In this episode, Liz and Heather talk about our most recent Book Club: Lamb by Christopher Moore. We LOVE THIS BOOK. It is so funny and also makes you think. Here is the disclaimer - if you are super starchy religious or have a stick up your ass, you may want to skip that episode.
Note: Donkey and Goat Wine is what Heather is talking about - fermented natural wine that tastes like grape juice. Check it out.
We will soon be adding a Classic Movie Club to our podcast, in addition to our Book Clubs. Our first movies will be Alien/Aliens since there will be a reunion of Aliens at Comicpalooza in Houston in June.
Here'e the plot of the book: The angel Raziel has come back 2,000 years after the death of Christ and has brought back Biff, Jesus' childhood pal, to tell his Gospel - the 30 year gap in what happened to Jesus (Joshua) from about age 6 until his death. Biff is locked in a hotel room, writing his version of events of the day. Since Joshua is supposed to be the Messiah and is to be without sin, he gets Biff to do the sinning for him, and then tell him about it later. They also have their childhood friend, Mary Magdalene (Maggie) to contend with. She is in love with Joshua and Biff is in love with Maggie... good times.
Joshua and Biff go on an epic journey throughout the land searching for the three magi who were present at his birth to try to learn how to be the Messiah; Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchior are there names.
Lots of love, sinning, sex, Bible stuff, and more. Read it, listen to it, and listen to us. Because this is cool Jesus. And we like cool Jesus. Trust us, yo.
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OH AND THE BIGGEST COOLEST NEWS NOT IN THE PODCAST: We have been accepted into the Compicpalooza Podcast Partnership Program for 2016!! We are super excited to be a part of this and will be recording episodes as part of that program... so definitely jump on board with that!
This episode is yet another Book Club: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. This is the quintessential geek books out there.
Gaiman is a Brit and has basically come to America and told us who we are. It is interesting to see from an outsider who we are based on the perspective of other people. (We saw this with Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series.)
The book opens with the character, Shadow. We don’t really know why he is in prison, but he just keeps his head down and serves his own time. Days before he is to be released, he finds out that his wife has been killed in a car accident with his best friend. He ends up being released a few days early for his wife’s funeral. While flying home, he meets up with a strange man (whom he feels is a plant to screw him over). He has to deplane and ends up renting a car and driving to the middle of nowhere, and weird guy from the plane is sitting there (Mr. Wednesday).
Shadow decides to take the job offered to him with Mr. Wednesday (for reasons unknown to anyone). Shadow makes it home to the end of the funeral to find out that his best friend and wife were having an affair. He gives the gold coin from the leprechaun to his wife.
There is a lot of background info on what happened and why, but the majority of the book talks about the old gods (Odin, Loki, Easter, etc.) versus the new gods (TV, technology, Internet, etc.) and how when people leave their homelands they tend to leave their old Gods behind.
If you haven’t read this book, please do so and then listen, as it is a book club and full of spoilers.
Upcoming episodes are going to be STAR WARS related, so be prepared for that!!
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It's Book Club Day! In this episode, Liz and Heather invite other Nerdy Bitches into the studio to discuss this week's Book Club - Dark Disciple:Star Wars by Christie Golden. We brought back Kitty (Boozylicious and Cards Against Humanity episodes), along with new guests Cassi (Sarah and Cassi's Nerdy Adventures [podcast]) and Sophie, to discuss their take on this book. Fair warning - this episode is Boozylicious!
This is the story of Asajj Ventress. Ventress was a character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, who played the assassin and apprentice of the evil Count Dooku. During the run of the series, Ventress is a thorn in the side of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but also ends up being betrayed by Count Dooku, and ultimately takes off freelance with some bounty hunters (including a young Boba Fett). Her storyline was never concluded when the show was cancelled, so this book follows what happens after she leaves.
This book starts out with the Jedi Council deciding that they needed to send someone to assassinate Count Dooku (much to the dismay of Obi-Wan), so they bring in Quinlan Vos, a rogue, undercover Jedi, to go seek the aid of Ventress. We all have a bit of an issue with the Jedi ordering an assassination, which is completely out of character for the Jedi Order. Vos is sent to seek out Ventress under the guise of being a bounty hunter with her. He thinks he is being pretty sneaky at hiding his use of the Force, but in true Ventress-fashion, she figures him out pretty quickly.
Here is the picture of Quinlan Vos, though in our minds he is a combination of Shemar Moore, Lenny Cravitz, and the love-child of Obi-Wan and Han Solo. He's pretty much a badass.
We love how complex Ventress is - she is bad, but she also has the heart of gold, and can kick the ass of any Jedi. She is incredibly clever but still stands back a bit. She has been burned a lot by both the dark and the light and knows better than to trust either side completely. She is a really strong female character in her own right and doesn't define herself by a dude. She is also willing to kill him when he turns to the dark side rather than have him go through what she has been through, and so that he can die who he was. No one else even notices that he is still dark.
Spoilers - Ventress sacrifices herself to save Vos, and by doing so, she brings him back from the dark side (like Jesus), and she also saves the Jedi Council and brings them back to who they really are.
Consensus - This book is awesome. Go read it.
Our visitors today can be heard:
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It's Book Club day! In this episode, Liz and Heather discuss Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Obviously, this episode will be full of spoilers, so make sure you have read the book or, even better, listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Weaton!
Summary (From the Publisher)
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake ... A quest for the ultimate prize ... Are you ready? (From the publisher.).
Note: Both Heather and Liz listened to the audio book.
The nostalgia factor on this book for anyone who grew up in the 1980s is absolutely off the charts. The references to pop culture are so great, you could split a lip. The real world in this book is not that great, so pretty much the entire planet lives and works inside a virtual reality platform called The Oasis. The story picks up after the death of Halliday, the creator of the Oasis with a contest that would lead someone to become the sole heir to his fortune and become the ruler of the Oasis.
Egg hunters = Gunters (Liz hates this word) around the world have been looking, with zero success for years, until Wade finds the first key. Then, all of the sudden, the game is back on and Wade is now being actively perused by everyone on the planet, but especially by the evil Sorrento and his league of professional gunters (the Sixers), who are willing to commit very real murder in order to take control of The Oasis.
This is a long episode, so settle in with your favorite boozylicious cocktail and listen to us talk about this awesome book.
(FYI - Ernest Cline, as of this podcast, is 43 years old, so he is 4 years older than Nerdy Bitch Liz.)
Recommendations
Bitch of the week - STOP BODY SHAMING PEOPLE! Especially pregnant people! Not cool, dude. And thigh gap is stupid. Just stop shaming people all over. Fat, thin, short, tall, pregnant, whatever - just keep your trap shut!
Next Book Club - Dark Disciple by Christie Golden - This is one of the new canon books in the Star Wars Saga. We will be joined by some other awesome nerdy bitches in studio to discuss this book. Read and learn about the character Asajj Ventress and what she gets done.
Welcome to the second Nerdy Bitches Book Club: The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth! We decided not to cover just one at a time, but all three books at once, so we are talking super spoilers here!! We are covering the BOOKS, not the movies.
So, here we go!! We would love your feedback on our opinions, as well as your own, so you can always e-mail us.
Book 1: Divergent: We learn about the different factions that exist in this society, and how they came to be. Each of the factions has their good point, but of course will all have a downfall. The main character, Beatrice/Tris, begins in Abnegation and chooses to move into Dauntless during her choosing ceremony. Once the kids choose their new faction, they have to prove themselves worthy, or risk becoming "factionless." Liz: Dauntless or Candor; Heather: Candor. We pretty much think that most people would really be Divergent. We were completely blown away about the Factions Before Family theme. Every faction had both good and bad leaders. Also, each faction has their own serum for controlling their people, overcoming fear, and the super evil shit serum. Lots of good action in this book. We love Four/Tobias in this book and his training of Tris throughout the story. It was a little stupid that people had no idea that Four was Marcus's son and the only other one to leave Abnegation. The plot holes are pretty deep. Anyways, the Erudite uses the serum on Dauntless and has them take out a bunch of people. Tris kills Will and then becomes completely fucking worthless.
Book 2: Insurgent: This is the aftermath of the Erudite takeover. We start to find out that they are hiding a lot from everyone else. We also learn more and more about the Factionless and how many there really are, including Four's mother, who was supposed to be dead. Four kicks some major ass throughout this book, but he does become obnoxiously protective of Tris and keeps telling her that she is being reckless. Tris is Abnegation AND Dauntless... of COURSE she is going to be both selfless and brave. And Tris's piece of shit brother, Caleb! OMG!! He totally strapped her to the table to be murdered! Douchenozzle. Not only did he betray his sister, he also betrayed his parents and is basically the reason they are dead! We would have shot him in the head ourselves. The ending of this book was pretty good. They killed off Jeanine and that would have been the end... except then we had to show that damn Edith Prior video. This is the curse of the trilogy. We blame you, Stephanie Meyer, George R.R. Martin, and the like.
**THIS IS WHERE THE SERIES SHOULD HAVE ENDED. BUT, IT DID NOT.**
Book 3: Allegiant: This is where the real bullshit begins. From the second chapter, I knew what was going to happen because the story starts changing points of view. This didn't happen in the first two, but once that happens, you know that one of those points of view most likely will not be around for the end of the story. The story was not well written, and the author keeps drilling things into our heads that don't need to be there. This poor girl is 16 years old and basically becomes the face of this revolution. Hello, Katniss Everdeen much?? We really feel like the concept was stolen from much better writers. Now, they are outside the gate only to find out that they are part of a giant genetic purification experiment. FYI - None of this was science. It was purist bullshit. And in this book - anything you enjoyed or cared about in the first two books is totally fucking gone. Might as well never have been written. We found out that Tobias is actually NOT Divergent, which completely changes his entire personality. Boo. Now let's blame it on his "genetic deficiency" to remove any and all responsibility for his actions.
At this point - Heather goes on a rant about Tris and her terrible Kate Goslin/soccer mom haircut. That's not badass!!
And FYI - Tris and Four DID have sex in the third book. It's in Chapter 41. They don't come out and say it because it is a Young Adult book. Read it again. That is the YA version of sex. I was so freaking happy that they finally did it. Of course, that means one of you is going to die.
And now we come to it - We've had POV shifts, no consistency - and then comes the worst ending of any book that I was actually enjoyed reading. Right at the end, she kills off Tris. Fuck you, Veronica Roth. Fuck you very much. We didn't need Tobias and his mother having a fairy tale ending. We needed Tris and Tobias to actually live happily ever after. Veronica Roth apparently thinks she is well above her writing. You cannot kill off your main character in a YA novel! The Bernstein Bears never fucking die at the end! Come on!!!
We will never read anything else of hers, for sure. Ms. Roth tried to blog about why she killed her off - and it was just lame. Her logic is illogical. She also said that she would kill off Harry Potter if she had written that. Yeah, that's why you didn't write that!
Liz's sister keeps clinging to the hope that they will change the ending of the third movie, but I'm pretty sure that would be like saying "The end of Titanic is just too depressing... let's let them all get to New York together!" Lame. Heather is completely offended that Ms. Roth thinks she is that good of an author.
The morale of this story is - Sometimes, two books is just enough. And, when you write everything to the point of absolute stupidity - you lose us.
Bitch of the Week - Killing characters off for sport/shock/awe value. We are talking to you, George R. R. Martin. Never fall in love with a character because they will be gone. The drinking game for Game of Thrones is to drink until the pain stops. Douchebags always rise to the top.
Internet comments (in-context):
Don't waste your time on this corny love story stretched into three lame books. Not even the same ballpark as Hunger Games. BTW - she dies at the end. - Amazon 1-star review
Recommendations:
Ready Player One will be our next book club episode in a few weeks time!!
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HELLO! MY NAME IS INIGIO MONTOYA! YOU KILLED MY FATHER! PREPARE TO DIE!
This episode, Liz and Heather are introducing the first Nerdy Bitches Book Club - The Princess Bride by William Goldman. We will talk in depth on the differences in the book and the movie. Please note there WILL be spoilers in this episode... it's a book club.
This is a tough book to categorize, as it has adventure, romance, and so many other facets. Heather grew up having the book read to her, but this was Liz's first time to read the book. Liz started watching the movie in high school, so the book was completely new.
The book is very different from the movie in the fact that the book is full of asides where the author is breaking in to the story to describe what he is changing from the "original S. Morgenstern" and also what he is thinking and why. [Example: I have removed 86 pages describing hats.] Other differences:
We found some of the style a little of a slap in the face with some of the fakey bullshit in the book. We were also annoyed with Buttercup's Baby - so you can just skip that load of crap. He really screws with you! The movie is definitely the good stuff.
Have fun storming the castle! - Miracle Max
We also go through some of our favorite quotes from the movie, so join in!
Heroes of the story—The Dread Pirate Roberts (Heather) & Fessik (Liz)
Book Club Questions (from the book):
Next Book Club - The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth (4 weeks)
Bitch of the Week - Online parties on Facebook/social media - We used to get invited to one party on one day. Now, we have to deal with this for a freaking month and be constantly harassed by the host. You can't just order and be done with it. We need wine and snacks, people. WINE AND SNACKS!!
Recommendations
Random Internet Comment of the Week
A small minority of murderous nuts doesn't make us all murderers and nuts. - mathematicians and atheists
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