Book Thingo

Rudi, Gabby and Kat talk about significant reading moments, man-hymens, sex positions that destabilise the patriarchy, problematic faves, and our love for a good grovel. Also: Gabby ghosts us, and some of us come prepared with dick quotes.

Reunited once more, the BT bloggers take on the Goodreads reading challenge.

Anna Cowan talks about life after Untamed, the struggle to manage motherhood with personal ambition, and some of her queer romance recs.

Rudi, Gabby and Kat finally manage to read the same book in time for this episode. We talk about The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, WLW books, the role of tension in romance, and women's hobbies.

What happens when one of the Book Thingo bloggers moves overseas?

Romance reader Sophie Ly taks to Kat and Rudi about why she loves graphic novels, and gives us some recommendations for series with strong romantic arcs.

The Book Thingo bloggers decided to knock one book off our TBR piles. Spoiler alert: only one of us actually did the work, and you get no prizes for guessing who.

What happens when you combine a love of 80s action films with romance genre tropes? You get Ainslinn Kearns's books!

Guests: Rudi and Gabby | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 23/05/2019 Sydney #RomBkLove, the brainchild of the amazing Ana Coqui, is a month-long celebration of romance books, authors and readers. Book Thingo is excited to host today’s topic: Rebellious readers. In this episode, we thought it would be a good time to take a pause […]

Guest: Melanie Milburne | Host: Kat Mayo | Audio producer: Rudi Bremer | Recorded: 18/08/2018 RWAus When I heard Melanie Milburne’s keynote at the 2018 Australian Romance Readers’ Award, I knew we had to have her on the show. Her speech as a powerful personal statement about reconciling her feminism and her writing career. It as powerful because it […]

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Gabby, Rudi and Kat talk about the ways we give and receive love, and more importantly, how we like to read the expression of love.

Aussie author Amy Andrews talks about the Women of W.A.R. series, featuring women AFL players and the heroes who love them. We also explore the issue of safe sex in romance, and Amy gives us some reading recommendations.

In our first interview from the conference, we talk about the function of nonconsensual scenes in the history of romance, what happy endings look like in different cultures, condoms in romance, power politics, and cultural conversations.

What better way to celebrate the new year than with our (super very) belated podcast anniversary episode! Once again, Rudi has organised a special treat for us -- we're playing Book Thingo bingo!

Gabby has taken over the podcast, because in this episode we talk about a topic I know nothing about -- One Direction fandom.

Romance readers read aloud from some of their favourite books. Plus, Rudi, Gabby and Kat talk about politics in romance, debate the merits of Passion, and generally meander through random topics.

Author Jennifer Hallock explains her IASPR paper on chronotopes in historical romance, and why our familiarity with Regency romance might be hindering us from appreciating romances set in other historical settings. We talk about the additional work that authors of diverse historical romance have to do to construct their stories, and some of the challenges that Jennifer faced when writing her own books. (And a bonus for fans of Father Andres: We talk about his defrocking!)

Rudi, Gabby and Kat discuss the controversial AAR Top 100 Romances list.

Carla de Guzman talks about plus-size heroines, cultural baggage, and living the tita life.

On day 23 of #RomBkLove month, we talk about the books that made us fall in love with romance fiction.

Nalini Singh joins us to talk about changelings, spin-offs, and an intriguing new book that she hasn't started yet (but we already want to read!).

Kate Cuthbert talks about c*nts and euphemisms, politics in romance fiction, and her PhD research topic.

If you like books romance books where sex is definitely not vanilla, this episode is for you.

Jothee Tan talks about discovering romance fiction through Twilight.

Vanya Joannidis talks about finding empowering stories in romance.

Book Thingo readers present excerpts from some of their favourite romance books.

Jodi McAlister on romance fiction scholarship in Australia, writing young adult paranormal fiction, reality TV, and royal-themed romance.

Vassiliki Veros on romance fiction metada, library practice, Mills & Boon, happy endings and sex in the stacks.

Rudi, Gabby and Kat kick off a new year of reading with a list of recommendations. Prepare to one-click!

Gio Gahol, Chachic and Mina V. Esguerra reflect on #romanceclass live readings from different perspectives: as an actor, a reader, and an author. Gio reads an extract from How To Tame Your Tikbalang by Alma Anonas-Carpio.

Authors Jay E. Tria and Six de los Reyes talk about what it means to write for the #romanceclass Flair imprint. Mina V. Esguerra talks about how the idea for Flair began, and we hear Fred Lo and Rachel Coates reading an extract from the imprint's launch title, You Out of Nowhere by Jay E. Tria.

Book bloggers Chachic and April talk about their favourite romances, and what it's like to be part of the #romanceclass community. We also hear Salve Villarosa and Migs Almendras reading an extract from Locked Box by Eve Dangerfield.

Rachel Coates, Miguel Almendras, Fred Lo and Salve Villarosa on what it's like to be #romanceclass actors, and how they've seen the group evolve over the last couple of years. This episode contains explicit words, so make sure you have headphones on!

Dr Lauren Rosewarne answers some very tricky questions around cultural taboos and popular culture. Why are so many cultural taboos related to normal functions of the female body? Why is there so little masturbation in romance fiction? How do writers balance storytelling and politics -- in particular, how do romance writers manage feminism in the face of competing allegiances?

Rudi and Kat celebrate International Podcast Day by talking about their favourite podcasts.

Author Fiona Lowe talks about the inspiration for Daughter of Mine, writing outside of the romance genre, the importance of reader expectations, and theories on why medical romance is so popular in Australian and France.

Danielle Binks talks about Australian young adult novels. We talk about some of our favourite Australian authors who write young adult fiction and romance. (We spend a bit of time on our mutual love for Melina Marchetta's work.) We segue into a discussion about current politics, what feminism means to us, a young adult book that deals with abortion, and how romance fiction deals with politics.

Bookish Friends reviewer and podcast host Diem joins us to talk about Aussie YA books, how she got into romance fiction, her favourite podcasts, and what she thinks of book to film adaptations. We mention a lot of book titles in this episode, so get your one-click finger ready!

In this special anniversary show, we're joined by some unexpected guests, and you'll get a peek into the secret conversations between Gabby, Rudi and Kat. Please note: we say a lot of rude words.

Author Amber Bardan talks about writing diverse characters, the appeal of captive narratives, and love for Julie Garwood's historical romances.

Author C.S. Pacat talks about the Captive Prince series, the cult of the author, and that time she spent 4 months revising one sentence.

Author Courtney Milan talks her upcoming Hamilton-themed anthology and gives us a peek at her writing process and tools. Courtney has been very open and vocal about her views on diversity in romance, and we explore this topic in some detail.

Danielle Binks, Lauren Anderson, Rudi Bremer, Gabby and Kat Mayo discuss their highlights from the 2017 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Kaetrin Allen (Dear Author, Kaetrin's Musings) talks about her favourite audiobooks and narrators, and how she discovered the online romance community.

Author Sally Thorne talks about the amazing success of her debut novel, The Hating Game, second book syndrome, and what it was like to do her first signing event.

Book Thingo bloggers Rudi and Kat recap the 2017 Australian Romance Readers Convention.

'There’s a big parallel between what happens in Hollywood with women over 40 on screen, and women over 40 in fiction… You only see them in particular roles, and they’re rarely positive roles.'

Kat talks to two amazing ladies who are helping to bring romance events to Australian readers: Diane Robson from the Australian Romance Readers Assocation, and Penny Rudge from Fictionally Yours, Melbourne.

Honey de Peralta (Penguin Random House) talks about the Filipino ReaderCon, and we reflect on how Martial Law and the People Power revolution are represented in stories. We talk at length about Filipino readers -- who they are, what they read, and how they access books.

Charles Tan talks about speculative fiction in the Philippines, some of the creatures of Philippine mythology, Wattpad, parallel import restrictions, territorial rights, and the value of intellectual property.

Authors Katrina Ramos Atienza and Ronald Lim talk about male/male romance fiction, the challenges of writing steamy novels, and their many insights on romance fiction in the Philippines.