Rants and Reviews - podcast cover

Rants and Reviews

Lacking some much-needed R&R? Tune into Rants and Reviews for bookish thoughts and discussions, hosted by Sophie Melligan and Anjali Kay.
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Episodes

#040 | Awesome Albertalli: We Chat About All Things Becky Albertalli

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! This is episode 40 and we can't quite believe we've made it this far. In this episode, we're chatting about one of the authors we really enjoy: Becky Albertalli. We talk about 5 of her books she's written so far, and a quick look at her novella which came out in 2020.

Aug 21, 202029 min

#038 | Midyear Madness: Where we're at 6 months into 2020

Time for a mid-year update! In this episode of Rants and Reviews, we take a look at 2020 so far and chat about how our Goodreads challenge is coming along, the 5 books on our Vow to Read list, the 5 books on our Vow to Reread list, and which books have been our favourite books so far!

Jul 17, 202031 min

#036 | Worldly Words: We travel around the world through books

Welcome to episode 36! In this episode we’re travelling around the world! Well, via the books we’ve read. Seeing as international travel is limited at the moment we thought it was a good opportunity to take a trip to some of the cities and countries that are the settings to books we’ve read over the years. Have a listen to find out which places we’d love to visit!

Jun 12, 202039 min

#035 | Terminated Tomes: 10 series we won't be finishing

Welcome to episode 35! Today we’re talking about all the series that we don’t see ourselves finishing. You know the ones: you’ve read two of them and then the third one is so far down your TBR list and you know you’re never going to get round to reading it … but you also have books four and five sitting on your shelf too? Those ones. We’re never going to get around to them. Stay tuned to find out which ones we chose!

May 29, 202050 min

#034 | Rapid Reviews: We have 30secs to explain the plot and give a review of 10 books

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! We're super excited to be getting back into recording podcast episodes for you guys, and have a really fun season lined up! In today's episode, the first of season 4, we're taking 5 books each that we've read between seasons 3 and 4 and try to give you a synopsis and a review. There's a catch though; we only have 30 seconds per book. Get ready for some terrible plot-telling and a whole lot of hilarity.

May 15, 202042 min

#033 | Bumbling Baboons: The season three blooper reel

Get ready for the season three blooper reel! Full of our stumbles over words that should be easy to say, never heard before snippets of conversations, and other funnies that didn't make it to the original episode. Enjoy!

Mar 20, 20205 min

#032 | Shusterman Stories: We chat about YA author Neal Shusterman

Well back, podcast listeners! You’ve heard us talk about Neal Shusterman a lot recently, so we thought it was about time he got his own episode. Stay tuned for more Shusterman! SPOILERS: While there aren’t too many major spoilers in this episode, if you haven’t read the first book in the Arc of the Scythe series, Scythe, but you plan to … maybe don’t listen to this episode. We’ll forgive you for skipping this one.

Feb 28, 202049 min

#031 | Riddikulus Reread Part 2: Sophie and Anjali reread Harry Potter

Welcome back to another Harry Potter episode! In episode 29 we began our chat about our recent reread of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. There were a lot of questions raised, some events which had been entirely forgotten, and even a conspiracy theory thrown in for good luck. Make sure you head on back to have a listen! Today we are continuing on with our reactions from our Harry Potter reread, and we dive straight back in where we left, with Halloween, trolls in the dungeons, and the G...

Feb 14, 202047 min

#030 | Twenty Twenty: Summing up 2019 and looking at 2020

Happy New Year! Happy 2020! We realise we’re well into the year by now, but we thought we’d share a bit of a round up of 2019 and also take a look at 2020. We’re going to be sharing our 2020 Goodreads Challenge, five books we vow to read this year, and five books we vow to re-read. Keep listening to find out which stories we’ve added to our lists.

Jan 31, 202031 min

#028 | Captivating Covers: Books with beautiful covers

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews. In this episode we’re talking about some of our favourite book covers. We realise this is audio only, but we’ll be doing our best to describe the covers in detail. We’ll be sharing some of these on Instagram and Twitter so you can see the covers we’re trying to describe.

Jan 03, 202043 min

#027 | Snowy Stories: Let It Snow, the book and the movie

It’s beginning to look like Christmas! In this episode we get a little bit festive as we chat about Let It Snow, the YA short story compilation by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. It might sound a little familiar if you’re on Netflix on a regular basis; it’s been made into a movie, so we see if the 2019 adaptation lives up to the 2008 stories. Pour yourself a gingerbread latte, grab yourself some festive snacks and let’s get into it.

Dec 13, 201944 min

#026 | Foodie Fiction: Books that make us hungry

You’d better go get some snacks, because in this episode we’re taking all about food and those books that make your mouth water the entire time you're reading it. You know the ones. We’re talking about our favourites and even have some recipe book shout outs.

Nov 29, 201933 min

#025 | Stalled Series: Series we haven't finished

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! In this week’s episode we’re taking a look back at some of the series that we’ve started over the years but for whatever reason have yet to finish. Keep listening to find out which contemporary series Sophie needs to keep reading, and which books Anjali needs to read before their upcoming movie releases.

Nov 08, 201944 min

#024 | Magical Moments: Talking all things magic

Welcome to the second episode of season three! We're celebrating Halloween on this episode, and getting spooky with one of our favourites things: magic! Stay tuned to find out some of our favourite magical books!

Oct 25, 201956 min

#023 | Future Fiction: Books we're looking forward to in the next six months

Welcome back to Rants and Reviews! We’re very excited to be kicking off season three, and we hope you’re ready for another great season of book chatter. In our first episode of the season we’re taking a look at the next six months and share some of the books being released by authors we already know and love, and a few from authors whose books we’ve never read. Stay tuned to find out which books we chose!

Oct 11, 201943 min

#022 | Silly Stumbles: The season two blooper reel!

It's time for another blooper reel! Tune in to here us stumble over words, get tongue-tied, and have long off topic chats. We've also thrown in a few never-heard-before pieces of audio that were cut from the original episode. Enjoy!

Aug 09, 20196 min

#021 | Chapter Complete: Wrapping up the last six months

Welcome to the last episode of season two! Today we're wrapping up the last 6 months of 2019. We chat about how our reading challenges are going, and our favourite books of the year. Stick around for a whole lot of recommendations!

Jul 19, 201937 min

#019 | Frustrating Fiction: Books we found incredibly disappointing

Sometimes you’ll read a book that won’t quite live up to expectations. In this episode we’re chatting about the books that we’ve found disappointing. Stay tuned to find out what we’ve put on our lists, and be warned; there’s quite a few, so buckle up!

Jun 07, 20191 hr 2 min

#017 | Accio Alphabet: The N - Z of the Harry Potter world

Welcome back to our Harry Potter alphabet episode, part 2. We’re continuing on from episode 15 by picking up where we left off halfway through the alphabet. Sophie kicks us off with N, and while we hard a time near the end of the alphabet, we get there in the end. Stay tuned to hear about some of fantastical, magical aspects of the wizarding world from N through to Z.

May 10, 201950 min

#015 | Accio Alphabet: The A - M of the Harry Potter world

It’s time for another Harry Potter episode! In this episode we run through the alphabet and share some of the great aspects of the wizarding world for each letter. Keep listening to find out which creature was chosen for C, how many things we could think of for J, and enjoy possibly our longest running inside joke ever. And don’t worry; we’re only talking about A to M today so let’s get straight into it.

Apr 12, 201954 min

#013.5 BONUS EP | Penguin Post: Turning Pages by Penguin Books NZ unboxing

Welcome to Turning Pages by Penguin Books NZ! Penguin Books NZ contacted us recently, telling us about a cool new endeavour they were embarking on. They're kicking off a Goodreads community called Turning Pages, which is going to be a place for discussions, reviews and recommendations (among other things!). They asked us if we would be interested in receiving a Turning Pages box of goodies, and of course, like the eager book podcasters we are, we said yes. Queue several weeks of excitedly thinki...

Mar 10, 201916 min

#013 | Brothers’ Books: We chat about John Green and Hank Green novels

How many Katherine’s did Colin date? What was it that April found on a busy city street? And what is it that Augustus can’t fathom into constellations? We discuss it all in this week’s episode of Rants and Reviews by chatting about the novels written by both John Green and Hank Green; which ones were our favourites, which ones we haven’t read yet, and which ones surprised us. Hit play to find out!

Mar 01, 201946 min

#012 | Take Two: Kicking off Season 2 with a look at 2019

Welcome back to Season Two! In this episode, Anjali and Sophie look ahead to 2019 and what that will look like in the Book World. We share our Goodreads Reading Challenge goals, some books we'd love to read, some we'd like to re-read, and a pile of books we're looking forward to being released this year. Back in the last episode we created a mini book club, and so spend some time discussing our book club choices.

Feb 15, 201944 min
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