Episode 104 - Entertainment Non-Fiction

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re discussing Entertainment Non-Fiction! We talk about what does (and doesn’t) count as entertainment, how we’re bad at watching TV, whether people are now turning non-book sources for analysis of media (e.g. watching videos on YouTube), and how many bananas are in a bunch.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read This Month

• As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
• A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer
• Jim Brown: Last Man Standing by Dave Zirin
• Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms by John Hodgman
• Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama
• Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara
• Reading the Vampire Slayer: An Unofficial Companion to Buffy and Angel edited by Roz Kaveney

15 Entertainment Non-Fiction Books by People of Colour

• Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib
• The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin
• Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle
• Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang by Lamont U-God Hawkins
• Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies by bell hooks
• Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric by Madison Moore
• Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama
• Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes by Adilifu Nama
• Everything’s Trash But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson
• Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano
• The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed by Shea Serrano
• This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe
• I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone by Nina Simone
• Iwao Takamoto: My Life With A Thousand Characters by Iwao Takamoto
• EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest by Qiana Whitted

Announcements

• The book we’ll all be reading and discussing for episode 107 is Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
• Matthew talked about streaming visual novels, and that will hopefully happen, but there’s no pilot episode (yet…).
• We’ve started doing lists for each genre by people of colour. You can find a list of the lists here.
• We’re designing new bingo sheets for the podcast! (Here are the bingo sheets we made for episode 50.) What topics or titles always come up on the podcast? What verbal tics do we have? Let us know!

Other Media We Mentioned

• If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be in Trouble: Movies, Mayhem, and Malice by Joe Queenan
• Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation by Susan J. Napier
• Pulgasari (Wikipedia) (North Korean giant monster movie)
• 3 Ninjas (Wikipedia)
• Mars Attacks! (Wikipedia)
• Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Métis in Space
• Stardew Valley (Wikipedia)
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Wikipedia)
• The Jackbox Party Pack (Wikipedia)
• What we completely forgot to mention: 33⅓ (a well-known and popular series of books about specific albums)

Links, Articles, and Things

• American Ninja Warrior (Wikipedia)
• Pedestrianism (Wikipedia)
• Six-day racing (Wikipedia): Bicycle races
• Dust-to-Digital (Instagram)
• Get a Mac (Wikipedia): Ad campaign featuring John Hodgman
• • A bunch of the ads in question
• Slash fiction (Wikipedia)
• Ars Technica’s War Stories
• lonelygirl15 (Wikipedia)
• Todd in the Shadows’ review of Drake’s Toosie Slide
• Glass Animals - Dreamland

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Join us again on Tuesday, July 21st we’ll be discussing Summer Reading/Challenges!

Then on Tuesday, August 4th we’ll be talking about Alternative History fiction!