah: Yes.
Tara: – it was all, like, it spoke to my little eleven-year-old heart so much, and I started reading this book and I was like, oh my God. Like, it just captures the spirit so beautifully! But it also, like, the way the friends-to-lovers works in it alongside both of them coming out and figuring out that they’re lesbians is so beautifully done. It’s like there’s just so much love in this book, and there’s no tension between them, and it doesn’t matter ‘cause all the tension is around figuring out their sexuality, and I just, I loved it! I loved it so much, I was like, well, Shana, you have to read this right now. Go read it right – and then I went –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Tara: I was like, you have to read this!
[Laughter]
Tara: I talked to so many about this ‘cause I love it so much, and it just, I already knew I, like, I figured I would like it, ‘cause I like her books, but, like, that was just the one for me that was, oh! Oh! Thank you. What a, what a gift out of nowhere.
Sarah: Aw! Isn’t it wonderful when you read something that’s inspired by something that hits you in the exact same spot as the original?
Tara: Yes. Yes! It’s so, like, it’s so good, and I didn’t go into that aspect of it with a lot of expectations –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Tara: – but it was exactly as I would imagine Anne would be as a twenty-something at this point and exactly as I would imagine Diana would be. The funny thing is, when I was writing my review I kept typing and deleting “Diana” ‘cause it was like, that’s not her name! [Laughs] She’s, this character has a different name than that!
[Laughter]
Sarah: And when you get to read something written by someone who has that same degree of affection and fluency in the thing that they are paying tribute to it’s like, it’s like a hug, right?
Tara: It is; it’s so nice. And I mean, especially when there’s so – like, there are a lot of reinterpretations of say, like, Pride and Prejudice where you read it and you’re like, mmmmm!
Sarah: Eh. Yeah.
Tara: I would call the relation to this tenuous at best!
[Laughter]
Sarah: Yeah, I get it: their, their name is Darcy; that doesn’t really carry much.
Smart Bitches: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: Yeah. Oh, that’s a good one.
Ellen, do you have an answer for this question? This is a hard question; it’s a good question, but it’s a hard one.
Ellen: I, I do. I do have an answer. So a, a manga that came out, the first volume came out in February, that I was very excited for, was called My Androgynous Boyfriend.
Sarah: Ohhh.
Ellen: I, it was an artist I was familiar with, but the premise is basically like domestic slice of life between career woman and her beautiful Instagram-influencer boyfriend. So I was like, this sounds like it could be very delightful. Then when I finally read it, which was during the Quarantimes, the Quarantimes had started, it was just so delightful and sweet and, like, warm and affirming that I just, like, I just loved it so much. It was like everything that I dreamed it would be like and more. There’s just something so, there’s just something so, like, sweet and nice about, like, seeing this just really, like, strong, powerful relationship where, like, people – like, so there’s of course like an element, like a strong element of kind of like gender nonconformity and, like – but that’s never, like, the focus of the story? Like, it’s just like a thing that kind of like is and that people, like, primarily just, like, accept, and there’s never any, like, people don’t, like, question, like, how these two people could, like, be in a relationship with each other. It’s just real, it’s really nice. It’s, it’s very sweet.
Tara: That sounds so good!
Sarah: It sounds so lovely!
Elyse: So I picked up Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean exactly when I needed it, because that book is one long grovel, and she literally –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Elyse: That’s all it is; it’s just a grovel, and also she runs, like, an underground fight club and beats the guy up because he, he has it coming. Like, all of my rage and despair – [laughs] – like, that was, that was the right book for 2020.
Sarah: [Laughs] A really nice, long fight scene where some guy who has it coming gets the crap punched out of him?
Elyse: Yeah! Yeah, pretty much!
Sarah: I mean, that sounds really good to me; I like this plan. I like it a lot.
Ellen or Tara: Very satisfying.
Sarah: Yeah, right? I think, for me, in addition to Martha Wells and – ‘cause I’ve never been a sci-, a science fiction reader, I’ve never been super into science fiction, and this year I read a whole bunch of books set in space. I read Murderbot; I read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; I read Mindtouch; I read all of these different space books that were recommended to me. I was never much of a science fiction reader; I’m not familiar with the tropes; I’m not familiar with the, with the, with the major themes. Like, I can sort of see them after the, after the fact, and then when I learn their names I’m like, oh, that makes sense! Okay! I know nothing; I, I know zippo about this whole genre world, but I really like it!
So in addition to just discovering how much I like space-set science fiction and specific tropes inside it and how much I loved Murderbot, I also loved reading the, the Penric series by Lois McMaster Bujold, because Penric is going to win by consistently being kind. And he just wants to be competent and kind, and he accidentally acquires a demon that is one of the most powerful demons, and it is this massive, massive force inside his body. It, like, lives in him, and he makes friends with it, because why not? And the demon is like, I don’t even know what to do with you. What, what do I do with this? And Penric is consistently determined, despite being so incredibly powerful, to be kind, and because Lois McMaster Bujold is so good at character, the, he’s got thirteen different individuals inside this demon, because as each time, as each person carries the demon, the demon takes an imprint of their personality and carries it forward, so it’s one demon having had thirteen different people that it’s lived in prior to that, so he’s got, like, a chorus of thirteen women in his head, which is awesome! But he’s determined to be kind throughout it, despite being incredibly powerful. And he’s a, you know, he’s a bit of a dingus sometimes, which is really adorable.
Ellen or Tara: [Laughs]
Sarah: And that, like, the more I read it, the more I was like, oh! This is exactly what I needed! Somebody who’s powerful and kind! What a novelty! Oh my goodness!
[Laughter]
Tara: Yeah, that’s not a thing you come across often. [Laughs]
Sarah: No! Not lately!
So is there anything you’re looking forward to reading or reading right now that you want to talk about?
Elyse: The second book in the Strange Love series comes out January, so I’m excited for that.
Sarah: Awesome. Hey, there’s going to be a 2021 I hear!
Ellen: Mm!
Sarah: Sometime –
Tara: Allegedly.
Sarah: – in the next decade, there will be a new year.
Ellen: Will there?
Sarah: I mean, I, I think so.
Ellen: We’re getting pretty close.
Sarah: We’re getting very close. There’s, there’s some, you know, cautious hope in my world, like, just a slight bit of optimism that 2020 won’t last forever.
Ellen: Yeah, I actually just finished Take a Hint, Eve Brown, or no, Take a Hint, Dani Brown. I’m getting the Brown sisters mixed –
Sarah: There’s a lot of Browns; I get it!
Ellen: – yesterday, and I really enjoyed it, and I’m definitely excited for the next book in the series.
Sarah: And you just said you weren’t much of a contemporary reader, and that’s, like, dead-center contemporary tropes.
Ellen: I mean, like I said, that’s, it’s 2020! It’s –
Sarah: Yeah!
Ellen: – seeing contemporary in a new way.
Sarah: Anything goes, right?
Ellen: Yeah.
Sarah: Awesome! What are you looking forward to, Tara?
Tara: I’m looking forward to a book, it’s a debut that’s coming out in February, and it’s called Honey Girl, and I feel really bad that I forget the author’s name because it’s a debut, but it’s supposed to be women’s fiction and not specifically, like, lesbian romance, so I’m kind of curious to see what happens with that, because Harlequin is put-, putting it out. I believe they’re the publisher for it.
Right, see? Your face that you just made was kind of what my heart made, and I was like, I’ll give it a try! I’ll see what happens. I mean, frankly, I’m just excited that this year there were actually large, mainstream romance publishers putting out lesbian romance. That was like a –
Sarah: Yeah!
Tara: – holy shit moment that I hope the f/f writers are paying attention to, because before now it’s really been this tiny walled garden. We’re going to be our own little city over here! We’re going to – [laughs] – publish all the things to each other! And it’s like, no, no, no, there’s all these readers out here!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Tara: Go find them! [Laughs] They want to read your books too! So I’m hopeful that if the large publishers continue doing that, then we’ll start to see more and better things.
Sarah: Yeah. Yeah, and the, and the books that were published were, were, were really good!
Tara: Yeah. Yeah, like, Written in the Stars is probably one of my favorite books this year. It’s not like the very, very top of my list, but, like, it’s in my top ten for sure, and it’s so freaking cute. The only thing it needed was an epilogue. Like –
Sarah: Wow.
Tara: It was very good.
Sarah: Isn’t it lovely when you get to see something sort of expand and grow that way?
Tara: I remember the first time I saw, was is that, it’s going to be embarrassing, I forget the name, but Olivia Waite, the first book in the Feminine Pursuits? When, when I saw the cover of that book, I was ready to cry, because it was like all of my mom’s covers when I was growing up, but there were two women on it.
Sarah: Yep.
Tara: It was unbelievable.
Sarah: Isn’t it the loveliest feeling?
Tara: Yeah, it’s pretty good.
Sarah: Like, yay! Something right! Yes, yes, yes!
Tara: 2020 was a good year for that. There was, like – 2020 was a hot can of garbage, but there were, like, a few pockets of really lovely things, and for me that was one of them.
Sarah: It’s definitely one of them. I think a book I’m looking forward to reading most is called Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I have been told by three separate people that this book made them laugh until they cried, and the thing that I’m drawn to about this is that these three people are very different, and so if they are all laughing there’s a very good chance that the humor will be, like, dead center of my sense of humor?
Smart Bitch: Sounds very good.
Sarah: And it’s, and it’s, it’s rare to have something tailored so specifically to my, to my interests and my tastes, but there’s a mystery and there’s family and there’s food and there’s shenanigans, and I’m like, oh, okay! Okay. And, like, like you said, Ellen, I have this sort of, okay, anxiety about reading this new book. Like, what if, what if it doesn’t measure up? What if it’s not what I expected? But I’m really looking forward to it.
Ellen: That sounds awesome.
Sarah: I know! I’m really excited!
Tara: Is it out already?
Sarah: No, it is out – unless the date moves, it is out April 2021.
Tara: All right!
Sarah: Yeah. But ARCs have gone out, because publishing is, is just a hot mess right now in terms of when is a thing coming out? We have no idea anymore.
Smart Bitches: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: The dates just move; we don’t know.
Ellen: Yeah.
Sarah: Well, thank you guys so much for doing this!
Tara: Thanks for having us!
Sarah: I hope I can do more of these in the coming year, because it’s nice to sort of gather, especially at, when we’re, like – okay, planning the time zones was a little challenging, because I had Australia, Taiwan, West Coast, Calgary, Chicago, Wisconsin, me, and then there’s South Africa and the UK, and I was like – [laughs] – ‘cause I’m not good at math, this is a really bad idea to have me do this! I’ll be like, let’s do it this time! That’s 4 a.m. Oh, never mind!
[Laughter]
Sarah: Oh, another thing that I am looking forward to, I will say: I am deeply curious about the Bridgerton series on Netflix?
Ellen: Same.
Sarah: Yeah?
Ellen: I’m like, I, it’s like I feel like I have to at least give it a try, but I’m –
Sarah: Right!
Ellen: – kind of afraid.
Sarah: Yeah! I, I was invited to a fan event a week or two ago? Okay, there were nine hundred and eighty people on this Zoom call.
Ellen: Oh my God.
Elyse: What?!
Sarah: Nine hundred, and it was, like, a Netflix event. It was global; there were people from all over. The host from Entertainment Weekly was in LA, and the show runner was in LA, and then they had the actors and actresses from the UK. They were coming in in groups, and it was like, first of all, it was the most technically sophisticated Zoom I’ve ever seen. It was like, these two people came in, and then these two people left, and then they showed a clip, and then they brought in two other people. And they had all these people in different sets coming in, and I was like, wow, whoever’s doing the behind-the-scenes tech deserves a case of alcohol; this is amazing. But I, I was sort of like, oh, okay, that’s cool. You know, all right, that’s fine. But the actors were so charming, and the way they were talking about their roles made me curious to see them do them, plus the clips, especially the clips of the friendships between Eloise and Penelope. I’m really curious now. I’m very curious.
And I’m Jewish, and I’ve got nothing I need to be doing on December 25th. I can’t go to a movie, and we’ll get Chinese at, like, four in the afternoon ‘cause all the takeout places get backed up, so, yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m there. That’s fine; let’s do it. [Laughs]
Elyse: Yeah, that’s coming out the same day as Wonder Woman 1984, so that’s going to be –
Sarah: Oh, what a good day!
Ellen or Tara: Ohhh!
Elyse: Yeah.
Sarah: What a good day for us to be on the couch! Which we’ve been –
Elyse: Oh yeah.
Sarah: – all year, pretty much. [Laughs]
[music]
Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Ellen and Elyse and Tara for hanging out with me. Next week I will be connecting with Catherine Heloise in Australia, Sneezy in Taiwan, and Maya in California, because people should really trust me with time zone math, right? I mean, that’s, that’s going to end well for everyone, of course. [Laughs] So we’re going to be talking about the books that got us through 2020 and the other things that got us through 2020 and what we’re looking forward in 2021 for the next couple of weeks with different groups of Smart Bitches writers. I hope you’ll tune in and join us, and I hope you enjoy these episodes.
If you would like to tell us what got you through, we would love to hear it. You can email me at [email protected] or Sarah, S-A-R-A-H, at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books dot com [[email protected]]. They both end up in the same place, and I would love to hear from you!
This episode was brought to you in part by Headspace. Headspace is a daily dose of mindfulness in the form of guided meditations in an easy-to-use app. Headspace is one of the only meditation apps advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation through clinically validated research, so whatever your situation, Headspace really can help you feel better. If you are feeling overwhelmed, they have three-minute SOS meditations just for you! If you like the motivation of being with a group, they have group meditations, and the app will remind you to join in. If you need help falling asleep, Headspace can help with that too. Amanda particularly loves the sleeping and falling asleep ones. Headspace’s approach to mindfulness can reduce stress, improve sleep – I love that part – boost focus, and increase your overall sense of wellbeing. I honestly look forward to my session every day, and I have tried to create a meditation habit before several times, and I have not been able to stick to it, and I’m not sure why this app is the one that’s working, but I can tell you I am very grateful for it. I can tell that I am calmer, that I’m more relaxed, that I’m better able to handle each day, and also encounter and savor specific moments to enjoy them while they’re happening. Headspace is backed by twenty-five published studies on its benefits, six hundred thousand five-star reviews, and over sixty million downloads. Headspace makes it easy for you to build a meditation practice with mindfulness that works for you on your schedule, anytime, anywhere. You deserve to feel happier; Headspace is meditation made simple. Go to headspace.com/SARAH – that’s Headspace dot com slash S-A-R-A-H – for a free one-month trial with access to Headspace’s full library of meditations for every situation. That is the best deal offered right now, so head to headspace.com/SARAH today.
As always, I end with a terrible joke, and this year my husband and I are telling each other jokes for some of the nights of Hanukkah, so I’ve got an extra good supply now – heh-heh-heh-heh.
What language do doctors curse in?
Give up? What language do doctors curse in?
Ibu-profane.
[Laughs] It’s so silly, I love it! Ibu-profane. [Laughs more]
On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend, a safe and very easy and delicious holiday season. We’ll see you back here next week.
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find outstanding shows to listen to at frolic.media/podcasts.
[soothing music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
Thanks for sharing your fun chat!
Enjoyed this. 🙂 I did not have the can’t-seem-to-focus anxiety this year. I had the don’t-dare-look-up anxiety. So I wrote 6 books and read 282 books. I let one new-author discovery lead me to another, glommed entire backlists (or big chunks of backlist) and now have to tighten the reins on the book budget. Insert guilty face here.
There are certainly enough books yet-unread on my two Kindles to keep me reading for a good long while without buying any more. Plus there are all the things I know I will re-read. But in a strange way I feel I *should* buy books, because there is precious little else I can do to support creatives right now, and every few cents of royalty helps, right?
Also: re challenges … the only one I engaged with was NaNoWriMo. Had minor focus problems, but I did get over 50K on the novel-in-progress in November, and the alpha draft is done now. Of course, with NaNoWriMo, you really don’t have to be accountable to anyone else unless you want to. I was not doing one of those team things where you tell everyone how many words you put down the night before. F**k that.
Happy new year, romance lovers.