TBR Lowdown

In this episode, we share our favorite books from the first quarter. Highlights: 🎙 Poets writing novels FOR THE WIN! 🎙Naomi makes serious progress in completing some series on her shelves. 🎙2024 is proving to be a really good reading year. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2024 Reading Schedule https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2024readingschedule ⭐️ Partici...

In this episode, we talk about some of the late Spring and Summer book releases we’re looking forward to and think you should put on your radar. Highlights: 🎙 Naomi has been on a literary vampire book kick. 🎙Yup, there are most definitely some dark emotional books on our list. 🎙 Female friendships come up again in some of Alyssa’s picks. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readal...

STAY TUNED FOR THIS UPCOMING EPISODE.... The Grapes of Wrath was published today in 1939. We have been reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb, and we will have a deep dive discussion about both books and their publishing history. You don't want to miss this episode!

In this episode, we chat about the Bloomberg article: TikTok Is Turning the Publishing World Into Fast Fashion. There have been several articles and YouTube video essays on this topic. Highlights: 🎙Is it booktok that’s the problem or the publishing industry? 🎙There seems to be an increasing amount of judgment in the book community. 🎙We are entirely too concerned with what other readers are doing....

In this episode, we discuss Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Highlights: 🎙You can’t help but feel a great deal of empathy for Cyrus. 🎙 We explore the horrid dangers of alcoholism. 🎙This book deserves a second read. There is so much in this story to glean from. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2024 Reading Schedule https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2024readingschedule...

In this episode, we discuss Vengeance Is Mine by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump. Highlights: 🎙Sometimes beautiful writing isn’t enough. 🎙There was a particular event that was mentioned several times, but was never confirmed, and that lack of verification was extremely confusing. 🎙At times it seemed as though we jumped ahead of time without any warning. ------ Join our com...

In this episode, we share our reactions to the Women's Prize for Fiction, Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and the International Booker Prize longlists. Highlights: 🎙Brotherless Nights must be good as it’s made its way to two longlists. 🎙The Carol Shields longlist is more exciting to us than the Women’s Prize longlist. 🎙The International Booker has given Alyssa hope that the Booker longlist wi...

In this episode, we talk about being a completist. Maybe not for every single author we’ve ever read, but the ones who struck such a cord in our literary hearts, that we are now moved to read everything they’ve ever written. Highlights: 🎙An author’s books don’t have to be “perfect” for us to want to read all of their works. 🎙Alyssa talks about doing more literary trips. 🎙Of course Elena Ferrante i...

In this episode, we talk about what floats our boats in the books we read. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa loves it when bad stuff happens to people in books. 🎙 Books about marriage are absolute catnip for Naomi. 🎙 We both love books that are raw and honest. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2024 Reading Schedule https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2024readingschedule ⭐️...

In this episode, we talk about book prizes we follow. Book prizes are a great way to find ‘new to you’ authors, books, and publishers. Highlights: 🎙 We’re so excited about the inaugural Women’s Prize for Fiction 🎙 We shared many book prizes, but there are much more out there we haven’t tapped into. 🎙 Will we attempt to read from any of the longlists this year???? ------ Join our community! Read an...

In this episode, we share the books we have on pre-order. There are so many exciting books releasing this year. Highlights: 🎙 Some interesting books are being reprinted this year. 🎙 Our pre-orders span multiple genres! 🎙 Naomi has way more pre-orders than usual. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2024 Reading Schedule https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2024read...

In this episode, we finally discuss our last two reads from our 2023 community reading schedule, Tentacle by Rita Indiana, translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas, and Miss Iceland by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon. Highlights: 🎙 Naomi had a strange and tiresome experience with Tentacle. 🎙 The sheer amount of literature from Iceland is impressive consid...

In this episode, we discuss an article that shares statistics on how many books people own and how they organize them. Highlights: 🎙 85% say they owned at least one physical book. 🎙 19% of Americans between 31 and 35 years old own at least 100 physical books. 🎙 Even among adults under 30, however, color is a less popular sorting method. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalo...

In this episode, we chat about a Book Riot article and Obama’s list of his favorite books from 2023. Highlights: 🎙 It’s weird being concerned with how many books other people read. 🎙 Why is the book community so obsessed with numerical reading goals? 🎙 The questions surrounding Obama’s annual reading lists are pretty hilarious. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with u...

In this episode, we chat about romance novels vs romance in books. Highlights: 🎙 We briefly chatted about finally starting the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Check our Discord for details! 🎙 Is there a specific formula romance authors use? If a novel doesn’t follow that formula, is it even a true romance novel??? 🎙 Do romance novels give a false sense of reality as it relates to real relations...

In this episode, we chat about our 12 favorite books we read in 2023. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa has such an appreciation for well-written short novels. 🎙 Translated fiction was a definite winner for Naomi in 2023. 🎙 Check our individual social media channels for our full list of favorites. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2024 Reading Schedule https://www....

In this episode, we announce our 2024 Reading Schedule and talk about our 3rd annual 12 Women 12 Countries Reading Challenge. Highlights: 🎙 We announce the five books we’ve selected for our community reading schedule 🎙 Books about marriage are catnip for Naomi. 🎙 Alyssa has been on a kick reading books about wives of famous/important men. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Reada...

In this episode, we discuss how our reading went for the year, our goals for 2024, and other bookish things. It was a lovely all-around bookish conversation. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa would like to read less and more intentionally next year. 🎙 Naomi has some exciting reading projects she can’t wait to start in 2024. 🎙 We chat a bit about the explosion of romantasy. ------ Join our community! Read and c...

In this week’s episode, we discuss Sphinx by Anne Garréta, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan. Highlights: 🎙 This book is a genderless story and was extremely challenging. 🎙 This constraint used in this book was interesting. 🎙 Parts of Sphinx kind of remind us of Boulder and Giovanni’s Room. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2023 Reading Schedu...

In this week’s episode, we discuss our March/April community read, My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women. Highlights: 🎙 The amount of work it took to put this project together was no small feat. 🎙 There’s a great panel discussion about this project on YouTube. It’s very eye-opening. 🎙 It’s not lost on us that these women put themselves in danger to write and publish these stori...

This week, we rebroadcast our Nonfiction November episode from 2021, season 1! Highlights: 🎙We gush over the brilliance that is Isabel Wilkerson 🎙A brief rant about the war on drugs 🎙A moment for Wu-Tang and their former badass manager ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2023 Reading Schedule ⁠https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2023readingschedule⁠ ⭐️ Participa...

In this episode, we talk about short novels under 200 pages worth reading. Highlights: 🎙 Everyone should read James Baldwin. 🎙 There are so many reasons to read Han Kang. 🎙 We love a short book that packs a big punch! ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2023 Reading Schedule ⁠https://www.tbrlowdown.com/2023readingschedule⁠ ⭐️ Participate in our 2nd annu...

In this episode, we talk about authors we read for the first time this year and fell in love with. Highlights: 🎙 Sarah Waters continues to give us amazing stories. 🎙 Alyssa wants to live in the world Baldree created. 🎙 Naomi has a bone to pick with the delivery guy who ruined her book package. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2023 Reading Schedule ⁠ht...

It’s Nonfiction November and in this week’s episode, we thought we’d rebroadcast an episode from season 1 where we discussed our November 2021 pick, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. Highlights: 🎙 You don’t have to be in love with a book to appreciate it deeply. 🎙 Did the decision to have unnamed narrators make the story stronger? 🎙 We chat about the books we’d like to read this Fall. ------...

In this episode, we talk about the nonfiction books we want to read during Nonfiction November. Highlights: 🎙 Three books Naomi wanted to read last year but never got around to. 🎙 Alyssa shares a very important book all should read. 🎙 Will we actually read these books? That’s the question. ------ Join our community! Read and chat with us. ⭐️ Readalong with us for our 2023 Reading Schedule ⁠https:...