Season 8, Episode 5: The 4th C: Relaxing Your Chestal Region + Boss My TBR

Summary

Currently Reading — S8E5: The 4th C: Relaxing Your Chestal Region + Boss My TBR

Hosts: Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb
Date: September 1, 2025

Overview

In this lively episode, Meredith and Kaytee banter about overflowing bookshelves, the joy (and agony) of organizing books, and their shared obsession with reading streaks and book counters. The episode features their signature "Boss My TBR" segment, where they help two bookish friends prioritize their to-be-read stacks based on their needs and preferences. Plus, each host shares three recent reads across varied genres—from comedic Regency romance to dark horror and heartfelt essays—and closes with whimsical "fountain wishes" about bookish correspondence and the magic of scent-based book memory.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Bookish Moments of the Week

Timestamps: 06:45–13:28

Kaytee:

• Overflowing Bookshelves: Despite careful culling, her bookshelves and her "outgoing" (books to sell or give away) shelf are stuffed. She jokes about wanting “a robber to come in and just take my free books”—if only more people would come grab them!
  • "I need more people to come over to my house and take books from me. It's an all-you-can-grab sample sale." (08:15, Kaytee)
• Book Sale Struggles: The work of listing/selling/shipping books feels overwhelming, and she fantasizes about needing a personal assistant for it.
• Letting Go: Finds some relief admitting the overwhelm—“a little bit of relief in the chestal region to say it out loud.” (08:56, Kaytee)

Meredith:

• Satisfying Book Counter: She delights in a physical block counter that tracks the number of books read, giving her a tactile, joyful sense of progress:
  • “Every time I finish a book... then it's just like, ooh, I get to add to it.” (11:20, Meredith)
• Streaks & Tracking: Both hosts admit to loving reading, Duolingo, and Kindle streaks, discussing the sometimes-irrational drive to keep numbers up; “The things I would do to keep my Duolingo streak.” (11:41, Kaytee)
• Amazon’s Missed Opportunity: Chide Amazon for not displaying Kindle streaks more prominently:
  • “If you ever gave two beeps about readers, you would replace your dumb screen...with the streak screen.” (12:43, Meredith)

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2. Current Reads: Six Book Discussions

Timestamps: 13:28–38:34

Kaytee’s Picks:

• A Duke Never Tells by Suzanne Enoch

  • Hilarious Regency romance with mistaken identities, a crumbling manor, and forced proximity.
  • “Ridiculous is the only word...I laughed out loud so many times listening to this book.” (15:31, Kaytee)
  • She and Meredith roast the hot-pink, awkward cover: “Love Island Regency.” (13:36, Kaytee)

• Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

  • Gentle essay collection about finding meaning in staying put and cherishing one's community.
  • “This is a balm of a collection. It is comfort. It is lip gloss on chapped lips. It is reader gloss on your chapped heart.” (22:23, Kaytee)
  • Personal reflection: Reading it made her “teary with gratitude...for Annie and her words and the way she loves her friends and her community.”

• Shudder by Ramona Emerson

  • Gritty supernatural mystery featuring a Navajo crime scene photographer who can see ghosts.
  • “What I'm saying here is if you can make it through the first chapter, you’re going to be okay for the rest of the story...It's similar, but it never gets worse than that first description.” (33:23, Kaytee)
  • Kaytee loves the evocative New Mexico setting and unique photographer POV; provides honest content warnings.

Meredith’s Picks:

• The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

  • Serial killer thriller featuring a haunted criminal profiler and a narrative that blurs reality and the supernatural.
  • “It’s a page-turning serial killer story with a trope that is catnip to me… The killer is known as the Pied Piper.” (17:39, Meredith)
  • Found it a compelling, atmospheric read but critiques the book’s crowded cast and some overused narrative devices.

• The Dark One by Nikki St. Crowe (Vicious Lost Boys #2)

  • “Dark, dark reimagining of Peter Pan and Wendy and the Lost Boys...we are not in Disney territory here.” (25:24, Meredith)
  • Reverse harem, high-spice fantasy romance—morally gray characters and intense supernatural action.
  • “Yes, there are these steamy scenes that are integral to the character development and plot. I can't believe I actually wrote that in my notes.” (27:46, Meredith)
  • Stresses reading what you love without shame.

• Withered Hill by David Barnett

  • Folk horror novel with a fractured timeline (London/isolated pagan village), atmospheric dread, and satisfying twists.
  • “Five stars, no notes. Totally devoured it.” (35:34, Meredith)
  • Praises the book’s structure and sense of disorientation: “That fractured narrative gives us that sense of disorientation and confusion. And then the way that everything eventually clicks into place is perfection.” (36:34, Meredith)
  • Issues a fair warning for gore and sexiness; recommends it as an early fall read.

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3. Boss My TBR: Bookish Friends Edition

Timestamps: 38:34–48:59

The hosts help two bookish friends prioritize five books each from their TBRs—including insights on recent DNFs and favorite snacks.

Katherine Bridgewater

• TBR Picks: Blood Sisters, North Woods, After the Crash, What Alice Forgot, The Shell Seekers.
• Context: Teacher, “reading has to work with the brain capacity I have available.”
• Kaytee’s Order: What Alice Forgot → After the Crash → North Woods. (Shell Seekers recommended for a break week.)
• Meredith’s Order: The Shell Seekers → After the Crash → North Woods.
• Agreement: Both chose After the Crash and North Woods; order differs mainly for current seasonal vibes and brain availability.

Lisa Stone

• TBR Picks: Broken Country, My Friends, Run for the Hills, Wild Dark Shore, The Unseen World.

• Recent DNFs: Books with unengaging writing/characters.

• Snack: Tropical gummy bears!

• Meredith’s Order: The Unseen World → Run for the Hills → Wild Dark Shore.

• Kaytee’s Order: Run for the Hills → Wild Dark Shore → My Friends (chose based on Lisa’s snacking style and penchant for the slightly offbeat).

• Analysis: Both agree the list is strong; various options work depending on Lisa’s mood and taste for literary variety.

• Community Plug: The “Boss My TBR” Facebook thread sparks great buddy-reads and conversation: “You might find your book twin on that thread.” (48:59, Meredith)

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4. The Fountain: Wishes and Whimsical Bookish Dreams

Timestamps: 49:39–55:48

Kaytee: The Correspondent Wish

• Inspired by The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Kaytee wishes she had built a lifetime correspondence—and plans to start one with her mom:
  • “It’s just this beautiful legacy to leave behind a large stack of letters.” (51:14, Kaytee)

Meredith: Book Perfume & Apothecary Dream

• Wishes every book came with a unique scent—so smelling it would transport you back to the book’s world and memory:
  • “If we smelled that smell together, we would both be transported back to that book.” (53:22, Meredith)
• Daydreams about building a witchy apothecary cottage as part of her fantasy house:
  • “That’s what middle age is—embracing our inner witchiness.” (54:59, Kaytee)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Content, community, commercial free. It’s the three Cs. It’s the three Cs of podcasting.” (05:48, Meredith)
• “Your shoulders will relax. You'll feel lighter in the chestal area. It's nice.” (06:05, Meredith)
• “Chestal region is usually how I refer to it.” (06:22, Kaytee)
• “[Amazon’s] such dumb dumbs.” (12:58, Meredith)
• “It's a solid genre to play around in.” (30:02, Kaytee, about reverse harem fantasy romance)
• “There's always going to be somebody that goes down and starts chiming in on people's [TBRs]… There’s so much fun stuff that happens in those threads.” (49:16, Kaytee)
• “That's what middle age is. Embracing our inner witchiness.” (54:59, Kaytee)

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |----------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 00:10 | Welcome and show overview | | 06:45 | Bookish moments of the week | | 13:28 | Current reads (book discussions begin) | | 38:34 | Boss My TBR segment | | 49:39 | The Fountain: Bookish wishes | | 55:48 | End matter and playful banter |

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Tone & Language

• Warm, witty, deeply reader-focused, insider-y and welcoming to new listeners.
• Clear affection for the reading community, mutual encouragement, and a touch of irreverent humor.

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Final Takeaway

This episode encapsulates everything Currently Reading fans love: laughter over overflowing bookshelves and silly reading compulsions, honest rave and nuanced reviews across genres, thoughtful help with TBR overwhelm, and the celebration of all the quirky joy books bring into readers’ real lives. Whether you have a chestal region in need of relaxing, or you’re looking for your next unputdownable read, this episode delivers the content, community, commercial-free magic—plus a fourth C: chestal comfort.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

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

[A]

We are light on the chit chat, heavy on the book talk, and our conversations will always be spoiler free. Today we'll discuss our current reads, a bookish deep dive, and then we'll visit the fountain.

[B]

I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And I don't care about how many books I read each year until I do.

[A]

And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona, and I am running out of book space. This is episode number five of season eight, and we are so glad you're here.

[B]

Uh oh, Katie, you built that beautiful hallway of bookshelves.

[A]

I have so many bookshelves, it's embarrassing. And yet, if you go on a summer road trip and bring a hundred more books into your home, guess what, Meredith? You're still going to have a problem.

[B]

Yeah, a hundred books will do that. When you go into people's spaces, do you find yourself automatically thinking, a bookshelf could go there? Why don't they have a bookshelf there? Do you, like, see bookshelf opportunities in other people's spaces?

[A]

Yeah, but I'm so annoying. Like, why would people invite me over if I'm gonna act like that? Cause that's literally all I'm thinking about. They'll be like, so what'd you think of that new episode of? I'm like, I have no idea. Why don't you have a bookshelf on that wall? Right.

[B]

See, I won't say it, but I'm definitely considering it. And if I'm with another bookish friend, we'll often be like, I'm not imagining things, but that hallway would be perfect for a hall of books.

[A]

Right? Like it's begging for a bookshelf. Exactly. It absolutely is.

[B]

All right, well, let us tell you that our deep dive today is going to be that ever popular segment, boss my TBR. We have two TBRs to boss today, as always. And I said it like two was different. Like, I put emphasis on the number.

[A]

Like, y', all, you've never seen this before. Two people, just like always, right?

[B]

Exactly. So to specify it's the Boss My TBR segment, it's exactly as we've done it before, but you still will find it interesting.

[A]

Still Going to be great.

[B]

Still going to be great. And another thing that I know that everybody within the sound of my voice can't wait for is that today is Rabbit, rabbit, Rabbit is the first of September.

[A]

Sure is.

[B]

Which means that it is the one time of the month that we do and ad for ourselves. Right. The entire rest of the month's episodes, four, sometimes five episodes in a month, are all completely commercial free. Which I don't know about you, Katie, but for my podcast listening, it's becoming rarer and rarer.

[A]

It really is. And I can't even tell you how many people think it would be great if our bottom dollar could be positively impacted by adding commercials. And I have so many strong opinions about this.

[B]

Wait, can you back up and say that again? Cause I don't understand.

[A]

No, because it makes me so mad all the time.

[B]

What are you saying?

[A]

Listen, people who find out I'm a podcaster, they have opinions about how that should be run within my life, within our business. And they're like, listen, you definitely should have ads. Even in my marriage RIP There were some opinions about how we should definitely have ads on currently reading and constantly having to defend the fact that we hate them.

[B]

We hate ads.

[A]

That we're selfish. And we're selfish in the way that we don't have to coordinate with an ad partner or a network or figure out if we want to do dynamic insertion or if we really do, like insert your favorite podcast advertising sponsor here. We can just eschew all of that and enjoy our time talking about books. Right? But that's not all, folks. Right?

[B]

It is absolutely true. So when we were thinking about, like, what do we want to talk about this month with Patreon, I was saying I really think we need to take a moment today to just talk to the listeners and only you know who you are listener, nobody else. This is between you and you. But if you listen to us every single week and you find yourself thinking, I love the fact that they don't have any commercials in their episodes. I don't have to press the forward button through commercials. That just. It's so nice. If you love that, this would be a great time for you to become a bookish friend. Because then when you have that thought, you can be thinking, and I support them in that decision. And also you get access to all.

[A]

Of this other content which is also ad free.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Even more ad free than this, actually.

[B]

Hours and hours a week of ad free listening. That is just so bookish, you can't even imagine it. So lots of benefits to becoming a bookish friend. But this month, yes, friends, if you have never been a bookish friend because you're like, I don't really have time for all the other content, which I totally understand. But you have continuously found yourself thinking, I love that they don't have commercials. Maybe it's time to. Maybe it's time to join us. Join the group.

[A]

Join the club.

[B]

It's $5 a month and you get tons of content. You get community and you get that third C, Katie, which is you keep this show commercial free.

[A]

Content community, commercial free.

[B]

It's the three Cs. It's the three Cs of podcasting.

[A]

I don't think I've ever realized that it was three Cs because we usually say ad free. I think, but that's great.

[B]

No, you don't realize it because I'm the one who says it every time. And I know that it's three Cs because I wrote it.

[A]

Content community, commercial free. I love that.

[B]

Yes. So patreon.com currentlyreading podcast join us and you can feel better about that every single day of the rest of your month. It'll be great. Your shoulders will relax. You'll feel lighter in the chestal area. It's nice.

[A]

The chestal region is usually how I refer to it.

[B]

There you go. That's another C chestal. We should add that. Now we get a 4C's content community, commercial free. Relaxed, chestal region. That's the 4C. I like it. All right, Katie, Mischief managed.

[A]

Fabulous. That was some great mischief. This month.

[B]

Let's get started the way we always do with our bookish moments of the week. Katie, what have you got this week?

[A]

Okay, Meredith, my bookish moment is twofold. First of all, as discussed, I have multiple bookshelves around my house. I have one big bookshelf in each child's room. I have the large one in my front hallway. I have the beautiful custom made ones that my dad and I made a few years ago. They are gorgeously curated. They're divided the fiction, nonfiction by type, age level keepers for YA middle grade classics. We've got picture books and board books in certain kids bedrooms. They are my old friends. I love revisiting them. But even with regular culling and reevaluation, they are bursting at the seams and it is a problem. Nearly all my bookshelves have vertical spines showing the whole way across and then multiple books stacked on top of those vertical spines. It's gotten excessive. But then my outgoing bookshelf which is the ones I've read that I'm ready to let go of is also full. Basically, I need to have a book sale. This is my twofold problem. Bookshelves are full. Outgoing bookshelf is also full. I need to unload a bunch of books, but the work of getting them on Pango and shipping them off feels like too much. I think I might need a personal assistant. What's a girl to do? I need more people to come over to my house and take books from me. It's an all you can grab sample sale. I would like a robber to come in and just take my free books off of that one shelf. Just be like, you know what? I love books. And then we would both win one of those.

[B]

The book heists that we hear so much about.

[A]

Yes. They're always in the news. You guys see this all the time. Obviously, that's why I have a house alarm. Because my book collection is so extensive. No, I've taken a number of them to the local Year's bookstore. I've sold them to get credit for more books. Obviously that's what we use bookstore credit for. But it's just. It's a lot, and I'm a little overwhelmed by it. And so my bookish moment is kind of recognizing that, letting my shoulders come down about it and a little bit of relief in the chestel region to say it out loud.

[B]

Good. Well, you know what I did? I hired my 14 year old to offload my books. And I was like, you can do it on Pango. You can take it to a little free library on your scooter, Strap yourself into your little backpack, you know, but it's your job. And so over the summer, now he's worthless to me. But it was his little side hustle.

[A]

He's busy in other ways.

[B]

I mean, yes, he's not actually worthless to me.

[A]

He's just worth less. Okay, got it.

[B]

Well, I mean, he's not fulfilling the personal assistant job role that I was so into.

[A]

Dang it. I know. Jackson, we need Jeffrey to grow up a little more.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Come on, Jeffrey.

[B]

He's very close to being able to help me with stuff like that. He's an incredibly good salesman. Even though he's three, he can sell anything to me. At least he sells me on everything. All right, Two weeks ago when I was on, I brought something that I thought was the world's dumbest bookish moment of the week, which was that.

[A]

No, listen, I bought the lamp too. Everybody bought the lamp.

[B]

I got a Lamp. And everyone bought the lamp. I literally thought they are going to laugh me off this podcast. A reader bringing a freaking lamp to the bookish moment of the week.

[A]

It's so great.

[B]

No, everyone's like, that's a great idea. I love it. Well, okay, so this is not as useful, but one of the weird things about me is that I love anything that every day I have to update.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So we've talked about that. I love a streak, but I also love. My husband bought me, like, two years ago, something I would save in a fire, which is this ceramic. Like, what is the date thing?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

It's the first thing I do every morning, every day.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's the kind of thing where if it's not done, people in my house are like, oh, something's wrong.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

You know, it's a good indicator of yield. Mental health. So I decided to lean into the fact that I love things like that. And I bought myself this cute little thing on Etsy, which is the number of books I've read this year. Counter. Because. But it's like the same thing where it's like a block with numbers on each side.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then as I finish a book, then I can, like, count it up.

[A]

You get to move the number.

[B]

I get to move the number. It's very satisfying. It was very inexpensive. We'll put a link in the show notes. You don't need me to link to it. There's nothing special about the one that I got. It was just that it just brings me joy every time I finish a book, I make my notes about it and then I run over to my little counter and then it's just like, ooh, I get to add to it.

[A]

So.

[B]

So I don't care how many books I read in a year, except that I enjoy moving that little. I just like counting things.

[A]

Same. Right.

[B]

It's like a fussy little thing about me.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, don't even get me started on my duolingo streak. It is a very big number and I will never let it go, ever.

[B]

Right. Exactly. The things I would do to keep my duolingo streak.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, have you done a lesson at 11:58pm yes.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

It's a problem.

[B]

I told you that I did 1 in 11. Like, I started at 1159. And I thought that because I started it at 1159, it would. No, it counted it when I finished it.

[A]

That's when it finishes. Yeah.

[B]

So I did have to use a streak. Freeze.

[A]

You gotta race through those if you're gonna start that late now.

[B]

I do it first thing every morning.

[A]

Even though Amazon is, like, just constantly on the naughty list because of all the things, they also have a Kindle streak. Do you keep track of your Kindle streak?

[B]

I haven't let myself become attached to it, but I often will notice because I do read my Kindle pretty much every day.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I haven't let myself become attached to that streak like I am my duolingo streak.

[A]

Yeah. But I only notice mine when I open it on an app instead of on the Kindle itself because it's not constantly in your face there. But on the app, I'm always like, oh, look at that number. That's exciting.

[B]

And don't you think, like, Amazon, if you ever gave two beeps about readers, you would replace your dumb screen that you open with with the street screen.

[A]

Yes. Oh, gosh, that would be so good.

[B]

God, they're just such dumb dumbs. They're such dumb dumbs.

[A]

Oh, my goodness. So true. So true. Can I tell you about a book that I read?

[B]

Are you suggesting that we move to current reads, Katie?

[A]

I think I am. I think I am. I think we should do that. But you're driving, so you tell me.

[B]

Because I've had too much coffee. I've had too much coffee. Coffee makes me chatty. Which is the fifth and sixth Cs.

[A]

But we're light on the chit chat. We're just chatty. It's always bookish.

[B]

Let's get heavy on the book talk. Katie. Let's talk about your first current read.

[A]

Okay? Meredith, this book is so ridiculous. Okay, I'm going to talk about a Duke Never Tells by Suzanne Enoch. Ridiculous is the only word. The COVID is the worst cover known to man. My girls and I called it Love Island Regency because it has a hot pink background and this smirking dude with, like, a cravat on the COVID It is absurd. Absolutely absurd. I adored it. Okay, here's the setup. Lady Meg Pinwell is our female main character. This is Regency historical romance. She has been granted an advantageous engagement to the Duke of Earnhurst. But there are a few issues. First of all, Mr. James Clay, the new duke, is a notorious rake. He's been squandering his father's fortune, completely disconnected from the family for years. He drinks a lot, he stays out late, etc. Just as they are set to start planning their nuptials, his father dies, and he needs to rise to the occasion to become the duke he was always meant to be. Which is why it's so strange that throughout their entire engagement, Lady Meg has spent her time wearing black and gray in mourning of the man who was going to be her father in law, while his son has been nowhere to be seen, hasn't even sent a letter to her. To open the lines of communication, Lady Meg and her only slightly older Aunt Clara come up with a scheme to investigate. They'll pop over to the manor and poke around a bit, posing as tourists. Aunt Clara will pose as the lady while while Meg poses as her maid and companion and they check out the space and chat with the servants and see what's up with this ne' er do well Duke. When they arrive at the door of the crumbling manor, Duke of Earnhurst James Clay answers the door in his shirt sleeves. He just spilled something on himself. Which leads to him being mistaken for the butler. The actual butler, Rinnegan, has to step into place as Lord of the manor just for pretend. And he takes every opportunity to let the ladies know how despicable it is that the manor has fallen into such disappointment disrepair by disparaging himself AKA James. He's like, you're right, I've been drunk way too much. This is ridiculous. How dare I, right? But he's not talking about himself, but he's pretending to. It's hilarious. Everyone has a mistaken identity in this comedy of errors, but when Meg falls on the crumbling staircase, necessitating a multi week stay for her recovery, each person starts falling for their counterpart, all while thinking that they're crossing class lines and they cannot follow their hearts. It is hysterical. I laughed out loud so many times listening to this book. It was a Libro FM galley from April of this year and while the COVID is terrible and did turn me away, the content had me in stitches. Not only is this Regency romance, an almost completely closed door, the crumbling manor setting and the much ado about nothing mistaken identities situation kept me guessing how they were all going to get out of another fine mess. Meg and James, Alice and Rinnegan and all their falsehoods were an absolute delight to read. This is forced proximity, mistaken identity, external expectations flouted. I had the best time just letting myself have fun with this one. This is a Duke Never Tells by Suzanne Enoch.

[B]

Oh, that does sound like fun. But I mean, you just have to ignore the COVID That's what I'm hearing.

[A]

But. Or like take it as like the poke at folly that it deserves. Right? Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like you look at it and you're like, absolutely not. This is gonna be garbage. Hot pink. Who? Who allowed It. It's so funny, though.

[B]

It's really not normal for Regency romances either.

[A]

Yeah, and it's like just the guy on the COVID which normally we've got like a bodice of some kind. Something. Yeah, it's fun.

[B]

Interesting. All right, well, my first one was really good, but fun is not the word that I would use to describe it at all.

[A]

No fun. Okay.

[B]

This one is one that I read, actually, when I went to Hawaii, and it made for Page Journey reading. It's called the Man Made of Smoke by Alex North.

[A]

Ooh.

[B]

Okay, here's the setup. Our lead character is Dan Garvey, who is a criminal profiler. And he became a criminal profiler because of really just one moment from his childhood. If I remember correctly, he was about 12 and he came face to face with a serial killer called the Pied Piper. Again, he was 12 years old. He completely froze when another child desperately needed help. So this has been haunting him since then. Now it's decades later, and Dan's dad has gone missing under super sketchy circumstances on their remote island hometown. So of course, Dan has to go back home to investigate, figure out what's going on, and don't read any further than that in the blurbs. That's all you need to know. The blurb gives way too much away. But just know it's a serial killer named the Pied Piper, for Christ's sakes. That's all I needed to get into it. So I loved Alex North's one of his previous books called the Whisper Man. And I, though, had been skipping his more recent books because the buzz about them had been seriously mid. But when Elizabeth Barnhill and several other readers that I trust raved about this one, I dug into the arc as soon as I got it. And there is a lot to like here. As I said, this is a page turning serial killer story with a trope that is catnip to me for reasons I honestly can't explain. The killer is known as the Pied Piper. I love the Pied Piper trope. And north delivers the short chapters. Keep things moving at a clip all the way through the story. And I was genuinely invested in our lead character, Dan, both as the grown man that we meet when the story starts and that terrified boy that he was when our story delves into that timeline. What really works is that north creates this slight bit of creepiness that has you wondering exactly why the hairs in the back of your neck are standing up in with Wren, he kind of does the same thing. He's Playing around with what's real, what's slightly ghosty. It's that perfect touch of atmospheric dread that makes you want to double take things out of the corner of your eyes. But I would definitely be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of things that kept this from being five stars. It was a solid four star for me. In his desire to create a layered mystery, Alex north goes too far into both character and plot complication. Friends, there are a lot of characters in this book, including a bunch of victims from past crimes that you really need to keep track of for the story to make sense. Multiple times I found myself thinking, now wait, who is that again? And I could see the editor and the author trying to help with these strategic summaries, like in our story so far, kind of recaps. But instead of being helpful, it felt kind of ham handed. So Alex north is trying to do too much here. If he'd simplified those layers by even 20%, then the good stuff about the story, and there is a lot of good, really could have shown more brightly. And this is potentially just a me thing, this next thing. But there's a particular narrative device that he uses throughout that at the beginning I really liked. It was kind of fresh and interesting. But as we went through the story, it became really overdone. Now I understood why he did it this way, but by the final chapters it felt like a narrative crutch and it was taking me out of the story. That said, I read this book really quickly. I was interested the entire time and like I said, it was a solid four stars. So if you liked the Whisper Man, I definitely think this is worth your time. The atmosphere alone makes it perfect as we get into spooky season. Reading this is the Man Made of Smoke by Alex North.

[A]

Even that title gives me a little bit of that, like, over my shoulder, creepy feel.

[B]

Exactly. I love the title. I think the title is so good and it works well.

[A]

It makes sense with the book. Okay. Whisper man creeped me out. Man.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. If you have not read Whisper man and you like a serial killer. A very. I mean that is one of the ones when people ask me like, but what stories really, really creeped you? Like gave you that hair on the back of your neck standing up. That's one of them.

[A]

Yeah, me too. Okay, the next book I have is not at all creepy. I'm going to talk about Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones. Annie Butterworth Jones. Annie B. Jones is our podcast pal and the fabulous owner of the Bookshelf Thomasville, and here she has put forth her first book as a collection of essays. The subtitle Lessons Learned While Staying Put really focuses in on the way that Annie has had a strong sense of place in her home and her community for her entire life. This is a balm of a collection. It is comfort. It is lip gloss on chapped lips. It is reader gloss on your chapped heart. Annie challenges the idea that we need to live big and loud in order to fulfill our dreams. Especially as young people, many of us become convinced that the only way to really live the life we've imagined is to move to a big city or a different big city, hack your way through the wilder world with a machete. Make a name for yourself. Certainly wouldn't hurt to travel the world while you're at it. Like we have ideas about what it means to live with a capital L. But Annie's life didn't turn out that way. Instead, she grew roots and branches in a different way, all within just an hour or three drive from the places where she was born and spent her childhood and her young adult years. Each chapter or essay of this book focuses on a different way of staying put. Whether it's always being the one to say goodbye to the friends that leave town to chase something different or bigger, or enmeshing yourself in a community that has a single downtown main drag. While Annie and I are not the same in many ways, I still felt this book in my core. I read it with my reading partner Katie, and both of us were leavers for a bit. Instead of stayers, we married. We moved away from the places we grew up. But in the past five years, both of us, Katie and I moved home to be close to our families and our lifelong friends. So we also felt that draw to Annie's descriptions of coming home and knowing the ins and outs of a place, of being the one who's able to find your way from anywhere in town. I love to travel. I love adventure. I love the bigger life. I wouldn't trade the years away for anything. But even with the heat and the sprawl of Arizona, I am so glad to be home, to be staying put with my people, to watch my kids grow into a place and be able to see my parents multiple times a week. This book made me teary with gratitude. Not just for the place I call home, but for Annie and her words and the way she loves her friends and her community and her family. We are all living in ordinary time, whatever that looks like for us. This is it. This is the life. Just as we finished this book together, Katie and I popped over to Annie's Instagram to see that she had given birth to her first kiddo on the first day of ordinary time of 2025. And if that's not the poetry of life that she deserved, I am not interested in any other opinions. This book was five stars for me. It's Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones.

[B]

Oh, I'm so glad. That was good. And I have heard only raves about it.

[A]

Honestly, truly.

[B]

Yeah. And how wonderful to watch her get to step into her motherhood journey at the same time that her book was coming out was just really wonderful.

[A]

Oh, it's so special. Everything about it is so great.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

All right. Well, again, we're just making lots of pivots. Light and dark, light and dark. Nothing I'm gonna say is going to be explicit, but this next one might invite some questions because of some words that are. Are a part of the description that little ears might not want to hear. So I just want to give everyone a little bit of a chance if you want to press pause or just forward to do that. Because we're going to talk about a dark romance here, but this is a series that I'm not going to say I'm not proud to love it, because I am proud to love it. I love this series. This is a book called the Dark One by Nikki St. Crow. And this is book two in the vicious Lost Boys series. And I'm going to be totally upfront with you guys. This is a dark, dark reimagining of Peter Pan and Wendy and the Lost Boys. And we are not in Disney territory here. Think more. What if Peter Pan was actually gorgeous, morally gray and very dangerous? This is not Disney. Okay, Our protagonist is Winnie Darling. And again, this is the second book I recommend starting with the first one. The first one is the Never King. Winnie Darling is. She's a protagonist of that one and also this one. So, okay, so Winnie is still there on Neverland, and she's still there with Peter. And this is reverse harem. This was my first foray into reverse harem. She's there with the Lost boys, but these are not boys. They are fully grown supernatural men with some serious edge to them. On the island, war is brewing between different factions and Winnie finds herself right in the middle of it all as someone who might be the key to everything. Okay, this book is what we call high spice.

[A]

Correct?

[B]

High spice, like five alarm fire. Spicy. Which is not always my thing, unless you make it fantasy. Then it is my thing. And I'm not going to apologize again for enjoying this. We have normalized talking about these kinds of books and read what you want to read. I love these kinds of books for great palate cleansing, very, very fast. But this series is explicit. There are consenting adults. There's a lot of them. They are all consenting together at the same time.

[A]

Like a chorus, like with a lot of ardor.

[B]

Yes, I love this book. Nikki St. Crow writes these morally complex characters that keep me completely engaged. Yes, there are these steamy scenes that are integral to the character development and plot. I can't believe I actually wrote that in my notes. The world building is solid. The emotional stakes, believe it or not, do feel real. And I found myself genuinely invested in this love story. Because at the heart of this, there is a love story and figuring out how it was going to unfold. So if you're someone who enjoys fantasy romance with bite, this might be your jam. If explicit content isn't your thing, that's totally valid too. Just know that this one earns all of its content warnings. So this is the Dark One by Nikki St. Crow. I really like the series. I immediately downloaded the next one onto my Kindle. I don't want to read them back to back, but I just know I like knowing they're there.

[A]

Right. It has not yet abandoned you. Yeah. I just have to highlight in gold edged sparkle the fact that you use the adjective solid to describe anything about this book because that makes me very happy.

[B]

Yes, there's a lot of solidity. There's a lot of solidity about this book.

[A]

Solid characters, solid love story. Love that for me.

[B]

And again, what I love for me. What I love for every one of us is figuring out what I mean. Like always, tropes always matter. But like in romance, figure out the tropes that work for you. Like I didn't even know some of them that were out there that were, you know. I love a fake injury. Or not a fake injury. I love a. What's it called when you injure yourself and then you have to stay at that person's house because you're injured back.

[A]

In the history days, like forced proximity. Kind of like the one that I had.

[B]

I guess so. I love that. I love the. Oh no, my ankle's broken, I can't go home. I love that. And then I also like reverse harem. Yeah, I really do.

[A]

See? And if you know what you like, you can find more of that for your reading life or you can branch out slightly from it and see if there's a variety of that that you haven't discovered yet. Because there's something for everyone.

[B]

And a lot of it. There's a lot of it.

[A]

There's a lot of things for everyone.

[B]

I love it, love it, love it, love it.

[A]

It's a solid genre to play around. It is. It is. Okay, well, I am going to pop over to the Meredith side of the aisle for my third one and I'm going to talk about Shudder by Ramona Emerson. Okay. Just as Megan, our sweet Megan, went on maternity leave for her new baby. Quick tie in to my previous book. I did the edit on All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth for June, which is probably why the Listener press section and especially this one from Bookish Friends Sidra settled into my brain the way that it did as I got started on my big road trip. I was leaving Albuquerque on day two and I remembered Sidra's press and the fact that this book had been in my Libro FM account for 3 years already. So I decided to press play. Here's what Sidra said to set it up. In this story we follow Rita Toddachini, a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police Force who can see ghosts. And the ghosts sometimes won't leave her alone. Rita grew up on a Navajo reservation, and her ability to see ghosts puts her at odds with the Navajo traditions where death is taken quite seriously. Her grandmother and the other Navajo elders in this book are quite concerned with her choice of profession. This book was a mix of mystery and supernatural horror. The crime scene descriptions were at times pretty detailed, but I enjoyed hearing about how Rita was able to see ghosts and how those ghosts affected her, as well as her upbringing on the Navajo reservation. I would recommend this to people who like ghost stories with mystery at the center and don't mind some gruesome crime scene descriptions. Sidra did a great job with that one. That was enough for me, so I'll only add a little more here. Rita is a phenomenal photographer. She went to school and hoped to crack into journalism, but when an old friend offered her a job as a crime scene photographer, it was just a way to make ends meet. The fact that she can see ghosts was a bonus. As the story starts, she's investigating a scene where a woman fell or was thrown from an overpass onto a busy freeway below. This scene is by far the most detailed and gruesome crime scene that we encounter in the book. What I'm saying here is if you can make it through the first chapter, you're going to be okay for the rest of the story. It never gets worse than that. It's similar, but it never gets worse than that. First description. Due to Rita's ability to see ghosts, she is uniquely positioned to capture critical pieces of evidence in her photographs, sometimes making the difference between a cold case and a solved mystery. When a certain ghost won't let her go until the case is solved, Rita starts being terrorized, not just by that spirit, but by others that have crossed the veil to harass her. The stakes get higher, and her own personal safety is at risk as she tries to lay the spirits to rest. The sense of place in this book, set all along the I40 in New Mexico, was my home for about 11 years. It was like walking back in time for me. We lived in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and drove back to Arizona regularly, passing through Grants, Gallup and other Danae reservation lands. The landscape here is so unique and transportative. The sense of the city of Albuquerque itself is so strong. She went places that. That I drove by constantly or visited myself. I felt myself being called back like a ghost to haunt the streets. I loved the perspective of a crime scene photographer, which makes it police procedural, adjacent, but also a perspective I haven't read before. Bring on that magical realism, the elements of solving a crime using supernatural forces. I'm totally sold. This was a big hit for me from beginning to end. I'm so glad Sidra brought it to All Things Murderful, which I had to edit, which then put it back on the top of my tbr. This is Shudder by Ramona Emerson.

[B]

Yes. This is one that I have long meant to dig into, and I think audio is probably going to be the way that I want to do this one. Did you listen to it?

[A]

I did, yes. And I thought the audio was very well done. Again, there are some gruesome descriptions of what she's taking photos of at the crime scenes, including pieces of body. Right. So it's not body horror, but it's adjacent to that. If that's gonna be hard to listen to, I'm not saying for you, Meredith, but for other people, if that's gonna be hard to listen to, then audio will be, I feel like, even more intense. Whereas on paper, you could kind of skim past some of that if you needed to.

[B]

Okay, good to know. Yes, that is one that I'm very interested in. All right. My third one was a solid five star for me. I absolutely love it. This is a book called Withered Hill by David Barnett. I love this book. Okay, here's the setup. Our lead character is Sophie wickham. She's a 30 something Londoner. She's very directionless. She's like working temp jobs. She drinks too much, she's got friends who are all moving on in their lives, but she's just failing to launch. But when strange messages start appearing warning her that something is coming for her, something bad is about to happen for her, her aimless existence takes on a sinister turn that leads her to an isolated Lancashire village called Withered Hill. They're surrounded by thick woodlands and inhabited by locals that are really into these ancient pagan traditions. Sophie finds herself with no memory of how she arrived there. She knows that she has tried and failed to leave it multiple times. Very, very interesting.

[A]

Hotel California.

[B]

Yeah. The author structures this folk horror story using a dual timeline that alternates between outside when Sophie was in London before she went to Wither Hill, and then inside when she's in the village. Things are not unfolding in a linear way. It jumps and backtracks through time and it creates this fractured picture that mirrors Sophie's own confusion as we slowly kind of get the true sense of what's happening here. All right, like I said, I love this book. Five stars, no notes. Totally devoured it. This came to me via a listener press from Claire Hill, who clearly knows my reading taste inside and out, because this was exactly the book I needed at the exact moment that I needed it. I, buddy, read this one with Betsy, who was the perfect reading partner. As always, she loved it as much as I did. And I will be honest, that back and forth dual timeline kind of structure thing, I was nervous about it because I read several people talking about it. That kind of structure, those jumps, can either really make a story work for me or it can completely derail it. There's almost never a middle ground there, but David Barnett nails it here. That fractured narrative gives us that sense of disorientation and confusion. And then the way that everything eventually clicks into place is perfection. Betsy described reading this book as giving you that feeling like a fall whirlwind when leaves get picked up and swirl all around you. And that is honestly the most perfect description that I could imagine for this book. I will also say this book was sexier than I expected it to be. And also it's definitely gory, so fair warning on both counts. But that's part of what makes this such an effective piece of folk horror, which is a subgenre that I'm realizing is a big hit for me. If you loved Slue Foot by Brahm like I did. You will need to grab this one immediately. It has that same blend of ancient folklore and modern storytelling that gets under your skin and stays there. This is a perfect early fall book. This is the kind that makes you want to curl up with a blanket and just let this atmosphere, creepy as it is, just wash over you and the ending. Without spoiling anything, I will say that everything gets tied together so beautifully that I was literally high kicking in my living room. You might be surprised by who you find yourself rooting for in this story, but trust me, the journey is worth every every unsettling atmospheric page. This is Withered Hill by David Barnett.

[A]

Oh, sounds good. I remember that listener press from this summer and how excited you were about it at the time, so I'm so glad to get that follow up from you.

[B]

So, so good.

[A]

To me, it feels like grown up. The Night Gardener by Jonathan A. I don't know why that's the one that I'm thinking of.

[B]

All right, Katie, so those are our six current reads. So let's get to bossing our tbr. As we talked about at the top, we are going to boss two TBRs of bookish friends. So this is what we always do. It's another reason to join us as a bookish friend. When we do this, we always throw out the invite. Hey, give us five books that are on your TBR and we will tell you which three we think you should definitely prioritize in the order we think that you should read them.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And Katie, you also, when you threw it out this time, you asked for some additional information which everyone dutifully gave us. And that actually makes that thread a really interesting thread to read.

[A]

Yeah, I always try and ask for something different instead of it always being the same thing. So this time I asked give us your five books, your most recent DNF and your favorite reading snack or beverage. And there are some interesting little things that came out of those two answers along with the five books on the tbr. So sometimes I'm very impressed with myself.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I don't know why that came to mind. I did it right before I was going to bed last night, so I was just kind of in a snacky mood. I had dnfed a book yesterday so I had that top of mind and then some fun things happened because of it.

[B]

So interesting.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I love it. So let's read our first one which came to us from Katherine Bridgewater and she says my five books from my currently reading IPL section of my TBR So apparently she's got a very well organized tbr. Are these, she says Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lilly, north woods by Daniel Mason, after the Crash by Michael Busey, what Alice Forgot by Leanne Moriarty and the Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher. Catherine says she rarely DNFs for snacks. Chocolate is her go to. She says that the last books that she read were Great Big Beautiful Life and Killers of the Flower Moon. And an important detail for context, she says, I am a teacher. I just returned to work for the new school year, September and October. Reading has to work with the brain capacity I have available, which is very useful context. So, Katie, what three books did you pull out of that for Katherine?

[A]

Yes. First, Praise Hands for all teachers. We love you all. You deserve gold medals and we would pick all your books for you if we could.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

September and October. Reading for a teacher needs to be unput downable, but also easy to dip in and out of. And those two things seem to be in conflict with each other. Right. I'm going to go with what Alice Forgot for the Cheeto chapters. That element of it I think is really great. And I'm going to follow that with after the Crash by Michael Busey for the unputdownable nature of it. And then Northwoods by Daniel Mason because it's third, so she might find herself ready for something a little more thoughtful. I want to give her the Shell Seekers, but not at the beginning of a school year. Maybe at the start of a break week. So, Katherine, if you get a fall break, maybe put it there. Even though I feel like we've been well trained by now by both Meredith and Roxanna to realize that the Shell Seekers should be read in the summertime. But if you have a fall break, it's probably acceptable there. So those are my three. What about you?

[B]

Okay, well, I differed in opinion in that I think that the Shell Seekers is a great book for her to start with now while it's still warm and still feels summery again. Maybe that's just where you and I live. We're still in the summer.

[A]

Yeah, it could be fall weather already, wherever she is.

[B]

It could be. But I feel like that book is so perfect for when you don't have a ton of brain space, but you want enough for your brain to be really interested. I feel like Shell Seekers is perfect, so I feel like it might be a great one to start with.

[A]

Perfect. Yes.

[B]

Then I would segue to after the Crash, which is just one of my favorite. It's a French. How would you describe it?

[A]

Like a survivor story.

[B]

Yeah. This plane goes down like in the Alps, and the only surviving person is this three month old little baby. But then two families come forward because there were two three month old babies on the plane. And so then the question is, who is the three month old baby? Because this is back before DNA. It's French, it's excellent. It's a total page turner. And then of course, because I think by then we're probably definitely gonna be getting into fall, then we could read Northwoods, which is one of my favorite books of all time. It's a story that follows the story of a house, not a family or a person. It's absolutely fascinating. It's not difficult to read, but again, that combination of it's not going to confuse you or make you tired, but it is going to help your brain unclench because it's going to give you just so much story to bite into. So that would be the way I would do the three.

[A]

I like that. So we had two of the three exactly the same. So, Catherine, you know your assignment?

[B]

Absolutely. All right, you want to go ahead and give us our second one?

[A]

Absolutely. Our next one comes from Lisa Stone and she says, I hope you pick me because I love the boss. My TBR segments. Here are five from my TBR list that I just can't seem to prioritize. First is Broken country by Claire Leslie Hall. Second is My Friends by Fredrik Backman. Third is Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson. Fourth, Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughey and fifth, the Unseen World by Liz Moore. She says the last DNF for me was this week when for the second time, I tried to get into Today, Tonight Forever by Madeline K. Sneed and just finally gave up. I can't put my finger on why. The synopsis sounds great, but the writing and characters weren't grabbing me at all. A few chapters in an additional recent DNF for me is Happy Place by Emily Henry. It's another one that I really want to like, but for similar reasons. The characters and writing were not holding me and I found myself forcing myself to keep going. That's my sign to dnf. My favorite reading snack is tropical flavored gummy bears. I can munch and munch and munch on them indefinitely while turning pages. I've never had tropical flavored gummy bears.

[B]

I mean, you can get those at BUC EE's, which we've definitely done multiple times. What is your favorite reading snack?

[A]

I love chips and salsa. But it's messy because I put a lot of salsa on my chips.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It's also my road trip snacks. I love peach rings and they're terrible and I still love them. Yeah, it's like my worst habit. I also love chocolate.

[B]

Yeah. When I go to BUC EE's, I always get cheez it Snack mix.

[A]

Mm, yes.

[B]

And then, you know those, like, fruit slices, they're actually, like, shaped like an orange wedge.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But gummy, I mean, it's not gummy. It's more like gel. Like, it's not a gum. You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you can bite into it and it has your tooth marks on it.

[B]

Yeah. Like, my great grandmother ate these. Like, this is. It's a very old lady thing. I love those.

[A]

Those are always by the peach rings.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. They're very close to the peach rings. I love those. But when I read I love Swedish fish.

[A]

Oh, really? Yes. I also love Swedish fish, but that is my movie theater snack.

[B]

Oh, yeah, I always do Peanut M&M's in the movie theater. Johnny and I both really like those. We eat those together. Okay, let's get back to the books.

[A]

Yes. What is your ranking here?

[B]

All right, I think you've got to start with the Unseen World by Liz Moore. This is such a good book. It is backlist, but it's so good. You will absolutely love it. Very, very readable. And, you know, obviously she says she needs really great writing and characterization. So the three books that I chose, I think have both of those things together, which are also what often equals a five star book for me too, when you have those things in equal part. So the Unseen World I would start with. I love that book. Such a good book. Then I would palette cleanse with Run for the Hills, which is his new one. I haven't read it yet, but so many people are reading it or even listening to it and loving it. So I think that will be a little bit lighter, but still very quality sentence level prose. And then I think you end it with Wild Dark shores by Charlotte McConaughey for sure.

[A]

Okay. I again have two of the three same. So I've only read one of these, but I pulled on the reading snacks here. So it seems like she likes a twist on the standard, give me gummy bears, but make them tropical. I'm not your basic gummy bear eater. Tropical gummy bears. It's a thing. It's a little bit wacky. Also completely perfect. So I picked Run for the Hills first by Kevin Wilson. His Sense of humor is apparent. But here we've got a road trip novel with family drama, which seems like a great fit for Lisa. It's going to grab her right away. It's going to have some fun and zip to the pages, tropical gummy bear style. She's also not afraid of setting down a book that would otherwise be perfect for her. So for that reason, I'm going to suggest Wild Dark Shore next. Feels to me like if people love it, they really love it, but otherwise they want to throw it. And I think Lisa trusts herself as a reader to know which one she'll be and she'll figure it out right away. So I think that's why that one felt right to me. And then my third one, I chose My Friends by Fredrik Backman for her because it's such a perfect slice of flavors that aren't overly sweet while being completely addicting, just like a tropical gummy bear. So I just feel like that's a really good fit for her. But I mean, really, this is a great list. I think she's gonna be just fine.

[B]

Yeah, you can't go wrong with this list. Both of their lists were really, really good. So, yeah, as always, we want to say a really big thank you to all of you guys for taking the time to put these lists together along with your information. It's endlessly interesting. If you are a bookish friend or you want to be, go to the Facebook group. Find this thread because it is a great place to get some ideas and also a fun way to get to know other readers that read like you. You might find your book twin on that thread.

[A]

Well, and without fail, there's always going to be somebody that goes down and starts chiming in on people's like, oh, my gosh, I loved the other ones on this, so you should pick up this one first. Or you and I have had similar books in the past. Maybe we should read this one together. There's so much fun stuff that happens in those threads. I love it.

[B]

I was gonna say a lot of new buddy read couplings happen on that thread because it's when someone's like, these are five books that I'm interested in reading. You can get a real sense of somebody.

[A]

Well, and if you have the same five, like, let's try out a reading partnership. Let's see if it goes, you know, Love it.

[B]

Love it. All right, let's go to the fountain. Katie, what's your fountain wish this week?

[A]

Okay. Meredith? This week I wish to become a correspondent. Okay. As with everyone else in the bookish world. And of course, you. Our dear Meredith, I have recently fallen absolutely in love with the Correspondent by Virginia Evans. I was already in love with it on page six when she wrote a letter to Ann Patchett, who is blurbed on the COVID So, like, it was this very fun meta moment for me, but by the end I was wishing that I had a lifetime of letters to look back onto. Just regular updates from me to a friend and back again. A continual conversation where it's obvious that a lot happened in the meantime. But our relationship continues to grow and change through this documentation of our lives. I might actually use this as a reason to strike up a correspondence with my mom over the next few months and years. It won't be a lifetime, but since she would rather still send a full note as an email than a text message, like she would rather get out her computer and write, dear Katie, here's what's going on, here's some things on our calendar. And write it out as a whole thing instead of like, do you have next Saturday? Do you want to go to lunch? Like, she just is a person who likes writing. So even if we just saw each other that afternoon, I think she would be up for it. She loves the written word. She's a great writer. That's why I put her handwriting on my body as a tattoo. But it's just this beautiful legacy to leave behind a large stack of letters. So maybe my wish is not to become a correspondent now, but it's the book fairy. It's to have been one for the past three plus decades of my life, to have already built the habit so that I could just continue it moving forward. Because, oh, Sybil. Gosh, I love Sybil so much.

[B]

Such a great character.

[A]

She's so wonderful. She's not perfect, but she's wonderful.

[B]

I mean, I think that's what makes her so great. Oh, my gosh, she's just fully formed. You just feel like this is a person that could exist in real life.

[A]

I just adore her and she like her missteps and the way that we get to experience those with her through her writing, which are sometimes emails and a lot of times letters and sometimes journal entries. But, oh, gosh, I loved that book so much. So much.

[B]

I love it. I love it. Okay, my fountain wish is a little bit weird, but it just came to me fully formed the other day, speaking of things that come to you fully formed. So there's this. There's this perfume brand that's called Fern, but of course it's spelled with two Fs. Because why not F, F, E, R, N, what?

[A]

So it's called.

[B]

But it's got a very interesting business model, which is not the point of this wish. And I will not go into why I find their business model so interesting. But when you become a client, you go onto their ledger wait list, and then you have to wait until they open up spots for you to become a client. And only if you're a client do you get access to their quarterly perfume drops.

[A]

Okay. Okay.

[B]

It's fascinating. But anyway, they do this whole thing. They send you this package. It's very, very well done. It's like all the senses. But as I was going through this, it occurred to me that I wish that for every book it had, like a. I want to use the word perfume, but I really just mean like, a scent. And I don't mean, like the scent of the fe. Physical book. Like, we all love the smell of book pages. That's great. But I mean something that I would smell, and then, like, you, when you read it, you would smell the same smell. And then if we smelled that smell together, we would both be transported back to that book. Do you see what I'm saying?

[A]

Yes. Like a scratch and sniff on the inside cover that everybody gets to experience.

[B]

Right. And it would just, like, map itself onto your brain so differently. It's not obviously anything that could happen in real life, but I just love the idea. It's kind of an interesting thought exercise.

[A]

Did you ever read the Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister?

[B]

I didn't, but Roxanna did. And so I feel like I kind of read it vicariously. So I feel like I read it, but I didn't read it right, because.

[A]

He bottles up scents, and then they're in this, like, apothecary cabinet in his house, and they can take them out and just, like, pop the cork and smell it for just a second. And then it's the memory, Right? Because scent memory is so strong. Right? So I get exactly what you're saying. Like, if this one smelled like that perfect scent for this book, then you could say, like, oh, remember when we read this? Oh, my gosh, yes. I was here and you were there, and we were doing this and blah, blah, blah. Like, it would just pull it right up for you. Oh, I love this idea.

[B]

You know what idea I like, too? I like the idea of if I ever were to build my own house somewhere in the forest that I would want to build it in, but not a serico forest, like a Fantasy forest. It would have an apothecary cottage in it.

[A]

Cottage inside it?

[B]

No, no, not in it, but, like, on the grounds of the house. Like, there would be, like, a path to it, and then there would be just, like a very small but very beautiful jewel box, like, building. And inside it, it would be like an apothecary's workshop or whatever you call that, where they'd have all those tinctures on the wall. I just.

[A]

And the tiny drawers of dried herbs.

[B]

Yeah, I understand that. It's getting very witchy in my mind.

[A]

That's fine. That's what middle age is. Embracing our inner witchiness.

[B]

I just like the idea of talking to my contractor and being like, okay, yeah, so the house. Da, da, da, da, da, da. All the normal stuff. And then let's talk about the apothecary's.

[A]

Cottage with this, like, black velour wallpaper. And definitely a fireplace with real wood.

[B]

Totally bespoke. Little tiny shelves that only fit the little bottles.

[A]

Yeah, they're like an inch and a.

[B]

Half wide, but it would be lit really specifically, like, to really throw light through all of the dark bottles. Anyway, I'm really. I'm Now I'm down this road.

[A]

Why are we here? What are we talking about right now?

[B]

I've gone past the book perfume idea. We went straight to apothecary, and then I went straight to witch. It's been a long day, Katie.

[A]

It's called a rabbit trail. Thanks for joining us. Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

[B]

Oh, my gosh. Okay, let's let these poor people go. We have tortured them long enough.

[A]

They love it. They love it. It's so cool.

[B]

Okay, I've tortured you long enough, y'.

[A]

All. There's more content behind the paywall. Come join us.

[B]

Although not easily with this much squirrel energy. I have so much squirrel energy today.

[A]

I really do. Oh, my goodness. I love it.

[B]

All right, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can click connect with us. If you should want to get more of this, you can find me. I'm Meredith, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram.

[A]

And you can find me Katie at Notes on Bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Puttivong Evans. You can find her on Instagram at most of megansreads. And Chrissy. Go find Chrissy on Instagram as well. Chrissy, put your Instagram in the show notes.

[B]

Yes. Because she's a great follow. She has some of the most beautiful graphics.

[A]

She is just excellent. And you can hear from her on Sarah's bookshelves. Like, y' all go follow Chrissy.

[B]

I'm in love with her. She doesn't know that. This is me telling her that for the first time. This is awkward.

[A]

Big reveal. It's a big reveal.

[B]

Making some big changes, people. Chrissy, you're the first to know, okay? If you want to get more of this, which, again, I ask, why would you not, you can become a bookish friend for $5 a month. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts, although maybe not after this episode specifically. And you can shout us out on social media.

[A]

Wait, did you skip the thing about our show notes?

[B]

You know what? It's because I got because you're so in love with Chrissy, wrapped up with having finally admitted my feelings for Chrissy, that I forgot to say that you should visit our show notes because you can see timestamps for all the show, the books that we've talked about on this episode.

[A]

You can skip all the nonsense, which is great, if that's what you're here for.

[B]

Oh, God, yes.

[A]

Okay, well, you can follow the show at Currently Reading podcast on Instagram, where, thankfully, other people are making content for us, like Betsy. Or you can email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com or like Meredith said, become a bookish friend. They're the best friends. They're all helping us grow and get closer to our goals.

[B]

All right, thank you for bringing that around, Katie. You did a great job. You brought it around. Until next week, may your coffee be.

[A]

Hot and your book be unputdownable.

[B]

Happy reading, Katie.

[A]

Happy reading, Meredith.