The Worst Bestsellers

Kait and Renata dug into some vintage life advice from former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown’s 1982 book Having It All . Who better to help them talk about compliance to gender and beauty norms than Bitch Planet writer Kelly Sue DeConnick ? That’s not a rhetorical question, we really got to talk to Kelly Sue DeConnick! Join us now to hear 17 easy ways to tell whether or not you...

In Part 2 of our Big Podcast Crossover Event with I Don’t Even Own A Television , J.W. and Collision joined us to discuss James Patterson’s Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas . It’s a beautiful example of the power of Telling, Not Showing. Specifically, telling your children all about your sex life with way too much detail. Turn off your Macy Gray albums and get ready to dive int...

We’re taking a break from our regularly scheduled book podcast to release this bonus episode about the movies of the Twilight saga ! As a Patreon goal , we watched all 5 films and recorded our reactions to them. (Renata’s dazzled reactions and Kait’s….less-dazzled reactions.) Special note:  Check out our  Bygone Badass Broads Giveaway, running through 3/25/18 , to support a...

Our February observance of Nora Roberts Month continues, as we read Angels Fall with author and longtime Nora devotee Christine Ricketts . It’s a quirky small-town romance between a traumatized chef and a mystery writer who hates vegetables. What could go wrong? A murder? An elaborate town-wide gaslighting campaign? A lack of fresh #herbs? All this and more, but spoilers…it ends happil...

Happy Valentine’s Day! Kait and Renata decided to treat themselves to the gift of Nora Roberts. They read Whiskey Beach with special Galentine pal (and mother of Renata), Susan. Although Duarte didn’t like this one as much as our last experience with Nora, the cougariffic  Black Hills, it was still a welcome respite from the usual garbage we read. Join us for the romantic story of a ma...

Warrior cats, come out to play! Librarian Sam joined us Twolegs podcasters to discuss Into the Wild  (Warriors #1) by Erin Hunter , the first volume of the long, complex, deeply upsetting Warriors series. We jumped into the jam-packed dramatis fursonae of feral cats fighting over the best sunbeams in the woods and were shocked at their prejudice toward housecats. Warning: we do not recommend letti...

If all Venusians communicate so easily, why is Kait so garbage at asking girls out? That’s just one of the questions John Gray’s  Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus tire fire left unanswered from a queer perspective, so Kait rounded up a few of her queer friends to talk about why this book is extra garbage if you don’t conform to the cisgender, heterosexual societal norm. Jo...

We wanted to start the new year off with a self-help book, so we teamed up with Jolenta and Kristen from By the Book , a podcast where they try out living by self-help books, and read Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray . We’re glad Jolenta and Kristen already tried out John Gray’s advice, because we would hate to even think about living by his gender essentialist nons...

Tune in to our Bests & Worsts of 2017 episodes to hear us discuss these titles and read excerpts from our favorites and least favorites! Please note: We counted things that we  read  in 2017, regardless of publication year. We didn’t count anything that we read specifically for this podcast, so our worst books are  aside  from those. For that reason, we picked top 5 favorites and only 1 least...

Tune in to our Bests & Worsts of 2017 episodes to hear us discuss these titles and read excerpts from our favorites and least favorites! Please note: We counted things that we  read  in 2017, regardless of publication year. We didn’t count anything that we read specifically for this podcast, so our worst books are  aside  from those. For that reason, we picked top 5 favorites and only 1 least...

‘Tis the season…for murder. Mystery enthusiast Kelsey joined us to discuss the Christmas Caramel Murder by Joanne Fluke , a cozy mystery starring amateur detective/baker Hannah Swensen. It’s a heartwarming story featuring one murder and a lot of recipes. Plus, the casual introduction of our new least favorite cocktail: hot lemonade! Happy holidays from Worst Bestsellers! We reall...

  Since Alex & Eliza left us unsatisfied, we decided to read some anonymously-written 19th century erotica. And who better to accompany us for The Amorous Intrigues and Adventures of Aaron Burr than Mackenzi Lee , author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and Bygone Badass Broads ? This is not the most erotic book we’ve ever read for the podcast, but it is definitely...

We’re helpless for the Schuyler Sisters (you know, Angelica, Eliza…and Peggy), so we read Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz with Andrea . Unfortunately, the author threw away her shot at writing something we didn’t want to burn. Make sure your vaccines are up-to-date before you listen to us discuss some Hamilton fanfiction that has a lot more smallpox and a lot less love tha...

We heard you like true crime podcasts, so we read Lizzie Borden by Elizabeth Engstrom and hit the road for a visit to Fall River to investigate the shocking Borden murders, joined by our editor Becca and Renata’s roommate Lindsay . But mostly we want to talk about this historical fiction novel that posits that Lizzie a) murdered her parents because she and her father were having an affair wi...

Kelly Jensen ( Book Riot editor , co-host of Book Riot’s Hey YA podcast , & editor of Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World ) joined us for the 23-hour bestseller, Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem . We’re so glad that CSI: YA solved this case and brought the book off the bestseller list, because, wow, it is not good. Join us for a story about a girl who’s pretty, but not...

  It’s been three years since  our very first episode , when  Carrie read  Twilight  by Stephenie Meyer with us! (And two years since  we read  New Moon and one year since we read Eclipse ! ) We’re back to play the  Worst Bestsellers drinking game  and drunkenly discuss the final book in the saga, Breaking Dawn . It’s a book with something for everyone–a wedding, a horrifyin...

Kait and Renata decided to take a break from sexy vampires and learn some more about our nation’s history, so they asked  KL  ( @momebie ,  @LaraEckener ) to read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith with them. They learned that white people are bad and vampires are even worse. Tuck your headphones under your stovepipe hat and listen now! Readers advisory :  Here. Footnotes:...

  Out of the coffin and into the world of Bon Temps! Kristin May joined us to read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris , the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that inspired the show True Blood. Despite the troubling trend of Confederate vampires and the overabundance of heterosexuality, this book had a lot of over-the-top drama for us to sink our teeth into–and, even better, a lot o...

In a crossover event worthy of the CW itself, the Bellwether Friends , Anna & Alene , joined us to discuss the Arrow tie-in graphic novel The Dark Archer , written by Kait’s nemesis John Barrowman (and Carole Barrowman) with art by Daniel Sampere & Juan Albarran. Are you fan of the CW’s Arrow? Well, too bad, because this comic contains none of the characters you love from that...

  It’s Flashback Summer. Do you know where your daughter is? Have you looked on your beverage container? Jenny (definitely not Janie), Co-Founder of Grinnell College’s Caroline B. Cooney Book Club, joined us to discuss The Face on the Milk Carton . Join us for this wild dive into the world of cults, dairy products, and microfilm! Readers advisory :  Here . Patreon shout-out : Than...

Flashback Summer goes all the way back to 1942 to read The Boxcar Children and The Mystery of the Purple Pool (Boxcar Children Mystery #38) by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Kait has returned from her Comet pilgrimage, and we were also joined by Katie Schenkel ( @JustPlainTweets ), writer of Moonlighters,  to unpack the biggest mysteries of all: why the Boxcar Children made homelessness seem to appeali...

As Flashback Summer continues and the 4th of July approaches, we asked our guest Rebecca the most fraught question you can ask an American child of the 90s:  which American Girl doll did you have ? After the nostalgic dust settled, we also discussed  Meet Addy by Connie Porter and Molly Saves the Day by Valerie Tripp. We confronted America’s violently racist history, and also the fact that s...

Hey, do you like horses? If so, great news: Flashback Summer continues as  Jess (from Book Riot Comics ) joined Renata and Becca to discuss Horse Shy from the Saddle Club series by Bonnie Bryant ! If you don’t like horses: too bad, because that’s literally the only thing these Saddle Club girls talk about. Saddle up and hear us unpack a book that traumatized many young horse enthusiast...

  Flashback Summer is back! With Kait camped outside of the Imperial Theater waiting to see Dave Malloy in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Becca stepped in to join Renata and their guest Kristi to discuss Double Love by Francine Pascal , the first of a great many Sweet Valley High books. Renata and Kristi were shocked to see that the series they remembered fondly from their chil...

  Kait, Renata, and their guest KL ( @momebie , @LaraEckener ) read Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous . They’re glad the author hasn’t revealed his identity, because otherwise it might be too hard for us to resist the urge to go egg his house. This is a rambling tale of a man who hates and hurts women and doesn’t get nearly as much comeuppance as we would have preferred....