Wicked by Gregory Maguire: Part Two *Special Guest The Good Witch of the Northeast* - Episode 183

We read Butch for today's episode at the request of listener Os who emailed us last year saying,"A while ago, I read a book that, while incredibly badly written, still somehow left me feeling for the protagonist, because all the other characters are (in every sense of the word) ridiculously homophobic. It's called "Butch" by Jay Rayn. It's a "life story thus far" type of book about a butch woman who constantly ights discrimination in the most cartoonish ways possible and romances just about every woman she meets. I'm 99% sure this is just a veiled attempt at rewriting her own biography by the author. Maybe this can be a fresh bad taste for your reading palate. Best, Os (a listener who bought that book thinking it was actually a big deal for butch culture, only to realize they had been tricked by the self-publishing author).”

References & Thanks:

• "G.I. Joes in Barbie Land": Recontextualizing Butch in Twentieth-Century Lesbian Culture by Sherrie A. Inness & Michele Lloyd
• https://www.ncsby.org/content/normative-sexual-behavior
• Thanks to Tris for consulting on this episode and helping us navigate Butch identity

In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode includes discussion or mention of: homophobia, racism, and sexual assault.

This time, we read How it Unfolds (Far Reaches Book 1) by James S.A. Corey, published by Amazon Original Stories in 2023. Chris really enjoyed The Expanse by Corey, so he was looking through other works by them and found this short story. Unfortunately, though, it had a description that made him think it was more suitable for TBC than for his personal reading adventures.

Today's episode includes our usual barnyard language along with some discussions of sex and relationship dynamics.

Paris & Chris dive back into children's literature and find that Dr. Block may have written some of the healthiest relationship dynamics in all of the books we've reviewed so far for the show.

We had so much to say about Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire that we needed two episodes and an extra person to do it! If you haven't listened to Part One, we recommend going back and listening to last week's episode before listening to this one.

This was recommended to us by The Good Witch of the Northeast, who made time to float in on a bubble to be our special guest for this two-part episode.

In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode includes discussion or mention of: ableism, pregnancy, parental abuse, racism, sex, & sexual assault.

We had so much to say about Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire that we needed two episodes and an extra person to do it! We'll finish up our discussion in Part Two which will be out next Tuesday.

This was recommended to us by The Good Witch of the Northeast, who made time to float in on a bubble to be our special guest for this two-part episode.

In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode includes discussion or mention of: ableism, pregnancy, parental abuse, racism, sex, & sexual assault.

Ring in the new year with the Terrible Antique Book Freaks! The Antiques Freaks join us today to do a live read of The Getting Even of Tommy Dodd by William Hope Hodgson, a cross-dressing revenge fantasy on the high seas. We know it's not a Carnacki, and we know it's not even scary, but it's the best we can do having read all the 'nacks already. As usual, we're using Eye of Argon rules to read this and we encourage you to get out your Carnacki bingo cards and help us re-tool them for more generalized Hodgson tomfoolery.

In addition to our usual barnyard language, this episode includes or makes reference to: sexual humor (including foot stuff) and some bad Victorian ideas and opinions, including pedophilia.

It's winter holiday time again, so you all get a little gift from TBC!

Please enjoy this special edition of Less Terrible Book Club. People often wonder what else we’re reading in a given year so we figured it was worth a brief discussion and rating of our Non-TBC reads from 2023.

We wish you a lovely winter and/or holiday time if that's what you get up to at this time of year! See you soon for Season 9. Hail Terriblo.

Chris’s 2023 Non-TBC Reading List:

• The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten

• The Scar by China Miéville

• The Dark Profit Saga by J. Zachary Pike

• Jade City by Fonda Lee

• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

• Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

• The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Paris’s 2023 Non-TBC Reading List:

• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

• Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

• Jagannath by Karen Tidbeck

• Walking on Cowrie Shells by Nana Nkweti

• The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

• The Secret Language of Flowers by Jean-Michel Othoniel

• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

• Heavy by Kiese Laymon

• They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces by Eric LaRocca

• Babel or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang

• To Wallow in Ash & Other Sorrows by Sam Richard

• The Witch's Garden by Sandra Lawrence

• Lockdown Laureate by O.F. Cieri

• Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo

In addition to our usual barnyard language, this episode includes very brief mentions of: beastiality, death/murder/violence, ED/weight, and homophobia.

Ken of Antiques Freaks suggested that we read this and the time is nigh. Come along with us to Atlantis and Lemuria while we try to figure out why all of sentient life in the cosmos is organized like your local Target. The return of LMJ. Additionally, we are baffled as to why authors never seem to be able to cite a quote from a famous person that's actually real.

In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode contains: aliens, a touch of racism/eugenics, and dangerously high levels of woo-woo and conspiracy.

For today's episode, we read The Energy Conspiracy by David C Seman, vanity published in 1981. This was requested by our patron beastwiththeleast, who had this to say:

"Here's to another year of Terriblo's blessings and curses. I hereby submit my patron book request for you guys to read at some point next year...I haven't read the book in full, but I skim-read a few of the extremely short chapters. It looks like the sort of thing Ted Cruz would badger his wife into reading to him as a bedtime story. Please enjoy (tolerate? choke down?) this word salad tossed with right-wing dystopian elements, baffling typos, half a pound of cheese wrapped in aluminum foil, and dry-ass dialogue in place of croutons. BYOB."

Thanks for the recommendation, beastwiththeleast. We applaud your efforts in finding us an out-of-print book and digitally rendering it for ease of reading - truly a gentleman and a scholar!

In addition to our usual barnyard language, today’s episode includes discussion or mention of: THE GUB'MINT in the vein of authoritarianism and some conservative and libertarian viewpoints around energy.