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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 8, Episode 13: Reading Too Much + Ranking Our #1 Reads In Years Past
00:56:50
On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: 3D bookish printing and reading too many books at once Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep...
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:11]
B
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.
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A
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.
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B
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And sometimes I read too many books at a time.
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A
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And I'm always trying to squeeze in more reading time. This is episode number 13 of season eight, and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:55]
B
We kind of have the same general theme going on. Trying to read too much.
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A
Yes. All the time. Indeed.
- [01:04]
B
All right, so we will tell you right here at the top of the show that we are going to talk today. We're going to do something we have never done before. And it was so hard. I'm going to suggest we never do it again.
- [01:16]
A
Well, we'd have to wait another six years.
- [01:18]
B
Six years. We took our top book of the year for each of us for the LA from 2019 to 2024 and made a list and then said, you gotta pick your favorite of that list. And this was hard.
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A
It was so hard. Like, we're gonna talk about this later. But it was very hard.
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B
Yeah, normally people quibble over this stuff and I'm like, come on, just pick your top 10 of the year. Stop being a baby. This was like killing children. Like, it really did, right? Like, this was really. This was rough. Okay, well, we're gonna get to that. I don't know what Katie's are. She doesn't know what mine are. We're gonna get to that later on. But first we're gonna start the way we always do with our bookish moments of the week. Katie, what is yours?
- [02:02]
A
All right, Meredith. My kiddos this week used our 3D printer. They discovered a new print file and they were like, mommy, we cannot wait. We're gonna make you this thing. So they printed me a book holder so it prints totally flat. It's like one solid piece of plastic, but then it has all these hinges and stuff built into it when it. So it folds up and it turns into like an easel and it has little legs that come forward and can hold the pages of the book. So I used to have a cookbook holder in my kitchen, and it would use a piece of glass in the front to, like, keep the book open. This you can use with any book. And it's not for splattering, right? Like, the reason there was glass on the cookbook holder was to keep it from, you know, pasta sauce getting on your pretty cookbooks or whatever. But it allows me to set up my current read while I'm cooking, maybe while I'm crocheting, while I'm doing something with my hands. It could even be, like, sitting and eating breakfast. You know how sometimes, like, especially with a hardcover, it's hard to get it to stay. I will, like, put my Kindle on top of my book. I will put my phone on top of my book.
- [03:08]
B
The book bone, right?
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A
Or the book bone. Where is my book bone? No idea. But now I have a new thing, and they printed it in purple because it's my favorite, and it can fold all the way flat. So I can even, like, slide it into my bookshelf. And it is stored properly and beautifully, and I won't lose it. Like, apparently, I've done with my book bone. I'm pretty sure I can find that. But it's just this fun little. And they, you know, they're just sweet kids. So they were like, ooh, we have an idea. We want to make you this thing. And they got so excited, and it's just a delight. So that's my bookish moment.
- [03:40]
B
That is delightful. I have a lot of questions, which we won't go over now, but I have a lot of questions about the 3D printing and, like, how you just, like, find a print file or decide on a color Again, we don't need to get into this right now.
- [03:54]
A
I can do a little video about it on Instagram, at least, showing how this book holder works, because that's really. That's the bookish moment. The 3D printer is just cool.
- [04:03]
B
But, like, how long does something like that take to go from it doesn't exist to I'm using it.
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A
I think it took two and a half hours.
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B
Wow.
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A
Okay. Yeah.
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B
How much is a 3D printer? Like that? Like, if I can be so bold as, like, is. Are we talking, like, a car?
- [04:17]
A
No, no, no, no. We got one that can do multiple colors at once. We actually. We've had one for a long time. It bit the dust. So we recently renewed our relationship with our 3D printer, so now we have one that can do multiple colors at a time. That one was 400 on Prime Day, so normally closer to $500. And without the multiple color capability, it was about $100 less.
- [04:41]
B
Okay, interesting. I had no. I literally. You could have told me it was $25,000, and I would. No idea.
- [04:49]
A
A good thing for me to spend that much money on, but other people might have $25,000 ones.
- [04:54]
B
And like, five years ago, maybe it was that much.
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A
No, because the first one we got for Mica was about five years ago, and that one was a lower model, and it was probably also about 500.
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B
Yeah. Interesting. Okay, well, at some point, we're all going to have them.
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A
Yeah, well. And it's super. I mean, it's very fun to be able to be like, you know what? I think I want a little clip that will do this thing for me. And you can. Somebody has made it, and you can go find it and put it on your 3D printer, and it makes it for you. It's so cool.
- [05:22]
B
I love it. That's very cool. That's very cool. Okay, so my book coach moment of the week is really an epiphany that I had, which didn't necessarily make me happy, but it was a reality I needed to embrace, which is that I have been. I go back and forth on this. I've talked about this before. I'll go through a period of time where I only read one book, maybe two, and then I'll go through periods of time where I will kind of just be like, I can start another book and just make my way. I looked. And at one point this week, I was reading seven books. And that. That is too much because that plus the different shows that I watch, many of which are kind of. Because it's what I want to watch, but it's also because we talk about murderful shows and all things murderful. There were too many mysteries happening at once, and I was no longer able to keep my victims straight. I was mixing up my crimes.
- [06:22]
A
Yep.
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B
My suspects were all a jumble. So this just was not working for me. So I. I finally just pared down and said, you know what? You are reading a morning read. You are reading one on audio, one on digital. I mean, one on Kindle, one in print. That is it. It is four. Four. Stop. Just stop. Meredith, you just cannot do anymore. Your brain, your pee brain cannot handle anymore. So other people might be able to. But me in my life right now, this is my Max. So this was my epiphany this week, and I just was like, I better embrace it because I'm losing the thread. And My reading experiences are suffering because of it.
- [07:02]
A
Right. Yeah. My max is either 4 or 5. So the same Kindle, audio and print, and then a buddy read with Katie and something I'm reading aloud to my kids.
- [07:13]
B
Right. See, it was the buddy reads that started to. Yeah, right.
- [07:18]
A
Yep. I had a friend this week be like, what do you need another buddy? I would like a buddy reader. And I was like, you know, I can't, because then I. That divided attention, nobody wins.
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B
Right, Exactly. So I just had to say, nope, you're doing nope if you're gonna do that. But if you're gonna do that buddy read or you're gonna be in that book club that has got to take your slots.
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A
Yeah, exactly.
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B
All right. We all welcome some sort of boundary. Right? Boundaries can be really helpful. All right, Katie, let's talk about our current reads. What's your first current read this week?
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A
All right, Meredith. My first one this week is called how to Survive a Slasher by Justine Puchella Winans. Okay. This is an author that I saw speak at the Tucson Festival of Books this year, and they completely enraptured me. It was like a YA middle grade panel. So I knew that fall was the right time to pick up the book that I bought from them there. The setup here is great. CJ Smith lives in Satterville, but it's usually referred to as Slasherville. That's because it's been the site of not one, but two massacres. The first attack, years ago. CJ's dad was the only survivor. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through round two. But CJ was the only one to survive the second attack. So we have had multiple victims from the same family. We've had multiple, like, final survivors, but one didn't make it through round two. Right. Author Moon Satter, some anonymous fanfic esque writer, has spent the past few years capitalizing on this tragedy. They've published book after book about Slasherville, making CJ notorious around town and really around the nation for all the wrong reasons. The town and CJ are both completely defined by their horrific past. Like, they're like wolfman masks and bloody, blah, blah, blah. Like everything is about Slasherville. In the intervening years, CJ's mom has required that her kids regularly practice survival techniques. Running, finding a weapon, finding an escape route. CJ has had survival as a required subject in the school of life for as long as they can remember. But when our story starts, a new, unpublished Moon Satyr manuscript shows up on the front door, and it's addressed to cj and they are shocked to find that it doesn't rehash the murders of the past. Instead, it predicts a new murder, and the events in the book start tomorrow. So CJ sets out to find out if this book has any meat to it or if it's just the deluded ramblings of this crazy writer, only to find out that by saving one classmate, the final girl from the new book ends up dead. So now things are all convoluted. CJ and their new friends have to figure out how to save themselves as they move from side characters to lead roles in this new novel. I was thoroughly delighted. This is YA Horror, with nods to all the classic horror movie tropes. We've got a small town, a survivor, survivor of a previous crime, and a masked killer. But we've also got something new, a badass mom rather than a phoned in parental figure. Great representation across the board, and a budding relationship because it is ya. This is thriller horror, but mostly it's dead bodies being found rather than actual unaliving on the page, so it's okay for a teenager. There are some curse words, though, so some parents might find it harder to hand this to their children than the one where the people get, you know, disemboweled or beheaded or whatever on the page. Just be aware of that. I thought it would be a great option to pick this one up for spooky season, and I was right. Now that didn't take much detective work because the COVID makes it obvious that anyone who grew up in the era of Scream and I know what you did last summer is going to find that this book hits all the right notes. This is how to Survive a Slasher by Justine Puchella Winans.
- [11:04]
B
That is very, very interesting. Like, I have. I have a lot of questions about that. Like, did they not find the person the first time? Did they just quit looking? Did they? Well, I guess that's what we do now. Wait and train.
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A
And they have like slasher fest every year where they remember all these killers. Like Amityville Horror, kind of.
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B
So it's like different killers?
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A
Well, okay, no.
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B
But we don't know.
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A
We don't know.
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B
We don't know.
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A
We don't know.
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B
If I'm the mayor of Whoville or whatever it's called. Am I going to lean into this and be like, let's make ourselves a destination?
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A
You do not think so?
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B
Come to the Hunger Games and be your own final girl. Like, I feel like there's a Lot of potential money in that tax revenue.
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A
Right.
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B
I think that's what I'm doing.
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A
It's like legalizing marijuana. You're like, which one? Which door are you gonna go through?
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B
Yeah, that could be some interesting stuff.
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A
Okay, like, everybody wears a Wolfman mask. So then you have no idea who the bad guys are because they're all wearing the same mask.
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B
If everyone's the Wolfman, then no one is the Wolf man.
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A
Or everyone's a threat. Yes. It's exciting.
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B
All right, well, I have an exciting book to talk about too, by one of my favorite authors right now. This is 5050 by Steve Kavanaugh. Here's the setup when former New York mayor Frank Avellino is brutally murdered in his Tribeca Apartment 2, 91 1. Calls come in within just minutes of each other, each one from one of his daughters, Alexandra and Sophia. And each one accuses the other of. Of killing their father. Eddie Flynn, our lead character, is the ex con artist turned defense attorney, and he can always spot a lie. So he represents Sophia while rising attorney Kate Brooks defends Alexandra. Both attorneys are completely convinced that their client is innocent. But the thing is, they cannot both be right. It's impossible. One sister is a cold blooded killer, and the other one is innocent. But who is. Who is 50? 50. You get it?
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A
Mm.
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B
All right. I inhaled this book like it was a hamburger, and I hadn't eaten in three days. I read it so quickly, I had to get it on. This is one of those where I had to get it on digital because I already had it in print, so I had to do it all the time. Super short Cheeto chapters made this go down so quickly. As I mentioned, I love Steve Kavanaugh. I love the Eddie Flynn series, which has nine books in it. Now, most of us jumped into this series with its first big breakout hit, which was called 13, which is actually the fourth book in the series. 5050 is book five. So if you read 13, you can go right into this one. This isn't the kind of series where you need to read every single word in order. I know most of us want to do that, but you can absolutely jump straight in here. If you love legal thrillers and this premise sounds really good to you, there's no reason why you couldn't jump in right here with 50 50. Steve Kavanaugh does this high wire act keeping us from knowing who committed the murder. Was it Alexandra? Was it Sophia? Was it somebody else? I went back and forth. I was more than 70% through before I had any clear idea who did it. But even then, I got tricked. This is a tough needle to thread, but Kavanaugh does it really, really well here. Now, I will say that this book starts out with a bang because we get a very, very gory crime scene right up front. So be aware, if graphic violence is a problem for you, that is where you're going to get it in this book, right at the beginning. But once you're past those original scenes, you're mostly okay. And what we get next is everything that I love about Kavanaugh's Steve Cavanaugh books. We've got a plot, forward, narrative. We've got Eddie Flynn, who is, like I said, an ex con artist, but now he is so, I don't want to say lovable, but likeable. He's just a really, really likable character. Is an ex con artist, but he has a lot of integrity. So he's a lead character I can get behind. And I love a legal thriller. And these are done really. That aspect is done really, really well. So this is another recommendation that we got from Elizabeth Barnhill. And she and I were both lucky enough to meet Steve Cavanaugh when he came to Fabled's Book Lovers Weekend. At that. When he was on that panel, he gave us the premise for this book, and the whole room was like, can I get that book right now? It was. It's just such a good premise. The legal maneuvering feels authentic because Steve Kavanaugh is a former attorney himself, but he never gets bogged down in too much legalese or too much procedure. This guy knows how to pace a legal thriller. This one moves like a freight train. This is 5050 by Steve Cavanaugh.
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A
And he. He is a good writer. I've read, what, a couple of his. At least one, but they're just unputdownable. I love his setups. I love the way he writes characters and plot for days. Oh, so good. This is excellent.
- [16:21]
B
And the series. Each book is very like, the plot of each series, each book is very different from. It's not like, formulaic, is what I'm really badly trying to say. And that Eddie Flynn character, he's just so smart. But then he's also good. He's kind of sexy. I really.
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A
Yeah, I like it. Yeah, we always like that. Yeah. A little morally gray because he's got that con man past.
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B
Well, like, he can spot morally gray, but now in his life, he's very committed to being ethical, straight and narrow.
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A
Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Okay. My next one is poetry. Meredith doesn't get to have all the poetry fun.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
I brought A Rebellion of Care by David Gate. This collection of poetry comes from one of my favorite modern poets. That makes me sound like I'm very familiar with all the poets, but really, I just mean he's currently alive, he's currently writing. Right. Most of you probably already follow him, but if not, you can find him on Instagram and probably everywhere else at davidgatepoet. I'm nearly positive the first time he came into my feed was Reshare from Laura Tremain, one of our dear friends of the show. So David Gate brings us this debut collection of poems and a few essays right at the time when our hearts are crying out for rebellion and for care for one another, which is why he called it a rebellion of care. It follows the kind, welcoming, empathetic tone of his public accounts, but has that little chili pepper of spice to it as well. And I don't mean like love and chili peppers, right? This is the kind that calls for flipping tables for a well placed F bomb, or for being so gl the corner of those you love that you'll take someone out on their behalf, just like I am with you in this. There are undercurrents of Christianity in this collection as well as there is with much of his work, but the kind that pushes back against evangelicalism, the kind that calls for radical love, not spouting judgment or criticism. For his next trick, I would really love a David Gate poem, A Day Calendar, because I would like to microdose him into my heart and my soul every day. I would say I'm not a great poetry reader. They're very short and I don't spend a lot of time sitting with each one, which is what I would like to do ideally. So a poem, a day calendar, or something to that effect would make it easier for me to say, this is it for today, Katie. You can't just binge ahead. You can't read 15 at once and just get like, the overall wash of him. You have to sit with this one little snippet of goodness and let it be with you for today. So the one I'm going to read is called Michelangelo. It's for the parents and the caregivers and the mimies and everyone else that listen to us each week. How do you get a toddler to eat a stalk of broccoli? Or a little kid to tie their shoes and leave the house on time? Or teach a tween to be mindful of others? Or get the moody teen to talk to you at all. Creativity, being a parent is the most creative calling on earth. So if you feel like you have no energy or ideas for anything else at all, it is because every single day you are painting a freakin Sistine Chapel. This small and beautiful collection is a wonderful place to start a poetry habit. These poems are not long or onerous or hard to understand, but they are heartfelt and lovely and will be kind to you as you read them. Which, like an easy entry, poetry collection is a great place to start building a habit like that. I loved this. It went on my keeper shelf, my forever shelf. It has little book darts all through it because so many of these poems spoke to me in a really wonderful way. And I read it with my Katie and we sent, gosh, probably 50 of the 200 poems in here to each other over the course of reading it. So it was perfect. This is A Rebellion of Care by David Gate.
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B
I love it. That is beautiful. And you're right. And figuring out how to fit poetry or make poetry make sense within the bounds of the rest of our reading and the rest of our lives is something that, as we've discussed, I'm very, very interested in. I think we should crowdsource how to do this more because I think we all could really benefit from it. So that's something to put an idea to put a pen in.
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A
Yeah. Microdosing poetry. That's what I want. Yeah. All right.
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B
Well, my second slot is not gonna be nonfiction this week. It is going to be a book that did not 100% work for me. And unfortunately, again, it is a book by Agatha Christie. I've had a couple of whomps by Dame Christie lately, which is really bumming me out.
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A
Well, is it because you're so far into your project, do you think, I mean, I subconsciously slated some for later?
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B
No. Well, I think it's. I'm reading it in order, and I think her later stuff is not as interesting to me as her earlier stuff. Okay, this is a book called Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie. Here's the setup. Imagine you are cruising at altitude somewhere over the english channel. It's 1935. You're in this airplane cabin with 11 strangers when the unthinkable happens. Madame Giselle, a wealthy French money lender, slumps over in her seat. And we quickly realize that she is dead. What initially looks like a reaction to a wasp sting turns out to be something else. And suddenly everyone abo ward is a suspect in what might be the most closed, closed room murder that has ever been solved by Hercule Perrault. This is a rare three and a half star Agatha Christie for me. This one felt thin and rote to me. Now, of course, do not get me wrong, I know how much work goes into writing any book, and Agatha Christie is the master of this genre. But this one was missing that usual like life, that joie de vivre that keeps me coming back to the Peron novels. Everything here felt really expected and there wasn't anything that I could point to that made this book particularly interesting or memorable. I was listening to a Louise Penny interview recently where she mentioned that she prefers Sherlock Holmes to Hercule because Hercule is, in her words, exactly the same in first book as he is in the last book. There's no growth or change in his character. And now that's a bell that I can't unring. I can't unhear that, because Death in the Clouds is actually a perfect example of that very static quality. Poirot goes through all of his usual motions, but here it feels mechanical instead of feeling engaging. The one element that did capture my attention was this fascinating glimpse of into air travel in 1935. Passengers could smoke and just mill about the cabin even during takeoff and landing. They were not worried about seat belts. That historical detail felt fresh and gave the story some authentic texture. But beyond that atmospheric touch, the mystery itself didn't offer anything that felt like it was really surprising.
- [23:36]
A
Were there bathrooms on the plane or were they just short flights?
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B
I don't remember specifically if that was mentioned. I don't remember that specifically.
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A
Even. Even the idea of Agatha Christie writing something that happens on an airplane kind of blew my mind a little bit. I was like, that can't happen at the same time.
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B
Right, Exactly. So I was really interested in it for that reason. And like I said, those elements of, like, how the flight went and what they could do or not, they, like one of them was like sitting on the arm of a chair of one of the other people's seats when they landed.
- [24:10]
A
Wider seat too. Yeah.
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B
So, yeah. I also have to mention that there is a French detective involved in the case who, in the audiobook, sounded so much like Perrault that I kept getting confused as to who was speaking. Now, remember, Perrault is not French, he is Belgian. But it's difficult to tell them apart with Hugh Frazier's narration. And that that piece of it was not helpful when I was trying to follow the investigation. If you love classic Christie and you want to be a completist, which is what I'M trying to do. You'll read this one and it okay, we read it. But if you're looking for her absolute best, of course I will point you to the Murder of Roger Ackroyd or and Then There Was none books where that trademark Agatha Christie brilliance is on full display. This is just a rare miss for me, but as always, I'm happy to be going through my read through and discovering all different flavors that she brings to the mystery genre. This one is Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie.
- [25:13]
A
This one feels like it could be treated to a rewrite by a modern author that brings something new to the table. Like, because sometimes we say, okay, well this is, you know, a la Agatha Christie from way back when. But like just go read the original. But maybe this one is the one that could get a little bit of zhuzhing by somebody in the current era.
- [25:35]
B
I would love to see what Peter Swanson would do with this nugget.
- [25:39]
A
Right? Exactly. I think that'd be fun. Okay, I am also going backlist, but not that far. I'm going to talk about the Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. So this was on Novel Neighbor's very first indie press list with us in August of 2021. I'm not sure what pushed it to the top of my TBR this year, but Rita Roulette brought it back to my immediate pick this up now. I don't know why. It's time notice. And I finally did. Here's how our beloved anchor store set it up for their very first book on their very first indie press list. Who knew the story behind the first Oxford English Dictionary could be so fascinating? This novel is moving, and it's so moving that it made Holland tear up multiple times. That's Holland Saltzman, the owner of the novel Neighbor, which is not an easy feat. The Dictionary of Lost Words tells the story of Esme, the daughter of one of the lexicographers charged with collecting words for the first dictionary. As a child, she observes this team of men sifting and sorting tens of thousands of words. As she grows up, Esme sees countless meaningful and important words left on the cutting room floor, many of which were discarded because they were not part of the white male lexicon. Based on true events, the novel follows Esme as she steals opportunities to talk with women, learn from common folk, and begins her own collection of words to put together her own dictionary, the Dictionary of Lost Words. This is a must read historical fiction novel that is both inspiring and thought provoking. It will leave you questioning our very use of words and what may be lost in the process of defining. So I read that setup four years ago, a little more than four years ago, and I read the first little chunk of this book like I do, and I knew I was going to enjoy it, but picking it up again now blew me away. I have enjoyed books in the past that include a dictionary element, like the Liar's Dictionary or the professor and the Madman, but I did not expect this one to be nearly as fiercely feminist as it was. Yes, we are duly informed by Holland and Skeez that the meaningful words were left out of the dictionary because they didn't fit the white male lexicon. But the way that Esme pulls herself into the community of women and servants and even prostitutes in order to get a fuller picture of the language of English is so wonderfully done. I thought this was going to be a bit wordy and historical and maybe a little boring, but a little fun. But instead, it just captured me. I was obsessed with Esme by the end. I wanted to write my own dictionary of lost words. I wanted to find the book that she put together way long ago and hold it for myself. Because of the way that Pip Williams brought her story to life. I thought this was so good. Way back then. All I really said was, I love the COVID I like the set up. It's good enough to get me interested. But actually getting into this story and really getting to meet Esme and get to know her and grow up with her into adulthood, we follow her for many years, was absolutely phenomenal. And I'm so glad that I finally picked this one up. So this is the Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.
- [28:44]
B
I wonder, Katie, if you have done what I have done, which is to somehow conflate Once and Future Witches with that book. Their covers are why I've made that.
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A
Conflation a little bit similar. Okay, I can see that.
- [28:58]
B
And I wonder if somehow us talking about me reading Once and Future Witches, like, pinged some deep part of your cover centric brain for that particular one. I don't know why I have those two books together in my mind.
- [29:13]
A
So it could be that I was like, you know, I'm good on dictionary stuff, and I had, like, forced myself through the professor and the Madman. Okay, I'm all set on dictionary stuff, and. But this time it felt fresh and exciting, and I just loved it. It was so good. I love it.
- [29:28]
B
I love when books come to us at the perfect time and we can really, really enjoy it.
- [29:33]
A
Yes.
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B
All right, well, my third one is an example of an author who came to me at the perfect time. This is a book called Frozen People by Ellie Griffiths. Have you ever read anything by Ellie Griffiths?
- [29:45]
A
The name sounds familiar, but I don't think so.
- [29:48]
B
Okay, well here's the setup of Frozen People. Our lead character is Detective Sergeant Allie D. She is a 50 something London cop who works cold cases and when I say cold, I mean so cold they are frozen because Allie is a part of this super secret unit that travels back in time to investigate old unsolved crimes. When a Tory MP wants Ali to jump back to 1850s Victorian London to clear his ancestors name, things get seriously complicated. We've got corsets freezing Victorian winters and Ally getting stuck in the 1850s while her adult son faces murder accusations in present day 2023. There's a lot happening and it is very exciting. This was a five star read for me. So many people over the course of the last few years have reached out to me asking me if I've ever read anything by Ellie Griffith. So many, so many more people than I could ever count. And honestly I can't tell you why I hadn't yet. The covers of her books are fantastic and apparently her Ruth Galloway series is beloved by basically everyone who's ever picked it up. That's usually what people are trying to recommend to me. I've tried them a couple of times over the years and for whatever reason just haven't been able to get into them. This new, this new one, this is a new release. I spotted it at the library and just threw it in my bag without even thinking about it. It. When I got home I did a book flight and lo and behold I was hooked from the first paragraph like all the way in. So Ali Dawson herself, the lead character, is what really made this book sing for me. She is sharp as attack. She has survived one, two, three marriages and she's menopausal. And she's got this perfect no nonsense attitude that makes her instantly lovable to me. I mean this is a woman who's 50 something, she works this dangerous job and she has just decided in her life that she's not going to apologize for anything. Griffiths weaves together police procedural, historical fiction and just enough sci fi to keep you on your toes. All while also exploring how women navigate danger back in the 1850s and now the Victorian London details were impeccable. There's of course the culture shock that Allie Dawson goes through when she first gets there. Griffiths does not shy away from the nitty gritty about what it would actually be like if you got stuck in 1850. There's this really great tension between past and present that had me racing through the pages. But what really made the book special was Ali's relationship with her grown son, Finn. It's beautifully done in a nuanced way. There's no, like, hand wringing about the fact that she's always been a working mom or any of that. It's just this very authent relationship between two adults who happen to be mother and son. The way they navigate each other's lives and the way they worry about each other from across time itself was one of my favorite things about the entire book. Griffiths has that single parent, adult child dynamic, so right on. The plot and pacing were very good. There was never a slow chapter. Every single scene moves the story forward and or deepens our understandings of these characters. And again, here we have chapters that are short and they take us back and forth between the two timelines in a way that makes it feel really readable. Not zigzagging too much. Just when you're dying to know what happens next in Victorian London, you're back in 2023. But instead of being frustrated, you're immediately invested in what's happening there too. Really, really good pacing. This is the start of a new series and there are so many directions that Griffiths could go with this setup. There's different time periods to explore, different cold cases to solve, more development of this entire time. Traveling detectives. I love all the different directions that she could go, and I am absolutely going to be reading this series. This is Frozen People by Ellie Griffiths. If you love a little bit of time travel in your books, this is great because it doesn't get too wrapped up in that element.
- [33:59]
A
Right, Right. Oh, it sounds good. I do. I do love a little bit of time travel in my books. Are you likely to pick up more from her outside of this series, do you think?
- [34:10]
B
Yeah, I think I would definitely pick up, like, whatever the first in the Ruth Galloway series is. She might have a couple of standalones. I would be more open to her. Katie, what was that book that we read? And I think we both read it because it's occurring to me now how much if you liked that book, you. You would love this book. It's a book that has that time travel element. Someone's going back, a woman's going back in time, then she gets stuck because of 9 11. Like 911 is an element in it.
- [34:39]
A
Yep. The dream daughter, Diane Chamberlain.
- [34:42]
B
I mean, first of all, that's a really, really good book. If you liked the Dream Daughter, this one will really work for you because it had a lot of that, like the time travel, adding this element of excitement where you're like, oh, but wait, we really need you back in 2023. But, oh, she's stuck in the 1850s.
- [34:59]
A
Yeah.
- [34:59]
B
But also that. More that emotional substance that's there. That's in the Dream Daughter, too. I'd forgotten about that book. I really loved that book.
- [35:05]
A
I forgot about that book, too. That book was so good.
- [35:08]
B
Yeah, that's a book to revisit for sure. And Diane Chamberlain was really wonderful. All right, Katie, those are our current reads.
- [35:15]
A
We did it.
- [35:16]
B
Now we have to do the hard part. I was gonna say that's the easy part. Talking about our current reads was the easy part. The much harder part that I stepped us into. Just.
- [35:28]
A
But. But wait, we also get to blame Rebecca.
- [35:31]
B
Well, right. Rebecca Hoffer of love and Chili Peppers fame. Our beloved Rebecca Hoffer. When we asked for deep dive ideas, she's like, what if you guys, like, chose some of your favorite books of the year and then kind of ranked them or pitted them against each other?
- [35:48]
A
Which is so mean.
- [35:49]
B
All right, so, well, and then Meredith.
- [35:51]
A
Was like, yeah, let's do that. That sounds kind of fun.
- [35:54]
B
I hadn't thought it all the way through. I really hadn't. Because then I went to go actually get my. So 2019 to 2024 gave us six books. Right. When I went to go actually pull them, like, my eyes were getting bigger and bigger with every book. I was like, oh, no. I've really set myself an impossible task. So the first thing that I did, Katie, was pull my list of books. So let's tell the people, because let's remind everybody. You guys have all heard us talk about these books, but let's just remind people I'm not going to do a full setup or anything for this part. We're going to give you links in the show notes. So for setups and everything, if there's a book that's not familiar to you, you're gonna need to go grab that because we've talked about these books before. For 2019, my book was A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Bridget kimmerer.
- [36:40]
A
Okay.
- [36:40]
B
For 2020, it was Greenwood by Michael Christie.
- [36:43]
A
Okay. Yes.
- [36:45]
B
For 2021, it was a Gentleman in Moscow. No problem. Just my favorite co. Favorite book of all time. For 2022, it was the 10,000 doors of January, a book which I think about every single day. For 2023, it was Clytemnestra by Costanza Casadi. I just recommended that to two people in Scotland. And for 2024, it was the Tainted cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. That group of six represents me as a reader in the last eight years. Really, really well. So, first of all, as an exercise, I think that's an interesting thing for everyone to do. Go grab your list. If you. If you've been making a top 10, go grab your list and just look at it, because I think it's useful to. I think it's useful in a couple ways.
- [37:31]
A
Yes, I agree. I felt exactly the same about mine, especially once we decided to Askew 2018, which was kind of an outlier year. We started the podcast. It was a whole thing. You can. If you really want to, you can go back and listen to our 2018 Top Books of the year as well. But starting with 2019, I have the Dearly Beloved by Kara Wallace as my top book of the year. 2020 was Pride by Ibi Zoboi, which is my only ya on this list. 2021, I had all the Lonely People by Mike Gale. Regularly. When people are like, no, just right now. What's your favorite book of all time? Right.
- [38:08]
B
Probably the book that you recommend the most.
- [38:10]
A
Yeah, that's the one. I say 2022, Babel by R.F. kuang. 2023, black cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. And 2024 was all the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. I love these books. I love these books. And regularly, when people are like, well, okay, just give me, like, a few that you recommend. These are the ones that rise to the top over and over again. If I know a little bit about somebody, I'll pick one of those. But it's almost always at least one of those six is. Oh, well, you should definitely try this one. Yeah.
- [38:43]
B
What I think the one that stands out to me for you is. I had forgotten that you liked Babel that much.
- [38:50]
A
Yeah, that was my number one book of the year, and you had it as number two that year. So that was the only year. Well, we've had overlap on our lists before, but that was the only year that you, like, scooped me. Oh, you were like, okay, my number two. And then I was like, okay, well, that was my number one. So I guess I'll just talk about that now. So it was the only time that that's happened, though, in all the years of the show.
- [39:14]
B
Do you think that group of six, like, really, really represents me as well? Represents you, reader?
- [39:21]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And there's. There's One that's kind of outlier. But even that one, I'm like, but I would never get rid of that book. I love that book. It did end up on the bottom of my six, which we'll get to our actual ranking of them. But the other ones just, oh, gosh, I love them all. Okay.
- [39:39]
B
I. Well, as we should, right? I did a couple of different things when I did this. First of all, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna kind of try. We only have six books, so we couldn't do a true bracket Right after the first round, which would be round.
- [39:54]
A
That would be like, 64.
- [39:56]
B
Right. But every time I see people do book brackets, I'm like, it's such a dumb way to make choices about books, because no two books are.
- [40:04]
A
You can stack it. Yeah, right.
- [40:06]
B
Like, you can't. It doesn't equal a best to me. Me.
- [40:10]
A
Right.
- [40:11]
B
Because you two books competing against each other would be totally different. It was if it was a different pair anyway. But for this one, I decided I was like, okay. Between a curse so dark and Lonely and Greenwood, I would pick a curse so dark and lonely.
- [40:23]
A
Okay. Okay.
- [40:24]
B
Between a Gentleman in Moscow and 10,000 doors of January, I would pick Gentleman in Moscow.
- [40:29]
A
Which one of these was the hardest?
- [40:31]
B
This exercise was not quite as hard. Between Clytemnestra and Tainted Cup, I'd pick Tainted Cup. So. So this is where it got hard. So then I was down to a curse so dark and Lonely, a Gentleman in Moscow and Tainted Cup. Okay, okay, that's hard. But I'm a big girl, right? I'm not. I hate it when people prevaricate about stuff like this. Like, just stop being a baby and make difficult decisions.
- [40:56]
A
It doesn't matter. You're not deciding whether to push the red button, right? Like, it's gonna be okay. You could pick one.
- [41:05]
B
Exactly. Okay. So then I'm down to those three. And I am like, be a big girl. Make a choice. So, boom, out goes a curse so dark and lonely. But then I am down to a Gentleman in Moscow and the Tainted Cup. And that's almost where I quit the podcast. Almost where I was like, katie, it's been a great eight seasons. I'm out.
- [41:26]
A
We did this, like, an hour before we.
- [41:29]
B
No. You don't know how close I came. It almost all ended, Katie. I almost walked away from the whole shebang. Kursut. A Gentleman in Moscow in Tainted cut. I mean, I found myself saying things like, can I just not make a choice?
- [41:43]
A
Are there real rules to these rules?
- [41:45]
B
Right then I was like, flipping a coin. I was like, doing the whole, like, flip a coin and then whatever you get, see how you feel about it.
- [41:52]
A
Right, right. Yes.
- [41:53]
B
That didn't work. Nothing. Nothing worked. Nothing. Nothing worked. But then finally I was like, okay, Jackson, pretend like you're gonna smack me across the face and, like, at any moment. And then I'm just gonna, you know, like, shout out.
- [42:08]
A
Yeah.
- [42:09]
B
And I said, the tainted Cup.
- [42:10]
A
You did.
- [42:11]
B
Which is. Which is really problematic because A Gentleman in Moscow is my co. Number one of all time with Count of Monte Cristo. Count of Monte Cristo. So if that is the case, does that mean that that's no longer true? But that is still true. So then how did. Tainted cup. I don't understand. There's, like, been a tear in the space time continuum. Yeah. Nothing makes sense anymore. Nothing makes sense anymore.
- [42:42]
A
It's all shattered.
- [42:43]
B
All right, how did you do with your. What Rebecca said is like, the point of what she was saying is, of those six, pick your favorite, how did you get to that kill the baby moment?
- [42:55]
A
Well, she said, take your number one books from the past years and rank them. So I actually did.
- [43:01]
B
Well, I did that too. I did that too.
- [43:03]
A
Well, that was horrible because I was like. I was talking to them. This doesn't mean I don't love you.
- [43:09]
B
Right, right, Exactly.
- [43:11]
A
They're not my children. And then she said, which book lands on top? So I arbitrarily decided that my most recent one could not go on top, so I just put it down. So I went black cake as number six. I. I love black cake. Okay. I want to make black cake still. But it is one of the. Of those six. It's one of the ones that I recommend least frequently because I think it's a little more niche, which doesn't mean I can't love it. It just means that it come. It rises to the top less frequently. And then I did all the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. That one was just my arbitrary random rule where I was like, you can't. You got to put the. The most recent one. It hasn't stood the test of time. It's only been a year since I read that. Right. Or a year and a half at this point. I then went With Pride by E.B. zoboi. Again, my only ya on the list. I still read this. I like that book. I love this book so much.
- [44:10]
B
I still thought this would be in your top three at least.
- [44:13]
A
Right? But then. But then look at what I have left. Number three. I put the dearly Beloved by Kara Wall. That physically hurt me to put it at number three instead of higher. Those couples, the way that book grabbed me by the heart. And I need to read it.
- [44:31]
B
Yeah, I need to read it. Roxanna's always said that I should read it too.
- [44:35]
A
So good. And I love the historical period of it. Oh, it's just so lovely. Now I'm down to Babel and all the lonely people. RF Kuang, Mike Gale. That was the same. I was just like, but these are not the same book. I'm allowed to have them both be favorite. There's a whole. I can't. I can't. Right, Right. So I just. I'm staring at it, and I'm like, was that wrong? I think I might be wrong, but maybe I'm not wrong. I don't know. I. I wrote it down as Babel as number two and all the lonely people as number one. Is. Is that right? Somebody else tell me if that's right.
- [45:16]
B
I feel like that is right.
- [45:18]
A
Sweating. Yeah.
- [45:19]
B
No, I know it is very sweaty.
- [45:22]
A
Like, we're not in the same place. But, gosh, I am sweating.
- [45:24]
B
When I got down to Tainted cup, which I. Which is, like, almost the perfect book. Like, someone wrote a book for me.
- [45:31]
A
Like, and that's how I feel about Babel. Right.
- [45:33]
B
That's how I feel about Babel. But then Gentleman in Moscow, which just, like, owned my entire heart, and I would leave my husband for Amor Tolles. Like that. Like, I am not joking. That little man could take me at a whim. And so I felt like I was cheating on Amor. When I chose Taina Cup, I felt like I had. That. I had, like, a deep sense of betrayal. It was really, really hard. Okay, well, so if I ranked it, here's. The ranking is different because it's a little bit different than the bracket method.
- [46:11]
A
Okay.
- [46:12]
B
Ranking. I would go with Greenwood 6.
- [46:16]
A
5.
- [46:17]
B
A curse so dark and lonely.
- [46:18]
A
4.
- [46:19]
B
Clytemnestra 3. 10,000 doors of January 2. Here I still did two gentlemen in Moscow, number one, Tainted Cup. That damn book is. It's my entire personality in a book. It is like if you had to hand a book to someone and say, if you like this book, then you might like me. That's why it's resonating with me so much.
- [46:40]
A
Right. And that is really what it came down to for all the Lonely People, for me is it is probably my most recommended book of the past five years. That I. That I tell people most often, like, okay, if you're not gonna give me anything, this is the one I'm gonna tell you. And it was Covid, and it was loneliness, and it was all of us together, and it was. It was. I mean, I would have said it at the time. It's probably even more true now. I interviewed Mike Gale, and I was like, I'm in love with this man.
- [47:10]
B
Yeah.
- [47:11]
A
I would do anything he asked me to. Right? Take me.
- [47:15]
B
I'm just taking.
- [47:16]
A
I was just obsessed with him from the word go. And after he destroyed my heart and put it back together for me, I was like, listen, if you want to marry me, I'll do whatever you need me to do. I just will. So he had to be there. You had to be there.
- [47:34]
B
Okay, one more question for you. When you're thinking about this list, if you had to pick only two that you could ever reread. What? Like, you cannot read the other four. You can. You can never read again. There's only two that you can read. Like, you still keep your memories of it, but you can only reread two of them.
- [47:57]
A
Okay, I am rereading Babel and Pride.
- [48:02]
B
Okay.
- [48:03]
A
Babel by R.F. kuang and Pride by Ibi Zoboi.
- [48:06]
B
I am rereading 10,000 Doors of January and Clytemnestra.
- [48:10]
A
Okay.
- [48:11]
B
See, Just stories that are just so big that I feel like, one time through, like, my head and my heart were not. Were not big enough. So those are the two. Those are the two that I would. That I would reread. Okay, so. So I think it is useful for everyone to do this. I think we should figure out a way, Katie, to encourage people to do this. And I think we should do it in terms of, like, a giveaway.
- [48:35]
A
I like it. Right. Let's do that.
- [48:37]
B
Like, we put something on our Instagram page where we say, leave a comment with your top six books, 29. Like, do exactly what we just did.
- [48:49]
A
The past six years.
- [48:51]
B
Give them to us. Us rank them, which includes, obviously, giving us a number one. And if you can do that, then we will. Of those people. And I'll bet you there's not going to be a lot of people that, for whatever reason, do that.
- [49:03]
A
We'll see, but we'll think, I want.
- [49:06]
B
To do something bigger than that. Yes. We could do a mug.
- [49:09]
A
The blankets are the best, Meredith.
- [49:11]
B
They are. They are really, really good. But I wanted to say, like, a blanket. A mug. Currently reading mug. Currently reading blanket. And, like, $100 gift certificate to bookshop.org or whatever, or your indie store of choice. Right? Like, a really good giveaway. Because this Is a hard thing to do.
- [49:31]
A
Yes. And I think people will have the same problem and realize how much those books have become part of their personality. Right.
- [49:40]
B
Yeah. I mean, it's also difficult because certainly most people probably. I mean, a lot of people do, but most people probably haven't made a clean top 10. So, like, for most people, they'd be like. Like, I couldn't even. Like, I'm not sure I could even do that because I would have to go through all of my reading for all of those years.
- [49:55]
A
Or they'll just say, like, my favorite book of the year in no particular order. Or these five are my favorite or whatever. Right. Like, they weren't picking number one. Yeah.
- [50:04]
B
And for this exercise, you have to. You have to kill the baby. I know someone's going to DM about me using that. I'm just joking. Okay.
- [50:11]
A
Now, once you do that, no babies were harmed in the making. I would not.
- [50:15]
B
I would not. I would not.
- [50:17]
A
Okay. Okay.
- [50:17]
B
Once you do that, then I did a couple of things that I think were interesting. I said to Claude, which is my LLM that I use. Okay, here's my list of. Here's what I just did. Here's my list ranked. Give me five books that you think I should read based on these books because they're a good representation of my reading, which is great. But I had to go through three rounds before I got a list that included four of the five I hadn't read, which is normal for us. Right. Like, that. That would be hard. So. But I did end up with a list of actually five books that I hadn't read before, and three of them were ones that I had long intended to read. Kind of moved up my. Moved up my list. One of those being Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher, which I think will be a really good fit for me. So that's an interesting thing you can do if you go through this exercise. And then the other thing I did is I put into Claude, like, hey, here are. Here are these books. Here's the exercise that I did. Tell me, like, give me five bullet points of what these books being my favorite mean about my reading. Like, how does it describe. How does it represent my reading? And so then it gave me. It gave me these five things which are really, really useful, you know, And I won't go over all those because this bore people. Endless. But that's another thing that you can do if you do this kind of work.
- [51:34]
A
So it's worth it.
- [51:35]
B
It's worth it. I'm endlessly. Interested to see if, like, the three people who are actually going to. I mean, like, like there's going to be three people who do this and one of them is going to win.
- [51:44]
A
Like a nice little giveaway, 150 bucks worth of stuff.
- [51:47]
B
Yeah, I know.
- [51:48]
A
I love it. I like it.
- [51:49]
B
All right. That was hard, but fun. That's what she said.
- [51:53]
A
Okay, I can agree with that.
- [51:55]
B
Right, let's then visit the fountain. Katie, what's your wish this week?
- [52:00]
A
Okay, my wish is a demerit, but there's a wish attached to it. So I wish that I would better prepare for downtime or planned downtime. Right. So I have started to have not downtime, but various things in my schedule where I end up sitting for a while, right. I've got kids going to a tumbling class, baseball games, homeschool pe And I do a good job. I bring a book with me, I'm ready to read. And then I don't read. I'm chatting with friends or I start working on podcast stuff. I might update my somebody's spreadsheet. I work on things. Sometimes I extend my duolingo streak because it's got to happen at some point during the day. Right. But then I found that I'm not reading all that much at all. So I'd like to do a better job. And sometimes we speak it into the universe to make it happen, blocking off that time and protecting it to make sure that I have my other stuff done already. So looking ahead and saying, okay, anally has tumbling today from 4 to 5. Do Duolingo before and don't bring your computer with you. That time is for reading only and really like, like giving myself a talking to about it. So I would like to put myself in timeout for an inning of baseball or lock myself out of my apps using my bloom card. But I feel like that would give me some ways to start just cruising through books a lot faster and enjoying them rather than letting my squirrel brain take over and do the other things on my to do list that are urgent but not important.
- [53:30]
B
Yeah, I mean, it's a really big problem. I. I am the first to admit that I can really go down into a rabbit hole of either chats with friends or a phone conversation, a work conversation, or just scrolling my phone where I'm like, I should be able to watch TikTok and you know, right. The best thing that I did for myself was to tell Jackson when I. Because he has like, look, when he has lacrosse, this specific thing happens to me. His practices are Too far away for me to just drop and go. So I end up having to bide my time. And so I told Jackson, you need to physically get me out of the car when you get out of the car. And then I just, then I walk the track of the field where they're playing, and then I listen to my book because then I'm like, I'm not going to scroll and walk. I'm going to get hit by a lacrosse player. So that has been really helpful to just kind of establish that, like, nope, I get out of the car when he does. I get back in when he gets in. If he's working out, I'm working out, that kind of thing.
- [54:27]
A
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah. All right.
- [54:30]
B
Well, my wish is not going to surprise anybody. My wish is that if you don't regularly, each year, choose your top 10 or top 5 of books for the year, start doing it this year and.
- [54:42]
A
Like, prepare your heart now.
- [54:44]
B
Prepare your heart now to do that.
- [54:46]
A
Right?
- [54:47]
B
It's because it is helpful to go through that exercise, is helpful for your following year's reading because you can really, really look at it. If you track your reading at all, you can make those choices and then you can start to really see patterns as to what worked for you.
- [55:04]
A
You.
- [55:04]
B
And that will help you for your 2026 reading choices. It will absolutely make your 2026 reading better. So if you can, if you have the wherewithal, choose your top 10 each year and share it with us. If it would help you to share it with us like bookish friends, share it in the group. We all want to know about that. It's really, really interesting. 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 at at Meredith Monday Schwartz.
- [55:32]
A
On Instagram and you can find me, Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putam Evans, and you can find her on Instagram at most of Megan's Reads Full show notes with.
- [55:44]
B
The title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in our show notes and on our website@currentlyreading podcast.com you.
- [55:55]
A
Can also follow the show @currentlyreading podcast on Instagram and play our game with us for our giveaway or email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com and if you want more of.
- [56:06]
B
This content, tons more of it, become a bookish friend. It's $5 a month on Patreon and it gives you just hundreds of hours of more content. It also gives you a ton of 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 makes a huge difference in our finding our perfect audience.
- [56:29]
A
Yes, bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [56:35]
B
All right, until next week, may your.
- [56:36]
A
Coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [56:39]
B
Happy reading.
- [56:40]
A
Katie Happy reading. Meredith.