← The Currently Reading Podcast
The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 29: Series Completist + Non Tragic Bookish Tragedies
00:57:18
On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: book sets and learning new things Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep Dive: things we find...
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- [00:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Foreign. Hey, readers, welcome to the currently reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
- [00:25]
Katie Kopp
We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a bookish deep dive, and then we'll visit the fountain.
- [00:34]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom of four and full time CEO living in Austin, Texas, and I am endlessly curious.
- [00:42]
Katie Kopp
I'm Katie Kopp, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona, and readers are so great until you mess with our books. This is episode number 29 of season seven and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, Katie, don't poke that bear. Just don't do it.
- [00:55]
Katie Kopp
It's happened too many times to this reader.
- [00:58]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, no. All right, all right, well, we will let you guys know right up here at the top that we are going to do a deep dive later on about non tragic bookish tragedies or the annoyances of the reading life. I'm sure we all have some of those.
- [01:15]
Katie Kopp
Yes, definitely.
- [01:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, but first, let's talk about our bookish moments of the week. What have you got, Katie?
- [01:21]
Katie Kopp
All right, Meredith. Last week I talked in my fountain wish about pretty copies of books and we just kind of ripp gift off of each other for that. I wanted to let the Internet know how let down I was when I ordered a paperback full copy set of the Ember and the Ashes Quartet. And it came in a box that was the wrong size. I'm going to show it to you.
- [01:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
What?
- [01:41]
Katie Kopp
Okay. Right here on camera. I'm showing this to you on camera, but it'll also be in our stories this week because everyone needs to understand how very wrong this is. The four books came in a slip case like this. See all four of them. They look so pretty all next to each other. And then it has this red section right here. I got so excited. I was like, ooh, secret novella bonus chapters. What's happening? So excited. No, no, no. It's just cardboard. It's just a piece of cardboard like this. Okay. Just folded cardboard. All it does is take up space in the slip case because the slip case is the wrong size for the books. Oh no. I was so mad I almost threw things. I immediately made videos for Mary and sent her a lot of swear words in my text thread with her because I was so furious. Also, I Went back to the listing where I bought it from. Like the bookshop.org listing. No, there's no little red chunk of cardboard in the listing on book. It's just wrong. It's just wrong.
- [02:45]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You can imagine the moment that whoever was in charge of this kind of thing gets the first copies and is like, oh, no, oh no, what are we going to do? And then you can imagine the follow up meeting that's like, I know. We'll just put this little thing in here and it'll make people for a split second think that there's maybe some extra pages or a signed author or something. Some stickers maybe not.
- [03:12]
Katie Kopp
Oh my gosh, stickers. I would have been thrilled, right? I would have been thrilled if there were stickers in there. As it stands, I think I'm going to throw the slip case away because I cannot stand looking at that little red thing. So the books will just sit together on my shelf. I am slightly concerned because they're paperbacks, so they're not gonna stand up well on their own. They'll want to kind of splay out. I don't know, it makes me so mad.
- [03:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So if you could do it again, Is there a hardback version that could have been like, that's kind of the.
- [03:41]
Katie Kopp
Same, but hardback, not anymore. So there's the original hardback releases that you can get on like Pango and Etsy. And then you can get fancy like dust jackets to go over the original hardback so that they have that continuous look to them.
- [03:59]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, yeah, but I can look at. Right? But then as soon as you open them up, the dust jacket doesn't match the inside.
- [04:06]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, it's just infuriating. This is part of why my fountain wish was like, publishers, please please direct your questions to me about books that we need pretty copies of because this is not it. Oh, I was so mad.
- [04:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, that isn't. No, it definitely isn't. I ordered one of my special edition copies of Wicked. I ordered one from an independent bookstore and I ordered one from Amazon and I thought, oh, well, I kind of want to get it as quickly as possible. But then I also want to support the independent bookstore. And the one from Amazon came and the COVID was like bent like it had been. I don't know. I mean, I knew. I do know because I'm a UPS wife. I know the way that packages can get mangled, not by people, but by themselves. Machines that run them through the building. And this had happened to that book. And I was like, oh, no, this renders it Completely unreadable. I mean, it's not unreadable, but it's unreadable for me.
- [04:58]
Katie Kopp
No, it's, like, personally unreadable.
- [05:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's personally unreadable.
- [05:01]
Katie Kopp
It's a personally offensive bookish situation. Yeah.
- [05:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. And the only thing that saved me from throwing it was the fact that I knew in a couple more days I was gonna be getting, you know, what I hoped would be. And turned out to be a pristine version, I'm sure. From the independent bookstore.
- [05:15]
Katie Kopp
Yes. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. What's your bookish moment, Katie?
- [05:20]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I've got. I'm so up in a froth now, I've completely forgotten. Let me consider.
- [05:25]
Katie Kopp
Oh, I feel like I hinted at it.
- [05:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, I know. I got it. I got it, I got it, I got it. All right. Speaking of pretty books. Speaking of pretty books, look at this book. Can you see it?
- [05:35]
Katie Kopp
Okay. The Year of Living. I can't see the front part.
- [05:38]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. It's the year of living. Curiously, 365 things really worth Knowing by E. Foley and B. Coates showing it to you on camera only because it's a very pretty book. And it's a hard copy. A hardbound book, but no dust jacket. And it's got gold foil printing on the front and the back. It's just a really prettily done book. It's really pretty. It does these gorgeous gold end papers. Anyway. And it's one of these books, and I am just learning how much I love doing anything for, like, two minutes every single day. We've talked about it before in this book. I read one. It's just one of these pages, not. Not two, just one page per day. It's like maybe 30 seconds to a minute of who knows what it might be about? It might be about different leaf shapes. It might be about the Egyptians. It might be about crime scene analysis. I'm literally paging through and just looking at things here. It might be about a Shakespearean sonnet. So just lit a little for the first 30 to 60 seconds of my day, and it just. It makes me so happy.
- [06:50]
Katie Kopp
Okay, I need this.
- [06:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
A, yeah, it's really pretty.
- [06:54]
Katie Kopp
B, is it on your bedside table? Like, is it the very first thing you do? Is it by your coffee machine? Where are you working in this 30 seconds? Because I like the idea of it being like. Like, as I brush my teeth, I always read my little snippet or whatever it is, what's happening.
- [07:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. There's a lot of different places that you could put it. For that reason, I have it sitting Next to my main. I don't know why I call it my main chair. It's a dumb name. It's this chair in my living room where I spend the majority of my waking hours.
- [07:23]
Katie Kopp
Right.
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Meredith Monday Schwartz
Which is unfortunate.
- [07:25]
Katie Kopp
It's the chair I live in. It's fine.
- [07:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's the chair I live in. And so, yeah, so I have a big side table and a pile of things, you know, including my morning. Whatever book I'm reading in the morning. My notebook for, you know, doing my morning pages. Of course, a coffee warmer. Of course, a lamp. And then whatever. You know, my Kindle, whatever books I'm reading. It's kind of the pile that, like, goes with me all throughout the day.
- [07:48]
Katie Kopp
Okay.
- [07:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This sits on that pile right now. But it's every. You know, this is by date. So you just go in. You don't even need a bookmark. You just go in and you're like, oh, today is February 14th. Appropriately, today's is about love and it's a quote about love.
- [08:03]
Katie Kopp
So I love that.
- [08:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. But I've learned lots of interesting things already, and it's only the first few weeks of the year, so I like it. I like. It's a little sweet, bookish moment every day that feeds my curiosity.
- [08:14]
Katie Kopp
Yeah. Just a little bit like a teaspoon. A spoonful of sugar. Spoonful of bookish sugar.
- [08:20]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. But it's very pretty.
- [08:21]
Katie Kopp
Yes.
- [08:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, Katie, let's get into our current reads. What's your first one?
- [08:26]
Katie Kopp
Okay, Meredith, this week, my first book is Earth by John Boyne. This is the second novella in the Elements series by John Boyne. Okay, so I brought water to the show. I went back and looked. Episode two of season seven. Now it's time to talk about the next one in the series, which is called Earth. These novellas are all interconnected, but, like, very loosely. There's a character introduced in water kind of as a very obscure side character. He is now the main character of Earth. It has recently been announced that all four will be published in the US In September as a complete set called the Elements. But I really love. I've been ordering these ones from Blackwell's. I really love the individual little books. They just make me happy in a very different way. So I'm just going to keep ordering that way.
- [09:14]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I haven't read these, but I pre ordered the full one, thinking, like, okay, then I'll have all of them together. But yeah, I'm so curious to see what you think about this one.
- [09:24]
Katie Kopp
Yeah. I do have to say that the novellas from Blackwell's have a picture of that element. So like water, it was just water on the front and earth was like a grassy field kind of zoomed in really close. The elements cover in a total has kind of all four making obscure shapes on the front in different colors. It's a little more abstract. I really like the very literal water, earth and fire that I have so far.
- [09:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [09:52]
Katie Kopp
So we're going to keep going with it. In Earth, we first need to talk about trigger warnings. So this is a book about a trial of two footballers, which are soccer players for anybody who didn't watch Ted Lasso. They're being charged with sexual assault of a young woman who was at a party they both attended. So if you've got triggers around that topic, you can use our timestamped show notes and just jump forward in time because it's hard to talk about this book without all of that. Here's the setup. Evan Keough, who we met on the small island where the first book is set, has made his way across the aisle and become a football star in London as a walk on player. He has no professional experience, but he is an exceptional soccer player or footballer. His true passion, though, lies in art and painting. And he's also gay, but his dad does not accept that part of him. He is living a lie in a sport that rejects diversity just because he's good at it. So he does it anyway. It's not because he loves it. It's not because he's so passionate about football that he can't help but play the game. He's just like, well, I can make money this way, so I might as well do it. When his teammate, who he has been crushing on for years, invites him to watch and film a sexual encounter, Evan finds him unable to say no, despite the protests of the girl in the room with with the two of them. This book depicts the trial around that fateful night, the text messages they sent to each other and other teammates after the fact, and the missing video that Evan took on his phone of the encounter. It's hard to read. This book is very hard to read, not just because of the content, but because of the characters themselves. We've got a protagonist who we were absolutely rooting for, even though he was just a small part at the end of book one. Water. But by the time we get into the story in book two, John Boyne gives us every reason to want to throw him a blanket party and beat him up. He is just. He has no agency in this story. He's making Wrong decision after wrong decision. The entire novella feels very true to life in the way that women are victimized and blamed and their lives are picked apart under a microscope in sexual assault cases. It made me feel icky, like my hands would be stained after I set down the book when I read each day. I do think it was really well written. I love John Boyne's writing. I love his characters, his settings. But my review on storygraph was ick. But he's such a good writer. But also, I need a shower. So yuck. That's where we landed with this book. I'm excited for the next one in the series, Fire, even though our dear friend Bill Largent gave it a scathing review on Instagram. As a completist, I will be reading all four of them, but I won't be surprised if Water remains my favorite of the four novellas. This one was Earth by John Boyne.
- [12:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I have heard so much about that third one being really. I don't even know if it's bad or I don't know anything about any of them, so. And I'll be interested to see what you think about this next.
- [12:47]
Katie Kopp
Me too. Me too. It's already on my shelf. I've already bought it and paid for it. It's gotten shipped to me, so I'm going to read it.
- [12:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay. All right. You're doing it. All right. My first book is one that was kind of a surprise, but a really, really nice surprise. This is a book called Ask for Andrea by Noel W. Ely. So I actually really like the marketing setup here, so I'm going to give that to you directly. Megan, Bresha and Sky have just one thing in common. They were all murdered by the same man. He hunted them online, masquerading as an eligible bachelor. Then he played the perfect gentleman. A thick layer of charm and a thousand watt smile hiding the fact that his first dates end in shallow graves. He's gotten away with murder three times now. The only thing that might keep him from killing again, the women he murdered, Megan, Breesha and Sky, might be dead, but they are not gone. They have found each other and they won't rest until they find a way to stop him. The hunt is on. What? Isn't that a good blurb? Like, I normally the blurbs suck, which is why we redo them. But I thought that blurb was really well done.
- [14:00]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, I love that.
- [14:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So I loved Ask for Andrea. This one came into onto my radar when several people reached out to me about it. And then I was interested to discover because I was like, why hasn't this been on my radar? It's independently published and it has blown up on Goodreads with a 4.1 rating. Over 144,000 reviews.
- [14:26]
Katie Kopp
Oh my goodness.
- [14:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
For a crime fiction suspense thriller, which is unheard of, right? So I knew there was something definitely going on here. So this is a thriller with a paranormal angle, and it absolutely worked for me on every level. You know how sometimes the paranormal element can feel really forced. That doesn't happen here. I particularly loved how each character, as we meet them, has had to figure out their own way of existing and moving through the world after they died. It was a really interesting aspect of the world building here, but what really grabbed me and made me remember this book and just like it so much was the strong focus on female friendship and this undercurrent of feminist rage that propels the story forward. If you loved the ragey aspect of like the Collective by Alison Galen and the propulsive pacing of Heather Gudenkopf's the Overnight Guest, this book has a very similar energy. Also, shout out to those of you who read Admit it, you read Frida McFadden. This one hits some of the similar notes from a construction point of view, but the prose is better done here. So if you are a Frida girlie, you're going to want to read this one. I do want to note that there is a trigger warning for sexual assault that definitely is happening in this story, so be aware of that content going in. But this one is available on Kindle Unlimited and you can read it and know that you are supporting an independent publisher who I think also wrote that blurb and did it much better than marketing blurbs are usually done. It's a perfect palette cleanser. This is Ask for Andrea by Noel W. Ely.
- [16:10]
Katie Kopp
Oh, that sounds so good.
- [16:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It was a banger.
- [16:12]
Katie Kopp
I actually I really like the undead in my stories, it turns out.
- [16:17]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Especially when it's the undead who with an agenda, right?
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Katie Kopp
Oh yes, exactly. It just turns out that, like, I think I might have some unfinished business when I leave this earthly plane, and I would like to know that that's a possibility.
- [16:29]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So if I end up being murdered fo show that is happening.
- [16:33]
Katie Kopp
See. Exactly. Y'all can expect those podcasts after, but we're both done.
- [16:38]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yep.
- [16:39]
Katie Kopp
Excellent. Okay. My second book this week is four books. It's fine. It's Done and Dusted by Lila Sage, which is the first in the Rebel Blue Ranch series. I got fully lost in this series at the end of the year. And other than talking about it as one of my favorite reading experiences, I have not brought them to the show yet. So I figured it's time to do so.
- [17:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Did you read all. Did you read four of these books?
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Katie Kopp
I read all four of them. In such a short period of time.
- [17:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You have really become a series completist, Lydia.
- [17:13]
Katie Kopp
I don't know what that's about. That's very strange, isn't it?
- [17:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I mean, it's you following your reading desires. I think that's a good thing.
- [17:21]
Katie Kopp
Yes. Although we did have an entire thing happen in the bookish Friends yesterday when I admitted on Love and Chili Peppers that I have not finished the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I abandoned after a certain book and there are strong feelings about that in the Bookish Friends group. They do not agree and I had to tell them no that I will not be continuing that series. They were not happy with me. I'm sorry. I love you all. That's not happening.
- [17:45]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I started the first one and I DNF'd the first throne of Glass halfway through.
- [17:49]
Katie Kopp
I think I made it five books in to that series and it was after I had read Acotar. The sixth book is all the same events in book five, but redone. So there's. Have you heard about that? It's like a machete order, kind of. So, yeah, readers on the Internet have come up with this plan where you can go back and forth between the two books and then everything's happening at the same time. You're just getting two different perspectives on it. Yeah, that didn't exist when I was reading them at the time. So I finished book five and I was like, absolutely not. I will not be reading that same exact series of events. No. For 700 pages. Absolutely not. So I just bowed out. I said no.
- [18:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So you're saying if you had to start it again, you would read it in that machete order?
- [18:29]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, because that's really where I stalled out. I couldn't. I could not stomach the idea of going back and hearing all that same stuff again from a new person. Alexa can't even help me with that.
- [18:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Wow. She really can't.
- [18:42]
Katie Kopp
I mean, it's bad.
- [18:43]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We. We never ever let ourselves rabbit hole like this. This is actually something that is really different about our show. We don't ever kind of double things.
- [18:52]
Katie Kopp
Like this, but it's all series and the series complete us. And we're staying on the topic of books and reading, which is very important. Right. So let's talk about Done and dusted though. Yep, that's what I'm here for. I had not brought this to the show. Here we go. Done and Dusted is the first in the Rebel Blue Ranch series by Lila Sage. They have these classic four color western illustrated covers and they feel timeless because of that. But they're all brand new ish, like they all came out within the last two years. Our story, the very first one, done and dusted, starts with Emmy Ryder and Luke Brooks. Emmy is a nickname for Clementine and I think that's so cute and I love it so much. Emmy is the only daughter of the Ryder family, the one who left home to make her way in the big wide world as a champion barrel racer. But an injury has her out of the circuit and maybe never returning to the sport she loves because now she has a lot of anxiety about re entering the ring on a horse because injuries are scary, right? And horses are big animals. So she heads home with her proverbial tail between her legs. And there she reconnects with Luke Brooks, the unofficial fifth member of the Rider family. Best friends with one of Emmy's brothers named Gus. He's a bad boy who owns a bar. And throughout their childhoods, they only antagonize each other because that's what your big brother's best friends do. They're just terrible to you all the time. So now they have to figure it out. In the second chance romance, we've got a love at first sight situation. When Emmy walks back into the bar that Luke's, that Luke now owns on her first night back in town, they attempt a truce. Let's just try to be friends, they say, but we've got smooching on the COVID So that goes as well as you might think. This book was first independently published by Lila Sage, which I would have sworn was a pen name because how great is that as a name for a romance writer of western romances, right? God couldn't have chosen a better name to give this girl, right? She published it independently. It was then picked up by Dial Press, which is an imprint of Penguin, and reissued as part of the four book series. I was fine picking up the first book. I thought that that would be fun. But this small town romance vibe hit all the right notes for me in December of 2025. These cranky cowboys all have hearts of gold and cowgirl and I enjoyed every second in their company. So much so that I blasted through all three current releases and then requested and read the galley of book four, all within one single month. That book Wild and Wrangled comes out April 15th of this year. I couldn't get enough of this goodness. I just needed more of it in my veins. It was giving me life in a hard season. I gave this one a three on my spice scale because it has named body parts as the qualifier. Each one is just as delightful as you might expect based on those old fashioned covers. So don't sleep on the series. It starts with Done and Dusted by Lila Sage.
- [21:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love those covers. I love the names of them. It's also. I mean, it's not my cup of tea at all, but they're so cute. All right. Well, Katie, sometimes I love the format of our show. We talk about what we currently read. And sometimes I hate the format of our show. We talk about what we've currently read. No, I do, because. Okay, I'm gonna talk about a book and I want you. This is another book. I want people to feel really free depending on where your head space and everything is to just fast forward. Okay, this is a book called the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory by Tim Alberta. This is non fiction and it's about a kind of difficult topic. So that's why I want you to feel free with the fast forward button. Journalist Tim Alberta, who is a Christian and the son of an evangelical pastor, and he offers in this book a detailed perspective on the American Evangelical movement. Alberta explores the experiences of various figures within the church and the movement, from well known televangelists to local preachers and lots and lots of everyday churchgoers. Okay, so I had heard about this book from several different sources, but the one that really put me over the edge and made me go looking for the book is when I heard Knox McCoy from the Popcast say how much he enjoyed this book. So as soon as it was available at my library, I checked it out. I wasn't actually sure that I was going to want to read it all the way through. I wasn't in the mood to read a dry, cynical tome about religion and politics. That's not what I found here. Tim Alberta's writing is incredibly straightforward. He finds a through line in every single chapter and tells the story of that chapter from start to finish in a way that kept me turning the pages the entire time. So I come to this book and its topic with a lot of baggage. I was brought up in the evangelical church. I went to a megachurch and I experienced all the good and the not so good of growing up that way. So reading this book felt like a way for me to answer Some of the questions that I've had over the past decade. That is, how is it that the Christian church I grew up with has moved so far not only into extremism in parts, but also in large part into the political world. So it's really important, I think, to understand that the author here, Tim Alberta, is not here to tear down Christians or Christianity. It would be really easy to assume that that's what's happening in this book, but it's not. I walked away from this book a lot more knowledgeable about several questions that I'd had about how we have arrived at the place where we are with the American Evangelical Church. But I also walked away from this book feeling a few things I hadn't expected. I hadn't realized how hard it is to be a pastor in the Christian church these days. I hadn't realized how hard it is to be a Christian congregant in the church these days. I came away after reading this with a lot more sympathy for Bible believing, values, living Christians than I ever had before. And for me, that's really what I'm looking for in my nonfiction. A way into difficult issues that helps me understand. Yes. But also helps me to feel more compassionate and understanding as a human. That's what happened to me as I read this book. I think everyone should read this book whether you are in the church or not. I know many people will not, and I understand that. But it's worth the read on a lot of levels, religiously, spiritually, politically. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time. This is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory by Tim Alberta.
- [25:29]
Katie Kopp
If you put 75 books in front of me and said, which one of these is Meredith going to talk about next? I would have shoved that one to the side immediately.
- [25:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I surprised you.
- [25:38]
Katie Kopp
Yes, you absolutely did.
- [25:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It was really good. But one of those things that, you know, I'm prioritizing nonfiction reading and this is really why. It gives you context and texture and windows into people's lives and thought processes that you didn't have before. And I really, really appreciate that.
- [25:56]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, I do love great nonfiction for that reason. So. And this sounds like great nonfiction, even if it's hard. Okay. My third book this week is hard to classify, but it shouldn't be. It's the Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayere. This book is gorgeous and great. Daniel Nayeri wrote Everything Sad Is Untrue, which I did enjoy a few years ago, but not as much as the rest of the Internet. It was on a lot of best of lists that year. And I was like, it was fine. There were a lot of poop jokes. I didn't. It was fine, whatever. Like, it's great for middle graders, right? However, my dear friend Bumi sent me a gift copy of this new title when it released, and it was wonderful. Here's the setup. Monkey is a young man. It's confusing, I know. He's a monk and also an indentured servant to Samir, the seller of dreams. Mostly that involves doing his bidding, but occasionally it does involve saving his life. Because Samir is a con artist. His biggest skill is his ability to talk his way into getting whatever he wants. And all that talking has saved Monkey's life at some point. So now he owes his life to Samir. This talent or skill has gotten them out of sticky situations, but it's also made a lot of people mad enough to hire assassins to kill Samir. And they are out to get him. If Monkey can save Samir's life six times, he will be a free man. That's the deal that they've struck. But they have to survive long enough for him to do so. This book is beautiful, physically beautiful, first of all. And the narration is wonderful. There are illustrations sprinkled throughout that make it a treasure to tandem read because the narration is great, but actually flipping through the book really adds to the experience. It's also a loose retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights and the tales of Scheherazade that we find there. This book is about the power of story, the draw of found family, and it follows an adventure along the Silk road in the 1300s. It was nominated for the 2024 Newbery Medal, and that is one of the few medals that I regularly vibe with. And while it's tagged as middle grade, this was written at a middle grade level. You could give it to a middle grader, but really it's great for any adult, any young adult. It's relatively new, but has the vibes of a classic that we'll be reading for years. So let me try one more time to talk you into it by giving you the first sentence. The first time I was stoned to death by an angry mob, I was not even a criminal. I mean, seriously, y'all, that's a great line. So good. This book does not quit all the way through. It's like the Princess Bride, which the grandpa describes as. Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and the follow up line Is doesn't sound too bad. I'll try to stay awake. This one is a banger in book form. I hope you love it. It is the Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri.
- [28:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That does sound really, really good. I love a book that just sounds like pure adventure.
- [29:02]
Katie Kopp
Oh, it's so. Yes. And it's like the story is pulling you through the. Oh, so good. It's so good.
- [29:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it, love it, love it. All right, well, I have a five star book to cap off my current reads with too. And this is one that I was so excited to bring this week because it just came up in our bookish friends group and I was like, oh, I'm getting ready to talk about that. This is a Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabo. So this one is so good. Here's the setup. In the world of our story, we're in fantasy here. A massive cataclysm called the rupture has shattered everything on earth into floating celestial islands called arks. So, like, the earth has actually split, completely split apart into like separate planets, but they're called arcs. Each ark is watched over by an immortal ancestor spirit. And every inhabitant after the rupture has unique magical abilities based on which ark they're from. Our lead character is Ophelia, and I love her. She is no nonsense. She is v bookish and she is completely concerned, unconcerned with ridiculous things like how she dresses and what she looks like. She just doesn't have time for that. She has two incredibly compelling magical abilities. Ophelia can read the past of any object that she touches and she can travel through mirrors. Ophelia's life gets completely upturned when she is promised in marriage to the terrible thorn, who might be the least chatty, most intimidating member of a distant clan called the Pole. So she has to go from her home arc of Anima to the Pole, which, yes, is exactly as cold and forbidding as it sounds. And it has a capital city called Cida Celeste. And this city is treacherous. The political machinations here abound and Ophelia quickly realizes that she's been placed at the center of a deadly game where she doesn't even know the rules, much less the players. Okay. This book is one that had been dancing around Booktok for a really long time. And then Tina from Booktok etc talked about it. Tina doesn't read a ton of fantasy, so it got me really interested. Saw it at the library the next day. It has a gorgeous cover. This has been the theme of this episode. Katie, Beautiful books. I had to grab it and wow. I'm so glad I did. Let me tell you who this book is for. If you love a well constructed magical system, you are going to be delighted with A Winter's Promise. I was completely drawn in by Ophelia's ability to travel through mirrors. I also loved the violent and fascinating dragon family. They're not actual dragons. This is just the family that she marries into. They're terrifying people. They're really big, and they have no compunction about killing whenever it's necessary. Then there's this other group on the pole that are called the Mirages. And they each have talents of illusion. The whole magical framework is just Chef's kiss. But here's something. There's a couple things, but here's one thing that makes this book different than so much of the fantasy that I feel like we're seeing these days. This is fantasy that doesn't rely on spice to keep you turning the pages. And if you're someone like me who appreciates that, you're going to really appreciate it here. Also, if you love the forced marriage trope, which I admit I do. While it's not the main focus of the story, the dynamic between Thorn and Ophelia absolutely worked for me. Then we have the writing, because this is something that has been lacking in a lot of the romantasy that's been coming out and I need to point it out in this book. This book is both a debut and it's translated from French, so it is stunning how great it is on the sentence level. I found myself flagging page after page. Yes, it does end on a cliffhanger, but I felt like it found a natural stopping point that left me very satisfied while still wanting more to read more in the series. For me, this hits all of my fantasy sweet spots. A richly drawn world that doesn't require a PhD to understand, political machinations, full of trust and betrayal and murder and character development that left me genuinely invested in what was going to happen next. To Ophelia, but to Thorn too. This is exactly the kind of delicious starter of a series that makes me want to immediately grab book two. This is A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos.
- [33:35]
Katie Kopp
I like how in fantasy we can set aside science completely. Yes, this is making me a little crazy.
- [33:42]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We have. Yes. The world just breaks apart.
- [33:45]
Katie Kopp
I'm like, wait, so it's tiny pieces, but the people still stay on the pieces and then the atmosphere still stays there?
- [33:50]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, that does not make one bit of scientific sense.
- [33:55]
Katie Kopp
No. Yeah, I just. This would have to be a like. Katie, that is not your problem.
- [34:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, you just. And it's really not dealt with at all. Like, the how. Like the rupture and all of that.
- [34:05]
Katie Kopp
That's what happened.
- [34:06]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's what happened.
- [34:07]
Katie Kopp
Just deal with it.
- [34:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We're good now. You're going to the book. You're gonna spend most of the book on the Pole. It's very cold. Bring a coat. Like, that's it.
- [34:13]
Katie Kopp
And why?
- [34:14]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, it's like the North Pole. Like the North Pole, but it's not.
- [34:18]
Katie Kopp
Like a sphere with two magnetic poles, right?
- [34:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, but look at the COVID It's like they're all shaped like that. Weird. Okay, Katie, I can't help you.
- [34:25]
Katie Kopp
It kept like, the. Like the natural forms and structure of whatever piece of land it came from.
- [34:31]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Don't make it make sense.
- [34:32]
Katie Kopp
I don't.
- [34:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's a really good book. It's really good.
- [34:36]
Katie Kopp
What's your curiosity book? I need this book to deal with. It's to be curious about. This is something I'm curious about.
- [34:43]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This book is not. It's not gonna help you. But I will say in A Winter's Promise, I didn't struggle with any of those things. I was just like, great, let's go.
- [34:52]
Katie Kopp
Sounds good. Okay. I love it. I do love the covers. They're giving me a little bit the mysterious Benedict Society, like, that kind of illustration on the COVID So for that.
- [35:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Reason, I think I always thought this was like, YA or even middle grade. It is not.
- [35:09]
Katie Kopp
It is.
- [35:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
These are adult fantasy. It's not Romantasy, because again, it doesn't have, like, that spice. And it's better written, but it's not high fantasy. It's just a really interesting sweet spot. And Christel Davos is a very good writer.
- [35:24]
Katie Kopp
Okay.
- [35:25]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [35:26]
Katie Kopp
Good for her.
- [35:26]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, this is a good one.
- [35:28]
Katie Kopp
I love that. Excellent.
- [35:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, so let's get into our deep dive today, Katie. And you especially wanted to talk about this. How did this idea come to us?
- [35:39]
Katie Kopp
Yes. We have a bookish friend named Lori who put up a post in the bookish friends group. And she didn't say, like, please help me with my problem. She was just like, please commiserate with me. She had a library book out from the library with a long wait, and when she had only 4% of the story left, it returned to the library. That is a tragedy.
- [36:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes.
- [36:02]
Katie Kopp
Like, you made it through 96% of that book. And then there's a long wait and she can't Even get it back right away. I just. Just. Oh, tragic. And also, like, it's okay. Right? This is a non tragic tragedy.
- [36:15]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right?
- [36:16]
Katie Kopp
That's what kind of situation we're talking about. When I sent this idea to you, I said, this is like when the book fairy takes a dump in your bed. Like, you're just like, ugh, rude. Rude. Book fairy. That is not how we behave in the world. Right, right.
- [36:31]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I was thinking that maybe she could just like, leave glitter behind. And glitter's annoying, but it's not. You know what I mean?
- [36:38]
Katie Kopp
Like, it's smelly. It's just like, awful for another reason. Right, okay, fair. So here is my first bookish tragedy that's not actually tragic, it's just annoying. And it kind of stems from my bookish moment, which is this whole situation with the slip case and the series, etc. So my first one is when the books in a series don't match. This is the worst one. This one really bothers me. So my copies of the Court of Thorns and Roses series all match in paperback. They came in a slip case, just like my Ember in the Ashes series. A Court of Silver Flames was released after I bought that box set. So I waited for the paperback to be released so that it would match. No, it does not match. It's three quarters of an inch taller and it has this kind of like tattoo pattern on the side, whereas the other ones are just solid color on the spine. Why? Even if you buy the new box set, there's three solid color books and then a fourth one with like black inky tattoo looking stuff. No, absolutely not. This is very rude.
- [37:43]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, it's very. I mean, for sure. And then we get, you know, like we talked about last week where Still Life is coming out. Of course I had to get the special edition, but then now it's gonna sit next to all the other copies that now don't match. And then what do I do if they're all gonna look shiny, all of them, and. Right. And. Or I'm gonna have to spend a gazillion dollars to get the whole special edition set. If that ends up happening. If they even offer that. Yeah, it definitely is. Yeah, for sure. It's like we shouldn't care this much about it, but it's really hard not to.
- [38:13]
Katie Kopp
Well, I mean, you're talking about 20 books, right? Like, by the time.
- [38:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I can't.
- [38:18]
Katie Kopp
19.
- [38:19]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
They're not gonna do. Yeah, they're not gonna do special editions of all those books. I can't imagine that they would but it's so pretty.
- [38:26]
Katie Kopp
And like, obviously people will buy them because they're beautiful. Okay, next one. I'm going to go to audiobooks. This is when an audio edit had to be made for whatever reason. And it's super obvious because the narrator's tone of voice changes. So this is like a drop in. In the audio. The audio engineer has listened to the book. If you have heard this, you know what I'm talking about. Meredith, I see you, like, looking up to the left, like, do I know what that is? So it'll be like, I'm just going to pull something from my notes from earlier. It's relatively new, but has all the vibes of a classic that we'll be reading for years. And then the voice changes. It's still the same person, but you can tell they, like, left for three days and came back. And they say one sentence. Let me give you the first line, right? And it's like a.
- [39:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
What?
- [39:10]
Katie Kopp
What? What are you doing?
- [39:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
The tone of voice is different. The time of day is different. Yeah, you can't.
- [39:15]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, they had. They had coffee before they sat down. And then it goes back to the other version. But that line feels super important even though it's not. It's just something they had to re record and drop in. No, don't do that. That's not nice. Or similarly, when the narrator who made a character for you has to step away, whether it's for personal reasons or cause they're now in the grave. This happened with Three Pines.
- [39:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, and the ruckus it caused.
- [39:43]
Katie Kopp
Ralph Cosham became Robert Bathurst. And eventually we all made do. We all got our knickers untwisted. And then what happened?
- [39:54]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
New guy again, which people do not like. People do not like this new narrative.
- [39:58]
Katie Kopp
So it's fair to us. When we fall in love with somebody, you need to stick with them. I don't care what your marriage looks like. You're an audiobook author. Marriage. This is my audiobook experience. I want it to stay the same all the way through, for sure. Audiobooks.
- [40:13]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Katie. I know for me that I just experienced one of these the other day where I was less than 5% from the end of a really long book that I had been reading. And I was very invested in what was going to be happening. And I had planned all of this out fit to finish it when I knew I was going to be completely alone. And I literally was like, okay, I just have 5% left. And then I hear that chime of the door opening and closing of Johnny Coming home unexpectedly early. And I was like, oh, God. Now the good news is my husband, who I love, is home early. That's not like, that's not in any way shape or form a tragedy. That's something to celebrate. But in that moment, I was like, no, no. And now Johnny's good about giving. Like as soon as I said to him, like, I've got 5% left on this, he's totally good with that. But it did break my rhythm a little bit. So it was a non tragic tragedy.
- [41:14]
Katie Kopp
Yes, yes, definitely. And we just talked about finishing a book. Well, like this. It matters. You got yourself in the vibe, you were in the space and then it was.
- [41:26]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, here, let me just tell you because you'll, you'll further understand. It was raining the perfect amount for me to be able to open up my windows and hear the rain without. It wasn't also windy and like shutting the rain into the house, you could have the window open. It was just like I had achieved the perfect, the perfect circumstances with things.
- [41:48]
Katie Kopp
That you can't even control. The best and the worst.
- [41:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [41:53]
Katie Kopp
Okay, my next one is about Kindle reading. So this is when an author or a publisher includes images in a copy of a book, but you have to click on them in order to see them all correctly. So sometimes it's like a multimedia format book and they're like, here's the text message thread and it takes up a whole page, so you have to hold click so that you can zoom in. Because it won't just readjust like the text on the page does. If it's an image format. You have to click in and zoom in and read all the things and then scroll around and then click back out and then continue your reading experience. It just breaks the flow. I. Yeah, I don't, I just never read.
- [42:34]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, until they do. I don't read mixed media books on my Kindle. I just always will get those in hardback.
- [42:40]
Katie Kopp
And the only one, of course, like as I was prepping for this, the only one I could think of that was like, this is my, my middle boy, Levi, reads wimpy kid books on his Kindle every night when he goes to bed. And. But those are like graphic novels that he's reading on a Kindle, which it doesn't work. So he has to do that. He has to click the image, blow up the page, and then read the page, and then make the image small again to go to the next one.
- [43:05]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And I'm like, dude, this is another reason where apparently the iPad really comes in to play. Now, I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but I have heard, I have a good bookish friend who recently said, I'm reading graphic novels like crazy now because I got an iPad for my reading and I don't know exactly how it works, but apparently it's a very seamless and beautiful and like visually satisfying experience.
- [43:30]
Katie Kopp
Yes. It's like this comicology thing that they do.
- [43:34]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [43:34]
Katie Kopp
Where it will zoom to the next panel. It's very cool. On a tablet, sort of. Yeah. It's so cool. But not on a regular Kindle. I think I was hoping the color soft would be something in between those two experiences, but womp, womp, womp. Okay. When you buy a used book and someone has underlined it or annotated it, which I really love, but they did it maybe without actually reading the book or just to prove that they had read the book, because there's just random things or not straight lines. They're just willy nilly going up and down the page. No. Then don't take that book to the bookstore. You were faking it anyway. I am not interested. Highlights. Yes, it is. It's just graffiti.
- [44:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Someone's thoughtful annotation. I'm there for it 100%. But if you're just a dummy or you're just, you're purposely being, you know, not great at annotating, I'm not interested in that.
- [44:29]
Katie Kopp
I'm convinced that it's like somebody asked them, well, did you read this book? And. And they were like, yeah, don't you see my highlights? And they just, they just flipped through and randomly highlighted words. That's not a highlight. That's just the word and. What are you doing? What is happening? No, no. Thank you, book fairy. I want the good annotations, the good highlights.
- [44:49]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You know what else is something that's a non tragic tragedy for me on Kindle because this is where I read the majority of my books anytime. And it's always arcs where this happens. But anytime I open up an arc and I see that like the entire file, it's, it's not broken up into chapters. It's like the entire file. So it's like 9 hours and 32 minutes left in this book.
- [45:11]
Katie Kopp
And you like, you can't click to chapter.
- [45:13]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I have to be able to see how many minutes are left in the chapter. I can't. I literally now I'm like, nope. I go back right out. Delete the file. Nope, that's not happening. That is not happening. I can't. And that's not tragic, but it feels tragic in that moment.
- [45:28]
Katie Kopp
No, it is offensive is what it is with a capital O. That is similar to finishing a Kindle book. Or this happened to me on an audiobook today where it says, you have 14. No, it's usually like 5% left, right? So I had just the right amount to get from taking Levi's cast off to Starbucks where we were going to stop and get a treat afterward because he got his cast off left in my audiobook. It was 20 minutes, but it was like seven minutes to get to Starbucks. So I was like, perfect. Listening at very fast speeds like I do. I'm going to finish this as I roll into the parking lot. It's going to be amazing. No, there were actually two minutes left in that book. The rest of it was a sample of another book by that author. They swindled me into thinking that I had an additional 18 minutes of content. And that happens on Kindle also, where you'll be like, okay, I got what you had 5% left in your Kindle book the other day, right. Johnny comes home. If you had turned the page and it said the end. Stay tuned for a sample of the next book by. You would have been so mad.
- [46:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Now, on audio, that would irritate me because I'd be like, but this is how I planned to use this time as I was driving on my Kindle. When that happens, sometimes I'll be like, I was done even sooner than I expected. Like, I almost feel like it's like getting out of class early.
- [46:47]
Katie Kopp
Found time, extra reading time. Yeah, okay, I could see that. I could see that.
- [46:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. Any other non tragic tragedies?
- [46:54]
Katie Kopp
Okay, yeah, I got one more. It's when you pre order a book, but you can't remember where you pre ordered it from. So on release day you get three or four copies because, oops, I got it from that indie bookstore. And then I was walking around that store and then I was surfing Barnes and Noble's pre order sale and what do you know? Now I have three copies of the same book, which is great. And also not. Thank you so much.
- [47:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, the worst is when that happens. Like where you pre ordered a book you're super excited about, then you were even more excited because you got a galley of it, but you read the galley and it sucked.
- [47:25]
Katie Kopp
It was not good.
- [47:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And then you forget to. And then you get the pre order anyway and you're like, I even paid for this.
- [47:33]
Katie Kopp
That is the worst.
- [47:34]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
The second, because that's happened to me more than Once. So the second that happens, I now assiduous about going back and canceling any pre orders that I had because it makes me so mad when I get those.
- [47:44]
Katie Kopp
But sometimes it's hard to find them. I'm trying to keep much better track in my TBR in my reading tracker this year. About. Okay, it's now officially on my TBR because I pre ordered it. I'm gonna put it in there, I'm gonna say where I pre ordered it from. Because eventually I'm gonna try and buy Tyler Merritt's book again.
- [48:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Can't you just do a search for Tyler Merritt in your email and then it would come up.
- [48:06]
Katie Kopp
No, because I delete my emails. I delete emails as soon as I possibly can and then they only stay in my trash for 30 days. I'm constantly deleting emails. That's a great idea, Meredith. I would never do that.
- [48:19]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I keep all of my. I mean I file into a file all of my like shopping related emails so that I can be like, where did I get that tank top?
- [48:27]
Katie Kopp
Where is that? Oh my gosh. So you can go back like years in your order history.
- [48:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Or like yes. And I do all the time. Like I know that I weighed this much back in 2019, so I'm gonna go figure out what size I ordered from Biore back then. No way. Yeah. I don't keep all. I mean I'm a big inbox zero girl, but I do keep shopping.
- [48:48]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, they're like archived in a certain folder, but yeah. Oh my gosh.
- [48:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So that's how I. That's how I figure out like where did I do my pre orders?
- [48:56]
Katie Kopp
I like that. That's a great idea.
- [48:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Okay, so those are some not tragic, but they feel tragic in the moment.
- [49:03]
Katie Kopp
Especially to a reader.
- [49:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Bookish.
- [49:05]
Katie Kopp
We're a dramatic set of folks. We are.
- [49:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We absolutely are. All right, well, we also have a lot of opinions. So do you have any wishes that you would like to make today at the fountain?
- [49:16]
Katie Kopp
Yes, mine was so fun. I almost made a story about this, but I wanted to talk to you about it, Meredith. So I wish that I always got to speak directly with indie bookstore owners. So I'm gonna tell you a little story. It's story time now. Everybody take a seat. I had this fabulous conversation this week with a new to me bookstore owner as I got her on board for the indie press list this year. We've mentioned before that sometimes store owners think that the IPL sounds too good to be true. They're like, no, really though, what Are you getting out of this? And we're like, listen, we love indie bookstores. That was the case here. She had so many questions, but not really about how the program works. She wanted to know why. Why promote indie bookstores in this way? Why throw the focus and the dollars their direction? Why not just make our own list of five books and start our own mini subscription book service? Then we would get to keep all the profits. The answer is that we love indie bookstores and it's Valentine's Day when we're recording. So we talked through these questions and answers. She was grateful and excited, and it feels a little silly right now to reference Mother Teresa, but I'm going to anyway. Not everyone can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love. Choosing to support indie bookstores and send our business and our bookish friends business their way every month is something that currently reading does small and with great love, and it makes a big difference. This woman was on the phone with me, nearly in tears. She was just so excited, so grateful to be considered for this program to get to be introduced to our bookish friends. She was just beyond thrilled. And I loved talking to her. So my wish here, it's not too good to be true. If you are a passionate seller of books and you would be a great indie press list partner, send us an email. I'll call you and I'll talk you into it. We can do small things with great love. I wish to talk to you about how great it is to partner with indie bookstores. Pink Splash.
- [51:12]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Absolutely. That is a wonderful wish. That is one of the absolute most fun things that we. That we do. Maybe the most fun thing that we do is get to have this partnership.
- [51:22]
Katie Kopp
She was like, has anybody ever, you know, heard about this and then decided not to? And I'm like, yeah, it happens. Because they don't think it's a thing. They don't think it's a real thing that we want to really do this with you. She's like, what?
- [51:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Or they think they're too. Their. Their britches are too big or they're.
- [51:38]
Katie Kopp
Too big for their britches. Yep, that's the other thing that happens. And that's okay. And I said, you know what's great, though, is that we've. We've built such great partnerships with so many stores across the country that when we do get into a bind like that, it's okay because there's somebody else that knows how great it is, and they will slide right into that spot without a problem.
- [51:55]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yay, Yep, exactly. We are very, very, very lucky that way. All right, well, my wish is another question. This is the second week in a row where my wish is the que. I would love. I have a question I would love to be answered. And I think Sarah Dickinson from Sarah's Bookshelves Live is our girl for this. So, Sarah, I know you're listening. Here's what I want to know. And I want to know from you, Katie, too, does it feel like the publishing industry is moving toward realizing that readers. And this goes back to so many things we've talked about today and even last week, too, that readers are crazy enough that if we fall in love with a book on our Kindle or that we got from the library or that we got on our audio, we will buy a copy for our shelves. And then a couple years later, if you reissue it in a prettier version, we will buy that version, too. Does it seem like publishers are finally cottoning on to this element of things?
- [52:48]
Katie Kopp
It does to me.
- [52:49]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right?
- [52:50]
Katie Kopp
Except I feel like the issue is sometimes it feels like they're shooting their wad too early. Like we're getting the first release of stuff that's already really pretty. And I'm like, guys, we don't even know if we love that book yet. We'll buy it again later in the $45 version. Right.
- [53:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, I mean, fourth wing, obviously, we have to credit fourth wing for this. We just do. Because that little publisher and Becky Yarros, they were the beginning of this thing where, like, oh, wait, so if you put sprayed edges is all. That's gonna make these people just wet themselves? Yes, that is absolutely true. And so now you're getting, you know, you're. It seems like publishers are realizing. Put out a pretty. Like, you just talked about your beautiful versions of the Hunger Games. You know, I just talked about Still Life coming out. I mean, they never put out beautiful versions of mystery books like that. Like, that's not something. They might put out a reissued cover, but they don't do, you know, the Wicked, the special edition Wicked version, Absolutely gorgeous. I just feel like it's possible that publishers are cottoning onto this element that we will buy it in more than one version or we will buy more than one copy if you give us something special. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett's, you know, reissue of that. The annotated version of that brand new cover, jacketless hardback, completely annotated. I like this that we're seeing in publishing. This is interesting. This will put. This will get my dollars into the market. What I'd like Sarah to do is to talk to one of her really good, you know, she's got, Sarah does these great interviews on her show. And again, certainly if you're listening to us, you're listening to her, right? She does these great interviews with people who are insiders. And I would love to hear Sarah ask that question about these reissues or special edition books and how they are being looked at from the inside of the publishing industry. I'm very interested in that.
- [54:47]
Katie Kopp
Yeah, for sure. I know not everything's about Lego, but I do know that Lego had a hard time kind of maintaining their hold on the market a few years ago and they started introducing what are basically adult sets of Lego because they realized adults will spend adult money on Lego. And we see like the flip side of this, right, that publishers are spending less money on middle grade books because they know that it's, you know, 7 to 12 year olds that are, that these books are being purchased for. They're not going to treat them nicely. They're not going to keep them forever on their shelves. They're probably going to read it in a day and a half and the parent is not going to be like, well, I'm not going to spend like $18 on a book that you're going to go through in a day. It's not worth like the price per hour. Right. So they keep those cheap. Adults will spend adult money on books and we have money like bookworms have money. We're smart people, we read a lot of books and so we make money. We could spend it on books. Like publishers need to be clocking in there for sure, right?
- [55:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I mean, why isn't someone reissuing the Wheel of Time series? Like that's one that really needs an incredible reissue. There's, you know, so hopefully we'll see more of that. I like the direction this is going.
- [55:59]
Katie Kopp
It's a good thing.
- [56:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me, I'm Meredith, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and you can.
- [56:10]
Katie Kopp
Find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of Megan's Reads Full show notes.
- [56:20]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
With the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in our show notes and on our website@currentlyreading podcast.com youm.
- [56:31]
Katie Kopp
Can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us at currentlyreading Podcastmail.
- [56:38]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And if you want more of this kind of content, join us as a Bookish friend. It's only $5 a month and it gets you tons more content, it gets you tons of community, and it keeps our show commercial free. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.
- [56:58]
Katie Kopp
Yes, Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [57:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, until next week, may your.
- [57:06]
Katie Kopp
Coffee be hot and your book be unput downable.
- [57:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Happy reading.
- [57:09]
Katie Kopp
Katie Happy reading. Meredith.