B (3:50)

Indeed. And some of us who cannot attend Book Lovers Weekend are very excited to get to listen in on that conversation from afar, even though it'll be a few days later when we get to hear it. So I, as a patron and a host of currently reading, I'm very excited to get to listen on that.

A (4:06)

Yes, I am looking forward to that. Even if I am also nervous about meeting people in person, having them think that I'm really very disappointing in person. We will see. It always ends up being a good time. That's what I know for sure.

B (4:20)

It is a good time. And if you are interested in that good time, you can join us over@patreon.com currentlyreading podcast for just five bucks a month. You get all that great content, you keep the show commercial free and you get to be part of our bookish friends. The best place on the Internet.

A (4:34)

I love it. All right, mischief managed for the month. The whole rest of the month will be interruption free. So let's talk about our bookish moments of the week. Katie, what have you got?

B (4:45)

All right, Meredith. Well, this is not an ad, but I have seen Project Hail Mary twice in the past week and I cannot get over how much I love it. I'm. I'm not afraid to admit that I was hesitant when that movie was announced because I felt strongly about the book when I read it in. I went back and looked June of 2021 and I didn't feel like Ryan Gosling could pull off Ryland Grace, the title character, not the title character, the main character, correctly. Well, readers. Well, Meredith, I am so happy to eat my words. I, I was so anxious and then it got rave reviews and I was still like, but what about Rocky? What about these big plot points that I have found myself just obsessed with for years and years now? I needn't have worried. The entire film from the first moment to the very last post credit sound effect is perfect. As with any book adaptation, there are things that get eliminated or changed from that full length novel, which is 16 hours on audio, to a two and a half hour movie. Like, there's stuff we've got to condense, right? But the heart of that book and the relationships that we find in those pages were just perfectly translated to the screen. I'm not a person who cares a lot about the sounds of a movie. I don't. I'm not like, oh, but the soundtrack and the score. But the soundtrack and the score. I, I was so struck by the way they used silence and song and sound effects to perfectly engage the watcher in the experience of this movie. I am going to shout out our friend science whiz Liz, who points out that some of the science in the movie is off, especially that the centrifuge on board the ship is not balanced correctly and all the scientists who watched it were very mad about that. But the central sentiment, the central feels of this movie. Nailed it. I cannot wait to watch it again. Five stars to Project Hail Mary, the book and the movie. Amaze, amaze. Happy, happy. Jazz hands. I loved it so much. It had to be my bookish moment. Have you watched it yet, Merida?

A (6:42)

I have not seen it yet. I have had a very busy couple of weekends. But I have so enjoyed. I think every friend I know who's seen it has said, has absolutely raved about it. So I am very much, very much Looking forward to seeing it.

B (6:56)

Do you think Jackson will watch it?

A (6:58)

Yeah, he'll probably. Yeah, he'll probably go with us. But I was trepidatious because, you know, I was like, ryland Grace is not sexy. He's not a sexy main character at all. And Mr. Gosling has chemistry with a centrifuge.

B (7:11)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a thing. So, yeah, they have redeployed the Jonathan Bailey of it all with the slutty little glasses trope and the way that Ryan Gosling has a relationship with these glasses on screen and his cardigan is not making any woman sad or any gay man or honestly, probably any straight man. It is so great. He's so great.

A (7:32)

I'm so excited. I'm going to be seeing it very, very soon. For sure.

B (7:37)

Yes. I think. I mean, I might go again tomorrow. We have $5 movie tickets on Tuesdays at my favorite theater, so I probably should just go see it again for science, you know?

A (7:46)

Exactly. So you'll really, really know your source material.

B (7:49)

Exactly, Exactly. What about you?

A (7:51)

All right. My bookish moment of the week is that I, through a weird set of circumstances that I won't bore you with, I ended up having the opportunity to take back one of the rooms upstairs in my house that Jackson had. Had initially had then moved out of, and then moved back into and then moved out of again. It's a long story. This is over the course of several years that this has happened. But there's one room upstairs that I think is the absolute best room for a guest room.

B (8:23)

Right.

A (8:23)

So I took Jackson decided to move out of it, and I was like, look, one and done, babe. You're. This is it. I am taking this room back. I'm gonna do something really, really great with it finally, and I'm gonna make it into a fantastic guest room that is book inspired and an English country kind of, you know, like my trip to the Cotswolds kind of inspiration.

B (8:48)

Yeah.

A (8:48)

And also, it's a place where upstairs can kind of be my, like, hideaway office. Like, I have very comfy chair in a very pretty window where I can, like, go and hide away if stuff downstairs is, like, too loud or too interrupting. So the thing is that I very much enjoyed it, but all of my inspiration was taken from a teacup that my friend Lexi gave to me for Christmas a little over a year ago. And it's pink and green, and it's the most beautiful teacup and saucer floral, you know, painted pink with all of these green florals, and in the bottom of it, when you empty the cup out, it says in beautiful script, you have been poisoned. And the saucer says, buy. And it cracks me up every single time. It is one of my favorite gifts I've ever received because it's so perfectly me like it. It like, looks very like ladylike and put together, but then it's also very murdery. So I decorate. I did the entire room in like neutrals with pops of pink and green. And all of the art on the wall, all of the, everything is based around this particular cup. And then I did some like really pretty prints that are book related. And then I decided to style the room with very particular kinds of books. Like, I have a big bookshelf, but I didn't want to make stuffed with books. I just wanted a few books that a guest might be like, oh, this is kind of interesting. So I chose a few books, like a few books of poetry. Some of my favorite middle grade, very orphan centered middle grade. Some of my Edward Gorey art, all of my Wind in the Willows books. Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson. I love that. So I just. It was fun to style a room, make it bookish, but it's a guest, and then design it around a murdery teacup. It was really fun. I'm really happy with the final product and I will definitely put pictures up because now I'm excited to see who my first guest is going to be.

B (11:00)

Oh, my gosh. I'm. I'm very excited about this and it's already giving me ideas. I do have a friend who I know I've heard this story, but name is escaping me now that selects the books on the nightstand of their guest room based on who is coming to visit. And so she curates a collection based on who is coming to visit. So I was wondering how you were going to choose those books, but I like the idea of kind of a standing collection that plays into the theme of the room as well.

A (11:27)

Yeah, exactly. It's like a very, like, it's a kind of a view inside my head. But then I think that's a great idea as someone is staying in the room. Then like a little, A little stack of books that is. That are chosen just for them, not just because, you know, they look great in this room. So, yeah, so that's a very, very good idea. So it was fun. I had a really good time with that. All right, should we get into talking about some of our recent reads?

B (11:54)

Yes, indeed.

A (11:55)

All right, what's your first one.

B (11:56)

Okay, my first one. This is a super rare occurrence for me. I don't think I've ever done this in the history of the show. But I am bringing Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson as my first read today. And this is why it's weird. I read it myself in January, but I hadn't yet brought it to the show before I reread it again as a read aloud with my kiddos just a few weeks later. So today I've already read it twice, which is not a thing that I usually do. Now though we've all finished this one, I'm ready to tell you about it. Tiffany D. Jackson, as we know, is a well established writer of ghosty, creepy young adult horror. She has thoroughly creeped out both me and Meredith and horrified us and made us like cover our eyes and run away. Especially with titles like White Smoke and Groan, which both just blew us away. This is her middle grade debut and I was chomping at the bit to see how one of my favorite horror writers could pivot to a middle grade format. So here's the setup. Kehlani is our main character. She's a Brooklyn girl through and through, and she's been having a rough year. Her dad was recently sent to prison for fraud and embezzlement, but he's definitely innocent. Kehlani just needs to prove it. They only get to talk for a few minutes once a day, and even that is going away soon because Kehlani is going to visit family friends on the east coast on the island of Martha's Vineyard for the summer. And she does find out very soon after that that that's the one that the Obamas summer at. So this is a very exciting development for her. After a rough boat ride that includes getting seasick, Kehlani arrives in this picturesque little village community where she is reintroduced to her childhood bestie, who has changed quite a bit in those intervening years. London and Cassie are the girls, the Watsons granddaughters and they are stuck up and standoffish and they barely tolerate Kehlani's presence. After the very first night when all three girls have to sneak out together because it's like, well, we better take Kehlani or she's gonna tattle on us. In order to attend a local party, Kehlani wakes to the news that one of the boys they met there, a young adult man named Chadwick, not a man, he's under the age of 18, 16 or 17 years old, was found dead that morning. This is chapter one, Chadwick is dead. He was a great swimmer. So the assumed and told story of a shark attack or a drowning just doesn't make sense. And Kehlani makes it her mission to find out what really happened. But digging through a shady underbelly of a small town can reveal long buried secrets and lies, which makes everyone feel a little vulnerable and look a lot suspicious. This was so fun. It's so good. Even though my kids and I read aloud nearly constantly, I'm pretty sure this is the first murder mystery that they've read with me because it's hard to find middle grade with murder in it, right? But they loved it. They were constantly making guesses as to what they thought happened, who may have been responsible. They would put their heads together after we finished reading for the day to make accusations and to remind each other, no, it can't be that because of this clue or this conversation. So they were like little detectives. I really liked having the inner know of, like the inner omniscient narrator part of things because I had already read it. So I knew the end result that we were reading toward because of my previous reading. And I was using that knowledge to take notes this time of clues that I had missed the first time around. Which means this is a really well written middle grade novel because there was stuff that I was picking up the second time that I hadn't seen the first time. I thought it was artfully done. Jackson has built a name for herself writing twisty tales of horror and suspense. And my family of kiddos from 7 to 15 years old was duly impressed with the way she brought those talents to the middle grade space. Overall, the kids rated it 4.75 because they were split evenly between four and a half and five. My rating was four and a half stars, so we all really loved it. It was so nice. I read it twice. This is Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson.

A (15:43)

That doesn't surprise me that it was really good because, yeah, she's just a. She's a favorite favorite of ours. And White Smoke has stayed with me for so long, but. And grown, like, she's just really good.

B (15:55)

Grown is a hard read though. Every time I think about it, I'm like, it is. Readers, be careful with yourselves when you read that one.

A (16:01)

It is. White Smoke is much more of a straightforward horror like that. That, that. That book legitimately scared me.

B (16:07)

Oh yeah, me too.

A (16:09)

Okay. Speaking of legitimately scary, I am starting out with horror. Although this is for adults only, we do not want the kiddos reading this book.

B (16:18)

We're not reading this one aloud, okay?

A (16:20)

We are not. This is a book called the Deep by Nick Cutter. So here's the setup. Humanity is being decimated by a plague called the gets a disease that causes people to forget. At first, small things like where'd they leave their keys? What did they have for breakfast? And then bigger things like how to drive, what is the Alphabet? Until finally their bodies forget how to function at all. There's no cure. Until scientists discover a substance eight miles below the ocean's surface in. You're not going to believe it. The Mariana Trench, where everything good and horrible is.

B (16:58)

No, that's where the mermaids are. We don't go down there, Meredith.

A (17:01)

Exactly. So enter Luke Nelson. He's a veterinarian, which is weird, but he gets called down to the Deep Sea Research station. Not because of his scientific expertise, because he really doesn't have any, but because his brother Clayton is a brilliant and most definitely unhinged scientist studying this miracle substance. And Clayton has asked for Luke. Clayton's like, I'm not doing any more work until Luke comes down here. So they do all of this stuff to get Luke. I mean, this is a big operation to get people down to where they are. So Luke goes down with a Navy sub pilot. Again, do not get me started on that particular scene. I will be terrorized by it forever. But he goes down there in this crushing, lightless world where the station that they find has gone eerily silent and something far more terrifying then the plague that's killing humanity is waiting. Okay, so on the COVID of this book, Stephen King is calling it old school horror at its best. And I do have to say, although Stephen King, we love him, but he is a blurb slut. I do agree with the first part. This is old school horror. Body horror, oozing wounds, smells that make you gag, all manner of grotesque imagery that reminded me of the movie Alien. The writing in the first third, too, I have to say, is genuinely compelling. The first third, where they're like, he's getting there, and they're going. It's really good. It's the middle third and the end where things get complicated for me. Nick Cutter does a really good job of going back and forth. This is something I really liked about it. He goes back and forth between the backstories of his main characters and the present day. Like, what's happening in the plot, moving it forward. Like I said, the descent in the submarine. Genuinely scared. I just. I don't. I don't want to go into a cave. I Don't want to go under water. Like all of that really, really freaks me out. But then we kind of get into like a spinning in place element in the middle third. But it's the last 50 pages where everything completely fell apart for me. It felt like he wrote himself into a corner and he didn't know what to do. Yeah, so that was a problem. The atmosphere and tension building throughout the book are done really well. Cutter does write horror and dread of that horror, I think really, really well. But here's a problem I had very recently and accidentally. I didn't mean to do this together, but I'd very recently read Michael Crichton's Sphere, which I brought to the show a couple of months ago, and the similarities were really hard to ignore. The underwater setting, the psychological unraveling, the isolated research team. I will say, if you, if you like those elements, I do think that Sphere does it better reading them close together. It highlighted the comparison between the two. And that didn't play well. It didn't favor the Deep at all. The good thing is I read this with my 666book club. This was, in fact, our first read together. Six people, six books. We read one every six weeks. All very dark and spooky, and the conversation was fantastic. But the ending gave us material in all the wrong ways. There were a lot of things to talk about. We enjoyed talking about it, but I don't think Nick Cutter would have enjoyed being in that room. He is, though, a very talented horror writer. Particularly, I loved his book the Troop, which is also very gory, also very horrifying about a Boy Scout troop that runs into some things you also do not want to run into. That one is done really well from start to finish. This one had some major problems with it, but I'm still really glad I read it. And I'm really glad I read it with my book club. This is the Deep by Nick Cutter.

B (20:57)

All right, well, not everyone can be a hit, so also, if you want to read the Deep, go down to the Mariana's Trench with Mira Grant. Right, right.

A (21:06)

Into the drowning Deep. Yep.

B (21:07)

Into the drowning deep. Yeah. I mean, humans don't belong in the Marianas Trench. That's my final verdict on the subject.

A (21:14)

Stay away.

B (21:15)

Another place humans do not belong is not very low on the earth, but very high on the earth. And second book, we're going to talk about Everest a little bit because I have in the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez Lovato. This is a memoir by a Peruvian author that tackles some tough topics and the way that the author Vasquez Lovato was able to overcome the trauma of her past and harness her pain to summit the world's tallest mountains, all seven of them. It's called the Seven Summits when somebody does the highest mountain on every continent. This was Roxana's number three read of 2024, third on her list of top 10. It originally showed up on the As a Listener press by Amanda on season six, episode 48. I finally picked it up at the beginning of this year. This one is narrated by the author and I already owned it on Libro FM as an alc. So when I played audiobook roulette it came to the top of my list and I decided to pick it up. This is a hard book, but it is also a story of triumph and conquering one of the world's greatest challenges and that sounded like a good way to kick off my year. Like I said, a couple last week, I guess when we were talking about reading traditions, I like to start with nonfiction. I like to start with something that inspires me in some way or another. This definitely hit that note. We get to know Sylvia through a dual timeline type memoir. We've got her childhood and early adulthood and her descent into depression and struggles with alcoholism. She looked like a success from the outside though. She was kind of winning in Silicon Valley and really looked successful, but she had been hiding so much from her family of origin and repressing really terrible memories of abuse and much more. The alternate timeline shows Sylvia now or currently as she's gathering a group of young women, many of whom have similar trauma in their backgrounds. They band together to train and encourage one another and head to Base Camp on Everest, using their combined strength and passion for community to encourage one another. Everest is known as in Nepal as the Mother of the World and Silvia's quest to summit this mountain as part of her seven Summits project. She finds that it takes as much as it gives. This journey is about reclaiming her strength and her own power and it requires planning and resilience and physical strength of course, and training. It also requires a willingness to walk alongside death. There are bodies that get left on the mountain because it's hard to bring anything back down. I mean, it's a tough mentally, physically, emotionally, it's a tough journey. In Sylvia's case, it also required recognizing the inherent maleness of the climbing profession, especially sponsored climbers with big spending accounts, the best gear, the most well trained teammates and Sherpas. I myself will never Find Katie Cobb on a quest to summit Everest or probably any of the highest peaks on each continent. But. But that doesn't change the fact that I was both inspired and awed by Sylvia's journeys and the ways in which she pivoted her life and faced that trauma head on. It was not an easy read by any means, and it does demand quite a bit of its readers, but it's worth it. I understand why Amanda pressed it into our hands and why Roxanna named it as one of her top books of the year. It was a great start to my own reading year and I really appreciated it on a deep level. I loved especially having Sylvia tell me her own story in the audiobook. This was in the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez Lovato.

A (24:50)

I'm so glad there are people who are willing to do things like that so that we can read about it.

B (24:55)

Yeah, because it's not me. I'm not going. I'm not going to the deep. I'm not going to Everest.

A (25:00)

Exactly. So glad there are people who do that instead of us. All right, my second book is continuing my journey through all of Agatha Christie. We have another Miss Marple here, which I'm excited about. This one was a huge hit for me. This is the Moving Finger by Agatha Christie. Isn't that awful? I hate that title.

B (25:21)

I'm making the worst face and I'm so sorry, but you know, it's so gross.

A (25:25)

I mean, this is why to watch this on YouTube, right? You can see our gross faces and. Okay, here's the setup when injured pilot Jerry Burton and his glamorous sister Joanna arrive in the sleepy English village of Limstock to. Basically, Jerry's been hurt and he needs to get better. They expect nothing more exciting than tea parties and village gossip. That's what we all think we're going to get in Limstock. What they get instead is a poison pen letter accusing them of being a couple, which is a no go. They're brother and sister. And they are not the only recipients of these nasty poison pen letters. Right. Anonymous letters filled with vicious accusations are circulating through the village, ripping apart the carefully maintained facades of respectable people and exposing real or imagined secrets hiding behind their cottage doors. First, the letters seem like nothing more than kind of a just a wing nut being unnecessarily cruel. But when the accusations turn deadly, Jerry finds himself pulled into the investigation, compelled by both justice and a growing fascination with one of the village. One of the girls in the village, basically. All right, here's one of my thoughts. Here's some of my thoughts. Here's a lot of my thoughts on the Moving Finger. I was about halfway through the audiobook and really enjoying it when I was like, wait, isn't this supposed to be a Ms. Marple? Ms. Marple does not come into this thing until the 75% mark.

B (26:55)

Which I thought, what in the world?

A (26:56)

Yeah, this is the third Miss Marple. It's published in 1943. But our beloved spinster does not show up until 75%, which is bold. She's actually only in like three scenes of the entire book.

B (27:08)

Bold.

A (27:09)

But honestly, I really, really liked it because I really like Jerry. Jerry's like a capital gg good guy and he's observant, he's genuinely decent and he. And he's like very straight ahead guy, like an Enneagram one. Just like super straight ahead guy. And his sister Joanna is like the ultimate enneagram 7. And the two of them together are just. They make fantastic copy. It was, it was such, such a treat, the two of them. They feel like real people who you would absolutely want, like to get a drink with at the pub. Christie was apparently praised by critics for her believable male narrators. And Jerry is a great example of one of those. Now, it's interesting to note that Agatha Christie considers the Moving Finger, I hate that title, one of her finest novels and I can see why. It's a very slim book, as all of her books are. Yeah, everyone that I've read has been, but is a masterclass in atmosphere, the way that suspicion can poison a community more than any actual poison actually could. It's this darkness beneath the surface of a quaint village that Agatha Christie is really known for. And this book is the perfect example of how she does that. Christie said that it's much easier to make murder interesting in far flung exotic locations, which she does a lot of with Hercule Perrault. But to make it feel insidious right at home is the trick. And she gets it so right here. Interestingly, this is a novel where Ms. Marple earns her signature tagline, she being the expert on wickedness. When she finally does appear, she cuts through all the village pretense and the this and the that and maybe this and maybe that. She just cuts through it like butter. She's worth the wait, even if she is not heading the charge in this book. As always, I listen to the audiobook, this time narrated by Richard E. Grant. And that is. That was a treat. He does several wonderful voices and brings so much to life with Jerry's narration. Specifically, if you're an audiobook person, it's a great choice for her books. I think it's the only way I do Agatha Christie, so I'm biased. This one is wonderful if it has kind of a yucky title. The title is the Moving Finger by Agatha Christie. I know I've said it three or four times now and neither one of us have been able to not make a face.

B (29:31)

Yeah, no, I think it's four. And every time. I'm not like becoming accustomed to it either. But yay for that MF book. I like it.

A (29:40)

It was really good. Really, really good. And another little check in my journey to be a completist of Agatha Christie,

B (29:48)

which of course we love. Yes. All right. My third book is so good. I loved it so much. This one is north is the Night by Emily Wrath Emily Rath is a prolific romance author that normally writes historical or contemporary romance, but in this one she takes on a Finnish legend as she writes her first fantasy based romance. Her contemporary stuff is usually focused on hockey, so I like to think she's already very used to the cold, but she is hitting all the right notes for many other readers with those series. When I saw this gorgeous book at Barnes and Noble during one of those fateful giant sales where I just load up my arms, I was sucked in by the COVID and the title enough to read the flap copy and I knew it had to come home with me as a reminder or a new bit of information for those who don't know yet. I'm a European mutt by heritage, but the least mutt like part of me is that my maternal grandmother was 100% Finnish, so stories of and about Finland call to me on an ancestor level. They are very special to me. This one tackles the legends of Tuonela, or the Land of the Dead, and it's the first in the Tuonela duet. We have two heroines, best friends since forever. Their names are Ciri and Aina. They live in the Finnish wilderness, where the current political situation is messy at best. Sweden is attempting to colonize the country and Christian priests are attempting to dissuade Finns from worshipping their old gods. But for these two girls, the most pertinent and present threat is that young women are starting to disappear. Which is why, despite the fact that Ciri has made a vow to protect Aina, she's still not able to keep a goddess of the underworld of death from dragging her friend down to Tuonela, the land of Death. It's a land of endless night, of creatures that are not fully dead, and of vengeful, angry goddesses. Ciri, the one above, is resourceful and persistent. So she sets off on a journey through the land of the living to find a shaman who can guide her to the realm of the dead. She has to learn how to harness her inner magic and what makes Finnish culture so special. The shaman scenes are so interesting to me. She's determined to rescue Aina and bring them both home, back to their living, breathing homes. But while Ina has been dragged to Tatooinela, she does not find death there. She's not dead when she gets there. Instead, she learns that she was requested by the king, the God of death himself, for a purpose greater than death or life. And it's hinted at in the blurb, but this is an arranged marriage situation. These young women both have to find inner courage and strength to fight their ways back to each other and the land of the living. And as I mentioned, this is a duet, and book two is not out yet. The most recent updates I can find for South Is the Sea say that Emily has finished her draft of book two as of last month, so it's still gonna be a little while until book two comes to fruition. For me, though, that didn't matter. This book was only about three chili peppers worth of spice, which is low for me personally, but hits just the right notes for this series. I absolutely adored this incorporation of Finnish mythology and my grandma's people into this book and the love between and for women in this story. It starts as deep friendship and affection for one another, and I loved that. That was a central piece of this novel. I have been carefully watching and waiting to see when book two would come out, but I couldn't wait any longer to tell y' all about this gorgeous novel. I loved it. It's North Is the Night by Emily Rath.

A (33:24)

How many times when you were talking about that book, did your phone try to talk back to you?

B (33:29)

Well, as a reminder, I'm one of very few people that does not have an iPhone, so I do apologize to all people who do have a Siri on their phone. My problem is if you say, hey,

A (33:38)

Google, that is right. I was like, how come? I literally. I was like, she must have turned off her phone.

B (33:47)

Yeah, yeah. No, I would have had to, because even when I was writing it up, I was like, people are going to be so mad because if I talk about a book with somebody named Alexa in it, I always think, this is going to Screw up people's houses. Right, Exactly.

A (33:57)

Okay, well, good. That's one. The one time this year that it'll be positive for you to not have an iPhone.

B (34:03)

Yes. Winners. All of us that decided not to jump on that. That bandwagon.

A (34:07)

All right, so I'm going to talk about a book that I do feel like has been kind of everywhere. But I liked it so much, and I recommend it to so highly to so many people that I had to bring it to the show, even though I feel like it's been everywhere. And this is Good People by Papmina Sabit.

B (34:26)

Have you read it, too?

A (34:28)

Yeah.

B (34:28)

Yeah.

A (34:28)

Okay, good. Yeah. As I was reading it, I was like, I feel like this is one that both Katie and I would really like.

B (34:34)

Yes.

A (34:34)

A lot. So here's a setup. Good People brings us into the sphere of the Sharaf family. They're Afghan refugees who've rebuilt their lives. They came to America with absolutely nothing, and they have really. They have had a lot of success in this. And now they live in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, eventually landing in the most exclusive neighborhood, and they send their kids to prestigious schools. By every measure, they have achieved the American dream. At the heart of the family is Zora, the eldest daughter and the light of her father's eye, a young woman who, depending on who you ask, can absolutely do no wrong. Or she's a child who brought shame upon everyone that she loved. You're gonna get both versions. The genius of this book is that author Sabet never lets us hear directly from the Sharafs themselves. Instead, the story unfolds entirely through the voices of outsiders, neighbors, family, friends, lawyers, journalists, community members, all attempting to do their part to piece together what led to one unthinkable tragedy. Here's what I thought I knew about Good People. Okay. It was an indie press list pick from an unlikely Story. It was literary fiction, and I knew that people were talking about it and that readers whose taste I really align with with were loving it. What I didn't know, and what I kind of wish someone had told me sooner was that it had multiple elements that were totally catnip to me. Now, this became clear to me when we did our conversation about it with Bill. Book boy from Bill from An Unlikely Story, because he was bringing up the elements of Good people that were really catnip for me. Once I understood what this book actually was, I was in with both hands and feet and everything. Every part of my body was in. So I want to be super clear to all of you who are listening about what this book actually is because you might be sleeping on it for the same reasons that I did. You might think that Good People is like a issues driven literary novel. One of those books that wins awards because it is being talked about in those terms and one of those books that make you feel like you should be annotating instead of just reading it. It is literary fiction, but it's a literary mystery. And I want you to hold on to that distinction because it changes everything about how you approach it. It and for this reader, it changes everything about how much fun you have while you're reading it. The format is the first big thing to understand, which I kind of alluded to. It's the thing that sold me. It's the thing that made this a five star book. This book is structured as a documentary, literally. You're not getting chapters of exposition like you normally would. You're getting testimony, witness accounts, short, rotating perspectives from those neighbors and family members, from the guy who works at the the convenience store because he has something to say about the day. Some of them talk for pages, some of them pop in and just drop one devastating detail and then they're never heard from again. It's exactly like watching a true crime documentary where you would keep hitting pause or like going backwards a little bit to just process what you've heard. If you love that oral history format or if a documentary structure makes your reader brain light up like it does mine, this is something you need to know about this book. What makes the structural choice bold and really, really well done for this particular novel is that, as I said, we never hear from the Sharaf family. Mom, dad, siblings. We never hear from them directly. The family at the center of this entire story is completely absent from the telling of it. Instead, we have to build our understanding as we would piece together a puzzle through everyone else's impressions, their biases, their loyalties, their blind spots. And it forces you to constantly question the narrator and wonder how much you should really be trusting their version of the story. You'll find yourself changing your mind about what happened. I did, multiple times. About who the Shiroffs really are. Sometimes within the same chapter, sometimes on the same page. And that's where this book goes from interesting to great. It's the. The weight of this is, is right there. Sabit isn't interested in telling us what to think. Instead, she's kind of quietly and relentlessly raising questions about who gets to tell the story at all, how a story changes in the retelling and what we can actually Know versus what we assume. And we're really quick to make assumptions and why we're so certain. This was the interesting part. Do we even deserve the answers at all? Because I think in today's world, we've convinced ourselves we do deserve it. These questions hum underneath the surface of every single chapter and they make for a reading experience that was entertaining and it was doing some real work. It was propulsive and meaningful. That is my absolute sweet spot. And Good People nails it. I flew through it. Five stars for me. And I would press it into the hands of anyone who loves literary, who loves mystery, and anyone whose sweet spot is a literary mystery. Also, if you love questions of identity and belonging or a book that's going to move really, really fast, but stick with you long after. This is Good People by Petmina Sabeit. I loved it.

B (40:04)

How did you read this one, Meredith? Did you do the. Did you dip into the audio at all?

A (40:08)

I did not. I read it in print. I just sat down and just like crushed it.

B (40:12)

Yes. So good. The audio is a full cast record and I have never seen so many narrators names on an audiobook ever. And as I've listened to probably thousands of audiobooks. Right. I have never seen so many narrators and it makes it feel so fully alive, fully fleshed out. It's so wonderfully done on audio that you're just like, holy, you can't, you can't deal. So basically, yeah, you can go. You can do no wrong with this book because it is so well done. I loved it. I loved it so much.

A (40:50)

I loved it. Right. I read it in print. You read it in. You know, although I would, I would really. I may just go on Spotify and just sample it a little bit just because I kind of want to hear it because that would be a great. If it's a full cast recording, that would be really fantastic because Points of View would really shine through. Oh, I just loved Good People. It was so, so good. So again, thank you, unlikely story, for bringing that to us. I really probably wouldn't have picked it up up otherwise.

B (41:15)

Yeah. Especially because, like, the COVID is beautiful, but it does give that literary prize winner feel to it. It doesn't feel like, oh, this is going to keep me entertained for a couple hours. You know, it doesn't have that feel to it. It feels heavy when you're just looking at it on a shelf and when

A (41:35)

you just read the. The jacket copy. I'm not always feeling like I'm going to be entertained when it leads with a Story about immigrant, an immigrant family. Which is not to say that that a really, really interesting story, but it doesn't necessarily for this reader read propulsive. That's probably my own blind spot. But reader, know thyself. I'm really glad that that didn't stop me here because man, it was really, really good. All right, Katie, let's talk about this question that we got which touches on the issue of kind of how we, you and I, decide how we're gonna spend on books or where we're gonna acquire our books. Here's the question that we got. Good morning, Meredith and Katie. I really want to know the answer to this question. What are your spending habits around books? Do you go hog wild or are there limits on spending or your number of purchases? Where do you buy them? Do you have a budget? If so, is it yearly, monthly, Is it event based? Do you subscribe to book subscriptions and or do you pay for patreons for other book podcasts? Do you do online book clubs? If so, how do you decide what gets your time and money and what to skip? Basically, how do you make money decisions on all things books and how, if at all, have those habits or parameters changed since starting the podcast? That's from Ellen, who you can follow Dead Endbooks R V A and she says follow her little free library there. So, so maybe she's kind of keeping track of things there, which is very interesting. So Katie, for this discussion I want to begin at the end of her of her questions. How have your habits or parameters for how you kind of acquire books changed since we started the podcast? Can we start there?

B (43:27)

I think we can. I think that makes sense as a starting place. And for me that the answer isn't that hard. So that's why it's probably a good place to start. And, and it's that as the podcast has grown especially, we get a lot more offers of books that I'm genuinely interested in reading. Where I might get a book for free, that if I waited six months, it may have been either a pre order or an impulse buy for me down the road. So that means that I don't have to spend as much on books. And that could be a galley, it could be an E galley, it could be a finished copy, it could be the Libro FM ALCs, which are just, just insanely generous and I'm so grateful for them every month. But it means there's a lot of spaces that I don't have to spend money on books now that I used to spend money on Books. So it has changed for me in that way. Does that mean my budget has gone down? No, it does not. It just means that I have more to spend in other areas. What about you? Yeah, yeah.

A (44:24)

I mean, I was thinking about this really, really deeply. Because I was thinking, I mean, I have gone through so much, so many seasons of my life where I had no budget for books. I mean, really, I was probably in my 40s before I even, like, could buy a decent set of bookshelves. So there was a long period of time where the most book buying I did was when my library had a book sale and I had countless books that I bought for a quarter order.

B (44:57)

Yeah.

A (44:58)

Because that just, you know, I've always been such a mood reader that I, you know, I always wanted to have lots of book choices and maybe I didn't want to be constrained by library. So, like, for me it was like library book sale or what I get at the library. Because I would go to Barnes and Noble, but I did not have any budget to buy. So since we started the podcast, and also my own career has brought me to a place where I can decide to spend more profligately if I want to. I don't have to. That doesn't. At this point in my life, money is not a constraining factor, which is a huge privilege and something that I am really proud of because this is a place that I want to be able to not be cons. This particular place, like, I don't buy diamonds and rubies.

B (45:46)

Right.

A (45:46)

I'm not like a. I'm not a profligate spender in a lot of ways in my life, but around books, books, I. I am part of that is because I'm a book podcaster and I'm like, you know, we make money from the podcast. The first way I'm going to spend that money is going to be on books. So even back when we weren't making very much money at all, I was like, look, I'm just gonna buy books when I want to. So, yes, we get arcs and we do, but I don't do. I think I don't maybe do as much reading in that realm as you do. I buy a lot of backlist. I feel the freedom to, you know, when I go, When I travel, when I go to bookstores, I will buy whatever because I feel like it's my way of giving back to independent bookstores. So if I go to an indie bookstore, I'm going to spend because that's just a place where I, you know, I Enjoy kind of sharing some of the things that I have. And so that's where I am now. But I really want to underscore that I've spent the majority of my life as a reader being extraordinarily constrained by budget.

B (46:47)

Yeah.

A (46:47)

Okay, so. So now at this point, Katie, do you feel like, do you put limits on yourself? Or maybe not a money constraint, but do you put a limit on, like, how much you're gonna spend? Like, do you have a budget? And is it, like a monthly budget?

B (47:06)

This is, like, an interesting thing about me, and it's something that relates to a way that you've talked about your reading life, Meredith, which is that I have a lot of kind of, like, tight control over many areas of my life. And I love spreadsheets, and I love data, and I love knowing where my money goes. But I. The very first thing I hide in the Reading Tracker spreadsheet every year is the book budget, tab, and column, because it is the one place that I allow myself to, I guess, go on vibes, which is not a budgeting strategy strategy, y'. All. But I do budget tightly in many areas of my life. I am very careful about what I spend on my home. We try and eat in as much as possible. I rarely am taking all four kids out to eat for dinner. Obviously, my financial picture has changed quite a bit because I did get divorced in the past year, and I DIY a lot. Like, I just. I don't spend a lot on clothing or hair or makeup, like, beauty products. I get my hair cut twice a year because it just. That part doesn't matter to me. And it lets me hold my hands loosely with regard to books, and that is my personal choice. Anybody could choose anything else for their own lives, of course. So when I go to a bookstore, I am mostly going on vibes. I carry around a stack of books. I let it get to be. I call it Gus Gus level, which is a reference to Cinderella. There's a little mouse named Gus Gus. He wants all the corn, and he puts it under his chin to the point where it's touching his chin and his arms are all the way extended, and then it flies out everywhere. So that's a Gus, Gus level level of book buying, where you're, like, holding your arms and they go up to your chin. And I get to the point where I'm like, okay, yeah, this is untenable.

A (48:49)

My friend Betsy, who travels with me and we do lots of bookstores together, would say that's probably the level that Meredith is buying, too. Right, Right. Oftentimes I've been late. Betsy, I think we need to go because I'm at Gus Gus level.

B (49:00)

Because it's Gus Gus. Right? Yeah. And that is its own constraint. Right. I do not, or I try not to go set a bunch of books at the counter and keep going. That lets it be its own stopping point. And then I'll go through. I'll go, like, sit on a chair or like, go find a table or whatever, and I'll put the stack there and I'll look at it again and say, are there any of these that I don't really need? Or that now that I have the rest of these in front of me are not a good fit for me or that I can maybe try and find at the library instead? And I'll try and cull that down from Gus Gus level to, like, with some more manageable number. But it is just a Vibes thing. Like, I like buying paperback, A, because they're less expensive, so I can get more of them for the same number of dollars. And B, I like the reading experience more of being able to hold a paperback open. But it's not because I'm like, well, I only have $35 to spend at this store today, so I need to make sure that I'm using it as wisely as possible. So I don't know.

A (49:59)

Now, do you subscribe to any, any book subscriptions at this point?

B (50:04)

Not anymore, but as we know, I have been through my fair share of them through the years. Are you currently subscribing to anything?

A (50:11)

Yeah, so I still subscribe to Book of the Month every month. I think I'm going to cancel, and every month I don't. However, I subscribe to the Goldsboro, which is a shop in the UK in London that Betsy and I went to, and we both subscribed to their monthly box, which you get like this amazing, like, first edition signed copy. And they're like books that wouldn't be on our radar here. They're like these amazing. It's all. It's just really, really fun. So I'm really enjoying that subscription a lot. But those are the only two. Those are the only two that I'm. That I'm paying for. What about. Do you do any other book podcast? Do you pay for Patreon for any other book podcast?

B (50:54)

Well, we still have a couple that we support as a show. Right. We also kick money back to a couple other places that we really love their content or we like to support our pals in the industry that's an important expense to us, but I don't have any outside of the ones that we are supporting here through currently reading. I do support every month Libro fm and I choose a bookstore every month that I want to support there. So that is a monthly subscription cost that I always pay for and I have a yearly subscription to Storygraph because it's important to me that like the plus benefits are good, but mostly I want to support their work over there and I love the way that they are developing book tracking and community and I think they're doing such a good job paying attention to what readers want that that subscription is worth it to me as well.

A (51:45)

So, yeah, I love Sarah's Bookshelves Live and I love their Patreon content. That's a, that's the one that I personally support and I listen to every episode. Also, I support Shelf Respect by the podcast and that's one that, you know, it's just super fun. Not at all like what we do or what Sarah does, but just like for, for bookish vibes. I think it's really fun and again, just want to support that. So yeah, those are, those are a couple that I do. Do you do any other online book clubs or anything? Anything like that that I don't?

B (52:20)

And partially that has been a continued, you know, evaluation of what's working for me. Because I did. I loved Book of the Month for a long time. I loved Aardvark when I subscribed to them for a long time. I had a box called Satisfaction. I loved the beautiful books I got from Fairyloot. I've. I've been like a taster of a lot of different book club options in the past. Because of my own financial constraints. I would rather go to a bookstore and spend out than say, okay, here's your very small selection and you have to pick one of these five books every month. That model isn't working for my reading life right now, which is the only reason that I'm not part of any book clubs. Book subscriptions, book, whatever. Because it's all moods and vibes around here and nobody knows what Katie's going to read or if Katie's going to read at this point. So yeah, if I go, I want it to be something that's really calling to me. Me.

A (53:13)

The book subscription that I would definitely buy. But I don't. But I don't for a very specific reason is the Sleuth box from Fabled. And the only reason I don't subscribe to that. I support Fabled in multiple other ways. But I don't subscribe to that because I've almost always read. Because of all things Murderful, I've almost always read the book in advance of when it's going to come out. And she, you know, she'll let it. Elizabeth will let us know that. But that's a subscription that, that if I were a lay reader, I would absolutely be, you know, be a part of that one. Just because it would just. It's just a bunch of books that I just really, really like. I like it.

B (53:49)

So I have one more little piece of data for us, which is that we've already talked about the Indie Press list a couple times on this show, but we talk about every single month currently reading. We buy two copies of every book on the Indie press list, all five of them, for both of us. And that's partially we are pre reading. So we want to make sure that we have the book in front of us. We can read it and talk about it well on that episode, and partially because that's guaranteed 10 books worth of sales for that bookstore right off the bat. Right. So I do keep track of that because I think it's fun and interesting. Not because it's doing anything extra for us, but for both of us. 10 books at every store all year long. It usually costs between $2,200 and $2,900 for the entire year there. So that's hundred. I mean, it's over a hundred books that we're talking about. And we're putting all of that back directly into the community. No discount, no affiliate arrangement with them. It's all going straight to those indie bookstores. And it's one of my favorite ways that we get to spend out in the podcast. It makes me really happy. So I wanted to shout that out, right?

A (54:55)

Support it with our cash dollars. I do think a lot of people probably assume, which I probably would assume my own self, that for the Indie Press list list, because we don't take a portion or we don't take payments from the bookstores or anything like that, at the very least, we would get those books for free. But we don't. We pay for them with our cash dollars because. Not because the stores wouldn't send them to us, but because we've said, yeah, this is important to us to support you in this way because indie bookstores give us so, so much. So it's a great question. Don't add us about our book habits, please.

B (55:25)

But we are interested in what you want to share about your book habits.

A (55:28)

Exactly. Absolutely. Because we all understand that everyone is in a different place with their budget, their habits, how they want to spend their time, their money, all of that good stuff. We would love to hear how you organize that, how you stick to it or. Or don't, because sometimes it can get out of control. Which leads me to. Before we go, I want to shout out our bookish friend of the week, who's Sophie, who says in the group, the bookish friend group, which you can be a part of for $5 a month on Patreon. I decided that my reading theme in April is going to be Pierre, get off the pot.

B (56:03)

That's not what she said.

A (56:05)

I. I'm trying to make. I'm trying to keep our. Our clean rating, also known as books I have owned for a long time that are low enough priority that I just haven't gotten to them. I was looking at a book yesterday that I've owned since 2019 and basically thought these exact words, I have to pee or get off the pot with this book. Book. I also have Fairyloot's epic fantasy subscription, and I haven't read any books from that. And so I want to determine if that subscription is the right fit for me. So I just thought. And then there were multiple comments from everyone, including me saying, yes, this is an issue. We do. The. The upside of saying, I kind of just let my. Myself buy books is that we get to buy books. The downside is there's a lot of books, right? And so I really. I really appreciated Sophie's point of view here and. And all of the comments that followed that with people saying, like, here, here, sister. Like, this is. This is an issue. It's why we added that segment to the before we go grab bag where we can say, you know, the TBR triage. You can choose a book and be like, I had to decide finally if I'm actually going to read this book or not. So here, here, Sophie, thank you for speaking to all of us. We need to really think about all these book purchases. And every once in a while you got to look through them and you gotta say, maybe it's time to offload some of these to the little free to some little free libraries.

B (57:23)

I like it.

A (57:24)

All right, Katie, what did you grab from the grab bag?

B (57:26)

All right. Mine also came from a bookish friend, but it gave me something to get curious about. So bookish friend Susan posted about the Inside Literary Prize. This is a prize I had never heard of before, and sometimes I'm a little skeptical or not skeptical But a little standoffish about literary prizes in general. This one is judged exclusively by people who are currently incarcerated serving prison sentences. 2026 is its third year, so they've just announced the five finalists for this year. It's kind of formatted like Canada Reads, where a panel of judges discusses all five picks. You can watch their conversations. And because of our bookish friend Jennifer Williams, AKA the Book Lady, I was already aware that only paperback books are allowed in most prisons. So this prize is automatically focused on backlist reading. In 2024, the first year, Imani Perry won for south to America, which is a book that I've read and loved. And in 2025, Nanakwami Ajabrenya won for Changing All Stars, one of my favorite books of the year in 2023. So again, backlist titles. The Innovating justice website is where you find this and includes lots of great information about previous winners. The press release for this year's shortlist which I've sent to Megan so she'll link it in the show notes for us. Us. I'm just grateful to Susan for bringing my attention to something new to be curious about so I can poke around and look at the five that they have and pay attention to the conversations. I love a panel discussion in order to determine a winner rather than like behind closed door meetings where you're like I wonder how that came about. Right? I like being in the room where it happens and in this case it's a really interesting room. These are interesting people that are in a very different place than I am. So. So I'm curious about it.

A (59:09)

I love that. I had never heard of that. That is very, very interesting. I'm fascinated by that. That is great.

B (59:17)

Yes. Love it. Okay.

A (59:19)

Love that you were curious about that. All right, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me I'm Meredith Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and you can

B (59:29)

find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putam Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of Megans Reads Full show notes

A (59:40)

with the title of every book we mentioned in the podcast and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about them. Can be found in our show notes and on our website@currentlyreadingpodcast.com youm can also

B (59:52)

follow the show all over the Internet. Currently reading podcast is on Instagram, substack, YouTube or you can sign up for our newsletter you can email us@hellourrentlyreading podcast.com new email. That's right.

A (60:05)

And if you've ever wondered, if you ever want to see how many hand gestures we make while we're making the show, YouTube is your place to go. Turns out I talk with my hands a lot.

B (60:15)

We're both really good now, though, at talking with the hand that's away from the mic, right?

A (60:20)

Yes, That's.

B (60:20)

We don't hit the mics very often.

A (60:22)

Right. All right. If you love this content, as we said at the top of the show, join us as a bookish friend. It's $5 a month and you get a ton of great content. You also get a ton of community and you keep this show commerc. 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.

B (60:45)

Yes, bookish friends are the best friends and so smart. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.

A (60:51)

Until next week, may your coffee be

B (60:53)

hot and your book be unputdownable.

A (60:55)

Happy reading, Katie.

B (60:56)

Happy reading, Meredith.