← The Currently Reading Podcast
The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 20: Book Superlatives + Fitting In Reading Around The Holidays
00:57:23
On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: mistletoe horror and book to screen adaptations Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep Dive:...
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- [00:00]
A
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 you should know we will not shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
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B
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.
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A
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I might be into Mistletoe Horror.
- [00:43]
B
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And I love it when my expectations are blown out of the water. This is episode number 20 of season seven and we are so glad you're here year.
- [00:55]
A
Yes, having our expectations blown out of the water is one of the best bookish feelings.
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B
It truly is. It so is. I'm excited to hear about Mistletoe Horror, Meredith. But first, we have a little mischief to manage today. This is our last regular episode of 2024 Meredith, which is very fun. Next week we should let everybody know right here at the top that we will have a dark week. It is the Monday leading into the Christmas week. It's just a little bonkers for everybody. Gives us a little time off, a little breather. The week after that we do what we've been doing for the past few years and we are revisiting a classic currently reading episode. It will be our Best of 2020 book lists, which is fun because that was a whole year in a big way for all of us.
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A
Yes. And that list, at least my list was fantastic.
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B
Honestly, your list is fantastic. I have words.
- [01:51]
A
Yeah. Yeah. My list. I was like, good job past Meredith.
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B
Truly, truly good job past Meredith. We're gonna kind of rehash that. We're gonna intro the classic audio and then we're gonna recap and reconsider what was happening during 2020 at the end of that episode. So it is worth a re listen, but it's not gonna be all brand new content. It'll just be like a fun, easy way to kind of enjoy that week between Christmas and New Year's.
- [02:16]
A
But as Ann Petchett says, if you haven't read this book, then it's new to you. I mean, this is the, the reason that we do this is because it's really fun to look back multiple years and say like, hey, what have those books? Maybe five years ago I wasn't that interested, but I'VE changed as a reader or I missed it. And it was super hyped at the time, but now the library holds for too long. Yeah. Yeah. So I love that we do this revolution air of it. I mean, yes, it saves us some time, but also I just enjoy listening to it just as a listener.
- [02:51]
B
Yeah. It's a fantastic way to have a top 10 list right at the end of the year without locking ourselves into a top 10 list of the year before the year is over, which is really why we started this. So on January 6th, we will be back with a full new episode, but it'll be our top 10 lists of 2024. So be looking for that very special episode. Very big, I'm sure, because they usually are a little bit chatty. One of our top episode downloads of the year, every single year. So that will be in your feeds on January 6th of 2025.
- [03:25]
A
Yes. And I have not even started thinking about what. I mean, I know what my top book is of the year, but the rest of it, I kind of purposely don't look back at my five star reads because I want. I want to take a full and complete look at my year.
- [03:39]
B
Exactly. Yeah, I feel the same. Yeah, definitely. All right, well, that's our mischief for today. We'll also let you know at the top here that our deep dive today we're going to talk about tips for fitting reading into the holiday season. It's very busy for all of us. We're all very busy, but we are still readers at our core, so we want to fit reading in somewhere within that schedule.
- [04:00]
A
Yeah.
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B
Now, though, we're going to get started the way we always do. Meredith, what is your bookish moment of the week?
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A
All right. Mistletoe Horror. This is the micro genre that I'm. I'm calling it this. There's a million Christmas horror. There's a million other ways that you could say this. I got sucked in, like into a big old vacuum by Alex Cox to read with her that book called 25 Days.
- [04:22]
B
Yeah.
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A
Which is Mistletoe Horror. And this is by Per Jacobson. And it is an advent style book which I've never read before. And I feel like there must be many of these kinds of books. But I'm not sure that it's in genres that I want to read. But I am into the notion of a book that you start and then kind of just read a chapter a day and it happens, you know, it coincides with the day that it actually is. I really like it. I'm like, I mean, it's is 25 days well written. No, it is not. Okay, it, it isn't. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna call it Spade a Spade. It's not. But I started on the 6th of December, so I had. Or the 5th of December. So I just had a few chapters to read to catch up. They were very short. And then it's like two or three minutes a day for each chapter as you go forward. And like we're. There's just a little bit of horror each. Like it's very cliffhangery. I do.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I don't. I'm having fun. It's fun.
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B
That is fun.
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A
It's not. It's not well written.
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B
Okay, fair.
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A
But it is fun for the pure plot sake and also the doing it.
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B
Together well and the establishment of a habit. We've talked about morning reading. We've talked about slow but steady reading. We just had somebody post in the bookish friends group about how we introduced her to the slow but steady read, you know, five, seven years ago now. And now she's reading like at least one really big chunker per month because she can do it in these bite sized chunks. I feel like an advent style read. Like that is the perfect way to start building that habit. So that January 1st you can say, okay, every month I'm going to read a chonker and it's going to fit in one per month, all year long.
- [06:08]
A
Yeah.
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B
Perfect way to build a habit.
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A
Yeah. Because it doesn't have to be one chapter a day. It can just be five minutes a day.
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B
Right, Right.
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A
Like it's like Duolingo, which I'm obsessed with. I love anything that I can do for two, two and a half minutes a day. And build a streak.
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B
Yes.
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A
Right.
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B
Like if we ever built a building habit is amazing.
- [06:28]
A
If we ever built an app, a currently reading app, this is what it should have. Like a streak. Like you could set streaks for yourself. Not just like, oh, you know, Kindle, because Kindle marks your streaks and stuff on the Kindle app on your phone. I'm talking about like you could say to yourself, I want this five minutes a day, slow but steady streak. And then it would, it would help you track that in all the fun ways that Duolingo does such a good job of nudging. And I know you love a nudge, Katie.
- [07:00]
B
Oh yes, I love, especially a passive aggressive nudge.
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A
I know those are my favorites. Those are your favorite. But just I love anything that you can do for a few minutes every single day. A lot of my life is based around that, and it's helped me reach a whole lot of goals.
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B
Yeah. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to build this into the spreadsheet right now.
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A
Well, ask AI.
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B
It's, like, urgently.
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A
Right.
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B
I really need to put this in right this second. But you would have to do it manually. If it were an app, it would be like, did you open it and log something? Yes. You maintained your streak.
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A
And then it would be like a cute. It would be like a cute little book would, like, dance and give you, like, a haptic on your phone. It's like, all the satisfying things that duolingo does. I don't even care about learning Spanish. I just freaking love duolingo. I mean, I do care about learning Spanish. I do. But also, I just really love everything about duolingo, which now I've gone off track.
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B
Mm. That's okay. That has to do with language, and language has to do with reading. See, it all relates back.
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A
And also, we're recording in the morning, so I've had a lot of coffee.
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B
And I have gotten a nudge already from my son to keep our friends streak alive. So.
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A
Unduolingo. Yeah.
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B
Yes, exactly. Okay. My bookish moment this week is an embarrassment of riches for book to screen adaptations. Meredith, we have already gotten so excited about the Wicked adaptation, which, of course, is book to stage to screen. It was a long, convoluted road to get there, but it made it.
- [08:35]
A
Why wasn't this my bookish moment of the week? Like, this should have been my bookish moment of the week, because I'm so excited about what we're doing around this.
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B
We are gonna do something fun with this. Our bookish friends are gonna read along with us. We're gonna have a huge party on Zoom, talking about the book by Gregory Maguire, Wicked. But it's like, that is just one piece of this big puzzle, which is that they have gotten so good or there's just a lot of great ones coming out lately. And I think I've had my eye on it more because of popcorn in the pages. We're about a year and a half into that little side project now, and so I'm paying attention more to which books are coming to the screen. And we have a local movie theater that does $5 Tuesday tickets. So my kids and I have been going to the movies more often. We recently, my big kids saw the Best Christmas Pageant ever, and then they kind of bullied me into reading it aloud so that the little Kids and I would make sure to go see it soon because they loved it so much.
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A
Cute.
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B
That's been very fun. Gillian Anderson is going to star in an adaptation of the Salt Path by Rainer Wynn, which I brought landlines from her to the show recently. The trailer looks gorgeous. It makes me get, like, little sparkles in my eyes. I love it so much. I'm super excited about Amy Adams starring in Night Bitch, which has led me to finally prior that for my tbr. I haven't read it yet, but I'm excited about that adaptation of it, you know, So I just. It seems like there's so much exceeding my expectations with regard to book to screen adaptations lately that it's thrilling me no end because a lot of times they are very disappointing, but lately they have been great.
- [10:14]
A
Yeah, I do feel like we're getting, in a lot of cases, not in all cases, but in a lot of cases, better adaptations that are. It seems like people who are adapting are taking the book more seriously than. Than just using it as a jumping off point.
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B
Exactly. And I think that's so great. I'm very excited about it. So there's just a lot of good stuff in the air. Good energy, bookish energy all around. I love that.
- [10:42]
A
Yes.
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B
Okay, let's get into our current reads. Meredith, what have you been reading? All right.
- [10:47]
A
Speaking of something being in the air, Katie, I. This is nonfiction, but this is page turning interesting nonfiction. This is smoke gets in your eyes by Caitlin Doughty. All right, here's the setup. This is a fascinating memoir. Another memoir.
- [11:05]
B
What.
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A
Who am I?
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B
What is happening?
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A
All right, she is. Caitlin Doughty was just 23 when she took a job at a crematorium in Oakland, of course, near my old stomping.
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B
Grounds, of course, because that's where they live. What? What do you mean, of course?
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A
I mean, did I say of course? Yeah.
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B
Like, Oakland is the only place we have crematoriums.
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A
No, I guess what I meant was that that is something that I was extra interested because it was in Oakland, which is near my stomping grounds.
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B
Wait, wait, what? Ew.
- [11:38]
A
No. There's crematoriums everywhere.
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B
Okay, got it.
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A
All right, so Caitlyn, though, is fascinated and has always been fascinated by death and mortality. And though she thought about these elements a lot, she was totally unprepared for the reality of working with dead bodies. When she starts at Westwind Crematorium and she learns to operate the cremation machine, she has to shave corpses, she interacts with grieving families, and then she also is Grappling with her own questions about death, the American funeral industry, which is huge, and whether that whole industry needs an overhaul. So this book is part memoir, part rumination on death practices across the world. And she takes us behind the scenes of the crematorium. Very behind the scenes. You are there with her. But she also weaves in fascinating details about how a lot of different cultures handle death. And she questions why we as Americans really remove ourselves emotionally and mentally from the topic of death. So get ready to learn a lot here. But it's fascinating. So this one was one of those books that I ran across. This is something I've been doing lately. You're going to hear about more than one book come to me this way. When I have certain kinds of meetings, not all of them, I will sometimes allow myself, mostly unconsciously, to scroll my library card catalog online. And if something even remotely interests me, I really am not reading. I'm not. Like, this is not great research because I'm paying very little attention.
- [13:18]
B
Right, because you're in a meeting.
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A
Because I'm in a meeting. But I'm also kind of like, this. 10% of my brain is thinking about this. This was one of those books. I just put it on hold. And Johnny also grabs all my books now, so, like, they just kind of magically get delivered to me. So this was one of those books, and I'm so glad that I read it because it was a very big win on several levels. So it was funny as all get out. I love a memoir with a lot of humor, and Caitlyn Doughty is just funny, and it's just a joy to spend time with. She somehow finds a way to talk about serious and existential and sometimes really gory things in a tone that is both funny but always deeply respectful. The most interesting parts of the book are in the ways that she gives us her own history and then how she pieces together different parts of her life that have led her to pursue a career in an industry that most of us would stay away from no matter what. It's a macabre industry, but there's a ton of heart in this story. So before I read this book, like, just a couple days before I read this book, I lost someone who was close to me, and this person was cremated. I worried as I began this book that maybe the things that she talked about inside it would make me feel weird or sad. But instead, I ended up feeling really heartened. The way that Dowdy talks about things related to death and the way that we think about our Bodies after our souls leave them gave me a lot to chew on and also made me not take everything related to bodies after death quite so seriously, which is weird. Of course, I have to give triggers to the fact that this book doesn't shy away from the fact that it is talking about dead bodies. So you're not going to want to say, eat lunch and read this book at the same time. But I did find that while it might not have protected my stomach, Caitlyn Doughty does a really good job of protecting my heart. She is someone who takes the rituals around death very seriously, and I found her take to be both irreverent and incredibly comforting. So if you've always wondered what happens to your body when it gets sent to a crematorium, or all the different ways that several difficult legal and ethical questions come into play, and of course, a lot of things related to the funeral industry, this is a fascinating memoir and it's absolutely worth your time. This is Smoke gets in your Eyes by Caitlin Dowdy.
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B
That sounds really good.
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A
It was really good. I enjoyed it and it was very fast.
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B
Okay. Yeah, yeah, I'm. I'm interested in this. I think it might be a gift for somebody.
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A
Yeah, yeah. No, for the right person, it's like the perfect gift. Like, it's because it's the kind of book that they wouldn't necessarily like, expect, but they'll be like, ooh, I'm interested.
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B
Okay. Yeah, I like that. Okay. My first book also has death in it, but it's not nonfiction. It's the Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson.
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A
Okay.
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B
Meredith, we both love Tiffany D. Jackson. Right. We both read her book Grown when it was on the indie press list.
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A
Oh, I love that book. I think about that book all the time.
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B
I know. Me too. At the COVID Like everything, it lives in my head rent free. We've also both read and talked about two others by her Allegedly and Monday's not Coming, both by Tiffany D. Jackson. So basically, this is a Tiffany D. Jackson Stan podcast. But we. We only every once in a while. Right, Right.
- [16:48]
A
But I also read White Smoke, which is my favorite of hers. Right.
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B
I read White Smoke also, which is a haunted house one, which is very.
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A
Fun and it's very scary.
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B
Very scary. I'm excited to tell you about this one, which is the next one you should pick up from this author because it's going to blow your socks off. The Weight of Blood is a YA horror thriller and it's a page turner. Here's the setup when Springville residents at Least the ones that are still alive are questioned about what happened on prom night. They all have the same explanation. Maddie did it. An outcast in her small town, Georgia high school, Madison, Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. She's not cool. She wears gross clothes that smell weird. She's weird about the activities she takes part in. She just has to deal with it until the morning. A surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret. Maddie is biracial. When her hair gets wet, it poofs out, it afros. Right? And she has been keeping this secret her whole life. She's been passing for white at the behest of her fanatical white father. When a video of her being bullied goes viral, it pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots. The student council comes up with a plan to change the school's image. They're like, guys, we're not that bad. It's fine. They've decided to host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The first one where black and white kids can go to the same one. This is in the 90s or the 2000s. Like it is not an old book.
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A
Oh, my gosh.
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B
The popular white class president convinces her black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddie to be his date. But Maddie is sure it's a setup, because of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? This story is told in a mixed media format with podcast transcriptions, newspaper articles sprinkled throughout the text. We as readers are attempting to put together the evidence to figure out what happened on that fateful prom night. So many are left dead, and the ones who survived are all covered in blood. The town of Springville was brought to its knees, and everyone is sure that Maddie must have been killed in the aftermath. But is there enough evidence to prove it? Y'all, this book is so good. It is so easy to read, so easy to blast through 100 pages in one sitting like you can. You could do this in an afternoon because you can't let go. It was like in a death grip in my hands. It does not have the sexual content that made Groan. Kind of hard to recommend across the board because we. We gave a lot of trigger warnings around that book, but it does depict racism and child abuse, so you need to be aware of that. Tiffany D. Jackson is a master of her craft. She has never steered me wrong. We listed what five books at the beginning of this setup. All fantastic. And this can get added to the list. Her YA horror is the top of the Genre. Absolutely a must read. Meredith, you are going to put this on your TBR for next fall. Although if your holiday reading needs some gore and blood, it sounds like with Mistletoe Mayhem or whatever you've got going on, you're probably okay. Mistletoe horror. This could be good for somebody who needs a page turner and some gore right at the end of the year. Otherwise it's going September or October, maybe November next year. It'll be perfect for that time of year, which is when I read it. This is the Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson.
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A
I'm so glad that was good. I. I tend to not read books that have, like, the Carrie theme. Like, for some reason it just feels a little bit played out. So that's why I stayed away from that one. But it sounds like it was really.
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B
Good the way that it's formatted. Oh, it's so good.
- [20:25]
A
All right. I love it. I'm glad that. I'm very, very glad that that worked. And she is. Yes, she is an auto buy author for sure. Except in a Carrie trope, apparently. All right, well, speaking of books that are bonkers, like with a capital B, this one, this is the one that I was talking about, by the way, a couple weeks ago when I said in the middle of the night. It was a bonkers book, but it kept me company when I was sick those two nights in a row. This is the book. Let me say right up here at the top. This is not a book for very many people at all, but I really loved it. So just take this for what it's worth. This is a book called Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. Here's the setup. Okay, so you guys know that I love a book about a Secret Service detail. I love everything related to Secret Service. Well, in this absolutely bonkers book, it turns out that there's another even more classified protector of the presidency. And that is a 140-year-old vampire named Nathaniel Cade. And he is bound by a blood oath to serve whoever is in the office of the President. Okay, so I love that setup, right? It's so. It's so, so good. So when they saddle poor super hot, tortured soul Nathaniel Cade, he is a whole scene. Like, that's part of why I love the book, because I just love Nathaniel Cade. Super hot, super built, super strong, super everything vampirey. But he also, like, hates being a vampire because he just feels like he's wrong and bad. I love a tortured man. Okay, anyway, so he's been doing this for 140 years. So he, he gets these, what they called his political liaison. Basically, it's kind of like his human partner who knows about him. Like not very many people know about him. Right? So he gets a new one, this guy, Zack Barrows. And Zack Barrows is like the cockiest, stereotypical young D.C. staffer, kind of. He's very annoying at the beginning. So poor Nathaniel has to somehow keep this guy alive while also investigating a terrifying new threat. Somebody is modifying human bodies into unstoppable killing machines. And they're targeting, they're using those to target Washington power players. Okay, so this is basically what would happen if Tom Clancy wrote urban fantasy. And I am absolutely here for it. We've got this delicious odd couple dynamic between Cade and Barrows, and he is just kind of done humans. And Zach is. He's annoying, but it's so, it's so, so good. And it also reveals this whole shadow war that's been happening since America's founding, where our government's biggest threats aren't what we think they are. They aren't foreign powers and terrorists, but they're monsters. But like, the government has been hiding this from us all this time. And Nathaniel Cade goes after these people. It's so, so good. Okay, I don't remember how this came to me. I wish I did. If you are a bookish friend who recommended this to me, I don't even remember if that's how it happened, but somehow I got this book on my Kindle. It has that bonkers premise, but it ended up being a great reading experience. So this is the bookish equivalent of, of an action movie. Probably the kind of action movie that marries like White House, down with Twilight, and also maybe stars like Nicolas Cage in some way because it has a National Treasure vibe to it. Like things that the American government has always dealt with, but like, that we never know about. Right. I love anything that involves a deep, deep, long running White House secret. I love the idea that we've had contact with aliens for 200 years. I love the idea that there are tunnels underneath the White House that lead right to the ocean. I love that all of this stuff hits in this book. It's just a super sweet spot for me. And as I said, the Nethenyuk Cade character is a joy hot, conflicted, absolute good guy. This is my jam, and it's actually not that badly written. I didn't find myself tripping over the sentence level prose at all. All I could see in front of my eyes were exactly the crazy things that were happening. And there are crazy things that happen in this book. It's pretty violent, so know that. But if you are interested in government conspiracies, if you love vampires or alchemy or how a zombie army might actually be the thing we should be most afraid of, this book might be a fun little foray for you. This is Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth.
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B
This sounds like a potato chip book where it's like.
- [25:04]
A
It is.
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B
It just is terrible for me, and I just want it anyway.
- [25:07]
A
Yes. And you just are like, click, click, click, click, click through those pages.
- [25:12]
B
I love it. Ah. So fun. And I love that it hit so many of, like, your favorite things in one book.
- [25:17]
A
I know. That's why in the middle of the night, when I was feeling so crappy, I was like, at least Nathaniel Cade is by. By my side.
- [25:25]
B
Okay. I have one of my favorite things in my next book. It's called Many Things Under a Rock by David Scheele.
- [25:32]
A
Oh.
- [25:33]
B
This is nonfiction, and it does have one of my favorite things, because this is an octopus book. Okay. So it was basically pressed into my hands by many people. Katie and I finally decided to pick it up together recently. I say finally, but it released in June of 2023. So it's not like we waited five years. Just a year and a half. Right. David Scheele, the author, is a marine biologist who, early in his career became fascinated with octopuses, as we all do at some point. But he found a lack of research about these obviously amazing animals because it was the 90s, the 80s, and people just didn't care. It was like a bag of fluid under the ocean. They just didn't care what was happening with these animals. They didn't realize they were smart. Nothing had been studied. There were, however, a lot of myths and legends, a lot of misconceptions, and sometimes the two intertwined. One of my favorite parts of this book is the way he weaves those pieces into the science and the research that he's done over his career. There are stories of Victorian explorers being knocked out of the boat that they are piloting by orcas. But the scary part is not the orcas. It's when tentacles pull this guy underwater.
- [26:42]
A
Oh, no.
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B
Yeah. At this point, we are smart enough now to know that murder orcas are actually the scariest part of that story. But it doesn't matter, because octopuses held this, like, mythical status as sea beasts. Right. That's why we have the Kraken myth. He also does a really great job including indigenous wisdom and myth in this book. As he spends quite a bit of his research time in Alaska. So the title itself comes from an indigenous Inuit word for octopus, which I find delightful because the way they create their dens and the way their tentacles can change shape and texture makes it look like there's not a creature under the rock. Not just one thing, but many things under a rock. So that's what the Inuit word translates to if you break it out into its constituent parts. However, David Scheele is a researcher first and an author second. Katie and I both felt that really hard in this book. There were so many interesting facts that it felt like he was ping ponging around from one topic to the next and wasn't able to organize his thoughts in a way that made sense to a lay reader. The chapter titles and topics didn't feel like they narrowed into any kind of cohesive narrative or storyline. So we were feeling like he had thrown darts at a dartboard to see how to organize his writing. Even though the book is not one that I kept on my forever shelves. That honor goes to the Secrets of the Octopus and the Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. For beautiful photos, compelling storytelling. All of that is included in those two titles. I was delighted by hand drawn illustrations that his wife contributed to the book and I really enjoyed those myth, legend, storytelling elements inside here. Overall, it ended up only being a four star book for me. And it does have plenty of good stuff in it for anybody who loves octopuses as much as I do, which I realize is not many people, so maybe not quite as much as I do, but who enjoys learning about them. This was middling, except for the fact that it was about octopuses. It is Many Things Under a Rock by David Scheele.
- [28:43]
A
At some point you're gonna like have your degree in octopus science.
- [28:47]
B
Octopusology, yeah, for sure. I'm even wearing an octopus shirt again today.
- [28:52]
A
All right, perfect.
- [28:53]
B
Obsessed.
- [28:54]
A
All right. Well, my third book is a continuation of my journey through Agatha Christie's Poirot novels. We have another one here. This is the Murder on the Lynx by Agatha Christie. Here's a setup for this book. We are in a seaside town in northern France where Hercule Perrault has just received an urgent letter from Paul Renaud, who's a super rich businessman who claims that his life is in danger. So many of our books start with this premise, but as happens when Perrault and Captain Hastings arrive at his villa, Villa Genevieve, they find Renaud's body on the grounds of an unfinished golf course, face down in a hastil dug Grave. The dead man is still wearing his coat and boots, suggesting that he was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night. His wife was found bound and gagged in the bedroom and a story of masked intruders is given. Alright, so we obviously have Perrault here on site, very fortuitously ready to solve this murder. This book was written a hundred years ago. It was published in 1923. This particular book is one that several people say is their sleeper favorite of hers. If you ask a lot of Agatha Christie fans, this one is often in their top three and I definitely understand why. It has a few things in it that are really fun. One thing I didn't love and another thing that made me absolutely crazy, but I will forgive. So I always love any Hercule novel and especially I love, as I've said in the past, ones that feature Captain Hastings as his sidekick. We get that in spades here. In fact, our dear buffoon Captain Hastings plays a very significant role in this story. Also we have a French investigator who gives Hercule a run for his money. Or he tries to, I love seeing here, not only him try to solve the crime, but also trying to do it better and faster and more clever than his competition. Spoiler alert. Hercule wins. The one thing about this novel that I did not love is that the mystery itself is really, really comple. I think in this case it's overly complex. There were just so many elements to the crime that had to come together that I felt very few people could possibly put it all together. Usually I feel like Agatha Christie lets us play along, but in this case she was working overtime to make sure that only our hero could solve this puzzle. I will forgive that though, because it was an awful lot of fun watching him do it. The thing that drove me crazy about this book was Captain Hastings himself. Now we are very used to this sidekick being kind of a dip, but in this case he is absolutely so stupid and so silly and so caught up in thinking that every single woman he comes across is the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen that he lands himself and Hercule into quite a bit of trouble. And you would think that someone who has had as much involvement in mystery and murder as he has would at least have seen some of these things coming. So in this case I give a little bit of side eye to the buffoonery of Captain Hastings. But even putting all that together, this book was about four hours of perfect audio at 1.0 and I'm not complaining about it at all. It was absolutely diverting. In the exact way that I wanted to spend a few hours of long walks and doing chores. There's no better companion than Hercule. Although this will not be a. On my list of top favorites. This is Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie.
- [32:31]
B
Excellent. How many Hercule Poirot novels are there and how many have you read? Like, are you keeping, like, a chart?
- [32:40]
A
I don't have a chart, but I have a. A note I've read. So to answer your question, I've read about 50.
- [32:46]
B
Okay.
- [32:47]
A
I think there's like 30. Ish.
- [32:48]
B
Okay. I feel like I'm gonna make this a special sheet in your reading tracker for next year so you can keep this running.
- [32:56]
A
Oh, I would like that.
- [32:57]
B
Like a graph. Like a donut chart, so it can show you how far. Oh, yeah, that would be.
- [33:02]
A
I would. I would absolutely love that. Yeah. I just have been keeping it in a. Like a note in my notes app.
- [33:06]
B
Yeah.
- [33:07]
A
And I like, you know, it's a check. Like they're check boxes.
- [33:10]
B
A little check mark.
- [33:11]
A
I can check them as I read them.
- [33:13]
B
I like it. Okay, Meredith, my third one this week is one that is you forced me to read in the nicest, best way possible. I'm going to talk about the Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst.
- [33:26]
A
Oh, yes. Oh, I love this book.
- [33:28]
B
I know it's only been about three months since Meredith talked about this one on the show, but as I made clear during that episode, I downloaded it while she was describing it because she knew it was something I needed right at that moment. Meredith, you were so right. I'm going to get a shirt. Meredith is always right.
- [33:46]
A
Oh, gosh, that is my love language, Katie.
- [33:48]
B
The good news is that not only was Meredith right, but by extension, I get to give myself a gold star. I was also right in downloading it immediately.
- [33:55]
A
Yes.
- [33:56]
B
As a reminder, this cozy, magical fantasy is about Kayla and her talking spider plant named Kaz. They have been working together in the great library of Elysium for the last 11 years. But when the library is threatened by a revolution happening in the city outside its doors, it starts to burn. So Kiella and Kaz has steal as many books as they can manage and flee to the home where she grew up. On a tiny island, that home has fallen into disrepair. The town is a bit of a mess, but Kiela is determined to keep her recent activity under wraps. Just in case it was illegal to try and steal those very precious and unique spellbooks from the library, she has a nosy neighbor stop by regularly. Thankfully, Lauren is actually quite handsome. And has great golden retriever energy. He's up for anything to bring to the story and balance out Kiella's anxieties about being caught by the government inspector who comes to town because she is skating a thin line. In order to make ends meet and to keep her spell books under wraps, Kiela starts selling jam in partnership with the cute little bakery in the village. If she happens to try out the spells in the books that she brought with her and work them into her recipes, what's the harmony? Especially if it makes the villagers happier overall? Well, she's not a licensed magician is the harm. So the adorable baking, marmalade making and gardening that happen within this story all come with a cost, a legal cost. This story had all the elements that I love from books that I enjoyed as a child, and that's kind of what it feels like, a children's book for grown ups. It's not a children's book. It's not twee or dumb or anything like that. But it has the same feelings of comfort and the elements of overgrown gardens like in the Secret Garden. Inanimate objects that talk and act as companions, like in Beauty and the Beast. It swirls with sights and scents and flavors in the way that the house witch did. And there's drama and intrigue, but it's relatively low stakes, like in Legends and Lattes or Bookshops and Bone Dust. I read it in September, but I had to wait long enough to make sure there was a little cushion between when we talked about it. I started within moments of us finishing recording that day that you brought it to the show, Meredith. It was the ultimate comfort and sparkle that I needed, especially in September when my life was a disaster. For anyone that needs to work in some comfort reading over the holidays, this is your sign to pick it up. It is. Gosh. It was the perfect book for me at that time. And I wept with gratitude when I finished it. Not because it's sad, but because it felt like I had been hugged by this author and this story. This is the Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst, right?
- [36:42]
A
It's the ultimate comfort book or emotional support book.
- [36:46]
B
Yes, yes. Break glass in case of emergency. Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. And maybe you would fit it into your reading over the holidays, which is what we are going to talk about next for our deep dive. Meredith, this was such a good idea that you gave to us for this week.
- [37:02]
A
I mean, I think it's really important for us to have a plan of action headed into because, you know, the reality is the holiday really, you could say for many people, all of December falls into this category with a lot of things. The holidays bring so many tasks and events, things that take our time that aren't normally on our schedule. And so, of course, the first thing for many of us that goes is anything that brings us joy. That's just. Okay, that's not true. The holidays bring us joy.
- [37:36]
B
Yes.
- [37:37]
A
Anything that. What I meant is anything that brings just like individual.
- [37:41]
B
That feels like it's only for yourself.
- [37:43]
A
Yeah, exactly. Right.
- [37:44]
B
Yeah.
- [37:45]
A
And so I thought, okay, let's talk just a little bit about if you are like me and you know that even for the last two weeks of the year, when things really start rocking and rolling, or the two weeks before Christmas and things start rocking and rolling, and you're, you know that unless you fill up your cup, you are not going to be good for all of those holiday festivities. We need to have a plan for how we fit it in.
- [38:12]
B
Right.
- [38:12]
A
Because, like, if I don't get some quiet time, which is usually spent with a book, I am not the best version of myself. I'm cranky, I'm sullen.
- [38:22]
B
Well, and it, like, trickles out. Right. Like, I don't sleep because I haven't been reading and getting out of my own head.
- [38:29]
A
Right.
- [38:30]
B
Yes.
- [38:30]
A
So it. It really, really matters. So I think thinking through it in advance and doing a few things, having especially, I think, some conversations around this issue with the people who are closest to you really makes a difference. So for me, the first step is to realize that it's a necessity to continue to fill your cup up. This way. If this is true for you, again, for many people, this won't be a necessity at all. And you can skip right over this deep dive. But for a lot of us, we need to say, okay, I need to still be getting a little bit of quiet time with a book throughout this period of time, then I would say it starts with a conversation with the people who are closest to you. For me, that is my husband and my son, where I say, here's the thing, I'm going to need to continue to take some time. So I'm going to be really intentional about blocking it out. But here, now, this is where it gets a little bit uncomfortable. Here's the further place where I think you need to have a conversation. And I do this regularly and with no apology. When I have people, even my grown children, coming in from afar, coming to stay at our home, I will say to them before they even arrive, just so you know, I'm going to go to bed each night around 9:00 because I need to go to bed and read and fill my cup up for the next day. So when that happens overnight guest, it does not mean that I don't want to be with you or that I'm tired of you or any of those things. It means that I'm doing what I need to do to be the best for you the next day. And if I have had those conversations in advance and it's kind of expected, I feel a lot better about following through with it. And that really does make a difference.
- [40:07]
B
Yeah, I agree. And I think it's possible to think of it like when you had to parent little kids or grandparent little kids, you made sure that you were home in the afternoon for a quiet period of time so that they could take a nap. Right. And it wasn't selfish and it wasn't that you were giving up on holiday cheer. It was that that's the way to make it continue to grow throughout the season. Right. So I do the same, except I turn into a pumpkin. My brain melts at 9pm so that's not going to work for But I do physically go through my calendar and find chunks of time that are not busy. Right. Because December is so busy. There is stuff it feels like every single day of the month because that's how the magic happens.
- [40:53]
A
Right.
- [40:54]
B
We want it to be, we want there to be fun in December. But I will physically go through and block off on my calendar and I won't write like in all caps, leave me alone. But I will write unavailable. And that way, even when I'm planning the next thing, I know that that chunk of two to three in the afternoon on Wednesday, that's not a time that I can put Christmas caroling with our friends. Not that you would go at 2pm or ice skating with our friends, whatever it is. Because I need to have that space somewhere in my day, every day. So making it an actual event in my calendar with, and this is key, a reminder 15 minutes beforehand so that I know it's time to start getting the kids situated with another activity. It might need to make sure that my water bottle is filled up or that my blanket is on my reading chair or that there's not a load of laundry in the dryer that whatever it is that's going to take me out of that is already dealt with.
- [41:51]
A
Yeah.
- [41:52]
B
That 15 minute reminder. Absolutely a key to making that hour as product, as unproductive as possible, as fulfilling as possible.
- [42:00]
A
Right, Exactly. Because.
- [42:02]
B
Right.
- [42:02]
A
We don't want to put productive or not productive. We don't want to make that a judgment call. We just want to say that it's, it's a filling of the cup in, in that way. And I think that, I think it's so key, the strategy that you use there in that you're making it an event. You're putting it is an event on your calendar that is as important as any other event that's on your calendar. You wouldn't randomly cancel lunch with a friend because you're like, I just feel guilty about having lunch with a friend. So you, you would say, no, I promised her I would do that. I'm gonna do it. Well, in this case, you are your own friend.
- [42:35]
B
Be your own friend.
- [42:36]
A
Be your own friend.
- [42:38]
B
Okay, here's the next like thing that kind of trips me up around the holidays. And I just had lunch with a friend yesterday and we talked about this because I said, what are you reading? Lizzie, who listens to the podcast, and she's gonna say, great. Now Katie's calling me out. I said, you wanted audiobook time, so you were gonna listen to something on the way to meet me for lunch. And she said, ah, I just listened to music because I didn't know what to read next. This is the next part of your holiday reading.
- [43:02]
A
This is something that even I trip over.
- [43:04]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [43:05]
A
On audio especially.
- [43:06]
B
On audio especially. It's a thing. And that's a bigger thing in December, I think, because we have so many places to be and things to do with our hands. But making sure you have a tbr of things that are available that you are interested in and downloaded for the near future. Yes, Already downloaded. Right. Key. Yeah, key. And it needs to be more than one thing. Right. You can't just be like, well, my next book is this, because maybe you're not going to feel like reading that when you finish the current read that you have. There needs to be probably five to seven titles either in your audio cue already downloaded on Libby or on Libro FM or on Audible or on Spotify. Wherever you get your audiobook, there needs to be a number of books on your Kindle. There needs to be a number of paper books, all of which you are interested in, so that there is an option for where to go next. Because it is so easy to stall out during the holidays because your decision making abilities are already fried.
- [43:59]
A
Yeah, right.
- [44:00]
B
It's worth investing that time. Put it in your calendar. 15 minutes. Choose six books for my TBR. Done. Make sure it's in there.
- [44:08]
A
Yeah, absolutely. I think that that makes so much sense, I can't even tell you how many times I have been caught out in my car already driving, and, like, I finish a book and then I'm like, I don't have my neck. Like, I know. I kind of know maybe, but it's not downloaded on my phone. So. Yes, that. That absolutely takes some. Some pre thinking. Okay, this next strategy, I can't even tell you how many times I have used. And I kind of feel like it is a little bit controversial because it involves a little bit of. Of not telling the total truth.
- [44:42]
B
Okay.
- [44:44]
A
Okay. So when my babies were little and we had family gatherings, my perfectly well trained, well, sleep trained children all of a sudden found themselves completely unable to nap without me being right next to them. And there was really nothing I could do about it.
- [45:01]
B
Yep, Happens here too. For sure, right?
- [45:03]
A
Like, yes, I know, mom, Jackson is a really good napper at home, but. But here, he just doesn't seem able to nap at all without.
- [45:13]
B
So weird. I better lay next to him for an hour and a half.
- [45:17]
A
I did this. I lie. I bold face, lied into my mother's face about every one of my children and their napping abilities because it meant an hour and a half. And I would just shove my Kindle in my bra. It was awkward, but you know what I mean. Shove it down your pants. Whatever you need. Yeah, okay. That's probably better. Whatever it is. Put his blankie in advance. Maybe had my Kindle wrapped, you know, in it. So it was like, okay, let's get your blankie and go into bed. Boom. Hour and a half of reading with nobody. Because they didn't want Jackson up either. Cause he was cranky. He needed a nap.
- [45:55]
B
Exactly. Everybody wins, right? It's the least harmless. Best lie you can tell, right?
- [46:03]
A
Right. Now, I did have to prepare my husband in advance because Johnny, of course, knew, like, he would, like, wait a minute. Or he'd come in and be like, is there a. He'd be thinking that there was a problem that maybe I needed some help with, but I told him in advance. No, no, no. It's just Jackson's spontaneous holiday inability to nap.
- [46:22]
B
That's so smart.
- [46:23]
A
Now, even at 13, I'll bet you I could convince Jackson to need a nap and be okay with me going in there with him and reading while we, like, he'd be on his phone and I'd be reading for an hour and a half. We're two introverts together. Yeah. He'd be on board with that.
- [46:35]
B
Yeah. Especially if I was like, bring your earbuds and your YouTube. Like, he'd be like, okay, sure. Yeah. We can pretend that I don't feel well.
- [46:43]
A
Right.
- [46:44]
B
And I need you to like comb my hair with your hands while. While I lay down. Yeah, that's fine.
- [46:49]
A
Right?
- [46:51]
B
It'd be great. And hell, like, whoever, maybe your cat forgot how to nap while you were. Yeah. You're gone over the holidays.
- [46:59]
A
Right.
- [46:59]
B
That's fine.
- [47:00]
A
Right. Your dog is extra anxious with lots of people around. Maybe he needs a nap.
- [47:05]
B
Yeah. And he just needs somebody to lay next to him for a little while. It's okay.
- [47:10]
A
Yeah, I like that.
- [47:11]
B
I love that. Okay. We did also we mentioned the holiday hands. Busy driving busy. All the busyness. We do. Still. I'm very sad for these people. Have people that don't think that the audiobooks are a good fit for them, that they are not good audio readers. And I'm going to push back on that and say that holiday time is a good time to try audiobooks again if you have not fully embraced them into your reading life and take it easy. So it could be the fluffiest fluff you've ever fluffed. Right. Where it does not matter if you catch every detail. Jenny Colgan is going to make sure the people get together by the end. It's okay. Just let the story flow over you. Or maybe it's a reread and you are just going to. You've already heard this story many times. But it's a way to let a story be part of your. Your time during the holidays rather than just the Spotify holiday favorites playlist, which is also great, of course.
- [48:10]
A
Yeah.
- [48:11]
B
My third suggestion for how to work audiobook time in even if you're not normally an audiobook reader is you try a tandem read for the first time. So you pick a book that has intimidated you in some way. Maybe it's Robert Jordan because they're so big. These books are so big.
- [48:27]
A
Or the Wheel of Time series.
- [48:29]
B
Yeah. And you get the paper book or the Kindle book and an audiobook and you allow yourself to sink in the story in multiple formats that will train your brain to listen in a different way than audiobook. Just doesn't work for me. Holiday time is a great time to do that. And then once you've tried it as a tandem read, you can switch over to audio because you have the character names in your head. You have listened with intention so you know how the story is going to go. You understand how this author does his plot and his writing. Whatever it is. Holiday time is a great time to do that. Maybe it's while your child is not sleeping or while your child is sleeping and you are not helping them sleep.
- [49:06]
A
Is air quote, not napping. Yeah.
- [49:09]
B
Yes, exactly. Exactly.
- [49:11]
A
All right. And then just kind of my final thought is if you can celebrate that Icelandic la la la la book flood thing, I think. Yeah, we haven't done that in my family. But if your family would be into that for the sake of the rest of us, would you please do it?
- [49:29]
B
Yeah. Because we want families that will do that. So if your family will do it.
- [49:34]
A
I want to live vicariously through you.
- [49:36]
B
Yeah. Share photos, please and thank you. Tell us your book choices for the evening, what your pajamas felt like on your skin. All of it. We want all of it.
- [49:44]
A
Right. Just like the fact that it's kind of its own holiday is what I love about it. Like, let's normalize families celebrating bookish holidays together. If you have access to that, please do it. Please do it.
- [50:00]
B
Yes. Love that. My final tip is to not try to fit yourself within a holiday box. So if you have lists being served to you that are like the best Nordic noir for winter nights or the best holiday romances that are so cute you want to kiss somebody under the mistletoe, whatever it is, that doesn't have to be you.
- [50:21]
A
Yeah.
- [50:22]
B
Read what works for you. Even if it's December, it doesn't. You don't have to say, oh well, I have to read something with snow in it. Nope. Let go of all those shoulds and expectations around your reading and lean into what works for you. Especially during this very busy time of year. Whatever you like could be giant books or epic family stories or dark academia. Embrace your vibe for the holiday season.
- [50:45]
A
I absolutely love that. That is such good advice. It is such such good advice and I hope that people will do that because. Right. You might want to read a sunny beach setting because it's so friggin cold and you don't want to think about snow. So whatever appeals to you should be what you read for sure.
- [51:06]
B
Or you might be in Australia and it might be sunny and beachy outside for your Christmas. That's okay too.
- [51:11]
A
Yes, read what works for you. Merry Summer Christmas to all of our Australian friends. And there are a lot of you. We are very, very happy that you are having such beautiful warm weather right now.
- [51:24]
B
Good for them. All right, well, I feel like those are some great tips for the holiday season. Let us know, please. Please send us your photos of your Christmas Eve Icelandic reading traditions. We Want those? Okay, we're gonna go to the fountain now. What is your wish this week, Meredith?
- [51:40]
A
I was just looking back into our bookish friends group, trying to find the exact name of the bookish friend. Maybe you'll be able to remember this off the top of your head, Katie, but we just recently, I think yesterday we had a bookish friend list thinking about their favorite books of the year. But I think they said, I do this for all of my friends. I. I do kind of like an end of year Christmas card or email or letter or something. But I basically go over my reading year for my friends. But she did it all in superlatives. So it was like, best book that's likely to scare your pants off. Best book that, like, she made up all of the different superlatives. And it was a fascinating way to, like, I was wrapped. I read through this entire. It was fairly long. I was absolutely so interested to see not only what her reading year had been like, but the superlatives that she chose with it. So I wish that more of us had the time and the inclination. I certainly would love to read these in the bookish friends group. For sure. Looking over a reading year, but doing it in a superlatives kind of way. Not just a top 10 list, but like, favorite book that made me want to get my wisdom teeth out. Like, just like random. You know what I mean? Like, totally random superlatives. I just really enjoyed that format and I wish more people would do it.
- [52:57]
B
Okay. I think the bookish friend you're talking about is Lindsay Felton, who is an all star contributor. She is a great poster in our bookish friends group. Yes, she is so good. The book I'm determined to push into everyone's hands. Fans of middle grade, best unlikely friendship story, most addictive crime series. Right. These are superlatives. But not just best book of the year. Right. She's going deeper into the list than that.
- [53:21]
A
Yes. And her book that she wants to press into everyone's hands I immediately downloaded because she did a really, really good job selling it. So my wish, I guess, is that each of us would be able to take a look at our year. And I love the idea of the fact that she shared it out to. It sounds like she didn't just share it maybe on her, like, bookstagram, she shared it out to all of her friends. And I love the idea of maybe people who don't think of themselves as readers having access to this incredible look into her reading life.
- [53:52]
B
Yes.
- [53:52]
A
It was just very inspirational to me.
- [53:54]
B
Yes. I Love it. Okay. Mine is not dissimilar to that. I am going to wish to have a holiday book exchange instead of a cookie exchange. Right. A lot of us have a holiday cookie exchange where you make three dozen cookies and then you come home with three dozen. But it's a variety instead of the three dozen that you made. Right. I'm going to attend one actually hosted at a local bookish friend's house next weekend. But what I'd really love to do is a holiday book exchange. There's two options here. There's the budget option and the lavish option. So we're going to start lavish. You have a book club. Let's say it's eight people, because I find that's the perfect number. And instead of exchanging cookies, you're going to exchange physical books. So it's like a favorite things party. You're going to buy seven copies of your favorite book of the year or one of your other superlatives. Right.
- [54:43]
A
Okay.
- [54:43]
B
And you're going to bring those seven copies with you when you go home that day. You are taking home seven books, but they are the favorites of your other members of your book club. It's the start of your TBR for next year. If 7 times $15 paperbacks is not an option for you because that's more than 100 bucks worth of books for your book club, maybe that's not a choice. You're going to buy or make seven special bookmarks. And on the back is going to be the same thing, Title, author, why you love it, your name. So that that person knows who to thank or to rant at after they read that book. You're coming with seven copies of that bookmark. You leave with seven new bookmarks that maybe start your bookmark collection, but definitely start your TBR for next year. It's a holiday book exchange. It's a delight. This is what I want for all of us.
- [55:31]
A
That is a great idea. That's a fantastic way to do some bookish. Sharing some Christmas festivity and have it be something different. I like. I mean, yeah, I think it's a great idea.
- [55:42]
B
I think it'd be really fun. We're doing this next year.
- [55:45]
A
I want. I mean, could everybody buy like a Patreon? Like, could you buy seven Patreon subscriptions to your reader friends and give those to your reader?
- [55:53]
B
That could get pricey, but you could do just the $5 for one month. Just for one month. It's like a gateway drug.
- [56:00]
A
That would be an interesting way to. To. To get people interested for sure. 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 shorts on Instagram and you can.
- [56:13]
B
Find me Katie notes on bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putamong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of megansreads full show notes with.
- [56:24]
A
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 in our show notes and on our website@currentlyreadingpodcast.com.
- [56:35]
B
Youm can also follow the show at currently reading podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com and if you want more.
- [56:43]
A
Of this content, you can join us on Patreon. You get a ton of content, you get a ton of community and you keep this show commercial free. You can also help us by rating and reviewing us on Apple podcasts and shout us out to your friends on social media. All of those things make a huge difference in us finding our perfect audience.
- [57:02]
B
Yes, Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [57:08]
A
All right, Katie, until next year, may.
- [57:11]
B
Your coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [57:14]
A
Happy reading, Katie.
- [57:15]
B
Happy reading, Meredith.