Reading Over Summer Break: A New Season Begins (S9E1)

Summary

Currently Reading Podcast — S9E1: "Reading Over Summer Break: A New Season Begins" August 3, 2026

Episode Overview

Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb kick off Season 9 of The Currently Reading Podcast with honest book talk, thoughtful reviews, and deeper reflections on how their summer break shaped their reading lives. As always, they aim to offer smarter book selections, help listeners understand their taste, and keep the focus on authentic, spoiler-free conversations. In this season opener, Meredith and Kaytee share their Bookish Moments of the Week, dive into a curated list of current reads (across genres and moods), and close with a candid, heartfelt discussion on how dramatic events—medical and personal—can reshape both their lives and their reading. Notably, this episode includes a deeply emotional update from Meredith regarding her husband's health (triply relevant for bookish friends and caregivers alike).

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Bookish Moments of the Week (04:24)

Kaytee’s Bookish Moment

• Rearranged her bedroom and added a bookshelf behind her recording space (05:48)
• "I loved getting to choose books as a decor option here. And so some of my very favorite and prettiest books are on the shelf behind me, as well as a few Lego sets, because I'm that kind of book nerd." (05:24, Kaytee)
• Plans to rotate books for seasonality and give a video bookshelf tour on Instagram.

Meredith’s Bookish Moment

• Reflected on the podcast as an anchor in her week, especially after a month-long break.
• "I'm even going into season nine... amazed by how much I miss just regularly talking about books on the mic." (06:33, Meredith)
• Both hosts express gratitude for their ongoing bookish friendship and weekly routine.

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Current Reads

1. Bloom by Robbie Couch (08:08) — Kaytee

Summary:
A contemporary fiction focused on grief, found family, and healing, where protagonist Morris is left alone after losing his husband, and Sloane—his stepdaughter—unexpectedly becomes a key figure in his life. The story includes the unique POV of a sentient, languishing jade plant, offering quirky insight.

Notable Insights:

• "This is a novel of the family we're born with and the ones that we get to choose along the way, even when we have to force the door open a little bit to get inside." (10:15, Kaytee)
• Kaytee appreciated the heart of the story, though some YA drama felt contrived.
• Audio format praised for strong narration; likened to "remarkably bright creatures vibes."
• Solid 4-4.5 stars.

Memorable Moment:
"We love a sentient house plant, right?" (12:30, Kaytee)

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2. Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (12:52) — Meredith

Summary:
Urban high fantasy centering on Bryce Quinlan, a party-loving half-fae whose world is upended by tragedy, and her reluctant, brooding ally Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel. The series is lauded for worldbuilding, complex political structures, and crossover connections to ACOTAR.

Notable Insights:

• "Every single time I read something by Sarah J. Maas, I end up asking myself the same question. How on earth does she do it?" (15:10, Meredith)
• Noted hesitance to start due to urban fantasy tropes, but was quickly swept in after peer/friend recommendations.
• Points out Maas’s trademark quirks (e.g., characters 'surging' instead of walking).
• Heavy endorsement for reading this series ahead of ACOTAR 6: “I do not know how she's going to make these two series work together in that book, but I really am glad that I read this series before that one comes out." (20:53, Meredith)

Memorable Moment:
"She surprised me multiple times in this series." (22:32, Meredith)

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3. Martyr by Kaveh Akbar (23:24) — Kaytee

Summary:
A literary novel exploring the intersections of mortality, addiction, diasporic identity, and the search for meaning, as main character Cyrus Shams tries to make sense of life after his mother’s death in a tragic plane crash.

Notable Insights:

• "Mostly I found it really hard to be really firmly ensconced in the mind and day to day activities and thoughts about life and death of a person struggling with addiction." (25:07, Kaytee)
• Kaytee found the writing excellent but the ambiguous ending “rageful” (her words), causing a significant drop in rating.
• "I wanted to not just throw it across the room, but also to make sure that the end of that arc was my garbage disposal where it could get eaten by the final destination demon that eats people in garbage disposals." (26:45, Kaytee)
• Final assessment: 3 stars (only because the writing carried her that far).

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4. Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard (28:17) — Meredith

Summary:
A thriller where newcomer Ellie moves into a house with a dark past. The narrative weaves multiple storylines, secrets, and past traumas associated with the property, with themes of disclosure and the unknown.

Notable Insights:

• "This is one of those where I started it and I was absolutely flying. The first 50% of buyer beware had me in that delicious reading zone where you, like, look up and you realize two hours have passed." (30:16, Meredith)
• The book is a “return to form” after a less satisfying previous release; praised for “catnip” premise of cursed houses.
• Ending felt a little too neatly wrapped, but the tension and key scenes are memorable.
• "Still…scenes that absolutely creeped me out so badly. So she did a good job here." (32:48, Meredith)

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5. Ravensong by TJ Klune (32:52) — Kaytee

Summary:
Second in the Green Creek series, a slow-burn werewolf romance focusing on Gordo Livingstone, the tattooed witch of the pack, and his connection with Mark Bennett. Interwoven with themes of chosen family, trauma, and identity.

Notable Insights:

• "This is tortured longing. This is slow burn. This is love wrapped in hatred to keep it safe. It’s inevitable and crushing." (35:41, Kaytee)
• Kaytee “devoured every word” and will wait until she’s emotionally ready for the next book, embracing the emotional turmoil Klune is known for delivering.
• Explains distinction between romance series that require ordered reading and those that don't (“This is one where you have to read in order.”)

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6. The Other by Annie Neugebauer (38:10) — Meredith

Summary:
Psychological novella (90 min audio) set in the Oklahoma wilderness, where a couple, Elise and Logan, encounter another pair who seem eerily familiar—leading to paranoia and intense introspection in a rapidly unsettling situation.

Notable Insights:

• "I have such a soft spot for a book that turns into an argument at my own kitchen table. And The Other is exactly that kind of book." (39:13, Meredith)
• Praises Neugebauer for “dropping real, ordinary people into a strange circumstance and just letting it cook.”
• Loves that it's both short and discussion-generating; perfect for road trips or group listening.
• "The ending is every bit as unresolved as in the first book, but in this case, I found the lack of resolution even more interesting than if it had been resolved." (42:08, Meredith)
• Recommended listening on Audible (performed by two narrators).

Memorable Quote:
"Nothing good comes from camping if you read any kind of murderful genre that I read." (43:21, Meredith)

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Readerly Deep Dive (44:42): Summer Break Reflections & Realities

Kaytee’s Summer

• Originally planned another epic bookstore road trip with her four kids, but plans shifted after scheduling a major surgery (radical hysterectomy).
• "So instead of driving across the country, I did a lot of laying on the couch after a radical hysterectomy that solved a lot of problems for me, but also took some time to recovery." (46:14, Kaytee)
• Despite healing, reading pace was steady (not as high as in road trip years) but satisfying; highlighted success in enjoying most selections.

Meredith’s Summer

• Lowest monthly read count in a decade (“five books in the month of June”) due to several DNF’s and the immersive Crescent City series.

• Deliberately prioritizing commitment to big, chunkier series even as a “professional book podcaster.”

• Major family health crisis: Her husband, Johnny—a dedicated runner and model of health—was diagnosed with a 100% blockage in his widowmaker artery, requiring urgent triple bypass surgery (scheduled the day after this episode airs, August 4, 2026).

  Candid Emotional Reflection:

  • "It's really scary. It's really terrifying. Johnny and I, last summer were separated, and now we're going through this a year later. The good news is our marriage is stronger than it's ever been. But the bad news is I care a lot about what happens to him… It's kind of a double-edged sword." (54:52, Meredith)

• Acknowledges uncertainty in upcoming reading and podcast participation due to caregiving, but expresses gratitude for support and flexibility in the CR community.

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Bookish Friends Corner (56:22)

Bookish Friend of the Week:

Kasey Montgomery’s Indie Bookstore Project

• Bought a book (based on staff recommendations) from an indie bookstore in every state.
• Used a mini label printer and AI to turn photos into line drawings for a keepsake book.
• "The project has been a fun way to mark the store and to trigger the memories of her experience." (58:52, Meredith)
• Kaytee praises the CR Patreon community for their inventiveness and support.

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Something Bookish Before We Go (59:26)

Kaytee’s Sleeper Hit Recommendation:

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

• Narrative nonfiction on the Great Migration, interweaving the real stories of Ida Mae, George, and Robert.
• "…Manages to turn these stories of everyday Americans into page turning biographies while also helping her reader better understand the history of the US as a whole." (60:21, Kaytee)
• Highly awarded, still extremely relevant, and reads easily despite its length.

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Memorable Quotes

• "How on earth does she do it?" (Sarah J. Maas’s writing, 15:10, Meredith)
• "I wanted to not just throw it across the room, but also to make sure that the end of that arc was my garbage disposal where it could get eaten by the final destination demon that eats people in garbage disposals." (On Martyr's ending, 26:45, Kaytee)
• "I have such a soft spot for a book that turns into an argument at my own kitchen table." (39:13, Meredith)
• "Nothing good comes from camping if you read any kind of murderful genre that I read." (43:21, Meredith)
• "It's kind of a double-edged sword. It would have been so much easier if I was just like, yeah, whatever. But I really, really care very much that he'd be able to live a long and healthy life." (54:56, Meredith)
• "Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and supporting us this whole time and get closer to our goals." (62:37, Kaytee)

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Timestamps for Key Sections

• Bookish Moments of the Week — 04:24
• Current Reads (Bloom) — 08:08
• Current Reads (Crescent City) — 12:52
• Current Reads (Martyr) — 23:24
• Current Reads (Buyer Beware) — 28:17
• Current Reads (Ravensong) — 32:52
• Current Reads (The Other) — 38:10
• Readerly Deep Dive: Summer Break — 44:42
• Bookish Friend of the Week — 56:22
• Something Bookish Before We Go — 59:26

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Tone & Takeaways This episode is heartfelt and highly personal, capturing both the joy in discovering new reads and the vulnerability of navigating life's upheavals. The chemistry, mutual admiration, and honest self-reflection between Kaytee and Meredith set the episode apart, making it both a source of book inspiration and a comforting space for readers weathering their own storms.

Endnote:
"Until next week, may your coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable." (62:46)

Transcript

[A]

Foreigners. Welcome to the currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from those strong opinions. So get ready.

[B]

We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a readerly deep dive, and a little something bookish before we go.

[A]

I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm both a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And our break was lovely, but being back is better.

[B]

And I'm Katie Cobb, a single mom of four in Arizona. And I've added yet another bookshelf to yet another room of my house. This is episode number one of season nine, and we are so glad you're here.

[A]

Season nine, we have been doing this a long time.

[B]

We're like grandma podcasters now. I feel like. I feel like we can take that title.

[A]

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. That's a long tenure doing this, but it's still so much fun.

[B]

It is hundreds of episodes later. Gosh, I think we're about to hit 400 episodes of the big show really soon here, Meredith. And that is stunning, too. I just, I can't believe it.

[A]

Yeah, there's good things and bad things to the way that we count our episodes, the fact that we do them in seasons. Sometimes I do wish that from the beginning we had just started at one and just started counting. I think that would be really interesting. As it is, we have to go to our spreadsheet and figure out what number it is.

[B]

I still keep that other number there because I love seeing that big number go up, too. So it's in the spreadsheet. If you want to know how many it is. It's always in the spreadsheet.

[A]

We feel very accomplished there. Okay. All right, Katie. Well, we are going to talk today about what we did over our summer break. As you'll remember, you guys only experience one week's break, but we do a bunch of stuff so that we actually end up having a month off. So when we talk about our break, we're not just talking about the week you experienced, but like a whole month. And a lot of things happen in a month. So we're going to talk about that.

[B]

They sure do. We had some very busy summer breaks this year.

[A]

All right, before we get into all the goodness here in season nine, we are going to start out with an ad for ourselves. If you've been around for Any length of time. You know that this podcast is completely commercial free, but for the very first episode of the month, we do a little bit of a commercial for ourselves for our Patreon, and we have a bunch of bookish friends who have been kind enough to talk about why they think it's a value. It's a good deal to support Currently Reading on Patreon, so we're going to give you one of those.

[C]

Hey there readers. I am Bookish Super Friend Jen Jefferson from Austin, Texas, and I am honored to manage this month's mischief on behalf of Katie and Meredith. Today's first episode of the month is our one time ad for the currently reading podcast Bookish Friend Patreon Group. As a bookish friend, you receive three additional podcasts per month, the Indie Press List, All Things Murderful and Love and Chili Peppers, as well as a quarterly extra podcast from the Editor's Desk. We all benefit from the magical Currently Reading Tracker, a spreadsheet developed by our very own Katie Cobb. And we have a kind and supportive Currently reading bookish friend community on both Facebook and discord of online friends who become in real life friends and your number one recommendation sources. So until I see you there, happy reading friends.

[A]

All right, Katie. I love that our Patreon, our Bookish Friends, it's what we call this group of over 3,000 readers who've joined us here. I love that so many people raised their hand and said, can I please tell you why I support Currently Reading? I love hearing from them.

[B]

Yes, it's always so fun, not just to get those videos and watch them, but then to get to share them out to other people who are maybe thinking, but why would I want to jump behind the paywall, y'? All. Our friends will tell you exactly.

[A]

Exactly. All right, Katie, let's talk about our bookish moments of the week. What have you got?

[B]

All right, friends. As you know, we've been really beefing up our presence all over the different places you might find us on the Internet. But this week especially, I hope you pop over to YouTube if you don't usually watch us over there. Just really quick for a few reasons. First, as I hinted in my bite size intro, I was able to do some rearranging at my house over the break the month off and I ended up getting to put a bookshelf in my bedroom behind where I sit to record. First of all, I used to have my rower back there and I hated that we were talking about books and we're having this great time and then there's like this big, clunky piece of equipment behind me every week. So it made me happy to get rid of that space. But I loved getting to choose books as a decor option here. And so some of my very favorite and prettiest books are on the shelf behind me, as well as a few Lego sets, because I'm that kind of book nerd. Most of these sets and books have been featured on the show over the years, and now they have pride of place in my bedroom and and on the YouTube channel every week on Instagram. I also promised that I will send Lee Ellen a video to post in Stories this week with a little bookshelf tour. So you can see what I've decided to feature for now. Although I do intend to rotate through books up here so that I can have different seasonality to this little featurette. Right.

[A]

I love that because I can definitely see, of course, that you've got books behind you, and I can make some educated guesses in some cases, but I'm not close enough to be able to see what they are. So I would love to see that up close. And of course, Katie, you got the most adorable haircut. So come to YouTube to see Katie's new hair.

[B]

I was so ridiculous about that because I waited until we finished the very last episode of season eight, even though I had been planning this haircut because I didn't want things to get recorded out of order and then have it be like, Katie has a bob. Nope. She doesn't have a bob. Nope. What's going on with Katie? How come she has all this weird hair going on? So I waited until we were done, and then I ran out and chopped all my hair off.

[A]

You did. You did a big chop, but it's very, very cute. I love it.

[B]

So fun. Tell us about your bookish moment, Meredith.

[A]

All right, well, my bookish moment of the week is really just being back and really thinking about the fact that we had a full month off. And it's always nice to get that time, but I'm even going into season nine. I'm always amazed by how much I miss just regularly talking about about books on the mic. And so I really had a moment this week where I was thinking, you know, I am so glad that this is something that we still get to do every single week. Right. There's been lots of changes from the very beginning to now. We're different readers, our family structures look different, we live in different places, all of that stuff. But what hasn't changed is that it's just so fun to get a chance to hear what you've been reading, to tell you about what I've been reading, and just to be able to do this every single week. So really continually grateful for being able to do this, feel the same.

[B]

It's like a touchstone to my week. And even though I love having that break and that little breathing room during the summer and to a lesser extent during our winter break, I feel a little bit out of center, off kilter, I guess, because it's like this is the thing I get to do every week and talk with my girl, my favorite person, about what I've been reading and what's going on in my reading life as a whole. And so I'm also thrilled and delighted to be back behind the mic today.

[A]

Yeah, it's very, very fun. All right, so let's get into it. Let's start talking about our current reads. Now. You probably had a lot of books to choose from, Katie, so you narrowed it down for this first episode?

[B]

I did. I tried to curate a selection. And in fact, I do have a strong opinion this month or this week, so we'll see how it goes for me. But my first one is not a strong opinion. It's just loveliness. It is called Bloom by Robbie Couch. Our dear friend Kelly sent me a direct but gentle recommendation when I got her summer reading guide for 2026, and I opted to go with it because who even am I? A recommendation directly to me. What happened? Here's the setup for Bloom. Morris is isolated and grieving. He has just lost his husband, Fred, and has nothing on his calendar for months. Like, gosh, which my calendar runs my life. Can y' all imagine just looking at your calendar and it's just blank for months?

[A]

That would be absolutely not panicking, I think.

[B]

Yes, me too. Everything around him seems to be withering. Not just his social life, but even the plants that his husband used to love and dote upon. Sloane is also grieving because Fred was her father, and she feels like she's lost control of the reins of her life, like she's in the driver's seat. But this vehicle is careening out of control after a blow up with her mom about who will walk her down the aisle at her own wedding to the love of her life, this delightful young man, Sloane finds herself at Morris's doorstep, wondering what the heck she's even doing there. When she sees Morris's wilting plants and empty calendar, she decides to invite herself into his life and get to know him a little bit better. She was his stepdaughter after all. But there's baggage there, as Sloane's mom has spent the last few years maligning Morris for being a homewrecker for ruining her marriage to Sloan's father. So even though he was her favorite teacher in high school, the feelings are complicated. And as our third storyline we have Jade, who is a jade plant that is drying out from neglect in Morris's home. She was Fred's favorite plant, but as a sentient character that can only communicate with other plants in the home, she also gets to be an outside observer to the humans in the home as she keeps trying to communicate how desperately she needs just a little bit of water to keep going. This is a contemporary fiction novel that has a lot of feeliness to it, but does not feature a curmudgeon so much as a man who is lonely. As a lot of elderly people especially are. Morris is really easy to fall for and Sloane does as she gets to know him as a person separate from her teacher or her stepdad. This is a novel of the family we're born with and the ones that we get to choose along the way, even when we have to force the door open a little bit to get inside. When Kelly plopped it into my lap, she said, I know you're not a fan of direct recommendations, but a book I featured on my Winter Reading guide in January might be one to check out if you're in the mood for remarkably bright creatures vibes. It's Bloom by Robbie Couch. One POV is told from the perspective of a languishing houseplant, and I just loved the quirky story. I did not read anything else about this. I just went off of Kelly's recommendation. So I didn't know about the elderly character. I didn't know about the LGBT vibes. I just went into it with that short setup. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was captivated the whole way through. I will say that Sloane is a bit of a whirlwind character. She is a young adult. She is an adult. She's just on the younger side. However, her life has gotten away from her a little bit. The drama with her family of origin seemed really contrived to me, and the way she responded to it was over the top. Didn't matter. I found myself living for the interactions between Morris and Sloane especially. And while this is not a romance at all, please don't ever read anything like that into it. The third act breakup nature of that central conflict that makes things kind of Go belly up for a little bit. Made me rail again against the miscommunication trope. I did this as a binge listen on audio during a house project day during our break. The two narrators did a great job building out all three parts of the story. And while this was my first Robbie Couch book, I do think he would make for a great in emergency break glass author. So I will look forward to new releases from him. Overall, solid four to four and a half star read for me and I'm so grateful to Kelly for thinking of me and putting it gently into my hands. This is Bloom by Robbie Couch.

[A]

I mean, I think that was a spot on recommendation for you and I did not see that plant coming.

[B]

Yes, we love a sentient house plant, right? Like Sarah Durst. I mean we have a lot of affection for A, an elderly protagonist and B, well, a sentient plant. But like any kind of interesting little side character that you don't think should have a point of view that comes into our story that's really fun and

[A]

adds to the story.

[B]

I love that for sure. What do you have to tell us about Meredith?

[A]

All right, well, one of the things that we are going to talk about more in what did we do over our summer break? Really the only thing that I did, the only thing that I read over my summer break. Oh, Katie. I got wrapped up in the Crescent City series by Sarah J. Maas. So each one of these books are almost 900 pages. There's three of them. I read all three of them.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

This is my personality now. I'm going to bring the first one here. Do not worry, I will not spoil anything at any point in the series and I will spread them out so you're not going to have to hear them back to back to back. But in order to do that, I needed to lead off season nine with Crescent City. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. Here's a setup. As you guys know, it's hard to set up this book because very little that I could say would do it justice because there is so much to cover in this really, really big chunky series. But let me try. Our lead character is named Bryce Quindlen. She's half fae, half human, and she is living her best 20 something life in Lunatheon, which is a glittering magic metropolis better known as Crescent City. By day, Bryce works for an antiquities dealer. She sells magical artifacts to all kinds of creatures. And by night, she is out with her friends, soaking up the pleasures that the city has to offer. This girl likes to party. It's a very good life that she's living until something happens that tears it apart and leaves Bryce a shell of herself. We then fast forward two years later, events happen that force Bryce to live again. And this time she is looking for revenge. Enter Hunt Athelar, a fallen angel turned reluctant assassin. He's a slave. He needs to earn his freedom. It's a lot. See what I mean? Anyway, Hunt is forced to help Bryce with her revenge. But the problem is that Hunt wants absolutely nothing to do with Bryce, who seems far more interested in a night out than in righting a wrong. The deeper these two dig, the clearer it becomes that there's more to Bryce than meets the eye. And that threads that they are pulling reach further than either one of them imagined, all the way down to the oldest, darkest corners of their world. All right, every single time I read something by Sarah J. Maas, I end up asking myself the same question. How on earth does she do it? I asked it all the way through reading the Accord of Thorns and Roses series, which of course I will shorten to Acotar. And I asked it the second I dipped into Crescent City. I cannot figure out how this woman does what she does. I want to be clear about where I started, because it makes where I ended up a lot funnier. This was a series I genuinely was not interested in reading ever. Acotar, as you know, maybe is very fairy tale coded, and that is catnip for me. Crescent City is urban fantasy, and it's urban fantasy is historically just not my jam. So I was perfectly content to let this series go. And then my good friend Holly, of course Holly's literary magic, decided to do a slow read of the Crescent City books ahead of the new ACOTAR Book 6, which comes out in October. My friend Ellen jumped in to our buddy read within that slow read, and that was all it took. I knew I wanted to give it a try, and as with every other Sarah J. Maas series, it became my entire personality about two chapters into this book. So let me be clear about what you're walking into, if you're considering this. And there's a lot of hullabaloo right now about whether or not you need to read Crescent City before ACOTAR 6 comes out. Spoiler alert. I think you do very, very much. So here's what you're walking into. There's a ton of world building in this book. It's all very complicated world building. This is high fantasy, full stop. It's actually more in my mind high fantasy than it is romantasy. You've got tons of different kinds of magic, tons of different creatures. You've got houses, courts, political structures nested inside other political structures. It's all very layered and it's very purposeful. And what's so amazing about her storytelling is that even with all of that machinery kind of whirring away, even though I could feel it doing that whirring, I was completely invested in the story from chapter two. Now I have to say something about Bryce herself. She's not the kind of lead female character I would normally be into. As I said, when we meet her, she's a party girl. She's in her early 20s, she's going out to clubs. And none of that interests me even a little bit. I'm completely bored by that kind of character profile. But somehow Sarah J. Maas, through her storytelling, made me interested anyway. And a big part of that is the fantastic way that she introduces her lead male characters. Now, we've talked about the fact that I love me a shadow daddy and she writes that kind of character really well. In this case, we get that angel and also slave. He's an angel slave hunt athelar. And he is a snack of a man. He's a killer, but he's a reluctant killer. And that right there is my favorite thing. Like he's killing, but he doesn't want to. So the setup is there and the storytelling is there. The writing in this series is better, especially, I think, than if you read or tried Throne of Glass. It's a very big step up, I think, even from the early parts of the Acotar books. That said, there are a couple of things that Sarah J. Maas does every single time that, well, always make me laugh very often. Instead of a creature simply moving from one part of a room to another, like walking or running like a normal person would, they have to surge. They surge across the room. And the other one that gets me every time, and she does it all throughout the series, is that a character goes still like a Fae. I always wonder what that's supposed to mean. Like if the character's already holding still, how. How can they go even stiller than still? And yet she puts that in over and over again, dozens of times to my best count. But that kind of thing doesn't stop me even a little bit when I'm in the mood to dig into a great fantasy series made up of three 800 plus page books. The story is strong. The Easter eggs between the different series are fascinating. I leaned heavily into TikTok for all of that. And it really, really made my reading more interesting. And the conversation that I've been having with Holly and Ellen have been so good as we read this. And of course, the benefit of doing the read along with Holly's literary magic, the emails that she's been sending out, the newsletters have really been adding to my ability to make those connections between the different series, if you like that kind of thing. That's really, I think the most special, special magic of everything that Sarah J. Maas has written is the way that all of it works together. So as I said, I jumped right from this book into book two, literally put the book down, opened the next one like not the next day, but the next minute. So I finished all three books. You guys are going to have to hear me talk about Crescent City for a while. So this one is book one, which is called Crescent House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas.

[B]

Does that mean that you're ahead of where Holly is in the read along?

[A]

Okay, yeah, that was, that was one really big problem that I felt guilty about. I did talk to her about it, but I was like, you realize that nobody's gonna be able to keep this schedule, right? But even with that, getting the newsletters, even though I was way far ahead after the fact, I would still read them and still really deep into my knowledge. And I think if I was reading it in real. Holly is an absolute expert on Sarah J. Maas universe and I so, so appreciate getting to read these books alongside her. And again, I'll say this multiple times. If you have read ACOTAR and you're waiting for ACOTAR 6, I do not know how she's going to make these two series work together in that book, but I really am glad that I read this series before that one comes out.

[B]

Yes. That is what I have been hearing everywhere. And Holly is just such a smart reader at making those connections. She also put together this fantastic post. If you, if you fell in love with the Odyssey like a lot of us did over summer break, about different things that you could read surrounding that story. I mean, flowers for Holly.

[A]

Yes. She does a great job and brings so much to the fantasy table for sure. So I had a lot of words about that. Katie, people are going to be irritated, but use your fast forward button because I got it. I. I gotta live people well.

[B]

And this is how we process. We are verbal processors, both of us. So. Okay, well, I'm sure there are lots of other people already reading House Of Earth and Blood. But if not, maybe that was the convincing that they need to jump on the train.

[A]

There are so many things to talk about. And each book, of course, has its own stuff. But, man, there is a moment in the first little bit of that first book that has everybody go dropping their book and just going. I mean, she surprised me multiple times in this series.

[B]

Look at that. See, that's. That's art. That is art. I love it.

[A]

And staying up late. Staying up. Johnny's like, I cannot believe how you have let this series own your reading.

[B]

I cannot be staying up late, Meredith. As you know, 2026 is the year of sleep for me. I'm trying to prioritize sleep so hard.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I don't know if that's gonna work, but maybe that's why I finally caught up to you on our Fitbit emails. Cause I think the last one I got, I was a little ahead of you for my average sleep per night. I can blame Sarah J. Maas.

[A]

Yes, for sure.

[B]

Perfect. Okay, well, it's second book time, and as I mentioned, I do have a spicy opinion this episode. So I am excited to tell y' all about Martyr by Kaveh Akbar, and I have some things to say. This book. A lot of you already know this book. It was hugely popular about two years ago, so, of course, I waited a long time, and I finally picked it up with my reading partner Katie, this summer, and we read it together. Within Martyr, we meet and learn about Cyrus Shams as our main character. He lost his mother very young when she was flying to Tehran and her plane was shot down by a rogue US Missile. Nobody's taking the blame for it, though, so it feels like this very senseless death. All these 180ish people died in this terrible plane crash, including Cyrus's mom. As he enters adulthood, Cyrus is struggling with addiction and wants to find a way to make his life meaningful, or maybe his death meaningful. He's continuing to struggle with the fact that his mother's life and death felt really meaningless and random. And now he mourns his father's death as well, who just, like, worked hard as a regular person for a long time, but feels like that means his life was not in service of something bigger. So Cyrus starts attempting to draft a collection of poetry that examines the lives of martyrs and hopefully will therefore determine his own life's meaning and maybe his own death's purpose. That's. That's the setup for this book, and within that, it is billed as electrifying and funny. And there were moments that I was like, yeah, that was kind of humorous. But mostly I found it really hard to be really firmly ensconced in the mind and day to day activities and thoughts about life and death of a person struggling with addiction. Cyrus is up and down throughout this story, and by the time it turned toward the main plot points, I already knew where it was going. So I don't want to spoil any parts of it, but basically there's a meeting in this book maybe a quarter of the way in. And I was like, oh, I know what's going to happen. So because I could see that road ahead of me, I was okay being in the story. But the ending brought this book from three and a half to four stars. Okay, I don't love being in it, but I'm enjoying the writing and the storytelling and seeing where this goes to three stars and maybe less. For me, I don't need every single question answered at the end of a book. And Katie and I actually really love tossing around theories and ideas when we end something and there's some kind of ambiguity to it. But the way the author decided to finish this book, I was rageful. When this book ended, I wanted to not just throw it across the room, but also to make sure that the end of that arc was my garbage disposal where it could get eaten by the final destination demon that eats people in garbage disposals. As a fun fact, this book actually ties back to a conversation we had a couple months ago before the end of the season. I was currently reading it at the time and I had people asking me about it and I didn't have a full sense of it. And this is when we talked about if I should get an upstairs Kindle and a downstairs Kindle. Meredith Because I don't always want people to know what I'm reading when I'm in the middle. Cause I don't want to answer questions about whether or not I like it. Right at the time I was carrying around this bright yellow book which draws its own attention. And I would have said I was liking it, but there were themes that made it difficult for me personally. But the writing was really good and I enjoyed the characters. This is why I don't want to talk about books Limited. Because now I have to go find my friend Lisa and tell her that I do not in fact recommend this one. Although so many people do. Many people loved this book. It is very highly rated. It's beautifully written, it's literary, it's layered and complex. It's interesting. There are Connections that were staggering to me.

[C]

Whoa.

[B]

But the ending. The ending made me so angry that it just. That poor reading, it just dropped like a stone from that point. So if I had had just not the last three pages, I think this would have been a four star read for me. And instead I hesitated to give it three. And it was only because of the rest of the book that had carried it to that point. So this is Martyr by Kaveh Akbar.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, it's very, very rare for you to have a book completely ruined by an ending. That's not something that usually, you know, tanks a book so entirely, but. Oh, that is infuriating when it does.

[B]

Oh, it was so frustrating. And I was very excited about it. So many people love it.

[A]

I feel like I've heard a lot of people talk about not loving it.

[B]

Maybe I'm listening to the wrong people. Yeah.

[A]

Or maybe it's just divide. It's just, you know, divided.

[B]

I think it might be either way, so.

[A]

Well, I'm. Yeah, that's a bummer. I have a book that I've been waiting for a while to actually bring to the show, but it's finally time and this book is Buyer Beware by Katherine Ryan Howard, one of my all time favorite authors. Here's the setup. You know those houses that you drive past and you think, I wonder what's happened in there? Well, Katherine Ryan Howard has built an entire thriller around exactly that kind of curiosity. In Buyer Beware, our lead character, ellie arrives at 1 Delaney Row with little more than a suitcase, a fresh start, and secrets that she is desperate to bury. What she doesn't realize is that her new home has been keeping its own secrets for years. And the people who want them to stay buried are already watching. Ellie. When a grim discovery sends her digging into the house's past. She unknowingly sets herself on a collision course with a history that's far more connected to her own than she could have imagined. All right, Katie. This book is one of those where I started it and I was absolutely flying. The first 50% of buyer beware had me in that delicious reading zone where you, like, look up and you realize two hours have passed. Katherine Ryan Howard structures the early chapters with these short, punchy little segments that just keep you moving forward with each storyline more intriguing than the last. This was exactly the kind of reading experience that I was looking for at the time, and it was just completely absorbing. And it was doing what CRH does so well. She knows how to and loves to hook her reader the Premise of a stigmatized property. Property, like a house with a dark, violent past, is catnip for me, and she leans into it heavily. Multiple story lines weave together, and for most of the book, I was completely along for the ride. There are themes at play here that I thought were really compelling, and I can't get into it without spoiling things, but trust me when I say that there is more going on in this book than just a creepy house. By the time I hit the back half, though, my enthusiasm was cooling a bit. That trope that I was super excited about, the cursed house with secrets, it does pay off. But I found myself wanting a little bit more from it. And the ending wrapped up faster and a little more neatly than I felt it had earned in that delicious tension building. At the beginning, it felt like a roller coaster that has this incredible first series of drops and loops, and then the finale is just kind of a gentle ride back to the platform. Still fun, but you were bracing for maybe one more thrill. That said, I like this book a lot. Definitely, definitely liked it more than her previous novel, which longtime listeners know did not work well for me, which was burn after. Reading this book, though, felt like a return to form for this author that I genuinely adore. CRH has this gift for making you distrust everything while still keeping you racing through the pages, and that is very much present here. So I think if you want a fast, atmospheric novel that plays with the idea of secrets that places can hold, this one delivers. It was a great palette cleanser, and I was very, very glad to see her return to form. This is Buyer Beware by Katherine Ryan Howard.

[B]

Well, I'm glad for the analogy of the roller coaster, and I. I'm so familiar with that feeling. But also a creepy house book where it's like, it's got its own secrets. Yeah, I want it.

[A]

Yeah, I read this a lot. I mean, whenever I get an arc of her books, I just, like, drop everything and read them.

[B]

Push everything else off the table. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. So I read this book a long time ago. I wanted to save it until it was coming out, which Bio Beware comes out. By the time this show goes live, it will have been out a week, and so you can get it right now. So I wanted to save it till we could do that, but I still. Even though a lot of months have gone by, I still have these, like, very, very, very clear memories of a couple of scenes that absolutely creeped me out so badly. So she did a good job here.

[B]

Oh, fun. Excellent. And yay for a Return to form.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Loving our beloved other friends makes me so happy. Okay, my third one is a beloved author as well. I am going to talk about the second in a series. This is Ravensong by TJ Klune. Two full years later, I'm finally ready to discuss re entering the world of Wolfsong, which was my number two book of the year for 2024. Yes. Meredith was like, yes, yes, this is a romance series. It is a werewolf romance series, but it needs to be read in order. We have talked on Love and Chili Peppers about romance series and how there are two different types. One is in order like Sarah J. Maas's books and one is you can dip in anywhere you want because it's just kind of friends in the same friend group or people from the same family. But you're not really spoiling or building on the previous stories. According to me. You have to start with Wolfsong to get the story straight in book one and familiarize yourself with the characters you will meet in book two. However, in book two we are focused on Gordo Livingstone, the witch of the Bennet pack of werewolves from the world of Green Creek where this story is set. Built in Wolfsong, we continue the story started there, but pivot our focus over to Gordo. His power draws from the tattoos inked on his skin all over his body. Those tattoos were first started to be inked on by his father when Gordo was young, and that part of this story is difficult. You're like holy crap. Like holding down a child to give them tattoos. It's emotional, it's intense. When he was just a young boy though, he was getting tattoos and he was learning what his life would look like as a witch for the Bennet pack because that was his father's role that needed to be passed down to him. Now, as a world weary adult with baggage of his own and betrayals in his past, he is roaming the country with his Alpha looking for rogue Omega wolves and attempting to keep everyone within the pack safe. Gordo's life unfolds from that moment, the start of the story, through present day events as well as with flashbacks to his childhood, his young adulthood, and the way that he became the closed off man that he has become. He's struggling to write his own story and forge his own path in a world that has told him exactly who he's going to be and what role he's going to play who for the rest of forever and ever. Amen. That push and pull for Gordo with the pack is Further complicated by Mark Bennett, one of the Bennett wolves, who carries Gordo's heart in his wolfy jaws, unwillingly but completely. This is tortured longing. This is slow burn. This is love wrapped in hatred to keep it safe. It's inevitable and crushing. Gordo is dark and brooding. Mark is wolfy and feral. Sometimes they both have been betrayed and broken. Also, those tattoos that cover his body glow and move when he uses his power. So everything about this is very Shadow Daddy, like Meredith mentioned at the beginning. Yes, please and thank you. This book is more than 500 pages. It's filled with that tortured longing. I read it on paper and on my Kindle, swapping back and forth whenever I was able, so I can't comment on the audio at all, but I never lagged for a second in how much I wanted to be reading it whenever I had to be away from it. So while I did see some reviews that it could have been trimmed down some, I not even respectfully, I disrespectfully disagree, even with regard to the action scenes and the fight scenes, which sometimes for this reader will be a little bit of a snooze fest. Like, okay, but can we get back to the tortured longing? Like, I don't need to know who's like, got ripped off by a werewolf. It's whatever, it's fine. No, I devoured every word and I would do so again. And now we begin the long wait for when I'm ready to be wrecked for the next book in the series, which is called Heartsong. That's book three. But for now, I'm just so glad that I got to be back in this world with Gordo and Mark and all of the Bennet Pack in Ravensong by TJ Klune.

[A]

Now, is Heartsong out right now?

[B]

Yes, all four books in the series are out right now. They have been republished by Tor because this series was actually one that TJ Klune self published like a decade ago. More. And then the House in the Cerulean Sea came out and Tor kind of bought up his backlist and started republishing them. So all four are out and they're beautiful. But there's also like the old versions from when he was a self published author.

[A]

Do you have them in print? Like do you have the actual hard copy versions?

[B]

I think I have two. I have the two that I've read so far and so now I'll go buy the third one and then it will sit there and it will wait for when I'm ready to be Wrecked. Because that's what happens with TJ Klune.

[C]

I love it.

[A]

I love it. Well, I'm so glad that you love that one, because I do remember, like, it was yesterday. You talking about Wolfsong?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And there's a lot about that story that actually has, like, some tie ins with Crescent City, which is interesting.

[B]

Yes. It's so fun to be able to make those connections, too, between beloved fantasy series that are built by different authors and different worlds and different everything. But it's like, oh, yeah, this kind of element. I see that little seed of it here and here and here.

[A]

It's fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To make those connections. All right, well, I am bringing the other by Annie Neugebauer. Here's the setup. Elise and Logan are a married couple working through. They're going through a rough patch in their marriage, and they've come to the Oklahoma wilderness for a backpacking trip. Just the two of them. No cell service, no easy way out. Like, they're. They're hiking in for miles and miles. The idea is just to get as alone as they can be, to reconnect which dummies. Then they cross paths with another couple hiking in the opposite direction. And very quickly, anybody who has two brain cells in their head realizes that something is very wrong. This other couple starts out just kind of like demographically familiar to them. Similar age, similar features. But then things start to get weird. Very, very weird. That's all I'm going to say about this book. I have such a soft spot for a book that turns into an argument at my own kitchen table. And the other is exactly that kind of book. The whole thing runs on one engine. The question of what would you do if you landed in this situation? And I couldn't stop thinking about it for myself. Annie Neugebauer takes these very real, ordinary people and drops them into a circumstance that is so deeply strange and then just lets it cook. I love that construction to a book. I'll tell you, I spent the whole time I listen, I listened to this just like I listened to the extra, which is the other one. And I was kind of running through my head what my answer was ever going to be. If this ever happened to me and Johnny, what would I do? I actually don't even want to say the next part of my notes because I just think it's too much of a giveaway. So I'm not going to say that. Just know that if you listen to this book, and I highly recommend that you listen to it, but it might be only on Audible, if I remember correctly. But it's totally worth it. Anyway, like the Extra, which is the other book that I read by her, it's very short. It's like 90 minutes. So it's super, super short. One thing from a style perspective that I did get kind of hung up on is that there's a lot of internal questioning in these pages. Like we're in the point of view of each of the characters, Elise and Logan, and there's a lot of circling and second guessing from each of the points of view. And at a certain point I just wanted to reach into the story and just say, friends, just do something. But I'll also be fair to the author here, because all that internal churn is doing a job in the story. The dread of the thing lives really in the not knowing what you should do. So the very part that drove me nuts was also the part that made the book work. Both things are true at once, which seems perfect for a book by Annie Neugebauer. As I said, this is the second in the Outsiders sequence. That's what she calls it. It's not a series, it's a sequence. The first was the Extra, which I brought to the show. That's the one with the camping trip where 10 people go out and then somehow there are 11. But everybody knows everybody. So what happened? The other lives in that very similar vein. A surreal situation that has to be navigated by people who seem exactly like somebody you would know. That same flavor of paranoia, but a brand new setup. Here's where this one actually pulled ahead for me. The ending is every bit as unresolved as in the first book, but in this case, I found the lack of resolution even more interesting than if it had been resolved. It's the kind of non ending that I was, as I said, chewing on and thinking about and talking to Johnny about for days afterwards. It kind of wants you to debate. Which is exactly why I think these little books are perfect for a particular kind of reader. If you want something to spark a great conversation, this is a great pick. I keep thinking it would be a blast to listen to on a family road trip. My kids, even my adult ones, would eat this one up and then we would argue about it for the next hundred miles. Both of them give you so much to talk about and the format is wonderfully digestible. Again, a quick practical note. I did this one on audio. It's just over like an hour and 15 minutes at the speed I listen, which is just 1.5. And there are two narrators the two voices suit the structure of this particular story really beautifully. And the whole thing just flies by. I love this book. I love this sequence. There is going to be another one coming out in 2027 called the Spare, and I will download it the second it is available. This one is the other by Annie Neugebauer.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

This is so fun.

[B]

Yes. I remembered as soon as you started setting it up, the extra and the setup for that one from what, a couple months ago? Probably six months ago, maybe. I think, honestly, maybe we should just all stay out of the woods. I think that might be the answer here.

[A]

I mean, yeah, nothing good comes from camping. If you read any kind of murderful genre that I read.

[B]

No, I just had a conversation the other day with somebody who told me they were afraid of flying, but they just went on a solo camping trip. Just one person by themselves in the woods. And I was like, we have opposite fears. You will never, ever find me alone in the woods. Not ever. That's like the scariest thing I could think of.

[A]

No. And after reading the other, I'm not sure I even just want to go on like a day hike.

[B]

That's just not a good idea. Okay, But, Meredith, the question of the summer, of course, is would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear or a man? A random man that you've never met?

[A]

I mean, probably a bear, right?

[B]

Yeah. And that's. Most women answer that. It. It's there. So, yeah, important questions have important answers.

[A]

Yes, again, stay out of the woods, people.

[B]

Just don't go in the woods. And then you don't have to deal with either of them.

[A]

All right, so those are our six current reads. Katie, let's talk just a little bit and let me do a time check here. I've been talking about books for a little while here, so we want to do a deep dive today, as we always do. Our first episode of the season on what we did over our summer break. So, Katie, how was your reading? How was your summer break? Tell us about it. Break it down for us.

[B]

Yeah, it was busy in different ways than it has been in the past. Readers who have been with us for a while will remember that last summer I took my kids on, I think it was a 5,000 mile, 60 hour road trip. We did 16 different states, we hit nine different bookstores, we drove all the way through the center of the country. And in the spring of this year, I had started tentatively planning the same for the summer. A different trajectory, but the same idea. This big, epic road trip, new bookstores, new people to meet the whole way through. And then we went to Paris and I said, you know, that was our big trip for this year, 2026. We're all done. We're just gonna hang out at home for the summer. And it turns out that was necessary because right after I chopped my hair off, maybe a day later, I finally got a call from my doctor and they said, we can fit you in for surgery next week on Wednesday. So instead of driving across the country, I did a lot of laying on the couch after a radical hysterectomy that solved a lot of problems for me, but also took some time to recovery. And, yeah, that I'm two and a half weeks out from it now. There were additional things that came up that I wasn't expecting right at the beginning, but are very normal and par for the course for healing. So it was the right move to stay home and be with my kids and my dogs and my couch to hang out on this summer.

[A]

Hopefully, did that equal you being able to do more? Like, sometimes with recovery, it means, like a lot of I can just really get into the mode and I'm just laying in bed. But then sometimes, especially with a lot of medication will kind of make me feel like I can't read very much.

[B]

Yeah, it was, I would say this summer I have kind of stayed steady for my reading for the year, which is fine. It's sufficient, we would say. But last summer, because of that huge road trip and so many hours of driving, I blasted through so many audiobooks at 2x speed, 2 1/2x speed, depending on where we were driving and what I was listening to that post. Road trip, I was at, you know, 30 books for the month because I could just, boom, go from one to the next. And this summer I did not read 30 books. And that would have been great. I would have loved to get 30 books under my belt this summer. But it was, you know, 15, as has been most of the year, which is fine. That is a totally normal amount of books. Katie. It's good. But the good news is a lot of those have been really successful books, with the exception of, you know, Martyr that I railed against today. Mostly I have been very satisfied with the books I've been reading, even if they're going at that slower pace that I've adopted over this past year or so. What about you, Meredith?

[A]

Well, we. I had a good break for sure, but I managed to have the lowest read number of books in a month in almost 10 years.

[B]

I read but 3,000 pages of Ceremony, right?

[A]

I read five books in the month of June. And just keep in mind, it's now July. June. For some reason, the wheels just fell off my wagon with reading. It really, really did. I mean, I was reading. I read a couple of books and then DNF'd them halfway through. So I invested in a couple of books and then didn't, you know, so then those aren't. If I don't finish a book, I'm not going to bring it to the show. So there was that. A couple of big investments that didn't end up panning out. And then Crescent City. But I thought a lot about my reading and how I want to be able to read when I decided to read the Crescent City books, because I had to really make a decision, like, am I going to allow myself to read this series? Or am I going to put this in the category of like, well, maybe someday in the future when we're not doing the podcast anymore, that's when I'll read it. And I was like, I feel like that's a recipe for me getting really frustrated and resentful about the podcast if that's constantly happening, right? Like, I can't read further in series. I can't read a series. I can't read, you know, middle grade. I can't read whatever.

[B]

The people can't read giant books. I can't read poetry. I can't. Yeah, right.

[A]

And so I was like, no, I think the very best thing, and we've talked about this, but it's like, you have to make this decision anew each time is if this is really what I want to be reading. I think with every book, I have, like, some different and interesting things, I think, to say about that particular book. And there are lots of people that have read them, so maybe they'll find that piece interesting, too. And really, just overall, biggest picture, I think I need to be able to make investments, like, as I've invested in reading the Wheel of Time books, too. Like, I just need to be able to. I like a long series. I like a big, chunky book that has to be able to be a part of my reading. But then also the other thing that has happened, and it sort of began in June, and then there have been other things that have happened since then, is that my husband has been having. My husband is an athlete. He's a runner. He works out like crazy. He's 58, but he. Like, when people meet him and find out that he's 58, they can't believe it because he literally seems like he's 15 years younger than that. And he is in such good health. And he keeps himself really, really physically healthy and strong in every way possible. Doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, never has, like five days a week, does some sort of workout, eats really well. Why am I saying this? Because he had, over the course of the last eight to 10 months, been feeling more and more as he was running, this weird feeling in his chest. And he'd mentioned it, but he, like, always had explanations for it and whatever. So over the last couple of months, it had gotten progressively worse. And then when we were in Maine in the last week of June, it was so bad that he couldn't really run at all. Which I, at that point was like, I don't know how many more times I'm going to tell you that you need to get this checked out. And he's like, well, I actually really probably do. Because when I saw the doctor seven months ago, they told me this and this and this. Suffice it to say, he did not take seriously some very serious advice from his doctor, his primary care physician. But by the time this all happened in June, he was like, just go into my chart and just read everything. I did that, Katie, and talked to you about that after I did that. And I was immediately on the phone with cardiologists and getting stress tests scheduled. And suffice it to say, when it became really real was when I looked at everything and we snapped into action. And just a day or two after we got home from Maine, he went into the cardiologist, then he did a whole round of tests. We just had a heart catheterization done last week, and we found out that, in fact, he needs what looks like is going to be a triple bypass. So he needs open heart surgery. And that's happening on August 4th, which is just the day after this episode goes live. Right now, it's a little more than a week away, and he's going to be in the icu. He's going to be in the hospital for a week. He's going to have open heart surgery. It's a lot to process. It's a lot to prepare for. I'm glad, of course, incredibly grateful for the fact that we were able to catch it before something emergent happened. But he has a 100% blockage in his widowmaker artery. They got done with the heart cath, and we're bringing him in. And the cardiologist said, Mrs. Schwartz, you know, we gotta talk we got some big problems, and you just don't want to hear that from a cardiologist coming out of the room, you know, with your husband. So we're going to do that surgery. It's going to be a pretty big recovery. But again, he is in great shape. The doctors think his prognosis is excellent, and they feel like he's going to be not only back to where he was, but back better than he's been in years and years. And he is incredibly disciplined and motivated, and he will do everything in his power to get his fitness back and to get himself back where he wants to be. And I will do everything that I can to help him. I know. Katie, you've been so incredibly supportive since we began down this road, and certainly since last week when I told you that we were actually going to need to do heart surgery. And I don't really know what this is going to mean for my ability to be on Mike for a while. It may just be a couple of episodes, and then I'm back and everything's totally fine. But until we know how he does, we know how the surgery does, we. We won't really know. So we're just. I'm grateful to you, Katie, for your support and that I can kind of hold loosely what this next piece looks like. We're gonna try to record a couple episodes real quick to get some in the can and try to limit as little as possible disruption to the show. But, of course, we've got our great guest hosts who always pitch in when we need this. So this is exactly why we've organized it the way that we have. But I also don't know what this is gonna do to my reading. And as a professional book podcaster, that is something that enters the picture for me. I already am going into this, not having the cushion in my books read that I wish that I had. And I probably wouldn't have decided to read the Crescent City series if I'd known that I should be, you know, that this was all happening again. Sometimes I can read a lot, and maybe in the hospital, I'll have a lot of extra time, and I'll be like, oh, my gosh, I got so much reading done. And then maybe I won't, because there will be interruptions, and maybe my concentration will be whacked, and I don't know.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's really scary. It's really terrifying. Johnny and I, last summer were separated, and now we're going through this a year later. The good news is we're Our marriage is stronger than it's ever been. But the bad news is I care a lot about what happens to him.

[B]

There's a new storm to weather.

[A]

It's kind of double edged sword, you know what I mean?

[B]

Like, yeah, it would have been so

[A]

much easier if I was just like, yeah, whatever. But I really, I really, really care very much that he'd be able to live a long and healthy life. And so I'm committed to do everything that I can to help that happen. So that's where we are. That was my summer break.

[B]

Yeah, it was big. There was a lot to handle and ingest and manage during the what felt like one week to y', all, which yay for a short break for everybody else. But, I mean, this is our real lives, right? And it all plays into our reading lives because they reflect one another. There's a mirror there. And as we've talked about just between the two of us so many times over this past month, especially Meredith. But over the past eight years, going into season nine, when there are life things, we have built this beautiful little bus that keeps on driving and our people will be here. And I absolutely know that today, when this episode airs, you're going to be flooded with support and people who have stood next to their own husband's beds and the advice that they would offer and the ways that they would love to have been uplifted. And that will also be a balm, hopefully, to everything that you're about to step into as you stand next to Johnny and you're the best support you can be for him. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

No, I really appreciate that so much. And if you've gone through this, if you've been a caregiver through this, you know, like, I'm pretty good at caregiving, but I feel like I can always be better. I can always have, like more tools in my toolbox to be better, both emotionally and then, of course, with the actual practical things. So we just step through it one step at a time and do the best that we can at every turn. And I'm gonna try to just be super present in what I need to do there. Even if my deck, you know, I've been told clear my decks for a full two weeks. That's a gargantuan task and not something I've ever done before to like completely have everything off my plate. But man, our friends here like stepping in and helping out, making sure that Jackson has, you know, Jackson obviously is turning 15. It's not like he needs a lot, but he does need like, he's just got his own big, full life and having friends here and my daughter and her family be able to just step in and be like, you know what? We'll get Jackson all the places he needs to go, and we'll make sure that he has everything that he needs. And, you know, because he's going through this, too, and he's, you know, also really concerned about his dad, who is this big, strong, consistently, like, tough guy. So, yeah, that's what's going on there. But, Katie, let's go ahead and talk about the items that we want to talk about before we go. I do have a bookish friend of the week that I want to talk about, and that is Casey Montgomery, who is one of our bookish friends, a Patreon supporter of ours. And Kasey told us that a year ago, she had embarked on a mission to buy a book from an indie bookstore in every state. And not just any book. She wanted each of these books to have come from a recommendation or a conversation with an employee at that indie bookstore. So she took a picture at every single stop. And then. And this is the part that got me, she bought a mini label printer and then used AI to turn each of those photos into a black and white line drawing. And then she put those into a book. Kasey said that she hasn't loved every single book that she has gotten, but the project has been a fun way to mark the store and to trigger the memories of her experience. And then in the bookish friends group, she shared a photo from a trip, I think to Tennessee for her mom's 70th birthday. So they did this little line drawing outside a bookstore, and it is just the cutest. And I just think it's such a great way for her to remember this massive undertaking, this big, huge project that she's been doing, which I just thought was so smart.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Our bookish friends are so inventive in the ways that they a like, spend out and make connections in different places that either whether they've been there or not, and they ask each other, you know, I'm about to hit this state, where should I visit? Right. So we know that a lot of these bookstores she's visiting are recommendations from the people who live there who love shopping and looking for books at that specific bookstore. Good job, Kasey. I loved that post.

[A]

That was so good. What have you got for us before we go?

[B]

All right. This is a sleeper hit. A book that I haven't talked about since season four, but I just reorganized my bookshelves due to the new one behind me and I did some moving of things on my other shelves so now I can easily see this one and I was like, gosh, I need to talk about that one on the show. Why haven't I told y' all to read it lately? So I want to remind all our listeners about the Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. This is narrative nonfiction about the Great Migration, which is the mass movement of black Americans out of the south post reconstruction, primarily to a few specific metropolitan areas. That might sound dry, but Wilkerson intersperses that historical broad stroke with personal stories of three specific real people as well. Ida May leaves Mississippi for Chicago, George leaves Florida for Harlem, and Robert leaves Louisiana for the West Coast. She manages to turn these stories of everyday Americans into page turning biographies while also helping her reader better understand the history of the US As a whole. I first read this one In February of 2020 and six years later I still constantly think of the people I met here, Ida, Mae, George and Robert, and the things I learned within it. Now, if it's a true sleeper hit, can it be named as Best Book of the Decade by multiple outlets after it came out in 2010?

[A]

Maybe not so much of a sleeper. Yeah.

[B]

Well, if you haven't read it, it's new to you and I'd love for you to pick it up. This is a fantastic piece of narrative nonfiction. It's a chonker, but it reads so easily. It's the Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.

[A]

That's a really good one. That's a good reminder for sure.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

All right, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me I'm Meredith at Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and you

[B]

can find me, Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans and you can find her on Instagram at Most of Megan's reads we'll show notes with

[A]

the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps. You can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in those show notes and also on our website at

[B]

currently reading podcast.com you can also follow the show at currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us@hellourrentlyreading podcast.com if you head to our website or our substack, you can sign up for our Reader Know Thyself newsletter, which helps you hone in on exactly what works in your reading life and what doesn't. If you're interested in watching this episode, and I did get a blue check today, I saw him pop his little head out, you can find us on YouTube where we're constantly adding new features and new bookshelves.

[A]

All right. And if you really want more of this content, join us. As a Patreon subscriber, you can become a bookish friend by going to patreon. It's just $5 a month and you get so much more content. You get amazing community and you keep our show commercial free. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts or on Spotify and shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.

[B]

Yes, bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and supporting us this whole time and get closer to our goals.

[A]

All right, until next week, may your

[B]

coffee be hot and your book be unput downable.

[A]

Happy reading, Katie.

[B]

Happy reading, Meredith.