Episode 705: Romantic Comedies

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Welcome to Reading With Libraries!
Thank you for joining us on the SEVENTH SEASON of our Reader’s Advisory podcast! We have more genres to discuss, new books to recommend, and we’re so glad you’re here to join us. We always enjoy our book group podcast, and we hope you do, too! 

Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. At CMLE, we work with all types of libraries.

At CMLE We’ve absolutely talked about romance books before. Check out our past episodes Winter Romance, Regency Historical Romance, and of course our FIRST EVER episode of this podcast was a delightful discussion of romance books! Clearly, we love talking about love! And it’s even better when there’s humor involved. Any genre of book can include romantic elements, but today we’re talking about books where romance and humor take center stage: romantic comedies!
And we are overjoyed to welcome back CMLE Podcast Correspondent Ariel Kirst! Thanks for joining us again! 

We started this podcast to provide information for our library community doing Reader’s Advisory work. It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

Beverages

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages! This week we found various recipes for pink drinks that will enhance your romance reading experience! All recipes are from this Good Housekeeping article which we link to on our show notes page. 

Berry Rhubarb Punch

  • For the Berry Rhubarb Simple Syrup:
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries
  • 1 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
  • 1 cup chopped rhubarb
  • Handful of mint
  • For the Punch:
  • 2 1/2 cups ginger-ale
  • 1 cup Smirnoff Raspberry
  • 1/2 cup raspberries
  • 1/2 cup strawberries sliced
  • For Garnish: Chopped rhubarb and fresh mint for glasses
  • For the Simple Syrup:
  • Add water, sugar, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb and mint to a medium sized pot over medium high heat and stir together allowing sugar to dissolve.
  • Bring liquid to a boil then lower heat to medium and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
  • Turn off heat, strain the mixture leaving just the liquid. Cool to room temperature.
  • For the Punch:
  • Add Raspberry Smirnoff and ginger-ale to simple syrup and stir together until well combined.
  • Add berries to punch then add to pitcher.
  • When serving punch, fill glasses with ice, pour in punch then add one mint leaf and one chopped rhubarb stalk straw to each glass and enjoy!

Frozen Pomegranate Margarita

  • Kosher salt: Used to coat rim of glasses >> totally optional.
  • Limes: To help salt stick to rim and lime juice is used in pomegranate margaritas.
  • Ice 
  • Silver tequila: silver, blanco, or white tequila of your choice.
  • Pomegranate juice: Look for 100% fresh pomegranate juice 
  • Agave syrup: this is also optional but adds a touch more of sweetness to these margaritas; other alternatives include simple syrup, honey, stevia drops, or maple syrup, etc.
  • Pomegranate fruit: You can buy the pomegranate fruit and choose to juice it yourself if you’d like. You will need to buy enough for one full cup of juice. And/or you can buy one to deseed and use as a garnish on frozen pomegranate margaritas.
  • Spread some salt onto a small plate.
  • Run a lime wedge around the rim of your glass.
  • Turn glass upside down and thoroughly coat into salt.
  • In a high speed blender: add in ice, tequila, fresh pomegranate/lime juice, and agave syrup (if using). Blend together until well combined and pour into your glass.
  • If desired, garnish margaritas with pomegranate arils. Sip, sip, hooray!


Cherry Crush (nonalcoholic)

  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. water
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 2 whole star anise
  • 1 1-inch piece ginger, sliced
  • 4 c. tart cherry juice
  • Cinnamon sticks, for serving
  • In small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Stir in cloves, star anise, and ginger and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer (do not stir) until sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
  • Strain syrup into pitcher and stir in cherry juice. Pour into glasses and fill with crushed ice. If desired, light the end of a cinnamon stick until smoking and serve in drink.

Genre Discussion:

According to the Book Genre Dictionary, books in this category focus on a couple that are attempting to deal with their love or attraction to each other. In the romantic comedy genre, it’s often the sexual tension and social interaction between the characters that are at odds with their inner feelings that inspires the conflict and humor.

This list from AMC Theaters describes elements that appear in romantic comedy movies, but we thought they also apply pretty well to books of the rom-com genre:

1. The Eccentric Best Friend

There’s always a free-spirited best friend who’s the total opposite of the protagonist. They’re the goofy sidekick, offering comedic relief in the midst of romantic tension — and yet, they’re also somehow the voice of reason to our love-struck lead.

2. The Unexpected Love Interest

We all love and root for the underdog, though in rom-coms, they don’t always get the girl or guy. (Sorry, Duckie.) But when they do — when the switch flips and our hero finally notices the nerd in glasses — it’s magic, even if it is a total cliché.

3. The Near Breakup

That moment in every romantic comedy when we fear our idyllic couple might actually not end up together. We can see the fallout coming from a mile away, and we know deep down it’s temporary, but we hang onto the drama because it makes the reunion seem even sweeter.

4. The Grand Gesture

Rushing to the airport at the last second, standing outside the window with a boombox blaring “In Your Eyes” — is there anything more romantic than a big, preferably public display of love, one last-ditch effort to win someone over? Gets us every time.

5. The Happily Ever After Ending

In rom-coms, love always wins. Sure, there are bumps along the journey, but in the end, life is as it should be — the way we want it to be in real life. Rom-coms give us hope that a happily ever after ending is possible!

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it! 

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! 

Special thanks to our Guest Host, CMLE Podcast Correspondent Ariel Kirst! We’re so glad you were able to join us again! 

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!