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The Currently Reading Podcast
Season 8, Episode 8: Wordy Card Games + All Things Pre-Order
01:00:38
On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: movie adaptations and wordy card games Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we’ve been reading lately Deep Dive: answering a...
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:11]
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.
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A
We are light on the chit chat and 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.
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B
I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz, a mom and a Mimi and a full time CEO living in Austin, Texas. And every once in a while, a book adaptation gets it right.
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A
And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mom of four living in Arizona. And I believe the love of words is bookish. This is episode number eight of season eight. And, and we are so glad you're here.
- [00:55]
B
The love of words is bookish.
- [00:57]
A
Absolutely. And I have some fun things to talk about with that today. But first, like always, we're gonna let our friends know that today our deep dive is about pre orders. When do we pre order? Why? Why don't we just put it on our TBR or request it from the library? We're gonna get into all the nuance or lack of nuance around that conversation. But first we'll start the way we always do with our bookish moments. Meredith, what is yours?
- [01:19]
B
All right, Katie, I will be willing to bet you have an idea of what bookish adaptation that I want to talk about this week because what a joy. The Thursday Murder Club came out on Netflix. Of course, everybody. I don't know a single person on the planet who read that book and doesn't say it's one of their favorites. It's absolutely beloved, which is a good thing. We all absolutely love it. But also puts a lot of pressure on the adaptation. This, this one, of course, this is the book by Richard Osmond came out on Netflix. We were all so happy when we got the casting news right. Helen Mirren as Elizabeth. Pierce Brosnan as Ron. Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim. Someone we don't know as the other lady.
- [02:03]
A
Yes. What's her name?
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B
Joan. Jane. Anyway, that person, the actress that we don't know her name and the character name that we. That is escaping both of our minds right now.
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A
It is a Jane, I agree with you.
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B
Right. Is always so the crux of the books and you know, did a fantastic job in the adaptation. So, Katie, you have not seen, have you watched it?
- [02:29]
A
I haven't watched it yet because I think Shad and I will try to tackle it for popcorn in the pages. So I want to reread the book and watch it immediately after. But I have only seen people saying, you know, I have little quibbles with this and that, but overall, fantastic. And it sounds like you agree.
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B
Yes, I really enjoyed it now. When I started it, I thought this whole time, I have thought it was going to be like, a limited series.
- [02:52]
A
Yeah.
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B
So did it is not. It is a movie, and it's kind of great. I mean, yes, I definitely, with this, could have used six straight episodes of this. Like, go as deep as you want to go, because it could just be really fun. But I felt for what they did, I felt they did a great job.
- [03:08]
A
The.
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B
The casting is perfect. My standout in the cast is Pierce Brosnan as Ron. Because, of course, we all know, especially people of my generation, we grew up with Pierce Brosnan as the quintessential handsome man.
- [03:21]
A
Right?
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B
Like, he's 007, he's Remington Steele, and I'm dating myself there, but he's Remington Steele, and he's an incredibly handsome man. I don't even know how old he is, but he's still incredibly handsome. But ron is not 007 handsome.
- [03:39]
A
Right.
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B
That character is rougher around the edges. He's a union organizer. He's rougher around the edges. I was surprised. Of course, Helen Mirren is pitch perfect as Elizabeth, but he did a really good job with Ron. He really. He's got a little paunch, a little grandpa paunch. He played for comedy without overplaying it. It was really well done. It hits the comedic notes. It also hits the poignant notes, which, of course, is what we love about that book and the sets. The place where they set the retirement home is one of the most beautiful sets or places because they filmed it on location. When you guys do it for popcorn in the pages, I know you'll dive deep on this kind of stuff. I don't know where they filmed it, but it is gorgeous. So it's just. It's a. It's a very enjoyable way to spend two hours. It's bookish, but it's also entertaining. If people haven't seen the book Chef's.
- [04:35]
A
Kiss, I'm so excited. I, like everybody else, was thrilled when I saw the casting for it, and I'm just excited to dive into it. I almost watched it the other night, and I'm like, katie, are you gonna ruin it for yourself if you watch it too, like, two times too close together? Because I'm pretty sure we're gonna do our next episode and then be like, also Thursday, Murder Club. Like, we both just cannot wait to pick up that book again for me or read it for the first time for Shad and then get into comparing it with the movie. Oh, I'm so excited about it. And I love the.
- [05:04]
B
They did a great job.
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A
Like, it's just so accessible.
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B
When something's easy, everything about it is easy. David Tennant, also, I will call out as the villain is. He's someone who I. You know, I watch an awful lot of British television, so always love David Tennant. He does a great job. There are some quibbles about the Brogdon character, right? Bogdan. The Bogdan character. That's where you're going to see most of the controversy. But totally enjoyable bookish adaptation. Every once in a while, I feel like people get it right.
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A
Yes, yes, definitely. And we have definitely had experiences like that where we're like, honestly, this was great, and I'm so glad they adapted this one. So yay. I'm so excited. Okay, my bookish moment is about games that have to do with the love of words. So while I show prepped yesterday, my kids got a game out of our game cupboard because, well, first I yelled at them. I said, can y' all just put down the screens and, like, talk to each other and hang out with each other for a second? You know, every once in a while, mommy's gotta lose it a little bit.
- [06:05]
B
I mean, I'm glad that you said that, because my very first thought was, if she's about to tell me that her four children voluntarily went to the game cabinet, I was just gonna smack you full across the face.
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A
Well, Analy regularly does, and she can usually get Noah to play with her. So those two younger ones, it's good. But I usually have to get the older two to get in on the action. I have to tell them, like, please turn that off and go. Either be part of me playing with everybody else or whatever. It's rare that. Although sometimes they'll ask, like, they like. They like games. They're gamey kids. Anyway, I did yell at them to get them started on this one. They chose together a game called don't say. This was a gift that they gave me for Christmas, but they refused to play with me because I have been practicing. Don't say. For seven years. Right. Like, I know how not to say when I'm describing something, and that's how this game goes. So instead, they played with each other. They paired up with one big and one little on each team. This Game is easy to set up, fun to learn. It has a cute little bell. So when somebody uses a crutch word, you ding a bell and let them know that they violated the rules. It's wordy and delicious. They were laughing out loud while also practicing a vitally important skill of avoiding crutch words. Yay. Double win. Since this is a wordy speaking game, I'm calling it Bookish and heartily endorsing the game don't say for our word nerd friends. As a bonus recommendation, I will let anybody know that there is a classic game called Quiddler. And if you are a bookish word nerd, this is like a card game version of Scrabble where you're using cards to make words. It is so fun. I still remember rounds of quiddler from 10 years ago where somebody played a collection of words that just. Just made us all dissolve into giggles. So if you don't have Quiddler in your game closet, a card games are so much easier to store cause they only take up a tiny bit of space. You're doing it wrong. You need quiddler. And a bonus is don't say both great bookish games.
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B
I'm assuming that like is a crutch word, right?
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A
But that was actually really fun to teach them about because like is also a regular word, Correct? Yeah. And then they talked about, well, can we say so and you and I, Meredith, we have our own crutch words, right? We both say, all right. We say, oh, sure.
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B
I say, my crutch word is absolutely.
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A
Absolutely. We both say, absolutely. Levi. Every time he wanted to start a new word collection, he would say, so this is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we would say, okay, so is it a crutch word? So is it a crutch word or not? Right. But sometimes like is a crutch word when it's offset by commas and sometimes it's not. So they were having fun kind of picking out, was that a crutch word or was it part of the sentence? And having to really listen to each other to figure that out.
- [08:46]
B
That's a great game and also a great way to train many podcasters.
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A
Right?
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B
Because that's a really big thing for a lot of people or just people who are going to be speaking publicly in any way, shape or form. So that's fantastic. That's a good recommendation, Katie.
- [08:59]
A
It's very fun. It's very fun, but it's not actually book related. It's just wordy. So let's talk about some Books as well. Meredith, what have you been reading lately?
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B
Luckily, we've got plenty of very specifically bookish content here. Okay, I read a book. This is a book that I had pre ordered because it is by an author that I adore. I was very much looking forward to it. It's a book called the Killer Question and it's by Janice Hallett. Here's the setup. The Killer Question takes place in the most British setting possible, a struggling country pub called the Case Is Altered, where the weekly trivia night is literally the thing that's keeping the doors open. This weekly trivia night is very, very important. Sue and Mal Eastwood are running this cozy pub when everything starts to go sideways. First, a body shows up in the river that, like, is right on the back of the pub. And then this mysterious new quiz team starts coming to their quiz nights and absolutely destroys all the longtime regular quiz, you know, the regulars who come every single week. This is so much more drama than I would have expected.
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A
So.
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B
So the locals are convinced that this team is cheating, but nobody can figure out how. Things are getting really heated. Also, even more intriguing, we're not quite sure the backstory for good old pub owners sue and Mal. So what's happening there? How is that related to all of the other stuff? These are the killer questions. All right, you guys know I've shouted from every bookish mountaintop my love for Janice Hallett, the Appeal, the mysterious case of the Alperton Angels, which you just read, Katie and the Exact Examiner. All three of those have landed on my top 10 of the year lists for the years that I read them. So you can imagine my squeal of delight when on the night before my Hawaiian vacation, I got approved for the arc of this new one. Now, this one uses the same mixed media format as all of her others. This is really what she's known for. The entire story is told through emails, text threads, quiz categories, and police interviews. I love this format when it's done well, it moves so fast and it creates this really immersive reading experience. What makes it more amazing, which I will always include in my reviews of her works, is that when I saw her at Hampton's Whodunit, Janice Hallett let us know. She does not plan her stories in advance. They just happen as they happen. Which is mind blowing when you actually read one of her books and you're like, really? She just kind of lets this spool out. This works really well when it works, until it doesn't. And this is where the killer question hit a speed Bump. For me, the first 20% was incredible. I was in. Imagine me in my seat on the plane just happily click, click, clicking on my Kindle as I moved through this. The premise of the struggling club keeping its. Or the pub keeping its lights on, the body in the river, the secrets from the past. It's classic Janice Hallett. She takes something that seems ordinary and then makes it sinister. But then the middle 50%, I'm just going to be honest, became yes, the middle 50% is incredibly tedious. The plot is just doing the same thing over and over again. And I was actually checking the table of contents to see if I could tell by the chapter titles when we were going to move forward. Although I did read all of it. The characters felt flat, the story really dull, and the repetition was killing me faster than any round of trivia pub trivia possibly could. The last 30% though, does pick up considerably. And there was at least one twist that was pretty darn ingenious. The kind that made me want to kind of flip back and through the book and be like, wait, what? But overall, the entire book felt mid. It felt rushed and thin, like someone had taken a really solid idea and then like that would have been a great kind of novella and then stretched it to be a full, A full novel. It doesn't escape me that she's now coming out with a book a year Katie. And that might be. This might be where we're seeing that pace catch up with the quality. The quality. Now this totally could be, and I think it probably is, a one off stumble. I remain a Janice Hallett evangelist. I will be first in line to buy, pre order or not, whatever she writes. Next, if you've never read her work, do not start with the Killer question. Please go immediately to the Peel, the Examiner or the Mysterious Case of Albert and Angels. All of those are nothing short of incredible. This one, however, is not. This is the Killer Question by Janice Hallett and It's out tomorrow, September 23rd.
- [13:53]
A
That's sad. I will say that I love pub quiz and trivia at a bar where I am pretty sure I get smarter the longer I'm there, because that's how pub quiz works. So I feel like this would have been a good spine to build on for this reader. And I'm sad that it didn't work out that great.
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B
And again, it's. It's not a bad book. It's not. It's not like a book that I would say definitely don't read it. I would just say that it needed A better edit in the middle. Because, yes, some of the. Like, I have never been to a trivia night. I actually think I probably would really, really like it. I kind of really want to do that now. And the things I learned, and especially whenever you have a book that is about. Or a movie or whatever that's about something really niche that people are very into, and they kind of make it their entire life, their entire personality, which these characters have done and, like, how they prep and how they put teams together and the drama that's associated with all that. Those are the parts that I really, really loved.
- [14:54]
A
Yeah.
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B
But there wasn't enough of the. The overarching plot to keep those elements from becoming repetitive.
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A
Right.
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B
Like, she just was kind of spinning in that center part, and it felt like she didn't know how to move it along. And it just needed. It needed an edit in the middle. So it's not a bad book. I really. This is not about me saying I think no one should read it. It's just compared to the greatness that is those other three, which is a tough expectation to me. It's not in that caliber.
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A
Right. If you're gonna start somewhere, start with a surefire knock out of the park. Right. A hit out of the park.
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B
Unless you are obsessed with trivia nights or pub trivia, then I think get ye to this book immediately.
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A
Fair. Fair. Okay. I do have one piece of trivia about this, so I also. Book festivals. Right. That's where you learn when an author is a plotter or a pantser. Right. And you're saying Janice Hallett is a pantser. She writes by the seat of her pants. Right. There is a middle ground. And I always. I forget about this until the conversation comes up or until I'm back at the Tucson Festival of Books, listening to others talk about it. But the middle ground these authors, especially romance authors, call a panty liner because they outline and then they fly by the seat of their pants. And when you stick those together, it becomes a panty liner.
- [16:16]
B
When you stick it.
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A
So happy. Yes. You guys stick it on to make it into a panty liner. It makes me so happy every year. It just, like, leaves me cackling with glee. That, like, people would be like, I'm not a plotter or a pantser. I'm a panty liner. What? Don't say that.
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B
I've never. I've never heard of that. Katie.
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A
That's probably because at Hamptons, they're a little more serious than in Tucson. That's why maybe I like It. Okay. I also have books to talk about. You may be surprised. My first one this week is called the Crescent Moon Tea Room by Stacey Savinsky. This is a sister story and its cozy fantasy perfect for fall. Here's the Anne, Beatrix and Violet are sisters that own the Crescent Moon Tea Room, where you can come to have your fortune read or your future told. The sisters have made a business of reading tea leaves and palms, signs and wonders. They've built this life together. After the untimely deaths of both parents. They are orphans. Yay. Ding. But their bond is strong and they love each other, so they make do without their parental supervision. Right. I mean, they're adults now, but they've been orphans for a while. When the Council of Witches shows up at the start of the story, it's to let the sisters know that the council needs a new diviner. They'd like to include the sisters in the Council, but first, the three of them need to prove themselves. They are set upon what feels like an impossible quest to help three aging witches and wizards discover their life's purpose before the end of their natural lives, which are creeping up faster than we'd like to. A witch who dies in this world without fulfilling their life's purpose becomes a scourge upon the community. So it's to everyone's benefit to help these older, powerful beings. The three sisters will have to combine their gifts and talents to find a way forward. Which sounds simple enough, but in a little Women esque nod to classic literature, each of these young women is her own person. Anne's magic is developing in strange new ways. Beatrix is writing novels and a publisher is starting to become interested. And Violet, she's kind of our Amy, right? She's been captured by the sights and sounds of the circus and the trapeze artist that travels with it. She's a little bit flighty, which is a trapeze pun. I'm good with it. When the sisters first learn about a curse that's meant to separate them from each other, seems like, well, that's not possible. We are braided together. We are intertwined. We love each other. But as the story develops and their interests start to diverge, we find that the internal struggle is just as important as their external quest to help these witches. This was a calm, hopeful, sweet, cozy fantasy. However, it didn't have the cohesiveness or propulsiveness that I wanted for it. There were elements I really loved about the way the stories developed about and between the sisters, especially. Beatrix, with her writing, has her Magical abilities manifest in really interesting and fun ways. But it didn't hold my interest the way that it could have. There were broad swaths of the story that I basically skimmed by allowing it to wash over me instead of paying close attention. And then I found that it didn't really matter. I didn't miss anything by doing that, by just kind of like floating along on this. But I say that because there have been times in the past year especially, but throughout my reading life, we all go through seasons where that's the kind of story I needed. Something so low stakes that it doesn't matter if my mind wanders. I have a friend that is recently recovered from a concussion, a friend who has had multiple brain surgeries, friends who've gone through divorce or a death in the family, or a long term upheaval of some kind for you, friend. This is a great book. It does not require your undivided attention. It will be gentle with your heart and with your mental energy. It's not going to capture you in an unputdownable way. But sometimes that's not what we need. While it wasn't necessarily the right time for me to read it, I was at a point already in my own mental space that I needed something meatier to chew on. But I know it would have been exactly perfect for other times in my life and it will be exactly perfect for somebody else. I can clearly pinpoint when it would have been perfect for me. This is the Crescent Moon Tea Room by Stacey Savinsky.
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B
You know, Roxanna talks about books that are perfect in the background for puttering.
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A
Mm, puttering books. Yes.
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B
This sounds like that would be an excellent one for them.
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A
Definitely.
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B
My next book is from Meredith's morning read series. This is. This is a lifetime favorite and I recently did a reread and I absolutely wanted to bring it, but it does feel a little weird to be bringing the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz just kind of as a current read in the middle of a regular episode. Because this book is way more than a current read for me. It has rewired my brain over time. It has become a set of life principles and mantras for me. Don Miguel Ruiz in the Four Agreements starts by telling you that most of the stuff that makes you miserable are the lies that you learned as a kid and you just kind of never questioned. He's talking about all those voices in your head that say you're not good enough, smart enough, whatever, enough. You know, the things that I'm talking about, these things are very loud in My head all the time. Ruiz says we've all been domesticated by society. His word, not mine. But it's spot on. And we're walking around carrying these internal judgments that just beat us up all day long. But he doesn't tell you what's wrong with you about that. He gives you four dead simple agreements to make with yourself that actually can help rewire that thinking. This is a kind of shift that help you stop taking everything personally, which is a huge issue for me. And to quit making up stories in my head about what other people are thinking. Another huge issue for me. It's based on ancient Toltec wisdom, but it feels completely relevant to anyone who has ever spiraled over a text message or spent way too much time worrying about a conversation that they had at a party last night. This is honestly one of those books that I try to read every single year. I'm not kidding when I say top 10 most impactful books I've read of all time. Every time I pick it up, I get something completely new out of it, which is the mark of a truly transformative book for me. Usually when I read the four Agreements, it's the second agreement, don't take everything personally, or don't take anything personally, that really hits me. But this time around, it was the first one that rocked my world. Be impeccable with your word. Here's what I realized that I had never fully grasped before. Ruiz isn't just talking about the words that we say out loud, which is the way I had always read it before. He's talking about the words that you think, the internal dialogue that runs your head 24 7. When you really start paying attention to how you talk to yourself, it's a wake up call that con. The concept is that we are all just living in a dream of our own creation. That's mind blowing when you consider it. When you really sit with that idea, it changes everything about how you move through the world. Ruiz breaks down how we've been again, domesticated by society and how we're carrying around these agreements that we made, but we have the ability to unmake them too. So if you've never read anything in the spiritual self help place, this might feel a little bit woo woo. But if you loved Even the Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown, you will connect with so much here. Ruiz has this way of taking these massive life changing concepts and making them feel completely accessible and practical, like he's coming side by side with you. But in the most wise and discerning way to help you make new agreements for yourself. This is the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Have you ever read this, Katie?
- [23:49]
A
I did, but I read it probably when I shouldn't have because. Because my young working life, I had two women that I worked with that were very bookish, and they were probably a decade 15 years older than me. And they pressed a lot of books into my hands, Right. And I was very, like, young and malleable, and I was just like, I will. I don't know what to read myself. I will just read whatever you tell me to. But that also means that sometimes I was reading things that probably would have hit different if I wasn't just in that young twenties, devouring stage of books where I was like, done, bartender, throw me another. Like that kind of thing. So I have read it, but I don't know if I've really absorbed it in the way that I would if I, for instance, did it as a morning read and really took time to sift through it and let it percolate into me the way that it should have.
- [24:38]
B
And I do think it is. It is. I mean, I think any way you do it at any age, it could be useful and that you will find something different every time you revisit it. This is the kind of book that really benefits from a reread for that reason. Like I said this time, that first agreement just stood out to me completely differently than any of the other times that I've read it. And also, I feel like it lends itself to a morning read or whenever you do your deeper reading, kind of like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, because just a little bit of it at a time and then some thought about what you've read is probably a really great way to do it, too. So something to consider.
- [25:18]
A
Yeah, definitely. And it's so. It's just this. It looks gift book y. Because it's so little, you know? Yeah, yeah.
- [25:25]
B
A lot of my morning reads, I'm finding, are like that. A lot of my morning reads, books of poetry. These kind, you know, they're Pima children books. They're slimmer, smaller. They kind of have that gift book look, which for me, often kind of turns me off.
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A
Right, right.
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B
Like, how impactful can a book like that be? I would challenge the four agreements, I think. Challenges that.
- [25:48]
A
That perspective and the exception that proves the rule. Perfect. Okay. I also have nonfiction for my second book this week, and it has a number in the title. I like finding weird little connections between our books. So I'm going to talk about Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jawad. If my first book was perfect for an unplugged brain, this is the not that. In fact, pretty much everyone I mentioned in the first review needs to stay away from this one. That being said, it's absolutely excellent and worth reading in the right time. This is a deeply personal memoir about illness, cancer and recovery. Suleika is the author and the subject of this book. She is just barely graduating from college when she moves to Paris to start her real life and realizes she's in love with her boyfriend and everything's perfect and she's living in this cute little apartment, right? She's stepping out into the world to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist, a war correspondent. But she has this unexplained itch, physical itch in her lower extremities and deeply unsettling, unrelenting fatigue like six hour naps. Still wakes up tired, she finally visits the doctor and he sends her home from her picture perfect planned life to be with her parents and family, where she is diagnosed with leukemia just shy of turning 23 and her entire life has been upended. Her chances of survival are less than 50% and every moment she gets will be a fight to survive. But thankfully, here we are in 2021 when this book was published and this is not a When Breath Becomes Air style memoir. She makes it to the end of the book. She is still alive today, so I want to put that out there that that's not what you're reading here. You can google Suleika now and she is alive, although she does have some new health updates. So I'm not recommending a book about a memoir of dying. Instead, it's about reckoning with critical illness as a young person and the life she built in and out of hospital beds over the course of four years. However, this is a memoir of the medical system. It is detailed about the ways her parents had to support her, the way her friendships and relationships changed and were challenged. Suleika went to school, that college that she had just graduated from, to write. And write she does. Her prose is powerful and pointed and she doesn't shy away from any of the hard in her story, the terrible side effects of chemo, everything that's going on with her body during this time, she shares it with grace. And when she's approached by the New York Times to write a column called Life Interrupted, she used that honed writing craft to connect with people all over the globe, the ones going through something hard themselves, and the ones caretaking them or loving them through it. The title of this book comes from a line in Susan Sontag's 1978 book Illness as Metaphor, where she says, everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Jawad lives between those two kingdoms in this memoir of life interrupted and invites us into that in between space in a really powerful way. So this is Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Chawad.
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B
I'm really glad that you told us. I think it's important to have that perspective going into a book like this.
- [28:54]
A
Yes, Right.
- [28:55]
B
So that you can be mentally prepared for what kind of book you're talking about.
- [28:58]
A
Especially because the front is her sitting on top of a yellow VW bus, which that comes into the story. It comes into this memoir later. But you're reading it and you're like, where's the fun where we sit on top of a bus? Yeah, like, this is hard. It's a hard book. And so throughout the middle, I was like, I better Google her and make sure that I didn't get into something here that I wasn't prepared for. Where's the bus? Fun. You know, so definitely good to know.
- [29:26]
B
All right. My third book is escapist fun.
- [29:33]
A
Yay.
- [29:34]
B
Very escapist fun. I so enjoyed my time reading this book. This book is called Inheritance by queen of this kind of book, Nora Roberts. Here's the setup. Our lead character is graphic designer Sonja McTavish, and she has had a bad day. She just walked in on her fiance cheating on her, and she's ready for a complete reset of her life. What could be better than Katie, I ask you, than a lawyer showing up at her door with news that her late father had a twin brother that he, the father never even knew about? So of course she doesn't know about it. And this uncle, who she's never met and didn't know of before, has left her a stunning Victorian mansion on the Maine coast. This is the lottery I want to win.
- [30:26]
A
Oh, my gosh. Screw the 1.4 billion Powerball. Leave me a mansion on the Maine coast.
- [30:34]
B
And when you. When you actually find out about this house, it's even better than it sounds. Okay, okay. But as all good wills do, this will has conditions. She actually has to live in this sprawling clifftop manor for three years in order to claim her full inheritance. And, oh, by the way, the place is haunted.
- [30:58]
A
Perfect, right?
- [30:59]
B
I'm gonna.
- [31:00]
A
I want it.
- [31:00]
B
I'm gonna air quote with gigantic foot long air quotes, the Wood the word haunted objects move on their own. Music plays from nowhere. And the house that the locals call Lost Bride Manor because seven pool family brides, the, the, the uncle's last name was Poole. They have died there under mysterious circumstances. Like as soon as they got married, they like went to straighten. Straighten their bridal veil and done like, yeah, seven of them.
- [31:31]
A
Seven.
- [31:32]
B
There's so much deliciousness that it could not fit into just one book. So I will let you know now that this is book one of the Lost Bride trilogy. The first two books are out already. This is going to come into play. So something you know about Nora Roberts. Or if you don't, you should. You have to be in the right mood for her. But if you are, there is no one better. She's that friend who takes like three hours to tell you a story over coffee, but you're hanging on every word because this friend knows exactly how to tell you a story to keep you hooked and the inheritance. This is Roberts at her comfort zone best. She gives us everything that we want, but also kept surprising me with a few genuinely delightful twists. Okay, first thing I have to say from the beginning, because I hate it when I don't know this, this book ends on a cliffhanger, a juicy one that had me literally going, wait, that's. Wait, that's where we're ending this. So my advice is just get the second book at the same time they're both out, and the third wraps up the trilogy and it comes out in November. So the timing is really, really perfect. But save yourself the dramatic gasp and scramble that I had to go through at the. At the end of it. Now, I love a haunted house story, but do you know what I really love? I love a haunted house where the ghosts are basically supernatural caretakers who just want you to be cozy. These ghosts fold your laundry, they lay out your clothes, they light fires in the rooms before anyone gets there so that the room is all warm and welcoming. And speaking of the house itself, there is a library in this manor that is now officially where I want to live for the rest of my life. It's all of our Beauty and the Beast library dreams brought to life in the fictional world. And Nora Roberts describes it with such loving detail that you can practically smell the leather bindings and feel the warmth coming from the fireplace. It's like a three story tall. It's got windows looking out on the ocean. You've got housekeepers bringing you snacks. One of my absolute favorite things about reading Nora Roberts is how she completely immerses you in whatever her main character does for a living. Remember when we read the Search, there was that lead who was renovating a mountain cabin. So you were there for every single detail about that renovation. Well, here Sonja is a graphic designer, and Nora Roberts gives us all these fantastic, prosaic day in the life details of a woman building her own freelance web and graphic design business. So we're there for client calls, design decisions, the satisfaction of landing a new account, all woven naturally into this supernatural mystery. I eat this stuff up with a spoon. It makes the whole world feel so lived in. Even when there are literal ghosts doing our housework. There's a romance here. This is an Ora Roberts book. It's not a ro. This is not a romance. But there's a romance. It's gentle and slow. Burn less than one chili pepper on the spice scale. The guy's name is Trey because he's the third.
- [34:47]
A
Right.
- [34:47]
B
Which I have now. Now that I live in the South, I know that that trip and Trey often mean that you're a third. Your, like dad and your dad's dad all have the same name. Trey and Sonja. Their relationship develops at the right pace for a woman who just caught her fiance cheating and is trying to figure out her entire life vis a vis the haunted mansion. So you know. And then also a centuries old curse. So Sonia has a lot going on. Roberts doesn't push them and rush them together. She lets them become friends first and partners in solving this mystery. And then gradually they become something more. Now you need to know this book is long. It's 450 pages. And Roberts takes her time. She's not trying to sprint through this story. There are long passages about Sonja settling into the house, developing her business, getting to know the townspeople, learning to live with ghosts as roommates. If you want breakneck pacing, this ain't it. But if you want to sink into a world where you get to know every corner of the manor and the quirks of these ghosts, and you love that layer of a historical family mystery, this book delivers in spades. If you can't tell, I absolutely loved it. This is Inheritance by Nora Roberts, the first in the lost Bride trilogy.
- [36:02]
A
That sounds so good. Like you can't be a master if you're not masterful. Masterful, right. Like she. She is great at this. Because she's great at this.
- [36:12]
B
Yeah. And I brought this book for this episode because it is so if. If fall reading to you does not mean scary, spooky, but it means cozy with maybe A little bit of, you know, just like friendly ghost. This is very spooky. It's very spoopy.
- [36:30]
A
Yeah. Perfect.
- [36:31]
B
It's perfect for this season.
- [36:33]
A
I love it.
- [36:34]
B
And it takes place in Maine, which.
- [36:35]
A
Is perfect for every season.
- [36:37]
B
Exactly.
- [36:38]
A
Perfect. Okay, I am moving to the other coast for my third read. I'm going to talk about Tilt by Emma Petit. This is one of the two books published this summer with just a bird on the COVID So I bought this on my big road trip, thinking it was the one Katie and I had agreed to read together. But that was in fact the Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Right. It's okay. We both got a copy of Tilt and we read it as well. We read all the bird books this summer, guys. The setup for Tilt is short and simple. This book takes place in a single day when Annie, our main character, who is nine months pregnant, is finally shopping for a crib at Ikea in Portland, Oregon, not Maine. The city is struck by a massive earthquake, and Annie barely makes out of makes it out of the store alive. The book follows her single day trek across the city of Portland to try to find her husband surrounded by chaos, no money, no cell phone, or even a water bottle. When she sets out. That's it. That's the setup. Okay. This short little book can be read in less than real time. The action here takes place over about 12 hours, but it's 240 pages. You can blast through it in four hours or less. I also spent three years of my life living in Portland. I have been to this IKEA many times. I have driven across the Morrison Street Bridge and ridden my bike across every bridge in Portland, traveled all over the city, from east to west and north to south. But if you're not me, if you haven't lived there, if you're not familiar with Portland, that's okay. Emma Petit includes a map at the front of the book that is super helpful. It shows you exactly where IKEA is. It shows you where Annie's house is, where the bridges are. You have a very good feel for where she is geographically within the city and super helpful for orienting yourself to the action. But knowing the city intimately really added to the experience for me. This book was propulsive. It was phenomenal. It does not have a tidy ending. It is one that left me gasping for breath as I tore through the final pages. The publisher blurb says it's a primal scream of a novel, which is not the first time we've read that phrase. Right. It feels a little overused at this point. And I'm leaning more toward urgent and visceral, as it's described by storygraphy. It is literary, but also plot heavy. It's about the kindness of humans. It's a survival story with the depravity of all that entails. When the city collapses around you, some people rise to their best selves, and a lot of people do not. None of this is unreality or that fever dream that we've talked about in the past where it's like, what's happening? Is this even real? So if that turns you away, be assuaged that that's not what you're finding here. But there are decisions that Annie makes that remind you that pregnancy brain is a real thing. And for those of our audience who have never been pregnant, you're going to have to trust the rest of us on this. She sets out and realizes later that she left her cell phone behind, that she has no water, and that even though it's only 75, because it's Portland, it's sunny and it's hot outside. Like, you're like, girl, just take a beat. Just get some water. Right? Especially living in Arizona, it feels unforgivable to me.
- [39:44]
B
It's. It's dangerous.
- [39:46]
A
It's. It's fully dangerous. And she's nine months pregnant, and it's many miles that she has to walk. The roads are destroyed. It's a mess. This entire city is a mess. In the afterword, Emma Petit talks about the research she did around the expected large earthquake that will hit the Pacific Northwest within the next few decades. There are books published about this. Did I want to do a deep dive immediately afterwards? Yes, I did. If I still live in Portland, would I want to read that? No, I would not. It would scare the cheesers out of me. However, this book was propulsive, excellent. I ended up giving it four and a half stars because while I couldn't agree with all of Annie's decisions, I loved the experience of reading it. This was Tilt by Emma Petit.
- [40:30]
B
Oh, I'm so glad that you like that one. I have heard of that one. And because that, like, fever dream element got tossed around, I didn't put it on my tbr.
- [40:43]
A
Yeah, it's all very realistic. None of it is like. But is she hallucinating? Is this because she didn't drink enough water today? Right. None of that happens here, so.
- [40:53]
B
Okay, good to know.
- [40:54]
A
No Fever Dream. Okay. Those were our six current reads. Now we're going to get into our deep dive, which came from our dear friend, our bookish friend, Holly Farrell. She had plenty of questions to send to us in our request for Deep Dives, so do expect to hear more from her in the future, but she said this was one of them. When you're looking at an upcoming book, when do you pre order and when do you just put it on your TBR or request it from the library? How do we make that decision on our own as the readers that we are? This got me thinking, of course, Meredith, because I go through fits and starts with pre orders versus requesting galleys versus waiting until it comes out versus all the other options that there are for when a book is coming out soon. How do you make your decisions around this?
- [41:37]
B
Right. And it is. There are a lot of factors that come into play for all of us. Right. When we decide if we're going to pre order or not. And I, before I forget, I want to say Holly's Instagram is Holly's lit magic. She has a fantastic. If you like mysteries and you like fantasy, especially those two things, she just does a fantastic job on Instagram. So she's a great follow Holly's Lit Magic.
- [42:02]
A
When she does those atmospheric, like, reels about the mood board for a certain book, I. I don't even care if I read the book, if I liked the book. I watch every single one of those. Like, it's my job.
- [42:13]
B
Yeah, no, exactly. That's one of my favorite things. But she's also, like. She also has a substack where she's diving deep into some. Yeah, some really interesting things. She just does graphically. She does really great stuff and she's doing all of it. And she just had a baby not too long ago. And so it's just. I just really love. I love, love, love Holly. Okay. Pre orders. I take pre orders very seriously. I have a couple of things that I try to do every time. So definitely we all pre order books when our, you know, when our favorite authors are coming out with a book.
- [42:45]
A
Right, right.
- [42:46]
B
Like, that's probably the most obvious. I do that even if I think there's a possibility that I can get it as a galley. And I don't really want to get too stuck behind talking about, you know, the books that we get for galleys. Because, Katie, you and I have access to a lot of things because people, not just you and I, people who have large platforms, we get access to galleys, and that's great, but it's not very interesting to most people. So I want to really think this about this in terms of. For all of the years that I was a reader that didn't have access to a lot of that. So when my main, you know, when Louise Penny, when I, before the COVID is even available, I'm going to have pre ordered the new Louise Penny.
- [43:25]
A
Right.
- [43:25]
B
Same thing for any of my auto buy authors. To me that's how I define auto buy authors that I'm going to pre order the hardback or you know, the Kindle, you know, and that's also a further decision. When you pre order.
- [43:39]
A
Yes.
- [43:40]
B
What format are you doing it in? You know, so there's definitely that I try if I'm going to do a pre order and I want it in print, I try to do that through my, my adopted independent bookstore. Many that's fabled, many, many independent bookstores are going to do same day shipping in the same way that Amazon does. So I find that I am able to get my copy if I pre order it through fabled pretty much as quickly now these days as I would be getting it from Amazon. So I really, when I'm going to do that, I try to have that be the first thing that I do. If I'm going to, if I know if it's a mystery or thriller, especially a thriller for me that's. I know I'm probably going to want to do that on audio. I love a thriller on audio. I'm going to go to Libro fm. So I try to think in terms of, you know, how can I support the independent bookstores with my pre orders then there are times where I am doing pre orders of books not because I am necessarily going to read it the second it downloads into my Kindle or I need it for my shelf. I use pre orders a lot because I have the ability to do that at this time in my life. That hasn't always been true to support authors that I really, really care about whether or not I'm going to get a galley. I'm probably also going to get a galley. I'm probably also going to get a publisher hard copy sent to me. I am still going to support with pre orders because we know that pre orders really make a difference to how much buzz a book gets to how it does on charts. It makes a difference in a lot of ways. Authors. So if I want to support that author, I'm going to do it with.
- [45:20]
A
My pre order, right? Yes, definitely. And because you mentioned that sometimes we're not in a stage of life where we can do that, right? Yeah. You can basically put in a pre order through the library. You can go to your Library's website and they will have likely a form that says request a book and you can fill in the author, the title, the ISBN if you can find it, the release date or the publication year, the publisher like as much information as you can have.
- [45:47]
B
Even if you just have author and author and title, that's enough. I just want to be sure people know that they don't, they don't have to have all that other info.
- [45:55]
A
Yes. Don't get overwhelmed. Just go to your library and ask them to buy the book that is still a copy being sold as a pre order for that author and your library when they get it in, in the format you requested. Which is another thing you can take into account. Right. If you know you want to read it on Kindle, request it as a Kindle book from your library. It still counts as a pre order and they'll put you first on the holds list, which is super special for a pre order. You get first dibs. It's like a brand new fresh book right there from the library. Who loves that? Everybody. I love it.
- [46:28]
B
Everybody.
- [46:29]
A
Yes. So I agree. If there's an author I love and have trusted in the past a, I'm usually following them on Instagram, which is how I find out that they have a book coming out. Right. With Louise Penny, I, I subscribe to her newsletter. So when she says it's time this is now available, that's when you go grab it. Right. Like we know, we know if you are connected with your favorite authors, they will let you know they have a pre order coming up and a release in the next few months and it would really help them to go pre order that book for them. The most recent one or the one that I'm most excited about right now that happened in that way is Alex Harrow, the Everlasting. I pre ordered that one across the Pond because I wanted the pretty UK Waterstones edition. What does that mean? I'm not gonna get it on release day in the US It'll take at least two weeks to get to my door. So I had to think through what's the, what's the important part of this for me? A, I want to support my author that I love. B, I want this pretty edition. I'm 95% sure this is a book that I want to keep on my shelf. So why wouldn't I get the gorgeous one? Right.
- [47:34]
B
And I pre ordered this in February.
- [47:39]
A
Right. Well, and that's the other thing about pre orders is that sometimes you need to keep track of where did you pre order that from. Do I need to put that. Do I need to put that in somewhere else? It's good to keep track of those so you don't end up with four copies showing up because it was an author you were really excited about. But now you've spent $120 on a single book. You just got it a lot of places. Right.
- [48:01]
B
I am not even going to admit to you how many times that Tuesday, Tuesday comes. That's the day that books release, and all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm getting multiple copies of. I'm like, oh, I. I really was excited about this book.
- [48:14]
A
I really wanted to read this book. I better prioritize it. Oopsies. Right? Okay. I also. And that overlaps here, pre order beautiful editions. So if I know that there's a book I already loved and I know that they're coming out with a new copy of it for me, not long ago, this was a full set of the Bergman brothers romance series by Chloe Lazet, which go together on the shelf in a beautiful way. And I wanted to make sure that I got the complete set. So I think I spent like $130. But it was like eight books. It was seven books. Beautiful covers. And then when you turn them around, the sprayed edges make an image when they're all together, but not if you're missing one. So I could not run the risk of not having the entire special edition. Yeah, the other time that I go a little nutty with pre orders is a Barnes and Noble sale. They do put their pre orders on sometimes 30% off. And they're, you know, brand new releases. Hardcover, if you're a premium member, you get an additional 10% off. And that is a really good deal on some hardback books. And the fun thing about Barnes and Noble is if you put in a whole bunch of books as an order at once, they bill you as they ship them. So sometimes it feels like you gave your future self a little treat and you didn't pay for it until later down the road. It's like delayed gratification. Oh, it's my favorite thing.
- [49:36]
B
And to me, that is the number one thing that's fun about pre orders. Like, it's kind of a bummer because you really want a book, but you have to wait for it. But then that's my favorite thing is when I've forgotten. Because for most books, I'm not really track, like, other than Louise Penny, I'm really not tracking the day of particular books coming out. So it's A surprise. And that's a. That's just a fun little way that your past self can give you a little surprise on a future date from a book that you really, really wanted. But again, they're really important for authors and when we can do them and support the authors that we love, what's not to love about that?
- [50:12]
A
Yes, indeed. I will also, as a final aside, add that if I have been purchasing a series on audio for my kids to read, for instance, the Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend, as soon as I know about the pre order opportunity there, I will go to whatever platform I've been using so that that series can live there as a complete set. And my kids, if they're ready to binge, they can just go one right after the other and not have to be like, well, I think we have this one over here. And then that one I know I can get from the library. I just want them to be able to sink into a story. So I will go find where I've purchased previous books in that series in order to get new ones.
- [50:51]
B
That's smart. That's very smart. Good. Pre orders are a really fun part of the bookish life.
- [50:58]
A
Yes, most definitely. And we are interested in hearing about, A, what you all are pre ordering because, hi, sometimes our wallets need a little lightning, and B, we also want to know how you decide what you're going to pre order, where you're going to do it, and who's going to get your money for that book. So let us know.
- [51:16]
B
Absolutely. Thank you to Holly at Holly's Lit Magic for that question.
- [51:20]
A
Okay, Meredith, what is your fountain wish this week?
- [51:24]
B
All right. My fountain wish this week. Okay, Katie. I did the most fun thing. Now, you guys know I am obsessed with the notion. I really like personality constructs. I like quizzes to know yourself better. Back in the day when we used to have magazines, I would always, you know, like, mark up my magazine with my. Like, which, blah, blah, blah, are you? I love the idea of knowing myself better. And from a bookish perspective, the idea of reader know thyself is really, really important to me. Something I talk about all the time. I think about it all the time. Well, the other day, a couple of weeks ago, I made an investment in knowing myself better. And that I did with, you know, Meg Teats, who's kind of like the grandmama of currently reading, because sort of awesome is where she used to. It's the podcast she used to do. It's where we met Katie, you and I. And she recently has been Doing a brand new project called Metaphysical Meg on Instagram and I purchased for myself a whole self reading done by Meg. This was absolutely. It blew my mind in the level of information that I got. Basically your whole self looks at what's your Myers, you know, it looks at your Myers Briggs. If you know, you know what your Myers Briggs is. I'm an infj. It looks at your enneagram type. I'm a one. And it looks at your astrological chart, your natal chart. I'm a Leo with Capricorn Rising. Now that Capricorn Rising part I did not know. And that has led me to a lot of new information about myself that plus some other things have let me know that growth, knowledge, expansion, constant new challenges of my intellectual self are inherent to who I am. I've always kind of wondered like, why can't I just relax? Why would I rather start a new project or work on currently reading or do something like that instead of just relaxing, Quote unquote. It's because of some of the things that I found in my natal that Meg found for me in my natal chart when she did my reading. So that has led me to the knowledge that I love. I love all kinds of reading that help me to learn.
- [53:34]
A
But I.
- [53:34]
B
That's a part of why I love reading projects. They help me feel that I am moving down the road to expansion of knowledge. And projects in general are very, very close to who I am as an individual. Knowing those things about me as well as a lot of other things that I learned about myself, some surprising, some not so much through this whole self reading made me really, really happy. So my wish is that you would of course know yourself as a reader, but know yourself as a whole person too. And if you want to look into what Meg is doing, I could not recommend it highly enough. I was blown away by the level of quality of the product and that is at on Instagram etaphysical Meg.
- [54:21]
A
Yes. And just continued flowers to Meg, who is our grandmama or. Or just our mama in that currently reading does not exist without Meg Teats. So.
- [54:32]
B
Exactly, exactly. She continues to. To bring amazing things in the world that are very close to who she is as an individual and really playing into her own strengths. And that's another thing that I love is I just love to watch people finding the thing that is really their thing, their way that they contribute best to the world.
- [54:52]
A
Okay. My wish is a little more in today's world, which is I am going to wish to encourage the nostalgia read experience. So it's Today's World and also yesterday's world. This past week in Real Time, I posted about getting Dan Brown's new book in the mail. Something I had pre ordered. Right. I thought I was going to get some side eye. I don't know why I thought this. Readers love readers, right? We don't care what you're reading, we just want you reading. I thought I was going to get like seriously, aren't we over him? Like, I didn't realize you read this kind of thing. We read that 20 years ago. Whatever. Sure. Turns out this was a huge. I thought I was the only one moment that I had completely misread. I got probably more replies than any other story I've ever done. Hundreds of replies to my story with the nearly unanimous sentiment of I am also that girl. There were some who were surprised they didn't know that he had a new book out. Some that said they had also pre ordered it, and some who couldn't wait to hear my thoughts. Oh my gosh. Please bring this to the show, Katie. I can't wait to hear about it. So many messages harkened back to something along the lines of the Da Vinci Code is the first book I remember staying up all night to read. Called in sick to work the next day. Could not put it down right. Lean into that. That is my fountain wish. Today we can all pursue the magic of the All Nighter. Even if old ladies like us don't logistically have that work out for us anymore. Maybe the All Dayer is what we need. So many inquiring minds did need to know. I will hereby update that by the time this episode drops, I will have at least started this nearly 700 page book. But it was in conflict with another current read. So I didn't drop everything and start it the same day. I have already gotten messages like did you start it? How's the writing? What do you feel? It's heavy. It feels like it holds my entire soul inside it.
- [56:43]
B
Wait, the. The writing is heavy or the book itself is heavy?
- [56:46]
A
The book is heavy. It looks like a regular sized book, but it's 700 pages so somehow they fit it all in there. The pages are very smooth.
- [56:54]
B
Is it like Cadabasus?
- [56:55]
A
It is like Katabasis in that way, but it has a different feel to it as well. It's a very interesting tactile experience to hold this book. I fully expect that when I pick it up the very first page, I will then be like out of office for four hours. I'll be back with you all later. Let's see if I can chomp through half of this in one sitting. Cannot wait to revisit Robert Langdon. I promise to report back, y'. All. Trust me. I will come back and report back about Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. But lean into it if you love a nostalgia read. If you read Nora Roberts all the time, go get you a Nora Roberts book. You don't have to worry that somebody else cares what you're reading. Go get it and just love it. It's okay, right?
- [57:39]
B
Nora Roberts is another example of someone who is just sinking. It's super. Just that pure enjoyment of reading. Now, Katie, I have a couple of questions. Have you read all six books of the Robert Langdon books by Dan Brown?
- [57:56]
A
So the first, the first replies I got were something along those lines. Mary asked me, have you read all six of them? And I was like, you know, I don't think so. Maybe not. I'd have to go back and look. I did go back and look. I have read all six of them. Okay.
- [58:08]
B
Have you liked them all?
- [58:09]
A
I have given some three stars. It's not necessarily that he is always a hit out of the park. It's that I'm always seeking the same first hit. And of those other ones, I've never pre ordered another one. It's this one feels more like Da Vinci Code to me. There's something about the COVID the title, the setup that feels more like it's gonna scratch that itch in ways that origin, lost symbol, angels and demons really did hit for me. But the like at least two of them I gave three stars to. I'm fine with it. I like being in this world. I like that little bit of science y mystery, obscure religious history. It's all my favorite wheelhouses to play in. So I'm hanging out here again and I'm happy about it.
- [58:55]
B
I cannot wait to hear if this one is really good because I'm hearing buzz about it unexpectedly from a few different places.
- [59:02]
A
Right? Exactly. Yeah. Okay, good.
- [59:05]
B
Can't wait to see how that goes. All right, well, that is it for this week. As a reminder, here's where you can connect with us. You can find me. I'm Meredith, Meredith Monday Schwartz on Instagram Instagram.
- [59:15]
A
And you can find me, Katie at notes on bookmarks on Instagram. Our show is produced and edited every week by Megan Putabong Evans. Welcome back, Megan. And you can find her on Instagram at most of Megan's reads.
- [59:27]
B
So happy Megan is back. And thank you again to Chrissy Whitley for for subbing in while this beautiful baby was born.
- [59:34]
A
Absolutely saved our lives.
- [59:35]
B
Yes, absolutely. Full show notes with the title of every book we mentioned in the episode and timestamps so you can zoom right to where we talked about it can be found in our show notes and also on our website at currentlyreading Podcast.
- [59:47]
A
You can also follow the show at Currently Reading Podcast on Instagram or email us@currentlyreading podcastmail.com and if you want more.
- [59:55]
B
Of this content, lots and lots more of this content. You can support us by becoming a bookish friend. It's just $5 a month and you get tons more content. You get a lot of community and you keep this show commercial free. You can also rate and review us on Apple podcasts and shout us out on social media. Every one of those things helps us to find our perfect audience.
- [60:17]
A
Yes, Bookish friends are the best friends. Thank you for helping us grow and get closer to our goals.
- [60:23]
B
All right, until next week, may your.
- [60:25]
A
Coffee be hot and your book be unputdownable.
- [60:27]
B
Happy reading, Katie.
- [60:29]
A
Happy reading, Meredith.