Protest Knitting
Amanda and Jenn discuss YA with no romance, classics worth picking up, escapist reads, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.
This episode is sponsored by The Storybound Podcast, The Mason House, available now from Lanternfish Press, and Skyhunter by Marie Lu, with Fierce Reads.
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Feedback
The Pirate Cruncher by Johnny Duddle and anything by Isabella Bird (rec’d by Mel)
Questions
1. Hi, I am a 15 yr old and I love reading young adult contemporaries. But most contemporaries have the romance factor in them that I don’t like. Can you pls recommend some non-romantic but funny ya contemporaries?
Regards, Niya
2. I am a dedicated reader now and when I was a kid, but I went through a phase in my teens and very early twenties when I just couldn’t be bothered. This makes me so mad now, because think of all the books I could have read!
What it really means is I missed out on some of the “had to reads” because my couldn’t-be-botheredness extended to my homework as well. So there are big ole gaps in my reading life.
To be perfectly honest this email is based on the fact that I just saw the trailer for the Rebecca movie coming to Netflix, so that one is on my list. I have read Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and Dracula. I love To Kill a Mockingbird and Tale of Two Cities (yeah French Revolution) also the Yellow Wallpaper. I tend towards Sci fi Fantasy magical realism in my regular reading don’t mind scary or gore, really not here for sad sweet old people.
-Jenny
3. I recently read “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alix E Harrow which lead me to “The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern. I loved the beautiful writing style and the “books as doors” idea. I am looking for more Fantasy novels that give me the same feelings of hope and happiness and adventure and poetry and love….all the good feels. Bonus points for diversity and no sad ending please!!!
P.S. A million thank you’s for putting “Red, White and Royal Blue” on my radar!! Ugh! So good!!! 🙂
-Bre
4. Hi beautiful lovely podcasts hosts!
Thank you so much for introducing me to so many new books. I’m dropping by with two requests because I’m just..selfish like that. I’ve have to separate moods lately, especially now that I’m creeping into fall.
Request 1:
A cozy read in the rain with a cup of hot chocolate while wearing flannel and petting your cat book. This is very much a mood request. The world is shit and I need cozy fall vibes.
I’m looking for a book from any genre (edit: but not mystery – I forgot cozy mystery was a genre) that is low on trigger warnings. It should have such a kitschy ending that you should be forced to lowering it’s rating. Everything wraps up nicely and almost unbelievably. Nice fuzzy feelings.
Topics to avoid: end of the world, diseases, despots, fires, war…..
(lgbtq+ friendly – ff, bonus)
Request 2:
A book from the fantasy of manners genre!
I’ve read:
Gail Carriger
Marie Brennan
Susana Clarke
The Glamourist Histories Series
Naomi Novik
Katherine Addison
Thank you very much for your help~!
-Shree
5. Hello, you fabulously bookish people!
I have set myself a challenge of reading a short story a day. I would love to hear about your recommendations for OWN voices stories, particularly from the perspective of BIPOC, disabled, and/or neurodiverse authors.
Many thanks,
-Fran
6. Salutations Book Riot crew.
I had a shower revelation the other day, in which I realized that many of my all-time favorite stories share one unusual thing in common: they all take place primarily underground, or feature subterranean landscapes as a primary part of their setting. I love the ancient intrigue and mystery found in those dark, alien places beneath us.
So I’m looking for anything you have to offer that is mostly about the underground. Whether it’s a non-fiction account or horror or adult fantasy (especially adult fantasy, that would be especially cool), I’ll take anything that orbits around this subject
Thank you,
-Cooper
7. Hello!! I am looking for a read alike for funny-sad books from the likes of Frederick Bachman and Maria Semple. I also loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. These types of books are hard to search for and there’s something about either dark or tragic humor with hopeful warm notes that is really comforting to me and I can’t get enough!! Please help!
Since I loved Where’d you Go Bernadette so much and haven’t run into a book like it since, I also thought I would ask for other books that tell a great story through other documents or types of prose. Specific type of humor not needed for this recommendation. I loved both elements (funny-sad and creative format) of this book independently and am looking for more creative format books as well.
I don’t usually read fantasy or magical realism but I’m okay with quirky, strange, and weird.
Thanks so much,
-Laura
Books Discussed
Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner (rec’d by Tirzah)
Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee
1984 by George Orwell (tw: torture)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (tw: all the bad things happen y’all — rape, harm to children, etc)
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
The Switch by Beth O’Leary
Swordspoint and Tremontaine by Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, etc.
American Indian Stories by Zitkála Sá
The Destroy Series in Uncanny Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine
Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
Into the Planet by Jill Heinerth
2AM at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (tw: racism, prejudice within minority communities)
