See us in conversation with Sarah Gailey, TJ Klune, Lily Menon, and Rivers Solomon at the Macmillan Library ALA Midwinter pregame event Thursday January 21, at 4 pm Eastern! Register here.
We now have merch! Check out our Redbubble shop for cute products with art by Anna on them.
In this episode, we discuss our pandemic coping mechanism, watching horror movies and television! Please note we recorded this in October 2020 (in case you’d like to compare that with the publication date of this post). In spite of how it sounds, we were not quarantined at opposite ends of a long tunnel during the recording. CW: frank discussion of various elements of horror.
In this episode (ABBAsode) we invited @renatasnacks to rank the contents of the 1992 greatest hits release ABBA Gold with us, discussing the relative merits of each track and sharing our personal histories with ABBA. Spoiler: We totally went to Sweden about it.
Somewhat in the spirit of Extra Hot Great’s television Canon, your hosts each assembled a list of favorite movies and agreed to make a universal Bellwether Friends list out of intersecting titles. In this episode, we reveal our picks to one another. Click here for the joint list! *sounds of paper rustling*
Anna’s Honorable Mentions
*10 Things I Hate About You
Adventures In Babysitting
*The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
The African Queen
Aladdin
American Pie
Annie
*Arsenic And Old Lace
Austin Powers
Back To The Future
Bend It Like Beckham
Better Off Dead
Captain Marvel
*Coming To America The Craft
Crocodile Dundee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
*Deadpool
Deliver Us From Eva
*Desk Set
*Fast and Furious franchise
*Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
*French Kiss
*Ghostbusters (2016)
Gia
The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Goonies
*Guardians of the Galaxy
Highlander
Jumanji (2017)
The Karate Kid
The Little Mermaid
Love & Basketball
Mad Max: Fury Road
*Magic Mike XXL
Meet Me In St. Louis
Moonraker
*The Nine Lives Of Christmas
*The Philadelphia Story
Short Circuit
Shrek
*The Silence Of The Lambs
Speed
*Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Star Wars (new trilogy)
Tank Girl
Thor: Ragnarok
While You Were Sleeping
White Christmas
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Willow
*Wonder Woman
Join us as we discuss the most recent winner of our What To Watch Next TV Bracket: Pose! Then we exhaustively review the shows we’re watching, shows we’ve lost, shows we might consider adding, and shows we’ve put on unintentional hiatus.
In this episode, we talk about all the books we got excited about at BookExpo way back in May. Many are already available for you to buy from your local independent bookstore or borrow from your library! (See episodes 48, 64, 75, 88, 89, and 96 for previous Book Buzz content.)
In this episode, we talk to author and librarian emeritus Kelly Jensen about mental health and how it impacts our ability to read for work and pleasure, and what we can do to get out of reading slumps (if we want to).
In this episode, we discuss all things (European) opera with noted cataloger @marccold! Content warning for sexual assault and murder (no thanks to Don Giovanni).
In this episode, we discuss fairies with author friend and known fairy aficionado Stephanie Burgis! Including some discussion of what we define as a member of the fey, how to get rid of an earworm, and all the things you should be reading and watching.
In this episode, we work our way through our own version of March Madness: our third annual What to Watch Next TV Bracket! At the end of this episode, you will get to vote on what TV series we will watch and discuss next from among four categories: Comedy, Crime, Drama, and SFF. Previous brackets in Episode 57 and Episode 81.
BUT BEFORE WE START THAT
We guest edited an issue of the Two Bossy Dames newsletter! If you have always wished our podcast was a newsletter, now is your chance to read our thoughts instead of listen to them! Also, you should subscribe.
Musical Obsessions
Anna: “Celebrity Skin” by Hole from the Captain Marvel soundtrack
Alene: “Come As You Are” by Nirvana from the Captain Marvel soundtrack
In this episode, we discuss our favorite romantic comedies that were not on the list we covered in Episode 103. More happy endings for lesbian couples! The Sandra Bullock sidebar! Aunt Lynne’s picks!
In this episode, we review and comment on a ratings-based Rotten Tomatoes list of the 150 best romantic comedies of all time! Tune in for many opinions about romance, comedy, and the intersection of the two in film.
Musical Obsessions Anna: “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey; “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves
Alene: “The Joke” by Brandi Carlile, “Havana” by Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug, “Call the Shots” by Leslie Grace from Miss Bala
Obsessions Anna: Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke (May 2019)
Alene: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs
Our Oscar Picks:
Best Picture: Black Panther
Best Director: Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite
Best Actor: Rami Malek
Best Actress: Olivia Coleman
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King
Original Screenplay: The Favourite
Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins
Animated Film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Documentary: RBG
Score: Black Panther
Song: Shallow by Lady Gaga from A Star is Born
Sound Editing: A Quiet Place
Musical Obsessions
Alene: “Shallow” by Lady Gaga from A Star is Born
Anna: “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA from Black Panther
Can you believe there have been a hundred episodes of Bellwether Friends? Well, there haven’t. THIS is the one hundredth episode! Carolyn, Margaret, Sophie, and Ally joined us to discuss our inspiration and beloved novel Bellwether, by our beloved and inspiring Connie Willis, complete with all the digressions you’ve come to love over our past 99 episodes, readalikes, and other suggestions!
In this episode, we look back over a year of movies, television, music, experiences, and books. We did the same for 2017 in Episode 77, 2016 in Episode 53, and 2015 in Episode 27.
In this episode, we discuss the ocean and her presence in movies, books, music, television, and art, in partial response to Episode 94, when our guests were not as pro-sea as Alene might have liked. The #1 takeaway from this episode is that boat safety is very important to Alene. Also, WHAT is the DEAL with the Bountys?
Roiling waves and some deadly rocks are what we’re all about
In this episode, we discuss our favorite animated heartthrobs with friend of the podcast Sarah. Come for the strangely attractive cartoon foxes, stay for the romance recommendations!
We visited New York City to hear from a variety of publishers about their upcoming titles, and we’re here to share some of our favorites, as well as likely candidates for library collections, against a backdrop of rustling paper! (See episodes 48, 64, 75, 88, and 89 for previous Book Buzz content.)
In this episode, we talk about the 25 first-run movies we’ve seen since our last movie advisory session, Episode 86. Our extensive movie viewing has been brought to you by MoviePass (RIP) and Ladies in Suits.
Links
motorcycle slides under giant flying hello kitty pez
In this episode, we discuss sharks in pop culture with Worst Best Friends Renata and Becca, including deep dives (see what we did there?) into The Meg and Jaws as well as our ideal shark movie plots–call us, Hollywood! We were also recently on Worst Bestsellers to discuss Hope Never Dies.
In this episode, we talk basketball with Cecily of The Riverdale Rag and Deb, sharing our personal basketball histories and favorite teams, coaches, and players. When we recorded the episode, the winner of this year’s WNBA championship was still in doubt, but since then the STORM have claimed the title, to the delight of many.
In this episode, jumping off our presentation at the Massachusetts Library Association conference in May, we discuss inclusive romance novels we’ve read and are looking forward to reading. The official genre of Bellwether Friends is Historical Romance. This episode is brought to you by Fake Dating with a side of Getting It Out Of Our System.
Musical Obsessions
Alene: “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Cheryl K feat. Awkwafina from the Crazy Rich Asians soundtrack
“Material Girl (200 du)” by Sally Yeh from the Crazy Rich Asians soundtrack
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Kina Grannis from the Crazy Rich Asians soundtrack
(Bustle article)
Anna: “Yellow” by Katherine Ho from the Crazy Rich Asians soundtrack (LA Times story)
In this episode, we continue what we began in Episode 90 and bring you Alene’s hard pass. Content warning for discussion of various unpleasant topics, primarily suicide. Apologies for the poor sound quality, we didn’t feel like we would make it through this one again if we tried to re-record it.
The first of two episodes exploring the things that we don’t like to encounter in our books, television, movies, and more. Content warning for discussion of various unpleasant topics, primarily cancer.
We’re bringing you our top picks for the fall and early 2019 for you and your library patrons, based on our trips to recent conferences. This is part two of a two-part episode, featuring titles from Hachette, Penguin Random House, Sourcebooks, Quirk Books, Soho Press, Pegasus, Sterling, Ingram, and more! Catch up with part one here.
Other ISAN by Mary Ting (Vesuvian, May 2018) Spice by Dr. Stuart Farrimond (Dorling Kindersley, October 2018) Goat Yoga by Yoga Shenanigoats (Author) and Ashley Hylbert (Photographer) (Turner Publishing Company, October 2017) Aquicorn Cove by Katie O’Neill (Oni Press, October 2018) Sheets by Brenna Thummler (Lion Forge Cub House, August 2018) Drawn to Sex: The Basics by Erika Moen & Matthew Nolan (Limerence Press, November 2018) Norroway Book 1: The Black Bull of Norroway by Kit & Cat Seaton (Image Comics, November 2018) Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, August 2018) Open Earth by Sarah Mirk, Eva Cabrera, and Claudia Aguirre (Limerence Press, September 2018)
Musical Obsessions Anna: “Halo” by Beyoncé
Alene: The Bold Type Spotify Playlist
We’re bringing you our top picks for the fall and early 2019 for you and your library patrons, based on our trips to recent conferences. This is part one of a two-part episode, featuring titles from WW Norton, Simon & Schuster, New York Review Books, HarperCollins, Harlequin, Workman, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury!
Welcome back! In this episode, we discuss two runners up from episode 81’s What To Watch Next TV Bracket II: Sports Night and Black Lightning. So much Sorkin! So many powers!
In this episode, we discuss the movies we have seen since our last movie advisory episode (Episode 77), skipping those we already discussed on other episodes (Episode 81: Oscar Thoughts). We subscribed to MoviePass and it increased our volume of movies seen, but not the overall quality of movies in general. Light spoilers and content warning for gore and vomit mentions.
Links
Already discussed: Black Panther, Call Me By Your Name, Coco, Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, Proud Mary, The Shape of Water
In this episode, we discuss our viewing of The Good Place, winner of our #episode81 What to Watch Next TV Bracket. Spoiler alert! We talk about a lot of details of both seasons of The Good Place, which has some twists and surprises you might not want spoiled.
Not at the same time! In preparation for Avengers: Infinity War, we’ve been catching up on all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (that’s everything except the X-Men and Deadpool and most Spider-Mans, we think?) we missed because of our unwillingness to watch stories about dude superheroes in the theater. We need to watch in the comfort of our home, with our cats and the ability to snark at top volume. And we also have a bunch of stuff to say about bullet journaling, so pull up a seat for this new episode!
In this episode, we follow up Episode 82 with Classical Music Advisory, bringing back Robin @Tuphlos Bradford (previously our guest on Episode 36) to share her expertise. We learned a lot about Robin’s dark musical past in the process, including her love for the cello and her secret years as a flutist?!
In this episode, we talk about our favorite classical pieces and our recent live symphony experiences.
Also: our What to Watch Next Bracket poll results! By the will of the popular vote (or the person/s with the most ways of accessing the internet), we will be watching The Good Place.
It’s time for March Madness and time for another What to Watch Next TV Bracket! We’re also going to tell you what we think about top Oscar categories. Vote in the poll at the bottom of this page to tell us what to watch next!
“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”
~Jo Godwin
…and a moderately good librarian podcast should aspire to the same!
In this episode, we brought in author and podcaster Annie Cardi (@anniecardi) discuss things everyone likes that we don’t. Yes, it was covered in Episode 9, but that was back in December 2014, so here’s an update!
Musical Obsessions Annie: “Drive It Like You Stole It” from Sing Street motion picture soundtrack
Anna: “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Alene: “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten
We brought in writing implement expert Cecily Walker (@skeskali) of the Riverdale Rag podcast to talk about one of our favorite things: pens! Warning: if you are at all inclined to rash internet purchases, Cecily makes buying pens and ink sound very appealing.
We brought in holiday romance expert Cory (and her mom) to help us sift through the offerings from the 2017 season. We talked about diversity, Lifetime vs. Hallmark, nude nail polish, royalty, adorable moppets, and more, using our Holiday Romance Movie Checklist as a baseline. See our spreadsheet of the 38 movies the Bellwether Friends team watched this season here.
We give our takes on the theatrical releases we watched in the back half of 2017, then talk about our bests of the past year before plunging into what we’re looking forward to in the new year! There are some spoilers, but we rarely make much sense. Movie Advisory 2017A was episode 66!
In this episode, we recap the 17 horror movies we’ve watched since we last checked in, and what we Learned About Ourselves in the process of watching them. Content warning: we couldn’t resist spoilers for some of the movies, and there is a brief discussion of sexual assault in The Evil Dead.
We visited New York City to hear from a variety of publishers about their upcoming titles, and we’re here to share some of our favorites, as well as likely candidates for library collections, against a backdrop of rustling paper! (See episodes 48 and 64 for previous Book Buzz content.)
All the checking in this episode as we discuss the progress we’ve made on watching horror movies since Episode 73 and also our plans for watching and unpacking holiday romance movies (see also Episode 56) for a future episode. If you want to follow along with us, we’ll be using the hashtag #BFHolidayRomance on Twitter and Facebook and using our Holiday Romance Movie Checklist:
In this episode, Alene tries to find horror films that Anna will consent to watch with her. We discuss our history and preferences regarding horror movies, with a brief foray into horror in other media. See Episode Six for earlier thoughts related to this topic.
For this episode, we brought in Jennie Rothschild to give strong opinions on the current state of children’s television and reminisce about a few old favorites. Including a theme song quiz! Bucking tradition, we start with the quiz, which ends at 19:00 if you want to skip ahead.
In this episode, we discuss the reality TV shows we watched after our Episode 70 conversation with @bookavore. Sadly, no cookies were made as a result.
In this episode, we head into largely uncharted waters to discuss reality TV with Stephanie Anderson aka @bookavore. SPOILER ALERT we talk about the Rachel Lindsay season of The Bachelorette!
In this episode, we talk all things Sherlock Holmes with expert readers’ advisor Ally (also of #girlgang fame), running with our collective lady supremacy ideas wherever possible.
We invited Rebecca (our guest on Episode 49: Musicals) to return, along with Amanda from Episode 54: Song Covers, to talk about Stephen Sondheim and Hamilton, fill in some gaps from our previous conversations, and take another action-packed quiz that tested the depths of their musical theater knowledge.
Musical Obsessions
Rebecca: “Hug Me” by Pharrell Williams and Trey Parker, from Despicable Me 3
Amanda: “Taekwondo” by Walk off the Earth
Anna: “Thoroughly Modern Millie” by Julie Andrews, fromThoroughly Modern Millie
Alene: “Telephone” by Pamplemousse
Our wrap-up of all the first-run movies we saw in the first half of 2017, and what we’re looking forward to for the rest of the year. With special guest Giant Bug.
We got our favorite movie explicator, Renata, on board to discuss the latest entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise: F8 of the Furious (which is what it should have been called). But first we watched all seven previous movies! Hashtag completist. On the way, we learned some very important lessons about ourselves and about FAMILY. Spoilers abound!
Have you ever wondered “what do they do all day when they’re not recording podcasts, those Bellwether Friends? I know I should trust librarians, but why?” We sat down for an interview about collection development (the art of budgeting for, buying, maintaining, and eventually disposing of books and other materials) with Helene Williams, Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington’s iSchool, for her online class (Twitter).
In this episode, we tell you about a ton of the books we learned about at BookExpo last week! Prepare to have your TBR grow completely beyond management.
For this episode we discussed our obsession with Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars (and other Converse shoes, and shoes in general) in conjunction with our month-long project with @melissazd, #chuckstravaganza. We are wearing our Chucks every day in May to celebrate the fact that shoes don’t have to be brown or black! Topics include where to shop, how to wash, high vs low tops, and more!
We joined forces with Margaret and Sophie of Two Bossy Dames to take a closer look at the 1951 mystery classic The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Much cleverness, and many readalikes and watchalikes, ensued. PLUS: A Young Olds discussion of Harry Styles and his debut single.
Wolverine expert Renata returns to recap the first two (confusingly named) Wolverine movies featuring Hugh Jackman as an appetizer for our spoiler-filled discussion of the new movie Logan. You might not want to watch the movies when we’re through, but you’ll definitely want to watch movies with Renata. Apologies in advance for some sound quality issues during the episode.
Also: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was the winner of our episode 57 Bellwether Friends What to Watch Next Bracket Challenge! Thanks to everyone who voted. We will be recording an episode about the show in the near future!
Dragons, dragons, dragons! In this episode, we talk about dragon books, movies, television, games, and more with author Stephanie Burgis, including her book The Dragon With A Chocolate Heart! And a short discussion of . . . Jurassic Park?
Sometimes when you’re having trouble figuring out how to narrow down your choices, you do a bracket. Well, you do that if you’re Anna. Alene likes to ask everyone she knows what they think. In this episode, we do both.
For this episode, we brought in small medium at large Kaite Stover (Twitter, Instagram) to tell us all about tarot. By the end, even skeptic Anna was convinced.
In this episode, we talked about cover songs, because Hamilton Mixtape. We brought in @AmandaStretch, a librarian and musicologist, all the way from Japan to lend our conversation gravitas. Also, we made a playlist!
In this episode, we talk about movies we’ve seen since our last movie advisory (episode 35), share our picks for best of 2016, and squeal over what we’re looking forward to in 2017.
Movies
Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Ghost in the Shell, Murder on the Orient Express, Hidden Figures, Fate of the Furious, Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Despicable Me 3, Pitch Perfect 3, Beauty and the Beast, It, Baywatch, Power Rangers, Wonder Woman, Fifty Shades Darker, Before I Fall, Annihilation, Star Wars Episode 8
From E!: Movie Preview 2017: 84 Films You Should Know About in the New Year
At the intersection of pop culture and fingernails, it’s fandom nail polish! We brought in polish expert Angie and nail wrap aficionado Renata (of Worst Bestsellers fame) to help Anna make sense of it all. Plus: Nail Polish Advisory!
We made it to fifty episodes! In this very special post-election installment of Bellwether Friends, we talked to founding Friend Carolyn about comforting pop culture (and food) to consume when we’re trying to recharge our batteries.
In this epic episode, we discussed musicals with musical theater major Rebecca for nearly two hours! There were some differences of opinion (*cough* Sondheim *cough*) but we all parted as friends after a musical quiz!
In this episode, we bring you our picks from the publisher book buzz we attended in October 2016. Fiction! A surprising amount of nonfiction! Plus our usual obsessions. Prepare to be interested in some books!
We talked with our friend Paula (aka @Nerdista) to talk about a variety of hot topics and burning questions related to audiobooks. Anna had some trouble managing with twice the normal number of Alenes.
Musical Obsessions
Anna: “We Used To Be Friends” by The Dandy Warhols
Paula: “Tilted” by Christine and the Queens
Alene: “#1 Spice” by Young Cardamom & HAB
In this episode, we discuss Take My Wife (starring Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher) with @amydieg of @jointhegirlgang. The jury is still out as to which of us is butcher.
In this episode we discuss Star Trek (TV and movie iterations) and the organizational tactic/life-wrangling practice known as the bullet journal. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
Just in time for the Closing Ceremonies, we were joined by Anna’s sister (@semisponge) to discuss Olympics past and present, uniform fashion, rooting hierarchies, and more!
For this episode, we took advantage of a visit from Amy Diegelman (aka @amydieg aka half of #jointhegirlgang aka WTF is America aka Panels contributor) to watch Firefly and Deadpool, plus spend a morning at the local arcade. Firefly fans be warned: Anna doesn’t like it much. She looks forward to hearing from you on the topic.
Links
Bellwether Friends 