Season 8, Episode 39: The Howl Train + Reading Therapy w/Mary

Summary

The Currently Reading Podcast

Season 8, Episode 39: The Howl Train + Reading Therapy w/ Mary
Hosts: Meredith Monday Schwartz & Mary Huim
Published: May 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Meredith welcomes therapist and friend of the show, Mary Huim, as a guest co-host. Together they deliver their signature enthusiastic, deeply honest (but always spoiler-free) book talk, including standout recent reads—with a special focus on Howl’s Moving Castle—readerly dilemmas in a “Reading Therapy” deep dive, and delightful bookish moments. The episode is rich in book recommendations, practical reading advice, and heartfelt conversation, making it feel like having coffee with two of your most insightful, well-read friends.

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Bookish Moments of the Week (03:45)

Mary: Indie Bookstore Day Joy

• Mary shares her family’s enthusiastic celebration of Indie Bookstore Day at Boswell Books in Milwaukee, with her young daughter excitedly planning her own bookish adventure.
• Running into bookstagrammer Liz Hein adds an extra layer of joy:

  “There’s just like not enough moments, right, that feel just so uncomplicatedly fun and joyful.” (04:30)

Meredith: Book Adaptations Win

• Meredith helps a friend move rather than celebrating Indie Bookstore Day but plans to make up for it soon.
• She watched two standout book adaptations:
  • Project Hail Mary—family loved it.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (PBS Masterpiece)—deeply moving, visually sumptuous, and “the most sumptuous version that I could possibly imagine.” (07:14)
  • Enthuses about Sam Claflin’s nuanced performance as the Count, especially by the second episode.

Memorable quote:

“This is the most sumptuous version that I could possibly imagine. The visuals, the cinematography, the production values… match up with everything that my mind’s eye wanted.” —Meredith (07:14)

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Current Reads

Mary’s Current Reads

1. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (10:10)

• Why read it?
  • OG cozy fantasy, revolutionary use of tropes we now take for granted.
  • Adventure, found family, magic—with character depth and thematic heart.
  • Accessible for both gentle adventure seekers and fantasy fans.

“There are a lot of cozy fantasy tropes that might feel familiar to you here, but it’s because Diana Wynne Jones did it long before a lot of even some of the best in the modern genres.” —Mary (11:43)

• Notes the Studio Ghibli adaptation is now high on her watchlist.

2. Dan in Green Gables by Ray Terciero (21:23)

• Premise: A queer, contemporary retelling of Anne of Green Gables through graphic novel form, set in rural Tennessee.
• Why it works:
  • The graphic format as a “palate cleanser” after a slump.
  • Stands on its own, with stunning illustrations and muted vintage colors.
  • Closely inspired by the original, but unique enough not to require deep Anne knowledge.

3. Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan (29:14)

• Format: Poetry/memoir hybrid.
• Themes: Reinvention, leaving a relationship/career in mid-pandemic, women’s journeys, deconstructing patriarchy.
• Why recommend it?
  • “Memoir through poetry”—provocative, narrative continuity.
  • Poems resonant enough to bring into the therapy room with clients.

“I found so much of what she writes about to still be so deeply familiar when it comes to the questions of what happens when we heed the call of furious reinvention, as she says.” —Mary (30:05)

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Meredith’s Current Reads

1. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (14:56)

• Genre: Cozy science fiction mystery.
• Premise: Aboard a spaceship where death isn’t permanent (memories stored in glass books; bodies rebooted). Something goes wrong—a real murder—and the ship's middle-aged detective, Dorothy, must investigate.
• Praise:
  • “The kind of book every reader needs stashed for when nothing else is working.”
  • Smart, accessible, quick (two hours on audio at 1.5x), non-dark, with clever worldbuilding and a delightful, competent older protagonist.

2. This Cursed House by Del Sandeen (24:22)

• Genre: Southern Gothic ghost story.
• Premise: Gemma Barker escapes Chicago to a decaying New Orleans mansion wracked by family secrets, colorism, and generational trauma.
• Notable Qualities:
  • Thick, atmospheric sense of place.
  • Social commentary on rot, both literal and familial.
  • “If you loved Mexican Gothic…you’re going to love this.”

“This is a gothic ghost story all about rot—not just the physical kind, but the kind that happens when families bury their secrets so deep that the shame starts eating everything from the inside out.” —Meredith (25:07)

3. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen (32:26)

• Genre: Romantasy / political fantasy.
• Premise: Lara, trained as a weapon, is married off into a rival kingdom to destroy it from within, but finds her new husband is genuinely good.
• Why it stands out:
  • Actual “enemies to lovers,” arranged marriage, slow burn, grounded and mature tone, grown-up protagonists.
  • Political intrigue without bogging down plot, and fight scenes that aren’t boring.

“It takes itself seriously without taking itself too seriously. And that balance is really hard to pull off.” —Meredith (35:24)

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Reading Therapy: Deep Dive (38:57)

Reader Question 1: Supporting a Dying Parent; Reading as Balm (39:40)

Prompt: How to read/what to read when supporting a parent in hospice—short attention span, emotional upheaval.

Mary’s Recommendations:

• Poetry as Solace: Especially slim, portable poetry collections you can pick up and set down.
  • Mary Oliver (“I think whatever you’re going through in life, Mary Oliver has written something that will speak to you.” —Mary, 42:24)
  • Kate Baer
  • The Poetry Remedy by William Sieghart —poems organized by emotional need/state.
• Leaning In or Out: Permission to reread comforting books, or not read at all.
• Graphic Novels (especially the Lightfall trilogy): Visual storytelling for low mental effort, emotionally resonant but safe.

Meredith’s Suggestions:

• Lean-out options: Comfort re-reads or favorite podcasts.
• Lean-in when ready: Pema Chodron’s How We Live is How We Die—short essays on endings.

Reader Question 2: Reading During Health Anxiety and Uncertainty (52:05)

Prompt: Waiting for possible breast cancer diagnosis; books that “grab you” or “gentle, right vibe, not traumatic, not schmaltzy.”

Mary’s Recommendations:

• Heart-centered, gentle fiction:
  • Katherine Newman’s books
  • Before I Go by Tori Henwood Hoen (magical realism, gentle)
  • Middle Grade: Kelly Barnhill (Ogress and the Orphans, The Girl Who Drank the Moon)
  • T.J. Klune’s works for meaning without trauma
• For Leaning in Gently: It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay by Megan Devine—practical grief support.
• General Advice: Let yourself not read or reread familiar favorites.

Meredith’s Recommendations:

• Elizabeth Berg’s backlist—heartfelt but not too sentimental.
• Rosamund Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers and other backlist—engaging, gentle, sweep-you-away real-life stories.

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Something Bookish (57:28)

Meredith: On the Sourdough Train

• Taking up baking as a new hobby, with her starter named “Agatha Crusty.”
• Finds The Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo informative, approachable, and beautifully produced.
• Fondness for Robin Sloan’s Sourdough, especially as a San Francisco Bay Area native.

Mary: TBR Triage

• Evaluates whether to keep The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid, ultimately choosing to release it to a Little Free Library due to poor personal fit and underwhelming reviews.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On PBS adaptations:

  “I feel like I would trust PBS with my life, like ex-bookish.” —Mary (09:03)

• On poetry in hard times:

  “When your brain can’t really hold on to something…poetry fills a very specific need.” —Mary (41:12)

• On TBR triage:

  “It is not easy to triage your tbr, but it’s so worth our time.” —Meredith (62:40)

• On reading during crisis:

  “You are already being forced to go through something really hard…a reread is beautifully, soothing, regulating, charted territory.” —Mary (46:16)

• On embracing new hobbies:

  “My sourdough starter, I named Agatha Crusty…” —Meredith (57:59)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Bookish Moments of the Week: 03:45
• Project Hail Mary & The Count of Monte Cristo Adaptations: 05:57
• Current Reads Begin: 10:10
• Reading Therapy Deep Dive: 38:57
  • Reader in hospice care: 39:40
  • Reader with health anxiety: 52:05
• Something Bookish: 57:28

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is warm, honest, supportive, and peppered with relatable frustrations (library holds piling up!), literary joy, and gentle wisdom about reading through life’s rough spots. Both hosts deliver heartfelt, actionable recommendations, and the “reading therapy” segment feels like a comforting hand for listeners in tough seasons. The dynamic is playful (snuck-in hobby chat and bookish puns), and the episode celebrates books as both comfort and challenge—plus the value of letting go.

This episode is ideal for lovers of cozy or meaningful fiction, fans of current and classic fantasy, readers looking for emotional support or guidance for tough seasons, and anyone who delights in thoughtful bookish chatter.

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For full book titles, deep dives, and resources referenced, see the Currently Reading website or episode show notes.

Happy reading!

Transcript

[Mary Huim]

Foreign.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Hey readers. Welcome to the Currently Reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently. And as you know, we won't shy away from having strong opinions. So get ready.

[Mary Huim]

We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our descriptions will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a readerly deep dive, and a little something bookish before we go.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm both a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I'm wondering, why is revenge so sexy?

[Mary Huim]

And I'm Mary Huim, a therapist and mom living in Wisconsin and I did not pace. My library holds well this week and I currently have an absolutely golden stack of books that are all due back this week and no way to get to them before that happens. This is episode 39 of season 8 and we are so glad you're here.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Oh, Mary, that's one of those delicious, like readerly conundrums.

[Mary Huim]

Yes, the best and worst kind of readerly problem ever.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Exactly. Exactly. All right, well, first let me tell you a couple of things. Our deep dive today, as you could probably guess, because we have Mary here with us. We are going to do another round of reading therapy, which I'm really, really looking forward to. Mary. We have a couple of our book friends who've written in with some really good quandaries and Mary is going to walk us through maybe some things that could be done about those quandaries. But first, we will tell you that we have some mischief to manage. This is the first episode of the month and as you guys know, we don't do commercials here at Currently Reading, except for one commercial on the first episode of the month. And something special this month we are going to hear from one of our bookish friends, one of our our patrons who's joined us a long time ago about why she thinks you might want to join us as a currently reading bookish friend on Patreon.

[Anitra]

Hello, I'm Anitra. I live in Las Vegas and I am a proud patron of the Currently Reading podcast. There's so much that I love about being a bookish friend. The bonus episodes. I love the indie press list. My TBR grows and grows every single month because of all the great books and all things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth is worth the price of admission. Also, the Facebook community. This community is so amazing and getting to talk to other book lovers is just one of the best things Ever. Five years ago, the Currently reading Bookish friends actually did a buddy read, and I got paired up with four other amazing ladies to read the book.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Roar.

[Anitra]

Now, we didn't love the book, but we loved each other. And five years later, Amanda, Cindy, Crystal, Jennifer, and myself are still texting each other on a daily basis to talk about books, our lives, and all the things. So there's so much to love. If you're not a patron already, what are you doing? Go sign up now. It's literally the price of like one trip to Starbucks every month, and it's worth every single penny. So thank you, Meredith and Katie, for everything that you do. And I love being a patron of the Currently Reading podcast. All right.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I love hearing from one of our listeners directly about why she finds benefit in joining us. If you guys want to do that, join us for $5 a month. And you can do that through a link in our show notes or patreon.com forward/currently reading podcast. We would love to have you join. All right, Mary, let's talk books. Let's first start out talking about our bookish moment of the week. Mary, what have you got?

[Mary Huim]

Well, Meredith, it is probably no surprise to anyone at all that my bookish moment this week was, of course, Indie Bookstore Day this past Saturday or just about a week ago when we're recording. We really do treat Indie Bookstore Day like a holiday in my house. And as always, it was just so much fun to head down to our favorite local indie in Milwaukee, Boswell Books, and just have a family afternoon of bookish joy. My daughter is now old enough, she is six, almost seven, that she really gets it. She is looking forward to it every year. She's starting to plan the sections that she wants to check and the series that she wants to add to in her bookshelf. It's just such a delight to see this, like, little reader that we are raising participate in something that we love so much. And to top it off, this year I ran into Liz Hein, a fellow Milwaukee area book lover, dear friend of the show, impeccable taste, bookstagrammer extraordinaire. And it was just so fun to chat books with Liz and have that little bookish serendipity to add to the joy to the day. There's just like not enough moments, right, that feel just so uncomplicatedly fun and joyful that it was really fun to make Indie Bookstore Day. Yeah, just like such a fun part of our weekend. I just loved it. It was great. How about you?

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I love having A bookish holiday. I had something that I needed to do to support one of my best friends or my best friend who was moving. And this was the day that that needed to happen. And so I had to choose between the great loves of my life. And I think I did the right thing by choosing to help my best friend move, because that's a big herculean task. But I love Indie Bookstore Day so much and I'm. I love seeing all of the posts about where our bookish friends went and all the different stores and what they're doing and all the merch that they come out with. It's so much fun. I love, I. I love that we have a big deal. Bookish holiday.

[Mary Huim]

Yes. And you know what the best part is? Is that if you didn't make it happen on Saturday, you can make your own Indie Bookstore day whenever you want, as often as you want.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Exactly. Exactly. I. And, and I feel like I do a pretty good job of that. And I have in the next few weeks, I have another one of those forays planned. So celebrate then.

[Mary Huim]

You're right.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I will give myself the ability to really, really celebrate the way that I want to. Okay. Mary, I had the joy this last week of watching two truly great book adaptations. One, of course, we've talked about. I hadn't seen it yet, but Project Hail Mary, we've all talked about it. We all love it. I finally got a chance to see it with my son and with my husband. We all really, really loved it. Huzzah to that being a great book adaptation of a great book. I wasn't nearly as nervous about that one as I was about the PBS masterpiece adaptation of my co favorite book of all time, the Count of Monte Cristo. Because there have been a lot of adaptations of the Count of Monte Cristo and some of them are truly terrible. And this one, though, I am so happy to report I just finished it. It's amazing. Eight episodes and it is a true masterpiece. Have you seen any part of it?

[Mary Huim]

I haven't yet because I am just embarking on my own foray into finally reading Count of Monte Cristo. So that is going to be my treasure, my treat at the end of my reading experience. But I. This is a big deal for you. Like, I'm very excited to hear it is.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

And now I watched the first episode and I was like, okay, I wasn't sold on Sam Claflin as the Count, but I'm really happy to report that once you get to the end of the second episode, at least this Reader was all in. This is the most sumptuous version that I could possibly imagine. The visuals, the cinematography, the production values, the costuming, the settings where they were able to do their filming, they all match up with everything that my mind's eye wanted to see in this adaptation. The acting is fantastic. They. I think eight, eight one hour episodes was enough. Obviously, the book is better. The book is always going to be better. It's more detailed, but they hit every high note that needed to be hit and just really, really well done. I shed some tears in the last two episodes. I really believed in Sam Claflin as the Count and, and playing that meeting, that juxtaposition of someone who is doing something bad because he's setting out to ruin people and he knows that that's bad, but also he is positive that that is right and justified. But then also he doesn't. He. He. He really communicated that he cared about the, the ripple effects that doing this would have for lots of people. It was so nuanced. It was beautiful to the eye. It was really, really well acted. I just, I loved it. So I'm so happy to be able to say when you can watch it. I. I support my PBS station, so I was able to watch it immediately. I think it's out for everybody now. Take the time to watch it. This is really, really good.

[Mary Huim]

I am so thrilled that you got to have such a fulfilling experience in watching this. And also, can I just say, I feel like I would trust PBS with my life, like ex bookish. In fact, I saw someone online saying that they would prefer that if Emma and Lion were to ever be translated to the screen, that it should be PBS Masterpiece. And I was like, there is no other option for me. I want PBS to do it because they are so good. You can tell that that is a station run by readers.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yes, you're so right that they should do Emma M. Lyon. Oh, they would do such a good job. And then of course, the Anthony Horowitz Magpie murder series is just, you know, in some ways, that one I would say is better. I think for a lot of people, they might say it's better than the books themselves. So you're totally right that that is a slam dunk when they're the ones who do it. I wouldn't trust anybody else to take on a huge tome like the Count of Monte Cristo. They did a wonderful job with it.

[Mary Huim]

Love that.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

All right, Mary, let's get into some of our current reads. What did you bring to us?

[Mary Huim]

Okay, so, Meredith, my First book this week is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Awesome.

[Mary Huim]

I have a feeling that most of our listeners are going to fall into one of two categories. They either have read this book ages ago and have been on the Howell train for decades, or maybe they, like me, have had it in their periphery for years and years and just kept kind of not getting around to it. I finally decided that in order to prioritize this book, I was going to put it on my Christmas Eve book list where my husband and I buy like a surprise book for one another and we give each other some gentle encouragement of what we might like to read. He picked out an absolutely beautiful special edition which is even more fun and I just had a blast reading this book. In case you fall in the latter category like I did, here is the setup. Sophie is the eldest of three daughters and she is destined to fail miserably should she ever dare to leave her stepmother's hat shop and pursue her own fortune. But when she attracts the ire of the loathed Witch of the Waste and is turned into to an old woman, there is only one place she can think to go to try and reverse her fate. The strange and mysterious moving castle of the wizard Howl. Instead of the terrible stories Sofie has heard about Howl in his castle when she arrives, she finds a modest home on the inside made up by heartless or is he Howl, a snarky but multi layered fire demon and more enchantment in her newfound home than she ever expected. I will be honest that aside from hearing about this in the Zeitgeist for years, I really had no idea what to expect from this book. I knew that there was a moving cast castle. I knew that there was a character named Howl that's like honestly, it. Howl's moving castle really reminded me of how often we read classics. Now I'm gonna say like Agatha Christie here, I'm very well aware that I'm not comping Agatha Christie to Diana Wynne Jones, but when we read a classic in a genre, we may originally not realize just how revolutionary the story is. Because when we see these tropes in literature constantly now, it's like it was Agatha who did it first, right? It is revolutionary. It was revolutionary. Then she created these tropes and these concepts in the mystery genre. And I am feeling this way about Howl. There are a lot of cozy fantasy tropes that might feel familiar to you here, but it's because Diana Wynne Jones did it long before a lot of even some of the best in the modern genres. Now, I don't want to say that no cozy fantasy came before her, but I really do get the feeling that she was revolutionary in a lot of the cozy fantasy tropes that we feel like we know so well. She feels like she falls falls into the OG category, as it were. I really just so enjoyed this story. The world we escaped to, the twists and the turns that I didn't necessarily think to see coming. This story is adventure and it is found family. It's got strong character arcs with hints of magic and fairy tales that feel just probable and accessible in a way that makes it just such a delight to sink into. If you are anywhere on the fantasy reader spectrum or even if you're just like a gentle adventure well told. Please do not wait like I did to finally get around to reading this one. That is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

This is one that I have exactly as you said. I've always of course known about it, but I never. I never really knew exactly what it was about and it I guess I maybe always shelved it in the it's a little bit weird or maybe like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kind of wacky or madcap or something which doesn't really work for me. Sounds like something I might really like.

[Mary Huim]

I think you might really like it, Meredith. I would definitely say that it is closer on the spectrum to Legends and Lattes than it is to Hitchhiker's Guide. I will say I don't know exactly if it's billed as ya, but it definitely feels like new Adult. But maybe even before we started really labeling things as such that these characters are like, I think maybe young 20s, but there's nothing here that feels egregious. They are out on their own. They are making their own way, paving their own paths. They're really accountable to and for their actions. So you're not getting like you're not really feeling the. Your prefrontal cortex isn't developed yet. Vibes good. So perfect. I I do think that this one would work for you and I think for so many readers. And I know that there is the beloved Studio Ghibli adaptation that I think will be on my radar now to watch. And it's one that I could absolutely see my myself reading with my daughter as she gets older. And I think it absolutely has earned its spot on my permanent shelf. It was such a delightful surprise. Feels like I discovered it right, But a surprise for me that it I think it really met My expectations and then some, which was so nice.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

That is so nice. All right, well, my first book is a book that I have been saving to bring to a conversation with you, Mary, because you to me are the avatar that I have in my brain for a lot of. I know there are a lot of readers that feel the same way, where it's like, like I like some mystery, but I don't want super dark and I don't want gore and I don't want a lot of violence in my mystery. But. But I do want some interesting mystery. Right? Yeah, I have a really, really good one. And it is called Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. Here's our setup. Our story is set aboard the HMS Fairweather, which is a spaceship. It's a. It's a generation ship on a centuries long voyage to a new planet. But this is not your typical generation ship story because nobody on the fair weather has to die and stay dead. Passengers instead can save their minds and their memories into glass books stored in the ship's library. And when their bodies wear out, they simply get printed into new ones, like the same body, only like a younger version, they can choose to take a break between their lives. They don't have to go straight into their next life. They can just sort of rest on the shelf until they're ready to wake up again. And that is exactly what our protagonist, our lead character, Dorothy Gentleman, has been doing. She is the ship's detective and has been doing that resting on the shelf between lives for two years because she had a really tough breakup and she asked to just be shelved for a little while. Wouldn't that be great if we had.

[Mary Huim]

That sounds wonderful.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Just like a cosmic pause button. Yeah, I love it. So when Dorothy suddenly wakes up in a body that is not hers, with no memory of. Of choosing to come back, she knows something is very, very wrong. The ship's AI tells her that a magnetic storm threatened her memory book, so it did an emergency download into the nearest body to save her. But that is not really the worst news because there's also a dead body on the ship. Someone has been deliberately deleting archives memory archives from the library. Which means that for the first time in Fairweather's 300 year history, someone may have figured out how to actually permanently murder someone. So Dorothy, the ship's detective, needs to figure it out. All right, this hidden gem, and it is a hidden gem until now, is the kind of book that every reader, and certainly this reader, needs stashed on her TBR for the exact moment when nothing else is working. I was in a terrible slump when my friend Betsy, your friend Betsy Ikenberry sent this my way and I did the thing that works really well for me on audio. I just downloaded it and hit play immediately. I didn't research it. I didn't go read reviews. I just said, Betsy thinks it's the right time for it. Let's hit play. It was exactly the right call. This is a little short. King of a Nolla. It's about two hours on 1.5 audio, so it's a quick win that you can knock out in a single afternoon or a long bath or trip to the grocery store here in Austin. And I know that quick some can sometimes mean really light. But that's not all that's happening here. This book deals with murder and a serious subject like memory erasure and somehow also it is a complete delight. It's not too dark. It's complex enough to keep your brain engaged without ever feeling like any sort of hard work. When I first heard the premise, I will admit I thought that the world building because it's a little bit complicated in the first little bit to get your feet in this world and kind of the rules of it bodies you can swap into a library that stores your consciousness in glass. All the rules of dysfunctional immortality on the spaceship. But this book did not need the 40 pages that would normally be needed to set everything up. Smart, pragmatic, middle aged Dorothy is at the helm and so you get all of it quickly and easily. Dorothy's the kind of narrator who just tells you what you need to know as she goes the way a competent person would explain the workplace to a new hire. There's no hand wringing or rabbit holing in annoying ways. You're just oriented and invested before you even what's happening. And the mer the mystery itself, the solution for the whole thing, was way cleverer than I thought it would be. I was fully prepared for a cozy little puzzle with a tidy bow on it. But what I got instead surprised me, but in a really good way. Olivia Waite did a great job on that ending. I always need books like this in my library. Not every book needs to be that big 500 page epic or that heavy literary fiction or in my reading, that really dark serial killer mystery. Sometimes you just need something you can grab when nothing else is feeling right. It's low stakes, but not stupid. That is what Murder by Memory does, and it does it with real charm. Also, it's the beginning of a series and the Next one is already available. So this is Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. And I am positive, Mary, that you would love this series.

[Mary Huim]

This is why it pays to have bookish friends. Because not only do I trust your taste implicitly, Meredith, but you, I know, I feel like I can confidently say, hey, I think that you will really enjoy this one when you tell me, hey, Mary, I think this one will fit right, kind of in the sweet spot for you. And not only do I wholeheartedly agree with you after hearing that setup, but that I can trust that I'm gonna grab it and just, it's not gonna be a super high barrier for me to get to the enjoyment and what I love. And I wholeheartedly agree with you that I am finding such a benefit in keeping those shorter, more accessible. Like you said, not vapid, you know, or super fluffy. Still smart and enjoyable. But that is the perfect thing to get me out of a slump. And I am so ready to stash this one away for the perfect moment. I can't wait to read it. I wrote it down after you got like three sentences in.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

So, yeah, I think you'll, I think you'll really love it. It's something you can listen to even like in the car when baby girl's there, you know, like that, that wouldn't be a problem. And it's, I really like the middle aged protagonist. I really, I really like that she's, I think she's, I think she's right at 50, like perfect. She seems like someone I would be friends with. So I really, I like Dorothy a lot. So that's a good one. All right, what is your next one?

[Mary Huim]

All right, Meredith. My second book this week is Dan in Green Gables by Ray Terciero. And as I'm sure that you can surmise from the title, this is a day reimagining, not retelling of Anne of Green Gables told through graphic novel format in the coolest and most imaginative way possible. After an unpredictable life on the road with his mother, 15 year old Dan Stewart Alvarez has always wanted to settle down. But he didn't imagine that it would ever be like this. Dropped off in rural Tennessee with practical strangers, his gentle grandmother and conservative rough hewn grandfather, here Dan finds that while he adjusts to the stability of a roof over his head and food on the table, he also must contend with the strangeness of high school, working on the farm, and the toughest part yet. Reckoning with his queerness and fully living as himself in a severe Southern Baptist community, Dan is Faced with the hard reality of having to choose between finding peace in the home that he has always wished for without paying the cost of losing himself entirely. Meredith Speaking of reading slumps and books to pull you out of a reading slump, I read this one back right after a reading slump and I have really found, like I said before, that having a shorter novel and also this is newer to me in the last couple years, a graphic novel is a really nice way to help me get through the slog of a book hangover. Or if I feel like I need a palette cleanser after a book that just hit so perfectly that I'm like nothing else in the world would compare. I think graphic novels register just differently in the enough in my brain that it kind of feels like a hard reset. It's like I'm still doing the thing that I want to be doing, which is reading. But it's it, it is absolutely reading, but it doesn't feel the same as reading only words on a page. And so it kind of takes the pressure off of I have to find the perfect next novel to dig into. And it's like I get this lovely little intermission with a graphic novel. I get to escape into a world and this one totally fulfilled that purpose for me. The illustrations are stunning and honestly for me, they are what capture the spirit of our Anne with an E. The best is that the colors are a little bit muted, a little bit of vintage looking that it feels like it puts you in that Anne place. The story is one that you can tell was inspired by the original Ann, but it diverges and holds its own well enough that it absolutely stands on its own two feet as a story. Just be prepared going in that it is not going to nod a ton to the original text. But if you're willing to let this story play out in its own right, I think that there are a lot of readers who will find a lot to love here. That is Dan in Green Gables by Ray Tercier.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah, I can, I can almost hear a lot of those readers immediately going and saying, you know, download immediately or put this on my tbr. That sounds really good.

[Mary Huim]

Yeah.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

All right, left turn here because this is very, very different. This probably would not be a book for you, my friend.

[Mary Huim]

So noted.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Muff it for just a second. This is a book called this Cursed House by Del Sandeen. Here's a setup. Our story starts in 1962 and 27 year old Gemma Barker is very much needing to escape Chicago and the spirits that she's been able to see her whole life. So when a mysterious job offer arrives from the Duchamp family in New Orleans, she jumps at the chance for a fresh start. But what she finds in that crumbling Louisiana mansion is nothing that she expected. The Duchons are a black family, light skinned enough to pass as white, and they make no effort to hide their disdain for the brown skinned Gemma. We meet imperious grandmother Honorine and the beautiful but unknowable cousin Fozette. This eccentric clan has been isolated in their decaying home for nearly three decades and their grip on reality is tenuous at best. We know that this family is up to something and we can only hope that Gemma will be able to figure out exactly what it is and to save herself from it. Alright, this book is is a gothic ghost story that is all about and I'm going to use one of my least favorite words here, but it is the word that fits. This is a gothic ghost story all about rot. Not not just the physical kind, though there is plenty of that in this decaying New Orleans mansion, but the kind of rot that happens when families bury their secrets so deep that the shame starts eating everything from the inside out. Del Sandeen, our author here, has written a ghost, yes, but she's also written a story about what happens when the poison and the rot of colorism and generational trauma gets passed down like a horrible family heirloom seeps into the walls. It seeped into these people and eventually somebody has to deal with the smell. This is essentially Ms. Havisham from Great Expectations, but make it an entire family. The Duchenne's have been holed up in this crumbling mansion, like I said, for three decades, clinging to their privilege and everything is rotting from within their relationships, their sanity, their grip on reality. It's a rich premise and Del Sandin commits to it so completely. The atmosphere in this book is thick. You can feel it in the like the humidity of 1960s New Orleans pressing all around you as you read. What I loved is how readable this ghost story is is mention Betsy again. She and I were buddy reading this one and it came recommended from Sadie Hartman's feral and hysterical book and we both tore through this one. The pacing in this story is excellent, does not drag it's building dread but keeps that pace going. The sense of place is phenomenal if really really icky. She drops you right down into the era and the city and this suffocating house and you hear every creaking floorboard. The downside here and I feel like I have to. I have to say this, to be fair, is that the book gets heavy handed with its themes. Sandeen clearly has something to say, of course, about colorism and about the way some black families have weaponized proximity to whiteness, and about how trauma doesn't just affect individuals, but entire lineages. These are crucial, necessary themes for us to be reading about. There were moments where I did feel like the message was like being underlined and bright lined instead of of the author trusting it to land with her readers. The overall story, though, of secrets unearthed in a curse that is as much metaphorical as it is supernatural more than makes up for that heavy handedness, though it's perfect for readers who love Southern Gothic with real teeth. Like, if you loved Mexican Gothic for the way that it combined that sense of place with social commentary, you're going to love this. Also, if you, if you just really love, love creepy New Orleans stories, you're going to want to read this. This is really, really excellent and gave me some genuine thrills, genuine chills, and helped me to round out my knowledge of some truly dark corners of American history that I didn't have in my back pocket. This is this Cursed House by Del

[Mary Huim]

Sandeen Meredith, I feel like this was a perfect example of how you could sell ice to Antarctica in that I was like, yeah, this doesn't sound like it's for me at all, but it is. That was so compellingly set up that I can totally see how this is going to be the perfect hit for the right reader. I love that.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Right? It is. It's very fully what it is and it does that thing really, really well. And I, I really, really enjoyed it. I ended up giving it a 4.5. I like this book a lot.

[Mary Huim]

Awesome. I love that. All right, well, I will pivot us again. I don't know if it's a hard left, but we're at least going left again. And that is with my third book, which is Instructions for Traveling west by Joy Sullivan. I was so excited, Meredith, to know that I would be recording this with you, because I knew I had an excellent poetry book in my back pocket and was thrilled to get to share it with you. Alongside some of my other favorite Instagram poets, you will find Joy Sullivan, known for her beautiful prose and themes of striking out on your own again in a different direction, both metaphorically and literally, than perhaps you initially intended. In this collection, Joy tells the story of how, mid pandemic she left the man she intended to marry. She sold her house, quit her corporate job and drove west while pretty much. None of these things describe the phase of life that I'm in. I found so much of what she writes about to still be so deeply familiar when it comes to the questions of what happens when we heed the call of furious reinvention, as she says. I thought that it was so fascinating to watch her story play out, not explicitly told. There is enough continuity in this collection to generally understand the trajectory of her experience, and for the most part, it does kind of follow the timeline. We're not jumping all over the place. She's not directly telling you her story, but she is absolutely telling you her story. I haven't read much, if anything, in this category of memoir through poetry. I don't know exactly if that is how she would sell it, but that is really how it felt to me. And I just, just found it such a cool way to experience someone's story while also finding bits of my own experiences scattered throughout, or at least resonance there. To top it off, there's an interlude in the middle of the collection that is solely about Eve, of Adam and Eve, that I found to be so unexpected and interesting and just deeply representative of so much of the deconstruction of the patriarchy that is on my mind a lot lately. I think, as with plenty of other readers, Joy is an excellent writer and I found myself so moved by one of her poems in this collection that I even brought it to the therapy room in the right circumstance, with the right client. It just stuck with me. It still just sits with me so deeply. Like with any poetry collection, of course, some worked more for me than others, but overall I just found the individual poems and the overall almost narrative structure of this collection just so worth my reading time for poetry lovers and newbies alike. And honestly, if you enjoyed Comfort Me with Apples, I'll throw you in there to this category as well. This was an excellent addition, whether it's to your morning reading, your poetry collection, or just to try something a little bit different. That was Instructions for Traveling west by Joy Sullivan.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Oh, yeah, that's one that I'm getting immediately. And it's got a gorgeous cover too.

[Mary Huim]

It's beautiful. It is really beautiful to behold. And it's one of those paperbacks that does this. Doesn't really matter, but the tactile experience of holding it. It's a paperback book that has like the folded over flaps.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Oh, French flaps.

[Mary Huim]

French flap. Thank you. Yes. That just makes it feel like you are really holding something substantial when you are reading it. So, yes, highly recommend. I think it will be for You, Meredith.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I love it. I'm so looking forward to that. I have not been reading as much poetry in the morning and I've been thinking that I really want to get back to that because I love it. All right. My third book. I think we're back very squarely in the category of books that you will really like, Mary, because I read the Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen. Do you know this one?

[Mary Huim]

No, I don't.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

This is one that was a recent indie press pick and I'm going to

[Mary Huim]

talk about that, but that's why it sounds familiar.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yes, I, you know, and I try not to bring recent indie pressure press picks because we try not to do that and I almost never do. But the. We had a couple of indie presses recently where I ended up reading like 9 out of 10 of the. Of the 2 months worth of books. And so I just. There's nothing I can do. I have to. I have to bring this. Plus, I really loved this book. This was a five star fantasy novel for me. So here's the setup. Lara is our lead character and she is the princess of Maradrina. But she was not raised. She was raised for a very particular purpose. Purpose, like she was born and raised for a very particular purpose. Not to wear a crown or wave to people below her balcony. She was raised in a compound in the desert alongside a whole bunch of sisters trained from childhood to be a weapon. Her father, King Silas, has one target. The bridge kingdom of Ithacana. A small but very powerful kingdom that controls this bridge, which is the only trade route between the northern and southern continents in this world.

[Mary Huim]

World.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

So whoever controls the bridge controls basically everything. And Silas's people, King Silas's people are starving because of it. So when a long standing treaty requires that the king of Ithacana marry one of Silas's daughters, Lara is chosen and sent as a bride with a very specific secret mission. Get inside, learn the bridge's defenses, and destroy the kingdom from within. The problem of course, is King Aaron, the guy she's marrying. He's smart, he's capable, he's hot. But the biggest problem of all, he genuinely cares about his people. So inconveniently not the monster that Laura was raised to believe that he was. So things go from there. So if you, like me, love Romantasy, but you've been sick of all of the recent Romantasy. Basically everything that's come out since fourth Wing. Not everything, but. But a lot that's come out since fourth wing has been just too silly, overwrought, angsty or sexy, overly chili peppered for this reader. The Bridge Kingdom has all the tropes that I love, especially true enemies to lovers. This is actual enemies to lovers, arranged marriage, slow burn, political intrigue. But it delivers on him with a tone that is much more grounded and smart. It takes itself seriously without taking itself too seriously. And that balance is I think really hard to pull off. And it's just not being done that much these days. This feels like romantasy, well fantasy that's written for like grown women. So the two main characters, they are doing so much heavy lifting and I love them each so much that they. I have to give them their flowers. Lara, our princess, our weapon is, is an absolute badass. Competent and layered and compelling. And King Aaron, he's the, he's the perfect king. He cares so much about his people. He leads with integrity. He is very clearly a healthy enneagram one which if you know, you know. He's also incredibly sexy. So the whole package was working for me. And the chemistry between the two of them is really, really, really good. Also, the world building and the political elements are done really well here, if you like political elements. But you don't want that to be all of what you're reading. You don't want the story to get bogged down in it. This is another thing that the Bridge Kingdom does really well. We have enough politics to keep the stakes real and the tension high, but we're not needing to get into all of the weeds of everything. And I'll say something I almost never say and I always have to call out when it does happen. Even the fight scenes, scenes in this book were not boring. That's high praise coming from me because I my eyes tend to like roll back in my head with. With fight scenes. These were just really, really well done. So this book came as a recommendation from the two Friends books in Arkansas for the indie press list. Again, that was a fantastic stack that Two Friends books gave us. I'm so grateful for this Recommendation. This is 4 and a half stars and I cannot wait to continue with the series. This one does end on a cliffhanger, but also I felt it resolved itself plenty for me to press pause on the series right then. So it's not like it leaves you not knowing what's going to happen. This is the Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen. I liked it so much, Meredith.

[Mary Huim]

Now as you're talking about this, I am remembering that I put almost every single book from Two Friends indie press list episode on my TBR and I put them all in my cart and I have not yet checked out. And so what better time than talking about this with you today that I think it's time to finally place my order because that sounds spectacular and that is a hard balance to find in Romantasy. Now. It almost made me feel like I wasn't a fantasy reader that I am kind of stepping away from. I'm not interested in a ton of the Romantasy that's out right now, but I really do and really enjoy very specific ones. And this sounds like absolutely that I loved it.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Short chapters and. And in the first couple of chapters, it had me like going, wait, wait, what, what, what is happening? I did that. These are some things I hadn't expected. It's a really, really good one. All right, Mary, we are going to get into a deep dive that is going to be reading therapy. We love to do this with you. You, of course are a. An experienced and talented actual therapist in your real life. Of course. What we do here on currently reading is not actual therapy. This is purely for reading and entertainment purposes. But also like when we talked last time, we had some really interesting questions and of course you always have some really, really thoughtful feedback.

[Mary Huim]

I love doing these episodes with you, Meredith, because it's funny. As a therapist, I do find myself at the right times recommending books to clients, especially those for whom I know that a book recommendation will land well. So, yes, absolutely. I'm not acting as a therapist here today. I'm acting as a reader who also happens to have this whole other part of my life. Right. As a therapist. This is like my vocational meant. This isn't just my job. This is like who I am. So I love when we get to meld these two together and talk about books and like well being and the hard stuff of life, being a human. I love getting to have these conversations with you. You.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah, there are some there. We had a lot of really good ones to choose from.

[Mary Huim]

We.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

We chose just two. So we're going to start with our first one from our reader who says, my question is a little bit focused on me, but I think it's common enough, it's a common enough experience that reading therapy around this topic would be useful for a lot of people. I'm currently supporting my dad on hospice. He's been on hospice for cancer and has taken a turn for the worst. And it looks like he only has days or, or a couple of weeks left. This situation is odd because logistics are hard, meals are scarce, and yet there are hours of quiet time for reflection, writing, knitting or reading. It's alternately soul filling as I enjoy moments with my dad, and crushing as I watch him suffer and miss my own home. And yet it's an honor to spend these days with him. What books would you recommend for someone temporarily living this strange, sad and challenging life?

[Mary Huim]

Life.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

It could be specific books or types of books that will engage my short attention span, but also nurture my breaking heart or even the preferred format. For example, I was reading Slue Foot when I arrived, but have left it beside my hotel bed as it's too inconvenient to carry around at my dad's apartment. Reading is such a balm for me that I think recommendations for this time would be helpful. So, Mary, what do you think about when you have someone who's going through such a specific period of time that you really want to help them step through and be very present in and yet also reading can provide a little bit of escape and be a bomb, as she says.

[Mary Huim]

Yeah, you know, Meredith, I kind of went two directions with this one and I purposefully brought a poetry book earlier on to my current reads because I do think that poetry fills a very specific need here. When your brain can't really hold on to something, and that may be something as simple as as the through line of a plot. You're kind of in this pocket of really weird, like time warpy. You want to make meaning, you want to hold on and escape maybe at the same time. And I personally find so much solace in poetry and I think there's a lot here that could make this a good fit, knowing the way that this reader in particular wants to have the experience. First of all, I think even just format wise, a poetry book is often really, really slim. It's easy to kind of move around. You can toss it in your bag, you can pick up and put down. You don't even have to have a bookmark. You could just stop and start wherever you want to. I think format wise, something like this is going to be a really good fit. But you know me that I am also one who would rather kind of lean into the humanity than lean out. Now, don't hear me wrong that I absolutely think that there are good and important reasons to lean out when you are in a really intense time. But I honestly don't think that. I think that's maybe a little bit easier to find lean out books than it is to find lean in. So I grabbed some of my favorite poetry writers, a lot of them more modern, but some old faves as well, that I think could really fit in this time, because I also know that the mental load of saying, like, okay, let's find poetry, and now what? Right? So let's provide for this reader a good collection of ones I think might really work here. Of course, there is the inimitable Mary Oliver. I think that whatever you are going through in life, Mary Oliver has written something that will speak to you. We have her next in line, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Lindsay Rush of Mary Oliver's Drunk Cousin on Instagram. We've got Kate Bear for something a little more somber. And I have this really special collection called the Poetry Remedy. Have you heard about this one, Meredith? It's the Poetry Remedy. Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul by William Seager. This book is divided up by categories. We've got emotional baggage and lack of curiosity and aging parents or loss of faith in the world. And then a bunch of different poems by various poets throughout history that could fall well into these categories. So you can literally find. Right. Supporting a dying loved one and grab a poem that is specifically curated to this experience. This can be found in fiction, too, of course, but I think that having it spelled out in a way that is really providing you almost like a foundation on which to build your own reflection, to make your own meaning, I think that this is going to be a nice and gentle way. You're already being forced to go through something really hard, and I think that we can either lean into that and, like, really stay present. I'm not saying there's a right or a wrong way to grieve or move through things, but that it can be really nice to say, hey, let me try and make some meaning of things. This. Let me try and find some grounding in this, or even just to like, spark some insight into what is happening for me right now, that I think that poetry is more often than so many other genres, going to kind of serve to you on a silver platter, which is what you need done for you when you are supporting a loved one through hospice or when you are going through really terrible grief. And so that's kind of the first direction I took this in.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah, I think that that makes a lot of sense. And how great is that to be able to have a book that you can kind of have in your library and just be able to say, like, this is a situation that I really need some. Some balm about and, like, here, you know, or some insight about to have that there. I know For. For me in this situation, I probably. I want to be a fully lean in person. I haven't been in this situation exactly, but I know when I'm like especially filled with anxiety or waiting on something, I know that I am often going to go to a comfort listen. For me, that is the popcast podcast. That is one of those things that no matter how scared I am, I will go like deep in the back list and just like, I almost don't even have to listen. It just is like serotonin. Like serotonin kind of thing.

[Mary Huim]

Yes.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

But when I am ready to be more engaged or maybe even dip in and dip out, like get lean in a little bit and then let myself dip out. For me, it's Pima Children and she has a book, How We Live is How We Die, that is really about endings of all kinds. Our bodily ending, the end of a day, the end of a relationship, all of these things. And so it's kind of a collection of essays that I. I have on my shelf, knowing that there are times that I'm going to want to lean into that kind of thing. So that. That was something that I thought about too.

[Mary Huim]

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I think I could probably make this blanket statement for any past and potential future reading therapy episodes we do. Meredith, is that like, first of all, let us give you full permission to set down a book and not pick it back up again until you feel so moved like you're your books and reading will be there for you. I know we say this all the time, but I have caused additional suffering for myself in the past when I have been like. And on top of it, I can't even read right now. And it's like, that's okay. Like, it is okay. Can we just meet it with this radical acceptance of like, it is not working for me now. It will come back. I can even be annoyed and frustrated by that. And like you said, there's beautiful other things we can consume in the world world. Like the Popcast, like a reread or a re listen of a novel that we are already familiar with. So we are given the beautiful, like, certainty when so much is in upheaval and uncertain, when everything is uncharted territory. A reread is beautiful, soothing, regulating, charted territory. You know where it's gonna go. You know that it is gonna lead you someplace. And you can choose your level of right, like lean in or lean out because you nothing is going to surprise you necessarily about that book. And so a reread or not reading at all is always on the table. And it's interesting because as I was, not that I'm in a particularly hard season, but I am coming out of an interesting season. I think I had shared with my previous couple of kind of back to back pregnancy losses at the end of last year that I'm just kind of starting to feel my brain click back on in a way. And I found I was kind of reflecting on this time. For me, if I. I am going to sound like such a broken record here, but my beloved Lightfall trilogy graphic novel series. I sprinkled a little bit of this earlier on to say, right, that I think a graphic novel can be a really nice way to give your brain the feeling like of yes, I am reading a book and you are reading a book, but also you're not having to do a ton of mental labor to get there or even get into the book. Book, right. I know for me, starting a book is the hardest thing about my reading life. And if I am, if anything else is taking up my mental and emotional energy, I absolutely do not feel like I have the energy to give to starting a book well. And so something else I love about a graphic novel, friends, is that like the world is literally painted for you. You do not have to even do the work of imagining. And this particular series series is that it's just that good. You can read. There's four of them out now. I have actually just recently reread the first three to prepare for the fourth with our friend Betsy. You can read most graphic novels in an hour or two, cover to cover. These books in particular in Lightfall are. They're gentle and they're quiet until they're not. But they do this really beautiful thing in taking some really hard struggles that I think most of us could project our own experience onto in some way in the world right now. This feeling of kind of being in the darkness, not really seeing the light yet. Whether you're feeling that on a global or a personal level, these books also don't solve that. These graphic novels don't solve that issue simply in one volume. They make you stay with it and they make you sit in the darkness, feel some of the discomfort, the. The despair. Never overwhelmingly so, but all kind of while holding onto the hope that like, yes, of course we will eventually come out to the other side, but we can't do that until we go through the dark night right. Of the soul or of the world or what have you. In my own moments of grief and complexity particularly, I was really feeling this in December this year. I don't want Someone to shuffle me along to pretending to be better than I am before I'm there. I do not want the emotional or spiritual bypassing of let's make meaning right away and make it all be fine. There was something very comforting for me, and I think Pima Children does this well. Really well, too. Of like, we're not going to pretend that this is all perfect and easy, and that doesn't make it any less significant and powerful and human and transformative. I just. Yeah, I just want a safe place to feel in the darkness and allow it to be. These graphic novels in particular, I think you could choose a totally irreverent graphic novel that has nothing to do with anything about feelings and have a nice, nice little escapist time. But if you want to, like, tiptoe, dip in and out. And also these books in particular, this series are talking about nothing that is, like, it's only metaphorically related to what's happening in our world. There is no way you're gonna be experiencing maybe some triggers of, oh, no, global warming. Like, it's not making you contend with the real darkness and realities in our world, personally or globally. But they are just really transportative. Another reason I'm including them here is that if you're reading them on something with a screen, a phone, a tablet, et cetera, they have the really fun experience of kind of like immersing you deeply. Have you had this experience with a graphic novel, Meredith, where you're, like, zooming in through the pages and it's focusing in on specific details that really felt like, oh, I can just escape. Like, I can dip into this world and be really in it in an immersive way that I think when I really stepped back and said, why did these books work so well for me when they did in my own challenging times, A lot of what I found here is speaking to what I think our reader who wrote in is talking about. She wants to be transported, she wants to be held. She wants something that will meet her attention right where it's at. And I think these do that really well too.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah, they're very beautiful. I was just looking at that first one the other day. They're very, very beautiful. They're very comforting. So I. I can. I really think that could be a. A great suggestion for someone to have. Let's get into our second one. Our bookish friend says I am currently waiting for biopsy results that are likely to show breast cancer. It's been a solid two months going through the diagnostic process, and my reading has Gone off a cliff. Which is understandable but makes me sad. What has somewhat worked are either books that grabbed me from the first chapter and ran raced to the end or slower, more gentle books that tugged me in. The slower ones need to have the right vibe though. Soft and nothing too traumatic but not too schmaltzy books that I have successfully read these two months. Heartwood. These same bright stars wreck her many faces and spectacular things. All right, Mary, any suggestions? Like what, what was the. Who was the author that, that that stuck out to you immediately?

[Mary Huim]

Well, you know, I think the thing. First of all, I know my lane. I'm not necessarily going to be the one to go to for fast paced grab you right away. And I of course am drawn to the slower paced kind of gently tugging you in. It feels like Katherine Newman, right Rec sandwich her backlist. That is who I really think does it. Well when we're talking about books like this one that I thought of that I shared in my most recent episode before this one before I Go by Tori Henwood hone kind of this like magical realism but also grappling with a father with Alzheimer's and his passing that I think does just enough but not too much for our reader here. You know, I also often turn to middle grade and I think I talked about this last time too. In times where my brain can't really grab onto anything, I think Kelly Barnhill does this best of all. The Ogress and the Orphans, the Girl who Drank the Moon. Easy to get into. Well written. They manage some, some tough stuff but by design as middle grade, they're not gonna traumatize you. They're not here to do that. Right. Yeah. Another winner in this category, I think is T.J. klune. I just think he does it really well when it comes to meaningful and heart centered. That doesn't challenge or doesn't shy away rather from challenging stories, but does it in a way that you can really find some meaning by the end of it. And then I am just gonna throw this one here and this might be for either one of our writers in today that if you are deciding, hey, I really need to let myself have the grief and I don't know how to do that or I don't want it wrapped up in a bow. But I want to be able to kind of see how like have someone hold my hand through the challenging thing that I am going into. I'm going to diverge a little bit with this last recommendation for the book. It's okay that you're not okay by Megan Devine I have a bit of a first aid kit of book recommendations that I like to share whenever someone in my life life is experiencing grief of any kind. And this is one that I think really is easily recommendable to anyone experiencing grief in any way, shape or form. And so that's the one that I'm going to end with here. Not that I think this reader must, or any reader must lean into something really kind of deep, non fiction griefy when they're in a time like this. But I'm just going to gently float this one out there for if you are to the point where you're like, like, all right, I've read enough fiction. I want something that like sees me where I'm at. This I think is a good one to just kind of keep in the back of your mind, keep on your periphery for if and when it feels like time for a book like that.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Excellent. I love that. And of course you know that we would love to be able like maybe on our substack, we would love to be able to give people that list of your kind of love it emergency books.

[Mary Huim]

Yeah.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

So if you want to follow us currently at the Currently Reading podcast on Substack, we every other week we do the reader know thyself emails and so you can follow along there. And then on the following week we do a list of some sort. Whether it's a list of my favorite serial killer books, a list of, you know, Katie's favorite books. We can, and we would love to have this too. For me, Elizabeth Berg is my go to in this kind of mood where I want heart centered, but I also want a story that's not going to be too schmaltzy and is also going to draw me in. And then, you know, I just think Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher is such a great book that falls into this category of kind of sweep you away, really draw you in. But it's also not crazy twisty. It's like enough in real life, but not so much that you're going to be triggered in that situation where our friend here is waiting for results and in that worried state. I really, really want to have my mind taken off of the things. Yeah, it's not, you know, I, I would feel like I don't necessarily need to be present in the anxiety. I need to kind of just numb out while I wait for time to pass to get past this point. And so Rosamund Pilcher, many of her books are really, really helpful for that. So. Okay, hopefully this Bout of reading therapy has been helpful not just for our two writer inners, but also for others of you who are listening. This is a segment that we absolutely love doing. Mary, you are the only person that I would want to do this with. You are so good at this kind of work. So thank you so much for doing this with us.

[Mary Huim]

It's always such a joy. I'm so glad we could do this today. Meredith.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

All right, before we go, let's do something a little bit bookish. I broke the rule. I broke the rules. I'm driving this episode, and so I'm supposed to go look at the bookish friend group and choose a bookish friend. I broke the rules because I was like, no, I was getting curious this time. And you, if you follow me on. Follow me on Instagram, you're gonna know what I'm gonna talk about. I'm a hobby hopper like you are. And my latest hobby, which has become my entire personality, because they all do, is I. Six years after everyone else did, I've hopped on the sourdough train.

[Mary Huim]

Oh, love it. Yay.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah. BB Here I come down the track. I am so on this train, it's not even funny. So my sourdough starter, I named Agatha Crusty. I am making my. My first loaf right now as we speak. It is proofing up. I am filled with anxiety about Agatha Crusty's first loaf. It's not going to be good, but I want it to be good. I feel very invested. Here's what I. I got curious. And what do I do when I get curious? I always get a book or two to start out my learning. And Betsy, who now really should have been on this episode with us because this is now, like the fifth time we're talking about her. Good Lord. She was the reason I started down my journey because she's a great sourdough baker. And she recommended a book called the Perfect Loaf by Maurizio Leo. And it is beautiful and it is informative and it is not intimidating. And it's just one of those books that is a step by step help as you're learning, getting your starter up and running, or, and. Or as you begin your first few loaves. But then it has lots of recipes for delicious things that you can, you know, different sourdough inclusion loaves. Loaves, which is like sourdough with, like, rosemary and garlic, sourdough with cheese and, you know, all these other things, but also things that you can do with the sourdough discard, like sourdough pancakes or sourdough scones, all that kind of thing. So I really loved the Perfect Loaf. I was getting curious and he helped me along.

[Mary Huim]

This good old Maurizio Leo Meredith, Agatha Crusty could not be. I hope that our YouTube listener viewers could see the look on my face when you said that name. Absolute perfection. I love getting to witness you going along this journey. I cannot wait to hear about Agatha's Spoils. I love that. And have you read Sourdough by Robin Sloan?

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

I did, I did. I read it years ago and I absolutely love it. And again, I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area, so Sourdough is actually. I know now because I've learned so much about sourdough and wild yeast and everything. Sourdough Mordau is actually in my system.

[Mary Huim]

Yeah.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

So I. Yes, I love that book. So I kind of want to reread it now, actually.

[Mary Huim]

I would be so curious to see where it hits now that you like have amassed this information that you are in it for yourself. I love that so much.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yeah, I do. All right, what have you got for us?

[Mary Huim]

All right, Meredith, so I am going to try out some TBR triage this week and the book on the chopping block is the Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid. So I had grabbed this one on vacation at a bookstore kind of haphazardly instead of my usual like leisurely and intense intentional decision making. This one just happened to be on an end cap. It had a pretty cover and I thought, ah, hey, fairy tale retelling. And I grabbed it just because mostly we wanted to support the bookstore. Right. So now, over three years later, I have not even so much as glanced at it, much less consider it as an option for a next book. When I dug further into the storygraph stats and the Goodreads reviews, I can see that this one, unfortunately doesn't get a ton of like love. It is around a 3.5, which isn't an immediate disqualifier for me by any means, but it does make me pay attention to what is making this not work for readers and of course what is making it work for some others. But a lot of the kind of more the lower reviews speak to some things that do really bother me personally. We've got unlikable characters for no real discernible reason. A whole lot of words maybe for not a lot of plot or character development, and some meandering like off topic stories and tales that will take a couple pages away from the main storyline are not necessarily advancing the story in a meaningful way. I have no doubt. In fact, there are some reader friends I'm connected with on the various apps who this one really worked for. It was a great read for them, but it does not need to keep taking up space on my bookshelf. And if I ever hear a compelling reason to pick it back up, there is always the library. But I think this one is going to be delivered to the little free library down the block.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Yes, I think that is a really smart way to go about figuring out if you need this. I this was one that I actually uncoupled. I consciously uncoupled with myself for a lot of the same reasons. I think. 2 I think what has happened is a lot of We've come a long way since 2021ish when this came out.

[Mary Huim]

Was that when this book came out?

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

As far as fairy tale retellings or fairy tale adjacent? Yeah, we've come a really, really long way since then. I think that there are just other books that do it better.

[Mary Huim]

Yeah.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

So I I think that that makes a lot of sense that you that you made that decision. Good job. It's not easy, no. To triage your tbr, but it's so worth our time.

[Mary Huim]

Yes. Thank you for your support.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

All right, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's if you can connect with us, you can find me. I'm Meredith at Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram and Katie is Oates on Bookmarks

[Mary Huim]

on Instagram and you can find me at Mary Reads and Makes on Instagram.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Our show is produced and edited by Megan Putabong Evans and she is at most of Megan's Reads on Instagram. Full Show Notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episodes and timestamps. You can zoom right to where you can hear us talk about it can be found in our show notes and on our website at currentlyreading Podcast.

[Mary Huim]

You can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us@hello currentlyreading podcast.com and again if you

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

have not already, go to our website, sign up for our Our Reader Know Thyself newsletter and you can also find that content on Substack. We would love to have you either one of those places if you want more of this content. There is so much more as we said at the top of the show behind the paywall. Become a bookish friend and you will get get tons more content, lots of community and you will 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.

[Mary Huim]

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

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

All right, until next week, may your

[Mary Huim]

coffee be hot and your book be unput downable.

[Meredith Monday Schwartz]

Happy reading, Mary Happy reading.

[Mary Huim]

Narrative.