Shelf Love: Romance Novel Discourse

Love & Marriage...and The Simpsons. Join me & my IRL love partner to celebrate what "ever after" looks like this Valentine's Day. We discuss how romantic love, infidelity, & marriage are portrayed in…

Mary Fisher lived in a palace by the sea, and like all romance novelists, just needs love to complete her idyllic rose-colored life. Too bad the man she wants is married to bored housewife Ruth, who …

Normal People by Sally Rooney (and the Hulu adaptation) is a love story that may or may not be a romance novel, a story that might be hopeful even if it’s bleak, but who could say if it represents al…

Is true love real or fiction? Is romantic love in fiction unreal but not untrue? How do romance novels play with fiction and reality, and how do some other disciplines explore similar questions in th…

This episode is about feelings, and Murderbot, and romance novels, and hope, and anger, and powerlessness, the year 2020....and 2021.

Romancelandia Holiday Fairies 2021: bit.ly/romancelandia

Shelf Love…

Seven souls gave romance novels a try as a result of the Bridgerton adaptation and bravely came to speak with me about what they thought of romance readers before, what it took for them to pick up a …

Stories from Shelf Love listeners who have reexamined romantic stories that they used to love and found that their relationship has gone from unconditional love to questioning the value of their rela…

Dr. Maria DeBlassie joins me to discuss engaging with banned media, and dealing with the discomfort and joy of growth. Is Gone With the Wind watchable with context? What happens when I force myself t…

Is it real love or fantasy TV? I hope you're here for the right reasons: to learn how The Bachelor franchise produces a fantasy of romantic love. We cover the lingo (Rose Ceremony, Fantasy Suite, Fra…

How do romantic narratives explore or influence our ideas of which bodies are "desirable"? Dr. Christina Fattore will introduce us to neoliberalism, and we'll discuss how the ideological focus on ind…

I now pronounce you man and...horse? Kissing mannequins, will Taylor stay dead this time, is Sheila Carter the best Supervillain, and favorite Super Couples (seemingly always love triangles?): when I…

Journalist E. Jean Carroll hopped a ride on the Love Train with dozens of romance authors in 1983, hoping to discover "how to catch a man." But did she actually discover who women* in America were fa…

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Proving once and for all, using science, the truth of the romance reader stereotype. Warning: this research is about how romance novels and readers are perceived, not the actual reality. 

Show Notes:

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Romance Author Jodie Slaughter joins Shelf Love Live from Copper Dog Books in Beverly, Massachusetts. Can Jodie identify excerpts from her own books? What's her favorite trope and why is it Only One …

Who profits from "diverse" romance adaptations? Are white authors making room for creators from marginalized backgrounds to tell their stories? What's lost in translation to screen?

Listener questions…

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon: it may be a Tik-Tok sensation now, but over a year ago it was a podcast sensation. Dani Lacey invited me as a guest on her podcast, Ice Planet Podcast, to discuss…

How is whiteness & assimilation assumed in the "land of opportunity" narrative & myth of American immigrants? We explore: how names indicate our roots, white privilege, feelings of cultural loss, our…

"Guilty pleasures," or is the guilt what we find pleasurable? This is the question Dr. Arielle Zibrak asks in her book, Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures (NYU Press). Arielle joins me to explore just som…

A touch of taboo...the Joyless Hags (Katrina Jackson & Tasha L. Harrison) reunite to dissect Seducing My Guardian by Katee Robert. We ask "What is this book trying to do?" When a book opens a door, d…