Ep 437 - So Many Magical Cafes - Our Favorite Establishments in Books!

Summary

Reading Glasses – Ep 437: So Many Magical Cafes – Our Favorite Establishments in Books!

Date: November 13, 2025
Hosts: Brea Grant & Mallory O’Meara

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Episode Overview

In this lively, autumnal episode, Brea and Mallory embark on a delightful tour of their favorite fictional establishments. From enchanted cafes to quirky water parks and magical dive bars, they explore the distinct role these settings play in the stories they love. The hosts dig into why certain literary locations resonate, the comfort found in cozy fictional spaces, and which establishments they'd most want to visit in real life. The duo also reviews the book-location website StoryTerra and solves a listener's moral dilemma around library districts.

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What Are You Reading? [00:43 – 04:24]

Brea’s Pick:

• Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
  • Set in the trenches of WWI; incredibly gruesome and intense.
  • “It is one of the most gruesome, gory, intense books I've ever read.” — Brea [00:59]
  • Uniquely written in a single sentence, aligning the style with the theme: “War is a sentence that never ends.”
  • Highly recommended for readers who want something challenging and masterful.

Mallory’s Pick:

• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (reread)
  • A beloved autumn read full of witches, family, and magical realism.
  • “It really feels like I am accessing so much about the characters that I was not able to access when I was a teenager.” — Mallory [02:37]
  • The book offers more depth and character exploration than the movie.
  • “If you’re looking to, like, squeeze out a little bit more autumn, highly recommend rereading Practical Magic.” — Mallory [03:32]

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Listener Feedback Highlights [04:31 – 08:03]

• Julie: Suggests listening to author interviews to gauge if you'll like their writing.

  • “Listening to an interview of an author always tells me whether I will like their writing or not.” — Julie (read by Mallory) [05:24]
  • Both hosts agree: “This is the hottest of tips.” [05:51]

• Laura: Shares appreciation for the Reading Glasses Book Club, especially its influence on her interest in occult history, mentioning “The Bewitching” and tracking down rare academic books for deeper study.

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Main Discussion: Favorite Establishments in Books [11:51 – 27:53]

Introduction & Why Establishments Matter [11:51 – 13:18]

• The hosts discuss why certain settings become beloved “characters” in themselves.
• “Setting that gets turned into a character.” — Mallory [13:12]

Brea & Mallory’s Top Picks

1. Kamigawa Diner (The Kamigawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai) [13:19]

• Cozy, hidden Kyoto café famous for recreating meaningful dishes.
• Brea’s nostalgia: “There was this peanut butter fudge I would get from my neighbor… It was so good.” [14:38]

2. Joe’s Cafe (Shady Hollow series) [15:42]

• Central gathering spot with seasonal pastries, run by Joe the moose.
• “It’s always like a comforting thing.” — Mallory [16:27]

3. Viv’s Coffee Shop (Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree) [16:52]

• Orc protagonist opens the town’s first coffee shop, charming everyone.
• “The whole book is just about opening up this coffee shop. So, yeah.” — Brea [17:35]

4. Shamrock Cauldron (Witches of Thistle Grove series by Lana Harper) [17:48]

• Magical, witchy dive bar with themed drinks and décor.
• “A magical, witchy, weird dive bar… my favorite thing in the world.” — Mallory [18:19]

5. Authentic Noodle (Automatic Noodle by Annaly Nitz) [18:49]

• Robot-run noodle shop in futuristic San Francisco.
• “So delicious and they’re made by robots. It sounds incredible.” — Brea [19:20]

6. Fathoms of Fun Water Park (Wretched Water Park by Kiersten White) [19:30]

• Gothic horror-themed water park (middle grade).
• “Imagine like a Tim Burtony water park… That just sounds…” — Mallory [20:18]
• A lengthy tangent on “water socks” and water park attire [21:32].

7. Vera Wang's World Famous Tea House (Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto) [22:33]

• Quaint tea house with endless varieties, subtly named to attract designer fans.
• “She calls it Vera Wang’s World Famous Tea House, even though her name is Vera Wong.” — Brea [23:08]

8. Hotel Walner (Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller) [23:40]

• Lavish historical Vienna hotel being restored for ball season.
• “If you love a cool setting, this is such a great book.” — Mallory [24:49]

Honorable Mention: Sweet Berries Book Farm (Campbell Creek series) [25:16]

• Idyllic setting combining a farm, coffee shop, and magical gathering place.

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Reflections & Wishlist: Literary Establishments We Want More Of [25:42 – 27:53]

• Desire for more books set in parks, libraries, amusement parks (non-horror!), and magical bars.
• “I want more magical bars… legends and negronis, you know?” — Mallory [27:32]
• Brea suggests revisiting libraries and parks as cozy, underused settings.

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Book Tech Test: StoryTerra [30:49 – 35:58]

What Is StoryTerra? [31:08]

• A website mapping books, movies, games, and tv shows by setting.
• Interactive (if you zoom in far enough); user-generated and early in development.
• “I think this idea is fun. It does seem to be in its early stages though.” — Mallory [33:56]

First Impressions

• Some cities (like LA, Mexico City) have limited entries unless you zoom in and click with precision.
• “If you can swing both ways, swing both ways.” — Mallory, offering a creative use-case for library systems (accidentally placed here; belongs in library segment).

Ratings

• 3 out of 5 pages from both hosts.
• “This needs to cook a little bit.” — Mallory [35:50]
• Potential for the future, especially if more readers contribute.

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Listener Problem: Library District Dilemma [36:00 – 39:38]

The Issue

• Listener Jill’s affluent city has split from the county library, raising ethical questions about which system to support.

Hosts’ Advice

• Using the county library helps support its circulation stats and funding.
• “If you can use both, use both. …Get buzzy books from the rich system, everything else from the county.” — Mallory [38:16]
• Stay connected to county library events and watch for book bans.
• Library professionals invited to contribute a nuanced perspective.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On setting as character:
  “This is a setting that gets turned into a character.” — Mallory [13:12]

• On author interviews:
  “This is the hottest of tips.” — Brea [05:51] “You can immediately kind of see if their humor gels with your type of humor.” — Mallory [05:55]

• On reading as an adult:
  "It really feels like I am accessing so much about the characters that I was not able to access when I was a teenager." — Mallory [02:37]

• On magical bars:
  "I need, like, legends and negronis, you know?” — Mallory [27:32]

• On book tech:
  “This needs to cook a little bit.” — Mallory [35:50]

• Water park attire tangent:
  Entire segment [21:16–22:13] about flip-flops, water socks, and burning feet.

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Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [00:43] What Are You Reading?
• [04:31] Listener Feedback
• [11:51] Main Topic: Favorite Establishments in Books
• [30:49] Book Tech: StoryTerra
• [36:00] Listener Bookish Problem Solved

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Tone & Style

Mallory and Brea’s banter is warm, witty, and often includes relatable tangents and honest opinions about books and technology. They approach the episode’s theme with a blend of nostalgia and practical reflection, always rooting their choices in personal experiences and emotional impact.

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For Further Engagement

• Send your favorite fictional establishments: [e-mail]
• Find the podcast on Instagram: @ReadingGlassesPodcast
• Review on Apple Podcasts to unlock their silly AMA!

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Summary prepared with timestamps and direct speaker attributions where relevant, capturing the playful, book-loving spirit of the hosts.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

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.

[A]

And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we're talking about our favorite establishments in books. That's like, location establishments. Yeah, restaurants, bars, cafes. Mine are all cafes. I was surprised.

[B]

I thought there would be more bookstores on this list, but it's a very cafe. Heavy.

[A]

Very cafe. We may have to do a bookstore.

[B]

We long for our cafe.

[A]

Plus we test out story Tara, which.

[B]

We'Ll talk about some fun location book tech.

[A]

Yeah. And solve a listener problem about library districts.

[B]

But first, Bria, what are you reading?

[A]

I am reading a book I was very much looking forward to. It's the new Daniel Kraus. Angel down is the title. It's. It was on my most anticipated of the year, and I was correct to anticipate it. It is fantastic. It is set. I actually finished this book already, but I have to talk about it because. Okay. This is one of the most gruesome, gory, intense books I've ever read. It all takes place During World War I in the trenches, like, on the front line. So basically, there's like, a group of boys, starting with the one who's like. He's like the main gravedigger guy. And they get called in, and they're like, hey, there's someone shrieking, like, in the no man's land in between our trenches and the enemy trenches. And we need you to go and find that person. Go.

[B]

Go get them.

[A]

Which is sort of going in between them. Like, that's like a death sentence. Right? But they do it, and they find what appears to be an angel.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

It is a wild book. Maybe one thing you've heard about this is that it was all written in one sentence. What do you know that.

[B]

What?

[A]

Yeah, it's all written in one.

[B]

Are they broken up into paragraphs?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it's broken up into paragraphs and chapters, but it's all one continuous sentence. And he has this beautiful line in it about how war is a sentence that never ends. And it's just this. It's incredible. The book. It is masterful. Masterful. I. I could not put this book down. And it's really a tough read, but I could not put it down. Can highly recommend this one. Ooh, what are you reading?

[B]

So it is still autumn here. I know that Halloween's over. A lot of. I. I heard Christmas music. Oh, no. On November First, I almost walked out of the store. But you know what? I'm elbowing some room. I'm still here. We got a few more weeks. Autumn. So I am rereading a book that I really love. I'm rereading Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. I first read Practical Magic when I was a teenager, and I really feel like Practical Magic is a book that you need to be a little older to appreciate. I liked it. It was. It. I was like, hooray, witches. And then a few years ago, I watched the movie for the first time, and I was like, oh, my God, this is my personality now. I love that movie so much. And then this year, I was like, fuck it. I'm gonna reread Practical Magic. I got myself a really fancy edition of it from Barnes and Noble, and God, I love this fucking book. It is. It really feels like I am accessing so much about the characters that I was not able to access when I was a teenager. And if you've only seen the movie, the book is just so much better. There's just so much more about all of the characters and the house and everything that they do. And it's just about this family of witches, and one of the sisters doesn't want to be magical and tries to make her kids not magical. But you can't deny who you are. And it's just so. It's such a wonderful autumnal book. The descriptions of the house and the herbs and the concoctions and just, like, in the garden. And it's just so. So it's like witchiness distilled into this wonderful book, and I'm enjoying them. I've been reading it really slowly, which is rare for me, but I just love it. So if you're looking to, like, squeeze out a little bit more. Autumn, highly recommend. Rereading Practical Magic. So I'm reading Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.

[A]

I don't think I've ever read Practical Magic. I think I've only seen the movie.

[B]

You should read it.

[A]

It's really okay. Okay.

[B]

It is really, really great.

[A]

Again.

[B]

Yeah, I. I love the movie. Again. I. Practical Magic is one of those movies that a lot of people saw a long time ago, and I don't know how I missed it. I saw Witches of Eastwick. I saw Hocus Pogus. I somehow missed Practical Magic and it hit me like a truck. I just love it.

[A]

So I gotta read this book, and I gotta. Maybe I should rewatch the movie.

[B]

Oh, so good.

[A]

Sold me. And I am reading angel down by. By Daniel Gauss.

[B]

So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Julie wrote in to say dia, Bri and Mallory absolutely love the podcast and reading smut. And I'm very glad to have introduced my husband to Mallory's writing by giving him Daughter of Daring, which he read this summer on our trip to California. I'm California. He's very British. Thank Mr. Darcy from Bridget Jones. And we live in Cambridge. With regards to finding authors that fit the style of writing you like. I have a hot tip. Okay, I have some really bad news, everybody. I don't know where my slide whistle is.

[A]

Oh, no, it's not in your little bag that you bring.

[B]

No, I think what it is, I took it out of my bag for our live event and I never. I didn't put it back.

[A]

I have one. I have one if you need. If you need an extra one there.

[B]

The thing is, I want to save this one because this was Scott. Scott's slide whistle. Okay, very long tangent about, but so this is a very special slide whistle. So just spiritually put a slide whistle in this moment.

[A]

Well done.

[B]

Julie's hot book tip is. I have found that listening to an interview of an author always tells me whether I will like their writing or not.

[A]

Oh my God.

[B]

It is often a case of the more I enjoy hearing them interviewed or talking on the radio, slash podcast, slash tv, the more I like their writing and the other way around too. Even if the book is in my wheelhouse. I've never found a living author who I don't enjoy hearing interviewed but still like their writing.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Even though you can't just search for it, it is quicker reading book after book after book and usually rather enjoyable too.

[A]

This is the hottest of tips.

[B]

This is a super hot tip.

[A]

I've never thought about this.

[B]

This is really interesting, but you can immediately kind of see if, like, their humor kind of gels with your type of humor of the way they speak. This is Julie. This is a super hot tip.

[A]

Amazing. Laura wrote in and said, hi, Bri and Mallory. I wanted to reach out and say thank you for the wonderful reading club you hosted for the bewitching. I was the person who tried to come on near the end but unfortunately had technical difficulties. Laura, it's no worries. I loved the book and wanted to share how it reawakened my semi dormant interest in occult and history and practice. After I finished it, I went to the library and got a pile of books to try. There's absolutely nothing like a library shopping spree. Truly considerably less free was my purchase of a real book mentioned in the Bewitching New England's Gothic Literature, History and Folklore of the Supernatural from the 17th through the 20th centuries by Faye Ringle. I think this is an academic publication so it costs a lot to buy and my library didn't have it. You can read it on the Internet archives open library and I started it that way. But I found I wanted to mark quotes and pages on almost every page so I shell out for a hard copy. It's fascinating and very engagingly written. So even though I am only a medium nonfiction person who usually prefers her nonfiction and audio format, I've been loving this. Thank you both for what you do. RG is one of the few podcasts I must listen to the moment it drops in the feed. And by the way, we had such a good book club.

[B]

Oh my God, this was so much fun.

[A]

It was so fun. So for the first time we recorded it and we. And that is available if you are a member of Maximum Fun. That should be available on your feed.

[B]

You can hear us talking about the bewitching but also classers.

[A]

The glassers came up and talked.

[B]

Yeah, glassers came up and talked about the book. The glassers came up and talked about special methods of tea drinking that we.

[A]

Were drinking tea with a sugar cube in your mouth. It was really fascinating and it was fun to hear everyone give their opinions about the book. And yeah, it was just really fun and I'm excited to do it again.

[B]

It's very great.

[A]

I mean, this will not be. We'll do another book club week, which we should do around what, early next year we'll do. Yeah, yeah. And it was really fun. So this is a good time to join. If you are thinking about joining.

[B]

This is Laura's Wheelhouse, the spooky season edition. We got haunted houses, hell yeah, vampires. Humor mixed in with the horror, occult history, small towns where something is wrong with a capital W. I do like that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So 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. I'm gonna do a live check right here. I mean it's live to us. You're listening to this probably a week later, but I'm looking right now on Apple podcasts. We are 49 reviews away from 2000 on Apple podcast folks. That's what we need. 49 more more reviews and ratings on Apple Podcasts for Reading Glasses to drop our silly AMA episode. Don't you want to know what Bria's favorite and least favorite toes are?

[A]

Yeah, don't you want to know?

[B]

Probably actually the only way you would ever be able to access the only way.

[A]

And I would not answer this question at a Q and A.

[B]

No.

[A]

If you met me in person, you said, what's your favorite toes?

[B]

I would say, no, throw a smoke bomb and disappear. This is the only way you're going to get it. Come on. There's 49 of you out there that use Apple podcasts that love the show, listen to it all the time, but have never given us a review. It really makes a difference for the show and we really want to drop the silly ama. So before we talk about our favorite establishments and books, we're going to take a quick break this week. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part by Zocdoc. Folks, I'm 35 now. I'm def. I'm hitting some of those, those marks where I need to go to the doctor for more specific regular things and it's annoying. I, I feel like a car that has to start going to the doctor for my oil changes, my emissions checks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that can be really. Just going to the doctor is annoying enough. I don't need everything around going to the doctor to be also annoying because that just makes me not go. I'm like, oh no, this, this doctor doesn't have a way to book it online. Looks like I better let this go for another five to 10 years. But we know it can be tough to get to the doctor, which is where ZocDoc comes in. They are dedicated to making it easy to find the right fit and book an appointment fast directly on their website. Bria, what is zocdoc?

[A]

It is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment instantly. With ZocDoc, you can book in network appointments with more than 100,000 doctors across each specialty, from mental health to dental health to primary care to urgent care and more. And appointments made through Zocdoc also happen fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours of booking. And more often than not you can get a same day appointment which you all know is huge.

[B]

That is wild.

[A]

It is hard to get a same day appointment. Stuff like this is so helpful because I don't know if you've ever had to go down a list and be like do. And then you call and you're like, do you take my insurance? Do you take my insurance? And it becomes. It's so complicated to find a doctor. And this, they have streamlined it and that feels great.

[B]

I have a person who's very close to me that needed an appointment for something and I was like, oh, well, when is it? And they're like, oh, it's in three weeks. And I was like, should I use Zoc Doc?

[A]

Should have used it.

[B]

So you can stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com glasses to find an instantly book a top rated doctor today that z o c doc.com/glasses zocdoc.com glasses glasses glasses. What's more action packed than prestige television? With more continuity than comic books and more reality than reality television? It's professional wrestling. And to better understand wrestling is the.

[A]

Ultimate form of entertainment, you need the.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

Fights every Saturday on Maximum Fun. This week we're talking about our favorite establishments and books. That means restaurants, bars, bookstores, libraries, cafes, hotels and more. Mostly restaurants, mostly restaurants. We are naming our favorite places that we love to read about and would love to go to in real life. So I want to say off the top, this past summer, Book Riot ran an article about favorite magical establishments and it got me thinking about all my favorite establishments across all genres and how that maybe might be something in my wheelhouse. You know, I love a fun place for characters to hang out in. I was like, this would be a really fun episode.

[A]

This was so fun. It was really hard for me to lament this. What's funny, a lot of choices.

[B]

I almost actually put more slots.

[A]

I would have, I could have talked about.

[B]

I will give you, you can do some honorable mentions because I know you love a magical establishment. You know, love a magical establishment, especially one that is in Japan.

[A]

That is true. That is they can do some sort of magic thing that happens. My first one is that, well, it's sort of magic. It's a wheelhouse, maybe. Maybe a magical establishment.

[B]

Yeah. Because I think there's a lot of focus on the stuff that happens in the establishment. It's like, oh, like books or food. But like, I do like the place itself.

[A]

Yeah, it's nice. Well, I love locations, so.

[B]

Oh, God, I didn't even think about that. This is like ultimate. This is, this is a setting that gets turned into a character.

[A]

That's right. That's right.

[B]

All right, what's your first one?

[A]

I have to start. The first thing I thought of was the Kamigawa diner in the Kamagawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kishiwai. It's basically. It's this very small, cute little cafe. You're in Kyoto, you're going down the street, and you take a turn into this very small back street, and you're like, ah, could this possibly be the diner I'm looking for? And you go in, you're like, this happens in every. Everyone. They always walk in and they go, I don't know if this is the place I'm looking for. I'm looking for a diner that can recreate this food. I had one time.

[B]

Oh, God. Okay. I remember this.

[A]

And. And they're like, yes, this is the right diner. Because it's like, you know, down the street, it's like not a very. It's not aver. Advertised at all. And that's the whole premise of the book is you go in, you're like, ah, one time I had this very amazing miso soup, and it was very specific. It reminds me of my mother and blah, blah, blah. And then they. They ask you a bunch of questions and you come back later and they remake that miso soup for you. And it's not magical. It's a. It's actually like a. It's a detective novel because they.

[B]

They do like to source all this stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Because they're like, oh, you lived in this region when your mother was making the soup, and she's probably using this very specific type of miso or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's a very. If you like food and like, food details, it's an. It's a great little cozy book.

[B]

What would they recreate for you?

[A]

Oh, nothing.

[B]

Texas related question.

[A]

I've thought about this a lot because when you're reading the book, you're constantly like, what is the thing that I used to eat that was like, so good? There was this peanut butter fudge I would get from my neighbor next door when I was a kid. I think it was from my neighbor. It was so good. Maybe it was from my grandma. I actually don't know. See, that would not be good for them. I need to have more details than that. But it would come in this little tiny. And someone would make. It was so good. What would yours be?

[B]

Probably something from New England that I can't get anymore.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or like, can't get out Here. Black raspberry ice cream from Hodgies. Shout out hodgies. Beach pizza from Tripoli Pizza. That's. I mean, when I go home, the first, I drive directly from Logan Airport to either Tripoli's or Hodgies.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But you can't get it out here. It's, like, such a very specific regional thing. God, I would love a magical cafe out here that I can go get crappy beach pizza from.

[A]

Or just a good food detective. You just need a good food detective.

[B]

This could be something that someone could do in real life.

[A]

They could, but it would be tough.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But then. But the whole thing is that they always get it right. By the way, that's not a spoiler. And when they're eating it, it always brings back these memories for these people. So, you know, you got it right, because they start thinking about these specific things. Very sweet. What's your first one?

[B]

Mine comes from the Shady Hollow series. I actually almost put two things from the Shady Hollow series on here, and I was like, no, no. If you read the Shady Hollow books, you know that there is a cafe called Joe's, run by Joe the moose in these books. And it is a very central location. The characters always go to Joe's, and Joe always has, like, all kinds of seasonal drinks and seasonal food and seasonal pastries that, like, the main character, Vera, always goes in and, like, can't wait to see what Joe is, like, cooking up and trying out, like, ooh, this is. This is an apricot bun, and this is new pecan pie. And, like, it's just. It's one. I think the magic of something like this in a book is, like, descriptions of, like, that make me want to go there. But also, like, every single time Vera goes to Joe's, it's always like a. Almost always, like, a comforting thing.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Like, in the midst of this ridiculous case, she's going to Joe's to, like, collect herself, hang out with her boyfriend, Orville the bear. And it's like a very cozy, comforting place. And I'm like, I want us. I want a place like that in my life.

[A]

Yeah. I think that that's part of a lot of it, is that, like, it's the cheers of it all, you know, is that we all kind of want that bar where everyone knows your name.

[B]

I really do. That's gonna be my next one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what? I should have guessed you were gonna do this.

[A]

Well, okay, so my next one. People are screaming.

[B]

I can hear the glasses.

[A]

You're like, how have you not talked about this yet. It's Legends and Lattes. And the Legends and Lattes book by Travis Baldry, which is Viv's Coffee Shop. Basically, the whole book is this. Is she an orc? Yeah, this lady orc is. Is. For some reason, orcs I definitely associate with men.

[B]

Yeah. Well, that. A lot of fantasy videos will do that to you. Oh, yeah. Lord of the Rings will do that to you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The she Orc.

[A]

She. The she Orc. She's like, I really. I tried this. This drink. It's made from beans that I'm gonna open up.

[B]

Which does sound weird. Dried beans.

[A]

And basically, she decides to open up this coffee shop in a town that's never had coffee before. Oh, man. And it's full of all these little.

[B]

Suddenly, everyone in the town is so productive.

[A]

Yeah. It's very cute. Very adorable. And the whole book is just about opening up this coffee shop. The first one. So, yeah. Legends and Lattes. I'm sure everyone. I feel like anyone who read that book is like, yes, that's exactly where I would want to hang out. What's your. What's your Cheers bar?

[B]

The Shamrock Cauldron in the Witches of Thistle Grove series. It's by Lana Harper. It's a magical, witchy dive bar. Oh. And I, like. I was like, that's what I need in my life.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, in the first book, the main character goes in, and, like, there's always these, like, fun, wild, like, slightly magical drinks. And, like, it's a dive bar, and there's this, like, weird, kitschy, witchy decor. And I just, like. I think I haven't had a local bar, I think, since I lived near you and since that Mohawk Bend.

[A]

Closed.

[B]

Closed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I have missed that bar. But I. I haven't had a local bar in a while, and the local bar near me is, like, not great. So I just, like, I was. I was reading this book, and I'm like, oh, God, I want that so bad. Like, a magical, witchy, weird dive bar. It's like, my favorite thing in the world is, like, a dive bar that has excellent drinks.

[A]

Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah.

[B]

So this is, like, that perfect mix for me. And. Oh, I want to. They're so bad. All right, what's your next one?

[A]

My next one's from a new book. Mine are all food related, by the way. The next one is Authentic Noodle in Automatic Noodle by Annaly Nitz. New book. Wow. I would love to go to a noodle shop in a future San Francisco run by robots.

[B]

Yeah. This does Sound like a Bria Grant place.

[A]

Such a cute idea. Cuz the whole thing is they're trying to like open up this noodle shop and kind of fly under the radar because they are robots and they're not supposed to be doing it. And then people start calling it automatic noodle when they realize that it's run by robots. But then that becomes it. It is coz cozy book. Everything works out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's really cozy. And they describe the noodles and they sound so delicious and they're made by robots. It sounds incredible. These very sweet little nice little robots. What's your next one?

[B]

My next one's kind of weird.

[A]

Okay, this is wild.

[B]

But I was like I'm trying. I almost did some bookstores but I was like wait, I feel like we kind of talked about that last year when we did our like book set in libraries and bookstores. So I was like okay, I'm trying to not do bookstores. So I up picked was kind of going. Going further afield and it's the Fathoms of Fun Water park from Wretched Water park by Kiersten White. So this one again kind of weird but it's a gothic horror themed water park.

[A]

That is cool.

[B]

And doesn't that sound like the coolest thing ever? Like I mean in the book it becomes evil in these two. It's a middle grade horror book by Kirsten White who we love on the show and these two kids have to like kind of save the water park and save their family. But as they're walking around I'm like a water slide that comes out of a gargoyle and like everyone.

[A]

Why aren't they more evil? Because you can't paint things dark colors.

[B]

At a water goths and in the sun. Yeah, super. Well I think that's a big. Maybe if they had big buckets of SPF 100 everywhere like a lot of. But they do have like parasols in this. I'm like like imagine like a Tim Burtony water park. Like that just sounds.

[A]

That does sound very cool.

[B]

But I'm like I'm not big on water parks but I would go to this. This sounds very. I mean I would go to any kind of like horror themed theme park but this just sounds so sweet and fun and like by the end of it I was like oh I hope they go back here after they clear out the evil. Like sounds so fun.

[A]

Have you seen Class Action Park?

[B]

Yes. I love that documentary.

[A]

It's amazing. Apparently it's a book too but yeah, the documentary Is amazing.

[B]

Yeah, it would be like that, but without the murder and death. But yeah, it just imagine like going down a big water slide that was like a big tongue coming out of, like a Satan face.

[A]

Sounds so good, right? Yeah, no, it sounds. I love a water park, as you can imagine.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

A water person, though.

[B]

Yeah, I like water. I'm a water person. But I. I think because water. I don't like the chlorine.

[A]

Yeah, the chlorine's tough. And last time I went to a water park, really burnt my feet.

[B]

What?

[A]

Because it was too hot.

[B]

Oh, I thought you meant you were sunburned. No, just your feet.

[A]

No, like the underside of my feet.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You gotta flip flop.

[A]

What do you call the bottom? No, you're gonna wear a flip flop up on a slide.

[B]

Okay, fair enough.

[A]

No, you need water socks, and I didn't have any water socks. That's what you needed.

[B]

Is that a thing?

[A]

I mean, I don't know. I don't know what you're supposed to.

[B]

I know there's water shoes.

[A]

Is that the same thing?

[B]

Probably. Hold on. I'm literally googling water socks because I've ever heard my life.

[A]

They are water shoes, but they call them water socks.

[B]

No, hydro skin wet socks. Oh, my God. They have neoprene swim fin socks.

[A]

That is not what I was talking about. I'm looking at them now. I'm talking about the ones that are kind of shoe. Shoe. Like, maybe they're called water shoes.

[B]

They're called water shoes, but these look. They're water socks.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

Maybe that's what you're gonna get for Christmas.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Dawn's listening. And we can get Bria some water socks. Dive, buddy. Original water socks. This is what you needed. They're neoprene socks.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I needed. Yeah. I didn't like being at that point.

[B]

The word you're looking for is soul. Soul.

[A]

The soul of your foot. Yes. I burnt the palm.

[B]

Oh, my God. All right, what's your next one?

[A]

Oh, yeah, this last one is one I couldn't not talk about. Which is that Vera Wang' world famous tea house, which is the name of the tea shop in Jesse Q. Santos. Yeah, Jesse Q. Santos. Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers. Wow. There's a lot of long sentences in that. But basically, this is a tea house which she named Vera Wang.

[B]

Is it Vera Wong?

[A]

No, she names it Vera Wang's World Famous Tea House because she wants people to be confused about who owns it.

[B]

That's Hilarious.

[A]

Yeah. She wants people to think it's Vera Wang. And so people will come in thinking it's weird. It doesn't.

[B]

Like the designer.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And so she calls it your wings world famous tea house, even though her name is Vera Wong.

[B]

That is really funny.

[A]

Yeah. To capitalize on the fact that. Yeah. And it first of all, very cute. Tons of teas. You go in, she's gonna look at you and be like, I know what tea you need. Or you ask for something and she shows you. All these season, she has, like hundreds of teas, but also she cooks food and she'll probably serve you food just because you're in there. And it just sounds amazing. And also, she may solve a murder.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

It just sounds like a great place.

[B]

Women can have it all.

[A]

They really can. They really can. If you're in a Jesse Q. Setanto book, what's your last one?

[B]

My last one is a hotel because I started thinking about different establishments that were not bookstores. And I was like, oh, my God, I do love a hotel book. So one of my favorites is the Hotel Walner from Hotel of Secrets by a friend of the show, Diana Biller.

[A]

On our other show.

[B]

Coming on our other show. I talk about Diana a lot on the show because I love her books. And this is her. The one she had that came out last year, year before. But basically this book is historical romance. Takes place in 1870s Vienna, which is already a really fun location. So it's this old hotel that is being restored to its former glory by the main character. And a lot of the story takes place in this hotel. And it's just so fun to read about. Even though the main character is, like, kind of stressing, she's trying to fix it up for ball season. Like her parent or her mom owns it. I said, I think it's her mom who owns it. And she's trying to, like, get her family back together and get this hotel back together. And ball season's coming up and she's like, if I can just get the hotel together ball season, we'll get people in here and, like, everything will. Will work out. So she's like, really getting into the inner workings of this hotel and, like the decorations and getting it together. And it's just, if you love a cool setting, this is such a great book. And yeah, I love a fun hotel. Like, it's just a great setting.

[A]

I could do an entire one of these with hotels. Yeah, I could do a hotel motel situation. Not like maybe they're all kind of Spooky or like a murder happened there.

[B]

There were some spooky ones, but there's.

[A]

But there's a lot that have stuck.

[B]

Like hotels can be scary, but all hotels can be great. There's the Floating hotel, that sci fi cozy book that came out last year, Glass Hotel.

[A]

Yeah, you could do the hotel from the return. Oh, yeah, we could do a whole one.

[B]

Oh, man, we should do that. Good establishments and books. Maybe that is in our wheelhouse. Well, you have. You have another shout out.

[A]

Oh, yeah, I have one more shout out, which is that on our other show, Reading Smart, we talk in depth about how much we love the Sweet Berries book farm location.

[B]

Just the Campbell Crete series.

[A]

All of them. Because there's also a cute coffee shop in the first one.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of great locations.

[A]

Yeah, Cute, sweet locations where all these magical people come and hang out and.

[B]

Talk and get their. Get their. Their produce and their nice coffee and. Oh, yeah, we gotta read the next one. I bet there's even more fun locations.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

All right, final thought on this. What kind of establishment do you want to read more books about? We got a lot of cafes. You said you could do hotels. Is there anything that you don't see enough of that you want more of?

[A]

You know, I just don't read that many bookstore library ones anymore, which is sort of strange because I feel like I used to read a lot of those.

[B]

I feel like we haven't. There hasn't been a big buzzy one in a bit.

[A]

Yeah, maybe not. I think it's hard. I mean, maybe more Libra libraries and maybe like a park I go to. I spend a lot of time in parks, so that is a place that I find very cozy and interesting. But I do like, like what you just said about the. The evil water park when it's like really specific. Yeah, that is like a fun. That's fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The thing is you have to find a place that is fun, but also like a place you want to go. Like, you don't want to. Like the evil dmv.

[A]

No, you don't want the evil. No, no, no.

[B]

But like, you want something that you actually. That's why a hotel is really fun. You want a place that you actually like, like kind of want to hang out.

[A]

Yeah, amusement parks, like that kind of stuff is fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, that's the thing is it would be fun to have a good amusement park because a lot of the amusement park books we get are horror.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They're like, this amusement park is gonna kill you.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Joyland. Yeah, That's a good one. Oh, but people do. That's. That's a dangerous one.

[B]

Yeah, we get, like, a cozy set in an amusement park where there's nothing spooky happening and just like, lots of nice popcorn and cotton candy.

[A]

Sounds great.

[B]

I also would. I want more magical bars.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Great.

[B]

Or just good bars in general. I love a bar book. There was a nonfiction book I almost put on here called Little Chapel on the river, but it's a nonfiction book just about a bar. And I was like, I just want more. I love a bar. Obviously, I'm a big booze nerd. I love cocktails. But, like, I just love. I love reading in a bar. I love. I love what a bar is for people. It's just like a place to hang out. And a bar can be so important for folks. And I think it's such a great setting for a book. And yeah, more magical bars. I need, like, the legends and lattes. I need, like, legends and negronis, you know, like.

[A]

Oh, yeah, you want there to be orcs there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And magical creatures.

[B]

Yes. Travis Baldry, please fix it.

[A]

Do you want the drinks to be doing something?

[B]

Could be magic.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But it doesn't have to. But I do love the idea of, like. Because something I love about Kimberly Lemmings books is that, like, there's a lot of. Those are their fantasy romance. There's a lot of food and drink in there. So I would love, like.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Even if it doesn't do a magical thing, it's like made from a magical item. You know, like, here's. Here's a mana potion martini. That is fun.

[A]

That's fun. Someone has that book.

[B]

Yeah, well, some. Yeah. Please send your thoughts. Send us your favorite establishments. We'd love to hear them. Send them to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. before we test out story terror, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is brought to you in part this week by Factor Folks. Fall can feel like a reset. You know, there's a lot going on. Back to school just happened. The days are changing. It gets dark at noon. New now. Finding time to cook can be really tough. But factors chef prep dietitian approved meals are designed to make it easy, make it easy to stay on track. Enjoy something comforting and delicious no matter how hectic the season gets. Yeah, we have, like two hours of daylight. We all have to shop for holiday stuff. We're trying to get stuff done by the end of the year. You don't want to be worrying about food?

[A]

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[B]

Yeah, Factor is fantastic. They've got so many fantastic. It's not just like, oh, here's the one thing you're gonna get this week. There's so much variety and it's all so easy.

[A]

Yeah, this is eat and eat.

[B]

This is a tough time of year. Like it is. It's cold. You don't want to get out of bed. You don't want to do stuff really. You just want to, like, eat mashed potatoes and then. And then hide under the covers until. Until March. But we can't do that because we all have to pay bills and live life. So let Factor help you out. You can eat smart@factor meals.com Glasses 50 off and use code GLASSES50OFF to get 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for a year. Isn't that the sexiest thing you've ever heard in your life? We should be reading this on our other show. Free breakfast for one year. That's code glasses 50 [e-mail] for 50 off your first box plus plus free breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor glasses.

[A]

Glasses.

[C]

Wonderful is a podcast where we talk about things we like that's hard to sell in a promo like this. So we've enlisted the help of piano rock superstar Billy Joel to tell you about some of the topics we've covered. Take it away. Real Billy Joel.

[D]

Circle Time, Sega Drinkhouse, Caesar Salad, Tower of Annoyed Keepy Uppy Time Capsules, Wayne's World, Cheese Pulls, Wallace, Even Stonky Kong, Fun Size, Almond Joy. They didn't start the podcast. Except that's not true. They did in 22. They didn't start the podcast. No, they actually did. That was, in fact, a fib.

[C]

Listen to Wonderful Every Wednesday on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcast guests. Thanks, Real Billy Joel.

[B]

No problem, Griffin. Time to test out some book tech. Advances in bookish technology. This week we're testing out a website called Story Terra. We got a bunch of emails from Glassers about this.

[A]

T R R A. Every time you say it, I feel like you're saying terror, but with like a Boston.

[B]

Careful, there's some terror over here.

[A]

Story.

[B]

Tara. Oh, man. I opened my Closet terrifying in there. I really want a horror movie that's just, like, all people with wicked thick Boston accents. It's funny. So I saw a post the other day on our Reading Smut Instagram that someone was like, people don't realize that Emily Dickinson must have had a really.

[A]

Thick Boston accent.

[B]

Which I really love. All right, try not to laugh through this. This segment, but. Yeah, a bunch of glassers emailed us about this. I saw people talking about it on the Discord. We figured we should test it out. So, Bria, what is Story? Tara?

[A]

Okay, it's. It's a website now. You can't. Can't hear it. You cannot hear it.

[B]

Story.

[A]

It's a website. It lets you search for books, movies and games and TV shows that happen in a specific, like, state or country or city via this, like, world map that it pulls up that looks very, like, cute with, like, lots of little, like, lights on it. Yeah.

[B]

It looks like looking at the Earth at night, and it's like, so it's black and then. But the. In the light is all the cities. And, like, the brighter a city is, the more stuff is set there. And you click on it, and then it, like, brings it. You can click on any city, and it brings up all this. All the stuff set there. So what did you think of this?

[A]

They're talking about it on the Discord board.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they like it.

[B]

Yeah. Okay, well, we both have thoughts on this.

[A]

Okay. I. Just curious. I mean, I like the idea. Yes, the idea is good. Like, I was just in Mexico City yesterday, and I searched for it, and there were no books and three movies. And I was like, okay, it's a lot more than that set in Mexico City. Then I was like, I did la, and there are three books. It's like, there's a lot more than that. So. It also was really confusing because I tried to use the map part. I like, tried to just. Just click on cities on the map. You can't do that. The map is not a functional.

[B]

Oh, I thought it was an interactive map.

[A]

I don't think so, because I tried. I mean, I'll try it again right now, but. Yeah, there's just, like, not a lot there yet. But I like the idea. You think that it's gonna be like they're waiting for people to fill it in is kind of the idea, I think. I can't click on it on the map. You can only.

[B]

Oh, weird. Like, I was like, zoom in.

[A]

You can zoom in. Okay, that's true. I can zoom in on Texas, maybe.

[B]

Keep zooming.

[A]

Okay, I'll keep zooming.

[B]

Enhance.

[A]

I'll keep it.

[B]

Enhance.

[A]

Okay. Oh, you're right. You can. If you get really close, you can zoom in and. Yeah, I'm in base.

[B]

You gotta pretend you're a forensic scientist in a, in a, in a Law.

[A]

And Order, which we have Starsky and Hutch and then a book, the lady in the Lake. So. Yeah, I mean, okay, I didn't realize that for some reason I was like, it doesn't, you can't clip on all these places. What do you think of this?

[B]

I'm the same way. I think this idea is fun. It does seem to be in its early stages though, so I looked through the list for a few different cities, obviously Edinburgh being the first, and there's not, there's a lot of books not on those lists. It seems to be heavily user generated. So I'm guessing this just needs more time online. I was like, damn, a romance fan with, with an hour with this would double the books that are, that are on here. You know, you need, you need to assemble a crack team like Ocean's Eleven, you need a romance reader, you need a thriller reader, you need a sci fi reader. You need to. A few hours could really plump this thing up.

[A]

Okay, you know what? Okay, I'll say this because I just. It helps if you click on the actual town because when I did Los Angeles this time Now I have 467 books. And before it only had like three. So I think when I typed it in, it doesn't work.

[B]

Yeah, you have to zoom in on it.

[A]

You have to zoom in. And then I'm like, okay, now we can find.

[B]

Yeah, there's, there's stuff on there. But I mean, as a, as an expert on now on Edinburgh set books there, I mean, Library of the Dead wasn't on there.

[A]

Oh yeah. Okay.

[B]

There's like a lot of big books that should, should really be on there. So I love this idea. Especially for setting readers or especially, you know, you love getting a book set where you're going to travel to. This would be great for, for a reader like you who's about to go on vacation, about to go on a work trip, wherever. It does. Just need more though. I, I think this is a good place to start though. Like if you just truly have no idea. This is a, this is a good starting place. But I think this needs a few more months sense of absorbing the Internet. I'm giving it a three out of five pages.

[A]

Yeah, I, I'd give it that now that I realized you click on the location and you just have to zoom in. That does help quite a bit because now there's way more and you can choose. You can filter games, books, movies, or TV shows.

[B]

Yes. And it's real. Like, I, I was looking at Scotland and it's very nice to be able to be like, no, I don't want Edinburgh. Like, I'm clicking on Glasgow specifically. So I, again, I just, I think this needs, needs, needs. This needs to cook a little bit.

[A]

Yeah, it needs to cook for sure.

[B]

But I thank you to people who emailed about this, and I do. I think it's. I think, I think it's got a future.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So you can send your book tech ideas to reading glasses podcast gmail.com or check out our wish list in the show notes. Now let's solve a bookish problem from one of our listeners. Jill writes in to say hi, Brianne Mallory, thank you so much for making the show. I have a distinct memory of listening to your first episode while playing Pokemon go back in 2017. Oh my God. We've been doing this podcast for so long. Wow. I'm writing to ask for advice about exactly the kind of moral quandary you've come to expect from your listeners. The county where I live has had a great library system. But recently the largest and most affluent city has decided to pull out of the county system and establish their own city library. My address is in said Richie Rich suburb. So I'm left to decide what to do with my library patronage. The issue, of course, is one of funding the library was putting money into the library system that was being distributed to less affluent communities. I disagree with their decision. So I don't want to switch to the city library and tacitly support them. But by staying in the county system, am I draining funds that should be going to county residents? No official guidance has been issued yet. Thanks for any thoughts you can offer. Bria. You want to read Jill's wheelhouse?

[A]

Sad lady scientists, robots with feelings, micro histories with a personal touch, and anything that falls under weird fiction.

[B]

All right, what do we think?

[A]

This is tough. This is tough. I mean, this is a moral boundary. As a user of the library, if you go and use that library, that's a vote in the direction that you like. Whatever library you use, they're going to count you. You know what I mean? They're like, this is a user and so that is important to those libraries numbers. But you're worried you're taking away resources. I would worry Less about that and more what's going to count for the library's numbers.

[B]

I think we're both in agreement.

[A]

Okay. That's what you think too?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, Kyle, we live in a terrible world. Jesus Christ. Everything is so cartoonishly bad. I would love to hear from some librari glasses on this. But Bri, like you said, I think it would be beneficial to the county system if Jill stayed in it and checked out books to improve their numbers, to improve their. Their circulation numbers, to improve their member numbers. My idea on this is if you can use both, use both. If you can swing both ways, swing both ways. Maybe get your buzzy books limit. Yeah. Like if there's like a. Like you're. You want to get sunrise on the reaping, get it from the rich system, from the city library. Get everything else from the county library.

[A]

Keep.

[B]

You know, I would also really recommend keep an eye out for any events or fundraisers for the less affluent system course. Keep yourself informed on any book banning activity that's happening in both systems. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to every library, which is a really great website that. That keeps track of some of this stuff. But as for usage, yeah, that's what I would do. I would like get all my buzzy expensive big books from. From the fancy library and I would get everything else from the county system so they can get those numbers and report that.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

But library and glasses, please write in. Yeah, let it let us know if you have thoughts. Library and glasses are really great about writing in and giving us more like informed, nuanced takes on this. But this is just, just as. As to non librarians, this is what we would do. So if you want us to solve your reader problem, you can send it to reading glasses podcastmail.com as always, want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server Facebook group. Oh, because it's getting real chilly. I had to have my heat on the other day. I do too. I turn my very chilly and you know what helped me? Nice sweatshirt. You get a library user sweatshirt, a reading glasses sweatshirt from our Void merch store and every sale from that every. No matter if you're buying a sticker or sweatshirt or a T shirt helps us feed our cats and Bria's wonderful dog who dressed as a sunflower for Halloween.

[A]

The most beautiful sunflower.

[B]

So cute. And then there's a link in the show notes for that. And if you like the show folks, we're so close. We are fewer than 50 reviews away from dropping our silly AMA episode. So if you are an Apple Podcast user, please give us a five star rating. A nice little review. We've been reading the really nice ones that people have been leaving. They've been warming our hearts. But getting to 2000 would really help the show. Take 30 seconds. Open the mobile app on your phone. Give us a nice little. Nice little reading. Nice little review. It won't take you too long, but it'll really make a difference to us. You can email us at reading glasses podcast gmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading. Maximum Fun.

[C]

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[B]

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