Hot Girls Read Podcast

S3E5: This episode has been a long time coming – we are diving headfirst into our juiciest topic yet: spicy reads! The episode is split into two halves. During the first half, we discuss our experience with a variety of spicy fantasy, and in the latter half, we dig into the two spicy fiction books that we read in preparation for this episode, ‘Dark Russian Angel’, and ‘Praise’. Our spiciest conten...

S3E4: Are fairytales a bad influence? We are back again with our Taboo Topics series, and this time, we are talking about the controversy over fairytales. Once the golden standard of children’s literature, fairytales – whether in book form or on screen – are now being heralded as a bad influence on children. But are these worries warranted? To get to the bottom of this issue, we dive into a brief...

S3E3: Every booklover knows that reading and wellness go hand in hand. We often joke that the act of reading is our therapy, and in this episode, we dive into the myriad of ways that it really can be! We broach the subject by ruminating on the ways reading itself has supported us in times of need, and how important reading can be for your mental health. We then get into our history of reading well...

S3E2: Book to screen adaptations are a touchy subject for the booklover. In this episode, we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to the book to screen adaptations we’ve come across, including Pride and Prejudice, Twilight, and Eragon, to name a few. We also discuss popular adaptations that we liked where we didn’t read the book, those that might even be better than the book, a...

S3E1: Welcome back to Season 3 of our podcast! We are so excited to be back for another season of ‘Meet Me At The Bookstore’, and we hope you are looking forward to more of our bookish babble too! To start off our new season, we give a recap of who we are and what we are all about, sharing the humble beginnings of our 16 year friendship up until now. Jumping off of our year end bonus episode, we a...

The season isn’t over yet – we are ending the year with a cheeky little bonus episode! We begin by sharing our thoughts on the past year, and talk about the many changes that have taken place for the both of us. We then move on to our aspirations and goals for 2023 regarding our personal lives, our bookish ambitions, and this podcast. We hope to encourage all those listening to acknowledge their o...

S2E15: Stressed out by fast approaching year end deadlines, holiday socials, and upcoming travels? We invite you to sit back and unwind with us as we wrap up our second season of Meet Me at the Bookstore on a light and joyful note to usher in the holiday season! We start off by running through our gift guide for fellow book lovers, and end with sharing some of our favorite seasonal reads, from win...

S2E14: In what is probably our nerdiest episode yet, we talk about the different methods and platforms that we use to organize our reading habits. From our own personal techniques to widely used apps, we share what we find helpful, what we like, and what we struggle with when it comes to keeping track of what we read. Whether you’re a data-lover looking for another way to compile your reading stat...

S2E13: In our latest episode, we continue our deep dive series by delving into the mystery and thrill of ’The Paris Apartment’ by Lucey Foley. We discuss the in and outs of each character, reconstructing the story bit by bit, until we get to the big reveal. We also go into the writing itself, what we found confusing, and what we liked (and didn’t like)! We finish off the episode with our first eve...

As a little Thanksgiving gift from us to you, this week we have also included a short bonus clip of us taking a quiz to find out which SJM man is our soulmate. See the link below to play along with us: https://www.quotev.com/quiz/15331091/Which-Maasverse-Man-is-your-Soulmate

S2E12: We love reading fantasy for many reasons: the thrill, the magic, the adventure, but most of all, the men! Join us as we dish about all our favorite male characters within the fantasy genre - from high lords and batboys, to archangels and warriors! We spend a significant portion of the episode discussing the men… *ahem* males (iykyk) in the Sarah J. Mass universe (she knows how to write ‘em!...

S2E11: During this episode, we take a trip down memory lane and revisit a favorite from our youth: Sophie Kinsella’s ‘Remember Me?’ This re-read was an experiment for us to see if we would have the same experience reading a book now in our 20s compared to when we were pre-teens. Needless to say, there were some major and unexpected differences that cropped up! After breaking it all down, we realis...

S2E10: Every town, city, and country has its own unique relationship to books. Following our latest trips and moves, we discuss the bookish cultural quirks we’ve noticed between New York, Virginia/DC, London, and Paris. Pertaining to independent bookstores, book deserts, libraries, and more - we chat about the differences we’ve found and come to some intriguing conclusions about book culture in th...

S2E9: The world of fan fiction is a world unto itself - another universe of literary imaginings for book-lovers and day-dreamers to explore. While we’re not well versed in fan fiction, with the increase of authors entering mainstream book publishing with a fan-fiction background, we decided it was time to educate ourselves! To begin, we discuss a few popular books and series that were once mere fa...

S2E8: Continuing our series on Taboo Topics, the contentious issue of this episode revolves around book banning and censorship! Books have been banned throughout time and nations - but is there ever actually a justifiable reason for banning a book? We begin the conversation by briefly discussing classic books that have been historically banned in the US. We then move onto books that have been bann...

S2E7: In this eclectic episode, we share our bookish adventures from our trip together to London. Staying in an area known for its abundance of bookstores, we had so much fun visiting old and new favorites, and couldn’t help buying a few treats for ourselves!  We end our episode talking about current and upcoming reads with a bit of a fixation on Sarah J. Maas’ well known series, A Court of Thorns...

S2E6: In today’s episode, we continue the momentum of sharing our most memorable books in a particular genre, starring Non-Fiction. However, before jumping into the meat of our episode, we start out with a little more booktok drama that just had to be aired out. That aside, while Non-Fiction may not seem to make as many appearances on our podcast as Fantasy or Fiction, it is not a genre to be slep...

S2E5: This episode is all about the Classics. Starting with our middle school days and then going into our high school curriculums and beyond, we share our memorable experiences with some of the most widely read books in western literature. Not only do we talk about the books we loved, liked, and really didn’t like, but we also take the time to call out the overwhelming presence of white male auth...

S2E4: It’s TEA time! From cancel culture and questionable TikTok creators to racist authors and a certain book subscription company, we are here to address some of the controversies circulating on BookTok in our latest two-part episode. Although we ourselves are not very involved in BookTok, our aim for this episode is to try and understand the discussions at hand in order to promote a more open m...

S2E4: It’s TEA time! From cancel culture and questionable TikTok creators to racist authors and a certain book subscription company, we are here to address some of the controversies circulating on BookTok in our latest two-part episode. Although we ourselves are not very involved in BookTok, our aim for this episode is to try and understand the discussions at hand in order to promote a more open m...

S2E3: In today’s episode, we are diving deep into our favorite genre - fantasy! Have you ever had a multitude of questions pop up when reading a fantasy novel? Like, HOW do you pronounce that name?? Or, they did WHAT now? And how old are they again?? We have both certainly come across our share of burning questions and are excited to finally have the chance to air them in an effort to make sense o...

S2E2: Our latest episode is all about Mystery! Spanning the classics to more modern takes, we share the details of our favorite heart-stoppers and whodunnits. From there, our conversation then turns philosophical. As interested as we are in the genre, we couldn’t help but wonder: why are humans so obsessed with murder and mystery? Listen along as we debate and deliberate in hopes of getting to the...

S2E1: We’re back for season two! After a summer hiatus, we are excited to delve into everything bookish once more. To kick off this new season we run through our summer reading lists, covering some of our favourite reads from the past few months and other fun bookish things we filled our summers with. To welcome our new listeners, we have also included a bit of background on who we are and why we...

S1E10: Our final episode of the season is an ode to our childhood, and the books and characters that have made us who we are today in many ways. Similar to an awards show, we share nominations on a variety of categories across three genres: Fiction, Fantasy, and Dystopian. Join us as we reminisce about our favorite childhood books and our shared memories around them. Books Mentioned: Anne of Avonl...

S1E9: In our latest episode, we discuss controversial authors and share our take on the book world’s reaction to them and the books they’ve written. The authors we focus on are J.K. Rowling, Delia Owens, Sarah J. Maas, Roald Dahl, and George R. R. Martin. We find that in certain cases, the issues instigated surround the authors themselves, and in others, it’s what they write about and how they cho...