Episode 009: The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

The panel discusses The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner.

Ca$h Money (aka Amanda) suggests I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga.

Nathan and Katie suggest The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

Nate suggests Friday Night Lights (but only the television program), The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Kim suggests Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, the opening scenes of the Hunger Games, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Wolfhollow by Lauren Wolk, and Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruits by Jayne Robbin Brown.

Episode 008: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

In our discussion of Neal Shusterman's Scythe, Nate muses, "are we off the rails?" Maybe we are: Nathan suggests a twitter feed as a readalike, and Molly and Nathan complain about the editing standards at Simon & Schuster.

Lindsey suggest The Giver by Lois Lowry and Croak by Gina Damico (and the show Dead Like Me).

Cash Money suggests the film Serenity and the episode "Nose Dive" (Season 3; episode 1) of Black Mirror.

Nathan suggests Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (esp. the back matter), The Rebel and Resistance, Rebellion, and Death by Albert Camus, and the AltUsNatParkService twitter feed.

Kim suggests The Expanse (on SyFy)and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.

Katie suggests The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau.

Episode 007: The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry

In this episode we discuss The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry.

Molly suggests A Northern Light or Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

Nathan suggests Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

And Kim suggests books by Elizabeth Wein (Rose Under Fire, Codename Verity, or Black Dove, White Raven.

Episode 006: Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski

In this episode we discuss Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski.

Cash Money suggests the Lars von Trier film Melancholia and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Nate suggests More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera.

Kim suggests Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Nathan suggests Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis and Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block.

Lindsey suggests The Stranger by Camus.

Molly suggests John Green and Andrew Smith.

Episode 005: Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard

In this episode we discuss M-E Girard's great debut novel Girl Mans Up.

Ca$h Money drops a bombshell of a theory about Pen's parentage.

Molly suggests Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, anything by Brent Hartinger, Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, and You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan.
Nate suggests Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.

Kim suggests Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston (after you read it, go back and listen to episode 001!).

Amanda suggests Xena Warrior Princess and Urban Fiction (as a genre).

Nathan mentions, but forgets to suggest, Unbecoming by Jenny Downham.

Lindsey suggests None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio and Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (Nathan concurs).

Also we'd love to hear from you: agree with us, disagree with us, suggest a book, or anything else at isitteenenoughforyounow@gmail.com or @isitteenenough on Twitter

Episode 004.5 And I Darken: A Reconsideration by Nathan

I feel as though our discussion of And I Darken by Kiersten White may have missed something important: that while the novel is forcing us to reexamine Vlad the Impaler, it's also forcing us to reconsider Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.

Full disclosure: if you follow us on Twitter, you'll know that Nate and I have never actually read Twilight.  This leaves me open to completely valid criticism, so if you disagree, please tell me.  On the other hand, Twilight was also an inescapable cultural phenomenon, so I think I have the basics down.

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but Bella falls for a vampire who continually protects her.  She falls into a kind of love triangle with Jacob and Edward.  She frequently seems to have less agency than those around her (she's saved by Edward, saved by Jacob, told that she must become a vampire, and eventually turned by Edward).

And I Darken performs a pretty elegant subterfuge.  It alludes to dragons and vampires, but also shows us that those things aren't real.  Vlad the Impaler was not a vampire.  The west's transformation of him into one can be read as a means of discrediting him.  Readers of And I Darken are likely to want a vampire.  But we don't get one.

Granted this trilogy isn't over, but here are some pretty sharp contrasts to the land of sparkly vampires.

1) Lada rejects love and the potential of a love triangle (or quadrangle or octagon: Mehmed has many concubines).
2) Lada's agency is never in question: she is the one doing and acting.  And it's always on her own terms.
3) Lada avoids sex with Mehmed (no chance of a potentially immortal baby here).
4) Lada is not a vampire and presumably never will be.  She becomes Dracul at the story's end, but that's a position that feels even more powerful than a vampire.

There's probably a lot more, and I'd love to hear details you have that corroborate my theory or that completely reject it.

Also get reading: Episode 005: Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard is due out on February 27th.

Episode 004: And I Darken by Kiersten White

In this episode we discuss And I Darken by Kiersten White (the first book in the Conqueror's Saga).  We talk a lot about The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry (read ahead; it'll be featured in a future episode).

Molly suggests the Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry and anything by Donna Jo Napoli.

Nathan suggests Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman.

Nate suggests the Gilmore Girls: A Year In the Life.

Kim totally does not suggest Twilight by Stephenie Meyer or A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin (*wink*), but does suggest Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.

Amanda aka Ca$h Money suggests Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and The Winter's Curse by April L. Wood.