← The Currently Reading Podcast
The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 13: New Kindles + Reviewing Our Spooky Season Reading
00:59:31
On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and KMary are discussing: Bookish Moments: finding new ways to listen to audiobooks and getting new kindles Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately...
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- [00:00]
Mary Heim
Foreign.
- [00:11]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Hey readers, 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 having strong opinions. So get ready.
- [00:25]
Mary Heim
We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk and our descriptions will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a bookish deep dive, and then we'll visit the fountain.
- [00:34]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I'm Meredith Mundy Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And sometimes I buy things I do not need.
- [00:43]
Mary Heim
And I'm Mary Heim, a therapist and mom of one living in Wisconsin. And the kindergarten germ parade has been really messing with my reading this week. This is episode number 13 of season six and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:56]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Oh Mary, I'm so glad to be recording with you. And also I understand the kid germ situation.
- [01:04]
Mary Heim
Yes, it, you know, I thought I knew it from preschool, but this is a whole nother beast and I am just trying to roll with it. I was talking to Betsy. We are buddy, reading an audiobook right now. Or it's for me, it's on audio. And I told her, I was like, my brain just doesn't have, it's not happening for me. I'm going to call it right now and I'll come back to you next week. Like we're just doing what we need to do, right?
- [01:28]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Exactly. Rolling with it. Like any, like, like any of us have to sometimes, but it's not fun. Well, let me tell you at the top of the show that we are going to have a little bit of a reading therapy session. Of course we have to take advantage of Mary being here with me. I can't, I can't not take advantage of this. We're going to talk a little bit about how our spooky or spoopy season is going and we're going to talk about the fact that there are a lot of people that seem to be struggling with some slumping in some way, shape or form on the Internet. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. But first we're going to talk about our bookish moments of the week. We dipped into it a little bit, Mary, but how are these germs affecting your reading life?
- [02:12]
Mary Heim
Specifically my bookish moment of the week, actually, when I was prepping for this episode, I wasn't fully, we weren't fully in germ town yet. But so my bookish moment of the week is a little bit outside of the scope, but it's interesting the way that it ties in. So I'll give a little backstory here. First, I'm probably the latest to this game, but my bookish moment of the week has been incorporating the free 15 or 16 hours of audiobook listening from my Spotify Premium membership into my reading life lately. And that has actually been maybe not so much this week just because my capacity for most things is nil, but it has really been an interesting boost to my reading life in a way that I didn't expect. So, like so many of us, I'm a libro FM girly through and through, right? I use and love Libby and Hoopla, and I've previously enjoyed subscription services like Everand, but when Spotify announced audiobooks I just kind of dismissed it like, this is not for me. I don't need this. It's fine.
- [03:11]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right? Me too. I didn't. I haven't looked into audiobooks on Spotify at all.
- [03:17]
Mary Heim
No, I was like, I. I got it. I don't need this. I'm good. But my audiobook listing has definitely dropped drastically since losing my commute and I was, you know, already pretty satisfied with my other services. But where this has been clutch for me has been more so in the margins of my reading. So if I have a book for book club that isn't going as quickly as I want it to, suddenly I can shift it from just a paper book or Kindle to also pairing it with audio and get it through much more quickly. Or if there's a book that I'm reading and really loving and I want to be consuming it all the time much 95% of the time. Spotify to the rescue. Sometimes for me, I can tell a book might be right but the format is wrong. Instead of using a credit to buy it, I will give it a try on Spotify first to see if a format shift helps or if it's maybe just not for me. But either way, all of these circumstances are ones where I previously never really would have thought to spend an audiobook credit, right? But I have really enjoyed having the option of this easy access to to switch in and out of audio at no cost. It's got many more books immediately available for me than Libby or Hoopla would, especially new releases. And it's been working really well with my reading life. So I really would encourage folks if you, like me, thought this feature wasn't relevant for you, just maybe explore it and see if it might actually be helpful in your reading life. After all, it's been really surprising for me.
- [04:44]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay, so you're saying that. So I'm gonna get a little bit into the weeds here, but I just have no idea about this. So there's some sort of subscription fee that you have to pay to get audiobooks.
- [04:55]
Mary Heim
If you pay for Spotify Premium, which is ad free. Spotify.
- [04:59]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay.
- [04:59]
Mary Heim
Then you have 15 hours of free audiobook listening a month.
- [05:03]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay. Without doing anything else to your account. You just get that. And what you're saying is instead of like on Libro or AM or Audible, you can download a sample, which. Or you can listen to a sample. So you can get a sense of the. A little bit of the narration, but it's like three or four minutes.
- [05:22]
Mary Heim
Yes.
- [05:22]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And you're saying here, not only could you take advantage of that for an entire book or two, depending on the book, but you also could just use it to go back and forth between books and listen to several hours of it.
- [05:36]
Mary Heim
Yes. And it's got all of the same something. I don't. I think this is maybe changing, but I, like many of us, listen to my audiobooks at like 1.5, 1.82x speed. I can't always do that on a sample. And I want to give myself time to like, get into it on audio and see if this is helping. If I've started a book and I'm on chapter six and I'm like, okay, this is kind of slow going. I can just hop on Spotify and be like, all right, chapter six, let's put this on and listen and see where it gets me or if it kind of moves me through the exposition of a book where I'm a little bit draggier for whatever reason. It's so nice to have it there as like, I don't even have to think about it. I don't have to spend a credit. I don't have to listen to the sample and try and guess is this gonna keep working for me or get on a long Libby wait list or risk it not being on hoopla? Spotify Premium has a lot of brand new releases just available and most people, I think are already or a lot of people are already paying for that. Spotify Premium to be able to just have this at your fingertips.
- [06:47]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Interesting. From a business perspective, I wouldn't be surprised if one of two things happens over the next 18 months to two years. Either they will. Spotify will use this as they should, and it's smart to get more of us using their, their platform. And then they will slowly Start to limit those, number those hours down because now they've, you know, they've, they've acquired the customer or it will push Libro and Audible to offer something similar, which would also be interesting. So I mean, this is interesting as a reader from a business perspective. It's also interesting to see how platforms figure out how to lure new customers in. So that is very interesting. I had no idea about that.
- [07:33]
Mary Heim
Yeah. Yes. It's not replacing my Libro monthly Libro credits, but I'm able to be much more discerning, as I think I already am. It's really just adding a category in the accessibility in my reading life instead of taking something else away, which has been helpful.
- [07:52]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So with Libro. Cause I think a lot of us are, you know, trying to figure out, right, we love Libro because we can support our indie of choice. I support Fabled with my Libro account. And what you're saying is for the books that you know that you want to do on audio, you're automatically going to use Libro for that?
- [08:10]
Mary Heim
Yes. Like I am going to go buy Louise Penny's newest book with a Libro credit. It's already pre ordered. Right. Like, I just know that.
- [08:18]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right. So pre orders would happen there too. That makes a lot of sense. Spotify just gives you that ability to go back and forth in a different way. All right. I think that's very interesting. I'm so glad that you talked about that. Weirdly, my bookish moment of the week is a little bit related because we're talking about the business of reading.
- [08:34]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [08:35]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I bought something I did not need this week.
- [08:37]
Mary Heim
Let's hear it. I'm dying to know.
- [08:38]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I pre ordered the new Kindle color soft.
- [08:41]
Mary Heim
Okay. I am so curious. Okay, tell me what sold you. Tell me about. I can't wait to hear about it when it arrives.
- [08:49]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay. So I have been, you know, I've talked multiple times. I've been doing a lot more reading on my iPad for a variety of reasons. But two of the biggest reasons are I do. And keep in mind, I do most of my reading indoors or if I'm outdoors, I'm on my cover patio. So I'm, I'm the glare factor, which is definitely there with an iPad and not with a Kindle. Less so. Also, I've been read. I've been using my fluffy pink stand for my reading, which makes reading on my iPad with my remote clip, it just makes it so easy. So I've been doing that a lot. In fact, I haven't even been taking the Kindle or the iPad out of my fuzzy pink stand. I'm even charging it in the stand because I just grab the stand and I just take that from place to place. Anyway, that's not what I'm here to talk about. The context of that is that I have really come to love the color cover that greets me on my iPad. And that's pointless, except it just makes me happy.
- [09:50]
Mary Heim
Right, that's totally fair.
- [09:52]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
When I'm annotating my books, which I like to do more and more of on my iPad because I can do it in a color coded way. Okay, well, those two factors are available in the Kindle Color Soft, which is available for pre order now. It's pretty pricey. I can't remember. It's like at the 300 some odd dollar price point. So it's an expensive thing for what it is. My Kindle Oasis is still going strong. My Kindle Oasis. This feels like it's going to be about the same size as the Kindle Oasis, but you get your cover in color and you can do the annotation in, you know, you can do color coded annotation.
- [10:31]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [10:32]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So will this be something? How will this kind of work into my reading life? To be determined, because they're calling it the Color Soft, which makes me think the colors I think are going to be a little bit muted because we still are getting the anti glare, which we love about our Kindles. How will this be accepted by the readerly community? How many people will decide to upgrade to it? I don't know. Part of the reason too for me is that my Oasis is several years old now. They have discontinued the Oasis and my Oasis has started to act a little bit funny in a few ways that have made me wonder, is it on its last leg? So that was really my excuse for saying, well, I think I'm about to lose my Kindle anyway. Like it's not holding battery life the way it used to. It's a little glitchy in several ways. So I don't know, did I absolutely need it? No. There's a really great reel that's going around with one of my favorite tiktokers, whose name now of course I cannot remember where she's talking about, you do not need it. And I watched that whole thing and I was like, oh God, you're totally right. So anyway, it will be interesting to see from a business perspective. It will be interesting to see how the Kindle Color Soft does well.
- [11:49]
Mary Heim
And I think something that feels very true to me for you, Meredith, is that you are like, you nearly sold me on an Oasis and I love my paper white. Like you, I feel like can talk about the functionality so well, you have the experience of the Oasis you like when it comes. I think that our community is going to be really interested to hear your perspective and review on kind of the benefits or drawbacks or how it compares. I know we have a lot of Oasis lovers in our community, so to see, like, is this a viable, a good replacement, you know, so I think, did you need it? No. But also, are you doing a service more for more than just yourself? Yes.
- [12:30]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I hear you saying that this was me being selfless in making this purchase and this is a much better spin. I like this a lot better. Okay.
- [12:41]
Mary Heim
Yeah. Let me be your hype girl. I can. Yep. I'm happy to.
- [12:45]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I love it. I love it. Okay. All right, well, let's start talking. Talking about our current reads. This is what everyone is here for. Mary, I am so glad, by the way, that we are recording together because I love our Venn diagram of reading. Yes, let's. Let's talk about what you've got. What's your first one?
- [13:02]
Mary Heim
So, Meredith, I was so excited. I actually, now that I'm looking all three of my books this episode, I'm like, oh, okay. I think each one of these could fit really nicely in that center point of our Venn diagram. So I'll be curious to hear if I can draw you in with any of them.
- [13:17]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay.
- [13:18]
Mary Heim
My first book this week is Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. Meredith. This was a wild card on my spoofy guide this year. It was recommended to me by our friend Holly from Hearts and Daggers, the podcast. It is actual horror. It is not cozy, it's not mildly thematic. It's the real deal when it comes to this genre in particular. However, I think this book is something special. And it's because of that that I had to both include it in my guide as well as bring it to the show today. So here's the setup. When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she pan. Only moments earlier, she had been fending off masses of birds from her late sister's body in a snow covered forest. In her dreams, night after night, Mackenzie's dreams return her to a memory from before. Her sister Sabrina's untimely death. But it's not until these horrors start infesting her waking life that she knows she needs to get to the bottom of what's going on. This means that she's going to have to return home to her family in Alberta, Canada, and face the grief that waits there for her that she fled from years ago. Meredith Somehow this book manages to be an atmospheric slow burn and a page turner all at once. I don't know how she does it. This story takes a little while to build, and it really does take some time to see what's going on. But when I got immersed in the story, I just could not put it down. And even from page one I was like, okay, this. I could tell I was stretching out of my typical reading wheelhouse and I was very into it. Like, let's see where this takes me. And of course, anyone who's paid attention to my reading in the past two years know that I am like a moth to a flame when it comes to books that explore grief. And this one just did a really spectacular job of tackling that topic of grief and grieving in a really interesting way. And on top of that, this book is absolutely masterful with how it handles family ties and female relationships. And it tells such a heart wrenching but powerful indigenous story filled with Cree lore that I still think is severely lacking in representation on most shelves. It certainly is on mine. I will say that even though this is horror, I didn't find it to be abundantly hard to read gory. I wasn't feeling squeamish or too overwhelmed by the elements that you traditionally find in horror. And I think that for the genre itself, it's fairly accessible and not overwhelmingly done. It's just a good book that happens to have some horror elements. This is a story of family, grief and legend that just like I said, only happens to be seasoned with some horror. And really my only qualm with this book is that I could have smacked the main character over that a couple times for how often she kept making some of the same bad choices, but even that didn't deter me from wanting to keep turning the pages. That is Bad Cree by Jessica Johns.
- [15:58]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Well, I'm really, really glad that you brought that, Mary. And I will say there's no way that you could know this, but the listeners know this as they're hearing it. Katie actually brought this on the last week's episode. Now you don't know that because the episode is not live yet. Yeah, it hasn't dropped. But what I think is interesting and what I love about it is that each of you pulled out different things from your reading. Some of the same some of the same things, but some different things. And it's very it's so useful to hear about the same book from two different lenses. And you both liked it, but you pulled out different things. One of the things that's most interesting to me about what you said is, and this is something that Laura Tremaine and I have been talking a lot about, both on Mike and off, which is horror. That is really speaking to larger themes.
- [16:50]
Mary Heim
Yes.
- [16:51]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And how horror can do things that other genres can't in ways that other genres can't, where it can really, really deeply explore some difficult themes in ways that keep you turning the pages, or maybe draw in different readers. Like me, for example, who wouldn't read a book with a deep grief theme if it was high literary or romance, that kind of thing. But I would read it in horror. Do you have a sense. The other really useful thing that I think you brought up is because I've tried Bad Cree a couple of times, and I haven't gotten to that point where I was fully immersed yet. So do you have a sense of, like, not an exact point, but, like, where it dropped you in fully?
- [17:35]
Mary Heim
I think, for me, I was past the point of no return in a good way. By the time she made it home to her family. Right. She's, like, kind of starting to experience this, you know, in the city. I forget where she's living. Maybe Seattle or something, but on her own. And then by the time she made it back to be with her mom, her aunts, her other sister, that's where I was really into it. That's where the story, I think, really starts to go forward full throttle. So maybe, Meredith, this is one that you listen to on Spotify and see, hey, can this kind of propel me through this X, you know, this expository setup to get me to that part? That is where it really started to work for me. But I also think it's okay if you're like, this is just not for me.
- [18:22]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah, well, I mean, I think that it. That it will be for me. Obviously, I'm gonna want to put some time in between, you know, when I read it, but I. This is one of those books that I definitely have been like, at some point, it is going to be absolutely the right fit and hearing. You know, what. What you've said about it today is underscoring that for me. All right, well, I also think that at least two of my books that I'm going to talk about today fit into our Venn diagram, and this is one that might be the perfect palette cleanser after you read something like Bad Cree and this Is Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara. Mary, did you read All Her Fault? Her first. Her first book? No, I don't think you did. Because that All Her Fault is the one where the woman goes to pick her little one not too far off from your little one's age, up from a playdate, and child is not there.
- [19:12]
Mary Heim
Nope. That's a no.
- [19:13]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yep, exactly right. And that's. And I. That was what I was remembering. This one you will absolutely be able to read, and I think you would really, really like it. Here's the setup of Someone in the Attic. So Julia, she is a woman who's living in an upscale gated community. This book is set in Ireland, which is one of my favorite things about Andrea Mara's writing. So she's there, and she and her kids are kind of just hanging around in the kitchen, and they come across an online video, like a TikTok video that stopped them cold because the footage in this video shows a masked figure climbing out of an attic. And it's very easy to figure out that the attic is their own house. It's this house they've just moved into.
- [19:52]
Mary Heim
Oh, my God.
- [19:54]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So we then also quickly realized, like within the first chapter, that that video is connected somehow to the recent death of Julia's old school friend, who was found dead in her bathtub after an apparent home invasion. As Julia digs deeper, she is forced, of course, to question everything about this life that she's created, about what a safe, secluded neighborhood actually is and how much you can trust the people who are in it. All right, so as I said, Andrea Mara, the Irish crime fiction author, she wrote All Her Fault. And I'm actually really happy to say that I loved All Her Fault, but I loved Someone in the Attic even more. This was a really good piece of domestic suspense. It had a very interesting puzzle at its center, a bunch of really wonderful characters, and every one of them could have been the guilty party. It's got a banger of a first chapter, and then it works itself out in a very enjoyable way over the course of its 360 pages. So I started this one on audio because I always enjoy especially Irish crime fiction on audio. But then I quickly grabbed my print copy, which I had pre ordered from fabled because I wanted to be able to go back and forth and I didn't want to be listening on audio. I read this book really fast, and it's always a good sign when I'm looking for multiple formats of the book. There's an element of that tried and True trope of old friends coming back together and remembering an incident in their past which normally I do not like that trope. It leaves me very cold. I'm just so eye rollingly sick of it. But in this case it didn't bother me. It was actually a useful element of the plot, not one that was shoehorned in for like. Like a reason for us to start the book. This is a perfect book for you. If you are looking for a page turner that doesn't have a lot of violence or gore that is per. It is perfect in that way. Also, it is not supernatural in any way. So I just want to let you know if you're kind of in Spooky season and you're like, I can't do any more of that. Yes, this one definitely has twists and there are moments where you're gasping because you didn't see something coming. But every single one of those happens in a way that makes sense. Nothing comes out of the blue. Which is why I would say this is less a thriller and it's more domestic crime fiction. So if you like the works of Katherine Ryan Howard, you will definitely want to check out Andrea Mara. I know that I will automatically be buying her next book. It's actually continually something I'm going to be checking for on Blackwell's. This one is Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara.
- [22:36]
Mary Heim
First of all, you're spot on. This sounds like something that it fits well into the category of prime fiction or a thriller that I would enjoy.
- [22:46]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And you can handle it.
- [22:48]
Mary Heim
I can handle it. It's not necessarily something for me. I've learned. My line is like, could one of my therapy clients bring this tragedy to me in the therapy room? I can't read about that. But this is not happening. You know, like, this is like, this is not something. It's like thematic and it's happening in the real world, but it's not like an assault or something like that, you know, that feels like something someone would bring to therapy. And I'm thinking like, my brain is so foggy. We're all so sick. I'm kind of sludging through. Not sludging, but a little bit of a slower book. Right now I'm like, I think I need to download this on my Kindle. And this is going to be the brain candy I'm going to escape with this weekend as we just get through, hopefully the tail end of all this illness. So thank you for putting this right on my radar. I'm going to go buy it as soon as we're done with this episode.
- [23:42]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
It's perfect for that use case, let me tell you that. All right, what's your next one?
- [23:46]
Mary Heim
All right, Meredith, I'm going to take a bit of a left, a hard left here and bring a bit much by Lindsay Rush. Chances are, if you are friends with women on Instagram, you have seen Lindsay Rush's poetry under her Instagram handle, aryoliversdrunk Cousin. We all love MaryOliver here, and truly, Lindsay Rush does her justice with this absolutely gorgeous poetry collection. Rush's style is described as using humor to grapple with the female experience. From questioning whether or not to have children to roasting the patriarchy or challenging what it means to age gracefully. Each poem delivers gut punching truths along gratifying punchlines. Readers walk away feeling seen, celebrated, wholly convinced that joy is an urgent, worthwhile pursuit. And I could not have said it better myself. I find myself continually drawn to poetry collections from poets like Mary Oliver, Kate Bear, Ruby Cower, and now I'm enthusiastically adding Lindsay Rush to this list. There is just something about reading the female experience, written so beautifully, so complexly, but also so real. Reading this book is like sitting down to chat with your girlfriend and saying, yes, yes, yes, you get it just over and over again. Something I really loved about this particular collection is how she divvies up her poems into subcategories with grouping titles like when you have a crush on everything and everyone or when the monster turns out to be three dogs in a trench coat. These poems are smart, they're irreverent, they're joyful and real. And I think whether you're looking for a place to start with reading poetry or if you're an old pro, this is a great one to add to your tbr. That is a bit much by Lindsay Rush.
- [25:25]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Oh, that. I mean, immediate add to TBR for me because, you know, I've been listening to so much Mary, I've been reading so much Mary Oliver. Mary Oliver having a drunk cousin sounds perfect.
- [25:36]
Mary Heim
Yes. I'm like, if I could shove this one into your hand. Meredith, I'm not even pressing. You're shoving, shoving it. It's a little. Some of them are a little millennial. That I think won't totally work for you. But I also think you're gonna see the whole kind of, the whole picture. You're gonna see the forest for the trees in this book, and I think it's gonna work for you. I think it's not replacing Mary Oliver by any means, but I think that it is kind of bringing her into the current day in a way that just feels like, yep, I can still find peace and beauty in poetry in this world that sometimes feels so broken in the here and now. It's like a good affirmative reminder that, like, even in the struggle of our current world, like, there is so much beauty and connection and. Yeah. Our own lived experiences. I think you're gonna love it.
- [26:26]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Immediate add to tbr. All right, well, my second book is a part of my morning reading, which, you know, I've been really, really loving, like, very much. This is a part of my reading that is working hugely, and I'm really glad about it. But the book that I'm bringing is one that I was like. I really. I doubt you've read it, but it's called the Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kashimi and Fumitake Koga. Have you read this?
- [26:53]
Mary Heim
I haven't, but, Meredith, this is like a big theme, talking about my work. Right?
- [26:57]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right. Well, I want everyone to give me grace as I talk about this book, because this book is not for everybody. Ok? Okay. So I really want to say, listen carefully and listen with grace, because I am not recommending this book to everybody, and I'm not saying that everyone is going to agree with its principles at all, but the Courage to Be Disliked. Okay, so it's nonfiction, so the tagline does a lot of work here. The Japanese phenomenon that shows you how to change your life and achieve real happiness. The Courage to Be Disliked is given to us as a dialogue between a philosopher and a young man who, over the course of five conversations, basically talk a lot about how much each of us is in control of our life's direction, independent of past burdens and the expectations of others. Okay. So that when I talk about past burdens, that's also doing a lot of work. So let me. Let me tell you what I thought about it. So Laura Tremaine was talking about this, reading this book in her book Morning Reading. And I was on the heels of a very, very tough year in my own work where I was struggling very much as a CEO who is also a human person who really wants to be liked. But as CEO, I often have to make really difficult decisions. So just the title got me on this one. And so I've been on a journey to become more okay with living my own values and principles and not being as concerned about what other people. People think about what I say or do. And that is really hard for me as I think it is for most people. So this book spoke to me and as I read it over the course of about a month, so this was a month of my morning reading, it both challenged me and it became woven into the fabric of my thinking. So this was a very impactful book. It challenged me though, because this book is very, very philosophical. It is written from the point of view of a Japanese philosopher who has studied Greek philosophy and also who has studied the psychology expert Joseph Adler. And he puts together principles from those schools of thought to put forward what he's talking about in this book. It is not easy reading. Although the words he uses are simple. I found myself having to read in absolute isolation and having to read each chapter a couple of times to truly get it. So this was like trudging but worthwhile reading. But as I did that trudging, there were a lot of light bulb moments for me and within just a couple of days I found myself quoting this book and thinking about the different things that they talk about to the point where my best friend Lisa was saying, it's been a long time since I've seen you read a book that has had this much impact in your day to day life. And she's definitely right. I see myself reading this book or books like it over and over again. In fact, the day that I finished this book, I immediately put my bookmark back in the beginning and a note on my calendar to begin to read it a year from now. The chapters only take about three minutes, but as I read them over and over, the principles became more clear. So that reread feels like it will be useful for me. I do want to say that the principles in this book are controversial. You will want to step lightly into this and only take what is good for you and where you are right now if you choose to read it. There are some very, very controversial ideas in here, especially as it has to do with how we process trauma. So again, I'm not making a judgment call as to whether or not not the philosophy here is right or wrong. I'm just suggesting that you step carefully, especially if the burdens of trauma have been something that you've been really carrying on your journey. But this is exactly the kind of book that I'm so glad I folded into my reading again because it gives my brain something to chew on. It's given me a lot to think about and it's given me a lot to incorporate into my life in my particular journey. So those things, for those reasons were very satisfying. This is the Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kashimi And Fumitaki Koga.
- [31:17]
Mary Heim
Meredith, I think. Well, first of all, I think you did a really beautiful job of delivering the complexity right around this book of really being able to speak to maybe who it will work for and who it won't. And I think that, like, this is a loaded topic anyways. Right. Even if it's not coming from such a heavily philosophical bent, it's really fascinating. I'll have to decide if it feels like a yes for me or when it feels like a yes for me. But I think you've given me a really good framework with which to make that decision.
- [31:47]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right, exactly. And I. And there was a really strong reason that I. That I pulled out those two things, this issue of how much the burdens of our past come into play in our thinking. But then also the second part about others, expectations of us and the likability factor. And those were really the pieces that were useful for me. And so I didn't want to not bring it to the show because it has been so impactful. And I know a lot of people DM'd me after I've talked about that. Those elements of wanting to live a life of authenticity, but feeling pulled back because we're so worried about the expectations or the feelings of others as it has to do with our actions or our words. So for that reason, I think that the book was very useful. So I wanted to bring it for sure.
- [32:34]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [32:34]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right, what's your third one?
- [32:36]
Mary Heim
All right, well, talk about a palette cleanser. I'm going to bring a nice, light, enjoyable, easy to fall into story, maybe for after you've read this one. My third book today is the Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Stephen Banbury. This is middle grade, Meredith, and I think it is going to be one of my top books of the year. Let me give you the setup on All Hallows Eve. Our orphan main character, Eve, is attempting an escape from the orphanage again. But this time, instead of being foiled like she usually is, she comes face to face with the fabled Pumpkin King, who asks to adopt her and bring her back to his kingdom. Hallowell. Hallowell is home to witches and vampires, ghosts and goblins, and all the things that go bump in the night. But just as she begins to think she's finally found a home, a sinister scheme is unearthed, threatening to take everything from Eve, including the home and family she has finally found. So, okay, Meredith, obviously, right. If you couldn't tell from that description I mentioned, this is middle grade. This is not just any middle grade. This is one of those magical middle grade experiences where you know that any 8 to 10 year old who picks it up is going to love it. But the writing is so good, the plot is so well paced, the world is so fully and wonderfully developed that you as a 35 year old woman maybe are absolutely going to put it right into that top 10 list of the year for you as well. This book was exactly the right story at the right time for me. I had been kind of hunting to fill a gap in my spooky season reading this year. We'll talk about this later. Something cozy but not romance. Something that totally captured me and basically wrapped me up in the equivalent of an autumnal ASMR room. This book did exactly that. It also hit the sweet spot for me of a very lovely growth oriented father daughter relationship. So if you love that kind of plot, you will get the good feels in spades here. Very rarely since Nevermoor have I had this kind of middle grade experience and I'm so thrilled to see this book getting the kind of hype it deserves on social media. It both wraps up fully and completely in this volume and also has already been signed on for a second installment. So if you, like me, closed this book and immediately wanted to be back in this world, rest assured that you can be. I'll also admit I initially dismissed this one due to the COVID which is so not fair of me because it's middle grade. It's very sweet, it perfectly fits the book. But you know, rightfully so. It's very much geared towards its intended audience and don't get me wrong, that is a good thing. But don't be like me and brush this one aside as just kind of boilerplate middle grade. It is going to be a hit with audiences across the board. That is the Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Stephen Banbury.
- [35:12]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Oh, and it has a 4.4 rating on Goodreads, so sounds excellent. And you know I love an orphan.
- [35:18]
Mary Heim
I was like this Meredith. This is going to be a Meredith book. It is one of those cream of the crop middle grades. I love middle grade. I think the storytelling in middle grade is excellent, but if you are the type of reader who's like I will read one or two a year. This is one that should rise to the top of that list for you. It is so cozy, but the plot keeps moving. It's well written, the characters are just delightful. It's got very like Diagon Alley vibes, but it also feels fresh and new. I think this is going to be a Hit.
- [35:51]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I love it. I absolutely love it. All right, that's a good one. Okay, so let's wrap up with another one that when I read it I thought, I think Mary might like this one too. And it's also a little bit lighter than, you know, some of the ones that we talked about before. I read after oz by Gordon McAlpine. Oh, have you heard of this one?
- [36:14]
Mary Heim
No, I don't think I have.
- [36:16]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Okay, this is really interesting. So here's the setup. It's 1896 and we're in Kansas. And you'll be surprised to find that a devastating tornado has just hit. And as the town is cleaning up, they realize that 11 year old Dorothy Gale hasn't been seen since the storm. Four days later, later, after they've been searching, Dorothy turns up and she tells a fantastical tale of a magical land called Oz. And she talks about witches and scarecrows. And from the get, the town is suspicious, of course, because where was she really? There's not a scratch on her, so we know she wasn't just knocked out by the storm. Then when a particularly disliked townsperson turns up dead in a really horrific fashion, sort of involves melting, Dorothy becomes the prime suspect. So then Our story follows Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford, who's a young female psychologist who is at first tasked with interviewing Dorothy, just interviewing her. And Dorothy now has been convicted of the crime and she's at the Topeka Insane Asylum. So Our story follows Dr. Wilford delving deeper into Dorothy's case face. And she finds herself questioning the line between reality and fantasy. All right, this was a fascinating read. I did it on audio, which was a great way to do it. It's hard to classify it into a genre because it fits into several. It's definitely a little bit fantasy because our setting is Sunbonnet, Kansas, right after this screaming twister rips through the town. And our lead characters are Dorothy and her little dog Toto and Auntie M. And of course the townspeople that we know from wizard of Oz. These are characters that we recognize, but it's very much a mystery too. And I think that's the part of the book that I liked the most. It was fascinating to see how the author, Gordon McAlpine, who sadly now has passed away, was able to take pieces of the wizard of Oz story and place them firmly into the real world and to show how a murder could take place that was directly related to the land of Oz. If you like melting witches, this is the book for you. It's also partly historical fiction. Because it is firmly set in Kansas in 1896 and it is very much about that specific place and time. It focuses. In fact, the very heart of the story is about the biases of the time against women, against science, especially science as opposed to religion, against education versus pure religious learning, against people who fit in and people who never have. It is partly voiced by a Greek chorus of townsfolk. And this serves the story well in moving it forward and also helps you understand exactly what the majority of the town was thinking and feeling. And that went a long way to explain how the story turned out. As I mentioned, I did it on audio. I liked it that way. The narration was really good. This is something a little bit different and I think it will appeal to a lot lot of readers. Certainly, if you like retellings of the wizard of Oz story, you will want to add this to your readerly collection. I do and I did. There are a lot of fun Easter eggs in the story that I enjoyed finding. So overall a lovely way to spend some of your mystery reading time. This is after oz by Gordon McAlpine.
- [39:41]
Mary Heim
Meredith, this sounds so fun. Maybe fun is the wrong word, but like it's unusual. It kind of sounds fresh. Fairy tale. I have never. Right. Heard of a book like this is not really doing something that's being done everywhere. And now you've got me questioning like maybe this is going to be my weekend sick day, you know, book to fly through. Okay. I have a question though. After the Dorothy, and maybe you can't answer this and that's okay. But after she's back and telling these fantastical tales, does it remain feeling fantastical or does it then feel very grounded in the real world?
- [40:23]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right. So the fantastical part is a very small part of the book. It obviously the entire book plays on the fact that you know this story.
- [40:33]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [40:34]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So that's really where those elements come in is you're bringing them as the reader because of what you know. But the story itself is very firmly grounded in reality and in all these other things, like how much do we believe in 11 year old girl in 1896? And so that fantastical element is arguably the least important in the story. But that is because of how much you're bringing to the rest of the story as a reader that informs this very grounded part of it, if that makes any sense at all.
- [41:06]
Mary Heim
It totally does and I think it makes it even more compelling to me. Very intrigued. That sounds like so much fun. Fun.
- [41:12]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah. And the book that is now making me think about and they're not the same reading experiences at all, but some of the same elements that I loved about a book called how to be Eaten, which was a story that took some different fairy tale female characters and put them in the modern world. But they were like in a support group together.
- [41:34]
Mary Heim
Yes, I know this book. Yeah.
- [41:35]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So that one is much more. How to Be is much more. It's much darker and much more. There's just a lot of crime there. But it's some of those same elements where I love being like, ooh, that's from the story, but in the real world. And that's from the story, but in the real world, after Oz did a lot of that, there is one really gory body discovery scene.
- [41:58]
Mary Heim
Okay.
- [41:59]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
But other than that, it's not gory at all.
- [42:01]
Mary Heim
Ooh, that sounds really compelling.
- [42:04]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
It's super, super, super fun. I should mention I heard about this one on Booktok, et cetera. Tina. Tina brought that to booktok, et cetera. And as soon as she did, I was like, oh, I have to.
- [42:14]
Mary Heim
I have to read that one for sure. I love it.
- [42:16]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right, so those are our six current reads. So we're just gonna do kind of a mini deep dive here on asking each other the question, how's your spooky season going? Because, man, it seems like a lot of people are struggling right now.
- [42:29]
Mary Heim
Yeah. And Meredith, I am one of them. And I know that you have been too. Right. That we're all just kind of in a bit of a slump. And it honestly has been really helpful to me to see how many. Of course I don't want us to all be slumping, but to really see, okay, this is not just me. For whatever reason. I mean, the state of the world, maybe current releases or whatever. There's probably a lot of pieces at play that a lot of people are just feeling slumpy or have been feeling slumpy this spooky season. Now, I think think personally I was kind of reflecting on this and I think that my I. I kind of pedestalize my spooky season reading. Right. I know this about myself. I love so many of us love this season of reading. I really love it. I love putting together my spooky guide. I love sharing books, pre reading books. I'm kind of curating my list for the next year. All year long, it's kind of always at the back of my mind. So I really hype up this season of reading for myself. And I think part of it for me was that I might have used up a lot of my excitement for spooky season reading in the preparation because I did more prep this year than ever before. I pre read a lot of books. I try to always pre read. Kind of like how y'all do with the indie press list. I try to at least read 15 to 20% of every single book that's going to go on my list to make sure that it's a good fit. But I try to fully read as many as I can. And I realized in all of the prep and excitement for this year's guide, I got to October 1st and I was like, okay. Like maybe I'm, you know, normally September, I'm like chomping at the bit to get to spooky season reading. And it just wasn't there for me this year. So I have since kind of recovered a little bit and I'll talk about that a little bit more.
- [44:30]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
More.
- [44:31]
Mary Heim
But it was kind of tricky and I think that it might be a year where I am learning how to hone in the dial on my expectations. How much energy I put into this and how much I set the intention or those expectations for myself. That can kind of take away from some of the fun.
- [44:52]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yeah. I mean, I've had some. There have been some standouts. So this spooky season, I read read A Discovery of Witches, which I'm so happy that I read it. And Roxanna and I just jumped into the, the second book in the series. And so that was, you know, witches and vampires and all the right settings. So that. And. And it was all also almost 600 pages.
- [45:15]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [45:16]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So I spent a lot of time in like Spooky Season isn't long enough. Right. Like, so I spent quite a bit of time reading that. But I'm totally happy about it. Also, I've been doing some great, great horror reading with Betsy and Chiara and we're working our way through 101 horror books to read before you're murdered. So I haven't. A couple of those I haven't yet brought to the show. But I think what I'm realizing is that horror, which I love and I love to read year round, is not my best spooky season reading.
- [45:47]
Mary Heim
Sure.
- [45:47]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
There's a difference there. It's a vibe difference. And so I think what I will do next time is I will adjust that a little. I'll tweak the dials on that a little bit because again, I can read all year round.
- [45:58]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [45:59]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
There are also two other factors that I know are at play for me. The first one is it has been hot as Balls.
- [46:06]
Mary Heim
Yes. Huh.
- [46:08]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
In October especially, we had a really mild September here in Austin. But in, in October, it's been hot, it's been sunny. Yeah, it's been too sunny. Like, if it's hot but cloudy, I can fool myself.
- [46:20]
Mary Heim
You can fake it, you can turn the AC up.
- [46:22]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right. But the hot and sunny just so that has been really, really quashing my vibe. The other thing is, I'm just gonna call it out. I think we will all feel better when we get to the other side of this election here in the United States.
- [46:37]
Mary Heim
Hallelujah.
- [46:38]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I think there's a collective holding of breath for everybody and we all are feeling a level of anxiety no matter where you stand on the, on the political spectrum. And so I just will be glad when we get to the other side of that and get to some just level of more. We just know what's, what's happening.
- [46:58]
Mary Heim
Right. We're not living in the uncertainty. That is a really hard place to stay. And we are all having to be in this suspended animation state of uncertainty. And it's really unsettling. It's definitely played a factor in my ability to focus and like, get into my spooky season reading the way that I want to, to fully escape. Like, it's hard, it's kind of impossible to escape fully right now. And I want to.
- [47:27]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Right. It's like. And I've talked to a lot of readers who feel the same way again from all parts of the political spectrum. It's in our bodies.
- [47:34]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [47:35]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
It's in our, like people are pointing to their, like their chests, feeling like, trying to get a deep breath, trying to feel, you know. So when your body has that anxiety in it, that kind of low level buzz or hum, it is, it takes bandwidth from my brain. And I'm finding that mostly right now. And this is different in different seasons, but right now I'm finding it less when I'm in a book. I'm finding it more in the space between books. I'm having a harder time moving from one book to the next one because I don't know. That hum kind of gets louder.
- [48:09]
Mary Heim
Yes. Yeah. I think that you, you just hit something for me that I don't know, that I realized is that it is hard for me when I'm in a book. I'm in it because I'm like, I've figured out, okay, this is working for me and it is much harder for me to just. It takes a lot more work to bring the hum down in order to be able to start well A new book, and that is particularly challenging right now. And you hit the nail on the head. I really think that that's what's happening for me here, too. And it is reminding me of. So the book It's Easier Than youn Think by Sylvia Boorstein about kind of anxiety, It's Buddhist way to happiness. I brought that book last year, was one of my top 10 books of the year. That is one that I reread on a regular basis. And she talks a lot about suffering and resistance to the suffering. And listen, I am using the word suffering really broadly here right now. But if we think about suffering as, like, I am in a situation I don't want to be in, you know, like this state of suspended animation, of being hit with news 247 about the election, we're not sure which way things are going to go. Like you said, across the board, no matter where you land, this is a really tense time. So if that's our suffering, right? And if you think about, okay, if my suffering's at a 10, that's hard enough to manage anyways. But then if your resistance to the suffering is also at a 10, that multiplies you to 100. And when I say this a lot, this is kind of like a founding piece of the work that I do. And with my own self here, the resistance is, I should be reading xyz. I want to be reading this. I want to feel, you know, more in my spooky books than I am this year, or why am I not enjoying this the way that I normally would? We're adding a layer of resistance to something that should be working for us. Us, should be joyful, should be whatever we need it to be. Maybe it takes a backseat. We talk about this a lot. That's like unnecessary additional strife. Maybe we just need to let ourselves be like, okay, this is really hard. I'm just not going to read a book right now because it's not working for me. And I'll get back to it when I get back to it, or my brain is just not where it wants to be this spooky season. And that's okay, right?
- [50:29]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
That's this. That's this spooky season. Next one might be the best one of your entire life. So I think. I think that's a great way to wrap up this conversation, Mary, because that is oftentimes what our reading life would be. So. Well, you know, we would be well served by remembering that whether it's Spooky season or any other part of our reading Even, you know, I know Katie has been struggling for a long time with her finding new rhythms in her reading. And so we've all been, you know, going on that journey with her. And it's just so good to say this is the current season and it's not a forever state.
- [51:08]
Mary Heim
Right. I don't have to like it, but I can just accept it.
- [51:11]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I love it. I love it. So, so good. All right, well, what we can do is we can make some fountain wishes. So what's your wish at the fountain this week?
- [51:20]
Mary Heim
Okay, Meredith, So of all of the things that AI artificial intelligence is doing lately that nobody really wants wants, here is one thing I do want it to do. I want it to fill out my currently reading tracker spreadsheet for me.
- [51:37]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Yes.
- [51:38]
Mary Heim
Okay.
- [51:39]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Although it doesn't take very long to do, it would be so nice to do it in a click of a button.
- [51:43]
Mary Heim
Right? It doesn't take long. And when I get in the swing of it, I'm like, oh, this is really fun. I really enjoy this, but I just have never gotten into a grand, great flow of keeping up with my tracker. What happens for me is I go in fits and spurts. I'm like, oh, crap, I haven't updated in two months. I gotta go in and backlog everything. And I love it when I do update it. And again, like you said, it doesn't take very long. It's really fun. I just haven't figured out my flow. And so I would love it if there could be some magical AI that scrubs my Goodreads, takes my books, and just voila, fills in my tracker for me. I love the spreadsheet. I love its metrics and its functionality and the amazing insight that it gives me into my reading year. And also I wish that sometimes, maybe when it's been two, three months for me, and I'm like, oh, crap, I gotta catch up. That I could click a button then and have it magically fill it in. And then when I'm in a really good groove and I want to enjoy taking the time to update it with my current reads, then I could do it myself. Myself. But instead of, you know, having AI try to replace my job or create fake art pictures online, please do this for me instead. Pink splash.
- [52:57]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
That is a fantastic wish. Can I tell you what my flow is? That is. That has been really helpful.
- [53:02]
Mary Heim
Yeah.
- [53:03]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So I force myself to enter once a month, and I don't let myself enter any more than once a month. And here's why. Because there is a level of flow it takes me, me about three to three and a half minutes per book. I have figured out because sometimes for me it's really helpful to be like, okay, but how much time does that actually take?
- [53:22]
Mary Heim
For sure, right?
- [53:23]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So it takes me about three and a half minutes. Every year I add more things that I'm tracking.
- [53:27]
Mary Heim
So yes.
- [53:28]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
And so I, it. I like knowing that I put it on my calendar for the first day of the month. I also put it in my Alexa on the first day of the month. It says, my Alexa reminder says, have you entered your books onto your reading tracker? You need to do it. That's what Alexa says to me because I told him, my Alexa's boy. So I told him to say that. So also I don't let myself start a new book when the new month starts. So like I might be in the middle of a book around the first or the second, but I can't start a new book until I have updated my tracker.
- [54:04]
Mary Heim
Accountability, accountability.
- [54:06]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
So all of those things together have certain. Now obviously for you and I, it's for you and me, it's really important because we rely on our tracker to help us pull together our end of year lists for which we have to do a show. So it's super, super important. But I think for everyone, we have found over and over again that tracking your reading in one way or another, whether it's in Goodreads or a notebook or whatever it is, certainly the currently reading reading tracker is a great way to do it is it really adds to your overall reading life. So. So I highly recommend that you find a flow.
- [54:40]
Mary Heim
I like that I. You've given me some good ideas and I think the main one is I need to put it in my calendar. If it's not in my calendar, it's not happening. I like the ritual of a new month. I like having like, I think it would make it feel like something to look forward to instead of, oh no, I forgot to do this for the last three months. Now I need to devote an hour and a half to trying to update because I really love the very specific metrics and I don't want to just put in title author rating. Right. I like seeing the other information that comes of it. So I think it will feel more like a fun ritual, a fun piece of my calendared week if I do that instead. Okay, this is helpful. And then maybe someday AI yeah, you know, but for now that sounds great.
- [55:29]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
It would be so great.
- [55:30]
Mary Heim
All right.
- [55:31]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
My wish is controversial. Sheol.
- [55:33]
Mary Heim
Oh, let's hear it.
- [55:34]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
But I feel strongly about this. Roxanne and I were talking about this this morning. As I said, we read Discovery of Witches. We've just jumped into Shadow of Night, which is book two in that series. We almost never read books in a series so quickly together. But we really wanted to be back in that world because we both loved the first book. And what we loved was that the second book in the series, basically, it's almost as if you closed the first book and you opened the second book. I'm not going to tell you exactly what it says because but it just flows with. No. With very little recap. My wish at the fountain is that more authors in series would be okay with the fact that we can expect readers to read a series. Now I know that I'm famous for we are not animals. We read books in order. And I do feel strongly about that. I wish that readers would take enough responsibility to say, you know what, if I have a lot of time in between the books, I'm going to go back. And there's many ways on if you don't have a copy of the book. Easy, easily available. There are many ways online with most books to be able to refresh yourself and then let the author just go. Let's not figure out how to shoehorn to make it so that someone can dip into book two of a series and have that be okay and read it as a standalone. No, it's not okay. Hey, let's be. Let's take responsibility as readers to read a series in order and refresh ourselves if we need to. Yes, I know that this is controversial, but I think it makes for a better quality series overall. It's part of the reason that I love Louise Penny books. No, they cannot be read anywhere. You cannot just jump in. You will. You will absolutely be missing a lot. I stand in opposition to anyone says who says differently. And I love the series for that reason. Like, just invest yourself, people. Let's. Let's be responsible readers and read the series in total and be responsible for our own recaps. We can do it. We are capable of this. And then we will get a better quality series. Ping splash.
- [57:45]
Mary Heim
Ping splash.
- [57:46]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
I know that I'm going to get a lot of pushback on that and probably you will see some socials around this. So you will have a place to put me in my place. And I. And this is something that I do want to hear here. You know, I say sometimes there are a few books that I won't accept criticism on this. I think I would love to see a discussion on this particular topic.
- [58:06]
Mary Heim
Yes.
- [58:07]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
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, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and Katie is osonbookmarks on Instagram and you can find.
- [58:19]
Mary Heim
Me at Mary Reads and Makes on Instagram.
- [58:22]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
Our show is produced and edited by Megan Putamong Evans and she is at most most of Megan's reads on Instagram. Full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found on our website and in our show notes.
- [58:40]
Mary Heim
You can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcast gmail.com and if you want.
- [58:48]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
More of this content, there is so much more available to you. If you become a Bookish friend, which is what we call our Patreon Patron supporters, you can join us on patreon. It's only $5 a month, get a lot of content and you keep this show ad free. You also can shout us out on social media or rate and review us on Apple podcasts. All of those things help us to find our perfect audience.
- [59:10]
Mary Heim
Bookish friends are truly the best friends. Thank you all for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [59:16]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
All right, until next week, may your.
- [59:17]
Mary Heim
Coffee be hot and your book be unput.
- [59:20]
Meredith Mundy Schwartz
To Happy reading, Mary.
- [59:22]
Mary Heim
Happy reading, Meredith.