John is eating cinnamon rolls, Alison doesn’t think it’s funny, and Liz has two lists.

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Content warnings this episode: colonialism (chapter 2), COVID (chapter 3), organised crime (chapter 5), privilege and capitalism (chapter 7).

• No letters of comment this week, normal service resumes next week!
• Books in the order they were discussed
  • The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi
  • Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
    • Coffee Shop AU
  • Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
  • The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Nettle & Bone, by T Kingfisher
• John’s ranking:
  1. Nettle & Bone
  2. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. Nona the Ninth
  4. The Spare Man
  5. Legends & Lattes
  6. The Kaiju Preservation Society
• Alison’s ranking:
  1. Nettle & Bone
  2. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. The Kaiju Preservation Society
  4. Nona the Ninth
  5. Legends & Lattes
  6. The Spare Man
• Liz’s ranking:
  1. Nettle & Bone
  2. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. Nona the Ninth
  4. The Kaiju Preservation Society
  5. Legends & Lattes
  6. The Spare Man
• Consensus ranking:
  1. Nettle & Bone
  2. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
  3. Nona the Ninth
  4. The Kaiju Preservation Society
  5. Legends & Lattes
  6. The Spare Man
• Credits
  • Cover art: “Favourite Reading Positions” by Sue Mason
    • Alt text: John is in the bottom-left, sitting in a chair, wearing a blue shirt and purple trousers, holding a can, and reading an ebook. Alison is in the upper-middle, lying down upside down, wearing a purple shirt and stripy trousers, and reading an ebook. Liz is in the bottom-right, wearing a pink shirt with green trousers, holding a mug of a hot beverage, and reading a physical book. They are surrounded by floating beer bottles, books, the Moon, a mug with a moose on it, and two cats. The word “Octothorpe” appears in scattered letters around the artwork, against a pinky-purple background.
  • Theme music: “Surf Shimmy” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)