- Publisher |
- Andrea Martucci
- Media Type |
- audio
- Categories Via RSS |
- Arts,
- Books,
- Relationships,
- Science,
- Social Sciences,
- Society & Culture
- People |
- Country Of Origin |
- USA
- Produced In |
- Boston, MA
- Premiere Date |
- 2019-09-18
- Related Hashtags |
- #2020RomClass,
- #HolidayFairies,
- #PublishingPaidMe,
- #romancelandia,
- #WhoaLoveSheDevil
- Frequency |
- Monthly
- Explicit |
- Yes
This podcast currently has no reviews.
Submit ReviewAlice Murphy, a historical romance author, joins to recommend and discuss under-appreciated non-Regency historical romance. The discussion touches on Alice's upcoming book, "A Showgirl's Rules for Falling in Love," and a rich variety of historical romance novels set in diverse time periods and locations. We travel through Ancient Egypt, medieval Wales, 19th century Japan, the Gilded Age, the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the 1960s, and more. This episode is jam-packed with book recommendations!
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Guest: Alice Murphy
Website | Instagram | A Showgirl’s Rules for Falling in Love
Not recommended: Redeeming Love
Recommended:
Ancient to Medieval Era
- Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
- Defiant Love by Maura Seger
- A Husband for Esyllt by Virginie Marconato
1500s
- His Bride by Gayle Callen
1700s
- Fierce Eden by Jennifer Blake
1800s
- Flame on the Sun by Maura Seger
- A Viscount for the Egyptian Princess by Heba Helmy
The Wild West and Beyond
- Hitched to the Gunslinger by Michelle McLean and Untamed by Lisa Rayne
Turn of the Century
- A Striking Romance by Lindsey Brooks
- As You Desire and The Other Guys’ Bride by Connie Brockway
Early to Post-War 20th Century
- A Manhattan Heiress in Paris by Amanda McCabe
- The Companion by E.E. Ottoman
- Phoenix Pictures series by Brianne Gillen
Midcentury
- Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole
- A Midnight Feast by Genevieve Turner and Emma Barry
- Mrs. Milner Gets a Kitchen by Jane Hadley
Shelf Love:
Why do we read Jane Austen but not the authors Jane Austen read and loved? The answer is a BIT more complicated than just "sexism." Guest: Rebecca Romney, rare book dealer and author of the new book, Jane Austen's Bookshelf.
Guest: Rebecca Romney
Jane Austen's Bookshelf | Type Punch Matrix
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Do you have a romance collection, or do you just love looking at other people's collections? Learn more about Romance Novel Collection, a new section of the Shelf Love Substack where I'll be sharing YOUR romance novel collections: https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/p/introducing-romance-novel-collection
Shelf Love:
Can horror and romance coexist? Friend and author Laura J. Mayo joins me to discuss “Land of the Beautiful Dead” by R. Lee Smith. We explore the complexities of combining horror elements (zombies, staking, the apocalypse) with romantic themes, how this book makes us feel, and unlikable and defiant characters who are forged by context. Is it all a metaphor?! (Yes, of course it is!)
Discussed: Land of the Beautiful Dead by R. Lee Smith
Guest: Laura J. Mayo
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Romancelandia Holiday Fairies is a mutual aid effort for the romance novel reader community to support anyone in the community who could use a little material help with purchasing gifts for themselves, or loved ones this holiday season. Learn more:
shelflovepodcast.com/holiday-fairies
Shelf Love:
I join The Historical Romance Sampler podcast with Katherine Grant to sample a scene from Lisa Kleypas's Secrets of a Summer Night. We discuss how historical romance has changed since the 1970s and talk about bestsellers and airport books. Also, learn more about Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2024!
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies is a mutual aid effort for the romance novel reader community to support anyone in the community who could use a little material help with purchasing gifts for themselves, or loved ones this holiday season. Learn more:
shelflovepodcast.com/holiday-fairies
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Learn more about Katherine Grant and The Historical Romance Sampler podcast
The Historical Romance Sampler on Instagram
Shelf Love:
Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton is a 1965 fantasy novel with subtle romantic elements. How does this vintage novel featuring outsider characters compare with today’s romantasy? Romance reader Kassi joins Shelf Love to discuss Gillan’s journey of identity, empowerment, and agency as she embarks on an adventure: arranged marriage with a were Rider. Would you give up your power for a beautiful fantasy? It’s very demure, very mindful — this oldie is a goodie, although there are no unicorns.
Discussed: Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton (1965)
Guest: Kassi
Shelf Love:
Ever wondered why Regencies became all the rage? Or how historical romances shape and sanitize our perceptions of history? This episode delves into how Regency romances displace inconvenient historical truths. A critical look at older 'problematic' romances like Jennifer Blake's 'Fierce Eden' reveals the complexities of characters and settings, challenging the current sanitized romantic fantasies. This audio essay touches upon how modern Regency romance often overlooks deeper societal issues for the comfort of readers, questioning if this trend truly makes the genre better or just more palatable.
Read the original Substack essay here: https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/p/colonizing-history-historical-romance
Shelf Love:
Some call it Romantasy, some call it Dragon Corn (except replace the C with a P). Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is hotter than dragon’s breath, and so of course we have to see if we can figure out why it’s so popular. Sarah Skilton joins me to discuss “love triangles,” indescribable pain that we would actually like described, War College, and how…hot…Xaden…is. Also, is Fourth Wing enjoyable for people with romance or fantasy genre competence? Listen…or die.
Discussed: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Guest: Sarah Skilton
Website: www.sarahskilton.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiltongram/
Hollywood Ending by Tash Skilton: https://bookshop.org/p/books/hollywood-ending-tash-skilton/15806212?ean=9781496730671
Shelf Love:
Ever wondered how "The Hating Game" fares in a classroom setting? Dr. Diana Filar is back to discuss her experiences teaching The Hating Game book and film in a class about popular genre fiction. We discuss the challenges of translating romance novels into films, how stereotypes of genres are formed and challenged, and what it's like introducing non-genre readers to romance. Learn about Dr. Filar's approach to incorporating popular genre fiction like romance, horror, and suspense into her curriculum, how class conversations resembled a Battle of the Sexes as they explored texts that engaged with gender in different ways, and why it’s so hard to both adapt romance and teach romance novels as a genre in the classroom.
Class texts also included Gone Girl, Arrival, and The Exorcist.
Guest: Dr. Diana Filar
Listen to Dr. Diana Filar on the #1 most-downloaded episode of Shelf Love:
092. I've Got No Roots: White Immigrant Assimilation & (Romance) Adaptation
Shelf Love:
Do you love scent marking, some healthy jealousy, and a beautiful and believable mix of internal and external romance in your paranormal werewolf romance? Get your parka and bundle up for "Cold Hearted" by Heather Guerre, the first book in the Tooth and Claw series, in discussion with foremost vampire defender, Dame Jodie Slaughter. We explore werewolves, vampires, Alaska as a transporting setting, depression, Andrea’s soft vulnerable belly, and found family and community, highlighting the book’s atmospheric setting and rich character development. The conversation delves into the unique elements of limited third-person narrative, the dynamics of jealousy, and the beauty of slow-burn romance.
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Vampire Defender
To learn more about Dame Jodie Slaughter, follow her on Instagram @jodie_slaughter and on Twitter @jodieslaughter. Check out her books, including "Play to Win" and "Bet on It," and keep an eye out for her upcoming sapphic romance, "Ready to Score."
Shelf Love:
“What is a greater expression of love than eating someone else or wanting to consume and have that person in a way that no one else can have?” Dr. Nicola Welsh-Burke joins to delve into the intriguing topic of cannibalism in romance novels. We explore the intersection of food, eating, and sexuality, discuss the metaphorical use of cannibalism in literature, and examine the societal taboos and fascinations with the concept. The conversation touches upon various themes such as erotic vampirism, werewolf lore, incorrect eating, and how these elements are used to explore deeper human desires and fears.
Media Mentioned/Discussed:
- Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
- Tooth and Claw series by Heather Guerre
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Hannibal (TV show)
- A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
- Fresh (film) Twilight (books/film)
- Betwixt the Sheets Podcast
- Kinky History Podcast
- Sex historian Esme Louise James
Guest: Dr. Nicola Welsh-Burke
Dr. Welsh-Burke is an academic and lecturer at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. She’s an early-stage researcher in folklore and fairy tales and the romance genre, and her PhD was on contemporary YA supernatural romance, retellings of little red riding hood from the 21st century.
Shelf Love:
If you’ve always wanted to hear about a romance that takes place within a traveling circus and features a telepathic tiger, hang onto your trapeze bar: Emma from the Substack Restorative Romance and the Reformed Rakes podcast is here to talk about Susan Elizabeth Phillips' “Kiss an Angel,” a contemporary romance that feels like a historical and features an arranged marriage that leads to circus life. In a highly contentious conversation between rival podcasters, the one thing we can agree on the importance of conflict and character flaws in creating a compelling story.
Discussed: Kiss and Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Guest: Emma, a law librarian and writer at Restorative Romance on Substack, and a member of Reformed Rakes.
Substack | Reformed Rakes Website
Shelf Love:
Guest: Sarah Rutherford, a romance reader and Associate Professor of Design at Cleveland State University
@sarahatschool on Instagram
Highlights:
- The evolution of romance novel covers from the 1980s to the contemporary post-digital age.
- The significant role of design elements such as typography, color, and imagery in conveying the genre and themes of romance novels.
- The impact of digital publishing on cover designs, including the preference for stock photography and simplified imagery.
- How cover designs serve as a branding tool for books and how they contribute to personal branding for readers and collectors.
- Sarah shares anecdotes about identifying and collecting romance novels based on their covers, highlighting the emotional and aesthetic appeal of cover art.
Shelf Love:
I was a guest on The Categorically Romance Podcast to discuss my category romance collecting addiction, reading some books from Kiss a short-lived Harlequin line from the early 20 teens, and how not being allowed to read romance as a teen actually made me more obsessed with reading romance. Hope you enjoy this episode and I definitely recommend that you check out the Categorically Romance Podcast if you're not already listening.
We read The One that Got Away by Kelly Hunter (Kiss #1) and If You Can't Stand the Heat by Joss Wood.
Learn more about The Categorically Romance Podcast: https://linktr.ee/TheCategoricallyRomancePodcast
Shelf Love:
In this episode, host Andrea Martucci embarks on a journey with Dame Jodie Slaughter to the Covering Romance exhibition. The event showcases romance novel cover art by award-winning artist, John Ennis. Interviews with John Ennis and other attendees, including author Nisha Sharma, romance fan Mary Lynne Nielsen, and Fin, owner of Wolf and Kron books, a genre bookstore. Andrea purchases several pieces of cover art and reflects with Jodie on the cultural significance of fandom and passion for the genre.
Fellow Traveler: Dame Jodie Slaughter, International Fandom Criticizer
Shelf Love:
An exploration of prison planet romances with Megan Erickson. We discuss Guardian by Emmy Chandler and how it explores issues of consent, agency, and morality through an extreme version of the forced proximity trope. Are these brutal dystopians actually hopeful explorations of humanity and love?
Shelf Love:
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2023!
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies is a mutual aid effort for the romance novel reader community to support anyone in the community who could use a little material help with purchasing gifts for themselves, or loved ones this holiday season. Learn more:
shelflovepodcast.com/holiday-fairies
Shelf Love:
Is shame productive? This question guides part 2 of a Whoa!mance/Shelf Love convo about A Lady of the West by Linda Howard as we discuss the paradox of enjoying highly problematic books.
We interrogate our feelings of shame, enjoyment, and the importance of critically dissecting the pleasures derived from reading, no matter how uncomfortable it may feel.
Look at your society, look at your life! Along with me and Whoa!mance, in this crossover episode.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Listen to part 1 of this episode: episode 150 Shelf Love
Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
and
Episode 089 to Problematize Romance
and
108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)
Shelf Love:
I humbly asked Morgan and Isabeau to help me understand why A Lady of the West by Linda Howard had a chokehold on my young romance-reading imagination, and they delivered. We discuss how this book has rules for good (white) women, and explores Manifest Destiny, settler colonialism, sexuality, violence, violent sexuality, and being a desirable (white) woman.
Button up your white high-necked blouse and gallop on a virile stallion into the wild west with Whoa!mance, in this crossover episode.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
and
and
Shelf Love:
The difference between erotic romance and romance is all about feelings, in particular, where you feel them. Shelf Love’s Kink Correspondent, Dame Jodie Slaughter, joins the podcast to discuss A Gentleman in the Streets by Alisha Rai. Only enter if you consensually dare.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Kink Correspondent
Shelf Love:
Bisexuality in romance with writer and reviewer Ellie Mae MacGregor (@bisexual_booknerd). When it comes to romance, a genre that explores romantic and sexual desires, what does “good” bisexual representation look like? How can books with or without bisexual representation create worlds that feel safe for bisexual readers?
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Ellie Mae MacGregor
Instagram @bisexual_booknerd
Shelf Love:
I own 91 Candlelight Ecstasy Romances, so it was high time I read one... then I read another 13 for good measure. In December, 1980, Vivian Stephens launched a new line of contemporary category romance at Dell called Candlelight Ecstasy. The line pushed the envelope when it came to sex and sensuality on the page. But how sexy are they and how do these books hold up in 2023?
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Shelf Love:
Mistress of Mellyn by Virginia Holt is often hailed as responsible for kicking off a boom of modern gothics in the mid-20th century. In this crossover with Reformed Rakes, we ask: is this a gothic first and a romance second? Is our plucky main character in love with the man of the house, or just the house? How does Mistress explore transgression of boundaries, gender, eight-year-olds, and heroines “ahead of their time”?
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: The Mistress of Mellyn (1960) by Virginia Holt
Guest: Reformed Rakes
Shelf Love:
What makes a heroine in romance, a genre invested in exploring how can women be happy in culture? Is the genre a place where heroines create integrated identities that reject binaries of what society tells them to be? Dr. Jayashree Kamble discusses her latest book on romance scholarship, Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation. Shelf Love listeners can use “UShelfLove” to get 35% off the book at Indiana University Press, from now until November 2, 2023.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Dr. Jayashree Kamble
Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine's Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation
https://iupress.org/9780253065704/creating-identity/
Shelf Love Discount code: use “UShelflove” for 35% between September 15, 2023 and November 2, 2023.
Jayashree on Humanities Commons: https://hcommons.org/members/kamble/
Jayashree’s upcoming New York City book launch events:
- 9/24/23 - https://www.therippedbodicela.com/brooklyn-events
- 9/22/23 - https://aaari.info/23-09-22kamble/
Learn more about the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance at IASPR.org and the open access journal where you can find tons of romance scholarship: JPRStudies.org
Shelf Love:
Four romance reading friends embark on a romance history reading project, based on a BookRiot list, and in this episode, two of them — Leigh Kramer and Hannah Hearts romance — have Flames on the Sides of their Face when talking about the Flame and The Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. To keep things interesting, we talk less about the book itself and more about questions of reader reception and the relationship between the 1972 text and the romance texts that followed. Have we come a long way, baby, or are we still wallowing in the same whirlpool of sludgey emotions?
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Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
The BookRiot list that inspired the project: https://bookriot.com/most-influential-romance-novels/
Guests:
Leigh Kramer
Hannah Hearts Romance
Shelf Love:
What happens when 35 romance scholars walk into a bar, after hours at the IASPR 2023 Romance Revitalised conference? They share their favorite romance scholarship, and why!
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Thanks to all of the contributors to this episode!
Full list of romance scholarship mentioned on Substack: https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/
Romance Reader Stereotype research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQzi8fBB0R8
Shelf Love:
The fabulous foursome (Morgan & Isabeau from Whoa!mance, Dame Jodie Slaughter, Andrea Martucci from Shelf Love) get meta textual as we reflect on our meta podcasting project on Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. What’s this episode about? Take a guess from this collection of possible episode titles:
- Panopticon Alert: Meta Reflections on Dreaming of You
- The Internet Killed Romance
- Whoa! That’s Some Weird Romance
- Our Current Romance Panopticon
- Alienating Persons in Romance
- Love Us or Hate Us
- Here We Are Now, Offend Us
- Did you enjoy this podcast?
Be sure to listen to episode 140 and 141 before diving into the meta-ness and meta-mess of this text.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
and
Episode 089 to Problematize Romance
and
108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)
Shelf Love:
This week, yr grls at long last encounter Derek Craven in "DREAMING OF YOU" by Miss Massachu herself LISA KLEYPAS. It is time for Morgan and Isabeau from Whoa!mance to wade into this collaboration with Shelf Love.
You probably already know this - but Sarah is a regency country mouse who is secretly a best-selling novelist. Facing the dreaded sophomore slump, she seeks out a real Gambling Hell to research her next novel and instead finds Derek Craven. Derek's a gutter baby cum Cockney made good by establishing the most luxurious gambling den in London. But, it turns out, his personal tastes skew a bit more bucolic if you catch our drift (they fall in love!).
What makes a character captivating and why doesn't Derek Craven have any of it? Is the sentimental version of the Culture Wars any more forgivable? It's 10 p.m. - is your child a Perry?
Take our "lump of ice" and tune in as we give this "weep and wail" its "early hours".
--
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
and
Episode 089 to Problematize Romance
and
108 She-Devil (1989): Who's Entitled To Be Selfish in Love & Life? (Whoa!mance spectacular)
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
Shelf Love:
Let’s talk about Joyce Ashby from Lisa Kleypas's novel Dreaming of You. We delve into the dichotomous portrayal of Joyce as an irredeemable villainess alongside her foil, the redeemable “hero” Derek Craven. We explore the parallel themes of violence, possessiveness, and animalistic sexuality resulting in problematically differing fates and treatment by the text. Belched from the underworld, Defender of Bisexual Villainesses Dame Jodie Slaughter joins Shelf Love in this special cross-over project with Whoa!mance - watch for the next episode, in which Morgan and Isabeau share their conversation about Dreaming of You.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Expert on Bisexual Villainesses
Shelf Love:
Amanda Cinelli joins me to discuss representation of autistic characters in romance novels. Amanda shares how reading Helen Hoang’s "The Kiss Quotient" played a big part in her realizing that she was autistic, and talks about some other romances with autism representation that she loved. We also discuss why representing autistic love is important to Amanda as an author and her writing journey pre and post diagnosis.
-
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed:
- The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
- The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
- The Brown Sisters Trilogy by Talia Hibbert
- Bergman Brothers’ series by Chloe Liese
Guest: Amanda Cinelli
- cinelli.com/">www.amanda-cinelli.com
- **https://twitter.com/AcinelliAuthor**
- https://www.instagram.com/amandacinelliauthor/
- https://www.tiktok.com/@amandacinelliauthor
- https://amandacinelliromanceauthor.substack.com/about
Shelf Love:
"Somebody’s Trying To Kill Me and I think it’s my husband" by Joanna Russ is a brilliant bit of 50 year old scholarship about modern gothics, but I say it applies just as well to romance novels of today.
In part one, I explore the theme of passive protagonists in adventure stories. Part 2, the personal is the problematic. In all parts: unpacking heteropatriarchy.
Discussed:
Adventure Stories with Passive Protagonists:
https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/p/adventure-stories-with-passive-protagonists
The Personal is Problematic:
https://shelflovepodcast.substack.com/p/the-personal-is-problematic
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Shelf Love:
Part 2 of the conversation about North and South with Helena Greer. AI generated these action items from the transcript of this episode. AI responses can be inaccurate or misleading.
- [ ] Schedule a kiss scene between the main characters for modern audiences
- [ ] Make the male protagonist more sympathetic by toning down his violent behavior
- [ ] Make the female protagonist more likable and relatable to modern romance audiences
- [ ] Follow a beat sheet to hit expected pacing and plot points for romance novels
This is part 2 of the conversation about North and South. Check out episode 136 for part 1.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and North and South the 2004 BBC adaptation starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe
SAVE the Cat: https://savethecat.com/
Guest: Helena Greer
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Storyloom Choose Your Own Adventure
Helena Greer is a long time librarian and romance reader, and recent romance novelist. She has a degree in mythography and is interested in deconstructing the social context around the decisions storytellers make about how to frame --or reframe-- their stories.
Shelf Love:
Trains! Fruit! Allusions to Hell abound! Victorian industrialist city mortality rates! Writer, sex educator, and librarian Helena Greer is here to discuss North and South. Did the 2004 BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1854 serialized novel make the heroine more likable and everyone else less nuanced? This conversation is serialized just like the original text. We compare and contrast the romantic moments in the book and adaptation, highlighting how the adaptation focuses more on negative emotions and drama, while the book emphasizes character growth and acts of romantic love.
Shelf Love:
- NEW! Substack for original writing and stuff | Website | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Thanks to the contributors to this episode:
Discussed: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and North and South the 2004 BBC adaptation starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe
Guest: Helena Greer
Helena Greer is a long time librarian and romance reader, and recent romance novelist. She has a degree in mythography and is interested in deconstructing the social context around the decisions storytellers make about how to frame --or reframe-- their stories.
Shelf Love:
Dame Jodie Slaughter, Feather Fetish Understander, and I recently discussed how The Savage and The Swan speaks the unspoken, what a winged wolf looks like, and whether this book is a metaphor for toxic masculinity and healing generational trauma. This summary below was written by AI using my episode transcript:
The Savage and the Swan by Ella Fields is a groundbreaking work of Enemies to Lover literature that combines elements of dark fairytale retellings, a possessive anti-hero, and spicy fae romance. The story follows Opal, a princess in a kingdom at war with its neighboring kingdom, Vordane, ruled by the shape-shifting wolf-with-wings Dade. Opal is forced to marry a human prince to strengthen the alliance between the two kingdoms, but is kidnapped by Dade and must find a way to reconcile her feelings for him despite his shocking act of violence.
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: The Savage and The Swan by Ella Fields
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s International Smut Historian
Shelf Love:
Starting the year off with some cozy re-reads, comfort reads, and short reads to combat the wintery weather and get through winter cold season. I share thoughts on all the books I read in January 2023, including Alice Coldbreath’s Victorian Prizefighter series, A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews, His Majesty by Shon, Better Off Wed by Susanna Craig, Hero by Claire Kent, and the Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed:
- Alice Coldbreath - Victorian Prizefighters series
- A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews (novella)
- His Majesty by Shon (short story)
- Better off Wed by Susanna Craig (Love and Let Spy series)
- Hero by Claire Kent (Kindled series)
- Murderbot series by Martha Wells
Shelf Love:
We need to talk about Anais Nin and her erotic short story collection Delta of Venus. Did Anais Nin write "female erotica"? Is there such a thing? Have Things™️ changed much since 1941? Noted smut writer Dame Jodie Slaughter is Shelf Love's international smut history correspondent. She schools us on the long history of smut, French people, Choice Feminism, why she doesn't believe in the female gaze, how her work is contributing to the demise of "our value system," and more! We unpack Anais's assertion that "women are more apt to fuse sex with emotion, with love" via Dr. Jodi McAlister’s book "The Consummate Virgin," and her theories of compulsory (female) demisexuality.
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s International Smut Historian
Discussed:
- Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
- The Consummate Virgin: Female Virginity Loss and Love in Anglophone Popular Literatures by Dr. Jodi McAlister: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-55004-2
- Hard-Core Romance: Fifty Shades of Grey, Best-Sellers, and Society by Eva Illouz
- Sady Doyle’s Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/apr/07/anais-nin-author-social-media
- Sherilyn Fenn “MTV Books, Feed Your Head” 1991 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHRo5FAJ3g0
Shelf Love:
Arranged marriage trope in contemporary Indian American diaspora romance novels with cognitive psychologist and author Sri Savita.
Shelf Love:
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Discussed:
- Running Away With the Bride by Sophia Singh Sasson
- Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma
- Marriage Game by Sara Desai
- The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel
- The Shaadi Set-Up by Lillie Vale
Shaadi dot com performance by Awaaz Do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwhcCeJ4lk
Guest: Sri Savita
Sri writes romance by night, and by day is a Cognitive Psychologist.
savita.com/">Website | Twitter | Instagram
Forthcoming Short Story: "How to Find Your Footing in France," part of a Wordmakers New Year's Eve holiday anthology.
Hôtel d'Amour: A Sweet Romance Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMXV9JG3/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20
Shelf Love:
A billionaire romance novel that name drops Citizen’s United only comes along every so often. Carter Sherman, Senior reporter for VICE News, joins me to discuss Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre. We talk about power exchange, heterosexual marriage as a transaction, and subverting the single script of the hegemonic BDSM billionaire romance to focus on the fantasy as care & safety as opposed to letting go of control.
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies: https://shelflovepodcast.com/blog-posts/romancelandia-holiday-fairies
Discussed: Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre
Other media mentioned:
- Hard-Core Romance: Fifty Shades of Grey, Best-Sellers, and Society by Eva Illouz
- Every New Year by Katrina Jackson
- Private Eye by Katrina Jackson
- The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian
- Marriage: A History by Stephanie Coontz
- You’re Wrong About Abortion Stories: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1112270/11515738-your-abortion-stories
Guest: Carter Sherman (she/her/hers)
Senior reporter for VICE News
Shelf Love:
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Shelf Love:
Are men in romance novels granted agency & subjectivity, and do readers have the same expectations for male consent as they do for female characters in M/F romance? Lynell from Weekend Reader has some thoughts on mutual consent in romance, especially as she’s binging dark mafia romance with kidnapping plots. What happens when your real life values conflict with your fantasy world values, and how do ideas about happily ever after change as our culture changes?
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2022: bit.ly/romancelandia
Shelf Love:
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Guest: Lynell from Weekend Reader
reader.blogspot.com/">Website | Twitter
Books Mentioned:
- Sabbatical by Katrina Jackson
- That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion At a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming
- The Spies That Love Her series: Her Only Valentine by Katrina Jackson
- Toying with Temptation by AH Cunningham
- Georgia Acadian series by Dria Anderson
Shelf Love:
Hear Elysabeth Grace & Katrina Jackson in conversation: a recording from Black Romance and Historical Spaces presentation put on by the Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul University on November 5th, 2022. This episode is a co-release with Black Romance Podcast, hosted by Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman.
Shelf Love:
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NEW! $1 Patreon tier “Here for the Discourse” - for those of you bummed by the decline of Twitter
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Black Romance Podcast
https://blackromancepodcast.libsyn.com/
Center for Black Diaspora
https://las.depaul.edu/centers-and-institutes/center-for-black-diaspora/Pages/default.aspx
Katrina Jackson
https://www.katrinajacksonauthor.com/
Elysabeth Grace
https://www.elysabethgrace.com/
Shelf Love:
Breaking News! Harlequin Associate Editor John Jacobson is here to give the scoop on Harlequin’s newest, currently unnamed line of sexy new contemporary romances. We talk about Harlequin’s intentions, hopes, and dreams for the line, and also talk about the unfulfilled… gaps in the market, especially for younger readers who want to imagine their own unique, personalized, non-normative happily ever afters.
Shelf Love:
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Guest: John Jacobson
Shelf Love:
Classic fairy tales Cinderella & Beauty and the Beast may have gotten their Disney-fication, but there are many ways to slide your feet into these glass (or are they fur?) slippers, and romance novels love to play with these tropes. Writer Renee Dahlia and podcaster Philippa Borland join the podcast to discuss fairytale retellings, reversions, and subversions in romance novels.
-
Shelf Love:
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Discussed:
- Pod Culture Oz Episode: https://podcultureoz.com/ep11-fairytales/
- Fairy Tale Retellings resource: http://www.reneedahlia.com/2021/07/25/fairy-tale-retellings-updated/
Guests:
Renee Dahlia
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Books
Philippa Borland
Listen to Pod Culture Oz | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Shelf Love:
What is beastliness? Little Red Riding Hood stories used to be tales of warning for young women to manage their sexuality in the face of the dangerous beasts of court, who were smooth on the outside, but hairy on the inside. In the 21st century, paranormal teen romances use enchantment to transform the beasts into objects of desire. Dr. Nicola Welsh-Burke, a scholar of fairy tales and romance, is here to discuss hot wolf boys, brooding Byronic figures, pseudomarriage and pseudovirginity, hot villain discourse, and why young women need beastly men to unlock their sexuality.
Shelf Love:
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Guest: Dr. Nicola Welsh-BurkeTwitter
Dr. Welsh-Burke is an academic and lecturer at Western Sydney University in Sydney, Australia. She’s an early-stage researcher in folklore and fairy tales and the romance genre, and her PhD was on contemporary YA supernatural romance, retellings of little red riding hood from the 21st century.f
Discussed:
Nicola’s Texts:
- Wolves of Mercy Falls Series by Maggie Stiefvater
- Sister's Red by Jackson Pierce
- Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
- Red Riding Hood, the novelization of the 2011 film
The Toast: toast.net/2015/10/26/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-brooding-romantic-hero/">A Day In The Life Of A Brooding Romantic Hero
Aarne-Thompson-Uther index
folk-tale.fandom.com/wiki/ATU_425A:_The_Animal_as_Bridegroom">Little Red Riding Hood is: ATU 425
Famous Folklorists & scholars:
- Angela Carter: “hairy on the inside”
- Charles Perrault: “smooth-faced wolves”
- Countess d'Aulnoy: coined the term “fairytale”
- Cristina Bacchilega: “the fairy tale web”
Dr. Jodi McAllister: The Consummate Virgin
Dr. Christina Seifert: pseudovirginity
The complex fantasy (Diamond, 2011): to have the bad boy, to never come to harm, to have his wildness for one’s self.
Shelf Love:
Junior novels were early romances for young readers, published in the 1940s-1960s. Learn from expert guest Dr. Amanda K. Allen how the didactic and heteronormative messages in these novels make a lot of sense when you consider that they were created to respond to demand from librarians and schools for “bibliotherapy” texts to “teach teenage girls how to be women,” which included winning that class ring and becoming besties with the popular girl who you’re not sure if you want to be or date.
Guest: Dr. Amanda K. Allen is a professor of children's and young adult literature.
Guest: Dr. Amanda K. Allen
Personal Website | Twitter | allen.php">Academic Website
Amanda K. Allen researches American teen girl romance novels of the 1940s-1960s (known as "junior novels" or "malt shop books") in connection with the professional network of women (editors, librarians, booksellers, critics) who produced and distributed them. She also publishes on fan studies.
Shelf Love:
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Shelf Love:
Funmi’s Beverly Jenkins collection is complete, and of course it includes the queen of Black historical romance’s young adult romances that were originally published in the short-lived Avon True Romance line in the early 2000s. We discuss Belle and the Beau and Josephine and the Soldier. Did these romances hit the spot for early aughts tweens? And why do we feel like the parental gaze is peering over our shoulder while we read it?
-
Shelf Love:
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Discussed: Avon True Romances by Beverly Jenkins
- Belle and the Beau (2002)
- Belle (Kimani Tru reissue)
- Josephine and the Soldier (2003)
- Josephine (Kimani Tru reissue)
Guest: Funmi
Twitter | Instagram | 2022.aspx">Funmi in Fine Books & Collections magazine
Shelf Love:
Jess joins Shelf Love to discuss the Sunfire romance that shares her name: Jessica by Mary Francis Shura. This historical teen romance from 1984 centers on a highly-competent, independent Kansas teen in 1873 and her many suitors: is the mad man who wins her heart the right guy or is he just the one who gets along best with her bad dad?
-
Shelf Love:
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Discussed:
Jessica by Mary Francis Shura
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/841052.Jessica
Guest: Jess
Listen to Jess on Episode 047: Rose Lerner Double Header
Shelf Love:
Sunfire, a historical romance series for young adults, debuted in 1982 with two books by Candice Ransom. 40 years later, Candice pulls back the curtain on her process and how Scholastic editor Ann Reit shaped the series, which was many young readers’ first taste of romance packaged in a girl’s adventure story.
Shelf Love:
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Guest: Candice Ransom
Candice’s Blog post on Sunfires with pictures of retro promotional material
Shelf Love:
A brief overview of romance for young adult readers throughout time, with a focus on the romance series boom of the 1980s and the reverberations into the early 2000s. Wildfire, Sunfire, Sweet Dreams, Oh My! But some people haven’t always been on board with young people consuming age-appropriate romance.
-
Shelf Love:
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Resources:
Allen, Amanda K. “Young Adult Romance.” In The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction. Routledge, 2020.
Madsen, Christine Terp. “Teen Novels: What Kind of Values Do They Promote?” Christian Science Monitor, December 17, 1981. https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/1217/121749.html.
Wagner, Elaine. “Protesting Sexist Materials: You Can Make a Difference.” Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 12, no. 3 (1981). https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=article&did=Literature.CIBCBulletinv12n03.i0003&id=Literature.CIBCBulletinv12n03&isize=M&pview=hide.
“Interracial Books for Children Bulletin: Special Double Issue on Preteen and Teenage Romance Series,” 1981. https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=header&id=Literature.CIBCBulletinv12n0405&isize=M&pview=hide.
Grinnan, Dabney. “At the Back Fence #145.” All About Romance. Accessed May 24, 2022. https://allaboutromance.com/author-interviews/at-the-back-fence-145/.
Moss, Gabrielle. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of ’80s and ’90s Teen Fiction. Quirk Books, 2018.
Source: re: Vivian Stephens & Jackie Weger book: inspired-by-conference-race.html">https://teachmetonight.blogspot.com/2015/02/thoughts-inspired-by-conference-race.html
Shelf Love:
Lucy Hargrave shares her research into the history of queer romance. While Lucy dates published narratives of fictional happy endings for queer characters back to 1906, she charts the evolution since then in 5 significant time periods with different political, cultural, and technological climates. Plus, Lucy shares some results from her quantitative research into modern readers and writers of queer romance books.
Shelf Love:
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Guest: Lucy Hargrave
Lucy Hargrave is a third year PhD student at the University of Birmingham researching Queer Romance Novels of the 21st Century. Her research explores the queering of the romance genre through a combination of literary critical and social science methodologies to analyse how queer romances rework heteronormative structures. She also produces content to help future and current PhD students on her YouTube channel, Lucy Hargrave.
Shelf Love:
Fangirl Jeanne answers the question: Why might people, and women in particular, find serial killers to be romantic figures in dark romance in a hetero patriarchal capitalist, racist, etc. society? We discuss the Darkly, Madly Duology by Trisha Wolfe, a dark romance with 2 serial killer main character antagonists.
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Guest: Fangirl Jeanne
Jeanne’s tweet thread on the power fantasy of being the singular focus of a powerful man present in Romantic literature and fan fiction: https://twitter.com/fangirlJeanne/status/1507407313220485122?s=20&t=Esqbm4RcOJtUeqnB58DInw
Shelf Love:
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- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed:
- Darkly, Madly Duet by Trisha Wolfe
- Born, Darkly & Born, Madly
Shelf Love:
Readers weigh in on killers in romance novels (AKA people who un-alive other people) and I challenge myself to see if the distasteful elements in the Darkly, Madly duology (discussed next episode!) showed up in less-egregious ways in texts I did enjoy. Also, more thoughts on power, gender roles, and the desire to conquer a protector.
Responses from Antagonist April social media prompts:
Fangirl Jeanne’s tweet thread on the power fantasy, discussed in this episode
Shelf Love:
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Shelf Love:
Antagonist April: discussing killers in romance. Fangirl Jeanne is back to continue our discussion of Manacled, a dark romance fan fiction story. What is the appeal of enemies to lovers? How do readers wrestle with justification for killing in romantic stories, and how does Manacled explore a romantic relationship, not just a romantic fantasy for an individual? How does creating within communal systems, as opposed to capitalist ones, enable different kinds of stories?
This is part 2 of 2 discussing Manacled. Check out episode 116 for part 1.
Content Warnings: the text we discuss is a dark romance fanfiction and we discuss how the text handles rape, war, violence, and genocide.
Shelf Love:
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Discussed: Manacled by SenLinYu (Dramione AU Fanfiction)
Manacled - Chapter 1 - senlinyu - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]
Guest: Fangirl Jeanne
Jeanne’s tweet thread on the power fantasy of being the singular focus of a powerful man present in Romantic literature and fan fiction: https://twitter.com/fangirlJeanne/status/1507407313220485122?s=20&t=Esqbm4RcOJtUeqnB58DInw
Shelf Love:
Antagonist April: discussing killers in romance. Manacled by SenLinYu is a wildly popular dark romance fanfic with Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, that remixes alternate universe Harry Potter with Handmaid’s Tale. Fangirl Jeanne joins me to discuss how war is hell, what it means to be a killer in a world where there are fates worse than death, and the appeal of the murderous antagonist hero. What does it help us understand about conceptions of masculinity and emotions as well as feminine desirability within patriarchy? This is part 1 of 2 discussing Manacled. Check out episode 117 - out now - for part 2.
Content Warnings: the text we discuss is a dark romance fanfiction and we discuss how the text handles rape, war, violence, and genocide.
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
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- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed: Manacled by SenLinYu (Dramione AU Fanfiction)
Manacled - Chapter 1 - senlinyu - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]
Guest: Fangirl Jeanne
Jeanne’s tweet thread on the power fantasy of being the singular focus of a powerful man present in Romantic literature and fan fiction: https://twitter.com/fangirlJeanne/status/1507407313220485122?s=20&t=Esqbm4RcOJtUeqnB58DInw
Shelf Love:
Data scientist Dr. Andrew Piper joins Shelf Love to share how data science can help the romance community answer the big questions that close reading can’t answer. Andrew’s the director of McGill University’s .txtlab, a laboratory that uses machine learning to ask questions like why do people enjoy the work they love? And once we empirically quantify what’s going on here, he asks us to think about what we’d like to do about it.
Guest: Dr. Andrew Piper
Website | Twitter | Enumerations: Data and Literary Study
Andrew Piper is Professor and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University. He is the director of .txtlab, a laboratory that uses machine learning and data science to understand literature and culture.
Shelf Love:
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Tweets discussed in this episode:
@katrinaJax: “is it me or are there so many more white romances this year and being announced? like... a lot...”
@momonoki8: Who is critique use of blonde, pink lips, thinness, small waists and blushing cheeks etc in contemporary white-led romance novels? @ShelfLovePod
Shelf Love:
Swan Song (2021) is a movie that forces us to confront the "After" part of Happily Ever After. Shelf Love's Sad Media Correspondent, Dame Jodie Slaughter, is here to discuss lax security at cloning facilities, the ethics of cloning, the aesthetics of the future: pretty much anything that allows us to avoid the banal truth about our own mortality.
Content Note: discussion of death and mortality.
-
Discussed: Swan Song (2021)
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Sad Media Correspondent
Check out Fair Fight Action! Thank you to Cynthia for bidding on the quilt I donated to Romancing the Vote and for supporting Fair Fight!
Shelf Love:
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Shelf Love:
Do our fated lovers smell like ambrosia because of the cosmic love connection? How do romance novels use language to convey romantic love? I propose a spectrum that ranges from "fated sex mates" to "perfectly matched" using examples from 4 romance novels (not all of them recommended).
Shelf Love:
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Thanks to the Shelf Love Discord members for sparking the idea for this episode!
Books Discussed:
- After The Night by Linda Howard (not recommended)
- Scandalous Desires by Elizabeth Holt (not recommended, YMMV)
- As You Desire by Connie Brockway (recommended)
- The Other Guys Bride by Connie Brockway (recommended)
Shelf Love:
Have you ever wished you could just escape the anxieties and mundanity of modern life by traveling back to Qing Dynasty China? How does time travel romance create a simulacra of a “glorious and wealthy feudal past” that allows audiences to “effortlessly become a love interest and an admired woman through the male gaze shaped by multiple admirers”?
Shelf Love:
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Discussed:
- Startling by Each Step (2011)
- Palace (2011)
Guest: Dr. Huike Wen
Professor teaching media studies and global cultural studies at Willamette University
Website | Romance in Post-Socialist Chinese Television
Shelf Love:
The Hunger Games may have featured a prominent love triangle, but are those the relationships teen girl audiences care most about? Dr. Tina Benigno shares her research about how the teen romance narrative for the extra-ordinary girl in some ways reinforces neoliberal feminist or popular feminist messages around empowerment discourses, on the heels of postfeminism.
Discussed: The Hunger Games, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Guest: Dr. Tina Benigno
Shelf Love:
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Shelf Love:
Romance-Friendly Bookstores with Copper Dog Books (and everything about the supply chain you've never thought to ask)!
Copper Dog Books is an independently-owned, genre-inclusive bookstore in Beverly, MA and co-owners Julie Karaganis & Meg Wasmer join Shelf Love to share the joys, challenges, and future possibilities for romance in brick and mortar bookstores.
Guests: Copper Dog Books: co-owners Julie Karaganis & Meg Wasmer
Shelf Love:
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-
Get signed bookplates & White Whiskey Bargain by Jodie Slaughter!
Meg is looking for kinky books with warm fuzzies, a la Sunstone, a graphic novel series by Stjepan Šejić. Let her know if you know of the perfect recommendation @megpyre on Twitter
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Popular at (or Recommended by) Copper Dog Books
- Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (covered on Shelf Love)
- Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
- October Daye Books by Seanan McGuire
- The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
- A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair
- Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon
- The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
- Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover
- The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (covered on Shelf Love)
- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
- Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
- My Cone and Only by Susannah Nix
- Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
- The Love Con by Seressia Glass
- Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma.
- Battle Royale by Lucy Parker
- The Mercenary Librarians by Kit Rocha
- Hunt The Stars by Jessie Mihalik
- Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
- Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
- The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
- Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers
- A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
- The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost
Shelf Love:
Love & Marriage...and The Simpsons. Join me & my IRL love partner to celebrate what "ever after" looks like this Valentine's Day. We discuss how romantic love, infidelity, & marriage are portrayed in The Simpsons.
Reader...I married him and he DID eventually redo my website.
Shelf Love:
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Guest: Joe Martucci, romance podcaster husband
Shelf Love:
Mary Fisher lived in a palace by the sea, and like all romance novelists, just needs love to complete her idyllic rose-colored life. Too bad the man she wants is married to bored housewife Ruth, who embarks on a journey of revenge. But who is the titular She-Devil in this 1989 film starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr? What does this film imagine is worse than being a bored housewife? Whom do we root for, and who gets to be selfish in life and love? Morgan & Isabeau from Whoa!mance invite me to join them on a very special Whoanus spectacular.
-
Discussed:
She-Devil - 1989 Film starring Meryl Streep as Mary Fisher, the romance novelist, and Roseanne Barr, as Ruth
Shelf Love:
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Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
and
Episode 089 to Problematize Romance
Shelf Love:
Normal People by Sally Rooney (and the Hulu adaptation) is a love story that may or may not be a romance novel, a story that might be hopeful even if it’s bleak, but who could say if it represents all millennials, who live in a post-love, post-Tumblr society? Shelf Love’s Youth Culture Media Correspondent Dame Jodie Slaughter helps me decipher what Normal People has to say about love, romance, marriage, and millennials, all through our lens as romance novel readers.
-
Thanks to the contributors to this episode:
- Instagram friends: @charlotteevaah @boysandmonsters @dbabyfilarski
Discussed:
- Normal People by Sally Rooney & Hulu adaptation
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
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- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Guest: Dame Jodie Slaughter, Shelf Love’s Youth Culture Media Correspondent
Advanced Nerdery:
- WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? ROMANCE AND INTIMACY IN AN AGE OF HOOKING UP by David Shumway
-
Narrative Impact: Social and Cognitive Foundations
- Edited by Melanie C. Green, Jeffrey J. Strange, Timothy C. Brock
Shelf Love:
Is true love real or fiction? Is romantic love in fiction unreal but not untrue? How do romance novels play with fiction and reality, and how do some other disciplines explore similar questions in their own fields? Guest: Dr. Eric Selinger
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2021: bit.ly/romancelandia
Shelf Love:
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- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Links
- JPRStudies.org
- Routledge Companion to Romantic Love edited by Ann Brooks
- Deakin University’s Concepts in Popular Genre Fiction Conference
Shelf Love:
This episode is about feelings, and Murderbot, and romance novels, and hope, and anger, and powerlessness, the year 2020....and 2021.
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2021: bit.ly/romancelandia
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
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Shelf Love:
Seven souls gave romance novels a try as a result of the Bridgerton adaptation and bravely came to speak with me about what they thought of romance readers before, what it took for them to pick up a romance, and how or if they've had a change of heart about the genre and what it means to be a romance reader.
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Check out the rest of the research:
Podcast version: Episode 096 about the Romance Reader Stereotype
Thank you so much to Ellie, Emma, Lucy, Jake, Emily, Amanda and Sujey for taking the time to speak with me.
Shelf Love:
Stories from Shelf Love listeners who have reexamined romantic stories that they used to love and found that their relationship has gone from unconditional love to questioning the value of their relationship. Outlander. The Cosby Show. Harry Potter. Gilmore Girls. We hate to love you!
-
Shelf Love:
Join the Conversation on Discord: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Thanks to the contributors to this episode:
- The Smut Report
- EL Jones
- Katherine Grant
- DK Jones
- Jennifer RNN
- Terrible Lotus
- DL White
- Dr. Maria DeBlassie
- Dr. Sri Upadhyay
Discussed:
Wil Wheaton: separating art from problematic artist (via Dr. Maria DeBlassie):
Johannauary: https://soundcloud.com/user-282269790/episode-72-yours-to-keep-johannauary-1-defy-not-the-heart-by-johanna-lindsey
Shelf Love:
Dr. Maria DeBlassie joins me to discuss engaging with banned media, and dealing with the discomfort and joy of growth. Is Gone With the Wind watchable with context? What happens when I force myself to watch it and realize how far into the present its influence reaches? And, I finally read Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase and see what the fuss is about: but am I allowed to enjoy it?
Content notes: this episode discusses racism and intimate partner violence.
-
Co-Host on this episode: Dr. Maria DeBlassie
Previous Shelf Love episodes:
- Maria on episode 041 of Shelf Love: The Kiss Quotient
- 066 about African Diaspora Conjuring Practices in Pop Culture
- 067 Everyday Black Magic
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Discussed:
- Gone with the Wind (book and movie)
- Gone with the Wind, Banned Books Week & Uncomfortable Histories
- Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
- 6 Simple Lifelong Steps to Joyful Problematization, Infographic
- Jodi Picoult's Essay on NPR: Ready For Romance: Reading Gone With The Wind
Shelf Love:
Is it real love or fantasy TV? I hope you're here for the right reasons: to learn how The Bachelor franchise produces a fantasy of romantic love. We cover the lingo (Rose Ceremony, Fantasy Suite, Frankenbiting), the scandals, the couples, and all of the commercially-viable aesthetically romantic gestures that construct "romantic love" on The Bachelor.
Tell Me About is a series that introduces me and you to new genres and sub genres of romantic stories across media. Podcast host and Bachelor Nation Expert Jhen (The Blachelorettes, Monogamish, Stacked) joins me to discuss romantic love, what audiences expect from the love stories on The Bachelor, and how these stories make her feel.
-
Discussed: The Bachelor
This episode is available on YouTube, with video, graphic additions, etc. Watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK149ByQtpo
Guest: Jhen
Jhen is an expert on The Bachelor, the co-host of The Blachelorettes podcast, as well as host of Monogamish Podcast and co-host of Stacked.
- Jhen: @haveyoumetjhen
- The Blachelorettes: @blachelorettes
- Monogamish: @monogamishpod
- Stacked: @stackedshow
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Shelf Love:
How do romantic narratives explore or influence our ideas of which bodies are "desirable"? Dr. Christina Fattore will introduce us to neoliberalism, and we'll discuss how the ideological focus on individual agency influences our ideas of which bodies are most desirable to acquire in romantic partners and how individuals must produce desirable bodies to create "value" in a romantic marketplace.
CW: discussion of diet culture, body size, etc.
Guest: Dr. Fattore, associate professor of political science and romance reader and writer.
Discussed: Neoliberalism, "desirable" bodies, romantic partners according to dominant cultural ideologies
Guest: Dr. Christina Fattore
Associate professor of political science at West Virginia University as well as an avid romance reader. Currently working on a project on romancelandia and political participation, which was featured in the Washington Post.
Website: https://christinafattore.org/
Find on Twitter: @cfattorewvu
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Mentioned:
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Shelf Love:
I now pronounce you man and...horse? Kissing mannequins, will Taylor stay dead this time, is Sheila Carter the best Supervillain, and favorite Super Couples (seemingly always love triangles?): when I asked Dr. Jodi McAlister to Tell Me About The Bold and the Beautiful, I had no idea how wild the ride would be!
Tell Me About is a series that introduces me and you to new genres and sub genres of romantic stories across media. Novelist, academic, and Soap Superfan Dr. Jodi McAlister share how soap opera's structure explores romantic love, what audiences expect from the love stories, and how these stories make her feel.
-
Discussed: The Bold and the Beautiful (Soap Opera)
This episode is available on YouTube, with video, graphic additions, etc. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w2VE2fiQQM&t=988s
Guest: Dr. Jodi McAlister
Dr Jodi McAlister is a Lecturer of Writing, Literature and Culture at Deakin University in Melbourne. She is also an author, and her new rom-coms Here For The Right Reasons and Can I Steal You For A Second? will be out in 2022.
- Jodi's website: http://jodimcalister.com.au/
- Find her on Twitter: @jodimca
- Instagram: @jodimcalister
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JodiMcA
- Valentine series: https://www.penguin.com.au/brand/valentine
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Mentioned:
Shelf Love:
Journalist E. Jean Carroll hopped a ride on the Love Train with dozens of romance authors in 1983, hoping to discover "how to catch a man." But did she actually discover who women* in America were fantasizing about being? Steve Ammidown, archivist and historian of the romance genre, joins me to discuss Where the Heart Roams, a 1987 documentary about romance authors, culture clashes, silk sheets and lavender sachets, men with a lot of flash (there aren't many), and many conflicting theories about how to catch a man.
Appearances by: Vivian Stephens, Janet Dailey, Barbara Cartland, and many more!
*middle class white cis heterosexual women...
Discussed: Where the Heart Roams (1987) documentary by George Csicsery
Guest: Steve Ammidown
Steve Ammidown is an archivist and historian of the romance genre. In 2019, he was the Cathie Linz Librarian Of The Year.
He currently writes about romance history on his blog, romancehistory.com.
Find him on Twitter: @stegan
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Mentioned:
- 000-015.html">Bizarre Life Magazine photo essay
- Labor force participation rates from 1890 to 2016
- E. Jean Carroll's Female Difficulties
Shelf Love:
Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
Shelf Love:
Proving once and for all, using science, the truth of the romance reader stereotype. Warning: this research is about how romance novels and readers are perceived, not the actual reality.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
- Watch the presentation and slides on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BQzi8fBB0R8
Inside: Stereotype Content Model, Cognitive Dissonance, Susan Fiske, Social Psychology, Leon Festinger, Dan Ariely, and more.
Shelf Love:
Romance Author Jodie Slaughter joins Shelf Love Live from Copper Dog Books in Beverly, Massachusetts. Can Jodie identify excerpts from her own books? What's her favorite trope and why is it Only One Bed? We play games and share romance recommendations, answer live Q&A from the audience, are ogled by passing firefighters, question if capitalism is the real nemesis in classic rom-coms, and more.
Recorded August 11, 2021 in a livestream. Watch the enhanced & edited video recording on YouTube!
Part 1: https://youtu.be/Una6yJPyVf0
Part 2: https://youtu.be/txultz7mqB8
Buy White Whiskey Bargain from Copper Dog Books: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781733426565
Pre-order Bet On It by Jodie Slaughter: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781250821829
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Books Mentioned:
- Keep Moving by Maggie Smith: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781982132071
- All Things Burn by Jodie Slaughter: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781074526542
- To Be Alone With You by Jodie Slaughter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y92DR54/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
- Satisfaction Guaranteed by Karelia Stetz-Waters: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781538735527
- Take a Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9780062941237
- Strange Love by Ann Aguirre: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9781658713764
- His Beauty by Jack Harbon: https://www.amazon.com/His-Beauty-Jack-Harbon-ebook/dp/B08LYL4JKM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TZF4XPJSNBQH&dchild=1&keywords=his+beauty+jack+harbon&qid=1630370570&sprefix=his+beauty+jack%2Caps%2C326&sr=8-1
- Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9798554610417
- Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9780578720364
- How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/book/9780062933966
More Romance Recommendations: https://www.copperdogbooks.com/loveyourshelf
Learn more about Jodie Slaughter: https://www.jodieslaughter.com/
Shelf Love episodes mentioned:
- White Whiskey Bargain with Charish Reid: https://shelflovepodcast.com/episodes/season-2/episode-31/white-whiskey-bargain-by-jodie-slaughter-with-charish-reid-be-proud-english-majors/
- Jodie Slaughter Twilight fan fiction episode: https://shelflovepodcast.com/episodes/season-2/episode-77/077-twilight-fan-fiction-climbing-into-a-can-of-worms-with-jodie-slaughter-part-1/
- Ideologies with Margo Hendricks: https://shelflovepodcast.com/episodes/season-2/episode-80/080-i-now-pronounce-you-colonialism-capitalism-white-supremacy/
- Strange Love with Whoa!mance: https://shelflovepodcast.com/episodes/season-2/episode-76/076-generous-curiosity-strange-love-by-ann-aguirre-with-whoamance/
- Jack Harbon as a guest on the podcast talking about Captive Romance: https://shelflovepodcast.com/episodes/season-2/episode-84/084-captive-romance-problematic-favorite-tropes/
Listen to Shelf Love Podcast on your favorite podcast app and get more info and transcripts on the website: https://shelflovepodcast.com/
Support Shelf Love on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ShelfLove
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shelflovepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelflovepodcast/
Shelf Love:
Who profits from "diverse" romance adaptations? Are white authors making room for creators from marginalized backgrounds to tell their stories? What's lost in translation to screen?
Listener questions inspire me to dig into how romance novels differ from romances adapted for the screen. Then, I examine the curious case of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton adaptation, sharing statements she's made on whom she could imagine (not) getting a happily ever after in historicals and a never-before-heard interview with Kianna Alexander recounting a panel from 2017.
-
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Resources:
- Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction by Jayashree Kamble
- The Strand Panel on YouTube
- Laura Vivanco has a blog post where she collects some anecdotes from folks on Twitter with additional insight into the accuracy of how Julia Quinn has represented history in these anecdotes.
- netflix-s-hit-series-bridgerton-drives-book-sales.html">Publisher's Weekly 1 month post-Bridgerton Sales
- Nielsen Julia Quinn Sales
- Julia Quinn's books
Contributors to this episode:
- Love, Essie
- Jhen - Monogamish, Shelf Love Episode
- Jodie Slaughter: episode 077 and 078
- Diana Filar: episode 092
- Kianna Alexander
Shelf Love:
Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon: it may be a Tik-Tok sensation now, but over a year ago it was a podcast sensation. Dani Lacey invited me as a guest on her podcast, Ice Planet Podcast, to discuss Barbarian's Hope, a second chance romance between two very tall blue humanoid-ish aliens with horns whose love life is controlled by a parasite. This is an edited version of that episode.
CW: loss of a child, grief, depression.
Show Notes:
NEWS:
- Dame Jodie Slaughter River Boat Cruise & Virtual Event with Copper Dog Books! (August 10 & 11, 2021)
- I launched a Patreon!
- Watch my PCA Presentation about Romance Reader Stereotypes!
- Support Honor Black Birth!
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dani Lacey, host of Ice Planet Podcast
Dani Lacey: Twitter
Ice Planet Podcast: Website | Twitter
We Discuss:
Barbarian's Hope, Book #11 of the Ice Planet Barbarians Series by Ruby Dixon
To listen to the full original version of this episode, you can listen to episode 10 of Ice Planet Podcast here:
Shelf Love:
How is whiteness & assimilation assumed in the "land of opportunity" narrative & myth of American immigrants? We explore: how names indicate our roots, white privilege, feelings of cultural loss, our own immigrant experiences, plus we talk about Christina Laurens' Roomies novel & upcoming film adaptation.
NEWS:
- Dame Jodie Slaughter River Boat Cruise & Virtual Event with Copper Dog Books! (August 10 & 11, 2021)
- I launched a Patreon!
- Watch my PCA Presentation about Romance Reader Stereotypes!
- Support Honor Black Birth!
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Diana Filar
We talked about Roomies by Christina Lauren
Quotes about Christina Laurens' Roomies adaptation: https://ew.com/books/2018/08/16/how-hollywood-is-rekindling-the-rom-com/
Shelf Love:
"Guilty pleasures," or is the guilt what we find pleasurable? This is the question Dr. Arielle Zibrak asks in her book, Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures (NYU Press). Arielle joins me to explore just some of the thought-provoking arguments made in her book and coach me on letting myself enjoy imperfect media. It's not a book about romance novels (although they're discussed), but the topic is highly relevant for any media that is coded as "femme," especially stories about love.
NEWS:
- Dame Jodie Slaughter River Boat Cruise & Virtual Event with Copper Dog Books! (August 10 & 11, 2021)
- I launched a Patreon!
- Watch my PCA Presentation about Romance Reader Stereotypes!
- Support Honor Black Birth!
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Arielle Zibrak
Website | Twitter | Buy Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures
Arielle is reading/watching:
- Animal by Lisa Taddeo
- The Bold Type
Shelf Love:
A touch of taboo...the Joyless Hags (Katrina Jackson & Tasha L. Harrison) reunite to dissect Seducing My Guardian by Katee Robert. We ask "What is this book trying to do?" When a book opens a door, does it have to close a window somewhere?! Also some news!
-
NEWS:
Dame Jodie Slaughter River Boat Cruise & Virtual Event with Copper Dog Books! (August 10 & 11, 2021)
Watch my PCA Presentation about Romance Reader Stereotypes!
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guests:
Katrina Jackson: Twitter | Instagram | manage.com/subscribe?u=58e75900ea84507723594c424&id=e4c6a8ff2e">Kat’s Email newsletter | Buy Beautiful & Dirty
Kat's other episodes: An Unconditional Freedom | Polyamory/Financial Conversations | Kink | Angst | Religion | History | Blind Date With A Book Boyfriend by Lucy Eden | Modern Romance Canon
Tasha L. Harrison: Twitter | Tasha's website | Buy A Taste of Her Own Medicine
Tasha's other episodes: Tasha L. Harrison Writes Romance for Black People | A Duke by Default
We Discuss:
Seducing My Guardian by Katee Robert
Previous Joyless Hags Book Club Episodes:
083. Earth is Ghetto: Joyless Hags Book Club
Shelf Love:
Problematizing romance: what happens when we dare to interrogate the assumptions that underlie the worlds into which we escape? Morgan & Isabeau from Whoa!mance podcast join me to discuss commodity fetishism, Marx, how it's easier to cancel than realize there is no terminus, and how we can't sloganize or consume our way out of oppression. It's the whole enchilada. Don't miss an epilogue to our conversation about North and South that pulls it all together. ("I don't want to marry you to possess you...I want to marry you because I love you!")
PS: There's an intermission half way through the episode at a natural pause point if you want to listen in 2 parts.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
- Watch my PCA Presentation on YouTube! It's (not) about Bridgerton!
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Morgan & Isabeau joined me in episode 076 to discuss Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
Shelf Love:
Suspend your assumptions about rare books - Rebecca Romney shares how rare book collection can be for everyone, and is a critical component of preserving romance genre history. Work by marginalized people has frequently been considered unimportant or devalued in the rare book world - learn how Rebecca's work (part detective, part scholar, part marketer) is important not just for romance scholars, but for all of us, and how we all have a role to play.
Rebecca Romney is a rare books specialist who has been working on a catalogue surveying the history of popular romance since 2016, covering first editions of major works in the genre from the 18th century to the year 2000. She's also the co-founder of the rare book firm Type Punch Matrix, where the catalogue will be released.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Rebecca Romney, Rare Book Dealer
Other episodes to check out, related to content in this episode:
- 013. The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams with Steve Ammidown
- 058. East Asian American Romances with Cultural Historian Hsu-Ming Teo
- 073. Structuring Romance: The Secular Scripture pt 1 with Dr. Angela Toscano
- 074. Ma'am, this is Problematic: The Secular Scripture pt 2 with Dr. Angela Toscano
Shelf Love:
"Safe sex" in romance novels with Dame Jodie Slaughter, part 2. We'll finish discussing the research published in 2000 about if reading romance impacts condom usage, and then I'll share some Twitter poll results from the community about condom usage in the last contemporary romance they read, as well as some results on where folks learned information about safe sex - what's your guess on how many were impacted by media including romance novels?
Jodie and I brainstorm some ways to incorporate less commonly covered aspects of safe sex and sexual health in romance novels. Plus, how do WASPs teach sex education?
If you haven't listened to episode 086, you probably want to take a listen to part 1 of this conversation before diving in.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jodie Slaughter
Twitter | Instagram | Check out Jodie's Books
Research discussed:
6402.2000.tb00199.x">LOVE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO BE CAREFUL: The Relationship Between Reading Romance Novels and Safe Sex Behavior
Amanda B. Diekman, Wendi L. Gardner, Mary McDonald
Twitter Polls:
Safe Sex in last contemporary romance novel you read
Shelf Love:
Dame Jodie Slaughter joins me to talk about sex education, the messages about safe sex in romance novels, the symbolic nature of sexual choices in romance, and discussion of research on these topics.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jodie Slaughter
Twitter | Instagram | Check out Jodie's Books
Research discussed:
6402.2000.tb00199.x">LOVE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO BE CAREFUL: The Relationship Between Reading Romance Novels and Safe Sex Behavior
Amanda B. Diekman, Wendi L. Gardner, Mary McDonald
Shelf Love:
I reflect on listener favorite episodes from 2020, share what I'll be speaking more of in 2021, and say thank you to the Holiday Fairies! (Originally recorded in January when 2021 was still fresh.)
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Listener Favorite Episodes from 2020 (Popular Vote - i.e. downloads)
- 052. The Modern Romance Canon
- 064. Women in Pants: Unpacking Problematic Faves
- 041. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang with Dr. Maria DeBlassie
- 058. East Asian American Romances with Cultural Historian Hsu-Ming Teo
- 033. Romance Myths & Misconceptions: Kennedy Ryan, Emma Barry, Talia Hibbert, Tif Marcelo, and Suzanne Jefferies
- 063. The Three Waves of Romance with Eric Selinger
- 045. History in Romance with Katrina Jackson, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Felicia Grossman
- 061. Alphaholes with Jodie Slaughter: Unpacking Problematic Faves
Jess's Favorites: (You can hear Jess on 047. Rose Lerner Double Header with Shelf Lovely Jess)
- 066. African Diaspora Conjuring Practices in Popular Culture & 067. Everyday Black Magic
- 019. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas with Penny Reid
- 030. A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles with Emma Barry
- 058. East Asian American Romances with Cultural Historian Hsu-Ming Teo
- 046. A Conspiracy of Whispers by Ada Harper with Bree (from Kit Rocha)
Super Special Thank You's who went above and beyond to help with Holiday Fairies:
Holiday Fairies: Amazing Newsletter Sponsors To Support
- manage.com/subscribe?u=58e75900ea84507723594c424&id=e4c6a8ff2e">Katrina Jackson
- Tasha L. Harrison
- Jodie Slaughter
- Roan Parrish
- Torrance Sene
- Elizabeth Everett
- The Bawdy Bookworms
- RomBkPod
- Smexy Books
- Mindy McKinley
- Nikki (Angelic Devil)
Shelf Love:
Evil Prince Jack Harbon busts captive romance out of its cage: is captivity and kidnapping only found in dark romance, or are its themes more prevalent? We discuss why this trope is pleasurable and different manifestations in popular culture: Beauty and the Beast, Persephone Hades, the patriarchy, medical school, and alien abduction.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jack Harbon
Twitter | Instagram | Website | His Beauty | Worship
Mentioned:
The Fascinating Link Between Alien Abduction Reports and Sadomasochistic Fantasies
Shelf Love:
1 Bonkers Book; 3 Joyless Hags. If you could escape earth, would you happily hitch your wagon to a lizard-man's space ship? When we scratch the surface of alien abduction romance, what do we find, and does insta-love exist? All of these questions are answered in the first ever Joyless Hags Book Club. I'm joined by Tasha L. Harrison and Katrina Jackson to discuss Alien Mate Experiment by Zenobia Renquist.
-
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guests:
Katrina Jackson: Twitter | Instagram | manage.com/subscribe?u=58e75900ea84507723594c424&id=e4c6a8ff2e">Kat’s Email newsletter | Buy Beautiful & Dirty
- Kat's other episodes: An Unconditional Freedom | Polyamory/Financial Conversations | Kink | Angst | Religion | History | Blind Date With A Book Boyfriend by Lucy Eden | Modern Romance Canon
Tasha L. Harrison: Twitter | Tasha's website | Buy A Taste of Her Own Medicine
- Tasha's other episodes: Tasha L. Harrison Writes Romance for Black People | A Duke by Default
Vibes:
- Earth is a Ghetto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr2xMRSObto
We Discuss:
Shelf Love:
Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman, host of Black Romance Podcast, uses a multi-modal cultural studies perspective to engage students in critical engagement with Black romance texts to "liberate learners from the mimicry of the powerful."
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman
Center for Black Diaspora at DePaul | Twitter
Listen to Black Romance Podcast
Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Article we talk about:
Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture By Douglas Kellner
Mentioned:
- Hsu-Ming Teo's interview that I mentioned in the episode
Progression of me discovering I might have ADHD:
- Awareness: 046. A Conspiracy of Whispers by Ada Harper with Bree (from Kit Rocha)
- Recognition: 053. Tasha L. Harrison Writes Romance For Black People
- Dawning Realization: 054. A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole with Tasha L. Harrison
Shelf Love:
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Margo Hendricks
Article we talk about:
Archives and Histories of Racial Capitalism: An Afterward by Jennifer L. Morgan
A very short starter reading list sent by Dr. Hendricks:
- Richard Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, & Discoveries of the English
- Imtiaz Habib, Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677
- Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Black London Before Emancipation
- Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
- Annette Gordon-Reed, Racism in America
- The Vision of China in the English Literature of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century. Edited by Adrian Hsia, Chinese U P, 1998
- Connexions: Histories of Race and Sex in North America, eds., Jennifer Brier, Jim Downs, Jennifer L. Morgan
- Stephanie Camp, "Early European Views of African Bodies: Beauty," Sexuality and Slavery, ed. Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie M. Harris
- Jerng, Mark C. Racial Worldmaking: The Power of Popular Fiction (2018)
- Baez, Jillian, "Navigating and Negotiating Latina Beauty" (In Search of Belonging: Latinas, Media, and Citizenship) (2018)
- Akhimie, Patricia, Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race and conduct in the Early Modern World
- Readers: Critical Race Theory, Critical White Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies
- Elizabeth Kingston, "Romanticizing White Supremacy" (2018)
- Chess, Simone, Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations
- Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives. Ed. Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. New York: Routledge, 2014.
Shelf Love:
Have you ever wondered when Shelf Love would finally cover the unholy marriage of Colonialism, Imperialism, Capitalism, and White Supremacy? Dr. Margo Hendricks drops in to explain why you can't talk about just one because they're inextricably linked. Yes, this is still a romance novel podcast!
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Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Margo Hendricks
Article we talk about:
Archives and Histories of Racial Capitalism: An Afterward by Jennifer L. Morgan
Episodes Mentioned:
073 & 074 about The Secular Scripture by Northrop Frye with Dr. Angela Toscano
077 & 078 with Dame Jodie Slaughter about Twilight and Bridgerton (noodling on some ideas that eventually became my current research project)
To Be Alone With You by Jodie Slaughter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y92DR54/
A very short starter reading list sent by Dr. Hendricks:
- Richard Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, & Discoveries of the English
- Imtiaz Habib, Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500-1677
- Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Black London Before Emancipation
- Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
- Annette Gordon-Reed, Racism in America
- The Vision of China in the English Literature of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century. Edited by Adrian Hsia, Chinese U P, 1998
- Connexions: Histories of Race and Sex in North America, eds., Jennifer Brier, Jim Downs, Jennifer L. Morgan
- Stephanie Camp, "Early European Views of African Bodies: Beauty," Sexuality and Slavery, ed. Daina Ramey Berry and Leslie M. Harris
- Jerng, Mark C. Racial Worldmaking: The Power of Popular Fiction (2018)
- Baez, Jillian, "Navigating and Negotiating Latina Beauty" (In Search of Belonging: Latinas, Media, and Citizenship) (2018)
- Akhimie, Patricia, Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race and conduct in the Early Modern World
- Readers: Critical Race Theory, Critical White Studies, Critical Indigenous Studies
- Elizabeth Kingston, "Romanticizing White Supremacy" (2018)
- Chess, Simone, Male-to-Female Crossdressing in Early Modern English Literature: Gender, Performance, and Queer Relations
- Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives. Ed. Karli June Cerankowski and Megan Milks. New York: Routledge, 2014.
Shelf Love:
You've heard of "there's only one bed" romance trope - are you ready for: "There's Only One Heart"? Kelly Reynolds from Boobies & Noobies invited me on her show in October 2020 and we discussed Austin Chant's Caroline's Heart. Plus, learn a bit about Shelf Love's exciting new research project.
Show Notes
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Book: Caroline's Heart by Austin Chant
Guest: Kelly Reynolds from Boobies & Noobies Podcast
Learn more about Shelf Love's Bridgerton Research project: https://shelflovepodcast.com/blog/posts/bridgerton-research
Shelf Love:
Will Bridgerton inspire romance curiosity for a new generation? Jodie Slaughter became a romance reader by way of Twilight and Twilight fanfiction. When newbies take their first clumsy steps into romancelandia, will they be welcomed with the benefit of the doubt or shunned for arriving at the HEA gates too late?
Part 2 - listen to episode 77 for part 1.
Show Notes:
Don't miss part 1, 077. Twilight Fan Fiction: Climbing into a Can of Worms with Jodie Slaughter (part 1)
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jodie Slaughter
Twitter | Instagram | Check out Jodie's Books
Cans of Worms:
Jodie on Shelf Love episode 061
Twitter thread referenced in this episode: Elle McKinney on Literary Blackface
Shelf Love:
Twilight. Fan fiction. Bridgerton. Hashtag diversity. Plus countless cans of worms that we don't want to get into, yet nonetheless crank open. Dame Jodie Slaughter and I go on a journey to uncover gateways into romance, and why it's so hard to even identify that the thing people love in other media is the romance!
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dame Jodie SlaughterTwitter | Instagram | Check out Jodie's Books
Cans of Worms:
- Jodie on Shelf Love episode 061
- Twitter thread referenced in this episode
- The Greatest Gift - one of Jodie's all-time fave Twilight AU fan fics
Shelf Love:
An alien abduction romance with a delightfully unexpected exploration of sexual pleasure. Morgan and Isabeau from Whoa!mance join me to discuss how Strange Love by Ann Aguirre unpacks cultural scripts and encourages generous curiosity. Also: the origin story of the Whoa!mance intro sigh.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guests: Whoa!mance (Morgan and Isabeau)
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Listen on any podcast app!
Book Discussed
Misc: I mentioned the episode about My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas with Dr. Jayashree Kamble
Top Whoa!mance episode recommendations for Shelf Love listeners
- Episode 92: Discreet Bylines — Behind These Doors by Jude Lucens
- Episode 91: Summa Cum Laude — Office Hours by Katrina Jackson
- Episode 89: Spring Fling with Scarlett Peckham — Part One & Part 2
- Episode 70: Triage à Trois — Hummingbird by LaVyrle Spencer
- Episode 6: Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
- Episode 50: Author Interview — Melonie Johnson
- Episode 48: For the Troops — A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill
Shelf Love:
Jennifer Crusie drops in to talk about Dove Bars, dogs, normative ideals of white middle class baby boomer womanhood, divorce, unconditional love, RWA, and all the good times ahead we've been wondering about.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jennifer Crusie
Shelf Love Episodes mentioned:
- Episode 002: the episode about Crusie's Oeuvre that started it all
- Episode 068: Happily Ever Existential Dread: how the desire for HEA is all about a future we don't have to imagine
- Episode 047: Shelf Lovely Jess drops in to talk about how I used Crusie to lure her into my new podcast and she never left (also we talk about Rose Lerner's books and Sunfire romance)
Crusie Recommends:
- Sarina Bowen - The Year We Fell Down
- Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
- The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
- Contemporary romance by Mhairi McFarlane
- Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch
Shelf Love:
Dr. Angela Toscano returns to continue our discussion of The Secular Scripture by Northrop Frye and how it's an urtext for understanding the romance genre. You'll definitely want to go listen to part 1, which is episode 73, before listening to this one
In part 2, we'll be discussing how identity must evolve in romance, the possibility inherent to the romance, and how we can have more critical conversations about problematic things in romance without demanding its eradication - because let's be honest, everything is problematic.
Show Notes:
Listen to part 1: 073. Structuring Romance: The Secular Scripture pt 1 with Dr. Angela Toscano
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
- Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
Guest: Dr. Angela Toscano
Twitter | Website | JPRS Notes & Queries | Patreon - Romance Lessons from Dr. Toscano
Books Discussed:
The Secular Scripture by Northrop Frye
What to read next if you like Frye:
- On Fairy Stories by JRR Tolkein
- A Natural History of the Romance by Pamela Regis
- Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye
- Meditations on Don Quixote by Ortega y Gasset
- True Story of the Novel by Margaret Doody
- Poetic Diction by Owen Barfield
The diagram I drew when reading about identity in The Secular Scripture
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
Shelf Love:
Dr. Angela Toscano, a romance scholar, writer, and researcher joins Shelf Love to discuss literary critic Northrop Frye's 1976 book The Secular Scripture: A study of the structure of romance. Although it's 44 years old and isn't only about romance novels, it has a lot to say that's relevant to the popular romance genre in the year 2020 - and Angela and I call on many examples from more recent books you may be familiar with as well as other examples from pop culture.
For example, how is the structure of romance fundamentally different from that of literary, epic works? Why is "mere entertainment" so derided by the academy and what's wrong with the phony infinite? What's the difference between a maze with no plan and a maze, not without a plan? How does romance focus on the polarity between the idyllic world we want and the subterranean world we don't want, but not the life we have? And how does the dog always know?
This is part 1 of our conversation. Part 2: out 12/26/20.
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Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
- Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
Guest: Dr. Angela Toscano
Twitter | Website | JPRS Notes & Queries
Books Discussed:
The Secular Scripture by Northrop Frye
The Hathaways by Lisa Kleypas
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
Shelf Love:
This episode is about feelings, and romance novels, and hope, and anger, and powerlessness, and the year 2020.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
- Check out Shelf Love’s website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
I mentioned Jayashree Kamble's idea of "the media romance," which she writes about in Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction (on sale until 12/31/20 for $20!) She also writes about it in her chapter in the Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction "Romance in the Media."
Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
Thank you to beta listeners for this episode: Hannah Hearts Romance, Jhen, and Madison
Shelf Love:
The Swoon Awards organizers drop in to share their exciting new romance award for readers. Ari, Amber, Lynell, and Nick were the perfect crew to join me to talk about favorite romances of the year and along the way we explain our own personal criteria for deciding what made the cut.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Romancelandia Holiday Fairies Gift Drive (2020)
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guests: The Swoon Awards
Website - submit a nomination/vote | Twitter
Ari: Goodreads ; Twitter | Amber: Blog ; Twitter | Lynell: reader.blogspot.com/">Blog ; Twitter | Nick: Blog ; Twitter
Books Discussed:
Sign up for my email newsletter for the full list with more details!
Top Five Reads for 2020:
Ari's Top 5
- See Me After Class by Meghan Quinn
- Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone
- The Roommate by Rosie Danan
- The Lineup by Meghan Quinn
- The Tip-Off by Rebecca Jenshak
Amber's Top 5
- The Roommate by Rosie Danan
- You Should See Me in My Crown by Leah Johnson
- Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai
- Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (episode with Talia Hibbert)
- Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
Lynell's Top 5
- Office Hours by Katrina Jackson (Katrina Jackson is on Shelf Love's editorial advisory board and a frequent guest)
- Blind Date with a Book Boyfriend by Lucy Eden (episode about this book!)
- Ties that Tether by Jane Igharo
- Dirty Hearts by Kenya Wright
- How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole
Nick's Top 5
- The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
- Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
- Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
- The Hidden Moon by Jeannie Lin (episode that talks about how love was different in the Tang dynasty)
- The Psy-Changeling Series by Nalini Singh
Andrea's Top 5
- The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
- How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole (episode with Alyssa Cole)
- Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon (episode about Harbor and my favorite episode with Rebekah)
- The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham (episode about The Rakess, episode where Scarlett was a guest)
- White Whiskey Bargain by Jodie Slaughter (episode about White Whiskey Bargain, episode where Jodie was a guest)
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Support the Holiday Fairies Gift Drive
Shelf Love:
Jhen, host of the Monogamish Podcast, drops in to discuss consensual non-monogamy aka polyamory in popular romance. We discuss Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon and Neighborly by Katrina Jackson.
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Jhen from Monogamish
Jhen is a host of Monogamish, a podcast about consensual non-monogamy through the lens of a Black Carribbean lens.
Jhen on Twitter | Jhen on Instagram | Listen to Monogamish
Books Discussed:
- Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon
- Neighborly by Katrina Jackson
Support Romancing the Runoff:
Shelf Love:
Scarlett Peckham, professional writer of alpha heroines, joins me to discuss her problematic favorite trope: house parties! Forced Proximity! Lunch hampers! Bed hopping! Both everything and nothing is riding on who marries whom! And of course, capitalism, imperialism, and labor exploitation. Womp womp - don't worry, they kiss at the end.
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Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- 15 Romance Novel Audiobooks that Combine Swoony Words with Great Performances
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Scarlett Peckham
Website | Twitter | Instagram | The Rakess | The Lord I Left
Book Discussed:
What I Did for A Duke by Julie Ann Long
Support Romancing the Runoff:
Shelf Love Auction Items
Choose an Episode Topic! | Baby Quilt!
Buy Stacy Abrams' Romance novels (Selena Montgomery)
Print is backordered, but available digitally right now
Shelf Love:
Guest: Dr. Danielle Knafo, a clinical psychologist who studies fantasy, perversion, sexuality, and gender. In this episode, we discuss questions like, is it harmful to start reading romance novels too young? Why might someone fantasize about things that are undesirable in real life? What's the deal with sadomasochism? Am I become a joyless hag who's sucking all the fun out of romance novels by trying to critically understand problematic faves? Is the Happily Ever After really just a way for us humans to deal with existential dread?
Show Notes:
Shelf Love:
- Sign up for the email newsletter list | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Email: Andrea@shelflovepodcast.com
- Scarily Ever After Recommended Reading
- Check out Shelf Love’s updated website including the transcript for this episode
- Shelf Love episodes with transcripts
Guest: Dr. Danielle Knafo
Book Discussed:
The New Sexual Landscape and Contemporary Psychoanalysis* by Dr. Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco
Support Romancing the Runoff:
Buy Stacy Abrams' Romance novels (Selena Montgomery)
Print is backordered, but available digitally right now
Shelf Love:
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