Ep 430 - The Easiest Type of Book Club + Wet Books

Summary

Reading Glasses – Ep 430: The Easiest Type of Book Club + Wet Books

Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara
Date: September 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Brea and Mallory tackle another challenge from the 2025 Reading Glasses Challenge: participating in a two-person book club. They break down why this is the simplest kind of book club, how to make it work, and why it can be a rewarding reading experience. The hosts also solve a listener’s problem about donating damaged books to Little Free Libraries, and offer recommendations for books set in Scotland outside of Edinburgh. As always, the show features lively banter, practical tips, and honest, entertaining answers to bookish dilemmas.

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What Are You Reading? [00:14–04:26]

Brea’s Current Read

• Title: We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us by Matthew Rosenberg, art by Stefano Landini
• Format: Comic mini-series (Image Comics)
• Hook:
  • Centers on a 13-year-old girl living on an island with her mad scientist father.
  • After her father is killed in a raid, she flees with a quirky robot bodyguard.
  • Features “poignant but funny” writing, inventive tech, great action, and a grounded tone.
• Quote:
  • Brea: “Wow, I’m addicted to this book. I’m so into it. … It’s so well written. It’s like poignant but funny and, and really good like fun action stuff.” [01:00]

Mallory’s Current Listen

• Title: Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller
• Format: Audiobook memoir
• Highlights:
  • Memoir of actor Jeff Hiller’s decades in the NY theatre scene and late-in-life success.
  • Deals with “coming out of church and coming out as gay.”
  • Lively, laugh-out-loud narration by Jeff Hiller.
  • Offers a behind-the-scenes look at life as a working (not famous) actor.
• Quote:
  • Mallory: “It is one of those audiobooks that is like, laugh out loud. … It is so funny, but it’s also… that look behind the scenes of a person who is an actor who’s not a star.” [03:01]
  • “Should I go run some more errands so I can drive around more and listen to this book more? I absolutely love it.” [04:05]

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Listener Feedback [04:37–07:27]

Books with Moms on a Journey

• Recommendation: Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
  • Sapphic, deals with motherhood, return-to-work after a newborn, set at a mysterious party.
• Quote from Jen:
  • “It’s sapphic, really fun and deals with a lot of the pressures of raising a newborn... Highly recommend and the audiobook is fantastic.” [05:02]

“Honker” Book Challenge Inspires Listeners

• Candace: Tackling The Iliad (Wilson translation); enjoying audiobook + text combo.
• Lou: Rediscovering reading joy via chunky fantasy books after a bout of depression and a reading slump.
• Hosts’ Reflection:
  • Mallory: “The most important advice we give out is knowing yourself as a reader.” [06:47]

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The 2025 Reading Glasses Challenge – Two-Person Book Club [13:19–21:26]

Why This Challenge? [13:19–15:26]

• Purpose:
  • Organizing a traditional (large) book club is hard: scheduling, consensus, logistics.
  • A club with just two people is “the easiest version” – low pressure, high reward.
  • Small scale = more conversation, deeper discussion.

“Rules” of the Two-Person Book Club [13:50–14:29]

• Technically, it can be two (preferred), but OK if 3–4.
• Both should read the book at the same time; not just a recommendation exchange.
• Any genre, any age bracket, mutual decision.

Benefits [15:26–16:24]

• Fun to talk about books with someone else.
• Deepens your enjoyment and gives you new perspectives.
• Easier to “dig in”; less risk of one dominant person taking over.
• Easier scheduling and flexibility.

Brea’s Experience

• Doing the challenge with her mom; reading Sister Aimee: The Miraculous Life and Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman.
• Shared personal touch: “When it’s just you and another person, it’s actually just a conversation.” [16:19]
• Minor challenge: both needed to coordinate library holds.

Mallory’s Experience

• Doing two-person book clubs in multiple ways:
  • With friend Chelsea: 3:81 by Aliya Whiteley (sci-fi, outside Mallory’s usual taste).
  • With her boyfriend: reading aloud novels together (next up: The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury).
  • With online movie club friends (just two people now).
• “I’m hooked… this was like my sleeper hit of the reading glasses challenge.” [19:48, 21:26]
• Favorite past memory: reading Game of Thrones books in sync and calling to discuss.

Key Quotes

• Mallory: “It is so easy to organize. And it is really fun to get into the weeds of a book with someone.” [20:41]
• Brea: “When it’s just you and another person, it’s actually just a conversation. … Which is nice.” [16:19, 16:24]

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Solving Listener Bookish Problems: Donating Damaged Books [22:38–27:30]

The Dilemma

• MacKenzie writes: Should I put a chewed (but readable) book in a Little Free Library? How damaged is too damaged?

Hosts’ Advice

• Brea: “Sure. Put it in there. … you never know, someone may be looking for that particular book and they can look past imperfections.” [23:17]
• Mallory:
  • If the book “looks like trash,” recycle it.
  • “If it’s missing the cover… if you pull it out and it disintegrates, recycle it.” [25:05]
• Both agree that if it's readable and not disgusting, it's fine to try; the volunteer can toss it if not acceptable.
• Humorous banter about wet books, rabies, and snack analogies.

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Book Recommendation Request: Scotland (But Not Edinburgh) [27:30–31:21]

Listener’s Context: Visiting sister in Scotland; wants literary, historical fiction, small-town mystery, enemies-to-lovers, etc.

Brea’s Pick

• The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel
  • Takes place on a Scottish island post-WWII.
  • Folk legend about mysterious birds; a boy goes missing; combines mystery with slight supernatural/witchy vibes.
  • Focus on grief, community, and eerie postwar atmosphere.

Mallory’s Pick

• The Bass Rock by Evie Wylde

  • Three generations of women in a remote Scottish house (not Edinburgh); timelines: 1700s witchcraft, post-WWII family, modern-day woman.
  • Literary, dark, “not a feel-good book but so goddamn good.”
  • Touch of the supernatural, beautifully written, strong women and triple timeline.

• Mallory: “Beautifully written, strong female characters, triple timeline—so you get a bonus timeline!… I love this book.” [30:00]

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Notable Quotes

• Brea (on mini book clubs): “One other person, it is actually just a conversation. … Which is nice.” [16:19]
• Mallory: “Honestly, even if it’s readable, I think if you put it in a little free library, if someone is going to assume it’s trash and toss it… just recycle it.” [25:18]
• Mallory: “It is so fun to talk about a book with someone else. … truly one of the great joys in life.” [15:30]
• Bria (book club storytelling): “There’s definitely things that are… you try to be a little bit more diplomatic [in a group].” [16:06]

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Key Segments (Timestamps)

• [00:14–04:26] – What Are You Reading?
• [04:37–07:27] – Listener Feedback & Honker Book Challenge
• [13:19–21:26] – Two-Person Book Club Discussion & Experiences
• [22:38–27:30] – Book Problem: Damaged Books in Little Free Libraries
• [27:30–31:21] – Book Recommendations: Non-Edinburgh Scotland

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Summary

This episode explores the joys and simplicity of the two-person book club—why it's a low-barrier way to share books, deepen connection, and reinvigorate your reading life. The hosts share their own intimate book club experiences, showing how easily it can slot into your schedule, even across distance.

Additionally, they tackle what to do with a beloved-but-damaged book (hint: it’s fine to try the Little Free Library), and offer lush Scottish-set book recommendations for travelers wanting to soak up the literary atmosphere before a trip. The episode is marked by relatable humor and practical, encouraging advice.

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For more from Reading Glasses, check out their Discord, store, and newsletter (links in show notes).

Transcript

[Bria Grant]

Foreign.

[Mallory O'Meara]

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 ticking off another box from our 2025 reading glasses glasses Glasses challenge. Read a book with a two person book club. Plus, we solve a problem about putting damaged books in a little free library. And we recommend books set in Scotland, but not in Edinburgh. By the way, y' all are gonna be disappointed by my an. But first, what are you reading, Bria? I am reading a comic book series that I think they've released four or five of the single issues. By the time this comes out, it might all be released. I think it's a mini series. I think it's only six issues. I'm not totally sure, but it's called We're Taking Everyone down with Us by Matthew Rosenberg. And the art is by Stefano Landini. This book is incredible, Mallory. Am loving it so much. And I rarely read things issue to issue, but someone told me about it. It. My buddy told me about it and I was like, oh, that does sound like something I'd like. So I bought the first issue and wow, I'm addicted to this book. I'm so into it. It is basically there's a 13 year old girl who lives on this island with her sort of mad scientist father, but it's taken all very like, seriously. Everything is, is. Is fairly grounded, but it is funny also. And her father is killed sort of because these people come and raid the island and her father's sort of killed, but this robot bodyguard is following her around as she like escapes. And funny because he keeps calling her like the nicknames that he used for her. And it's not clear. I mean, I'm not done with the book yet, so I'm. That's about where I'm at. I am right now. Where. So it's like this girl and her bodyguard robot who she sort of doesn't even want around most of the time. And she's trying to figure out how to like move on or escape what the people who've come after her because she had this sort of like mad scientist genius dad. It's, it's so well written. It's like poignant but funny and, and really good like fun action stuff. And then all this. I love, like there's like a really fun tech that happens throughout where, you know he's a mad scientist, so he's Created all sorts of, like, really interesting wild tech stuff. It's fantastic. It's an image comic, so I don't know. I don't know what else to say, but it's fantastic. And, people, if you read individual comics, I would encourage you to go get them all because they're so good and then. But I think the trade is out in a couple of months. What are you reading, Mali?

[Mallory O'Meara]

So I am reading what I think might be my favorite audiobook of the year.

[Bria Grant]

Whoa.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I texted you about this. It's Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller.

[Bria Grant]

And such a good title.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, my God, it's so fucking good. So last year, I binged all of the show somebody somewhere over, like, a week. I'm.

[Bria Grant]

It's a good show.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's maybe one of my favorite shows that I watched all of last year. Really, it just. God, it's just. It's a great show. But Jeff Hiller plays one of the main characters, and he is so funny and so great in the show. So when this book came out, I immediately got like. I was very. Even though I thought I got this pretty quickly at the library, I still was like, 200th in line or something. And it's just his memoir. It's his memoir of coming up in the New York theater scene and making it at almost age 50 when he really. He was this close to giving up and, like, just truly decades of toiling as an actor. But also, it's just the story of his life and, like, kind of coming out of church and coming out as gay. He has so many funny stories. It is. This is one of those audiobooks that is like, laugh out loud. He is the narrator. He does an incredible, incredible job. It is one of. It's definitely my. The best performed audiobook that I've done all year. And that's. I've done some really good audiobooks, but this is just. It is so funny. But it's also the thing that I love the most about it is the look behind the scenes of, like, a person who is an actor who's not a star and, like, what it is to, like, barely scrape by for decades, like, working. Doing commercials, doing. Working doing improv in restaurants.

[Bria Grant]

You know, been there.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. And it's. It's really. It's an amazing. And look behind the scenes of the industry. It's just. It's so this is the kind of thing where I'm like, should I go run some more errands so I can drive around more and listen to this book more? I absolutely love it. I would be shocked if this was not my Best of the year. So that's Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller.

[Bria Grant]

And I am reading We're Taking Everyone Down With Us by Matthew Rosenberg. The artist is Stefano Landini. Foreign.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So I want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Jen wrote in to say hi Brianne Mallory I was just catching up on the podcast when hearing about the glasser who wanted more books with moms on a journey, I had one pop immediately up in my mind. The book is Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso. It's about a new mom just trying to go to an end of the year party for a few hours and ending up caught in a mysterious game through multiple layers of reality.

[Bria Grant]

Okay, adding this to my list, that sounds fantastic.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's sapphic, really fun and deals with a lot of the pressure pressures of raising a newborn and trying to decide how you will handle returning to work. All while the main character is a total badass trying to save everyone at the party. Highly recommend and the audiobook is fantastic. Hope that helps. Love the pod. I've been a proud glasser since the beginning and always get stopped and complimented when I'm wearing my library user sweatshirt. Thanks for all you do and changing my reading life for the better. Oh man. Yeah, I both of us now want to read this.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, Candace wrote in and said I just wanted to write in and say that my hunker for the reading glasses, glasses, glasses, glasses. Challenge is the Iliad.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, that's a honker. Wow.

[Bria Grant]

That poetry can be a honker. That is really a great idea. Actually. I'm listening to the audiobook of Emily Wilson's translation and reading along with my 720 page hard copy. It's been a unique experience since the Iliad was originally intended to be recited aloud, but I've only ever read it from the page before. I guess I didn't realize that. I've also enjoyed being able to have an informed opinion on the debate on Wilson's translation. Thank you for everything you do with the podcasts. Love that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And then Lou wrote in to say hello. Bri and Mallory, I love your episode about honker books and it made me realize something about myself. I've always been a fantasy reader and so big books are always on my tbr. This year has been a really bad year for my reading life with me working my way out of depression after some pretty bad grad school years. I tried your advice with short stories and poetry collections, but it just hadn't worked and I was kind of accepting that it wasn't going to be a reading year. When I heard this episode, I asked myself, why not go back to my roots and pick up a chunky fantasy book Work. Your fantasy worked like a charm. Now I'm back to reading and hopefully we'll finish this 700 pages boy by next month. Thank you for all your years of reading advice. And oh, and by the way, I love your new project with Reading Smut.

[Bria Grant]

I love this, love that. That's fantastic.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That. Because that's, I mean, that's where I mean the most important advice we give out is knowing yourself as a reader.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I love that this glasser that Lou was able to be like, you know what? I'm going to go back to the stuff I like. I'm going to pick up a honking fantasy book.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Big chunky fantasy book. I think this is fantastic. Bri, you want to Lou's Whalehouse.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Character driven fantasy books. Unreliable narrators, complex mysteries, enemies to lovers where they try to kill each other at least once. Unhealthy but deeply compelling relationships. Love triangles that end with polyamory and apparently chunky books.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Amazing. 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, a couple of bookmarks. Just a reminder folks, we no longer have an Amazon wish list. It is gone. We are now using our Etsy registry for my marriage to book buddy. That will not happen for a really long time. So if you want to get us some cool book tech to test out for the show, that's where you do it. You can buy it and it will get sent to us. We're really excited about it. Hopefully people get us some cool stuff. I want to test out those purse bookmarks.

[Bria Grant]

I know you want those purse bookmarks. I put a few on there.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm very, very curious. And just a reminder folks, the Glasser Book club is Friday, October 10th, 5pm Pacific Time. Friday, October 10th, 5:00pm Pacific Time. I screwed up last week and said the wrong date. It is not October 5th. It is Friday, October 10th. I was looking at the wrong month because I am tired. It's going to go for about an hour and a half. We are really excited. What is. Okay, here we go. We've gotten a lot of emails about this. This is what's going on. This is for members Only this is only for Reading Glasses supporting members. You can go to maximumfun.org join to sign up. You can do it the day before if you want. But this is only for people who support the show. It is a live event where Bri and I will be talking about the Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia. We've got discussion questions, we've got all kinds of fun stuff to ask the glasses and then glasses will come up and you don't have to be on video if you don't want. You can stay audio or you, you can just lurk. You are totally welcome to lurk, but people are welcome to come up on the virtual stage and talk about their opinions about this book. Answer the questions we ask at. Ask some questions of your own. And we are doing something new. We are recording this. This is going to be the first private Glasser event I think we've ever recorded. It will be released as a bonus episode. But those bonus episodes are also only for members. So if to participate in the live event or listen to the episode, you can go to maximumfun.org join to sign up to support the show and email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com. we're really excited about this. We had so much fun at last year's Horny Fairy Book Club. We love talking about books with the glasses. You all have such fun, entertaining, interesting opinions about these books are real smart. We are really pumped and we're excited because this is the first one in a while that was chosen by the Glassers. The last one we did for this was Starling House by Alex Harrow.

[Bria Grant]

It wasn't Quarter thorn and roses.

[Mallory O'Meara]

They didn't pick that. Oh no, they did pick that one.

[Bria Grant]

See, it was a fairy smut. It was specifically those fairy smoke. So this last Reading Glasses book Club one was Starling House.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, it has been a while though. But classes have great taste. This is going to be a blast. Again, go to maximumfun.org join to sign up. Email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com to get in. And before we talk about participating in a two person book club, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is brought to you in part this week by Factor Folks. Fall can be a reset. People give a lot of excitement to spring. And like the start of the year, you can also reset in fall. It's back to school. You're changing your routine around. The days are getting shorter and if you're me or maybe anybody, finding time to cook can be really tough. You Know I don't like eating. You know, I wish I could just plug myself into the wall like a phone. But you know what can help out with that? Factors Chef prepped dietitian approved meals that are designed to make it easy to stay on track and enjoy something comforting and delicious no matter how hectic the season gets. Folks, Factor is fantastic. They have more variety, they have more types of meals. There's a huge selection of weekly meal options, including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. You can savor flavors from all over the globe. There's Asian inspired meals influenced by cuisine in China and Thailand and more. Folks, even if you do have time to cook, I kind of have time to cook, but I don't like doing it. And that can lead me to eating like a divorced dad, which is not great. Sorry to all the divorced dads out there, but it's not great for me to just have bourbon and hot sauce and chips for dinner and a protein shake. Not ideal, but factor really helps me with that. It makes it so easy. I feel so much less stressed knowing I have a bunch of factor meals in my fridge, that they're healthy, they're quick to heat up and I don't have to worry about it. And then I can focus on other stuff. Stuff like reading and writing and not cooking, which is really what I want to focus on. So you can eat [e-mail] Glasses 50 off and use code GLASSES50OFF to get 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That. Isn't that the greatest sentence you've ever heard in your Life? That's code glasses50OFF@Factor meals.com for 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto newing subscription purchase Glasses.

[Alexis]

Hi, I'm Alexis. I am one of the co hosts of Comfort Creatures and I'm here with River Jew, who has been a member since 2019. Thank you so much for being a listener and a supporter of our show.

[River Jew]

Yeah, I can't believe it's been that long.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, right.

[Alexis]

As the Max Fund member of the month, can I ask what sort of made you decide to be a member of.

[River Jew]

I used to work in a library, so I just used to listen to podcasts while I reshelved all the books. Really helped with doing reading at work. So I just wanted to give back to what's been helping me. Yeah, it feels good to be part of that.

[Alexis]

As the member of the month. You will be getting a $25 gift card to the Maximum Fun Store, a member of the month bumper sticker. And you also, if you're ever in Los Angeles, you can get a parking spot at the MaxFun HQ just for you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yay.

[River Jew]

I'm actually going LA in September, so I'll get to use the parking.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yes.

[Alexis]

Thank you so much, river, for doing this. This has been an absolute blast.

[River Jew]

Yeah, of course. I've been so glad to be able to talk to you too. And I'm so excited to be a member of the month.

[Bria Grant]

Yay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Become a Max Fund member [e-mail] join. This week we're ticking off another box on the 2025 reading glasses. Glasses, glasses, glasses. Challenge. Participate in a two person book club. Why did we put this on the challenge? How are we completing it? And most importantly, how can it improve your reading life? All right, Bria, what are the rules?

[Bria Grant]

It's two person book club.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Two person.

[Bria Grant]

That's what it is. You know, we, you know, get. You may want to do three. That's okay. You can maybe do four. We'll accept it. But let's just say. Let's just try to keep it at 2.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's just a regular.

[Bria Grant]

The point is, it's supposed to be small. It's supposed to be intimate. You and another person. But I understand some people want three people. That's okay. But if you. Yeah. You defeat the purpose if you're doing more.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. Then it's just regular book.

[Bria Grant]

And then the rules for the book is any book you want.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. It could be literally anything.

[Bria Grant]

It could be book you recommend. It could be a book your friend has always recommended. It could be a book neither of you read. It could. But you should both read it. Any genre, any age bracket. Like, don't. Not a book you recommend to someone. In they go read it. And you've already read it like six.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's just having a bookish friend.

[Bria Grant]

That's just recommendations. You should read it at the same time. Yeah. And why do we put it on the challenge, Mallory?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because organizing book clubs is a pain in the ass.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Yes, it really is, Mallory. Does it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It is such a difficult endeavor, as we know from all the emails we get about them or even from the gl.

[Bria Grant]

You know, the Glasser Book Club is hard to pe. There was disagreement, you know, and it's tough.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It's tough. It's hard to organize people. It really is hurting cats. That's. It's hard to get People to all agree on a book. And then as you know, because you were part of a book club, to find a time and a place to meet. Oh, my gosh. It's just there's a lot of folks who would love to talk about a book with someone who's. Who is also reading that book, but there aren't able to find a book club they like or get one together or find one that works for their schedule. A two person book club is the easiest version of this because it's just you and somebody else. And I thought that, that, that would be fun. All right, so now, most importantly, how do we think this can improve people's reading lives? Bria?

[Bria Grant]

Well, one, talking about a book with someone else is fun. That's fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It is so fun.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It is truly one of the great joys in life.

[Bria Grant]

And also it can deepen your enjoyment of the book. So it gives you a different perspective. The other person may have different opinions. Actually, I'm doing mine with my mom, but we also read the same book last year, just randomly. We have happened to read the same book. I can't remember the name of the book, but there was a part of it that I was like, I don't know if I understand this. And I actually didn't finish the book and she did. And she was like, oh, at the end they explain it. And that was really helpful because I got to learn what happened in the book that I actually never finished. But when it's you and another person, you can actually, I think, you know, I like my book club, but there's definitely things that are, you know, you try to be a little bit more diplomatic.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, sometimes when there's a lot of people.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

You don't really get to dig in.

[Bria Grant]

As much or one person can dominate or whatever. But if it's just two people.

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, we always know that one person in a book club that's like, here are my opinions.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. And then you feel weird saying yours. But yeah, one other person. It actually is just a conversation.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Which is nice.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So how. So you're doing this with your mom, A noted, noted, great book taste haver.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, we both. Well, she sent. I was like, send me books you want to do. And I sent her some I wanted to do, but this was on both of our lists, which is we're doing the book Sister center, the Miraculous Life and Disappearance of Amy Simple McPherson.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm also reading that.

[Bria Grant]

Are you reading that for your book club?

[Mallory O'Meara]

No, I'm reading that for a upcoming project. That I'm doing with friend of the show Ross Blotcher.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, that totally makes sense because that, that, that building is like in Echo Park. That old. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I was on a panel with her, with Claire Hoffman.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, with Claire Hoffman, who wrote the book.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, she's great.

[Bria Grant]

This is. It's a biography of Amy Simple McPherson, who I only really know about because of that show. Because. Okay, so in the, in the reboot of Perry Mason.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, she plays a big role in that.

[Bria Grant]

And at the time I had a friend in town or right. Right around, like, who was like, oh, do you know anything about this woman? And then weirdly, it's not. The place where she preached is not that far from where I live. So that's one of the other reasons we want to do it, is because she. I don't know that much about her, but she preached at some place that is in Echo park, which is where I live. But yeah, so that's what we're doing to complete the challenge. I know she put the book on hold. I think it's the physical book and it was two weeks wait. I put the ebook on hold and it was, I think, nine weeks. So I am going to probably buy it when she gets hers. That's the only problem is that if you're a library user trying to get the book at the same time, that's a little bit tough. So I'm gonna have to just buy it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think me and I had the same problem.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. What. So what are you doing?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm actually doing this a few ways. I'm doing a sci fi book with our friend Chelsea. Not the Chelsea from your book club? Our friend.

[Bria Grant]

Different.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Different Chelsea. We have two Chelsea's. Yes, I asked.

[Bria Grant]

Chelsea came over here and changed a light bulb for me one day.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh my God, I love her so much. Chelsea, my friend for a really, really, really long time. And she's one of my favorite people to talk about art with. She's just, just, I. I picked her because she has really cool taste in media, just great taste in movies, great taste in, in games and books and music. And I love watching stuff with her or playing game, whatever it is with her because she has this really fascinating perspective that just makes it so fun. Like, even if it's completely different than mine, and often it is. It's just like I always, no matter what, if I'm experiencing something with her, I'm gonna see it in a new way. And I was like, I have to do this book club with Chelsea. And it's been Great. She sent me her TBR and we picked this book, 381 by Aaliyah Whiteley, who is. She's the one who did. Who wrote the Beauty.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, okay. Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

But this is. I'm excited because this is Chelsea's way more of a sci fi person than I am. And, you know, I don't read a lot of sci fi, but this is a sci fi book, and it's been really fun so far because it's very. It's. This book is very weird and surreal, so it's really fun to talk about it with somebody else. But we had to say because I got it from the library, she bought it. So I've been, like, trying to time. It has been good. I'm also doing this with my boyfriend. We loved reading out loud. And by we, I mean he so much that we got a bunch of books up in our queue now. Next up, we're doing Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury for spooky season because he's never read it. I also might do this with my online movie club.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, fun.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm kind of hooked on this. I was. Was. This was like, sort of the dark horse for me in our reading glasses challenge because I didn't really think much of it. I thought it would be fun. But now, like, I'm so kind of.

[Bria Grant]

Addicted to two people.

[Mallory O'Meara]

That's very cute, I think, because how.

[Bria Grant]

Many people are in your online movie club, though?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Just two.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, it's just two. I thought. For some reason, I thought it was way more.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, one of them died.

[Bria Grant]

Sorry. Oops.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, he really. Although it's good that he died, because now I can do this. The thing only if. If Scott had not passed away, I would not.

[Bria Grant]

I would. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Person. It's me and my two best friends. Well, Charles. Charles and Rich. You've never met them. They live. One lives in Ohio. One lives in New Hampshire.

[Bria Grant]

Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Spooky state. If you. If you listen to our other show. Yes. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for that. Although me and Scott did used to read books together a lot, so it's just so much easier if you listen. Have listened to the show for a long time. You know, I used to run book clubs. It's so easy.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

God, it's so easy to organize. And it is really fun to get into the weeds of a book with someone. Like, like you said earlier, like, when you're doing a big book club with a lot of people, you know, you. You get to say your opinion, but when it's just you and another person, you really get, get to get in the thick of it and it's so fun. And you get to, especially if it's just you and one other person, you can kind of update each other as you're going through and kind of getting real time updates. I remember one of the people that, that is in my movie club. We've been, been best friends for 20 years and he bought me all the Game of Thrones books and we read them together and we would like, sync up and be like, oh, you just read this, this Tyrion chapter. And we would, we'd call each other and talk about it. It's just so fun. Yeah, I'm just gonna keep doing this. This is definitely like my, my, my sleeper hit of the reading glasses challenge.

[Bria Grant]

I love that.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we want to hear what books you're reading, how you're completing this part of the challenge. Send your thoughts on it to readingglassespodcastmail.com and before we solve a problem about putting damaged books in a little free library, we're going to take a quick break.

[Jeremy]

Hey, everybody, I'm Jeremy.

[Oscar]

I'm Oscar.

[Jeremy]

I'm Demetri. And we are the Eurovangelists.

[Oscar]

Or a weekly podcast spreading the word of the Eurovision Song Contest, the most important music competition in the world.

[Jeremy]

Maybe you already heard Glenn Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour talk up our coverage of this year's contest. But what do we talk about in the off season? The rest of Eurovision, and duh. There are nearly seven decades of pop music history to cover.

[Bria Grant]

Mm.

[Oscar]

We've got thousands of amazing songs, inspiring competitors, and so much drama to discuss. And let me tell you, the drama is juicy.

[Jeremy]

Plus all the gorillas and bread baking grandmas that make Eurovision so special. Check out Euro Evangelists. Available everywhere. You get podcasts and you could be a Eurovangelist too.

[Oscar]

Ooh, I want to be one.

[Jeremy]

You already are. It's that easy.

[Oscar]

Oh, okay, cool.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Time to solve a bookish problem from one of our listeners. MacKenzie writes in hello, I have a book that my friend's dog chewed the edges of pretty significantly. It's still entirely readable, but in really rough shape. Heartbreakingly, I lost several books to this friend's dog while pet sitting. Oh, that's place I. I wish I need to learn how to play taps on a slide whistle. My question is, would it be rude to give this fully readable damaged book to a little free library? How damaged is too damaged to not find a new home for? It feels impossible to throw away. But I also don't feel that it makes sense to keep it. Would love to hear your thoughts and advice. Bria, what do you think?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, sure. Put it in there. And the person in charge of the Little Free library could just throw it away if it's not up to muster. I mean, there is actually like, some sort of human condition, do you know about this? Where we value things more in our ownership than things in our ownership. So, like, for example, like, if you have a pair of pants and you're like, they're near perfect, they just have.

[Mallory O'Meara]

A small hole in them, and someone looks at them and they're like, this is.

[Bria Grant]

But if I'm in a close swap and I see them for free, I will literally go, these have a hole in them. They. I don't want them. There's something about them. So I can't guarantee someone is not gonna see it and just go, like, I'm gonna throw this away. Like. But you never know. Like, someone may be looking for that particular book, and they can look past imperfections, or maybe they're looking for, you know, a damaged book for some reason. Like, there is, like, a use for it.

[Mallory O'Meara]

They're looking for books for arts and crafts.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. Yeah. But if, like, also, if I was like, I need a copy of this one book, and I walked by the little free library, and there it was. I mean, I would take it damaged or not. You know, that would be pretty exciting. What do you. What do you. What is your advice here?

[Mallory O'Meara]

Okay, before we get into it, I have to ask. Did you see the Little Free Library episode of the new King of the Hill?

[Bria Grant]

I'm not watching it. I mean, I could watch it. I just haven't watched it yet. Oh, okay. I'm not saying, like, I'm. I was really. I.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Because I've never seen King of the Hill before, but it's HWB favorite show.

[Bria Grant]

Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So we started watching it, like, the night it dropped.

[Bria Grant]

Oh, wow.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And I've been also watching the. The old seasons, but I was really excited because one of the. I think I. Maybe I forget what number episode, but it's a little bit later on. I think it's in the second half of the show. But Peggy starts a little free library because she's retired now and she doesn't know what to do with herself. She starts a little free library. And it's like. It made me laugh so hard because I was like, this is such a real thing where it's like this little project that you think is going to be sweet, and it ends up Becoming.

[Bria Grant]

A big, like, drama film. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

So if you've watch, let us know because I was very excited to see it. Anyway. I think my quick rule would be if at a glance it looks like trash, recycle it.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

If it's miss. I think it's, it depends. Like, is it missing the COVID Yeah. Pages falling out. Are you going to pull it out of a little free library and it's going to disintegrate or like big chunks missing? If that. Just recycle it.

[Bria Grant]

It'll go make more books. You'll be, It'll.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, the book will go make more books.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

It will get turned into a, it will get turned into another book. Honestly, even if it's readable, I think if you put in a little free library, if someone is going to assume it's trash and toss it or just not pick it up at all, just recycle it. Because for I, I, I think that I'm saying the same thing here is. What did you call it? The, like, when you, you have like an inflated sense of value.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I don't know.

[Bria Grant]

There's, there's a word for it, but I don't know what it is.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, because for, if someone doesn't know it's from a dog, like, who knows what it could be from? It's the same thing. It's like maybe a rabid raccoon was.

[Bria Grant]

Chewing on it, but the rabies isn't still on there. It's not. It would die once it hits the air.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Do we know that?

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. I don't think rabies, like, lives. It doesn't live outside of, like, saliva.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Have you eaten many books that have been chewed up?

[Bria Grant]

Okay, I still think, listen, it would have to be like really wet still. And then you'd have to go, you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Love a wet book.

[Bria Grant]

I do love a wet book. But then you'd have to go and take a bite out of the wet book for the rabies to pass to you. I just think it'd be really hard. Hard, but yes. I mean, look, you are taking other people's germs into your house every time you take a book from the little free library. It's true.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Well, that's, that's a big part of what happens to Peggy Hill. Oh, you folks have to watch this episode. It's so good. So. Because personally, I would not pick a damaged book up out of a little free library. I think I am a little more germ phobic than you are.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

I think I personally would Take that book and bring it behind the shed and put it down. AKA put it in the recycling bin. But I, I think you're right. Like, I mean the worst that's going to happen is someone else is going to do that. So if you really want to stick it like we can. I don't think, I don't think it's a book. Sin.

[Bria Grant]

People who have little fridge libraries are like, Bria, don't tell them to put our trash in here. But you know, here's the thing. Just if you, you're taking on a certain amount of responsibility when you open one of those. So I mean, it's not trash trash and like a bag of old french fries or something. But it's.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Like, oh, a free snack. Wet book and a free snack.

[Bria Grant]

But I think like, look, if you can't, if you can't part with it and you're having trouble, this is maybe a good way to just, just, just put it. Someone else will throw it away for you.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah. Again, I think it depends like if it's missing the COVID Like, but if the COVID looks fine and there's just a chomp out of the back of it.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And yeah, I think this is a case by case basis. I, again, I would personally put in the recycling, but I think Bri is right. You can probably stick it in there. It's fine. If you have a book problem that you want us to solve, you can send it to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. now let's answer a recommendation request from Danielle who says hi. Brian, Mallory, I've been listening for a few years now and you guys really helped me expand my bookish horizons. I've read and enjoyed so many books I would never have picked up before hearing your recommendations. My sister moved to Scotland last year for grad school. I'm finally planning my dream trip to go visit. Do you have any recommendations for book that take place in Scotland to set the scene, so to speak? My wheelhouse is literary and historical fiction. Small town mysteries, enemies to lovers, strong female characters, cozy witchy vibes and dual timelines. So Bria, we have talked about approximately 1 billion Edinburgh books on this show. So I'm adding a layer to this because there's just, we truly. There's so many books that takes place in Edinburgh that we've recommended. So this has to be a Scotland book that is not an Edinburgh.

[Bria Grant]

Okay.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Or at least mostly not in Edinburgh. All right, Bria, what is your non Edinburgh book recommendation?

[Bria Grant]

Okay, we got a small town mystery, witchy, historical fiction, Book that Mallory just reminded me I read, which is takes place on an island in Scotland. It's called the Wild Hunt by Emily Seckel. We both read this book. Basically it is about a woman who hasn't been home a woman who hasn't been home in a long time and she heads back home because her father dies. And the weirdest part of this book is there's this sort of legend in her town about these birds. There are these birds that are maybe carry the souls of the dead and they kind of freak out the local islanders. And they're.

[Mallory O'Meara]

They're crows or crow. They're crows or ravens.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. It's funny in this it says bird like creatures, but I feel like they were just birds. Like.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Oh, they look like.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah, sure. Okay. And then a boy disappears and it turns into this sort of mystery. And it's really great.

[Mallory O'Meara]

And it's post World War II, I think.

[Bria Grant]

So. Yeah.

[Mallory O'Meara]

A lot of this island is kind of reeling because they've lost a lot of young men to the war.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. So then when this one young man disappears as a big ideal.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bria Grant]

So it's like a mystery mixed with a little bit of like. Like spooky horse stuff.

[Mallory O'Meara]

Yeah, spooky super stuff. It was one of my favorite books of the year when it came out. It's excellent.

[Bria Grant]

Yeah. What do you have?

[Mallory O'Meara]

I'm recommending the bass rock, but it's. I can't tell if it's the bass rock or the bass rock. I read the book. They never say, but it's by Evie Wilde. I'm a real big fan of this author. This is not a feel good book, but it is so goddamn good. It is about three generations of women living in this house in a remote part of Scotland. And the first Generation is the 1700s. It's this woman who's been accused of witchcraft. The next one is in the aftermath of the Second World War. This woman has moved into this new home. She is like going into this family where the wife has died. She's. The husband is remarrying her and she's kind of like coming into this settled family and trying to figure out her place in it. And then the last generation is modern day and it's this woman who is. She's kind of a up. She has a lot of issues. She's been hired to kind of watch this house that has. I think it's her. It's in her family and she's seeing some weird stuff. Stuff she doesn't know if it's haunted or not, it's not that spooky. A lot of Evie Wilde's books, like they're very literary in like any genre. Elements that are there are kind of like in the background. It's definitely not scary. But of course all of these women are connected across the generations. They're also connected to the house. So it's very literary, beautifully written, strong female characters. A triple timeline so you get a bonus timeline and a touch of small town mystery. It is. It's so, so lovely. I love this book called the Bass Rock by Evie Wylde.

[Bria Grant]

Mine is the Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel.

[Mallory O'Meara]

If you want us to answer your recommendation request, you can send it to reading glasses podcastmail.com as always, want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. And remember, you can buy all kinds of cute stuff at the Reading Glasses store. There's a link in the show notes. There's totes and shirts and stickers. So much cute stuff. Get one of those library user sweatshirts, they're adorable. There's a link in the show notes for that. And if you like the show, please rate and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. Especially if you use Apple Podcasts. We're really close to 2000 reviews and when we get to 2000 we are going to be releasing an episode where we do a silly ama. So you can send in your questions for that reading glasses podcast gmail.com but we can't get there until at least 120 something of you give us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. You can find us Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.

[Bria Grant]

Thanks for reading.

[Mallory O'Meara]

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