For our first book discussion on Millennial Nostalgia, guest host Christy joins Carly to talk about One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy. One in a Millennial is a memoir capturing the experiences of one person growing up through the ‘90s and ending with a successful podcasting career.They compare their own experiences growing up on ‘90s TV and connecting to communities online and set up the questions for the rest of the season about connection, female characters, and how millennials were raised for a world that did not exist.Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.com/

Season 3 of the Book Club Podcast starts now! This season, we are exploring Millennial Nostalgia. We’re reading books that we have loved since childhood to determine if they helped prepare us for adult life.Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack at bookclubpod.com now and you can join the conversation with other listeners about each episode by leaving comments.Read One in a Millennial for our first book discussion. You can get your copy of all the books using our affiliate links here:One in a Millennial by Kate KennedyThe Giver by Lois LowryA Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’EngleMrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’BrienHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. RowlingThe Princess Bride by William GoldmanThanks for listening!

In our long delayed recap episode for our Solarpunk season, Caroline and Carly reflect on what they have learned about how to organize society.Our Solar punk books were:Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach Book ClubA Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Book ClubThe Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk Book ClubSuncatcher by Alia Gee Book ClubThe Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin Book ClubEmergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin Book ClubSeveneves by Neal Stephenson Book ClubEarth Abides by George R. Stewart Book ClubWalkaway by Cory Doctorow Book ClubConcepts and genre themes discussed: creative use of technology as a net benefit to mankind, progressive worldview, a relationship to the meaning of life, a relationship to the Earth.They also discuss what kind of luxuries or status is required to give up in order to make a better society and their willingness to make those changes. What are you willing to give up?These books brought up questions of the balance between freedom and coercion to find the most human flourishing, when does major societal change happen, how to resolve disputes peacefully, what does it mean to have faith?Carly and Caroline also talk about which books they would read again and which books they would not read again.

What happens to a post scarcity society when the fear of death is removed? In our final discussion for our Solar Punk season, Caroline and Carly ponder how curing death can help create a better society. They talk about some of the tradeoffs of living a completely free life with no possessions versus a wealthy life where your possessions can be taken away.Get your copy of the book using our affiliate link here:Walkaway by Cory DoctorowSubscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://www.bookclubpod.com/

Special guest Margaret joins us to talk about rebuilding civilization after collapse and what we lose when civilization ends. We ask if people are capable of radical change. In this book, our main character, Ish, builds a family that grows into a new community in the years after a pandemic wipes out most of humanity.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:Earth Abides by George R. StewartWalkaway by Cory DoctorowComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://www.bookclubpod.com/

Special guest Christy joins us to talk about Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, about the human response when the moon is destroyed in an unpredictable cataclysm. The main characters must build habitats in space to preserve the human race until Earth is restored. We discuss the traits of humanity that we want to preserve for future survival and the love of Earth strong enough to guide 5,000 years of human history.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:Seveneves by Neal StephensonEarth Abides by George R. StewartComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.substack.com/

We are wrapping up our season on Solar Punk with three heavy hitting books.The final three books of the season are Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart and Walkaway by Cory Doctorow..Seveneves begins with the destruction of the moon, wiping out all life on Earth. Survivors build a civilization in space for 5,000 years, until the Earth is habitable again.In Earth Abides, a pandemic wipes out most of humanity and the main character travels the country, observing how animal and plant life adapt to an ecosystem without humans. Over the course of his life he sees what remains from the old civilization, and what does not.Walkaway is about informal groups who “walk away” from corrupt American society by building and surviving in areas of land destroyed by climate change.These books create worlds in which humanity must deal with a worldwide crisis and build a better society for the future.Read Seveneves for our next book discussion. You can get your copy of all the books using our affiliate links here:Seveneves | Earth Abides | WalkawaySubscribe now in your favorite podcast player so you don’t miss a single episode of Season 2 on Solar Punk.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSSThanks for listening!

This short story inspired a wide-ranging conversation about how Carly and Caroline respond to climate change in their personal lives. They talk about how they can build a better society right now but they choose not to because they are unwilling to make certain trade-offs.Solar punk stories explore the potential for human society to respond to climate catastrophe to build a better society. In this story we have a picture of potential for a terrible society.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:“Emergency Skin”Seveneves by Neal StephensonComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.substack.com/

What happens in utopia 200 years later? Caroline and Carly discuss how utopian ideals survive entropy and scarcity and what it takes for a person to be able to objectively evaluate another society.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:The Dispossessed“Emergency Skin”Complete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.substack.com/

This plot-filled story made Carly and Caroline ask questions about personhood. Personhood is defined by law in this book, which is not necessarily a bad thing. We also talk about what you have to leave behind to create something new.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:Suncatcher, Seven Days in the Sky: https://amzn.to/44bjgiFThe Dispossessed: https://amzn.to/3D3QWTGComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.substack.com/

Season 2 of the Book Club Podcast continues with our indy, classic, and short story selections in the Solar Punk genre. Read with us!You can subscribe to our email newsletter at bookclubpod.substack.com. Subscribe now and you can join the conversation with other listeners about each episode by leaving comments.The next three books of the season are Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky by Alia Gee, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, and “Emergency Skin” by N.K. Jemisin.Suncatcher is an action-filled story that takes place on floating airships and in the virtual world called the aether. In this story, we get many examples of personhood from genetically engineered people to a self-aware AI program.The Dispossessed is about a physicist named Shevek from a utopian civilization on the moon that has decayed into bureaucracy. Shevek visits the home planet in an attempt to rejuvenate the revolution that created his egalitarian society.“Emergency Skin” takes place hundreds of years after the Earth was dying from man-made pollution, a traveler from a refugee planet is sent back to visit. He discovers that the Earth has healed and humanity is thriving. He rejects his advanced composite suit in favor of real human skin.In these stories, we see what happens to a utopian society several generations later, we see how the utopian ideals hold up or not. We continue discussing what it means to be human and how societal structure can help humans reach our full potential.Read Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky for our next book discussion. You can get your copy of all the books using our affiliate links here:Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky | The Dispossessed | Emergency SkinSubscribe now in your favorite podcast player so you don’t miss a single episode of Season 2 on Solarpunk.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSSThanks for listening!

This book makes us ask the hard questions like, what must be given up to achieve the dream of a better future? To heal 5,000 years of violence and destruction, what if it takes 5,000 more years to bend the arc of history? What is the true cost of nonviolence? Carly and Caroline delve into these questions and develop a fuller picture of the solar punk genre.Get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:The Fifth Sacred Thing: https://amzn.to/43SGxpjSuncather, Seven Days in the Sky: https://amzn.to/44bjgiFComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8Subscribe to our email newsletter on Substack: https://bookclubpod.substack.com/

This novella seamlessly weaves philosophical questions about humanity’s place in the greater ecosystem within a delightful story about a monk and a robot. Caroline and Carly talk about shame as a prosocial instinct and whether or not the effect of shame changes when a society is healthy or unhealthy.You can get your copy of the books using our affiliate links here:A Psalm for the Wild-BuiltThe Fifth Sacred ThingComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons.

Our first solarpunk book is an environmental utopia with detailed explanations for how things work and why they were organized that way. The main character is a journalist traveling to Ecotopia for the first time in 20 years to report back on how they’re doing. Hosts Caroline and Carly talk about how shifting priorities on a societal level may change interpersonal relationships, how intelligence is valued in a non-hierarchical society and the role of violence in society.You can get your copy of all the books using our affiliate links here:Ecotopia | A Psalm for the Wild-BuiltComplete our feedback form and suggest books to read for future seasons: https://forms.gle/d1czC4kmE9gmzCes8

Season 2 of the Book Club Podcast starts now! This season, we are reading Solarpunk. Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement that envisions building a sustainable, technological future interconnected with nature and community. The "solar" represents solar energy as a renewable energy source and an optimistic vision of the future that rejects climate doomerism, while the "punk" refers to the countercultural, post-capitalist, and decolonial enthusiasm for creating such a future.We now have a substack at bookclubpod.substack.com. Subscribe now and you can join the conversation with other listeners about each episode by leaving comments.The first three books of the season are Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach, A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, and The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk.Ecotopia is about a part of the United States that split from the country to form Ecotopia, an ecological utopia. The story is about a journalist visiting Ecotopia for the first time in twenty years where he learns how to genuinely connect with the people around him and his natural self.A Psalm for the Wild-Built takes place on a distant planet that formerly was an industrial economy but has since been re-wilded, resulting in small, dense, creative villages and towns scattered among towering wilderness. A monk and a robot travel together to ask, “What makes a meaningful life?”In The Fifth Sacred Thing, post-apocalyptic San Francisco has created a whole new society: cooperative, diverse, tolerant, with all four things–fire, earth, air and water in balance. But an oppressive regime looms to the south, and the coming battle will be peace against violence, love against war and magic against despair.With Solarpunk, we are confronting the questions: What makes a good society? How are the sick, the poor and the old treated? Is there a connection between how the environment is treated and how people are valued? What is the value of a person? What can be owned? What would you be willing to give up for a new world?Solar punk is about what is possible, and how imagining new societies is the first step to achieving them.Read Ecotopia for our first book discussion, to be released in one week. You can get your copy of all the books using our affiliate links here:Ecotopia | A Psalm for the Wild-Built | The Fifth Sacred ThingSubscribe now in your favorite podcast player so you don’t miss a single episode of Season 2 on Solarpunk.Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSSThanks for listening!

Happy Hogswatch! In this holiday bonus episode, Carly and Caroline discuss The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. They discuss the importance of belief in human society, unwritten rules, and what it means to have a narrative sense. They also talk about the meaning of Christmas and Santa Claus.Let us know which books we should read for future episodes by completing our Feedback Form here https://forms.gle/tT4UZ6De6tLbonrV6

For the final episode of Season 1, Caroline and Carly discuss what it means to be haunted. They share which of the books this season affected them the most, how the styles of different eras were reflected in the different framing devices used in the books, and how a few film and TV adaptations changed the stories.Subscribe now and so that you don’t miss our bonus episode on Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, coming in a few weeks. Also let us know which books we should read for future episodes by completing our Feedback Form here https://forms.gle/tT4UZ6De6tLbonrV6

Time to hear from our listeners! Caroline and Carly read comments sent in by listeners of Season 1 of our Book Club on Haunted House books.Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts about the books we’ve read. We’re still collecting feedback and suggestions for books to read for future episodes!You can complete our Feedback Form here https://forms.gle/tT4UZ6De6tLbonrV6

Carly and Caroline wrap their heads around this book that pushes the boundaries of novel-writing and allows for many different interpretations. They describe the creative and disorienting formatting around two very different narratives that compose this book and search for connections between the two.Let us know what you think about this book and recommend future books, complete our Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/tT4UZ6De6tLbonrV6Get your copy of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski here: https://amzn.to/3hbQJpR. This is the final book discussion for season one. On our next episode, we will respond to comments and feedback. Be sure to send your comments to openingquestion@gmail.com by November 14 to be included in the feedback episode.

This episode is about our short story choice for the season, "The Yellow Wallpaper". Caroline and Carly ask if a house can be haunted if it’s haunted for only one person. They discuss the horror of knowing that something is wrong with your life and knowing that there’s nothing you can do about it. They discuss whether the main character’s lack of agency or domestic expectations trap her into madness.Let us know what you think about this book and recommend future books, complete our Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/tT4UZ6De6tLbonrV6Support our podcast by using our affiliate links!Get your copy of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman here: https://amzn.to/3UclMQw.For next week’s episode, read The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3hbQJpR