Ep 426 - The Most Underrated Books of the Year

Summary

Reading Glasses – Ep 426: The Most Underrated Books of the Year

August 28, 2025 – Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara

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Overview

In this episode, Brea and Mallory spotlight the most underrated books of 2025—and a few favorite backlist gems—lurking beneath the radar. They also answer listener questions about recovering when you don’t like an audiobook narrator and recommend reluctant love stories for romance-wary readers. Alongside friendly banter and signature humor, the pair share their latest reads and shout out listener feedback, highlighting the vibrant Reading Glasses community.

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Recent Reads

(00:30–03:59)

Brea is Reading:

• Sweet Berries by C.M. Nacosta
  • A cozy fantasy romance set in Cambric Creek, this installment follows a Mothman character—“He’s covered in dust, in fluff. He only comes out at night.” (Mallory, 01:12)
  • The duo reminisces about their live event for Morning Glory Milking Farm and tease an upcoming bonus episode with Becky Feldman from Too Stupid to Live.

Mallory is Reading:

• Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith
  • YA speculative thriller featuring a mysterious luxury train and an enigmatic pair of twins hauling a suspicious greenhouse aboard. “I love a train book.” (Mallory, 03:31)

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Listener Feedback

(03:59–07:29)

• Sarah: Uses her Last Word bookmark on a Kindle to mark the exact spot when interrupted: “I just leave it on my Kindle forever… when I do need to stop and respond to my husband in the middle of a paragraph, I Move the arrow down and I know right where to hop back in.” (Sarah via Mallory, 04:22)
• Dan: Gets complimented for his taste in books, credits Reading Glasses and other bookish podcasts.
• Amanda: Shares her “Crystal”—an ultra-reader friend who preview-reads and matches books to Amanda’s taste. “My wish for all glassers is that they may one day find a friend as cool as Crystal.” (Amanda via Mallory, 07:00)

Mallory and Brea’s Take: Everyone gets book recommendations from quirky sources, and every bookworm deserves a friend like Crystal (or, potentially, a co-host like each other).

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Upcoming Event: Reading Glasses Readathon

(07:29–08:24)

• Next Readathon: Saturday, September 13th, 10 AM – 5 PM Pacific
• “This is a choose your own adventure Readathon.” (Mallory)

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Main Topic: The Most Underrated Books of 2025 (and Backlist Gems)

(08:58–20:43) Get ready for titles you may not have heard of—books that deserve more buzz according to two professional book podcasters.

Underrated 2025 Releases

Brea’s Picks:

• It Rises Decay by George Takei, illustrated by Harmony Becker

  • A graphic memoir about coming out later in life, activism, and identity. “A really beautiful graphic novel. And I would encourage you, if you don’t pick up graphic novels very often, but this sounds like something you would like, pick up this graphic novel.” (Brea, 09:52)

• Harriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen

  • Literary novel where “Harriet Tubman comes back and wants to put out an album and she hires this hip-hop producer…” (Brea, 12:05)
  • Both educational and creative, but overlooked likely because the title sounds comedic.

Mallory’s Picks:

• Old Soul by Susan Barker

  • “Right now my tippity top of the whole year… If I had to pick one book for 2025, it’s Old Soul.” (Mallory, 10:42)
  • Described as literary horror with thriller and western notes, its genre-straddling nature perhaps leads to less attention.

• Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel

  • Fast-paced YA sci-fi thriller about a family who wakes up in a dome, isolated with their belongings and farm animals: “I have been begging with bloody tears in my eyes… people in my life to read this book.” (Mallory, 12:41)

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Underappreciated Backlist Books

Brea’s Picks:

• Shark Heart (2023)
  • Magical realism—people begin turning into animals, including a man into a great white shark. “It REALLY broke my heart in a way that I didn’t expect.” (Brea, 14:46)
• The Extinction of Experience by Christine Rosen
  • Nonfiction on the consequences of losing tactile, real-life experience in the digital era. “This one really hit home for me… I feel like it’s even more relevant today.” (Brea, 16:38)

Mallory’s Picks:

• Hazardous Spirits
  • Post-WWII Scotland. A woman’s husband claims he can speak to ghosts, upending her world. “I think this should have made a huge splash.” (Mallory, 15:05)
• This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples
  • Short queer horror about an Ojibwe man, a supernatural ghost dog, and a small-town mystery: "I don’t know anyone else who has read this book ... but it’s great." (Mallory, 19:28)

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Listener Question: Difficult Audiobook Narrators

(21:38–25:05) Lauren asks: Is it worth revisiting a book in a different format if the audiobook narration didn’t work for you?

Brea’s Advice

• “I would say 90% of the time it is the narrator, unfortunately.” (22:27)
• Try alternate audiobook versions (sometimes dramatizations exist).
• Some books, especially with large casts or heavy worldbuilding, are simply easier to read in print.

Mallory’s Perspective

• “Sometimes the book is just not for you. Regardless, my suggestion for this is to always check the sample... Because sometimes right away you know that the narrator is just not for you or you know, other way.” (Mallory, 23:30)
• Sampling is key before purchase or borrowing.

Bottom Line: It's normal to struggle with one format and love another—or just to DNF if it’s not clicking.

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Rec: Reluctant Love Stories for Romance-Skeptical Listeners

(25:05–30:08) TK asks: Are there romance/love stories where the protagonist is distrustful of love or closed off, and the love interest wins them over? Bonus for male/male romances.

Brea’s Recs:

• The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
  • "This is often a trope... It's a huge trope that, like, these people are not looking for love." (Brea, 27:03)
• The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
  • Enemies-to-lovers, two guys stranded in space.
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
  • Male protagonist absolutely not seeking love, finds gentle romance.

Mallory’s Tips & Recs:

• “What you need to look for is the word reluctant.” (Mallory, 27:13)
• Evie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
  • Widow not interested in romance takes in a baseball player; both are reluctant, both are changed.
• Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
  • Woman returns to her hometown after a breakup, intent on being alone, but romance finds her.

Memorable Moment:
“I have been begging with bloody tears in my eyes... people in my life to read this book.” (Mallory, 12:51)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Everyone deserves a friend like Crystal.” (Mallory, 07:27)
• “So folks, we have literally edited my opinions out of the show because I am so—I do not want to receive really angry emails anymore...” (Mallory, 19:10)
• “I think the problem is the cover doesn’t say horror. The cover says, like, literary spec fic for some reason. And it just—I think horror people are missing it.” (Mallory, 10:42)

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

• 00:30 — What are you reading?
• 03:59 — Listener feedback
• 07:29 — Next Readathon announced
• 08:58 — Main topic: Underrated books
• 14:18 — Backlist favorites
• 21:38 — Bookish problem: Audiobook narration
• 25:05 — Recommendation request: Reluctant love stories

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Tone & Closing

Friendly, humorous, and practical as always: Brea and Mallory deliver recommendations with plenty of laughter, book nerd wit, and relatable honesty.

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How to Find Discussed Books

Every title mentioned can be found in the show notes on the Maximum Fun website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your app’s episode description.

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Keep sending your bookish queries and feedback to [e-mail], and join the next Readathon for cozy communal reading!

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Transcript

[Mallory O'Meara]

Foreign. You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better. I'm author and book devourer, Mallory o'. Meara.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're recommending books that we think are underrated. The underdogs underrated books of 2025 plus. We talk about what to do if you don't like an audiobook narrator. And we recommend Reluctant Love Stories.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[Bria Grant]

I am reading the next book for our other podcast, Reading Smuts, I am reading Sweet Berries, which is the next book in the Cambric Creek series.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we did this as a. We covered the first Cambric Creek book, Morning Glory Milking Farm, as a live event for this show a few years ago.

[Bria Grant]

Yes.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And now we're returning to the cozy world of Cambric Creek.

[Bria Grant]

Yes. And people were sort of obsessed with the fact that we did a minotaur smutty erotica book, so we thought, why.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Not go ahead and do why not return.

[Bria Grant]

Why not return to the world of Cambridge Creek? By the way, these are by CM Nacosta. And go and read the second book, which is not about a minotaur. Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's about a Mothman baby. He's covered in dust, in fluff. He only comes out at night.

[Bria Grant]

I just started it last night. It is everything I want from this world. It's a very cozy world.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I'm in love with this Mothman.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, okay. I haven't seen him yet. He's just been hiding in a tree so far. So I guess we will see what happens. We will be joined in a couple of weeks. This is going to be a bonus episode for Reading Smut. We'll be joined by Becky Feldman from Too Stupid to Live. She reviews romance novels under $5. And we're going to talk about this one because we. She also, like us, read the first Minotaur book and liked it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, we're all Cambric Creek fans. We are. It's extreme me. It's like very low stakes, toasty, gentle fantasy.

[Bria Grant]

Yes. And it's been a good time, actually. It comes out. It comes out tomorrow. We're gonna. This. It will come out tomorrow when this comes out. You can listen to us talk about Sweet Berries tomorrow on the podcast.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Why is it called Sweet Berries? You're gonna have to find out.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Mallory said she was happy to learn they were real berries.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, I thought it was some weird euphemism.

[Bria Grant]

What are you reading?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I am reading a book called Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith, which is a book that I saw people talking about in the reading glasses. Discord. And it's a train book. So I was like, oh, as a. As a new person who's jumped on the train of train books, I was like, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta get in here. So this is like a YA fantastical, kind of, maybe spooky, some like, some kind of like YA specific. And it's about this teenage girl. She has gotten like a really fancy summer job as a, like, worker her on this luxury train called the Baneberry. And she's all excited to have the summer job. This like, train is like super, super height of luxury. Everything is so beautiful. Each. Each different car is themed and like, very luxe. And then they one, when they're taking on cargo and taking on passengers, they take on a mysterious greenhouse owned by a mysterious pair of twins. And they just. They of course, say there's just. There's just normal flowers, nothing to see here. But as the. The journey continues, the main character realizes that something might be strange about these flowers. Maybe otherworldly about these flowers. And same thing with the twins.

[Bria Grant]

Wait, a greenhouse on the train?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it's like a. Their carriage is filled with, like, beautiful flowers, rare plants, and. Okay, yeah, so I don't. I have not discovered the secret of these flowers and plants yet, but I'm really excited. And man, I. I love a train book. So that's Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith.

[Bria Grant]

And I'm reading Sweet Berries by CM Nacosta.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Sarah wrote in to say. Sarah is talking about the last word bookmark that we reviewed, which is a loop of elastic with a little metal marker on it to, like. So you loop it around your book, of course, and you. You line the. The marker up with where you left off. So Sarah says, this might be silly, but I use my last word bookmark on my Kindle.

[Bria Grant]

Go on.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Fascinating. I got annoyed that I never knew where I left off on a page. I know a point of an e reader is to not need a bookmark, but I couldn't find a way to mark a specific place on the page. So here we are. I just leave it on my Kindle forever. And I use it when I need to. When I don't need it, the arrow just sits at the top of the screen and doesn't bother me. But when I do need to stop and respond to my husband in the middle of a paragraph, I Move the arrow down and I know right where to hop back in.

[Bria Grant]

Wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I didn't love it for physical books, even though that's what I purchased it for, but it's been so helpful. Helpful on my Kindle. I hope that helps someone if they are looking for something else to do with it aside from wearing it as a headband. Thanks for all you do. Sarah's out here living in 30:35.

[Bria Grant]

Wow. I love that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This is so cool.

[Bria Grant]

Honestly, I always have to just go back, like three pages in my Kindle anyway because I fall asleep while reading, so this wouldn't work for me. But I love this idea. Dan wrote in and said, hi, Brian Mallory. I just got such a fantastic compliment. I'm sitting at work and this lady I work. I love you wrote this in real time. And this lady I work with comes up to me and asks how I find all these good books to read. The other day, she liked my redacted book tracking app status of adding priest, daddy and blah blah story on my what to read list. I'm just flattered she thinks that I have good taste that I would find these on my own. You do. I got to tell her all about reading glasses and how most of my book recommendations came from the two of you and other podcasters like Ezra Klein and Dan Savage. Thank you so much for a great podcast.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love this. Oh, that's very happy to. To make everyone make people look cool. Well, we got blob.

[Bria Grant]

We got blob from. Did we get that from Paul Tremblay or. He told me. I don't remember. Was he on the show talking about.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, he hasn't. We haven't had Paul on in a long time.

[Bria Grant]

Okay, maybe he told me about that book. Maybe somebody else told us about that book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think it was on Paul's Instagram.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, okay, interesting. So listen, we're all getting. We're getting various book recommendations from lots.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Of different sources, and we're all looking real cool doing it.

[Bria Grant]

We are.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Then Amanda wrote in to say, hi, Brian Mallory, as always, thanks for the wonderful podcast. I have to drive into my physical office on Thursdays, and listening to reading glasses always makes the commute less painful. I wanted to tell you about my cool friend Crystal, who almost surely was named Sarah in a previous life. Crystal reads about 10 times as many books per month as I do and is exclusively a library book reader slash listener. If I find a book I think I might like, but I'm unsure, I ask Crystal to read it and tell me if I'd like it. She's done this numerous times and hasn't been wrong yet. She knows my wheelhouse and doghouse items well and is always happy to read a book just to screen it for me. How cool is that? Wow.

[Bria Grant]

We don't all need a Crystal in our lives. That sounds nice.

[Mallory O'Meara]

For the reading Glasses. Glasses, glasses, Glasses. Challenge of choosing a book based on the title, I decided to go hard mode in the Mallory style and pick from a curated list of titles I knew nothing about. But how to get such a list at Crystal to the Rescue.

[Bria Grant]

Crystal to the Rescue.

[Mallory O'Meara]

She gave me A list of 10 kick ass titles of books I'd never heard of and picked from there. I chose Tits Up. What a fabulous title. And I've been loving it so far. Are we're also doing a buddy read with a different book for another challenge item. My wish for all glassers is that they may one day find a friend as cool as Crystal.

[Bria Grant]

I want a Crystal. I think her name's Mallory though.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, I was gonna say I think we're each other. Maybe. Maybe because that's. I mean you and I are constantly texting each other. Like would I like this?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, that's true.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love this also. Shout out to Crystal.

[Bria Grant]

Shout out to Crystal. We love Crystal.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com if you want a list of all the books we talk about on the show delivered to your inbox every month, you can sign up for our newsletter. There's a link in the show notes Quick bookmark. As a reminder, the next Readathon get ready. Readathon rats. 9 13th November 13th. It is a Saturday. We're gonna start at 10 o' clock in the morning and and go till 5pm Pacific time. But folks, set your own hours. You want to do 24 hours. You want to do one hour. This is a choose your own adventure Readathon here. But we will be doing it from 10 to 5 with regular check ins on Instagram live at 10, 1 and 5. Join us. Pick out your stack. Tag us if you want to take a picture of all the books your your stack of books that you want to read for the Readathon. Tag us on Instagram. We're really excited about it. So that's Saturday, September 13th. Before we talk about underrated books, we're going to take a quick break.

[Guest or Advertiser]

You can't really know if your own show is any good, so I asked my kids about ours. Is Jordan Jessica a good show?

[Bria Grant]

No, definitely not. It's really bad.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Bad. I would Say out of ten? Maybe like a four out of ten.

[Bria Grant]

It's just really boring.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. Zero.

[Guest or Advertiser]

Subscribe to Jordan Jesse Go, a comedy show for grown ups.

[Mallory O'Meara]

This week we're giving some love to underrated books. Get ready for some books that we adore but hardly ever see anyone talking about from this year and years past. Bria, what are some books you think are underrated this year?

[Bria Grant]

I mean, there's quite a few, but I. Okay, I'm gonna talk about a few books.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes. So. And just so. So people know this is ones that we loved, but we feel like as professional book podcasters and writers, we're not seeing buzz enough about. Like, I wanted to do this mid year because we do this as a category every year and our best books of the year. But I thought it'd be kind of fun to check in on it mid year to see maybe the buzz will change.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, that's true. So y' all have all heard me talk about these books, but I'm going to talk about them again because they're not being buzzed about. The first one just came out and I did talk about it. It's called It Rises Decay by George Takei, illustrated by Harmony Becker. I think there is a bias against graphic novels.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Bria Grant]

By people who stick to books without pictures.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Bria Grant]

And I think there's a bias within the graphic novel community against memoirs. So I think between those two things, you don't get as much attention and a book like this can fall through the cracks. There's books like this will end up on like a New York Times, like, end of the year, like books you should read this kind of thing. But, like, while it's happening, I feel like they don't get enough attention. And this is his memoir about coming out, about being an activist deciding to come out as gay. Being in the closet for so many years until he was like, in his 60s is a really beautiful graphic novel. And I would encourage you if you don't pick up graphic novels very often, but this sounds like something you would like, pick up this graphic novel. This is a great way to dive into graphic novels. And if you are a graphic novel person who never reads outside of that genre, who only reads, like, superhero stuff, I think this could be good for you, too. So I think that I wanted to give a shout out to that one because I felt like it was one that people are not talking about as much. What's your first one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

My first one is Old Soul by Susan Barker, which is right now my tippity top of the whole Year. This is still my number one. If I had to pick one book for 20, 25, it's Old Soul. It just. I think it's because it's one of those genre bendy books that are falling into the cracks. Like you said, it's very literary horror. It's like got a little thriller and western thrown in and. But I think the problem is the COVID doesn't say horror. The COVID says, like literary spec fic for some reason. And it just. I. I think horror people are missing it. Like, this book should be huge. Recently, I pick my favorite horror book of the year for a friend of ours who writes for. For a magazine. And I was like, oh, well, I'll. I'd like to get this, but surely someone will pick it. And she was like, nobody picked that. Yeah, I just don't. I have not seen any. I've seen a couple glassers talking about it and reading it in the Discord, but I haven't really seen any coverage of it. It's like my favorite, favorite favorite. I think it should be huge. Very underrated so far. What's your next one?

[Bria Grant]

My next one. So I think this book has gotten some attention, but not in the book community. No, it's big on Goodreads, but I don't think the literary community is talking about it because I think. Because the title is funny. Yeah, because the title is Harriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen. It is a novel. I'm still waiting for Bob the Drag Queen's memoir. But this book, it's super well written and it's literary, and I think people are not picking it up because the title kind of sounds funny.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

But basically Harriet Tubman comes back and wants to put out an album and she hires this hip hop producer whose career has sort of fallen apart.

[Guest or Advertiser]

And.

[Bria Grant]

And it's about the producer learning about himself through Harriet Tubman learning about history. It's just. It is a really interesting, well written book about history, about finding your place in the world. And I learned a lot about Harriet Tubman reading it. So, you know. You know, I love that. I love something where you learn something, but I think I haven't heard as much about this on like, book podcasts or things like more like literary places. And I think that this is a book that those people should definitely be picking up. What's your next one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

My next one is another one of my best of the year. It's Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel. I have been begging with bloody tears in my eyes People in my life to read this book. And it's just like, I haven't seen.

[Bria Grant]

The library right now. I'm gonna read it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, God, I cannot wait. I think I told you. I bought. I like, grabbed hwb's E reader, Venmo'd him money, bought this book and put it on his E reader for him. Like, I just love it so much. I haven't seen anybody mention it. And I get it. Like, YA sci fi thrillers aren't normally for me. Like, it's just not normally my bag. I think maybe people who are normally into sci fi thrillers are not picking up YA books. But it's such a quick read. It is excellent. I've been talking about it a bunch. I think about it all the time. I just want to talk about it with somebody. It is so great. And I just think it's so, like, I need classrooms. You gotta get a. Gotta give this book a shot. Like, if people don't remember I talked about it on the show, but it's about a teenage boy. He's 13 years old, and he's on a weekend trip with his dad and his new stepmom who is pregnant. And they wake up that Saturday after going to their cabin by the lake, and the cabin is somewhere else. And they quickly figure out that they're in a dome. They're in some kind of impenetrable dome. And they have been given their exact same cabin with all of their stuff, but also a barn with farm animals and tools to farm. And cut to three years later, they're still in the dome. And then a new family has been dropped into the dome.

[Bria Grant]

So spooky.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It is amazing. And yeah, folks, get on it. All right, so those are our Most underrated of 2025. What are some backlist books that we just don't see people talk about?

[Bria Grant]

So I have a few. But there's a book called Shark Heart that came out in 2023, but I read it this year and it blew me away. Did you read this one?

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, but I remember you telling me about it.

[Bria Grant]

It's like magical realism, literary fiction where people just start turning into animals. And it's like, really heartbreaking. Like a guy's turning into a great white shark and he has all of his memories. He's still himself, but he starts to have these, like, predatory instincts. And you have to find out, like, you're like, what do I do with my loved one who's turning into, like a shark? Like, do I have to get a tank for them?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm putting this on hold right now.

[Bria Grant]

It's really beautifully written. I have to get a tank like you do. You have to go. And the government tries to help out. And they're like, well, we can do this for him, like, because it has. Starts happening to so many people. And it's just a really beautifully written book. It really broke my heart in a way that I didn't expect. Definitely can recommend that one. What. What backlist book do you have that people should.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Aren't talking about hazardous spirits? I am. Like, I feel like I am the number one cheerleader of this book. This book, I mean, I think it only has like a. Like, it has fewer than a thousand reviews on Goodreads. It. Like, I. If you folks can't read the document that Bri and I are reading from, obviously. But there's about a hundred exclamation points in chunks.

[Bria Grant]

So many.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's one of my favorite year books of the year when it came out in 2023. I've seen a few glassers pick it up, but I just think this book should have made a bigger splash. I think about it all the time, and I get it. It's kind of dense. It's historical fiction that's a little dark and gothic, and it is dense and that. But it's like the. Literally the last line of this book I think about all the time. It's one of those that, like, the last line of the book affects the entire book. But it's about this woman. It's in post World War II Scotland, and this woman wakes up one day and her husband tells her, hey, I can talk to ghosts. And through the whole. And her husband ends up becoming like. Like, that's his profession. Like, he puts. He gets kind of involved with, like, the spiritualist circuit and like, starts like, doing. Doing shows where he's like, you know, speaking to audience members, dead relatives. And throughout the whole book, she doesn't know whether or not her husband is lying or if he's telling the truth. And she's afraid that he's telling the truth because she doesn't want him to talk to her dead sister who has a huge secret that she's been hiding from him.

[Bria Grant]

It's available at the library right now. I just got it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, it's so good. And I just. I think this should have been. Should have made a huge splash. What's your. What's your next one? Oh, this was a great.

[Bria Grant]

It's one that you turned me on to this book. I read it this year. Called Extinction of Experience by Christine Rosen. It's a book that just keeps becoming more and more relevant, which is sort of scary, but it basically asks the question of, like, what it means to lose real, tangible experiences and what it means for us to move all of our experiences online. Like, and it goes into all sorts of things, like the importance of boredom and of course, how the Internet pushes conspiracy theories and. And if you're kind of looking for an insight to how we got here, which I love this kind of book, this sort of social studies type book, this one really hit home for me. Even though it came out a couple of years ago, I feel like it's even more relevant today.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, there's so many, like, stuff that you wouldn't even think about. There was one section where, where she talks about how we don't handwrite things anymore and like, don't sign things and like, what, how that has affected society. And there's just so many little things that we don't do anymore that you don't think about, but they really have a big tangible effect on our psyches, on our happiness, on our ability to feel connected to our community. Yeah, it really, this book is one of those ones that like, really rocks you and makes you think about things differently.

[Bria Grant]

I was thinking about this book because I was in San Diego recently and there's all these, like, if you're in a place and you post about it or whatever, Instagram or TikTok or any of these things, they'll start being like, you want to look at this reel about this thing, this, this cool bar in San Diego. It's like, great. So there was one that I was like, oh, I do want to go to this bar. And I kept looking for it and I searched it and I googled, Googled it. It was fake. It didn't exist. And so I was like, oh, this is so weird because it's like, I don't know what I think it was like maybe a pop up from Comic Con like years ago or something. They created it or something just for Comic Con. So maybe it didn't exist at one time in San Diego for a weekend, but it acted like this was there all the time. And I realized that, like, yeah, there's like, it kind of is weird to live in a world in which I'm discovering things online to go do in real life. But then some of them that don't exist anymore, but then some of them are fake. Like, that's a scary world that we live in. What else you got?

[Mallory O'Meara]

All right. My last one and I just realized in real time that all of my pics are horror.

[Bria Grant]

That's fine.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But you know what, Glassers? You all told me to read what I want to read and so I'm going to. Yeah, glasses don't want me to watch what I want to watch. The glasses want me to watch musicals. And. Yeah, but I'm not. I'm not gonna say anything anymore. We have. Folks, we have literally edited my opinions out of the show because I am so. I do not want to receive really angry emails anymore. Like I was receiving some really hurtful. Okay, so lay off.

[Bria Grant]

Lay off.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I that pretty. That really shook my. My feelings about the classer community. But you. You all want me. You can. I can read what I want to read. And so I'm gonna just talk about all horror books. So my last one is this Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples. I don't know anyone else who has read this book.

[Bria Grant]

No, I don't know about it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I love it. It is a queer, small town horror book about an Ojibwe man. He's living on a reservation. He starts the secret romance with a very heavily closeted white man who lives in the next town over and. And one night he realizes that there is a ghost dog following him around and it leads him to the small town mystery that is connected to his family and. And this like local urban legend. It's wicked short. I read it in one sitting and it's just great. And I truly, again, this is like a. Does not have a lot of reviews. I don't, I've never, I don't know anyone else who's read it. I've never seen anyone talk about it, but it's great. And again folks, if you are new to listening to the show and you're like, oh, I got to write this stuff down. No you don't. You just got to look in the show notes either on the Maximum Fun website or depending on. I know they're. They're there on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. If you just scroll down in the episode description, there's links to all the books. I can't speak to other podcast apps because I don't use them. But your podcast app does not have them. You can go to the episode page on maximumfun.org and there'll be a whole list of all these books that we are talking about. Okay. You can send your thoughts to reading glasses podcastmail.com before we talk about what to do if you don't like a narrator. We're going to take a quick break.

[Guest or Advertiser]

On Judge John Hodgman. The courtroom is fake, but the disputes are real. Brian would say I'm the Gumby of this family. He's just not claiming to be. Gumby is an un Gumby like claim.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, it's just Gumby and I being our authentic selves.

[Guest or Advertiser]

So what's your complaint? Too many sauces.

[Mallory O'Meara]

There are no foods on which to put the sauces.

[Guest or Advertiser]

Have we named all the sauces on the top shelf yet?

[Bria Grant]

Not.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Not even close.

[Guest or Advertiser]

You economize when it comes to pants.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Truly, it's not about the cleanliness of the pants.

[Guest or Advertiser]

Well, why isn't it? This is what I want to know. Judge John Hodgman, Fake court, Weird cases, real justice. On MaximumFun.org, youTube and everywhere you get podcasts.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Time to solve a bookish problem from one of our listeners, Lauren writes in.

[Bria Grant]

Hi Brian, Mallory. My question is this. Have y' all ever read an audiobook that didn't vibe with you but you tried later physically and the experience was totally different? Became a four or five star book. I'm currently trying to get through a book that I thought I would like, but the audio version just isn't hitting for me and I don't think it's the narrator's voice. I really want to like it, but I don't know if it's worth trying again physically or digitally or just chalking it up to not being a book for me. What would you two suggest? Thank you for everything's podcast is always a highlight of my week. Do you want to read Lauren's Wheelhouse?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Lauren's Wheelhouse is awesome. It's weird houses books where the setting doesn't change much and is core to the story. Time loops and time travel with specific rules. Pirates and ocean travel, Greek myth retellings and solo journeys. No, I love a weird house. Bria, what do you think Lauren should do here? Is this. Is this a relatable problem?

[Bria Grant]

I think it happens to everyone. You say it's not the narrator, but sometimes it is the narrator. I would say 90% of the time it is the narrator, unfortunately. And sometimes you can find a different narrator, which is great. Yes. Not always, but occasionally there's more than one version or version with like multiple narrators. Like a, like a state dramatization. Dramatization. Thank you. I was a stage play. That's not right. A dramatization. So I would look for dramatization if you can find that. Not all books have that, but some of them do. But Definitely some of the bigger books with like large casts. But I think some audiobooks are tough when there are large casts, when there are a lot of main characters, there's a lot of world building. I think physically reading it is a lot easier in those terms. I have a friend who does a lot of really big world building books and she listens to them, but she says she always reads the first few chapters physically and then moves into the audiobook because it helps her to remember all the people's names and all of the locations and things. Like, recently I got really excited to listen to a very buzzy audiobook this year and there were so many characters I ended up giving up.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Wow.

[Bria Grant]

So this definitely does happen. Does it happen to you?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, both directions. Actually. Sometimes I will get an audiobook, not really vibe with the narrator and then try to read it in print or an ebook. But also there's been times where I've tried to read an ebook or a print book and just kind of not been into it and then got the audiobook and loved it. So. Okay. I think it goes both ways. So obviously sometimes the book is just not for you. Regardless, my suggestion for this is to always check the sample of the book on Libby or, or whatever Libro fm, whatever you're using, always check the sample. Because sometimes right away you know that the narrator is just not for you or you know, other way. Like check the sample of the ebook. You can't really get a sample of the print book except unless you're going to the store hanging out the pages. Yeah. Just you're like, I'm taking the first five pages.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So if you were. If you're spending money on a book, always check the sample. Yeah, truly. Because you can, you can decide right away on a lot of books if you're gonna like something or not.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But I think this is really, really normal. So if you are. Again, if you want to avoid it, check out the sample. But sometimes, sometimes narrators just like they don't. You. You don't like them. There's just something about their voice. I see a lot of people complaining that sometimes male narrators try to do female characters and do like a really weird lady voice which is just very strange. But just some people like there was a non fiction book I multiple times from the library and I just. There's something about the way that the narrator is speaking just didn't work in my brain.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean I think that's smart. Is like try the other version. But also it may not be the book for you. And don't be scared to to dump a book because you don't like it no matter what the form.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So if you want us to solve your reader problem, you can send it to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. now let's answer our recommendation request from TK. TK says hi. Brian Mallory It's a tale as old as this podcast. Someone who used to love reading, falling out of the habit for one reason or another. Then years later, this show reignites the passion for the listener. Wow. Reading Glasses does sound like a romance novel. Thank you for giving me my passion back. You don't know how much it means to me. Or maybe you do, considering how many people have written an approximation of the same story to your show before. We never get tired of hearing it.

[Bria Grant]

No no.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I am a late 20s bisexual man whose main genres are horror, sci fi, spec fic mysteries, and crime. I rarely tread outside of my preferred genres and I've been feeling for a while that I'm missing out on other books I may enjoy because they're outside of my comfort zone. Mainly what I'm referring to here are romance or love stories of any kind. I find the tropes of romance and love stories to be sort of off putting and inauthentic as well as it seems like every protagonist in these kinds of stories is ready and willing for their happily ever after and just need the right person to come along. Which brings me to my request. Are there books that contain a romance with a protagonist is distrustful of love or closed off to it, and then the love interest is able to break through and win them over? The more jaded and resistant to love the main character is, the better as far as who the protagonist is. I would prefer if it was a guy, but open to any protagonist and the love interest could be of any gender, though male for male romance. Sounds pretty enticing to me. Appreciate any recommendations you may have and thank you so much for all the recommendations you've given in the past. I have a TBR full of haunted house books and sci fi horror thanks to your show. Hey, all right. What do you think? Bria?

[Bria Grant]

My first thought was the pairing by Casey McQuiston which is Bye for by male non binary romance about a pair of exes who end up on the same trip in Europe together on accident. So they Beth, they broke up, right? They don't want to be together. But I just want to say this is often a trope. It's a huge trope that, like, these people are not looking for love.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Second chance, or. Well, yeah, second chance romance. But also. What TK I'm gonna. I have this in my second. But we can talk about it. Now, what you. What TK Needs to look for is the word reluctant.

[Bria Grant]

The reluctant love.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Love interest is so popular.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, for sure.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Someone who's. Again, they've either broken up or maybe they've gone through a divorce that something has happened, or they're just. They've never been in whatever it is. Like, there's so many reasons, but they don't want to get into a relationship either. They don't want to get into a relationship, but they want to bang a bunch. Or they don't want either. They don't want to be involved with anybody. And then the somebody comes along and breaks through the hard exterior shell. Yeah, but the. That's what it takes with a lot of this genre stuff, is you just need to find the right search term.

[Bria Grant]

Right.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And the one for this is reluctant.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. There's a book I've been wanting to read called the Darkness Outside Us by Elliot Schrefer, which is about two sworn enemies, two guys who get stuck in space together.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Sounds like a very Bria.

[Bria Grant]

Sounds very me. But what about the other one I was thinking about? Because I don't know if these are quite right. The House on Cerulean Sea.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

That's a good one. Because he shows up not wanting love at all.

[Mallory O'Meara]

He doesn't want love. He doesn't want to be there. He doesn't want anything to do with the book.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And he. It's not like a erotica in any way, but it does have a romantic undertone. But it has, like, sci fi.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Very, very speculative, gentle, toasty book that people really like.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. So I'd say any of those might work. You have something specific.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. Mine are both straight hetero romances, but they're amazing. It's an author named Linda Holmes. I love her books. Her romances, again, are straight, but they're. They're exactly what TK Is looking for. So the one that I'm going to talk about, Evie Drake, starts over. It's about this widow and a retired baseball star. She was just about to. This is not a spoiler. It's literally page one. She was on her way to leave her husband, who was a piece of shit, when she gets the call that he's been in a car accident.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, my God.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, and so nobody knows that she actually fudgeing hated her husband. And so she does not want to get into another relationship at all. And then the guy is a retired hired baseball star who's got. I forget what it's called, but there's a specific term for when like a sports person gets in their head about something. The yips. Okay, yeah. So he is the. So he's a very big baseball star. He's a pitcher. He's gotten the yips. And he wants to get away from his, from his team. He's trying to like get his brain right again. And he rents a. Rents a room in this woman's house in Maine. And so neither of them is interested in romance. They're both dealing with a lot of stuff in their personal lives. And then she also has a book called Flying Solo, which is about a woman returning to her hometown after her fiance canceled their wedding. And she really does not want to be in a relationship. She's not even sure if she wants still wants to be in this small town. So of course her childhood crush is around and he wants to win her over. They're both really great, but they both have reluctant protagonists. So again, TK we wish you all the best. This is we we gift you this search term and we hope you're going to find some a lot of fun romances. So I'm recommending Evie Drake Starts over and Flying Solo by Linda Holmes.

[Bria Grant]

And I recommended a few, but go with the pairing by Casey McQuiston or house and cerulean see by TJ Cloon.

[Mallory O'Meara]

As always want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. And remember, you can buy reading glasses, totes and shirts and stickers and all kinds of fun stuff over at our Board merch store folks. That's how we we pay for a lot of stuff from that money. Like that merch stuff goes directly to feeding my very hungry and picky cats. We appreciate it so so much. And if you like the show, please rate and review us the podcast listening app of your choice. It's so great for us. We're trying to get to 2,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts. Help us get there. Help us get more readers. You can email us at reading glasses podcastmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading Maximum Fun, a worker owned network of artist owned shows supported directly by you.