Long Live the King of Vodka: The Life of Pyotr Smirnov We are in high spirits this week for our next Thrift Store Find: The King of Vodka, by Linda Himelstein. Everyone knows the brand Smirnoff vodka, and if you haven’t found yourself waking up the next morning regretting your choice of flavored vodka the […]
Blog
Show Notes – Episode 1.6
Another Trip Down Enlightenment Lane: BBE on Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist We are back to Books We Hate this week, the subject? Paulo Coelho’s classic hit, The Alchemist. What soulless ghoul hates this book that has inspired so many people, sold millions of copies, and been translated into dozens of languages?? Well, if you’ve been […]
Show Notes – Episode 1.5
A Hypochondriac’s Nightmare: Discussing John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza Another Thrift Store Find pick for this season is John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza. A hefty doorstop of a nonfiction book, Jennifer was originally intrigued because she’s always been interested in epidemiology, and with the chosen topic of the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic, this […]
Show Notes – Episode 1.4
Time for Reflection: BBE Talks The Mirror Empire The time has come for our second Books We Hate episode. This week, BBE is breaking down Kameron Hurley’s The Mirror Empire. This contribution to the grimdark subgenre of fantasy was picked by Paige, who was originally drawn in by the cover work (see photo), with it’s […]
Show Notes – Bonus Episode 1.1
Dwarves are Trash and Other Thoughts on Tolkien’s The Hobbit What is your first memory of reading The Hobbit? Is it super nostalgic for you? Does seeing the classic illustrations or reading the chapter heading “An Unexpected Party” have you reaching for some tissues or staring mistily off into space? Jennifer first remembers her mother […]
February Sneak Peek
Coming up on BBE in February: First, a huge shout out to everyone that tuned in during Big Book Energy’s inaugural month! We hope this coming month is just as entertaining. We’ve lined up some uplifting picks filled with booze, SFF genocide, pandemics, and more muddling in philosophy because apparently past Jennifer really hated all […]
Show Notes – Episode 1.3
Visions of Enlightenment: Mysterious Manuscripts, Macchu Picchu, and Machine Guns For our second Thrift Store Find, Paige chose James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy. Served up in our local Goodwill’s New Age section, and with a name like The Celestine Prophecy, you can guess that this pick is going in a similar direction to our first […]