“Midnight Sun,” the Hugo Awards, and Other Concerns: Reader Chat with Claire Eastaugh

Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you find bookish podcasts.

I’m joined this week on the podcast by the cohost of Fictional Hangover, Claire Eastaugh, and we have some concerns.

We discuss the release of a new Twilight book, ponder the relevance of dead white male science fiction authors, and Claire gives a behind-the-scenes peek at what goes into her prep for episodes of Fictional Hangover.

We also get on our adjacent soap boxes to talk about the importance of intentionally reading inclusively, and rethinking our perceptions of marginalized identities as represented in literature and period films.

Listen to Fictional Hangover here, and find their website here.

Books Discussed on the Episode

• A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• My Plain Jane, My Lady Jane, and My Calamity Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith
• The Jane Jameson and Half Moon Hollow series by Molly Harper
• Midnight Sun and the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
• The Host by Stephenie Meyer
• Peter & Max by Bill Willingham
• Fables comic series by Bill Willingham
• Rat Queens graphic novel series by Kurtis J. Wiebe
• The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• Monstress comic series by Marjorie Liu
• The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn

For Further Exploration

The disappointments of the 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony

A full list of this year’s Hugo nominees and winners

What happened with the RWA and RITA Awards

Arkham Horror, the inclusive tabletop RPG based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft

News on the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series

Discussion of whitewashing in the Jane Austen and period drama fandoms

Black Girl in a Big Dress webseries

Listen to new episodes of the Rhonda With A Book podcast every Tuesday and get exclusive bonus content through Patreon. Thanks for listening and happy reading!