Tara Newman

Episode 90: The City We Became: In NK We Trust

August 30th, 2020  |  48 mins 23 secs

diverse, fantasy, new york city, nk jeminsin, poc

Tara, Meredith, and Jeannette go off to New York City to discuss The City We Became. How the book is a love letter to New York City yet a critique on society with racism. Also, the interesting process of how a city is born.

Episode 89: Book Talk: Settings - I’m at the Purple Hair Stage of Quarantine

August 15th, 2020  |  42 mins 25 secs

book recs, book talk, settings

Meredith, Tara, and Jeannette talk about settings, and how much a setting matters in a book. What does it mean for the setting to be a character in the story? How much does the setting matter to the reader?

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 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 76: March: Baby, Come Back!

February 29th, 2020  |  42 mins 15 secs

civil rights movement, freedom riders, graphic novel memoir, historical graphic novel, john lewis, march graphic novels

In this month’s book club episode, Meredith, Tara, and Jeannette discuss the three book graphic novel memoir series “March” by US Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis.

Episode 75: Book Talk: Diversity in Publishing

February 15th, 2020  |  44 mins 6 secs

Jeannette, Meredith, and Tara check out some recent stats on diversity in publishing, spotlight a couple of people advocating for diversity in the publishing world, and talk about what they do to maintain diversity in their own reading lives.

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.

Episode 68: The City in the Middle of the Night: Insert Our Love for Libraries Here

August 15th, 2019  |  1 hr 15 mins

ebooks, libary love, sci fi

Tara, Jeannette, and Meredith talk about Macmillan’s new ebook library lending model, what they love about our public libraries. Then they dive into Charlie Jane Anders’ The City in the Middle of the Night. The book left them disoriented, but in a good way? You’ll have to listen and find out why!