A Big Patreon Update & Buzzy Books of Summer '22

A dishy dive into some of the biggest books from last summer & an update to our Patreon subscriptions

We’re back on the main feed with one more release from the Patreon archives and it’s an extra special episode we can’t wait to share. We love to sit down and have a nerdy chat about what we both read over the summer, from the buzzy books we both loved to the popular titles that made us say, “ummm, ok?”

In today’s episode, you’ll hear us chat about one of 2022’s biggest rom-coms that, while fun and enjoyable, left us thinking about two other books we much prefer from this powerhouse author, a book debut that had all of Bookstagram in its grip, a lengthy tome about friendship, art, and video games that was thoroughly satisfying—and more.

Check out today’s episode wherever you get your podcasts, and read on for an important update on our Patreon community.

Upcoming Changes to Patreon

As we begin a new semester, we’re making changes to our Patreon tier structure in order to keep the show sustainable and to create space for our goals and ambitions for Novel Pairings.

Starting September 1st we will be increasing the price of the Literature Scholar Tier to $10 per month and adding a $20 Novel Pairings Producer Tier as part of our Patreon offerings. This will give listeners three subscriptions to choose from, and here’s what they include:

Literature Lover - $5

• Friday Bonus Episodes to enhance your reading experience, including:

  • Educational Mini Episodes featuring historical, cultural, biographical, and literary context for our monthly classic book selections.

  • Personal Pairings Episodes featuring Chelsey and Sara’s individual book recommendations paired with their current literary or pop culture interests.

  • Literary Landscape Episodes featuring conversations on publishing trends, education, and hot topics in the book world.

  • Bonus TBR Toppler Episodes featuring themed book lists (ex: Women in Mythology).

  • Seasonal Announcement Episodes featuring our upcoming book selections and themes, released weeks before we announce the line-up to the public.

• Access to our Novel Pairings Spreadsheet featuring pairings from every Classic Books episode on the main podcast feed.

• Access to the Novel Pairings Discord Chat to connect with fellow Classics Club members.

• Occasional Treats like book selection polls, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and discounts on Novel Pairings merchandise.

Literature Scholar - $10
This tier includes the same content as the $5 tier, plus:

• Monthly Classes and Events featuring our English teacher expertise (ex: Literary Lenses 101, Deciphering the Classics, and A Guide to the Gilded Age). We record these events for those who cannot attend live and publish them as podcast episodes for easy-to-access content on the go.

• Monthly Book Club Discussions featuring a vibrant community of nerdy readers who love to learn from one another. In these casual video meet-ups, on-screen member participation is encouraged but not required.

• Biannual Recap Episodes featuring summaries, close reading, and analysis questions for our winter and summer “Big Book” readalongs (ex: The Odyssey recaps).

• Access to exclusive Literature Scholars Discord Threads for those who want to discuss our book selections in real time or share insights and reflections from our book club discussions.

Novel Pairings Producer - $20
This tier includes the same content as the $5 and $10 levels, plus:

• Executive Producer Credit on the Novel Pairings podcast.

• Annual State of the Podcast Meeting with Chelsey, Sara, and your fellow producers to learn about what we’re working on behind-the-scenes, upcoming book selections, and our goals for the show.

Part of the reason for this change is because we genuinely believe this community of learners and the public scholarship we produce are worth it! While there are many virtual book clubs out there, we think this community is something special: an educational space where we bring our graduate degrees and a combined two decades of teaching experience to every bonus episode we record, class we teach, and book club we host. Continuing to put out work that is up to our standards has gotten increasingly time consuming, and there’s still more we want to bring to this community. Raising our prices will allow us to continue creating valuable, original, useful educational content while also offering some improvements and additions to what we share here.

If you’ve been thinking of signing up, now is the time because all our current and new Classic Club subscribers are grandfathered in at our $8 Literature Scholar Tier between now to September 1st. Annual discounts of 10% are also available when you sign up for a yearly subscription.

Best of Lists to Inspire End-of-Summer Reading

We love perusing the best of lists when it comes to finding what to read next, especially for summer. It’s not too late to get some sultry summer reading in before cooler, shorter days are here. Check out this round of lists for some inspiration:

• Literary Hub’s ‘50 of the Greatest Summer Novels of All Time’

• Vulture’s ‘18 Best New Beach Reads for Every Kind of Book Lover’

• Princeton University’s Summer Reading Books & TBRs from Faculty

• NPR’s ‘Here are 19 books our critics are excited for this summer’

• Entertainment Weekly’s ‘The 27 best new books to take on your 2023 summer vacation’

Final Words

Thank you for supporting our endeavor to make public scholarship fun and accessible. Whether you’ve been here from the beginning or just joined us for our summer Odyssey, you make this podcast possible and fill our nerdy English teacher hearts with so much joy. Getting to work from home and for ourselves is a true privilege during this season of our lives, especially when work means public scholarship that allows our passion and experience to shine.

And—know that your support at any level is truly appreciated and we are so glad you are part of this community! Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. You can comment on this post or email us at novelpairingspod@gmail.com and we will gladly provide any additional information and assistance.

We’ll be back soon with some a fun back-to-school themed newsletter next week.

Until then, we declare there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book.