Young Adulting

This week, we’re sharing our reviews on products that have gotten a lot of internet hype and answering the question: IS! IT! WORTH IT! Our listeners requested items in various categories they wanted our opinions on, and we’re breaking down our thoughts from the cost of the item, how long we’ve used it, what we like/don’t like about it, and how it compares to alternatives!   We’d also like to stress that things do not equal happiness, and recommend reading this article about how money really affects your happiness if you’d like to think about this further!   Most Requested items Stanley Thirst Quencher - $40 Dyson AirWrap - $599   Beauty: Augustinus Bader The Cream $280 Necessaire Skincare The Body Serum ($45), The Body Lotion ($28) Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter $46 Ice Roller $20; Jade Roller

We’re back with this month’s three things—hopefully a new monthly-ish tradition. We each brought something fun, something productive, and we both wanted to talk about an album we’ve had on repeat.    Becca’s Three Things -Making a plan to vote: Go to vote.org to check your registration, find early voting locations, see what’s on your ballot, and more! And for if you live in the state of  New York, check out The Daily’s episode about the New York Election. And for a laugh, check out this McSweeny’s article -Ranking Thanksgiving Foods - (Here’s Becca’s favorite stuffing recipe) -Midnights   Olivia’s Three Things -Midnights  -The Awakening by Kate Chopin -All There Is with Anderson Cooper   Olivia’s Lifetime Movie viewing: October Kiss (You can watch it) Pumpkin Pie Wars (Do not watch!)   Obsessions Olivia: Quote from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert  Becca: Baggu hand towels   What we read this week! Olivia: The Awakening by Kate Chopin Becca: The ARC by Tory Henwood Hoen, It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover, W

This week we’re discussing our October Book Club Pick: When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff. We talk about the theories we had while reading this book, what we did and didn’t like, our thoughts on the ending, and play two calls from listeners sharing their thoughts.  Content Warning: In this episode, we discuss the book's plotlines surrounding sexual assault & pedophilia, so if these themes may be upsetting to you, please take care and skip this episode and join us next week.    National Sexual Assault Hotline: Confidential 24/7 Support Chat online at online.rainn.org Call at 800-656-4673   Obsessions Olivia: Maintenance Phase  Becca: Purple Anthropologie Coat   What we read this week! Becca: When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff, The ARC by Tory Henwood Hoen Olivia: The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney   November’s Book Club Pick: The Cloisters by Katy Hays    Sponsors: ZocDoc - Go to Zocdoc.com/BOP and download the ZocDoc app for free and start your search for

This week we’re talking about the books we loved when we were growing up! We highlight our favorite books from Elementary, Middle, and High School, and hear from listeners about their favorites!    Elementary School Olivia: Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt, Nancy Drew, The Dear America Series, Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery Becca: Bridge to Terabithia, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Walk Two Moons, Babysitters Club Little Sisters Books, American Girl Doll books, and Choose Your Own Adventure Books. Listeners: Ghost in the Garden, The Ramona Books, Cam Jansen Mysteries, Ella Enchanted & Matilda, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Fudge Books by Judy Blume.    Middle School Becca: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, The Giver by Lois Lowry  Olivia: The Giver by  Lois Lowry, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and The Care and Keeping of You.  Listeners: Sweet Valley High, The Clique, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Amazing

It’s time for Three Things: our new series where we each bring three miscellaneous topics that we want to talk about, but don’t need a full podcast episode to break down. This month’s things include fall clothes shopping, walking desks, celebrity heights, and more!  Becca’s Three Things: Fall Clothes Shopping - @anindigoday on IG is great for how to apply new trends to your wardrobe, and Hillary Kerr’s Newsletter provides some great inspiration too. Standing & Walking Desks - for some inspo about working&walking, check out @julesacree for inspiration!  How to Make, and Keep, Friends in Adulthood via NYT  Olivia’s Three Things: The poor aging of What Not to Wear Guessing Celebrity Heights Her favorite books from high school - includes Specifically Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Agatha Christie, The Dear America Series, and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Becca’s fave includes The Sloppy Firsts Series by Megan McCafferty, The Face on the

It's time for an advice episode! We’re excited to answer your questions about staying motivated while writing a book, maintaining long-distance friendships, learning how to stop holding yourself back from dating, making big career changes, and more!  Obsessions Becca: Custom legal pad Olivia: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman (out Nov. 8) What we read this week! Becca: In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead, and It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover Olivia: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman This Month’s Book Club Pick:  When We Were Bright And Beautiful by Jillian Medoff (check content warnings on this one!)  Sponsors: Prose - Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order at Prose.com/bop   Join our Facebook group for amazing book recs & more!  Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.  Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Olivia on Instagram @oliviamuente

We’re so excited to finally discuss our delightful and surprising September Book Club Pick: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn! We share what we loved about this book, our thoughts on the rotating POV, which character we identified with the most, and our love for how the book addressed ageism. We also discuss our mixed feelings about the ending and if we could become CIA operatives.    To learn more about the origins of this book, check out The Shit No One Told You About Writing Interview with Deanna Raybourn   For the Art Heist Curious, check out: Fake by Erica Katz and The Lost Leonardo, and Last Seen.    Check out this NYT Article: Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’   Obsessions  Olivia: Free People Sweater Dress Becca: Lou & Grey Signaturesoft Sweatpants   What we read this week! Becca: In My Dreams, I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead Olivia: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn   This Month’s Book Club Pick:  When We Were Bright And Beautiful by Jillian Medof

This week we’re releasing our inner foliage sluts and soup fiends to talk about all things FALL! We discuss our favorite things about fall, and our favorite fall activities from weekends away to cozying up at home.   We also had to share a robust list of candle recommendations. Olivia recommends Bath & Body Works candles in the scents Hometown Sugar Cookies Autumn Chai, White Pumpkin, Flannel, Lakeside Morning, and Leaves. Becca recommends Brooklyn Candle Studio’s Apple Cider and Montana Forest, Le Labo’s Santal 26, Maison Louis Marie No. 4 Balincourt,  Hotel Lobby’s Signature Candle (they have a fall candle coming out at the end of September!), and Yankee Candle’s Sandal Balsam and Cedar.    We also highly recommend Chappy Wrap and Barefoot dreams Blankets     Favorite Fall Movies include Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, You’ve Got Mail, Gilmore Girls, Mermaids, and Autumn in New York if you’re having a sad girl fall.    Our Favorite Fall Reading includes City of the Lost by Kel

This week we’re excited to interview two English teachers about what books are taught in High School English classes right now. We chat about what books are in their current curriculum, how books get chosen, what books students get excited about, and what books outside the curriculum are popular with high school students right now.    Mary’s Books: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Emily Dickenson, Walt Whitman, Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Behold The Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, and Antigone by Sophocles.   Caroline’s Books: Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Hunger Games by Susan Collins, and Harrison Burgeron by Kurt Vonnegut.   Obsessions:  Becca: Amazon Hair Clips, The Don’t Worry Darling Drama   What we read this week! Becca: The Final Gambit by Jen

We’re preparing for indoor time this fall and talking TV and Movie recommendations! Becca and Olivia share their recommendations, and our listeners call in to share their favorite shows and hidden gems!   Olivia’s TV Recs: Scripted: Yellowjackets, Severance, Under the Banner of Heaven, Starstruck, and Fleabag.   Becca’s TV Recs: Partner Track, Loot, Never Have I Ever, Tell Me Lies, Hacks, Ten Percent, and The Bear.   Listener TV Recs: Trying, Minx, Crash Landing on You, Call your Agent!, Valeria, Minx, Everything I Know About Love, What We Do in the Shadows, Gilmore Girls, The Expanse, Love Island UK, Six Feet Under, A League Of Their Own, Abbott Elementary, The Great British Bake Off   Movie Recs Becca: Not Okay, Vengeance, and Top Gun: Maverick Olivia: Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Listeners: The Last Duel (check content warnings before watching!) and Cha Cha Real Smooth   Obsessions  Olivia: Orange Amazon dress (pleasant surprise) Becca: Sweat

So excited to discuss our August book club pick: You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. This lush romantic drama sparked a lot of conversation in our Facebook Group, and we share our differing feelings about the book as well! We also discuss why we think this book was so divisive, our thoughts on the characters' chemistry, how the theme of grief is explored, and what we thought about the ending.   In this conversation we bring up author Akwaeke Emezi’s interview with Elle, and To Be Black and Loved’s You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty review!    Obsessions Olivia: Cowboy boots  Becca: New desk setup - Wireless Keyboard, Laptop Stand, Magic Trackpad    What we read this week! Olivia:  All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt  Becca: Seoulmates by Susan Lee (out 9/20) If You Could See The Sun by Ann Liang (out 10/11) Now Is Not The Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson (out 11/8)   September Book Club Pick: Kill

This week we’re talking about all things freelancing. We share when, why & how we made the decision to go freelance, what our work entails, and if we ever see ourselves going back to a full-time job. We also answer YOUR questions about freelance life including how much experience you need, how to find clients, and how we structure our schedules and stay motivated.    We also get into all the money stuff: from how to set and negotiate your rates, the good, the bad, and the ugly of payment timing, how we save for taxes, how we deal with health insurance, and what we’re doing for retirement planning.   Curious about Oliva’s Zero to Freelance Course and How to Pitch guide? Use code BADONPAPER for 60% off her offerings which you can learn more about here! (She’ll be shutting it down on October 1, 2022!)   Obsessions  Becca: Ceramic cosmetic scooper stick (here’s something similar on Amazon) A bonus thing we discussed today was Bug Bite Thing   Everything we read this week! Olivia: All Good People Here by Ashle

We’re taking body diversity in books with Jennifer Weiner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen books, including That Summer, Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, Good in Bed, and an essay collection, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing.    Jennifer talks about her journey to becoming a best-selling author, what motivated her to feature women with different body types in her books, and the process of getting a visibly plus-size woman on book covers. We also ask Jennifer about how she decides what to write about, her newest book The Summer Place, and writing a book set in the time of COVID.   Jennifer also shares her favorite Philly bookstores and her favorite recent reads.    You can find Jennifer at @jenniferweinerwrites on Instagram, @jenweinerwrites on Tik Tok, Jennifer Weiner on Facebook, jenniferweiner.com, and get a signed copy of her books at Head House Books in Philadelphia    Books Jennifer loves right now: When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff Wish You Were Here

It's finally time for another Q&A! We answer some quick questions about how we found our voices as writers, advice for balancing creative projects and a day job, how we answer the question “so what do you do for work?” We also dive into lengthier questions about our favorite books of the year, the backlist books we love, the best & worst parts of hosting a podcast, and more!    Our favorite books of the year Becca: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin   Olivia: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson,  Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, and Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka.   Backlist books we love Becca: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Selection Series by Kiera Cass, A Discovery of Witches series by Deborah E. Harkness, A Million Junes by Emily Henry, and Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering   Olivia: The Push by Ashley Audrain, Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, The One by J

For the final episode of our series about how a book gets made, we’re talking all things marketing and publicity with Cristina Arreola, the senior marketing manager at Sourcebooks Landmark, and Ashley Winstead, the author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, Fool Me Once, and the forthcoming The Last Housewife.  Cristina and Ashley answer our questions about at what point marketing gets involved in the publishing process, how publishers decide how much marketing support a book gets, what the author is responsible for when it comes to marketing and publicity, and how much input authors get on book covers. We also discuss the different marketing playbooks for an author's first book vs their following books, the importance of pre-orders, and the impact of book clubs and social media buzz.   Find Cristina at @sourcebooks and @tinamariposa on Instagram. Find Ashley at @ashleywinsteadbooks on Instagram. Obsessions  Becca - The Bear on Hulu Olivia - her niece’s obsession with dinosaurs What we read this week! Becca - Po

It’s finally time to discuss our listener-picked Book Club selection: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus!  We talk about our general feelings about the book, how we reacted to the moments of sexism in the 1960s setting, our thoughts on the main character, and the differing perspectives of the three key women in the book. We also discuss how we felt about the ending and since this book already has a TV adaptation in the works, we talk about our casting thoughts and hear from listeners about the characters they pictured.  What the book reminds us of Where’d you go Bernadette by Maria Semple Radioactive  Julia Child HBO Series   Obsessions  Becca - Trader Joe’s Hold The Cone Mini Ice Cream Cones (also toffee bars) Olivia - Catfish (the documentary and TV Show)   What we read this week! Becca:  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Olivia:  Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine   August’s Book Club Pick: You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty by

We’re BACK and continuing our series about how a book gets made! This week we’re chatting with Amanda Bergeron, an executive editor at Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and Carley Fortune, the author of Every Summer After.    Amanda breaks down the acquisition & publication process from the editor's end, how many submissions she receives, and what leads her to choose a book to work on. Carley shares her writing process from conception to submission, how she felt when she got her initial edit letter, and how much her manuscript changed from acquisition to publishing. We also ask them about how many rounds of edits they worked through together, what happens when they disagree on a change, and what makes a successful author/editor relationship.    Find Carley Fortune at @carleyfortune on Instagram, carleyfortune.com, and get a signed copy of Every Summer After via Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston Texas.    Books Carley and Amanda are Excited about The No-Show by Beth O'Leary A Hundred Other Girls b

We’re so excited to start our summer series about how a book gets made! This week we’re talking all about book agents, from what they do to how authors find an agent in the first place. We brought on Taylor Haggerty, an agent at Root Literary representing commercial fiction for teens and adults, and Iman Hariri-Kia, writer and editor born and based in New York City whose debut novel A Hundred Others Girls will be published July 26th by Sourcebooks.   We chat with Iman about her writing process for A Hundred Other Girls and how she found, queried, and picked out an agent to work with. Taylor explains an agent’s role in the publishing process and shares her tips for choosing the right agent, how to regroup if you get passed on, and she gives us a sense of how much money an author can expect to make for a debut novel.    You can find Iman at @imanharirikia on Instagram and @imanharirikia on Tik Tok  You can find Taylor at @rootliterary on Instagram, rootliterary.com, and PublishersMarketplace.com   Related to o

It’s FINALLY time to talk about Cover Story by Susan Rigetti! Also, we recommend reading this book spoiler-free, so if you haven’t read it yet, read it then listen to this ep! This book was fun, juicy, and compulsively readable. We discuss our overall thoughts on the book, what we thought of the format, and of course, we have a much-needed discussion about the ending!    Obsessions  Becca: Fresh flowers - Peony season Olivia: The Deep End on Hulu    My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang   What we read this week! Olivia: Meant To Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein  The It Girl by Ruth Ware  This Is Not the Jess Show by Anna Carey Becca: A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia (Out July 26!) The Hotel Nantucket by Elin Hilderbrand   This Month’s Book Club Pick:   Sponsors: Tradlands - go to tradlands.com/badonpaper to shop and use code BADONPAPER for 20% off your order. Olive & June: visit Oliveandjune.com/Paper for 20% off your first Mani System. Better Help: get 10% off you

We’re already halfway through the year and it’s time for a 2022 goals check-in! Both Olivia and Becca share the personal and professional goals they set for this year, give an update on their progress, and discuss what they’ve learned along the way!    Related to our convo:  Check out the journal Olivia has been using here!  Check out Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Listen to Grace and Becca’s previous Goals episode here!   Obsessions  Olivia: Supergoop Glowstick SPF 50  Becca: Hustle on Netflix   What we read this week! Becca:  Legendborn by Tracy Deonn Reunion by Meghan Quinn Olivia: The Night Swim by Megan Goldin  Groupies by Sarah Priscus (out July 12)  Finlay Donovan is Killing it by Elle Cosimano   This Month’s Book Club Pick: Cover Story by Susan Rigetti   Sponsors: Night - take 20% off almost everything on their site at discovernight.com with code BADONPAPER ZocDoc - go to Zocdoc.com/BOP and download the Zocdoc app for FREE to start your search for a top-rated doc