Introduction to Fun Things We Like

Summary

Feminist Survival Project: "Introduction to Fun Things We Like"

Podcast Hosts: Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski
Episode Date: December 11, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this upbeat and restorative episode, Emily and Amelia Nagoski embrace joy and escapism by sharing their favorite "fun things"—particularly books, but also music, video, and games. If you’re a feminist feeling overwhelmed or exhausted, this episode offers an overflowing list of recommendations specifically for those seeking comfort, low-stakes delight, and reliable happy endings. The sisters discuss their preferences and pet peeves, share memorable quotes, and swap stories about the things that bring them joy.

“It's a nice, happy, positive episode about things we like.” – Amelia (00:17)

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Key Discussion Points & Highlights

1. Setting the Stage: The Categories of Fun

• The episode's focus: sharing personal recommendations to encourage happiness and escapism.
• Categories: primarily books, with highlights in music, video, and games.
• Clear preference for low-stakes, comforting stories, avoiding horror, thrillers, and stories focused on trauma.

Quote:
“If I’m going to recommend music, I’m going to recommend the Burgundian composers of the High Renaissance.” – Amelia (01:21)

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2. Music Recommendations

• Amelia recommends Renaissance-era Burgundian composers (e.g., Ockeghem) for beautiful harmonies that echo modern musical tastes. (01:17–02:36)
• Discuss boycotting Spotify and favoring YouTube Music due to Joe Rogan’s presence on Spotify.
• Emily jokes that searching Renaissance polyphony will “confuse the algorithms.” (02:41)

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3. Book Recommendations: Tastes, Pet Peeves, and Comfort Reads

Reading Habits & Genres (04:20)

• Amelia admits to reading or listening to a book a day—over 180 books checked out from the library recently.
• Both sisters avoid horror, thrillers, suspense, and stories that focus heavily on mental illness or sexual violence.
• Both prioritize competence “porn”—stories about skilled, expert protagonists.
• Preference for positive, happy endings and aversion to “billionaire romances” and cringey/farcical plots.

Quote:
“I just don’t want to read about that stuff...I also don’t like it when billionaires are good guys.” – Amelia (06:02)

• Pet peeve words in romance (e.g., “plunder” as a verb for kissing; “cup” as a verb for touching). (07:12–08:00)

Favorite Tropes

• "Wizard detectives" and stories with “experts” or hyper-competent characters.
• High value placed on "competence porn." (08:44–09:07)

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4. Stand-Out Book Recommendations (10:10 onward)

Fantasy & Adventure

• The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
  • “Full of wizard detectives. Chock-a-block.” – Amelia (11:34)
  • Five books so far, with a planned 15-book series. Audiobooks are around 50 hours each.

Cozy Mysteries

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
  • Cozy mysteries featuring retirees; addresses aging but is highly enjoyable and re-listenable. Narrator changes mid-series due to original narrator’s passing. (11:37–12:39)

Romance: Favorite Authors & Series

• Alexis Hall: Favorites include “10 Things That Never Happened,” “Boyfriend Material,” and “Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble.” Most recommended for low-sex, high-comfort stories. (14:01–14:32)
• Laura Kinsale: “Flowers from the Storm” and “Lessons in French.” Noted for passionate, complex stories. (16:22–17:19)
• K.J. Charles: “Will Darling” and “The Magpie series”—both heavy on “wizard detectives” and competence. (19:33–21:12)
• Courtney Milan: Especially “The Duke Who Didn’t” and other historicals with diverse characters and guaranteed happy endings. (29:23–30:55)
• Abby Jimenez: Recommended for soft, positive depictions, especially autistic-coded protagonists in “Yours Truly.” (23:52–24:34)
• Alyssa Cole: “Royals” series praised for its therapy-positive resolutions. (27:42–28:49)
• Helena Greer: “Seasons of Love” for queer holiday romances. (27:20–27:41)
• Kimberly Lemming: “That Time I Got Drunk and…” series, praised for D&D vibes and sex-positive fun. (24:41–25:23)
• Misha Popp: “Pies Before Guys,” featuring magical pies and moral nuance, perfect for those who enjoy quirky vengeance with heart. (25:23–26:53)
• Cat Sebastian: Particularly for autistic-coded, nerdy heroines. (32:43–33:20)

Notable Rom-Coms and Escapist Reads

• Yahtzee Croshaw: For silly, fast-paced sci-fi reminiscent of Douglas Adams. (39:38–40:08)

Literary Fiction & Memoir

• I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell: “Awe of the ability of this writer…warm, tender feelings.” (34:13–35:19)
• Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman: Family drama that sticks emotionally. (35:19–36:11)
• Great by Emily St. James: Praised for its clever audiobook approach and nuanced emotional content. (36:16–37:14)
• Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan: High fantasy for villain fans, described as “really stood out.” (37:33–38:03)
• Dear Girls by Ali Wong: Hilarious, heartfelt, and features a touching postscript from Wong’s (now ex-) husband. (38:08–39:35)

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5. Audiobook Narrators: The Unsung Heroes

• Nicholas Boulton: The gold standard for both Kinsale and Hall audiobooks.
• Julia Whelan: Versatile and engaging, now an author herself. (22:39–22:51)
• Mary Jane Wells: Greatest for “romance comedy,” “goes all the way with the funny.” (22:56–23:38)
• Cornell Collins: Reads the Will Darling series, similar in style to Steven Crossley. (22:09–22:24)

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6. Video & Podcast Recommendations

Video Game Streamers

• DrGluon: Recommended for “watching someone play every game in the worst way possible”; “so wholesome and sweet and funny.” The community is positive and inclusive. (40:22–41:55)
• DrGluon’s journey from Twitch to YouTube due to ethical concerns with platforms, and insights about his distinctive voice and friendly demeanor. (42:06–60:16)
• Emily: “DrGluon...draws cute things.” (42:25)

YouTube & Podcasts

• Jessica Kellgren-Fozard: British YouTuber, “fills me with joy.” (41:29–42:55)
• We Rate Dogs (“The Dogs Were Good Again”): Podcast mixing wholesome dog content with occasional deep dives on animal/human welfare and current events. (43:42–44:55)
• Sister Boniface series (BritBox): “For being about solving murder mysteries, it's so charming. And the stakes are rarely much of anything at all.” (61:23–62:08)

Tabletop & Actual Play Shows

• Dropout.tv: Both subscribe, specifically for Game Changer and Dimension 20. (45:46–46:52)
• Dimension 20: Fast-paced, improv-heavy D&D with fantastic production value, inclusive storytelling, and a commitment to happy (and hilarious) endings. (46:52–47:42)
• Discussing the difference between Dimension 20 and Critical Role (slower pace, more voice acting than improv). (51:07–51:56)
• Emily’s favorite: “Starstruck Odyssey” (sci-fi anti-capitalist setting, wizard detectives). (49:50–50:24)
• Special mention of “Escape from the Bloodkeep” (LotR villains as protagonists), and learning to love Matt Mercer despite his “very 90s creepy” visual vibe. (53:42–54:58)
• Touching moments of non-toxic, affectionate male friendship and emotional vulnerability in these TTRPG circles. (56:03–57:00)

Quote:
“Thanks for listening to us talk for an hour about stuff we like—men who hug and say, I love you.” – Emily (57:00)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I love me some competence porn.” – Emily (08:57)
• "If a romance novel uses the word 'plunder' to describe a kiss, I'm out." – Amelia (07:12)
• "Alexis Hall is the first author I've read where sometimes you have to read the sex scenes because they're doing character development." – Amelia (17:40)
• "I just want to roll around in the good stuff." – Emily (66:09)

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Timestamps Guide to Key Segments

• [01:17] – Burgundian Renaissance music recommendations
• [05:12] – “Qualifications” for book recommendations
• [07:12] – Words that turn them off in romance novels
• [10:10] – Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson) praise
• [11:37] – Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman; cozy mystery)
• [14:01] – Alexis Hall: recommendations & audiobooks
• [19:33] – K.J. Charles: Will Darling and Magpie series
• [22:39] – Top audiobook narrators
• [23:52] – Additional contemporary romance recs
• [34:13] – Maggie O’Farrell’s “I Am, I Am, I Am”
• [39:38] – Yahtzee Croshaw for sci-fi/comedy audiobooks
• [40:22] – DrGluon and game streaming for comfort
• [43:55] – We Rate Dogs podcast
• [45:46] – Dropout/Dimension 20/actual play shows
• [49:50] – Starstruck Odyssey and anti-capitalist sci-fi D&D
• [53:42] – "Escape from the Bloodkeep" & TTRPG learning curves
• [56:03] – Celebrating non-toxic masculinity in D&D culture
• [61:23] – Sister Boniface (Britbox) for cozy mysteries

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Episode Mood and Takeaways

The episode rings with joy–a blend of geeky delight, comfort, warmth, and a refusal to apologize for liking “easy endings.” It’s a love letter to escapist media and the friendships (real and fictional) that sustain us through fraught times. While Emily and Amelia differ in their favorites, they agree: embrace the things that make you feel safe, happy, and whole.

Final Thoughts

“If there wasn’t anything on this list that sounds good to you, we just have really different tastes…and that’s okay.” – Emily (64:04)

“In particular, the things that we enjoy tend to be things that are low stakes and, like, guaranteed happy ending.” – Amelia (64:23)

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For Further Exploration

• Emily and Amelia’s recommendations are heavily focused on comfort, joy, and happy endings—perfect for anyone seeking media to decompress and soothe stress.
• Specific author, book, and show titles are scattered throughout the episode; check the timestamps for favorites.
• Audiobook narration quality is often discussed—try seeking these readers as a way to explore new genres.

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Bottom line: If you need a permission slip to fill your queue with things that just make you happy—this episode is it.

Transcript

[A]

So today we're talking about fun things. Things that we like.

Fun things that we like. It's a nice, happy, positive episode about things we like.

[B]

Yay. Things we like.

One sentence update. I cut all the magicka stuff from my talk.

[A]

Yeah. And you made it about stories, which is more direct. Yeah. But I think talking through the metaphor is of value.

[B]

Yeah. There's the revision process. Drafting process is never a waste of time.

[A]

Yeah. So today this is recommendations of stuff we like for anybody who, you know, is interested in.

[B]

I want to.

[A]

Maybe there's some things that I might enjoy that I don't know about. That. That or it's just also just an opportunity for us to talk about stuff we like and have, you know.

To ventrals.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I've got categories. Books, video.

And. And music.

[B]

Okay.

I mostly have books.

[A]

I have a little bit of video. It's mostly books and a little bit of video. I don't actually have any music because, I mean, if I'm going to recommend music, I'm going to recommend the Burgundian composers of the High Renaissance, like.

Occugum and Burgundian.

[B]

Burgundy, France.

[A]

France. Yeah.

[B]

I have learned a word today.

[A]

Burgundian. The Burgundians of the High Renaissance, they were doing some really beautiful ass stuff modeled after Defailly in the Couttenant Sangloise.

[B]

Everybody add that to your Spotify playlist if you are not boycotting Spotify, which is a thing that people are doing. Because.

[A]

I used to have subscribed to Spotify to listen to music ad free and I stopped because Joe Rogan.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I will happily resubscribe as soon as they dump Joe Rogan.

But I use YouTube Music now. I have YouTube Premium account. So I just listen to YouTube Music when I want to. Yeah, I also use YouTube Music. Yeah. So for my music recommendations, the. The high Renaissance Burgundians are just Renaissance Burgundians.

[B]

Everybody put that in your search. Add that to the.

Algorithms. Gonna be so confused by you.

[A]

But I mean, if you want like just really look the kind of harmonies that we like nowadays. The like pretty triadic major songs. The Beatles, early Beatles. That kind of music we like now was born in the Burgundians. Please me.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Like I please you. Yeah. The Burgundians are the first people who would recognize the music we make now as being the same. Built of the same structures, built of the same aesthetic values.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. So I highly recommend if you just want something beautiful to listen to. So that's my Only music recommendation. Anybody you want for music.

[B]

I made my book list by looking at all the books I've read for the last year or two. I read a lot. I consume many, many, many books. And I have a list of about a dozen that are the ones.

[A]

So I told you during the no buy, I said that I've discovered libraries. I figured out how to use the Libby app. I have checked out 180 books since then.

[B]

Since then.

[A]

Since then.

I listen to or read a book a day or more.

[B]

It's rare for me to get through that many in a year, but it.

[A]

Also includes stuff that I had that I just checked out to like, look at and then didn't read or listened to half of and was like, oh, I cannot. This is not good enough. I'm not gonna waste my time on this. So I didn't read all of them.

[B]

And obviously the DNFs are not gonna end up on our recommendation list.

[A]

Oh yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Yeah. But I've also found new books that I have listened to many times since then.

[B]

Well, that's really good. So let's, let's start with those books that you've listened to many times. My book is especially. My list rather is made in particular of the books that I really remember and feel good about what I remember. Because if I only listen to it one time, a lot of them I just, I literally forget. Like, I find books on the Libby Apple and I'm like, that looks interesting. And it's like, you borrowed this book in October of 2023. And I'm like, don't remember anything about it even after I read the description. That's not a book that makes it to my, to my recommendation list.

[A]

I feel like we should maybe set some qualifications so that if anybody's like actually listening for recommendations, maybe should be aware of like, well, what kind of books appeal to you?

[B]

My list is really varied.

[A]

Mine is not. I have discovered some. I'll give my qualifications the stuff that I just don't like. So if you're interested in these kinds of books, you're not going to hear any of that from me. Not because there are bad ones, but because it's just not for me, which is like horror, thriller and suspense are just a no for me. I'm just not interested. You're not going to get any of that.

[B]

You're not going to get. You're mostly going to get lower stakes, ish, happy ending stuff.

[A]

Yeah, I'm also not interested when, when there's a lot of focus on mental illness or sexual violence.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Just. I just. Just not interested. Just don't want to read about that stuff. I'm also, it turns out I don't like it when billionaires are good guys. Of course, I don't like when business or money are plot devices. And I'm also not super fond of cringe or farce.

I just don't enjoy reading those. There are a lot of romance. Not like billionaire romance novels are a thing. I'm just not into it.

[B]

A very big thing. Around the time of 50 Shades.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

When one thing like blows up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The publishing industry is like, we're looking for billionaires.

[A]

More of that. Yeah, yeah. No, it's. I mean, even Alexis hall, my favorite romance author Alexis hall, has a billionaire trilogy and that probably dates from around that period. I'm sure it does. But even that, I'm like, I really. I pretty much like everything Alexis Hull has written. But this was just not for me because I was just like, how can you think a billionaire could possibly be a good guy? Anyway, Also, if a romance novel uses the word plunder to describe a kiss, I'm out.

[B]

Yep. So when I teach sex writing, one of the very first activities I have my group do is write a list of words that they really like, Words that really do it for them in a scene like when they read those words, and a list of the words that like, when they read those words, it pulls them out of the story.

[A]

Like plunder, for example.

[B]

Plunder as a kiss. Yeah. I. The word cup under virtually any touching circumstances to cup any part of any person's body.

I don't know why. There's no reason.

[A]

Just.

[B]

No. It doesn't even have the kind of like gross implications of plunder. I just. And it's not. It is not a non negotiable. Like, I'll keep reading it, but I'll be like, whoa, I got pulled out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Everybody's got. And the thing is, every time I do this activity with a group, there are words on people's yes list that are on other people's no list.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And vice versa.

[A]

Yeah. For me, it's. It's. It's plunder to describe, which is not a thing I even knew existed until.

[B]

You started reading romance. You're only reading romance because the volume of books you consume is so high that only romance can keep up.

[A]

Yeah. Pretty much. Turns out the things that I really do like are wizard detectives and experts. I love those as characters in books. Love an expert. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I have had to think hard about, like, what I am really looking for. And expertise is.

Like, top of the list. It's enjoyable to be, like, whatever it is. It can be anything. They can be a plumber, but if they're gifted and committed, I love me some competence porn.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Competence is totally great. It's really nice and comfortable to read about somebody who is good at the thing they're doing. Yeah.

[B]

Even if they start out not good and you go with them on the journey of learning to be good at it. I can get into that.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Okay.

[B]

Those are the parameters. Mostly happy endings, no gore.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, go ahead.

[A]

Pretty much everything Brandon Sanderson has ever written, but in particular, the Stormlight archives. Just in case anybody has not already tried this series of books.

[B]

I have not.

[A]

They're so good. I mean, you don't really love a wizard detective, and the Stormlight archives are full of wizard detectives. Like, all of the Radiants are wizard detectives.

[B]

But if the audiobooks are good, I can listen to almost anything.

[A]

The audiobooks are.

Read in an old fashioned, slightly formal way, but with commitment.

[B]

Yeah, I'm not bothered by. I mean, I can listen to a wider range of narrators than you can.

[A]

Then you'll. Then you'll definitely like audio.

[B]

Okay, what's the first one?

[A]

The first one is Way of Kings.

[B]

Way of Kings. And what's the best one?

[A]

I.

Could not possibly pick a best one.

[B]

Okay, so Way of Kings. And how many are there?

[A]

Five.

[B]

Okay, so this is not getting into, like, a 15 book series. There is going to be a 15.

[A]

Book series, but so far there's only five.

[B]

So far there's only five. Get in there now so you can decide whether or not you want to make that commitment.

[A]

It's a contained arc of five that will be followed by another contained arc of five.

[B]

Three contained arcs of five.

[A]

Potentially could be another contained arc of five following that, depending on how long Brandon Sanderson lives.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because it takes him two years to write each one of these. They're 5,000 page books. They're huge.

[B]

Jiminy Cricket.

[A]

Yeah. I think the audiobooks are about 50 hours each. So that's value for money right there.

[B]

Absolutely.

So I'm. I'm gonna get it from the library?

[A]

Yeah, you're gonna have to wait a while to get it from the library.

[B]

Seventeen weeks is what I'm gonna have to wait.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. And it's 45 hours long.

[A]

But if you just log into my Audible account, you can just listen to mine.

[B]

Okay, I'll probably do that.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Okay. That's one recommend that we have made it to. One recommendation so far.

[A]

Yeah. Full of wizard detectives. Chock a block.

[B]

I can recommend a five book series. Also the Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmond. Apparently it's now been adapted into a Netflix series. I don't have Netflix, so I can't say anything about that. But these are cozy mystery type situations. There is some real life stuff because the Thursday Murder Club is a group of retirees and so there's a lot of confrontation with aging and with the loss of people that comes with aging. So it's not 100% lightweight fluffy. But I have found them so delightful that I'm really considering buying them because they're re listenable.

[A]

Oh great.

[B]

The narrator changes partway through the series because the original narrator died.

[A]

Dude. Okay, cool. Thursday Murder Club. I haven't listened to those. I will, I will check them out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

My next recommendation is of course Everything by Alexis Hall. But of course they vary widely.

Everything. And I in particular want to recommend those that do not have explicit sex in them because I prefer that in a book not to have a lot of explicit sex or any explicit sex. And so the Alexis hall books without explicit sex include from order of like Best to least loved by me. 10 Things that Never Happened. The audiobook of that is double plus magnificent. It is you. The audiobook of 10 Things that Never Happened is awesome. You'll love it. It's great. And there's no explicit sex in it. The boyfriend material and husband material are like big bestsellers. Boyfriend material in particular. The audiobook is great. Not as necessary as for 10 things that never Happened. But there's no explicit sex in it. Husband material is. Has more like farce cringe style scenes that I don't like as much. And there's a new one coming out called Father Material that is not out yet, so I can't recommend. But both of those. No explicit sex. Yay. Also Paris Diancourt, Dalencourt Delancourt.

[B]

Paris Dalencourt.

[A]

Dalencourt. D A I L L E N C O U R T Burgundian is one of the baking books. And the main romantic interest is waiting till Marriage, so there's no like explicit sex in it. And the non romance book Affair of the Mysterious Letter, which is a Sherlock Holmes, not parody, but like style thing. It's great. I really like it.

[B]

And it's a bit fantasy magic.

[A]

Yeah, it's fantasy magic. It's literally a wizard detective.

[B]

And the audiobook is Sexy Pants Magnificent.

[A]

It's read by Nicholas Bolton of the Candle Message fame.

[B]

We should, like, get the candle message and post it here so people can just hear, like, what we're talking about. Even just an excerpt.

[A]

Just, like, how great his voice is.

[B]

The voice when I.

[A]

He's literally the best audiobook reader I've listened to here. Hundreds, thousands of audiobooks, and he is head and shoulders above the rest. Yep.

[B]

So I got the opportunity to do a second edition of Come as yous Are. And because Come as yous Are had gone from being just like a book they were publishing to being like a book that sells every single year, they gave me a lot more control over the audiobook. The second time when I re recorded it, and I was like, look, I have some voices from men, and I require Nicholas Bolden.

[A]

And he recorded some excerpts for you.

[B]

Yes, he did.

[A]

Which is why your candle video starts.

[B]

One of them had a Dutch accent.

[A]

Hello, Emily. Remember me?

[B]

One of them had a Scottish accent. One of them was Rochester.

[A]

Just for the record, he doesn't make the choices I would have made for Rochester in that moment.

[B]

But I wasn't sure. No, it's because I instructed him in a way that I should go hard. I should have just said, brad, break all the hearts, whatever it takes. But instead, I offered an expression of a favorite, which is Gevot before he has his stroke.

He's my favorite.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And also that's from Flowers from the Storm. Yes.

[A]

We don't even have to say that Emily recommends Flowers from the Storm.

[B]

Yeah. Broadly speaking. Laura Kinsdale.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Most of her books, like Me and.

[A]

Alexis, I definitely prefer. Definitely prefer Alexis hall to Laura Kinsale. Sure.

[B]

But they're different generations of writers.

[A]

Right, Absolutely.

[B]

Laura Kinsale's earliest works do not escape the less awesome tropes of the 80s.

So my favorite of her books, obviously, is Flowers from the Storm, because there's a lot of, like. I get a lot of extra value from that book because of my background in cognitive science.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And my next favorite is Lessons in French, which is a romantic comedy.

[A]

More fluffy. Yeah.

[B]

And there's absolutely sex on the page in both of them.

[A]

Yeah. Although I have to say that another one of the Alexis hall books that I really like is for real, which is a. Has. I mean, it's like 40% explicit BDSM sex.

[B]

Yeah. A lot of her early books in particular, I don't.

[A]

I generally kind of just like, skip through the sex because, like, I don't care. But the thing about Alexis hall is that the sex very often advances the story. Yes. Or Includes character development. So, like, I would skip sex and be like, I don't know what happened. I have to go back and read the sex to find out who these characters are now that they had that sex. Like, how did that happen? I. It's like, you have to. It's also about an age gap relationship, which.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

I haven't read any good age gap relationship books ever, and this one's great.

[B]

I seem to be wrong about how to Bang a Billionaire. Its pub date is listed as 2018, which is well past.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I always recommend Alexis Hall's lady for a Duke, which is a historical. With a trans heroin.

[A]

And the thing I particularly liked about that is that you. A lot of times you assume that with a trans character, like, the tension's gonna be being outed, but. Or the main character, like, coming to accept that, you know, this person in an unexpected body is a woman. That's not it at all. The main conflict is that they've been friends all their lives and. And the hero in this case is shocked that he didn't know she was a woman. And all this time he's been treating her like a man, and he's, like, kind of ashamed and embarrassed and, like, it's just that he didn't know she was a woman. So now where does that put them?

[B]

And it's not delightful wish fulfillment.

[A]

Delightful. Yeah, it's great.

[B]

So good.

[A]

Yeah.

It'S nice.

[B]

So Alexis Hall.

[A]

I own that one. Yeah.

[B]

Lots and lots of differences.

[A]

Yeah. And there's only, like, one explicit sex scene in it, so it's. It's light on the sex, if that's what you prefer.

[B]

Okay. Other romances.

[A]

K.J. charles is an author. I discovered K.J. charles, according to her, like, acknowledgments pages is friends with Lexis hall, and they kind of help and edit each other's books and, like, get each other advice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And. Yeah. So no wonder I like KJ Charles. In particular, the Will Darling series, which is a trilogy.

[B]

Oh, yes. If you like Peter Whimsey, you will.

[A]

Love the Will Darling trilogy.

[B]

The Will Darling trilogy.

[A]

It's.

[B]

I mean, it's really good. It is obviously inspired. I mean, there are some sentences that are identical.

[A]

Yeah. I've read.

[B]

I've read all of those books many, many times. And, like, feels very.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Very Peter Whimsy.

[A]

Peter Whimsy flavored.

[B]

I mean, it's. It does. It's not just Peter Whimsy flavored.

[A]

Yeah, it is.

[B]

It is a cut from the same cow.

[A]

Yeah.

They'Re there's a lot of explicit sex in them, but it is sex you can skip.

[B]

Yeah, I would agree with that.

[A]

It's. It's not unmissable sex. It's not character. I mean, like, there are feelings that happen, but it's not. You know, you can still. You know what? It's fine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you're not into the reading the sex, but if you are into reading the sex, I think it's pretty.

Nice sex scenes. Not. She doesn't use the word plunder to describe anything. Yes. And there's also the Magpie series, which I particularly like because it's wizard detectives. There's a super competent wizard in the Magpie books.

[B]

Is this also K.J. charles?

[A]

Also K.J. charles? Yeah. There's, I think, three novels and some short stories.

Maybe four novels. Maybe one of the novels is like a spin off novel, but it's still in the same Magpie series.

That one is interesting in the choices that there's a hero who's like the big, tall, dark, handsome, and like the wizard detective. Other hero is like five feet tall, short, skinny.

Challenged my imagination a little bit because it didn't conform to any of the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many other books I've read. Okay.

[B]

K.J.

[A]

Charles. K.J. charles.

[B]

Alexis Hall. Yeah. Side quest to Laura Kinsale.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Especially the audiobooks.

[A]

Especially the audiobooks for Laura Kinsale. Nicholas Bolton also reads a bunch of Alexis Hall.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The audiobooks for 10 things that never Happened. The audiobooks for the Will Darling series are also very good. Yeah.

[B]

Is that Steven Crossley?

[A]

Am I misremembering? Yeah. No, it's Cornell Collins. Cornell Collins. But he sounds a lot like Stephen Crossley.

[B]

Sounds a lot like Stephen Crossley. If you ever see Steven Crossley listed as the narrator.

[A]

Yeah. Listen to that.

[B]

It's probably gonna be pretty good to listen to, even if it's not a good book.

[A]

While we're here, let's recommend audiobook readers that you can listen to them. Read pretty much anything, and you'll probably enjoy it.

[B]

Julia Whelan. W H E L A N Julia Whalen, who herself has become a romance author, having narrated so many. She's like, let me try.

[A]

And she's like, I could do this.

[B]

And I really enjoyed Julie Whelan also as an author.

[A]

Yeah. Mary Jane Wells is another.

[B]

Yes. Mary Jane Wells, absolute number one for the romance comedy.

[A]

She's not as good at accents as Julia Whelan. Whelan. Whatever it is. Waylon. But she is funny.

[B]

Yeah. Very funny. Mary Jane Mills is funny. So funny.

[A]

Yeah. She goes all the way with the funny.

And probably most people won't be bothered by the slightly not as good accents as me because I have a bugaboo about.

[B]

Yeah, she has a her. When she does American, it's a little bit, like, chewy.

[A]

It's still fine. It's fine. It's fine.

[B]

Totally tolerable and absolutely worth it because she does bring the funny so much.

[A]

She so brings the funny. Yeah. So audiobook readers.

[B]

I have three romance authors we haven't talked about.

[A]

Abby Jimenez. With a Jimenez. Yeah, Abby Jimenez. Not for me.

[B]

Not for you, not for me. I. Pretty much anything of hers is going to be totally worth my time. Absolutely. In particular, yours truly has an autistic coded hero, not diagnosed on the page, but, like real autistic coded. I think he's formally diagnosed with anxiety or panic, maybe ocd. And a lot of what look a lot like autistic traits have been sort of.

Allocated to this diagnosis. But it's a.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's good.

[A]

Good.

[B]

Couple of emergency room docs in case medical settings are not for you.

So, Abby Jimenez, broadly yours truly, in particular, Kimberly Lemming's that Time I Got Drunk and series. I think the first one is that Time I Got Drunk and yeeted a love potion at a werewolf.

[A]

That sounds like it's up my alley.

[B]

I mean, it's absolutely there. It uses all of the language and.

Ideas of Dungeons and Dragons. Like people, they have adventuring parties.

So they're very fun and absolutely worth your time if you are into that kind of thing. There is sex on the page, 100%.

And then Misha Popp. M I S H A Misha Popp has written. I think there's three books in the Pies Before Guys series, which does have as a side part of the plot that she uses magical pies to kill the worst men.

[A]

Okay. See the words. The phrase Pies before Guys would have made me think, no, but using pies to kill men. Yes, I'm in.

[B]

It's actually so.

Spoiler, if you're like, I want to read the Pies before Guys series and not have any spoilers. Skip over the next 30 seconds because I'm about to say what the secret is that makes it kind of okay that she does murders. Okay. The wish that she mixes into the magical pie is not die in. It is do whatever it takes to change. Do whatever it takes to change. And very occasionally, I like that the guy doesn't die. He actually does change.

[A]

But usually I'm into that.

[B]

What it takes is for him not to exist anymore. And it's super. Like, you gotta. It's secret. And the only way she gets business is to like have recommendations from people who used her services. She does not take money for it because she just runs like a pie food truck.

[A]

Otherwise about two weeks wait from the Boston Public Library.

[B]

Totally worth it.

[A]

Totally.

[B]

Unless my wait list. You're only allowed to put 10 at a time.

[A]

Yeah, I now have 10. I usually leave one for like in case something comes out and I want to put on the waitlist right now.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

So I usually only put nine, but now I have ten.

[B]

I have one other romance author, Helena.

[A]

Greer.

[B]

And a book called Seasons of Love.

These are queer romances that are holiday set, superty, wicked cozy.

Very warm and delightful way to spend your time when you want to escape from gestures broadly.

[A]

Great.

[B]

Are you familiar?

[A]

No. Worth trying. There's another romance author who I like about half her books and that's Alyssa Cole.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. About half her books. I mean they're all good, but about half of them were like, oh yeah. I totally recommend these for everybody. And that includes the royals series.

[B]

Oh, yes.

[A]

Which end consistently with people getting therapy, which I just love.

[B]

So wonderful.

[A]

Like, it's clear that the things that keep the people apart are themselves and their assumptions and their own feelings and their own hangups. And so like this resolves in like, I just need therapy.

[B]

You read your first Alyssa Cole novel in 2018?

[A]

Yes, I did.

[B]

On the train home.

[A]

And it was a royals book. On the train home. I got it, I think for free. Yep. At the Romance Writers association conference. And I read on the way home and I was like, this is good.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I never read anything else. And then I figured out the Libby app and read all of them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And the Royal series are totally my thing.

[B]

Yeah. Alyssa Cole. Broadly speaking. I like every book of hers that I have read.

[A]

I like them all. I don't love them all. And there's a new series that she just started that only one book is out so far and that one's the AI who Loved Me. That was so up my alley.

[B]

That was an Amazon original audio.

[A]

Yeah. And now it's available.

[B]

And now it's available as an actual book. It's really good. It's great. It is very expectation defying and it's great.

[A]

It's totally. It's absolutely the kind of like sci fi fantasy, awesome sauce that I'm just totally into.

[B]

My possibly my very favorite romance author of all time is Courtney Milan. M I L A N. Yes.

[A]

Courtney Milan. I just read the. The Royals. Her Royals series of like the Duke who Didn't and the Marquis who Mustn't and the Earl who Isn't.

[B]

Yeah, they're great. They are great. One of my. Like, I can listen to this forever. Because so much of her work is self published. Not everything is available as an audiobook.

[A]

Yeah. Explicit sex on the page, but not much. And skippable.

[B]

Yes. Unclaimed. The Turner Brothers series is one that I. Even though I don't love the narration, it's an audiobook that I can just listen to over and over again. It's one of my favorite kinds of heroes, but also the Duke who Didn't.

[A]

Yeah, that's the ones I just said.

[B]

Oh, yeah. The new series with.

Heroes and heroines of color that are historical.

Yeah, they're great.

I fucking love the Duke who Didn't.

[A]

Me too. I really like it. It's great.

I do think the Duke who Didn't is my favorite of that series.

[B]

Yeah, it's the fun.

[A]

It's the.

[B]

It's the funny one.

[A]

It's the funniest one for sure.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Funniest one. Yeah.

[B]

But they're all good. They're all good.

I think the book maybe right after the Devil who Didn't is the Devil Comes Courting, which is darker. But it's.

So good.

That heroine is.

So good.

I didn't. It's so good.

[A]

I didn't find that one. Number three in series, the Devil Comes Courting. I don't think that's in the. In the Duke who Didn't series. It says it's number three.

[B]

It's in the works.

[A]

Oh, it's a heroine named Amelia.

[B]

It is hard for me to listen to the sex scenes because her name is Amelia.

Gross. That's how good it is. Is that I can. I could like. I can let that go.

[A]

Okay, I'm borrowing it. Not the audiobook, just the book. Book.

[B]

Yeah, the audiobook is.

[A]

I also find it uncomfortable to read about heroines named Amelia. So far, it seems most of the Amelias are like blue stocking nerds.

[B]

Let me offer you something. Here is another spoiler if you're gonna read the Devil Comes Courting and you don't want any spoilers at all. Skip over the next 30 seconds. I want to offer Emel so that maybe it's more tolerable to read about a heroine named Amelia. Amelia is the name given to her by the Christian missionary who steals her from her family. Stolen.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And she does not know what her name is.

[A]

Oh, okay, so it's not really her name. Yeah, I read another one by another author. Cat Stevens is the name of the author.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And yeah, she's pretty good. Not like top. Top, top tier, but totally readable, totally likable.

[B]

Cat Sebastian, I think.

[A]

Cat Sebastian.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Cat Sebastian is like. I will listen. I will borrow from the library. Absolutely. Any Cat Sebastian in the world.

[A]

Yeah. And I think she has one with a heroine named Amelia who is a very like autistic coded, like.

Free thinking, nerdy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it seems like every Amelia seems like.

[B]

Yeah, this Amelia is also kind of like that.

[A]

One of those. Yeah, yeah. The.

[B]

I don't know, man.

[A]

Apparently I'm a type.

[B]

Those are, those are all my romance and the rest are just individual titles that have particularly stuck with me.

[A]

Great, let's hear them.

[B]

A difficult book, but a memoir that like, I'm not a person who reads serious literary stuff because it does not make me happy. And this book did not make me happy, but it did give me such warm, tender feelings and such awe of the ability of this writer that I like. I just, I forgive it all its literary prowess. And that book is I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie o'. Farrell.

It's a memoir about time she almost died.

And.

Skip ahead 30 seconds if you want no more information about it.

The reason she wrote it, she wrote it as a letter to her daughter who has life threatening allergies and multiple times has almost died.

And so she's writing this book contextualizing, like times when she has almost died. Times when like something terrible has happened in the context of just like loving her child so passionately and being so terrified for her life and knowing that she just needs to live this way. Like, like this is just what it is.

So that's. It's truly wonderful.

[A]

Good.

[B]

But she's. She's the kind of writer who makes you like, actually very much feel all of the things.

[A]

So if you're ready for a feeling the feelings, read Yes, I am. I am, I am, I am, I am.

[B]

I am. There's a novel by Rebecca Hardiman, H A R D I M A N called Good Eggs, which also has some difficult feelings. It's not a romance, it's a family situation. And I had to work to get into it for the first few chapters, but by the end I was so all in. So I listened to a very large number of audiobooks while I was traveling for the Come Together book tour. I don't remember very many of them, but just thinking of the title of this book puts me back in the hotel room I was in when I was listening to it. Like, it's that vivid. And like, the feelings I was experiencing alone in my hotel room because I was listening to this audiobook while I put on my makeup, getting ready for the event.

Good eggs. Literary fiction.

There's also. I've talked before about woodworking.

[A]

Yeah, that was great.

[B]

Yeah, it's Great. By Emily St. James.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it also has, like, big old.

[A]

Feelings and also very small feelings. I didn't find it overwhelmingly feelings.

[B]

No, it was not overwhelmingly feelings, but it was.

It's a really big story.

[A]

It is a big story.

[B]

It's great.

[A]

I recommend it too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's one of those things where I think.

[B]

I'm so glad I had the experience of reading it. And the audiobook is incredibly clever. This is the thing I've mentioned before. When anyone uses a character's dead name, it just goes.

[A]

There's a static noise, but not in a. I have to say, I was worried that it would be, like, misophonic. Yeah. Sensory. But no, it's not. I found it to be fine.

[B]

I thought it was a mistake in the audiobook at first, and then I was like, oh, it's a dead name.

[A]

Ooh, it's a dead name.

[B]

Like, it's brilliant. It's so good. Another novel that is really outside what I usually consume. Long Live Evil.

Which is like a big old high fantasy novel.

[A]

Oh, I love high fantasy.

[B]

I have definitely urban fantasy better, but.

[A]

High fantasy is Long Live Evil, a.

[B]

Story for anyone who's ever fallen for the villain. It is book one in a series that is so far, just the one book long, as far as I know. Sarah Rees Brennan. R E E S R E. Oh.

[A]

Yeah, Sarah Reese Brennan.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, she's great.

[B]

Long Live Evil has really stood out for me.

And then the last one is another memoir. It's another book written to daughters. It's Ali Wong's Dear Girls.

And honestly, my favorite, possibly my favorite part of it. So Ali Wong is Ali Wong. She tells a lot of raunchy stories.

But there's a postscript written by her now divorced husband. Dear Girls. And it is so sweet. And it makes it so clear that even though they're divorced now, like, he loves these girls so much and has so much respect for everything. Ali Wong is good at that. Like, they're gonna stay co parenting really effectively. And I'm so glad that we get to Hear from the dad who's like, I have had to learn to stand there and listen to your mother make fun of me in front of audiences of thousands.

And like, he's got an MBA from Harvard and shit.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

So he didn't have to put up with that. He didn't have to leave his career in order to support hers. But that is what he did, so. Dear Girls by Ali Wong. If you're okay with the. If. If you like Ali Wong, I think you're gonna love Ali Wong's book.

[A]

Well, that makes sense.

[B]

Those are all my books.

[A]

I have one more author to recommend that is not romance, but is just. If you want to. If you just want a super silly and an audiobook that's just like, great. The author's name is Yahtzee Croshaw.

[B]

Sci fi.

[A]

Silly, funny. Like, almost Douglas Adams flavored, but, like, more nihilistic.

[B]

That's pretty funny.

[A]

That's pretty funny. It's clever.

[B]

And he.

[A]

He's a comedian and he reads his own books. Yahtzee. Y A H T Z E E Crowshaw.

[B]

So. So things that aren't books for people who are. I'm not going to read or listen to a book.

[A]

I have two video recommendations, okay? The first is a game streamer. Look, several years ago you told me there was such a thing as video game streaming where people watch somebody play a video game online. And I was like, that sounds dumb. Why would anybody watch somebody play a video game online? I still kind of feel that way because the streamer I have to Recommend is called Dr. Gluon D R G L U O N.

And you don't watch him play video games. If you go to watch game content from him, you are going to be frustrated and annoyed and disappointed because what he does is sort of like, play every game in the worst way possible. Like, just to be silly about the games he's playing. And it's very entertaining. He's an artist with a degree in, like, cartoons or something like that. He does art. He sings songs. He's so wholesome and sweet and funny and his community is fantastic. Everybody's so nice. It's really well curated.

Most of his admins are women, including several women of color. Not admins, mods.

And, like, he's really great. So, like Dr. Gluon, if you want to watch a streamer, who's got so much content, so many YouTube videos, and they're all, like, very silly and fun and just like, escapee good time.

[B]

It's.

[A]

It's. He's Terrific. You should watch Dr. Gluon. I have. I own Dr. Gluon swag merch. That's how much I like Dr. Gluon.

[B]

Wow. That's intense.

[A]

I am a member of. Of his YouTube channel, before I quit Twitch because Fuck Bezos. I quit Twitch because fuck Bezos. But before I quit Twitch, I was. I was a member on his. On his Twitch channel.

He's great, and he draws cute things.

[B]

I am a member of Jessica Kellgren Fozard's club. A clubby.

[A]

Yeah. Jesse Pilgrim Fozar is a YouTuber. Another YouTuber, Y.

[B]

Who's great and fills me with joy. And I don't think we've ever talked about her on the channel.

[A]

I think in passing, we've mentioned.

[B]

So there aren't very many of my YouTube followers that I'm. That I'm like, here's a thing that's going to make your life just feel.

[A]

Really nice and better.

[B]

But Jessica Keller and Fozart is one of them. Yeah.

[A]

Here's a Dr. Gluon story. When I knew, I was like, I'm gonna keep watching this guy. I'm gonna send this guy money.

He was playing a game with some other people on the channel, and one was you. You watch a video clip and you write a caption, and, you know, you want to write a funny, clever caption. And the. The caption he came up with. Oh. So there was a video clip of a. Of a guy carrying a woman and, like, dumping her into the pool. And most of the. Most of the little, like, captions were like, that's what you get. And his caption was, that's me off to jail.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah. That's good.

[B]

That's good.

[A]

And I was like, I'm sending this guy money right now.

[B]

I'm sure everybody knows about. We rate dogs.

[A]

Yeah. Only peripherally.

[B]

They have a. They have a podcast.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Called the Dogs Were Good Again. Okay. And very often it's very lightweight. It's just sharing. Really charming. Like, really cure heavily curated delightful dog content. And every show, you get introduced to an adoptable dog, which is.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's great. It's delightful and a soft place to land. And occasionally, it's really serious. Like. Like, there was one episode that was about.

Police violence toward dogs. Like, and that's, like. It's heavy. And aren't you glad that somebody who has made their whole career talking about how good the dogs are, somebody who is not of the. I like dogs, and I can't stand people. He absolutely is like, Dog rights are human rights. Like the dogs can't be okay if the humans aren't okay.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So you need to be. You can't feel worse for the dogs in Gaza than you do for the humans in Gaza.

[A]

Right. Great.

[B]

Yeah. Is. He's. Sometimes, I mean, when people's platforms explode beyond any of their intentions, it's going to amplify whatever was there already inside them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And every now and then, somebody. Their platform explodes and it reveals like a truly wonderful person.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm only gonna make one other.

Recommendation, which is broadly speaking, ttrpg. Actual play. Yeah.

[A]

That's tabletop role playing games for those who aren't as nerdy.

[B]

Dungeons and Dragons. There's two in particular that I recommend. I broadly recommend Dropout. The Dropout tv. The.

[A]

We both subscribe to Dropout.

[B]

We both subscribe to it. I actually became a VIP subscriber. I give them extra money because I know that the way they spend it is like the way I would like them to be spending their money.

[A]

Mm.

[B]

And there's several shows on there that I like a whole lot.

But the two most popular shows are my two favorite shows. And those are Game Changer and Dimension 20.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Brennan Lee Mulligan is another one of the.

Millennial white guys whose platform blew up wildly after years of stuff and.

[A]

Uncovered a truly good guy.

[B]

Yeah.

Like the best of all the white guy. Dms.

[A]

He is. Yeah, he's.

[B]

He's. He's a real one.

[A]

And I have to say, Dimension 20 is fast paced.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

The players are entertainers. They're all improv comedians and writers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So they're very like story focused. Yes.

It's. And the. And the. The minis. And like the lighting effects. Yes. Especially as the series like have just. It's great. It is my favorite production values.

[B]

It is my favorite also.

[A]

Yeah. It's the quick. I listen to it on like one.

[B]

And a half or one and a.

[A]

Quarter speed because it does. It can grind a little slow at times, but. But mostly it's great. Totally worth watching. You can definitely escape for.

[B]

And there's so solid much of it. 40 hours.

[A]

There's so much of it. And it's very escapist.

[B]

And any season where the DM is fun and Iyengar. Watch that.

[A]

You gotta watch that. That's too. The best.

[B]

Those are. They're.

[A]

There's one season where Matt Mercer is the dm and that is very worth watching.

[B]

Very worth watching. And you don't have to watch. It's like a prequel to Another series. And you don't have to watch that other series in order to understand what's going on in the series. That Matt Marster DMs.

[A]

That one is one of my least favorite because it's very like dark and Game of Thrones.

[B]

Y. Yeah, I don't, I don't like the, the Dark Ones. Those are not my favorites.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I actually can't listen anymore to their main story. Is this fantasy high. It's a mashup of like Dungeons and Dragons and like a high school setting.

[A]

Ya. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And Amelia doesn't mind it, but there is one character who is on the page autistic and it's not great. Very bad.

[A]

They did try, but they didn't do great.

[B]

They did real bad. They put her in a toxic abusive situation in her relationship. Like imagine a naive autistic teenager being swooped into a relationship with the most toxic popular girl who has. Who just like treats her like a pet.

[A]

Yeah, it's.

[B]

And because she is a naive autistic girl, she is not doing anything at all to protect her boundaries and her physical well being in the face of someone who just wants to carry her around like a pet. And your mileage may vary. People will disagree with me. Amelia disagrees with me.

[A]

I mean. No, I agree with you. I. I agree with you about the nature of the thing. It just doesn't.

Put me off from watching it because there's so much other like kind of just cute, funny, light stuff that. Yeah, they tried, they failed.

[B]

It's.

[A]

Not everything's gonna be a home run. Yeah, not everything's gonna be a home run.

[B]

But it's too much of a jump scare for me. Personally.

[A]

I love Starstruck. That's my favorite. Oh yeah.

[B]

Oh, it's absolutely the best. Why have they not done another one of those?

[A]

Why have they not done.

[B]

Why have they not done another one of those? While they're recording it, they're talking about how excited they are for a second fucking season of Starstruck. So Brennan Lee Mulligan's mother is an artist in many different genres. But one of the things she did in the 80s was create the Starstruck Odyssey comic book, which is amazing. And so the anti capitalist comic book setting is a sci fi future.

[A]

It's wizard detectives all day.

[B]

Yeah. TTRPG.

[A]

And it's.

[B]

If you're like, I'm gonna pay like $7 and subscribe for one month. What's the one thing I should definitely be watching? Starstruck Odyssey, Dimension 20. Starstruck Odyssey is the one.

Yeah. And if you, like, really love TTRPG, Brennan Lee Mulligan is DMing the new season, the new long season of critical role.

[A]

I don't love critical role. It's very slow for me.

[B]

Exactly. It is twice as fast now that Brennan Lee Mulligan is the dm.

[A]

Oh, that's good to know.

[B]

It is still not as fast as dimension 20 because they leave. They just straight record instead of cutting things like Dimension 20 has editors.

[A]

Very good. Thoughtful. Part of the artistic process.

[B]

Part of the artistic process. Editors and critical role has excellent lighting.

But they leave it in the time that it takes for players to get up from the table and other players to come back. They just leave it all. All in.

[A]

They just leave everything. But that's not what I find slow about it. I find the storytelling cumbersome.

[B]

Yeah, they do. Yes. Yeah, There's. There's not.

[A]

They're not as quick as. As writers.

[B]

Voice actors. Not writers in.

[A]

Not. Not improvisers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They're voice actors. They don't know when to edit themselves.

[B]

Another short series where you get to watch someone who's never played Dungeons and Dragons before and just kills it. It's the one. Reika is an orc. Oh, yeah. And she sits next to Matt fucking Mercer. Yeah. They're all bad guys. They play bad guys.

[A]

Yeah. That's a great season. That's a fantastic season. And it's.

[B]

And it's nice and short and digestible.

[A]

I think if you're not sure if you're into D and D and if you can watch us watch that season, especially if you already like Lord of the Rings, because it's basically like the bad guys in Lord of the Rings, what happens after they drop the ring in the lava magma.

[B]

Escape from the bloodkeep.

[A]

Escape from the bloodkeep. Yeah.

[B]

Rekha Shankar has never played Dungeons and Dragons a day in her life. They sit her at a table with Ify Wadiwe. Yeah. Matt Mercer. Amy Vorpel.

[A]

Yeah. Who is also a dungeon master. Yeah, yeah. She's literally sitting next to Mike Trapp. Matt Mercer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Like, they're all big. Is it Matt or is it Mike? Sorry, I. Never mind. Mike Trapp. Yeah, you're right. I'm wrong.

[B]

And she takes the biggest swings. Yeah.

[A]

She's awesome.

[B]

She's a rock star. All these other. She's a writer. Table. Have been playing since they were kids, and they're like. She is rocking their worlds with the choices she is making.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

She is making Matt Mercer cry.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's so good. So if you watch, if you're like, no, but I want, like high fantasy. I want. I don't want like a comic book setting. I want. I want Lord of the Rings only, like, really funny. Like, it's, it's what happens after the ring goes into the lava. But make it the office.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great. That's a really good season.

[B]

And they're the bad guys, and they're all the bad guys. So.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's another.

[A]

And if we rewinding to, like, when you were first getting into this stuff, you. I was like, you gotta watch this. This is really good. And I was particularly recommending Matt Mercer. And you were like, but he looks like. With his truly.

[B]

I still, like, I haven't gotten fully over it. He's got like shoulder length hair and he wears unbuttoned pants, silver T shirts, and like leather bracelets. It is very 90s creepy. A vibe that does not work for.

[A]

Does not match his heart.

[B]

Oh, he's so good.

[A]

And I was like, you're gonna watch and you're gonna text me. You were right about Matt Mercer. And you actually were.

[B]

You were right about Matt Mercer.

[A]

I was right about Matt Mercer.

[B]

He's truly. He does not look delightful person.

[A]

Sweet and just delightful. He ought to be wearing.

[B]

Why does he look like that?

[A]

I don't know. And it's not that he's like cardigans.

[B]

I'm not saying he's not good looking. I am saying why is he making the choices of.

[A]

He makes some aesthetic boys we went.

[B]

To junior high with.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like the greasiest. He's not greasy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But he's like. But still dressing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

[A]

It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. His look does not match his.

[B]

Because he's a voice actor.

[A]

Beautiful voice. Yeah.

[B]

And a sweet heart.

[A]

Truly, like, so sensitive as a storyteller and as a guide and a leader.

[B]

And I'm not gonna cape for like millennial white men don't need any help. But Brennan Lee Mulligan and Matt Mercer hug for many seconds in a row, full body, chest to chest, each other. Hug each other and whisper, I fucking love you, man. I love you too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you're like, I am done with fucking toxic men.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you just want to see what it looks like when a white man is like, he's doing all.

[A]

He's a person.

[B]

He's, he's, he's a. Yes.

[A]

Yeah. For other millennial white men. Dr. Gluon is the same situation. He's got this epic bromance with another Sims creator called James Turner. And. And they are just like, best. Like, I love you, man. Dude. Bros. It's. They're so fun and they play games together and it's just like sweet and great and non toxic and.

[B]

And because they're playing these games, they're, like doing this collaborative improvisational storytelling. They make each other cry all the time.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

There's one season that ends with Brennan Lee Mulligan saying, gotcha. I hope it's okay. I wrote you a love letter.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's so good.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So if you're like, I want high fantasy and I don't mind if it's not super fast paced and highly edited, then get into the new season of Critical Role, which is available on Twitch, YouTube, and they have their own streaming platform called Beacon. I went ahead and subscribed to Beacons so that I don't have to watch it on YouTube. I'm doing a YouTube cleanse currently.

Because it's impossible for me to watch anything on YouTube without it serving me politics. And that's true for the sake of my blood pressure, which is creeping into places where I need it not to be. Like, legitimately, my health is being impacted.

[A]

By the badness, so, like, I can't. Hence this hour spent talking about stuff we like.

[B]

Yeah, stuff we like men who hug and say, I love you. And books that have, like, just like fantasy wish fulfillment, trans heroines and in historical books and like, oh, the good things. The things that make you. We haven't even talked about the. I mean, a couple of them are things that are like, these are really big feelings. And there's some dark stuff in there, too, but most of them are like, these are funny. These are romantic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Happy endings. You don't need to worry about getting emotionally invested in someone and they're gonna die.

[A]

There's no darkness on Dr. Gluon's channel. It's just nice.

[B]

And that matters. He.

[A]

He literally has four kids and they watch his channel. So, like, it's family friendly.

[B]

Cause his family be there, like, for.

[A]

Real, in the most literal sense. Because his family is upstairs watching a lot of the time. His wife is a high school art teacher. They met. They were hired at the same time at the Disney Store in San Francisco. Yeah, they both, you know, finished art school and. And worked at the Disney Store. And they're both Disney adults, you know, a bit. Quite a bit. And yeah, it's just Sweet and good. Yeah. And he's a lot smaller than, than Matt Mercer, I think, and Brennan Lee Mulligan, but I mean successful as a streamer. There are at least a thousand people watching his stream every time he streams, which is small in the world of media but pretty big in the world of game streamers. I think he's not as big as he would be. He has an accent and a speech difference. He was born in Britain. He has a British accent flavored heavily by America and Canada. He lives in Iowa. And he doesn't, he's dyslexic and he doesn't pronounce ours. He kind of says I'm like W's. Yeah. And I think because of this, like.

[B]

People are assholes in the same way. They're more interested in following very beautiful people.

[A]

Right, Exactly. And he's, I mean he's pretty symmetrical. Like he's an appealing looking guy, but you know, having a. He's a. Yeah, he's a big cuddly. But he doesn't sound like you listen to him at first and you're like, that doesn't. He doesn't have a beautiful voice like Matt Mercer, but if you, if you listen for more than 20 minutes, like he's just so sweet and funny and I've talked about.

[B]

Dr. Matt Mercer's beautiful voice was not enough initially for me to overcome my squick about his reminding me of 1991.

[A]

Yeah, he needs a stylist for a hot second. Just somebody to come in, be like.

[B]

He has said he does not image to be perceived. He doesn't want to pay attention to his appearance. And the thing is, ultimately he does not have to.

[A]

He does not have to.

[B]

He can be who he is and do what he does and he's extraordinary at it.

[A]

And as a voice actor, doesn't matter what he looks like.

[B]

For those who like one last video recommendation. If you have Britbox already and you like cozy mysteries, I really enjoy the Sister Boniface series. I'm not one to recommend things that are sort of like apologist for the Catholic Church, but Sister Boniface is a 1960s Britain nun, but she.

[A]

Is, I.

[B]

Think a PhD level chemist who did work for the war and then became a nun.

And she's great. It's great. It is for being like solving murder mysteries. It's so charming. And the stakes are rarely much of anything at all. The people who get murdered are almost always people visiting their little village. It's a thing that happens a lot. Almost every season a TV show comes to film in their little village, and somebody involved in the TV production ends up getting murdered.

[A]

It's.

[B]

If you already have. Don't subscribe to Britbox just to watch Sister Boniface. But if you already have it and you're like, I see that. None. And I'm just not sure, dive in. Go for it.

[A]

Go for it.

[B]

Yeah. Again, your mileage may vary. Emelia doesn't like the things I like. It seems like the one thing we agree on is Matt Mercer and K.J.

[A]

Charles.

[B]

Nicholas Bolton, Katie Charleston, Alexis Hall.

[A]

Alexis hall, for sure.

You're the one who introduced me to Alexis Hall, I believe.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And I started with the Affair of Mysterious Letter.

[B]

You were like, what? Romance is good? And I was like, here's Glitterland.

[A]

Oh, yeah. And I was like, okay, there's a lot of sex in this book, but it's actually, like, good. Well, first of all, it's read by Nicholas Bolton. And now there's a new edition.

[B]

Yes, there is a full length with.

[A]

Some minor changes and, like. Yeah. And. And it's reread again by Nicholas Bolton. And it is. Both of them are great.

[B]

Both of them are great. He's so good at accents.

[A]

I mean, but if you're gonna. If you've never read Glitterland and now's your time, read the updated one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because it's a little bit better.

[B]

So I. I write romance fiction as a. As a way to help process my feelings. And I have a draft of a novel that's almost certainly never going to go anywhere, but I made the hero of Georgian descent, not least because I wanted Nicholas Bolton to have to do the hero's mother with a Georgian. And I mean the nation of Georgia. Georgian accent.

I thought it would be fun. Maybe one day.

[A]

Sure, maybe one day.

That was a long list of recommendations and a pleasant hour spent talking about things we like.

[B]

If there wasn't anything on this list that sounds good to you, we just have really different tastes and, like, different people want different things. But in particular, the things that we enjoy tend to be things that are low stakes and, like, guaranteed happy ending.

[A]

Yeah. No, I haven't recommended anything with a. With a not happy ending.

[B]

Yeah, even I am. I am. I am, like, profoundly happy. Not the kind of happy where you're like, yay. But the kind of happy where you're like, fucking. It matters so much that we take care of each other. That kind of is so good.

And I cut all the magic from my talk.

[A]

Speaking of magic, if I'm going to recommend one other author that is already so famous, nobody needs me to recommend him. But John Scalzi, another Gen X white guy who's doing it correctly. Yeah. Who?

Totally. Another one, Ben Aronovitch, who writes the Rivers of London series. More wizard Detectives. But, like, there's a kind of, like, a bad trans. Like, where the wizard detective runs into an apartment, and somebody's in bed with, like, the blankets up covering their chest, and the wizard detective says, are you a guy? And they respond, only on my birth certificate. And, like, that is bad. And I think got some feedback. And from then on, there's positive trans representation in every book in the series after that.

[B]

Oh, that's good. That's nice.

[A]

Yeah. Including, like, a trans wizard who's learning how to fly.

That's her main goal. And he thinks thoughtfully about, like, how hard it would be to wait 18 years to get your identification updated to the correct gender. Like, it's.

[B]

Dude.

[A]

Got feedback and responded correctly. That's.

[B]

That's what it should be.

[A]

That's what it should be. That was a lot of recommendations, a lot of good things. And if somebody, for sure. Yeah. Learned something that they're gonna read for the first time, be like, oh, yeah.

[B]

And if nothing else, I feel like we. I got to roll around in the good stuff.

[A]

I got to roll around stuff I like. And I. And I got at least two books that I'm gonna get from the library because of your recommendations. Yeah.

[B]

And you probably won't like them because we don't like the same thing.

[A]

No, I'll probably like them. Okay. Just. I think we like the same things. We just don't have the same favorites.

[B]

Yeah, we don't have the same favorites. 100%.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Way of Kings.

[A]

Way of Kings.

[B]

45 hour audiobook. 45.

[A]

It's. You can listen to it on, like, 1.2 speed.

[B]

Yeah, I'll do that. I mean, there. There are some audiobooks I listen to on, too.

[A]

Yeah, me too. Yeah.

[B]

Because you're like, I just want to consume this and have it be done.

[A]

Yeah. No, this isn't that. This is. I think the readers are very deliberate and slow.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And sometimes my brain sort of just works faster than the speech, for sure.

[B]

A lot of people with ADHD just. They just need it to go faster or their attention.

[A]

So go ahead and listen to it on faster speed. It's fine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's not like there's nuances of emotion that you're gonna need to. Whatever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And if you want to go back and listen to the nuances of emotion, you can do that the second time through. Right? But I really love Way of Kings. I listened to Way of King the first time. I was like.

Yes, for. Yes for this series. It's just so very my thing for me. I think you like it. It might not be your favorite, but I think you'll like it. Okay.

[B]

I think we did the thing and.

[A]

We did the thing. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Cue the ukulele. Thanks for listening again.

Bye.

[C]

Hello, Emily. Nicholas Bolton here. Remember me? I have a message here from your sister Amelia who apparently is in the doghouse at the moment for having foolishly burnt up one of your candles. She's feeling terrible about it and went so far as to reach out to me for a team effort apology. So we both hope this goes some way towards making you feel a little bit better about the whole situation. She's very sorry.