Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

Episode 216 - Rural Noir & Grit Lit

It’s episode 216 and time for us to talk about the genre of Rural Noir / Grit Lit! We discuss what counts as “rural,” whether “coastal noir” is a thing, how intense these stories can be, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards Recommend a genre for us to read in 2026! Things We Read (or tried to…) Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden The White Girl by Tony Birch Other Media We Mentioned True Grit by Charles Portis Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell Hatchet by Gary Paulsen The Dry by Jane Harper Town Smokes by Pinckney Benedict Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader Scalped: The Deluxe Edition, Book One, by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra Rez Metal (documentary) Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene by Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale A Zappia Revolutions: Welcome to the Martian Revolution Links, Articles, and Things Episode 049 - Southern Gothic List of states and territories of the United States by population density Rhode Island is the 2nd most densely populated state Episode 057 - Nordic/Scandinavian Noir Casa Bonita Gritty (Hockey RPF) on AO3 11 Rural Noir and Grit Lit books by BIPOC Authors: Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. The White Girl by Tony Birch All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby Wounded by Percival Everett These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant Madukka the River Serpent by Julie Janson Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, August 19th when it’s time for our summer Media update when we’ll talk about books, comics, games, music and more! Then on Tuesday, September 2nd we’ll be discussing Book Club Books, whatever that means.

Episode 215 - Battle of the Books 2025

It’s episode 215 and time for our annual Battle of the Books! This year we’re each pitching a non-fiction book we think we should all read and discuss and then you (our listeners) get to vote on which one! Plus! A chance for a listener to win a book! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards What Book Should We Read? (Click to vote by July 31st!) Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler Titles from our Short Lists Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland Why Are People Into That?: A Cultural Investigation of Kink by Tina Horn I Was a Stripper Librarian: From Cardigans to G-strings by Kristy Cooper A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World's Most Misunderstood Bird by Rosemary Mosco Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen Links, Articles, and Things Review of Mood Machine from Publishers Weekly The Ghosts in the Machine: Spotify’s plot against musicians by Liz Pelly If Books Could Kill Previous episodes Episode 058 - The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (2018) Episode 079 - Which Book Should We Read? (2019) Episode 083 - The Fifth Season Episode 103 - Battle of the Books 2020 Episode 107 - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi Episode 130 - Battle of the Books 2021 Episode 134 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Episode 154 - Battle of the Books 2022 Episode 159 - Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart Episode 179 - Battle of the Books 2023 Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted Episode 196 - Battle of the Books 2024: One Book One Podcast Episode 202 - A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking Matthew finally made a category 15 Supernatural Thrillers by BIPOC Authors: Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline The Good House by Tananarive Due Shutter by Ramona Emerson The Macabre by Kosoko Jackson The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse Model Home by Rivers Solomon Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, August 5th when we’ll be discussing the genre of Rural Noir and Grit Lit! Then on Tuesday, August 19th when it’s time for our summer Media update when we’ll talk about books, comics, games, music and more!

Episode 214 - Non-Traditional Storytelling

It’s episode 214 and time for us to talk about the genre/topic of Non-Traditional Storytelling! We discuss epistolary novels, novels in verse, punctuation, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards Things We Read (or tried to…) Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell Time Machine 2: Search For Dinosaurs and David Bischoff Inheritance by Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn Inheritance: a pick-the-path experience - trailer Bats of the Republic by Zachery Thomas Dodson Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen Other Media We Mentioned Choose Your Own Adventure S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Frances Burney The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn A Void/La Disparition by Georges Perec, translated by Gilbert Adair House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Detroit: Become Human Talking Simulator — Detroit: Become Human Garth Marenghi's Darkplace “I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards.” Wanted: Dead Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas Blue Prince Can You Solve the Murder?: An Interactive Crime Novel by Antony Johnston The Call-Out by Cat Fitzpatrick Links, Articles, and Things Episode 037 - Experimental Fiction Oulipo Reddit threads Books with experimental or unusual formats - multiple illustrations, combination of mediums, alternating structure etc Any books with unconventional or creative storytelling formats/structures you'd recommend? List of sandwiches Architecture student writes 149-page thesis without punctuation Non-Traditional Storytelling books by BIPOC Authors: Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.     Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, July 15th. It's time for our “Battle of the Books!” We’ll each pitch a book, and our listeners (that means you) will get to vote on which one we all read. Then on Tuesday, August 5th when we’ll be discussing the genre of Rural Noir/Grit Lit.

Episode 213 - Found Books

It’s episode 213 and time for us to talk about “Found Books,”  that is books that we’ve found in public little free libraries, book exchanges, and book swaps! We discuss the recently returned book cart, getting books for free, getting rid of books, and more! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards Things We Read (or tried to…) Aya: Life in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie The Long Walk: The True Story Of A Trek To Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, translated by William Weaver Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet Other Media We Mentioned Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi Returnal Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Nancy Forest-Flier The Yucky Reptile Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta and Ralph Masiello White Dwarf (Warhammer magazine) Links, Articles, and Things #UBCnoox Meghan’s map  Public bookcase (Wikipedia) Little Free Library (Wikipedia) Against Little Free Libraries Vegetarian Peanut Soup Cottage: North America Sudoku (Wikipedia) Paper embossing (Wikipedia) Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, July 1st when we’ll be discussing the genre/format of Non-Traditional Storytelling (e.g. not prose). Then on Tuesday,  July 15th it’s time for our “Battle of the Books!” We’ll each pitch a book, and our listeners (that means you) will get to vote on which one we all read.

Episode 212 - Language & Linguistics

It’s episode 212 and time for us to talk about excellently complicate the genre the non-fiction genre of Linguistics & Language! We discuss 🤔, our academic backgrounds, the power of words, accents, and more!   You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards Things We Read (or tried to…) Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Ann Goldstein I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World by James Geary Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren Other Media We Mentioned 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: With More Ways by Eliot Weinberger Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher Otherwords - Inside the Fiercest Debate in Linguistics Your Computer Is on Fire edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Marie Hicks, and Kavita Philip What the Font?! - A Manga Guide to Western Typeface by Kuniichi Ashiya Giga Town: A Guide to Manga Iconography by Fumiyo Kouno, translated by Ko Ransom The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondō, translated by Cathy Hirano Occasional reminder that whenever you say "sparks joy" you are not quoting Marie Kondo.You are quoting her translator, Cathy Hirano. She invented "sparks joy" out of whole cloth. What Marie Kondo says is "This makes my heart go pitter pat.” -Zack Davisson Eine wie Alaska [Looking for Alaska] by John Green, translated by Sophie Zeitz “I would read it in German, for a few reasons” - John Green Die kleine Fledermaus Wegda by Nanna Nesshöver and Wiebke Rauers Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe by Gaston Dorren, translated by Alison Edwards Links, Articles, and Things Great Vowel Shift (Wikipedia) Lolcat (Wikipedia) Kinokuniya There are four Kinokuniya shops in Texas. Four! Put one in Denver! Abugida (Wikipedia) Episode 209 - Design 15 Language & Linguistics Books by BIPOC Authors: Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. Otter's Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law by Lindsay Keegitah Borrows The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom edited by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy and Lisa Delpit Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language edited by Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza, and Ayelet Tsabari Living Language Rights: Constitutional Pathways to Indigenous Language Education by Lorena Sekwan Fontaine Grammar Matters: The Social Significance of How We Use Language by Jila Ghomeshi A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance: Imagining Multilingualism by Tomson Highway My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases by Maia Lee-Chin with illustrations by Marta Bertello Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter – Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter The Ecology of Language Evolution by Salikoko S. Mufwene Mâci-Nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree by Solomon Ratt with illustrations by Holly Martin Living Pidgin: Contemplations on Pidgin Culture by Lee A. Tonouchi Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Give us feedback! Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, June 3rd when we’ll be discussing “Found Books,”  that is books that we’ve found in public little free libraries, book exchanges, and book swaps. Then on July 1st we’ll be talking about Non-Traditional Storytelling (e.g. fiction that’s not prose)!