Literary Connections

Melissa and James discuss Casey McQuiston's The Pairing through themes of self-discovery, relationships, and cross-cultural encounters. Spiciness warning for the book itself!Join us next month for Colored Television by Danzy Senna.

Melissa and James discuss Alison Espach's The Wedding People through themes of loneliness, connection, and ritual. Trigger warning for attempted suicide.Join us next month for The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (spiciness warning).

Melissa and James discuss Timothy Janovsky's The Merriest Misters by through themes of control, mentorship, and personal growth.Join us next month for The Wedding People by Alison Espach.

James, Melissa, and special guest Elyse Kanagaratnam discuss Sally Rooney's Intermezzo through themes of care ethics, character doubling, and Melissa's very strong views on birth order.Join us later this month for The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky.

James and Melissa discuss Rainbow Rowell's Slow Dance through themes of personal growth, escape, and returning home.Join us next month for Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.

James and Melissa discuss Alexene Farol Follmuth's Twelfth Knight through themes of performance, identity, and greatness via their respective source texts of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and the great 2006 romcom She's the Man.Join us next month for Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell.

James and Melissa discuss Natalie Sue's I Hope This Finds You Well through themes of power, personal growth, and whether or not you should be friends with your coworkers.Join us next month for Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth.

James and Melissa discuss Yulin Kuang's How to End a Love Story, touching on forgiveness, genre, and how everything is just fanfiction. Notes: trigger warning for suicide of a loved one, and spiciness alert for lots of heterosexual intercourse.Join us next month for Natalie Sue's I Hope This Finds You Well.

James and Melissa discuss Emily Henry's Funny Story through themes of communication, community, and compromise.Join us next month for Yulin Kuang's How to End a Love Story (spiciness alert for lots of heterosexual intercourse.)

James and Melissa discuss Andrew Joseph White's The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, talking about systems of power, resistance, and the use of violence in this book's (warning!) very graphic imagery.Join us next month when we return to lighter themes with Emily Henry's 2024 summer read, Funny Story.

Melissa and James discuss Elissa Sussman's Once more with Feeling, touching on Broadway, Britney, Barbie, and more.Join us next month when we read The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White.Meanwhile, check out Melissa's cameo in the SF Chronicle's feature on SF's best karaoke bars. Very on-brand.

Melissa and James discuss Goodreads Choice Awards Young Adult Fiction winner of 2023, Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood, through themes of caretaking, identities, and genre.Join us next month when we read Once More with Feeling by Elissa Sussman.

James and Melissa discuss Britney Spears' memoir The Woman in Me through themes of power, faith, and connection.Join us next month when we read the Goodreads Choice Awards Young Adult Fiction winner of 2023, Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood.

Melissa and James discuss Alexis Hall's 10 Things That Never Happened through themes of capitalism, management styles, and nachos.Join us next month when we read this year's hottest memoir, The Woman in Me by Britney Spears.

Melissa and James discuss R. F. Kuang's Yellowface through themes of authorship, ambition, and what we owe (or don't) to our communities.Join us next month when we read Alexis Hall's new holiday romance, 10 Things That Never Happened.

James and Melissa discuss Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy through themes of identity, author credibility, and, unfortunately, the Manosphere. Join us next month when we read Yellowface by R. F. Kuang.

Melissa and James read Talia Hibbert's Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute through themes of personal narratives, voice, and self-actualization.Join us next month when we read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Melissa and James read Emily Henry's Happy Place through themes of purpose, friendship, and the metaphor of pottery.Join us next month when we read Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert.

Melissa and James read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt through themes of community, identity, and an unexpected case for Universal Basic Income.Join us next month when we read Happy Place by Emily Henry.

Melissa and James read Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 Best Debut Novel winner, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, through themes of feminism, impact, and letting children be children (or not).Join us next month when we read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

Melissa and James read Dana Schwartz's Anatomy: A Love Story, touching on gender and class, education, and vampire-adjacent plot points.Join us next month for Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 Best Debut Novel winner, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

Melissa and James read Sabaa Tahir's All My Rage, through themes of memory, imagination, justice, and salvation.Join us next month for another Goodreads Choice Best YA Fiction finalist, Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz.

Melissa and James read Lynn Painter's The Do-Over just in time (okay, five weeks early) for Valentine's Day, discussing life lessons, favorite movies, and trying to figure out what "main character" actually means.Join us next month for Goodreads Choice Best YA Fiction finalist, All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir.

James and Melissa read Alison Cochrun's Kiss Her Once for Me through themes of self-actualization, parents and grandparents, and smashing capitalism (or not).Join us next month for an early Valentine's Day special,The Do-Over by Lynn Painter.

James and Melissa read Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us, discussing personal responsibility, traditional gender roles, and why this book so popular. Trigger warning for domestic abuse.Join us next month Alison Cochrun's Kiss Her Once for Me, a tribute to James' newly-embraced love of the holiday romcom.

James and Melissa read She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick through themes of want-versus-need, female friendships, and whether "becoming your true self" is a real thing.Join us next month for Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us (trigger warning for domestic abuse).

James and Melissa read Sayantani DasGupta's Debating Darcy (and also Fire Island from Hulu), discussing narrative ownership, why regency media is so popular, and Melissa's high school forensics experience.Join us next month for She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick.

James and Melissa discuss Freya Marske's A Marvellous Light, through themes of family, belonging, and chance. Content warning for our younger viewers; some NC-17 chapters in here again.Join us next month for Debating Darcy by Sayantani DasGupta (with a dash of Hulu's Fire Island for good measure).

Melissa and James discuss Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis, touching on power dynamics, the role of sex scenes (content warning for our younger listeners!), and certainty vs doubt.Join us next month for A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske. Content warning again for a couple of very sexy chapters that might not be appropriate for all readers.

James and Melissa discuss Tess Sharpe's The Girls I've Been through themes of found family, trauma and empathy, and some accidental spoilers for Marvel: Agents of Shield.Join us next month for The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Content warning for a couple of very sexy chapters that might not be appropriate for all listeners.

James and Melissa discuss Malinda Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club through conversations about cultural identity, gender presentation and performance, and narrative voice.Join us next month for The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe.

James and Melissa discuss 2021 Goodreads Choice YA Fiction winner Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley through themes of identity, community responsibility, and physical and mental boundaries. Toward the end of the episode, they experiment with a new segment, responding to an IB Literature exam prompt.Join us next month for Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, the 2021 YA National Book Award winner.

Melissa and James discuss the detective fiction genre, anxiety as a superpower, and responsibilities to traumatized communities through Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series: all four books that are out as of February 2022.Join us next month for Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Goodreads Choice #1 YA in 2021, and the most-mentioned book across all Best YA of 2021 lists our producer could find on the internet.

Melissa and James discuss surveillance culture, community, and making meaning through TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea. Spoilers, as always.Join us next month for Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series -- yes, all 4 books that are out.

James and Melissa discuss love at first sight, generational disconnects, and pancakes through Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop. Join us next month for The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.

Melissa and James discuss loyalty, character arcs, and May-December romances through Elizabeth Lim's Spin the Dawn.Next up, we'll be reading One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.Follow us on Twitter at @lit_connections .

James and Melissa discuss identity, culture, and allusions to The Princess Diaries through Emiko Jean's Tokyo Ever After.Next up, we'll be reading Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim.New! Follow us on Twitter at @lit_connections .

Melissa and James discuss Leah Johnson's You Should See Me in a Crown.Join us next month for Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean.Follow us on Twitter at @lit_connections .

James and Melissa discuss social media, power dynamics, timeless tropes and more via Tweet Cute by Emma Lord. Steak-umm bless.Join us next month (not "next week" as James said!) for You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.

Melissa and James discuss Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko.

Pilot episode: Melissa and James discuss Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education.