The Worst Bestsellers

Somehow, we’ve been podcasting for 12 years? And Stephenie Meyer rudely did not release any new books this year, so we were forced to read Court by Tracy Wolff, book 4 in her deeply derivative (but not legally plagiarized) Crave series. Our OG guest Carrie joined us to navigate this boring escape room. Thank you all so much for listening to us for (up to) twelve years! Please listen to this episode while manifesting new output from Stephenie Meyer. Announcement: Please join us on Friday, October 9th at 6:30pm for our special 300th episode live show! We’ll be discussing Twilight with Meredith Goldstein. It will be free to attend at Porter Square Books and also livestreamed for those who can’t make it in person. Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Courtney Milan’s BlueSky thread on Tracy Wolff’s court case The newest update on the plagiarism case “After 6,000 Romantasy Pages, Judge Hands Crave Plaintiff the Bill” by Aaron Moss Crave timeline on Reddit Episode 227 – Crave Episode 249 – Crush Episode 274 – Covet Coming up next: Alchemised by SenLinYu.

  Lock up your children and manuscripts: we read Verity by Colleen Hoover. We were joined by Renata’s cherished friend Jake to discuss this BookTok sensation. Listen to this episode while you sand the teeth marks out of your headboard. Announcement: Please join us on Friday, October 9th at 6:30pm for our special 300th episode live show! We’ll be discussing Twilight with Meredith Goldstein. It will be free to attend at Porter Square Books and also livestreamed for those who can’t make it in person. Content warning: This book and our discussion of it contains the death of children. Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Episode 213 – It Ends With Us Overdue Episode 607 – Slammed Verity movie trailer “Steak ‘n Shake’s new chief MAHA officer: We’re going ‘back to the glory days of fast food’” by Sophie Brams Grammarphobia on Realtors Coming up next: Court by Tracy Wolff.

Flashback Summer is over, but we still ended up back in 1855…or did we? By popular request, we read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. We were joined by S. Jae-Jones, author of the Guardians of Dawn series (including the latest in the series, Suhwa.) Listen to this episode while you churn your butter. (It’s an extra long ep so you might have time to make a fresh loaf of bread, too!) Content warning: This book and our discussion of it contains sexual assault. Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Diabolical Lies podcast “Ballerina Farm is Happy With Her Choices” by Stephanie McNeal “Here’s what you don’t see about Ballerina Farm’s tradwife life – and it’s depressing af” by Laura Butler “Anne Hathaway makes first comment about Yesteryear adaptation after author addresses book’s backlash” by Shelby Stivale Fundie Fridays Episode #214 – Corinne Coming up next: Verity by Colleen Hoover.

  The Venn diagram between Flashback Summer and Sad Girl Summer is overlapping! We read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. For our discussion we were joined by a very cool sad girl, Theresa Okokon (@Ohh.Jeezzz), the author of Who I Always Was and cohost of Stories from the Stage. By the way, if you haven’t gotten around to reading this one before–it is actually good and we are actually spoiling the heck out of it. You’ve been warned. (And if you have read it: then you know you should have a box of tissues handy for this episode.) Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia Newbery Medal Acceptance speech “Katie Ledecky ‘breaks’ Olympic male gold medalist in practice” by Nick Zaccardi Coming up next: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.

Can you believe that in all our years of podcasting, we’ve never done the very first Baby-Sitters Club book? Well, now we’re flashing all the way back to 1986, when Kristy Thomas first got the gang together. We were joined by Jess & Rach of Book Trivia Podcast to discuss Kristy’s Great Idea (Baby-Sitters Club #1) by Ann M. Martin. Listen to this episode on your next endless drive through Connecticut. Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Book Trivia Podcast episode on Kristy’s Great Idea Episode 53 – The Baby-sitters Club Episode 152 – Mallory and the Trouble With Twins Episode 174 – Baby-sitters’ Summer Vacation! Episode 175 – Claudia and Mean Janine Episode 176 – Karen’s Plane Trip Episode 177 – Baby-Sitters Beware Episode 246 – Stacey and the Bad Girls Coming up next: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.