Episode 9: Book Haulidays Part 1 — Eat Your Nemesis

E9: Book Haulidays Part One – Eat Your Nemesis – Infinite TBR

Smack and Gabi ring out 2021 with a round-up of their Book Hols from the end of the year and set some 2022 goals. Gabi did a not insignificant amount of stress-shopping while Smack (somehow?!) didn’t receive a single book during the holidays. We celebrate the accomplishment of our 2021 book/page count goals and review the highs and lows throughout the year. For 2022, we decide to skip insane book/page count goals in favor of making it the Year of Indulgences and Rereads. Gabi’s supplemental goal is to get through her Smack Shelf, while Smack’s supplemental goal is to keep Gabi from accomplishing that goal. We also start discussing our recent reads (to be continued!).

A couple of notes before we get into the good stuff:

Gabi got herself tangled up in T.J. Klune’s Wolfsong, which is book one in their Green Creek series. She got herself so entangled, in fact, that the Feelings it inspired became its own bonus episode, which you can find here. You can find her “future Gabi” note on this at 6:55. Our regularly scheduled programming returns at 7:14.

At 8:20, we mention that plenty of Gabi’s haul are available via Bookshop.org/shop/sirens, which means that the Sirens conference received a portion of the money spent. (You can usually find your favorite independent bookstores through there, too, if your fav doesn’t have an online shop.)

And Smack hit her 2021 goal of reading 50,000 pages! And thank god she did, because another attempt would just be Too Much. It totaled about 164 books.

At at 24:21 there’s some whining and rustling as Smack’s dog begs for scritches and she (of course) obliges. Sorry about the noise.

Books Hauliday’d:

Tales of Verania series by T.J. Klune (misidentified as Wizards of Verania Series) The first is titled *The Lightning-Struck Heart*

*The Baron of Magister Valley* by Steven Brust

*A Matter of Magic: Mairelon and The Magician’s Ward* by Patricia Wrede

*Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology* edited by Claudie Arseneault & Brenda J. Pierson

*Beneath the Moon: Fairytales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World* by Yoshi Yoshitani

*The Hands of the Emperor* (Lays of the Hearth-Fire #1) by Victoria Goddard

*How to Talk to a Goddess* (The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic #2) by Emily Croy Barker

An aside: on the epSmack said she might still own The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, which is the book that precedes How to Talk to a Goddess, and it turns out she does! But it’s in her giveaway pile. (womp womp)

*A Man Called Ove* by Fredrik Backman, translated by Henning Koch

*The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters* (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #1) by Gordon Dahlquist

Another aside: Gabi finally read A Man Called Ove in February 2023 and LOVED it.

*The Shadow of What Was Lost* (The Licanius Trilogy, #1) by James Islington

Books Discussed During Our 2021 Retrospective:

*The Last Wolf* (The Legend of All Wolves, #1) by Maria Vale

*Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World* by Fareed Zakaria

Recent Reads:

*Citizen: An American Lyric* by Claudia Rankine

*The Bakkhai* by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson

*The Maleficent Seven* by Cameron Johnston

So this happened slightly after episode 9, but it’s still worth sharing. (Gabi was reading The Devourers by Indra Das.) Turns out Smack is a closeted horror fan!