Two Book Nerds Talking

As promised, we both read some books that gives you a feel-good feeling. They range from intelligent animals to benevolent ghosts, a holiday in an Italian town and figuring out your place in the world. As usual feel-good reads often have a vein of coping, grieving, figuring out where one fits (among other things) and all of the books we discuss today have some of that. Come meet a highly intellige...

We are finally back with LIVE events! Rejoice fellow introverts who occasionally would like to see some like-minded people. We interviewed Hanna Alkaf at Lit Books (our favourite lil bookish spot) on her book Queen of the Tiles. We put up a scrabble game and was horrified to find out some of her fans DO NOT KNOW how to play Scrabble! ZOMG but we digress, it was a lovely event and we got to nerd ou...

Greetings booknerds! We're back with another 30 Dirty episode to give you some book recommendations for our July #tbntbookchallenge2022. July's prompt is to read a book from a country you want to visit OR by an indigenous author. We've come up with a list of books where the setting is of places we would love to visit and there are some trip-py reads. Cheers! Books Mentioned (in order): A Castle in...

Ian McEwan recommends it, calling it a compelling setting. Diana says it's one of the darkest books she has read in a long time comparing it to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Honey picked it up and did not put it down until she was finished with it. This book (originally in Dutch) was so deceptively simple to read that you don't realise it punching you in the gut until you're halfway through and t...

We're back with Part 2 of our book recommendations for June's #tbntbookchallenge2022! We have more retellings and books on historical figures PLUS 2 extra books that are to be released later this year for your consideration. We hope you'll enjoy this episode. Cheers!

Hello! We're back with another of our 30 Dirty episodes and we're talking retellings and books about historical figures for our June #tbntbookchallenge2022. As usual, we got carried away talking about books so we've decided to make this episode a two-parter. Don't say we're not a podcast that keeps giving. Cheers!

We're back! We have been away for some time but it's all to recharge and regroup our wits for a whole new season of TBNT! We're kicking off Season 6 with one of our favourite episodes to make, a TBR episode. We're covering some books that are to be released in June till September 2022 that have piqued our interest and we hope it does you too. Fair warning, there's A LOT of books. Stay tuned for mo...

Hello booknerds! This is a special episode in collaboration with the launch of BookXcess's new website! We were invited to have a talk at The Powder Room with some lovely friends and we had a blast talking about all things bookish and being a booknerd. Sit in with us for this laidback session. Cheers!

Hello booknerds! We're on a short break but we thought of coming back on air to give you some recommendations for our TBNT May Challenge; the main character is an antihero or a book with an unreliable narrator. We thought of combining the two and came up with a list of interesting unreliable femme fatale reads for your consideration. Read well!

We've finally reached the end of a very.. interesting season. We thought of highlighting some middle grade reads and if you've never thought of picking up a middle grade book, you're kinda missing out! Honey comes in clutch with some interesting horror reads (don't worry, nothing too traumatizing), while Diana strikes a more hopeful and wholesome tune with her reads. Enjoy!

For April's challenge we urge you to pick up a read that has an element of nature in the title OR explores a world beyond earth. Honey picked a whole bunch of cool graphic novels, all sci-fi of course, while Diana has a mix bag from YA fantasy to murder mystery, essays to romance, this is a really fun #tbntbookchallenge2022 Books mentioned (in order): The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh I...

We are back after a sudden two week break (it has been balls to walls busy for Honey) but huzzah! It's a book chaser where we discuss Emily Itami's sparking debut Fault Lines and Jessica Au's contemplative Cold Enough For Snow. There is honesty here with strong female voices, introspection of where you are in life, meditation, travel and a sense of place. You'd want to visit Tokyo and Kyoto after...

Alrighty for March #tbntbookchallenge2022, we urge you to pick up a medical read (i.e. doctor's memoir, stuff set in clinics, hospitals all that jazz) OR a book about mental health. And we found a lot that we want to dive into as well. Will these reads make you feel better? Listen on! We have a bunch of recommendations ranging from non-fiction to fiction reads.

We are still in murder mysteries because well, there are so many good ones out there. This time we are going into 'cozies' - whodunnits usually with a lovable protagonist and set in small towns. There are suspects. There is usually pets. There might be a crumpet or two. Cozies are delightful because at the end of the day, the bad guy/girl gets caught and all is right with the world today. Join us...

Here are books! With animals in them, some giving you their very honest opinions, some told by the people who love them. We've found a whole lot of interesting books from a memoir of a famous chimp to a demonic goat the lives in a monastery. You'll meet a lofty tortoise and a fox who doesn't think himself sly. There are some sausage dogs! Because how can there not be? Whatever it is, we hope you h...

Hello folks! Here's an edited version our LIVE interview with David Levithan and Jennifer Niven on their collaborative book Take Me With You When You Go. It was a really cool interview where we talk about writing, being ambassadors of empathy and what they are reading too. Have a listen to find out about the book which is an epistolary novel where a brother and sister email to each other what they...

Some of the big ticket books for the first half of 2022 is here! We probably do another one in May since we've hardly covered anything and still managed to natter for almost an hour. Here are some book highlights and some excerpts so you can figure out if you fancy picking up any of the books in the next few months. Books mentioned in this episode (in order) : To Paradise - Hanya Yanagihara The Ma...

Yes, we are back to normal TBNT programming! It was a crazy end of year so we could only wrap things up at the beginning of 2022 (the tried to put in anticipated reads and then kinda failed hehe). We had a lot to say about the stuff we did last here. These are some highlights, some of our feelings of doing a podcast for over 3 years and some books we absolutely loved last year. Cheers!

We are back deep diving into one of our favourite reads this year - She Who Became The Sun. Joining us is author Shelley Parker-Chan herself and it felt like the fitting book to end our year with. Firstly because it's such an epic and emotional read and secondly because it totally fits into all our gender discussions of the past week. We talk all sorts from fan-fiction writing to bitchy eunuchs an...

In our final episode for our Literature for Equality project we look into the suffrage movement in Britain during World War One and talk about the fight for women's rights- the right to vote, the right for an education and the right to have a job. Today these are things a lot of us take for granted but not too long ago, this was not a given. We are where we are today by standing on the shoulders o...

We go closer to home in this episode by shinning a light on our own folklores and contemporary tales with a girl at the centre of the story. We had a lot of fun discussing our own love of story-telling as well as why we need #ownvoices tales, more of them starring girls and women finding their own agency, purpose, making mistakes and learning from them.

When Persepolis came out in 2000 it became an instant hit because it gave a human perspective on all that has happened in Iran during the late70s and 80s. Marjane's black and white drawings were charming but also unflinching as it gives voice to children living through those challenging times. We talk about freedom of expression and all how women's bodies have always been the subject of debate and...

So many of our fairytales and folklores deal with gender stereotypes. The pretty, poor girl waiting for a prince to save her, the girl who recklessly wears red and gets eaten by a wolf, the brother and sister unable to contain themselves from eating a gingerbread house. All these early stories have seeped into our psyches with bedtime stories and magic. We relook at well known fairytales through N...

Epics are all about heroes especially Greek epics. Odysseus sailing the seas vanquishing monsters and starting wars. Achilles fighting the Trojan war a harbinger of fleet death and divine retribution. And of the women, the witches and fates, goddesses and maidens- nothing much. Enter the new literary era of feminist retellings. There have been many of course but Miller's Circe really exploded and...

In our third episode of our LFE Project, we take you in the life of one Korean Woman. This slim book that made waves when it first came out shone a light on conditioned misogyny and systemic sexism in modern Korean life. So many that is touched upon in this book will make you think about your own social conditioning and accepted norms. Do you face daily gender bias without even recognizing it as s...