How Reading Became Sexy (but We're Doing Less of It)

Summary

Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode Summary: “How Reading Became Sexy (but We're Doing Less of It)”

Released: June 29, 2026
Hosts: Vanessa Villas (Managing Editor) & Sharifa (Executive Director of Content)

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Main Theme

This episode explores how reading has become a social and even “sexy” trend—especially as a marker for dating profiles and internet coolness—even as overall book consumption trends downward. Hosts Vanessa and Sharifa also cover hotly anticipated book releases, the current state of adaptations, and recent book world controversies. Through it all, they address the paradox of reading’s rising “status” but declining practice, drawing from recent coverage in mainstream and bookish media.
Tone: Warm, playful, self-aware, with a bookish media insider feel.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. New Book Announcements (05:39–09:41)

• Percival Everett’s Next Novel
  • Title: Serious Music
    • Release Date: March 2, 2027 (Doubleday Books)
    • Sweeping, darkly comic journey about a Black musician from Oberlin in 1918 through jazz clubs, the Somme, and the White House.
    • Hosts express immense excitement, citing Everett’s satirical voice and social commentary.
  • Sharifa [07:13]:
    “When Percival Everett writes dark satire... I love Everett’s sense of humor. That book [Erasure] was a takedown of the publishing industry, which I find always fun. I can’t wait to find out what he’s throwing shade at in this one…”

2. Adaptation Corner (09:41–23:21)

• Trailers Discussed:
  • Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro, film adaptation, directed by Taika Waititi)
    • Sharifa: Surprised by adaptation due to the book’s “cerebral, philosophical” nature but excited for Waititi’s potentially uplifting vision.
    • Vanessa: Notes tonal difference between book and trailer; excited by Jenna Ortega’s casting.
    • Sharifa [12:16]:
      "Who to take on a story so philosophical and thoughtful and internal, but Waititi, who can make a sweeping adventure out of just about anything?”
  • Sense and Sensibility (new adaptation)
    • Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood.
    • Both hosts deeply fond of story’s focus on women’s lives and relationships.
    • Sharifa [17:51]: “It’s a house full of women stories... Jane Austen—refreshing and wonderful. I feel so weirdly upset about them coming out with another adaptation… but I watched this trailer and... it was so gorgeous.”
• Announcement:
  • The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow picked up by Netflix.
    • Female knight protagonist, time loop structure, Arthurian vibes.
    • Noted for buzzy, timely fantasy work, with Harrow attached as executive producer.

3. Big Fall Book Lists (24:53–30:00)

• Barnes & Noble’s Fall 2026 Picks:
  • Fiction highlights: Colson Whitehead (Cool Machine), Emily St. John Mandel, Bonnie Garmus, Lucy Foley, RF Kuang, Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen Graham Jones, Min Jin Lee, Sarah J. Maas.
  • Nonfiction: Celebrity memoirs (Kyle MacLachlan, Ke Huy Quan, Sylvester Stallone, Cher), topical works (Adam Grant, Nathaniel Philbrick, Malcolm Gladwell).
  • Hosts observe less diversity in headline picks, but more in genre breakdowns.
• Vanessa [26:50]:
  “Cry time with Emily St. John Mandel and Maggie O’Farrell coming out this year... That, like, ugh, sit and put your hand on your chest for a second.”
• Sharifa [29:49]: “A lot more celebrity memoir than I anticipated, for sure... but maybe just a feature of what Barnes & Noble highlights and knows their audience loves.”

4. The Paradox: “Reading is Sexy, but We’re Doing Less of It” (30:55–43:14)

• Guardian “Booksmaxing” Article:
  • Playful take on the rise of reading as a dating-app virtue signal, especially on Tinder.
  • Hosts share real-life red-flag anecdotes from dating profiles (“Infinite Jest”, “Bukowski”).
  • Vanessa [32:02]:
    “Books are a thing that matter just enough to people for them to have on a dating app… but are they actually reading? It depends on the person.”
• CBS Poll on Declining Reading Rates:
  • One-third of Americans say they’re reading fewer books.
  • Reasons: Time constraints, distractions, shorter attention spans (social media, “touching grass”).
  • BookToks and bookish social media may not equal actual reading time.
  • Sharifa [35:41]:
    “Without even seeing the statistics, I would have guessed a lot of it had to do with social media… the attention economy… so, of course, social media would be one thing.”
  • Both hosts resist alarmist takes; advocate for “read what you want, when you want” without guilt.
  • Vanessa recalls Rebecca’s earlier Book Riot piece:
    “Hey, it’s okay if you don’t read more. We do really only have this one precious life…”

Thriftbooks “Billion Page Challenge”

• Americans now collectively reading less—dropped from 5 billion pages/year to 2 billion.
• Challenge: Read just 3 more pages a day to make a difference. Encourages slow, steady reading.

5. AI Controversy in Prize-Winning Fiction (43:16–48:57)

• Commonwealth Prize short story AI allegations:
  • Investigation found no evidence of AI use; authors had to provide drafts and notes.
  • Despite being cleared, reputational “funk” remains for accused authors.
  • Sharifa and Vanessa discuss the lasting messiness and skepticism surrounding AI in creative writing.
  • Sharifa [46:49]:
    “I don’t know how you get the sort of funk of AI allegations off of you as an author, which is really sad… The damage has been done.”

6. Book Riot Audience Survey Results (49:11–51:45)

• Findings:
  • Book Riot’s audience reads a lot (naturally!).
  • Literary fiction and nonfiction are neck-and-neck as most-read genres.
  • Physical books remain the format of choice—even as hosts admit digital is more practical for travel/life.
• Vanessa [50:35]:
  “Those things included a hair dryer I could not use and books.” (re: once carrying seven hardcovers to Europe)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Book “Virtue Signaling” in Dating Apps:

  • Vanessa [34:24]: “She said, you know, he has, like, a bunch of books on, like, his favorites, but I don’t know. And her friend said, what are they? And all. The girl only got to the first book, which was Infinite Jest, and she was like, red flag.”
  • Sharifa [34:31]: “My red flag was Charles Bukowski. It was.”

• On Reading Guilt & Permission:

  • Vanessa [37:12]: “If that truly makes you happy, great... we do really only have this one precious life... you kind of have to decide what you're going to do with that time... and that is fine.”
  • Sharifa [40:00]:
    “The thing that keeps coming up in my mind… it is a real privilege to be able to have time to sit and read a book… may be when we do have downtime, it is more of a, like, I just want to shut off my brain.”

• On Adaptation Fatigue & Excitement:

  • Sharifa [19:12]: “It felt like they were real sisters… the chemistry between the actors… it was palpable in the trailer. And that did it for me.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamps | |---------|------------| | Book Announcements (Percival Everett, etc.) | 05:39–09:41 | | Adaptation Corner (Klara and the Sun, Sense and Sensibility, The Everlasting) | 09:41–23:21 | | Fall Book Lists (B&N Picks) | 24:53–30:00 | | Booksmaxing, Dating Discourse & Reading Stats | 30:55–43:14 | | AI in Commonwealth Prize | 43:16–48:57 | | Book Riot Audience Survey | 49:11–51:45 | | Frontlist Foyer (Current Reads & Endorsements) | 53:35–57:29 |

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Frontlist Foyer: Book Recommendations (53:35–57:29)

• Sharifa:
  • The Children by Melissa Albert – Crossover adult debut, “dark, creepy, ominous fairy tale vibes.”
  • Kin by Tayari Jones – “As good as everybody’s been saying… Jones is such an amazing storyteller.”
• Vanessa:
  • The Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick – “What if Guy Ritchie directed a movie about a queer 007?”
  • Munyeka by Cynthia Gomez – Gothic horror, working-class witch in 1960s Oakland, “creepy doll factor,” deeply atmospheric.

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Final Thoughts & Closing

• “Read more and spend less at Thriftbooks.com!” (ad)
• Book Riot Podcast will return to the regular Jeff and Rebecca rotation next week.
• Listeners encouraged to send feedback, share thoughts, and look for future content analyzing audience survey trends.

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For Book Riot listeners old and new: This episode embodies the delightful tension of reading’s ascendant coolness and its practical decline—while remaining a heartfelt celebration of books, stories, and nerdy passions of all kinds.

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Contact: [e-mail]
Show Notes: bookriot.com/listen
Patreon: patreon.com/bookriotpodcast

Transcript

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[Vanessa Villas]

This is the Book Riot podcast. I am not Jeff and I am not Rebecca. I am Vanessa Villas, Managing Editor who you all prob last week. I am in the kind of driver's seat while Rebecca and Jeff are out traveling. Combination of work and fun stuff. But I didn't mind that at all because a I get to talk to you lovely people and I get to podcast with someone I don't get to podcast with very often. That's Sharifa, our Executive Director of content. Hello Sharifa.

[Sharifa]

Hello, I'm so excited to be here and with you. Especially because we do like to gab.

[Vanessa Villas]

We do. It's been a bit since we talked entirely too much on the sff. Yeah, pour one out for that podcast. We almost always went over our allotted time, which we'll probably do today. But that's okay.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, we'll see what happens.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yeah. Well, thanks for joining. Today we have another kind of, I was gonna say light ish news week in that there's not like a ton of big breaking news, much like was the case last week. But we do have some exciting new book announcements. We have some big kind of book lists for the fall. We have a fun adaptation corner with a few trailers and some new kind of adaptation news and a couple just a sprinkling of other articles and bits that we will get. So we'll dive further into all of that. But first, let's hear from our sponsor.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

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[Vanessa Villas]

Okay, Sharifah, what do you wanna start with today? Maybe the new book announcement would be kind of fun.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, let's do that. Because this is an author I love,

[Vanessa Villas]

so I figured you would be so we have a cover reveal and an announcement for the new Drum Roll. Percival Everett. And I love this cover. As you all probably know, James Everett, I just renamed him Percival Ever.

[Sharifa]

He's so prolific.

[Vanessa Villas]

It is. Yeah, he's the Pulitzer Prize winning author of James, which is a book that I've been meaning to read forever and I'm finally going to get to I think in the next few months, which was really, really interesting coming off of having listened to the zero to well read episode about it remix of Huckleberry Finn. And now we have his new book which is coming out on March 2, 2027 from Doubleday Books. And this book is called Serious Music. And the premise for this, I'm like, if can we are the arcs out there? Because I would love to read this immediately. Right? It's a thrilling, darkly comic journey of a black musician. It starts in 1918, where a guy named Arthur Champion is one of the kind of handful of black students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music when he, as it says, runs afoul of a vindictive professor and finds himself enlisted in the United States Army. And then we get this big sweeping voyage across decades that takes us from the Somme to the jazz clubs of Harlem, Wooler Wilson's White House. Like they're all the bells ringing. I imagine you're excited for this too.

[Sharifa]

I cannot wait, because I think Percival Everett is going to become for me, one of those authors whose entire catalog I read because now I've read Erasure. And James was amazing. And I don't know how I didn't know this book was coming. I knew that there was, like, a reprint of an older Percival Everett book out this year that he had co authored with a person whose name I forget. I apologize, but I somehow miss the news that this was coming out. Maybe it was under lock and key, but I was so, like, I was jumping off my seat. Especially because when Percival Everett writes, dark satire like Erasure was so amazing, because I love Everett's sense of humor. And, you know, that book was a takedown of the publishing industry, which I find always fun. Like, I can't wait to find out what he's going to be throwing shade at in this one, because I know

[Vanessa Villas]

you will, of course. And books about music are just always kind of a hook for me. And ones that center music in the context of everything that was happening at the time are just so, so deeply appealing. And again, in Everett's hands. First of all, Everett is a professor at usc, which is my alma mater. And I don't know how long he's been teaching there, but he is going in the list. I think Deborah Harkness also teaches there. That I'm like, I wish I had come to my senses about the fact that I didn't need to be a business major sooner. I started pre med again. It was a journey. I end up doing the good immigrant kids journey. And it's fine. It has served me well. I don't have any regrets overall. But learning how many of these greats are, like, still at the institution. Like, why, I could have gotten embarrassed in one of their classes, I'm sure. But anyway, normally I would say boo

[Sharifa]

Trojans in this instance, but I can't about personal effort.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

So, yes, mark your calendars. This one again is coming in March of 2027, which is both far away and not very. So you can go check out the link to that. You can see the beautiful cover designed by Emily Mahan, which I believe is how you pronounce her name. But yeah, March. March gives us adieu, Percival Everett. So now maybe we do a little bit of adaptation corner just to kind of.

[Sharifa]

I was hoping you'd say that. Yes.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Great.

[Vanessa Villas]

Wonderful. So I've got. We have two trailers and a cool announcement first trailer. And we'll talk about these individually. But the first one is the official trailer for Klara and the sun, which is the adaptation of the Kazuo Ishiguro book. We have sense and Sensibility, which I probably don't have to tell you is by Jane Austen, but, hey, maybe you're new. So those are the topics. Let's start with the two trailers. I have very much read and watched Sense and Sensibility, Clara and the Sun, I have not read. I only recently read Kazuo Shigero for the first time. As I talked about last week when we got the news about his forthcoming book, talk about 2027. Already loaded. Yes, but have you read Clara and the Sun? And if you have, have you watched the trailer?

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

I.

[Sharifa]

Yes to both. Yes to both. And I have so many thoughts, because one would never have imagined, like, it didn't even cross my mind when I was. When I read Klara and the sun, that this book would get an adaptation because it just seems so. Like, it is so cerebral. It is so, you know, as Ishiguro is philosophical, but knowing that Taika Waititi is attached now, I'm like, oh, well, this makes all the sense in the world, because who to take on a story so, you know, philosophical and thoughtful and internal, but Waititi, who can make a sweeping adventure out of just about anything. So I didn't know what to expect with this trailer. I didn't know what to expect about how the book would be translated to film. And of course, I don't know all of it. I know what's in the trailer, and that's it. But the trailer was so good. It was like it captured something different for me than I felt with the book because the book was so quiet. And the trailer for the adaptation is so, like, there's something very uplifting about all of it. The music, the cinematography. And I'm really excited about it. Not because I'm like, I want it to be, you know, a literal translation of what I read in the book, but I want to see this version of it through YTT's eyes because I know it's gonna be good.

[Vanessa Villas]

Oh, I love that insight. So I've never read this, but again, I did read Never Let Me Go. And so I actually asked Rebecca who, you know, who could not be here. But I was like, hey, what are your thoughts on this? Because for me, tonally and obviously a writer can write differently from book to book, but, like, tonally, having just. Just very recently read Never Let Me Go was like, yeah, is this the tone that Clara and the sun has? Because the trailer is, like I said, so decidedly kind of uplifting in vibes and almost a little bit, you know, I don't know, like, yeah, fun which it sounds funny to say that that's a bad thing, because it's not. But Rebecca kind of came at it from like a, Ooh, I don't know. I have questions because even, you know, for her, it's almost the converse where she's like, I don't know if Taika is like the one I would have picked to do this story because it is like a tonally such a different book from, like the vibe we're getting in the trailer. As someone who's never read the book, I thought the trailer looked really interesting. And I would totally watch this because I love me some Jenna Ortega. Like, her, her face, I feel like is just meant for just like this always looks wide eyed and like, huh. At least if we had show titles, that would be it. But we don't. Why not? And huh. So I think a lot of people are approaching it with trepidation because again, that tonal kind of gap is there. As somebody who didn't read it, like, if I just hadn't known anything about it, I would think this looked really interesting. And it does. My side commentary is that whatever is going on with oh my gosh. But I just forget her name. The who else is in it? So it's Jenna Ortega and oh my gosh, why can I not remember her name right now?

[Sharifa]

Amy Adams. Yes.

[Vanessa Villas]

And also, oh my gosh, from why is this happening to me right now? No, it is the woman from the Peacock show that I really like. Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna look this up while I'm talking. I need you to go look at the trailer while I vamp in real time. But it the, I guess because I also haven't read this book. I'm not sure what's happening, but I was like, what? Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Latasha Leone.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Oh, my goodness.

[Sharifa]

I can't believe that that name didn't come to me.

[Vanessa Villas]

I know her so well. I love her work. I, I Anyway, but the, the styling of her in the show, I was like, what is this Hunger Games capital chic they've got going on? And, or have you seen Weapons?

[Sharifa]

No, I haven't.

[Vanessa Villas]

There's a character in there, if you've seen it. I don't want to, like, spoil stuff, but, like, for those of you out there who've seen weapons and, or whenever you see weapons, there's a character at the end that you're going to go, oh. And that's all I can see when I see this character's weird orange Arthur hair. So anyway, Yay. But that's just a sidebar that I had to talk about here.

[Sharifa]

Maybe she cut her hair off in real life because her hair is magnificent.

[Vanessa Villas]

What is going on?

[Sharifa]

The hair in general in this, in so many trailers today is like some. It's its own topic.

[Vanessa Villas]

I'm watching House of the Dragon right now. Yes, yes. Hair is an interesting time. The wigs, which is related. It's a book podcast. But anyway. Yeah, those lace fronts, especially in the first season. Some of the. Anyhow, we're gonna move on. So, yes, very interested to see what everybody's feelings are about this. If you've got feelings about it, of course, email us over@podcast podcastride.com yeah. Anywho, second trailer of the day, we have the new Sense and Sensibility trailer, which I have a lot of love for. The. Gosh, when did that other adaptation come out? The 90s, obviously. But I don't remember the exact year, but the one with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Love that adaptation. So I was kind of going into this a little grumpy, which is silly because I just like adaptations. But, oh, my gosh, this one does look really, really lovely. It's starring Daisy Edgar Jones. And who is. I officially know I'm of a certain age because she falls into the category of actors whose names I recognize, but if you actually asked me to pick them out from a lineup, I couldn't. She's a very lovely young woman who just also kind of blends into so many projects for me. But her performance here as Eleanor Dashwood looks. Eleanor. Yes.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

I don't know.

[Vanessa Villas]

It looks very. Exactly the kind of sweeping, you know, strings playing in the background, big feelings on a Moore kind of thing. Yeah. I'm so incredibly excited for this. Are you a Sense and Sensibility person?

[Sharifa]

I'm a huge Sense and Sensibility fan, I think, once I read. Cause, of course, like so many of us, I had my Jane Austen discovery era, and it started with Pride and Prejudice and the book and BBC miniseries, and I was like, no book can be better than this. And even in Jane Austen, Jane Austen's catalog. But then I read Sense and Sensibility, and I don't know what it is about that story in particular, but went ahead of it. Raced ahead of Pride and Prejudice for me when I read it. Okay. I'm not alone.

[Vanessa Villas]

I think that's kind of sacrilege, maybe to a lot of listeners. Pride and Prejudice, of course, I love it. Is always gonna have, like, its own place, and I get that. But I also. And I Also read them a little later. Like, I did read them in high school, but they didn't grab me right away. It took a few years. And then when I actually read Sense and Sensibility, that's the one that just took me. And I don't exactly know why, but I don't know. Anytime there's a Sounds so rugged Dead dad leaves people in the lurch when they have to figure out what's going on. I'm like, yeah, like the father in the. In, you know, Little Princess wasn't dead. But, you know, for most of it, it felt like he was like. I was really drawn to these kinds of stories. I don't know why, actually.

[Sharifa]

That makes a lot of sense. It's like a house full of women stories. And maybe I could absolutely see that. That is why I loved it, because that was the thing about Jane Austen. It was like you were reading this classic, but it wasn't just, like, everything through the male gaze. And this is like, moms, sisters, not everybody. Like, there are frustrating characters among these groups of women, but it's just refreshing and wonderful. And Austin has such a great way of telling those stories. And so I also had side eye because I loved Emma Thompson's adaptation. And I really have been on the struggle with newer adaptations of Austen's work. Like, I wasn't a painter. Big fan of the newer Pride and Prejudice, which I know a lot with Keira Knightley. Kira. Yeah, I know. Everybody loved. And I. I just had a fee. I was like, this is. It's gonna be the same with this one. And I. I feel so weirdly upset about them coming out with another adaptation. And then I watched this trailer, and I was like. And, yeah, the sweeping violins, like, they kill me every time.

[Vanessa Villas]

So maybe I'm so easily manipulatable by a string.

[Sharifa]

Yes, yes, 100%. But still, it was, like, so gorgeous. And the acting felt like. It felt like they were real sisters in this blip of the moment of us actually seeing this movie. But I just loved the chemistry between the actors that you could feel. It was palpable in the trailer. And that did it for me. So.

[Vanessa Villas]

Me too. Super excited. October 16, I think, is when that one drops.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

If I.

[Vanessa Villas]

Because I remember being like, it's my birthday month, so anything.

[Sharifa]

Oh, yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

Happy birthday.

[Sharifa]

Sense and Sensibility.

[Vanessa Villas]

I'm getting practical magic this year, and Sense and Sensibility, it's coming here.

[Sharifa]

I know.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

Wow.

[Vanessa Villas]

And a new Alice Hoffman book. So really it's all.

[Sharifa]

Oh, right, right.

[Vanessa Villas]

Very, very excited.

[Sharifa]

What a year.

[Vanessa Villas]

Well, speaking of other cool adaptations. This is a book that has been high on my list that I started but could not finish due to a, like, travel emergency or something last year. The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow. It does. Is officially getting an adaptation. This is one that Netflix won the rights to after apparently a little bit of contention, because this is a pretty kind of buzzy book. Do you know anything about this one?

[Sharifa]

I have not read it. And so when I was looking at this story was kind of my first. I. Every time something releases from Alix Harrow, it's all over the place because that's one of the buzzy authors of the time, and she's great. And. And so I knew about it and I knew the COVID as I do, because I'm very visually inclined, but I didn't know anything about the story. But the idea that, like, a series about a female knight and it's a time loop situation is very intriguing to me. So I'm really curious about it.

[Vanessa Villas]

I was gonna say my first Alex Harrow was the. Oh, my gosh, 10,000 doors of January, I think is what it's called.

[Sharifa]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

Which is also sort of. Sort of tide loopy. It's more about, like, liminal. But that kind of concept in Alex Harrow's hands is one that I'm already very interested in.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

And then.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yeah, the fact that there's something a little bit Arthuriana about the way the book is, like, structured because it's about this woman knight who has, like, kind of gone down in legend. She was apparently, if I remember correctly, like, an orphaned girl who then became a knight, and she ended up dying for her queen, and then has kind of gone on to become this huge, you know, just legend in, like, children's songs and books and all kinds of things. And then in the now we get a historian who's very much not famous, kind of a quote unquote, nobody, a struggling scholar. And there's a time loop that, like, ties both those stories together. So this is something that I think is really interesting and that to be adapted, I imagine, will be really, really cool. So I am very excited. I don't think we have much more news beyond the fact that the person attached to write the project is Daphne Ferraro, who has written on Amazon's Maxton hall, which is a series that has been served to me on my landing page a lot. I think it's a Ger series originally. Oh, so. And apparently Beloved. I've never seen it, but. So that's. That's all we know as far as the people. But I will be very interested to see who else gets attached to that project because. And is this the first Alex Harrow adaptation that we're.

[Sharifa]

I think it is, yeah. It's surprising because everybody, as the article mentions, has been looking for the next fantasy franchise and it feels like a natural those her books in general feel

[Vanessa Villas]

like future witches, especially with the like tie in to suffragettes and then Starling. Yeah, it's just so many.

[Sharifa]

Yeah. It's always of the moment. It's always beloved. So I think this is gonna do really well. And I also really enjoy seeing that the author is attached to a show, an adaptation and Alex Harrow is, I think, executive producer. I think so on this one. So that's, that's really. That speaks well to me of how this will go.

[Vanessa Villas]

Oh, I can't wait for that one. So, yeah, we will all of course update if we get some more dates and people. But yeah, look, look forward to that. We'll have a link to what we do know in the show.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Notes.

[Vanessa Villas]

Hey, I just Venmo'd you for rent.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Nice. Now I can instantly spend it whether I'm checking out online with Venmo or using a Venmo debit card.

[Sharifa]

Say more.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

More. Exactly. Because the more you do with Venmo, the more you get like earning up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on a bundle of brands.

[Vanessa Villas]

So order more pizza.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

The meth demands it.

[Vanessa Villas]

Get the Venmo debit card.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

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[Vanessa Villas]

Okay, what should we talk about next? Maybe. Maybe this big old fiction. Or actually just. There's two lists, but we have some really big fall books coming, so. So many. So we got more lists than I could possibly link to here. Because really, it's like lists nested in lists, like a Maritryshka. But we have Barnes and Noble's biggest books of the fall. And the two big lists that I pulled out were the fiction and nonfiction lists. But again, if you click on those, which we'll have in the show notes, you can go on a rabbit hole that is segmented by genre and I think age. Anywho, but this list is a biggie. There's. You could kind of, if you tried, if I just said, hey, pick some really big consequential authors of the time and see if they've got a book coming out in the fall. And you might be able to guess a few of them at least. What were some standouts for you?

[Sharifa]

I mean, of course, Colson Whitehead, which is listed very first on the fiction list. Like, anytime Colson Whitehead has a new novel out, you know it's gonna be a big hit. Everybody's gonna be picking it up and reading it. So Cool Machine will be out in the fall from Colson Whitehead, and it's part of the Harlem trilogy. It's the final installment. So, you know, it's part of a series. But I don't think that even matters. I feel like now people will just end up picking up the first book in the series and discovering it for the first time and reading this book. So I'm excited about that one. And Emily St. John Mandel, of course, because, oh, my gosh, just one of the best writers exit parties coming out. And it's another dystopian novel, which she's just so expert at doing. And I know it's gonna crush my heart and soul, but, you know, I'm always ready for that with Emily St John Mandela.

[Vanessa Villas]

When I saw her and Maggie O' Farrell had a book out this year, I was like, ooh, cry time. Which are both very different vibes and not so the same kind of cry, but it's just that, like, ugh, like, sit and, like, put your hand on your chest for a second. Yeah. So very, very exciting to see books from her. But we really do have just a list. I mean, I'm just gonna rattle off some of the authors. So we do have Colson Whitehead. We've got Emily St. John Mandel. We have Bonnie Garmas. Who is the author of the really, really big book that kind of came almost out of nowhere, it felt like the year it came out, which was Lessons. Lucy Foley, who has just been consistently writing in the mystery space, is now doing a Marple mystery, so that should be fun for people. Like, for you, we have RF Kuang, who has a new book called Taipei Story. Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen Graham Jones, Minjin Lee, John Green Hernandez, Sarah J. Moss. Like, again, they just. You kind of pick, like, who are some of the big names. And like, I mean, Sylvia Morena Garcia has a book out this year, but that. That's in the summer. Again, just lots of really, really fantastic fiction coming out this year. More books than we could technically get into here on the show. But we will link the big list and again, just be prepared to go list into list into list. The nonfiction list is not so much necessarily about as many big names, but it is, like, really big topics. We've got memoirs from folks like Kyle MacLachlan and Ki Hui Kwan, who. He just seems like a lovely person, and I would really much love to read how he'd kind of given up on act.

[Sharifa]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

And, like, decided to get on or was. Was put in everything everywhere all at once. Col McLachlan is just a really interesting figure. I've heard him on some interviews recently that, like, oh, I think I would like to read your memoir. We have a book on the making of Heated Rivalry by Jacob Tierney, which I think on that alone is gonna miss that. Oh, yeah, that's gonna. I think it's like, annotated scripts. But again, people would read, like, a shampoo bottle if it had Heated Rivalry on it right now. So we're gonna get that. We have a new book from Adam Grant. It's called Vibe. It's about the secrets of strong connections in the lonely world. A new one from Ben McIntyre, who is the. He's written a lot of, like, journalistic fiction. I think Spy and the Traitor was his last really big one. And now he's returned to the Cold War with this book called Redwood. It's about, apparently, the most extraordinary spy of the cold world. We have a memoir from Sylvester Stallone. There is a new Bob Woodward book that is not only. We do not have the COVID for it. The COVID is a secret. The book is called Secret. So something's happening there. We have deep dives into Freddie Mercury. There's a book about. Again, it's not so much that. Well, there are some big names, like Nathaniel Philbrick has a book coming out this year that's about the California Gold Rush. We've got cookbooks from Ina Garten and Yotamo Delengi. I don't know if I said that name correctly, but we have a new Malcolm Gladwell. So yeah, there are a combination, I'd say, of big names and big topics coming in. Nonfiction.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, a lot more celebrity memoir than I anticipated, for sure. But that might also just be a feature of, you know, what Barnes and Noble highlights and knows their audience loves.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yeah. Because again, if you actually go drill down into these lists, they are much bigger. Cause the one thing I did kind of notice from both lists without doing too much math is that they're not as diverse. So I would like love them to be. But if you click on the extended list, there is a little more diversity. I do love that Cher has a memoir called Cher Part two, just because when you're Cher there's going to be multiple parts. But anyhow, we will link both of those lists so you can go down that rabbit hole and just add more and more and more and more books to what I'm sure is a very manageably sized tbr. So now let's talk about kind of two pieces that go together, which is one about books faxing and one about how people aren't actually read. These are just funny and I think I might. Was it you that actually juxtaposed these in one of our recent newsletters? I don't know if it was you. If it was someone else. It might have been someone else.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

I don't think so.

[Vanessa Villas]

Why do I.

[Sharifa]

Why was this.

[Vanessa Villas]

No, it might have been someone else in our Today in Books newsletter, which is a roundup of, you know, like bookish news. But so I am trying to get my article to load because it decided to go away. But there is a piece in the Guardian that's essentially written a little bit like a dating like profile that is all about something called books maxing. Which anytime I see the word maxing on anything I my eye twitches a tiny bit just because I mean as it is in the food space, it's like first it was protein maxing, now it's like fiber maxing. And then in the look spaces you get into that creepy corner of the Internet, the clavicular looks maxing of it all. So I definitely read this as a rage bait click. But it's called Books Maxing How Reading Became Sexy. And again, it is a piece by the Guardian that like according to Tinder, reading is having a moment, which is just the funniest sentence I've read in a long time. Like, guys, reading thing.

[Sharifa]

Did you know it was never having a moment before.

[Vanessa Villas]

The piece does kind of dig into that. It's like, again, it's written almost like a conversation that goes back and forth with a bunch of, like, kind of statements and then rebuttals of like, well,

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

what do you mean?

[Vanessa Villas]

Reading's big. It's been big.

[Sharifa]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

But like, now people care. Like, okay, do they care or are they on book talk? Well, book talk does increase reading. It's like, well, does it? And it's just a kind of back and forth that really is. It's a little bit tongue in cheek, which is great. But I also can agree just from casual conversations with people that I know, especially, like the younger folks in my life who are out there on the dating apps that like book. That books and reading are a thing, that if nothing else, is a virtue signal for people not to say that people aren't reading. Obviously, you and I are talking on a books podcast on a book media company, but the piece essentially gets to the second part of what I wanted to talk about today, which is that there is actually statistics to say that people are reading less. And we'll talk about that in a second with the CBS article to the degree, but the piece itself is funny and that you should kind of read just to go through and have a little bit of a laugh. Because, yeah, books are a thing that matter just enough to people for them to have on, like a dating app and be able to, you know, signal to people like, I am a reader. Are they actually reading? It depends on the person it sounds like.

[Sharifa]

And I will say that I am surprised that it's more of a Tinder thing, because there was even in our time, I think, at least from when I remember being on the dating apps. Like, there were certain dating apps where you anticipated seeing somebody's book list and there were certain apps where you were not. And I think you mean Tinder is

[Vanessa Villas]

not the bastion of literacy. What?

[Sharifa]

It did not seem like a priority for people to know what was on your bookshelf on Tinder. Maybe that's my own bias about it, but it definitely felt like it was a thing of a time, but in a certain space and with a certain demographic, like older people looking for dates. But it's. I thought this was pretty funny book smacking. I never want to hear that word again, but for now, I'll take it.

[Vanessa Villas]

No, it is fun. Yeah, I agree on the Tinder of it all. I was. Was actually at a. Having dinner by myself, reading a book at a restaurant a couple, three, four weeks ago when I heard some girlfriends just talking next door. And one of them said something about how, you know, she was on a dating app. And she said, you know, he has, like, a bunch of books on, like, his favorites, but I don't know. And her friend said, what are they? And all. The girl only got to the first book, which was Infinite Jazz, and she was like, red flag.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Red flag.

[Vanessa Villas]

So these are conversations people are actually having.

[Sharifa]

My Red flag was Charles Bukowski book. It was.

[Vanessa Villas]

I know so many people. That applies to. Yes. God.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Villas]

See, these conversations aren't new, y', all, but it is funny to see them kind of broken down in this way on Tinder. But again, that is a segue into a more seriously toned piece, which is from CBS News that reports, or Fred Bacchus reports, that a third of Americans do say they are reading fewer books, which I don't find particularly surprising.

[Sharifa]

No.

[Vanessa Villas]

Half of the people who report say it's because they are just too busy. They don't have enough free time. And then another half say it's more about distractions. And then more than a third of the people who replied said it's down to their own attention spans, which feel like they've gotten worse over the past 10 years. And to that, I say, come sit next to me. Also, it's a combination of things. It gives us the statistics on, again, why people are reading less, but then the folks that are reading are reading a lot of. Of print, funnily enough. Well, and digital. There's a whole lot of statistics here that you can go down. But the kind of takeaway, again, is it does feel like people are reading less. Do you find that statistic surprising, or do you?

[Sharifa]

I don't. I don't. And I, you know, like, without even seeing the statistics, I would have guessed that a lot of it had to do with social media. Like, everybody's talking about the attention economy and, like, all of these things that are distracting us and, like, vying for our attention and all of the algorithms that are trying to get better and better at drawing our attention to these apps. So, of course, social media would be one thing. I thought it was interesting that they, you know, they pointed out that not. It wasn't all about social media. There was some touching grass element.

[Vanessa Villas]

That's what I was gonna say. Yes.

[Sharifa]

People spending less physical activities. Yeah. Yeah. And that. I'm like, yeah, we do need. We all need more of that. So that makes me glad. But, you know, the social media stuff is unfortunately a predictable part of these statistics. And it does sort of put you in mind of like, book talk is such a big thing. But, you know, like, it doesn't necessarily mean that social media platforms are driving people to read more because, you know, you still have to divide your time between consuming all of this bookish media. I say, as the director of content for a bookish media company.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yes.

[Sharifa]

And actually reading the books. So it's a toughie.

[Vanessa Villas]

And like, I, you know, I constantly, I'm not just saying this for kudos. I. There's a piece that Rebecca wrote for Book Riot, I think maybe two years ago now, possibly more. Cause what is time. But that was like, hey, it's okay if you don't read more. And it was a thing that I think maybe a lot of folks who listen to this podcast will maybe relate to it. But, you know, there maybe was a time in your life maybe you're still like this, right. That, like, what you do is read. And so you read hundreds of books a year, maybe less, maybe more, depending on, you know, where you're at in your life. And like, that's. And if that truly makes you happy, great. But we do really only have this one precious life. And there was a time in my life where I was woefully out of the loop on all things television and books or, sorry, movies per se, which again, is not a bad thing. Like, if that's just not what I was interested in, that was fine. But I have found that I do really much enjoy watching television and movies and making. Again, you only have so many hours in the day. You have your job, you have all this extra time. And for me, it's relatively limited, as I imagine it is for you and everyone else I know. So you kind of have to decide what you're going to do with that time. And that means that sometimes you're going to read, sometimes you're going to go outside, you're going to play a video game, you're going to listen to podcasts or just watch that TV series. And that is fine. So I don't, we definitely don't report on this piece to like raise any kind of alarm, per se. Like, people are still reading. Are they reading less? Yes. But think the reasons for doing so are valid and not necessarily just, you know, arbiter of like, oh, no. Or like a bringer of doom.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

Yeah.

[Sharifa]

One of the things, like the thing that keeps coming up in my mind when I see statistics like these and like when I get beyond the initial like, oh, what does this mean? Sort of moment that, you know, is usually the knee jerk reaction that is the takeaway from these. But it is, is a real privilege to be able to have time to sit and read a book and you know, when times are tough and people are working hard and earning less and a million other things that are happening in the world, in the country right now, makes a lot of sense that, you know, we aren't people of leisure and maybe when we do have downtime it is more of a like, I just want to shut off my brain. I don't want to make it. Which I personally have felt. You know, I have also been watching more TV this year just because I'm like, I just need to shut down and not think, not have some provocative internal discussion about this, that or the other, but just like enjoy myself a little and relax. And books don't always give me that, especially when I'm doing like, you know, bookish sort of homework.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yeah.

[Sharifa]

So I agree, like there's no, I don't feel a sort of sensational response when I dig deep about these numbers. And the one thing I really don't want to see come out of this is more think pieces about how we can get men to read more books and crying about men not reading enough books because we already did that. Let's take a breath.

[Vanessa Villas]

Everybody take a beat. Everybody take a beat slowly. The interesting piece to me that isn't as like gotten into in this piece is that like I do think overall there is like a literacy, literacy situation going on, especially in the way that I see people interact on social media. So like, if I had to take one quote unquote alarming piece out of this, it's more that, but I don't know that that, that mean that feels both related and not like, because there are plenty of those books who are actually still reading books, they're just not maybe reading them correctly or like, I don't know, I'm deeply in an anti think piece just in the way that it seems like we're losing the ability as a society to glean that the words in a book because spoken by a character, for example, don't mean that that is how the author like hello, let's use some critical thinking. And so that is in case anybody's ears went up in that way. Like, yes, we do have some literacy situation that we need to address. But as far as how many books people are reading a year, it is both a thing that yeah, of course. You know, I hope people are reading as much as they want to. It's not, I don't think a thing we need to like really, really pause and be alarmist about. But for an interesting other take in case reading is a thing you have been wanting to do more of. Thriftbooks put some statistics out in their billion page challenge that we used to as a, as Americans. Really, it's not global, it's. It's just about the United States used to read 5 billion pages a year and now the statistic is we're only reading about 2. So when you see that like 2 billion is still a lot.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Right.

[Vanessa Villas]

It's not, it's not a little amount, but it is significantly less than we used to. And that's over a 10 year decade or to 10 year decade decades or 10 years. A 10 year period.

[Sharifa]

Yeah.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

So.

[Vanessa Villas]

And when you look at it that way, there is a little bit of like, oh, we think it would have been going in the other direction. So they have a challenge that I will link to that is, is just an encouragement if you are a person who has been wanting to read more or you don't think you have the time period. Because the other side to this point of course is that there are a lot of folks who do want to read more but don't think they have the time. And the way Thriftbooks puts it is that if you were to read just like three pages more a day than you're currently reading, even if that baseline is zero, that is enough to make a huge change in the amount that people are reading. So if you do want to read more, and this is a thing I have to do for myself because I, I don't read as many books by a landslide as I used to because I'm often reading them more slowly and only when I like I read before bed more often than not these days versus dedicating hours of my life to doing so. And that often means I'm only reading like 20, 30 pages before bed. And that's cool. So yes, I'm reading less books, but I'm also just kind of reading them at this dedicated time and maybe that's something you want to do. So I'll put a link to the Billion page challenge. It's got cool themes that you can do every month and just again, a little easy baseline way to read a little bit more if that's something that you are wanting to. To do.

[Sharifa]

Cool.

[Vanessa Villas]

I feel like the one of the last pieces I have here we have two let's see if we can get to both of them. We may just get to one, but this one is kind of an update to a story that I think Rebecca and Jeff talked about maybe in May, probably like how long ago was that? A month? Again, what is. Feels like a million years ago. But the Commonwealth Prize was in the kind of news cycle because. Or the Commonwealth foundation because several of the stories that were named in the short story prize were accused of having been written using AI. So that was the story at the time. And then now we have an update with a statement that's been released which of course we'll link in the show notes. But the three writers who were accused of using AI to create their stories have all been cleared. The director general of the foundation, his name is Razmi Farouk, said in this statement that they spent the last month investigating these claims, the allegations of AI use. They made very like a point to point out, a point to point out that no AI tools were used in the investigation because they thought that would get really murky in the artistic ownership space, which I understand. So they had detailed discussions about the situation, including having them provide kind of just like show your work. Sounds like they were asked to provide working drafts, documents that were timestamped notes. And they also noted that everybody, so not just the people who were accused, the three people that everybody in the Prize, all the nominees collaborated fully in the review to kind of make it a big holistic investigation. So, yeah, that verdict is that after all of that discussion and the consultation with the judges that they're satisfied that AI was not used to write any of these stories. Did you know much about this story before?

[Sharifa]

Yeah, I mean it, it. What a tangled web we weave with these AI allegations. And you know, like one of the consequences was that Granta decided to discontinue its, you know, third party partnerships or whatever they called it, because they were announcing they were, they were making the regional winners short stories public and like putting the stories up so that people could read them and things like that. But they decided because of all of these AI allegations that they were no longer going to do that. And you know, because these allegations happen and because it made such a, you know, big stink around the web, Granta is still not going to restart its relationship with the Commonwealth Foundation. And I don't know how you get the sort of funk of AI allegations off of you as an author, which is really sad. So it's a mess. And I feel for everyone who didn't use AI to write their stories Having that associated with them in a time when it's celebratory to have received this sort of honor. Um, and I went down, I almost went down the rabbit hole of these stories and reading the discourse and all that stuff and I was like, okay, I have to stop.

[Vanessa Villas]

I need to like not do this. I know, because I could feel my

[Sharifa]

cynicism rising and, and it was feeling very one sided and I don't, you know, like, I truly do hope that their findings were true and that, you know, it was a very clear cut, which it sounds like it was. But yeah, it's just like. It's sort of like the damage has been done in my mind at least

[Vanessa Villas]

when it just feels like this is not the last time this is gonna happen. And this is like the mess of AI Right. Like the way that this got introduced, the fact that it was trained using existing work. Right. Is such that like, you know, I don't. Again, I didn't read too much into these people's stories either as far as the individual short stories. I just didn't have the time to do so. But you know, if, if the model was trained off of work that I already have out there in the world, then like you're going to come back and accuse me later of sounding like AI when AI used my work to begin with. Not that they would be a one for one comp in that way, but you know, it's messy. It's like, yes, it's trade on. And now we're stuck in the middle of all these lawsuits and again we just hear these stories, you know, every, every week there's something to talk about with regards to AI and it's like if you really did, then that's. That is awful. And the fact that you might win a prize from doing that is not great. But then in the reverse, like if I had written a story, which I'm going to trust that that's what these authors did. And then you get accused of AI and like you said that funk is just never ever going to lift. And now it kind of has cast over my hard work like that. That's hard too. And I like the, the prize itself, the. So the nominees had been released, but the winner of the prize is going to be announced on the 30th alongside a film that documents like the regional winners and apparently the inspirations behind their work. So we can, you know, put. We'll put the link to the statement and to the piece on Book Riot about this, but I just think this is going to continue to be a really messy area of book discourse because AI was released without you know, guardrails and regulations and so here we are. And that's ah. Is all I have to say about that.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, we can't even predict all the ways it's going to impact and make a mess of publishing at large and writing.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

So.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Nope.

[Vanessa Villas]

Well that is just about the last thing. I just wanted to give a quick little well first thank you to anybody who participated in our audience survey. We plugged that a couple times in the podcast and we got so so so so many responses. Thank you so much. As the person behind the scenes who gets to look at that stuff. We don't have a ton of time to go into all of it but on the cut of related to the two you know, pieces we talked about with the way books are reading, our folks which of course is a sample size are probably skewed because like you're at a book media site but the people be reading is the high level of all of that genre wise. It was interesting to read that non fiction and literary fiction are kind of like tied neck and neck for what people are reading the most of. After that it goes to science fiction, fantasy and horror which does not really surprise me because that's something that I see see people clamoring for at all times with our content. Physical books were the runaway hit for the way that people read these days which is something that we also heard in the other in the CBS piece which fascinates me because I'm a person who prior to a certain year in my life and even now like if you actually ask me do I prefer a print book? Yes, I absolutely do. But the way my life be structured these days it just more often than not works easier to have the digital either because I'm getting a galley from a publisher or I'm traveling and can't bring six books with me me which I did once upon a time and then yeah anyhow.

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

Wow.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yeah I went to my big Europe trip when I was I forget how old I brought seven hardcovers with me one in my and I'm like who?

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Who?

[Vanessa Villas]

Why? Like I was going to Europe I could buy things. What is I my aunt. I can still recall vividly the face that she made my thea when I rolled up with a not carry on sized luggage she was like what are you doing? And I was like I have things. Those things included a hair dryer I could not use and books. Anywho. Yeah the people and this is something Rebecca and I talked about on the last episode. I think about how we are seeing that kind of bounce back and that the Gen Z generation forward is very much kind of wanting analog experiences and the fact that they are reaching more forward stuff like physical books. So that was interesting to see reflected in that survey. And then again we also got lots of other statistics both on like how much people are spending on reading the kinds of books they read. So I've been thinking I'll probably make some content for the site about this in case people are interested just to see how reading trends are going with a book riot audience. So again, thank you to everybody who participated. Those are just some high level takeaways and once I put that piece together I'm sure I'll link it over to Rebecca and Jeff for them to share with their audience.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, my big takeaway was y' all read a lot of books.

[Vanessa Villas]

If you ever want to watch people have big bookish opinions, pay attention to our social media feeds on the days we talk about what a power reader consists of because and this is like a piece that's several years old but like people consider themselves power readers if they read like 12 books or more a year and you will never see a more rabid audience go off about how little books that is. And if you go to like the book social media platforms of a book media website like guys, not everybody reads the way you do and there is not a problem with that. I love it for you if you read 300 books a year but also 12 is also great. It's great.

[Sharifa]

Rest assured. Anyone out there who's reading 12 books and feeling away.

[Vanessa Villas]

Yes. Well we have talked longer than I expected but really quickly want to make sure we wrap up with a little bit of front list foyer which all of the books that we've talked about or we're about to talk about can be purchased over at our friends at Thriftbooks. They have millions and I do mean millions of new and used titles. Just this endless selection of books. Video music, video games. I just said video games. But gifts games and all at really competitive price. From kind of childhood classics to new undiscovered worlds. There's something for everybody. Every budget and if you don't know about Thriftbooks reading rewards program is actually really great. Every purchase that you get gets you closer or that make it gets you closer to free book rewards and there's different tiers so the more you end up spending the more you end up getting back. It's. It's really quite great. So you can Read more and spend less. At thriftbooks.com you get free US shipping on book orders of $15. Books are delivered straight to your door. So you can again go to thriftbooks.com for that. You want to tell us about a couple of your selections for front list Foyer Sharifa?

[Sharifa]

Yeah. Well, my current read that I'm just about to finish up is the Children by Melissa Albert. I love Melissa Albert's books. They just scratch an itch, like the sort of dark, creepy, ominous fairy tale vibes. And this is is Albert's, I believe, debut adult novel.

[Vanessa Villas]

Adult, I think.

[Sharifa]

Yeah, yeah. And it is so good. It's so creepy. And like the speculative elements are so like it's hard to parse whether it is a speculative book. You know, it's one of those. It's in the gray area, the uncanny valley. And it's just like it's an absolutely delicious book. And I know it was chosen as a. Was it.

[Vanessa Villas]

Oh, gosh, who named it?

[Sharifa]

Yeah, maybe I don't want to miscredit the book club, but one of the big books. Yeah. So I was feeling very smug about having started reading it before it got chosen by a celebrity book club. Whatever. And then the one I just finished was Kin by Tayari Jones, which is a as good as everybody has been saying. So if you've been holding off or it's been like, I don't know, unapproachable because it's too buzzy, I highly recommend you just go ahead and pick it up because you will get lost in that story. And Jones is such an amazing storyteller, just like undefeated.

[Vanessa Villas]

Oh, I have both of those on my list. Funny story, I had not read Melissa Albert when I met Sharifa. She I said that she walked over to a bookshelf, handed me one of her Melissa Albert books and I never gave it back. And when she moved to Asheville, I was like, I'm not telling you. So I have your book. But anyway.

[Sharifa]

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Totally forgot about that.

[Vanessa Villas]

Love, love. I do. And now I'm really excited to read the children. So yes, do it. I will. I have recently talked about the books that I was reading because I was just on this show a couple times in a row. So I'm just going to give two very quick shout outs to some books that I read a couple weeks ago. One is the Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick, which is I'm doing this off the cuff. But I think it was pitched as like, what if Guy Ritchie Directed a movie about like a queer 007. And that's kind of the general pace of it. There's this guy, like a struggling actor who works at a candle shop whose best friend invites him to a dinner for this something called the Tuxedo Society. He thinks it's just gonna be a bunch of, you know, kind of rubbing elbows with really rich people. And it ends up that the Tuxedo Society is this very real, like secret society of a bunch of queer operatives who go on these high stakes missions. And it becomes this big thing that takes him all over the world. But he's like brought in because he's an actor and he can, you know, blend in really well into some of those situations. But also he's put into situations that probably required more training than what he's received on the fly. And it's just a really. It's really funny. It's written in a really, really fun voice. So that was great. And then I recently read Munyeka by Cynthia Gomez, which is a kind of gothic horror about this working class witch In, I think, 1960s Oakland who kind of finagles her way into getting a job working as a caretaker for this heiress to like, Spanish colonial wealth. The woman is catatonic, like paralyzed. She's in some kind of state and no one can figure out what's happened to her. And she suspects that it's the work of witchcraft. She's not wrong. But the kind of witchcraft is not at all what she expects. And because this is called Munyeka, there is indeed a creepy doll factor. And it was a lot of fun. So that's one that you should definitely look up as well.

[Sharifa]

Those sound so fun.

[Vanessa Villas]

They were both very, very different in tone that I read them back to back.

[Sharifa]

And creepy doll, maybe not fun, but no.

[Vanessa Villas]

And it's funny because I said this somewhere, but even though it's called Munieca, Munyca is also a name that Latinos will use, like affectionately, like, I'm muneca. So it didn't occur to me, even though again, look at the COVID Like, hello, idiot. Yes, this is always gonna be about a doll, but I didn't see it coming and when it happen, but it was a great time. So that is what we have for you today. Thank you so much to Thriftbooks for sponsoring frontless foyer. You can find the show notes for this [e-mail] Listen, you can email us with any of your [e-mail] Some quick housekeeping next up in the zero to well read feed. I still don't know whether I'm actually allowed to tell you what the episode is. I don't see why not, because it's about to come out. But it is not so much about like a book. It is about something very important to American history. And we're gonna get an OG from the Book Riot past come to give her thoughts on that, which I feel like is enough of a hook hopefully for you to go over and listen to that great time. I can already vouch by it our Patreon Book Club and I say our because I kind of Kool Aid manned my way into it. We're going to be doing a discussion of yesteryear, so you make sure to tune into that which you can. Yeah, catch up patreon.com bookriotpodcast Again, the book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to Sharifah for joining me. And we'll get back to the regular Rebecca Jeff rotation next week. Thanks y'. All.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Thanks so much for listening today. Hope you enjoyed this audiobook Excerpt from the Odyssey by Homer, of course, course produced by Our sponsors at 11 Reader

[Narrator (Audiobook Excerpt)]

Book 1 Visit of Athena to Telemachus Tell me, O Muse, of that sagacious man who, having overthrown the sacred town of Ilium, wandered far, and visited the capitals of many nations, learned the customs of their dwellers, and endured great suffering on the deep. His life was oft in peril, as he labored to bring back his comrades to their their homes he saved them not, though earnestly he strove, they perished all through their own folly, for they banqueted madmen upon the oxen of the sun, the all o' er looking son, who cut them off from their return. O Goddess, virgin child of Zeus, relate some part of this to me now. All the rest, as many as escaped the cruel doom of death, were at their homes, safe from the perils of the war and sea, while Himalayan alone, who pined to see his home and wife again, Calypso, queenly nymph, great among goddesses, detained within her spacious grot in hope that he might yet become her husband. Even when the years brought round the time in which the gods decreed that he should reach again his dwelling place in Ithaca, though he was with his friends, his toils were not yet ended. Of the gods all pitied him, save Poseidon, who pursued with wrath implacable the godlike chief Odysseus, even to his native land among the Ethiopians was the God far off the Ethiopians, most remote of men, two tribes there are, one dwells beneath the rising, one beneath the setting sun. He went to grace a hecatomb of beeves and lambs, and sat delighted at the feast. While in the palace of Olympian Zeus the other gods assembled, and to this them the father of immortals and of men, was speaking to his mind arose the thought of that Aegisthus, whom the famous son of Agamemnon, prince Orestes, slew of him, he thought, and thus bespake the gods.

How strange it is that mortals blame the gods, and say that we inflict the ills they bear, when they, by their own folly, and against the will of fate, bring sorrow, sorrow on themselves. As late Aegisthus, unconstrained by fate, married the queen of Atreus son, and slew the husband just returned from war. Yet well he knew the bitter penalty, for we warned him. We sent the herald, Hermes, bidding him neither slay the chief nor woo his queen, for that Oresting, when he came to manhood, and might claim his heritage, would take due vengeance for Atreides slain. So Hermes said. His prudent words moved not the purpose of Aegisthus, who now pays the forfeit of his many crimes.

At once Athena, the blue eyed goddess, thus replied, O father, son of Christ,

Cronos, king of kings, well he deserved his death. So perish all guilty of deeds like his. But I am grieved for sage Odysseus, that most wretched man, so long detained, repining and afar from those he loves, upon a distant isle girt by the waters of the central deep, a forest isle, where dwells a deity, the daughter of wise Atlas, him who knows the ocean to its utmost depths, and holds upright the lofty columns which divide the earth from heaven. The daughter there detains the unhappy chieftain, and with flattering words would win him to forget his Ithaca. Meanwhile, impatient to behold the smokes that rise from hearths in his own land, he pines, and willingly would die. Is not thy heart Olympian touched by this? And did he not pay grateful sacrifice to thee beside the argive fleet in the broad realm of Troy? Why then, od Zeus. Art thou so wroth with him?

Then, answered cloud, compelling Zeus, my child,

what words have passed thy lips? Can I forget? Godlike Odysseus, who in gifts of mind excels all other men, men. And who has brought large offerings to the gods that dwell in heaven? Yet he who holds the earth in his embrace, Poseidon, pursues him with perpetual hate, because of Polypheme the cyclops strong beyond all others of his giant race, whose eye Odysseus had put out, the nymph Thoosa brought him forth a daughter. She. She of forces ruling in the barren deep, and in the COVID of o' erhanging rocks she met with Poseidon. For this cause the God who shakes the shores, although he slay him not sends forth Odysseus, wandering far away from his own country. Let us now consult together and provide for his return. And Poseidon will lay by his wrath for vain it were for one like him to strive alone against the might of all the immortal gods.

And then the blue eyed Athena spake again.

O father, son of Kronos, king of kings. If such the pleasure of the blessed gods, that now the wise Odysseus shall return to his own land, let us at once dispatch Hermes, our messenger, down to Ogygia, to the bright haired nymph, and make our steadfast purpose known to bring the sufferer Odysseus to his home. And I will haste to Ithaca and move his son, that with a resolute heart he call the long haired Greeks together, and forbid the excesses of the suitor train who slay his flocks and slow paced beeves with crooked horns to Sparta I will send him and the sands of Pylon to inquire for the return of his dear father. So a glorious fame shall gather round him in the eyes of men.

She spake and fastened underneath her feet the fair ambrosial golden sandals, worn to bear her over ocean like the wind. And o' er the boundless land in hand she took, well tipped with trenchant brass, the mighty spear, heavy and huge and strong, with which she bears whole phalanxes of heroes to the earth when she, the daughter of a mighty sire is angered. From the Olympian heights she plunged and stood among the men of Ithaca, just at the porch and threshold of their chief Odysseus. In her hand she bore the spear and seemed the stranger Mentes, he who led the Taphians. There before the gate she found the haughty suitors, some beguiled the time with draughts, while sitting on the hides of beeves which they had slaughtered. Heralds were with them, and busy menials, some who in the bowls tempered the wine with water, some who cleansed the tables with light sponges, and who set the banquet forth and carved the meats for all. Telemachus the godlike was the first to see the goddess, as he sat among the crowd of suitors, sad at heart, and thought of his illustrious father who might come and scatter those who filled his palace halls and win new honor and regain the rule over his own.