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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 18: Spreadsheet Season + Bookishness We Are Thankful For
01:04:29
On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: relying on books when sick and bookish themed parties Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep...
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- [00:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Foreign. 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.
- [00:24]
Katie Cobb
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.
- [00:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas.
- [00:42]
Katie Cobb
How many?
- [00:43]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Four. And sometimes books are your friends when nobody else can be.
- [00:49]
Katie Cobb
Well, that's kind of sad. I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona, and sometimes playing with my books gets me in the bookish mood. This is episode number 18 of season seven and we are so glad you're here.
- [01:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, my thing has to do with middle of the night needing a middle of the night friend. Maybe yours does too.
- [01:09]
Katie Cobb
Sounds like we're alluding to the same thing, doesn't it?
- [01:12]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [01:12]
Katie Cobb
Okay, well, let's let everybody know at the top that we are going to spend some time in our deep dive today being thankful. We all just finished Thanksgiving here in the US as this episode drops. And so we're going to extend that season of gratefulness a little bit and make it bookish. But first, we have some mischief to manage. Meredith and it is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm so excited to let everybody know on our one ad for ourselves per month that it is spreadsheet season.
- [01:42]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. Oh my gosh. People get excited. People get excited for this season and it is. And I get excited every single year when we get a new one.
- [01:50]
Katie Cobb
Truly, it is a delight and I love seeing how many people join for the spreadsheet every year. And then I especially love when years later somebody says, oh, well, I joined for the 2021 spreadsheet and here I am still hanging around because I love being part of this community. I love talking spreadsheets, I love all the bonus content. So sometimes this is like a gateway drug.
- [02:12]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
For sure. It's absolutely a loss leader for, you know. Definitely. Well, so we've said spreadsheet a few times. Katie. I think we should take a moment to really make sure people know what we're talking about when we just say spreadsheet season.
- [02:25]
Katie Cobb
Yes, for sure. Okay, so the 2025 currently reading reading tracker will be available in the month of December. And why do we pump it before then? Because if you join Now, A, you'll get it right away when it drops, and B, you'll be invited to a couples special nerdy spreadsheet Zoom Tours, where I will go through how to put a book in, what kind of stats, all the new features I've added for the year, and how to make it truly your own. That's one of the things that our patrons really love, is that if you stay a patron year round, I'm your tech support. I'm your customization guru. I'm your Add another challenge tab for me, please. Katie, phone a friend. And I love, in this like, peeping Tom type of way, getting to look at people's spreadsheets and see what gets them excited or what kind of books they've been reading and what's really been like working for them in their reading lives. If they invite me into their spreadsheet in October and I get to see all their spooky season reading. Oh, my favorite thing. I love it so much. So.
- [03:29]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. So you're gonna do those tours. And what I love about that is it was on one of those tours that I. That I finally was convinced because I had been keeping my own spreadsheet in Google sheets forever. And I kind of thought that was honestly. But it was when I found out on one of those tours how easy it was to track the things I wanted to track and to not track and visually get rid of. Like, I didn't want to. I didn't want to have a bunch of visual clutter of columns for things that I wasn't tracking. But you taught us how to get rid of those things. So it's. It's like they don't even exist. And then we. I can have the reading tracker that's perfect for me, and you can have the reading tracker that's perfect for you. Now, I will say over these last four years that I've been using the currently Reading Reading tracker. Every year I have opted to track more things.
- [04:23]
Katie Cobb
Yep.
- [04:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Because it just. It takes me about three minutes per entry to enter them. I do it once a month. It's actually on my calendar as a task at the beginning of every month. So I make sure that I get it done and it doesn't take a lot of time. But man, the information that you get in the charts and the graphs and you give us such pretty charts and graphs that automatically populate and load up is not only really interesting, like a. Oh, that's interesting. But it has definitely contributed to me making better choices for myself as a reader. The reading spreadsheet if you guys believe in really the core premise that we believe in, which is everything related to reader know thyself. This is something that's really important to Katie and to me. It largely starts with the reading tracker. Wouldn't you agree, Katie? Yes, definitely. That is the most robust tool that a reader can have to really begin to unearth all of the things that unlock the most five star reading experiences possible in a year.
- [05:31]
Katie Cobb
Yes, I love that. That's exactly why we've continued to build it out year after year after year. Those Zoom spreadsheet tours, both of them get recorded, one of them gets shared to the Patreon feed so that it's always accessible. If you're unsure how to do something that I explained in the video, there's Q and A at the end. It really makes it user friendly, inviting and useful as a tool that works for readers, which is exactly what we want. Right.
- [06:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And it is true that you make it like you add things for people all year long, you take in feedback all year long and then incorporate like you have a notebook where you keep all of that then you incorporate those things into the next year's pages.
- [06:13]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, I have three pages.
- [06:14]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So every year it gets better and better and more magical and I love it. Like with an indie press list book that I read pops onto my automatically all the information pops into my spreadsheet. It's just done a really, really good job with it. This is the time of year that we will be taking on a lot of new bookish friends, which we absolutely love. A couple other reasons beside the fact that you get the 2025 reading tracker. We are going to be taking a two week Christmas break as we do every year and one of those weeks you guys are going to get our best of episode from 2020. So we always go five years in the past. This is going to be interesting because this is, you know, Meredith and Katie Sur.
- [06:59]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. And we have no idea how much longer it's going to last either.
- [07:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. And we're also still in the middle of it. And what did that do to our reading? It's a very interesting best of. And also so you're. So that's going to go out into the big feed. Then there's going to be a week where there's nothing or flip flop the order of that. There's going to be a week where there's nothing. Then there's going to be that replay. If you're all caught up on everything that we've ever done on the big show if you become a bookish friend, then of course you have access to the reading tracker. But you're also getting seven years, five years, seven years, six. Six years of all of the content that we have put out behind the paywall.
- [07:39]
Katie Cobb
Hundreds of episodes.
- [07:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's a yes. That is a great way to listen to a bunch of stuff while you're decorating for Christmas. To listen to a bunch of stuff while you're taking Christmas down to, you know, have with you as you make the drives back and forth places. It's really, really a ton, a ton of content.
- [07:59]
Katie Cobb
It is indeed. And I would challenge anyone to try and get through all of it in even a two week break.
- [08:06]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right, well, and the other thing that's coming up, that if you join us in December, you will be ready, primed and ready when it drops is January. We are doing something in the indie press list that we have never done before. We always have fabled from Waco as our indie press list store in January. But this year in January, it is fabled. It is Elizabeth Barnhill. It is all mysteries and thrillers for January. So it is going to be an extra special indie press list that I think is going to make a lot of people really happy. Elizabeth has been cherry picking these books for months. So that's coming up in January.
- [08:44]
Katie Cobb
Gosh, if that's not, I mean, pick your poison. This is like 12 days of Christmas flash sale. Yeah, get in on Patreon in December. All this could be yours. Like it's so great. Come jo us for, you know, the price of a cup of coffee in 2020, which is not the price of a cup of coffee now. It's still just five bucks a month. Patreon.com currently reading podcast.
- [09:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's a good deal.
- [09:08]
Katie Cobb
Delightful. Yes, mischief. Managed a lot of mischief. 10 minutes of mischief today. Let's get into our bookish moments. Meredith, what is yours, you friendless sad reader?
- [09:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, I was very sad this last week, Katie. As you know, I was on what was supposed to be a really fun trip to Santa Fe with my best friend. And in a lot of ways it was really fun. We drove there and back. So we had two 12 hour day drives which actually was totally great. But on the first day we managed the mischief that we went to Santa Fe for. And then the second day was supposed to be our fun just like kick back, do whatever we want day. And I got so sick. I got really, really sick and I could not sleep for two nights in a row. I slept less than two hours each night. You Know how it is when you're in a hotel room? We were staying in a lovely resort, but you're still in a hotel room with somebody else who's trying to sleep. And you don't have any place where you can really go. You can't, like, go to your living room and make a cup of tea and, you know.
- [10:09]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [10:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's not ideal, but my Kindle. My Kindle oasis, my precious beloved was there for me all night long while everyone else was asleep. And I was so miserable. And I was reading this bonkers book, which I will bring to the show probably next week, one of the most bonkers books I've ever read. It's absolute silliness, but it was fantastic. And it just kept me company two nights in a row. And it's just that feeling of, like, thank God for books sometimes.
- [10:39]
Katie Cobb
Yes, right. Definitely.
- [10:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I loved it. I mean, I didn't love being sick, but I loved that feeling of gratitude.
- [10:46]
Katie Cobb
Yes. I was trying to be a good phone a friend for you during that time. It was rough on all of us.
- [10:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. For sure. You were like, just, you know, the best thing you can do, Meredith, is get out of Santa Fe.
- [10:57]
Katie Cobb
Like, just leave the town. Actually, that's the best thing you can do. Go downhill.
- [11:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Because the altitude. So I got a really bad cold, and then the altitude was matrix everything.
- [11:07]
Katie Cobb
Yes. Well, mine is more fun than being sick. It's not really a bookish moment for me. It's more of a gold star to a local bookish friend named Kristin. This month, for our Arizona Bookish friends meetup, she hosted us at her home in the Phoenix area, and we've done a number of in home meetups before. This is not new, but Kristin decided to theme it and she decided to theme it. Love and chili peppers. Based on the new Patreon show that we debuted this past summer, she asked for spicy sides to go with fajitas and homemade salsa. She made small mason jars of her delicious salsa recipe for each of us to take home with little bookish stickers on top. And we were each supposed to bring a book with a slightly spicy first line, or at least something interesting for a bookish game that we played. As usual, we had a book swap afterward as well. It was just a really fun and adorable way with, like, homework to theme our meetup for the month. It would be similarly fun and easy to put together a murderful bookish party that involves poisoned side dishes, maybe with an unexpected ingredient. As long as it's not pumpkin, because that could actually poison Meredith. A book that starts with a bang or a gunshot or otherwise funny first line thing. And a book swap. Boom. You've got an all things murderful party or an 11 chili peppers party ready to go. Make it bookish, make it fun. Get together with your friends. Gold star to Kristen. That was my bookish moment.
- [12:31]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That is a major gold star. That is so much fun. That is so much fun.
- [12:37]
Katie Cobb
Yes, it was very fun. We loved it.
- [12:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it.
- [12:41]
Katie Cobb
Let's get into those books. Not the one you were reading while you were ill, just a different book. What have you been reading?
- [12:47]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I am going to bring that book, though, and nobody is going to shame me about that book. I will not accept criticism.
- [12:53]
Katie Cobb
Never.
- [12:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay. They're going to want to, though. All right. But this week we're going to talk about three different books. This first one is one that I really, really liked a lot. This is called the Ruins by Scott Smith. Here's the setup. So two American couples, young. They are young couples, like early to mid 20s. They go on vacation in Mexico, and after days of lying around in the sun and drinking way too much, they get bored. So they befriend a German tourist who is, it turns out, searching for his missing brother. This new German tourist friend has only a hand drawn map leading to some ancient ruins where this brother was headed. And despite a lot of warnings from the locals, the group decides to help look for him. So what starts as a day trip adventure? Isn't it nice we're not just by the pool? Well, turns into a day in the jungle that is nightmarish. When they discover that they can't leave the hill where these ruins are located and they are definitely not alone up there. Okay, this book is a lot, but in a really good way. This was a part of the ongoing buddy read that I do with Kiara and Betsy. We're reading our way through Sadie Hartman's 101 book, horror books to read before you get murdered. This book was on that list and I had seen it many, many other times on other Best of Horror list. Kind of like one of those key in the genre kinds of books. And I can definitely see why it is on these lists. This book was published in 2006, which is important. This book is a product of its time. I spent a lot of the time as I was reading, especially the first half, wishing that someone, anyone in the story had an iPhone. There are two words that come to mind for me as I finished this novel. The first one is cinematic. Reading this book felt exactly like watching a movie A movie that while you're watching it, you're very aware that this is not going to win an Oscar, but you absolutely don't want to stop watching. That's how this book felt to me. It's very, very visual and it has a very straight line narrative. The other word that I would use to describe this book is visceral. This is absolutely what I would describe as body horror. This book is incredibly gory and also there are just a lot of body function description moments. Yes, every time I would read this book I would feel like I was just not hungry. This is literary Ozempic is what this is gross. And also this is a survival story. So if you like books about how people get stuck in a really horrible situation and have to mentally and physically endure and problem solve, then you will like this book. There's a lot of detail on both their inner and outer struggles, and it's an interesting study in bad planning and truly terrible decision making. While I spend some time definitely bemoaning the terrible choices of our young protagonists, the siren song of the Mexican jungle is strong and the jungle is a character here. You can definitely see it and smell it and hear it in the pages and you can see how these people got drawn in. One important thing I want to mention that I wish I'd known before I started this book is that this book has a bit of a slow start. I needed to get 15% in to be sold on it, but once I got to 15%, I was completely invested for the entire rest of the time. The rest of the pacing was pitch perfect. This is not great literature. The sentence level prose though is perfectly fine, but the story was not really about fantastic writing. It was about the story and that's where it really does well. I'll also mention that this book has a very interesting baddie, one that I had never read about before. I won't tell you more because for the brave of you who want to venture forth into this jungle, I want you to figure it out yourself. Was this book the best horror novel of the new century, as Stephen King blurbed it on its cover? No. I think there are several other works of horror that are written at a much higher level and have more interesting things to say. But I am very glad that I read it and it was a diverting way to spend a few afternoons. It's kind of unforgettable. This is the Ruins by Scott Smith. Kiara and Betsy, by the way, also signed off. They enjoyed it too.
- [17:41]
Katie Cobb
Okay, good. So all three of you horrorrific readers loved it. I like it.
- [17:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [17:48]
Katie Cobb
All right. I have historical fiction, so if anybody was like no thank you on Body Horror. None of that here. Yep, I'm going to talk about the Turtle House by Amanda Churchill so this one came from the May Indie Press list which was given to us by Commonplace Books in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They knocked it out of the park that month with their stack. This one is a dual timeline story that bounces from Pre World War II Japan into 1990s small town Texas. Here's the setup. This generational story explores a grandmother granddaughter dynamic which we love. Leah moves back home to a ranch house in Curtin, Texas after leaving her promising architecture career in Austin. But she's not telling anybody why she suddenly decided to come back home. She ends up sharing a room with Mineko, her grandmother, who's a bit cranky and curmudgeonly and we love her. Mineko started her life in the US after being brought home as a Japanese war bride during and after World War II. She's now widowed and has moved in with Leah's parents, her son and daughter in law. The two women are distant at first, they don't have a lot in common as they have not for many years and Mineko held everyone at arm's length because this was a totally different place for her. Right? She got pulled out of her homeland and brought here. But they start to share late night conversations in their shared bedroom and Leah starts to learn about her grandmother's life. The Turtle House of the title is a Japanese country estate where Mineko fell in love, but not with Lia's grandfather. Things come to a head when the sandwich generation here in the middle opts to move Mineko into an assisted living facility, but her newfound closeness with Lia might be her saving grace. After all, this is an intergenerational story, one of my very favorite kinds, and Amanda Churchill's own family history inspired the debut novel that she brought to life on these pages. Just like when I read Betty by Tiffany McDaniel earlier in the year, I was delighted to go to her website, Amanda Churchill's website and find photos of her family captions from their photo album, their past just shared there on her website. She really did a phenomenal job bringing these stories to life on the page and inviting us into her family history through the lens of this fictionalized version of the stories themselves. I loved getting to meet Leah and Mineko and see their relationship develop, especially because I so treasured the relationship with my grandma who was also a little curmudgeonly and standoffish sometimes. Right. My mom is the same way. Sometimes she's like, I don't feel like answering questions about my childhood. Thanks. Bye. Like, you know, like, she's just like, no, thank you. Yeah, we're all done with that line of inquiry and I like seeing that portrayed. The descriptions of small town Texas and historical Japan also, both really jumped off the page. It captured me in a time when historical fiction has to do the most to capture my attention because most of the time I don't find it that compelling anymore. This one was an outlier in that respect. This is the Turtle House by Amanda Churchill.
- [20:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, that one was really beautiful. Really, really well done.
- [20:55]
Katie Cobb
Yes, so well done and like a gorgeous cover. And she just did a great job.
- [21:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. My next book is also a big left turn from body horror. This one is Be Ready when the Luck Happens by Ina Garten.
- [21:09]
Katie Cobb
Oh, yay.
- [21:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I loved this one. I really loved this book so much. So this is Ina Garten's memoir. She's of course, big in the food industry and she's done food TV for a really long time. This book also covers her childhood and her more than 50 year marriage. And it's just the story of her life and it was absolutely incredible. All right, so this hit such a sweet spot for me. So I did this on audio, which I highly recommend. It was absolutely delightful. It felt exactly like having Ina sit next to you and tell you her story over a latte and a delicious baked good that she's baked herself. Now, there were some things that surprised me about the book, but in a way that made me rethink the ways that I don't always love memoir. This book made me think maybe I need to read more memoir. Let me put it that way, because it was surprising in the way I went in thinking that it was going to be a fairly light memoir about, like, cooking and entertaining and maybe the TV industry. But what we got is an incredibly honest look at her life, including some really challenging family dynamics that I hadn't known about. Her childhood was intense and she pulls no punches as she talks about it. That surprised me in this public forum, I have to say. She also deep dives into her relationship with her husband Jeffrey, which is famous for being really wonderful. Like, they're always like couple goals, but it turned out that they have had issues like every other couple has had and they even separated for a while as they tried to figure out the roles that they were going to play in their marriage. I've been going through a similar time with my husband. We've been having a hard time as we reach the 25th year of our marriage and it was really good for me to hear Ina talk about this and to hear that there is a road through hard conversations and hard won new expectations in a relationship if you really, really love each other and you're willing to do the work. For this reader, that was very reassuring at a time that I needed it. It was also fascinating because Aina is the ultimate enneagram7 and this energy comes through so clearly. Her focus on fun and her very deliberate avoidance of anything that she considers boring really shapes how she moves through the world. As an Enneagram one, seven is what I go to in health. Seven is my aspirational way of being so it was incredible to hear how she looks at the world. I felt sometimes like ones live in like the upside down version of Sevens. I think I'd rather live in her world. What really stood out to me in addition was how strategic that she has been in everything that she's done, starting decades and decades ago when she was a very young entrepreneur. She has a very an interesting clarity about what she needs to make a project successful and she's not afraid to hold firm on those requirements. This is a really good through line in the book. Its theme is everything is figureoutable, which I love as a mindset, but it's also make it what you want it to be and don't let other people convince you otherwise. Like, she's very singular in her decision making and I found that to be very interesting. Now I do want to really acknowledge the point about the book that I think is the the most glaring in that it is not acknowledged by Aina in the book enough at least is the immense amount of privilege that allowed her to make all of the choices that she makes in her life. There is no question. But it's fascinating to see how she paired that privilege with an incredibly strong work ethic and just a lot of bone deep intelligence and grit. She embodies this idea that luck happens, but only if you are ready for it when it comes. So as I said, I did this on audio. It was absolutely the right choice. Her voice is familiar and comforting. This would be perfect for anyone who loves food memoirs, business books about female entrepreneurs, or just really honest life stories that have a good and gentle ending. This is Be Ready when the Luck Happens by Ina Garten.
- [25:36]
Katie Cobb
I love hearing about that a because I love when you love a memoir. Like it's so hard for Me to not be just running immediately like, oh, now I need it right now. Because Meredith loved it. Because they're just so selective. Few and far between.
- [25:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. Right. More that I just don't choose them very often, as opposed to me choosing them. And they're not working for me.
- [26:00]
Katie Cobb
Right.
- [26:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I just don't go to the genre very much at all.
- [26:03]
Katie Cobb
Interesting.
- [26:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. So when there's a business element, that makes it a much easier entree point for me.
- [26:10]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. And always, I mean, nearly without fail, I would say if you can grab any memoir on audio, it's going to be a richer experience if the author reads it themselves or if you are already familiar with their voice. I mean, that's just the way to go.
- [26:25]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. But kudos to her for really getting real about some hard things. Not. This is not a tell all. This is not a let me get catty and say negative things about Martha Stewart. That's not what this book is. But it's. She tells her story, warts and all.
- [26:43]
Katie Cobb
Mm. Yeah. I love that. Okay, I am gonna put my nonfiction second as well, so we're gonna pair them up here. But I do have two five star reads left for my current reads, so nobody's getting cheated out of anything here. My next book today is Bonk by Mary Roach. Hello. Yes, I do have more Mary Roach to talk about this year, which is probably the last one of the year, but it was a great one. This one is Bonk. The Curious Coupling of Science and Sexual by Mary Roach. I'm going to try and make this very accessible for anybody to listen to, but please note that this is not a book for children. Mary Roach, as we know, is privy to rooms and conversations that most civilians do not get to enter. She asks the questions and gets the answers that no one thought was possible to ask or answer. She pours through archives and dusty tomes to find out how and why research was done in the past and what we know that's different today. And in this book, she applies her insatiable curiosity to the science of sex, moment by moment, piece by piece. You may not think there's enough material to write a science humor book that's 300 pages long about what happens behind closed doors. But that's part of what makes it so interesting. This topic is considered so taboo and has been for so long that it's often difficult to get funding for a study, much less volunteers or review board approval for the experiments needed to test a certain hypothesis. Add to that the fact that many people are inclined to lie about Their sexual history, their sexual exploits, or their preferences in the bedroom. And studies get even more difficult and convoluted. But Mary does the dirty work for us, in this case literally, when she recruits her husband to do the deed in an MRI machine because that's the only way the scientists running the study will show her the images that are produced because it won't violate any HIPAA regulations for her to see her own personal photos and images. Once again, she has gone above and beyond the call of duty for her readers. And it leads to often hysterically funny, surprising and sometimes disgusting descriptions of years worth of research distilled down to a readable and enjoyable format. I buddy read this one with a local bookish friend named Carrie. My regular Mary Roach reading partner, Katie had already finished it before we started reading her stuff together. So Cari and I decided to dive in. This was an extra special way to cement a friendship and get really comfortable talking about all the things with someone. Deep dive into the science of sex. When you've hung out fewer than half a dozen times in person, that's fine. Everything's fine. It didn't matter though, because Cari is a health professional and not easily icked out. And I'm me who will read and discuss anything. So we got along just great and had a wonderful time getting to know Mary Roach's work in truly intimate detail. This was Bonk by Mary Roach.
- [29:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it. I'm so glad that that was good. And you know, on my library, like books that I have out from library right now, I have Gulp.
- [29:44]
Katie Cobb
Ooh, good. Adventures through the elementary Canal. Her subtitles are so good.
- [29:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I didn't even know what the alimentary canal was, to be honest.
- [29:55]
Katie Cobb
Yes, that's how we nourish ourselves. It's fun. Gosh, there's a section of that book where this guy gets a hole in his stomach that doesn't close. And I think about that all the time.
- [30:06]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
See, I don't know, my health anxiety. Anxiety might not. That might not be good for me.
- [30:12]
Katie Cobb
Well, like, it's just this very. Like, it's notable because it's so unusual.
- [30:17]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Could they fix it?
- [30:19]
Katie Cobb
They didn't want to. They wanted to be able to see what was happening inside his body as he lived his life. So it was like, like if they had had plexiglass at the time, they would have put it there so that you could constantly look inside of his abdomen.
- [30:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh my. Oh my goodness. I don't know. I do not know.
- [30:36]
Katie Cobb
Well, you might have to skip that chapter then.
- [30:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, seriously. All right, well. But I, I do at some point want to dip into Mary Roach.
- [30:44]
Katie Cobb
Yes, for sure.
- [30:45]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You have convinced me. Okay. My third book is squarely in my wheelhouse. Another one I did on audio and it was so good on audio. Audio's really been working for me in this back half of 2024.
- [30:57]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, November, it's been a big audio month for me.
- [30:59]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Very interesting. All right. This book is the Last Detective by Peter Lovesey. Here's the setup. Detective Superintendent Peter diamond of Bath, England is a dinosaur. He's a throwback. He's one of those old school detectives who believes in shoe leather and gut instinct and face to face interviews. He does not like all the fancy forensics and computer databases. This book, by the way, was written, I think, in the late 90s, so you can imagine how he feels now. All right. When a woman's body is discovered in a local lake with no identifying marks or an obvious cause of death, diamond finds himself facing exactly the kind of complex puzzle that needs his particular skills. But this is modern day ish Bath, where his superiors are more interested in modernizing the work or the police force than supporting his traditional methods. So what starts out as an unidentified victim case takes a turn into the world of Jane Austen and her connections to Bath. There are a couple of letters that are famous and they go missing and they tie into the investigation. The story weaves together historical Bath, police politics and literary intrigue and a really fascinating missing persons case as diamond races to figure it all out. So this is, if you haven't figured this out, this is a straight up British police procedural and I love this kind of book. I have such a long history of reading police procedurals that they are comfort reads to me. I should also say that this book was highly recommended to me by Elizabeth Barnhill on all things murderful. And after that, several listeners read it and they DM'd me, saying, it seems like you haven't read this book and you really, really should. And I'm very glad that they did. I led with the fact that this is a straight up police procedural because I think it's important to know what you're getting when you start a book like this. This is not a thriller. There are no big twists and turns. There are no unreliable narrators. This is also not what I would even describe as crime fiction, which we talk about a lot, and that's a, a sub genre. I've been reading a lot in this book, the Last Detective. We are largely in the company of the police from start to finish, with a couple of diversions from that path in the middle. I like books like this very, very much. I like to be with the police as they visit witnesses and suspects and look at clues. I like to be there when the test results come in and when the conversations are had over their bad coffee and the whiteboard. This is lifeblood kind of reading for me. But if you're looking for something more fast moving, something more like a Lisa Jewell or Catherine Ryan Howard, this is not going to be the book to pick up. But if you love a quality, well written police procedural, then you will absolutely find a lot to like here. Peter diamond, our lead detective, is crusty and he's not as full. So he's crusty, but he's not as full of personality as some other detectives. He's more like a regular guy, which I feel like in the late 90s was what we were writing in our detectives. It's really in this century that we've started getting. If we do a detective story, the detective is really odd in some way. That's not what we get with Peter Diamond. He's just kind of crusty.
- [34:22]
Katie Cobb
But is he an alcoholic? Because I feel like that was a thing in the 90s too, right?
- [34:26]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I mean, no, he's not. He's just very straightforward. He's a married guy. He's like in his late 50s. There's kind of a nice change of pace. He's just a straight ahead cop. He's not quirky or strange or troubled. Yeah, which is what we normally get. So as I said, this book was written in 1999, or at least it was published then. And DNA science back then was called genetic fingerprinting. And it was really just then becoming the norm in police investigations across the globe. And as I said, Peter diamond does not like technology. He doesn't like science. So part of what I liked about the story is all the times where his old gum shoe kind of ways of doing things come into conflict with this new way of policing as a procedural. This book takes its time getting to where it wants to go, but it did have a little bit of what I would describe as a mushy middle. Not bad. But there were a couple of times in the middle where I thought, what are we? What are we doing here? Let's move on. But it ended up being a solid 4.25 stars for me. So I wasn't bothered very much by that. This is one of my favorite kinds of books to listen to on audio and it kept me company on several long car rides. I've already downloaded the next one in the series and I bought a couple of his standalones. This is the Last Detective by Peter Lovesey.
- [35:42]
Katie Cobb
What a sweet little last name.
- [35:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I know, isn't it? It's. But then Peter diamond is his. Yeah, that's lead character. And then that's a little bit confusing.
- [35:51]
Katie Cobb
I don't love that part, that's for sure.
- [35:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
But Peter Lovesy. Yeah. And he. And. And he's been writing like. I think there's 25. So the last detective is the first one in the series and I think there's like 20 or 25 of them.
- [36:04]
Katie Cobb
Good for him. Grab that with both hands. Okay. My third book this week is the second in a series. It's Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross. This is a series I adore. I will not be accepting criticism on it. I'm going for it, though. Ruthless Vows is the second and final book in the Letters of Enchantment duology that starts with Divine Rivals, which I also maybe cried about when I talked about it on the show. I'm not totally sure. Don't quote me on that. This is one of very few books that I got from Fairyloot and then had to wait to get a matching special edition of the next book in the series because I loved it so much and I knew it was going on my keeper shelf without even having read it. So it came out in December of 2023, but I didn't even get my copy until months later without spoiling much of book one. And that's the tricky needle I'm going to try and thread here because I really, really want people to be sure to grab both of these. I will remind you that overall in this series, our main characters here are Winnow Iris Winnow and Roman Kit. They are staff writers at the same small newspaper gunning for the same position as a war between the gods rages around them. So this is not Britain versus Germany in World War II. This is the gods that are fighting here and they have recruited humans to join the battle. It feels like an alternate history story where World War I's trench warfare and those battles combines with the uniforms of World War II, but it's actually neither. In a twist of fate, Roman and Winnow both own two of a matched set of typewriters that have a magical connection to one another. The letters written on one are, in a Narnia esque way, transported to the owner of the other typewriter. This makes for some interesting dynamics in a you've got male like mode of communication, especially as Roman starts to figure out that his sworn enemy, Winnow is at the other end of the typewriter connection, and she has no idea. The two start to form a very special bond only through their letters. And at the end of book one, we are left on a terrible cliffhanger, the kind that normally would make me throw a book because it is so cliffhangery, but now both are out, so you don't have to deal with that. Sweet reader. I had to restrain myself here from throwing my book because, of course, I already mentioned I own a beautiful copy. When we begin book two, we're only two weeks after book one ended, and the war is still raging through the city of Oath, their hometown not far from the front lines. This one has a plot line that nearly flips the first book on its head in a marvelous way of continuing the story. There are some elements in this novel that remind me a bit of the Indiana Jones franchise mixed with all the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Dore. I'm obsessed. I am obsessed with this series and that it's complete and this perfect, beautiful package. I'm positive this one will end up on my favorite Books of the Year list. It captured me totally and completely. And if you're getting a slight ping of familiarity as I talk about this, I will let you know that Mary brought it to the show right at the beginning of 2024. She was not waiting for this very special, pretty edition that I was waiting for. I read it many, many months later. I hugged it to my chest in the best possible way. I love this series. I hope you will, too. It's the Letters of Enchantment series ending with this book, Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross.
- [39:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love that we're getting more duologies, too. I think two books is just great. I love, like, not having to think, oh, my gosh. Well, there's. So there's nine books if I want to get all the way through.
- [39:43]
Katie Cobb
Right. And do I have to reread to understand what's happening? And, like, that's just. It's too much for my brain. And, like, what were you just talking about? The sequel to the Rook stiletto by Daniel O'Malley, how it should have been split. Like, just split it.
- [39:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [39:57]
Katie Cobb
Although that would. That would create an extra book in a series that already exists, but still.
- [40:02]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right? Yes, exactly. Well, I'm glad. I'm so glad that Ruthless Vows worked for you, because I know you really did love Divine Rivals.
- [40:10]
Katie Cobb
I would have been gutted.
- [40:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right.
- [40:12]
Katie Cobb
If it had not. I would have been so sad. Like, what do I do with this first one that ends on a cliffhanger? And I hate the second. Oh, man, it would have ruined me as a reader. It would have been terrible. Okay, those are our six current reads. We had a lot of words today, but we're going to get into our deep dive, which is the bookishness that we are thankful for. And it comes from an email from Angie Witt, who emailed us and was like, I don't even know if you're going to get to this before Thanksgiving, but hopefully. Well, Angie, we're doing it anyway. So she told us about their Thanksgiving tradition where they talk about things that they are grateful for by category. So like hobbies, food, historical people, which I would love to sit on on that conversation. And they add bookish categories like books from childhood, fictional characters, et cetera. So Meredith gave us a few categories, and we are going to go through these one by one. And thank you to Angie for sending us this brilliant idea and for us getting to celebrate our gratefulness around this season of the year.
- [41:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I thought this was a great idea. I think it's always a good thing to be grateful and thankful and a heart full of gratitude. And I hadn't really thought about my reading in this particular way, so it was a. It was a nice exercise, definitely.
- [41:26]
Katie Cobb
Okay, so the first category we're going to tackle are just the books from childhood that we're thankful for. This one was borrowed directly from Angie's lovely email. So what came to mind first for you, Meredith?
- [41:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. So there were. There's. There's really three that come to mind immediately, two of which we've talked about a lot. But the third one, it occurred to me, I am really, really thankful for. So, of course, the lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We've spoken many times that that was a key moment that I believe really made me the reader that I went on to be and have become. Harriet the Spy is another one. That was the first book that made me feel like I could read books about someone who was odd, like I was at that age. And that made me feel really good. And it was also the first book I read that was really real world. But it occurred to me as I was thinking about this that, you know, I was born in 1973, so it is kind of a rite of passage that I have to say, are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. That was a book that I don't remember exactly when. I don't remember exactly when it was published. But it was a book that was very much in the zeitgeist when I was 12, which was the year that I entered my journey into womanhood. And I'm so thankful that that book was there, because Judy Blume, in Are youe There, God? It's Me, Margaret normalizes all of the things about that period of time in a young girl's life that are funny and scary and frustrating and sad, and she just pulls the covers back on something that before then, I think would have been largely you just kind of. You kind of had to hope that your mom told you all the things that you needed to know. Now, luckily, my mom did. My mom was really good about this particular thing. But I have friends who were like, that book was the only reason I knew, like, what a maxi pad was.
- [43:08]
Katie Cobb
Or that I wasn't dying.
- [43:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That I wasn't dying. Exactly. And so thank you, Judy Blum, because that book was very, very. I'm very thankful that it existed in my life when I was going through that period of time.
- [43:21]
Katie Cobb
Yes. My first two that I came up with were the Roald Dahl books. And he is a bit problematic now.
- [43:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [43:30]
Katie Cobb
So, I mean, this is what it is. I'm still grateful that, at the time, I have this history with him. These are the first chapter books that I devoured, where I would sit down and lose time as I read these books and be like, wow, I didn't know books could do that for you, where you could get so sucked in that all of a sudden it was dark outside. Roald Dahl taught me that, including, like, Matilda. That was my. Like, you're a little bit weird, but maybe you're actually a little bit magical because you love to read so much. Yes, please. The Witches, the Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved all of them. And I'm really grateful that R L Stein was writing Goosebumps and Fear street when I was a kid. Those were the books that first scared me out of. Scare the TT out of me, as Elizabeth Barnhill says, gave me the experience of letting a book get into my head and make my heart pound in a way that I had not had before. And now I. My heart still pounds when I read, but for different reasons. You know, not always because I'm scared. And I love that, like, visceral reaction to what's on the page. And I think R.L. stine is the one who gave that to me the first time, so.
- [44:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And see, that's one of those things where I missed R.L. stein. I was. I. He was around when I was, you know, I would have eaten that up with a spoon. So, yes, I'm, I'm grateful that you got him too.
- [44:45]
Katie Cobb
It was so great. And then you could just like ramp up. Like you start with Goosebumps, you go to Fear street, and then you could jump like straight into Stephen King or, or Dean Koontz, which is what I did because that's what my dad was reading and terrify the crap out of myself.
- [44:58]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yep. Yep.
- [44:59]
Katie Cobb
All right, let's talk about some fictional characters that we're thankful for. And I think this will be fun because mine are definitely not going to be on your list.
- [45:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, mine are so predictable because I absolutely thought, you know, there are two fictional characters that I think about all the time. And they aren't the only two, but they are the fictional characters that are the leads in each of my number one books of all time. And they are both counts. So we have Edmond Dante's the Count of Monte Cristo in that book by Alexandre Dumas and Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Toles. Edmond Dantes, of course, in that book, teaches us that we contain multitudes. Edmond Dantes is everything from a super hard worker, a really straight ahead guy doing his absolute best, and then horrible injustices happen to him and we find out that he is also wily and cruel and vengeful and murderous, but only to the people who've done bad things to him. He's also loving and he's adventurous, but he's also an introvert. He's willing to take chances, then also keeps himself very close to the vest. We contain multitudes and Edmond Dantes shows us that. And of course Count Rostov, he is the ultimate enneagram too. He teaches us that if we have the right attitude, and it sometimes takes a lot of work, but if we have the right attitude, no matter what our life looks like, hell is in our own hell or heaven are in our own minds and we can control how we look at the circumstances that are given to us. So those two counts are two characters that I'm incredibly grateful for. And of course the two books that they are in are my two books, that of favorite books of all time.
- [46:53]
Katie Cobb
Yes. That's really fun that yours are both counts now. I wish I had thought of them. Well, mine are two queens. They're not. I have two characters that are very different from each other. So I am grateful for Ove from A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. He's the first curmudgeon that I fell for. So he holds this very special piece of my heart. He also showed me, kind of like Count Rostov, how important connection was when I didn't prioritize it so much in my own life in a way that left me, a few years later, feeling very lonely. Right. So he gave me this. This character Uwe, who showed me that even as an older man, you can change and become. Which. Uwe's only 60, but in my head, he's very old.
- [47:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Is he only 60? Yeah.
- [47:43]
Katie Cobb
Or like 65? It's like the very first line of the book, and every time I remember it, I have to rewrite the story in my head because it makes me very upset that he's not that old. But he is very set in his ways. He's very curmudgeonly. He's very cranky. He's not that old. And he finds connection with the people around him. Found family. I mean, these characters changed my life. Right. Ove changed my life. He identified the found family genre for me or the found family trope for me. My second one is the character of Manu in Lobisona, which is written by Romina Garber. So this is a teenage girl. This is the actual opposite end of the spectrum from Ove. She invited me into a story of feminist power based on the female cycle and how that is so powerful that these girls turn into werewolves. What? Or these humans turn into werewolves. She's a badass. She is a character you can root for. I love the cultural dimensions of this story, the narrative that she invites us into. I am grateful that you can go from, are you there, God? It's me, Margaret into Lobby Sona and have kind of a continuation of that same narrative, but add in, like, fantasy powers to it. So I love that she exists, and I love the story that she's part of.
- [49:05]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's the one with the. Her eye. Her eyes are.
- [49:07]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, they're like. They're like celestial eyes.
- [49:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That was a really good book. I liked that book a lot. Yeah, that's a great character.
- [49:15]
Katie Cobb
She is really excellent. Okay, what about some lessons that reading has taught you that you're grateful for?
- [49:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, I have two. The first one is that being alone can be okay if you have a book. Not only to circle back on my bookish moment of the. Of the week. Of course. Course. But also, as I was growing up, I did not make friends easily at all. I really, really had trouble connecting with other people. And books were just my constant companion, and they always gave me something to do and ways to endure recess, for example. So I love that. Also, books are the very best way to find friends. And I am so grateful that as an adult now, I don't have such a hard time finding friends. But the some of the best ones that I have have come to me through my bookish life. And so for that, I'm incredibly grateful.
- [50:08]
Katie Cobb
Yes, definitely. I can echo both of those I went with. I'm so grateful for the lesson that there's always a book for me, even when it feels like everything else is so turned upside down in my life. It may be that I can reach for a reread and that is the perfect book for me, or I can go outside my wheelhouse to something I've never tried before, because there's always something I've never tried before. But reading will always be there for me. And sometimes it's because it brings me to another person or anything. Like, it could be something I wrote off in the past. Turns out that's the perfect book for me. I just think that's so special that bookish serendipity gives us exactly the book we need at the right time.
- [50:55]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [50:56]
Katie Cobb
And then because of that, reading has quite literally made my world bigger beyond my own personal experience. I'm just grateful that authors invite us into their stories or their memoirs or let us walk in their shoes through fiction and nonfiction. Just that books exist in order to make our worlds bigger and richer and broader and wider. That's my favorite lesson from reading.
- [51:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. A lot to be grateful for. That is one of those things that makes me wonder why people would ever not read. Which I know, of course there's a lot of reasons for that. But as that is such a big thing that I'm always like, how could you just not like, there's that whole world. Right.
- [51:37]
Katie Cobb
There's so much of it, which.
- [51:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And actually, in this next category, we're going to talk about some of those worlds.
- [51:42]
Katie Cobb
Our favorite worlds. Yes. What are some of your favorite literary worlds that you're so thankful were created?
- [51:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. All of these are books that we've talked about before. But of course, the first and foremost for me will always be Emberfall. This is the land that appears in a curse so dark and lonely. And it is the perfect fairy tale land. I love it. I absolutely love it so much. And it's just all like, all of my childhood dreams came true when I read A curse so Dark and Lonely by Bridget Kimmerer. Imberfall is excellent. Also, some scary creatures in Emberfall. But, you know, that's what makes it a great book. Every single court in the Acotar series, but most especially Valeris the Night Court. I just. I'm so grateful that all of the literary worlds were created by Sarah J. Maas in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. I am. They just. Nothing is better than how each one of those courts is different from the other. Like, what would the Autumn court be like? What would the spring court be like? What would they wear? What would you smell? The Night Court. I mean, just, oh, I'm so grateful for those worlds because I think about them all the time. And then of course, I think a lot about Nevermore the city, like the city of Nevermoor and all the locations that that series takes us. These are just worlds that I am just so grateful that I've gotten to visit. And I wish that I could visit every one of those for the first time again.
- [53:11]
Katie Cobb
Yes, we get to open that door for the very first time.
- [53:14]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I think that if someone also asked me, what three books or series would you want to revisit for the first time, that would also be my list.
- [53:24]
Katie Cobb
Right? Yes. I love it. Okay. I went with the world of the Lunar Chronicles, which is introduced in Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Okay. I love this. Like, it's our world, but it's not. It's dystopian, but it's not. It's techy. We've got Android human mashups. And the fact that she takes fairy tales. Just like in Emberfall where we know this story, but you don't know this story. Right. Because she's twisted it. So you've got stories about Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White, but they're just twisted into this, like, sci fi, dystopian landscape with, you know, it seemed very prescient. Now when you read it that, like, there's this sickness that is making people ill in these worlds. It feels like Covid a little bit. But I love the world of the Lunar Chronicles. That's one of the ones that I have special editions of because I adore it so much. And then I'll go a little tweet in saccharine and say, I'm thankful for Green Gables, which, yeah, I love Green Gables. It gives me safety and security of a loving home. There's nothing. There's nothing scary happening at Green Gables. Maybe your friend accidentally gets drunk, maybe somebody falls off a roof, but nothing bad happens at Green Gables. Family is the family we're given. And the family we make. It makes me appreciate the world around me where there are Octobers and fence posts to climb on and so much more. I love the world of Green Gables. I love that Prince Edward island actually exists and they celebrate it there. That just feels amazing to me that it's just out there in the world.
- [55:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. There's something really nice I thought about adding. I don't know exactly what, like, the name of it would be, but the world that the Penderwicks series, especially the first one, is set in, it's kind of that same sort of. It's just comforting, like nothing bad is going to happen. It's just a comfortable, everyday existence that's full of love and fun and good food and.
- [55:26]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. And like a loving family and. Oh.
- [55:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Now it's occurring to me that it seems very, very glaring that I did not say in pretty much all of these categories, something about. Not all of them, but something about the Three Pine series. Because, of course, of course Gamache would be one of the fictional characters that I'm grateful for. He's literally in large parts of my psyche, taking the place of my own father in my, like, in my mind. He's the father I wish that I had. And as far as literary worlds, I'm so grateful we're created, you know, Three Pines, you know, So I don't know why that didn't occur to me as I was prepping. I'm still feeling a little tender after Gray Wolf, so maybe that was why.
- [56:06]
Katie Cobb
Oh, that's probably why. That's probably why. All right, let's make some wishes and wrap this rodeo up. Meredith.
- [56:12]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay. My wish is that you would consider the AirPods 4 for maybe a gift to yourself or. A gift. Yes. Okay. Let me tell you, my own particular thing with AirPods are these. My ears are special in several ways. I have in incredibly intense hearing. I have very, very strong issues with overstimulation having to do with noise of all kinds. And my ears themselves are like. My ear holes are small. And so a lot of the newer AirPods especially, or AirPods or like Beats or any of those that are noise canceling, they make my ears very tired and tender. Yeah.
- [56:58]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [56:58]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And because you and I do what we do with, like, headphones in or like, you know, I can't have hurdy ears.
- [57:06]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [57:06]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So I went looking on the Apple website because I have old school first generation AirPods. Like, I think the ones that I have that I wear all the time are like 7 years old. They're the ones with the longer stems on them, but they're like 7 years old, and so they're not holding a charge as well. And that's like, if I would go out on a really long walk, I don't want to be stuck without my audiobook.
- [57:32]
Katie Cobb
Right.
- [57:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's horrible.
- [57:33]
Katie Cobb
That's torture.
- [57:34]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. So what am I going to do?
- [57:36]
Katie Cobb
Think, like, talk to people?
- [57:38]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, no, absolutely not.
- [57:41]
Katie Cobb
The world.
- [57:42]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So I. So Jackson said, mom, I actually think you should go look because I think that they have an updated version of those long stem ones that you really like. This is a long story to say. This is what the AirPods 4 are. They are longer. They. They are noise canceling very effectively. Noise canceling without making my tiny ears hurt. But they also don't fall out. So that's really helpful. But I love the fact that, and maybe Katie, you are the connoisseur of this kind of thing. So this particular thing, you might say, okay, Meredith, I don't know why you didn't have that functionality five years ago, but this is new to me and it is life changing with these AirPod fours. When I put them on and start my book, like, usually this is what happens. I get myself ready. I'm starting my book, I'm getting the dog ready. I'm doing all of this. I want to, like, put my phone into my little fit belt, and I want to be ready. But then Johnny wants to talk to me. And so then I'm like taking out my earpiece and then I have to get my phone and start it, you know, like all of this with these new ones. As soon as I start talking, it pauses my book.
- [58:44]
Katie Cobb
What? No, that's magic.
- [58:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes, it pauses it, and then it kind of waits and then it starts to listen differently. Then it's listening to, like, if there's someone near you who's responding back. So every single time I can have a little conversation with Johnny without ever touching my ears at all. I don't. I don't have to click anything. I don't have to. I don't have to touch them at all. And then as soon as I stop talking for a couple of seconds or there's nothing happening around me for a couple of seconds, then my book starts playing again. Awesome, right?
- [59:15]
Katie Cobb
That's amazing.
- [59:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And then, so it's got great noise canceling. It's got that feature which I think is called something about conversational. I think it might be called conversational awareness, something like that. And then it has a really good sensor for when your volume needs to be adjusted. Up or down based on what's happening around you. On my walk, I have one area that there's a little more car business going on around me. And then I go into a long amount of situation along a long part of my walk where it's very, very quiet. And so before I had to like adjust my phone up and down. Now I don't have to. So anyway, that's a lot of words. But these AirPod fours have meant that I am now during the day, I just kind of have them in a lot because they don't hurt my ears and they really easily connect to my phone when I get in front of my laptop. They just connect to my laptop without me doing anything. And then I can listen to my brown noise while I like, I'm doing my writing work or work that I have to concentrate on. So I'm kind of wearing them all the time now. And I love them. And they are not, you know, they are expensive. Yes. I think they're around $150, which is not nothing. I understand that. But they're not like 350.
- [60:24]
Katie Cobb
They're not 300. Yeah, for sure.
- [60:26]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So that's my. If you're in the market for something like that, look into the AirPod fours.
- [60:31]
Katie Cobb
Excellent. Well, I think it's worth a lot of words for something that so precisely meets a need. I think that's the coolest thing.
- [60:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And it's opened up my audiobook reading so much more because now that I almost always have them in during the day when I get up for those little moments where I'm like. Because I try to walk for the last five minutes of every hour, I try to do steps really quickly and then I'll change the laundry over and then I'll wash a couple of dishes or whatever and it'll end up being like 10, these little maybe 10 minute. Well, if you can get six of those 10 minute things during the day, you've read an additional hour on your speed. Well, I mean, exactly right. 90 minutes of your audiobook. So I am moving faster through audio because of it. So there's more words about it, which is.
- [61:12]
Katie Cobb
I mean, that's worth $150 right there. Yeah, Amazing. Okay, my wish is different. First, I asked Anali what she wishes about her books and she said that every book would have a unicorn in it. So if anybody has under the radar book picks for six year olds that love unicorns, please send them to me. She already has like the princess in her unicorn, Phoebe and her unicorn. So I need more under the radar than that. My own wish is to press Mr. Dickens and his Carol by Samantha Silva into readers hands for this holiday season. I was shocked and appalled to go back to our master spreadsheet and see that this wonderful historical fiction novel, I have not brought it to the show since season one.
- [61:50]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh wow.
- [61:50]
Katie Cobb
Devastated the humanity. I read this one in December of 2017. I still think about it regularly during the Christmas season, which means I probably rated it too low at the start. Way back then I wrote more substantial reviews because it was pre currently reading. So I will read what I said at the time. Oh I just loved this fictional glimpse into what it may have been like for Charles Dickens, floundering in his fame and under intense pressure from his publisher to produce something by Christmas to pen his classic Christmas tale. It's not all pretty of course. Dickens himself embodies his Scrooge for much of this tale as he tries to eke out the Christmas spirit in thin times as everyone wants a donation or subsidy of some sort and as his family decamps for Scotland in light of his Grinch worthy attitude, he finds muses in his own words. Children and beggars, shopkeepers and graveyards. The whole of it is just so well put together and I truly enjoyed it. If you've been jonesing for a story that isn't romance or murder this holiday season, this one might be just the ticket. It's Mr. Dickens and his Carol by Samantha Silva.
- [62:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, I'm glad you brought that one again. I'd forgotten all about that one.
- [62:55]
Katie Cobb
Oh, it's such a good book. I love that book.
- [62:58]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's good. I know that people are really wanting those kinds of holiday recommendations too right now.
- [63:02]
Katie Cobb
Yes.
- [63:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, well, 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 meredithmonday Schwartz on Instagram and you can.
- [63:12]
Katie Cobb
Find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putovong Evans and you can find her on Instagram at most of megansreads full show notes with the.
- [63:23]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
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 in our show notes and also at our website currentlyreadingpodcast.com.
- [63:34]
Katie Cobb
You can also follow the delight of the show at currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com yes, our social.
- [63:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Media is on fire lately.
- [63:46]
Katie Cobb
I love it.
- [63:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Betsy's doing a great job. If you want more of us, Katie, you can join us. As a patron, you get that fantastic reading spreadsheet and so much more content and community. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and you can shout us out on social media. All of those things help make a difference in our finding our perfect audience.
- [64:09]
Katie Cobb
Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [64:15]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, until next week, may your.
- [64:16]
Katie Cobb
Coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [64:19]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Happy reading Katie.
- [64:20]
Katie Cobb
Happy reading.