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:
Read:
Did Not Finish:
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:
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 ferritalelibrarian@gmail.com.
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!
