Ep #1 | Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Ep #5 | milk and honey by Rupi Kaur with guest Poison Oak!

Episode notes: * unedited transcript [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hkvmQ9h6frn1xYEmpyd5pFLw7PqBPcMS4MKpPB7r9g0/edit?usp=sharing] (to be edited) * Poison Oak's website!!!!!!! [https://www.poisonoak.nyc] * Poison Oak's Instagram!!!!!!! [https://www.instagram.com/poison.oak.nyc] * buy [https://bookshop.org/p/books/milk-and-honey-rupi-kaur/cd8fde9229424ead?ean=9781449474256&next=t]milk and honey [https://bookshop.org/p/books/milk-and-honey-rupi-kaur/cd8fde9229424ead?ean=9781449474256&next=t] here! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/milk-and-honey-rupi-kaur/cd8fde9229424ead?ean=9781449474256&next=t] * find Rupi Kaur's website (including dates and tickets for her 2026 summer residency in Brooklyn) here! [https://rupikaur.com] * One Plus One: Rupi Kaur [https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/one-plus-one/2017-05-25/one-plus-one:-rupi-kaur/8559760]by Jane Hutcheon (ABC News, May 2017) [https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/one-plus-one/2017-05-25/one-plus-one:-rupi-kaur/8559760] * "To be a child of diaspora: The irreconcilable outsider in Sikh discourse" by Conner Singh VanderBeek ( [https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2018.1545192]Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory [https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2018.1545192], January 2019) [https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2018.1545192] * "Student's final project goes viral and makes change happen – period." (University of Waterloo, May 2015) [https://uwaterloo.ca/arts/news/students-final-project-goes-viral-and-makes-change-happen] * “Thick Translation” by Kwame Anthony Appiah ( [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2932211]Callaloo [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2932211], Autumn 1993) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2932211] * “The Translator’s Task” by Walter Benjamin, trans. Steven Rendall ( [https://german.yale.edu/sites/default/files/benjamin_translators_task.pdf]TTR : traduction, terminologie, rédaction [https://german.yale.edu/sites/default/files/benjamin_translators_task.pdf], 1997) [https://german.yale.edu/sites/default/files/benjamin_translators_task.pdf] * Book from the Sky [https://www.xubing.com/cn/work/details/206?year=1991&type=year#206]by Xu Bing (artist's website) [https://www.xubing.com/cn/work/details/206?year=1991&type=year#206]

Ep #4 | The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

Episode notes: * transcript [https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-4-free-by-sim-150875079?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link] * buy [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-free-people-s-village-sim-kern/b77f24c1989292fe]The Free People's Village [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-free-people-s-village-sim-kern/b77f24c1989292fe] here! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-free-people-s-village-sim-kern/b77f24c1989292fe] * support Sim Kern on Patreon here! [https://www.patreon.com/u82900241] * Sim Kern's website, including links to their book influencing and activist platforms, here [https://www.simkern.com] - contribute to their fundraisers on linktr.ee [https://linktr.ee/SimKern] * "Houston abolished its ward system 120 years ago today, but its legacy still shapes the city" by Jhair Romero (Houston Chronicle, December 2024) [https://archive.is/vbwi4] * "What the War on Terror Leaves Behind" by Harmonie Toros, Lee Jarvis, and Richard Jackson ( [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6815F9E0BB023A2FEB68D54F560899B2/S2057563724000397a.pdf/what-the-war-on-terror-leaves-behind-an-introduction.pdf]European Journal of International Security [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6815F9E0BB023A2FEB68D54F560899B2/S2057563724000397a.pdf/what-the-war-on-terror-leaves-behind-an-introduction.pdf], November 2024) [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6815F9E0BB023A2FEB68D54F560899B2/S2057563724000397a.pdf/what-the-war-on-terror-leaves-behind-an-introduction.pdf] * DIY, Alternative Cultures & Society [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/DIY?_gl=1*14dpkpe*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjA3MjEyNTE0NS4xNzcwNTg2MzYx*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3NzA1ODYzNjAkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzA1ODYzNjAkajYwJGwwJGg2MTM1Mzk0ODg.] partially open access journal [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/DIY?_gl=1*14dpkpe*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjA3MjEyNTE0NS4xNzcwNTg2MzYx*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3NzA1ODYzNjAkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzA1ODYzNjAkajYwJGwwJGg2MTM1Mzk0ODg.] * Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk [https://archive.org/details/pleasekillmeunce00legs_0]by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain [https://archive.org/details/pleasekillmeunce00legs_0] * Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Social, Political, and Environmental Groups [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-consensus] by Peter Gelderloos (TheAnarchistLibrary.org) [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-consensus] * "The Politics of Housework" by Pat Mainardi ( [https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.33125154?seq=1]Redstockings [https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.33125154?seq=1], 1968) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.33125154?seq=1] * The Garden: Commune or Cult (Hot Snakes Media - 2023) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29890377/] * some relevant texts: the Combahee River Collective Statement (Yale.edu) [https://americanstudies.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Keyword%20Coalition_Readings.pdf], The Broken Teapot [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-the-broken-teapot] (TheAnarchistLibrary.org) [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-the-broken-teapot], Come Hell or High Water: [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/delfina-vannuci-richard-singer-come-hell-or-high-water] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/delfina-vannuci-richard-singer-come-hell-or-high-waterA Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/delfina-vannuci-richard-singer-come-hell-or-high-water](TheAnarchistLibrary.org) [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/delfina-vannuci-richard-singer-come-hell-or-high-water] * "The Political Mobilization of America's Congregations" by Kraig Beyerlein and Mark Chaves ( [https://csrs.nd.edu/assets/403171/political_mobilization_of_congregations_for_posting.pdf]Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion [https://csrs.nd.edu/assets/403171/political_mobilization_of_congregations_for_posting.pdf], December 2020) [https://csrs.nd.edu/assets/403171/political_mobilization_of_congregations_for_posting.pdf] * Where you can find us: Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBadBooksBookClub], Twitter [https://x.com/thebadbooksclub], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bad-books-book-club/id1861625669], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5qxFm2wlkSTXqnRM3meUJg], and thebadbooksbookclub at gmail dot com! * Read along with us for next time...Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat! [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c51fc542-bd37-4eef-84df-05054d10551d]

Ep #3 | The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Episode notes: * transcript [https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-3-housemaid-148338632] * buy [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-housemaid-freida-mcfadden/84d540a6819fa062]The Housemaid [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-housemaid-freida-mcfadden/84d540a6819fa062] here! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-housemaid-freida-mcfadden/84d540a6819fa062] * Freida McFadden's very genre-appropriate website [https://www.freidamcfadden.com] * The Pleasure of the Text [https://web.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Barthes_Pleasure_of_the_Text.pdf] by Roland Barthes [https://web.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Barthes_Pleasure_of_the_Text.pdf] (we talk in greater detail about this in a future episode) * The Housemaid [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48CtX6OgU3s] film trailer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48CtX6OgU3s] * "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman [https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1952/pg1952-images.html] * "The Rest Cure Revisited" by Diana Martin, M.D. (The American Journal of Psychiatry Online) [https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.5.737] * "Meet the Boston Brain Doctor Who Lives a Double Life as a Best-Selling Author" by Will Pavia ( [https://www.namd.org/journal-of-medicine/3362-meet-the-boston-brain-doctor-who-lives-a-double-life-as-a-best-selling-author.html]NAMD.org [https://NAMD.org]) [https://www.namd.org/journal-of-medicine/3362-meet-the-boston-brain-doctor-who-lives-a-double-life-as-a-best-selling-author.html] * WARNING!!!! "The Race Traits and Tendencies..." by Frederick L. Hoffman (May 1896) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2560438?seq=1] (this is race science in its original eugenicist 19th century context, offered in the context of our discussion and in conversation with the academic works below) * "Harvard's Eugenics Era" by Adam Cohen ( [https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2016/02/harvards-eugenics-era]Harvard Magazine [https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2016/02/harvards-eugenics-era], March-April 2016) [https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2016/02/harvards-eugenics-era] * "A Troublesome Recurrence: Racialized Realities and Racist Reasoning Today" by Lawrence D. Bobo ( [https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037d-933b-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content]Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race [https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037d-933b-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content] through Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard) [https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/7312037d-933b-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b/content] * Queen Camilla (!) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Camilla] * Upstairs Downstairs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstairs%2C_Downstairs_(1971_TV_series)] (1971) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstairs%2C_Downstairs_(1971_TV_series)] * Federal Bureau of Prison Statistics (updated weekly) [https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp] * Pew Research Center Fact Sheet About the US Black Population (January 2025) [https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population/] * "Race, History, and Immigration Crimes" by Eric S. Fish ( [https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/sites/ilr.law.uiowa.edu/files/2022-11/Race%2C%20History%2C%20and%20Immigration%20Crimes.pdf]Iowa Law Review [https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/sites/ilr.law.uiowa.edu/files/2022-11/Race%2C%20History%2C%20and%20Immigration%20Crimes.pdf], March 2022) [https://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/sites/ilr.law.uiowa.edu/files/2022-11/Race%2C%20History%2C%20and%20Immigration%20Crimes.pdf] * "Craniums, Criminals, and the 'Cursed Race': Italian Anthropology in American Racial Thought, 1861-1924" by Peter D'Agostino ( [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3879449.pdf]Comparative Studies in Society and History [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3879449.pdf], April 2002) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3879449.pdf] * Humbert Humbert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita] * Emma [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/158]by Jane Austen [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/158] * "Interpreting Gender: Refrigerator Mothers" by Jordynn Jack (from [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt7zw5k5.5]Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt7zw5k5.5]2014) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt7zw5k5.5] * "The WASPs Are Gone" by Yascha Mounk ( [https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-wasps-are-gone]Persuasion [https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-wasps-are-gone], March 2025) [https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-wasps-are-gone] * "The Infanticidal Attachment" by Brett Kahr ( [http://replacementchildforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Brett-Kahr-New-Directions-in-Relational-Psychoanalysis-and-Psychotherapy-2007.pdf]Attachment: New Directions in Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy [http://replacementchildforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Brett-Kahr-New-Directions-in-Relational-Psychoanalysis-and-Psychotherapy-2007.pdf], 2007) [http://replacementchildforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Brett-Kahr-New-Directions-in-Relational-Psychoanalysis-and-Psychotherapy-2007.pdf] * the Strange Situation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_situation] * Where you can find us: Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBadBooksBookClub], Twitter [https://x.com/thebadbooksclub], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bad-books-book-club/id1861625669], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5qxFm2wlkSTXqnRM3meUJg], and thebadbooksbookclub at gmail dot com! * Read along with us for next time...The Free People's Village by Sim Kern! [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a033e603-c581-4e5f-a78d-8068a7a96c3f]

Ep #2 | Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Episode notes: * transcript link [https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-2-heated-by-146481697] * buy [https://bookshop.org/p/books/heated-rivalry-now-streaming-on-crave-and-hbo-max-rachel-reid/d865861eb560a9c3]Heated Rivalry [https://bookshop.org/p/books/heated-rivalry-now-streaming-on-crave-and-hbo-max-rachel-reid/d865861eb560a9c3] here! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/heated-rivalry-now-streaming-on-crave-and-hbo-max-rachel-reid/d865861eb560a9c3] * Rachel Reid's website [https://www.rachelreidwrites.com] (and bonus link to her blog post about Parkinson's, which Iliria really appreciated [https://www.rachelreidwrites.com/news/2025/9/14]) * Check, Please! [https://www.checkpleasecomic.com/comic/01-01-01] by Ngozi Ukazu [https://www.checkpleasecomic.com/comic/01-01-01] * Icebreaker [https://www.algraziadei.com/books]by A.L. Graziadei [https://www.algraziadei.com/books] * bonus link to hockey romances by Iliria's friend, Ari Baran :) [https://www.harlequin.com/shop/authors/29625_ari-baran.html] * Eros the Bittersweet [https://archive.org/details/erosbittersweet0000cars] by Anne Carson [https://archive.org/details/erosbittersweet0000cars] * The Riveters [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Riveters] 😢 * "There are no out NHL players. Could [https://www.out.com/gay-athletes/nhl-gay-players-heated-rivalry]Heated Rivalry [https://www.out.com/gay-athletes/nhl-gay-players-heated-rivalry] change that?" by Mey Rude (Out.com, Dec 2025) [https://www.out.com/gay-athletes/nhl-gay-players-heated-rivalry] * Untitled (You Construct Intricate Rituals) [https://collections.mfa.org/objects/35582] by Barbara Kruger [https://collections.mfa.org/objects/35582] * "'I felt bad about it': The complicated origins of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series" by Anna Good (Daily Dot, Dec 2025) [https://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/origins-rachel-reid-game-changers-heated-rivalry-fanfic/] * Orientalism [https://archive.org/details/orientalismimportantbook...edwardsaidw._713_W/mode/2up]by Edward Saïd [https://archive.org/details/orientalismimportantbook...edwardsaidw._713_W/mode/2up] * "Negotiating New Asian American Masculinities: Attitudes and Gender Expectations" by Peter Chua and Diane Fujino [https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=sociology_pub] * What we're reading: Solaris [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/690c94e7-f35a-43c5-9b67-4f1a5a6214eb] by Stanislaw Lem [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/690c94e7-f35a-43c5-9b67-4f1a5a6214eb] (and bonus, Roadside Picnic [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b8e9bd9b-02d7-40cf-aa29-85af64c18292]by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b8e9bd9b-02d7-40cf-aa29-85af64c18292]), the rest of the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid * Where you can find us: Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBadBooksBookClub], Twitter [https://x.com/thebadbooksclub], Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bad-books-book-club/id1861625669], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5qxFm2wlkSTXqnRM3meUJg], and thebadbooksbookclub at gmail dot com! * Read along with us for next time...The Housemaid by Freida McFadden! [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a3b9ce65-e393-42a9-8d77-c2fd58aaa847]

Ep #1 | Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Note for Patreon followers: reposting for Spotify and Apple listeners, so they can hear the whole episode :^) Episode notes: * transcript link [https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-1-icebreaker-145856123] * buy [https://bookshop.org/p/books/icebreaker-a-novel-hannah-grace/4853f7bb637d6213?ean=9781668026038&next=t]Icebreaker [https://bookshop.org/p/books/icebreaker-a-novel-hannah-grace/4853f7bb637d6213?ean=9781668026038&next=t] here at [https://bookshop.org/p/books/icebreaker-a-novel-hannah-grace/4853f7bb637d6213?ean=9781668026038&next=t]bookshop.org [https://bookshop.org]! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/icebreaker-a-novel-hannah-grace/4853f7bb637d6213?ean=9781668026038&next=t] * Hannah Grace's charming personal website [https://www.hannahgrace.co.uk] * Icebreaker [https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1b8d19f/saw_a_level_4_steam_rating_book_icebreaker/] next to [https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1b8d19f/saw_a_level_4_steam_rating_book_icebreaker/]Diary of a Wimpy Kid [https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1b8d19f/saw_a_level_4_steam_rating_book_icebreaker/] at Costco [https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/1b8d19f/saw_a_level_4_steam_rating_book_icebreaker/] * the Ballerina Farms exposé (Megan Agnew's 2024 article "Meet the queen of the 'trad wives' and her eight children") [https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-sunday-times-magazine/article/meet-the-queen-of-the-trad-wives-and-her-eight-children-plfr50cgk] * Licensing Entertainment: The Elevation of Novel Reading in Britain, 1684-1750 [https://archive.org/details/licensingenterta0000warn]by William B. Warner [https://archive.org/details/licensingenterta0000warn] * What we're reading: Katherine [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/758ed3f9-0841-4864-9928-6c91e8c62fbc] by Anya Seton [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/758ed3f9-0841-4864-9928-6c91e8c62fbc], Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice Across Andean Worlds [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/84aaf962-422a-4f4b-a319-bbd85dc8d358] by Marisol de la Cadena [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/84aaf962-422a-4f4b-a319-bbd85dc8d358], All Fours [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7d360317-966e-44fe-8e83-a69fe3dd66a7] by Miranda July [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7d360317-966e-44fe-8e83-a69fe3dd66a7] * Where you can find us: Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheBadBooksBookClub], Twitter [https://x.com/thebadbooksclub], and thebadbooksbookclub at gmail dot com! * Read along with us for next time...Heated Rivalry [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b6226934-cd65-4a0a-9516-3e59152dd627]!