Maradonia and the Guardians of the Portal by Sofia Nova/Gloria Tesch - Episode 209
Release Date: 01/14/2025
I Am Not Starfire by Mariko Tamaki / Illustrated by Yoshi Yoshitani *Patron's Choice* - Episode 226
Terrible Book Club
Our patron rootbeercutie recommended I Am Not Starfire and since we had somehow not done a graphic novel in the 10 years of this podcast, Chris stepped up to tackle this Teen Titans spinoff. Today's episode features a whole lot of superhero tropes and parent/child strife; even good art and a lesbian protagonist who gets a happy ending couldn't save this one, though.
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Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives by Gretchen Rubin - Episode 225
Terrible Book Club
We haven’t done any self-help lately, so Paris braved Oprah's Book Club list to pull the recently published Secrets of Adulthood straight from its maw. Though it attempted to take her, she fought her way out to bring you this episode about the science of happiness and the pop cultural grift which swirls around it. References & Resources: Content Warnings: In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode includes discussion or mention of capitalism and eating the rich.
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TBC Plays DragonRaid by Dick Wulf *Special Guests Phoebe & Kami* - Episode 224
Terrible Book Club
One dark day in the TBC Patreon chat dungeons, our Patron Austin scrawled the following message to us: "...[D]uring the 80s there was a guy literally named Dick Wulf (Not to be confused with law and order producer and writer Dick Wolf) who made a Christian version of D&D called Dragonraid. There's very little documentation online about what the game system was like but it did exist and from what I can gather there was some sort of mechanic involving casting spells by reciting bible verses. Cut to like 2020, some forty years later, some Christian company approaches Dick Wulf to buy the...
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Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff by Sean Penn *Patron’s Choice* - Episode 223
Terrible Book Club
Paris must conquer her fear and loathing to survive this gonzo, idiocratic adventure from the mind of Sean Penn (yes, the actor). Our Patron George submitted this as his Patron's request this season saying, “I've been listening to you guys for a long time and this is the first time I've ever found anything that you folks might be interested [in]. I present to you: Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, a book that is only 176 [pgs.] and was somehow still one of the most dreadful slogs I've ever read.” Thank you so much for your support, George! We hope you enjoy this episode we made just for you. In...
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Icebreaker by Hannah Grace *Patron's Choice* - Episode 222
Terrible Book Club
In this second half of our accidental TBC of Ice & Fire recording session, Chris tackles a book left on his doorstep by a minion of Terriblo themselves with a note: "Dear Paris and Chris, I, the Dark God of horrid literature, appreciate your work in spreading the word of terrible books with your podcast. As such I've tasked one of my cultists, your listener Lucek, with delivering this book to your care. Please take this donation to the cause as an act of support and not a means of disencouragement, regardless of what the book does to your sanity. I hope to see many more years of great...
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Points of Origin by John L. Orr *Patron’s Choice* - Episode 221
Terrible Book Club
Paris is on the case again this week! Our Patron Patrick requested that we read and review Points of Origin saying, “This book was written as a fictional story about a fictional investigator trying to catch a serial arsonist who was terrorizing California in the 1980s. The author was a[n] actual fire investigator at the time and this [was] based off of real events. Literally real events! Because it turns out the author John Orr, the arson investigator, was [convicted of being] the real life arsonist…This book was even used during his trial. In the book he had knowledge about the...
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Just Call Me Orville: The Story Of Orville Redenbacher by Robert Topping *Patron's Choice* - Episode 220
Terrible Book Club
Get out your corn kernels and hot oil, today, folks, 'cause we're goin' poppin'! Today's book comes to us from our longtime Patron Arrant who said, "I read [something] that might be fascinating for you guys rather than simple bad: "Just Call Me Orville" by Robert Topping, which is about the life and rise of Orville Redenbacher. Yes, the Popcorn guy. I quite enjoyed it and I was surprised by how fascinating and genuine he was as a person. And if anything, it fits into the weird food universe since he's so synonymous with the popcorn brand that people didn't even realize he was a real man and...
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Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland *Special Guest Mary Parker* - Episode 219
Terrible Book Club
Chris was called away on a years-long shipping voyage by a conniving relative, so he can’t be with us today. In his stead, Mary returns! You may remember her from such episodes as this past October’s The Phantom of Manhattan, 2021's Die Hamletmachine, and our now beloved E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in His Adventure on Earth episode from 2023. We discuss our experience reading Fanny Hill by John Cleland, originally published in 1748 and since routinely banned as the first known published English-language erotica. Mary found a copy of this in a little free library years ago and since then, it...
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The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale, PhD (the book from the AppleTV Show Severance) - Episode 218
Terrible Book Club
We revert to our previous format this week with both Chris and Paris reviewing today's book. The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You was published in the last week of January of 2025 by Apple Books and immediately caught our attention since Paris has been obsessed with Severance since it debuted and Chris was recruited into the madness this year. We thought it would be fun to check out a prop from a TV show that had become a real book. Listen as we do Ricken's self-help exercises and become severed in real-time! If you are trying to keep yourself completely pure before watching...
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Who Killed the Fonz? By James Boice *Patron’s Choice* - Episode 217
Terrible Book Club
This week, Paris turns up the Perturbator records, dons some aviators and a trenchcoat, and heads out into the rainy nights of 1980s Milwaukee to help our Patron Fred. Fred wrote to us saying, “...the sheer notion of a murder mystery with Happy Days characters that is apparently officially sanctioned by whoever owns the rights is enough to give me pause. I can’t even find any information about why th[is] book was made and I just end up asking myself, “Who is this for?” because while I don’t doubt that Happy Days still has a large fan base, I don’t think many people would want to...
info_outlineHappy (?) new year, listeners. We discuss Chris's journey through the latest Maradonia book that reboots the series entirely, proving that we are all caught in this loop together within the worst timeline.
Although not strictly necessary, we recommend listening to the other Maradonia episodes in the following order:
Today’s episode just includes our usual barnyard language.