Susan Lyons

Episode 88: The Forest of Enchantments: You Tried, Ram

July 30th, 2020  |  52 mins 32 secs

female perspective, indian mythology, ram, ramayana, sita

Susan, Meredith, and Jeannette discuss the Forest of Enchantments and what they thought of the Ramayana being told from Sita’s perspective. They talk about the themes of love and enduring as well as the impact Ram had made on Sita’s life.

Episode 87: Book Talk: Road Trips/Journeys - I Reserve My Judgement

July 15th, 2020  |  38 mins 21 secs

journeys, quests, road trips

Jeannette, Meredith, and Susan discuss journeys and road trips in books. What makes them enjoyable? What books come to mind when they think journeys and road trips?

Episode 85: The Gifted School: Shenanigans! I Wanted More Shenanigans

June 30th, 2020  |  49 mins 24 secs

gift school, school competition, slice of life

Susan, Meredith, and Tara talk schools; or rather a gifted school for the gifted. They talk about status, competition, and class with how parents think they are doing everything they can to help their children succeed.

Episode 84: Book Talk: Pride Month - Let's Change the Default

June 15th, 2020  |  51 mins 5 secs

diverse voices, gay, lesbian, lgbt, queer

Happy Pride Month! Meredith, Tara, and Susan talk LGBTQIA+ in the media. How TV leans towards WLW and books lean towards MLM, but there still needs to be more representation, overall. They then talk about their LGBTQIA+ focused book stacks and recs.

Episode 83: Black Lives Matter

June 8th, 2020  |  56 secs

black lives matter

Black Lives Matter. Black Stories Matter. Share them. Say their names. Don’t let them be silenced.

Episode 82: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: I Would Have Talked to the President

May 30th, 2020  |  43 mins 49 secs

extraterrestrial life, hank green, sci fi

Tara, Meredith, and Susan dive into an Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. They discuss how an alien invasion could be surprisingly topical, the drawbacks of internet-fame, and if they too would be one of the Dreamers, solving puzzles with the rest of humanity.

Episode 81: Book Talk: Book Recs for Extraterrestrial Life

May 15th, 2020  |  42 mins 4 secs

book recs

Meredith, Tara, and Susan are given a mission: curate a list of books for extraterrestrial life. Each list is surprisingly different and yet they all have something in common. Listen and let us know what novels you would share with ET!

Episode 80: Secret Passages in a Hillside Town: We Had to Get It; We Were Told to Get It

April 30th, 2020  |  42 mins 20 secs

Jeannette and Susan try to enter the secret passages but find that it may not be as magical as they thought. From Olli as the protagonist to how Greta was handled, they try to unravel the themes and meanings.

Episode 79: Book Talk: Lit in the Time of Corona

April 15th, 2020  |  33 mins 50 secs

book recs, book talk

Susan, Tara, and Jeannette go into how they are doing during the stay-at-home orders. Specifically, how their reading habits are beneficial, if their reading habits have changed, and recs to get through this trying time.

Episode 78: Blood of Elves: Once You Sit Down, You're Invested

March 30th, 2020  |  44 mins 37 secs

book club, fantasy, small screen adaptation

Susan, Jeannette, and Meredith discuss Blood of Elves and how the books feel more modern yet formatting was very questionable. How very well translated is something if a word is used too much? Also, is pirouetting very important to describe fighting?

Episode 77: Book Talk: Small Screen Adaptation - I'm Doing Jazz Hands and Nobody Can See Me

March 15th, 2020  |  38 mins 44 secs

small screen adaptations

Jeannette, Meredith, and Susan talk about adaptations and how it affects their reading habits. Will they immediately read a book that’s being adapted? They also talk of favorite adaptations and adaptations they would like to see.

Episode 74: The Starless Sea: Had a Whiskey and Contemplated My Life

January 30th, 2020  |  47 mins 49 secs

erin morgenstern, fantasy, homage to stories, starless sea, storytelling

Our hosts dive right into the Starless Sea and discuss all the stories to make a whole story and more. Also, they discover if they are a Keeper, Guardian, or Acolyte.

Episode 73: Book Talk: A New Chapter

January 15th, 2020  |  44 mins 6 secs

Our hosts come together to discuss the evolution of their reading habits in the last decade. They then look forward to their resolutions of the coming year with a fun twist.

Episode 72: The Tenth Girl: Twist Me, Don't Trick Me

December 15th, 2019  |  1 hr 16 mins

female protagonist, horror, sara faring, tenth girl, ya

It’s our end of the year wrap up and the gang’s all here! Wherein Tara and Meredith talk about YALL Fest, we announce our 11th Hour Readathon to close out our 2019 TBRs, and we pick our favorites from this year’s reads. Then we cozy up by a (internet) fire to discuss the not-so-scary ghost story: “The Tenth Girl.”

Episode 71: Orlando: Don't Take My Pants Away

November 15th, 2019  |  1 hr 4 mins

It’s Non-Fiction November! Susan, Meredith, and Tara discuss the genre in general, do they read a lot of nonfiction? And what are some of their favorite nonfiction books? Then they go into a fictional biography with Orlando. Virginia Woolf really is ahead of her time and they come to the conclusion that more time may be needed for classics.

Episode 70: City of Brass: I Don't Know if I Want Anyone to be in Charge

October 15th, 2019  |  1 hr 2 mins

chakraborty, city of brass, female protagonist, high fantasy, non-western fantasy

Meredith, Tara, and Susan talk all about Non-Western Fantasies in this month’s episode, including which ones they’ve loved, which ones are still on their TBR, and what cultures they’d love to read more fantasies about. Then they discuss the historical fantasy and the world of djinns in The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty.