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January 30, 2023

Review: How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

I think Bella Mackie said it best. “Christ, I’m rambling again.” Mackie, Bella. How to Kill Your Family: A Novel (p. 327). The Overlook Press. Kindle Edition. How to Kill Your Family is not really a book about a young woman killing her family. How to Kill Your Family is a book about a young woman moving through classist British...

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January 3, 2023

Book Barbarian: Sketchy Mailing List or Hidden Indie Gem?

The year was 2019. Little did I know how the world was about to change over the next few months. I was going to start a podcast! A few months after that it was 2020 and COVID destroyed all of our lives. At this stage of Words About Books’ development we were still trying to figure out exactly what our...

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December 19, 2022

Should You Read: The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey

Short answer: No. Long answer: What is Satanism? Anton LaVey founded The Church of Satan on Walpurgisnacht (which we all know is April 30th) 1966. Perhaps the most important thing to note right off the bat is that The Church of Satan does not worship a literal Satan. LaVeyan Satanists are essentially theatrical atheists who have adopted demonic imagery from...

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November 19, 2022

Review: The Faraway Paladin Volume 1

I’m new to the world of Light Novels. I imagine that most people looking at a review of The Faraway Paladin will know what a light novel is, but for the elderly people who follow me, I’ll define it real quickly. Light novels are a Japanese phenomenon that has caught on in other parts of Asia and is starting to...

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November 7, 2022

Elon Musk Bought Twitter or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Algorithm

In the beginning… Back in 2019, when we were starting Words About Books, we knew that we would need to get involved in social media to advertise the podcast. I went out and registered accounts on all the big platforms, more to reserve the name than out of any intention of actually using them. I had been off of Facebook...

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October 13, 2022

Should You Read: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

I’ve been aware of Jennette McCurdy since her appearance on a Nickelodeon children’s show called iCarly. I was a freshman in college when iCarly first aired, but I have a sister who is 10-years younger than me. Through her, I came to see a few episodes of iCarly and Victorious. For kids’ shows, I thought they were pretty good. I...

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October 10, 2022

Honest Thoughts: The Haunting of Hill House

Recently on the podcast we covered Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House.” We also covered the Netflix series of the same name that was inspired by (not an adaptation of) the book. I wanted to talk a little more about my feelings on the book for a few reasons. The first reason is that the podcast is lighter in...

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September 16, 2022

November Book Club Choices

Over on Patreon we are asking our members to choose our November book club pick from the following: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez “On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam...

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August 29, 2022

Ben Read Armada and You Won’t Believe What Happened Next…

I didn’t hate it. That’s it. That’s the click bait. But since you’re here, I did happen to notice something weird when I looked at other reviews of the book. Turns out that people who liked Ready Player One are not big fans of Armada. Believe me when I say I was ready to love this book. Ready Player One...

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July 27, 2022

Ben’s Honest Thoughts on Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

We recently covered Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline on the podcast. These were some of the longest recording sessions that we’ve done. They were also some of the most frustrating. Both Nate and I had a lot to say. I think that Nate would agree that either of us could have done a three hour monologue on the book....

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