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 218 and time for us to talk about the Book Club Books! We discuss what counts as a book club, religion, food memoirs, historical fiction, girls loving each other in 1954, the prison industrial complex, and more! Plus, we discuss geographic-specific food we miss! 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 Celeste Ng by Maria Semple by Patricia Lockwood by Michelle Zauner Service95 Book Club: by Malinda Lo by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah ...
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It’s episode 217 and time for our Summer Media Update! We discuss shelf trophies, sumo wrestling, Kpop Demon Hunters, blogs in book form, 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…) Jam (video game) (podcast) (Talking Heads concert film) Matthew The places sumo matches happen are “sumo halls” The Lightning Round (Thunderbolts) Meghan and BookTube () Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series (Les...
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It’s episode 216 and time for us to talk about the genre of Rural Noir / Grit Lit! We discuss what counts as “rural,” whether “coastal noir” is a thing, how intense these stories can be, and more! Plus: Should fiction about Gritty (the mascot) be classified as about a "real person"? 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 Tom Franklin by Bonnie Jo Campbell by David Heska Wanbli Weiden by Tony Birch Other Media We Mentioned by Charles Portis...
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It’s episode 215 and time for our annual Battle of the Books! This year we’re each pitching a non-fiction book we think we should all read and discuss and then you (our listeners) get to vote on which one! Plus! A chance for a listener to win a book! You can download the podcast , find it on , or get it through or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | | | by Vauhini Vara by Liz Pelly by Elaine Castillo by Sabrina Imbler Titles from our Short Lists by Alexandra Rowland by Tina Horn by Kristy Cooper by Rosemary Mosco by Vanessa Angélica...
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It’s episode 214 and time for us to talk about the genre/topic of Non-Traditional Storytelling! We discuss epistolary novels, novels in verse, punctuation, 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 Alejandro Zambra, translated by Megan McDowell and David Bischoff by Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn by Zachery Thomas Dodson by Lucy Ellmann by Jane Yolen Other Media We Mentioned by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst by Italo...
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It’s episode 213 and time for us to talk about “Found Books,” that is books that we’ve found in public little free libraries, book exchanges, and book swaps! We discuss the recently returned book cart, getting books for free, getting rid of books, 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 Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie by Slavomir Rawicz by Omar El Akkad by Mark Z. Danielewski by Umberto Eco, translated by William Weaver ...
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It’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 , 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 Gretchen McCulloch by Polly Barton by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Ann Goldstein by James Geary by Gaston Dorren Other Media We Mentioned by Eliot Weinberger by Guy Deutscher edited by Thomas...
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It’s episode 211 and we’re talking about books and other media we’ve enjoyed recently! We discuss early internet chatrooms, shuttlecocks, haunted dolls, what constitutes a “banger”, 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 | | | What We’re Into: Anna by Joshua Wheeler on Stream Matthew by Tim Hanley Jam by G.T. Karber adjacent media (YouTube) (podcast) (YouTube) Meghan by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and (short story collections)...
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It’s episode 210 and time for us to talk about the genre of Romantasy! We discuss romance series, happily ever afters, tropes, social media, and more! Plus, special guest romance fiction researcher Christine Larson! 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 Stephanie Burgis, narrated by Amanda Leigh Cobb by Sarah J. Maas by Hannah Nicole Maehrer by S. A. Chakraborty by Rachel Gillig by Rebecca Yarros by Garth Nix (not mentioned in episode) ...
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It’s episode 209 and time for us to talk about the genre of Design! We discuss graphic design, interior design, the line between design and art, fonts, kerning, footnotes, and more! Plus: Anna talks about evidence synthesis and search design! 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 Jennifer Dawe and Matthew Humphries by Carla Lind by Debbie Berne by Bree Wolf and Jesse Fuchs by Jude Stewart Other Media We Mentioned by Steven Heller and...
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!
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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)!