So LC is getting her room painted so we're in a weird new studio that's all echoey and loud. We can't figure out if we're cool with it or not (feat Chloe whisper-shouting). But that didn't stop us from getting into Lauren Kung Jessen's astrology flavoured rom-com Lunar Love!
It's all in the latest Chick Lit 4 Life!
We are back! Even a weird & confusingly specific increase in LC's normal job work couldn't keep us from finally getting our episode on Kate Solly's Tuesday Evenings at the Copeton Crochet Collective together!
What do the girls get into? Well, we've got:
- Crochet and it's power to bring people together - no seriously we've seen it - LC's Mam yarnbombs with her knitting club. It's serious shit
- Racism, particularly as it pertains to people migrating from war or famine. A very timely issue in Ireland in 2023
- How having a bunch of young kids seems like the scariest thing in human existence, and Katie & Sersh get into the whole biological countdown they do be feeling
- Yasmin's character - seriously we would have read a whole book just about her
- The 'soft' racism that Yasmin has to deal with - that at least 2 of the girls could imagine themselves perpetrating without meaning to
- Katie's head exploding from loving Harper's character, and digging that Sr Ruth wanted to help her, despite her being a nun and therefore the ANTIKATIE
- The mindreading and judgement going on among the crochet group and how it reminded us of a LOT of the same things we do
- Bad bitch energy and why Katie would thank Megan Thee Stallion for stepping on her neck
Tangents? You got it - the girls also got into:
- How K-Pop powerhouse Stray Kids are Austraian and so is Kate. We don't need more than that for a link you guys. Also Katie is cheating on BTS's Yoongi with SKZ Changbin. She's got a thing for Korean rappers…
- Shout out to Buzzfeed getting Eric Nam to read thirst tweets. It's the best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world
- And Sarah and Clee discussing having their period during bedroom dance party sessions. No seriously
It's all here in the latest Chicklit4Life!!
You guys - it's the last show of 2022! We were able to get one last book into the year - Kiley Dunbar's SPARKLING "Christmas at the Borrow A Bookshop"!
Eagle-eyed listeners will know we've covered this book's predecessor in Series 6, and this second installment in the series is JUST as gorgeous!
Topics covered include (but are not limited to):
Plus, it wouldn't have been an episode without some tangents right? We found ourselves talking, for some reason, about:
It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life!
You guys, do you have any idea - any idea - how romantic and compelling Malinda Lo's "Last Night At The Telegraph Club" is?
Seriously, I hope you have all had your coffee because this is a WHIRLWIND of fangirling - including, but not limited to:
I mean, of course there are tangents - it wouldn't be CL4L without them!
This week, the girls also talk:
I mean, it does NOT get better than that you guys!
*If you want to read more about the effect of McCarthyism on the Asian American community we loved this article that PBS published as part of their “Asian American and Pacific Islander Experience” feature collection: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/mccarthy-numbed-with-fear-chinese-americans/
Oh people, this episode of CL4L was supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows, discussing Mhairi McFarlane's sparkling "Mad About You", but somehow it ended up with Katie getting super upset about something her bloke Dave said, but it all getting twisted and her thinking Chloe and the girls think she's dumb or something for being with him in the first place? It was super weird, but luckily, that was only one small, weird-ass part of the show
We did get to talk about lovely book related things, including but not limited to:
And we even had time for some non-Dave related sadness tangents! We got into:
It's all here in this month's Chick Lit 4 Life!!
Oh gorgeous humans - the girls are back and they are COVID free! (Note: there is still a slight sinus infection within the group but that's not what we're here to talk about is it?!)
What we are we're here to talk at length about Bonnie Garmus's luminous "Lessons in Chemistry" and man alive we have much to say
Points of note include:
Tangents you ask? Oh they were plentiful. Including, but not limited to:
Lessons in Chemistry is available at all reputable booksellers - YOU NEED IT IN YOUR LIFE
Beautiful people, MAGNIFICENT people! We are back and we are ready to talk about the last book in our series on People What We Love Loads - Elaine Feeney's "As You Were"!
Points of note include:
Tangents you ask? Oh they were plentiful. Including, but not limited to:
As You Were is available at all reputable booksellers - go get yourselves a copy!
Oh holy crap you guys. Today, we are not here to talk about just any book. We are here to talk about the new novel from the QUEEN of warm, affecting, hilarious fiction herself, MS MARIAN KEYES (thunderous applause)
Not only are we talking a new Marian Keyes novel, we are also talking a return to our beloved Walsh family, and arguably our favourite Walsh - Rachel! When we last saw Rachel in The Mystery of Mercy Close she was happily married to sexy, tight-pantsed Luke and living in New York as a serene addiction therapist. But now she's back in Ireland and has had many changes in her life. What's going on and WHY ARE WE SO TRAUMATIZED BY THE FAMILY TREE GRAPHIC AT THE BEGINNING
Points of note include:
Tangents you ask? Oh they were plentiful. Including, but not limited to:
Again, Rachel is out on 17-Feb, pre-order your copy now. NOW DAMNIT!
Romance? Suffragettes? WWI? Mustard Gas? BTS's Kim Seokjin and the magic of his "Super Tuna" (not a euphemism)
I mean, if that's what we're talking in this month's episode on Susan Lanigan's "White Feathers" we better all strap in folks.
To give the briefest of overviews, we've got:
Tangents? Well I mean, obviously:
That and the birth of the hashtag "WWI Germans are people too"
It's all here in this month's Chick Lit 4 Life!
We did it!! We finally got our episode on Deirdre Sullivan's Perfectly Preventable Deaths and Precious Catastophe recorded and posted!
I mean, the girls have much to share, with at least 60% of said sharing being on how much we LOVE Deirdre, seriously she is the actual best, we cannot.
But if we were to try to quantify what it is we have to say in this episode, we've got:
- Which do we like better – the humour or the lyricism? The question that nearly tears the friend group apart (not really)
- Mamó being an actual beast and then the wise woman archetype in general
- Predatory behaviour and how it’s permitted to just exist because we don’t really have the toolkit to combat it
- Ownership of human souls being a focus, and the main threat in both books
- The strength of sisterhood being the main power that fights that threat
- And of course, the most important erotic chimney metaphor of recent times
Tangents? I don't know if we did go on any tangents... (JK OF COURSE WE DID):
- Chloe’s been 공부해ing her Korean
- Clee’s trapezius muscle is still terrifying
- Saoirse and Sarah geek out considerably about Dwayne The Rock Johnson and lament the loss of Glenn Greenwald to sad, sad media criticism
- Astroworld and whether the Kardashians are agents of evil or women being real about the time, money and medical expertise involved in maintaining that body type
- How Chloe says the word “elegant”
- LC’s sister’s sexy, sexy BTS fanfic. Again.
- Irish death notices on the radio (no it’s NOT weird)
- Chloe’s Granny Nolan is beyond terrifying
- You can make Katie understand almost anything by comparing it to Series 7 of The Simpsons
- Of course following that we go on quite the tangent about the words “embiggen” and “cromulent”
Like...that's enough isn't it?
And we're back! In the second episode of Series 6 the girls get their teeth into Amita Murray's DELICIOUS "Arya Winters and the Tiramisu of Death" (available Oct 26!). The girls get into what rudeness is really, how childhood trauma infects present day relationships and how frozen custard might just be the answers to all of the world's problems.
I mean if we want to get into it:
- The beauty of getting to know a character right from the get-go (cold open optional)
- Lots of mates vs few mates (small talk optional)
- Seriously, frozen custard is the answer
- We all can't handle how much we LOVE Veronica Chives
- How insanely rewarding this book was to read
- Seriously we can't handle how much we love Arya as a character
And I mean, of course there were tangents. What are we if not queens of the tangent as an art form my friends? What we got down to (tangent-wise) was:
- We're all sick and our keyboards are gross
- Transphobia and now Katie can't enjoy Dave Chappelle no more
- BTS's Suga taking us to the gun show and the healing powers of same
- The Gay Agenda vs Clee's gay agenda
- Katie's brothers are dicks and have ruined every movie twist ever
- and Chloe doesn't listen to the Japanese BTS albums and therefore is a socialist (no we don't understand either)
It's all here this week in Chick Lit 4 Life!
And we’re back!
In the first episode of Series 6 the girls get stuck into our first “People What We Heart Loads” in Kiley Dunbar and her Borrow A Bookshop Holiday! The girls talk (and disagree mainly) on whether trauma makes a story worthwhile, the merit of light or romantic fiction in general and how Kim Namjoon of BTS fame works as a disguised leading man
I mean if we want to get into it:
- Why do we feel bad about reading books where trauma isn’t front and centre
- And the thing is, there was plenty in this book to dig into trauma-wise, it just wasn’t the focus of the whole piece
- Romantic fiction as a celebration of when we FINALLY get to win, even just for a second
- And yes, Kiley cast BTS’s RM as her leading man DON’T EVEN TRY TELL US DIFFERENT!!
Tangents? You got it!
Briefly:
- We are still bitterly jealous of that girl from primary school that always had packs of tissues with her
- Cliodhna and Sarah have both considered joining a convent at least once in their young lives. Seriously, we’re not even messing
- WB Yeats remains the creepiest poet in our experience
- We were not prepared to enjoy the BTS/Coldplay collaboration and we do not know how to feel about it
- Chloe is not over the UN plane outfits and may never get over it
- Also we’re coming for that creepy IT guy what comes on to first years. Boy better watch his back
It’s all here in this week’s Chick Lit 4 Life!!
Gang! We are finally back with our sixth and final episode in our LGBTQ+ series – this time with Ciara Smyth’s warm and affecting “The Falling In Love Montage”
This is just the way we wanted to finish our toughest series yet – with a strawberry sorbet of sexual tension, class one-liners and a chewy centre of aniseed flavoured existential angst (I think we can all agree that is exactly how angst tastes, fight me in the carpark later if you disagree. In discussing said flavour bomb of romantic same-sex awesome, the girls get into:
Tangents? Sure thing:
It's all here on our latest episode of Chick Lit 4 Life!
Well, it's been aaaages (due to LC having to do a hell of a lot of late nights for her day job - don't ask) but we're back with Episode 5 of our series on LGBTQ+ authors, this time on Leslie Feinberg's acclaimed "Stone Butch Blues".
In discussing our most affecting examination of the LGBTQ+ experience, the girls get into:
But I mean, of course there were tangents:
It's all here on our latest episode of Chick Lit 4 LIfe!
OMG I know we’ve been gone forever but we swear it was for a good reason.
Our disappearance aside, our 4th episode in Series 5 is now LIVE! The girls discuss #TheSubtweet, our first novel by a trans author - #VivekShraya (@vivekshraya – follow her for fierceness, hair goals, and playsuit game that has forced us to face our preconceptions of femininity. Seriously, she’s that good)
The Subtweet is a warm, moving and upsettingly accurate depiction of friendship between women and the havoc the ‘Likes=Acceptance’ Algorithm™ can wreak on it. Throw in a good dose of white privilege marginalizing talented af brown women, world-building songs that exist in real life and a touch of feminist theory and you’ve got yourself quite the immersive book my friends.
The Subtweet is available at all reputable booksellers (buy independent where you can!) and is available on Kindle and Apple Books! Stream Vivek Shraya’s/Too Attached’s music on Spotify or Apple Music and catch Neela and Rukmini’s versions of Every Song on there while you’re at it!
And we're back!
The girls' third book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Gabby Rivera's joyous "Juliet Takes a Breath".
While fangirling over, quite possibly the most lovable main character we have ever come across, the girls talk:
- First and foremost, how we CANNOT HANDLE how much we love Juliet. Seriously. Why is she fictional? We need to hang out with her IMMEDIATELY
- Juliet's journey after she comes out, and how her foundation of love with her family makes it even more affecting
- How Juliet's tendency to get overwhelmed, freak out, but then do the thing anyway makes her our actual hero, move over Beyoncé
- How through doing that, Juliet identifies and creates her own relationship with feminism
- Speaking of feminism, Juliet (and hence the girls) talk about where white lady feminism falls short
- Not to mention all of the super-gross parts of ourselves and our behaviour we came across in that discussion
- Plus our further fangirling over Titi Wepa and cousin Ava, Kira The Hot Librarian ™, and a lot of oversharing on how Juliet's Mam, as an imperfect, loving mother, makes us cry like bitches
Oh, you want to hear about the tangents? Well...
- Chloe goes in unnecessary depth into the BangBangCon experience and the gif-only conversation she and Clee had during it
- Clee can't speak spanish (we disagree) and Chloe can't say many of the words for "vagina" (we heartily disagree)
- Though we should use this opportunity to say this week's episode has some stronger language than usual, listener discretion is advised
- Oh and speaking of listener discretion...
- We found out during recording that our very own Katie Murphy has guest written some sexy fanfic with LC's baby sister @btsfantasty on Instagram. She is not happy that we know about it, but that is part of the fun
All that and muchos fangirling over how much we seriously want to be best mates with Juliet despite her fictional status, on this episode of Chick Lit 4 Life!
And we're back! The girls' second book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Ilana Masad's stunning "All My Mothers Lovers".
In discussing possibly our most divisive main character to date, the girls talk:
Are there tangents?
Why do you ask questions you definitely know the answer to?
For all that, PLUS an update on whether Deano has returned to the Two Tyres One Chain family (#ComeHomeDeano) tune in to the latest episode of Chick Lit 4 Life!
And we're back! The girls' first book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Rita Mae Brown's bestselling "Rubyfruit Jungle". In discussing (arguably) the first lesbian protagonist in popular culture, the girls talk:
- The effect of a shining superhero lead character in tackling oppression
- How that makes us feel as gals that love a bit of emotional struggle and nuance
- Interestingly, how Molly's self-belief trips our (super-Irish) "Notions" alarm, and how that's just very uncomfortable
- Plus Chloe Cullen in her best dramatic performance to date!
And we did not go on one tangent!
Okay that was a lie. We did foray into
- How OBSESSED we are with all the people making epoxy resin charms and jewellery on Instagram, we just CANT with you people!!
- Saoirse's unwavering dedication to PopSugar fitness videos. And the fact that she does them with no shoes on. Which we insist is weird. It IS weird, right?!
- And of course, finally, Katie's crazy forehead-vein. We don't know how it took so long to bring it up to be honest
It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life!
Another year, another round of book talk the girls need to have! The girls' first book of 2021 and the last in our series about authors of colour is Cho Nam-Ju's feminist powerhouse "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982". In discussing this stark novel's approach to laying out the cadaver that is misogyny and disregard for women, girls, sisters and mothers, the girls talk:
- The physical and mental health issues motherhood and pregnancy present (and we had NO IDEA)
- Sexual assault and how small actions build up over time (why are you feeling our bra straps?!)
- What if sexism isn't just an outdated societal rule? What if it's a tradition? One that we're proud of?
- How sexism affects children (maybe it's NOT adorable when little boys bully the girls they like!)
- and how having the luxury of choice changes everything
Plus, I mean, there were always gonna be tangents, right?
- With our first Korean novel, we had to go into how Run BTS! and our K-Drama obsessions informed our enjoyment of the book, right?
- Not to mention Katie's, ahem, flawless pronunciation? (She cannot say 승연 to save her life)
- Way more apologising than we've seen on previous episodes - maybe the subject matter brought us closer as a group?
- AND, the piece de resistance, Deano from 2 Tyres, 1 Chain fame advertising his one-man musical, Deano - Nice to Meetchyou (working title)
It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life!
