Rants and Reviews

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! This is episode 40 and we can't quite believe we've made it this far. In this episode, we're chatting about one of the authors we really enjoy: Becky Albertalli. We talk about 5 of her books she's written so far, and a quick look at her novella which came out in 2020. 

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! In this episode, we're recommending books to check out based on 10 books on the Best Young Adult Books list on Goodreads. If you liked this book, try these books!

Time for a mid-year update! In this episode of Rants and Reviews, we take a look at 2020 so far and chat about how our Goodreads challenge is coming along, the 5 books on our Vow to Read list, the 5 books on our Vow to Reread list, and which books have been our favourite books so far!

Welcome back to episode 37 of the Rants and Reviews podcast. Today we're talking about all our childhood favourites: the books we read as kids and fondly 'aww' at whenever we talk about them.

Welcome to episode 36! In this episode we’re travelling around the world! Well, via the books we’ve read. Seeing as international travel is limited at the moment we thought it was a good opportunity to take a trip to some of the cities and countries that are the settings to books we’ve read over the years. Have a listen to find out which places we’d love to visit!

Welcome to episode 35! Today we’re talking about all the series that we don’t see ourselves finishing. You know the ones: you’ve read two of them and then the third one is so far down your TBR list and you know you’re never going to get round to reading it … but you also have books four and five sitting on your shelf too? Those ones. We’re never going to get around to them. Stay tuned to find out which ones we chose!

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! We're super excited to be getting back into recording podcast episodes for you guys, and have a really fun season lined up! In today's episode, the first of season 4, we're taking 5 books each that we've read between seasons 3 and 4 and try to give you a synopsis and a review. There's a catch though; we only have 30 seconds per book. Get ready for some terrible plot-telling and a whole lot of hilarity.

Get ready for the season three blooper reel! Full of our stumbles over words that should be easy to say, never heard before snippets of conversations, and other funnies that didn't make it to the original episode. Enjoy! 

Well back, podcast listeners! You’ve heard us talk about Neal Shustemrna a lot recently, so we thought it was about time he got his own episode. Stay tuned for more Shusterman!  SPOILERS: While there aren’t too many major spoilers in this episode, if you haven’t read the first book in the Arc of the Scythe series, Scythe, but you plan to … maybe don’t listen to this episode. We’ll forgive you for skipping this one.

Welcome back to another Harry Potter episode! In episode 29 we began our chat about our recent reread of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. There were a lot of questions raised, some events which had been entirely forgotten, and even a conspiracy theory thrown in for good luck. Make sure you head on back to have a listen!    Today we are continuing on with our reactions from our Harry Potter reread, and we dive straight back in where we left, with Halloween, trolls in the dungeons, and the Golden Trio finally coming together.

Happy New Year! Happy 2020! We realise we’re well into the year by now, but we thought we’d share a bit of a round up of 2019 and also take a look at 2020. We’re going to be sharing our 2020 Goodreads Challenge, five books we vow to read this year, and five books we vow to re-read. Keep listening to find out which stories we’ve added to our lists.

Welcome back, dear listeners! Today we’re looking back at one of our favourite books from childhood: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Yes, that’s right; we did read it again! Stay tuned to hear what we thought. 

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews. In this episode we’re talking about some of our favourite book covers. We realise this is audio only, but we’ll be doing our best to describe the covers in detail. We’ll be sharing some of these on Instagram and Twitter so you can see the covers we’re trying to describe.

It’s beginning to look like Christmas! In this episode we get a little bit festive as we chat about Let It Snow, the YA short story compilation by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. It might sound a little familiar if you’re on Netflix on a regular basis; it’s been made into a movie, so we see if the 2019 adaptation lives up to the 2008 stories. Pour yourself a gingerbread latte, grab yourself some festive snacks and let’s get into it.

You’d better go get some snacks, because in this episode we’re taking all about food and those books that make your mouth water the entire time you're reading it. You know the ones. We’re talking about our favourites and even have some recipe book shout outs.

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! In this week’s episode we’re taking a look back at some of the series that we’ve started over the years but for whatever reason have yet to finish. Keep listening to find out which contemporary series Sophie needs to keep reading, and which books Anjali needs to read before their upcoming movie releases. 

Welcome to the second episode of season three! We're celebrating Halloween on this episode, and getting spooky with one of our favourites things: magic!  Stay tuned to find out some of our favourite magical books!

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! We’re very excited to be kicking off season three, and we hope you’re ready for another great season of  book chatter. In our first episode of the season we’re taking a look at the next six months and share some of the books being released by authors we already know and love, and a few from authors whose books we’ve never read. Stay tuned to find out which books we chose!

It's time for another blooper reel! Tune in to here us stumble over words, get tongue-tied, and have long off topic chats. We've also thrown in a few never-heard-before pieces of audio that were cut from the original episode. Enjoy! 

Welcome to the last episode of season two! Today we're wrapping up the last 6 months of 2019. We chat about how our reading challenges are going, and our favourite books of the year. Stick around for a whole lot of recommendations! 

Welcome to episode 20! Today we're talking all about graphic novels and comics; the ones we've enjoyed, the ones on our TBR piles, and the ones coming out soon that we just can't wait to get our hands on.

Sometimes you’ll read a book that won’t quite live up to expectations. In this episode we’re chatting about the books that we’ve found disappointing. Stay tuned to find out what we’ve put on our lists, and be warned; there’s quite a few, so buckle up!

Welcome to episode 18 of Rants and Reviews! Today we’re talking all about our TBR pile, and those books that have been sitting on the pile for years, even though we really want to read them. Stay tuned to find out our top five!

Welcome back to our Harry Potter alphabet episode, part 2. We’re continuing on from episode 15 by picking up where we left off halfway through the alphabet. Sophie kicks us off with N, and while we hard a time near the end of the alphabet, we get there in the end. Stay tuned to hear about some of fantastical, magical aspects of the wizarding world from N through to Z.

If you've listened to an episode of Rants and Reviews before, you may have heard us talk about the Darker Shades of Magic series by Victoria 'VE' Schwab. Stick around because we're talking about that and more in this week's episode!

It’s time for another Harry Potter episode! In this episode we run through the alphabet and share some of the great aspects of the wizarding world for each letter. Keep listening to find out which creature was chosen for C, how many things we could think of for J, and enjoy possibly our longest running inside joke ever. And don’t worry; we’re only talking about A to M today so let’s get straight into it.

‘Okay, Okay’. ‘As you wish.’ ‘You’re my person.’ All famous round the book world for being catchphrases of beloved couples and adored best friends. But are these our favourite couples? Stay tuned to find out! 

Welcome to Turning Pages by Penguin Books NZ! Penguin Books NZ contacted us recently, telling us about a cool new endeavour they were embarking on. They're kicking off a Goodreads community called Turning Pages, which is going to be a place for discussions, reviews and recommendations (among other things!). They asked us if we would be interested in receiving a Turning Pages box of goodies, and of course, like the eager book podcasters we are, we said yes. Queue several weeks of excitedly thinking about the box and what might be inside it, awaiting it’s arrival. When it arrived, we held off opening it until we could open it together and record our reactions for this Bonus episode of Rants and Reviews. Enjoy!  Check out:  Penguin Books NZ Turning Pages by Penguin Books NZ #turningpagesnz  

How many Katherine’s did Colin date? What was it that April found on a busy city street? And what is it that Augustus can’t fathom into constellations? We discuss it all in this week’s episode of Rants and Reviews by chatting about the novels written by both John Green and Hank Green; which ones were our favourites, which ones we haven’t read yet, and which ones surprised us. Hit play to find out! 

Welcome back to Season Two!  In this episode, Anjali and Sophie look ahead to 2019 and what that will look like in the Book World. We share our Goodreads Reading Challenge goals, some books we'd love to read, some we'd like to re-read, and a pile of books we're looking forward to being released this year.  Back in the last episode we created a mini book club, and so spend some time discussing our book club choices. 

Bonus content!  Over the course of Rants and Reviews Season 1 there were many sections of audio that you guys didn't get to hear. We edited a lot out, most of it amusing stumbles over words, off-topic comments and food distractions. But as some additional, bonus content, we thought it would be a great way to end the season; sharing some of our favourite bloopers. Enjoy! 

Welcome to our last episode in season one of Rants and Reviews. In this episode we’re taking a look at the year just past, and have a chat about how we did on our Goodreads Challenge, which were our favourite books of the year, and which ones we didn’t really enjoy. We also start our own mini book club, and pick a book for the other person to read while we take a break.  At the end of this, the first season, we would love your feedback! If you have a minute or two we would love it if you could fill out a short survey and let us know what you liked, what you didn't really like, and what you'd like to see/hear in Season 2! Thank you in advance! 

Welcome to our second to last episode of season, and today we’re going to the movies. Tune in to find out what movie and TV show adaptations we really enjoyed, which should have ever happened, those surprising movies that we thought were actually better than the books (and yes, there are quite a few!), and a pile of books we think would make great adaptations.  What are you favourite book-to-movie/show adaptations? Let us know!

In this episode Anjali and Sophie discuss all things Rainbow Rowell, and dive into the stories they loved, the ones they weren’t so keen on, why they like her young adult novels more than her adult ones and, most importantly, how to pronounce her last name.  Let us know which Rainbow Rowell books are your favourites! 

Happy Halloween! In this episode Sophie and Anjali chat about some of the spooky, unfortunate and peculiar books they’ve read over the years, as well as what supernatural creatures they enjoy reading about, which ones they don’t, and just how many clowns can fit into a clown car. Tune to find out their major disagreement over a book-to-film-and-tv-show adaptation, and who can’t say the word peculiarities.

We’re join once again by book bloggers Ria from Thoroughly Modern Millennial and Erin from A Natural Detour, but this week we’re chatting about the collaborative book blog they started in 2010, Blogger’s Bookshelf. We chat about how the blog came into being, the kinds of things you can expect to find on it, and the wonderful team (of which Anjali and Sophie are a part).

In this episode, Sophie and Anjali are joined by book bloggers Ria from Thoroughly Modern Millennial and Erin from A Natural Detour to chat about their personal blogs, and their favourite books. To give you a little background into this episode, it’s about 9am in England, and 8pm in New Zealand when the recording took place, so we’re battling with both time zones and technology fails. It’s definitely a fun time and you don’t want to miss this one!

In this episode, Sophie and Anjali chat about the popular book, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, which was made into a Netflix movie in 2018. Tune in to find out which characters we liked, which one of us cried at the end of the book, and who thinks it’s unfair that some of the family members got left out of the Christmas decorating. Did the movie meet our expectations of the book? Find out in episode 004 Love Letters.

Listen up, Muggles! We’ve got an entire episode of Rants and Reviews dedicated to our favourite parts of the wizarding world of Harry Potter for you. Which shop in Hogsmeade does Sophie wish was real? How many identities crises has Anjali had over her Hogwarts house? And which book is the unrivaled favourite? Pour yourself some Butterbeer, and settle into your common room; it’s gonna be a magical ride.

Greetings, Ranters! In episode #002 we ask each other 19 questions (or 20, depending who’s counting) so you, dear listener, get to know us a little better. Click play to find out which book Sophie just couldn’t bring herself to finish, who dog-ears their pages, and why Anjali has read a book written in 420 BC. Thanks to Buydebook’s book tag on the Readaholic’s discussion feed on Goodreads for these great questions, and of course we tag you!

Welcome to Rants and Reviews! In this, the very first episode, we chat about our top three favourite books, discuss never ending TBR piles, and express our angst at the lack of half star book ratings on Goodreads. Who loves The Book Thief? Who still hasn’t read The Secret Life of Bees? And why is there a blue-skinned girl falling from the sky into a lost, mythical city? Find out in Episode #001!

Lacking some much needed R&R? Tune into Rants and Reviews for a taster of what you can expect from the upcoming season. From books we loved to books we didn’t finish, historical fiction to young adult, sloths to dragons, the tickling of pears to the need for chocolate frogs; it’s all here in our teaser. Subscribe today so you don’t miss an episode! Running right now: Launch week giveaways! Enter on This Splendid Shambles blog or Sofilly blog to go into the draw to win an awesome bookish prize pack!