Episode 13: A-Hygge: The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer

The month of dark becoming light and whitefish become lutefisk continues! Kate Bjorkman uses her Romance Writer's Handbook, with its three paragraph kisses and dashing heroes, to capture her winter romance. Along the way we get to experience the Bjorkman family Christmas, love in the time of broken glasses and six layers of fleece and wool, and the affectionate embrace of a nerdy, quirky family.

The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman: Goodreads

Louise Plummer: Blog

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Happy First Night of Hanukkah!

Here are the recommendations we made in this episode:

How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis: Goodreads

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: Goodreads

Fearless by Shira Glassman: Goodreads, website

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Content Warnings

Side character death, casual 90s homophobia (fruit boots?!), assault of a male character by a female character, friendship aggression and slut-shaming. There's also a horrifying anecdote about baby mice.

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Show Notes

The true story of how Teen Vogue got mad, got woke, and began terrifying men like Donald Trump

How Sassy Changed my Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer

Want a modern take on The Romance Writer's Handbook? Try Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes

Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

Courtney Milan

Beverly Jenkins

Is A Muppet Family Christmas the Best Holiday Special Ever? (Spoiler: Yes.)

Just as Long as We're Together and Here's the You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Code Words For Lesbianism In Classic Films

The Something Awful Christmas Albums

Photo by Marco Verch

Scandinavian Christmas Traditions

10 Nordic Christmas Traditions You Can Try at Home

17 Ideas for a Merry Scandinavian Christmas

The Year of Hygge, the Danish Obsession with Getting Cozy

Lagom: This Swedish Lifestyle Trend Will Help Balance Your Life

Announcing the Danziger Awards for Hilarious Kids Books

Readalikes

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Remember Me to Harold Square by Paula Danzinger

7 Days to a Brand New Me by Ellen Conford

Current Reads

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M.Montgomery

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 12: Everything Terrible Happens at Christmas: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Happy Yule and Saturnalia! It's a Winter Wonderland at Go Your Own YA, where everything festively terrible happens to Gemma Doyle in Rebel Angels by Libba Bray. Carols, presents, wraiths and horrible fates in the classic about monstrous teen girls. We talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the heroine's journey and folk horror Christmas traditions as we gear for a festive month of reads.

Rebel Angels: Goodreads

Beauty Queens: Goodreads

Libba Bray: Website

Content Warnings

Drug addiction in a family member, general Victorian racism,classism, and sexism, parental incest, blood and gore, suicide, and a whole lot of plot set in an asylum

Show Notes

Paradise Lost by John Milton at Project Gutenberg

Cassandra Clare scoops £1m for first adult novels

A Victorian [England] Christmas

Saturnalia: The December Festival of Joy and Merriment in Ancient Rome

The Winter Solstice - Yule Lore

Folk Horror Revival

Jólakötturinn, The Christmas Cat of Iceland

8 Legendary Monsters of Christmas

15 Fascinating Facts About The Wicker Man

Picnic at Hanging Rock

One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Libba Bray

Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction

Who are the Baby Bees? Listen to Baby-Sitters Club Club to find out

Actually it was Lizzie Skurnick that talked about friends of proximity in Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

Internet Anagram Server

From Bethlehem to Bedlam - England's First Mental Institution

Here's a playlist of the BBC's videos on Victorian Christmas How Tos!

Libba Bray blogs on depression

The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger

A Gemma sighting in Lair of Dreams! Thank you to allthesmallwords.tumblr.com for the photo

Readalikes

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves

Current Reads

Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World edited by Kelly Jensen

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 11: Brad The Impaler goes to STEM Camp: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Tantalize and Rain is Not my Indian Name

What do marauding vampires, teen restaurant impresarios, small town politics and grieving families have in common? Cynthia Leitich Smith, writer and scholar extraordinaire. Carey and Marie talk about the inescapable legacy of Twilight, Native American kidlit and YA, photography as a catalyst for self-exploration and expression, and really terrible men who dress like they did a walk of shame from a Hot Topic. 

Rain is Not My Indian Name: Goodreads

Tantalize: Goodreads

Cynthia Leitich Smith: Website

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Content Warnings

Rain is Not My Indian Name

Racism, small town prejudice, anti-Native prejudice, grief (long term and short term), girl on girl relational agression

Tantalize

Gore, physical violence, vampirism, sexualization of teenagers, drugging and forcibly turning a teenager into a vampire. Also the baby squirrel thing.

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Show Notes

Rain is Not My Indian Name readers' guide

Cynsations Blog: The Tantalize Series

11 Most Haunted Places in Austin

Austin Book Store: Book People

Nowadays, Cassidy can attend one of these programs: These Revolutionary Programs Are Helping Native American Kids Chase Careers In Science, Technology, And Engineering

A real life Aunt Georgia: Czarina Salido fighting to help young Native American girls discover STEM

10 STEM Summer Camps for Students of Color

Native Now: Contemporary Indian Stories: article by  by Cynthia Leitich Smith (contemporary to Rain is Not My Indian Name)

A real-life Sanguini's in Tokyo, Japan

Weekend Update: Pete Davidson on Staten Island

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Readalikes

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Current Reads

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

The Mindful Child by Susan K Greenland

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 10: The Matthue Roth Appreciation Extravaganza

Carey and Marie discuss the myriad works of Matthue Roth! From teen punk sitcom stars, slam poets in San Francisco, and boys trying to find their way from Hebrew school to Rocky Horror, Matthue Roth writes music, faith and friendship in an unimitatable style. 

Never Mind the Goldbergs: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, Better World Books

Yom Kippur a Go-Go: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, IndieBound, Better World Books

Rules of My Best Friend's Body: It's free! Go download it here

Matthue Roth: Website

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Content Warnings

Never Mind the Goldbergs: Creepy predatory older man creeping on a teen girl. Lots of confusions around identity and general punk anger.

Yom Kippur a Go-Go: Matthue uses some words that are really only used intra-communally nowadays when talking about his very loved friends. There is also a theme of confusion around feelings about girls in conflict with his faith.

Rules of My Best Friend's Body: This book is about the best friend's character surviving rape. It is from the viewpoint of a teen boy, and the experience is based on the experience of the author. It is realistic, heartfelt, and also had some moments that made me, a thirtysomething woman and assault survivor, go WHAT THE HELL. It is an important viewpoint, but if sexual violence is in your past, proceed with caution. 

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What happened to Never Mind the Goldbergs? It has more to do with The Goldbergs than we thought. :

 http://www.matthue.com/2013/10/goldbergs-meet-goldbergs.html

Fault Line by Christa Desir

Matthue Roth's writing on Hevria

Hevria’s mission is to become the go-to community for Jewish and spiritual people who are “creators”.

Lizard People podcast

The Toast, may it rest in peace 

7-Up: The Up Series of Documentaries

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Readalikes:

Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

Current Reads:

The Weight of Sound by Peter McDade

Rocket Romance by Sophia Chester

Find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! Send us an email! We love our Readers and Listeners.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 9: I Hope You Don't Mind Whimsy: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Travel to magical utopian New Jersey with Carey and Marie in this groundbreaking queer YA romance. For such a sweet book, we spend a lot of time talking about mental health issues and our dead parents! But don't let that take away from this very sweet, very romantic magical realist story where boy meets boy and transphobes meet the Jersey Devil (in our hearts).

Boy Meets Boy: (You want the tenth anniversary edition!) Goodreads, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, Better World Books

David Levithan: Website

Content Warnings:

Infinite Darlene is a wonderful trans girl character that the narrative--and Paul's point of view--doesn't serve. The short story at the end of the anniversary edition puts some of this to right, but yeah, it was slim pickings in mainstream YA for a really long time. We'll be addressing this! This is also a pretty white book, and there's a lot of diminishing the abusive relationship of one best friend and abusive parents of another, because you're getting inside the head of a sheltered white cis gay teenage boy. Queer YA--and the author--has grown a lot in the past 12 years, and we're really happy about that, despite the long way we still have to go.

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This is Paul's Elsewhere song. It's also from Robot Unicorn Attack.

Datable cryptids? Learn more about them on the Cryptid Keeper podcast!

The Adventures of the REAL Winnie-the-Pooh - visit them at the Central Children's Room!

Did you know there is Boy Meets Boy fanfic? That's what Host Rie learned while making these shownotes!

David Levithan, editor extraordinaire, talks with Ann M. Martin as the Baby-sitters Club Turns 30 on Scholastic Reads podcast

Strand Bookstore where Paul and Tony meet

A-Camp, Host Rie's family reunion

Montclair Book Center

Cheaper by the Dozen

Weird NJ magazine: why we love New Jersey and why you should too

Feed transphobic boyfriends to the Jersey Devil

Captain Awkward

"Tony" by Patty Griffin. Content warning for gay slurs and suicide.

Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw Podcast

The Huntswoman: Brianne Huntsman, business coach

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A Short List of LGBTQAI Teen Resources

Resources for LGBTQ Youth By State from Lambda Legal

PFLAG NYC Links to Recommended Resources for Teens

Scarleteen LGBT Resources

Trans Life Line

Crisis Text Line

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Readalikes

Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block

Mermaids on Parade by Melanie Hope Greenburg

How I Paid for College by Marc Acito

Current Reads

Hi-Fi Fight Club by Carly Usdin

It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sigiura

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017)