Everyone Gets Eaten By Velociraptors

Jenn Northington Jan 5, 2017

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Amanda and Jenn discuss college novels, urban fantasy, short audiobooks and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.

This episode is sponsored by Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall and The X-Files Origins.

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The show can also be found on Stitcher here.

Questions

1. Hi Amanda and Jenn!

I’m currently in my first semester at the University of Iowa and beginning to settle in (enough to have gotten a library card, hallelujah!), but can’t seem to find any books that fit where I’m at in life. I’m looking for books that are about the first year old college/the transition from high school to college, where the main character is honest about the emotional stress that college creates especially in the first year. I’m looking for both a friend and I-we’ve both read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and agree that it’s generally what we’re looking for, the only difference between us is that my friend would prefer something with an Asian protagonist.

Also, on a totally different note. I’m looking for books to read with my boyfriend! We are in a long distance relationship and while talking and movies over skype are fun we’d like to do something productive once in a while. We’d like to start reading a book together over video chat, me reading one chapter a night then him reading the next, an idea we got from booktuber Ariel Bissett. The problem is that we both have somewhat different reading taste, me liking more contemporary stories dealing with interpersonal relationships such as Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, him preferring classics and long texts, his favorite book being The Count of Monte Cristo as well as enjoying Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore because of its tech-y themes (he is a computer scientist) . One middle ground we both enjoy is we like books with funny main characters. Something shorter and more contemporary would be preferred since we’re both busy college students, but with it still packing some sort of punch. Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful podcast, it makes my Thursdays infinitely better whenever I get to listen to it. Keep working hard ladies, can’t wait for the next episode!

Sincerely,
–Morgan Parker

2. I am currently obsessed with books that help empower me as a women in my career. Being a twenty-something and at the brink of graduating with my Masters in Information Sciences, I can’t get enough of books about women who have excelled in their careers and their advice/observations as they got there. I am currently devouring Lean In and enjoyed #GirlBoss, along with comedians such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I also greatly enjoyed Roxane Gay’s BAD FEMINIST.

I almost exclusively listen to these books on audio and am looking for great audio suggestions that may be more under the radar than these titles.

Thank you!
–Caitlin

3. I’m part of a cultural book club – we live outside Chicago, so we decided to read books, fiction & nonfiction, that take place outside of the U.S. (preferably by foreign authors). We’re having a hard time finding “light” books to read between dense & hard-hitting nonfiction (i.e. “behind the beautiful forevers” & “nothing to envy”). One of the lighter books we’ve read was “Funny in Farsi” – it was a big hit! We need your help finding international fiction/nonfiction that doesn’t make us super depressed, we’d like to laugh once in awhile! Thank you!!
–Chelsea

4. First, I absolutely love listening to your podcast. My pups loves it too because she gets a longer walk as I listen to the end. Second, I love urban fantasy such as Jim Butcher, Simon Green, Kim Harrison, John Connolly, and Daniel Jose Older. Can you recommend other authors I have missed. Thanks.
–Lee

5. Hello!

I just finished listening to the audiobook of Bleak House / Charles Dickens, and I want a new audiobook to listen to but I’m feeling a bit burnt out by the hours and hours (and hours and hours) of Bleak House that I just got through. Can you recommend some short books for me to listen to? I like both fiction and non-fiction (especially history and Malcolm Gladwell-esque books) but I have a hard time listening to scary/tense/horror stories.

Thank you! Your podcast is great!

6. Hello!!
I am an adult stuck in the YA world. While I really enjoy it here I keep running into the same stories and I would love to delve into the adult world, I love fantasy as well as general fiction. Can you give me some starting places in the genre? Thanks guys, love the show!!
–Marie

Books Discussed

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Grit by Angela Duckworth

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen, transl by Lola Rogers

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

anything by Mohsin Hamid (How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia)