← The Currently Reading Podcast
The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 30: New Indie Bookstores + Our Six Star Reads
00:57:08
On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: Kindle samples and getting new indie bookstores Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep Dive:...
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- [00:00]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Foreign. Hey readers, welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.
- [00:24]
Katie Cobb
We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our 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 sometimes a little taste is all I need.
- [00:43]
Katie Cobb
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mama for living in Arizona. And finding a new bookstore is like getting a bonus dessert. This is episode number 30 of season seven and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:54]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh Katie, do you have a new bookstore?
- [00:56]
Katie Cobb
I do have a new bookstore and I'm so, so excited to talk about it. That's coming in my bookish moment. First, we have some mischief to manage. We are going to talk this month, like we do at the very first Monday of every month, about how we keep this show running without ads. And we do that because we have one ad for ourselves each month. So this month we wanted to throw a little bit of a highlight, a little spotlight on our indie press list where we partner with an independent bookstore. They give us a stack of five books. They're phenomenal. Working with indie bookstores is always so fun, like I mentioned in my Fountain wish last week. But March is a special month because we have an unlikely story as one of our anchor stores and we get to partner with Book Boyfriend Bill.
- [01:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes, we love Book Boyfriend Bill. I have so been looking forward to this.
- [01:46]
Katie Cobb
I have too. And that's because March's episode is extra special. Book Boyfriend Bill, Triple B and as he's known in the industry, now is joining us live for our recording. So everyone will get to hear him talk about the books, why he thought they were such a perfect fit for our group and just be his regular amazing self. We just love him so much.
- [02:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Nobody sells a book better than Book Boyfriend Bill. And the stack is really, really good. Like legit. It's really good.
- [02:15]
Katie Cobb
So that comes out this first Thursday of the month. If you are listening on drop day, you still have a few days to join us and then you will get access to that stack as soon soon as it's released, which is like, that's like, I don't know, the super bowl of currently reading. Every month we have Indie Press List Day. It's so exciting. We love this program. We love book boyfriend Bill, if you like. One minute with Bill on Instagram. This is going to be so much more than that.
- [02:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This is going to be several, several minutes.
- [02:41]
Katie Cobb
So many minutes with Bill. That's what we're going to call it. Perfect. You can join us@patreon.com currentlyreading podcast. It's just five bucks a month and you get that content as well as all things Murderful, Lovin, Chili Peppers, the Facebook group, the spreadsheet. So much good stuff behind the scenes there. Just five bucks a month. We'd love to have you.
- [03:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Absolutely. It is a good deal.
- [03:04]
Katie Cobb
It is a great deal. And that is our mischief managed. No more ad breaks for the month, y'all.
- [03:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's pretty good. We did that fast, too.
- [03:11]
Katie Cobb
We're happy with that. Now I get to let everybody know that our deep dive today is about six star books, which are the books that we are not accepting any criticism on. Meredith, if you disagree, we don't want to hear it.
- [03:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Keep your mouth shut.
- [03:28]
Katie Cobb
Yep. Just not interested in your opinion about this. Exactly. Okay. But we'll get to that in a little bit. First, we'll get started the way we always do with our bookish moments of the week. Meredith, what is yours?
- [03:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. Well, I have developed a new system for a little corner of my reading life that happens with enough regularity that I was like, I've got to find a way to solve this little bump in the reading road that happens. Here's what happens. Somewhere during my day, I have finished whatever book I'm reading, especially whatever book I'm reading on my Kindle, right? And I finished it. I haven't yet moved on to my next one. I haven't kind of taken the time and the consideration, done whatever it is that I'm going to do next to decide what I want to read next. Especially because I like to begin books well, right? So I don't like to begin them at night when I go to bed. But every night when I go to bed, I need to read for at least a couple of minutes on my Kindle in order to go to. I mean, this is just what I do every night. This is what I have started doing, and it's working really well. I go through my normal life as I'm going through my normal life when there is a book that I'm even slightly interested in with the same reckless abandon that I put books into my book bag at the library, I download samples onto my Kindle. Then when I'm in that situation where I don't know, I haven't dived into my next book yet. But I also need something to read. I just pull up a sample instead of like actually pulling up a new Kindle file and getting started on it. This is really useful because a there is, it's no stakes.
- [05:10]
Katie Cobb
Right.
- [05:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's just a sample. I haven't spent any of my cash dollars on it. I haven't invested in it in any way beyond a sample. So if I read it for a few minutes and then completely forget about it the next and never return to it. No harm, no foul. But every once in a while I will get into one of those and be like, oh, I am totally in. The next morning I wake up, I'm fresh. I'm still in the mood for that book. Download it and off we go. So historically I haven't had a lot of use for Kindle samples. But this is my new use and it is really, really working for me.
- [05:43]
Katie Cobb
It's like a wine tasting flight.
- [05:45]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
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Katie Cobb
Because you don't know if you want the full glass. You just want a little flight.
- [05:49]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Low stakes. I just want like 20 minutes worth of reading something that even if I absolutely hate it, it'll just make me sleepy sooner. It's, it's only upside.
- [05:59]
Katie Cobb
I am so amazed that you can read for 20 minutes in bed on your Kindle because mine, it like has magical fairy fingers that come out and shut my eyeballs as soon as I lay down and try and read.
- [06:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, yeah, no, I know that that's something that, that happens to you for sure. I don't know. Usually I read for about an hour every night.
- [06:16]
Katie Cobb
Oh my goodness.
- [06:17]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I go to bed at 9:30 and read until 10:30. But. But you know, there are nights I go to sleep faster than that. But that's about right for me. So I have to have at least 20 minutes of something that I can dip into without having to take a lot of consideration for sure.
- [06:33]
Katie Cobb
I love that. Well, a little taste, that's all you need. I however, got a second dessert. I am so excited that my not so tiny town in Arizona, Gilbert, finally has its own indie bookstore. I had been to this place which is called literally a bookshop. When it was a pop up shop. It was in a wine bar called Peacock Wine Bar. It was in a coffee shop after Peacock closed and it's been since the pop up shop. It'll also be at the farmer's market or at a school book fair or whatever. Like she just kind of pops up Wherever. But in early February, they finally opened their own storefront in our cute little historic district called the Farmhouse district. It's in this tiny white clapboard house. I love it. It's so cute. So my bookish besties, Katie and Candice came into town for President's Day weekend. We packed up all of our seven children and four adults into two vehicles and hit this tiny little shop with multiple big sales for their till in a single afternoon. It's artfully set up, it's adorably curated, especially for kiddos. But grand grown ups, every grown up also found something to buy and enjoy. So great to have a new little indie bookstore join the fray. And this one has been making it work for years as a pop up. And so now she's a fully fledged store and I wish her all the luck and I will be doing my honest to goodness part to keep her in business. Literally a bookshop. So cute.
- [07:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I am so glad that you are getting an indie bookstore. That is. And it's close to your house.
- [08:02]
Katie Cobb
It's so close I could ride my bike there if it wasn't already going to be 90 degrees this weekend in February, which is so stupid.
- [08:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, my goodness. Yes. Well, having it close is a game changer. I think. That is so much fun. And. Yeah. And it just, it's so nice to have a bookstore that you can really support and be like, this is my bookstore.
- [08:24]
Katie Cobb
Yes. I'm so excited. She also. So it's right down by our downtown area, so you can pop out of her parking lot and then just go to the main downtown area where there's all these little independent restaurants and it's very walkable area. Lots of gelato places and stuff. Like, it's just this very cute area of town and it's just down the road. So we made a whole morning of it. We went to the bookstore, we went out for tacos, we got margaritas, we came back and we read. It was amazing.
- [08:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That is so much fun. All right, good.
- [08:51]
Katie Cobb
So fun. All right, let's get into our current reads. Hopefully, someday Katie will start reading again. But I still have books to talk about. Meredith, what's your first one?
- [08:59]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. Well, let's circle back to that because that's. That's interesting.
- [09:03]
Katie Cobb
Never. Let's never talk about that.
- [09:05]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I have three, three backlist gems in three different genres to talk about. I am embracing my backlist, y'all. I am so into backlist right now, partly because I'm using my library so much. You're gonna hear that come up Multiple times. Okay. The first one is called the Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley. Here's the setup. Our lead characters are Maya Diaplese and her five sisters. Yes, that's Seven Sisters minus one. I'm in already. Right. These six sisters are summoned to their childhood home after their adoptive father dies. The home is called Atlantis. And it's this fabulous castle on Lake Geneva, which honestly. And there's another thing that I'm like. It's a castle on Lake Geneva. It's called Seven Sisters, but there's only six of them. I like. I couldn't have gotten into this book faster. So each sister, upon their father's death, each sister receives a clue about their heritage because they are each adopted from a different place. And Maya, our oldest, her information sends her to Brazil. Now, if you are thinking this is just kind of contemporary Chiclet, this is not, because we are about to time hop. The story weaves between Maya's modern day journey to figure out her heritage and 1920s Rio de Janeiro, where we meet Isabella Bonifacio, whose story becomes entangled with the creation of the Christ the Redeemer. You know, that enormous statue that overlooks Rio. If you watch Fast and Furious, you know this. So this historical timeline involves ambitious architects, very passionate sculptors in Paris art studios, and the kind of romance that changes everything. So there's no question this book gave me major Kate Morton vibes. But with more sisters and more global scope, it's the first in a series of seven books, one for each sister. And while that might seem daunting, I actually love knowing that there's more to dive into, because this really, really worked for me. If you love dual timeline novels with art history, family secrets, global settings, you. You will absolutely want this to be your next read. Also, each one of the Seven Sisters is named after a star cluster, which I really, really love. That kind of, like, nerdy thing just makes me really happy. Okay, so this book is an example of bookish serendipity. This was one of the ones that I picked up for no good reason at all, off of the regular stacks of my library. So not like the new release section, just the regular fiction stacks. I just go down the line and if something grabs my attention, I open it up, look at the inside flap, read the first two or three sentences, and if it calls to me at all, I put it in my bag. This is what happened with this book. When I came home, it was at the top of a pile for my book flight and I quickly blinked and I had read 100 pages I stopped for a little bit to go, wait, has anybody else read that? Like, what am I? Like, am I reading a book that everyone has read and I'm just like the last to find out? And it turned out this series has a huge following and a fantastic rating on Goodreads with thousands and thousands of reviews. Apparently I was the last one to know. I don't know how this series escaped me. The best way for me to describe this book is that it's the kind of book that makes me remember some of my favorite memories of reading. The visual I get in my head as I'm reading this book, or even thinking about it since I've read it, is a visual of me curling up under a blanket and having some book in front of me and just feeling so content. It's not always how I feel when I'm reading. It's a very specific kind of mood that this book put me into. The characters are great, and as we said, this book takes us to some amazing settings, like a sprawling mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. And we spend many weeks, both in the past and the present, in Rio de Janeiro. I love the idea of the premise of this book. It's got a slightly magical feeling about it. It's not magical, but it has that feeling to it. I love the idea that there was a guy who went around the globe basically collecting baby girls, but he was in no way, shape or form creepy. He was just a fantastic father. And I think there's probably also much more to that that will become clear over the course of the series. I believe I should say that this is how the series is laid out. We get the overview of PA Salt. That's the what they call their father and him being the dad to these six sisters. And then we get some of the sisters interacting with each other in the first book. They're reacting to the fact that the fathers just died. And then from there, each book follows the story of each sister finding her origin story. In this first book, as I said, it's Maya in Rio de Janeiro. So we story. We also get some past points of view from her ancestors and basically how everything came together for Maya to be adopted by PA Salt. It's one of those sweeping multi generational tales and I love that. A couple of things. As to Vibe, I think the best comp is a combination of Kate Morton, less overly dramatic and Rosamund pilcher, but less mid-80s.
- [14:33]
Katie Cobb
Okay.
- [14:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
If that makes sense. I will also say that for me, this put me in the exact same mood that I was in back the summer that I found out that I was accidentally pregnant with my daughter. I was. I was very, very sick. I had hyperemesis gravitas. I was throwing up like 14 or 15 times a day. And also I was really upset about being accidentally pregnant. Not my plan. So that summer I holed up the entire summer and just read Sidney Sheldon novels. And this book put me in the same mood that those books did. They take you out of your reality completely, just sweep you up and take you off on a story. It'll give you a few hours of respite from whatever is bothering you in the current world. This book is big or bigger. I think it's like 450 pages, but I read it so fast. This is a milkshake book, y'all. Definitely romance and it had me clutching my heart, but it's fairly clean. I would give it maybe 1.25 chili peppers I am going to revisit the series, but I'm definitely going to put time in between my reads. Lots of people messaged me after I posted about on Instagram saying that there's plenty of repetition in the way that the each book is laid out in the series, but that if you give plenty of time in between, they're the perfect kind of palette cleanser. And it's fun to revisit that world. This is one of my favorite examples of bookish and library serendipity. This is the Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley.
- [16:03]
Katie Cobb
Oh, it sounds great. And it's a complete series now because. So backlist. Okay.
- [16:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- [16:10]
Katie Cobb
Okay. Sounds excellent. I love sisters. Also, my sister just got me socks yesterday that say my sister is the sh. Very cute and she got matching ones for herself. So love a sister story. Okay, my books are all backlist as long as we consider anything published before 2025 backlist. So yay. Gold star. Okay, my first one is all the Right Notes by Dominic Lim. I am, as I've mentioned many times now, probably too many, preparing for my next trip to the Tucson Festival of Books. But I still had another author from last year whose book hadn't made it onto my currently reading shelf yet. So I grabbed this contemporary queer small town romance and I dove right in. Here's the setup. Quito Cruz is a Filipino piano playing genius. Filipino piano playing genius. Say that five times fast.
- [17:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That is not easy.
- [17:02]
Katie Cobb
He composes music and musicals in New York City, but he's still chasing that lifelong dream of having his music played on Broadway. However, at the beginning of our story he is called home by his dad, his small hometown's beloved music teacher, to put on a charity performance. When he gets there, he realizes his dad is aging and very sick. This charity performance may actually be the last one for him as a teacher. Dad is convinced that their charity bash will be a huge hit if only Keto can get Emmett, his jock friend from high school, to perform. Because now Emmett is now a super famous Hollywood celebrity. But the issue is that the two of them have not spoken since this weird night in college. Why would we want to come back to this town for a drop in a bucket, right? This little like, Podunk celebrity gala where he's the star. After a gentle reach out to his old friend, Keto is shocked that Emmett agrees to attend. And when they start working on the event together, it's clear the vibes between them are just as tortured as they ever were. Everything is complicated because it's romance in this closed door second chance romance with protagonists in middle age, which I love, but it's got all the performing arts nerdy vibes you could want. Dominic Lim made it so easy for me to picture Kito, Emmett the smokeshow, the beloved music teacher, and Kito's bestie black drag queen friend. One little note that didn't quite fit right for me on this one is the way that Ujima, the bestie drag queen is sidelined as a character. So much so that they feel like comic relief instead of a real person. Like they're only brought in for laughs and then shuttled back off the stage. That representation was so touching to me. Like I loved that they were part of the story, but then it felt a little bit phoned in. Overall, however, I did really enjoy the music and the food aspects. Filipino food. We've talked about this in multiple books now. Meredith. Mmm, delicious. I love Filipino food. It's very much a part of this story. I also really loved the Second chance romance parts of it. There is a trigger warning that I need to put here with regards to homophobia, including almost a self hatred, self phobic sentiment for the two main characters who are struggling with their attraction to each other. If you're looking for music obsessed closed door romance with Filipino representation, male male relationship, which, like that's a very specific thing you might be looking for. But this is a great pick or if you just want any one of those little flavors that I handed to you, I gave it four stars. Overall, this was all the Right Notes by Dominic Lim.
- [19:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That sounds really good and I do love reading. I love any book that features food really strongly, but for some reason, I feel like Filipino food really lends itself to that.
- [19:48]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, like, what's the one with Mia P Mansala? Adobo. Arsenic and adobo.
- [19:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. Yes.
- [19:54]
Katie Cobb
Such great food in that one, too. Yep.
- [19:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. My. I'm just realizing that the title of my next book is. Has a weird connection to the title of my first book. But anyway, this next one is also very backlist. And it's the backlist by a beloved, beloved author that I did not. I've never even heard of this one. So this is this Savage Song by Victoria Schwab. V E Schwab. All right, here's the setup. This savage Song takes us on a ride through a divided city where violence literally breeds monsters. Our city is called Verity and it's a metropolis that is split right down the middle. On one side you've got the ruthless Callum Harker, and he runs a protection racket with an iron fist. And on the other side of the Verity, Henry Flynn's militia is trying to keep the monsters, these violent monsters at bay. And oh boy, are there monsters. There are three terrifying types that are each born from violent acts. It's like karma decided to get creative and really twisted. At the heart of this dark urban fantasy are two teenagers. We've got Kate Harker, she's the daughter of Callum Harker and she's trying her darndest to prove that she is as ruthless as her father. And we've got August Flynn, who happens to be the son of Henry Flynn, but also he is one of those monsters, but he's got a conscience. These two, August and Kate get thrown together in a tangled web of family expectations, citywide conspiracies, and good old fashioned can we survive this? Okay, so there is a lot at play here. And this I will say there is a lot to like in this backlist book. It's all the way from 2016. If you liked A Darker Shade of Magic or that entire series, you will like this book. It's got the same fun banter, it's got very interesting magic and lots and lots of action. This is something all on its own. It's something different. This Savage Song is grittier and I loved the dystopian setting. So this isn't a fantasy setting as much as it is gritty dystopia. Also, it's got the city of Verity, which is a post apocalyptic America. And these two cities, north and south, reminded me of the different Londons in that other series by V E Schwab we also have two really easy to love protagonists, but they're very different one from the other. Their relationship is platonic, so we weren't dealing with drippy teenage love goings on here. There were times, however, that I was reminded that this book was written for older teens, but it wasn't anything too egregious. But every once in a while I had to stifle a little eye roll. What we were doing was being hit over the head a bit with the what does it mean to be a monster? Theme. It's done well for the most part, but again because teens of the audience here, Schwab uses a heavier hand where I wanted a lighter touch, but overall this gave me just what I was looking for in the moment. A fast paced fun romp through a violent dystopian land, dodging all kinds of monsters as I run through a nightmarish landscape. That is a thing I get in the mood for. If you like Schwab's other work, including Addie Larue, you will want to give this one a chance. It's this Savage Song by Victoria or V E Schwab.
- [23:27]
Katie Cobb
Excellent. I do like VE Schwab, but I go back and forth on her.
- [23:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Have you read this one? Have you read the Savage Song?
- [23:34]
Katie Cobb
I haven't. I haven't. I haven't even heard of it. I know.
- [23:36]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I feel like it's super under the radar and I was like, this is another one. I picked up the library. Like, okay, let's give this a try.
- [23:42]
Katie Cobb
Okay. My second one this week is nonfiction, and the title is a double entendre, which I really love. It's they Came for the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh. This book's title sent me on a journey, and I'm sure that was intentional. Here we've got narrative nonfiction about the education system in the US and the lengths parents will go to in order to provide their children with ostensibly, the very best. Right? In August of 2021, Mike and the team at NBC News started putting together a limited podcast series called South Lake. You can still find it on your podcast app. It dives deep into a community in Texas that's known for its school district, where students are provided with seemingly everything they could want. Small class sizes, passionate teachers, a record of success, and school spirits so rampant that when you go to the grocery store, everyone is wearing their South Lake T shirts.
- [24:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This sounds like my neighborhood.
- [24:35]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, I know. I was like, is it?
- [24:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Actually, yeah, it totally does.
- [24:40]
Katie Cobb
It does. It feels like that. So he took that podcast series, which was so well done. I will talk about it later, but he turned that into this book, right? People moved to South Lake just to allow their kids access to this seemingly perfect public school system. But at one point, a video of some students saying the N word goes viral along with various other racially coded incidents. And the school district decides to promote a plan for inclusiveness and racial education. Kind of get everybody on the same page and move forward. The backlash against the school system was swift and coordinated. There was a nationwide response to this tiny little town in Texas to their diversity plan, including funding from nationwide groups to get their candidates on the school board. While this mostly sounds like school drama for one tiny community, it is, of course, a much bigger story about the ways that public education has been changed and weaponized through book bans, privatization, and politics. It's impossible to have these conversations without discussing our current President and Ron DeSantis. Although this book was released in mid 2024, well prior to last year's elections, that doesn't make it feel dated at all, though. Not that. I mean, less than a year later, it could feel dated already. It's not dated at this point. Instead, it's more like a peek behind the curtain at this broader cultural movement to make schools look and act a certain way. This is another one that I read with Katie, who is a teacher. So it wasn't our standard buddy reading format. We came at it from two different teacher points of view. Katie teaches at a private school. I homeschool my kids. She spent years teaching at public school in Texas. I got my education in the public school system. So we bring a lot of different experiences to the reading of this book. Like the best narrative nonfiction, this was propulsive and thought provoking, and we had so many great discussions about it. It was informative. It. It elicited strong opinions and brought up a lot of questions. The podcast that preceded the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won a Peabody Award. And it would make a great way to dive into these issues also, if that's how you best take in this information. For me, I really loved the double meaning of the title, in that this book is about the families that came to South Lake for the schools. They came for the schools for access to that great school system. And it's also about the groups of parents and politicians and lawyers who came for the schools, right? They, like, went after them in order to take control of the system. Even thinking again about how this title means both of those things just gave me goosebumps talking about this book. Mike Hicksonbaugh does a wonderful job bringing it to life, making you care about. I mean, unless you're Meredith. These people who you'll probably never meet because they don't live next to you. But it applies to all of us. This is they Came for the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh.
- [27:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Very, very interesting. I'm definitely going to look up the, the podcast because that, that sounds very interesting.
- [27:36]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, it's like true crime, but nobody dies. It's just education systems.
- [27:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay. My third book is one that I did on audio and it absolutely was a banger. It's called Past Crimes by Jason Pinter. Here's the setup. Here we are again in a near future world. This is the kind of near future thriller premise that is catnip to me in our story. It's 2037 and we're dealing with true crime entertainment that has involved evolved way beyond podcasts and Dateline episodes. We've got fully immersive virtual reality experiences where people can literally participate in history's most notorious crimes. The company behind this is called Past Crimes and it's basically become the murdery equivalent of Disney World. This is very dark. Our lead character is Cassie West. Cassie works for a company called Vice and her job is fascinating and ethically complicated in all the ways. She essentially negotiates with the victims families to license their tragedies for these virtual experiences. Yep, you heard me say that. And yes, we should probably unpack all of that. Everything is going well for Cassie. She's finally pregnant after trying for years. But then one night her husband Harris goes like radio silent. She's heading home from work, she's trying to text him, she's not hearing from him, which is very, very weird. And then she sees a swarm of emergency drones headed in the same direction that she is. And let's just say things are going to get very complicated very quickly, both in the real world and the virtual one. This is a banger. So I don't remember how Past Crimes landed on my radar, but I'm genuinely thrilled that it did. It was. The audio experience was a treat that I found myself consistently again, parked in my garage, totally absorbed just to catch those next 30 minutes. This book is a genre mashup. Think murder mystery meets cult crime drama all wrapped up in a dystopian near future. It's like if Ready Player One collided with a John Marrs novel and the result is a fast paced adventure that just keeps you on your toes and it keeps you listening or Turning the pages. What I loved most is how it dives into some really heavy themes. Remember, I talked about the last book having a heavy touch where I wanted a light one. This one makes you reflect on our growing dependence on technology and the very murky relationship between tech companies and politics. The questions it raises about law enforcement in this high tech future world were particularly interesting and very, very well done. Plus, the book challenges us to consider the implications of true crime in this age of digital monetization. Our fascination can shape our views on justice and really quickly that can turn into something that is way beyond our control. While the lead character, Cassie, was not my absolute favorite, there were moments where I wanted to shake her or slap her. This was a fairly minor issue for me in an otherwise really engaging story. The pacing is relentless, but it's perfect for multitasking. I found myself, you know, tackling chores that I did not feel like doing with a smile on my face. This novel is giving Blake Crouch meets True crime podcast vibes with its own unique set of twists. So if you liked Recursion but you wished it had more murder, this book is probably for you. This is Past Crimes by Jason Pinter.
- [31:15]
Katie Cobb
Blake Crouch, and John Mars. And I looked at the COVID and I love her.
- [31:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, it's yellow, right?
- [31:22]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, yellow. An outline of a skull and then like lines coming down, like so. It looks digital. Looks great.
- [31:28]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, it's just like my perfect kind of road trip book.
- [31:31]
Katie Cobb
Well, I'm like road tripping as soon as we finish recording. Meredith, you're killing it. Okay. I have middle grade, but still crime. It's great. Okay, I'm going to talk about the Swifts, A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln.
- [31:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, good, good.
- [31:45]
Katie Cobb
This is the follow up to a book that we both loved from 2023, which is the A Dictionary of Scoundrels. In this series, we follow the Swift family, which spans generations and time and is most notable, or perhaps most memorable for naming each new member of the family. By flipping open the family dictionary and running a finger down the page with their eyes closed, whatever word it lands on becomes the baby's name. That's why our main character is named Shenanigan Swift. She rose to prominence in the family because in book one, she caught a murderer at the family estate during a family reunion. Now everyone is safe and sound. Here we are, book two. That is, until her sister Felicity takes off to Paris to spend time with the martinet side of the family. Martinet is the French name of the bird that we call Swifts. In English There has been animosity between both sides of the of this large family for years, as a prized painting was lost to the Swifts by the Martinets in a gambling situation many decades ago. So in the interest of keeping Felicity safe, because with the Martinets can't be trusted, Shenanigan phenomena and their uncle Maelstrom head off to France themselves and they solve a series of museum heists that have to be related to to their own family painting. Katie and I read this one together as well. After really loving the first in the series, as did we all, I assume. The setting of Paris was a big draw for me, although I was definitely missing the Swift mansion and the way that Shenanigan is so familiar with its foibles and its rooms. And she's working on the map. All of that delighted me so much in book one, I wanted to go back. The hotel martinet where the action is based in this book has some similar silliness to it. There are entire floors that aren't accessible. There's an elevator that acts up sporadically. There are air vents that allow you to hear what's happening all the way across the hotel. And there's a solarium that so magnifies the sun's heat that they use it for serious family discussions and to interrogate people. It adds that element of time to avoid heatstroke. Although I've set it up as an art heist book, there are murders to be solved in this volume as well, including a body that is found stitched underneath a rug as part of an art installation. Ooh. So fun. I really enjoyed the way that Beth Lincoln brought all the pieces together. However, more than with A Dictionary of Scoundrels, I was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters in this volume. I ended up giving it four and a half stars out of five because of that kind of scattered feeling that it left me with, like, well, who was that again? And which branch of the family are they related to? I wanted a family tree at the beginning.
- [34:19]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [34:20]
Katie Cobb
However, if more books are forthcoming, they will absolutely make it onto my bookshelves. I adore this series. I adore the tongue in cheek language play that has become its signature. Playing with words, making the personalities of the person match the word that they were assigned at birth. It has great representation across races and genders. And I loved visiting Paris, even though it was a wee bit overwhelming. This is the Swifts, A Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln.
- [34:47]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I mean, it's just so good. I mean, I can see how she got kind of carried away with that whole thing. But when you said Shenanigan phenomena and Uncle Maelstrom go to. I just thought I loved the book for that exact reason. And I love the name Maelstrom.
- [35:02]
Katie Cobb
Yes. We need to work that into more daily language, I would say.
- [35:05]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right? Oh, that's. That's really, really good.
- [35:08]
Katie Cobb
So good. Okay, those were our six current reads. So now we're going to talk about our six star books, which are books on which we are not accepting any criticism and see if we can identify any patterns here. Meredith, I sent you a tweet from somebody else earlier this week as we were preparing. I should have snipped it because it's so applicable to this, actually. Maybe I'll share it at the end of our conversation. But let's talk about six star books and, well, let's talk about what it means to not accept criticism on a book. What does that mean?
- [35:38]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, let's go back even a little bit further. This. This came up as we. I was talking with Kiara, Betsy, and Lexia. We're getting ready for our reading retreat next week, right? And so we're all in the process of making our lists of books that we're gonna bring, and we're sharing them with each other. And we're, you know, this is part of the fun of the reading ret. That we're planning our reading. And so lots of book discussion is happening. And at one point, Chiara shared that she shared her stack of physical books that she's bringing, and on that stack was the Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. And that's a book that I absolutely top 10 of all time. For me. Betsy feels the same way. And we immediately both texted, like, the Sparrow, exclamation point, not accepting criticism on that title, which means that, like, we were immediately. And we do this a lot of times in that chat where we're like, you should definitely try that book, but if you don't like it, I don't want to know. And so Kiara said, it's like these books that are six stars, like, they're just above and beyond. We don't accept we can't have someone not like it. And for me, what does that look like? It looks like I can't. I can't have Lexi or Kiara read the Sparrow at the reading retreat and be like, this book, blah, blah, blah. Because I will, like, I don't want to change the way I feel about anyone based on how they feel about a certain book. Which is why when I feel that way about a book, I say it on the show every once in a while. It doesn't happen a lot, but periodically I'll say, like, this is a book on which I'm not accepting criticism. It's so near and dear to my heart that I just can't do it. So then I started wondering, what's the pattern of those books? Because it's not. It is not just my favorite books of all time. Because I then immediately went to, okay, my number one book of all time is two books, right? I have two number one books of all time in this case. This is very useful. One of them is the Count of Monte Cristo. The other number one book of all time is A Gentleman in Moscow. I love both of those books equally. You could tell me all day long why you don't like the Count of Monte Cristo. And I. And I will have fun having that conversation with you. I will have zero conversation about anyone's negative feelings about A Gentleman in Moscow. What's the difference?
- [37:53]
Katie Cobb
What is the difference between those two? Because I knew exactly where you were going as soon. Yeah, as soon as you brought that up.
- [37:59]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. So what's the pattern? Because it is not just favorite books of all time. I went through my last six years, the seven years, the amount of time we've been on the podcast, I went through every five star book that I've rated five stars in that time to see how many of those fall into this category. It was like less than 1 in 10.
- [38:20]
Katie Cobb
Right.
- [38:20]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Falls into this category.
- [38:22]
Katie Cobb
Agree.
- [38:22]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
What about for you?
- [38:23]
Katie Cobb
What?
- [38:23]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I mean, like, how often does this come up for you? Do you know what your pattern is?
- [38:28]
Katie Cobb
I have identified some patterns, but when I got ready to do this deep dive, I went and stood in front of my favorites shelf. Right. Which something might be a keeper, but not a favorite. Like, eventually, sometimes that shelf moves around, but there are certain books that are staying. They're just always going to be there forever. And as I went down that shelf, which is in alphabetical order, you'll be very happy to know it's not organized by color. Meredith, I know that makes you happy.
- [38:54]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This is a shelf that makes sense, right?
- [38:56]
Katie Cobb
I, like, I'm scanning my eyes along it, and there's plenty of books on there that are on my favorites shelf that I'm like, some people don't like that book. I don't. That's fine. I don't care. Like, and they can not like it for any number of reasons. And that's totally okay with me. And then there were some that when I thought in my head, okay, Somebody doesn't like that book. It made me want to, like, grow Wolverine claws and take out their eyeballs and say, well, no more reading for you.
- [39:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, you know, like, exactly.
- [39:20]
Katie Cobb
Well, you're so wrong that I. We're just not friends. I don't.
- [39:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I don't know what's going on. It's gonna affect how I feel about you as a reader, which is so strange because there are just so many times where most of the time, the vast majority of the time, my thought about if someone totally disagrees with me is either like, hey, different books for different people. No harm, no foul.
- [39:45]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [39:45]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Or clearly what you thought about that book is dumb. And it doesn't bother me because I'm so sure that I'm right and you're wrong. That's. That's 95% how I feel about. About how other people feel about books. This is this little slim sliver of tenderness that I can't let anyone near.
- [40:07]
Katie Cobb
Yep.
- [40:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I don't have a lot of Tinder.
- [40:09]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [40:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It is in me.
- [40:11]
Katie Cobb
It is one of the first ones that I wanted to bring up with regard to this deep dive was Happy Place by Emily Henry. Because I think many of us remember when I cried on the show talking about that book. And it's because I, like, I know that it's a fluffy romance. I don't need to hear any critique of it from anyone. I can see them with my own good eyes. And I just do not give a flying flip because this book is so important to me and I felt so seen and loved by the author as I read it. Like, she held me in such a special way that I just do not care. I don't care if you thought that this character was shallow in that scene or that it could have used a tighter edit in this. Whatever. No, I'm just not interested. And that's exactly what you're talking about. Like, it's not that none of those things are true. I just don't care. Because it is so pivotal to me as a reader that your criticisms are invalid in my head. They just don't matter.
- [41:19]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right, Right. But it. So if someone says not only, you know, it needed to tighter any of those things about it, is it going to. Not only you're going to think, well, you're just totally wrong, but, like, is it going to change the way you feel about them as a reader?
- [41:37]
Katie Cobb
Oh, I'll probably do my darndest to. To physically shut them up.
- [41:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay.
- [41:42]
Katie Cobb
Because I. Because I know it will change the way I feel either I will, going forward, write off their opinion and say, well, you're kind of dead to me in the reading space, or I will be like, no, no, no, no, no. We're not doing this. I'm not interested in any of your opinions about this. So let's leave our relationship where it is and move forward without you sullying what we have between us with your bad opinions.
- [42:09]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, I'm gonna list. I'm gonna give you my list. Okay, Just. I'm just gonna rapid fire my list to you, and you're gonna help me figure out why the. And this. This is not to say this is a complete list, because I'm sure there. There are ones that could come up and I'd be like, oh, no, that goes on the six star book list. But here, here's the list that I made after looking at my reading back through 2018. So. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, the Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Do not come at me about that book. 10,000 Doors of January in this House of Breed by Rumor Gauden. The Stand by Stephen King, the Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Bridget Kimmerer and the aforementioned A Gentleman in Moscow. Okay, what is it about those books? And it has to be the emotional resonance of each of those books.
- [43:01]
Katie Cobb
Definitely.
- [43:02]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's got to be.
- [43:04]
Katie Cobb
Well, and I'll rapid fire mine as well in a minute here, but I see a lot of sweeping in these stories that you're pulling out. So it's the character that you love, but also this plot that takes you right. Gentlemen in Moscow, we don't go anywhere, but we're with him for decades, and we get to fall in love with that character and be part of his life. So it has that sweep to it. Same with 10,000 doors of January. We're not just in one place, but we are sweeping through time and space with January Scholar as our main character. Same with. I mean, so many of these.
- [43:43]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
These are. Right. They're very, very, very character driven. All of these are very character driven. And all of them, for whatever reason, I have a very visual. Like, there's a lot of visuals in my mind about each one of these books. I feel. I also think from getting really, like, I'm really getting introspective here. I think these are each books that I felt some kinship with one or more of the characters.
- [44:15]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Which is what I was talking about with Happy Place. Feeling like I was seen, even though that book was not about or for me, it then became about and for me.
- [44:25]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right, right. That it very. Yes. I mean, one way I could describe each one of these. What is that? Eight. Eight books would be. I felt like this book was written. Was written for me. It was just exactly right for me.
- [44:39]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Exactly. Okay. My very first one that I knew was going on this list is all the Lonely People by Mike Gale, which a lot of people read after I talked about it, and some of them wanted to talk to me about the ending and give me their opinions about it.
- [44:56]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You weren't interested?
- [44:57]
Katie Cobb
No. Thank you. No, thank you, ma'am. Okay. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. Can't even look at that book. Like, I have to hold it far away from me and love it from afar if I don't want to cry. Castle of Water by Dane Hucklebridge. These are crying books right here at the top. But then we're going to get into Project Hail Mary. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. Babble by R.F. kuang. Oh, my God. I love that book.
- [45:21]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love that book, too, but I could totally hear criticism on it.
- [45:25]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Not me. I can't do it. I can't do it. You can go tell somebody else. Go tell Meredith why you don't like it. That's fine. I don't want to hear it.
- [45:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I'll just think that you're wrong or you missed, which is fine.
- [45:36]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, which is fine. And then Lobisona by Romina Garber, which is funny about that one, because that's part of a duology. And Casa Tora, the second one, I really liked. But you could tell me that you didn't like how that series ended, and that's totally fine with me. Lobizona. I don't want to hear it. So I also have sweeping stories. I have emotional resonance, and I do find a lot of stories that champion diversity. Something that doesn't have diversity in it isn't going to have that emotional resonance for me in the same way as books that do. So that was also eight books for me. Interesting. Great. Because we didn't coordinate that. We didn't discuss ahead of time how many we were going to talk about. But yeah. Yeah. I just, like, your opinions are wrong if you don't like those books. And that's why I don't want to hear them.
- [46:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. And for me, it's like, I just need to be like, I just. It's. I need to protect this very tender part of me about that book where I'm just like, I just need you to back up three steps, like, you know what I mean?
- [46:39]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [46:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's so. But it's that emotional resonance piece, I think has to be the through line. Right. And each one of those is emotionally resonant, very beautifully written, and then also has. It's got plenty of plot.
- [46:56]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [46:56]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You know, each of those. Each of mine have plenty of plot, which. And again, I think that that's a necessity for me. So this has been an interesting exercise to pull these quote, unquote, six star books. Again, thank you, Chiara, for giving us a way to describe them. I would be very interested to have our listeners do the same thing and really think about what are these that rise? Not just they're my five stars or my favorites of all time, but what are these ones that I kind of need to build a protective shield around because I can't. I can't hear you talk about them. I can't hear anything negative about them. I'd be very interested to see what those books are on people's lists and also what's the pattern within each person's reading? I think that's a useful thing for us to know about ourselves.
- [47:43]
Katie Cobb
I think so, too. And I will also add as, like, this little cherry on top that I almost put 10,000 doors of January on my list as well. That one has a special spot on this list because I did love it, and I desperately wanted people to read it. And then you read it and brought it to the show, Meredith. And I didn't realize until that second when you started talking about it that it was one of those books for me. And I was like, jesus, God, if she does not love this book, oh, no. Like, I have to sit here. I have to sit here and wait and figure out if she's gonna love this book. Like, I was. I was, like, sweating when you brought that book to the show because I was so worried. And it was that moment that clicked it into, like, oh, no, this is one of those special books. And I'm not gonna be able to handle it. I'm not gonna be able to handle it if Meredith is like, yeah, I read it, and it was garbage.
- [48:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I would have been so.
- [48:40]
Katie Cobb
I would have been so mad. I would've been like, we're gonna have to pause for the day. I'm gonna be back later.
- [48:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. So in that case. Right. That didn't happen because I loved it as much as you did. So. Has there. Do you have a memory? Has there ever been a time where that's happened where I've Had a dissenting opinion on a book that you felt really tender about.
- [49:00]
Katie Cobb
I can't think of one. I know we had the surprise deep dive many years ago where you were like, let's talk about what to do. You told me it was a surprise deep dive and it was actually talking about a book that you hated that your friend loved. And it was when you brought the bookish Life of Nina Hill to the show by Abby Waxman, which I did like that book. And also it's okay with me. Like, that one's not a six star book for me. So it wasn't a problem. That's the only time that I could think of where it was like a thing where we made it a thing, but I can't think of one where.
- [49:31]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It was like, what about when I read Chain Gang All Stars?
- [49:35]
Katie Cobb
Was that I also love that book. But I see, I can see objectively why people would not like it and I don't have a hard time feeling.
- [49:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right, right. And there was a lot that I did like about it, but. Yeah. Yeah. So I can see how that feels.
- [49:48]
Katie Cobb
Closer to that feeling was Song of Achilles. It's not a six star book for me. And it's partially because I had such a hard time starting it when I first read it, so it wasn't going to rise to that very tippy top for me. But I know there are people that have it on their six star list that when they listen to you talk about it, they were like, oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. And then it came up again later.
- [50:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, no, anytime. Yeah, anytime I have to talk about. I mean, so when I think we both do this, when I bring a book to the show, especially a book that I know falls into that category, just, you know, that people love, I really do. I'm, I really am very mindful of that. And I really, I want to take that into account when I talk about almost every bit. I think maybe once a season I will have a book that I, that I just completely ripped to shreds. But usually it's not anything that, you know, that I've heard people say, oh, this is like my heart, my favorite book of all time.
- [50:46]
Katie Cobb
Yeah.
- [50:47]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Because. Because it is. We all have these books, these like, tender, these very tender spots. And so, you know, we want to be mindful of that. But it's an interesting question. So thank you, Chiara, for giving us the words to talk about there. And, and Katie, to you for, you know, helping me figure out a little bit more for me, what's my pattern there It's a little.
- [51:07]
Katie Cobb
It's a little tender. And I love doing that too. Like listening to a stack and then saying, okay, okay, here's what I see. Here's. Yeah, here's the beautiful mind map of, like, the connections between these stories. So fun for me. Okay, let's go to the fountain and make some wishes, which is that nobody would ever criticize our six star books. The end. Duh.
- [51:29]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Or. Or that everyone would feel the same way that we do about our six. Right. Like, that would be even better if everyone felt the same way. Okay, so my wish at the fountain. I listened to a podcast episode this week that I just absolutely loved. This was on Sarah's Bookshelves Live. She did an episode recently with her kind of producer, COO who works with her, but had never been on the mic before, Chrissy Whitley. They did podcast episode number 188. It was a deep dive into fantasy because Chrissy reads a ton of fantasy, which is not something that historically Sarah has read a lot of. So they brought. They brought Chrissy on, and it was such a good discussion. You know, I really like fantasy. I've been reading more and more fantasy and sci fi each year, and it was just a fantastic episode. Chrissy is really, really good on the mic. She's very fun to listen to. She's got a great way with talking about books. She's sassy enough to, you know, to be very, very interesting to listen to. It's a great episode. And then I'm a Patreon supporter of their show. And so then they did their superlatives episode where Chrissy gave like another 10 or 12 fantasy recommendations in addition to the ones on the big show. So highly, highly recommend that episode, podcast episode 8,188 of Sarah's bookshelves Live. If you're interested in fantasy, you'll want to hear it.
- [52:52]
Katie Cobb
Also, if you're not listening to Sarah, to a person. Almost everybody that loves currently reading loves Sarah's bookshelves. So just get over there and start listening to Sarah, please.
- [53:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yep.
- [53:04]
Katie Cobb
Okay. My fountain wish. I feel like I've been very like on the surface lately, Meredith, but I'm staying there. I wish for a book aggregator that shows me all the covers of a book I love so I can pick the best one. So, yes, I'm curious how this is going to work. Okay. I've been stuck on pretty editions of books lately. I'm getting my joy where I can. This is what's making me happy right now. I recently finished a book I really Loved. And I will be bringing it to the show later. The US copy is phenomenal, so I'm not mad about it at all. But then I got to see the UK copy and it's really super great also. And I would love to be able to go to a single website like covercollector.com, which is available if anybody wants to take this and run with it and have it pull together the covers of a book with links to where I can buy that exact copy. Is it bookshop? Is it Blackwell's? Can I go to, like, ABE books and get the Canadian version? Where do I go to get that cover to portray my lovely book and the experience that I had with it? The same thing happened to me years ago. I was trying to get a pretty copy of Greenwood by Michael Christie. In fact, a friend and I both ordered a copy of the Canadian edition and they never showed up. Like we ordered them and sent our dollars into the Internet, which it's Canada, it's fine. Have my dollars, it's okay. But it took us forever to even figure out who was selling the one we wanted, which has tree rings sprayed edges on the side. And Greenwood is about trees over centuries. And it was just such a perfect copy. But it took us so long to figure it out because most of the time if you see the COVID of a book, you're not sure if it has the cool endpapers or the special sides. You're only see piece. I want it to be easier to spend my adult dollars, my own cash money, on the exact copy that I want. Even if I need to wait apparently three years to get it from Canada. Because I'm still waiting, man.
- [55:02]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I. Yes, I definitely hope that you get that someday when you.
- [55:06]
Katie Cobb
I actually reordered it this week when. When I was making this wish because I was like, you know what? I still want that copy. It's been all these years. I still want it. So I'm doing it again. We'll see what happens.
- [55:15]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Good. For sure. I think a cover aggregator would be so great. That would be so much fun. It could go really well with my book database idea.
- [55:26]
Katie Cobb
Yes. See, all of these things are useful. We need them. Make them happen. Internet AI your choice of all the.
- [55:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Different places where you want to buy the book and all the. I mean, yeah, that would be really, really cool.
- [55:39]
Katie Cobb
Yes. I love that.
- [55:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me. I'm Meredith at meredithmonday Shorts on Instagram.
- [55:50]
Katie Cobb
And you can find me Katie at Notes 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.
- [56:02]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
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 also on our website @currentlyreading podcast.
- [56:13]
Katie Cobb
You can also follow the show @currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us especially with your deep dive ideas@currentlyreading podcastmail.com do not criticize our favorite books.
- [56:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's right. And if you want more of this content, you want more bookish community or you just want to help keep the podcast commercial free, you can join us on Patreon for $5 a month. Become a bookish friend. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. All three of those things help us to find our perfect audience.
- [56:46]
Katie Cobb
Yes, Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [56:52]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, until next week, may your.
- [56:54]
Katie Cobb
Coffee be hot and your book be six stars.
- [56:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Happy reading Katie.
- [56:58]
Katie Cobb
Happy reading Meredith.