Katie Cottam (3:42)

Yeah.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (3:43)

And then we get a better quality interview. So another thing that books bring to.

Katie Cottam (3:47)

Our lives, that's all we all need, right, is a person that you can talk books with. That's why we do this every single week.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (3:54)

Exactly. And I do want to say, just so I'm really clear, it's if someone. If reading is not somebody's thing that is not. Like, I don't automatically, like, disqualify them. Disqualify them. I just. I want to say that I'm whatever they're passionate about, I want to meet them at that place. It just happens to be that if it's books, you can really see it come over them.

Katie Cottam (4:14)

Right. Well, shared common ground is always going to be an equalizer. Right. So that makes sense to me. Also, in case anybody's wondering, yes, every time Meredith posts a job opening for Here Comes the Guide, I do think maybe this time I should apply. So it's always a thing, right?

Meredith Monday Schwartz (4:32)

Exactly. Now, of course, I have always said that I do not hire people where I like. I wouldn't want to mix our two worlds.

Katie Cottam (4:42)

I know. Which is why I never do.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (4:44)

Exactly. Exactly. Because I, you know, this is very, very important to me. And, like, we want to really hold it Sacrosanct. And so like that. That's why I would say, not that you wouldn't be great, because you absolutely would. You 100% would. But I would be like, let's not mix the two.

Katie Cottam (4:59)

I think all it really is is that all of us listeners, I'm going to wrap you in with me right here. All of us admire you, Meredith, so much. And the way that you run this company and the fact that it's so women centered and that it prioritizes the way that women want to be in the world and in their homes and in their lives and with their families. And that's fully remote and that's flexible schedules and that's four day work weeks. And I think it's that part that I'm always like, see, that's the type of company I want to work for. But I've never been like, here comes the guide is the answer for me.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (5:31)

Yeah.

Katie Cottam (5:31)

So I think that's what it comes down to.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (5:33)

It is. And thank you for saying that. And that is something that's really important to us. And one of the things that we say when we talk about business or whenever I do any sort of conversation that's business related, it's about the fact that this is the company we want to see more of in the world. So one of the things that I hope to do as I begin to segue out of day to day of Here Comes the Guide at some point will be to help create more of those kinds of companies. Because it's really. It really. There should be more of that.

Katie Cottam (6:02)

It shouldn't be so hard to find. Right? Such a golden unicorn.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (6:06)

Yeah.

Katie Cottam (6:07)

Okay, that was a fun tangent. My bookish moment is that this weekend I ended up with just one kiddo instead of all four. He's got a broken arm and everyone else went skiing, so Levi had to stay home with me. That means we got to pretend he was an only child. This weekend, we're running errands together. We're helping my neighbor with something. We're watching our show, which right now is the good place. We are going to see Stomp tonight. And this afternoon he is coming to the Arizona Bookish Friends meetup with me at Grassroots bookstore in downtown Phoenix. He's almost 12, so I did give him options. I said, you could hang out and just play switch if you want. Like, he can handle being here by himself for a couple hours. There's a neighbor right across the street that's always willing to step in if he needs anything or have him over. But he really wanted to go to the bookstore. That was a no brainer for him. I love that I've raised readers that love bookstores and books just like I do. And he's so elated by the time, by the idea of some time with the other bookish friends. He just loves the idea that there's people that just want to hang out with me because they listen to me talk every week. He thinks that's so fun. Mommy, you're famous. No, I'm settle down. Levi is probably right now my most readerly kid, still willing to take my suggestions about what to read next. So going to the bookstore together, walking the shelves together is like Chef's Kiss. That's a perfect Saturday for me. I'm so excited.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (7:27)

That is gonna be very, very fun. That is the most, the most kind of fun that you can have. And I love it that all your kids love to do that, but I love it that Levi likes to do that especially. You guys have a lot of shared things that you like to do together. I think that's great.

Katie Cottam (7:41)

We do, we do. Lego and crochet are probably top of that list for him, but books, top of the list for me, definitely.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (7:47)

Yeah. Well, this afternoon I'm going to be taking Jackson on a date to the lacrosse store, which is his favorite place to go with his mom, who carries the wallet. So lacrosse is starting up again, and so we have. Yeah, that's our big date. So he's very motivated to go there with me.

Katie Cottam (8:07)

Okay, let's get into our current reads. What have you got for us this week?

Meredith Monday Schwartz (8:11)

All right, so we're gonna start out with a book that is very much in my wheelhouse. And I know a lot of people have asked me if I have read it yet. This is Witness 8 by Steve Kavanaugh. Have you read this one, Katie? Here's a setup. This is a fast paced legal thriller. So if you love that, listen up. So we start out with Ruby. Now, Ruby used to be a part of Manhattan's ultra elite social scene, but now she's fallen on hard times. And now she's working as a maid slash nanny in these beautiful brownstones that she once called her own home. She sees everything from behind the scenes. And when she one night witnesses something that she shouldn't, let's just say Ruby's response is not what you might expect it to be. Then we also have our main character, Eddie Flynn. He is a former con. Con artist. Now he's a defense attorney who specializes in what seem like impossible to win cases. His current client is John Jackson, who's facing murder charges with some very convincing evidence stacked up against him. But of course, in these kinds of stories from Steve Kavanaugh, nothing is quite what it seems. So Steve Cavanaugh, if that sounds familiar, he wrote the legal thriller juggernaut that was 13. I loved that one. Read kind of a couple of his most recent ones because they were getting mixed reviews. But when Elizabeth Barnhill on All Things Murderful said that this one was back to him at his best, I jumped in. And this is a solid legal thriller. We've got plenty of action, plenty of courtroom scenes, which I love. And with Steve Kavanaugh, you get plenty of twistiness and all that. Kept the pages turning. And also nice short Cheeto chapters helped, too. Now, I love the Eddie Flynn character, the con, former con man with a heart of gold. I'm a sucker for it because he is. Because he's reformed. Right. Like, so that's really important for me. I'm not a. I don't like a con artist lead character most of the time, but I do love a reformed con artist. He's got all the Mickey Haller from Lincoln Lawyer vibes. But what separates this book from the pack is not only this fantastic and singular lead character of Eddie Flynn, but the entire group of supporting cast around him. I love kind of his very eclectic group. They've all got really specific backstories and specific ways of interacting with each other. And all of which makes each chapter in rotating point of view a pleasure because you're always happy to be back in the company of, like, the member of the team who's following a lead or doing their part for the case. If I had a beef of any kind with this book, and it's not a big one, it's like a slider. It's that there were a few too many storylines for my taste. If he'd cut out even one of the extraneous storylines, I think it would have been a really perfectly crafted book. As it was, it was completely enjoyable and I will definitely be dipping into this series again because I cannot resist Eddie Flynn. This is Witness 8 by Steve Kavanaugh.

Katie Cottam (11:28)

A beef that's so small, it's a slider. Meredith. I lost it. I love that. I love that. And I love hearing. I did read 13. I love hearing that he's back in his stride again with this one.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (11:42)

Yes, for sure. If you liked 13, Witness 8 is going to be right up your alley, and you've had plenty of time in between them for it. To feel really fresh.

Katie Cottam (11:50)

Yeah, definitely. Okay. My first one this week is also one I really enjoyed. It's Bury youy Gaze by Chuck Tingle.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (11:58)

Wait, what are you gonna do with them?

Katie Cottam (11:59)

Bury them? Yes. I know you love how I say bury. Bury. Bury your gays.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (12:05)

Bury them.

Katie Cottam (12:06)

Like bury. That's like a mediocre man. I don't. Okay. This is one I read right toward the end of last year, and it's my first Chuck Tingle book. He's usually known for really weird erotica, like the 37 page novella I found called pounded by the po gay by the socio economic implications of Britain leaving the European Union. That's the title of this book. Or Taken by the Gay Unicorn Biker. He writes really weird stuff. Okay. But he also writes horror novels, and this was a. This one was mainstream enough to be an Aardvark Book club selection, which is what put it on my radar.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (12:44)

Oh, okay. Got it.

Katie Cottam (12:46)

Like a full page, a full size novel that you could put in a regular bookstore rather than this other weirdness that I was just talking about. Right, right. This is a zippy little horror novel that has some great science fiction weirdness in it as well, and I am here for it. Here's the setup. Misha is our main character. He's been screenwriting in Hollywood for years, but rarely gets to tell the stories that allow people like him to get happily ever afters on screen. In fact, at the start of the story, he's being told that his top grossing sci fi TV series cannot have a gay reveal for the two main characters. The studio would rather kill them off in the upcoming season finale, thus the title, bury your gaze. Misha refuses, and immediately afterward, he sees a studio exec flattened by an actual piano close enough to him to get gore on his face. That's the first chapter of this book, right? You're like, what is happening? Perhaps that sent him a little over the edge into the deep end. Because then Misha starts to see more strange things. The horror characters that he brought to life on screen are finding him in real life. A character named the Smoker, who Misha is pretty sure is just an avid fan, dressed up like the Smoker, tracks him down on the street one night, another one finds him on an airplane. An alien woman who reveals the secrets of the universe to anyone she touches, which leaves them in a despair so deep that they die of starvation because they no longer feed themselves. One character after another, fully formed from his mind, shows up in Misha's life, stalking him through the city of Los Angeles and Terrorizing his friends. The sci fi elements of this start to come to life when it's not just Misha's creations that we see in the city, but also deceased actors playing out their most famous roles. It is getting weird. Stuff is getting weird, right? What is happening in the Hollywood Hills? Misha has to figure out how to stop his most nightmarish creations before they bury him among the gays of the silver screen. This book was so fun.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (14:44)

Okay, it sounds fun.

Katie Cottam (14:46)

It's delightful, it's pithy, it's smart. It's a peek inside the television and movie industry. It was a romp through the streets, unburned and outskirts of Los Angeles. I loved the characters that Misha had invented. They were truly terrifying. As well as the real life side characters that serve as his partners in crime. For this story. These pages flew by. It's just under 300 total for the book and I can absolutely see why. This one has a 4.27 average on StoryGraph and 4.16 on Goodreads. People like this book. It's a lot of fun. It is horrifying and it's also a delight. There is very graphic on page murder for one scene that is burned in my memory. For anybody who's thinking, well, if Katie thinks it's delightful, maybe I should try it. Guys, I do like dark stuff sometimes, even though Meredith regularly creeps me out. So know that Chuck Tingle apparently does not shy away from content of any kind in his books. Whether it's being pounded by the pound or graphic body gore. That did not stop me from loving this. This is Bury youy Gays by Chuck Tingle.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (15:50)

Oh, man. I have heard that he is a really good time in all the different genres that he writes in. So I love it. I love these. Becoming a little more mainstream.

Katie Cottam (16:00)

Yeah, and it's a pen name. So his author photo is like a shoulders and then a paper bag over a head. Like we. We don't know who this person is. Which is very fun for me.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (16:09)

So which is great because. And fun for them because they could be. They can do. Absolutely.

Katie Cottam (16:14)

They could be sitting next to me at the bookstore today. Who even knows? I love it.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (16:18)

I love it so much. All right, well, now I'm going to talk about a book with an author that we know very much about because he is an absolute part of the pantheon of fantasy. I'm going to talk about the Great Hunt, which is by Robert Jordan. So here's the setup in this book. This is the second in the Wheel of Time series. We're diving right back into the sprawling, very complex world of the Wheel of Time. And trust me, we are still on a wild ride. Our lead character, as always, is Rand Al Thor, who is a young man who is grappling with some major self discovery. Some things that happened in the first book. And I will be very careful not to give anything away as I talk about this book. At the start of this next book, he's thrust into the Great Hunt for the Horn of Valier, which is. The Horn of Valier is a very important object that it won't surprise you, gives great power to whoever has it. So this is a quest story with this second installment being an epic treasure hunt with huge legendary stakes. We've got lots of tension, we've got lots of politics and dangers are absolutely everywhere. And so our beloved group of main characters, they have no idea who they can trust. Alright, you remember I mentioned that as soon as I finished the first book in this series, the Eye of the World, I really wanted to go straight into the second one. But as each of these books are more than 700 pages, I felt like I needed to put a little bit of space in between them. The second book was published in 1990. So this is a classic of high fantasy. I can't really say a lot about a second in a series, except to say that the world that Robert Jordan is building here is as detailed in its lore and in its characters as anything that J.R.R. tolkien has created. We have all the cinematic fantasy trappings that I love so much. We've got vibrant scenes filled with a diverse assembly. We've got grand, imposing fortresses surrounded by ancient forests and lots and lots of treasures, both lost and found. And they're so beautifully described. But it's the characters that you keep coming back for. Our beloveds here grab you in the first book and then you just want to hop on the back of their horse and see exactly what is going to happen to them as you ride through these hundreds and hundreds of pages. Again here I was lucky enough to buddy read this with my friend Bill Largent, who is a huge and devoted fan of this series. I can't overstate how much reading these books with him has added to my enjoyment. And that really comes in the form of two ways that that enjoyment shows itself. The first one is that he's able to give me a sense not only of where I am in the book, but of what is coming. So, for example, there was a period of time in the first third of this book, the Great Hunt, that I was telling him, bill, things are pretty complicated, and I'm not sure I know exactly what's going on. Like, I feel like I'm forgetting things. And I'm kind of missing the more intimate settings of the first book where we got to sit by the campfire with our characters. Bill was then able to say, first of all, it's okay to let the story wash over you, and it's okay that you don't understand every single reference or character names or allegiances are confusing. Just let it wash over you. And also, you're only a couple chapters away from things really picking up in the way that you're describing. That was really valuable because it gave me the context that I needed to move forward with the story. And as with all buddy reads, it's really great to be able to discuss some of the high and low points in the story with someone who knows exactly what you're talking about. There were times when I was really upset that something happened to a certain character or really happy that a character had done a certain thing. And Bill is always there to let me vent or celebrate alongside me. The second book definitely felt like high fantasy to me. There's just so much going on in the plot line. And I know that when you're reading a book that takes place over the course of eight or nine or 14 books, there's just a lot of plot that you have to take in. I can definitely see how reading these books more than once would vastly add to your enjoyment of them. So then the question that I keep being asked in my DMs about this particular series is, would you recommend it? And I would definitely say I do. I love the experience of being in this world. In the same way that I loved reading Fellowship of the Rings that entire series. If that series was a big win for you, I would definitely recommend jumping into the first book in the Wheel of Time series, which is the eye of the world. I'm into this series heart deep, and I know that I'm going to want to finish it. This is book number two, the Great Hunt by Robert Jordan.

Katie Cottam (21:15)

So good. I feel like Bill should make a, like, a downloadable course where he could buddy read it and provide that content, like the reassurance and the context and stuff that readers want without him having to, like, personally hold hands with everybody the whole way through. I feel like that would be such great content.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (21:34)

Yeah, I mean, right? And he also has this very beautiful voice, too. So, like, if you didn't even want to read the books, you could. I just feel like you could go to sleep to listening to him talk about the Wheel of Time. Not like it's boring to me, but you know what I mean?

Katie Cottam (21:47)

It's like reassuring.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (21:49)

Exactly, Exactly. And I think, yeah, AI Bill as your, you know, is something that I would like to TM like. I feel like that would be worth it.

Katie Cottam (21:58)

I love that he could navigate my Google Maps for me and answer my questions on Alexa. I like it.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (22:03)

Yeah. Exactly.

Katie Cottam (22:04)

Sounds great.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (22:05)

Yes.

Katie Cottam (22:06)

Okay. My second book this week is also kind of a sequel, but not really because I didn't read the first one. I'm going to talk about Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Okay, this is nonfiction sequel is what I'm doing here. It's probably important to note at the outset here. This is my first and only book that I've ever read by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm not a fan girl of his. He's not a bad guy, I don't think. But he's also not an auto buy author. For me, I have not read the original book. He wrote the Tipping Point, which is important because this is a 25 years later follow up to that one, but I don't really know if that matters. He says at the beginning of this one that he wasn't trying to reissue his previous release, but rather that he had new things to say about the issues that he approached in that book. So my reading partner Katie and I dipped into the Revenge of the Tipping Point, not knowing a darn thing about what was getting revenge upon us, and it worked out okay. It didn't matter. We found every chapter of this book to be discussable and unput downable. Gladwell brings all kinds of cool, weird micro stories to life in the pages of these books. He discusses crime sprees in certain locales, like bank robberies in the 1980s in LA or insurance fraud in Miami Beach, Florida. Very specific types of crimes in very specific locations. He discusses medical phenomena like the avoidance of vaccines in certain communities or the likelihood that a diagnosis will lead to surgery. If you're just one town across the river from the other side of the place, like if you got strep three times in a year, how likely is it that your doctor would order a tonsillectomy? Well, if you're in town A, it's 1 in 10, and if you're in town B, it's 50%. Why, it's exactly the same diagnosis. Right?

Meredith Monday Schwartz (23:53)

Yeah.

Katie Cottam (23:54)

He highlights the way that the COVID 19 super spreaders worked to a person rather than just saying that it was a very transmissible illness. This book was easy to understand. We never had issues with. I think that was probably really interesting, but I didn't actually understand it while also feeling like we learned a ton. For me, the most important and interesting chapter was one that I experienced in real time, being a 40 year old woman. Gladwell spends a chapter discussing the pivot from states outlawing gay marriage on the ballot, to codifying it as legal as part of state law, and then in the Supreme Court. That all happened in less than a generation. He attributes a lot of that change to a show that I felt depicted my own life, Will and Grace, which made it possible to watch a sitcom that wasn't about a gay person dying from AIDS or regretting their life choices. Instead, it was about two men and two women living in community and doing life together. Oh, and some of them happen to be gay. The flip side happened with regard to the Holocaust and the way we reference it using that specific term today, the Holocaust, which didn't really become part of mainstream American conversation until 10 to 20 years after World War II ended. Every chapter led to us analyzing something that pushed us from one type of thinking to another. Interesting conversations, connections to the wider world, which is always what Katie and I especially hope for from a nonfiction book. Now, I can't say for sure whether this book would have been better or more interesting if I had read the 25 years ago version first. But I do know that it has markedly higher ratings and very slightly higher ratings on storygraph and Goodreads than the other one. So I'm glad this is where we started with his work. I doubt I'll be running to the bookstore for all his new releases, but I'm so glad to understand the overstories and super spreaders that he talks about in this book. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (25:42)

Yeah, I'm. I'm very glad that that worked, for sure. He's a very, he's very, very readable. And that's, you know, that's kind of. He almost, I feel like, invented this show genre that more people have joined of being just. He's found a way to really, really narratively communicate his points in a way that other people hadn't before or maybe around things that would have been really dry or boring and that people wouldn't have wanted to read about. So, yeah, he's an interesting character all right. My third book is a book called Come Closer by Sarah Granny. This is horror. Okay, here's the setup in our story. We dive into the life of a woman. Her name is Amanda, and she seems to have it all. How many setups start like that? She's got a beautiful. Yeah, right. She's got a beautiful home, a loving husband. She's got a really good job. But all of a sudden, very inexplicable things start to happen around her. And she starts to feel an eerie presence creeping into her life. And her reality is kind of set on edge. This book is set in a cozy neighborhood in New York City, which is kind of a weird description, but that's how it felt. And the story explores the juxtaposition of a very ordinary life with something dark lurking just beneath the surface. And that tension is done really, really well. Amanda is torn between her grasp on her sanity and this mounting evidence of strange occurrences. She starts smoking again. And one night, for no reason, without even having having any knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette, just like out of the blue. And at night, she's dreaming of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood red sea. So the question the book poses is, what is happening to Amanda? And why does her creepy neighbor seem to know a lot more than she lets on? All right, this is another book that I read in community with Kiara and Betsy as a part of our read through of 101 horror books to read before youe Get Murdered by Sadie Hartman. This one. So the way that we choose our books is we each rotate and we each get a turn to make the next choice. Right? Now, this was one that I wouldn't necessarily have chosen because I don't have a lot of themes in books that I almost completely stay away from, but the theme of demon possession is one of them. I've talked about all that on the show before. My evangelical roots are strong where this theme comes into play. But this book had gotten so many good recommendations and Sadie recommended it so highly. And I was in the comfort and safety with Chiara and Betsy that I decided that I could at least dip into a little bit. And when I began to dig a little deeper into Goodreads, the reviews made me think that I really did want to read the book. And I'm really glad that I did, because this book is definitely horror. It deals with a really scary topic, but I liked it because the genius of this book lies in a very simple premise and one that you see a lot in horror. It dealt with this topic of demon possession in a very prosaic way. It was like very regular life. Oh, she happens to be, you know, going to get a coffee and she's possessed by a demon. How would what would this look like if both of these things were happening at the same time? That piece of it made it really, really a page turning read and also made it scary as all get out. This is a short book. This is less than 200 pages and it is very propulsive both as I read it on my E Reader and Betsy and Chiara did it on audio and they loved it that way. But these 200 pages pack a punch. There's no question that I have thought about this book a lot since I read it. You really take a journey with poor Amanda. But the reason I like the book most and the thing that I that makes me want to suggest once again that this book is read in in conversation with other readers, that this book can be read in two ways. You can read it as straight up book about a woman who's being possessed by a demon. And there are a lot of interesting bits of history and biblical lore that actually reminded a couple of us of Comfort Me with Apples. Those are really interesting parts of the story. Or you can just as easily read this book being a story of a woman in the throes of an ever worsening mental illness. And either way, you are right. I actually found that reading it from the lens of mental illness as opposed to demon possession was more interesting to watch. How a woman who's a high performer in her life is treated by the people around her as she begins to veer off of her normal course of high performance is very interesting and there's a lot to discuss there. I'm quite frankly loving this read through that we're doing of Sadie Hartman's the books from her list because no two books have been alike and each one of them has been very memorable and discussable. This one certainly was. This is Come Closer by Sarah Grann.

Katie Cottam (30:50)

Title's a little bit creepy.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (30:51)

Yeah. And the cover's sufficiently creepy.

Katie Cottam (30:55)

Excellent. I love that. I also have a creepy cover for my third book this week which is Horror. That's three of six for this week. I don't know what happened. These are our current reads friends.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (31:06)

Yeah, it's fine for sure.

Katie Cottam (31:08)

Mine is It Came from the Trees by Ali Russell. It's Girl Scout cookie season, which means it's the perfect time to read a middle grade horror novel about a scout campout where young girls disappear into the trees. Right?

Meredith Monday Schwartz (31:20)

Yep, yep.

Katie Cottam (31:21)

Gotta do it, right? Maybe not. But I am so excited to tell y'all about this indie Press list pick from last August, when the King's English gave us a great stack of books. Ali Russell, first of all, dedicates this book to the black, brown and biracial kids who love cryptids and have an irrational fear of spontaneous human combustion. She says, I see you. This story is for you. Stay weird. Sold me immediately. Love that. Let's get into it. Jenna is our main character. She's only 11 years old, but she's comfortable in the wilderness. After all, that's how her pop raised her and he was the first black park ranger at the local reservation. She knows all the words of the Owlet Survival Handbook by heart and can quote you the steps for setting up a tent site and staying safe in a new environment and how to find clean water. All of it. But that doesn't change the fact that on their last owlet campout, her best friend Rhys disappeared in the middle of the night. And Jenna is sure a creature came from the trees and took her. Even though her parents don't believe her and the police think that Rhys probably just ran away and got lost. Jenna has not given up hope. Which is why she faces her deepest fear and returns to the forest with another troupe in order to search for Rhys. When that troop and Jenna find footprints that look human but are also too big to explain and find large scratch marks on trees near the campsite, Jenna is worried that this creature has returned for her too. So she'll have to convince her new friend Nori and the troop leader who agreed to let her join their trip that she's not traumatized or not just traumatized from her past experience. There really is something out there and they'll all have to band together to survive it. Holy moly. For a book with an 11 year old like baby Meredith, right? My heart is pumping yet again. Just from the setup of this one, I was legit on the edge of my seat reading this middle grade novel. I found it to be absolutely unputdownable. So if you've got a kiddo who doesn't mind being scared, and this is not all of them, there are plenty of like gentle soul kids who they just want a sweet fantasy novel and a unicorn that is nice, right? Like that. And that's okay. Lean into that. But if you've got one that like, likes that little bit of adrenaline rush from reading as an adult woman, this book delivered, even if you're an adult that likes to be creeped out but prefer to know that everything's probably going to be okay, this is the perfect book. For your stack. The COVID is creepy. The text of the writing where it says it came from the trees, it's so scary looking.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (33:52)

Yeah.

Katie Cottam (33:53)

I had to read this book in the daylight, and it's a middle grade novel. If you're a seasonal reader, go ahead and put it on your October stack. But if you're a scout family, you can read it whenever you like and be a little bit scared any time of year, especially right before campout season. This is It Came from the Trees by Ali Russell.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (34:12)

Yeah. I don't think if you have an active. If you're living an active Scout life, you probably want to read this and then be worried about your kids every time they.

Katie Cottam (34:20)

Isn't that why we read Horror? Right. So we can, like, scare ourselves first and deal with that fear and then keep going? I think that's part of it. Right.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (34:29)

You know, one of the things I have to say is such a. Such catnip for me is anytime it's very large footprints being found, something like that, that is such. That's that I'm in. I'm just in from the very, very beginning because I. I just have to know.

Katie Cottam (34:44)

Yeah. Or like weird smells at night when you can't see what's making that smell in the forest. Because I have a story like that, like, in real life, and it still scares me to think about it.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (34:54)

It's 100% Bigfoot. We all know that big feet smell like that. They smell a. You smell.

Katie Cottam (35:00)

Smell. Rotting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Creeped out. Good thing it's the middle of the day right now. Hope none of y'all are listening at night. It's fine.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (35:09)

Right? Or from the comfort of your tent. Right.

Katie Cottam (35:11)

Like, oh, I could just listen to currently reading on my next campout. Hmm. Sorry. Not sorry. Okay. Let's get into our deep dive, though, where we lose momentum. We've got good momentum right now, Meredith.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (35:23)

Yes, exactly. All right, well, we heard from bookish friend Adrian, who said. She sent us an email. She said, thank you for being on retainer for all my reading and bookish questions. Which we are. You guys. You can always send us an email like this. She said, y'all, two people in my ears are a large part of my daily living. Adrian says, what do you do when you've started a book and you really like it, but some days you weren't in the mood for it. When this happens to me, I worry that I'll lose momentum with it and maybe not finish it. Although I do like it. Although this sometimes leads me to starting several Books, which then just feels like I'm not finishing anything. Ultimately, how do you stay focused on what you're reading? She says, I hope this question makes sense and seems valuable to you, because I really struggle with this. Adriene. All right, Adrian. I think this is a really good question, and I think it's something that we all struggle with at different parts of our reading life. So, Katie, you're, you know, Adrienne seems to be a mood reader. I'm a mood reader. You are, you know, kind of somewhere on the spectrum.

Katie Cottam (36:27)

I'm on the spectrum. That's right.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (36:28)

Yeah. It's like, it's sort of in the middle of that, you know, mood reading, planned reading spectrum. But how do you. Do you struggle with issues of momentum or starting a book and liking it, but then kind of just like losing momentum with.

Katie Cottam (36:42)

Definitely happens for various reasons right there. There's definitely a mood issue where sometimes I will have started a book. And I realized that I don't really feel like it right now. Right. Not that I don't like the book. I just don't. It's just not hitting for whatever reason for me.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (37:00)

Yeah.

Katie Cottam (37:01)

More often than not, it's. I started a book, I really enjoy it, and then the world seems to be crumbling into pieces around me, and I have to pivot my own mental state rather than my mood in order. You make time for reading. And honestly, as a planned reader, somebody who likes to make a plan to read and then doesn't always follow it, I usually just muscle through is what's happening in my reading life, which is not. That's not necessarily my advice. I don't necessarily recommend that for other people.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (37:31)

Well, okay, so what does. That's definitely not what I do. So I'll talk about, you know, what I. So we'll. We'll kind of give both of these. These perspectives. But so what does muscling through look like for you? So if you don't feel. If you're thinking about a book, like, let's say whatever book you're reading on audio right now, and you're like, I was totally into it. I maybe got a couple hours in. I really. I'm really enjoying it. But then it's not like calling to me when I'm not reading it. It's not calling to me. So how do you muscle through that?

Katie Cottam (38:05)

That is actually relatively true about my current audiobook, and it's because my Season of Life has changed enough that audiobook reading is harder for me to find time for, really, since we moved back To Arizona. I have shorter drives. I usually have a teenager in the front. I want him to talk to me, if he's going to talk at all. So I will put on music that both of us like, you know, like, it's just impacting a lot of the time that I have. So I have to muscle myself into making audiobook time. Now, if I'm starting to flag and not being interested in picking up the book that I'm currently listening to, I will put an arbitrary outside deadline on myself. And it might be by next Monday. I want to start a new book, so I better find time this weekend. I'm just going to go do some chores or work on the yard for a little while so that I have dedicated audiobook listening time where nobody else needs me. And I. And that arbitrary outside deadline can make it happen for me. And that's what I do with paper books and Kindle books, too. I might ask if somebody wants to buddy read it with me because maybe they'll pull me along like a train. Right? And I'm just the caboose that's getting manhandled along.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (39:11)

Okay, so then I think, But I think that begs the question, why muscle? Like, why, like I, I, I appreciate the how now because you've explained that perfectly, but what's the why behind muscling through to keep up momentum?

Katie Cottam (39:26)

To keep momentum, Absolutely. Yes. Because it's so easy to fall into, like, lethargy, especially right now, Meredith, you know, like, you know, there's a lot of crap going on in my own personal life right now and emotional upheaval and it's affecting my mood and my time to sit down, and I am doom scrolling a lot because that's where I'm at right now. But reading is so important to me as a mental health exercise that much, like, even working out my physical body, I know that if I muscle myself into it, if I make a commitment and I show up even in when I don't want to, it usually pays dividends on the back end. So it's worth it to me to say, well, Katie, you said you were going to listen for 20 minutes before you decided to screw around on Instagram, so get it done, you're committed. And then, and then it's fine by the end, and then I'm into it and I don't want to go on Instagram anymore, but it takes the muscle first.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (40:25)

Okay, all right, so, yeah, that makes good sense. So I definitely go through periods of time where I do more of this or less of this, and One of the things that I would say to Adrian is to really. I think the first, like, the first part is knowing that we have a problem, like, first of all doing, like, doing what you're doing, which is to say I've identified that this is something that's happening now. I kind of want to think through it and then think through what is working for you, what isn't working for you, and. And be okay with different seasons needing different things. So I'll go through three or four months where I have a ton of really good momentum. And it's because. Just things happening in my headspace or my work or, you know, whatever. And sometimes that means that I'm reading, you know, multiple books at a time. So I. I have multiple books going in different formats. I think a lot of us do that. Adrienne, if that's not something that you're doing, that's something I would definitely recommend is have, you know, really have the format dictate how many books you are doing at any given time. So I have one going on audio, one going on my E reader, one in print, and usually like a morning book of some sort, which is. You could kind of call that slow but steady. So I find that mood wise, if one isn't calling to me in that exact moment. I like the fact that I can pivot and be like, you know what? I actually don't feel like reading this book that I'm reading in print right now, but I'm really feeling the one that's on my E reader. And what I will say is I will gravitate as a mood reader. I allow myself to gravitate to the place of ease. This is why I don't do a lot of book clubs, for example. I don't do a lot of reading where I am forced to read a certain book by a certain time because I like being able. My momentum. Momentum is helped by me being able to go where the ease flows, go where my interest flows. So, you know, part of that is having a few different options at any given time. A part of it, for me, a really big thing that has helped me is if I'm finding it's one particular book. And I just had this happen with a book book called A Rising Man. It's a really interesting historical fiction book that I like. Every time I'm reading it, I'm like, man, this is so well written. I'm loving the story. I'm, you know, I'm. I'm in it. But what I found was I was getting that feeling of like, okay, it's kind of like it's not calling to me. And so because it's not calling to me, I'm. I'm, like, doing more in the. I'm scrolling more. I'm, you know, whatever. So I was like, okay, I need to do something about this. So I have started this kind of process where I say, I'm going to read another chapter. I'm going to say, I'm going to read another chapter of this book. If by the end of that chapter I am not completely in and can't wait to get back to it, then I'm going to set it aside and I'm going to put it on Goodreads in my not right now, but definitely later shelf. Now, that's a shelf that I know I am putting books that fall into this category. I was really enjoying it. There's a lot that I'm really liking here. My mood's not quite matching up, so keep these for later. Periodically, I go through that shelf and I'll be like, oh, I'm totally in the mood for that kind of thing. And then I'll go back and I'll grab it again. And oftentimes then I'm off and flying with that book and I will finish it. It really works for me. So by having that very specific action of being able to say, I'm going to read one more chapter. Let's just see if I needed to get a little further in the story. Or I'm going to put it on this shelf. If I know that it's working for me, but just not right now, that has enabled me to kind of release it and then move on to something that is really, really working for me. So that's kind of my biggest advice for a mood reader, is give yourself systems where you can do that without feeling like you're going to miss out on a book that maybe otherwise would really work for you. Like, you know. And again, I just believe that books find us when. When they're supposed to find us. That book will find you again. But I really have to not let myself get stuck behind a book because that really affects my momentum, which affects how many books I'm reading for the show. And that can start to become a real problem. In addition to the fact that it's just a thief of joy.

Katie Cottam (44:55)

Yes, definitely.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (44:56)

Right. For every reader.

Katie Cottam (44:58)

And. Well, and I want to circle back to that idea of there's no moral judgment in having a lot of books going at the same time either. Like, Meredith, you just Mentioned that you usually have at least four. I usually have somewhere between four and seven.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (45:12)

We'll say, yeah, a lot of buddy reads add to that, right?

Katie Cottam (45:15)

It's a, it's a Kindle, an audio, a print for myself. Usually a print book that I'm buddy reading with Katie. Almost always I'm reading aloud a chapter book to my kids for homeschool. That's five right there. If I add a single other thing in any way, we're cranking those numbers way up. One of my favorite things about reading multiple books at once is that sometimes you get to have a multi book day where, where you finish all, all three of your current reads at the same time. Or that's four.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (45:47)

Oh gosh. That's when you clear, when you clear your whole deck in one day where you're, where you're like, I get to pick a new book on, in every single format that is like a reader like three cherries. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Katie Cottam (46:03)

For sure. It's so delightful to me to be making even, slow but steady progress on all of those formats and to be able to say, just like you said, eh, this print book isn't really calling me right now or I'm going to switch over to my magical ring that Mary made me get for my Kindle so I can crochet and have my hands busy while I'm reading. Now all of a sudden I'm flying through a book. Any, any pivot that I'm able to make for my reading life to seek the ease that you're talking about, but also maintain the momentum in that. Well, Katie, no matter what, you're gonna sit and read for a while. So you better pick something. Do it like, just pick something and get it going and it'll, it'll start to flow, right? Once the water like eats through the dam a little bit, that leak becomes a river, becomes a stream or vice versa, stream to river. So that's, that's what the muscling does for me. I rarely have books that I got to the end and I'm like, gosh, you should have set that down. I have so few by the end of the year where I'm like, ugh, Katie, why, why did you force yourself to read that? It usually works. So that's why I'm able to say, okay, it's worth it. Read that one more chapter. Usually it's gonna start flowing after that point because I don't have to worry that much about my mood usually make sure it matches.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (47:16)

Right, Right. And also what I would say is it's okay if your mood is also telling you that you don't feel like reading. Like, that's one of the things that I really wanted to say to Adrienne when we got that email is, you know, it could be that you're struggling with this over and over again right now. Maybe you haven't always, but right now, and so it's feeling like, oh, maybe it'll always be like this. Six months from now, starting a book and finishing it and staying focused on it might not be as big an issue. And it's okay if you're going through a season where you're loving binging some shows, watching a movie, playing pickleball instead. Like, to be a reader, remember that it doesn't need to be something that you do. It doesn't need to be the only thing that you're doing. And also, it doesn't mean that just because you're feeling like a little bit less into it now that you're always going to be like that. So that kind of more 50,000 foot view where we can say, you know, if, if it's calling to us, we do, like with your hobbies, with your free time, go to the place of ease as much as you can. As long as the place of ease is something, you know, healthy and not detrimental.

Katie Cottam (48:24)

Yeah, contentment. Seek contentment. Yeah.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (48:27)

Right.

Katie Cottam (48:28)

I love that.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (48:29)

Right. Hopefully that was helpful. And also, we, we love. Just because it's a fun thought exercise for us. We love to get emails from, from any of our listeners asking a specific readerly question, like how we deal with it. So if that's something that you guys want to do more of or hear more of from us, send us an email to currentlyreading podcastmail.com and we will dear Abby your readerly questions.

Katie Cottam (48:54)

Yeah, we really do love doing it, especially if it's something that we're doing regularly. But we haven't thought about it in the way where we want to pull it apart on the podcast because there might be things that we mention off the cuff, like slow but study reading that we didn't get into because we just assume everybody else does the same thing. But that's never true in the readerly life. Right. It's worth chatting about. So, yeah, I love getting stuff from listeners.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (49:18)

Yeah, absolutely.

Katie Cottam (49:19)

All right, let's go over to the fountain, throw some coins and make some wishes.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (49:24)

All right, Katie, this is the most random thing, but it is my wish today is to ask you a question, have you answer it for me because all of A sudden I realized I have no idea what the answer is to this question. Okay. It's about bookstores and smut.

Katie Cottam (49:37)

Oh, yeah.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (49:38)

Okay. So for this conversation, of course we're using a word that sounds like a pejorative. But obviously when I say smut, I do not mean that in any negative way. I think there's an absolute place for that. I just don't find that place to be in my print books. If I'm gonna read a book like that, I do it on Kindle. So here's my question. Remember the Dragon with Two Peens book?

Katie Cottam (50:01)

Yes. The Dragon's Bride. Okay.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (50:03)

Can you find. Can. Can someone walk into the bookstore and buy that at a bookstore? Or like, do you think. Do you know. I mean, you don't own a bookstore, but like I'm, you know, like, do you know if that kind of like that's pretty smutty?

Katie Cottam (50:18)

Well, yes, it is. I definitely have been Hazelwood or whatever is smutty or, you know, I've definitely been to bookstores with K. Robert on the shelves oftentimes. The one I see most from her in the bookstores is her Neon Gods series, which is a retelling of Hades and Persephone, but like in a sex club. And I've seen that at Barnes and Noble, like mainstream bookstores. I know a lot of really smutty Kindle books are not available in print because Kindle is much easier access for independent authors and publishers. Authors self publishing their books. And I also know that there are lots of great romance only bookstores where you're probably more likely to be able to find some of that really steamy open door stuff like Open Door, the romance only bookstore, that novel neighbor just opened next door and it's focused completely on the romance genre. There's a couple other. The Ripped Bodice is one of them.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (51:17)

And we just had one open here in Austin, like not very far from my house. I haven't been to it yet. But a romance only bookstore that we are gonna be visiting in the not too distant future. So that's a great idea. I will look into that specifically. Cause all of a sudden it just occurred to me like, you know, if someone has a beast kink, can they walk into Barnes and Noble and find a book about that? I didn't know the answer to that.

Katie Cottam (51:40)

I definitely know I've seen one that I haven't picked up yet. I. I think the author's name is Ruby Dixon, but it's like a Beastie Minotaur or something. And it's It's a pretty one. So it has sprayed edges and like a rainbowy cover and stuff. So it's like they're putting big money into beautiful special editions of Super Smut, which is really fun to see.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:01)

Of all kinds of books. By the way, did you just hear that they're releasing a special edition version of Still Life for the 20th anniversary? Louise Penny's first book in the Three Pines series.

Katie Cottam (52:10)

That's exciting. And it's.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:12)

It has sprayed edges.

Katie Cottam (52:14)

Oh, this is such good news.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:15)

Yeah. Ask me how long it took for me to pre order that.

Katie Cottam (52:18)

The blink of an eye. I'm guessing yes.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:20)

Less than the blink of an eye.

Katie Cottam (52:22)

Saved credit card info is the best. Actually, that gets into my fountain wish, which is that I wish this week that it were easy to get pretty versions of all the books that I really love. And that's because in real time, just this past week, the Hunger Games was re released in a beautiful sprayed edges paperback, foiled cover. Gorgeous paperback. It's paperback with sprayed edges and foil on the COVID I'm going to send you a picture because they're already delivered at my house. I love them so much. They're so beautiful.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:52)

Okay, Is it like French fr.

Katie Cottam (52:55)

No.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:56)

What's it called by French?

Katie Cottam (52:57)

French flaps.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (52:58)

French flaps. I wanted to say French lick. I don't know why.

Katie Cottam (53:01)

Oh, well, that's the Roman section of the bookstore. New covers, sprayed edges, gorgeous. I did have a conundrum in that. There was a box set, but it included songbirds and snakes, and I didn't need that garbage in my life, so I skipped it and ordered the three books individually. I love a beautiful edition of my favorite books. Still Life by Louise Penny. I'm looking for a special edition of the Ember in the Ashes series, which are sadly unavailable. So my wish is either that publishers will just take my advice as to which ones need to be made into special beautiful editions, or that I get the gumption to learn a new hobby and become one of those super cool people that binds their own books and turns it into a custom hardcover gorgeousness. Like the. I think there's one called the binary book binder. Just gorgeous stuff. Jamie golden has partnered with somebody to make a beautiful edition of one of her favorites. Like.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (53:52)

Like quick. She had it done of quicksilver. Right. Because Quicksilver has such a terrible cover. And she's like, you know what? We're just gonna. We're just gonna throw some dollars at getting this. This wrong righted.

Katie Cottam (54:03)

Yes, exactly. So that's what I would like Just gorgeous, beautiful editions of all my favorite books. Pink Splash.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (54:10)

Pink Splash. For sure. That's a great wish. Well, I mean, the first thing I would have said is, you know, brand new editions of all of Three Pines, because I would really invest in that. So. But you know, of course now we're gonna have this problem where I'm gonna have the. I'm gonna have still life in this special edition version, and then now my other versions aren't gonna match well.

Katie Cottam (54:30)

And you have the ones that you're writing in for the journey to Three Pines.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (54:34)

Right, so.

Katie Cottam (54:34)

So you can't get rid of them either.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (54:36)

No, for sure. Right. And for many of them, I have two. I have two, like a hardcover soft cover, a hardcover, paperback. Yeah. So I'm gonna need a whole bookshelf if they do. You know, I'm really hoping that they decide to re release the whole series in special editions. And then I'm gonna need a whole bookshelf just for all my various and sundry three pint stuff.

Katie Cottam (54:56)

That's gorgeous. Everybody wants that.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (54:58)

We're recording tomorrow morning. The next it's happening.

Katie Cottam (55:03)

People are excited.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (55:04)

People are excited. We are ready. We have done our pre reading. We are recording tomorrow morning. Roxanne and I are. It's book eight, a beautiful mystery.

Katie Cottam (55:12)

So fun. And Sean and I are recording on Monday. We're gonna have so much great bonus content for y'all this month. Guys. February is gonna be great.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (55:19)

I love it. I love it. All right, that's 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.

Katie Cottam (55:29)

Find me Katie Oates on bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putabong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of megansreads full show notes with.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (55:41)

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 in our show notes and on our website@currentlyreadingpodcast.com you can.

Katie Cottam (55:51)

Also follow the show currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us your readerly dilemmas. Currentlyreading podcast gmail.com readerly dilemmas.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (56:01)

Thank you, Katie. We needed like a better series name for that. That's perfect.

Katie Cottam (56:06)

Yeah, let's make it a series. I would like to do that once a month.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (56:09)

All right. If you want more of our content, you can join us as a bookish friend on patreon it's just $5 a month and it gives you tons of community, tons more content, and it keeps this show commercial free. You can also shout us out on social media or rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Each one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.

Katie Cottam (56:31)

Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you all for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (56:36)

All right, until next week, may your.

Katie Cottam (56:38)

Coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.

Meredith Monday Schwartz (56:41)

Happy reading.

Katie Cottam (56:41)

Katie Happy reading. Meredith.