Mashreads Podcast

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we discuss our summer reading lists and what exactly qualifies as a beach read before taking a hiatus until the fall. Chloe recommends: “China Rich Girlfriend” by Kevin Kwan “The Third Hotel” by Laura van den Berg “Meet Me in the Bathroom” by Lizzy Goodman   Martha recommends: "The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory "The Female Persuasion" by Meg Wolitzer "Barracoon" by Zora Neal Hurston "Children of Blood and Bone" by Tomi Adeyemi "To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before" by Jenny Han

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Melissa Broder's novel "The Pisces," a story about a woman who falls in love with a merman. Then, inspired by the book, we talk about other unexpected romances/ surprising couples in literature. And as always, we close the show with recommendations: Chloe recommends Motherboard's internet-themed crossword puzzle "Solve The Internet." "It's really fun and they are a little bit easier than the New York Times crossword puzzles, so if you get stuck on the Wednesday puzzle like I do, turn to this one. It's so fun." Martha recommends the app Wordscapes, a word-based puzzle game. "I'm addicted to it!" MJ recommends "Queer Love In Color" a photo essay that ran in the New York Times for Pride Month that documents black queer couples. "It's just so beautiful. It has a beautiful message to it, the photos are gorgeous, and it's celebrating Pride and love, and you'll look at those photos and feel good."

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we chat with Lauren Groff, author of 'Fates and Furies,' 'Delicate Edible Birds,' and more, about her new story collection, 'Florida.' "This book is about Florida. But it’s not just the state, it’s about the state of dread and premonition and the desire to push outside the realm of domesticity and how to raise little boys and make them into good people and it’s about snakes and it’s basically everything that you can come up with." Also mentioned in the show: Groff's 'New York Times' By The Book interivew: "My point is: when people in authority mention writers, they confer upon those writers a leg up into the cannon, and the same people get mentioned over and over again and become cannon. If we're not reading outside of the bounds of what we're told to read, if we're not reading outside of white male supremancy as it's been over the past millenia, then we're doing a profound disservice to the present and to the writers of the past who have been overlo

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Celeste Ng's novel "Little Fires Everywhere." Then, inspired by the book, we talk about our favorite books about the suburbs/ the suburban experience.

This week, we are joined by Whitney Hu, Director of Public Programs at the Natinoal Book Foundation, to talk about "An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones. The book tells the story of newly married couple Roy and Celeste, after Roy is falsely convicted of a crime he didn't commit and is incarcerated for 5 years. The story then explores what happens to Roy and Celeste's marriage when the time they thought they'd have together is stolen from them. Then, inspired by "An American Marriage" we talk about our favorite love stories including A Little Life, Tiny Beautiful Things, and They Both Die At The End. And, as always, we close the show with recommendations: Martha recommneds "Bubblin" by Anderson Pack, which she nominates for song of the summer. "It's just such a vibe. I don't know how to explain it. You just have to listen to it, it'll make you feel happy." Whitney recommends 5 songs that she thinks would be on Celestial's music playlist in "An American Marriage": 'Love Me Right' by Amber

This week on the MashReads Podast, we're joined by Aja Gabel, author of "The Ensemble." "It's a book about music, classic music in particular, but put another way, it's really just a book about people who happen to play music." And, as always, we close the show with recommendations: 'The Third Hotel' by Laura van den Berg. "It's one of those books where you're like 'I've never read anything like this.'"

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451. Then, inspired by the novel, we talk about other books about books. And finally, we end the show with recommendations: Martha recommends Spotify music podcast 'Dissect.' Each season of the podcast focuses in on one music album, devoting each episode in the season to dissecting one song. The show just launched their third season which focuses on Frank Ocean's album 'Blonde.' "It's really, really fascinating. the host takes on each song and breaks down, track by track, the lyrics, the production. It's pretty fantastic." Peter also recommends a podcast: 'The Next Picture Show.' The show is a movie discussion podcast that takes a new movie and puts it in conversation with an older movie that it echoes. "The speak about movies with a level of depth and knowledge that I really hope to possess one day. I really love these voices and these people and I think they're some of the best film reviewers in the world and I am gl

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Douglas Adam's classic sci-fi novel 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Then, inspired by the novel, we chat about our favorite sci-fi including 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson, 'Station Eleven' by Emily St. John Mandel, 'The Afterlives' by Thomas Pierce, 'Neuromancer' by William Gibson, Kindred' by Octavia Butler, and 'Annihilation' by Jeff Vandermeer. Then as always, we close the show with recommendations: Martha recommends the movie Kodachrome with Elizabeth Olsen and Jason Sudeikis. Peter recommends Ta-Nehisi Coates' new essay 'I'm Not Black, I'm Kanye.' MJ recommends Slate's new podcast Decoder Ringer, and specifically their episode Laff Box, which is all about the history of the laugh track.

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Daniel Mallory Ortberg's new short story collection "Merry Spinster." The book reimagines classic fairy tales but with very dark twists. Then, inspired by "Merry Spinster" we move on to discuss other books inspired by fairy tales that we love. And as always, we close with recommendations: Peter recommends the video game "God of War." "It is just an incredibly well rought game in terms of basically everything. It feels great, it looks great, but I think what's captivated me most about it is how the story itself is such a mature standing for a character that had previously been an incarnation of greedy bloodbaths. I think it's symobolic of a lot of growth in the video game inudstry as a whole." (You can check out Mashable's review of the game here.) Martha recommends the 1997 version of Cinderalla featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston. "These are all legends and it's fantastic. It's the black Cinderella. It's perfect." She also recommends doing facemasks d

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we pull together a panel of our past guests to chat about books we really love and think you should know about.

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we are joined by Bustle's book editor Cristina Arreola to talk about all of the books you should be reading this spring. Join us as we talk about what books we absolutely loved and what upcoming books you should keep an eye out for, including The Recovering by Leslie Jamison, The Feamle Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and How To Write An Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee. Then, as always, we close the show with recommendations: Martha recommends Kali Uchis’ new album Isolation. “I feel like it got lost in the Cardi B/ Drake wave that happened in music. Her music is just this beautiful fusion of a bunch of different genres like jazz, pop, rob, and her voice is wonderful, and the features that are on the album are fantastic. You have everyone from Georgia Smith to Tyler the Creator to Steve Lacey. It’s just a perfect album to anticipate spring and summer with.” Cristina recommends Radiolab’s "Bo

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Ken Liu's short story The Paper Menagerie, (you can read it online here) and then, inspired by the story, we discuss our favorite stories and books that describe the immigrant experience.

This week, we read and discuss Madeline L'Engle's classic children's book 'A Wrinkle In Time.' Then, inspired by the book (and it's recent big screen adaptation), we talk about books we want to see turned into movies. Next week, we're reading and discussing Ken Lui's short story 'Paper Menagerie.' We hope you'll join us. You can read it online here.

This week we are joined by two guests  — Martha's roommate Zach and MJ's brother Marc — to chat about 'Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda,' A.K.A. the book that inspired the movie 'Love, Simon.' Then, inspired by Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, we talk about books we wish we had growing up, including The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman, and The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chobosky. And as always, we close the show with recommendations: Zach, Martha's roommate, recommends the Netflix show The Words Most Extraordinary Homes. "The show is perfect because one: it is British. There are two British co-hosts and they are just lovely people, because they are absolutely the most genuine. They just go around and look at beautiful homes and talk about the architecture. It's so simple and so perfect." Marc recommends Bravo's reality TV show Vanderpump Rules. "It is pop culture junk food. It's an awful, awfu

On this week's episode of the MashReads Podcast, we're continuing our lovely streak of books that happened to have been turned into feature films. We discuss the brilliance of Andre Aciman and his stunning 2007 novel, Call Me By Your Name.  The premise is simple: Elio, an intelligent 17 year-old, meets and falls for Oliver, the 24-year-old American graduate student staying with the family for six weeks in the summer. Elio and Oliver embark on a friendship and love story set in Italy of the 1980s. The two wrestle with their feelings, take about a million swims in a pool, and ultimately will have you feeling like a love-obsessed teen by proxy.  But because this book is much more than it's detailed descriptions of bodily fluids, inspired by Elio and Oliver's love, we also discussed all our favorite love stories including everything from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien to The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. Martha recommends checking out Spotify's ne

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we read and discuss Annihilation, the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. Join us as we talk about the mysterious Area X, VanderMeer's unique approach to suspense, and what makes Annihilation so singular. Then, inspired by Annihilation, we talk about books that make us go "WTF?!" including: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, and Wool by Hugh Howey.   And as always we close the show with recommendations: Dustin, Mashable's art director who join us to talk about 'Annihilation,' recommends 'The Power' by Naomi Alderman. "It was a really cool book and also it was a really fast read." Martha recommends 'Black photographers and the civil rights struggle'. "If you get a chance, please look at those photographs. I want every one of them framed and printed in my future home." She also recommends rewatching Season 1 of 'Atlanta.' "It's a fantastic show and it's very trippy." Peter recommends the BBC come

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we chat with David Levithan, author of 'Boy Meets Boy,' 'Two Boys Kissing,' and 'Every Day' (which was recently adapted into a movie). Join us as we talk about the queer message behind 'Every Day,' writing queer novels, and how YA literature has grown. And as always, we close the show with recommendations. David recommends Julien Baker "I think everybody should listen to her. She is incredible. I have a massive musical crush on her." David also recommends a host of upcoming books including: I Felt a Funeral In My Brain by Will Walton, Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter, and I Lost My Way by Gayle Foreman. MJ recommends the band Thirdstory. "Those guys can saaaang." Next we're reading and discussing Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, just in time for the movie release. We hope you'll join us.

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we talk about all things Black Panther. Join us as we talk about Marvel's new 'Black Panther' movie. Then we revisit 'Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet,'  the 2016 Ta-Nehisi Coates 'Black Panther' comic book run. And as always, we close the show with recommendations.  Brian de los Santos, Mashable's assistant editor who joined us this week, recommends hyphy music, especially because of the Black Panther soundtrack. "It was the soundtrack to my high school experience, t was the one moment in which the Bay Area, growing up, had reached the map. Hyphy music has influences on the [Black Panther] soundtrack — E-40, Mac Dre, go ahead and listen to every song they've done. It's very related to this [Black Panther] discussion, and Oakland, and it's just very good music overall." Martha recommends Queer Eye, Netflix's reboot of the early 2000's show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. "It's one of those TV shows where you can go home, and sit on the couch a

This week on the MashReads Podcast, we chat with Dave Eggers and Moktar Alkhanshali about Dave Eggers' new biography of Moktar Alkhanshali and the history of coffee, 'The Monk of Mokha."