Episode 011 - Religious Fiction

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

Our genre this month (Religious Fiction) demands we take a look at what makes a book count as "religious fiction" (instead of just fiction about religion). Plus in our one hour and 48 minute episode, Meghan reads too many books (as usual), Amanda explains Sex Magicks, Matthew makes terrible jokes, and Anna fails to finish anything. BIG spoiler for the graphic novel Therefore, Repent! by Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam.

Your Hosts This Episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Amanda Wanner

Recommended:

• The Harem by Safia Fazlul (Muslim)
• Godless but Loyal to Heaven by Richard Van Camp (Dogrib [Tlicho] Dene)
• Les vacances de Jésus et Bouddha/Saint Young Men (Christian/Buddhist) (Manga/Comic not available in English due to weird reasons - see paragraph 2)
• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (Christian)
• A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick (Philip K. Dickianism)
• Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel (Christian) (Comic/Graphic Novel)

Read:

• Therefore, Repent! by Jim Munroe, illustrated by Salgood Sam (Christian) (Comic/Graphic Novel)
• The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor (Christian)
• Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven by Mark Twain (Christian) (Short Story)
• Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (Christian)
• The Special Dead (Rhona MacLeod #10) by Lin Anderson (Wiccan)
• God in Pink by Hasan Namir (Muslim)
• Smile as They Bow by Nu Nu Yi (Burma/Myanmar Buddhism) Go check out the cover to help resolve our debate.
• Playing With Matches by Suri Rosen (Jewish) (YA)
• The Hebrew Tutor of Bel Air by Allan Appel (Jewish)
• The Negotiator by Dee Henderson (Christian)
• Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke (Christian) (Canadian content)
• Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed (Muslim) (YA)
• Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (Christian)

Did Not Finish:

• The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah E. Ladd (Christian - Regency Era Romance)
• Redemption by Karen Kingsbury (Christian)
• Indelible by Kristen Heitzmann (Christian)
• The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel (Christian)
• Gold of Kings by Davis Bunn (Christian)
• The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future by Jonathan Cahn (Christian)
• Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima, trans: Ivan Morris (Buddhist)

Other Titles We Mentioned

• Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling (Wiccan)
  • Interview with S.M. Stirling about Wiccanism. Key quote: “The really startling thing was having a number of people tell me that they became Wiccans because they read the books. Which was flattering, but left me rather bemused. When people first accused me of being a Wiccan missionary, I just thought it was a complete hoot until I realized that to a minor degree I evidently was.”
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Christian)
• Angry Young Spaceman by Jim Munroe (Science fictionalizing his experience teaching English in South Korea)
• The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight, plus a Guardian article about the documentary movie and the interesting pseudo-reality of it all
• If you’re intrigued by the phenomenon of Amish Romance, you might try reading Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels by Valerie Weaver-Zercher
• Anatomy of a Girl Gang by Ashley Little (which struck Amanda as similar to The Harem by Safia Fazlul)
• Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America by Amy Frykholm (in my vague memory this was super interesting, but it’s been a long time)
• The Diaries of Adam and Eve and Other Stories by Mark Twain (Christian)
• The Pawn by Steven James (Christian)
• We talked about Don’t Cry for Me, Hot Pastrami by Sharon Kahn in Episode 7 - Cozy Mysteries.
• Armageddon Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know about Zombies, Contagions, Aliens, and the End of the World as We Know by Dale Sherman which has a chapter called Onward Christian Soldiers which, amongst other things, looks at the multiple film adaptations of Left Behind (and yes, Nicholas Cage is the star of one of them).

Links:

• It had a Red Cover - The Facebook group for librarians with readers’ advisory questions
• The Wikipedia article on Inspirational Fiction is pretty good at getting into the Christian vs. Inspirational issue
• Rewinding the DVD in the reprint of Left Behind
• Left Behind, for kids!
• The Christy Awards - a great resource for RA questions about Christian Fiction
• The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick a comic by R. Crumb from Weirdo #17
• The Worst Bestsellers podcast did an episode on Christian Romance, specifically the novel Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. A good listen.
• The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities
• Father Ted, a TV show about priests in Ireland
• A list of Non-Christian religious YA on YA Interrobang
• A diverse religious fiction list by Pima County Public Library on Bibliocommons
• A list of religious fiction suggestions from the New York Times

Questions

• Do Amish write Amish Romance novels?
• Is Wiccansploitation a thing?
• Doesn’t Matthew make just the worst jokes ever!?! (Okay, the Belieber one was pretty good.)
• What makes a book “religious” fiction?
• What is your favourite Satanist book?

The On-Call Waltz, a zine by Anna and Meghan, can be obtained by tweeting at us or emailing [e-mail].

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Religious Fiction people in the club read (or tried to read), and follow us on Twitter!

Join us again on Tuesday, September 6th, when we discuss Zines!