Welcome back to Season Two! We’re back with more fun, more action, and so many more books. There’s a lot to get into today, so let’s get started!
CURRENTLY READING
Anjali is currently reading On the Come Up by Angie Thomas and has just finished reading Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. Sophie is currently reading A Conjuring of Light, by V.E. Schwab and has just finished Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan, and A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, by Mackenzi Lee.
MAIN FEATURE
(05:30) It’s time to set another Goodreads Reading Challenge! Anjali declares she wants to read 50 books this year, and Sophie says she, too, is hoping to read 50 in 2019. You can check out how we do by following along on Goodreads: Anjali | Sophie.
(07:20) Sophie has already read five books at the recording of this episode, and Anjali has read three.
(09:45) Each year for Blogger’s Bookshelf we make a list of the books that we will Vow To Read during the course of that year.
Sophie’s Vow To Read list
- Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan
- A Conjuring of Light, by V.E. Schwab
- All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
- Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
- Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief, by Rick Riordan
- A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, by Mackenzi Lee
- King of Scars, by Leigh Bardugo
- P.S I Still Love You, by Jenny Han
- Truly Devious, by Maureen Johnson
Anjali gets excited about the recent announcement that Netflix is adapting the Shadow and Bone series and the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. Read more about that here!
In our Halloween episode, Anjali chatted about The Passage, and briefly mentions here thta it’s just been released as a TV show. If you’re in New Zealand, it’s showing currently On Demand.
(15:50) This year, we’ve decided to add to that Vow To Read, and create a list each of Vow to Re-read books. With so many books being released every single week, our favourite books and those we loved over the years don’t get as much attention as they deserve. So we’re going to fix that, and try to re-read some of our favourites.
Sophie’s Vow to Re-Read list
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
- City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare
- Divergent, by Veronica Roth
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J Maas
- Anna and French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by JK Rowling
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket
- Shadow and Bone series, by Leigh Bardugo
- Six of Crows duology, by Leigh Bardugo
- Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (check out our Rainbow Rowell episode!)
(20:50) There are some great books coming out in 2019, and we chat about some of the ones we’re looking forward to. Anjali has a whole list that she rattles off, including the sequel to Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On. She also reminds us that Cassandra Clare has two books coming out this year, which is actually wrong; there are three! They are Ghosts of the Shadowmarket, The Red Scrolls of Magic, and Chain of Gold.
(26:30) At the end of the last season we started a mini book club, and set each other a book to read. Both books are actually ones that we both had on our TBR lists, but it was a great chance to bump it up the list and read them sooner.
Sophie chose A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas for Anjali to read, and we spend a great deal of time discussing how a) great the book is and b) how to pronounce the character’s names. If you’re interested, check out this video of Maas saying her character’s name.
Sophie wonders if people get put off by the faerie aspect and the following clarification discussion occurs:
Sophie: “They’re not like, little pixies.”
Anjali: “Yeah they’re not like... Cornish Pixies.”
Sophie: “They’re like humans, but hotter.”
Anjali: “It’s like when you picture an elf; it’s not a Christmas elf, it’s a Legolas elf. That’s the faerie distinction.”
(35:20) The book Anjali chose for Sophie to read A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, by Mackenzi Lee, which she really enjoyed. Sophie, much to Anjali’s relief, really enjoyed the book, and even though it was a little slow in the beginning and sped up a little too much at the end, it was a good read.
We have a moment where Sophie mentions the narrator of the audiobook and Anjali informs her that it’s Christian Coulson, who plays teenage Tom Riddle in the Harry Potter movies. With a little bit of Googling, we realise that Anjali is correct, and we yay about how great the narration of the book was.
(42:20) Thank you to our one listener who has listened to all our episodes and filled out the form we put you all last season. Here’s the form if you’d to let us know what you’d like to see this season.
OUTRO
We can’t quite believe we’ve already finished an entire season of Rants and Reviews, and here we are, kicking off another season. If you read along with us for our mini book club, do let us know whether you read A Court of Thorns and Roses, or A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. We’d love to know what you thought of either or both of them! You can contact us on Twitter, @rantsandreviews, via Instagram @rantsandreviewspod, or flick us an email. This coming season we have some great content lined up and we can’t wait to share it with you! Until then, happy reading, and welcome to Season 2!
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Books mentioned in this episode:
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Divergent by Veronica Roth, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, Anna and French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, Ghosts of the Shadowmarket by Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare, The Wicked King by Holly Black, Finale by Stephanie Garber, A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye, Pumpkin Heads by Rainbow Rowell, Evermore by Sara Holland, Romanov by Nadine Brandes, Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.
