Stephanie, Megg, and Ollie are back with Tiktok's number 1 book series last year -- Fourth Wing! We discuss the world of Romantasy through both of these books -- with a lot of thoughts on how the series may progress. Got questions, comments, or want to recommend a book to us? Check out our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.judgingbookcovers.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or find us o…

Stephanie, Ollie, and Megg are back to discuss one of our favorite cozy mysteries series -- A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery book! Murder and Mamon is the 4th book in the series, featuring the eccentric calendar crew! Want to skip to just the chatter about the book? Jump to 45 minutes in! Got questions, comments, or want to recommend a book to us? Ch…

Hello hello! We read two new books for this episode! Love is definitely in the air as we read two romance books: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston and Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman! If you're just interested in our thoughts on the books, skip to just before minute 47! Got questions, comments, or want to recommend a book to us? Check out…

Sometimes life gets in the way, but we still read The Other Black Girl, talked about it, and released our episode before the show dropped on Hulu! Next Books: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston and Funny You Should Ask by Elissa SussmanGot questions, comments, or want to recommend a book to us? Check out our website ⁠⁠⁠www.judgingbookcovers.com⁠⁠…

Are cozy fantasies our new thing? We definitely enjoyed this one!! Megg also ruins the mood by not reading enough books. Next Book: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris! Got questions, comments, or want to recommend a book to us? Check out our website ⁠⁠www.judgingbookcovers.com⁠⁠, or find us on social media! Find us on the web: ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠…

We are back for a double feature this month -- because we happened to all read two of the same books in the horror genre! One we loved, while the other was just not our cup of tea. And that's okay! Join us at the end of every month, or maybe the beginning, as we discuss a new book! Next Book: Under the Whispering Door by T. J. Klune! Got questions,…

Well, we stayed on topic for one episode... This month Megg, Ollie, and Stephanie read Blackmail and Babingka by Mia P Manasala, the third book in Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery! If you can't tell, we cannot get enough of this cozy mystery series. We also have experienced a month of new media, and it's just been a few weeks since we've chatted! So gr…

After a year off with one cohost creating a production company, one cohost creating a baby, and one just....creating an interesting dating mess, Stephanie, Ollie, and Megg are back to talk their first book of 2023! We read What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall, where the question became: who is telling the truth? Enjoy us actually stay most…

JBC is back with cozy mysteries! We read the second book of the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series - Homicide and Halo-Halo! We talk about our love for cozy mysteries, what makes it cozy, as well as everything else we were dealing with in May. Judging Book Covers Podcast stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, and stands against Anti-Asian Vi…

The trio of hosts read Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell! This book promised us a space opera and romance! ...Unfortunately it fell a little short of what was promised. We had fun discussing fan fiction tropes, space operas, and queer romances! And Ollie's hate of series. Judging Book Covers Podcast stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, and …

Stephanie and Meghan welcome Ollie Brady as a permanent co-host! We start our 2022 year with a new book: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry! We discuss our new format, the books we've read recently, and finally, a whole cast of characters that just need THERAPY. Judging Book Covers Podcast stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, and if …

This week Stephanie and Meghan decide to join the investigation and research of the residential schools in Canada and what they have become in the current environment. The book focuses on the death of seven First Nation students and the incompetency surrounding the investigation of the death of the students. While residential schools may be a thing…

Meghan and Stephanie are finally back! And this time they are discussing something they love to talk about: FOOD! We read Roy Choi's memoir and cook book, which has one of the most interesting lives we have read about while also some damn good food. Next Episode: Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga! Judging Book Covers Podcast is now part of Cert…

Stephanie and Meghan take a small break this episode and rather than leave listeners without an episode, friends of the podcast Tim Lowe and Ollie Brady decided to put together an episode on the second book of The Diviners series by Libba Bray! Here is a bonus episode with just the guys, diving back into our favorite 1920s paranormal books! Judging…

This episode, Stephanie and Meg discuss VAMPIRES. Are they back? Are they even scary any more? Did Twilight ruin vampires for good? We dive into the short story anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite to see! This collection is focused on taking the vampire mythos away from the cliche European, hetero vibe and twisting it into new a…

Despite our inching towards summer, Stephanie and Meghan are joined by Victoria Lucia to get in the mood for some fall spooks! For this round of our Read Harder challenge, we read Small Spaces by Katherine Arden! We talk about whether we as both 6th graders and as adults, how much we love and want to protect all three of our protagonists, and how m…

This week Stephanie and Meg read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas! First, there are some serious content warning for this book: the main character has to deal with a family who hasn't accepted that he is transgender. Major CW for misgendering, discussions of dead names, and other issues with families that only see the binary. We discuss how wonderful …

This week Meg and Stephanie are joined by Network co-host Matt Limerick to discuss If the Dress Fits by Carla de Guzman! We loved discussing this fat positive romance that is also not based in the US! We discuss our love of these cinnamon bun characters, the way tropes are diverted, and also a healthy discussion of our love of Bucky/Winter Soldier/…

This week Stephanie and Meg dive into the world of fan fiction! We went with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic as it is a fandom we both know and love; however, we do not openly support Joss Whedon. For this week, we read a short retelling of season 6: Even Death is a Shadow of Forgetting by redcheekdays! It is Stephanie's first fanfic, so come lis…

To celebrate our 100th episode, we are putting aside our read harder challenge in order to read a book about the 1920s and GHOST MURDERERS! We read The Diviners by Libba Bray, with two of our favorite all time guests, Ollie Brady and Tim Lowe! Tim dresses up in fashionable pilgrim clothes 1920s clothes and Ollie lectures Meg about her book choices!…

Retaliation, Royal Ambition, and Bribery

Thank you for letting us take some time to deal with personal problems! We are back with an exciting fantasy book called Black Sun. We are so excited to share this book with listeners! Fantasy with gods and cults and massive ships! Meghan and Stephanie discuss how good it is to see a fantasy book where women are allowed to be themselves and where q…

From The Fury Of The Northmen

Sherlock Holmes

Stephanie and Meghan take a spooky turn in their reading challenges! This week we read The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike! This Japanese book falls somewhere on the horror/gothic spectrum, and we had a blast discussing haunted apartment buildings and basements. Don't go into your basement alone at night! CW: Discussion of animal deaths, ghosts…

Stephanie and Meghan continue to dive into Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge! This week we read a nonfiction book about anti-racism: Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper! This book differed from the anti-racism books we've read in the past, as it discusses primarily black women and how we need change our focus and thoughts about them. CW: Sexual assaul…

Judging Book Covers kicks off our 2021 Reading Challenge: The Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge! Our first challenge up is a book that intimidates us, and we went with the recommendation of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro! We talk about what intimidates us in books, did this book make us cry, whether we believe in love in this book, and clones! N…

The biggest duh ever: 2020 was a rough year. Stephanie and Meghan both had pretty big issues during the year, but chose instead to remember the good things they experienced! This episode includes Judging Book Cover's 2020 favorite: Books TV Shows Podcast Music As well as a discussion of what we are doing in 2021! We are going to be doing Book Riot'…

After a long delay, we have a LONG EPISODE! Stephanie and Meghan read Scott Sigler's Mount Fitzroy, the sequel to Earthcore, which we read and loved a few years ago!! While this book is only out in audiobook, it is 30 hours long!! Which means heads up: this episode is LONG. And we do talk spoilers. So this is your fourth warning that we do discuss …

For Stephanie's birthday, we decided to read an advance copy of the newly released How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole! Because this podcast stans Alyssa Cole almost more than anyone else?! This is a new spin off of her Reluctant Royals series, and there are so many characters that pop up! We also talk about how great it is that Cole can blend soci…

Sherlock Holmes

This week Stephanie and Meg read Memorial by Bryan Washington! This book has recently been released, so there is a bit of a spoiler warning. But don't worry - we break it out into a non-spoilery and then spoilery conversation. This book addresses relationships in a hard light, both romantic and family. Lots to unpack here! Content warnings: Parenta…

This is where I introduce my podcast to the world

This week Meghan and Stephanie read How to be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi! This book discusses challenging your way of thinking so that you are continuously getting better and better. It discusses the different kinds of racism, and how we can achieve becoming antiracist. This episode was recorded prior to the election, and while we try to not let …

This week we are joined by Case Aiken to discuss The Banks by Roaxane Gay, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire! We chat about what we like and wish we could change of this comic about a matriarchal line of thieves! What would happen in your life to get you to join up with the thieves in your family? And how does one steal bitcoin?? Judging Book Covers …

This week Stephanie and Meghan set out to read a horror book by an author they like - Nos4A2 by Joe Hill! Unfortunately, perhaps due to the environment of 2020, they found themselves unable to actually finish the book. This is an episode to discuss why we occasionally DNF (do not finish) a book, and why you can choose to DNF a book and still have r…

This week's episode is a little late because we wanted to drop it during Banned Book week! So happy Banned Book Week! Please go read some books that have been challenged or banned, particularly if you can find one you haven't read before, or who doesn't have a terribly horrible TERF-y author! This week we did just that, as we invited on Frankie (MJ…

JBC is back from hiatus and ready to read! But FIRST: We joined a network! Thank you to Certain POV Network for inviting us to be a part of your amazing group. Please go check out the website and find all the amazing podcasts you can listen to! This week we broke our rules a little because one of our favorite authors, Alyssa Cole, has released a ne…

This week Stephanie and Meghan read The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae! As she is close in age to us, we had fun discussing our own relationship with some of the topics she discusses! Please note, JBC will be on hiatus for about a month. We will see you in mid-August! We also close with a discussion of bookstores to support, since …

In this episode, Stephanie and Meghan read This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender! This book has a great realistic teenage love story, and never once feels like a book trying to make a statement, which makes us love it more! We discuss a little bit of our outlooks from when we were teenagers, as well as how we can still get advice fr…

This week Stephanie and Meghan are joined again by Ollie Brady to discuss R L Stine's Fear Street: The First Evil! We discuss the books of our childhood, particularly focusing on the horror books that shaped our reading styles. We also dive into some of the book drama going on in the world, so this episode is a little heavier than we expected. We a…

This week Stephanie and Meghan read Lot:Stories by Bryan Washington! This is a short story collection that is well done and powerfully important. We also close with a discussion of bookstores to support, since libraries are still closed. Judging Book Covers Podcast stands with the Black Lives Matter movement, and if you are looking for black owned …

This week Stephanie and Meghan are joined by Victoria Lucia! Victoria brought us The Magicians by Lev Grossman, the book one of her favorite shows is based on! Spoiler: the tv show is definitely better than the book! Find us on the web: Twitter | Facebook | Facebook Group | Instagram | Email: judgingcoverspodcast@gmail.com Find our hosts: Meghan's …

This week Stephanie and Meghan get all up in some heists while reading Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Rohrig! We also spend a good portion of the episode discussing food and cooking and all the cooking shows that go with that! Next up: A book with a Blue cover! Find us on the web: Twitter | Facebook | Facebook Group | Instagram | Email: judgingcove…

Happy anniversary to JBC! And as always to celebrate, we invited Tim Lowe to come back and read another book with us. Tim picked the Veronica Mars novel The Thousand Dollar Tan Line. We do have spoilers for the first three seasons and Veronica Mars movie, but no spoilers for season 4! Next Up: A book given to us for free! Find us on the web: Twitte…

Our favorite Ollie Brady joins us to talk about Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man! We are also in severe cabin fever isolation mode, so there is a lot of chatter about what we are watching and recommend if you need recommendations! Book Drink: Mint Julep Next Up: A Novelization of a podcast/tv show with Tim Lowe! Find us on the web: Twitter | Facebook |…

COVID has caused us to get a little stir crazy, so this episode is a little all over the place, even after it has been edited down. And there is no excuse for it being a week late, other than Love is Blind. Which probably goes well with us reading Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel! Book Drink: Red Wine (for Love Is Blind, honestly.) Or hot…

JBC is back and has invited Dr. Sarah Ifft Decker of Media-eval Podcast back on to discuss some 14th Century court cases! Specifically, we read A Poisoned Past: The Life and Time of Margarida de Portu, a 14th Century Accused Poisoner by Steven Bednarski! Come listen to us discuss how you might think you have the worst brother-in-law, but Margarida …

JBC is back and maybe forgot to post an episode this week! It's because we have been too busy SWOOOONING over Beverly Jenkins' novel Destiny Captive! Join us as we go back in time to the 1880s and become pirates in Cuba. Book Drink: TEQUILA Next Up: A Book about a Historical Event Find us on the web: Twitter | Facebook | Facebook Group | Instagram …

Judging Book Covers Podcast is BACK! We kicked off the 2020 JBC Challenge with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin! And it was totally a hit and worth it -- February has some great releases! Book Drink: Sprite and SKYY vodka Next Up: A Romance Novel Find us on the web: Twitter | Facebook | Facebook Group | Instagram | Email: judgingcoverspo…