Episode 212 - Language & Linguistics
Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
Release Date: 05/06/2025
Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 231 and time for us to talk about Sapphic Horror! We discuss which monster is the most sapphic, unrealistic reality TV shows, and how queer a book has to be to count as sapphic. You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) Diavola by Jennifer Thorne The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin, read by Chase Sui Wonders Extasia by Claire Legrand by Caitlin...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 230 and time for us to talk about media we've been enjoying! We discuss music, video essays, movies, comics, books, crafts, and more! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We're Enjoying: Matthew by Patrick (H) Willems Hobtown Mystery Stories, vol. 2: The Cursed Hermit by Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, colour by Jason Fischer-Kouhi Witchy Stitching: 25 Patterns to Haunt Your Home by Meg Black Meghan KEXP “” by the Brudi Brothers (full set) (full set)...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 229 and time for us to talk about Media Criticism. We talk about what counts as media, the challenges of writing about emerging forms of media, how we interact with criticism, and more! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men by Manuel Betancourt Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk Marvel Age of Comics: Doctor Strange:...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 228 and time for us to talk about Computers and Computer Science books! We discuss technology, digital humanities, coding, and more! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum (2016) Floppy Disk Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium (2022) I could not find a free version of this online edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks, and Kavita...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 227 and time for an emergency backup episode! This episode is the audio version of “Utterly Unfamiliar and Downright Detestable” a presentation we gave for the 2022 Ontario Library Association’s RA in a Day event. There’s also a video version on our YouTube channel. You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Video version Slides Give us feedback! to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read! Check out our , join our , or...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 226 and time for us to talk about our 2026 Reading Resolutions! We discuss reading books, not reading books, quitting reading books, throwing books in the garbage, and more! Plus: Oh no, the passage of time! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | 2026 "resolutions"/intentions Matthew Read all the personal "book of the month" display books Read all the fiction books owned Read all of the non-comics non-fiction owned Read all the graphic novels owned Be on the internet less and...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 225 and just in time for Valentine’s Day we talk about Queer Romance! We discuss what counts and doesn’t count as romance, ice hockey, regency, spies, demons, and more! Plus: Matthew reads a book he actually likes, Jam reads a book they dislike, and a fairly large chunk of the episode wasn’t recorded and had to be edited around! Guess what parts were re-recorded! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) Betrothed to the Emperor by Kai Butler...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 224 and time for us to talk about History books! We discuss queer history, local history, spies, roads, colonialism, and more! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) by Norma Greggie and Stuart Greggie (1974) by Jody Wilson-Raybould and Roshan Danesh (2024) by Mark Richardson (2025) by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett (2025) by Eric Cervini (2020) by Lynne Olson (2019) by Daniel Immerwahr (2019) (2025) by Donna Seto (2025) by...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 223 and time for us to discuss our favourite reads (and other things) from 2025! We talk vampires, monster romance, cultural studies, linguistics & language, and more. Plus: Guess how many of our favourite reads are actually from 2025 (it’s more than zero!). You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Genres (and "genres") we covered in 2025: Fiction Non-fiction Other Favourite Fiction For the podcast Anna (2025) by Barbara Truelove () Jam (2019)...
info_outlineBook Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast
It’s episode 222 and time for us to talk about books from the 1980s! Okay, I say “books” but it’s really “science fiction and fantasy novels from the 1980s.” You probably could have guessed that if you've listened to the podcast before. You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | Things We Read (or tried to…) (1989) by Terry Pratchett (1989) by Terry Pratchett (1987) by Octavia Butler (1987) by Melissa Scott (1897) by George Alec Effinger (1897) Other Media We Mentioned ...
info_outlineIt’s episode 212 and time for us to talk about excellently complicate the non-fiction genre of Linguistics & Language! We discuss 🤔, our academic backgrounds, the power of words, accents, and more!
You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.
In this episode
Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards
Things We Read (or tried to…)
- Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch
- Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
- In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Ann Goldstein
- I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World by James Geary
- Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren
Other Media We Mentioned
- 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: With More Ways by Eliot Weinberger
- Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher
- Otherwords - Inside the Fiercest Debate in Linguistics
- Your Computer Is on Fire edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Marie Hicks, and Kavita Philip
- What the Font?! - A Manga Guide to Western Typeface by Kuniichi Ashiya
- Giga Town: A Guide to Manga Iconography by Fumiyo Kouno, translated by Ko Ransom
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondō, translated by Cathy Hirano
- Occasional reminder that whenever you say "sparks joy" you are not quoting Marie Kondo.
You are quoting her translator, Cathy Hirano. She invented "sparks joy" out of whole cloth.
What Marie Kondo says is "This makes my heart go pitter pat.”
-Zack Davisson
- Occasional reminder that whenever you say "sparks joy" you are not quoting Marie Kondo.
- Eine wie Alaska [Looking for Alaska] by John Green, translated by Sophie Zeitz
- “I would read it in German, for a few reasons” - John Green
- Die kleine Fledermaus Wegda by Nanna Nesshöver and Wiebke Rauers
- Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe by Gaston Dorren, translated by Alison Edwards
Links, Articles, and Things
- Great Vowel Shift (Wikipedia)
- Lolcat (Wikipedia)
- Kinokuniya
- There are four Kinokuniya shops in Texas. Four! Put one in Denver!
- Abugida (Wikipedia)
- Episode 209 - Design
15 Language & Linguistics Books by BIPOC Authors:
Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.
- Otter's Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law by Lindsay Keegitah Borrows
- The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom edited by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy and Lisa Delpit
- Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language edited by Eufemia Fantetti, Leonarda Carranza, and Ayelet Tsabari
- Living Language Rights: Constitutional Pathways to Indigenous Language Education by Lorena Sekwan Fontaine
- Grammar Matters: The Social Significance of How We Use Language by Jila Ghomeshi
- A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance: Imagining Multilingualism by Tomson Highway
- My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes
- Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases by Maia Lee-Chin with illustrations by Marta Bertello
- Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter – Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter
- The Ecology of Language Evolution by Salikoko S. Mufwene
- Mâci-Nêhiyawêwin / Beginning Cree by Solomon Ratt with illustrations by Holly Martin
- Living Pidgin: Contemplations on Pidgin Culture by Lee A. Tonouchi
- Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
- Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Give us feedback!
- Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!
Check out our Tumblr, join our Discord Server, or send us an email!
Join us again on Tuesday, June 3rd when we’ll be discussing “Found Books,” that is books that we’ve found in public little free libraries, book exchanges, and book swaps.
Then on July 1st we’ll be talking about Non-Traditional Storytelling (e.g. fiction that’s not prose)!