Episode 021 - Coming of Age

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

In our first genre for 2017 we take on Coming-of-Age books! We discuss whether coming-of-age needs to be about teenagers, whether it needs to be fiction, and what happens if characters never age. Plus: Alliterative authors, our inability to pronounce the word bildungsroman (among other words…), and a brand new type of audio problem.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Recommended

• How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan E. Coyote
• The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
• Lucky Penny by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota

Read

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Did Not Finish

• Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Books Mentioned

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (the book we said Robert read)
• So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane
• The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and others
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft (Wikipedia)
• Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice (the little kid vampire was Claudia)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Links and Other Things

• Article about Le Grand Meaulnes (the book Matthew told Anna to read) in The Guardian
• Bildungsroman (Wikipedia)
• Slash Fiction (Wikipedia)
• Fanon (Wikipedia)
• Supernatural: The Monster at the End of This Book
• Episode 004: Psychological Thrillers
• YouTube Star Sponsors The Fastest Rising Football Club in England (the John Green soccer video game thing)
• Jubilee (Wikipedia)

Bildungsroman sample from “Oxford Dictionaries” on YouTube

The magic sound is “fairy magic wand” by Robinhood76 from freesound.org

Questions

• Do you think coming-of-age books have to be about young people?
• Have you intentionally read a book because it featured a coming-of-age theme?
• What’s your favourite book from this genre?
• Have you managed to come-of-age yet?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts for all the Coming-of-Age books people in the club read (or tried to read), follow us on Twitter, and join our Facebook Group!

Join us on Tuesday, February 7th, when we discuss Reading Tracking and Challenges, then on Tuesday, February 21st for our next genre, Non-Fiction Romance/Relationships/Dating!