← The Currently Reading Podcast
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Foreign.
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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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We're light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our descriptions 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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I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I love a bookish metaphor.
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And I'm Roxanna Casamcaro, a mom, a marketer and a mood reader living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And this week I am leaning into the deep freeze. Meredith, this is episode 26 of season eight and we're so glad you're here.
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Oh, it is a deep freeze and you have had the deepest of the deep freeze. I've been seeing some of your pictures. I don't know how you Canadians do it.
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Well, remember, we are set up for this, just like you guys in Austin are set up for the heat, right? So I think when people are like, oh my God, in Canada that would be nothing. That's very unfair. We have the infrastructure here because for hundreds of years we have dealt with this. So, so, you know, we have 24 hour plows. We, the salters come out in the middle of the storm. We all know how to drive in winter conditions.
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So you get your tires changed out, changed right away.
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October, we get our tires changed out because we know everybody seven everybody. If you don't, it seems it's an idiotic thing to do. So nobody does that because then everybody's stuck behind the one guy who didn't change his tires in the middle of the snow.
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Well, I mean for us it's this darn ice. I mean, snow would be one thing. It's this, we get this freezing rain and then everything is just in a layer of ice, which just makes it impossible to go anywhere or do anything because we, it's just so dangerous to do it right. Like you can't drive anywhere on ice, you can't walk anywhere on ice. So everything just grinds to a halt. Now this has actually been pretty, you know, it's been a couple of days of suckiness, but not anything like February 20, 21 or in 20. So anyway, that's weather corner.
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It's cold and to be fair, I'll just say when it's ice here, nobody messes around like that if there's black ice or there's freezing rain, everybody still stays home because ice is ice. It's dangerous. So I hear you. Hopefully you've been able to. To curl up with a book, too.
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Yes, we. We have definitely taken advantage of that. So I'm going to tell you that later on today, we are going to answer a listener question that basically boils down to this. Why do you reread? This is the question we're answering.
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Why.
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Why would any sane person reread a book when there are so many other books to read? So we're going to tackle that. Roxanna, I wanted to do that with you because you are such a great rereader. Okay, so before we do that, this is the first episode in February. It is February 2nd. It's my.
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My.
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My oldest grandbaby's birthday.
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Hi, Jeffrey.
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And we need to do our one advertisement that we do all month long, and that is an advert for ourselves.
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This.
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We're going to take a little bit of time to talk about why we think you should join us as a bookish friend. And then the rest of the month, all the big show episodes will be completely ad free. So this month we are so excited because in January, Roxanna, we added a lot of new bookish friends to our community, which we were so excited about. Many, many, many of those came to us by way of finding us through the New York Times piece that we were included in. And we are so glad to have so many new bookish friends. But this tent is never full. And I say it that way, particularly because, Roxanna, whenever you and I record together, I always think about the fact that but for the community aspect of our Bookish friends, what we offer, right? So we offer all things wonderful, Indie press list, love and chili peppers, lots of content, right? We offer the reading tracker, the. Those are awesome. But the Bookish friends Facebook group, where we have over 2,500 of you active in this Facebook group, is where I think the rubber really meets the road as far as building in an amount of satisfaction to your reading life. That is really amazing. I had to be convinced of this because when we started the podcast, I really wasn't into the idea of the Facebook element of things. Katie was really, really sure that that would be something that would be a value add. I was like, oh, I like to read on my own. Who needs friends? It turns out I was completely wrong. And Roxanna, you and I met through our bookish friends group. So because we have a lot of new listeners and a lot of new bookish friends. I wanted to just underscore that element of things because now you're one of my best, best best friends. You're my read we voice message. You know, we started out doing some buddy reads together. We started out reading the ACOTAR series together in November of 2020. And from that sprang a friendship that is such a treasure to me. We talk about all kinds of things in our lives now. And it wouldn't have happened but for the fact that we met in that bookish friends group.
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And honestly, Meredith, at least once a month on my voice messages, I'm always saying I thank the universe and the bookish friends for bringing us together because I really was a magic of the universe. And that bookish friends group that we made that connection, Katie made it and just said, you guys should maybe talk. I don't even think we would have necessarily connected because I don't think we understood the value of bookish community then.
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Right.
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And how far it's gotten, you know, not just as us being best friends, which really, like my whole life quality is different now that you're in it. But even you know, I have pen pals now because we read the correspondent in the bookish friends group. Right. Hi, Vicki. Hi, Sarah. We're going to do a buddy read of the Count of Monte Cristo. We're doing. You made your whole bookish community in Austin when you moved. Exactly. I don't, you know, I don't have a bookish community here in Toronto. Even though I'm a book podcaster, I don't have one. So I rely so much on the bookish friends community to do that. And I actually did, similar to you did, created a bookish friends get together here in Toronto so I could meet more bookish friends. So it really, I didn't also understand the value of making those in real life bookish friends, but it has just added so, so much to my reading and just frankly to my life.
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Exactly. So it's $5 a month to join us as a bookish friend. You do get all of those hundreds and hundreds of hours of extra content, which is fantastic. There are so many amazing book recommendations there. But the, the sleeper aspect is the Facebook group. We also have a discord group and there are so many people who want to be your readerly friends. So that is what we wanted to say. The rest of the month will be ad free. You can join us by going to patreon.com currentlyreading podcast and join us there all Right. Mischief managed for the month. Let's get into our bookish moments of the week. Roxanna, what have you got for us?
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Oh, I'm so excited, Meredith. So, as I said, I, you know, was really leading into bookish reading here at home as it's been so freezing outside. And one of the things that I was thinking about was those little stickers or printed on stickers that are on our books, because I was reading one that had one on it. And, you know, we've talked a lot on this podcast as well as other podcasts about why can't they make those darn things just removable? And isn't it a pain? Because some people want them, some people don't want them. So. So I thought because I have a little bit of a background in manufacturing, I could share what I think. Now, I don't know for sure, but this is how I think it works and why it's not as easy as just slapping a sticker on a book that you could take off, which, yes, I agree, would be ideal. I also hate those, you know, book club stickers. But when you print a book, right, if you print the sticker as part of the design, and I'm using air quotes here for those of us who aren't following on YouTube as part of the design, then it's just part of the COVID right? So you're printing the book as a piece of printed matter. You print the COVID Great. It's all in there. Perfect. Now imagine that you made it a sticker. So now you are printing the book, but you are also printing the sticker right on the adhesive that's the exact right size. And then imagine you're doing this over many books. So then you have, like, you have to print Reese's Book Club stickers and Oprah Book Club and read with Jenna and all those. Then who's going to stick those stickers on? They don't actually do that at the plant or at the printer. So you have to send it to what's called a CO packer, which is a different, you know, different facility that you ship all the books to, and you ship the right stickers to new. So now you have to make sure you have the right number of stickers, you have the right books, and you put them on the pallets, and then you pay all the money to ship them there. And because it's a, like, a quick thing, there's no, like, automated process. So people are actually sticking those stickers on.
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Or it's a hand job.
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Yep. And so then you're paying them to stick it on, which is very expensive, I'll tell you, because it's, because it's a hand job. And then you are then shipping it back to the facility, you know, and the warehouse. And first you have to make sure that co packer has enough room and they have a warehouse that you're shipping it back, then you're shipping it out. So just imagine like if you think about this for the wine industry, think about the 5% of people who know wine of which I am not that person. Imagine if they were like, well, we don't like these wine stickers on this wine because you know, the commoners find it really useful to pick their wine, which I do. I just look at the one that says 95 and I pick that. But they don't like it. But you know, you know, like the, the manufacturer knows they're going to buy the wine no matter what. So why am I going to go through all this work to take so that the sticker can come off? Same thing with readers. It's not like you're not going to buy the book if it doesn't have the sticker. So to add on all this extra cost and freight and inventory of the stickers and the hand packing doesn't make any sense. So all this to say, do we wish they weren't there? Of course. Are they going to go anytime soon or be stickers anytime soon? I think probably not. Just give it everything that goes into that.
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Yeah, you'd be better off just sticking your own sticker on the top of it. Like you could make your own. You could make your own like from the library of whatever. I don't know. I don't honestly, this is not something that I get real up in arms about, but I know that a lot.
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Of people do well and like you said, yeah, you can go to Etsy and there's a huge thriving community on Etsy that does have those little stickers that you can cover it and you're supporting a local business person who to do that. I'm with you. I don't get really head up about it. But then I'm also, as you know, not really a printed book person. I'm more digital. But I can understand if you did have a series, like I get it. I, you know, when books of the series are different sizes and stuff, there are things that irritate me. So I could see how that could be really irritating. So yeah, I would say exactly what you were alluding to. Go to Etsy support. Somebody get a sticker and just know it probably won't change. Yeah.
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I mean, they'd have to make the book more expensive because of all the things that you just talked about. It's a lot of. It's a lot of work. All right. My bookish moment of the week is a weird but extraordinarily apt book metaphor. And also it's kind of gross, but, man, is it apt. So I've been thinking a lot since someone in some bookish conversation I was in said, like, you know how there's a period of time in every book and I read a lot of my stuff on my E reader. Between, like, 20% and 50% seems to be kind of a difficult, like, part of the book. I love to begin a book. I love that first 20%. And then once I'm at 50%, I feel like I'm really rocking and rolling. It's not. It's not going to be a problem most of the time. Of course, this is not a sweeping statement, but there's something about between 21 and 49% where I just mentally, it's just like, I know it's necessary, but it's not my favorite part. Yeah, here's the metaphor.
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Okay.
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You know how when you're making, like, taco meat, right? So you've got some, like, ground beef, you got some pico de gallo going on, and there's that period of time where you've already got the onions and garlic and pico de gallo. Like, the. The smells are there. You're. You're cooking with. You're cooking with gas, right? You're like. You're like, this is great. This is going to be wonderful. The smells are happening. I'm loving it. Then you have to put that GD ground beef in. And there's a period of time where you're like, I know this ground beef is going to be great, but I hate this period of time between the moment it hits the pan and when it's still pink. Like, there's just, like, a yuck period of time. It doesn't make you stop cooking. You don't give up and go away. You're like, this is a part of the process. 20% to 50% of each book falls into this category. For me, it's the pink ground beef part of the book.
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Okay, so I'm following you completely. I know exactly that time, the pink ground beef, where you know it's going to get good, but it's not good yet.
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We're kind of like, this is just the thing. I just have to get through this part. Right. So the next time that you're making taco meat or anything that involves ground beef, you're going to think about this.
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Oh, a hundred percent I am. And when I get to that book part and you know, I started a post in the bookish friends saying bring me the bookish terms and I had a few in there, I don't think we came up with the pink ground beef moment.
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Yeah, no, this is new. This is all new. This is fresh.
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It's like the ratatouille for listeners who go way back. There's this one might be used over and over. We'll see. All right.
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Well, I thought it was really apt. I was like, I finally figured. I figured out what this reminds me of. Okay, let's get into our current reads. Roxanna, what is your first one this week?
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Okay. Well, mine, Meredith, I'm very excited to talk about it today. It is the Q by Beth Brower. Yes. So this is for all the Emma lion fans out there and I won't belabor it because we've talked about it a lot on this show, but I'll just say there's a fervent community of people who love these books as much as I do. And I know everybody who loves them is waiting for that next read. I too was when I finished, but you know, book eight is not coming out for a while, so I dove into Beth Brower's backlist to find something that really hit it for me and this was it. It's a five star read for me and I had to bring it. So this, as I said, is called the Q. It was published in 2016 and in this book we're in late 19th century Risdon, which is like a fictional country that has a very Victorian England feel. Our main character is Quincy St. Clair and she's a young woman, like very young, late teens, like 18. And she's a genuine business prodigy. Okay. She always assumed she would inherit her uncle's printing publication, which is called the Q. It's a popular daily newspaper that it's actually a really interesting format. It publishes questions to the rising community and they answer it and everybody reads it like salaciously because they can't wait to see who the questions are, who's writing them. There are some are anonymous that try to figure it out. She's done great things with this paper, Meredith. She's like a little you. She goes out, she figures out the, you know, co marketing opportunities, like it's really interesting from a newspaper standpoint because she's, she's like, got this figured out. Great. She's going to take it over. Life is going to be great. Except her Uncle Ezekiel, who owns a paper, he is dying. And in his will, he says to Quincy, before he dies, he actually tells her he's going to give her a list of requirements to fulfill to inherit the cue, but he doesn't tell her what those are. The only person who holds that information is her silent, disapproving solicitor, James Arch. So the book begins with Quincy trying to fulfill these mysterious, eccentric conditions without knowing what they are. But like all Beth Brower books, this doesn't just follow a set premise down a predictable path. Unexpected things happen and the book becomes much more than about just the inheritance. There's more to it. But honestly, that's all I'm going to say, because it's best to go in blind. So, Meredith, I did love this book, okay? It is very much a journey for the characters as much as for you, the reader. It's a world you want to just sink into and live. As we know, Beth Brower is a genius at character development and Quincy herself is prickly. And she's like, she just, you know, knows the way to do things. She's structured, she's stubborn, but she, you know, she knows the right way to do things. She's a total enneagram one, but maybe a bit. She doesn't love people as much, you know, like, she'd like to be alone. So. But in the beginning, you're not sure. But the more you read about her, the more you love her. She's challenging. She's not immediately as likable as Emma, but she, she really grows on you. So I will say this book is not Emma M. Lyon. Don't go expecting that. Beth Brower is great at creating different books with different places. It doesn't displace it, but is such a warm, snuggly duvet of a book. And at 592 pages, you can really just sink into it. The twists in the plot are genuinely surprising. It's not stereotypical. There are no saccharine found family epiphanies. It's not tropey at all. It has a slower build and a slower burn, but it's immersive. And these characters will absolutely sit with you after the last page. The world is incredibly expansive and even at 600 pages, you kind of wish there were more, you know. So I'd say there's no better way to Spend your deep freeze than to snuggle in with a T and a duvet and the Q by Beth Brower.
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Now it is 600 pages, but kind of like the book that I brought last week, the For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I told you about. The, the fantasy and the afterlife, that it was 620 pages, but it read so fast. I don't.
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I.
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If I remember correctly, you read this one pretty quickly. You didn't get stuck behind it at all.
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No, I didn't. I was so eager to come back to it every day because I wanted to see just like her other books, I wanted to see what happened. Like, where was she going to go? Because as I said, it's not like she completes the challenges, realizes there's more to life and falala. Off we go. No different things are happening. And I loved these characters. So I was so eager to like snuggle in with this one every night and read a piece of it. And that's. I was glad it was long for that reason. So, yeah, just like how you felt With Whom the Bell Tolls. This one, I think readers will really enjoy that. It's long and you know, there's a lot of business stuff in here, but printing in the late 19th century and you know, the brand of the queue, the COVID is actually news, a newsprint of just as a cue and it has like the folding in the middle of like how you would fold a newspaper. And it's just like you read a lot about the kind of printing operations and I love that kind of business stuff and the fact that this girl knows it so well, it's just, it was a really fun book. There's a slow burn romance. It's just, it has everything you want. So I don't need to sell this one hard. But if, if this sounds at all interesting, this is the time to read it, folks.
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Well, and there are so many people that have fallen down the Emma M. Lion rabbit hole that I know they're going to be really happy to hear this, that there's more in her backlist that they might really love.
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Well, I've seen this question a lot in the bookish Friends and it brought it a couple times and I thought, you know what, I'm sure there's a lot of listeners that are asking for this. So let me share this and let's bring this 2016 backlist gem back.
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Perfect. All right. Well, I am bringing a book that we read together. We read, you started reading it and then you said, meredith, you really you need to jump in on this with me. And the premise was so interesting that I'm so glad that I did. This is Lock in by John Scali. So the setup, as with the queue, it is best to go in as blindly as possible, but we will give you some setups. So the story here takes place in a world where a global pandemic called Hayden Syndrome has left millions of people fully conscious. Their brain is fine, but their bodies cannot move or respond. So they're wide awake inside their bodies that have basically become their prison. So John Scalzi drops us into this reality 25 years after the first case has happened. So the world has had 25 years to get used to this, to adapt to it. Society has adapted in a lot of ways. The Locked in, which is what these people who have Hayden syndrome are called, they're called the Locked in. They now interact with the world through these kind of robotic bodies that are called threeps. And do you know that it was not until the end of the book that I realized that that was a nod to C3PO. So they can either use a threep, which is kind of like, I mean, they, they're using like a robot body, right? Or they can temporarily borrow the actual physical human body of specially trained humans called integrators. Okay, that's kind of the setup for what, what we've got going here. Our lead character is Chris Shane. He's a rookie agent and he has Hayden syndrome. So he uses a threep, that robot body, and he's partnered with a no nonsense veteran cop who has a complicated history with Hayden Syndrome. Our story focuses on their first case together, which is at the Watergate Hotel. A very, very strange murder has happened. Okay, if you know only one thing about Lock in, here's what you need to know. The world building is absolutely fantastic. This is the kind of world building where you are, you're dropped into this near future society. You have no idea what's going on. You don't know what a threep is. You don't know what an integrator is. Why are there people walking around with robot bodies? And instead of feeling lost or frustrated, you are treated to John Scalzi, who is brilliant, who gives you these puzzle pieces that very quickly begin to click into place. He unfolds this post pandemic reality really organically, almost so that you don't even notice that you're putting those puzzle pieces together. It's just really seamless. And it's a marvel how John Scalzi did it. John Scalzi does serious really well. There's a lot of serious in this book. But he does funny. And somehow in this book he does both so well. There is a fight scene in this novel, Roxanna, you'll remember this.
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And yes, I do.
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I am usually the person who skims fight scenes because I'm just not interested in fight scenes or war scenes.
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Yeah.
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But this one was one of the funniest scenes I have ever read. I was laughing out loud while punches were being thrown. John Scalzi, who also wrote Starter Villain, which was a gigantic hit in our community, he has this gift for making action like this feel fresh and inn entertaining and not feel obligatory or boring. Now, the book is not perfect. We know that. There are a couple moments where I thought things felt a little too convenient. Like there were a couple deus ex machina situations where you're like, that was awfully lucky that that happened. And the last quarter of the book, I felt a little bit got away from him as he had to work to keep me following all the threads that he was trying to thread together. It wraps itself up in a lot of complexity in that last little bit. But the rest of the book is so well executed that I found myself immediately wanting to overlook those stumbles because I just loved the experience. It's like when your favorite restaurant gets your order a little bit wrong, but the food is still delicious, so you're just not going to complain. This is a sci fi buddy cop procedural with a big side helping of what actually makes us human. I think too, if you want to try John Scalzi, this is a good entry point for him. I would do this one. And then of course you have to, if you like this one, you have to read my very favorite book of his, Starter Villain. Locking is fun, smart, propulsive, and it'll make you think about things like disability, identity, and technology in ways that at least I hadn't before. I walked away from this one feeling really happy that I read it and definitely thinking I would be happy to pick up the sequel, which there is one. This is Lock in by John Scalzi, and this was one that we really both liked.
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Yeah. I'm so glad you brought this, Meredith, because, yeah, I really liked it too. And I'm really glad you ended the setup where you ended it, because I think if you tried to explain to a reader the complexities of the plot, you would just get lost.
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Yeah.
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But in the genius hands of John Scalzi, as you said, it doesn't feel like that there's not hundreds of pages of world building. Like, you are in the action and it is happening, and then you kind of, you know, you pick it up as you go. Because he does such a good job, like you said. He does also think a lot about the political ramifications, all the different. The environmental. Like, there's just a lot that he's thinking through, which makes it super interesting. I think in the end, he got a bit too wrapped up in all the ramifications. And so it was maybe hard to sort of tie it all up. But I agree. I really liked this one. It was super absorbing. If Starter Villain has felt a bit silly to you and you just were like, that's too strange. Maybe start with this, and I guarantee you'll want to go into Starter Villain next. And I agree that's my favorite one. But it was really good to see a serious side to him. Yeah. I think the fact that we both liked it and we both have, you know, different tastes says that it's a great one. He's a good one with a good backlist to dive into. Yeah.
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And I love. I'm just loving a genre mashup, and this is a perfect genre mashup of sci fi and murder mystery. So I loved it for that reason, too. All right, what's your next current read?
- [26:38]
A
Okay, well, my next current read, Meredith, is the Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine. So, Meredith, this is not the kind of book I would normally bring, but as you know, I spotted it at the library, but the COVID and that title stopped me in my tracks. So just note of the title. Okay. It's called the Dead Husband Cookbook, not the Dead Husband's Cookbook as an ownership of. But the Cookbook of Dead Husband, as in containing. Yes, like a chicken cookbook or a beef cookbook. This is the Dead Husband Cookbook. So that should give you some idea of what comes next. And, you know, if you are still a bit curious, go look at that cover. Like, it's juicy. I don't even know how to describe it, but I sent a picture to Meredith as soon as I picked it up, because I was like, I just need to understand what this is about. So, without further ado, let me give you the setup. Maria Capello is a culinary icon. She's a celebrity chef, a restaurateur, a TV personality, and a cookbook author. So think Martha Stewart meets Ina Garden meets Real Housewives of New Jersey. Okay. She's been a household name for decades. But here's the thing. Years ago, Maria's husband, Damien, who himself was a famous chef, disappeared and his body was never found. Dun, dun, dun. The media circus was intense, right? Whispers claimed that Maria had murdered her husband to build her culinary empire on his bones. And there was that all too grisly reason his body was never recovered. People whispered about her famous meatballs and about a secret ingredient she's never revealed. But Maria stayed silent for 30 years. The Cappello family said nothing. Until now. So Maria has decided to write this tell all memoir. And for reasons no one understands, she's chosen Thea woods, an editor at a small publishing house whose career is hanging by a thread, to work on it. Thea is spirited away to the Cappello family's remote upstate farm. She has to surrender her phone. There's no Internet. She's cut off from the world. And Maria will only give her the manuscript one chapter at a time. So this should be the job of a lifetime for Thea. But shockingly, Meredith, something's not quite right with this close knit family. Damien isn't the only person to have mysteriously gone missing over the years. And as Maria's story unfolds, Thea starts to wonder, what exactly has she gotten herself into? And what is Maria Capello's secret ingredient? Okay, well, Meredith, that was a wild ride, listeners. So you can see why I picked this book up after I read that synopsis. And I will say it paid off. This is a twisty thriller that keeps you guessing all the way through. Now, it is not horror. It looks like horror. It is not. I think if it had been graphic or gory, I would have probably just passed it on to you, Meredith, and not read it because, you know, I can't take graphic, gory body horror, that kind of stuff thing. And I think if that's what you were looking for, it would. It would be amiss because it is. It's a more of a twisty thriller, okay? It's that trope of like, young ingenue author found by a media icon that's very much like Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but done very differently, right? So you are kind of going back and forth saying, well, you know, did Maria do it? Didn't she? Like the. You're piecing together clues as you're in this remote farmhouse meeting her family. There's a creepy, you know, sense of dread that keeps getting more and more like that tension is building. And that ending was satisfying. It was a good payoff. It was well done. One thing I read on the Goodreads reviews that made me laugh the first review was, this book made me hungry. And I was like, I'm not sure about that. But actually it does because this book is very food centric. Like, the food writing is genuinely descriptive and appealing. She's an Italian chef. And each chapter of Maria's memoir, which is revealed in this book, ends with a recipe with names like, tell your cheating husband you're pregnant veal. And then she includes the recipe. So, you know, that seems very hard to balance with hints of cannibalism, but Valentine does pull it off. Now, I will say the writing is thriller, like, you know, and the character development is thriller, like, so it's not usually the rich, immersive prose I go for, but it's not bad. Like, if you go in expecting a thriller level writing and character development, I'll say this is great. It's really focused on the premise and what happens next. It's for sure a book you could stay up all night reading. I did, and it's another great one for Deep Winter because you just want to know what happens. And she for sure delivers. So that's the Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine.
- [31:26]
B
I could not believe. Usually this is the kind of book, right. That you would say, meredith, I'm not going to read this one, but it sounds perfect for you. But the fact that you. That you were like, no, this is what I jumped into. I was like, you're reading the book with, like some implied cannibalism. Like, this is really beyond you. You are normally not our, you know, Tinder is the flesh kind of reader.
- [31:50]
A
No, no, you're totally right. And I just think that that premise sounded so salacious. And when I read the Goodread reviews, they said, this is a thriller. It's not body horror or graphic. I think if they had said that, I would have not been able to do it. But I just wanted a twisty, saucy, fun, sensational thriller. You know, sometimes you're just in the mood for one of those and one that wasn't, like, very tropey and different. Right. This really fit the bill. So I'd say if you're looking for that, it's great.
- [32:19]
B
I'm so glad you brought it because. Right. I'm so tired of so many of the thriller tropes that it's going to be. It's really nice to get one that's page turning but a little bit different. All right, good. Well, I'm bringing a little novella that along the lines of the book that you just read, is just that perfect kind of palette cleanser between a couple other heavier books. This is by an author that I absolutely love and I'm reading so much of when I'm in the mood for this kind of book. This is the book the Governess and the Rogue by Mimi Matthews. I am loving Mimi Matthews. We just did our survey of all of our listeners and one of the things they said was we love romance. We'd love a little more non spicy romance, closed door romance. And Mimi Matthews does this really, really well. So I wanted to bring it today. Here's our setup. Our lead character is Beatrice Layton. She is stranded in India without a reference and she basically needs to get back to England. She's had some things go wrong in her post in India. She needs to get back to England, but she doesn't have a dime to her name. So she's desperate enough to accept the only position that she can get, which is to be the governess to the absolutely dreadful Dimmesdale family. When she finds herself trapped on a months long sea voyage with these nightmare people and their five beastly children, her situation goes from bad to worse. And these people are terrible, all of them. This girl needs some help. She needs. She needs help. Enter Colonel Jack Beresford. And he is perfect because he is an injured ex soldier. My favorite kind of soldier.
- [34:01]
A
Mine too.
- [34:02]
B
And he's making his own way back to England. He's got roguish charm that hasn't been entirely tempered by 14 years in her Majesty's army. When Jack witnesses Beatrice's increasingly desperate circumstances, his instinct to play hero kicks in. And what starts as a gallant rescue attempt evolves into a fake engagement that complicates both their lives in ways that they did not anticipate, but that we completely anticipated.
- [34:32]
A
I love that.
- [34:33]
B
All right, so I started this book. It was late at night. I had just watched a really scary movie. I just watched Black Phone 2, which really scared me and my brain was too wired to sleep. But I was also too freaked out to dive into anything that was going to need much for my brain. I'd been ping ponging back and forth between two really intense books and so neither one of those were going to do. I just needed something quick and no emotional bandwidth. So Mimi Matthews is often going to be my go to for that situation. I always keep a couple of hers on my Kindle for this reason. She's consistent in that really great way. She's easy to read. The books are quick and they lift your mood. The Governess and the Rogue is short, as I said. It's just a novella. Which actually made it even more perfect for the moment that I was in. Now, I'm not gonna lie and tell you that this one is as good as my two favorite Mimi Matthews books, the Work of Art and Gentleman Jim. Both of those are five star closed door romances. Those books have tons of depth, more complexity, and they just had more room to develop their characters. But here you get this shipboard romance that unfolds almost entirely during that voyage from India back to England. You've got that confined setting. You've got a wonderful main character, Beatrice, who is an enneagram 8 through and through, which I love. Female 8, they're so interesting. She just can't help but be herself even when she knows it would be smarter to keep her mouth shut. She can't do it because of this. She's been fired from 15 different positions because she just can't keep her mouth shut. And of course, in the time period where we are, which is like late 1800s, there's a lot for her to be upset about, right? I loved Beatrice immediately. What really got me, and this might sound odd, is that Mimi Matthews tells us explicitly that Beatrice is not a great beauty. She's just a normal looking person navigating the world. Matthews does this in her books fairly often. And as a fellow normal looking human being, I genuinely appreciate it. It's this small choice that makes these love stories feel more accessible, more like something that could actually happen between real people, not just romance novel heroes and heroines. And again, I want to underscore, these books are clean. There's romance, there's chemistry, but there's no big scenes with a capital S. We're talking maybe a point five on the chili pepper scale if I'm being generous. Now that is either going to make you immediately interested in this book or it's going to make you want to give it a pass. Both reactions are totally valid. I just think it's something for you to know up front. So I ended up completely charmed. My chakras were cleared, my scary movie anxiety was soothed, didn't blow my mind. It's not my next favorite, Mimi Matthews, but it did exactly what I needed it to do. And sometimes that is worth a lot in my reading life. This is the Governess and the Rogue by Mimi Matthews.
- [37:41]
A
I love that. I'm for sure putting that on my list. I mean, a horrible family and a governess who's an 8. An enneagram 8. Already I'm anticipating the hijinks and what she's going to say to this family. And then the rogue seems so interesting and I'll just, it just sounds like it'll be so, so much fun. I can't wait to pick this up.
- [37:59]
B
By the way, she's named the family the Dimmesdale family, but they totally could have been called the Dursleys because that's exactly, that's the kind of people that we're talking about here. Oh my gosh. They were truly, truly awful. So you feel, you feel so invested when she gets rescued by this, this colonel. All right, tell us about your third book, Roxanna.
- [38:21]
A
Okay, so my book three is in a book, abrupt left turn from yours. It's A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar. So I debated bringing this book because it's been everywhere. It's an Oprah's Book Club pick. It's a finalist for the National Book Award. I know you've all heard of it, but I wanted to bring it because I think some people might have been scared off like me because it is literary, but I wanted to urge people to pick it up. So this is literary fiction. It is serious, but still only 224 pages and parts of it read like a thriller. So here is the setup. We are in near future Kolkata, India, which is a city ravaged by climate change. There's drought, there's flooding, there's famine. Food is scarce, the heat is unbearable. The city is collapsing. Okay. Ma lives there with her two year old daughter Mishti and her elderly father, Dadu. Her husband is already in Ann Arbor, Michigan working as a medical researcher. And after years of waiting, Ma has finally secured the climate visas that they need to join him. They're days away from leaving. But then Ma wakes up one morning and an unbelievable tragedy has occurred. A poor teenager from a village destroyed by floods is responsible. His name is Bumba. And over the course of the days that follow, their lives become inextricably connected. So I very deliberately there did not reveal the big premise because even though most people have probably heard it, if you haven't, don't read the back because it, it happens early on in the book, but it really is like an oh my God moment and it sets up the propulsive nature of the book. So just go in not knowing I'll say it, it does. This is not a thriller, it's a literary book. But as I said, it does have elements of a thriller and people will find it unputdownable. I had to put it down a few times because it is dark. And for me, as you know, Meredith, I've said, like, hardscrabble poverty, especially, like Indian literary poverty. I've read a lot of that, and I, I. It can really be hard for me. But because this is short and because Majumdar's writing is so beautiful, it's not flowery, it's not hard to access at all, but the imagery is really good and it keeps. You want to read. I just had to keep going back to it. And the question at the heart of this book is, who is the guardian and who is the thief? Now, that sounds really philosophical, but it's not. It's between Ma and who is good and who is bad and who, like, who is the villain and who's the victim here? And it's like a funhouse mirror. It switches every time you move. You know, the book really makes you think about your code of ethics, situational ethics. You know, how when your family's family survival is at stake, well, how do your ethics play into that? Now, it never hits you over the head, never talks about. I don't think ethics is mentioned once in the book. And it never goes into these philosophical directions. It's focused on this story, which is what I love about it. She trusts and respects her readers enough to just keep with the story and you can figure it out. But it did really make me think, like, what would I do in this situation? You know, how would I live with myself for what I did? You know? And the ending isn't shocking, like, isn't, like, explosive, come out of nowhere, but it is hits you hard, and it does make you sit with those questions and still wonder, who was the guardian, who was the thief? It's a book I've continued to think about long after I put it down. And that usually means it's a book that even if I don't love the experience of reading it with it, as in, I didn't enjoy it, like a Mimi Matthews book, it could still end up on my best of list because it just stays with me and I'm really glad I read it. That's A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar.
- [42:05]
B
Yeah, I'm on hold for this one at the library. And I know that you had said I didn't necessarily love the experience, but I'm really going to need you to read this one. So, yeah, I'm going to read this one too. And, and you're right. Sometimes those are the ones that stick with us the most. And there's room, I think More than anything, we need both those kinds of reading experiences, right?
- [42:24]
A
Yeah, you've taught me that. Actually, Meredith, I'm, you know, I'm a light reader. I like to stay away from dark. And you have left me messages about books where you say, I'm not enjoying this. I need to get through it quickly. But I'm thinking about it a lot, and it's made me realize, oh, that's another facet of my reading that I need to develop more. Right.
- [42:40]
B
That mix is what really creates a satisfying reading life for me. All right, speaking of books that end up on our best of list, this is a book that was right up at the top for me for 2025, but I have not yet brought it to the big show. I haven't given it a full treatment, and I really, really, really wanted to do that. This is the Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. All right, here's the setup. And this is one of those books. This is one of those books, Roxanna, that I do not know why I feel so tender and protective around it. You know, we talk a little bit about books on which we will accept no criticism. I don't want any book to fall into that category because I want everyone to have their own thoughts about every book. And some books I just feel very tender about. This is one of them. So even as I begin to talk about it here, I, like, feel my. My. Like these kind of emotional parts of my brain lighting up, which is so funny. Okay, anyway. The Goblin Emperor, Catherine Addison. Maya has been forgotten his entire life. He is raised in exile, ignored by his father, who's the emperor, and suddenly, catastrophically, he becomes the most important person in the country. 18 year old Maya is half goblin, half elf. He's the youngest son of the Emperor of the Elflands, and he was sent to that remote estate when he was only eight for a variety of reasons. And he was cared for by a cruel, resentful cousin for the the next 10 years. So when a devastating airship crash kills his father and all of his living half brothers in one fell swoop, Maya suddenly becomes Emperor. And he has absolutely no idea what he's doing. So in our story, we watch Maya navigate a court that is essentially full of sharks. And Maya is armed with nothing but his fundamental decency, his quick mind, and a desperate desire not to screw everything up. He has no friends, no allies, zero understanding of the protocols that are at work at court. He's never. He has no memory of ever having been there. And then he realizes that not only does he have to figure all of that out. But someone is also plotting to kill him, and we find out that that airship crash, it wasn't an accident, so he needs to figure that out too. So if you only know one thing about the Goblin Emperor, I don't want it to be that. As soon as I opened up this book, I knew that it was going to be a lifetime favorite. I can't even now explain why. And honestly, I kind of love that about this book and readers. You probably have books like this too, where you just don't know why they fell into you and like completed you in some way you didn't know you needed completing. There are things about this book that on paper, should have driven me totally crazy. And yet I enjoyed every single page. Here's one of those things. The names in this book are brutal. I cannot stress this enough. There are so many characters and they all have elaborate naming conventions based on their titles, their gender, their family of origin. And the names themselves are really, really difficult to keep straight. I read the E reader version, which offers zero help on this. I ended up getting a print copy from the library so that I could get a character list and some explanation of the naming conventions. And that was really, really helpful. So if you're planning to read this, I would say definitely get a print copy. Even if you're going to listen to it or you're going to do a digital version of your reading. The book is full of political machinations, court intrigue, power plays, navigating, trying to figure out who's your ally and who's trying to kill you. That kind of thing can, for me, in other books be really boring. But somehow Katherine Addison made every single bit of it completely riveting. I don't know how she pulled it off, but I was absorbed through every page, every twist and turn that we took. What makes it work, I think, is that you're experiencing all of this in real time with Maya. Also, it's important to know this is a swing up book. You know how much I love those where our protagonist goes from things being really bad or not knowing what he's doing, not having a single friend, to so much more. And Katherine Addison puts you right there with him through all the beginning slights and fears and then every victory, every moment where he gets it or he tries something new and he gets it right. And it's really, really interesting. There were steampunk elements, which sometimes don't work for me in fantasy, but it's. They're not overdone here. It just Makes the world feel rich. But it's not like exhausting itself trying to say to scream steampunk to us. You just feel the weight of what Maya is going through, and you're going through all of it side by side with him. If you love character driven fantasy where the protagonist earns your devotion because they're just really decent, this is your book. If you appreciated the gentle literary quality of something like Piranesi, that sense of rooting deeply for a protagonist who's really trying to figure out a confusing world, there's that same tender, hopeful energy here. While this book is ostensibly the first book in a series, it is completely and totally standalone. I probably won't read further in the series knowing myself as a reader, because apparently the other two books don't focus on the Maya character. And I was in it 100% for him. He has my heart. This book also, I should say, is just complete in and of itself, and I don't need to move any further. I realize after talking through all of this that I haven't given you a ton of concrete reasons to read this book. It's because I genuinely can't explain it to myself. But all I can say is, from the first paragraph, Katherine Addison had me and she never let go. It's the kind of book that reminds me why I fell in love with reading so long ago and why it's my favorite thing to do. This is the Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. It was my number two book of the year.
- [48:46]
A
Wow. Okay. I wanted to read it when you left me a voice message on it, but now even more so. I really like the political kind of intrigue in my fantasy. I really like fundamentally decent characters who are trying to figure crap out and the world is against them. And I love a great, like, emperor palace kind of. I love that sort of fantasy situation. Do you think this would be a good fit for me, Meredith? Do you think I would like it?
- [49:12]
B
I think I've really spent a lot of time trying to figure that out. I know that, like, political machinations that especially have to do with war machinations are not something that you love. This is not that. This is not battles and that kind of thing. It's more court machinations. And it's so character driven. What I will say is to anybody, and to you, especially Roxanna, if you open up the book and read the first 10 paragraphs, like, literally, if you read it for one minute and if you're like, just set it down. But if you open it up and you're like, oh, I don't know why, but I'm just like being reeled in. Then it might. It might be for you, but if you start it or finish it and don't like it, don't tell me about it. I don't want to.
- [49:57]
A
Of course. I would never do that to you.
- [49:59]
B
No, I mean, you can tell me about it, but like, people in general.
- [50:02]
A
Yes.
- [50:02]
B
I don't want anyone to be like, I. I just. My heart is so tender about this book. I mean, of course, read what you want, say what you want. But like, this is just one of those books. And I don't know why, but it's like, it's like I was always supposed to find it. Oh, I just love it so much and I want to read it again for sure.
- [50:21]
A
And how did you find this one? Remind me, was it just a library?
- [50:24]
B
The library? Library. Serendipity.
- [50:26]
A
It's really been working for you this year, eh?
- [50:28]
B
It really has. And I will say it's got a cover that is not that great.
- [50:33]
A
And it's a.
- [50:33]
B
And the book I picked up was a mass market paperback from my library.
- [50:37]
A
Wow. You were meant to find it.
- [50:38]
B
I mean, that's. It feels like it was. It was meant to be because there's just no rational reason. But like, if you told me if you took every other book from me and we're like, the only book you can read right now is this, and I would be like, happy as a clam. I would read it three more times.
- [50:51]
A
Okay. I think you've sold a lot of people on it now.
- [50:54]
B
I mean, I don't think a lot.
- [50:55]
A
Of people will pick it up.
- [50:55]
B
I'm not trying to sell people on it. I'm not trying to sell people on it because I just know that I, like, I can see it rationally and I could see why people would be like, I don't know what she is talking about with this book, because it's just like, you know, but my. It's Maya. Maya is half goblin, half elf.all enneagram1. I think that probably is. The thing is, I think I saw myself in Maya. Like, I think I recognized a soulmate in him. Not like I found him attractive or anything. That was. I mean, he's an 18 year old in this, in this book and he's half goblin, half elf. That wasn't the thing. It was just like, I felt like I understood him so deeply and then because I understood him, then I wanted everything to be okay for him. And that's the journey that we're on. And so that's why it's so satisfying, because there is a lot of. You know that it has a really great ending.
- [51:51]
A
Okay. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna pick this up. But like you said, like, I think you did lay that out really well. It's not for everyone. We all have those books, books that we love for irrational reasons, and they're close to our hearts, and other people will pick them up who are. Who read almost exactly like you. And we'll be like, this didn't hit for me. Not that it wasn't good. It just didn't hit for me. Great. Then, you know, move on.
- [52:14]
B
It has a 4.1 on Goodreads. Over 54, 000 reviews.
- [52:22]
A
Wow. And I've never heard of this. Right?
- [52:24]
B
It came out in 2015. It won the the locus award in 2015.
- [52:29]
A
Okay, so a lot of people feel like you do then.
- [52:31]
B
However, I think I very masterfully moved us into our deep dive.
- [52:35]
A
Yes, you did.
- [52:37]
B
And that is rereads.
- [52:40]
A
Right.
- [52:40]
B
This is something that I find so interesting in the bookish world. And we got a question. Let me tell you what the question was. Question is from bookish friend Georgia, who says hi, currently reading team, I had an idea for a deep dive. I thought of this when Katie said that she had reread nine books in 2025, including some that she hadn't really loved the first time around. I'd be interested to hear how you decide to pick up a book that you've previously DNF'd, or one that you've read before and loved. All the best and happy reading. So a couple different questions here, but the big question is rereading in general is one of those things that really seems to divide people. There are some readers that reread all the time, and it is an absolute joy of their reading life. And there are some readers that are like, I never reread because there are just too many books for me to get to. So, Roxanna, where do you fall on that spectrum?
- [53:42]
A
Okay, so, you know, Meredith, I'm a big rereader. I have been since I was a child. But I will say, sometimes, for me, rereading is a sign of good mental health. Sometimes it's a sign of not so good mental health. So sometimes when I literally can't take any more of the world in, I'm going through a hard time, I will default to rereading because it's soft. It's like those emotional mashed potatoes, and I can get pulled in too deep. Right but sometimes I'm doing it for comfort reasons or I'm doing it for other reasons, and I'm very thoughtful about it. And that, to me, is fine. So I just have to know my own personal thresholds, which we'll talk through in George's question. But regardless, I, I do like to reread. I, I like a. A small amount of rereading, like 5 to 10% in my full year of reading.
- [54:34]
B
That's still a lot of. I mean, I would say that's a really high percentage. Not like bad or good, but just like on the spectrum, that seems like a really a high percentage. I would say historically, I'm not a big rereader at all, but there are times that I do it and when I do it, I really enjoy. I enjoy it. So I am not a person who, I think, for you, a lot of times you will reread when you're slumpy in some other way. Your bandwidth is low, you're going through something else in your, in your life, and you're like, I just can't with a new book. I need that, like you said, kind of mental mashed potatoes, which is a great reason to reread. The other thing, of course, if you. Is that you and I are doing the ultimate reread in that we do a Journey to Three Pines together, right? And that is all rereading for me, and it's been a lot of it for you. As we work our way through the Louise penny series, there's 20 books you and I have finished. We've done deep dives into 10 of them, and we're getting ready to schedule the 11th, in fact. And so that kind of rereading, that is both a reread and a close read, that's the sweet spot for me. So oftentimes, to answer George's question, for me as a reader, that's what rereads do. That when I've decided that for whatever reason, I want to revisit that particular book because I read it a long time ago and I'm a very different reader now, so I want to see. See it through a different lens. And sometimes I'll do a reread because I want to read along with my kids or I want to read along with Johnny, or I want to read along with you. And that is really fun for me. It's really enjoyable for me. Also, I like doing rereads because it feels luxurious, because there is a part of me that gets that should. Going here, where I'm like, I shouldn't reread. And I felt like that even before I was a book podcaster. But now as a book podcaster, I'm like, oh, should I really spend the time rereading? But sometimes there's a really, really good reason to do it. Sometimes it just feels. Feels really good. But I will tell you, there's a. There's one other instance where I reread, and that has only happened a couple of times. But it's the situation where I finish a book and I reread it immediately. Like, I read it two times back to back. And those are really enjoyable because, like, I'm thinking of ending things. It's a great example of that by Ian Reed, where I got to the end of it and I was like, oh, I gotta go back. And. Because now, even reading it back to back, I'm gonna be a different reader because I know something I didn't know before, and the book's gonna be different for me. So those are the ways that I. That I reread you. Reread you. I think it's interesting because you will reread romance.
- [57:22]
A
Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So we reread very differently. So first I'll say yes. I for sure reread. When it's about comfort. Sometimes that's when I'm down. Sometimes it's just like right now when the situation, the world is a lot, and I need a safe space. And I'm happy to do that. Right. Right now, as I said, I'm re listening to all the Emma Lyon books because I love them.
- [57:44]
B
Oh, yeah, that. Right. You listen to all seven of those and then you turn. How do you. Okay, it's what. To me, it's one thing to read and then reread like a short book back to back because it's going to take like a couple of hours. But in your head, because you're a book podcaster too, you're not on every single week.
- [58:00]
A
But you.
- [58:01]
B
You read for the show. How do you give yourself permission to do a direct like what you did with MM Lion? Because that's a big project.
- [58:11]
A
So for Emma M. Lyon, I. Audio is really hard for me. I have a really hard time finding audio that I sink into. So if I sink into an audio, I'm okay to go back. Because the truth is, Meredith, I probably wouldn't have been listening to something if I hadn't found another audio.
- [58:28]
B
Got it.
- [58:29]
A
And so that's what I do now. I finished, I think the third or the fourth, some audio came in that I really Liked. So guess what I paused on Emma. I'm listening to the new audio. It's great. But if I start, I have to start like three or four or five before I find one. Not because they're not good. I just somehow, you know, I'm a mood reader and I'm really moody on audio when I'm out on my walks. So depending on what I want to listen to. So that's why I don't think I would have reread them all because that reading I can handle much more than listening. So I think because I was reading it, I could re. I, I was listening to it, I could re listen to them all. So that's what I'm doing. And then if I find audio I like in the middle, I will just fit that in. So that's, that's where I usually do it. Or I reread at night time. So at night time that's when I do a lot of my reading. And obvious honestly, with perimenopause, I'm up a lot in the middle of the night. So I can't start something new. I don't have the bandwidth. I can't take in character names. I know I want to listen to something that is not at all disturbing in any way or too complex. So that's where I'm like, well, I wouldn't be reading anyway. So, okay, so I'll throw in this reread and then I reread there, you know, like half an hour before bed or 2 o' clock in the morning. So that's kind of my comfort review reads now I do reread select romances. So my romance reading has gone down a ton because I love a romance, but I love a good romance. And for me, I don't know, it just hits a very particular note. I have to really love it. So I read a problematic summer romance by Ali Hazelwood earlier this year in the summer. I liked it so much that I just decided to reread it again right away because I just love the feelings it gave me. It made me feel hopeful and warm and fuzzy. And I did the same thing with an Emily Henry book. Not the latest one, but the one before that. I think I read it and then I listened to the audio right after. I know I'll be done in a couple of days. It's like watching a really good movie and then wanting to go back right away because you want to. The feel, the feels. I will interestingly never reread a mystery or like something where the puzzle and I need to figure it out. Once I've gone to the end, I'm like, oh, okay. That's what happened. I usually miss 50% of what's in that mystery anyway. Meredith. I'm never reading and taking notes and following. So they're all like that to me. So I almost never reread those because I just. I would reread everything then. So those I'm okay with. But if it made me feel a certain way, I will reread that. And then the last section I'll reread is like you said, close reads, but for me, that's a nonfiction fiction. So if it's a non fiction, I really liked like, you know, like a Getting Things Done. I read the David Allen book. I read that many times. Took so much more from it. I reread Essentialism because I really liked that book by Greg McEwen. And I reread Burnout by the Nagoski Sisters. There's books where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna pick up something new. I didn't get all of it, so I'll give it a couple years. I won't reread those right away, but I will go back and reread those. Those. And then there's some that I will, as I said, re listen to. So Tom Lake now at the end of every summer, I listen to Meryl Streep read that because it's just a journey for me. And I love that midlife character reflecting on her life. And I just pick up something every. It's like a movie. It's like watching a movie for me. So you know that I. I have reread three times. I get something out of every time. So those are kind of my different categories of rereading. The last one is when I reread a book that I read as a kid. And now I see myself from the older character's eyes. Yeah. So, you know, when I read the Shell Seekers, when I first read it, I wanted to be Olivia, who's sort of the power woman in it right now. I reread it as Penelope Keeling, who's the older woman, who's Olivia's mother, and see that in different ways. The last time I listened to Anne of Green Gables, not only did I identify with Anne, but I actually identified with Marilla and how hard that must have been to take this unpredictable child in Prince Edward island at that time and sort of, you know, in this very kind of close knit community and kind of raise her. So I love reading those books. Where I, I can now understand a different perspective and understand how the, how the writer did that. So that's the last category of where I reread. But I don't plan it out or think ahead of time. What am I going to reread? How am I going to reread? It's just kind of organically happens for me. Right.
- [62:59]
B
And see, I have to plan it out. But I love, I love, love, love that you give yourself permission to do rereads. And I think that it can be a wonderful part of people's reading life. So we will put up a post this week that is about this question of rereads and we want to hear from you. Do you reread? If so, what kind of book do you reread? How do you feel about the whole topic? I think it's endlessly interesting, this book, particular topic. All right, Roxanna, we are now going to visit the Fountain and you are joining me on what will be the last trip to the Fountain for currently reading. Because we are retiring this segment of the show because in the survey we had hundreds of you say, I can't stand the fountain. And please, please, please stop saying ping, splash. So your voices have been heard. Starting next week, Katie and I are going to debut a brand new segment at the end of every show that I think is going to give us what we need to keep things fresh and give you guys the lack of the words ping, splash. So for the very last time, Roxanna, and also, let's be cognizant of time because we do need to get wrapped up. What's your wish at the Fountain?
- [64:14]
A
Okay, I'm gonna make this a good one, Meredith, because it's the last one.
- [64:17]
B
Yes.
- [64:18]
A
So my Fountain wish this week is to bring back the currently reading classic of the literary society. So you and Katie had started these a while ago, and I know that they're still running where bookish readers get together and they talk about books that aren't. They aren't necessarily reading them together, but they get together on a regular basis to talk about what they're reading. Yeah, their current reads. Yeah, exactly. So off the top, I talked about how I don't have a big real life bookish community here. And I would love others in Toronto to reach out to me by Instagram or on the bookish friends and say, if you want to be part of a literary society, I would love to do that once every month. Every couple months. When it's weather like this, we'll do it virtually. But if you're in and around Toronto and you want to join, you know, DM me on Instagram, Find me in the Bookish Friends group. I'm @RoxanneTheReader, RoxannaTheBeater on Instagram, and let's make some real life book friends. And if you're not in Toronto and you want to start one virtually, well, reach out in the Bookish Friends and let's see if we can get those going. They're a real hit. And there's, as you said, a lot of new listeners. So if you want to start a literary society, now's the time.
- [65:26]
B
I think that is a fantastic idea. And given that I love all things virtual, I, I definitely, I feel like it doesn't even have to be, you know, it's definitely fun to get to know people who live close by, but it can totally be done virtually too. So that's a great, a great thing for, for people to do. It's so easy to just be like, yeah, everyone will just, we'll just round robin like the best three books we've read recently or books, you know, or books that we didn't like. All right, my bookish wish. I talked about it just a little bit on all things Murderful. I talked about all things Worthful. So I'll talk about it just a bit here. Bookish on pbs. This is part of the Masterpiece mystery series. It is about a guy like World War II ish time period. And he owns, his last name is Book, so his shop is called Books Books. And he's also a detective. And it's so well done. It's so well written. The banter is top notch. The mysteries are top notch. It's already been renewed for a second season and the benefit here is you can watch it and love it and feel very, very bookish and support PBS because we know that that's more important now more than ever. So that's my wish that you would watch Bookish on pbs. Ping, Splash.
- [66:46]
A
You convinced me to watch it. Meredith and me and Kieran are loving it. It's so good. It's so, so good.
- [66:52]
B
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 and.
- [67:00]
A
You can find me, roxanna@roxannethereader on Instagram.
- [67:03]
B
Our show is produced and edited by Megan Putamong Evans, and she is at most of Megan's Reads. 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@currentlyreadingpodcast.com you can also.
- [67:20]
A
Follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us at currently reading podcast gmail.com.
- [67:27]
B
And if you want more of this content or you want more Bookish Community, or if you want to just keep the show commercial free, you can join us as a Bookish friend on Patreon. You can also rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.
- [67:45]
A
Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [67:50]
B
All right, until next week, make your.
- [67:52]
A
Coffee be hot and your book be unput downable.
- [67:55]
B
Happy reading, Roxanna Happy reading, Meredith.