Podcast appearances and mentions of Suzanne Collins

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: Book adaptations and giving out book recs IRL Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: How to audiobook Before We Go: our new segment featuring bookish friend posts and something Kaytee is curious about Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). . . . 1:21 - Bookish Moments of the Week 1:35 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 1:41 - PBS app 2:31 - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 3:07 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 3:46 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 3:48 - Call Her Daddy podcast w/Sarah J. Maas 4:55 - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas 6:55 - Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas 7:09 - @hollyslitmagic on Instagram 9:15 - All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle 9:31 - The Day the World Came To Town by Jim DeFede 9:48 - Search by Michele Huneven 10:16 - Current Reads 11:00 - The Night She Died by Dorothy Simpson (Meredith, ebook only) 16:52 - Courtroom Drama by Neely Tubati Alexander (Kaytee) 17:02 - Literally A Bookshop 21:30 - The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (Meredith) 22:51 - We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer 26:23 - Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (Kaytee) 29:04 - Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (pre-order releases Oct 6, 2026) 29:08 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 29:44 - A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James (Meredith) 29:59 - The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James 34:02 - The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James 35:46 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion (vol. 1) by Beth Brower (Kaytee) 43:15 - How To Listen To Audiobooks 55:14 - Before We Go Kaytee highlights a bookish friend post 56:26 - Greenwood by Michael Christie  56:29 - The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah Meredith brings something she's curious about 57:20 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 57:35 - Footnotes and Tangents   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. March's IPL is brought by our lovely friends at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads | Substack | Youtube The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Wir beschäftigen uns endlich mit The Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds von Suzanne Collins. Unter anderem, warum Thomas es nicht weiterlesen will.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: A new bookish metaphor and book moms in the wild Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: Explaining a Currently Reading literary society Before We Go: our new segment featuring bookish friend posts and a sleeper hit you should read. Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). . . . 1:44 - Bookish Moments of the Week 1:52 - Currently Reading Website 1:56 - Books We Want To Press Into Your Hands 3:03 - Best Books for Babies and Kids 3:42 - Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge 5:55 - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max 7:12 - Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 7:16 - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin (all 3 Dunk and Egg novellas) 7:55 - Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid 8:33 - Current Reads 8:41 - The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon (Kaytee) 11:47 - The Book Wanderers by Anna James 11:50 - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 11:54 - The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 13:08 - Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Meredith) 15:10 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 15:11 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 15:45 - Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 22:27 - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 24:10 - Six Feet Over by Mary Roach (Kaytee) 27:20 - Gulp by Mary Roach 27:21 - Bonk by Mary Roach 27:22 - Stiff by Mary Roach 28:51 - Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (Meredith) 32:06 - Agatha Christie's Marple by Mark Aldridge 34:18 - The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (Kaytee) 34:33 - Charter Books 39:00 - Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Meredith) 42:28 - Dracula by Bram Stoker 45:21 - Turning Instagram into Bookstagram 47:25 - Sign up for the newsletter on our website 47:26 - Currently Reading Substack 50:48 - Currently Reading Instagram 50:54 - @HelloSunshine on Instagram 50:58 - @BookRiot on Instagram  51:00 - @NYTBooks on Instagram 51:40 - @Iamblackharry on Instagram 52:10 - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 52:28 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 52:42 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower 53:42 - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 53:48 - God of the Woods by Liz Moore 54:03 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 56:13 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live 58:44 - Before We Go Meredith highlights a bookish friend post 59:34 - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver 59:54 - The Correspondent by Virginia Evans Kaytee's Book She DNF'd: 1:01:22 - The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 1:01:28 - Bookshelf Thomasville 1:02:57 - From the Front Porch podcast Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. February's list is a special romance curated list from Open Door Romance, The Novel Neighbor's Romance adjacent bookstore in Plainville, MA. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads | Substack | Youtube The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

When a person is sentenced to death, you want to know that they are the one who committed the crime. You want no doubts to be had, no rock left unturned. Yet, when Suzanne was brutally murdered, that's not what Sedley Alley got. The outdoors are a beautiful that can be filled with light and bliss and many different ways to bring yourself closer to those you love and yourself. But they can also be filled with terror and death, imminent and oppressive. Join me as we dig into these stories that inspire you to be just a little bit more careful while you're in the outdoors. Please rate and subscribe from whatever listening platform you use. Merch is now available here! https://5c8ffc-3.myshopify.comBe sure to join us on Patreon for exclusive content, sneak peaks, and more!https://www.patreon.com/TragedywithaView?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creatorBe sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to get the most up to see photos and relevant episode information. https://www.instagram.com/tragedywithaview?igsh=MTN2ZDF3dWhobHI2Yw%3D%3D&utm_source=qrhttps://www.facebook.com/share/1AxRPt2xGs/?mibextid=wwXIfrAnd don't forget to send us a Campfire Confessional to tragedywithaview@gmail.com - accepting all stories from the outdoors but especially looking for those that make us laugh to help lighten the heaviness that comes with tragedy.

If you love The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, then I have great news for you! Today we are talking about the latest book in the Hunger Games series, Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. It's just as heartbreaking as all the other ones but this time our protagonist only gets a semi happy ending and it takes over 25 years. Oh to be a Ryan in a world of Urchin's and Heartwood's. WARNING: Child abuse, murder, loss of a child, animal attacksBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/book-cult--5718878/support.

 "I'm nobody's idea of a hero ... But at least I'm still in the game.” In this episode of Fictional Hangover, Amanda and Claire talk about potatoes - boil ‘em, mash ‘em, make ‘em into a light, living in the days of future past, slow clapping being rebellious behavior, and a PSA: having a milk moustache is dangerous in their discussion of Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.

How to start a rebellion? Send a teenager to the front lines armed with just a bow and arrow. Today we are talking about Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the final book in the Hunger Games series (until those other two came out). This book is kind of brutal. You have beloved characters dying horrific deaths, people planning crimes against humanity, and something a lot of people have wished for: a successful presidential assassination.WARNING: Murder, war, crimes against humanity, war crimes, death of children, torture, sexual assaultBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/book-cult--5718878/support.

In this one, not even the victors are safe. Today we are talking about Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, the second book in The Hunger Games series. If you like wedding planning, unlikely freindships, pearls, clocks, and the start of revolution, then this is the book for you!WARNING: Murder, pregnancyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/book-cult--5718878/support.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: experimenting with our reading and taking on choker books Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: answering the questions of how or why we rate our books The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). .  .  .  2:39 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 3:01- The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 3:05 - Bookshelf Thomasville 3:07 - From the Front Porch podcast 3:31 - It by Stephen King 4:53 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (#1 in the Cromwell series) 5:30 - Footnotes and Tangents on Instagram 6:45 - The Stand by Stephen King 6:47 - Laura Tremaine on Substack 8:52 - Our Current Reads 9:00 - Matched by Ally Condie (Kaytee) 9:32 - The Giver by Lois Lowry 11:26 - The Selection by Kiera Cass 11:30 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 13:04 - Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop (Meredith) 14:45 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett 18:15 - Cultish by Amanda Montell (Kaytee) 18:21 - Wordslut by Amanda Montell 21:52 - Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain (Meredith) 23:00 - The Secret by Rhonda Byrne 23:35 - The Painted Porch 23:40 - The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holliday 26:05 - The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron 27:37 - When the Tides Held the Moon by Vanessa Vida Kelley (Kaytee) 30:43 - CAWPILE 31:38 - The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (Meredith) 35:51 - The God of the Woods by Liz Moore 36:28 - The Last Flight by Julie Clark 36:50 - Deep Dive: How And Why We Rate Our Reads 37:53 - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson 37:59 - Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 38:04 - Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes 38:14 - Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito  49:41 - CAWPILE system 51:53 - Meet Us At The Fountain 52:41 - I wish that we would all pick one small way to challenge our reading this year. (Kaytee) 54:23 - I wish you would sign up for our newsletter! (Meredith) 54:25 - Sign up for the newsletter on our website  Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. January's IPL is our annual visit to Fabled Bookshop in Waco, Texas. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

If Love Island took a dark twist. Today we are talking about a true classic, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. You probably already know but just in case you weren't a teen in the early 2010s, this book has it all: archery, bread, and a girl who can't accept a man isn't gaslighting her. This book just wants you to start a rebellion against your unjust oligarchy (looking at you America).WARNING: murder, child abuse, starvation, death of a parent, death of children, PTSD, talk of suicideBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/book-cult--5718878/support.

So many books are published each year; few stand the test of time. Today we devote our whole show to asking which works have shaped the way we behave and how we think. Picks include “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.Full list of books mentioned in the show:The BibleThe Koran“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins“On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin“Il Saggiatore” by Galileo Galilei“Two New Sciences” by Galileo Galilei“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil PostmanThe novels of Philip PullmanThe Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien “A Room of One's Own” by Virginia Woolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So many books are published each year; few stand the test of time. Today we devote our whole show to asking which works have shaped the way we behave and how we think. Picks include “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.Full list of books mentioned in the show:The BibleThe Koran“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins“On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin“Il Saggiatore” by Galileo Galilei“Two New Sciences” by Galileo Galilei“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil PostmanThe novels of Philip PullmanThe Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien “A Room of One's Own” by Virginia Woolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michigan comedian Nicole Melynk and I talk about her favorite book series, how art imitates life, the current comedy scene, and winter. Right after this we recorded her podcast 'What's your favorite dinosaur?' so go listen to that also.

This week, I go back in time to 2012 to share some of my favorite reads as well as discuss other, notable reads from that year. We have a special guest author recommendation from Emily Wiberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka authors of Seeing Other People . Happy New Year, everyone! Shownotes: The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsEleanor & Park by Rainbow RowellWhere'd You Go Bernadette by Maria SempleWe Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThe Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin SloaneEvery Day by David LevethanMe Before You by Jojo MoyesThe Round House by Loise ErdrichTell The Wolves I'm Home by Carole Rifka BruntLinks to Books Are My People mugsLink to my Chair ArtLink to Empusium Read AlongLink to National Book Award winnersSupport the showGet your Books Are My People coffee mug here!I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week!

In this episode of Geek Freaks, we get you ready for Stranger Things season 5 with a full recap of seasons 1 through 4, plus a review of Wicked For Good and reactions to the new Hunger Games prequel trailer, Sunrise on the Reaping. We also break down the new live action TMNT reboot news and what that means for The Last Ronin, along with George R. R. Martin's latest Game of Thrones spinoff teases. Frank and Jonathan kick things off with some Thanksgiving week chatter, holiday prep, and a quick update on the redesigned GeekFreaksPodcast.com and this year's Patreon holiday swag bundles. From there, they talk about Sunrise on the Reaping, why the Hunger Games world still works, and why Wicked For Good might actually top the first film for musical fans. The bulk of the episode is a big Stranger Things refresher. The guys walk through seasons 1 through 4, season by season, covering major story beats, character arcs, and the emotional moments that still hit, while calling out why Vecna, Max, Eddie, and the Starcourt Mall finale matter so much as we head into season 5. They wrap with current watch recommendations and a Thanksgiving thank you to the Geek Freaks community. Timestamps & Topics 00:00 – Thanksgiving Week Check-In & Housekeeping Holiday plans, cleaning for family visits, and trying (and failing) to start Christmas decorating early. 00:59 – New Website & Patreon Holiday Bundles Frank explains the revamped GeekFreaksPodcast.com and reminds Patreon members to update their addresses for the holiday swag packs. 02:06 – TMNT Live Action Reboot & The Last Ronin Delay Reactions to a new live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, practical suits vs CGI, and frustration that The Last Ronin adaptation is being paused. 04:31 – Game of Thrones / Westeros Spinoffs Talk George R. R. Martin's sequel teases, who deserves a spinoff (Arya, Davos, the Manderlys, Dorne), and what corners of Westeros and Essos they most want to see. 13:06 – Sunrise on the Reaping Trailer & Hunger Games Worldbuilding First impressions of the new Hunger Games prequel trailer, why the tech vs poverty contrast in Panem still works, and how closely the films stick to Suzanne Collins' books. 18:30 – Roofman Ad Read Frank drops a mid-episode spot for Roofman and why the premise stands out. 18:30 – Wicked For Good Review (Spoilers Light) Why Frank loved Wicked For Good, how it runs alongside The Wizard of Oz, character growth for Glinda and Elphaba, and thoughts on musicals in general. 26:15 – What Did Not Work In Wicked For Good Some middle-act clutter, narrative complexity around Elphaba's sister, and how the dual narratives can get a little dense. 32:16 – Setting Up the Stranger Things Season 5 Rewatch Prep Explaining the plan to recap seasons 1–4 as a full refresher to get ready for Stranger Things season 5. 32:29 – Stranger Things Season 1 Recap & Reactions The disappearance of Will, the first trip to the Upside Down, meeting Eleven, and why the show's early mystery and 80s vibes hit so hard. 36:02 – Stranger Things Season 2 Recap & The Lost Test Subjects The Mind Flayer's first move, Max and Billy's introduction, Eleven's "sister" detour, and how fan reactions may have changed the direction of the show. 40:07 – Stranger Things Season 3 Recap & Starcourt Mall Finale Rats, Russians, mall culture nostalgia, the Billy redemption, and Hopper's "death" in the gate machine. 46:33 – Stranger Things Season 4 Recap: Vecna's Curse Chrissy's death, Max's "Running Up That Hill" escape, the Creel House, Hopper in Russia, Eddie's hero moment, and Hawkins merging with the Upside Down, setting the stage for season 5. 52:35 – Nostalgia Done Right: Stranger Things, Stephen King, Welcome to Derry Comparing Stranger Things' style of nostalgia to cheap reboots, thoughts on Welcome to Derry and Pluribus, and why good worldbuilding feels fresh even when it looks retro. 58:18 – Weekly Recommendations Jonathan: Rewatch Stranger Things as season 5 approaches, and check out Pluribus on Apple TV. Frank: Make Some Noise on Dropout and why good improv feels like magic. 59:52 – Thanksgiving Wrap-Up & Five-Star Reminder Thanking the Geek Freaks community and reminding listeners to drop those five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Key Takeaways The new GeekFreaksPodcast.com is live with a cleaner layout that makes it easier to share news and highlight shows across the network. Patreon holiday bundles are going out soon, so supporters need to confirm or add their mailing addresses to actually receive the swag. The new live action TMNT film has fans worried that The Last Ronin adaptation is getting shoved aside, and there is a strong preference for practical suits over full CGI turtles. George R. R. Martin continues to develop Westeros spinoffs, and there is a lot of interest in stories about Arya's travels, Dorne, the Manderlys, and Davos rather than revisiting the same old angles. Sunrise on the Reaping, the new Hunger Games prequel, looks like classic Hunger Games with the same sharp contrast between Capitol excess and district poverty that made the original films land. Wicked For Good nails its character work, deepens Glinda and Elphaba, and cleverly runs parallel to The Wizard of Oz, even if the middle stretch gets a bit tangled. The Stranger Things recap walks through all four seasons to give listeners a full refresher before Stranger Things season 5, hitting major character arcs, big deaths, and how the Upside Down threat has evolved. Season 4's Vecna twist, Max's near death, and Eddie's "Master of Puppets" distraction set up a darker, more apocalyptic final season, with Hawkins literally merging with the Upside Down. Stranger Things is praised for doing nostalgia the right way, feeling familiar without just copying older stories, similar to the best of Stephen King adaptations. Memorable Quotes "If this looks at all good, I know I'll be seeing it." – Frank on the new live action Ninja Turtles movie. "Just stop doing these retellings of the same story and continue to make us fresh content that just happens to be related to the things we already like." – Jonathan on constant reboots. "Northern mermaid folk with tridents on their banners? Come on, man, how are we not doing a show about them?" – Frank on the Manderlys. "That 'Running Up That Hill' scene basically broke the internet." – Jonathan on Stranger Things season 4. "It is not the same song, but it sounds familiar. That is what good nostalgia should feel like." – Frank on Stranger Things and Goonies-style stories. "I officially give you permission to yell at people who sing full volume in the theater." – Frank on musical movie etiquette. Call to Action If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow or subscribe to Geek Freaks on your favorite podcast app so you do not miss our Stranger Things season 5 coverage. Drop a 5-star rating and a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help more geeks find the show. Share the episode with a friend who is rewatching Stranger Things, and use #GeekFreaksPodcast when you post your reactions online. Links & Resources Geek Freaks – news source for everything we talk about: GeekFreaksPodcast.com Follow Us Stay connected with Geek Freaks across the web: Website: GeekFreaksPodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegeekfreakspodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekfreakspod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geekfreakspodcast/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@geekfreakspodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GeekFreakspodcast Listener Questions Have thoughts on Wicked For Good, the TMNT reboot, or your own Stranger Things season 5 theories? Send your questions, hot takes, or predictions to us on Twitter, Instagram, or Threads at @geekfreakspod / @geekfreakspodcast and we may feature them in a future episode. Apple Podcast tags stranger things, stranger things recap, stranger things season 5, wicked for good, wicked movie review, teenage mutant ninja turtles, tmnt reboot, hunger games, sunrise on the reaping, geek culture podcast, tv review podcast, movie review podcast

Fairy tale retelling are having a moment, a moment that has extended for, like, millennia, but now the trend feels particularly hot. Host Susan Maguire sat down with librarian and Booklist reviewer Lucy Lockley about what's behind the fanfare and some titles and authors you should know. Then Audio Editor Heather Booth spoke to an art educator Heather Kostal about how she uses audiobooks in the classroom. Finally, Books for Youth's Ronny Khuri and I chatted about picture books about poop and other topics. We cover everything! Here's what we talked about: Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine The Kingdom of Sweets, by Erika Johansen The Swallowed Man, by Edward Carey A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher Alice, by Christina Henry Horseman, by Christina Henry Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Wicked, by Gregory Maguire Mary McMyne After the Forest, by Kel Woods Sistersong, by Lucy Holland Song of the Huntress, by Lucy Holland Uprooted, by Naomi Novik The Summer War, by Naomi Novik The Witch's Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow Thief Liar Lady, by D. L. Soria Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher After Happily Ever: An Epic Novel of Midlife Rebellion, by Jennifer Safrey Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters (Ameila Peabody series) The Maiden and Her Monster, by Maddie Martinez Cinder House, by Freya Marske Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun, by Jane Harrington, illustrated by Khoa Le F*cked Up Fairy Tales: Sinful Cinderellas, Prince Alarmings, and Other Timeless Classics, by Liz Gotauco The Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park, read by David Baker The Boxcar Children series The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, read by Jeff Woodman From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, read by Tatiana Maslany Murder of a Movie Star, by L. B. Hathaway Henry Is an Artist, written and illustrated by Justin Worsley Little Moments in a Big Universe, written and illustrated by Todd Stewart Max in the Land of Lies, by Adam Gidwitz Max in the House of Spies, by Adam Gidwitz

One of London's most anticipated new theatrical openings this year has been a much talked about stage adaptation of THE HUNGER GAMES, based on the young adult dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins which has also been adapted for film.The brand new production, written by Connor McPherson and directed by Matthew Dunster, is now playing at the purpose built Troubadour Theatre Canary Wharf and celebrated its official opening night earlier this month.Today, ahead of returning to the show to create his own full review, Mickey-Jo is sharing a range of those published so far to find out what London's critics thought of the bold new venture...•00:00 | introduction02:39 | WhatsOnStage11:01 | The Times16:32 | The Stage21:34 | TimeOut31:04 | The TelegraphAbout Mickey-Jo:As one of the leading voices in theatre criticism on a social platform, Mickey-Jo is pioneering a new medium for a dwindling field. His YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MickeyJoTheatre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the largest worldwide in terms of dedicated theatre criticism, where he also share features, news and interviews as well as lifestyle content for over 89,000 subscribers. With a viewership that is largely split between the US and the UK he has been fortunate enough to be able to work with PR, Marketing, and Social Media representatives for shows in New York, London, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Toronto, Sao Pãolo, and Paris. His reviews and features have also been published by WhatsOnStage, for whom he was a panelist to help curate nominees for their 2023 and 2024 Awards as well as BroadwayWorldUK, Musicals Magazine and LondonTheatre.co.uk. Instagram/TikTok/X: @MickeyJoTheatre Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.What if the person you trusted most kept one last secret — a deadly one?In this episode, I chat with thriller author Elle Marr about her newest novel, The Lie She Wears — a tense, mother-daughter cat-and-mouse story perfect for fans of Gone Girl. Elle shares how she built a propulsive plot full of twists, why she cut the romance from her early drafts, and the moment every reader gasps halfway through her book.We also talk about her recent reads — from The Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins to twisty thrillers by Yasmine Ango and Brianna Labuskes — plus what makes a good surprise ending work.

An Taisce Green-Schools is bringing its energy theme back to primary and secondary schools across the country this academic year, thanks to its continued partnership with EirGrid, operator and developer of Ireland's electricity grid. Plans for this year's programme were unveiled at an event in Adamstown Community College, Dublin, with plenty of exciting events due to be held across the country over the coming months to enable young people to expand their awareness around energy conservation. To date, over 3,000 schools have been awarded the energy flag since the beginning of the Green-Schools programme in 1997. In the last academic year, 2,200 students and 123 schools engaged in events including regional workshops consisting of hands-on activities, artwork and experiments, which allowed them to learn more about where electricity comes from and how they can take steps to reduce energy consumption. Speaking at the relaunch, Suzanne Collins, Head of Public Relations with EirGrid, said: "We are once again proud to partner with An Taisce Green-Schools for its energy theme, reaching students in classrooms across the country as they address energy consumption in their schools and communities. "It has been so inspiring to see the engagement in the theme over the last academic year, and shows the impactful steps young people are taking in bringing about sustainable changes in everyday life. "EirGrid is proud to play a continued role in empowering the next generation as they lead the charge in energy awareness." Joanne Scott, Green-Schools Programme Manager, added: "We are delighted to relaunch the Energy Theme to schools, and are thankful that EirGrid's support is allowing us to continue with this fantastic initiative. "From our engagement with students through our previous energy workshops, there is no doubt young people are enthusiastic about leaving a positive impact on their community, and the energy theme provides and invaluable opportunity to empower them to reduce energy consumption and be part of the conversation. "We recently awarded the Green Flag to Scoil Éinne, An Spidéal, for their outstanding work on the energy theme, and we look forward to working alongside more schools as they continue their journey towards achieving their own Green Flag." During the 2023-24 school year, schools saved a combined 18 million kWh of electricity, enough to make 58 million cups of tea, due to their participation in the Green-Schools programme, proving that interest in energy is strong among Ireland's school children.

It's episode 183, but even more importantly, it's our 7th Anniversary Hangout Episode! We can't believe it's already been seven years. It's been a blast and we can't wait for another seven more!Show NotesWe've read so many incredible books over the past seven years and recorded so many fun episodes. Stay tuned for a blog post of our personal favourites coming soon!Speaking of favourites, or at least popularity, our most-listened to episode is still The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan, followed by Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem in second place, and Colleen Hoover's Verity sliding in at third.Shout out to our fourth most-listened to episode, Another Country by James Baldwin because it was our very first Baldwin and kicked off our annual tradition and life long love of his work.There's a new Jedidiah Jenkins books coming out in 2026, so you know we'll be reading that. If you're in Toronto and you love science fiction, fantasy, and/or children's books make sure to check out the Lillian H. Smith library branch. They have small exhibits set up showcasing books from their extensive collection.Did you know there's a Ouija museum in Salem?If your in Europe and want to check out some cute books store cafes, these are the ones Gen went to: Paludan Bog Cafe in Copenhagen, Minoa in Berlin, and Bookstor in The Hague. In our next episode we'll be talking about Mariana Enriquez's new book, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave. And then it's time for our next book club discussion! We're reading Jette's pick, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.Books MentionedElsie Silver's Chestnut Spring SeriesLaurie Gilmore's Dream Harbor SeriesExquisite Corpses by James Tynion IVYou Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph WhiteThe Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan ParrishThe Dead Romantics by Ashley PostonHappy Medium by Sarah AdlerMorbidly Yours by Ivy FairbanksLost in the Garden by Adam S. LesliePart of Your World by Abby JiminezHarriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag QueenWorldtree by James Tynion IVMinor Arcana by Jeff LemireMake Me a Mixtape by Jennifer WhiteheadThe Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-GarciaBoys Weekend by Matty LubchanskyThe Late Night Witches by Auralee WallaceEat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria GriffinThe Sparrow by Mary Doria RusselIt by Stephen KingMapping the Interior by Stephen Graham JonesBlessed Water by Margot DouaihySunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Welcome back, tributes! This episode we would like to start out by thanking Scholastic for the amazing gift! We are so excited to unbox and explore the Catching Fire Illustrated Edition written by Suzanne Collins, and illustrated by Nico DeLort.What are some of your favorite illustrations from the book? Share your thoughts with us on our social media @Intothearenapodcast!You can pick up your copy at your local bookstore!

Chapter 126 roars in with an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, and a civil war, because we're talking about YA dystopia this time, folks! Join Sophie, Sam, and Hannah as they reflect on their feelings about Suzanne Collins' blockbuster Hunger Games series, complain about love triangles (again, but now with symbolism!), and discuss the quality of book-to-movie adaptations.

PRESIDENT SNOW ORIGINS!! The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Visit https://huel.com/rejects to get 15% off your order Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2015) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (2015)...   The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (2014)...   The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) IS ...   The Hunger Games (2012) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) IS A DYSTOPIAN EPI...   With The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping coming next year, Aaron & Andrew jump into the extended HG series, giving their The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Aaron Alexander & Andrew Gordon sit down to review The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), the prequel in Suzanne Collins' blockbuster YA dystopian saga. Directed by Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, Mockingjay) and adapted by Michael Lesslie & Michael Arndt, the film takes us 64 years before Katniss Everdeen's time, exploring the origins of President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth – Billy the Kid), when he's still a mentor in Panem and seeking to restore his family's lost prestige. Standout moments include Snow and Lucy Gray's performances in reaping ceremonies, the provocative “snake pit” element in the Games, and the tension-filled scenes that show Snow's moral decay—especially his final acts as he begins to embrace power at any cost. With lush cinematography, ethical dilemmas, and emotional character arcs, Songbirds & Snakes offers both spectacle and introspection, casting a dark light on how one young man transforms into the tyrant Panem would come to fear. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE FINAL STAND!!! The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   LIQUID IV: Visit http://www.liquidiv.com & use Promo Code: REJECTS Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (2014)...   The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) IS ...   The Hunger Games (2012) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) IS A DYSTOPIAN EPI...   With The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping coming next year, Aaron & Andrew finish their journey thru the original series, giving their The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Aaron Alexander & Andrew Gordon dive into The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015), the epic conclusion to Suzanne Collins' YA dystopian saga, directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Catching Fire). This high-stakes finale follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) as she leads the rebellion against the tyrannical President Snow (Donald Sutherland – Ordinary People, Pride & Prejudice). Joined by Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth – The Last Song, The Expendables 2) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson – Bridge to Terabithia, The Kids Are All Right), Katniss and her team infiltrate the Capitol in a desperate attempt to end Snow's reign. Mockingjay Part 2 is packed with iconic and highly searched moments: the infiltration of the Capitol with “pods” and deadly traps, the shocking wedding of Finnick and Annie, the heartbreaking deaths of key allies, and the explosive final confrontation between Katniss and President Snow that cements her as the Mockingjay. The powerful closing scenes, including Katniss' decision regarding Coin and the bittersweet epilogue with Peeta and their children, make this one of the most memorable finales in YA film history. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS!!! The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Save & Invest In Your Future Today, visit: https://www.acorns.com/rejects The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) IS ...   The Hunger Games (2012) Movie Reaction:    • THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) IS A DYSTOPIAN EPI...   Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ With The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping coming next year, Aaron & Andrew continue their journey giving their The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Aaron Alexander & Andrew Gordon react to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, the 2014 dystopian sci-fi action sequel directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine) and based on Suzanne Collins' bestselling novel. The film follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook, X-Men: First Class) as she becomes the reluctant face of the rebellion against the Capitol after the destruction of District 12. Now hidden in the underground stronghold of District 13, Katniss struggles with her role as the Mockingjay while President Coin (Julianne Moore – Still Alice, Magnolia) and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote, The Master) work to rally the districts into war. The film features some of the franchise's most memorable and highly searched moments: Katniss's haunting rendition of “The Hanging Tree”, the emotional propaganda “propos,” Peeta's shocking transformation under Capitol manipulation, and the bombing of District 13's underground compound. As the rebellion builds toward open war, Mockingjay – Part 1 sets the stage for the explosive finale. AARON ALEXANDER Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the first installment of our Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We explore Katniss Everdeen as a heroine whose personality type makes her both powerful and vulnerable, how Peeta functions as a unique male main character (MMC), and why the series' themes of power, media, and survival feel even more relevant today than when the books were first released. This is part 2 of this week's episode. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: ⁠https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/⁠  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the first installment of our Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We explore Katniss Everdeen as a heroine whose personality type makes her both powerful and vulnerable, how Peeta functions as a unique male main character (MMC), and why the series' themes of power, media, and survival feel even more relevant today than when the books were first released. This is part 1 of this week's episode. Come back Thursday for part 2. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE BEST HUNGER GAMES MOVIE?! The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Get your New Customer offer + 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at https://www.mintmobile.com/REJECTS Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Aparrel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ With The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on the horizon, Aaron & Andrew continue their journey giving their The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), directed by Francis Lawrence, continues the epic dystopian saga based on Suzanne Collins' bestselling novels. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, X-Men: First Class) returns as Katniss Everdeen, who finds herself once again thrust into the deadly Hunger Games arena after her defiance in the previous installment inspires rebellion across Panem. Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia, The Kids Are All Right) stars as Peeta Mellark, her fellow victor and partner in survival, while Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song, Independence Day: Resurgence) plays Gale Hawthorne, torn between loyalty and revolution. Donald Sutherland (The Italian Job, MAS*H) returns as the chilling President Snow, joined by Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, The Master) as the sly new Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee. Supporting performances include Woody Harrelson (True Detective, Zombieland) as Haymitch, Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect, The Lego Movie) as Effie Trinket, and Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, Spotlight) as the flamboyant Caesar Flickerman. From Katniss and Peeta's unforgettable Victory Tour to the shocking Quarter Quell reveal, the film builds to one of the franchise's most iconic cliffhangers. With stunning visuals, political intrigue, and the unforgettable “girl on fire” moments, Catching Fire set the stage for the Mockingjay films while cementing Katniss Everdeen as one of cinema's most enduring heroes. Join Aaron Alexander & Andrew Gordon as they react, review, and break down the most emotional, action-packed, and game-changing moments of this blockbuster sequel. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!! The Hunger Games Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Save & Invest In Your Future Today, visit: https://www.acorns.com/rejects Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ With The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on the horizon, Aaron & Andrew begin their journey to the sinister Capitol with their The Hunger Games Reaction, Recap, Analysis, & Spoiler Review! Based on the best-selling novels by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross, is the first installment in the blockbuster YA dystopian franchise. The film follows Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, X-Men: First Class), as she volunteers to take her sister's place in the deadly Hunger Games — a televised battle royale where tributes from each district must fight to the death for the Capitol's entertainment. Alongside Katniss is Peeta Mellark, portrayed by Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia, Future Man), whose complicated alliance with her becomes one of the series' most compelling storylines. The supporting cast includes Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne (The Last Song, Independence Day: Resurgence), Woody Harrelson as the cynical mentor Haymitch Abernathy (True Detective, Zombieland), Elizabeth Banks as the flamboyant Effie Trinket (Pitch Perfect, The LEGO Movie), Donald Sutherland as the chilling President Snow (Ordinary People, The Italian Job), and Stanley Tucci as the unforgettable Caesar Flickerman (The Devil Wears Prada, Spotlight). Key moments like Katniss's fiery “Girl on Fire” costume, Rue's heartbreaking fate, and the climactic double-nightlock berry gambit have made this film an enduring pop culture phenomenon. Aaron Alexander and Andrew Gordon dive into the action, tension, and world-building that made The Hunger Games one of the most influential YA adaptations ever brought to screen. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

**THIS EPISODE CONTAINS FULL SPOILERS**We'd say "May the odds be ever in your favor," but no odds are in Katniss's favor in "Mockingjay!" Join the hosts of Film is Lit and previous guest, Kayla Phaneuf (@spookybuddyy), as we discuss the ups and downs of Suzanne Collins' last installment in the original Hunger Games trilogy. Don't kid yourself, it's a downer!#FilmIsLit #MockingjayPartOne #TheHungerGames #JenniferLawrence #JoshHutcherson #PhilipSeymourHoffman #JulianneMoore #WoodyHarrelson #LiamHemsworth #DonaldSutherland #CatchingFire #KatnissEverdeen #PeetaMellark #TeamPeeta #TeamGale #PodcastLife #FilmPodcast #MovieTalk #FilmDiscussion #CinematicChat #PodcastCommunity #MayTheOddsBeEverInYourFavor

We're back from our summer break with an episode about The Hunger Games. Heads up that this episode connects the fictional world of Panem to real-world issues of representation and human rights, drawing parallels between the text and the genocide in Gaza. In this conversation, Hannah and Marcelle dig into representations of violence, resistance movements, and the normalization of child death. They then explore how Suzanne Collins' dystopian series engages with the concept of "grievability" and they consider The Hunger Games' immersive marketing campaigns that cemented the work as a mainstream cultural phenomenon. To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team! Thanks again to all of you who have already made the leap to join us there!***Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment. Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us as we discuss the second half of Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins... Where we once again are crying on the internet..Be sure to follow @tipsybookreads on social media for drink recipes and updates! This week's drink goes out to our girl Maysilee Donner.Just a note, we are restructuring a little bit. From here on out we will be doing 1 book per month (2 episodes per month) instead of episodes every other week. Thanks for listening, stay tipsy!

In this episode of the Book Talks Podcast, Kayla and Marissa delve into the world of 'The Hunger Games' series, particularly focusing on 'Sunrise on the Reaping.' They discuss character development, personal reflections on the series, and the complexities of Haymitch's journey. The conversation touches on themes of trauma, survival, and the influence of the Capitol, as well as the nature of volunteering in the games. They also explore the impact of death and loss, and make literary comparisons to other works, ultimately sharing their recommendations for readers.

This book is already so intense. We read half way through the book for this episode and are screaming to finish the rest. Tune in on August 2nd for part two.It was too early for us to drink this episode :) but that does not mean Jessica did not create an amazinggggg recipe you can find on Instagram and TikTok

Back from our summer break, Danielle finally graces everyone with the finale to the 2020 book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. When we last left Coriolanus, he was being called in to rescue Sejanus from the big bad Hunger Games where he was determined to kill himself to make a statement; Coriolanus won't let him, which in retrospect was perhaps a stupid decision. Anyway, things go awry and pretty soon everyone in the Hunger Games has died except, shockingly, Lucy Gray, thanks to some minor, very valid, totally explainable cheating on Coriolanus's part. Unfortunately, Dr Gaul, Sam's favorite punching bag, doesn't see it that way. Given that Dr Gaul is crowd-sourcing ideas on why they even have the Hunger Games, it shocks Sam that she sends her brightest student off to live in obscurity as a Peace Keeper in retribution. But alas, plot. This is about where Danielle gave up writing Coriolanus in her notes and started calling him Corio. So, Corio cruises over to District 12 where he meets up with the true hero of the novel, Lucy Gray, where they promptly pick up where they left off but with kissing. Unfortunately, finally being able to compare Corio to regular humans, you realize he's incredibly stupid and not getting any smarter. Then Lucy sings too many songs, Corio kills too many people, and pretty soon they're running away to escape being framed for murder. Murder Corio committed, to be clear, but it was really minor, very valid, and totally explainable so it hardly counts. Then the bad guys win because Hunger Games. The end.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are joined by show regulars Roxanna and Mary and they are discussing: Unique or Shared!: We give you a statement that may make us either unique or shared, and discuss! Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) .  .  .  .  2:52 - Unique Or Shared 3:22 - I am the worst library user ever. (Roxanna) 5:21 - Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend 12:37 - I love a buzzy book moment. (Mary) 14:23 - Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 14:46 - Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 14:47 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 15:27 - The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett 17:49 - I LOVE finding backlist hidden gems over buzzy moments. (Meredith) 18:22 - The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher 18:45 - Lexicon by Max Barry 20:15 - Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver 20:30 - The Odyssey by Homer 23:27 - I am the only one that purposefully seeks out five chili pepper books. (Kaytee) 25:22 - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Mass 28:44 - I will never read a book without checking Goodreads first. (Roxanna) 37:24 - My book slump reset is a complete genre change. (Mary) 47:09 - I will “experience” a book I know won't be for me. (Meredith) 47:43 - Dream State by Eric Puchner 48:02 - The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller 52:15 - While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams 53:15 - Schuler Books 53:36 - I keep my TBR in rainbow order. (Kaytee)   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. July's IPL is brought to us by Booktenders in West Virginia! Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

In Ep. 199, Susie Boutry (@NovelVisits), Catherine Gilmore (@GilmoreGuide), and Sarah are all back on the mic, ready to catch up on how their reading is shaping up for 2025 — so far!  They talk about the current publishing landscape, what books are topping bestseller lists to date, and their personal reading as it stands halfway through the year. They share reading stats and talk about expectations and hopes for the remainder of the year. Plus, their TOP 5 books and their biggest disappointments so far. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. The Bookish Landscape [1:13] Books Mentioned Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (2025) [3:28]  Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (2023) [4:08] Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (2023) [4:11] The Women by Kristin Hannah (2024) [4:22] Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025) [4:53]  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008) [4:59]  The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (2024) [5:02]  Dog Man: Big Jim Begins (Dog Man, #13) by Dav Pilkey (2024) [5:07] The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (2022) [5:13] The Crash by Freida McFadden (2025) [5:17] Atomic Habits by James Clear (2018) [5:24] A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015) [5:41] Next to Heaven by James Frey (2025) [9:44]  James by Percival Everett (2024) [11:20] Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (2024) [11:22] Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025) [12:31]  The Names by Florence Knapp (2025) [13:51]  A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (2015) [15:52]  The Wedding People by Alison Espach (2024) [17:03]  The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) [17:22]  Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) [17:35]  Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (2025) [18:35]  The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison (2025) [19:10] The Garden by Nick Newman (2025) [19:16]   The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (2025) [19:34]  Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (2025) [19:58]  Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025) [20:34] Tilt by Emma Pattee (2025) [20:38]   The Compound by Aisling Rawle (2025) [20:44]  Dream State by Eric Puchner (2025) [20:49]  Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (2025) [21:06] Hot Wax by M. L. Rio (September 9, 2025) [21:18]  Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch (2025) [21:39]  Personal Reading for 2025 (So Far) [22:49] Books Mentioned Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano (2020) [27:14]  The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (2023) [27:16]  Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (2025) [31:07] Top Five (So Far)  [31:27] Susie Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [31:49] Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [37:03] The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [38:07] Nesting by Roisín O'Donnell (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:11] The Names by Florence Knapp (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [53:12] Catherine The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[33:45] This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [42:06] Heartwood by Amity Gaige (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [51:28] Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[53:59] Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [56:03] Sarah Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:00] The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:31] The Slip by Lucas Schaefer (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:03] The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [52:26] The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[54:55] Other Books Mentioned The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb (2025) [40:25] Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (2025) [40:40] Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (2024) [47:47] The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe (2020) [48:22] I Could Live Here Forever by Hanna Halperin (2023) [52:54] Biggest Disappointments (So Far)  [57:46] Susie The Strange Case by Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [58:09] The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[58:13] Fulfillment by Lee Cole (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [58:18] Catherine The Favorites by Layne Fargo (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [58:51] Dream State by Eric Puchner (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [58:56] The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [59:08] Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [59:45] Sarah Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:00:16] What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:00:28] Audition by Katy Kitamura (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [1:00:51] Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild (July 8, 2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[1:01:43]

Are you looking for a good audiobook to listen to as you start logging more miles this summer? We have a whole list of audiobook recommendations for your long runs, plus our current favorite running books. Our recommendations include:Up to Speed by Christine YuPeak Performance by Steve Magness and Brad StulburgRun to the Finish by Amanda BrooksOut of Thin Air by Michael CrawleyGood for a Girl by Lauren FleshmanEverything Fat Loss by Ben CarpenterThe Athlete's Gut by Patrick WilsonRun Like a Pro by Matt FitzgeraldThe Explorer's Gene by Alex HutchinsonHow Bad Do You Want It? by Matt FitzgeraldBrazen by Julia Haart (audiobook)Project Hail Mary; The Martian; Artemis by Andy Weir (audiobook)The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (audiobook)Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (audiobook)I'm Glad by Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (audiobook)Norse Mythology by Neil GaimanLost Gods by Brom This episode is sponsored by:Skratch: Use code TREADLIGHTLY for 20% off first purchase at https://www.skratchlabs.com/discount/ABROOKS?redirect=/products/skratch-labs-sample-pack?utm_source=ABrooks&utm_medium=ABrooks&utm_campaign=Podcast531BodyBio: Research-backed, practitioner-trusted supplements. Use code AMANDA25 for 25% off at https://runtothefinish.com/bodybio/The show notes contain affiliate links, which cost you nothing and support the show creators. Let's stay connected:Join our community at patreon.com/treadlightlyrunningTread Lightly Running Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treadlightlyrunning/Laura Norris Running on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauranorrisrunning/Hundreds of evidence-based training tips on Laura's website: https://lauranorrisrunning.com/Run to the Finish on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/runtothefinish/?hl=enThousands of running gear reviews and training guides: https://runtothefinish.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Please rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or follow and comment on Spotify. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend!

Welcome to the Summer 2025 Book Preview with Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books!   Today, Catherine and Sarah share 12 of their most anticipated books releasing from June through mid-August.   This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Announcement One of the many benefits to supporting the podcast through either our Patreon Community or our Substack Community (both for just $7/mo) is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and I share at least 4 bonus books we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available and sign up here for Patreon and here for Substack! Highlights Catherine and Sarah share some big releases coming this summer (lightning-round style). Of Catherine's six book picks, 3 are about sisters and most are from repeat authors. Sarah's choices feature 3 debut authors, 2 repeat authors, and 1 new author. And, 5 of Sarah's six books are European novels. From literary picks to thrillers to romances, they've got a range of books for summer. Sarah has already read two of her picks — and they're on the 2025 Summer Reading Guide (be sure to check out the full list) Plus, their #1 picks for summer. Big Summer Releases Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [2:12] With a Vengeance by Riley Sager (June 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [2:18] Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (June 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [2:32] The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick (June 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [2:36] A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [2:45] The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (July 15) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:57] The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:08] Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto (June 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:13] A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais (June 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:17]  Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell (June 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:27]  The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [3:29]  Don't Open Your Eyes by Liv Constantine (June 17) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:32]  The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen (August 5) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:36]  Summer 2025 Book Preview [4:07] June Sarah's Pick The Compound by Aisling Rawle (June 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [7:19] Catherine's Picks The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward (June 3) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [13:40] King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (June 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [19:02] I'll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom (June 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [26:01] Other Books Mentioned  Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954) [10:01]  FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven (2016) [10:04]  The Godfather by Mario Puzo (1969) [20:29]  All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby  (2023) [20:55]  Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (2021) [21:00]  Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby (2020) [21:01]  White Houses by Amy Bloom (2018) [27:08]  This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel (2017) [27:52]  The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (2019) [27:57]  The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (2024) [28:28]  July Sarah's Picks Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[15:36] Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [21:44] The Rabbit Club by Christopher J. Yates (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[28:48] Her Many Faces by Nicci Cloke (July 15*) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:38](Updated release date following the recording of this episode.) August Lane by Regina Black (July 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:44] Catherine's Picks The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang (July 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:37]  Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[39:32] Other Books Mentioned Shark Heart by Emily Habeck (2023) [18:12]  Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020) [18:17]  The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (2023) [25:06]  Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler (2023) [25:09]  Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates (2013) [28:57]  The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (2013) [31:13]  The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992) [31:15]  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008) [31:16]  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) []  If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio (2017) [32:37]  Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang (2021) [35:16]  Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (2023) [35:40]  Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (2023) [35:42]  The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (2022) [35:45]  Girl A by Abigail Dean (2021) [38:21]  The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025) [38:24]  Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (2022) [38:28]  The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (2023) [40:16]  The Art of Scandal by Regina Black (2023) [41:58]  Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner (2024) [43:30]  Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (2021) [43:41]  The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton (2021) [43:46]  Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2019) [45:01]  August Catherine's Pick The Frequency of Living Things by Nick Fuller Googins (August 12) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:15] Other Books Mentioned She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb (1992) [48:08]  Other Links Sarah's Bookshelves | The Possibility of a Black Chalk Sequel: Guest Post by Christopher J. Yates 

The Stacks host Traci Thomas joins us to talk about the original Hunger Games trilogy! Mostly the books! Five stars on Uber for Suzanne Collins! SKIPSHOCK - out June 5Pre-order now: https://www.walker.co.uk/9781529507966/skipshockSENTIMENTAL GARBAGE LIVE: THE MAGICAL EDITION Sat 14th June @Union Chapel, LondonTickets out now: https://www.fane.co.uk/sentimental-garbage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Ep. 195, Susie (@NovelVisits) and Sarah are back to share their favorite books that missed last year's Summer Reading Guide and our #1 picks for each category featured in my 2025 Summer Reading Guide. Plus, they begin by sharing how their summer reading habits have evolved over the years. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Once again, we are happy to offer a Printable Cheatsheet for this year's Guide: Get the Cheatsheet from Patreon Get the Cheatsheet from Substack Summer Reading [7:42] The Evolution of Our Summer Reading Journeys [8:41] Books Mentioned by Susie London by Edward Rutherfurd (1997) [15:09] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005) [16:09] The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008) [16:12] Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005) [16:15] Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (2009) [16:31] The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (2013) [16:32] 11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011) [16:34] Books Mentioned by Sarah Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974) [17:57] The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943) [21:02] Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) [21:03] Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (2010) [21:06] Books That Missed Last Year's Summer Reading Guide [24:23] Sarah JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [24:27]  Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [29:08] Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [35:51] Susie The Most by Jessica Anthony (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [27:10]  The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (2015) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [31:52] Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [38:01] Other Books Mentioned The Measure by Nikki Erlick (2022) [30:13] Our #1 Summer Picks by Category  [40:37] Something Light / Fun Sarah: The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [41:23]  Susie: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [45:36]  Other Books Mentioned Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (2022) [41:35] Something Fast-Paced / Intense Sarah: Dead Money by Jakob Kerr (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [50:27]  Slow-Burn Suspense Susie: The Death of Us by Abigail Dean (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [52:40]  Something With a Bit More Substance Sarah: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [55:54]  Susie: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [58:46]  Other Books Mentioned Dream State by Eric Puchner (2025) [1:00:00] Something Different Sarah: Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [1:01:33]  Susie: Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (2025) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [1:03:47]  Other Books Mentioned Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (2005) [1:02:59] Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2019) [1:06:24]

This week on From the Front Porch, it's another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the May releases they're excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order! To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 528) or download and shop on The Bookshelf's official app: Annie's books: Poetry is Not a Luxury by Anonymous (5/6) My Friends by Fredrik Backman (5/6) Sleep by Honor Jones (5/13) Olivia's books: Billions to Burn by Taylor Banks (5/6) The Language of the Birds by K.A. Merson (5/13) The Ascent by Allison Buccola (5/20) Erin's books: The Names by Florence Knapp (5/6) Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson (5/13) The Love Haters by Katherine Center (5/20) From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.  Olivia is reading King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby.  Erin is listening to The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.

This week Melanie and I recap our weekend activities, Melanie shares all about the big fun of Caroline's senior portraits, and we talk about our upcoming trip to Auburn. Plus, the wallet that Melanie lost in Fayetteville has once again been found - an Easter miracle. :-)  We also discuss a difficult situation with Melanie's toenail polish color, and it's her turn for Five Favorites. Enjoy, everybody! - Join Us on Patreon - Our Amazon Shop - San Antonio Live Show (10/23/25) tickets go on sale for Patreon members on April 30th! Show Notes: - The Hunger Games trilogy - Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins - what we're reading for our May Patreon book club - Aggie Muster - ANRABESS boxer shorts - Loving Tan 2-hour express mousse - Lilla espadrille sandal - ILIA stylus eyeshadow stick - Boll & Branch waffle duvet set Sponsors: - Helix - use this link for 20% off sitewide from now until April 30th - Beam - use code BIGBOO for up to 35% off - AG1 - use this link for a $76 welcome kit - Thrive Market - use this link for 30% off your first order and a free $60 gift

Survive the epic world of Panem, the setting of The Hunger Games, as Geek History Lesson unfolds the complex narrative history behind Suzanne Collins' YA dystopian franchise! In this arena of an episode episode, we dissect the classical structure shared in each Hunger Games novel, explore Collins' Greco-Roman mythological inspiration, debate which characters deserve solo stories next, and discuss the socio-political themes that shaped a generation of Young Adult fiction. With Sunrise on the Reaping in stores now, delve with us into the saga's multi-media evolution, offering an exploration for seasoned fans and newcomers alike! You'll want to read all 5 Hunger Games books after listening to this one!For exclusive bonus podcasts like our Justice League Review show our Teen Titans Podcast, GHL Extra & Livestreams with the hosts, join the Geek History Lesson Patreon ► https://www.patreon.com/JawiinGHL RECOMMENDED READING from this episode► https://www.geekhistorylesson.com/recommendedreadingFOLLOW GHL►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geekhistorylessonThreads: https://www.threads.net/@geekhistorylessonTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@geekhistorylessonFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/geekhistorylessonGet Your GHL Pin: https://geekhistorylesson.etsy.comYou can follow Ashley at https://www.threads.net/@ashleyvrobinson or https://www.ashleyvictoriarobinson.com/Follow Jason at https://www.threads.net/@jawiin or https://bsky.app/profile/jasoninman.bsky.socialThanks for showing up to class today. Class is dismissed!

This week on From the Front Porch, it's another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the April releases they're excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order! To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 524), or download and shop on The Bookshelf's official app: Annie's books: Passion Project by London Sperry (4/8) When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris (4/15) Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones (4/22) Olivia's books: Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (4/1) Midnight in Soap Lake by Matthew Sullivan (4/15) The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (4/29) Erin's books: A Change of Habit by Sister Monica Clare (4/29) The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner (4/29) The Eights by Joanna Miller (4/15) From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Annie is reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green.  Olivia is reading Candle Island by Lauren Wolk.  Erin is listening to Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: piles of books and bookishness in non bookish places Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: how we purge our shelves The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) .  .  .  .  1:47 - Ad For Ourselves 2:08 - Currently Reading Patreon 3:24 - Fabled Bookshop 4:56 - Our Bookish Moments Of The Week 5:52 - Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (Finnish version) 5:53 - The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (Finnish version) 10:41 - Become a CR Patron to access the reading tracker! 12:20 - Our Current Reads 12:25 - There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak (Kaytee) 16:12 - This House is Haunted by John Boyne (Meredith) 20:56 - The Plan by Kendra Adachi (Kaytee) 21:55 - The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi 21:57 - The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi 25:52 - CR Season 4: Episode 42 w/Kendra Adachi 26:29 - Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth by Elizabeth Williamson (Meredith) 32:18 - Columbine by Dave Cullen 33:20 - The Trees by Percival Everett (Kaytee) 35:25 - Erasure by Percival Everett 36:42 - James by Percival Everett 38:07 - Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Meredith) 38:27 - Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 39:48 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 45:56 - How We Purge Our Shelves 51:43 - Half Price Books 57:00 - Meet Us At The Fountain 57:08 - I am wishing for a good laugh, so send me recs of books that made you laugh. (Kaytee) 58:47 - Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito 58:48 - The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 59:09 - @hollyslitmagic on Instagram 59:29 - I wish to have the discussion about whether book publishing has gone the route of fast fashion. (Meredith)   Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April's IPL is brought to you by Warwick's in La Jolla, California! Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

The Hunger Games are back, and so are we! Remember Haymitch Abernathy, the occasionally sympathetic drunk from the original Hunger Games trilogy? Well, here he is as a young man, being ground into dust by his authoritarian government and its media apparatus. Collins really wants to make sure that you Get It This Time. Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this milestone 600th episode (!!!) of The Popcast, we celebrate by answering some fantastic listener Questions That Need Answers. Join us as we reflect on our podcasting journey and discuss behind-the-scenes dynamics, industry challenges, and the future of the PMG. Plus, Knox and Jamie share two mutual green lights!Relevant links: Our full show notes are at knoxandjamie.com/600Listen to this episode in its entirety (for free and ad-free!) by joining us on Patreon at knoxandjamie.com/patreon!Revisit: QTNA Highlight | 583 | 524 | 499Podcasting Challenges: Ep 500 - The Nos of Podcasting Lisp Hot Take: Ep 582 Flavor Town 10Drive-bys: March Madness | Tangled Live Action Special thanks to our contributors: @mommatamyaz, @hokiejennylynn, @kaynprice2, @thedauntlesscatGreen Lights:Jamie: movie- FlowMutual: book - Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins | tv - AdolescenceBonus segment: Snag our Hunger Games Collection at knoxandjamie.com/shop and get a discount with a 7-day free trial of our BFOTS or FWB Patreon tiers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.