Let’s Read a Paperback

Yes, of course we need to talk about Part Two of Hamnet and the breathtaking ending to this family tragedy, but we also really need to talk about Justin Chang’s appallingly bad takes about Hamnet (the film mostly) in the New Yorker. Is alchemizing sadness into anger good for you? It’s working just fine for us! NOTE: Our next book is The Coin by Yasmin Zaher. We promise no children die in this one!! Join us for pages 3-73 in our next episode. Read with us!

Join us as we discuss the long middle section of Hamnet, Chapters 5-17. Is it sad? Yes. But is it heartbreaking? Also yes. But is it worth it? BIG YES. It’s called catharsis, baby! Let’s get through it together.

There’s no way you made it to this point in the timeline without hearing the name Hamnet. He’s everywhere! And you know how sometimes when everyone hypes up a movie so much that it gets annoying and you just can’t bring yourself to see it or care because how good can it actually be?? Well, THIS IS NOT THAT. Let us get you up to speed before the Oscars. Read with us!

So it seems that 2026 is off to a chaotic start, but that’s a perfect reason to lean in to cozy season and lock in on your resolution to scroll less and read more! In this one-off episode, Kathryn and Hannah chat about the books they reach for this time of year: immersive plots, engaging mysteries, comfy settings, and…solarpunk??!? Listen for recs and read with us!

In the second and final episode about This Other Eden, Kathryn & Hannah discuss white tears, the incongruous logic of eugenics, chosen family and other queer themes, replacing news with fiction, and of course, the moment we’ve all been dreading: the other shoe drops! Just as Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, so too were Apple Islanders banished from their own little Eden.

On a desolate island off the coast of Maine, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife Patience settle in 1793 to sow apple seeds and grow their family in isolation. Generations later, the Honey clan remains on the island with a handful of hardy neighbors. For these residents of Apple Island, life ebbs and flows with the tides and the rhythm of the seasons. Nothing could be more natural to them, but through the eyes of outsiders, nothing could be more backward. If you know the story of the original Eden, you know the story of This Other Eden won’t be happy. But we promise it is beautiful. Read with us!

Welcome to our podcast where every book we read ends with us wondering Is the main character dead? Trust, when it comes to Cyrus, there’s enough evidence to convince you in whichever direction you want to be convinced. Listen and come to your own conclusion!

It’s time for the third installment in our Martyr series, in which your wayward hosts finally return to the closet floor to discuss Chapters 15-24 without revealing the thing we’re all starting to realize about Orkideh and Cyrus and their preternatural connection.  Also in the episode: generational trauma strikes again, Arash is just a horny guy forced by circumstance to perform angeldom, and wtf are Ali and Gilgamesh doing in the woods? Plus! Kathryn’s and Hannah’s thoughts on revolutionary hotties (and non-revolutionary notties) lead to a PROPHETIC discussion of Zohran Mamdani and Dick Cheney recorded over a week before The Day. 

Our new episode in questions: Do you say tighty whites or whitey tighties? What do you call that knife on a stick used for chopping wood? Does Zee fall in love with Cyrus because he’s taking care of him or because it’s objectively hilarious how Cyrus took Jude’s windchime? How many times can we say fentanyl in one episode?  Do you ever write down details of other people’s stories to use in your own writing one day? Is gratitude “classist, or worse”? Should Kathryn try dating a republican “as a social experiment” like Cyrus did? Is Arash a huge dick or actually a compassionate brother? Can everyone just start listening to Hannah about what’s cool NOW rather than waiting for the zeitgeist to catch up in 5 years?????

Took us a minute, but our first Martyr! episode is out now!!! Listen to us absolutely lose our minds over the first seven chapters and do not miss your chance to lol with Hannah at Kathryn wondering aloud who Lisa Simpson is. If you’re into developing parasocial relationships with your podcast hosts, this episode is the one. Ps this is our first episode recorded without help from the folks at @denverlibrary and no offense to us, but you can tell. (And so can we—next ep will be better we promise.)

Despite the visceral horrors, things get heady as Hannah and Kathryn get into the conclusion of The Guest. And it’s obliteration time, baby! If this were a Spielberg movie, the score would be going crazy. We’ve got molly, sparkly saltwater scrapes, folie a deux, a stray black dog (uh oh), distorted reflections, the end of the pills, and yes, the Labor Day party at last. 

Welcome back for Chapters 4-8 of The Guest. It is NOT gonna be a chill time. Alex is really scrambling to get her basic needs met at this point, but she still manages to deliver a weird and honestly quite disconcerting episode of Summer House as she spirals out of control. And there are more swimming pools!! You KNOW we have a lot to say about it.

This week, we discuss the first three chapters of The Guest—most notably, the mistakes Alex can't stop herself from making, whether 'dazzle' is the right word to describe her plan, and the mini-plot involving Alex floating in the water during a riptide.  Join us next Monday as we discuss chapters 4 through 8 (we mistakenly said 4 through 7 at the end of the episode). See you then! Intro/Outro Music: “I Know you Won't Let me Down” by Loving Caliber — Licensed via Epidemic Sound