TBR Lowdown

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We have a discussion about the book Vladimir by Julia May Jonas. Vladimir was one of those books you read in one sitting and annotate the crap out of it because it has so many layers to peel back for discussion and thought. Highlights: 🎙 We open the episode by giving you a little gardening talk! Where are our fellow gardeners? 🎙 The part women play in ma...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: 🎙 We Discuss Just by Looking at Him by Ryan O’Connell Just by Looking at Him is one of those books you read in a day. It’s that good and that funny. You start it and before you know it, you’re at the end.  Highlights: 🎙 We chat about disability rep in books. 🎙 Threesomes. Good or bad? 🎙 We had a good laugh running over some of the funniest lines in...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: Welcome back to Season 2 of the TBR Lowdown podcast! We cannot believe we’ve made it through one year of podcasting. We’re so thankful to all who listen and support us. Thank you!  August is Women in Translation Month which pairs really nicely with our #12Women12Countries year-long reading challenge. We talk about some of the books we want to read t...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We’re halfway through the year, so we thought it would be fun to answer the questions from the booktube mid-year freakout tag.  Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa has a thousand books for her answers (surprise, surprise). 🎙 Who doesn’t love a mercenary with a heart?! 🎙 We have a brief discussion about reading three of Olga Tokarczuk’s books.  🍉🍉🍉🍉 JUNE R...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We talk about summer frontlist books we’re excited to read. Summer is here and there are so many interesting summer frontlist books that are coming out. We give you 21 books we are looking forward to reading. Are any of these on your radar? Highlights: 🎙 We love a book about a serial killer. 🎙 Surprisingly, we only have one book that was on both of our l...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We discuss our May book club pick, The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston. This was the perfect book to read for our first Grimdark book club pick.  Highlights: 🎙 It was kinda cool to see these older villains getting back to doing villainous things. 🎙 If you didn’t like Orcs before, you’ll love them after reading this book. 🎙 The number of solid p...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We talk about modern classics. We thought we’d have a conversation about Modern Classics. What actually makes a modern classic, what books are on the list currently, and what books we think have the potential to become modern classics in the future. Highlights: 🎙 Of course we believe The Prophets will become a modern classic. 🎙 Is The Secret History real...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We get spicy and talk about popular books we hate. All books can’t be winners right. Sometimes books that are not winners for us, are popular books that everybody loves. We’re all adults here, so we don’t need to tell you not to get butt-hurt if your favorite book is on our list right???? OK then.  Let’s have some fun. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa is mad y’...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We talk about Sad Girl lit, what it is, and why we love reading it. We’ve noticed an uptick in the sad girl lit discussion space and we are totally here for it. We love sad girl lit and were excited to go through our read books to give you all a few recommendations. Highlights: 🎙 How do you define Sad Girl lit? 🎙 We have so many thoughts on My Year of Re...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We discuss our April book club pick, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, translated from the Japanese by Yuji Oniki.  Battle Royale has been deemed a cult classic, so we had to see what all the fuss was about. Will it meet our expectations or will it fall flat for our reading tastes?  Highlights: 🎙 We question what actually makes a book a cult cla...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we play Smash or Pass! This is a fun little game where we choose books to read for each other.  Updates: 🎙 We’re doing a read-along for the series A Song of Ice and Fire. Join our Discord to participate. 🎙 If you are a prison librarian or know one, please email us if you’re interested in talking with us on the podcast. Check out our...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we went live! Alyssa visited Naomi over the weekend and much fun was had. We give you a weekend recap, chat about our favorite books from quarter one, and we share some of the books we hauled over the weekend we're excited to read.  Highlights: 🎙 We talk about attending the Queen's Ball Bridgerton Experience  🎙 Book thrift shop...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we talk about the YouTube algorithm for bookish channels and the bookstagrammer/booktuber community at large. Wow. We had a lot to say about some of these arguments that make their way around bookstagram and booktube every single year. We also tried to figure out how the actual YouTube algorithm works.  Highlights: 🎙 People still ge...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we cover a myriad of topics. We have a chatty conversation about some of the publishing topics that have been top of mind lately. We talk about literary prize longlists, working in publishing, the power of BookTok, Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter, and more.  Highlights: 🎙 We were both underwhelmed by two very buzzy books that also m...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We discuss our March book club pick, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Yaa Gyasi made quite the impression with her debut novel Homegoing. It is beloved by many. It is beautifully written with a dynamic story, and we are excited to discuss it and share our thoughts with the bookish world.  Highlights: 🎙 Passing makes its way to this story as well. 🎙 We are sp...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we have a very bookish conversation. We were really chatty in this episode and we cover a variety of bookish topics. Our reading lives have changed so much since getting involved in this Internet bookish space and we explore some of those changes and much more.  Highlights: 🎙 Naomi has a confession about a particular author. 🎙 We di...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we chat about some of the books being adapted for the screen. Is it us or is Hollywood gobbling up all the books to make new tv shows and movies? It seems as though there are no original screenplays (or very little) and Hollywood execs are always waiting to acquire the next great novel to adapt for the screen.  Highlights: 🎙 Naomi s...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we discuss The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. The book world has been buzzing about The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, and after reading it, we now know why. Highlights: 🎙 We both talk about getting into reading Quan Barry at the top of the show. 🎙 We were both shocked to read so much about passing in the story....

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We discuss our February book club pick, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. James Baldwin is an author we’ve been wanting to read more of and Giovanni’s Room, in particular, is a book we really wanted to read as a TBR Lowdown book club pick. Highlights: 🎙What was the deal with the photograph of David’s mother? 🎙 There was a definite disdain for women throu...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: March is National Small Press Month and in this episode, we talk about some of the small presses we’ve found and fallen in love with over the last year. We also share some books we’d like to read from them. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa obsessives over one of her new favorite indie small presses. 🎙 These Violent Delights. No, not that one. The book everyone shoul...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we have a little fun and play the 20 Questions book tag from booktube. Every now and then we like to grab a book tag from booktube and play it on the podcast. It's fun to see what each other's answers will be and to see where we agree and disagree. Highlights: 🎙 Alyssa stumps Naomi on that dreaded question almost every reader hates to an...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We discuss our January book club pick, The Cabinet by Un-Su Kim (translated from Korean by Sean Lin Halbert). Highlights: 🎙We break down The Cabinet and share our favorite parts. 🎙 We give some excellent book recommendations. ---- Visit the TBR Lowdown website - https://www.tbrlowdown.com Follow TBR Lowdown on Instagram/Twitter (@tbrlowdown) Follow Alyss...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: In this episode, we talk about discovering #JanuaryinJapan and what we read for that challenge. Highlights: 🎙Alyssa finds a new obsession in manga. 🎙 Naomi ventures into the world of Japanese mysteries. ---- Visit the TBR Lowdown website - https://www.tbrlowdown.com Follow TBR Lowdown on Instagram/Twitter (@tbrlowdown) Follow Alyssa on Instagram (@nerdyn...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: We’re so excited about the #12Women12Countries yearlong reading challenge we created. We thought it would be helpful to give you all some book recommendations for it. We also had an interesting conversation about BookTok and how that community is driving book sales.  Highlights: 🎙We provide some exciting book recs. Some of which we’ve already read a...

Hi Friends. In this episode of TBR Lowdown: 🎙 We discuss dark academia and try to find one solid definition for it. We love reading books in the dark academia sub-genre, but we’ve found it incredibly frustrating when searching for dark academia books online. We chat about that on this episode and try to find one definition to clearly define dark academia. Highlights: 🎙Alyssa is furious someone put...