Comics Book Club's

In the penultimate episode, Mia Mercado comes on to discuss her book Weird but Normal & the writer's journey. The pomodoro method, ambient coffee shop noises, being the worst read writer ever.

Comedian Anya Volz comes on to discuss Edith Wharton's House of Mirth, the Uncut Gems of turn of the century high society women. Consequences for bad choices are way out of proportion when you're a woman, turning down opportunities bc you feel like a pawn in someone else's plan, accidental overdoses, and more!   @AnyaVolz @ComicsBookClub

Starr Davis joins Molly & Rebecca to discuss her poem Mourning Sex which was published in Kenyon Review, which she wrote in the wake of the death of Nipsey Hussle, instead of calling an ex. The poem explores what it's like when you attempt to escape pain and are left face to face with the same void at the end & giving ourselves more grace to feel grief. @_StarrDavis @SeriousMolly @RebeccaRush639      

Opera singer & meme sensation Loz McQ joins Rebecca & Molly to discuss the book Single on Purpose, a beginner's guide to singlehood. Loz talks about how the book helped her shift her thinking from the context of being a person that's not just waiting to be in a relationship. From there there's an in depth buttplug discourse, having sex with yourself in a more meaningful way, dropping into your body, and the very LA idea of therapy in a coffee shop as almost a performance. Rebecca shares her frustration with the idea that singleness is only there to prepare you for your next relationship. @RebeccaRush639 @SeriousMolly @BrutalRecovery

Author and TV writer Amanda Rosenberg comes on to discuss her sparkling and vulnerable book of essays, That's Mental. We discuss finding what works for you, seeing how your experience can benefit others, what it's like to be a person without substance abuse disorder in a rehab and what it's like to be a person without mental illness in a psych ward. Twitter: @AmandaRosenberg @ComicsBookClub

Molly & Rebecca interview author Gwen Goodkin on her short story collection A Place Remote. Writing from the perspective of the opposite sex is freeing, putting work down and coming back to it, people react worst to the truth they know that they aren't willing to admit, learning through writing more than anything else.  Our job as writers is to do our stories justice. Writing as ritual. Midwesterners don't like waste. @GwenGoodkin @ComicsBookClub

Molly and Rebecca read The Best of Me by David Sedaris together, a compilation of his best work and a few new essays. We discuss mining your family for stories, how we feel about his fiction, essay structure, travel, shopping, regrets, family tragedy, and favorite Sedaris family members. Molly stans Amy Sedaris. @ComicsBookClub

Ron Huett of Best American Essays 2020 comes on to discuss his essay "Cosmic Latte." We discuss getting more confident in your own authority over your own writing, people not staying in their zone on the ethics and morality of race, you can't always tell someone's race or ethnicity by the way they look, getting good news in the middle of a depressing work zoom call, the geography of race perception. Molly & Ron bond over having both worked at Borders. @RonnieHuett @ComicsBookClub

Join Molly & Rebecca as they cover the books that meant the most to them in a year where the joy of disappearing into a book meant more than ever. Categories: Best thing you learned, book that made you forget it was 2020, book that surprised you the most, best audio book, best non fiction, favorite reread, funniest, short story, pleasure read, and MORE! @ComicsBookClub

Comedian (America's Got Talent) Alex Hooper has Molly & Rebecca read The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. Begging vs asking, trying to sell merch after a show, building a fan base vs building community, asking people to volunteer to play with you, performing for free, and the journey of getting over your own bullshit. Scarcity mindset around performing. Molly is a HUGE fan of Amanda Palmer. Also, America's Got Talent can totally afford to pay. @HooperHairPuff @ComicsBookClub

In the pod's second and Molly's first crossover episode (last one was with Fuckbois of Lit) we join forces with the Heaving Bosom podcast to read The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe, in which a wealthy New Yorker who wants to use her priviledge for good meets a dapper crime boss and romance ensues. Molly hosts alone, which works because only one of the HB hosts was able to be there as well. An introduction to to the wonder of romance! Rebecca stopped reading over seven times to jerk off. Also, the shame of early podcast eps!   @ComicsBookClub @Heaving_Bosoms

In the pod's second and Molly's first crossover episode (last one was with Fuckbois of Lit) we join forces with the Heaving Bosom podcast to read The Devil of Downtown by Joanna Shupe, in which a wealthy New Yorker who wants to use her priviledge for good meets a dapper crime boss and romance ensues. Molly hosts alone, which works because only one of the HB hosts was able to be there as well. An introduction to to the wonder of romance! Rebecca stopped reading over seven times to jerk off. Also, the shame of early podcast eps!   @ComicsBookClub @Heaving_Bosoms

Author, actress, and comedian Arden Myrin joins Molly & Rebecca to discuss her newly released memoir-in-essays, Little Miss Little Compton. Myrin describes the book as, "Little girl from quirky small town family with stars in her eyes moves to the big city and makes good while learning how to be a human on earth. Also, personal safety, grief, and more. @ArdenMyrin @SeriousMolly @ComicsBookClub @RebeccaRush639  

We sit down with author Meg Elison to discuss her most recent work, a YA novel called Find Layla, in which our protagonist, Layla, puts a video on social media that goes viral and dismantles her life as she knows it. We also discuss the poverty cycle, when caretakers fail, bullying, and Meg gives some great writing tips. @MegElison @ComicsBookClub

Pirates! Witches! Mermaids! Girls kissing! Maggie Takouda-Hall joins Molly & Rebecca to discuss her fantasy YA novel The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea. We recommend this book for adults, too! It's an entire world you can disappear into, with gorgeous storytelling and the exploration of the stories we tell ourselves, with our characters on the hero's quest to find out who they truly are, and what really matters to them. Writing process, world building, stealing mannerisms from people in your life for your characters. Also, white people are actually pink. @EmteeHall @ComicsBookClub

Comedian Christine Meehan-Burg joins Rebecca & new cohost Molly Sanchez to discuss Delia Owen's Where the Crawdads Sing, a coming of age novel wrapped in a murder mystery, set in the 1950's south. We love the marsh, explorations of loneliness, but are tired of seeing stories in which women discover themselves through men. It's a book you just eat up! New segment! Who would we cast in this movie? @funnychristine @SeriousMolly @ComicsBookClub

Join Rebecca and author Amy Spalding as they discuss Amy's most recent novel, We Used To Be Friends. The evolution of YA literature. Covering the new experiences and big feelings of adolescence and the pressure that puts on storytelling. There are no sad songs or support for best friend breakups. Stories w/ two POV's. Writing backwards and forwards at the same time - knowing the end of a story can make sad moments happier and happy moments sadder. @theames @ComicsBookClub

The delightful Tod Goldberg talks about his first of a series of gangster novels, Gangsterland, where our protagonist Sal Cupertino, a mafia hit man in Chicago, is forced to move to Vegas and become a mafia rabbi. Also, working for the mob as a teen at the pool at a Palm Springs resort. If you had to kill a guy, taking a short story and turning it into three substantial novels & organized crime vs organized religion. Gangsterland is a comic crime novel with serious overtones, and a very compelling read. Tod is still owed $167 by a man named Tan Man. @TodGoldberg @ComicsBookClub

Comedian Mo Vida comes on to discuss Ali Wong's memoir in letters, Dear Girls. Doing stand up as a daughter of immigrant parents, show outfits,the beauty of stand up is that there's always work to do, bringing weird food to school. @MokaVida @RebeccaRush639 @ComicsBookClub

A Jewish woman, a Black woman, a Vietnamese woman and a Mexican woman walk onto a podcast, to talk about Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility on why white people have such a hard time talking about race ESPECIALLY when it comes to receiving feedback when they say or do something racially insensitive or hurtful. The most important episode. @ComicsBookClub @SeriousMolly @RobinTran04 @KatrinaSivad

Join Molly Sanchez & Rebecca revisit a book that scared Molly so much as a child she thought about it once a month for the rest of her life, Sweet Valley High Book 13. Intrigue, rich people, kidnapping, classism, sexual innuendos between siblings, leukemia, this book has it all! Also, death books for kids, you either die an Elizabeth or live long enough to become a Jessica, & a very vanilla kidnapping. Become a Molly Fanchez! @SeriousMolly @ComicsBookClub

Fellow Connecticutian Laura Manasewich joins Rebecca to discuss Retta's debut memoir, So Close To Being The Shit Y'all Don't Even Know. Wanting to be good at Twitter, talking yourself out of trying, Yale's Science of Wellbeing course, your life isn't over if you stop being in entertainment, not giving a shit in a very enviable way. @SassyMzManassy @ComicsBookClub

Mike Drucker, head writer for Full Frontal W/ Samantha Bee, joins Rebecca to discuss the first pop culture phenomenon, Young Werther, a romantic tragedy written in 18th century Europe. Killing yourself because of romance being seen as very romantic, being a huge try hard, trying to "act deep" your way into a relationship, and when an entire culture forms around a book. Preachers gave sermons against this book! Also, idiot confidence, and Mike is doing fine in quarantine. @MikeDrucker @ComicsBookClub

Rebecca's favorite author Laurie Notaro comes on to discuss her final book, a historical novel about female aviatrixes who were much better at flying than Amelia Earhardt. Also tips for writing humor essays, publishing is brutal, and musings on what social change will be sparked by COVID. *Episode recorded in mid-May*

Musician Ceschi Ramos joins Rebecca to discuss On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, a letter from a Vietnamese American poet to his illiterate mother set in Connecticut, where both of them are also from. Working class Connecticut, the sacrifices we make for beauty, is destruction necessary for art, G.I. Johns, deathbeds, living in a state where the best minds are sucked up by NYC or Boston, 2 pm gunshots, and, opiate addiction, and flowers off the side of the highway   @ceschi @ComicsBookClub

n the first episode with more than one guest, screenwriter Dan Ewen (Playing With Fire) and illustrator Thomas Richner (The Simpsons) discuss their spoof on The Giving Tree, The Taking Tree. Witness the bromance between two extremely talented gentlemen who met in a small liberal arts in Ohio. For every 50 things that you do, one percolates, so keep going. Also check out their series BARN, Baby Animals Ranting the News on YouTube which was born of being dismayed by the news every day. @VaguelyFunnyDan @TRichner @ComicsBookClub

 University of Montevallo writing professor and Iowa Short Fiction Award Winning author Ashley Wurzbacher joins Rebecca to discuss her debut story collection, Happy Like This, and gives a few writing prompts for those looking to write during quar. Feeling like your process is wrong, planning stories, the dynamic self, giving yourself permission to invest time, energy, and emotion into writing something, when your story is smarter than you are. Buy the book from an independent bookseller! Follow her on Insta: @doctorbacher

Guy Branum joins Rebecca via zoom to discuss his sparkling Memoir in Essays at the beginning of quar. Guys life, pop culture, and the issues that thread through them. Gay men's voices and what defines them, parts of California nobody thinks about, being a fat gay man in West Hollywood, fun open mics, and the true magic of stand up is how debased you are by the art form along the way. @GuyBranum @ComicsBookClub

Author/Actress/Comedian Christie Nicholls Nitrouer joins Rebecca via Skype to discuss her debut memoir-in-essays. Independant publishing, Hollywood dreams, nobody is every going to work harder for you than you, sending an empty Uber to pick up your dog, what's the point of even trying, HEY! I'm OK! & being really great at nicknames. @followchristie @ComicsBookClub    

Comedian Kelly McInerney joins Rebecca via Zoom to discuss Tiffany Haddish's memoir in essays. Joking abut guys you're dating, being a clown at kids parties, bringing a cat to a bat mitzvah, lessons in failure, plateaus, shitting your pants at work, learning to have fun on stage. In a new segment, Kelly reads a portion of the book.   @Hollyweirdo @ComicsBookClub   Venmo: @RR639

Author and comedian Sara Benincasa comes on via Skype to discuss her first book, Agorafabulous: Dispatches From My Bedroom. Only you can tell your stories, recovery, foster cats, when writing makes you feel the entire range of emotions, long-form storytelling, torture and torment equating holiness, wanting to be a writer since you're a little kid, sharks in swimming pools, peeing in bowls, and the place where hyper vigilance meets delusion. @SaraBenincasa @ComicsBookClub  

Comedian Kelsey Lane comes on to talk about I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up by William Knoedelseder. Also, the business of comedy in LA past and current, opening for bands, camaraderie in comedy, stand-up comedy's golden era, the transition from being on stage to being alone, representation, negotiating gigs on your own. Rebecca says "like" too many times & talks too much and does not do this on the episodes she records during the apocalypse.   @IAmKelseyLane @ComicsBookClub

Comedian Austin Train comes on to discuss Philip K. Dick's novel Valis. Sometimes the most appropriate response to reality is to go insane, having more empathy towards others than yourself, transcending for a moment then getting thrown back into human drama, masochism as a way to take control of your suffering. Follow: @Austin_Train @ComicsBookClub

Comedian Tess Barker comes on to discuss Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishigiro. We use memory to construct our identitites. We replay our past so much it becomes our future. Blind allegiance to your lot in life. It's harder to watch someone else suffer than suffer yourself. Sex is a survival mechanism. Having a creative outlet makes you human.   @TesstifyBarker @ComicsBookClub

Comedian and food writer Danny Palumbo comes on to talk about Blood, Bones, and Butter, a chef memoir by Gabrielle Hamilton. Having a hard time working hard outside of being in a restaurant, 80's style Italian American dining, stealing from restaurants, not wanting any one thing to be your entire thing, Gabrielle's weird marriage, unfortunate falling outs, the lure of marrying into an Italian family when you come from a broken home, trying to kill a chicken, celeb chef culture.   @Palumbros @ComicsBookClub  

Comedian and Historical Roast writer Alex Duong comes on to discuss Steve Martin's memoir Born Standing Up. People with supportive parents aren't good at comedy, clapter, selflessness comes with a cost, writing, issues w/ your same sex parent creates a comic, starting a family before you know who you are. @SteveMartinToGo @ComicsBookClub @AlexDuongComedy

Billy Anderson of the wildly successful Gateway Show comes on to talk about Tucker Fucking Max! Everyone in the early 2000's was an edgelord, hacky bad behavior, books that don't hold up, self congratulatory memoirs, how do you remember being such an asshole BUT you were in a blackout, turning being horrible into a successful business as a ghostwriter. Both Rebecca and Billy enjoyed this book when it came out and hated it this read. And that my friends? Is growth! @BillyTellsJokes @ComicsBookClub  

Pete Jackson, visiting from the UK, comes on to discuss his BBC comedy series Love in Recovery recently made available in the states via Audible. Becoming the person you never thought you'd be, facing the world and the mess you've made of it, annoying people into giving you a chance, taking extraordinary steps because when you're sober there's no pretending that you're happy.   @PeteJackson79 @ComicsBookClub

Comedian, writer, and Roast Battle legend Pat Barker comes on to discuss Murder Rap by Greg Kading, a book about the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur murders written by the lead investigator on the case after he retired. Books by people that aren't writers, the simplest explanation is probably the most logical one, how do you think you're going to murder and get away with it, the higher the street #, the worse the area. Torture chamber haunted houses.

Brian Moses, comedian and Roast Battle host, comes on to discuss his favorite book, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Tulsa Race Riots, Generational Trauma, Black Wall Street, Electro Shock Therapy, how much it costs to get your wisdom teeth out in Tijiuana, Black Panthers, Black Communists, Invisibility, Vegetarian Chopped Liver. Why isn't this book taught in schools? Read it. @RaceBanning @ComicsBookClub

Emily Browning comes by to talk about the Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous book. The 70's, this fellowship wouldn't exist if these guys had followed the suggestions of AA, why is the guy addicted to grabbing butts on the street not in jail, feeling like you owe sex, what sex sobriety looks like, getting drunk & fucking losers, needing a niche group to feel a part of something, being open about masturbation. Comics don't know how to talk to each other. Thank you, goodnight!

Comedian Zoltan Kaszas comes on to to discuss the third Bukowski book covered by the podcast, Post Office. The risk of deciding to quit your safe job and go be a writer, Edinburgh Comedy Festival, waiting tables, sucking at every job, learning how to take revenge at a restaurant, society's relationship w/ death, cat conventions, Instagram cats, Bukowski's humanity. Follow: @ZoltanComedy @ComicsBookClub    

Valley Jesus Ryan Talmo comes by to discuss the novella Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Also, being given wrong addresses to parties in the hills on purpose, being ditched, big spenders at open mics, hatred everywhere, earthquakes, beating cancer, and having nothing to lose.   Buy his album "My Lymphoma" Insta: @RyanTalmo   & @ComicsBookClub on Twitter   Donate via Venmo @RR639

Comedian Kim McVicar joins to discuss the podcast's first book about writing stand up, Mastering Stand Up by Stephen Rosenfield, whom she flew to NYC to meet, and also took a week class of his. Crowd work, road stories, do you think you ever finish therapy? The math of comedy, slowing down on stage, and bein' a real sad cookie.   Follow:   Insta: @Kim.McVicar @RebeccaRush639      

Comedian & journalist Molly Mulshine visited from sunny London for this episode, recorded last spring. She & Rebecca discuss Stephen King's On Writing. Also screenwriting, writers who write about writing, stand up in the UK, being inappropriate in the UK, the difficulty of having to use the loo in NYC & London. Being hated for being an American, what's funny to brits, hidden bathrooms. The apps.   @MollyMulshine & @ComicsBookClub Next Vulnerability Show Nov 5 @ El Cid Sunset, 8 pm, Tix $5 in advance via Eventbrite OR Venmo @RR639

Rebecca goes to the valley to join one of her favorite comics, Jackie Kashian, and talk about the fantasy novel Anvil of the World by Kage Baker. Before they record this episode, they do an episode of Jackie's podcast Dork Forest and talk about hippy dippy shit Rebecca loves. They discuss fantasy as a genre, different tropes, Jackie's writing project, big renfair, and when an author is so good they can make things work that usually don't. The truth in fiction.   @JackieKashian http://jackiekashian.com @ComicsBookClub  

Matt Rasamoto, producer of Eddie Pepitone's podcast Peptalks and #1 fan of this podcast, joins Rebecca to discuss Bukowski's last book, Pulp, a satire of the genre. They discuss all the other episodes, who Matt's favorite and least favorite guests were, how many times Rebecca has actually talked about her marriage on the pod, and whatever was going on the week they recorded, about a month prior to publication. Also, dogs.   @DrPunchman @ComicsBookClub   Support the podcast via Venmo: @RR639

Josh Edelman comes on to discuss Bukowski's literary romp, the humping, pumping, hard drinking Women. Rebecca surprisingly likes it. They talk about the book a lot. Also, Josh used to be a magician. Bringer shows, being compared to people, Bukowski, Bukowski, Bukowski. This is the first of 3 Bukowski books covered for the podcast.   Follow: @Edelmeister @ComicsBookClub   Support the podcast via Venmo: @RR639

Corie Johnson comes on to discuss Roxane Gay's memoir Hunger. Also, gastric bypass surgery, ignoring your body, dissociation, borderline personality disorder, gastric bypass, weight loss boarding school, the valley is far from everything, getting off hard drugs is a bitch. Childhood trauma, disordered eating, astrology, and, as always, comedy!   @CorieTJohnson @ComicsBookClub    

Mike Glazer joins Rebecca to talk about the original bad boy of cheffing, Marco Pierre White. Putting in the work, Thailand, favorite dishes to cook and eat, the vibrational scale of emotions, non traditional meats, being banned from the Next Door app. This is episode 50! Nico is very active throughout the episode.   @Glazerboohoohoo @ComicsBookClub  

Jessa Reed comes on to discuss Tufti the Priestess by Vadim Zeland. Reality transsurfing, the two cup method, the fifth dimension, manifesting, downloads, the collective, how difficult this summer has been astrologically, tarot, the in between, honoring your pain, and the energy exchange between us all. This episode fucking rocks.   Get a reading by Jessa & listen to her podcasts!   Follow:   @JessaReedComedy