The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hello, and welcome to the Slate Audio Book Club for the month of October 2016.

I'm Katie Waldman, Slate's Words Correspondent, and I'm joined in the D.C. studio today by

Megan Weigand, Slate's copy chief. Hey, Meg. Hello. And by Nora Kaplan Bricker, a writer and

critic at Slate and elsewhere. Hey, Nora.

Hi. Today we're going to discuss Shrill, notes from a loud woman, a collection of first-person

essays by the comic and critic Lindy West. In Shrill, West examines contemporary womanhood and

feminism from a variety of angles, recounting her transformation from a timid,

fantasy-loving kid to the all-caps defender of body positivity and router of internet trolls we know

from Jezebel, This American Life, and The Guardian. So I wanted to start you guys, because West has

a cult following online, and I actually saw her speak at Kramer books a few months ago. And the

room was overflowing. People waited in a line for more than an hour to talk to her. And it was just

clear that she has this really fervent fan base. So I wanted to ask you guys, like what your

relationship with Lindy West was before you picked up the book and what you were expecting and whether the book sort of lined up with what you thought you were going to get.

So Nora, maybe you first, because I know you reviewed Shill.

I did.

And I think the book, in answer to your question, was sort of exactly what I was expecting on a lot of levels.

And I think exactly what the sort of diehard fans who would line up outside Kramer books to hear her speak would be coming to find.

It's kind of her very characteristic voice, A lot of all cats, as you mentioned,

very sort of adrenalized and hilarious and biting, but also affirming and unabashedly feminist

and kind of calling her readers to arms to make the world a better place. Sort of all the

characteristics of her bloggy writing are in here. And I think it's partly because calling her readers to arms to make the world a better place, sort of all the characteristics

...