Season 8, Episode 3: Let There Be Light + Avoiding Book Amnesia

Summary

Currently Reading Podcast

Season 8, Episode 3: Let There Be Light + Avoiding Book Amnesia
Release Date: August 18, 2025
Hosts: Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Meredith and Kaytee delve into their recent book picks, memorable bookish moments, and tackle a listener’s pressing question: how do avid readers hold on to the details of what they've read and avoid “book amnesia”? With lively back-and-forth and heartfelt book chat, they deliver a mix of recommendations, practical tips, and personal philosophy for a life rich in books.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bookish Moments of the Week

[02:00] Kaytee's Moment: Bookstore Romance Day & Indie Bookshop Adventures

• Kaytee shares her excitement about Bookstore Romance Day (“sadly, by the time this episode airs, it will have already occurred”).
• She recounts plans with friends to visit Changing Hands bookstore, make “spicy friendship bracelets,” and possibly snag a “tattoo trope tote.”
• Upcoming: Attending a grown-up book fair hosted by her favorite indie shop at a wine bar—pairing book tastings and wine tastings.
• Quote: “You may think after this epic road trip summer that I would be burnt out on indie bookstores. In fact. Nope, I am not. You would be mistaken.” [03:47 – Kaytee]

[06:06] Meredith's Moment: Perfect Reading Light

• Relates her “mundane” but impactful discovery that a floor lamp perfectly over her reading chair made her fall in love again with print at night.
• Praises her teenage son Jackson for suggesting, assembling, and setting up the lamp—including matching the light bulb to her specifications.
• Quote: “Small things can make a big impact. And sometimes it takes a while for you to figure out what that small thing is that’ll really solve a problem for you.” [08:28 – Meredith]

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2. Current Reads & Book Discussions

Each host discusses three books, providing mini-reviews, personal connections, and content notes.

Kaytee’s Picks

• Louder Than Hunger by John Schu ([09:23])

  • A novel in verse about a middle school boy’s battle with disordered eating and his experience in treatment.
  • Explores handling sensitive topics with teens; advocating for engaged conversations rather than restriction or censorship.
  • Quote: “It’s sad, but also hopeful. And we know that John Schu, the author, made it through to adulthood.” [11:14 – Kaytee]

• Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory ([22:05])

  • A cheerful, opposites-attract sapphic romance about stepping out of routine and finding confidence.
  • Praises its lightheartedness, variety of refreshing “non-date” activities, and realistic characters.
  • Quote: “Trying new things as a newly single woman. Hello. Welcome to Katie’s newly single life.” [24:12 – Kaytee]

• Wayward by Emilia Hart ([31:36])

  • Multi-generational, feminist, witchy novel about three women in different eras connected by a mysterious cottage.
  • Lauded for vivid settings, short chapters, tight plotting, and atmospheric writing.
  • Quote: “Not only is the cover gorgeous… but the story inside is feminist and witchy and beautiful.” [32:33 – Kaytee]

Meredith’s Picks

• Culpability by Bruce Holsinger ([17:17])

  • Near-future literary drama involving a family’s involvement in a self-driving car accident and nuanced explorations of responsibility, AI ethics, and family secrets.
  • Praises Holsinger’s pacing and character development, acknowledges some readers might find the AI discourse heavy.
  • Quote: “I just wanted something that was going to be both quick and propulsive, but also was going to make me think.” [19:49 – Meredith]

• The Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni ([25:44])

  • A “business fable” that explains why certain work energizes us and other tasks drain us, with practical applications for teams.
  • Meredith raves about the readability and usefulness, recommends skipping the paid assessment.
  • Quote: “If you work in a team of any sort, you might grab this book and give it a go. It’s an enormously fast read…but the benefits, like all of his books, can last a career.” [29:42 – Meredith]

• The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig ([34:18])

  • Atmospheric fantasy about a diviner at a gothic cathedral and a skeptical, brooding knight, with slow-burn romance and deep character work.
  • High praise for the world-building, prose, and emotional arc, but notes the cover might not appeal to all.
  • Quote: “Sybil’s entire character arc centers around struggling to reconcile being the perfect version of herself versus being the real one.” [36:50 – Meredith]

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3. Deep Dive: Avoiding Book Amnesia

[40:20] Listener Question from Elise Devlin:

“So often I finish a book, and with days, sometimes even less, I can’t remember a thing about it. Do you have any thoughts on how to retain what the story was about other than a book journal?”

Discussion Highlights

• Normalize Forgetting:
  • Both hosts affirm that forgetting is normal and not a cause for shame.
  • Kaytee: “You might read 10 books a year or a thousand…there’s a lot of information going into your brain.” [42:14]
  • Meredith: “Or you should be able to remember it just off the top of your head. Absolutely. Brain science tells us our brains simply...shouldn’t [retain everything].” [42:14]
• Clarifying Your Goal:
  • Meredith recommends identifying the result you want from your reading memory—whether it’s for conversation, recommendations, learning, or personal reflection.
  • Personal strategies can then be tailored to those goals (for example, voice memos to self, journaling, or summary notes).
• Practical Retention Tools:
  • Writing things down by hand (even as simple as jotting names on scratch paper) can make a difference.
  • Pausing to reflect (even in silence) after finishing instead of jumping right into another book.
  • Using tools like ChatGPT or Claude to prompt yourself about forgotten details.
  • Using voice-to-text tools, e.g. Whisper Flow: “I highly recommend Whisper Flow if you like the idea of grabbing...that can be an additional tool.” [47:24 – Meredith]
  • Discussing with a buddy (or even an AI chatbot) can lead to better recall.
• Buddy Reading/Conversation Enhances Recall:
  • “The fact that we are, as mentioned, 350 episodes in and that you and I both recognize books that the other person talked about...is because we sat and listened to five minutes of conversation and then asked questions afterward…” [48:01 – Kaytee]
• Permission to Use Memory Aids:
  • “You don’t have to remember everything off the top of your head. It’s probably never going to be possible for you. So lean into using [tools]…” [44:26 – Meredith]

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4. The Fountain: Wishes, Presses, and Bookish Tools

[49:20] Fountain Wish – Kaytee

Pressing: Go As a River by Shelley Read

• A lush, literary tale of love, survival, and the changing Colorado landscape; compared to Where the Crawdads Sing for its sense of place and nature writing.

[51:21] Fountain Wish – Meredith

Bookish Tool: Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pens

• Recommends these as a “cheater fountain pen” for the joy of writing without the fuss.
• Quote: “It is so much fun to write with this because if you look at it, it’s the fountain pen nib...but then it’s just like a regular pen in the way that you don’t have to mess with ink.” [52:07 – Meredith]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free.” [00:24 – Meredith]
• “Reading is my favorite.” [01:16 – Kaytee]
• On book bans and parenting:
  Meredith: “Instead of shying away from this book and this topic, let’s read it together and really talk it through…which I think is so much more of an impactful way to parent, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.” [16:45]
• On cover trends:
  Kaytee: “There’s something happening with fantasy covers…I think if I had seen this cover in a store, I would be like, no, thank you. Not a book for me.” [38:52]
• On the impact of a good lamp on reading life:
  Meredith: “All week this week, I have read so much more in my chair at night…that gosh darn floor lamp is above my head.” [08:38]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 02:00 — Kaytee’s Bookish Moment: Indie bookstore joy
• 06:06 — Meredith’s Bookish Moment: Finding the right lamp
• 09:23 — Kaytee’s First Book: Louder Than Hunger
• 17:17 — Meredith’s First Book: Culpability
• 22:05 — Kaytee’s Second Book: Flirting Lessons
• 25:44 — Meredith’s Second Book: Six Types of Working Genius
• 31:36 — Kaytee’s Third Book: Wayward
• 34:18 — Meredith’s Third Book: The Knight and the Moth
• 40:20 — Deep Dive: Avoiding Book Amnesia
• 49:20 — Fountain Wishes and Book Presses

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Tone & Style

Meredith and Kaytee’s friendly, chatty, and no-nonsense book discussion style invites listeners to both feel seen as readers and to challenge themselves as book lovers and thinkers. Their conversational, opinionated, and sometimes gently humorous tone keeps the episode lively and deeply relatable.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode brims with practical tips for passionate readers, thoughtful ruminations on reading habits, and a feast of book recommendations ranging from heavy-hitting literary fiction and fast business reads to bright contemporary romances and magical tales. The hosts explore how to savor and remember what you read—and why it’s okay if you don’t recall every detail. Whether you're looking for your next great read or strategies to get more out of your reading life, this episode delivers.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[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 read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.

[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.

[B]

I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I have some good ideas, but sometimes I need a literal light bulb over my head.

[A]

And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona, and I am obsessed with indie bookstores. This is episode number three of season eight and we are so glad you're here.

[B]

Well, this obsession does not seem out of the blue, Katie.

[A]

Right.

[B]

This is one of the best things about us having a joint obsession. Right?

[A]

It truly is. I mean, I could say I'm obsessed with reading and that would be the most boring bite size intro I've ever had, but that's fine. Here we go.

[B]

I'm Katie Cobb and I love to.

[A]

Read and reading is my favorite.

[B]

To be fair, we've had to come up with an awful lot of bite sized intros.

[A]

Gosh, more than 350.

[B]

I mean, that's a lot.

[A]

That's a lot. And we've only repeated them very occasionally.

[B]

Right, right. Or forgotten them. All right, so we are going to do a deep dive today about a listener question. We had a listener who said, how do you guys go about remembering any of the things about any of the books that you finished? So we're going to get into that topic a little bit, which I think will be interesting because I definitely have thoughts about that.

[A]

Me too.

[B]

But first, we are going to start out with our bookish moments of the week. Katie, what is yours?

[A]

Meredith, this weekend is Bookstore Romance day and that's happening in real time. So sadly, by the time this episode airs, it will have already occurred. But indies all over the country are celebrating bookstore romance day. I don't think they have a bookstore murder day, but they probably should.

[B]

Bookstore Romance day celebrates romance. So is it about our romance with bookstores or is it about the genre?

[A]

It should be. It's about the genre.

[B]

Okay, got it.

[A]

So my local indie has special activities deals happening in store today. 15% off select romance titles. A small group of my local bookish friends and I are heading over to changing Hands. We're grabbing some romance books. We're making some spice friendship bracelets which are like those Taylor Swift friendship bracelets but you can write like smut on them. Okay. Like you just get silly and spicy with your friendship bracelets. And maybe grabbing one of their tattoo trope totes, which is very hard to say very fast, but they're like tattoo ish drawings of the different tropes that you find in romance books. I don't need another tote. Like I know nobody needs another tote, but it's so cute. So I don't know. We'll see what happens. Upcoming. We are also heading to Genuine in downtown Phoenix for a grown up book fair which is put on by my favorite and hyper local indie, which is called literally a bookshop in downtown Gilbert. Laura, the owner, does a great job taking her bookstore on the road this time for an adult book fair. And this wine bar that she's hosting it at allows for pour your own tastes. So you get a little card and and any of the wines you can choose if you want a 1 ounce, 3 ounce or 5 ounce pour. So you could do it as tasting of all of them or you could do like little half glasses or full glasses of any of the wines that you really like. And then you just check out with your card at the end.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

It's like a sampling of books, a sampling of wine. Book tastings. Wine tastings. It's super fun. You may think after this epic road trip summer that I would be burnt out on indie bookstores. In fact. Nope, I am not. You would be mistaken.

[B]

No, it stoked your fire.

[A]

It absolutely did. I thought about my bite size intro being I'm a bookstore slut, but I think that has a different connotation that I'm not totally against, but I just didn't want it to be my intro for the week. So yeah, that's where we're at.

[B]

Well, all of that sounds like so much fun and I just want to say I'm with you on the totes because I love good tote. They can be. I mean, God knows my adopted Any bookstore fabled does a tote better than anybody I've ever seen.

[A]

I have fabled totes. I've never been to fabled. I have so many fabled totes.

[B]

I just want to put a plug in for every time I buy a tote that I love. I'm always wishing that it was a T shirt.

[A]

I don't need any more T shirts either.

[B]

I know, but I wear my bookish T shirt.

[A]

That's true.

[B]

I don't use my totes as much as I wish I did. Think I will when I buy them.

[A]

Okay. Yes. And we haven't talked about this in a long time. The Zazzle Store for currently reading has these book totes for currently reading podcasts, Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

They are exceptional. They have a big, wide bottom which you can fit a lot of books in. It's different than, like your regular swag tote. So I am gonna put a small plugin for that. If you're looking for, like a good tote to take, like books on a road trip and books back to the library, whatever it is, those are excellent.

[B]

Well, I mean, that's what I use for the library because it is such a perfect. Just the construction of it is such a good, heavy, easy to carry. Like, we really kind of thought a lot about that when we chose the tote that we were going to do. So. Right. We did not intend to do anything.

[A]

About our merch store. We haven't even talked about our merch in, like, probably a year or more. But, gosh, no, we haven't.

[B]

But we do have so many listeners who also like our mug that says on one side, may your coffee be hot, and then the other side it says in your book, be unput downable. See those on social media all the time. So again, right there, you've got that and I was just using it this morning, so weird little non commercial commercial. We'll put the link in the show notes to that mug and we'll put the link to the tote so you can zoom right to where you heard about it.

[A]

Yep. Whatever that means.

[B]

All right, I have the world's most mundane bookish moment of the week, but gosh darn it if I didn't think about it 150 times this week. So I'm making it my bookish moment, even though it's not that interesting. I have long said, like most of us, I think most of us feel this way. I don't love light from above. Right. So I have a lot of lamps in my house, but I'm a sucker for a table lamp.

[A]

Okay. Yes.

[B]

But here's the thing. When I'm reading a hardback, because I'm old Now, I turned 52 yesterday, so I'm officially old. Although sexy as hell.

[A]

Is that the cutoff?

[B]

No, I'm just kidding. Because I'm so sexy, so.

[A]

Yeah, you are.

[B]

However, my eyes don't know how sexy I am.

[A]

Yeah, that's a problem.

[B]

Because they feel like they're old, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So they need more light than the light next to me wants to give to me when it's dark outside, when it's like truly dark. Right. But I've been kind of loving reading my print books more. I'm a little bit more in that mood. So my son, my 13 year old Jackson, said, mom, why don't you just get one of those lamps that just like go right over your head?

[A]

Like a gooseneck lamp or like a.

[B]

Reading lamp or like a standy tall lamp.

[A]

You know, the floor lamp.

[B]

Yeah, a floor lamp is. Good Lord, people are screaming into their car stereos.

[A]

The ones that sit on the floor and also go up. Got it.

[B]

You know, it's like a light, but it's on the floor. So, yes, a floor lamp. So I'm not crazy about the way that they look because it's a little bit cluttery for my eye in the room, but for pure efficacy. And actually, Jackson, I ordered it and then he put. Because, you know, lamps now you have to put together.

[A]

You have to assemble them.

[B]

You have to assemble a lamp. And Jackson's like, when did this happen? But he put it together for me while I was recording last week. And I came out and he had put it where I needed it, and he had like adjusted the bulb and everything so it wasn't like an annoying overly white bulb. And it matched all the other bulbs because that's another thing I really care about because Lord knows I can't stand bulbs that don't match. And I was like, okay, this is a lot better. And all week this week, I have read so much more in my chair at night with my print book because that gosh darn floor lamp is above my head. I know this is so boring, but the point is, small things can make a big impact. And sometimes it takes a while for you to figure out what that small thing is. That'll really solve a problem for you.

[A]

Yes. And let it be known that teenage boys, they get a bad rap. They're really freaking great.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Good job, Jackson. Way to A, point out the issue. B, help mom solve it. C, build the lamp, put it where it needs to be, Switch the ball like gold star.

[B]

It's like, mom, I even. I took the Amazon box. Crush the box, because that's another thing I can't have in my house.

[A]

Oh, my gosh.

[B]

I know I am not easy to live with. Katie, are you getting that? Are you getting all of these things that make me so difficult to live with?

[A]

I am the same I have very strong opinions about the things, so it's fine.

[B]

All right, so now that we've figured out where to buy our books and how to read them in our living room, let's talk about the books that we're currently reading.

[A]

Solving the world's problems one episode at a time, folks. Right. All right. My first book this week is called Louder Than Hunger by John Shue. There is a content warning for this one for disordered eating and diet issues. So if that's going to be hard to listen to, go ahead and click right over to Meredith's first read. This is a novel in verse about a young teen named Jake. Jake is a middle schooler who has a full life of reading and comics and volunteering at a nursing home and avoiding people his own age. He loves helping people, especially the elderly residents of the home and hanging out with his teachers. He'll read aloud to them like, he's a great kid, but he's just a little awkward. But what he really hates is food, or at least he avoids it mercilessly, along with mirrors. Because Jake suffers from disordered eating, his books that he loves to read have shown him kids like him, ones that don't fit in with everyone else. And he doesn't want to be that kid. He doesn't want to be an outsider. His internal dialogue tells him that shrinking himself down will help him to fit in with the rest of the crowd. When his parents start to realize that their son needs help, they get him checked into a residential treatment facility. And the bulk of this book is about that experience. It draws from the author's own experiences as a child and teen, a young boy with an eating disorder. So this is a raw, emotional journey, but it's also told in verse, so it moves very quickly. It feels very direct and to the point. We're in Jake's head, hearing his inner monologue, including the voice in his head telling him that he's not good enough and that even when he eats less, he just keeps feeling bigger. It's searing. It's difficult for anyone who struggled with or does struggle with disordered eating, but for middle schoolers on up through adults, it's also emotional and revelatory. It's a window into something that you may or may not understand for yourself. Bumi Isola first told me about this book on from the editor's desk about a year ago now. So I did snatch it up the next time I found a copy. It's been a while since I read a novel in verse. They're not that common of a format, but I was really glad to have this one make its way onto my TBR and then into my hands. This story is powerful and intimate. It's sad, but also hopeful. And we know that John Chu, the author, made it through to adulthood. And in fact, his author's note at the end of the book really adds to this narrative. So don't skip that if you end up reading this one. This is Louder Than Hunger by John Xu.

[B]

Now, here's a question. Would you or have you handed this to any of your kids?

[A]

I would let my teenagers. Levi is almost 12, so I'll count him with that. I would let both of them read. Would be hard, though. Especially Micah is my older teen. Right. He's just about to be 15. He is very aware of his body right now. So it would actually be harder for me to hand it to Micah than it would be to hand it to Levi. Because of course I want to build empathy, but I also want to. I mean, maybe this isn't even a thing, but, like, I don't want to get it in his head that controlling his food intake is the way to make his body look different than it does.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Just not even want to maybe introduce the thought process.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

That makes sense to me.

[A]

I don't know that part of it. I'm not about keeping my kids from any books that they're interested in reading, but I think this one with that child would take a lot of conversation and making sure that we had a really good understanding of why this book exists and what the author is saying with it and how we can empathize without sympathizing ourselves into something hard, you know, so all of those nuances around it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Would I like him to read it? Yes, but it would be a little harder.

[B]

I ask that because I was a kid and now I'm an adult with panic anxiety disorder. Health anxiety is my particular flavor. And so anytime I read something, like when I read Dini by Judy Blume, she had scoliosis was the topic there. And, like, I was obsessed with this. I had not known what it was before, and then I became obsessed. So, like, I was this kid who would get that kind of thing in my head that hadn't been there before. So I just wondered what your thoughts were on that. But I think your point about if it was something that he was really wanting to read, instead of keeping him from reading it, it would just be very intentionally discussed all the way through.

[A]

Right. Rather than, like, just let me know when you're done. Let me know if you like it. Like actually have a mother son book club over it? Kind of, yeah.

[B]

Because I'll tell you, if that had been my experience, for example, reading Dini, that probably could have really been a very helpful moment in my health anxiety journey. But instead it doubled down on that because I was sort of doing that in a vacuum, which is not about blame at all. This was the 80s. By the time this happened, things were very, very different. But I'm glad we've gotten to a new place of handling this kind of discussion with our teens well.

[A]

And that goes to. This is not a deep dive about this issue, but it goes to so many questions of book bans and what teenagers and kids should be allowed to read if they're reading in a vacuum. It's a different experience than having an engaged adult of any kind in their life, whether it's a teacher, a principal, a coach, a parent, or a caregiver that can have a conversation about those heart issues they're encountering in books. So this is why I'm against categorically book bans. But I also think it's important to treat books with the respect that they deserve. They change us, they impact us. They open our hearts in ways and open our brains in ways that sometimes we don't expect. So I think they have to go hand in hand.

[B]

Right. So often the book banned topic gets labeled as this, like, big political topic in the last few years, when in reality I really like you. Think about it in terms of parenting. I'm going to harken back again to my childhood in a book we've talked about before. Another Judy Blume book. Clearly, Judy Blume was bringing up a lot of stuff. I mean, we're not even talking about Are youe There, God? It's me, Margaret.

[A]

Right?

[B]

The book I'm thinking Now is Forever, which is one of the books that I remember that my parents, specifically my mother, again, we're talking about the 80s here, was like, you cannot read this book. Somehow in the Zeitgeist, she had figured out that it had sex in it. And it does. Teenage sex. And it was very like, okay, you can read all of this stuff. I mean, I was a total ink drinker kid, right? But you can't read this book. And I will double check your library stuff to make sure that you're not getting it. What did it make me do, Katie? It made me run to that book. But if what she had done was say, okay, you can read it if you want to, we're gonna talk about what's there because there are a lot of issues that you want to Talk with your 12 year old about having to do with sex and relationships and all of that. And it would have been very impactful if instead of me ending up reading it alone in secret because I'd been told in secret, we could have had some really impactful conversations about it. And again, my mother's a lovely person. This is not about my mom. This is really insert her for any parent of that generation of the 80s.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

And you know, many of us have the same story to tell, but just as a parent, I've always really tried to do things very, very differently and to say, instead of shying away from this book and this topic, let's read it together and really talk it through. Which is a way for me to impart my values to my child, whatever those values are in context with what's happening in the story, which I think is so much more of an impactful way to parent, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.

[A]

And effective. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, little mini deep dive, here's my first book, which also would be great for a very different kind of discussion because I read Culpability by Bruce Hulsinger. So here's the setup. The Cassidy Shaw family, Cassidy hyphen Shaw family. They're in a minivan that is a self driving minivan and it collides with an oncoming car on their way to their 17 year old son Charlie's lacrosse tournament. Two people die in the other car. And everything that this very upper middle class family thought they knew about issues of culpability, responsibility gets turned upside down. Charlie, the 17 year old, was technically behind the wheel, but the car was in autonomous mode. This is kind of in a near future timeline, very near future. His father Noah, who's an attorney, was sitting right next to him, but was absorbed in work on his laptop. And in the back we've got 13 year old Alice and 7 year old Izzy, they were on their phones. And mother Lorelai, who just happens to be a MacArthur genius grant winner who studies the ethics of AI, was buried in her own device and her own research on AI. So each family member in this book harbors a secret about what really happened in those crucial moments before the impact of the cars. And each one has a reason to believe that the accident was entirely their fault. Culpability landed on Oprah's book club list just a couple of months ago. And I already knew that I wanted to read it, but it went straight to the top of my TBR because I had read Bruce Hulsinger's most recent book, the Displacements, which is climate fiction that completely knocked me out. I loved that book. This author is now an auto buy for me and I in fact just got the Gifted School, which is further back in its backlist. I just got it from the library, so I'm going to be reading that very soon.

[A]

That's the one I've read.

[B]

Did you like it?

[A]

Yes. Okay, good. It's very intricately plotted.

[B]

So here's the thing about he writes with this incredible ease that makes complex, intricate emotional territory feel very navigable. We spend time in the car with this family before the collision I mentioned, and the pacing here is just everything. He introduces us to each family member with clarity and urgency. So much so that by the time that the cars collide, we know exactly who these people are and what each of them stands to lose. We feel it with them, which is no small feat because this happens in a short period of time in the book. I didn't know more than that basic setup when I started, and I strongly recommend that you keep it that way. Hulsinger is a writer that you can trust to unspool the story really well. He has earned that faith. This is a heady book with layers of issues at play beyond the most obvious questions of culpability and personal responsibility. We get into things like middle marriage, parenting, the things we keep private versus the things that we share, and how those choices ripple out in ways both large and small. I will say that some readers have struggled with the narrator. We're in the dad, Noah, his head. He's the narrator and some people have found him to be whiny and self pitying, especially when he complains about his brilliant wife and her success. And those things are true. Noah was not my favorite, but I did understand where he was coming from. Other readers have felt that the book gets really heavy handed with some of these AI related themes and he does try to tackle it from a lot of different vantage points. I think that's a fair criticism and I'll say that I as a reader am endlessly interested in that particular element. All the deep dives into the AI stuff and how it will affect my world were things that I found really fascinating. So know that about yourself before you get into this book. It would make a fantastic book club pick with all of these meaty themes to dig into, but it also worked really beautifully as a solo read for me. I just wanted something that was going to be Both quick and propulsive, but also was going to make me think. Holsinger has this gift for moving us through these crucial moments that define our relationship and our choices and. And we really find that at play here. I loved this book. This is Culpability by Bruce Hulsinger.

[A]

Sounds so good. I love that setup. Yeah.

[B]

Very, very interesting, by the way. Not gory.

[A]

Okay. It's giving me a small vibe of in an Instant by Suzanne Redfern.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Like the family and the car trip and the like. Everything changes in one moment. And how do we unpack that? Right.

[B]

That one was very focused on grief, and this one is very focused on issues of, like, what is our part in something that happens that's big but doesn't affect our family. Like, no one died in their car.

[A]

Right. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. We're gonna pivot a lot. I'm gonna talk about Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory. This is a happy and flirty romance for my middle spot today. Avery and Taylor are our main couple. Avery recently broke up with her boyfriend, but otherwise she's got her life exactly ordered the way she likes it. We love a girl with a plant, although even she would say that she's a little bit uptight. Same girl she would like to let loose a little bit, maybe try a new hobby, wear something that's not business casual, or date some women. Avery identifies as bi, but her experience with women is almost non existent. She's also completely unable to figure out where to start with all of that. She hasn't dated much, has flirted even less, and lacks the confidence to give it a try. That's where Taylor comes in. Taylor is known all around Napa Valley, where she works at a winery as the town heartbreaker. She never settles down for long, just broke up with her most recent conquest because was it a relationship? If Taylor can't really remember if her name was this or this, probably not. When her best friend bets that Taylor cannot make it through the summer without diving into bed with someone new, which is a whole two months, she takes her up on the wager, the winnings, having to throw her bestie's baby shower or getting to skip it entirely. It's worth it to her to keep it buttoned up for these two months. But it can't hurt to offer flirting lessons to Avery. Right? It perfectly pairs their skill sets. They are like the yin and yang of relationships. And it'll keep Taylor's mind occupied and away from her booty call texting habits. But it will also remind her that the Rest of her early 30s friends are settling down, getting married, having kids, and Taylor has never been anywhere near that. As their lessons commence, Avery is nervous and Taylor spends her time drawing her out, building her confidence, taking her to new places to meet new people. But it's hard to teach someone to flirt without being on the receiving end of some of that attention. And both women start to fall for each other, even though it's exactly wrong for what they want. Avery wants to live free and easy for a little while. Hmm. Well, Taylor is not supposed to be getting into bed with anyone at all. If it weren't for those two things though, could they be great? Could they maybe be the best thing that ever happened to them? This is not part of a series, but it does have some sweet Easter eggs, including characters that Guillory has written about in the past in other novels of hers. I loved the nature of trying new things as a newly single woman. Hello. Welcome to Katie's newly single life. At the core of this novel. They go to dancing lessons, they try pottery, hit up a karaoke bar, visit a book club, and try speed dating, all while getting to know each other through these non date dates. Taylor is easygoing and sensual. Avery has to find her inner confidence, whether it's in a large group setting or one on one. Their lives and personalities are so different. And this opposites attract relationship attracted me as well. The main trope here is neither friends to lovers nor fake dating, but it does skate in between the two of them. After a few misses with Guillory's writing and books, I was really glad to have this one sweep me away. This was Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory.

[B]

Aw, that sounds sweet. That sounds like a perfect palette cleanser.

[A]

Oh, yes, absolutely.

[B]

All right, well, mine is a palate cleanser for me. Although most other people probably don't find it this way because this is a business book. And it's another business book by my favorite business writer of all time. Clearly, I have made it my business to get through all of his books in quick succession. This one is the Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni. So here we have another business fable. This is what Patrick Lencioni does. It is my favorite way to learn about business principles. Here we meet a guy named Bull Brooks. He's an entrepreneur who's got really, for all intents and purposes, what seems like the perfect setup. He has a successful business. He's the CEO of his own small business. He has a supportive family, great wife, a really, really good and powerful team. But he is absolutely miserable at work, which hasn't always been the case, and he can't figure out why. Some days he's on fire, like he can't wait to get there, and other days he feels like he's got what he calls the crankies, dragging himself through tasks that should be simple, but somehow he's feeling drained of every ounce of energy. Now what makes this fable particularly interesting is that Bull isn't working in some big corporate company. He literally runs his own company. And he works with people that he hand picked. Like he's choosing the work they're doing, he's choosing the clients that they take. Things feel like they should be easier than this. So when he and his team stumble onto a framework that explains why certain types of work light us up and other types of work make us want to fake our own death, it's not just another personality type kind of situation. It's this framework that we learn about in the book. And I found it to be very, very useful. As I said, Bull is cranky. His wife, which we actually, this is kind of why I love these business fables. We actually get to see him at home with his wife who knows a lot about his current company and all of this, and she's like, you just are not your normal self right now. So he and his team get together to figure out why this is so difficult for him. And we go on to learn about the six types of working genius through this fable. And it is such a good way to learn about it because you are seeing the different types of working genius in action. So it's much easier to get a sense of what yours might be or what your team's might be. Again, not a personality typing thing like Myers Briggs or Enneagram. This is much more of a skills and abilities thing. And of course, we also get to see how things get better for Bull and for every member of his team as they start to implement this new framework. And it is so satisfying. It's a swing up book, but make it a business book. Katie, I love this so much. At the end of the book, as there always is with his work, there is a short section that goes over the six types of working genius, this framework in a more traditional business book kind of way, and a link to go take the assessment for yourself. That assessment is $25. And I took it. My whole leadership team took it. And I gotta say, I think the book makes it clear enough that you probably don't need the assessment to figure it out. All six of us on my leadership team, including me, had a sense before we even took the assessment of what ours might be. And that ended up being borne out by the assessment. So read the book, skip the assessment, if that's what you were going to do. I was happy to see that as a team, my leadership team, we were all pretty well distributed through the Six Types of Working Genius. If you work in a team of any sort, you might grab this book and give it a go. It's an enormously fast read with very short chapters. It won't take you long to read at all. But the benefits, like all of his books, can last a career. This is the Six Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni. I just adore the way he writes about business.

[A]

This one sounds so good. And I know that you've brought a number of Patrick Lencioni books to the show. Yeah. Some of them feel a little bit more obscure to me, but I can see the way that a business fable would work better with this setup.

[B]

Some of them are very, very useful for CEOs, leaders, the people who are really in a leadership seat. This one is very useful no matter.

[A]

Where you are on the team, for any working people.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. When I went to a used bookstore this summer and I browsed the whole thing when I was in the business section, when I saw Patrick Lencioni books, I felt like I had encountered a friend of a friend.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I was like, oh, Patrick's here. How fun. Because I don't think I've ever been in a bookstore where I encountered him in a section before. Like, I don't necessarily go to the business books section. Yeah. So to kind of stumble across it, it was like, oh, yeah, we have a mutual friend. Do you know Meredith? Like, I'm into bookshelves. Like, yeah.

[B]

He's actually an author that I would love to meet, because I would just love to tell him how impactful he's been on my career. And then, of course, in, like, a fountain wish type of situation, I would wish that he'd be like, I recognize your genius, and I would love to mentor you personally.

[A]

Oh, yes.

[B]

This is my fantasy.

[A]

Or you could be the root of my next business fable, because I want to tease out this portion of your leadership style.

[B]

Wouldn't that be great?

[A]

You could be his muse.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. Being someone's muse is my dream.

[A]

Ooh, wouldn't that be fun? Yes. But you have to sit on a pedestal to be a muse.

[B]

I think, like, physically, I can do that.

[A]

Probably. I'm picturing like Greek goddesses.

[B]

I can put on a heel and do it on one foot.

[A]

Oh yes, like the challenge that we see. Love it. Okay, my third book this week is one from the Indie Press list this year. It's Wayward by Amelia Hart.

[B]

Oh yes.

[A]

Warwick's Bookstore in La Jolla, California brought this title to the Indie Press list in April of 2025. Here's how they set it up, with a few of my own additions, readers will feel like this book was written specifically for them. Wayward is about witches, family and the bonds that tie women together. It's hard to imagine that a story about three women told in three different time periods could have so many rich details and nuances, but this book does, and it's an absolute treasure. In 2019, Kate inherits old Wayward Cottage from a great aunt and leaves London and her abuser. It's an old building with a rambling and overgrown garden, but she can feel that the house has a secret and that her aunt may have been the last one to know it. And yes, I do say aunt and aunt. But you'll deal. It's fine. In 1619, Altha is accused of having murdered her neighbor by having his own cows stampede him, which is my favorite thing. Altha's mother taught her about the magic of nature when she was young, not by casting spells, but but by communing deeply with the world around them. As we're aware, when a woman is accused of witchcraft, she knows it will take all she has to remain free. In 1942, during World War II, we meet our third character, Violet. She longs for a world that is not for females, one of education and autonomy. She's also searching for answers about her deceased mother and finds clues that lead back to a familiar place. Hart weaves the tales of these three women and the worlds they lived in but strive to conquer, together with the perfect mix of sorrow, love, and strength. I am so glad that the Indie Press list finally got me to pick this one up. I ended up finishing it in a single day. Not only is the COVID gorgeous like I would like it as wallpaper in my house, but the story inside is feminist and witchy and beautiful. I loved the transportative nature of her writing, the clearly defined three timelines, and the ways that the characters were developed throughout the novel. This one was always going to be a hit for me, so I'm not sure why it didn't make it to the top of my TBR in 2023 when it released. The chapters are deliciously short. It has these beautiful little illustrations at the top of each chapter. The audio is expertly done, and the book itself was a win for me from beginning to end. Who could ask for more than that? It was basically perfect. This is Wayward by Amelia Hart.

[B]

Oh, this is one that I have been saving for the perfect early fall kind of.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Because it is so beautiful and I've heard so many great things about it.

[A]

And that's exactly where it belongs. Which is why it's mid August. We're all starting to put in our holds for, like, Spoopy Fall reading, right? Yep. It needs to be on your list, folks.

[B]

You're going to start to see content around that coming out soon. From me, from so many content creators. Get your plan ready for Spoopy Spooky season. Okay, Katie. My third book was one that I absolutely loved. It is fantasy. It is the Night and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. Ooh, this one was really, really good. All right, here's the setup. Our lead character is Sybil Delling, and she has been drowning for a living for nine years. Not literally dying, but diving into this sacred water under this cathedral that when she does that, she receives visions from six mysterious figures called the Omens. She's one of six foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home. And she's gotten pretty good at predicting terrible futures for the lords and the common folk who trek across the kingdom's moors just to hear her predict what is coming their way. So people pay the cathedral to receive these visions. But just as Sybil and her sister diviners are about to finish their 10 years of service, they start disappearing one by one, until it's just Sibyl who's left. Into our story comes Roderick, a knight who thinks her visions are complete nonsense. So Roderick is a heretic in the best possible way, and he is not shy about sharing his views. He's rude, he's gorgeous, and he represents everything that cathedral has taught her to avoid. But when you're the last diviner standing and you need answers that only gods can provide, sometimes you have to team up with a guy who is very tempting but probably is bad for you because apparently, it takes a heretic to defeat a God. All right. Alex Cox, my good bookish friend, recommended this one to me, and I also had continued to see it popping up everywhere. So when I needed something that would actually hold my attention, I gave it a shot. It was exactly what I needed. This gothic romantasy completely pulled me out of my funk and kept me Turning pages when I had been struggling honestly to even finish a book. I had read Rachel Gillig's One Dark Window before this, and while I didn't hate it, I liked it. The Night and the Moth was much, much better for me. The world building here is gorgeous. Gillig's sentence level prose is wonderful throughout and the magical construct construct that she's created around these diviners and their visions is beautiful and haunting. The imagery absolutely sings. But here's the piece that really got me. This was unexpectedly poignant for this enneagram 1. Sybil's entire character arc centers around struggling to reconcile being the perfect version of herself versus being the real one. And if you're someone who battles your inner critic constantly, you're going to feel this piece of the story in your bones. The romance is a very slow burn. We're talking spicy scenes, only at the 75% mark and even then doesn't get higher than a level three. But I loved the relationship between Cybil and Rodrick, the enemies to lovers. Tension builds beautifully and both characters feel like equals who challenge each other in meaningful ways. Some readers have complained that the plot feels familiar. If you've read her previous series, that's not wrong. There are echoes of that other series, which starts with One Dark Window here in terms of structure and some of the world building elements. But for me, I felt like she was really taking her strengths that she built there and kind of building on them further, taking them to a new level. So if you need constant action or have zero patience for atmospheric setup, this might not be your book. The gothic tone is heavy throughout and that might also not work for everybody. But if you love books like especially the 10,000 doors of January by Alixie Harrow with that atmospheric storytelling, I think you're going to find a lot to like here. This is the Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gilligan. It's very memorable. Like just I read this a while ago and it as soon as I started talking about it, I had so much floating through my mind. So much like foggy. More. Yeah, just all of that vibe.

[A]

I love that. I feel like there's this thing happening with covers though. Like I looked this up while you were talking and I kind of hate the COVID Uh huh, sure. Because it has her hair covering her face and then like this body spin split down the middle and that could be perfect for this book. But there's something happening with fantasy covers. I know Jamie golden could go off for half a year on Quicksilver by Callie Hart. And the COVID of that book, which has, like, mercury flowing out of somebody's eyeball, it looks pretty gross. Right. But there's something happening with fantasy covers. And I think if I had seen this cover in a store, I would be like, no, thank you. Not a book for me. So I'm glad you set it up. And I liked hearing the atmosphere and the setting and the characters behind it, because now I'm much more interested in it than if I had seen the. Like, it looks. I don't know, AI. Generated, maybe. Yeah.

[B]

And they also really, like, almost always really appeal to much younger. Like a.

[A]

Maybe that's it.

[B]

Older, teen, Too old. Yeah. From a cover perspective. That's why I think it's useful when we find one that kind of cuts through that noise and is really, really good and isn't just doing what every other romance is doing at this point. I think we've entered that part of romantasy that is like what happened with thrillers where we had some really good ones, and then it just devolved into this, like, everybody's sister is missing. Everybody killed someone in their teen years.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So, yeah, I think that's what's going on here. But this one, the Night in the Moth, was really, really good.

[A]

Excellent.

[B]

All right, Katie, let's talk a little bit about our deep dive, which comes from a listener question. Here's what the reader said. Hi, ladies. I love your show. I had an idea for a deep dive after listening to you talk about what happens when you end a book. That was a fascinating topic for me because I'd never thought about the timing of finishing a book. I took your advice regarding not finishing in a rush in an effort to retain the storyline better, which leads me to this idea. So often I finish a book, and with days, sometimes even less, I can't remember a thing about it. Do you have any thoughts on how to retain what the story was about other than a book journal? Thanks for all you do, Elise Devlin.

[A]

Thanks, Elise.

[B]

Katie, what do you think about when you think about retaining information from the books that you read?

[A]

Well, I think we should call this bookish amnesia. Yeah, this happens to all of us. Right. Sometimes I need a little bit of a memory jog, Like a little bonk on the head. Whether it's being provided with the author in addition to the title, just a little more detail, or looking at the COVID even if I hated it, in order to bring a book back to me. But I also think there's no shame and we have to lay down the idea around it of reading the Blurb again or Googling spoilers to make sure that you're remembering the things that, like, the Internet is supposed to be a tool. Right. You can use it in this way. If somebody says, oh, you read that? What did you think about it? And you say, hold on, let me refresh my memory a little bit. You go back and look at your review, or you Google spoilers on the Internet. Then you're like, okay, okay, yeah, it's in there. I just couldn't access it right away. That's okay. You might read 10 books a year or a thousand books a year, and either way, there's a lot of information going into your brain. So I think that's. The first part is like, lay down the idea that you're not allowed to use any help to remember. Right.

[B]

Or you should be able to remember it just off the top of your head. Absolutely. Brain science tells us that our brains simply aren't able to retain everything, and they really shouldn't.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We couldn't go through our lives if we did that. When I thought about this topic, the very first thing I thought about is not going to be a surprise to you, Katie, because you've heard me use this framework for other things in our business. But I always ask myself, what's the result I'm looking for? So my question, if Elise was here with us in person, would be, what's the result that you're looking for? What would you like to have happen better?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

In what instance do you need that recall? And by getting that detail, it would be even easier to figure out how to make this happen. Because if the result I'm looking for, obviously as a podcaster, I want to know what I thought about the book. So I have a system, right? As soon as I finish a book, I use a voice memo. I just kind of download the things that are top of mind about what I thought about the book. And then later, when I do my book journaling, I put that together with just the setup that I did for it, and then that goes into my book journal. Then if I need to go grab that, that is what I would use. Now, I do that for two reasons. One, because I'm a book podcaster, I need to be able to gather my thoughts so that I can talk about them here on the show. But even before that, when I was just a reader, I did the same thing, because the result I was looking for was to be able to remember enough about my reads so that I could recommend it to other people or know what I thought about an author's previous book, so I'd know whether I wanted to read another book by them. So that's the result that I was looking for. So for me, gathering that information that helped me to do that specifically was what I put into my book journal. There could be many other results that you're looking for to be able to retain the information. You know, if you're trying to learn something, if you're trying to educate yourself on a particular topic, you want to do a book flight. So you want to retain some facts and figures as you read other books about that topic. Maybe you're doing some research. Those are all things that would equal a different strategy.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The question that I think is really maybe the permission slip is what needs to happen, which is what you've said, Katie. You don't have to remember everything off the top of your head. It's probably not ever going to be possible for you. So lean into using ChatGPT to ask the question, like, remind me what the night and the moth was about.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Okay, great. Yes. Now I remember what I think about it. Let's go. Or put some things into a book journal of some kind of spreadsheet of some kind for easy access.

[A]

Well, and that's the other part of it. Elise specifically says, is there anything other than a book journal? Like, she's like, give me an assignment, but not that one. I do think there's something to be said, especially for the way a lot of us retain information for writing things down, ideally with your hand and a paper and ink, because it puts muscle memory into it. And that doesn't necessarily mean a book journal. It could be a piece of scratch paper where you jot down character names as you encounter them, and then you throw it away when you're done. This does not have to, like, be willed to your grandchildren when you die. It's not necessarily a keepsake forever. Just the actual act of writing things down as you read will change the way that you're interacting with the book and therefore the information that you retain. So if it's a nonfiction book, making little notes about it as you read is going to be different than just letting the audio wash over you and getting a feel for it in general. So I think if you want to remember characters or plot points, physically involving your body in that remembering is usually very helpful. And unless you're being paid to write reviews for upcoming releases or read a book as an editor in order to make sure it has a cohesive storyline, you don't have to recall Every detail. These notes, these handwritten notes can be very short, single words, but putting them somewhere is going to be useful. And then, of course, we've talked about finishing with intention. So if you're in the car and you finish a book and blast directly into the next one, you're not going to be able to retain that stuff. That's what Meredith is talking about with making her voice memos. Stopping and taking time to figure out what you think about it before you move on to the next thing is very useful. You may have forgotten how the ending went by the time you get to a stopping point. So I recommend sitting in silence when you're done if you're not ready to make that voice memo or some kind of note.

[B]

I do want to recommend just a tool that has made voice memoing even easier for me, which is an AI tool called Whisper Flow. I have it on my Mac laptop and on my phone. It basically takes voice to text and does it even better, makes it even easier, does more formatting. You don't have to put in periods and commas, like into your speech when you're doing it. It does all of that for you.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

I highly recommend Whisper Flow if you like the idea of grabbing. You know, this, of course, would apply to voice memos, but anything else that you just want to talk into your phone, I do a lot of that. I'll talk to Claude, the AI tool that I use the most. And Whisper Flow is just an even better way to do that. If grabbing it in that way is useful to you, that can be an additional tool. The other thing is, I know when I buddy read a book and I talk about it all the way through, I remember a lot more of what's happening.

[A]

Right.

[B]

That's another potential way that you could go about taking books in in a deeper way that may help with your recall.

[A]

I absolutely agree. Or simply talking to someone else about that book. Yeah. The fact that we are, as mentioned, 350 episodes in and that you and I both recognize books that the other person talked about, even if we never read them, is because we sat and listened to five minutes of conversation and then asked questions afterward about that specific title, even if it was six years ago. Right. So there is something to be said about just verbally bouncing things off. I do know there's a bookish friend who said that she doesn't have real life bookish friends. She does this with Claude. So she'll say, I just finished this book, ask me questions about it, and I'll tell you my answers and it becomes this kind of conversation, but it helps her really solidify in her mind where that book landed for her.

[B]

Yeah, that capture. I don't know how to get around that piece of it. I feel like that's not the answer that Elise wants, but I feel like that is the best answer that we can give.

[A]

Yep, agree.

[B]

All right, hopefully that helped. If you have a bookish question of any kind of and you would like to hear us just bandy it about, send an email to currentlyreading podcastmail.com and you might hear your question answered on the show. Okay Katie, let's make a couple of wishes at the fountain. What's your wish?

[A]

All right, this wish I am harkening back to early episodes. I'm going to press a book into our listeners hands. So this week I will be pressing Go As a River by Shelley Reed into your hands. This 2023 debut novel swept me away through the hills of Colorado to a verdant valley of peaches. This landscape is super familiar to me, living in northern New Mexico for so many years, making that drive to and from Colorado Springs to visit my Heather, and even as a child when I would drive to Durango, Colorado with my family to go skiing. But Shelley Reed brought it to life in a brand new way in this love story that's often compared to where the Crawdads Sing because of the way that nature is interwoven into the narrative. Victoria Nash is our main character. She runs the household as the sole surviving woman in a family of men. When she connects with Wilson Moon, who is a young indigenous man who's been displaced from the Four Corners region, their connection is lightning quick and unexpected for them both. Their young love story leads to tragedy early in the book and Victoria flees to the mountains where she survives alone in a small shack. She does move forward with her life and attempts to rebuild and regain what she had lost, all while the government plans to flood her hometown by rerouting the Gunnison river to flow straight through her family's land and peach farm. This story is literary fiction. Light. It's sweeping, it's gorgeously written, it's literary. It's not all that happy ever after with beautiful bows, but it's propulsive and it's easy to read. It goes down so easy as the summer season draws to a close. For the rest of you, but not for me, it's the perfect time to pick it up and grab a ripe summer peach and let this setting sweep you away. This is Go As a River by Shelley Reed.

[B]

Oh, that is one that I really, really need to read. I have a copy of that on my shelf. I need to read that one.

[A]

It's so gorgeous. Oh, I love it so much.

[B]

All right. My fountain wish is that you would consider experimenting with a new pen. I love different kinds of pens, but I'm very, very particular. Hearkening back to my bookish moment of the week. Also, Roxanna, our co host and my dear friend, is a person who loves a fountain pen. Oh, she loves very special, like actual old school fountain pens and special inks, and she really invests in, like, beautiful papers. And I'm not there because it feels like a lot to me. So I went looking to see if there was, like, a poor man's version of a fountain pen.

[A]

A cheater fountain pen.

[B]

A cheater fountain pen. Exactly. And it turns out that Pilot makes a disposable fountain pen called the Varsity Disposable fountain pen. You can get it in a six pack. This is what I did for only $14 for six pins. So I thought, well, how good can these be, right? It is so much fun to write with this because if you look at it like it's the fountain pen nib, like the really old fashioned, like very sharp and pointy, but then it's just like a regular pen in the way that you don't have to mess with the ink or put ink in or like replace a cartridge or any of that. It writes very, very fine, which is something that I like in my writing. It flows really beautifully. It has like an advanced liquid ink system and it uses a real fountain pen nib. So the writing is really smooth. It's just a joy. And it's one of those tiny things that I wish that someone might want to add to their life. A cheater fountain pen. The Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pen six pack. Only $14.58 for six pens on Amazon.

[A]

Does it have. I know this is like. I feel like it has to that, like, scratchiness to it. It does nib scratching against the paper.

[B]

It has just enough to make you feel like you're having that. But honestly. Okay, I'm just laying all my weirdness out here. You guys know I'm so sound sensitive sometimes. That little scratching sound I thought might bother me. It has just enough to, like, you get that specialness, but not so much that you feel like you're driven crazy by the sound.

[A]

Like nails on a chalkboard.

[B]

Yeah, it's really, really lovely.

[A]

Oh, it sounds fun. I might put this on like my birthday wish list or, like, Santa can put it in my stocking this year, maybe.

[B]

Perfect. And maybe you try it and you don't like it. But what I love about it is then you're just out $14.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. You haven't invested in, like, a beautiful glass jar of ink and, like, these extensive setups. Right, right.

[B]

But it is interesting because when you look at it on Amazon, it has, like, a little video, and the video starts out with this person writing, and I'm like, that's the person that you chose. Their writing is so bad. Oh, it's so bad. I was like, oh, my gosh. But anyway, so that's just a little peccadillo.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. Well, maybe they call it chicken scratch for a reason. It's the scratching noise and also the style of writing.

[B]

Yes, exactly. It's a boy, too. You can clearly tell. 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, meredithmonday Schwartz on Instagram, and.

[A]

You can find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited even from maternity leave every week by Megan Putabong Evans. She is on maternity leave. You can find her on Instagram and her beautiful baby at most of Megan's reads well.

[B]

And we have Chrissy.

[A]

Chrissy, who is saving our lives and keeping us from losing it while Megan.

[B]

Is gone and doing a beautiful job editing the show in her absence. We are so, so grateful for Chrissy's help on this because we love you, Chrissy. I really was not sure that we would be able to find anyone who could pinch it in a way that would be great for all of us, but Chrissy has nailed it, so that's been wonderful. All right, full show notes done by Chrissy during this period of time with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps. So you can zoom right to where we talked about. It can be found in our show notes and on our [e-mail] I should say Katie, too. You can go to our website currentlyreadingpodcast.com and you can do a search there for different books that we've talked about.

[A]

And then go to those show notes and listen to what we said. It's very special. You can also follow the show at currentlyreading podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading.

[B]

Podcastmail.Com and if you love this kind of content and you just want more of it. We have the Patreon for you. For just $5 a month, you can join us as a bookish friend and you get so much content, so much community, and you keep this show commercial free. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.

[A]

Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.

[B]

And now we're going to say that thing that is on so many of your mugs. Until next week, may your coffee be.

[A]

Hot and your book be unpredictable.

[B]

Happy reading, Katie.

[A]

Happy reading. Meredith.