And we’re back! In the first episode of Series 6 the girls get stuck into our first “People What We Heart Loads” in Kiley Dunbar and her Borrow A Bookshop Holiday! The girls talk (and disagree mainly) on whether trauma makes a story worthwhile, the merit of light or romantic fiction in general and how Kim Namjoon of BTS fame works as a disguised leading man I mean if we want to get into it: - Why do we feel bad about reading books where trauma isn’t front and centre - And the thing is, there was plenty in this book to dig into trauma-wise, it just wasn’t the focus of the whole piece - Romantic fiction as a celebration of when we FINALLY get to win, even just for a second - And yes, Kiley cast BTS’s RM as her leading man DON’T EVEN TRY TELL US DIFFERENT!! Tangents? You got it! Briefly: - We are still bitterly jealous of that girl from primary school that always had packs of tissues with her - Cliodhna and Sarah have both considered joining a convent at least once in their young lives. Seriously, we’re not even messing - WB Yeats remains the creepiest poet in our experience - We were not prepared to enjoy the BTS/Coldplay collaboration and we do not know how to feel about it - Chloe is not over the UN plane outfits and may never get over it - Also we’re coming for that creepy IT guy what comes on to first years. Boy better watch his back It’s all here in this week’s Chick Lit 4 Life!! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Chick Lit 4 Life (or, Marian Keyes can cure heartbreak)

Series 6: Episode 1 - The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday

Gang! We are finally back with our sixth and final episode in our LGBTQ+ series – this time with Ciara Smyth’s warm and affecting “The Falling In Love Montage” This is just the way we wanted to finish our toughest series yet – with a strawberry sorbet of sexual tension, class one-liners and a chewy centre of aniseed flavoured existential angst (I think we can all agree that is exactly how angst tastes, fight me in the carpark later if you disagree. In discussing said flavour bomb of romantic same-sex awesome, the girls get into: How refreshing it is (See? Strawberry sorbet!) after all the tough and US dominated reads we’ve had over the last few months, to have a current Irish love story based around someone that is the same age as the girls with the same concerns we have. Except maybe her super-hot summer girlfriend. We don’t have that... Unfortunately... How we can get caught up in having answers and working towards huge life goals, at the expense of our own happiness and well-being How that, when you start to get over that and open yourself up to experiences -  despite romance being very much alive, true love may not conquer all And that’s not the worst thing in the world. Not really Clee and Sarah share how Saoirse (book Saoirse, not our Sersh – they say their names differently, it’ll make more sense when you listen to it) and her experience of family life resonated with them on a very deep level Oh and Ruby being the ACTUAL hotness Tangents? Sure thing: Well K has written what might be our forever theme tune which is VERY exciting! Chloe, naturally, went on a 5 minute monologue about JK’s see-through pyjamas he insisted on wearing on a Live cast a few weeks ago (she’s okay. Just about) She did also share her thoughts after re-reading Twilight not that long ago (disclaimer: Chlo-Chlo was disappointed) Clee shares her experiences with people treating her like she’s “Hetero-Girl Classic (now in cherry flavour!)” when she’s actually anything but And, of course, how we can’t figure out what it is we liked about Love, Actually in the first place. Except maybe that Joni Mitchell song... It's all here on our latest episode of Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 6: The Falling In Love Montage

Well, it's been aaaages (due to LC having to do a hell of a lot of late nights for her day job - don't ask) but we're back with Episode 5 of our series on LGBTQ+ authors, this time on Leslie Feinberg's acclaimed "Stone Butch Blues". In discussing our most affecting examination of the LGBTQ+ experience, the girls get into: Stone Butch Blues being, straight up, a critical novel in our learning about the historical experience of gay women when living a gay lifestyle or presenting as gender nonbinary was straight up illegal Trigger warning: This episode discusses physical abuse and rape – a lot. Because it happened a lot to these characters we loved. That’s why we need to talk about it and show it in the way it’s shown in the book. But if that is a source of trauma for you please be aware before listening, or indeed reading Stone Butch Blues. It’s important to note that this story is restricted to the experience of a white gay woman, presenting as gender non-binary in 1950s America, but this is also something the author is very clear about – with Jess learning from her friends of colour what their struggles at the intersection of racism and homophobia are. And we experience the effects of that on her loved ones along with her This book isn’t for the faint-hearted. Or maybe it is. We need to look the vile things our predecessors did head on. We are the better for reading about people we would have known or been related to or loved, dehumanising these people simply because they did not understand the way they live their lives But I mean, of course there were tangents: Chloe has named her new haircut. She’s that excited about it Chloe and Katie get into a fight over the symbolic nature of the Purple balloon in the Permission to Dance video – Katie's likely more accurate but Chloe’s theory is a LOT more entertaining Interestingly Chloe did also come up with her latest possible t-shirt phrase “Men, lesbians want nothing to do with your gross little willies” Followed closely by Cliodhna’s “Lesbian Minesweeper Wiz” And not so much a tangent but definitely something we want to be aware of – given the anti-capitalist stance of the author we do not have ads for this week’s episode (even if they are made up and not for anything real). Instead LC is sharing information on LGBTQ+ resources It's all here on our latest episode of Chick Lit 4 LIfe! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 5: Stone Butch Blues

OMG I know we’ve been gone forever but we swear it was for a good reason. Our disappearance aside, our 4th episode in Series 5 is now LIVE! The girls discuss #TheSubtweet, our first novel by a trans author - #VivekShraya (@vivekshraya – follow her for fierceness, hair goals, and playsuit game that has forced us to face our preconceptions of femininity. Seriously, she’s that good) The Subtweet is a warm, moving and upsettingly accurate depiction of friendship between women and the havoc the ‘Likes=Acceptance’ Algorithm™ can wreak on it. Throw in a good dose of white privilege marginalizing talented af brown women, world-building songs that exist in real life and a touch of feminist theory and you’ve got yourself quite the immersive book my friends. The Subtweet is available at all reputable booksellers (buy independent where you can!) and is available on Kindle and Apple Books! Stream Vivek Shraya’s/Too Attached’s music on Spotify or Apple Music and catch Neela and Rukmini’s versions of Every Song on there while you’re at it! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 4: The Subtweet

And we're back! The girls' third book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Gabby Rivera's joyous "Juliet Takes a Breath". While fangirling over, quite possibly the most lovable main character we have ever come across, the girls talk: - First and foremost, how we CANNOT HANDLE how much we love Juliet. Seriously. Why is she fictional? We need to hang out with her IMMEDIATELY - Juliet's journey after she comes out, and how her foundation of love with her family makes it even more affecting - How Juliet's tendency to get overwhelmed, freak out, but then do the thing anyway makes her our actual hero, move over Beyoncé - How through doing that, Juliet identifies and creates her own relationship with feminism - Speaking of feminism, Juliet (and hence the girls) talk about where white lady feminism falls short - Not to mention all of the super-gross parts of ourselves and our behaviour we came across in that discussion - Plus our further fangirling over Titi Wepa and cousin Ava, Kira The Hot Librarian ™, and a lot of oversharing on how Juliet's Mam, as an imperfect, loving mother, makes us cry like bitches Oh, you want to hear about the tangents? Well... - Chloe goes in unnecessary depth into the BangBangCon experience and the gif-only conversation she and Clee had during it - Clee can't speak spanish (we disagree) and Chloe can't say many of the words for "vagina" (we heartily disagree) - Though we should use this opportunity to say this week's episode has some stronger language than usual, listener discretion is advised - Oh and speaking of listener discretion... - We found out during recording that our very own Katie Murphy has guest written some sexy fanfic with LC's baby sister @btsfantasty on Instagram. She is not happy that we know about it, but that is part of the fun All that and muchos fangirling over how much we seriously want to be best mates with Juliet despite her fictional status, on this episode of Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 3: Juliet Takes A Breath

And we're back! The girls' second book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Ilana Masad's stunning "All My Mothers Lovers". In discussing possibly our most divisive main character to date, the girls talk: Said divisive main character - is Maggie super selfish or just grieving the loss of her mother in her own way? How the grieving process can have you come to terms with your parents' humanity, often too late the reality of desire - and how we can be boxed in by what qualities are "acceptable" to be attracted to We also get into the differences between the Hindu god Shiva and the Jewish tradition of shiva. Which is not something I thought I'd ever be typing. Are there tangents? Why do you ask questions you definitely know the answer to? We have some Miocic Ngannou pregame excitement and a plug for The Bash with Petesy and Niall if that's what you're into Some discussion on Chloe's granny sounding like the most terrifying person ever BTS not getting a Grammy but we have their upcoming Japanese album to look forward to But despite that, we can't co-opt Takeshi Murakami's intellectual property just because it flawlessly symbolises everything J-Hope is. Oh man we love him so much For all that, PLUS an update on whether Deano has returned to the Two Tyres One Chain family (#ComeHomeDeano) tune in to the latest episode of Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 2: All My Mother's Lovers

And we're back! The girls' first book of Series 5 on LGBTQ+ authors is Rita Mae Brown's bestselling "Rubyfruit Jungle". In discussing (arguably) the first lesbian protagonist in popular culture, the girls talk: - The effect of a shining superhero lead character in tackling oppression - How that makes us feel as gals that love a bit of emotional struggle and nuance - Interestingly, how Molly's self-belief trips our (super-Irish) "Notions" alarm, and how that's just very uncomfortable - Plus Chloe Cullen in her best dramatic performance to date! And we did not go on one tangent! Okay that was a lie. We did foray into - How OBSESSED we are with all the people making epoxy resin charms and jewellery on Instagram, we just CANT with you people!! - Saoirse's unwavering dedication to PopSugar fitness videos. And the fact that she does them with no shoes on. Which we insist is weird. It IS weird, right?! - And of course, finally, Katie's crazy forehead-vein. We don't know how it took so long to bring it up to be honest  It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 5 Episode 1: Rubyfruit Jungle

Another year, another round of book talk the girls need to have! The girls' first book of 2021 and the last in our series about authors of colour is Cho Nam-Ju's feminist powerhouse "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982". In discussing this stark novel's approach to laying out the cadaver that is misogyny and disregard for women, girls, sisters and mothers, the girls talk: - The physical and mental health issues motherhood and pregnancy present (and we had NO IDEA) - Sexual assault and how small actions build up over time (why are you feeling our bra straps?!) - What if sexism isn't just an outdated societal rule? What if it's a tradition? One that we're proud of? - How sexism affects children (maybe it's NOT adorable when little boys bully the girls they like!) - and how having the luxury of choice changes everything Plus, I mean, there were always gonna be tangents, right? - With our first Korean novel, we had to go into how Run BTS! and our K-Drama obsessions informed our enjoyment of the book, right? - Not to mention Katie's, ahem, flawless pronunciation? (She cannot say 승연 to save her life) - Way more apologising than we've seen on previous episodes - maybe the subject matter brought us closer as a group? - AND, the piece de resistance, Deano from 2 Tyres, 1 Chain fame advertising his one-man musical, Deano - Nice to Meetchyou (working title) It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4: Episode 6 - Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Well this is surprising...we managed to get this episode up despite LC working like an IDIOT the last few weeks. GO TEAM This week the girls get stuck into Banana Yoshimoto's classic "Kitchen",  discussing, among other things: -Are we reading the author or the translator? - How the abnormal becomes normal once it's your everyday life - Is Chloe as goodlookin as Eriko? (spoiler: She really isn't) - Anger over misgendering and how it's pretty cool it's an automatic response now - The life within inanimate objects in a home - Loss and how it manifests for different people - Soulmates Vs Settling - Normals (aggresively normal people in your life) vs AbNormals (the opposite. Obvs) - Mammy & Daddy Murphy being couple goals  Did the girls go on tangents you ask? Well if the following count as tangents given they had NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT: - Hanger. Seriously. - Coco pops v s granola bars and the foodiest Easter Eggs we've ever done (Except for katie's. Because she's the worst) - The Grammys and whether prizes are something to get excited over - What the Queen of England's treehouse probably looks like - The faces Chloe pulls when she's dancing - A listening party for the highlight of the new BTS album - Dis-Ease All this and a LOT of cackling, right here at Chick Lit 4 Life! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4 Episode 5: Kitchen

And we're back! Despite LC's impending collapse due to exhaustion (yay!) (full-time job + creative output x copy-editing your sister's EXCELLENT sexy fanfic = burnout, it seems) we have gotten this episode up! Take that lockdown!! This week we talk about Brit Bennett's beautiful "The Vanishing Half". We are seriously having a tough time figuring out if we have a favourite book so far this series, because this one is yet another INCREDIBLE addition. The girls get into: - The choices a person makes being a product of how they were taught as children - The contrast between running away from yourself vs becoming who you want to be - How we're just finding SO MUCH RACISM buried in ourselves (it's deeply upsetting) - and outside expectation and how it can mess with a person Oh and the tangents? Well... - a VERY bare-bones run down of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine interim data review results and how excited we all are - Chloe giving some very sound advice re: sending nudes - Cliodhna's on-air imaginary date with Lupita N'yongo (no seriously) - Mario Kart being the video game of choice to get the shift during - And of course, your standard CL4L BTS update (including, Yoongi's recent surgery, the lack of white-washing in the latest batch of promo photos and how we're HERE FOR IT, and, y'know, JK sending Chloe secret messages through his BE concept photo) It's all here in this week's Chick Lit 4 Life!! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4 Episode 4: The Vanishing Half

And we're back! This week the girls get stuck into Candice Carty-Williams' timely and hugely important "Queenie" What did they come across? Well...among others: - How important it is to have heroines (because yes Queenie is a female hero) that are not trying to make you, the reader, like them. Which made us love Queenie even more tbh - That maybe the romantic love story isn't the thing we're interested in - How relatable and heartbreaking Queenie's self-destructive actions are, BUT - How we can't wrap our heads around the toll systematic racism must have on someone's mental health. Seriously, it's terrifying. But you want to know about the tangents right? Well, as usual, this week did not disappoint: - Jungkookie-Oppa had a livestream this week. And his hair was tied up. Chloe had many thoughts -You all might have seen on Instagram that LC's baby sister has started writing fanfic. So we talk about that for a bit... -And y'know, that Katie's trapped on campus during this latest lockdown. So there's the whole zombie apocalypse vibe she's rockin right now... Queenie is available on Kindle and at all good booksellers (shop independent if you can!) You can find more information on Candice Carty-Williams at http://www.candicecartywilliams.com/ and follow her at @CandiceC_W #podcast #podcastlife #podcastersofinstagram #booktag #readersofinstagram #amreading #bookstagram #booknerd #bookish #bookreview #bookclub #allthebooks #fortheloveofbooks #booklover #bookworm #books #bookcommunity #reading #literature #bookgeek #bookobsessed #readingwomen #bookaddiction #bookaddict #booklife #fiction #currentlyreading --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4 Episode 3: Queenie

And we're back! This week the girls talk their way through Amita Murray's gorgeous "The Trouble With Rose" In doing so, we learn about: - Great Indian Families (bonus points for recognising EVERYONE YOU'RE RELATED TO THEREIN) - True acceptance, both self-acceptance, and acceptance by others, and how rare it is - The girls' killer one liner notes on repeated themes in the book (in fairness that's mostly Saoirse) Said notes that kept cropping up were:               - OMG IT ME               - SYMBOLISM!!               - OH SO SAD               - I BET SIMON SMELLS AMAZING               -THIS IS LOVE!!! And it wouldn't be one of our episodes without approximately TEN THOUSAND tangents Which include: - BTS's Dynamite being a comment on racism in the music industry (Katie's goin hard here) - Jungkook's see-through shirt on Jimmy Fallon last week. Like for ages. - Saoirse explaining "macaroni in a pot" (no seriously) - And Saoirse finding  The Roots' Black Thought just ever so attractive (Oh he's very handsome) The Trouble With Rose is available on Kindle and at all good booksellers (shop independent if you can!) and you can find more information on Amita and her work at amitamurray.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4 Episode 2: The Trouble With Rose

And just like that we're back with Series 4! You guys may remember that we wanted to do this series specifically on writers of colour, and our first book is Cauvery Madhavan's "The Tainted" What do the girls talk about? Well, our goal with this series is to challenge our relationship with race and racism and we got right into it with The Tainted Turns out we learned we have a LOT of preconceptions about what it is to be Indian. And we're now pretty sure all of them are wrong We talk colonialism and why is it that Ireland and India aren't going for pints together, bonding over their shared British colonial past - complete with mistreatment of "uncivilised natives" and groundless massacres We also talk about the book's thoughtful treatment of what it was like to be an Irish Protestant in the years following Irish Independance Our sectarian brain-chips were going completely haywire But aside from all that heavy stuff, we also talked: Possibly the most satisfying love triangle since Final Fantasy VII The levels of book immersion achieved with The Tainted (somewhere between "Total" and "Waking Dreamscape") The Easter Eggiest book since Dr Seuss stopped writing And Katie's continued dependence on sexy fanfic It's all here (along with the triumphant return of D-Doy!) on this week's Chick Lit 4 Life - available on Anchor and anywhere you get your sexy, sexy podcasts Visit CauveryMadhavan.com for more information on Cauvery's work and pick up your copy of The Tainted at all good booksellers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 4, Episode 1: The Tainted

And the girls are back! This week we've got a bonus episode in our series on unusual heroines, with the girls getting deep and meaningful about Michaela Coel's masterful series "Chewing Gum" - available to stream on All4 and Netflix. What do the girls get into you ask? Well - - It turns out they know way more about Catholic Saints than you'd think. Yeah we don't know how that one came up either... - Which naturally turned into Katie Murphy vs Organized Religion. The eternal battle wages on... - But then we just devolve (as usual) into fangirling over how cool 14 year old Saoirse was and have a heated debate over how to say "Dorset Street" correctly - Oh and the show! Yes, we spent an inordinate amount of time fangirling over Michaela Coel (seriously, we just can't) - We hear Saoirse do, quite possibly, the *worst* East London accent anyone has ever done EVER (it's a borderline hatecrime) - How Chewing Gum's Tracey might be our favourite main character in anything *ever* - such joy, such fun, such BONE STRUCTURE - Oh AND Katie's second Woke Alert (slash history of being a secret racist) There's definitely way more in there but we're being super dumb and forgetting it all, so I guess to catch up on everything properly you're just gonna have to listen! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 3 Episode 7: Chewing Gum

Well gang here we are! This week the girls talk the incredibly charming Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell -  the lightest of our look at unusual heroines so far and (maybe as a result - we're very sorry Ms Rowell *sadface*) the most tangents per minute we've gone on in an episode to date. What tangents you ask? Well: - We start off pretty strong with revisiting Katie's past as a Harry Potter fanfic writer herself (OH YOU READ THAT RIGHT) - But then take a detour through sexy/smut fanfic and how Chloe justifies reading it (in fairness, she makes some good -though slightly unexpected - points) - An impromptu haiku (though it may actually be a senryu on further examination...) - Chloe starting on Katie for excluding her from key details from her life - Closely followed by Sarah's way too enthusiastic overview of Cardi B's new song with Megan Thee Stallion (the phrase "Moist Lady Bits" may have appeared more than once) I mean, they do talk about the book too, to be fair. We've got: - Cath's relationship with her family and how the girls did or didn't vibe with it - How much we dig Cath's anti-glow up (big fans of the anti-glow up here at CL4L) - Whether we buy that Levi is that nice (considering that Saoirse is absolutely that nice, so) - And Saoirse being unintentionally NOT Chick Lit 4 Life because she was reading arsey literaty books in her spare time (it's an occupational hazard when you read literary fiction for fun, we have to cut her some slack) All this and an ad for what Katie terms "a sanitary pad you stick to your mask" on this week's Chick Lit 4 Life! #novel #books #feminism #rainbowrowell #fangirl #fanfic #bestsellingbooks #chicklit --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lc-lewis/message

Series 3 Episode 6: Fangirl

Five college girls get together to discuss how Chick Lit as a genre has impacted their lives. In series one they discuss the work of Marian Keyes. Written and recorded by LC Lewis in her bedroom.

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Chick Lit 4 Life (or, Marian Keyes can cure heartbreak)

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