Hot and Bothered

If you know anything about Vanessa Zoltan, you know that Jane Eyre is her favorite book. In fact, she just wrote her own book about it: Praying with Jane Eyre . But after spending so much time lovingly pouring over this text, it's time to take a step back.  Each week of On Eyre, Vanessa and Lauren Sandler will take a critical look at the text and ask themselves ‘does this old book still have...

Next week, we're launching our new series On Eyre . But before we jump into 19th century England, we wanted to spend some time introducing you to our new co-host Lauren Sandler. Lauren's recent book This is All I Got: A New Mother's Search for Home is recently out in paperback. We talked to her about the process of writing her book and the similarities she see's between Jane Eyre and the continued...

This week we're excited to share a conversation with Nichole Perkins about Romance Thrillers, the pleasure of competency, and her podcast This is Good For You . Stick around after our conversation to hear an episode of This is Good For You all about baking bread. And if you like the show, be sure to subscribe wherever you find your podcasts! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...

We're between seasons of Hot and Bothered, so to keep you company we're bringing you interviews with our favorite writers and thinkers. This week, we're bringing you the wonderful writer and bookstore owner Emma Straub. Together we talk about how women's books are marketed, her love of writing hopeful endings, and why it's important to surround yourself with young people. Her book, All Adults Here...

We're following our interview with Julie Anne Long last week with someone else who Vanessa is obsessed with: Justine Eyre, the woman who reads Julie Anne Long's books. Justine Eyre is a classically trained, multilingual actress who has narrated well over 400 audiobooks and received an Audie Award and multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards. We talked to her about her process of preparing to record a b...

We're between seasons of Hot and Bothered, but that doesn't mean we've stopped reading Romance novels. On the contrary, recently Vanessa has been binge reading The Pennyroyal Green Series by Julie Anne Long. And because Romance novelist are the nicest kind of people, we were lucky enough to get Julie on the phone. We asked her all of our questions about her books, how she got started writing, and...

Vanessa and Julia have read all of Breaking Dawn and have some thoughts on imprinting, vampire sex, and best practices for vampire childbirth. This is the final episode of Twilight in Quarantine ya'll! Thank you so much for being on this journey with us for the past year. We'll be back in June with On Eyre! --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could s...

Fact 1: Vanessa Zoltan has been the host of this romance novel themed podcast for almost two years now. Fact 2: Vanessa Zoltan is a Jane Eyre evangelist. She’s literally written  the book on Jane Eyre . Fact 3: Vanessa has somehow never talked about Jane Eyre on this podcast??? Finally, we’ve come to our senses and one of life’s biggest contradictions is getting sorted. Coming June 1st 2021,...

Vanessa and Julia have officially finished Eclipse! Jacob wants to be a wolf full-time and we love that for him. Go Jacob, run like the wind and never come back. Seriously. Please don't come back. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us make our new Jane Eyre podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 27 of Eclipse and need a whole closet of custom designed free clothing from Alice stat. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CW: In this episode we discuss sexual assault and read an explicit scene of assault and emotional abuse from Eclipse. Still reeling from the Jacob/Bella plot line, Vanessa turns to sex educator and author Emily Nagoski for some help in making sense of Eclipse. They discuss the history of women's sexualization, how Jacob's storyline plays upon real and toxic gender norms, and what to do with Romanc...

We at Not Sorry are making a new show! It's called The Real Question and the first episode is out today. We've already checked-in with Alice, and she has assured us that you're going to love the show. So go subscribe now! -- The Real Question is a weekly podcast exploring life’s questions through a surprising mix of pop culture and academic insight. Vanessa Zoltan and Casper ter Kuile learned...

Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 26 of Eclipse and are still shaking off the horror of this whole Bella/Jacob situation. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 25 of Eclipse and they have a few special valentines to share with the class. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CW: discussion of suicidal ideation, graphic violence, and abuse We really only planned to skip one chapter in this book, but then Chapter 23 went and happened. Chapter 23 is a minefield of sexual and emotional abuse and we thought: 'You know what would be more fun than recording an episode on this nonsense? Not recording an episode on this nonsense.' So we moved on to Chapter 24. And don't worry,...

Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 22 of Eclipse and they have a lot of ideas about how to stay warm without inviting Jacob into your sleeping bag. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CW: Because of the content of this chapter we spend a lot of time talking about sexual assault and emotional abuse. Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 21 of Eclipse and they don't know how anyone could be #TeamJacob. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Ac...

Vanessa and Julia have read Chapter 20 of Eclipse and do their best Richard Dawson impersonation in our Twilight version of Family Feud. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa and Julia have read chapter nineteen of Eclipse and are continuing to explore the rich thematic questions that thread through these books: whether Bella is a cat vs. dog person, if Charlie is capable of any kind of parenting, and why nobody has acknowledged that Jasper being a confederate solider is super problematic. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d lov...

We were hoping to release a regular episode today, but unfortunately we ran into some technical difficulties! It was probably Werewolf Jacob using our wires as a chew toy again. While you wait for next week's episode, please enjoy this blooper reel from our Chapter 18 episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're taking one more week off before we're back to Eclipse. While you wait, here's a peak at what we've been up to over on Patreon ! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa and Julia have read chapter eighteen of Eclipse and they're ready to hit the runway and Make It Work. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa and Julia have read chapter seventeen of Eclipse and they're dreaming up business ideas for Alice's party planning company. First step: a suite of business tools where the Cullens can keep track of their revenue, as well as their blood grudges against other vampires. Technology can really do it all these days. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if...

Vanessa and Julia have read chapter sixteen of Eclipse and they've been chosen as the Forks High graduation speakers. --- If $2/month doesn’t feel like a vampire sucking your blood, we’d love it if you could support us on Patreon. Your support will help us help Bella through book three! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CW: We discuss sexual assault when summarizing the events of this chapter. You can fast forward about 5 minutes to skip. Vanessa and Julia have read chapter thirteen of Eclipse, but they honestly can’t bear to talk about it. So Julia has used her one and only Uno Skip Card to save us from having to re-live Bella’s sexual assault. Instead, we turn our dial to see what’s happening at Forks High...