Ep - 454 - Solving All Your Book Club Drama with Chelsea Stardust!

Summary

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Reading Glasses Ep 454 – Solving All Your Book Club Drama with Chelsea Stardust!

Original air date: March 19, 2026
Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara
Guest: Chelsea Stardust (filmmaker and founder of the Losers Book Club)

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Episode Overview

In this mega-episode, Brea and Mallory focus on solving listener-submitted book club dilemmas with the help of special guest Chelsea Stardust, who has run LA’s Losers Book Club for nearly a decade. The trio field real-life questions about struggling genres, how to handle unfinished books, building community, and the honest drama (and joys!) of maintaining a book club. They share advice on leadership, membership engagement, and keeping things joyful and sustainable—while keeping it deeply book-nerd and fun.

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What Are You Reading? (00:57)

Bria's Current Read:

• Willing Prey by Ali Olian
  • A steamy, "weird little" smut romance recommended by Mallory, about a woman hired to let herself be hunted in the woods—a plot both co-hosts find enjoyably wild, though Bria jokes, "Do not chase me" (03:04).
• Notable moment:
  • Bria confesses she often reads smut for comfort, especially late at night:

    "At 2 in the morning, when I can't sleep, I go, 'What is going to make me fall asleep? I know, a nice smut book, and it works like a charm.'" (01:27 – Bria)

Mallory's Current Read:

• The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers
  • Urban fantasy with lush, Morgenstern-esque prose; centers on a young woman thrust into a magical world, family curses, and hidden societies.
  • Mallory highlights the atmospheric writing:

    "Nobody sets a fucking scene like Erin Morgenstern does... there’s magical things happening and... it just has that sort of same feel." (05:21 – Mallory)

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Listener Feedback & Snack Tangents (06:33)

• Ashley shares her detailed system for managing TBR lists following the show’s "anticipated books" episodes—impressing Mallory, who jokes, "This cleared my skin, brought my cholesterol down." (08:13)
• Brianna pushes back on the hosts’ anti-fruit-as-snack stance, suggesting the use of toothpicks for fruit to keep fingers and books clean, sparking playful banter about bananas, midnight snacks, and "night pudding."
  • Brea: "I eat two bananas every day. One in the morning, one around midnight." (11:07)
  • Mallory: "This is the hard-hitting journalism people expect from Reading Glasses." (11:42)

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Meet Chelsea Stardust & The Losers Book Club (17:25)

Book Club Origins & Structure (17:49)

• Chelsea formed the Losers Book Club in 2017 amid a need for more challenging and genre-driven reading (especially horror, fantasy, and graphic novels), after feeling "her brain was dying" from only reading scripts.
• Group began with a Stephen King focus; first read: Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill.
• Maintains a membership cap at 13 for manageability.
• Features democratic book selection but sometimes requires Chelsea to make tough calls:

  "Sometimes people just don’t want to deal with it and they just want you to present something to them." (23:43 – Mallory)

Unique Features

• Frequently hosts guest authors—including Grady Hendrix and Mallory—offering a safe, private conversation space.
• Chelsea emphasizes the club’s "democracy" but admits sometimes she acts as a tie-breaker.
• Highlight: Members have connected with industry figures and adapted books via club relationships.
• Club spirit:

  "Leading a book club is a very difficult thing that is not for everyone. It requires a lot of patience and understanding and organization and moxie." (25:18 – Mallory)

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Book Club Dilemma Mailbag & Advice

Dilemma 1: Losing Interest in the Club’s Genre (Hannah’s Romance Slump) (26:52)

• Problem: Hannah has lost interest in romance but loves the book club’s community.
• Chelsea’s advice:

  "Book club should never feel like work... it's okay to fall out of love with something and recognize that and have boundaries."

  • Suggests taking a break, shifting focus to the club’s social connections, and being honest with the group.
• Mallory and Brea agree:
  • Don't force the genre; maintain the friendships in other ways ("set up a bookish outing" (29:48 – Mallory)).

Dilemma 2: Should Leaders Have to Finish the Book? (Kieran’s DNF Debate) (32:14)

• Problem: Book club facilitator struggles to finish a book they’re not enjoying; worries about setting an example.
• Chelsea:

  "You can give yourself permission to not finish the book. Allow others to lead the discussion... I just have this weird obligation where I feel like, no, I have to finish this book."

  • Role modeling completion is nice but not a requirement; more important to foster discussion.
• All hosts:
  • If leading, you must ensure the discussion is well-facilitated, even if you didn’t finish the book yourself—don’t just check out! (34:32 – Mallory)

Dilemma 3: Stuck on One Genre (Dewey & The Horror Club) (36:50)

• Problem: Book club meant to be general interest keeps defaulting to horror, burning out some members.
• Chelsea:
  • Recommends bringing suggestions, rotating picks, or doing a round where each member chooses.

  "If you're reading like five horror books in a row, y'all should be choosing something very different by that point." (39:55 – Chelsea)

• Book Suggestions for "uncomfortable but not horror":
  • Geek Love (Katherine Dunn), Lullaby & Invisible Monsters (Chuck Palahniuk), Perfume (Patrick Süskind)
• Mallory:
  • Be direct about wanting a break, but don’t frame it as a diss on horror ("If they're like, we're actually making this a horror book club, maybe it's time to leave." (41:00 – Mallory))

Dilemma 4: Suggestion Backlash & Genre Shame (Anonymous & Cabin at the End of the World) (44:06)

• Problem: A horror pick gets majority and then nearly everyone bails; group considers shunning horror picks.
• Chelsea:
  • Acknowledges it's "super annoying" people voted and then ghosted.

  "It's very annoying that it was voted on and then nobody… It's a cool system... but… I would be so salty at the next meeting." (46:18 – Chelsea / 46:23 – Mallory)

  • Emphasizes joy of "spirited discussions" when half the club loves and half hates a book.
• Bria:
  • "No one knows it’s you. They don’t know it’s you. No one’s thinking about it... even if they did, they aren’t judging you."
• Mallory:
  • Cites the drama of organizing readers; references their own experiences with group pick drama.

Dilemma 5: Is It OK To Show Up Without Finishing (Deborah’s Question) (54:24)

• Problem: Not loving the chosen book, is it okay to not finish and still come to discuss?
• Chelsea:

  "Showing up is participating. Being in the room and saying something is participating... If you hate the book, tell me. I want to know. If you love the book, tell me."

  • Only caveat: Dislikes "lurking" or disengaged behavior—show up ready to discuss, not just for snacks!
• All hosts:
  • Real participation is engagement, not completion; being honest about why you stopped can make for better discussion than saying little despite finishing.
• Mallory:

  "I would rather someone show up who didn't like it and didn’t finish it but had a lot to say than someone who liked it and finished it and has nothing to say." (62:21 – Mallory)

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Final Reflections & Memorable Quotes

• Book clubs should be joyful:

  "If you find that it is not bringing you joy anymore, take a break or step away or find a new one or start your own... It should always be a point of joy." (63:19 – Chelsea)

• Communication is key:

  "The answer to most things in life is be a good communicator. That’s just being a human being... but it's so true." (65:06 – Mallory)

• Horror is the great book club divider: Explored repeatedly throughout the episode in listener dilemmas and hosts’ commentary.

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Notable & Fun Moments

• Banter about bananas, "midnight snacks", and what qualifies as a good reading snack (complete with ideas for fruit-on-toothpicks livestream contests!).
• Chelsea reveals her careful management style, including a waiting list for her popular club, clocking who participates, and the importance of crowding out disengaged members to keep it vibrant.
• The group jokes about the divisiveness of letting a book club vote on picks (it "never goes well"!).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:57 – What Are You Reading?
• 06:33 – Listener Feedback & Snacks
• 17:25 – Introducing Chelsea Stardust
• 17:49 – The Losers Book Club Origins
• 26:52 – Dilemma 1: Losing Love for Genre
• 32:14 – Dilemma 2: Does the Leader Have to Finish the Book?
• 36:50 – Dilemma 3: Too Much Horror!
• 44:06 – Dilemma 4: Suggestion Backlash
• 54:24 – Dilemma 5: Is Not Finishing Okay?
• 63:19 – Final Advice: Keep it Joyful & Communicate

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Where to Find Chelsea Stardust

• Instagram: @chelseastardust
• Book Club: @losersbookclubla
• Recent Film: Producer and wraparound director for Grind (premiering SXSW 2026)

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Takeaways

1. Book clubs thrive on flexibility, honesty, and joy.
2. Participation > completion. Show up curious—even if you DNF’d!
3. If a club isn’t serving you, take a break. Book choices (especially in horror) will always stir drama, and that’s OK!
4. Leadership means keeping things organized but not doing all the work or letting it become a chore.
5. Be clear, communicate, and remember: it’s a club, not a job.

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For More

• Submit your own reader dilemmas for future advice episodes: [e-mail]
• Follow Reading Glasses: Instagram @readingglassespodcast

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Summary by [your expert summarizer]

Transcript

[Chelsea Stardust]

Foreign.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better. I'm author and book devourer, Mallory o'.

[Bria Grant]

Meara. And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader, south by Southwest filmmaker. What? This episode, It's a mega episode. We're solving all your book club y' all have been writing in with your book club dilemmas. And we're a lot of book clubs now. We've been compiling.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yep. And guess what Mallory mostly does is compile things.

[Bria Grant]

Lots of compiling. Lots of compiling. And we decided to do one big mega episode with special guest Chelsea Stardust, who runs a book club called Losers Book Club, which I'm lucky enough to be a member of. And I always talk about her on the show. We've always like, we should have Chelsea on. We should have Chelsea on to talk about it. Because it's a nine year long book club.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Chelsea started her book club the same year we started Reading Glasses.

[Bria Grant]

Wow, that's amazing. And it has been going strong for that amount of time, and I feel like. And she has so many great answers for all of your book club dilemmas.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[Bria Grant]

Okay, so. Because I'm doing a lot right now. Okay, okay. I'm just gonna make a confession right now is that I am often reading a smut book. And it's so weird that I don't talk about it on the show because I'm like, well, I shouldn't talk about that on the show. Even though we have an entire show. Y' all know I'm reading these books. You know, they're present in my life. I mean, often I'm just reading the one for the show, but sometimes Mallory tells me about one and I say, okay, that's interesting. And I go buy it. And then late at night, at 2 in the morning, when I can't sleep, I go, what is going to make me fall asleep? I know a nice smut book, and it works like a charm, like something about it. It is like I restart reading it and I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm very relaxed about these two people who just really want to have sex with each other.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's because it's the formula. It's like, it's comforting formula.

[Bria Grant]

Zz it's really nice. So I started reading a book you loved and gave to one of our friends, and he loved it too. I'm reading Willing Pray yes, by Ali Olian.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, my God. This book made me feel pharaoh.

[Bria Grant]

This book. Okay. Mallory's already talked about it on the show, but it is about a woman. So from two perspectives. The man and the woman. And the woman is hired to go to this man's house and to live

[Mallory O'Meara]

at this man's house.

[Bria Grant]

To live at this man's house. And she wears this little watch and suddenly it'll go off and gives her 10 minutes and it's a 10 minute countdown. And she has to run into the woods behind his house so he can hunt her. And she.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Chef's kiss.

[Bria Grant]

Loves it. She is so into it. And for some reason I didn't understand that aspect of it. But from the very top, if you're wary about this book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, she used to do this with her ex husband and that's how their

[Bria Grant]

ex husband, who's kind of a piece of shit. And we don't like him. And neither does the main guy in this book either. He does not like this guy. He just saw him at work and was like, I hate this man. They work together. So the book itself is a smutty book, but it has this. It is such a strange plot. But both these people, you know, you just find two people who love up and they find this book is ultimate.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Two people who match each other's freak book. And I think that's why I love it so much.

[Bria Grant]

100%. It's an easy read, goes down smooth. These people are wild. They're living a wild life. It is not something I am personally interested at all. Do not chase me. I do not like being chased or put places or anything.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I mean I. And I know I'm not because our. The friend that I had borrowed this texted me and he was like, oh my God, this book. I was like, I know, like it make it like activates, created something in my brain. I love this book so much that

[Bria Grant]

you need to be chased. At one point, she jumps off a roof. This woman is so determined to not be caught because the whole thing is if she lasts the month at his house, he's going to give her some money because she doesn't make that much money. So he. So he is a rich guy who's gonna give her a bunch of money. So she has to like he. And he catches her eventually, but she has to like really try. And he's tried it with like other women, but they did not do a good job of running. And so they were, they weren't into it. And she loves it. She wants to run and like really athletic and like good at it and like good at hiding and like It's a pretty fantastic, weird little book that Mallory recommended and is really saving my brain right now. What are you reading?

[Mallory O'Meara]

You're welcome, Bria. I'm reading very, very much. Not that if people participated in our readathon and you watch the lives, you know that. I am almost done with this book called the City of Stardust by Georgia Summers. This is a. I'd call it an urban fantasy. It's very. This is. If you are somebody who really like you read the Starless Sea or the Night Circus. It left a hole that nothing could possibly fill. This is a great book for you. It's about this young woman. And in this world there's. It's like. It's one of those things where there's like the main regular world and most people don't know about any other magic, but there is a magic world and people who use magic. And the main character is this young, young girl who is from a magic family. But what happened is this family is under a curse. And this curse, every generation, someone is. Someone needs to be sacrificed from this family. And her mother was supposed to be that. But 10 years ago, her mother disappeared. And she's been being raised by her uncles. They know the mother disappeared trying to. Trying to break the curse, but they have no. They've never heard from her. This girl has not seen her mother in 10 years. She doesn't know where she is. And her uncles have really kept her sequestered. They have not let her know about magic or hear about magic at all. And then she starts to get older and one of the. One of the people from the magic world basically comes and is like, hey, so your mom was supposed to be sacrificed. Turns out it's going to be you. If you don't figure. If we don't. If you don't help us find your mother. And she's sort of like thrust into this world, this like, magical underground of, like, magicians and scholars that is like, there. Because there is a magical world that you can pass into, but there's a magical underground in our world. And so she kind of like, goes off on her own for the first time in her life and, like, goes like these secret magician scholar meetings and is trying to find her mother. And it's really, really fun. The thing, the reason why I'm really recommending it for people is that it's one of those books that, like, on a sentence level, like, it's very lush. It's. There's a lot of, like, descriptions of, like, these magical parties and everyone's beautiful dresses and like, it just has that sort of same feel like if you're an Aaron Morgenstern fan that like very nobody sets a fucking scene like Aaron Morgenstern does. Like when you're looking at a scene, like there's magical things happening and you're seeing the lighting and everyone's gorgeous clothes and it's, it's very lush in that way and I think the glassers will really like it. So that is the City of Stardust by Georgia Summers.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm reading Willing Prey by Ali Olander.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh yeah. So good. So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Ashley wrote in to say hello.

[Bria Grant]

Hello.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm writing in to share just how much I love love love the anticipated books episodes. Thank you Ashley. Thank you for all your hard work. These episodes of way I add books to my TBR and they have genuinely led to so many great reads that I would have never known about otherwise. I also wanted to share my anticipated books episode ritual in case any other listeners find it useful. After listening to the episode, I always pull out my laptop and go to the Max Fun website to copy the full list of anticipated books in the show notes. I then paste into a Google Doc and format everything as bullet points to make it easily editable. Oh baby. Then I go through every single book on the doc and either keep highlight or edit delete. Based on the wheelhouse item personal notes that Mallory writes, I will keep the books that sound interesting, delete the books that don't, and highlight the books that sound really interesting. I then do a second and maybe third pass at deleting to get the list of books down to something that will feel more manageable. From there I will look up the books still on my list on storygraph. If they seem interesting with more detail, I add them to my storygraph tbr. The books that I highlighted get put on my TBR and then I tag them on Libby with the Notify Me tag. So I will know as soon as one of my libraries acquires the title. Then I get to spend the next few months enjoying a bunch of amazing books. I try to keep my TBR pretty small so I can actually work through it and using the Keep Highlight slash Delete system helps me work my way through the gift that is a bunch of anticipated books. I have found that I really do find some of my favorite books of the year through the show notes of these episodes. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you Glasses Ashley. This really. This cleared my skin, brought my cholesterol down like this is so amazing.

[Bria Grant]

Mallory. Mallory has just reborn literally levitating in

[Mallory O'Meara]

my seat right now. But I do want to, I do want to apologize because the March April anticipated books episode is overdue. I have just been, I'm trying to finish a second book. That's right. I'm handing in two books same season because I'm a mad woman. And I, I've just been. And it's, it's, it's. This is all on me. I'm the one who writes these episodes. So I've just been really, really delayed. I'm trying to get this other book done, my next nonfiction book. So I appreciate the, the patience, but it is coming in our next chunk of episodes. Thank you. And I, I would love to see other glassers do this. This sounds, I'm like, I write this episode and I'm like, ooh, should I do this for this? For my own. I love this so much.

[Bria Grant]

Brianna wrote in and said, hi, Mallory and Bria, thank you for making reading Glasses podcast. This show helped me get out of a reading slump back when I was graduating college and has helped me verbalize the content I like, slash dislike in books I read. Making dog houses and wheelhouses have also helped me understand my content preferences in other entertainment mediums, which has helped me enjoy the entertainment I consume. Snack tip. Okay. During one of your snack episodes, you wrote off all fruits as not good reading snacks. I would like to submit the suggestion of toothpicks.

[Mallory O'Meara]

The fact that. Listen, I. When we got featured in the New York Times, I was laughing about the fact that the episode they chose to feature to mention for people to start was our snack episode. And Bria was like, Mallory, that is kind of indicative of this.

[Bria Grant]

That's right. That's the one to start with. I actually think that's great. I was. I approved.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Book snacks are a really important part of reading glasses. It is so funny to me.

[Bria Grant]

All right. Brianna has tips here. If you chop up your desired fruit for me, usually apples, into bite sized pieces and put them in a bowl or Tupperware, you can use a toothpick to eat them while reading. In my experience with this method, you can blindly stab the bowl with one hand and keep your book clean of all the sticky fruit juices. I learned about this method while watching an anime where the character had to make a meal for an author who is too busy writing to eat. That's cute. She used toothpicks to make the food easier to eat one handed. Wow. The humble toothpick is now being elevated to the perfect assistance during reading. They're the perfect tool.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria, do we need to test out this as a book?

[Bria Grant]

Hell yes. Please put this on the. Yes.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Let's do snack related book tech for Bria to test.

[Bria Grant]

I think during. I think we should do a live stream where we're reading and we have toothpicks and we see who gets them while we're not looking. How many things we are able to get without looking and what fruits are easier. Like we'll get grapes. Apples.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Grapes are going to be bananas, Oranges.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, grapes are gonna be tough.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Grapes are gonna be.

[Bria Grant]

But we can do it. We can do a test orange slice.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You couldn't do either. You would have to do stuff like apples, pears, which I'm allergic to. All these fruits.

[Bria Grant]

Bananas.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I could do banana, but I ate

[Bria Grant]

two bananas every day, so I would doubt it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Every day.

[Bria Grant]

I ate two bananas every day. One in the morning, one around midnight.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Do you know about my thing where I can't finish a full banana?

[Bria Grant]

What?

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's just too much banana.

[Bria Grant]

Someone else has this too where they won't eat the end of the banana.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I don't even. I can't. It's too much banana.

[Bria Grant]

Don't we have another friend that will do this?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I don't know. But I want them. I got to talk to them about it. One of my best friends, Rich, used to make photo be so badly and I would send him photos of my 3/4 of the way eaten bananas. Two bananas. Yeah. I'm gonna just save them up for you. Wow. But yeah, it would be too soft to stab with a toothpick, I feel. But you know what?

[Bria Grant]

You're gonna test it out.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is the hard hitting journalism people expect from reading glasses. And we're gonna deliver. All right, then. Liz wrote in with a wheelhouse, which is free. Freezing cold slash gloomy weather settings. Queer romance. Hell yeah. Talking animal companions, epistolary novels. And your pants hoard, Bria. Did we coin that phrase? Is that us? Yeah. Wow.

[Bria Grant]

We're your pants for or put in the freezer. Horror.

[Mallory O'Meara]

One or the other. I like your pants horror because it's much more us. But you're not gonna be your pants if you eat two bananas a day.

[Bria Grant]

No, it's good for you. I don't know, but it makes me feel way better if I have that much potassium rolling through my body.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You know what? I remember when this started because I remember when you had to go to the doctor and they told you you're not eating enough potassium because your eyes was twitching.

[Bria Grant]

They were. No, I couldn't sleep and my doctor was like, but maybe just have a banana. And I was like, what? So then I would wake up in the middle of the night and I started eating a banana in the middle of the night, which I refer to as my midnight banana. Because I wander around my house like an old ghost in like a weird nightgown from like a, like an 1800s, like, like novel. And then I. And I eat a banana in the kitchen while the cats watch me. And then I go back to bed and it. Every night. And honestly, it always helps me go back to bed and then I just have one in the morning because I like bananas before I go to the gym.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Have I told you about my bananas, my night pudding?

[Bria Grant]

Oh, to get the protein you need.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. There's a type of, There's a type of slow digesting protein that I eat.

[Bria Grant]

Pudding that I eat more than that is like a porn I don't want to see.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, no, because it's. I eat my, my regular protein during the day, but my slow digesting protein, I, I eat before I go to bed. So it digests overnight and it is morphed in and I, I like mix it with oat milk and make like a pudding out of it and it's morphed into me calling it my night pudding. And this is. Folks, everyone's laughing at us. This is what happens when you get. Become a woman who gets older. You have to find weird, weird things.

[Bria Grant]

Mallory is so young. I do.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm 35.

[Bria Grant]

I mean, okay, that is so. Trust me, when you're about to hit 45 me, that you'll be like, wow, 35. I was a child. I was a small child and all of the things. Although you were born old, so I don't know why.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's what I mean. I feel like you and I are Benjamin Buttoning. Like I am. Like I'm rapidly, rapidly aging. But. Well, maybe when I get older, I will start eating full bananas and then I'll eat a banana in the middle of the night.

[Bria Grant]

Yep.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is such a tangent, but folks, highly suggest. Folks, let us know what you eat in the middle of the night. Night pudding, night bananas. What night fruits and. And desserts are you having? Anyway, you can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com if you want a list of all the books we talk about on the show delivered to your inbox every month. You can sign up for our newsletter. There's a link in the show notes. And before we Solve all your book club drama. We're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is sponsored in park this week by Green Chef. Green Chef, which is dedicated to cutting through the noise as the trusted author delivering real farm source ingredients. You are talking to the person right now. You're listening to her voice who hates cooking more than probably anyone else in the world. It is so stressful for me. I find it deeply irritating. It makes me so mad. I wish I could lie in the sun and photosynthesize like a, like a plant or plug myself into the wall like a phone. But the next best thing is getting a Green Chef box. Every Green Chef box delivers certified organic produce and reasonably sourced proteins and seafood. They've got all kinds of options. They've got Mediterranean, high prote, high fiber, plant based and so much more. This choice is to support any healthy lifestyle. Bria and I both have weird diets. We have weird food restrictions. And Green Chef can accommodate it all. And it can make your habits better and better for the planet. Green Chef cuts food waste by 20% versus grocery shopping and offsets 100% of their delivery emissions. You know what a food box is? Shows up maybe once a week, once a month, depending on on how often you would like it. Brings you preset meals. They send you almost everything that you're going to need besides, you know, a stove, a pan, cooking oil. But they do all the meal planning for you. It takes the stressful parts out of cooking for me. We love Green Chef. They've been a long time sponsor of the show for a reason. Check it out. Now head to greenchef.com 50glasses and use code 50glasses to get 50 off your first month. Then 20 off for two months with free shipping. That's code [e-mail] 50glasses. 50glasses. So many glasses.

[Mark Gagliardi]

Hey, what's up, everybody? My name is Mark Gagliardi and I host. We got this with Mark and Hal on the Maximum Fun Network. Would you like to introduce yourself as well?

[Mallory O'Meara]

My name is Jesse and I am from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

[Mark Gagliardi]

Hi, Jesse from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jesse, you are our Maximum fun member of the month.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I'm so delighted to hear that I'm the member of the month.

[Bria Grant]

Thank you.

[Mark Gagliardi]

Is there a first episode that you remember?

[Chelsea Stardust]

The pretzel shape episode?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, that's pretty classic.

[Mark Gagliardi]

Both of us just killed off each other's answers and went with pretzel rod, which is clearly not the best.

[Chelsea Stardust]

No, that is a terrible pretzel as

[Mark Gagliardi]

our member of the month. You have a parking spot at Maximum Fun headquarters as well as a $25 gift card to the Maximum Fund Store. We say it at the end of the episode, we wouldn't do it without you and we couldn't do without you. So thank you for that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You're welcome.

[Bria Grant]

Become a Max Fund member [e-mail] join.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This week we are solving all your book club dilemmas. Glassers have been writing in with lots of book club drama and we are here to help. To help us out, we have called in filmmaker, good friend of the show and creator of the Losers book club, Chelsea Stardust, to lend her expertise. Chelsea, we have talked about you on the show so much. It feels really exciting to finally have you here. Before we get into all these questions, tell us about how you started your book club.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. First, thank you so much for having me. I'm a big fan. I love when I get the newsletter in my inbox. Oh, good.

[Bria Grant]

I'm glad someone's reading the newsletter.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I want to know what the snacks are. I know you talk about it like,

[Mallory O'Meara]

I want to know what you're snacking

[Chelsea Stardust]

on, what you're reading, what you're watching. Like, I love a Losers book club. It formed, we formed in 2017 and basically what happened was I felt like my brain was dying because I think

[Mallory O'Meara]

we all felt like that in 2017.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Right?

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Chelsea Stardust]

And basically I had spent so much time, I had spent 10 years like as an assistant reading scripts and then as a writer and director and producer, you're reading scripts all the time. And I also felt uninformed as a horror genre lover because I was basically what got me into horror was literature was scary stories to tell in the dark Bunnicula like that Goosebumps. That's what got me into the genre because I could read those books before I could watch a lot of horror movies age wise, aside from Dark Disney.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Interesting aspect of being a horror fan I haven't thought of is that a lot of people are allowed to read Goosebumps, but they're not allowed to watch what they want to watch.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. So I thought, you know, that that was my in. That was my, that was my gateway thing was literature. And so was books. And so I was talking to some friends and I was like, I, I have a massive book collection, but I hadn't read a book. I don't even want to say. It's like so fucking embarrassing.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I had a book. It's not embarrassing. You're talking about how busy you were.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yes, I was very busy. I did have a book Club for a short amount of time. We didn't have a name. It was very vanilla, I guess I'll say. Like. Like, it was a lot of stuff I would normally not read, but I'm glad I did read because it did challenge me as, like, a reader. But just got. If you wanted it for me, I wanted it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You wanted something a little hardcore.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. And like, I remember recommending Snuff the

[Mallory O'Meara]

Chuck by Chuck Paulinan.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Chuck pal. Yes. And that definitely turn things for the book club.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So do we want this girl here?

[Chelsea Stardust]

And I just. Basically, I stepped away and then it dissolved because I was the leader.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Exiled from the book club for being too freaky. Is this is. I love you, Chelsea, so much.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I just wanted to challenge everybody else. I was like, listen, water for elephants is great, but, like, I need to be challenged more. I need something edgier. So anyways, I stepped away that years passed and then I was talking to some friends, you know, I was fully in the horror world at this point and filmmaking world. And I just talked to a couple friends and I, and we were talking about Stephen King. And one of our book club members loves Stephen King, Jessica Lorton. And I said, hey, like, I wanna. I think I. I feel like a hypocrite because I don't read Stephen King and I make horror movies. I've only ever read Carrie. And so she said, yeah, let me guide you. Here's some, you know, here's what you should read. And if you love this book, if you like this book, we'll continue. And then I started talking to other friends about it. And also that book was Desperation, which is a very polarizing book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It was a weird King book to start with.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Very strange. She was challenging me, though. She was like, okay, hey, try this.

[Mallory O'Meara]

She wanted a challenge. Yeah.

[Chelsea Stardust]

And so she said, if you can get through this book, you'll be fine kind of thing. And I started talking to friends about it. And then they were, oh, I'd love to revisit Stephen King. Because most of them had read, like, everything. And so slowly I started accumulating people. And they're all pretty much in the entertainment industry. They either currently are or were. And basically we just formed that way. It's all friends who I know love to read and love genre. And so the Losers Book club formed in October 2017. Our very first book was Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Great book, and so good. It was, like, across the board. Everybody loved it. And then we've been going strong ever since, even through a pandemic. And through zoom, we've had members come and go, but we cap it at 13 members because. Lucky 13. But also any more than that, it gets too unwieldy in terms of.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it's a lot of opinions in one book club and you want to

[Chelsea Stardust]

make sure everyone gets to speak. So like we have a couple people that are a little softer spoken. I want to make sure, like I make a point like, hey, do you have something to say?

[Bria Grant]

I was about to say that, but that as a member of this book club, which I talk about the book club a lot on the show, but you're really good about coming in with questions but also making sure that the people who are kind of quiet because it's a bunch of loud ass filmmakers in there sometimes, you know, and like with a lot of opinions and you're good about going like, hey, what do you think about this part? Or how do you add to this? And, and then I think also you've done such a good job of like, you just keep it going, you know, which is a tough thing to do, which a lot of our questions are about. But. But yeah, keeping it going is the hard part, is the organizing of it all and keeping going every month.

[Mallory O'Meara]

The hurting is the making tough decisions. It is the few, the proud, the book club leaders. It is braver, braver than any Marine.

[Chelsea Stardust]

And I try to keep it because, you know, you always face challenges as the like leader, organizer. But I try to keep it a democracy. I want people to feel heard and you know, of course I always have books I want to read, but I want to make sure we get, everyone gets to chime in on that and we vote, we've all vote on it. But sometimes I have to be like the deal breaker to be like, okay, this one seems like what everyone wants to do. Let's just do it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And sometimes, and that's what sometimes people want.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yes.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Something people don't realize about book clubs is sometimes people want to make other people to make the decisions for them. It's something that we've learned, like sometimes people just don't want to, don't want to deal with it and they just want you to present something to them.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Happy to do it. I'm happy to do it. And a nice little like highlight of the book club is because I made my second movie was written by Grady Hendrix. He was our first guest author. And then since then, because we had Grady to start, we've had so many guest authors, including Mallory, including you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Thank you, thank you.

[Chelsea Stardust]

And that has helped so much because we have yet. Knock on wood, we have yet to have someone say no. And so that's been such a treat. I also feel like it's a safe space for authors because a lot of people are adapting things and they can talk about it because it's not recorded. It's not. You know, we post a picture on our Instagram losers book club la. But otherwise, it's, like, very private. And because we're all filmmakers, they understand, like, keeping things confidential, and we just have the best discussions. It's very special. There's such there. I understand there's, like, privilege to that, but that really heightens our book club. And people have been able to, like, get rights to books because of it. And, like, that's. It's been very. That's like, like a little highlight to me. And the fact that we've been doing so long.

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right, so we have a real, real expert here. Chelsea has put in almost 10 years of boots on the ground.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Look at our shirts.

[Bria Grant]

Look at these shirts that we have. We all have shirts and we all wear our shirts every time. It's really fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's a hard thing to do.

[Bria Grant]

We do. It's great. Secret Santa, which I got this necklace through our Secret Santa, so that's cool too.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But, yeah, leading a book club is a very difficult thing that is not for everyone. It requires a lot of patience and understanding and organization and moxie. A lot of tough choices to be made. So over the past few months, we've been getting a lot of glassers writing in about their book club problems, and we literally saved them all up for Chelsea.

[Bria Grant]

Yay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And there's one mega. This is all. We're solving all your book club woes, both from a leadership perspective, but also from a membership perspective. So we've got. We're. We've got all the drama, and we're fixing it now. Well, I'm gonna get into the first one right now, which is from Hannah, and Hannah said. I've been a hardcore romance reader since 2021, and I joined a romance book club in my town about two years ago. In the past six months, my reading interests have pretty drastically changed, and I am not enjoying romance as much. Not only am I reading far fewer books in the romance genre, but I am not enjoying those as much when I am reading them. I've made friends in the club and still would like to go to meetings, but I guess I'm not sure how to discuss romance in a way that isn't being a downer, I guess or being hypercritical. And when discussion on the book pick of the month ends and we change topics to what we've read the past month, I am barely mentioning romance anymore. I feel like I'm not engaging in what we're all there for. And I'm not sure how I should engage myself in conversation at meetings anymore or if I should keep going at all. But I love the community I've built with the group and I don't want to lose it. Is there a way to guide myself in conversations where I can keep from being over critical? Should I take a break and come back when I'm feeling romance as a genre more again, is this really not a big deal and am I overthinking it? So, Chelsea, you run a genre specific book club. What do you think Hannah should do?

[Chelsea Stardust]

Well, I'm also an overthinker, so I can absolutely relate to this.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I do triple overthinking power here on this podcast.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, yeah. And I will say we are a little. I mean, maybe they are too. We're kind of flexible within the word genre. Like we keep it horror specific, but we'll read sci fi. We'll like kind of, you know, be a little loosey goosey with that. But I will say I'm read fantasy.

[Bria Grant]

We read a Stephen King fantasy.

[Chelsea Stardust]

We're very open. We've, you know, totally. We've done graphic novels. Like, I'm very, like, open to that. But I have to say, like, you, you don't have to attend every meeting. It's okay to take breaks. I'm all about giving permission because the book club should never feel like work. Like, that's really important to remember and it's okay. It's also okay to like, fall out of love with something and recognize that and have boundaries with that if it's not bringing you joy. But also I think it's important to ask the other members, you know, what they relate to or like, about the story within the meeting. Like, if you read the book and you're not super into it, putting it more on them and less on you in terms of the discussion, I find to be helpful. But like, take a break, like, read some other stuff like always. I just feel like, give yourself permission to do that. Then if you choose to come back, you might find more a different kind of joy in it and also being around the people. But take a break, like, go easy on yourself. Don't, don't, you know, allow. Give yourself the permission to do that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're all in an agreement that maybe it is time to take a break. Especially if you're writing into reading glasses and asking us about it. I think that that is. That maybe it's time to take a break. Take a break. But I think Chelsea's right. Like, you know, talk to the person who runs the book club and tell them, I'm just taking a break. Because I think the thing that you do that also really works, Chelsea, is that like at some point some people leave and you're like, this person's not coming. You know, it's not like someone just like is absent or if they quit coming. I feel like you are like, good to be like, yeah, they're not going to come anymore or maybe they're taking a break or whatever. Like, you kind of know what's going on with people. And I think it's not about the book club itself when people are doing that. It's about people's schedules. No.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That people aren't going to be at the moment.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, for sure. And I think this is. Mallory, you probably agree with this, but if you force, if this person is forcing. What's this person's name? If Hannah's forcing herself to think about, to just read romance when she doesn't want to read romance, that cannot, that can be really, really. Hannah's probably making it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Her making it worse.

[Bria Grant]

I agree. I totally agree. And I think the other thing is, like, you know, obviously likes the social aspect of this. So I think take a break, but make sure you reach out to the people in the club that you like. Like go have coffee with them, go to a movie with them, a non romance movie, you know, and go back when you're like, oh, you know what? I feel like I could read romance again because there are times where, like, I don't really want to read especially romance. Like, especially certain genres. I'm just having a lot of trouble with. Like, I think we can all sort of relate to that.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

What do you think, Mallory?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I completely agree. I love that the three busiest women I know are all. We're all like, take a break, take a break. But my, my tip on this is set up a, like, if, if you like these people, this is not the only venue you have to see them in. You can set up a bookish outing. That is not book club. Silent reading parties are really popular. You can make a little silent reading club. Maybe everyone gets to the. Wherever you meet the cafe or bar, you get there an hour early or stay an hour late and you all read together and you just show up for that part. Go to a bookstore, set up a big horny outing to go see Wuthering Heights. You know, there's like, there's a lot of ways that you can interact with these people that aren't this specific book club. And I think if you've made friends here, they'll be excited to do it. And like, oh, bookish people who like a book club, they're going to want to do more book stuff and they're going to want to hang out with you. And I. I am in agreement with the both of you. I think that sense makes forcing yourself to like romance because now at this point, you're. You've made romance a job, you've made it homework, you've made it something that you don't want to do, and it's probably just gonna get worse. So you're overthinking it. Just. And let yourself take a break. It's. You're not rejecting this book club. You're just like, hey, I'm really burnt out on, on. On enemies to lovers and. And love triangles. I. No, thanks. I need to. I'll be back in a few months and I'm sure everyone will be like, yeah, no problem. Bri, you want to read the next one?

[Bria Grant]

I do. Kieran Rodin said, I have been running a book club for nearly three years where I advertise publicly. There's a core group of folks who attend, but we always have one to two folks who are new and haven't read the book. I'm adamant that people can show up without reading or finishing the book and that you should not force yourself to finish a book you aren't enjoying. My conundrum is this the book we are reading this month? I once attempted to read three or four years ago and DNF'd halfway through because the world building and politics were not for me. I have made an attempt to reread. Started at 45%, got to about 71%. I'm not into it and find most of the politics confusing and pointless. I believe that I do not have to finish the book and that it could be a good example for others that they don't have to finish the book they aren't enjoying. My best friend and girlfriend, the two of them are also in the book club. Think that since I'm the facilitator and moderator, I should not DNF the book. I should not DNF the book that was a confusing thing like that this person should finish the book, I should make my best attempt to finish it if I have the time to do so, which I have plenty of time to do. I have about 120 pages left, and I don't think finishing the book will necessarily help me facilitate any better than if someone told me the ending and I look at spoiler reviews. So should the facilitator finish the book?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Chelsea, as the book club supreme leader, what do you think?

[Chelsea Stardust]

So, I mean, what I can definitely relate to is that as I can definitely relate to the pressure to finish the book because I am our book club facilitator, creator, moderator, everything. So this one feels this question I can very much relate to. Personally, I have never not finished one of our books, even if I was not a fan of it. But I'm a completionist, too, and I like setting the example of finishing the book. But I will say it is very exhausting at times. I will be reading that thing an hour before I go to the book club finishing it.

[Bria Grant]

That's not just you, though. Like, I am on my. I'm an audiobook driving to your house.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, so. And I. But I like. Like we said earlier, I do encourage folks to come to the meetings, even if they haven't finished the book, but they know there's going to be spoilers. We're going to talk about stuff. And I mean, if I've learned anything from this podcast, it's okay to put a book down and not finish it. Life's too short and it could give you an opportunity to allow others. Allow others to lead the discussion. So you don't necessarily have to lead it yourself. You can be totally honest to be like, I didn't get through it. Does someone. I sometimes do that. If someone picked a book that they love, I'll be like, well, feel free to lead the discussion. I don't have to lead it. But definitely you can give yourself permission to not finish the book. I don't know. I just have this weird obligation where I feel like, no, I have to finish this book. I have to set a good example. And I've only ever missed one meeting from our book club in almost 10 years because I was on set. Is that right? Yeah. But, yeah, I think it's complicated when you're the leader because you do feel that pressure, but I think it's okay. Also, you got through almost.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You got one chapter in. I mean, that's a pretty good chunk of the book. Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I agree with you, Mallory. It's a good chunk of the book. I think as a member of the club, I don't really care. And you can say why it wasn't for you and talk about why you picked the book. I would do a quick summary, like, just like to know. But like, as long as you're showing up with thoughtful questions and are able to lead a conversation, I. It wouldn't bother me as a member. Mallory, would you be offended?

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, I think my whole thing about this question is that as a leader of the book club, I don't think you have an obligation to finish the book. I think you do have an obligation to lead the discussion or find somebody who can. Like, you can't just show up and be like, well, I didn't like it, and then, like, you know, dust your hands off, like, move on, like Chelsea said, picking someone who did finish and really like it. Or that might mean not finishing it, but doing some research to find good discussion questions. And at that point, it's like, well, do you want to put the time into research or do you want to just put the time into power? Reading the rest of the book, it's up to you. Like, you can look up the. Read the Wikipedia article, but you do have a responsibility to make sure that this discussion goes well or to find someone who will make this discussion go well. So that's what I think you nearly need to focus on. But if you hate it, it's fine. Show up and be like, I don't like it. I finished. I stopped at this point, but Sarah over here is gonna. Is gonna talk about it because they really liked it, or I didn't finish it, but I did all this research. Here are these really. Here are discussion questions from the official publisher website or from some other book clubs online. That's all. As long as you do that work, you're fine. You don't have to. I am very curious about what this book is, by the way.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, I wish we knew what the book was. I would love that information. I know what else we have. Mallory, what other questions?

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right, the next one is from Dewey, who wrote in and said, my friends and I have been running a small book club. Started with 12, and now it's four or five of us now for a little over a year. And it has truly been the best. It's been so great to get together and escape into a book for an evening. My one complaint is, for the past three or four months, we've only read horror books. Now, one thing I will say about a lot of these questions is that horror is really divisive for book clubs. Very interesting. Julie says now I enjoy the occasional disturbing book and I embrace diving into uncomfortable subject matter. But I'm getting fatigued talking about the same genre and wish we explored new things. How can I politely steer us in a direction without spreading any book shame? I tried making a light hearted joke about it, but I think I rubbed people the wrong way by promoting quote kind or funny literature. Do you have any wrecks that are both uncomfortable but not all gore slash horror from your friendly neighborhood book clubber, Dewey? Yes, this is my real name. And no, I unfortunately don't work at a library yet. Chelsea, what do you think as someone who does run a horror only book club?

[Chelsea Stardust]

Well, first off, I love that Dewey references the Dewey decimal system where I thought Scream too.

[Bria Grant]

I also thought Scream.

[Chelsea Stardust]

So again, yes, so as someone who does run a horror specific genre. Horror genre specific book club. But I think, you know, this is a. I'm curious again, I want to know, are we talking like the troop? Like what book are we talking about here?

[Bria Grant]

That's the book I did not read for the book club. It was too dark. I started reading it and I think I was going to be out of town anyway, but I was like, this is too dark. I can't read this book.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, well, I think, you know, this is a really good question, especially because this is it does it sounds like this is not a genre specific book club or horror specific book club. I sort of kind of want to know if it is a genre specific specific book club or if the members are just naturally gravitating towards horror right now because maybe it's cathartic with what's going on in the world because sometimes that can be your escape or you're

[Mallory O'Meara]

just hanging out with a bunch of weirdos like our friends and maybe you need to make some different friends.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, totally. Yeah, right, right. But I think, and it's great to come into a meeting with ideas. Like if anyone's shooting down your ideas, like that's not great. Always come with suggestions. But I mean books that are. In terms of suggesting books like things that I think are uncomfortable but kind of ride that genre line. Like definitely Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I would definitely recommend that because it's weird and wild but also a lot of uncomfortable stuff in that book. And then, yeah, it's not scary. Chuck Laniac. I would definitely recommend if it's like Lullaby or Invisible Monsters. Like that's also got some dark stuff, but isn't hard horror. Perfume.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Perfume is so good.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Is another one just thinking. And another thought is, this is something that we did with Losers Book Club. Maybe this was over the pandemic, but we decided to rotate who picked the book for a whole year. So it was like, I think we had 12 or 13 members. And instead of like, hey, let's all just throw around titles and vote. Each member got to pick a book they wanted the group to read. So people got to read things that were on their TBR that they just hadn't gotten to. They all were in the genre world, but we were very loosey goosey with what, like, horror meant. So you could try this with that book club and people could pick any genre. So then that gives you, Dewey, a chance to get. Suggest a book for everyone to read. And it's important to branch out. So, like, discovering a new genre of book that you all might like. Because we read Stephen King, like Losers Book Club, which I didn't mention this at the top, but we read Stephen King every other month. Ish. And then in the months in between, we're reading horror books by women, poc, lgbtq. Like, we're really trying to be very broad, new, old, whatever it is, to keep it fresh. And because there's a lot of Stephen King books, we're still getting through them, honestly.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That gives you an opportunity, then you folks can cover.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Absolutely. For sure. For sure. But I think that gives you an opportunity to maybe let people pick books they want to read, including yourself, to liven it up. But I mean, if you're reading like five horror books in a row, y' all should be choosing something very different by that point. Just a thought.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

I mean, yeah, I'm. I totally agree. Showing up with recommendations. I would say Mallory, and you're better at this, but like, bringing in maybe some middle grade horror. If you. If that's like horror adjacent. Don't say that word too loud.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I will burst into your living room like the Kool Aid Man. Somebody said middle grade horror or like

[Bria Grant]

some, like some nice mysteries. So that's like genre, but not, like, not hard genre. Like bring a Jesse Cusitanto book. Like something that's like a fun mystery or like a cozy mystery with, like, you know, there's still a murder, but then it's just people solving the mystery. Something like that. Yeah. Like everyone in my family has killed someone or something like that. Like, it's a. It's a mystery still, but it's Christie. Yeah. Or an Agatha Christie. Like something fun like that, I think could be Good. What do you have for this person, Mallory?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, I agree with both of you, but I, I'm gonna go a little more extreme and I would roll into that book and be like, we've read five horror book a row. Like, especially if, if this is just billed as a regular book club. Like, if this was not sold to you as a genre specific book club, it is a little while to be reading the same genre for five months in a row. So I would be like, all right, that's enough here. But you, like, I, I agree with both of you. You have to come in with solutions. You can't just be like, well, I don't like this and you need to fix it. I would be like, all right, we've read a lot of horror. This is not a horror book club. I want to read this genre. Here's these examples of books I would really like to read. But I will say my, my one little caveat is that if it seemed like some of the members who like horror were rubbed the wrong way, it might seem like you have implied that horror can't be kind, horror can't be funny. A lot of horror fans are very used to other people putting down our chosen genre as like, not serious, not worth cheating genre. We are, I mean, we're three horror ladies and it's. A lot of people, like, think about horror as is trashy, as not real literature. So that might be why people were sort of uncomfortable or a little, I don't even want to say offended, but just a little, like put off by you saying that. And I know that's not what you meant. I'm sure that you were just try, like really trying to push it in a different direction. So I would come at, roll in and come at it from a. This genre is great, but we have read a lot of it. I personally need a break for something different. And here you got to bring a solution along with your problems. Every time I've ever worked food service, it was like, don't bring a problem to me unless you have a solution. So be like, all right, here, here are books that I would like to read and don't make them horror. Jason, you've done a lot of them. So, like rolling with a literary fiction, with a mystery, with a romance, it's. And if, if not, if they're like, we're actually making this a horror book club, maybe then it's time to leave. All right, we have more book club woes that we're going to solve, but before that, we're gonna Take a quick break. You can send your thoughts to reading glasses podcastmail.com.

[Beef and Dairy Network Caller]

Hello.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Hello, I'm calling on behalf of the

[Beef and Dairy Network Caller]

Beef and Dairy Network podcast. No, I'm sorry, no sales calls. Goodbye.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's a multi award winning podcast featuring guests such as Ted Danson, Nick Offerman, Josie Long.

[Beef and Dairy Network Caller]

I don't know what a Josie Long is. And anyway, I'm about to take my mother into town to see Phantom of the Opera at last. You are wasting my time and even worse, my mother's time. She only has so much time left. She's 98 years old. She's only expected to live for another 20 or 30 years. Mother, get your shoes on. Yes, the orthopedic ones. I don't want to carry you home again, do I?

[Bria Grant]

Right, well, if you were looking for

[Beef and Dairy Network Caller]

a podcast, Mother, you're not wearing that, are you? It's very revealing. Mother. This is a musical theatre, not a Parisian bordello.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Simply go to maximumfun.org I'm reaching for

[Beef and Dairy Network Caller]

my Samsung Galaxy 4 as we speak. Mother. Mother, not that hat.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, we are back. Let's solve some more book club dilemmas. Bria, you want to read this one?

[Chelsea Stardust]

I do.

[Bria Grant]

Anonymous wrote in and said I am part of a book club that usually has 12 to 15 people every month. Books are chosen by people sending nominations to the organizer and then the organizer prints a list where everyone picks their top three. A while ago I suggested Cabin at the End of the World and it got a majority of the votes come to the meeting and only me and two other members showed up. The rest of the group didn't read the book because of the subject matter. I'm not trying to say everyone has to like each other's suggestions or make people read something that would be triggering, but it kind of soured me on the club. I've read books with subject matters that I didn't like in order to discuss them. Enough people voted for it at the time to get the majority. They've read other horror books in the past, Interview with a Vampire, World War Z. But at the discussion one of the members who did show up said she thought we should avoid horror in the future because people were upset by it. I don't know if everyone knows it was my suggestion or that that even matters, but I am feeling self conscious and uncomfortable now, which sucks because I really enjoyed the group previously. I just wish if people weren't going to read the book, more of them would have been upfront about it before it was picked. I don't know if I should keep going to the book club or just kind of move on. Am I being too sensitive or having too high expectations for them? I know I can take things more personally than they might mean it. Chelsea, what do you think?

[Chelsea Stardust]

Ooh, this is a good one. There's a lot.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is a juicy one.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Really juicy. There's a lot to unpack. I mean, this does kind of touch a little bit on what Mallory was saying about. I'm obviously, like, very defensive of horror and the horror genre and how important it is. So people's just like, blanket statements of like, we should never read this genre again is not great. You should never close yourself off to anything. But also, like, Interview with the Vampire and World War Z are not Cabin at the End of the World. So those are very different compared to.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Really good point.

[Chelsea Stardust]

But I will say that, like, it's very. It's. It's. First, it's super annoying that all these people voted on this book. I do like that. I'm intrigued by this system.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I would be so pissed.

[Chelsea Stardust]

It's a cool system. We have, like, a master list for losers book club. Like a big, huge thing of, like, every book anyone's talked about wanting to read that I'll read from if we're stuck. So I. But I like this three. And then picking from those three. I may steal that for something, but that is very annoying that it was voted on and then nobody.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'd be so salty at the next meeting. I'd be so bitchy about this.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, I agree. But also, I think one of the best aspects of being a part of a book club is to challenge yourself as a reader and step outside the comfort zone and changing up what you're reading. Obviously, there are books that we have voted on in our book club that I wasn't like. I'm not super jazzed to read it, but, yeah, I want to come at it with an open mind, and I think that's really important. And again, saying the no whore is, like, very silly to me. Just that person I don't think has found the right thing that resonates with them. But I love that the other thing is if people would have read the book or even if people didn't like it. That's some of our best discussions, is when half the people like it and half the people fucking hate it. And they're so spirited and we're throwing things back and forth and we're getting different perspectives from the men in our group versus the women. And I think that that's really I mean, when we all like the book, it's kind of a boring discussion. We're just like, I loved this and this and this, but when we're split, it is the best. And in terms of, like, I don't know if I would leave this book club just yet. I mean, give it a few more reads and see if you're still feeling like, see how you're feeling. But then give yourself permission to leave. That's okay. And don't be shy to say if you liked a book, why, and why not? You didn't like it. And sometimes someone else in the group just needs to hear your opinion on it. I've had people bring things up where I was like, oh, you know what? I didn't even think about that. But now that you mention it, yeah, that's something that I want to recognize now in the book. So sometimes it's good to hear that. But speak up and also speak up about sort of stuff. I. I think that's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's like, you have to say something for sure.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, no one knows it's you. They don't know it's you. No one's thinking about it. Don't. No one's thinking about it. I don't even know who, like, I'm present when people are picking the books from. I'm literally there. I don't know who nominated them. Like, people. You think people know more about you then they know? That's, like, always rule of thumb, no one's thinking about it. No one's thought about it. No one's thought about you. So, like, I know you're feeling self conscious, Anonymous, but, like, don't feel self conscious. Like, this is not about you. It's not personal. It's not about you. It's so hard to not take things personally. But it. You should really not. And you. And if you can let that go, that should be a big relief for you, because no one knows it was you. And no one. And even if they did, they aren't judging you. They're judging the book itself.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You didn't you. I mean, what if this is Paul Tremblay running in? I was like, I'm so offended. And no one would read my book.

[Bria Grant]

He was like, no one liked my book. My book club also. Everyone loved that book. We love that book. It's so good. But by the way, I just want to say, Anonymous, I'd go to your book club. That's a great pick. That's a crazy great pick. It's so fucked up, that book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And a wonderful discussion book too.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

The ending. What I will say, just echo what Chelsea said. Like, kind of the point of the book club, the reason I really enjoy being in the book club is that. But books are being picked that I'm not going to normally read because I. Because of just the way I skew, even within my genre reading. So, like, I think it's a little lame that people are like, oh, I'm gonna vote for this, but then not even show up. Like, just show up and say you didn't like the book, you know, or whatever. Because that's kind of why you're in a book club, is to expand. You know, you're there to read stuff that maybe you wouldn't normally pick up. I mean, unless you're there for another reason. I'm sure there's other reasons to be in a book club, but for me especially, just, like, knowing I can fall into a really specific, like, new books because we do the show, like, I tend to read mostly new books. And, like, I love that we're reading all these, like, backlist books from, like, the 80s and 90s. And I'm like, right. I don't have this, like, foundation that I feel like I should have. Mallory, do you think that they know that Anonymous picked the book?

[Mallory O'Meara]

But also, both of you can. Can agree that this is just what organizing people is like. It is the most frustrating, irritating thing, and you want to hit people with your car. As someone who used to run book clubs, one time we changed the date and we picked a day that worked for everyone. I was the only person who showed up. I was livid. And I will say, the hardest time we had. This is a little behind the scenes reading glasses stuff. The. The most drama we had about a pick was the one time we let the glassers pick the book. The amount of people who were emailing us and being upset about the books that other people were voting for, even though we had given them no rules. It was just like, all right, whatever. Pick amongst yourselves. That was the mo. The amount of complaint emails and hurt feelings and people that were upset. And I was. I literally said to Bria, I was like, next time we're just gonna pick the book because this is making people really upset. Like, it's just people. People are mercurial and frustrating, and they're not that some. I'm sure that they. The problem is it's one of those things where all these people individually probably were like, well, I didn't like it. I'm sure everybody else will. And it turns out that, like. Like, all these people did not want to go to this, but I. I would also be very pissed. I've been in the situation. I do want to point out Chelsea had a really good point where this might be kind of a read the room situation. I think this is a pretty recent email that we got. Things have been really bad in this country, and people might have been like, oh, a cool. An apocalyptic horror book, whatever. And then actually got into it and be like, maybe I don't want to read this right now because it is very relevant to our current political situation. And, I mean, Paul is one of my favorite authors. This is one of my favorite books from Paul. And I don't think that I would want to reread Cabin at the End of the World right now because it is so intense about, you know, everything that's happening. So I agree with both of you. It's okay to be annoyed, but I would give this another try, and I would not take it personally. I guarantee you. I would place money on the fact that there's nobody. No one voted for this and was like, that idiot. I can't believe they picked this book. Or, like, picked up this book and was like, oh, it was suggested by this. This person. Ugh, I'm not reading. Like, that's just not what happened.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I mean, I'll piggyback off that and say, in our group, everyone knows who picks, like, generally, like, who picked what book. And there'll be times where someone will all hate the book, and they'll be like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know, like, in a joking way, because we don't. And. But. But also, again, it leads to such a great discussion. I read this book, Heaven at the End of the world in 2020 or 2021. I read it, like, middle of the Pandemic. Yeah. And it was. It was crazy, but it was rough. But also. And I won't. If three people can show up to our book club meeting, I keep the date. I'm kind of a dick about that, where I'm like, yeah, I'd only move it for an author. Like, if an author was joining and we only had two people confirmed, I want as many people as possible to be there. And sometimes that happens. Like, we'll have five people instead of 13 people. Like, it's very rare. We all can be there. But the most annoying thing is, like, is. Is that. Oh, that would drive me crazy if like what? I understand the feelings this person is having about this. I get it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. But it's just. It's just dealing with groups of people. This is always going to happen. It's always going to frustrate you. And you can't. Like Bruce said, you just can't take it personally. People are not trying. Even though it feels like a personal attack, it's not a personal attack. I guarantee you this person was not thinking about you at all. They were not interested in reading this book.

[Bria Grant]

Book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And a lot of these people. There's so much cognitive dissonance with stuff like that, where these people will vote for this book and then be like, I don't want to read that. I'd be like, you. You were the reason we're reading it. Yeah. People don't think about, like, there's just so much cognitive dissonance. It's. But that's. That's our species. All right. Deborah wrote in to say, I'm in a book group that mostly reads modern fiction and sometimes, like. Now let me start again and say that this question is from the point of view of these other people in this book club. So I'm very interested. Wait, like, actually, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But it's like, I was like, two

[Bria Grant]

different people from the same book club

[Mallory O'Meara]

wrote in, no, this is the same question from a different point of view.

[Bria Grant]

I understand. I understand.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So this person says, the group chooses a book that really irritates me. In each case, I read enough to be clear what I don't like in the book, which is usually a very cool distance authorial voice. So here's my question. Is it okay to stop partway through a book I dislike and make my contribution to the group discussion about why I didn't finish? Is that a responsible form of participation? Chelsea, what do you think?

[Chelsea Stardust]

I like this question. I think showing up is participating. Being in the room and saying something is also participating. There will be people that would come to our meetings with an author and not ask a single question. And that is what would drive me crazy. We have this person here, and you do not have anything to contribute to the discussion, even though you showed up. You have to engage. So.

[Bria Grant]

And there are questions that are not book related that people can ask the authors that they love to talk about. Like, what's your process? What's going on with the rights to this? Like, there's been, like, when the author is there, I feel like there's so many. Yeah. Like, there's so many. Like, people ask not Book questions. I actually feel like the authors kind of even like it better. As an author, they're like, oh, I never.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love to be asked fun questions.

[Chelsea Stardust]

For sure.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chelsea Stardust]

And I will say, like, because to speak to our book club, we encounter this sometimes. It's usually because someone ran out of time or they were traveling or just didn't get a chance to finish the book. Sometimes it's because they didn't like it too. And as long as, like I said before, they don't mind spoilers. If they don't finish the book and come. I don't. I don't mind. I would. I want to hear. Tell me why. Like, I want to know what you didn't like or why, you know, I want to know that stuff. And maybe during that time they read a different book that they loved. Talk to us about that book. Like, we always ask, what else are you reading? Did anyone have time to read something else? Because I love to hear that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, I like that. That's fun.

[Chelsea Stardust]

You know, just. And then people suggest books like, oh, we should put this on the list. But I like hearing about what people don't like about the book. I always want them to speak up. And like we said earlier, when we don't agree on a book, it's the best discussions. But I think, thinking back about this question, I think again, my biggest pet peeve when it comes to the discussion itself is I keep the minutes for our book club and I clock. Who doesn't speak. Like, if someone does not speak or we had a member who looked at his phone the whole meeting and looked at his. Yeah, like. And I clocked that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's when you press the button and the trapdoor opens and he shoots down into the dungeon.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. And we also had someone who, like, looked at their phone when an author.

[Bria Grant]

I'm trying to think of who it was.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, well, when an author was on,

[Bria Grant]

I don't even know who it would be.

[Chelsea Stardust]

They were doing that too. And I climbed. And so that is not okay. Like, like that to me. But if they engage. If you hate the book, tell me. I want to know. If you love the book, tell me. Yeah, but if you don't engage at all, that is when it. Why are you here? Because you're taking up a spot for someone else. Like someone else who wants to be here and engage in these books. We have a fucking waiting list for losers book club of people. Because I never cooked someone out. If you. If you leave, for whatever reason, you are welcome to come back at any Point. Because people get busy and things happen. But I think if you're. If this person is like, yeah, if you're showing up and even if you didn't finish the book and you want to state, like, here's what. I didn't. Like, here's what irritated me. Tell me. I want to know. Like, that's. That is participating. To me, you are. That is a responsible form of participation. You still were doing the work, and you still come prepared with, like, hey, here's the things that irritated me. I also like to see if someone can change my mind. Like, okay, yeah, that's fine. Can you change my mind about it? So. So that's my 10 cents on it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bria, what do you think I mean?

[Bria Grant]

Well, okay, Chelsea, I have showed up not having read the book to the book club, and, like, I am engaged. Well, a lot of times I show because I'm like, what happened?

[Chelsea Stardust]

That's okay.

[Bria Grant]

And, like, usually I've started it and, like, didn't finish. I think there's only been one where I started and didn't get very far at all. And then I. But I still came because it was our Christmas one and we had to do. We were doing gift exchange. So I was like, well, I gotta.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I would have never known. You didn't finish it or did you?

[Bria Grant]

I loved. Well, I. Well, I have questions, like, I mean, I guess usually if. I think. If you show up with a sense of curiosity of, like, why was this chosen? Who liked it? And, like, I had a lot of questions about the plot. I can't remember what book that was. It was whatever. Our last Christmas one was a ghost story.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Oh, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's a lot of book.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. The debate was so lively that I was mostly me, like, being like, wait, what happened?

[Chelsea Stardust]

What?

[Bria Grant]

And, like, so there was a lot of, like, that. Which kind of made me want to read the book. Like, it was so. And that was a really polarization in reverse.

[Mallory O'Meara]

She's going to the book. She reads this book in my book club.

[Bria Grant]

But that's the only one. I feel like I, like, fully was like, I have not read this book and hardly started it otherwise. I mean, look, I think if you show up with a sense of curiosity and you have some sense of what the book is and kind of like, that one. At least I knew, like, culturally where it sat. So that was sort of interesting to me is to, like, have that conversation. But, yeah, look, I think if you give it a shot and you show up with an opinion, that's what the book club is the book club is not about finishing. It's about, like, what your personal experience is with the book, right? And like, you have this personal experience and, and you bring it into this communal experience and what that means, like how you discuss art. You know, like, we don't all have to have. We're not going to have the same experience. It's very subjective. And mine may end at page 30, but. But if that is the case, I need to be able to explain why my subjective experience ended at page 30 and I did not want to continue. Mallory, you finishing books for book clubs?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, it depends. So the book club I used to run was actually, it was one of those book clubs where it's more of a book, a reader club. We would just come and talk. We did not have assigned books.

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

We came and talked about what we were reading. But as someone who does a book podcast called Reading Smut, where we read a book every single month for that, and we've done a lot of reading glasses, book clubs, I always, I always read them because I'm like, Chelsea, I'm like, like, if I'm speaking about it, I feel the need to, to finish the book. I also read really fast, so I know that that is sort of. It makes it easier for me. And if people don't read as fast, it's much more of a commitment. But I, I really agree with both of you that what's the point of you being here? Like, if you don't want, if you're consistently. If you're consistently not reading the book because you don't like it and you don't have anything to say about it, maybe what are, what are you get. What are you getting out of this experience? Like, maybe if you, if you just want, want, like assigned reading. Like, there's plenty of online book clubs that are, that are lower commitment. If you just want community, there's a lot of other places to meet people, other. A lot of other clubs. But it's completely fine to not like the book, not finish a book. Like you said, that's the, that's the point of the book. This is not a vote, a book voting, a book popularity voting booth. This is a place to talk about a book. The entire point of a book book club, like, this is discussion. And if you don't want to, if you don't want to do that, then why, why are you here? But if, like Deborah, if you read enough of the book to know not just that you didn't like it, but why you didn't like it, and you were prepared to come talk about it? Hell yeah. That's awesome. It's going to make a great discussion. And I think for, and I don't want to speak for Chelsea, but for our book club leader, like that's what you're looking for. Like, like it doesn't matter if you finished it, but if you're participating in the event, it's not about the reading of the books. That's. It's the cl. It's the club part. It's the. It's the discussion, it's the hanging out. It's the changing people's minds, giving other people different ideas. That's what's fun about a book club.

[Bria Grant]

And eating snacks. Having. Having a discussion. Like also just the ketchup. Like I just like the. Not. Not ketchup, like the red kind, but catch up, like catching up with people. Like being like, how are you? You know, like the condiment. Not the condiment. I like there. There is like it is a kind of about the community aspect. It's not just about. It's about the showing up, you know, which is I would.

[Mallory O'Meara]

As someone who used to run a book club or in someone who, you know, we do a lot of book club events for reading glasses, I would rather, as Chelsea said, someone show up who didn't like it and didn't finish it, but had a lot to say than someone who liked it and finish it and has nothing to say.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yep.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because what do you like what's. And I understand and I guess it also depends on the point of your book club. If it's like an online book club like Bri and I do, and you want to just lurk and see what other people have to say, that's fine. But if you. It's more of an in person thing and you are a load bearing person in this book club. Well, maybe this is not for you. But that's really what I want people to assess is like, why are you going to these book clubs? What are you getting out of it? That's really the important thing. And what I've really learned from here is that horror is the most divisive thing in a book club. It is so wild to be that we did not even. Chelsea, we didn't mean to. We did not say these specifically that like half of these were about horror books.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, I love that.

[Chelsea Stardust]

I mean, I gotta say, like, overall, when it comes to your book club, for me, my book club brings me so much joy. Like it. I look forward to it every month. And yeah, so we meet once a month and I, and I, different people host every month. And so it shares the, you know, as opposed to me hosting every single month would be insane. So it shares that. And then, you know, I think it's something that has gotten, it's gotten me through a lot. Like through pandemic, health stuff, everything, the administration, like, you name it, it's gotten me through so much because it has been a constant for like you just said, almost 10 years, which I have not clocked until you said that. And it's really. It should always be a point of joy. It should never feel. Even though I read every single book that we do each month, I never feel like it's homework. Even if I hate the book, I cannot wait to talk about it. So it should always bring you joy. If you find that it is not bringing you joy anymore, you take a break or step away or find a new one or start your own. And if you also have a book club and anytime you feel like it's run its course, you have the permission to peace out because it should always be a place of happiness and joy and something you look forward to that is really important. And our group is like so well curated. I love everyone so much because we're also friends outside of the book club. But sometimes I'll only see this once a month. I'll see this person because we're so busy. So that's just something to keep in mind with your book club is to make sure that that is always the constant of happiness and joy and challenging yourself is, is good too.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. I think another, a big through line we've seen through almost all these questions is it's okay to be honest and it just communicate with these people. Now people aren't going to take things personally and if they are, they probably don't belong in a book discussion group. Like be, just be open and honest about your feelings about the picks, about your feelings about the books, about your feelings about the meetings themselves. And I, I really. It's very frustrating that most, the answer to most things in life is like be a good communicator. That's just like being a human being. And it annoying that that's the case, but it's so true.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And book people are generally nice. They're not going to be. They're. If they're mean to you, they probably don't belong in the book club.

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. Oh, there's no time for that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, truly. So if you want to solve your reader problems, we'll start collecting them for the next edition of this, you can send them to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. chelsea, how can listeners find you and where can they check out your stuff?

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah, I do everything on Instagram which is just Chelsea, Chelsea Stardust. I don't do anything else. That's all I have the bandwidth for. And then if you want to follow We're Losers Book club la if you want to follow us at our book club and you can see sort of everything we're reading and we post like when we have our meetings and then we post like what we're reading next and then if we have authors we post there. But that's where you can follow along to see all the fun things we're reading in the book club.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And also very exciting that the movie that we've been talking about that Bria is going to have at sxsw, Chelsea also did some really important work on that movie. You want to talk about that?

[Chelsea Stardust]

Yeah. For Grind, I produced and I directed the wrap round for it and I am ridiculously excited for the Journey. This little movie that could is finally about to go on. Basically for me it's been two years but for Brianette it's been three plus years of work to so long, so long. But to finally be able to sort of celebrate all of that hard work that everybody involved did now I feel like, okay, we can like breathe and really start to celebrate this movie with everybody involved and so very excited for that and for that journey we're about to go on with it. Can't wait.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Amazing.

[Bria Grant]

Very exciting.

[Mallory O'Meara]

As always want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. Remember, it's getting warm out there. Not in la, it's getting a little chilly today but. But it's Spring is on the way and if you want some tote bags to bring to the park, T shirts, tank tops, go to our Void merch store. There's all kinds of fun stuff over there. There's a link in the show notes and if you like the show, we hope you do, if you got all the way to the end, you probably did. Please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. It's so great for us and helps us reach more readers. You can email us at reading glasses podcastmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading. Maximum Fun, a worker owned network of artist owned shows supported directly by you.