2024 Holiday Recommendation Show (Part 1) + the 2024 National Book Awards

Summary

Book Riot - The Podcast: 2024 Holiday Recommendation Show (Part 1) + the 2024 National Book Awards

Release Date: November 25, 2024

In this episode of Book Riot - The Podcast, hosts Jeff O'Neal and Rebecca Schinsky delve into the highlights of the 2024 National Book Awards and kick off the 2024 Holiday Recommendation Show. The conversation seamlessly blends critical analysis with reader-focused recommendations, making it an invaluable resource for both literary enthusiasts and casual readers alike.

---

1. National Book Awards Highlights

The episode opens with Jeff and Rebecca addressing the outcomes of the 2024 National Book Awards, focusing primarily on the standout winner in the fiction category.

Percival Everett's "James" Takes the Top Spot

Jeff announces, “James did indeed win the National Book Award for his magisterial James of the Century. So far” ([04:25]). The hosts express their enthusiasm and delve into why Everett's work resonated so strongly this year.

Comparing "James" to Literary Titans

Rebecca muses on the challenges of positioning "James" among literary heavyweights: “'James' is dealing with difficult content, but there is a real lightness to Everett's writing style...” ([05:36]). They compare it to classics like Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and discuss its unique blend of speculative fiction without the reliance on magic realism.

Analysis of Sales and Popularity

Jeff highlights the commercial success of "James": “In 2020, it has sold over 237,000 copies...” ([08:53]). This surge mirrors the impact of Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad in 2016, underscoring Everett's ability to capture both critical acclaim and widespread readership.

Other Category Winners

While "James" dominated the conversation, Jeff and Rebecca briefly acknowledge other winners:

• Young People's Literature: Safdie's Kareem Between Shifa
• Translated Literature: Yang Shuangzi's Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lynn King
• Poetry: Lena Khalif Tufa's Something about Living, University of Akron Press
• Nonfiction: Jason Deon's Soldiers and Kings, Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, Vikings

Rebecca remarks on the diversity of publishers among the winners: “The three mainstream adult categories are all random PR titles and then it's all independent and university presses elsewhere.” ([12:43])

Percival Everett's Meta Influence

Jeff delves deeper into Everett's multifaceted impact: “Everett has pulled off over the last year a meta discourse on his own project...” ([13:35]). They admire how Everett not only won the award but also transformed it into a broader cultural commentary, elevating public discourse on literature.

Anticipation for Future Works

The hosts express excitement about Everett's upcoming projects and potential future contributions to literature, highlighting his unpredictable yet masterful narrative style.

---

2. Transition to Holiday Recommendations

With the National Book Awards discussion drawing to a close, Jeff and Rebecca segue into the highly anticipated Holiday Recommendation Show. They outline the structure, mentioning that this episode covers part one with part two to follow a week later on December 4th.

---

3. Holiday Book Recommendations

The core of the episode revolves around addressing listener requests for holiday reading, encompassing a variety of genres and preferences. The hosts engage in a lively exchange, offering tailored suggestions based on the specific needs of their audience.

Listener Questions and Tailored Recommendations

• Amber's Request: Amber seeks literary mysteries beyond the works of Tana French.
  • Rebecca's Recommendations:
    • Liz Moore's "God of the Woods"
    • Megan Abbott's thrillers, such as "Dare Me" and "The Fever"
    • Angie Kim's "Miracle Creek"
  • Jeff's Recommendations:
    • Percival Everett's "Dr. No"
    • Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn"

Jeff humorously acknowledges the challenge: “Mc^#%, it's all about solving that problem first.” ([25:15])

• Maggie's Request: Looking for fiction for her avid reader mom, who enjoys historical and family tales with empathy and compassion without overt political themes.
  • Rebecca's Suggestions:
    • Claire Lombardo's "The Most Fun We Ever Had"
    • Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" and "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow"
    • Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" and "Everything I Never Told You"
  • Jeff's Additions:
    • "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang
    • Monica Brashears' "House of Cotton"

Rebecca emphasizes the importance of accessible yet profound narratives: “It's about being open-minded. It shows rather than tells.” ([33:45])

• Aaron's Request: Seeking books to bring joy amidst political turmoil, avoiding romance but favoring strong female relationships.
  • Rebecca's Picks:
    • "Color Television" by Danzy Senna
    • Ina Garten's memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens"
  • Jeff's Suggestions:
    • "Chemistry" by Ling Ma
    • "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

Jeff poignantly reflects on emotional support through literature: “Whatever you do, make your time with them pleasurable and affirming.” ([50:11])

• Colette's Request: Recommendations for her husband who enjoys scientific and engineering disasters, with favorite authors like Cormac McCarthy and Colson Whitehead.
  • Rebecca's Recommendations:
    • Michael Lewis' diverse works
    • Steven Johnson's "Where Good Ideas Come From" and "How We Got to Now"
    • Hanif Abdurraqib's "There's Always This Year"
  • Jeff's Additions:
    • "Challenger" by Adam Higginbotham
    • Charles Yu's "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe"

Rebecca highlights the allure of intellectually stimulating reads: “It's a great gateway drug.” ([54:20])

• Unspecified Listener: Seeking a short book under 300 pages for a recently bereaved individual.
  • Rebecca's Recommendations:
    • Jessica Anthony's "The Most"
    • Han Kang's "Greek Lessons"
    • Julie Otsuka's "The Buddha in the Attic"
    • "Wintering" by Katherine May
    • "Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows" by Balli Kaur Jaswal
  • Jeff's Suggestions:
    • "Beauty Land" by Samantha Allen
    • "2aM at the Cat's Pajamas" by Tim Federle

Jeff offers heartfelt empathy: “Make your time with them pleasurable and affirming.” ([50:11])

---

4. Final Recommendations and Wrap-Up

The hosts continue to share thoughtful recommendations, ensuring that each listener's unique needs are met with precision and care. They emphasize the importance of selecting books that not only entertain but also provide solace and enrichment during the holiday season.

Special Mentions:

• Trees-Themed Recommendations:
  • Richard Powers' "The Overstory"
  • Daniel Mason's "The Northwoods"
  • Percival Everett's "The Trees"
  • Annie Proulx's "Barkskins"

Rebecca observes the thematic cohesion: “It shows... a window into a different way.” ([42:15])

Emotional and Reflective Reads:

For listeners navigating personal loss or seeking comfort, the hosts suggest books that offer gentle introspection without overwhelming the reader.

---

Notable Quotes

• Jeff on "James" winning the National Book Award: “James did indeed win the National Book Award for his magisterial James of the Century. So far” ([04:25]).
• Rebecca on Everett's writing style: “'James' is dealing with difficult content, but there is a real lightness to Everett's writing style...” ([05:36]).
• Jeff on holiday reading: “Whatever you do, make your time with them pleasurable and affirming.” ([50:11]).
• Rebecca on empathy-driven books: “It's about being open-minded. It shows rather than tells.” ([33:45]).

---

Conclusion

Jeff and Rebecca skillfully navigate the complexities of the National Book Awards while providing a rich array of holiday reading recommendations. Their insights not only celebrate literary excellence but also cater to the diverse tastes of their listeners, ensuring that everyone finds the perfect book to enhance their holiday experience.

For more detailed recommendations and to purchase the books discussed, visit Book Riot's website or ThriftBooks.

Happy Reading and Happy Holidays!

Transcript

[Jeff O'Neill]

The holidays are about spending time with your loved ones and creating magical memories.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That will last a lifetime.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So whether it's family and friends you haven't seen in a while, or those who you see all the time, share holiday magic this season with an ice cold Coca Cola. Copyright 2024 the Coca Cola Company.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

When your gut feels off, your whole day can feel off. Activia probiotic yogurts and dailies are a quick, easy and tasty way to up your gut health game every day. They're delicious, smooth and creamy and packed with billions of live and active probiotics. Your gut is where it all begins. So start with Activia. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle can help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort.

[Jeff O'Neill]

This is the Book Riot podcast. I'm Jeff O'Neill.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And I'm Rebecca Schinsky.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it's a two for today. Really. It's more of a 90% or 10 percenter. National Book Award morning. Merry Christmas and part one of our holiday recommendation shows. This is part one. We're going up on Monday the 27th.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And then the most wonderful time and.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Then the part two will come out a week later on December 4th. How does that work? Third? Something like that, yeah. The first Monday of December. Thank you everyone so much for writing in. It's one of our favorite things to do. We're going to spend a few minutes here at the top of the show. I'm not sure there's much to say about the National Book Award, to be quite honest.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Thank goodness there's not much to say about the National Book Award this year.

[Jeff O'Neill]

There probably would have been more to say had it gone a different direction. Before we get into that, the substack, Instagram, Patreon, all those things in the show notes book riot.com listen next week on the Patreon we are talking about the first two episode of the Hulu adaptation. Is it Hulu fx? Who can say? I have no idea.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's Hulu Interior Chinatown.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Interior Chinatown. I may have a few words to say about say nothing. That is an FX joint that I watch on Hulu.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Looking forward to that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

This is all insane things to say out loud. It doesn't make any kind of.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's almost like we need some consolidation to happen in.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's like saying I, I, I bought a Snicker. Like when say I ate a Snickers bar which I bought at Target. Like you have to say where you bought it every time. Where you watch this stuff. It's so very strange. Check all those things out. And then we've got our own slate of best of end of the year things happening. Our own favorite books of the year, the IT books of the year. All kinds of stuff. We have gifts and patreons and all sorts of stuff going on.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, this National Book Awards segment is the official end of us talking about news this year. Unless there is something so big that we can't ignore it and have to tack it onto some of our end of year best of content.

[Jeff O'Neill]

From here we could do a standalone about or maybe a page or something to assess our NYT 100 guesses and or Obama guesses. I don't know where we're going to put all that stuff, so that's in there too. Before we get anything else, let us take a sponsor break.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This episode is brought to you by aws. Amazon Q Business is the new Generative AI Assistant from aws. Many tasks can make business slow, like wading through mud Help. Luckily, there's a faster, easier, less messy choice. Amazon Q can securely understand your business data to help you streamline tasks like summarizing quarterly results or doing complex analyses in no time. Q Got this. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for [e-mail] learnmore looking for a pickup.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Truck to get just about anything done? Look no further. The Chevy Silverado EV isn't just the most powerful Silverado ever with next level towing capability and technology. It also offers game changing versatility with the available multiflex midgate and tailgate. Which means Silverado EV helps you carry large, bulky and oddly shaped items up to nearly 11ft in length. Chevrolet together. Let's drive. Visit Chevrolet.com to learn more.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop Pay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So the headline from last night, for us at least for this podcast, is that James did indeed first, Leverett did indeed win the National Book Award for his magisterial Book of the Century. So far. Jeff Question I'm moving the goalpost. Rebecca.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm moving on the Book of the century so far.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, it's. I'm sorry it's not the Ferrante. It just isn't. I'll apologize to the NYT readers.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I need to go back and maybe look at the top 10 on that times list of the 100 of the century and be like, what if this list had come out after James had been published?

[Jeff O'Neill]

I did it quickly and I had a hard time not putting it way up there. Way up there.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Erasure was on the lid. And I think we talked at the time that that was the one that had been out and that people had had, you know, Percival Everett attention could cluster around era. He does have such a big backlist that he could have fallen into the same issue that, like Murakami had, where, you know, the votes did not cluster around one thing. But erasure did seem. Seem to be the common one. I would be willing to bet my dollars to donuts that if Gilbert Cruz wanted to run this back after James has been in the world, it would no longer be Erasure, it would be James. Or maybe we'd get two personal Everetts in that top.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Let me walk you through the top 10 just real quick while we're here. Then you're the century. What would you put above? I put it above my brilliant friend. That's one Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Nonfiction is always hard to do.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's a tough sell.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's almost that they happen to happen in the same form is almost too bad. It's like comparing documentaries to feature films. There's a reason there's different categories. I myself would put James above Warmth of Other Suns. Third is Wolf Hall. I like Wolf Hall a great deal. I'd put James above it. Fourth is the Known World by Edward P. Jones. Now this is where it gets interesting. A. I haven't read this in 20 years.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Me either.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I have read this. It is fantastic.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It is.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You don't know what it is. It is a. It's set in the years after. Or I guess it's still before the Civil War. A black former slave becomes the proprietor of his own plantation and has those slaves. So it feels hard to say. I mean, boy, I have. That's a. That's close. Close.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I not even need to go back to that one.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Number five is the Corrections by Jonathan Frangin. I like the Corrections. Friends and His Sons Upon Us. James is a better book than that.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I agree.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Robert Bolano's 2666, which I am a huge. Which is. I am a huge fan of 2008. 900 pages. James. Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. 2016. You and I both like this book a lot, James. Right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. I think so. Because Everett pulls it off without magic realism.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. I mean it is a speculative fiction. Like it's doing something. Austerlitz by WGC Balls number eight. Also very good. It feels very. It is very European. These dreamlike fragments. Growing up in Prague and then in Wales, Paris. It's really beautiful. But it feels. I don't know, it feels more ethereal than the specificity of James Again now where it's in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro at 9 is where it gets interesting.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's painful. This is tough. I don't know.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And then Gilead at 10.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. We've had a good amount of time to sit with Never Let Me Go. We've both read it multiple times. I think we've read it multiple times together. At this point it'll be interesting. I feel like I need to wait for myself 10 years in the future to go back and revisit James and see what kind of endurance it has. But I do believe this book is going to have. But it's like it's hard for me to put it up against Ishi.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's hard. And some of that is. And this is not something that Kahneman Tversky ever teased out for us. When does an endowment effect get counterbalanced by recency bias? Right. Because endowment effect has a lot of weight in this kind of thing. Right. It's been around forever. We've talked about versus like which one wins in the clash of an immovable rock and the unstoppable force.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. My affection for James feels much more like present to me because I've read it so much more recently and we've been talking about it all year. But I have a large bank of data and affection about Never Let Me Go as well.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Aaron Summers. I think sometimes the publishers lunch folks don't sign the thing. I think Aaron Summers is still writing it. She made an interesting point before the award that this is the most would she wrote this before. It would but a prohibitive favela to be the book of the year. This was after Barnes and Noble named it first of the year Book of the year. But before the ceremony last night, of course.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Okay.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Said it's the most popular. It would be the most popular front runner in some time in terms of sales. In 20 it has sold over 237,000 copies of that writing. The only thing equivalent she really had was underground railroad in 2016, which it sold 167,000 copies. Anecdotally. I did an Instagram video Just a quick one saying it had won the Barnes Noble's Book of the Year. I haven't done it yet for the National Book Award, though I probably will today, judging from the comments. No haters. Maybe they hasn't been my experience that the haters do not show up in comments. If they're out there, they generally going to show up. Yes, but seems to be, I think, Rebecca, and I'll throw this to you, this is what we're looking for in a National Book Award winner.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think we are too. And as I'm thinking about this versus Underground Railroad, and this is the first I've heard of those sales stats about where each of them was at the time of the book of the award going out, it makes some sense to me. James is dealing with difficult content, but there is a real lightness to Everett's writing style and there are moments of humor and a twinkle in his eye at points here. And it is for a reader who wants a book like this. And I think there's more of us than we've realized. It is fun. It is a fun kind of reading experience, for as difficult as certain moments of it can be. Underground Railroad is bleak, like intentionally and for also very good reasons, grounded in reality. And Whitehead leavened that with what if it were a real railroad? And you get that sort of concept speculative element that brings surrealism into it. But there are not really any moments of lightness in the experience of reading it. There certainly weren't really moments of like, you don't really get a break. And that's not that. I mean, slavery is content that there was also not a break from. But in terms of popularity, I understand how James could be more popular in terms of sales at the point of the National Book Award than Underground Railroad was, because it just is an easier book to engage with than Underground Railroad was. And yeah, I think this is. This is what we want, like in terms of elevating the public discourse about literature, elevating the type of book that the average reader walking into a bookstore feels open to picking up and that they think might be accessible to them. Yeah, right on. I'm just. I was telling you before we recorded, I'm delighted that I don't have to walk into the sea this morning over it being all four.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I wasn't even worried about it. I was so confident.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I wasn't either.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And I. And I checked my phone last night. We were out doing something just. Just to see. And yeah, lo and behold, just Percival.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Everett's smiling face in a tux in the New York Times. That's all I needed.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I have a couple other thoughts about James and Everett. Real quick. Let me just do the other winners so we don't get. We'll give. We're getting them short shrift, but let's give them a little shrift. Some shifts at all. Safdie's Kareem Between Shifa Safdie's Kareem between is the winner of the Young People's Literature World. Yang Shuangzi's Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lynn King from Gray Wolf was the winner in translated literature. Poetry's Lena Khalif Tufa has Something about Living from the University of Akron Press Shouts to Ohio in poetry and then in non fiction, Jason Deon's Soldiers and Kings, Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling from Vikings. So in the three mainstream adult categories are all random PR titles and then it's all independent and university presses elsewhere.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Bless a university press for a. A collection of poetry.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, the. Everett has pulled off over the last year a meta discourse on his own project because less than a year after American fiction, which is about the hollowness of literary culture and only giving awards to black people in recognition when they write books about the struggle, after 20 years working with independent presses, he makes the move to Doubleday signs a huge advance selling. I mean, it's going to be more than a million copies across print, audiobook and ebook by the time the year's end he stands on the National Book Award. And I cannot think of anything like this because much like James itself and much like Everett's project itself, there's multiple ways of reading this. There's a straightforward way of reading this. Like, this is awesome for Percival Everett. Good job, U.S. culture. This is what we won from the National Book Awards. Hooray. But then there's the point. There's the part you've always got to watch your back with Everett because he's going to come at you sideways. Clever girl. Like a velociraptor.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Like, what is he writing right now that's going to make us all feel like we got stabbed?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like a magician. Like a magician. He's the opposite of the magician. Rather than disappear, he has manifested and made appear a kind of performance. And only he knows if this is. I just don't. I just don't. I can't. My mind cannot wrap around this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So great. Yeah. I was making tea yesterday afternoon and thinking about all the National Book Awards are coming up tonight and I wonder what Percival Everett is going to do when he wins. Because the closing scene of erasure and the big closing scene of American fiction is the like fraudulent author of a book winning the. What is an avatar for the National Book Award and getting up on stage and doing something like really absurd. And there was a non zero chance that Percival Everett was going to do some kind of performance art like that. His acceptance speech would not be a straightforward acceptance speech. I read it this morning. It was. It was straightforward. He talked about like a moment of lightness and hope after a few hard weeks, kind of in a vague reference to the election it was. Or at least it appeared to be. But it could just be like another brick in the road of the project that is Percival Everett. This is the most fun that I have thinking about an author or the most fun I've had thinking about an author in the like 15 years I've been doing.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Because it has broken the fifth wall of the actual text into our. Into sort of into the real world.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's so delightful. Like, what is he doing? What is he working on right now? That's going to be a comment on all of this in some way. Or will it be five books from this, you know, five books out and we've all gotten complacent and now Percival Everett has come back to remind us what we've done that maybe we didn't even know we did.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's like if he's the wizard. I mean, Wicked's coming out this weekend, so I've got Wizard. Like what if the wizard pulled the curtain back on himself and he was actually a wizard? I think that's.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, that's what it feels like. Say hello to the man behind the curtain. And like the man behind the curtain actually knows how to do.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Actually knows how to do all the things and the whole thing is just a bit of a gag, a bit of a gas.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. I hope that he's having as much fun as we think. Think he's having.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, it's. It's amazing. And, and I'm so glad that we got the James edition in the can and there was nothing wrong with it and everyone's heard it and had our chance to think about friends. What a disaster.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Maybe when it comes out in.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I don't know. Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe. I don't know. I. I don't know why. Just everything points to it being such a master class in cultural navigation and elusive. It's just, it's. It's sort of stunning. It's like the opposite of George R.R. martin's flailing into a. It's like the, like he orchestrating the whole thing. It feels that that's possible. It feels like it's possible.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I can believe it. And part of me is like, well, if we were going to lose the files for any episode we've recorded, that's hilarious. I feel okay about it being James because this is also like, just go read it, friends. Get a grab a buddy that you think is smart and interesting and read it and talk to them about it. Like, we didn't hit on anything that no other pair or group of smart readers.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Now come on, be fair to us.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

We had our own flavor, like, you know, our Shinsky O'Neal things that we were going to pick up on and our shared, you know, obsessions with different elements of his writing. But, you know, if you were going to listen to our episode about it to help you decide if you were going to go read James or if you were going to listen to us talk about it, instead of reading James, just go read James. Just go do it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You don't need to read Huck Finn. I think the point that I like the best that we made, that I remember from this and I alluded to a little bit before, is whatever reaction you have to James, whatever you thinking or feeling in the course of reading James or a particular scene or what you understand to be going on, I would assume for a moment that he has. He's doing. Knows exactly that and that that may be a second order reaction. And there's a third order reading or representation or signification happening on top of it. And it could be a mirror, but it also could be a mirror of a mirror at the same time in some of these places. It's dazzling. It's dazzling and it makes it. It doesn't seem hard. I mean, that's one of the reasons I would consider over 2666, just the elegance of it and the seeming simplicity, the complication masked by simplicity, the lightness that I guess doesn't detract but distracts from the sophistication. And that is, you know, it's like a souffle. It's difficult in life.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's the hardest thing in the world to create great art like this that looks like it was easy and that is. That feels relatively easy to engage with. And it feels easy to engage with as it's challenging you. Like, there's nothing about this reading experience that feels like homework or like I should be reading this book. And that's why I'm reading it. It's just A great reading experience.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it's probably. It's single. I mean, weirdly, thematically or, I don't know, artistically, it's. That's what it shares the most with Huck Finn. And Twain's project is this lightness and darkness and kop and. And playfulness and fun and seriousness all roiled in to one. Of course, James is bringing his own perspective of it, Ro. Like, like, you know, like those comedic roasts which are born out of both affection and vitriol. Right. There's some truth in some of these things, but you're not having a roast unless that thing is not roast worthy and you're not inviting people to the roast to roast you or someone else if the thing underneath it isn't at least a respect or, you know, accepting that the thing's roast worthy. Right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes. Yeah. I guess that is one thing we talked about in the now non existent James episode is that I think a lot of folks were who maybe are unfamiliar with Everett or who just heard like reimagining of Huck Finn have seen, you know, common criticisms that Huck Finn read through the lens of 2024 eyes carries the, you know, racial politics of the 19th century. And of course that feels dated. And of course Twain is expressing ideas even as an educated, you know, progressive writer of his time that we would not consider to be progressive now. There were people, I think, hoping that Everett was going to do like a skewering and critique of Huck Finn. And that's not the situation here. He's read the book dozens of times. He clearly has great affection for it. And he's building like this is in the tradition of Twain, but through the filter of Percival Everett and his lived experience and his perspective on culture and race and also like the project of American literature.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And a straightforward skewering satirizing of Huck Finn is too easy for Everett. Yeah, that's not easy. That's not interesting for him.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, Percival Everett did that before breakfast yesterday.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, it's like that was his like first bad idea. It's like, what if I just. I mean, not even under consideration. So yeah, I'm thrilled. I think this is like. This must have been one felt like when the. The fanboys got Parasite to win Best Picture. Right. Because it's like there's something there, but it's also sort of genre and exciting, but it's also, you know, recognizing this great master and this. You get it right. Got it right.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It feels good to get it right. Like I can be back on board for the National Book Awards for at least one more year. It's not the Rabbit Hutch.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, the Pulitzer is going to be. So the 2024 Pulitzer, they award that in the spring of 2039. So we're going to be waiting for that. I think it has every chance to pull out the double whammy there. It's got the Barnes and Noble. I think the PEN Award is very much in play. It tends to be a little bit more random. They got the Barnes Noble. I think the Amazon folks zagged a little bit with Boys of Riverside, which I just started listening to, which again, I'm just a little bit into it. It's a great story. Best book of the year.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I understand why they. Zach, for folks who are curious, I'm also about to start it and it's included in Spotify Premium.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, that's right.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The audiobook.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. Anything else about the National Book Award, Rebecca? Are we cool for now?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No, I'm just delighted. Get your flowers and laurels and trophy and prize money. Personal effort.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. If the books of the century awarding was gone today, I can think of a couple of spots that may have opened up in the last week, given the news, but that's a subject for a different. So it's a long and winding the road as these things go.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh, boy.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But. All right, so recommendations up next after the break. Okay, Rebecca, before we get into it, any themes emerge, anything you notice? We've got 12 pages of. We'll probably do a half hourish worth now and the next episode will be the remainder.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. And if we have stuff to clean up after the second recording, we may do some additional drop ins. Lots of historical fiction requests this time around. So I had to go do some research and consult contributors. That was the big one. I probably noticed that the most because it was the one that I was like, oh, gotta go do some research. A lot of historical fiction. Fewer requests for like the typical dad book kinds of things than we've gotten for holidays in the past. Couple folks that are really into the Icelandic Jolla Bokaflod.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I know that's been. That goes. That goes around every now and again. Good pronunciation there, by the way, I assume.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think that was decent pronunciation. I don't know if it was good.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Icelandic, famously the most difficult language to learn and the most. If you're. If you just make it up, it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Sounds really silly but also really fun to say. You'll know.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Book of. That's very nice. A lot of. I guess one that jumped out to me is specific mentions of the north woods by Daniel Mason, which we both loved.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Talked about. So I guess I'm not that surprised.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Because a lot of people take some credit for that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, but also I think I was talking Reese at one point I mentioned that it was like it sold very well. Like it was it Powell's number. It was way up there. And then in the bestselling books of.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The year, sleeper hit last year really was terrific.

[Jeff O'Neill]

See, I'm trying to think of what else. I'm having a harder time remembering titles. Like it took me. It took. It took me longer than it should have to come. With the title of the most recent Ann Patchett book, I was like, the lake country. The Orchard. The Orchard Lake. I had to look it up. Tom Lake.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Tom Lake.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. It was just so much more difficult for me to come up with titles.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I guess my reading spreadsheet that I like comb through for answers to these things and then yeah, we're solidly middle aged here, so just pulling things off the dome is a little slower than it used to be.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And I also noticing we're sort of past our first and second waves of things. We get out the clubs we go to most often when they're rough, but we have a couple of new ones and we could talk about that as we go here. As always, one of us will read and the other one will kick off with theirs. I will cede the honors to you to read the first request.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

First question is from Amber. And anytime we're referring to names, we do have affirmative consent to say the name on air. Amber is looking for literary misses Mysteries other than Tana French that she already loves and says, p S y'all are amazing. Which we won't read all the compliments, but we'll start with that one.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. So.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Speak of the devil.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, you know, take it. I took a couple of chances to do Everett backlist just because James is going to get a lot of. And I do think the backlist is going to feel. I don't know if intimidating is the right word, but there's a lot of it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

There's so much.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's not where you can go read the whole. It doesn't feel of a. I mean, it feels of a piece in a meta kind of a way. But anyway, Dr. No is his take on a Bond villain. So it's a mystery. Right. But it's like a thriller mystery. But of course, then it's also not. It's also not that it's very interesting. It's very short and extremely readable. That was actually his most recent book before James American Fiction, which is Racer is the name of the book.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Came out a while ago, so it kind of jumped the line in terms of cultural awareness. But Dr. Noah is really cool and very fun. Went way back into the well until I think the first literary mystery that I read like organically that I picked off the bush myself was Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham, I believe. And it's a very cool noir set in Brooklyn and the main character has Tourette's and it's interesting and dark and smart and compelling and made into extremely bad adaptation, unfortunately starring Edward Norton, who himself, I guess, is a handful to work with and didn't work. But the book itself remains extremely enjoyable and readable and turns out to have been the high water mark, I think, of Letham's career. I really liked Fortress of Solitude, which came out shortly thereafter, but really haven't had anything like this. So it's extremely readable in its own way. So Those are my two books. Dr. No by personal and Muddlerless Brooklyn by Jonathan.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

If somehow you're reading Tana French and you haven't gone to Liz Moore, do that. God of the woods and her previous book From I think 2018, God of.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The woods, we're gonna. I mean, we should just put on the board for this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Was also really great. I think you'd also really like Megan Abbott. Gritty, feminist infused thrillers, Great suspense. I've enjoyed everything that I've ever read by Megan Abbott, but Dare Me is a favorite. It's from 2013. It's about like shenanigans and misdeeds among a high school cheerleading squad. And then the Fever is also really wonderful, which is about like a moral panic that's unleashed in a community when they think a bunch of the girls are like coming down with the same illness. And maybe it's more of a like the Crucible hysteria situation, but there is something sinister happening there. I also just went looking cause I don't read a whole lot of mysteries and it's been a while since I read Tana French and Angie Kim especially Miracle Creek came up in Recommendations.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Happiness Falls, which is the one I read most recently, is extremely good. I think I recommended it last year when it came out. That's a good pick for that one there.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, my read. I'm looking for fiction for my mom. She's an avid reader and likes to read the popular books every year. Thinking something popular from the last two to three years that she hasn't read. She likes historical fiction, general fiction and family tales. She recently read James and loved it. A lot of people have already read James. Did you notice that in these as well?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

She thought the woman's predictable and didn't understand the hype. You know what, Maggie? Sounds like your mom has got her head screwed on right. She has got on the wizard of her shelf but hasn't read it yet. Other books she loved last two years are less than the Chemistry Girl Woman, Other Homegoing, hello Beautiful Still Life, Heaven Earth Grocery Store. Thank you. Everything you do.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, Mom's got good taste. Maggie, a discerning reader. I think maybe try some Claire Lombardo. The Most Fun We Ever had is her debut novel from a couple of years ago. I really loved that she had the Same As It Ever Was was out this year. That's also very good. But I would go with the Most Fun We Ever Had. Zadie Smith Backlist. Sounds like Mom's ready for some Zadie Smith. You could go to on Beauty, which is kind of a campus novel.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Start there, I think.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think that's a good entry point, especially if she has any like literary imposter syndrome about Zadie Smith, which I've noticed folks have, and I'm not quite sure why.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, that's a good point. Because I think it's. She seems a little aloof on the whole, for whatever reason. I don't know. I mean, she's famous, I guess.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it does seem like people think of her. I can't even try to think of an antecedent for like someone that I know, Susan Sontag or Didion or something like that. I think they're expecting that. And it's not.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's not that there's like a high browness to her. If you read an interview with her or you hear her on a podcast or something.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's very fashionable and stylish. It's.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes. But the books are very readable and enjoyable. So Zadie Smith backlist. But I would look at On Beauty and I think Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a good one for mom, who is into the kinds of fiction that you've listed and maybe wouldn't have picked it up browsing in a bookstore because the COVID you know, looks like a video game thing. And maybe it looks like it's for younger people, but it's, I think, an accessible, great read for folks of all ages.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, if she could so mine if she could hang with the James Metanis and she Also likes a commercial read. And I think Yellowface is interesting.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's a great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, it's. There's a lot. I don't think it does kind of the layers that James does, but it is also representation and performance and adulation and the politics, double standardness and the hollowness and also import and reality of that world of publishing. And I also just think the Celeste Ng backlist, you know, I'm not sure I would do the most recent one first because it's dystopian, but little fires everywhere. Everything I never told you as a. As a twofer on a paperback. You have a good time. She'll have a good time reading those. I think. Really like those.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Makes me feel like we're due for a new Celeste Ng. It's been a few years. I haven't heard anything. If anybody knows anything other.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I haven't heard anything either. All right, up to your read.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

All right. This is from Aaron. In desperate need of something to bring me joy as I watch the fall of democracy. Come sit by us. Aaron says every time I ask for something lighthearted, people recommend me romance, which I don't love. Although I think Linda Holmes is fine. But maybe it's because Simon Main. Erin. That's because maybe Linda Holmes is awesome.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

She has a new book coming out in the spring that I have been having to, like, hold myself back from reading the galley of already. Anyway, Aaron particularly likes stories with strong female relationships. Not particularly interested in the stuff that, like, common trigger warnings are associated with right now. Erin's a female mathematician, so really like smart or unconventional women who don't need to or don't care to be saved. Her favorite book of the year so far is Beauty Land, Whoop and love, Charlotte McConaughey and the Margot Duahy novels, which will make an appearance later in this episode. So she's not into women having mental breakdowns for the sake of it. I'm looking at you, Miranda July. I love it when they pander to us and looking for books written by women or diverse voices. Yeah. Because she's making screechy hissing goose noises at most men right now.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So I picked Chemistry by Weikey Wang. Things on my Mind. She has a new book coming out in a couple weeks, which I'm excited for Rental House. And I was thinking it was the mathematician that I think triggered this, like, thinking of scientists. So Chemistry was Wang's debut novel. Not a joke, actually. Debut novel. And it was really terrific.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's really wonderful.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It the. The main character is a Mathematician. And she is in the middle of her PhD program, I think. Did I look at this? I believe. Well, it's chemistry. Duh. It's on the title. What am I trying? I'm overthinking this. I've got math on the brain and things go sideways. And so it's like it has sort of the trajectory of like a coming of age novel. But this is someone in their mid-20s, so it's kind of more of a quarter life crisis. But the thing to recommend it beyond all that is there's wonderful moments in it. Very good writing, an interesting ending. And it's not a things fall apart and can't get put back together again story. It's a things fall apart and you reassess kind of a story. I thought it was terrific and I'm excited for the new one. And we love Jonah's. Okay. And I just think these are great. I think she's great. I think you'll have a great time with this one.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Chemistry is becoming like a quiet Rst eleny for us on these.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Has it? Yeah. I hadn't really noticed.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I think we go to it pretty frequently. That's a great recommendation here, Aaron. I think you should take a look at the Jami Attenberg. Like, you know, smart women who don't need or want to be saved is kind of her bailiwick. There's a variety of stories, families, independent women that you could choose from. I have never been. I've never felt like Jami Attenberg did me wrong. So just take a look at the synopses and pick the first one that hops out to you. Color Television by Danzy Senna. Just a smart, funny, sharp story this year about a black woman who's been writing her book forever while teaching writing classes, being stuck in academia, and thinks maybe she's going to get a big break writing for television. And then shenanigans occur. It's one of the most fun books that I read this year. I laughed a lot and it's just also really, really smart. And Ina Garten's memoir, Be Ready when the Luck Happens, low key. One of the best books of the year. I'm happy to see it showing up on a bunch of lists. It's there not just because it's popular. It is great. She is such a badass in ways that I had no idea about. Like, really carved her own path. She has created this really relatively unconventional setup with how her life works and her husband Jeffrey, and how they both pursue their careers. I would have found it to be very aspirational as a younger person.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Not now. Because you've got it all figured out.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Well, I mean I'm pretty far into the figuring at 40, but if Ina Garten had put her arms around my shoulders when I was 25 and been like, you don't need to do the things that you think you're on the path to do. Let me show you the way.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You know, who needed Ina Garten 20 years ago? Miranda July yes, yes.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Pick yourself up some Ina Garten.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Aaron let's see. I am looking for books for myself. A lot of. For yourselves. We'd love it. I like literary, historical, commercial, also a lot of these. What I'm specifically looking for books that are not too weird or experimental. A little weird is fine. And two, the main character is not an author or any kind of artist. In the book is about writing creative process. Well, let, let me break it to you, I'm sorry to say, Diane. It's all about art. No, I'm kidding. We will try to keep explicitly some more overtly some of my favorites in the past few years that hit these marks have been land where there's Here, here, One Moment, James by Personal Everett which I also have to break it to you, is about art. But anyway. Northwoods by Daniel Mason how not to Drown in a Glass of Water by.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Angie Cruz all right, Margo's got money trouble. Literary fun, funny. Main character is not an artist. Yes, it is just like it manages to do a bunch of things at once that I haven't seen in combination before of being about a racy subject matter. But the story is also kind of heartwarming and wholesome. It's just a great time. Burnham Wood by Eleanor Catton she's just not getting read enough, I don't think. It's a big sort of, I don't know, not an eco thriller. The characters are like conservation activists who go kind of gonzo and fall in with an Elon Musk type billionaire. But it's not in the vein of what I would consider to be climate fiction. It's more interested in the interworkings of these kind of activist groups and how those might or might not overlap with kind of cult like social situations. And then for something that is weird in content but not weird in form. House of Cotton by Monica Brashears, which we both really liked when it came out last year. A pretty stunning debut novel about a very weird situation. But the writing itself is pretty straightforward so you just have to be willing to hang for. It feels like a gonzo six Feet under to me, kind of in the Upside Down. But I think you would. I think based on what you've given us here, that you could read, that you've read, I think you could hang with that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. I tried to remember in mine and I used the power ranking we did for 94 to pull mine. In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Her second novel came out in 1994. As I just said, it's historical fiction told in the first and third picture person. It is about the life and deaths of the Mirabel sisters during the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. So this is in the 60s, maybe, maybe. Right. Maybe the late 50s into 60s. And they were collectively referred to as loves Mariposas, which means the butterflies, and became legendary figures. And it's great. Enveloping, moving, beautiful, elusive, elusive. It's really, really good. And I think Alvarez is rightly considered one of the greats of our century. I mean, her. Her debut novel is how the Garcia girls Lost their accents, which is also amazing by itself. But I think the most recommendable one, if you like historical literary fiction, is in the Time of Butterflies. I think there was a movie made out of it at some point. I cannot remember at all. Also, if you Name of Salome is also terrific 2000, based on the lives of Salome Urena and Camila Urena. But they're Dominican writers, so you don't want to read about writers. I would have thought about that one too. But in the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is my. Is my pick here.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. The holidays mean more travel, more shopping.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

More time online, and more personal info.

[Jeff O'Neill]

In places that could expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second. If your identity is stolen, their US Space restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed. Or your money back. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply. This year, Santa's bringing the power of Energizer into his workshop. Whoa.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The Energizer Bunny's got so much power. Wait, he's powered up all the toys? I think that means we're done for the year. I love this bunny.

[Jeff O'Neill]

He's the hardest working helper the North Pole has ever seen. And he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number one longest lasting AA battery. So this holiday season, stock up on Santa's and The elves favorite battery, Energizer Ultimate Lithium.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Let's see. This is from Noelle. Every year Noelle gets her kids and her husband and herself a book to open on Christmas Eve. Yeah, this is a great idea and a tough challenge for us. And every year when she's doing this buying books for her whole family, she's sticking to one theme. She says one year I did coffee table books. One year was poetry, one was novel or graphic novels. You get the idea. It's fun but not easy. She says do you have a wreck for a theme and or books that would fall into that category? Husband is a lit fix snob. Oldest daughter is our oldest kid is 20 and loves the secret history. There's a 19 year old who rediscovered her love of reading with the Hunger Games. There's a kid who's 16 and will read anything. And then the fourth is a very stubborn 13 year old boy who likes nature and has liked sci fi books in the past. Noel says I am tired and I read mostly literary fiction. Noel, my hat is off to you. This is a big piece of work to do every year.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So my theme is trees.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Are you here to troll me?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes I am. Next year, moss, mushrooms, roots, dirt. So I was like, I don't know what made me think of this. I think I was looking for, I don't know, something a little off kilter. So I was going from that. And so you get the Richard Powers the Overstory which is a novel of ideas. And Rebecca. Rebecca now is runs hot and cold with Richard Powers in this in the series of one text chain. Now it's become hot and cold with Richard Power. But Overstory is really terrific and it's a interlinked short story. It's connected by trees. God of the Woods, a murder mystery set Les. You got it. It's right there in the title. The Trees. The Trees by Percival Everett which is historical fiction sort of and only personal Everett can do the murders of Emmett Till. That sort of segues into horror. You can get yourself for your teenager and Lord of the Rings special edition. Plenty of trees there. Some of them talk in Lord of the Rings.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I love this expression of trees. Hence why not?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Why not? And then Barkskins by Annie Proulx which is a historical fiction about, you know, the lumber industry for, for someone who will read anything. I think there's a lot of good reading in here of different kinds. You could also do the meaning of trees. This is out there.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You know, pick up some John Irving. There's a lot of vlogging In New Hampshire, in John Irving.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Going on there. You could go fish. You could do a John Girac. Because like. Like next to rivers or often trees mostly get your line tangled up in trees.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

You could go north woods.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The North Woods. There's so trees are everywhere and we're just walking around. It's really.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The trees are everywhere and we're just walking around.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's really the trees world. Look how many of them there are.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

The Hania Yanagihara. The people in the trees.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The people in the trees. That's right, the people in the trees. Which is pretty. That would be good as well. Yeah. I think I've exhausted my ready made tree book references.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Lily King's euphoria, also about something from a bark of a particular tree. You have unleashed a beast. This is what we're doing now.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's really something there. So anyway, trees.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. And you're right. I am fighting with Richard Powers because I loved the new book. Except the ending made me mad. And that's all I can say about it. Okay. I thought this was hard, but fun. I think you could do something around nature and wonder. I glommed onto that. The youngest kid is the hardest to like, is stubborn and hard to shop for. And so I wanted like, let's solve that problem first. So you could do Richard Powers for your hubby. I think we were both thinking about the overstory, but playground would be excellent, I think. Peter Heller for your secret history fan. Good literary writing in a mystery.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Lots of trees and Peter Heller books too.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's true. Something survival y for the Hunger Games fan. I'm not sure which one, but Peter Heller also is kind of survival y. My other idea was to do books that bridge worlds and you could spin what world means for the genre or type of book that a person likes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Cheating books about the world. The world?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

No, that like spin different world. Like books that bridge worlds. So you could do sci fi. You could do something on different planets. You could do a dystopian city in.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The city or the subtle knife where you can cut.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Or like rich people problem. You could do entitlement, where you're bridging the world between like a middle class person and a rich person. There's a lot of ways to spin that, but I like the naturey ones, the tree ones better. There. Fun question.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's a fun question.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

All right.

[Jeff O'Neill]

My dad died in May. My mom died in September. Alison, I'm so sorry to hear this. And you got engaged in October. So to say that emotions have been high is A serious understatement. I haven't finished a single book since my dad died and I would like to get back to reading. I'm looking for something relatively short literary without being too demanding. No death. I love translated lit, short stories and Larry books with speculative elements. I really like a straight. I rarely like a straight contemporary novel. I also like a little bit of Remove from real life. There's no Such Thing as An Easy Job by Kiku Tatsumura. Would be the perfect book if I'd already read it. Now probably isn't the time for difficult history topics, but I'm open to historical literary fiction. Love the show so much and thanks for your help.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Oh boy, this is tough. Honestly, whatever you can pick up that makes you feel a little bit better in any moment. I'm looking at my selections here and and questioning all of them. Maybe you want the collected letters of E.B. white. Like that was where I went for something gentle in a hard moment. I really paid attention to Short here the Most by Jessica Anthony, which was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction this year. It's only 140 pages. Takes place on one afternoon in the 1950s when a housewife who has had it is just done and is gonna spend the day in the pool. And she just pulls a Bartleby. Like her husband keeps coming out like, honey, the kids need lunch. Honey, we're gonna go to church. Honey, what are you doing out here? And she' just like, I would prefer to stay in this pool. Greek Lessons by Han Kang is about two people sort of having an unlikely relationship. One of them is going to learn Greek in oh, I should have taken notes. A big Asian city and the teacher is slowly going blind. And they form this interesting relationship with each other. It's really quiet. It was a little challenging. So maybe not the first one. The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. And then maybe like a little more into the kind of moment of life that you're in. Wintering by Catherine May is about both literal winter, but also like spiritual and emotional winters that we go through where you are in a kind of hibernation, you're hunkered down, lots of change and transformation is happening. And how do we understand ourselves? Like, how do you care for yourself really and carry yourself through a moment of life like that? It might be helpful maybe, if it is, or it feels right, audio might be a really nice way to experience that. And then a book I picked up after one of these shows a few years ago based on a Jeff recommendation. It's not as short, but it'll always.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Seem to recommend this before I do. It's not fair. I recommend it to you and I guess you get to the document because it's more top line. I just forget about it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I don't. I think it's like the potency of having received a good recommendation makes me more likely to think of it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Not the first time my potency has gotten me into trouble. I really need to dial it down.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm just going to let that one stand. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows about a young woman in London who gets hired to teach a class at a community center that she thinks is just going to be like writing 101. But all of her students are older Punjabi women who want to write spicy stories and they want to talk about their meaning of sex in their lives. And it's just really funny and warm and does all the things that you want a book like this to do.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I got a couple. I don't know. A lot of people have said they've read Beauty Land, but I don't think we actually recommend it anywhere else. It just occurred to me my first pick was Greta, Invalved by Rebecca Riley, which we talked about on the show. She's a Maori author. It was a big hit in New Zealand, and it came out earlier this year. It's about this family in New Zealand, and they're kind of going through it, but not in a real, real dramatic way. No one's got stage four glastobloma of the base or whatever. You know, it's really something bad like that. And you're straight literary. The two characters are both queer and they're trying to figure things out, and it doesn't have much of a plot, honestly. I liked being with them. And listen, there's some lines in this that made me genuinely laugh out loud.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it's not saccharine, but it's also not bleak. And it. It's a dramedy, I think, with a little more on the amity than the drama part of that. But it's just a nice. It's a nice way to spend some time reading. It's not. It's not gentle, where it's going to put you to sleep, but it's also not demanding. But it. I don't know, it's just the right amount of sharpness, as they say in the Great British Baking Show.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I think it's probably as close to cozy as either of us really gets.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And then I'd say Beauty Land, too, because it is affirming on the whole, but it's also a little bit strange if you don't know it. The plot is a girl. It follows her through her. What young adulthood. Rebecca. How old is she, by the way?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, yeah. She's. I think, early 20s when it is.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And at some point in her childhood, she starts to get faxes from aliens saying that she. This sounds. Makes me sound like I need medicine when I describe the plot here, that she has somehow become the emissary from this other intelligence to report back on human life. And it both is and isn't a metaphor for how we all feel outside of time and how strange and beautiful life really is. Maybe that's one where we went back and did a book. I never haven't really given too much thought to the title of this book, actually, weirdly. Which is one of the things I used to do when I teach. I'd start there, but it is. It's warm, but it's also as Bertino is want to do, not puffy. It's not just calories. 2aM at the Cat's Pajama. You could read that, too.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I was just gonna say 2am at the Cat's Pajamas is a great recommendation for this also.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And I have no delusion that this will do anything for you, even if we do very well. But make your time with them pleasurable and affirming.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Those are good things.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Sucks, man.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Allison.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Jesus.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, and thank you for trusting us with that. Like, we really do try to do the best we can for a moment like this. Next question is from Colette looking for something for her husband. Fiction or nonfiction? For a sense of his taste. He's read and enjoyed everything by Eric Larson, SC Guin and David Grann. So we have a dad in the house here. He loves reading about scientific and engineering disasters. Favorite fiction Authors are Cormac McCarthy, Colson Whitehead and Michael Chabin. Colette, I have bad news for you, but you're going to need to point him to a Vanity Fair article about Cormac McCarthy this week or a Wikipedia page.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That article's so bad. I don't know. It's like you just have the information and anyway, that's.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And he's read everything that they've written. She says, I know this is a broad request, but she's exhausted the results she can find by searching books like these authors.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, I mean, I don't know if you know, because maybe you didn't know who wrote. Actually, it's not Chernobyl. It's Midnight in Chernobyl. That's Adam Higginbotham. And you might not have it top of mind that he has a new book out this year called Challenger. Challenger. Challengers. The Challengers. I can't remember. It's about the exploit the space shuttle explosion.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's Challenger. Challengers is the Zendaya situation.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's just called Challenger. I didn't know if it was the Challenger. I couldn't anyway as clearly I can't remember titles anymore. I started listening that in bits and pieces. It's everything you want from something like this. So if by some hooker by crook he is not connect you neither you ever connected the dots that Midnight Chernobyl's author has a new book out that's about a technological disaster that would probably be a one on my list. And because he also likes fiction and a little non fiction and science have a little fun with how to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. That might.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is the one you always think of before I do.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it is meta and fun and zany.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

So great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And if he likes that, then you might look to interior Chinatown the book or you know, do some other places. But it's the kind of book that makes you feel smart for getting it. There's a great line as good it gets where Nicholson says to Helen Hunt, the thing I like about liking you is no one else like no one else sees how great you are. And that makes me feel good about me to see how great you are. When you read a book like this and you feel like you get it and you're in on it it and someone's operating like a little ahead of you. But if you huff and puff, you can keep up. That's such a good feeling intellectually. And I think Charles, you is clearly smarter than me, but leaves enough breadcrumbs where I can follow him into the woods.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

As opposed to Percival Everett where if you think that you've picked it all up, you're wrong.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I just don't even want to enter the room. I'm just so afraid that I'm going to get intellectually pants.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Intellectually pantsed is a perfect turn of phrase.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, you gotta be careful out there, man.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Listen, Colette, you gotta get this man some Michael Lewis. Yeah, there's a Michael Lewis for like every flavor of interest. The one that he wrote about the early days of COVID might satisfy this desire towards like disasters or how things are mishandled. Like there should have been a adults in the room. But what happened. But every Michael Lewis is a good time and it just seems like that's right for your dad. Steven Johnson is solidly in the dad canon for I really loved where good ideas come from and how we got to now. How we got to now would be especially good for his interest in science and engineering. Then I think we can maybe try to expand Dad's horizons and pick up there's always this Year by Hanif Abdurraqib I am not going to get out of a recommendation episode without talking about Hanif Abdurraqib.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I didn't respond for it. Honestly, I didn't yet.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I didn't either. But I think this is like. It seems to me that the profile of this person as a reader is sort of a broadly interested person. He's probably familiar with basketball. If I am familiar enough with sports to follow along with Hanif Abdurraqib doing something that's mostly not about sports, but using sports as like the lens. I think just about anybody is. And it's a great read and I love to give people a book that like, maybe they think is not going to be in their wheelhouse, but that actually turns out to open up a whole new room of their reading house for them. And I just think Abdurraqib can be a good gateway drug.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I just thought of one more I have to squeeze in. It's How Big Things Get Done by Brent Flederberg F L Y V B J E R G and Dan Gardner. I believe the trans translation. I think I've talked about this before, but it's. It's supposed to be how to do big projects like mega projects like the Big Dig or nuclear reactors. And it is that. But to get there you have to talk about how things go wrong. And so each chapter has a horrible crap show of a. That scientific or engineering. So it's kind of great. It's a bit more in the. There's a version of this that's a Gladwell book that's a little more, I don't know, Poppy. This one is interesting. And no, that would be interesting, but this feels. It's supposed to be more of a how to. Like you actually learn something from this and you go take it out to your job where you've got to dig a giant ditch between here and there or whatever. But I found it super interesting as a reading experience. Like. Like the Sydney Opera House. Wow, did they hate that. And it cost a billion dollars. It was a huge mess. It's. It's really interesting so how, how big things get done is erect to pile on there too.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's great.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Is it my read? Now I'm lost.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It's my read.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay, go for it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah. Let's see. This one's unsigned. Looking for a short book under 300 pages from mom, who is a white Christian, traditional values boomer who is just starting to understand that everybody's thoughts and. And experiences differ from one another, would like to get mom a book that includes a lot of empathy, compassion and open minded values in a way that doesn't read as like overtly political. And they say it can be political in that the individual is political. Like we talked about with Robin, you.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Had the right pick here. It's what I would have done first. And again it's going to surprise no one to hear it. I don't know. I was going to ask for help on this, Rebecca, because my first thought was Educated by Tara Westover. Right. So this is someone who grows up in a super. I don't know, is evangelical even like, it gives evangelicals a bad name. Like almost a cult of a family. It's like fundamental, fundamentalist nutters on the side of a mountain. I think in Colorado. The, the details of escape into the prepper. Yeah. You know what's, you know what's up there? Woods, trees, lots of trees.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Put that on your trees.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Reading trees and Westover. This is her memoir of extricating herself from the oppressive small minded, pathological world of her father's household. And I think it, it certainly I, I'm thinking one of the reasons it was so popular is because people like your mom read it and liked it. Frankly, I think it was for what if it wasn't, if it wasn't the kind of thing that you, your mom here would like, it may upset her to some degree. It also I think has the message, like, I think there's a bit of a fight club problem here with you. If you read it the wrong way, it's like, well then just don't be the, don't be the bad version of this. Like, oh, that's just extreme or whatever. But it is the story of someone trying to make room for their own life in a world where it's impossible and the cost of that, but really it's about the cost to this family of being so suffocating and so insistent on one way of seeing the world. And Westover herself I think does a pretty good job of not being too mind in a jar about it, but also not being just. There's a world where she could just obliterate her father and her family. Yeah, but she doesn't do that either. Anyway, that's my. What do you think of that, Rebecca? Too much, too strong of a medicine or not?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Well, I don't know. I think that's a good one. I also thought about how to say Babylon by Sophia Sinclair for this, but I held off because of the notes here about like pretty simple language. And Sinclair's story is straightforward, but the writing is pretty poetic. And that's about being like the religious experience there of being in like kind of fundamentalist expressions of Rasta.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I don't know why Christian traditional values boomers may be able to port. Like we're doing the same thing as these people.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Right. Like it might be too far outside of like something that your mom is familiar with for her to be able to like really get into that story. But I would toss that out as a possibility. My white hot center of the question here is Gilead by Marilyn Robinson. A quiet novel in what we call the genre of old men waiting to die, written by a pastor who is in his late 70s, has had a late in life marriage and is writing letters near the end of his life to his young son because he knows that he's not going to see his son reach adulthood, doesn't know how much longer they have left. So it's infused with Christian traditional values, but in this really beautiful, expansive, open minded way which is kind of the hallmark of the way that Robinson approaches spirituality and infuses like it says something that we are the people that we are who are not like religious at all. And that Marilyn Robinson Robinson's books are among our shared very favorite things that we've read. The way that she's able to frame that, I think just a nice window into a different way that this kind of spiritual practice could look for your mom also probably similar ages and that end of life reflection stuff. Our Souls at Night by Kent Harrif. Just a lovely story, slightly unconventional, but really I think accessible. And then if you wanna throw mom a little flyer, I thought of the Woman Next Door by Yawande Amitoso, which I love to trot out on these episodes. It's about two women in Johannesburg, South Africa who are in their, I believe, 80s. One is black and one is white. They're in an upper class like ritzy neighborhood. They have been enemies and for reasons outside their control, they are thrown together and it's kind of a golden girls like where they get a little woke. But it does not it's not overtly political. It's not really overtly about race. It is about these two women from different backgrounds who find their way together. And you can only do that if you're willing to be open minded. So it. It shows rather than tells. It's not preachy at all and it's very affirming. So I think that might be a good one as well.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Sorry, I have to talk about Marilyn Robbins for a minute. There's more news about Scorsese adapting Home by Marilyn Robinson. It was in the news the other day. Like this is happening. I didn't know that there's a screenplay done. He co wrote the adaptated screenplay with Todd Field who wrote.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I did not know that part. What I'm fascinated that they've gone for Home, which is for folks who aren't familiar.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's the saddest. It's. I mean.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And it's the second one. It's not written in the epistolary like Gilead is. Like. I can see how if you were looking at the Robinson quadrilogy, Home might have looked like the lowest hanging fruit for accessibility and adaptation.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, I mean you could Scorsese, you could make this. It could be the wheel where the spokes of the other characters go around. But that I can't even trust the hope that this is going to exist. I kind of can't believe it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I'm going to have to fly to Portland so we can like sit next.

[Jeff O'Neill]

To each other hands and be like. Please be good.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yes, please be good. Yeah, exactly.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's Reverend Ames on screen. What's happening?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Let's clear out this week. The thing we are doing is going to see the Marilyn Robinson movie.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Very. I'm going to be a.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Who are the.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Michelle's going to have to pour me into. I'm going to be. She's going have to be like collect me and make me into a solid human after seeing this.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Like what is the designated driver? Except for you've been crying like an emotional designated driver. That's the image I having is Michelle drops us off at the theater and then has to come get us a few hours.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Be sure to hydrate.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Pockets are stuffed with Kleenex.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, she's gonna be a mess too. Like she's the one that invented spy ball arm smart bomb.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's true.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And her first born is named Ames. She's not gonna be any better condition.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's true. Yeah. So we'll bring Bob and Bob can be the emotional.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's like asking the tri delts to be your designated driver on a Saturday night. We can't do that. God, where are we? I'm so sorry. I'm looking around for myself. Not me. This is Barbara. I'm typically a hardcore litfic reader. Lauren Groff and Wiki Wang are auto buys one of us but do like the occasional rom com or romance favorites have recently been Red, White and Royal Blue and Nora goes off scrift post election. I'm needing to the escape and I'm hoping Rebecca. So this is more you than me has some solid backlist or frontless titles I can pass on to my husband so he can pass them under the tree to me as many you can come within time allowed. Please let me just get mine out because do it Story Life of AJ Fikri by Gabriel Zevin is now like it was before its time now. Right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like because this is and I think, correct me if I'm wrong, this one, I'm throwing it to you. I think it's better than your average. One of the more common commercial romances now am I right about this?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I agree. Yeah. And we didn't really talk about it as a romance when it came out. But.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But it is.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It is.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Do you know it's an hea? I guess you don't know now. Well, now you don't know going we're spoiling it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I guess that's why that's that. Yeah. They didn't market it as a romance because it is like a surprise that they.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Because now it totally would have. It would haven't. Well, seven's too famous now. It wouldn't look like.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

And we're past the statute of limitations on spoilers.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But I'm just saying if it wasn't written by her, it would be marketed like a lot of these other ones. But now that tomorrow and tomorrow is a thing I think it would have. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

It would be on a list. Grumpy Sunshine Romance is the trope that I think they would have slotted that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right. I just wanted to put that out there in the world before you get to it.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

That's a good pick. Let's see. I. I haven't read a ton of romance in the last couple of years. I think a Love Song for Ricky Wilde by Tia Williams was really fun and enjoyable about a woman in Brooklyn who meets this man that is just kind of magical. And maybe he's actually magical.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Hot Frosty. He's hot Frosty.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

He. I'm gonna have to watch Hot Frosty I'm here.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Please don't. Too many or don't tell me anything about it. That I know that that exists is a problem for me.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

I woke up the other morning to a text from our coworker Clint, who was like, this is a thing that exists.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm so happy for people, but I don't. I don't need to be. That's not for me, as they say.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Looking for a sign by Book Riot's own Susie Dumond is a wonderful sapphic romance set in New Orleans in which one of the women is. Is, like the main character is looking for her match. And she does this by creating herself a project where she's going to go on a date with a different person who has each sign of the zodiac. And so she's, you know, going like, this is my date with an Aries. This is my date with a Sagittarius. She sees an astrologer. She's got a queer dating app that lets you put your sign in there so she can filter when she's looking for a Scorpio. It's really sweet and funny. One of my favorite romances that I read this year. And then since we're talking specifically about the holidays, Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone is the first book in the Christmas Notch holiday series. Christmas Notch sounds much like, cozier than these books are. The gist here is that a porn producer moonlights making Hallmark holiday movies, putting.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The notch in Christmas Notch. Okay, Gotcha. Sure. On the belt.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I was just gonna let you make that joke.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well. Cause, you know, Rebecca, it's. You put it. No. When you put a notch in your belt, you know what that means, right?

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, I've heard. Okay, so this porn company, like the director, is moonlighting, making basically Hallmark holiday movies in this quaint little town in Vermont called Christmas Notch because it looks like Christmas year round. In the first one, it's a porn star who gets cast alongside a guy from a former boy band who has to do some, like, reputation rehab, he's gone bad. Or the, you know, the, like, tabloids have turned against him, and he needs to, like, convince people that he's cleaned up his act. So he gets cast as the leading man, sparks fly, and then they kind of run back the trope for the next few. The third one has just come out. I'm reading it now. These are on the spicy side, as you might guess, because of the industry that some of the characters work in. You're not going to wait 300 pages for the magic to start happening as it were. So depends on how spicy you like your romances. But they also are like just seasonal and fun. Usually I wait until I'm on the plane going to visit family for Christmas and like trying to dissociate and that's when I'm reading these. So those are my recommendations for you.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. Your read I believe. Oh you know what? I think let's do one more and.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Then we better break.

[Jeff O'Neill]

We got a break. We're gonna.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

This is the last one for this round. This is from Kate who's shopping for a 16 year old trans female who prefers realistic fiction. Not looking for any doorstops. The recipient was an avid reader when she was younger but now tends to spend time on video games thinking that something that moves quickly would be good. Not into graphic violence stories about addiction or gangs and something published within the last two years. I needed to consult our contributors and I have not gotten really good answers back from them. So I'm going to.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I got two. I think we're going to go. So we should talk about rationing some of these. But tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow the video games thing there is some graphic violence. So I don't like that. I don't love that. That was my first thought. There's a scene in which there's a shooting at a workplace. I guess I'll just to put it right on there. It's not the central story or it's not all about that but that is something that happens there. Neither of the two main characters. I think my better pick is actually not one that I've read but I really want to. It's called Ink Ink Book. Sister Scribe by Emma Tors, I believe. Sister Scribe. Excuse me, I'm. I'm transligrating. Transfigurating some of the content. So this is fantasy. Adult fantasy. It's magical half sisters that have to guard a library of magic books. And I thought I don't know that's not generally something I read. But then I. I started looking at it because it was a notable book of the year from the New York Times last year and I pay attention to that. That and I also sometimes in the mood for something like this and I'm looking for my friends and family. My brother really likes fantasy stories so I had this on my list. Here's what jumped out to me, the blurbs. So Amal El Mohtar reviewed it glowingly for the New York Times Book Review. She wrote, co wrote. This is how you win the time war. Lose the time war.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Pardon me yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Marlon James blurbed this. Kelly Link blurbed this. So this is literary fantasy that apparently reads like a house on fire. It's a little longer than you're looking for. It's 410 pages. But I'm guessing if you like it, you're not going to care. That's the thing about stories like this. If you're not trying to get through it to the end, it's supposed to be great. So the comps are ninth House, the Magicians, Practical magic. I think it might be the kind of thing that seduces you back into sinking into a book and liking something like this. That's my pitch here. So I'm going out on a bit of a limb, see if that sounds right for you. This is probably. I'm trying to compete with video games. Right. So something that's immersive, world building, plotty moves quickly. I don't know. And it's within the last two years. I guess that's the other thing. So that's my, that's my pick. I hope that's interesting. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Tors and with that and that's we end part one. Bookriot.com listen you will see a list of the books we have mentioned. You can also go check them out or buy them thriftbooks.com on our site over there. Thriftbooks.com bookriotpodcast all of these are available. I think later up in the second part of the show someone actually mentions buying books from thriftbooks.com I'm going to use that in this episode. Well you see what I just did there two mentions of that in there.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Very well done.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Because this time of year you're not really looking to give a credit for an audible download. You're not looking to give someone ebook. You gotta unwrap the thing. That's, that's part of what makes it fun. If you're buying for yourself, you know you do you and that's great but Drift Books 19 million books to browse new used, out of print paperback have their own reading rewards program. Every purchase gets you close to redeeming that for a free book award. Also you only need to buy $15 worth of stuff. I think books in the US to qualify for free shipping. If you're buying anything we talk about here, that's front list at all you're going to hit that. That. No problemo. Thanks to them for sponsoring. Thank you for listening. Go to bookride.com Listen podcastookride.com As always, if you end up buying this for yourself or otherwise. And you give and you. And you can tell us how it went. That's great. And we'd. Honestly.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Yeah, we love to hear.

[Jeff O'Neill]

We don't need to hear all sunshine. If it. If it went over like a lead balloon. That's data for us. We'll put that into Jeff GPT and he'll. He'll hallucinate about it later. All right, Rebecca, talk to you soon.

[Rebecca Schinsky]

Happy holidays, y'all.