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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 7, Episode 40: Bookish Friends Step Up + Boss My TBR
00:55:59
On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: shifting our perspectives and bookish friends stepping up Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately ...
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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 our listeners, well, they know how to deep dive.
- [00:42]
Katie Cobb
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And sometimes past Katie is overly optimistic. This is episode number 40 of season seven, and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:53]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, man. Past. Past. Meredith is my best friend. She is. She is the key to my existence. And I'm. I'm hoping that past Katie does the same thing for you.
- [01:04]
Katie Cobb
She failed this week, but it's okay. Oh, no.
- [01:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, no. All right, well, we're gonna get into that, but before we do, we're gonna let you know that, yes, we are going to boss two people's tbrs this week. I know you guys love this segment and we are. We have two really good ones I think to do. But before that, we are going to get into our bookish moments of the week. Katie, tell us about past Katie.
- [01:27]
Katie Cobb
Oh, past Katie was so sweet. And she planned a reading retreat for me this weekend. It was supposed to be ending today, a few days away, solo, just me and the dogs. Planned many weeks in advance, blocked on the calendar and everything. But Meredith, life conspired in a big way against me this week with various high urgency, high importance things that came up just days before. Some. Some of them hours before I was supposed to be packing my car to drive up north.
- [01:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, no.
- [01:58]
Katie Cobb
They were impossible to ignore or push off. And the stress ate into all the joy of getting a bag out that I could put, you know, 12 books in. That was like, because you plan for three times as many books as you're actually going to read. And yeah, I just gave myself a different type of gift. I allowed myself time to work on the things that were high importance, high urgency. I took away the three and a half hours of driving that the actual retreat required and. And then scheduled a few solid blocks of reading time at home instead. The spirit of the weekend was the same in that I put away my phone, I added actual blocks of time to my calendar and just sat down with a paper book. But it is all that could work for me in this season. And we've discussed the principle of reader, know thyself. I knew that this reader was not going to be able to go away to a place with no Internet for the weekend and know that these things were hanging over my head and also accomplish anything that was like stress reducing reading time. So I made the diplomatic grown up decision that was right for me at the time. It worked out just fine. But I really wish that Past Katie had picked a different weekend.
- [03:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right. But Past Katie would have had to been psychic.
- [03:08]
Katie Cobb
Right.
- [03:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Like she couldn't see what was going to happen. I think that the real Past Katie, who's the winner here, is the Past Katie, who helped you make the pragmatic decision that was. Enabled you to still get some good reading in, but do it in a way that was going to be, you know, make you able to do the other things that you needed to be able to do. So I think Past Katie really did help you out. It was just this last week Katie, I'm.
- [03:33]
Katie Cobb
I'm still grateful to her. I'm grateful for all the work that Past Katie has done on herself in order to make these things happen.
- [03:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. Exactly. All right, well, my bookish moment of the week is just a little bit of an update. And just because I was so amazed, not last week, but the week before, talked about our deep dive segment and about how we'd kind of been. We want it to be fresh. We wanted to be a part of the show that everyone wants to listen to. But after seven years, we had, you know, we'd run the well a little bit dry. Well, holy Hannah, did our listeners come through? We got dozens and dozens of emails from all y' all letting us know how you felt about the deep dives, letting us know it would be okay with many of you if a couple episodes a week we did more current reads and skipped a deep dive. But we also heard so many fantastic ideas for deep dives. And so I just wanted to say that was my bookish moment of the week because I was just amazed at how many people would take time away from their surely very busy schedules to send us a note with an idea for our show, which I just thought was incredibly generous. So thank you, all of you, for taking that time. It was really, really. I'm really grateful for that.
- [04:53]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, I would guess that it was over 100 emails that we got because, my dear partner, you were away in Hawaii. So I moved them all over to our episode planning spreadsheet. And I was just. I just kept going and going and going. Yes, some were repeated, which is also good to know because that means a lot of people are interested in hear about that specific topic. So it was great.
- [05:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. Yes. Thank you for that, for doing that work, which I know was a heavy lift in and of itself, but yeah, I mean, it helped me continue to have that feeling of like, this isn't just our show, it's like the collective our show. Right?
- [05:30]
Katie Cobb
It is. It's currently reading for everyone.
- [05:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. Exactly. All right, let's get into our current reads. Katie, what's your first current read?
- [05:40]
Katie Cobb
All right, Meredith. My first read this week is a newest release from an all time favorite author, it's My Friends by Fredrik Backman. I'm excited to bring this one to the show. I actually have big feels about all my books this week.
- [05:56]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Well, I want you to know that last night, just last night, I was listening to someone talk about it and I was like, oh, I hope Katie brings this really, really soon because I couldn't wait to see what you were going to think about it.
- [06:08]
Katie Cobb
Perfect. I love that. So when I got the galley copy of this book, I squealed and jumped up and down. That's how I feel about Frederick Backman. He pretty much always delivers for me. I immediately sent it to my Kindle so that Katie and I could read it together, which someday we might have to talk about an updated what do we do for buddy reading. But one of the things that Katie and I do is I gave her an old Kindle that is still connected to my email address and NetGalley account. So when I get a galley, we can both read it because they're all on the same account, which is very fun.
- [06:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
That's very smart.
- [06:42]
Katie Cobb
Very smart. Yes. I felt, I felt brilliant when I came up with this idea. Here is the setup for my friends. Louisa is our main character. She is newly 18. She's an artist and has just lost her best friend. She's been raised in the foster care system. So now that her bestie is gone, she is unmoored, friendless, unsure where to go in life. And she knows no one will care what happens to her. Before running away for good, she steps into an art auction to see her favorite piece of art of all time. A painting of the sea and a tiny pier and a tinier depiction of a group of figures at the end of that pier laughing together. Most people just see the sea, but Luisa sees it all and she is determined to find out what it means. Who are those people? Where is that Pierce? In a strange sequence of events, Luisa ends up on a train with Ted, a quiet and bookish middle aged man who is locked in grief. He also happens to be one of the figures on that pier and was best friends with the artist who painted the painting 25 years ago. The teenagers in that image spent all their waking hours together. This book, my friends, tells the story of that long ago summer, but encapsulates it in a current day train ride across the country. And Fredrik Backman is Swedish, so it's the Swedish countryside. This is a story of growing up and the people that shaped us into who we are. It's not an elderly curmudgeon story. Ted is, I think, 39. He's middle aged. It's not like the ones that drew many of us to Fredrik Backman in the first place. It's also not like Anxious People, the 2019 standalone novel that preceded this one. It's not like the Beartown trilogy, about a small city and the hard the community has to walk through together. This new book is completely different. It's still the writing style that is easy and accessible and nearly poetic in tone that we've come to expect from Bachmann, but it's a window into the human experience, the friendships that make us who we are and the ones that break down our walls. It's about the people who would move mountains for their family, not the one that they were born into, but the people they chose to be alongside them. It's about jokes and swimming and farts and summer days. And it's about grief and heartbreak and crappy parents that you'd never want to see. Backman holds it all loosely in the palm of his hand, offering it out to his readers with a gentle pat on the back. He invites us into the story and accompanies us on a train ride. As with most of Backman's books, this one got me in the feels. I was so glad to read it with Katie so that we could share those emotions with each other and make our guesses about what was right and what was wrong and what was going to happen. And how did this story come to be the way that it was? It surprised and delighted both of us while always also being exactly what I hoped it would be. I loved it. I gave it five stars. This is My Friends by Fredrik Backman.
- [09:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, I'm so glad it was five stars. That makes me so happy. It's got a great setup too.
- [09:41]
Katie Cobb
It does? Yes. I love Like Louisa and Ted, and there's nothing I feel like, it's important to note that she's 18 and he's 39. There is zero untowardness in this middle aged man and this newly adult young woman riding together on the train. Nothing weird happens ever. That's not what Backman is doing here. So I want to, like, set that out at the top too.
- [10:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I think that's a really good clarification that'll really, I think, make people feel good about jumping into that.
- [10:09]
Katie Cobb
All right, definitely.
- [10:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
My first book is a literary thriller. I really, really liked this one. This is called Night Film by Marisha Pessl. So this book follows a disgraced investigative journalist, a guy named Scott McGrath, as he becomes obsessed with the apparent suic side of Ashley Cordova, who's the daughter of a reclusive cult horror film director named Stanislaus Cordova. So journalist McGrath doesn't buy that it is a suicide when Ashley died, that she died by suicide. And as he digs deeper, Scott is pulled into this dark, twisted world that surrounds the director, Stanislaus Cordova, and his very disturbing films. But these films have a serious cult following. So the novel came to me because of my love of mixed media. And it is peppered with fabricated articles, web pages, photographs that really make Stanislas Cordova's nightmarish world feel real. The investigation leads from underground S and M clubs to insane asylums, to Cordova's secluded estate. And the boundaries between psychological horror, black magic, question mark, and filmmaking begin to dissolve until none of us, including our lead character, knows what is actually real. All right, I read this one in my reading retreat, and I started it in print because, like I said, it's mixed media. And then I switched to reading it on my iPad, which I am convinced is the best way to read this book. The iPad specifically gives you the ability to pinch things up and zoom them, zoom in on them in a way that was really helpful with this particular book. There were various newspaper clippings or transcriptions or notes that you could find in the book. And those things are in color on the iPad in a way that they aren't in the print book. And this multimedia aspect to the book was really addictive because there's no question that a lot of this book is about puzzle solving and Easter egg finding. And those things are super fun for me. I got so many dms about this book when I showed it on my stack of books that I was taking to the reading retreat. And so many of them were gushing about how this book was absolutely incredible. They were saying that it was A singular experience. And I have to say that I agree with that. It is a singular experience. It's very long, and it takes a long time to read because it's the kind of book that you just can't go fast. Even though it has really short chapters, you really have to chew on them because they give you a. There's, like, a lot of information coming at you, but there's no question that about 60% in. I was really feeling the length. It just seemed to kind of go on and on. I was never bored, and I didn't want to stop. I wasn't questioning if I would dnf, but I definitely was having that. I've been reading this book for a long time now. Feeling like for a lot of hours I was laughing about it at the reading retreat, because I would go into my room and I would be set to read for two hours, and I would come out and only be 10% further. And all of my reading retreat friends were laughing at me because I was making such slow progress. This is very immersive, and the. The puzzle is really, really interesting. But I think that the one thing that surprised me was that it was fairly emotional by the end of it. There's. There's some elements of Found Family and some elements of the mystery itself that have a lot of very emotional components. And I think that that is what makes this book a singular experience. It's got a lot of questions about, like, what is real, is black magic real? What is actually happening with some of these characters? But it also is asking bigger questions, and these bigger emotional elements make it so much more resonant and memorable. It's definitely an experience to read this book. That's something that multiple people said to me in their messages, and I do find that to be absolutely true. I will be thinking about it or feeling some kind of residual ghosty feelings from this book for a long time. This is Night Film by Marisha Pessl.
- [14:25]
Katie Cobb
Okay. I don't know if I've ever heard it set up. I like. Of course I've heard of this book. It's been around, right? But I don't know if I've ever heard it set up. Gosh, I love mixed media, though.
- [14:37]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. And anytime you get into, like, a creative, an artist, a musician, a filmmaker who develops a cult following, like, people will do anything to immerse themselves in the world of the creator, to get closer to the creator and kind of everything that goes into art and how art and creativity is fueled. And is it fueled by substances Is it fueled by mental illness? Yes, yes. And not always. Not always. And you know, all of these things. It was a very immersive reading experience.
- [15:12]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, it sounds like it. Okay, my second book this week is nonfiction because apparently that's what we do now. Yep, Sometimes I am going to talk about the Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Non fiction book of the Episode I have so many things to say about this. I read the Anxious Generation in November of 2024, which means it's been nearly half a year and I have thought of it every single day since I read it. This is neither an easy book to read nor one that I think anyone should skip because it's too hard. We have entered a new era and we deserve to both understand it and do what we can to seek goodness and make it as productive and edifying as we can. Here's the setup. In this book, Jonathan Haidt explores the mental health collapse that we see in younger generations right now, in our current time, especially those that have had access to smartphones since middle school and teen years. So these are the kids that were born around the turn of the millennium that hit puberty in 2009 and later, this generation of kids grew up with access to the Internet constantly in their home. So you didn't even have to dial up anymore. You had like cable or DSL or whatever to keep it constantly accessible. They also had it constantly in their hands as the iPhone debuted in 2007 and quickly became ubiquitous. Not only do we have constant access to the Internet, but the rise of social media led to social capital being built and destroyed on a huge scale, much bigger than the size of a classroom. This is not the livejournal blogs of my college years based on text and a few low res images. Instead, likes and hearts became the only indicator of self worth and value for an entire generation of kids. And we see it in the nationwide and worldwide mental health surveys of children to adults conducted over many decades. There's a precipitous decline, like a hockey stick, in mental health status for the younger generations that coincides almost exactly with the start of the 2010s. Now, much of this could feel like causal coincidence rather than actual causality. And I was sent a single podcast episode multiple times questioning the validity of this book by other people when I first mentioned it in passing on the show. But I listened to that episode and it doesn't change the fact that we as consumers of the Internet ourselves can see the actual effects of this change playing out in real time. We see it, we are hanging out with these kids, right? We also see people radicalizing. We know firsthand about friends and relatives that see news feeds filtered to reinforce and deepen existing viewpoints. And we see the people around us, probably even ourselves, who can't make it through a dinner out with a loved one without picking up our phones to check something and get a little hit of dopamine. Height takes the time to couple this societal change of Internet social media constant access with another one, especially for kids. The decades long shift away from play based childhoods, unlike the middle and high school years that we and generations before us experienced. Many parents and caregivers, especially as cable news became more robust, pulled their children inside. This led to less time developing person to person connections and social skills and more time interacting online since that felt safer compared to kidnapping and serial killers. But is the Internet safe? And more importantly, is that where we develop social skills? All those factors together may have led to the anxiety spirals and mental health crises that height details in the pages of his books. I was floored. I was enraged. I was intrigued and horrified. It felt like a car crash that not only could I not look away from, but one that I was actively partaking in. Heights spends a significant chunk of the book, three solid chapters, talking about ways to push against this change on a personal level, a community level and a nationwide level. It does take all of us making small changes and decisions and advocating for larger ones. Whether you have kids of your own, teach kids in a school setting, or have a smartphone of your own. Yes, that includes all of you. All of us right now. I believe this book, paired with another I will bring soon is essential reading and I would love to discuss it with you even if you disagree with me and you think no, he definitely like jumped to conclusions here or this connection doesn't make sense. I cannot stop thinking about it. I talk about it and think about it every single day. This one is a keeper, even though it also made me want to upchuck. It is the Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
- [19:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
This is one that I have heard so much about, you know, in both directions. I've heard so many people say they loved it, so many people say they're enraged by it. It's, you know, it's important is what it is for sure.
- [20:10]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Yeah.
- [20:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay. All right. Well, my second book is usually like yours of late. Been a nonfiction pick this week. I decided I was going to slot in another Agatha Christie because I continue my journey to become an Agatha Christie completist. So this one is called the Big Four by Agatha Christie. Here's the setup. Hercule Perrault, that man of my dreams, is quietly contemplating retirement when chaos literally crashes through his door. A dust covered stranger comes in, collapses and scrawls the number four repeatedly before dying. And just like that, Perrault is thrust into what is definitely the most dangerous case of his career. He finds himself hunting a shadowy international crime syndicate known as the Big Four. A quartet of criminal masterminds consisting of a Chinese political genius, an American millionaire, a French woman of mystery, and the faceless figure known only as the Destroyer. I love this setup so much because it's so different, right? This is so different. So there are several things about this book that make it an outlier. And it was published in 1926, first of all, so that gives you a little bit of a sense of why, for example, one of the four was an American millionaire, not an American billionaire, because a millionaire in 1926 was big stuff. So certainly we expect to find Hercule at a manor house or on vacation or some beautiful resort town. And he usually is solving a murder. Here we have something completely different. This, in fact, is not what I would classify as a mystery novel. It is a global spy novel. And it is memorable, certainly for several reasons. Most especially because you don't expect to read an Agatha Christie novel that involves laser beams and exploding mountain layers. I sh you not.
- [22:20]
Katie Cobb
It's like Despicable me Totally.
- [22:22]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
It's 100% or Austin Powers.
- [22:27]
Katie Cobb
Right?
- [22:28]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
But you find that in this novel and so much more. This book is so much of an outlier that I decided I had to go look up its genesis in my new reference book, which is called Perot. And I'm so glad that I did because it put a ton of things into place in my mind. It turns out that 1926 was the year that Agatha did her big disappearing. She found out that her husband was cheating and she disappeared for 11 days. And when she came back, she never talked about where she'd gone or why she'd gone. But there's no question that when she came back she definitely had a book that needed to be delivered to her publisher that hadn't changed. It was actually her brother in law who had the idea to put together into a novel, a serialized 12 part story that she had written a few years before. And this explains several things about the Big Four. It explains why it's such a departure from her other novels. First, it explains why there are several places where Hercule does a couple of things back to back in A really repetitive way that don't make a lot of sense since. And it also explains why some of the dialogue is both clunky and repetitive. There were several times as I was listening to it that I looked at my phone and I was like, did I just hear that? And I would go backwards a little bit, and I was like. I was just. It was odd in several ways, but it's not bad. It's only a few hours long, like maybe under three hours listening at one and a half speed. And its audio production is narrated by the wonderful Hugh Fraser. So I didn't have a bad time with this. There was lots of intrigue, hilarious back and forth between Hercule and his ever bubbling, bumbling companion, Hastings, and also several things that you don't ever see in Agatha Christie novels, including Kidnapping at Gunpoint and People who Are Masters of Disguise. Agatha herself is famous for having said that. This book and the one that followed it the following year, the Mystery of the Blue Train, were her two least favorite novels of her own. But we can all understand that, right? We've all been there. Not in a good headspace, but having work. Need you to do something. This is what we find here. But I'm bound and determined to read everything that she wrote about Hercule at least. And I'm really glad that I read this one. This is the Big Four by Agatha Christie.
- [24:53]
Katie Cobb
Okay, here's a question. If it was originally written as a serial novelization, and that's why there's sometimes that repetition, do you wish that you could have read it that way? Like an advent read along, where you got to read, you know, one a day, and it kind of felt like. Previously on the Big Four.
- [25:13]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I mean, either. I think that would be really fun. I would love to read it in that way. Or also, I just thought, did they really just not have time to do a better edit?
- [25:22]
Katie Cobb
Just edit.
- [25:24]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
But apparently it was 1926. There was a lot about the world that was, you know, happening. So this probably wasn't top on everyone's list. They just needed to get that sucker out, and that's what they did. But I'm glad I read it because it is such an outlier. And to be a completist, you've got to read all the good stuff. All the. All the stuff, not just the good stuff.
- [25:45]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right, well, I like it. Another checkbox. Exactly. The spreadsheet.
- [25:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. And I. I love doing that on my spreadsheet.
- [25:56]
Katie Cobb
So fun. Okay, Meredith. My third book this week is called Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa. This is one of very few times, actually, I don't. I don't know if I have done this. I know you have done this, but very few times in the history of the show that I finished a book, bumped a current read so that I could talk about it immediately.
- [26:17]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I've only done that a few, yeah, handful of times.
- [26:19]
Katie Cobb
Two or three maybe, and I don't know if I've done it. But I cannot, I cannot, cannot wait to tell you all about this book, most ardently is, as stated on the COVID a Pride and Prejudice remix. I have not shied away from P and P retellings in the past, and I even list Pride by Ibi Zoboi as one of my favorite books of all time. Well, this one may have catapulted to the top spot in the list of my favorite retellings. Here's the In 1812 London, Oliver Bennet feels trapped. He is the only son of the Bennet family, but they don't know it yet. So he's trapped by the fact that he's forced to wear corsets and petticoats and feign an interest in the womanly arts. And he's doubly trapped by the fact that his conniving mother is insistent that all her girls, all her daughters, need to get married. But Oliver is no one's wife. He's not even a woman. That doesn't seem to matter to Mrs. Bennet, who sets up her daughters for balls and sends them to neighboring estates and makes sure that they're taking walks in the rain and tightens their corsets herself. Oliver's only reprieve is that one sister knows his true self and his true name, and that a nearby friend allows him to sneak out of his window, down the trellis to her home, where he can change into the clothes that reflect his true self and explore London on his terms. That's how he meets Darcy, who he had met before when Darcy was exceptionally rude To Elizabeth, Oliver's given name @ a ball. But when they are outside the social norms of ballrooms and dance cards, it turns out that this sulky and standoffish, gruff Darcy is actually sweet and charming and sexy, as Mrs. Bennet grows more anxious to marry her daughters off to anyone who will have them. At this point, Oliver has to choose between settling for security in a life he hates or embracing his true self in a life that's scary but his own. Yes, my friends, this is a trans Pride and Prejudice remix, and when I tell You. I have read this book so many times. Pride and Prejudice. I know this book like the back of my hand. Like Gonzo in the Muppet Christmas Carol. I could tell you every beat of the story. I've read so many retellings. But I sobbed like a beautiful baby while reading this one. And that means you should know how profoundly it affected me and how ardently I liked and adored it. Oliver's story is difficult to read if you are familiar with the practice of dead naming. Especially this author is trans and does address that portion of this book right at the top of the story. He also has a fantastic author's note at the end of the book that talks about the historical elements of this tale. Is it possible there were trans people in Regency England? Is that a thing? He does address that and how he decided to make this story come to life on the page. When I tell you that I left multiple voice memos for the friend that pressed it into my hands, I cannot. And then I finished, and I called my sister and cried joyful tears of sisterly solidarity and told her she absolutely must read it immediately or else I would TP her house. This book will definitely be on my favorites of the year list. I ordered a hard copy as soon as I finished the audio so that it could go on my forever shelves. As soon as it arrives on my doorstep, I will hug it. I loved it most ardently. This is most ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa.
- [29:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, I'm so glad that that was so wonderful for you. It certainly. It has to be really good for you to like it that much, because you really do know Pride and Prejudice so well.
- [29:58]
Katie Cobb
I have read a lot of P and Peace. Like, I just. I love that story, Enemies to Lovers. I mean, that's probably my other origin story for Enemies to Lovers. It's Anne and Gilbert, and it's Elizabeth and Darcy.
- [30:10]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I mean, I feel like that is one of. You know, obviously there are earlier Shakespeare, but Enemies to Lovers very, very much getting its start in Pride and Prejudice.
- [30:21]
Katie Cobb
Definitely. And I just. I feel like Gabe did such a great job, like, paying tribute to Jane Austen while also making the story completely his own and seeing himself reflected on the pages, which made me very happy.
- [30:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, I love it so, so much. Well, interestingly, Katie, you have read a lot of Pride and Prejudice retellings. I have read a lot of Beauty and the Beast retellings.
- [30:47]
Katie Cobb
Okay. Yes.
- [30:48]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Because everyone knows I have a beast kink. Right. So I read one that I really, really loved. This is romance. This is not Beast Kink. This is just regular romance. Nobody's. Nobody's a monster in this book. It's all humans.
- [31:00]
Katie Cobb
Okay, got it. No extra furry people.
- [31:02]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. Exactly. But this is called the Beast and the Bookseller by Eva Devon. All right, here's the setup. The Beast and the Bookseller is that perfect blend of, like, bookish delight and swoony romance. This Beauty and the Beast retelling introduces us to lead character Elizabeth Sharp, who's a spicy, super intelligent redhead who has been tasked with delivering books because her dad owns a bookshop.
- [31:32]
Katie Cobb
Right?
- [31:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And so she's tasked with delivering books to the notorious Duke of Montrose, who's a reclusive nobleman that London society refers to as the Gargoyle. I won't tell you why. When Elizabeth comes face to face with Garrett Maximilian, she realizes that he's not the monster of Rumor, but a brooding, very well read man whose sharp literary critiques fascinate rather than terrify her. What begins as this kind of tenuous business arrangement quickly evolves as these two bookworms bond over their shared love of literature. But of course, all can't be totally well. Elizabeth's life becomes complicated when her father's struggles. He's got several struggles. Threaten their family's beloved bookshop, and she discovers that the Duke might be her only salvation. Oh, I just want to quiet clap.
- [32:28]
Katie Cobb
She is quiet clapping.
- [32:29]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love this book so much. This was a delightful confection. It was recommended to our bookish friends group for our patron subscribers by our podcast producer, Megan. Megan is actually a really good source of romance recommendations for me because we like very similar books in the genre. And this is exactly what I like. I am nothing if not predictable in my choice in romance. I like a very grumpy, buttoned up, gruff, but gorgeous male main character, which is what we have here in Garrett, our Duke. And I love a smart, headstrong, sassy lead female character, which is exactly what we have in Bookseller Elizabeth. Who else does that sound like? And it's that bookseller part that really made me go from liking to loving this particular novel. I love the fact that this book is so very bookish. Both our lead characters love to read, and they both find respite from the hard parts of their lives and their histories through their love of reading. But they've been doing it independently, they've been doing it on their own. I love that their romantic story takes place and they bond over Pride and Prejudice. I know. It's all a whole thing we've got going. And both of our Main characters bonded over their difficult relationships with their fathers, which is also a trope that I am drawn to. It's all very sweet and it's all very fraught. It's all very cliched and predictable, and I don't care. Every 20 books or so, I need to read something short and frothy just like this. I absolutely loved it. And would you believe, at one point, I even had tears running down my face because of something that our poor Duke had to go through as a boy. Literal tears running down my face. I hate an embattled young boy. I was about to say that it's silly how much I like this book, but it's not. It's totally fine, if not great, to know the exact kind of books that you need when you're in a certain mood. Reader, know thyself. And for this reader, this kind of book has a place of perfection in my bookish life. I will say that it's probably only a two and a half on the spice scale. There are only two spicy scenes, and neither one of those is very over the top. But they are satisfying. Satisfying in all the ways that I love in this kind of book. I don't want it to be all about that particular scene. That's not my jam. And this book was perfect in that way. I will be adding Eva Devin to my list of go to romance writers, right along with Tessa Dare and Mimi Matthews. This is the Beast and the Bookseller by Eva Devon.
- [35:10]
Katie Cobb
So fun. I actually just read another Tessa Dare and the characters from the Duchess deal show up in it. Yeah.
- [35:18]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [35:18]
Katie Cobb
It made me so happy.
- [35:20]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love how they look.
- [35:21]
Katie Cobb
There they are. They're friends.
- [35:22]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. There's like four of them, and each one of them get their own story, but then they show up in everyone else's story. I know. It's super fun.
- [35:28]
Katie Cobb
It's so cute. Oh, I love a Beauty and the Beast retelling.
- [35:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I do. Thank you, Megan.
- [35:33]
Katie Cobb
I mean, this is not a Lego podcast, as we know, but I did buy the Lego Beauty and the Beast castle, of course. And just like the Disney version, the Beast is required to stay a beast because his human form is bleh and not interesting, but the beast form is perfect.
- [35:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Love me and be.
- [35:51]
Katie Cobb
Give me a growly hero. And I'm in.
- [35:54]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, my gosh. Totally, totally, totally, totally. I always say that my husband is like the human form. Like, he definitely has a beast form. He's like, exactly that kind of guy. He's like, yes. Gruff, muscly, you know, not always. Nice. But he only likes me. It's my favorite thing about.
- [36:12]
Katie Cobb
Yes, yes.
- [36:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. Anyway. Anyway. We're acting like we're 12 year olds. Geez.
- [36:20]
Katie Cobb
But it's fun. It's all bookish. I'm getting a little sweaty, too. Why are you.
- [36:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You know what? It's because I started talking about Johnny and now I'm. Okay, stop.
- [36:31]
Katie Cobb
See? And I started talking about growling men.
- [36:33]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, here we go. We are professionals. Here we go. We are going to boss.
- [36:38]
Katie Cobb
No clapping this time.
- [36:40]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
No, I'm going to leave it off for now. We are going to boss some TBRs, though, because we are professionals. And as you guys know, this is where we have people from our Discord community or from our Facebook community. Tell us their. Well, they told us you had them give us a few things. Katie, this time you added a few additional things. Tell. Tell the people what you asked for.
- [37:01]
Katie Cobb
Yes, I like to switch it up a little bit instead of being like, it's boss my TBR time again. Tell us five on your tbr. So last time I asked them to give us, like, if you were on a readerly dating site, what would your profile, like, tagline be? This time I said, put in a gif. Gif. Nobody ever knows. That shows what your reading life feels like right now. And then tell us your most recent five star read and then give us your five on your tbr. So I did take time to, in English, write down a description of each of the gifts that were put in these two comments so that everybody can feel like they were part of the conversation.
- [37:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, excellent. Well, and I feel like people did a wonderful job. We had a lot of people respond to us.
- [37:45]
Katie Cobb
We did, yes.
- [37:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Which we're always so, so grateful for. So let's see. Katie, do you want to do the one that you chose? Do you want to introduce that?
- [37:54]
Katie Cobb
I do. Especially because I'm just going to pretend I know what this person was intending with their username. On Discord, I'm going to say that her name is Dactyl jd. Okay, so maybe she's a lawyer. We're not sure.
- [38:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay.
- [38:07]
Katie Cobb
Her GIF shows someone with eggs on a counter in front of them. And the GIF says, I've organized my eggs in order of size, smallest to largest. Here's what her comment is. Most recent five star read was Broken Country. I tend to be a bit OCD about what's on my tbr, so I have trouble breaking away from the alphabetized shelves to read something that fits my mood.
- [38:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Can we take a break? Can we Just take a. Take a beat. Okay, first of all, two things. How many people said their most recent five star readers broken country?
- [38:39]
Katie Cobb
A lot. Probably 10 to 15. I would say a lot. A lot for sure of 150. So like 10% maybe, right? A lot.
- [38:47]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Secondly, she says I tend to be a bit OCD about what's on my tbr, so I have trouble breaking away from the alphabetized shelves to read something that fits my mood. Do you think that means that she has all of her books alphabetized and she is just altogether going one? And not only. Not only are they alphabetized on her shelves, but she's just. Do you. Do you think that might be. And I'm not saying this as a bad thing. I'm saying this as a point of awestruckness, if that is what is happening. Dactyl. Jd, we need to speak with you because that is awesome.
- [39:25]
Katie Cobb
Yeah, we'd like to have a conversation about that. I do have a further observation about this list with regards to Alphabet. Alphabetization. Is that the right word? Yeah, alphabetization. Okay, here's what she says. My five tbr. One, the word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. Two Small Things like these by Claire Keegan. Three, Real Americans by Rachel Kong. Four, Belle Green by Alexandre Lapierre. And five, the Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Of note, those are in alphabetical order by author, last name. I went and checked because of this whole conversation at the beginning of this comment.
- [40:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. Well, I mean, I think at this point we expect nothing less from Doctoral Jean.
- [40:11]
Katie Cobb
Right. Yeah. If they weren't, I would have been like, how did she do this?
- [40:15]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Right.
- [40:15]
Katie Cobb
Did she, like, where did she come up with this list? She continues with. The world is so stressful right now. I'm really struggling to find something that will reel me in and entertain me. So there's. There's so much to unpack.
- [40:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah.
- [40:27]
Katie Cobb
In this comment. And with these eggs that are sorted from smallest to largest.
- [40:32]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes, yes. I mean it. Right. So our goal is to take the five that they've given us, narrow it down to three, and then give them an order in which we think they should be read. So my. Do you want me to give you my order?
- [40:47]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Let's hear. What have you got?
- [40:49]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right. So I thought she could start out with Small Things like these by Claire Keegan to get a quick win. Right. It's a novella.
- [40:56]
Katie Cobb
It's 128 pages.
- [40:57]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And as far as I know, everyone who I've ever heard read anything by Claire Keegan, I actually haven't read her is a rave. Like I'm not sure I've ever heard someone say anything other than raving words about. So I think small things like these is going to be a quick win. Then I would say go to the word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. You know, this has to be on my short list because of my love for Anthony Horowitz. And this is the first in his Hawthorne and Horowitz series and it is the best in that series. It's a five star read for me. Not all of the books in that series are. But this one really is. They are just crackalackin these two in this, in this book. It's so much fun. It's so meta, it's interesting. It's like nothing you've ever read before. So I would go to that and then I would finish up with the Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I love me some Kate Morton. And the Forgotten Garden is my favorite favorite one. It's long, it's sprawling, but it reads really quickly. And it's just very romantic and historical and full circle and I just love it. So that would be my choice for.
- [42:05]
Katie Cobb
Dactyl JD this is so interesting, Meredith, because usually it's like, okay, we're really close, but I have a little difference here. I didn't choose any of those things.
- [42:14]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Interesting. Great.
- [42:16]
Katie Cobb
Partially because I loved small things like these. I have read that one. It is super wintry and immediate. TBR in May I was like, girl, what? You can't read that right now. You gotta read that in December. It's a good point. I realized she doesn't read by mood, so why would she ever read it in December? But that's when it demands to be read in December. It's basically a Christmas book.
- [42:36]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Good thing to know.
- [42:38]
Katie Cobb
So I started with the word is murder. This we agree on. I love that. For a series starter, I think it pulls exactly to what Dactyl JD said they wanted. Reel me in and entertain me. I think it's perfect for that. I went next to Belle Greene, which is historical. It's 481 pages. This was an indie press list pick.
- [43:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
And it's a great book.
- [43:01]
Katie Cobb
A couple months ago. It's a great book. It is very tightly based on the historical record and also super interesting. Pulls you in right away. So it doesn't feel like 481 pages. I think it's a good one for Dactyl JD and then I decided to end with Real Americans. This is actually my wild card pick here. This is a Big emotions and ideas book. I think it's gonna lean closer to Broken country, which I have not read, but I would categorize as literary and devastating. And I think that Rachel Kong also has some of those same vibes. So it's not necessarily what Dactyl said they wanted in their reading, but it is hearkening back to their most recent five star read, Spaced. Far enough away with these other books in the meantime that I think it will stand on its own. So basically we've said that you should read all five.
- [43:55]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. You have a lot to think about, Dactyl. J.D. what do you stand for and what will you fall for? Those are the questions I have about your. Your decision. It's this, you know, it's a lot of. A lot of good opportunities here with these books.
- [44:10]
Katie Cobb
For sure. You froze again for me, so I don't know what you were saying right there, but I believe you.
- [44:15]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Okay, excellent. All right, our next volunteer is our bookish friend, Terry Melton. We love Terry. Terry says I went through a heavy romance period, but now I'm really liking something different and unique that holds my attention during a crazy time at work. I'm going all IPL and depressed list since I'm trying to get through my owned tbr. My last five stars were Hyde and the Tainted Cup.
- [44:45]
Katie Cobb
Also ipl.
- [44:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. Yes. My upcoming choices are Falling by TJ Newman from back in the day OG ipl. Maybe the first ever ipl.
- [44:58]
Katie Cobb
I think it was on the very.
- [44:59]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
First list from Elizabeth at Fabled Fang Fiction by Kate Stamen London, Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lilly. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monakeel Black Goose and A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. fletcher. All right, Katie, what did you choose for Terry?
- [45:19]
Katie Cobb
Okay, first, Terry's GIF was Pippi Long Stocking. Stocking. Opening a cupboard and a deluge of clothing and items comes out and flattens her on the ground.
- [45:30]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it.
- [45:31]
Katie Cobb
Which I was like, if that's not everybody's tbr, what are we even doing? I'm currently reading the toppling tbr. It's our whole vibe here. Okay. So I just like banged these out. I have read all five of these. I love an IPL book. They get me all the time. So I have read all five of these and I loved all of them. However, I was trying for different and unique, which is what Terri said she wants right now. So I started with To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Monique Black Goose. I loved this YA dragon indigenous storyline. Absolutely Adored it. And it's like upper East Coast, I want to say maybe Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, like up in that very northern Atlantic US Area. But next I went with Falling by TJ Newman because Terri said she has been doing kind of frothy romance and falling is not even remotely close to that. It is heart pounding, propulsive, so easy to get into and just bang it out, which is also like romance but in a different way. And you just like. It's so easy to get pulled into. Definitely unique from her previous reads. And then I went with Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lilly. This also has an indigenous storyline which I did not intend to do. But this is a really great mystery and different from the other ones on this list. Still very propulsive. I liked it it a lot. So that's what I went with. What did you choose?
- [47:04]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
So we had a lot more overlap in our choices. So I also went with To Shape a Dragon's Breath first for a lot of the same reasons and then falling for the exact next reason. And then I closed it out with A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. That is one of my favorite IPL choices because it was so different and it was so unexpected. It's dystopian, but it is emotionally resonant. It is incredibly well written. I really, really love that book. Johnny read it. He really loved that book. And Blood Sisters, I love Vanessa Lilly. I did like that book, but I feel like that it felt like it was a real slow burn for me. So for that reason I was wanting to keep things, you know, really page turning. So that's why I went with Boy and this Dog at the End of the World. I think that's actually a really undiscovered favorite. So those were my three for Terry. But good choices. Good choices from Terry, good choices from Dactyl. JD These are, you know, it's an embarrassment of riches what you guys have to pull from.
- [48:04]
Katie Cobb
Seriously. Just 10 books that just y' all should read. All y' all.
- [48:08]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Exactly. Everyone. And let us know, as always, we love it when the people who are our volunteers, our tributes, if you will, for bossing the tbr, when you let us know what you actually read or didn't read or how it went for.
- [48:25]
Katie Cobb
You and if it was a hit.
- [48:26]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
If it was a hit, we love it.
- [48:27]
Katie Cobb
Or if we made any incorrect assumptions about you as a reader because we love knowing that too. Like, how accurately did we read you from this very short paragraph that you gave us? Yes, that is interesting to me as well.
- [48:39]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Let us know for sure. All right.
- [48:41]
Katie Cobb
Also, Dactyl JD just. Just needs to get in touch because we have questions. We.
- [48:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I feel like. I feel like whoever they are, they need to be a guest on the show just so we can just.
- [48:50]
Katie Cobb
I think we should do it.
- [48:51]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Just ask 50 questions.
- [48:53]
Katie Cobb
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
- [48:55]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We also need pictures of the shelves. Like, I feel like there's a lot that Doctal JD owes to us.
- [49:00]
Katie Cobb
Okay.
- [49:01]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, so let's finish this out by going to the fountain. Katie, what's your fountain wish this week?
- [49:09]
Katie Cobb
Okay. It's a. It's a little woo woo. It's a little fun this week. I wish that we would be open to trying new things. I said woo. Wooing fun. Bear with me. Okay. I have found, and many of us have found, that allowing ourselves to try something new can surprise us into something memorable and delightful. It doesn't always work that way, but oftentimes when we allow ourselves to step outside of our comfort zones, we find something that grows us or brings us joy. To that end, I am just about to finish my second round of belly dancing classes at my local community center. This is a new thing.
- [49:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it. I love it. It's adventurous, it's exciting, it's an adventure.
- [49:48]
Katie Cobb
It does not make me feel competent. It does not make me feel like it is. Ways I have never moved my body Trying to isolate joints that I have never tried to move by themselves. I decided to sign up for these classes a few months back as it was something I could do regularly on Wednesday nights when my kids have dinner with their dad. I would never call myself a dancer. I had taken a small handful of ballroom dances about 20 years ago, pre wedding and otherwise have never done any formal dance training. But I wanted something to move my body, something to get me out of the house, and something that was an interesting challenge. And it is. So I want to apply this same principle to our reading lives, that we would allow ourselves to reach beyond what feels comfortable or like business as usual. It would have been really easy for me to just leave that time free. Wednesday nights you have free time, right? I could sit at home and read in a quiet house and I do that still before class. But that's not what grew me through this past season of my life. Instead, it's been trying new things and celebrating small victories like I didn't know my hip could do that. And I am better for it. So that is my wish this week. Ping. Splash.
- [50:58]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
I love it. I love it. And once again, we find a way for what you're talking about to blend seamlessly with what I was going to be talking about, which is that here's something that, Katie, you did not know, something that nobody knows that I did. Recently, purely for fun and out of interest and with a sense of great adventure, I did a past life regression appointment.
- [51:20]
Katie Cobb
Oh, okay.
- [51:23]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Anyone who knows me knows that that's part of what I kind of believe. I've always believed that I've lived past lives. So very fascinating, very worth doing. It's got me thinking about a book that we haven't talked about in a long time. And this book lives rent free in my head. It is a book called Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poor.
- [51:42]
Katie Cobb
Gosh, I love this book.
- [51:44]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah, I read it forever ago. I read it years and years ago. I brought it to the show many years ago. But the setup is, in our story, every human being gets 10,000 chances, 10,000 lives to get it right, to answer all the big questions and achieve wisdom and become one with everything. Well, our lead character, milo, has had 9,995 chances so far. So he has just five more lives to earn a place in the cosmic soul. If he doesn't make the cut, oblivion awaits. But all Milo really wants is to be with his one true love, Susie, who is actually death, which makes sense in the book. They get together in between all of his lives, and that is really what he's living for. All he wants is to be done with all of it and settle into a life with her. But Reincarnation Blues is more than just a great love story. It is that, but it's more. Every life that Milo lives is a different story that we get to walk with him. A new chance for him to figure out how to get life right. I really loved the beginning of this book. Like, I was seriously thinking thoughts I hadn't ever thought before. It gave me that kind of like, fizzy, carbonated feeling that I loved. I love the way that the story was like, really reading a bunch of different books all in one. It was super cinematic. The second half slows down, gets a little bit weird, and the ending, I think, brings it all together. But it is the elements, especially in the first half, first two thirds of the book that are so inventive and absolutely worth the time. This is a book, like I said, that I think I read four years ago, and I think about it almost on the daily. It is one of my absolute favorites. It is Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poor, and my wish is that it'll get some. Some love from Some of y' all who haven't read it yet, it's really, really worth your time. Ping. Splash.
- [53:48]
Katie Cobb
That's a great wish. Cosine.
- [53:50]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yes. That's such a good one. 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.
- [54:00]
Katie Cobb
And sometimes you can find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans. And you can find her on Instagram ostofmeagan's Reads.
- [54:11]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Yeah. And follow her for great book recommendations, too. Full show notes 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@currentlyreadingpodcast.com you can.
- [54:26]
Katie Cobb
Also follow the show for more fun and bookish delight at CurrentlyReading podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com and if.
- [54:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
You like this, you can get so much more. If you become a patron subscriber for $5 a month, you get a ton more content, you get a ton of bookish community, and you keep this 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.
- [54:57]
Katie Cobb
Yes, bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [55:03]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
All right, until next week, may your.
- [55:05]
Katie Cobb
Coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [55:07]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Happy reading, Katie.
- [55:09]
Katie Cobb
Happy reading, Meredith.
- [55:16]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Hey, readers, welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the things that we've read recently. Nope.
- [55:26]
Katie Cobb
Things.
- [55:27]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Things. Just.
- [55:28]
Katie Cobb
Just things.
- [55:28]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Who knows what we've been reading?
- [55:29]
Katie Cobb
Magazines and. Who knows? Here we go. Flight information manuals, I assume, right?
- [55:35]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Clearly. Clearly. Backs of suntan bottles.
- [55:38]
Katie Cobb
Yep, yep. Menus at the swim up bar.
- [55:41]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Oh, yeah. No, I didn't even need a menu. After a while it was just like.
- [55:45]
Katie Cobb
Just bring it on.
- [55:46]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
Skinny pina and some nachos, Barb. That's what I mean.
- [55:50]
Katie Cobb
Barb. Is that her name or did you give her that name?
- [55:55]
Meredith Monday Schwartz
We gave her that name. Okay, here we go.