The Worst Bestsellers

It’s Morphin’ Time! We’re kicking off Flashback Summer Animal Style. We returned to the world of the Animorphs by reading the three books in the iconic David Saga–The Discovery (#20), The Threat (#21) and The Solution (#22), all by K.A. Applegate. We were joined by Moniquill Blackgoose , author of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath . Listen to this episode while driving to th...

We continue Celebrity Memoir May with another wronged woman of the early 00s, Ms. Jessica Simpson. Annie Cardi , author of Red , joined us in righteous indignation on behalf of our favorite former Newlywed after reading her memoir Open Book . Listen to this episode while practicing your Dukes of Hazzard-style stunt driving. Content warnings : Child sexual abuse, substance abuse, publicly being a w...

  Unlike Scientology, Celebrity Memoir May is inescapable. Known Suppressive Person, librarian, and author Angie Manfredi ( @MissKubelik ) joined us to discuss Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini . Join us as we swear oaths of fealty to the Queen of Queens! Content warning : Verbal abuse, icky parenting, escaping a cult. Readers advisory:  Here . Footnotes:  &#822...

  Horny dragons were fun, but we’ve moved on. Onto another planet, actually. Lily Sparks , author of The Merciless King of Moore High , joined us to discuss Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon . Upload this episode directly to your alien translator earpiece to listen to it in any language! Content warning : Dubious consent and mentions of sexual assault. Readers advisory:  Here . Footno...

Y’all horny for some dragons? We forged a soul bond with comedian, writer, and Scary Mommy Sarah Aswell  by reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros together. Listen to this episode while pondering ways to legally murder your classmates! Content warning : Here there be dragons. Also, dead parents. Readers advisory:  Here . Footnotes: “How Rebecca Yarros Packed Dragons, Magic and Steamy Se...

  The devil made us read This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti . Fortunately, we were #blessed to be joined by Izzy Wasserstein , author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart , who helped safely guide us through this Christian thriller. Listen to this episode while waiting for a cool angel to pick you up on her motorcycle. Content warning : False accusations of sexual assault, Christi...

Ice, ice, baby! Annie Cardi, author of Red , returned to the podcast to discuss the sexy skater Booktok sensation Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. Join us as we skate back to college and dirty talk our way into the Olympics! Content warning : Disordered eating, gaslighting, emotional abuse. Readers advisory:  Here . Footnotes: “Who Is Hannah Grace? And Why Won’t She Show Her Face?” by Elisa...

  Nora Roberts Month continues! Heidi and Emily from Romancing the Shelf podcast returned and took us back to the 90s with the vintage romantic thriller Sanctuary . Sadly, this book has zero plates of casual pasta but it does have at least 3.5 romantic couples and almost as many murders. Listen to this episode on one of your three computers! Content warning : M urder, sexual assault, question...

Our Lady Nora Roberts has written a book about a handsome criminal who admires good architecture and casual pasta? We’re so back. Our friend and Nora Roberts expert Christine has returned to discuss Nightwork with us. Listen to this episode while working on your night cheese! Content warning : Cancer, death of a parent. Readers advisory:  Here . Footnotes: “A Visual Guide to 35 Popular...

Once again, we’ve managed to sneak in a few good books this year! Here are our favorite books we read in 2023 (regardless of publication year. Long live backlist titles!) Footnotes:  Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2023 (featuring Renata’s picks for middle grade and YA!) Coming up next:  A January hiatus. Happy New Year! We’ll see you in February!   Kait’s Top 5 Best 5.) Under the Eye of P...

We finished our adventures with the Time Traveler’s Wife but decided to linger in the 2000s for awhile longer. Friend of the Show (and the Internet’s Best Friend) Margaret H. Willison joined us to discuss Britney Spears’s memoir  The Woman In Me . Listen to this episode instead of listening to the music of Justin Timberlake! Content warning : This book contains abuse, abortion, d...

We held our annual Patreon Choice poll and our Beloved Patrons chose to send us back in time to 2003 with The Time Traveler’s Wife  by Audrey Niffenegger . Since the book is prominently set in Chicago, we were #blessed to be joined by prominent Chicagoan Ashley to unpack the Jeremy Bearimy of it all. Please do not listen to this episode while having sex with your future wife for the first time. Co...

  A cautionary tale: too many people complained about this book online so we were dumped into an arena and forced to publicly defend it to the death. Mackenzi Lee, author of many Best Bestselling books including The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Winter Soldier: Cold Front , has returned to the podcast to get to talk about a book we all actually enjoyed: The Ballad of Song...

Spooky season is here, so we were joined by Lily Sparks , author of the Teen Killers Club trilogy (including the latest book, Teen Killers at Large ) and the upcoming The Merciless King of Moore High . We got witchy with the Owens women in Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman . This episode will bring all the cats to the schoolyard! Announcement:  Join us in our Discord server on Monday, October 30th...

We just wrapped up Banned Books Week in the USA, a time to celebrate our freedom to read and also to speak up about book challenges! We were joined by Jen and Dan, the hosts of the Banned Camp podcast , where they read banned books to investigate why they were banned. They previously read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is frequently banned and challenged . So together we read the contr...

It’s our 9th podiversary! We’ve run out of Stephenie Meyer books so we decided to have our OG guest Carrie return to check out a series whose marketing team would certainly love for us to think it was written by SMeyer: Crave by Tracy Wolff . Thanks to everyone for joining us for these past 9 years, and let’s all work on manifesting a new Twilight book for next year! Readers advi...

We’re topping off this year’s Flashback Summer with a pair of red–some would say auburn–braids. We were joined by Hannah and Marcelle, the cohosts of Witch, Please and Material Girls , to discuss Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery . Pour yourselves a cup of raspberry cordial and listen to this podcast on your train journey from the orphanage! Readers advisory :  Here...

For Flashback Summer we decided to get away from it all with a visit to an exclusive desert spa. Unfortunately, the spa was plagued with black widow spiders, blackmailers, and other concerns. Fortunately, Kristin , the host of the Kristin Sleuth YouTube channel , was able to talk us through Nancy Drew #111: The Secret at Solaire by Carolyn Keene. This episode is not sponsored by Solaire moisturize...

  Breaking Flashback Summer News: in the title of the book Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison , “Angus” refers to the cat! Renata was almost as excited about this fact as she was about convincing JJ, aka S. Jae-Jones , author of Guardians of Dawn: Zhara to return as a guest for this episode! Listen to this episode while shaving your eyebrows (or while you...

For this Flashback Summer episode, the Bellwether Friends Anna & Alene joined Renata to discuss Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry. Sadly, Kait had to miss this one because she was busy shopping for her new poetry outfit, which would make Anastasia green with envy. Listen to this episode while you update the list of “loves” and “hates” in your notebook! Kait’s Poetry...

  Were you looking for sound medical advice to treat snakebites and rabies? Well, we do not recommend consulting Trixie Belden #1: The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell for first aid training. However, we had a great time talking to returning guest Carrie about this Flashback Summer mystery novel. Readers advisory :  Here . Footnotes:  The Trixie Belden Series WikiHow: How to Treat a Sn...

  Help! We’re trapped in the bodies of millennial podcasters! Andrew and Craig from the Overdue podcast joined us to discuss the classic switcheroo tale Help! I’m Trapped In My Teacher’s Body by Todd Strasser . Listen to this episode while your coworker makes you breakfast! Readers advisory :  Here . Footnotes:  A Taste of Spongey: Help! I’m Trapped in the First Day of...

  It’s–hey, calm down, no, put down your pitchforks, we’re not calling Judy Blume a “worst” bestseller! Absolutely not, just, please, let me finish this intro–it’s Flashback Summer! The time when we chill out and revisit childhood favorites, even when they are iconic classics that absolutely do not match the name of our podcast. We were joined by writ...

Hey, we’ll be honest: we kind of phoned this one in. On a landline. You screened it? On your answering machine? Haha, a topical reference. See, we read Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and The Musical Rent by Anthony Rapp . He was in Rent! Listen to this episode while waiting in line for rush tickets for Rent. Or, honestly, don’t listen to this episode if you don’t care about...

Pamela Anderson: model, actress, activist…poet. Dame Karen Corday (of Two Bossy Dames and elsewhere on the internet !) joined us to read  Love, Pamela , which…we kinda loved. Join us as we revisit the 90s with increased feminist rage! Content warning:  Child abuse/child sexual abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault. Readers advisory :  Here. Footnotes: “What to Read, Watch, and...