Strange and Beautiful Book Club

Rachel and Matt discuss the novel "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem which has been adapted into film twice (episodes incoming!) was it an easier read than Star Maker? Did we think this author was also on some really good hallucinogens? You'll find out! There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to Rach...

Rachel and Matt mostly talk about "Radius" from 2017 but also sort of talk about a lot of unrelated stuff too.  From Wikipedia:  Radius is a 2017 Canadian science fiction thriller film directed and written by Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard. It stars Diego Klattenhoff , Charlotte Sullivan , and Brett Donahue. Klattenhoff and Sullivan play two survivors of a car accident who discover that one...

"Dune - Part 1" directed by Denis Villeneuve is an epic science fiction film based on the novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. Set in a distant future where noble houses control planets and a valuable resource called "spice" is mined on the desert planet Arrakis, the story follows Paul Atreides, the young heir of House Atreides, as his family assumes control of Arrakis. As Paul learns about th...

The first in our informally themed February episodes where we talk about love and monsters and how sometimes, enjoying a movie that isn't afraid to be wholly romantic (even with the zombies) is exactly what you need. We watched and loved this Zombie movie with heart, Warm Bodies, which was originally released in 2013 and stares Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.  ... There's more from the Strange a...

Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the third episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years. Find the "Dark Shadows" reboot here: https://www.yout...

May we all one day experience whatever chemically induced metaphysical journey Olaf went on in preparation for writing this book. Possibly while writing this book (as we surmise in the episode). Truly a unique, completely wild work of scientific speculation that must have been an absolute revolution in it's day. This is no pulp "Damsel in Space" drama like other 1930's science fiction. This is an...

Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the second episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years. .... Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spic...

Another installment in our Dune Deep Dive series. We chat about the first episode of the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries which covers the events of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Fanning out about Alec Newman (Truly the superior Paul Atreides from all the adaptations) and the music which is basically the soundtrack of my high school years. .... There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Netw...

The next installment in our long form Dune series. In this episode we discuss the sequel to Dune Messiah, Dune: Children of Dune. If you've heard it's no bueno and to just stop at Dune, don't listen to that noise. Frank Herbert wrote parts of Messiah and Children of Dune before he ever wrote the first book. You can't understand Dune completely unless you understand that the first three books are r...

The last and driest movie in our vampire tour of 1979, Vlad Tepes. The Communist propaganda version of the Vlad Dracula story. Also a little red thread moment as Rachel spirals into a comparison of all the movies we've watched so far and the original Dracula story.  There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifuln...

We discuss the short story collection by Amber Sparks entitled: "The Unfinished World" Did Matt learn to love short stories? Listen to find out! There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostly spicy!...

We had a lovely chat with Dr. George Paxinos about his one (and only) fiction novel after a career of writing for scientific publication.  Professor George Paxinos is the scientist who mapped the brain of humans and the principal experimental animals. He studied at Berkeley, McGill and Yale and was a visiting scientist at Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and UCLA. As brain cartographers before him, he...

Arguably one of the most popular vampire offerings of 1979. We discuss the Stephen King miniseries adaptation of Salem's Lot that was released in 1979.  There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah discuss spicy books, serious books, and everything in between (but mostl...

"The descendant of Elizabeth Bathory is abducted by a cult of blood-drinking, self-proclaimed supermen who want her to join them." We review the 1979 "Ozploitation" film, Thirst . Another 1979 Vampire offering and THIS time it's not DRACULA! WHO KNEW? This movie is worth a watch even if it's just for the vampire street cred. We didn't hate it but I'm sure in 1979 we would have loved it. (See our r...

Another week, another Dracula adaptation. This time with nudity! So. Much. Nudity. A descendant of the famous vampire gets a job as a photographer shooting beautiful fashion models at the family estate. Being around so much naked and semi-naked flesh has the expected effect on him." There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/str...

We chat about this movie (?), Nocturna (1979) and the truly 70's nature of ubiquitous nudity and how survivorship bias affects how we view movies from decades long past.  "Dracula's granddaughter falls in love with a disco guitarist and runs away to New York City with him." *** There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangea...

We have an awesome chat with Author/Biologist/Experimental Agriculturalist - Haldane B. Doyle about biology based scifi novel (Collection of 4 novellas) - "Our Vitreous Womb" Find more about him on his website here: https://haldanebdoyle.com/ Within the smallest continent a boundless world is born… Thirty thousand years ago the machine age consumed the world. The only remaining resource was biolog...

Matt and I chat about the "High Fantasy Heist" book - "The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn" by Tyler Whitesides. Did we love it or feel underwhelmed? Did we find ourselves questioning what makes a heist book? Listen to find out! Find Storygraph here: https://www.thestorygraph.com/   Synopsis: " Master con artist Ardor Benn and his crew of intrepid thieves are hired to pull off a series of wildly com...

Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of the original silent film classic, Nosferatu. Honestly, 11,000 rats. 11,000 rats were used in making this movie and I don't think any other information describes the experience quite as accurately.  There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Han...

The second of 8 vampire movies released in 1979 which I'm going to tentatively call the "year of the disco vampire". This movie was fun, punchy, packed with pop culture references and some really dated lines that we loved anyways. Well worth a watch! There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to...

The first in our Anniversary exploration of the vampire movies of 1979 (all 8 of them). First up is the 1979 adaptation of the Dracula theater play staring Frank Langella. Which we loved, obviously. Sexy, romantic, gothic, horrorific, and just the right about of campy silliness (unintended).  The review I reference is here: 1979 New York Times Review There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Net...

We attempt and mostly succeed at a spoiler free discussion to sell you, dear Listener, on reading the four novellas that make up "Our Vitreous Womb" by Haldane B Doyle Find links to buy them here: https://haldanebdoyle.com/ There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? Buy a cup of Hot Jala! https://ko-fi.com/strangeandbeautifulnetwork Listen to Rachel, Kate, and Hannah d...

Had a super great time chatting with Mike Kuciak from Blast Furnace Media about his two currently available horror movies, "From the Shadows" and "Death Metal". Find more about his merch here: https://deathmetalhorrormovie.com/ More about From the Shadows here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14208454/ Find him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/blastfurnacemedia/ Find them on YouTube here: h...

"Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood-drinkers, is smart and beautiful - and very dangerous. Domingo is mesmerised." There's more from the Strange and Beautiful Network! Enjoying our work? B...

The next installment in our long form Dune series. In this episode we discuss the sequel to Dune, Dune: Messiah. If you've heard it's no bueno and to just stop at Dune, don't listen to that noise. Frank Herbert wrote parts of Messiah and Children of Dune before he ever wrote the first book. You can't understand Dune completely unless you understand that the first three books are really a play in t...