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Reading Glasses
Ep 445 - Most Anticipated for January and February + Danika from Book Riot!
00:50:55
Brea and Mallory discuss their most anticipated books for the start of 2026! Plus, they talk to Danika Ellis from Book Riot about their 2026 Read Harder Challenge!
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show about book culture and literary life designed to help you read better. I'm author and book devourer, Mallory o'.
- [00:13]
B
Meara. And I'm Bria Grant, filmmaker and e reader. This episode, we talk about our most anticipated books for the start of 2026. This is one of our most popular episodes. If you're new to the year, baby, this is what we do. We say, these are books we're looking forward to. We want to read. We're. We're doing January and February. We know it's already January. Okay, listen, we're not perfect.
- [00:32]
A
Well, we have. The problem with January is that we have all this New Year's stuff to do.
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B
We do. We gotta start there. Yeah. But now we're gonna tell you what we. What we wanna read from this month and next month. We're also talking to Danica Ellis from Book riot about their 2026 Read Harder challenge.
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A
This is very exciting for us because Danica's awesome, and we are both such big Book Riot fans.
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B
We love Book Riot over here.
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A
Very exciting. But first, Bria, what are you reading?
- [00:53]
B
But first, Mallory, what are your pajamas? We talked for four full minutes about pajamas, and honestly, this is the outtakes that we should be releasing. Episodes.
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A
Have you ever done Print Fresh?
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B
What's that?
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A
Really fancy? Oh, Bria, you'll love it. They're fancy. They're expensive. But Google Print Fresh right now.
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B
Okay.
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A
It's like pajamas, bathrobes.
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B
I don't want anything on my legs, though.
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A
Well, that's why I get the short ones.
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B
You get the short one.
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A
I got the satin. Oh, satin set. That's short.
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B
Wow. Some of these look like very. They're like trad. Wife coated, but I'm okay with it in. In a pajama.
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A
I. I told Bria before we recorded getting nice pajamas when you start getting older makes you feel like an empress.
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B
Yeah, you do feel like a hero around.
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A
I wish I had a cigarette holder, even though I don't smoke anymore.
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B
Wait, what do you. Have you gotten into the robe game?
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A
Oh, yeah.
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B
Okay, great.
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A
I have two. I have no, three robes. I have my winter robe. I have my. My long sleeve robe, and then I have a short sleeve robe.
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B
Wow. Anyway, what are you reading?
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A
What are you reading?
- [01:53]
B
What am I reading? I'm reading a book that. Okay, my book club read this last year or the year before, and I was just out of town, and it's been on my list. It was on my list before that, but it's on it was definitely on my list because everyone book in my book club loved it. I read Bright Young Women by Jessica Null.
- [02:09]
A
Oh, I never read it.
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B
It's fantastic. Basically, it's literary fiction meets true crime, I would say. So it's. It's. There's a woman in a sorority who, in the middle of the night, the sky breaks in and she goes downstairs and finds that. And this is, you know, fast forward if you. This is gonna be too much for you. But he has killed several of the residents. And the entire rest of the book is about her being a survivor and trying to, like, figure out who this guy is. The police think it's this one guy, and she's convinced it's not. And then basically how her and her sorority sister's lives come under scrutiny. And also there's a whole nother storyline with this woman who has also experienced another serial killer moment. It's really, really great. It's so well written to the point where I at one point, like, this.
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A
This.
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B
Is this a memoir? It's not a memoir, but it feels. It's so. The writing is so amazing. It's. It really goes into, like, our obsession with serial killers, but then also the way we treat women. It's. This happens in the 70s, by the way. So the way we treat women after they have experienced a traumatic event, the way the court system works, it's just like, really well written. I can highly recommend it to anyone who likes horror or true crime or even literary fiction, because I think it, like it. It spans all of those categories in a really nice way. Oh, I loved it. Can highly, highly recommend. What are you reading?
- [03:31]
A
I am reading. It's like part memoir, part. I don't know if I guess, a little bit of history, sort of just sort of general narrative nonfiction. It is Love in Exile by Sean Fay. This came out last year. I want to say it was like a Sunday Times bestseller over in the uk and she reads the audiobook. She's a really, really great narrator. It's so fucking great. It's basically just like a book about the modern state of love. Clearly, we were talking about this before. I am leaning into being single and like, reading a lot of these books, and it's so great. And it kind of just like how we're not taught how to love. And she goes into all these different types of love and how they affect how you end up loving other people. Fan, mother, love, love with your father, spiritual, like, all these different things. And it's really, really beautiful. It's really really well written. And if you are, it's kind of pitched as like, if you have sworn off of dating apps and you got. You're very frustrated with the state of modern love and relationships, this is kind of the book for you. It's. It just feels very wise and very interesting. And she's very honest. Like, you know, it's hard to write a memoir about your relationships. And she's pretty unflinching about the things that she talks. You know, there's a whole other element that's really interesting where she talks. She's like, yeah. And I experience, like, the extreme version of a lot of this stuff because I'm trans. So, like, we think CIS women think they have it bad on dating apps. You know, like, it's like a whole other other element to it, and it's. It's so fucking great. And really what I needed right now, a really, really good memoir to start off the year with. So that's Love and Exile by Shan Fay.
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B
I'm reading or I read already. Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll.
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A
So we want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Tyler wrote in to say, I've always enjoyed reading, but always felt a little shame that I was a slow reader. I found that using Libby on my phone and having a long TBR list so something is always available, made it easy to read instead of getting on social media. A friend asked me how many books I've read this year, so I went back and counted. It's early November and I've read 30 books.
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B
Great.
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A
That's. You can't be a slow reader. That's a lot.
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B
That's a lot of books.
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A
That's a lot. That's more than two books a month.
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B
That's a lot of books.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Yep.
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A
How is it even possible? Thank you so much for all the great book recommendations and preventing even a little doom scroll. I love that. I mean, Tyler, I'm with you. I'm still not back on social media. I am trying to stay offline and reading really well.
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B
How beautiful for you.
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A
How beautiful.
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B
I definitely doom scrolled for about 70 hours this morning. Before 10am Anita wrote in and said, I just want to give you a quick thanks for the show notes of your upcoming books of the month episodes, particularly November, December 2025. 1. Well, Mallory has her head in her hands. I wish I could describe the look on her face right now. It is pure joy, happiness, sadness.
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C
Oh, no.
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B
Okay. All right. I'm not sure if I ever noticed or remembered that you mentioned the Books from your show notes in the actual show, or did I just blank out for a percentage of the episode? The book I would have missed on your show notes is the upcoming Jim Clyburn book about the first eight black federal congressmen, him being the ninth. Jim Clyburn is a congressman in my state. In my young adulthood, I was very much in his district. He is a very powerful, influential Democrat, and they are currently trying to gerrymander him out. Ooh. Well, anyway, I started reviewing the show notes of my book podcast before I listened to the podcast. I can't believe it's two ladies in California who ordinarily cover horror and space operas that are the first to tell me about this very interesting and relevant upcoming book about a South Carolina politician. Y' all are awesome book recommenders. Where are my algorithms? How do they not know that I would want to read this? More proof that AI sucks. I hope that my local bookstores would have gotten my attention on it upon its release. We will see.
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A
Okay.
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B
There's a reason Mallory obviously put this one in the show. Mallory works so hard on the episodes that we're doing. Do you want me to give this spiel or you want to do it? But y', all, we talk about, like. Okay, okay. In a moment, we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about about 12 books each. No, about six. Six books each or something like that that we're looking forward to. But there are. I'm not shitting you. 50 plus books in the show notes that you should check out with the wheelhouse items. And Mallory basically cries for two days as she does this book.
- [07:53]
A
Oh, my God. Fucking Christ. This episode took me two days to write.
- [07:58]
C
Two days to get.
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B
To get through these episodes.
- [08:01]
A
Because it's not just a list of the books that are coming out. I write descriptions.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I don't copy paste the descriptions.
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B
No, you don't.
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A
I write personalized descriptions. You do personalize every single book.
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B
Yeah. Of the books coming out. And so this is a very. So listen, we really appreciate this, Anita. Thank you for writing in and for flagging us for everyone.
- [08:20]
A
Yes. And I do appreciate that. And, Anita, I'm very happy that you found a book that was not in your algorithm because of it. But when, folks, when I say we say this, literally every single episode that we do of these. Every single anticipated books episode, please look in the show notes. Please do it for your old friend Mallory. For the love of God, please look in the show notes. There is so much. And you know what? Because I do see it in the discord that people are like, oh, I saw this. This book in the show notes. I'm really excited about it. Sometimes I put little jokes in there.
- [08:50]
B
Yeah, she does. She does a great job. It's a really great. Just go listen right now. Just go take it. Take your phone out. Take a little look at the show notes. Just see it. Just so. Just to make Mallory put a little smile on Mallory's face. Every time you show notes, Mallory gets her wings.
- [09:03]
A
Sometimes Spotify or Apple Podcasts cuts it off. There's a link to the episode page, so click on that. There's a huge, huge list of them. Like, the thing is, we do these episodes because the members unlock them every year.
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B
That's right.
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A
And the reason why they have to unlock them is because it's so much work. But, folks, I give you your fucking money's worth.
- [09:22]
C
Yeah.
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B
Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
- [09:24]
A
I give you your money's worth. I know that a lot of people sign up to become members to get these, so I want to make sure that you are. You're getting your $5 or $10 or $20 a month worth. So please, please. I'm on my knees. I'm begging. I got blood coming out of my eyes. Please. Look in the show notes, please. 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. Show notes. Show notes. Everything you could ever want in life is in these show notes. You can sign up for our newsletter. Look in these books. The books we mention, links to stuff. We talk about our social media. All your hopes and dreams are in our show notes. And a couple of quick bookmarks. We want to say thank you to everyone who participated in the Reading Glasses challenge. I have picked the winners, and they have been emailed. Only one person has emailed back, so I hope the other people do. But we have picked our challenge winners. Thank you so much. It was really fun reading through. Everybody's doing my. My annual annoying. Writing down everybody's email name and putting them in a hat. Also, second bookmark. A bunch of people emailed in. Bria, we're in the fucking New York Times.
- [10:34]
B
New York Times. Thank you so much. That was so lovely to see. Oh, my God.
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A
We got a bunch of emails. People really excited. We were so excited. I called Bria. I was like, we're in the fucking New York Times. Also. Not just the website. We're in the print Sunday edition of the New York Times.
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B
So cool.
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A
Seven podcasts for bookworms. Yeah, we. I was laughing because the episode that they picked to feature was the best.
- [10:54]
B
Snacks for reading, which, honestly is, I feel like, somewhat representative of us. If that brought you to us. We really. Welcome. Welcome to the show.
- [11:02]
A
Please welcome. Oh, God, I hope this isn't the. Well, this is. This might be a lot of people's first episodes, and now they're starting off knowing that they really need to look in the show notes.
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B
Listen, you like reading, you better read those show notes.
- [11:16]
A
That counts as a book. Show notes counts as a book. All right, before we talk about our most anticipated books for January, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part this week by Apron Notebooks. Folks, you're talking to a couple of notebook heads, Notebook gals here.
- [11:36]
B
Notebooks are punk. You know, like writing stuff down instead of doing it on your computer. It's way punk.
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A
It's so nice. I have so many notebooks and I use all of them.
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B
I do, too. I do, too. And it's a great way to not get on your phone, to not get on your computer, to actually just write something down. It's. It's more meaningful. I remember it better. And Apron notebooks can really help you do that.
- [11:56]
A
Yeah. If you're juggling a lot of different things, you're trying to keep track of stuff. Maybe if your New Year's resolutions that you're trying to track stuff to achieve, you are looking for just something that, again, isn't on your phone. The problem with the Notes app on an iPhone is that once you open your phone, you are immediately punched in the face by notifications, email things, social media stuff, text calls, notebook. That doesn't happen. You just open it up and butterflies fly out of the inside of it. You feel calm. You feel like you got your stuff together. But, Bria, tell. Tell me about Apron notebooks.
- [12:27]
B
Apron is a super flexible system for tackling your to do list or lists. You can skip days, weeks, months without wasting space and use only the features that you want.
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A
This is my favorite part about these notebooks. I talked about this in the last ad, but I actually don't like a. Like a dated notebook because I get stressed out because I'm like, what if I. This one day I need two or three pages. What if I want an extra page in between to make a list? And Apron notebooks are so flexible. They're so easy to use. You don't have to worry because I, I, I do know some notebook people who are like, I missed today. I guess I have to set this notebook on fire. I have to buy a new one. You don't have to worry about that with apron and what's really cool also about it is that it's designed to be recycled when you're done with it.
- [13:07]
B
That is really nice. And they have a cute Instagram apron notebooks. Apron notebooks.
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A
They have really cute little looking at pictures of notebooks.
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B
Cause I sure as have honestly I find that very soothing.
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A
I really love looking at pictures of.
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B
Stationery, looking at other people's organizational systems. I love it.
- [13:21]
A
Again, doesn't matter what you what you want to track, whether it's a daily to do list. I personally have, I have my daily to do list notebook. I have my writing notebook where I keep track of the words that I write every day. I have my book journal as you know, like I like having that stuff and it really makes a difference in my life. So if you want to get on that train, get your to do list under control today. Go to apronnotebooks.com and use code glasses for 10% off your first order. That's apron notebooks.com and enter code glasses to save 10% on your first order. That's glasses. Glasses.
- [13:58]
D
Since 2017, after every Max Fund drive, we've held a sale for Max Fund members where all of the proceeds go to a nonprofit. In December, we donated $43,000 to Transgender Law Center.
- [14:11]
A
43,000.
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D
Thank you to all the Max Fund members who made this possible. Transgender Law center champions the right of all transgender and gender non conforming people to live freely, safely and authentically. A mission that everyone at Max Fund supports. If you'd like to learn more or make an additional donation, go to transgenderlawcenter.org and for anyone who needs to hear this, you belong here. You deserve to be able to be yourself and we love you.
- [14:53]
A
This week folks, get out the slide whistles, open up your library apps because we are talking about our most anticipated books for the start of 2026. This is the first roundup of 2026 books. We have picked out the titles that we are most excited about. Most importantly that the Glassers are going to be excited about across all genres and as always want to thank our incredible and generous Max Fund members for making it us to do this. Like I talked about at the top of the show while I was crying blood, these episodes require a lot of a lot of work and a lot of folks joined last year during Max Fun Drive. A lot of folks joined as a holiday gift to us last month, so we really appreciate it. You can be one of those lovely bookish angels by going to maximumfun.org join and signing up to support the show. Also, how you get access to our discord if you email us your membership proof we love our members. Thank you so much for making these episodes possible. And folks, remember, we're only talking about a few of our picks. There's a gigantic curated list that I lose blood over. I lose sleep, I lose blood, I lose my soul. It's. It's got the genres, it's got the wheelhouse items. It's in the show. Notes, please, please, please look at it. All right, let's dive into January. Bria, we don't have any shared picks this month.
- [16:01]
B
We do not. But you did pick one for me, which was correct because I've already started reading it.
- [16:04]
A
Yeah, I. Every once in a while I see a book and I just know that it's going to be on Bria's list and I save her some trouble by copy, copying, copy pasting it right into her slot.
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C
What is it?
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B
It's the 11th book in the Wayward Children series called Through Gates of Garnet and gold by Seanan McGuire.
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A
So you were saying that this one is one that you kind of need some background for.
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B
You do need a little bit of background for this one. Basically, it's about this girl who's cast out of the halls of the Dead. So all of the characters in the book have been to some sort of, like, Narnia like, world that's designed just from them. Some of them are, like, absurdist. Some of them are, like, very dark. This one in particular is about she has to stand still like a statue for, like, hours and hours every day. And, like, the movement's really slow. And that's like, what she was looking for as a way to, like, calm down her life. Anyway, she's thrown back into the school and then she has to go back on an adventure to try to find because. Because the people in the hall are dying. So she has to go back and try to save her friends. So it's adventure slash fun. These are all like, why the R Y A? But I find that they are always really dark. Like, it's like, oh, this man wants to marry women without skin. You know, like, it's like very.
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A
I think of these as adult books, teenagers.
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B
That's exactly what it feels like. But I've loved them all. This is like One of my favorite series, one of the only series. I read all of the books I know every January and they're always novellas, which I love. So they're short and I do look forward to them. They're usually like one of the first things I read in January.
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A
Yeah.
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B
What is your first one?
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A
We got some horror for my first one. My first one that I'm pumped about is Humboldt Cut by Alison Mick. So this is an eco horror book for. For people who like this takes place in Northern California. From what I can tell, it's about this woman who's having a hard time.
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C
She's.
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A
No one's having a good time in a horror book, but she's estranged from part of her family. Her life is just not going great and she ends up having to return to her small town because someone dies in the family and she has to return for the funeral. And as she is hanging out in her hometown, she discovers that there's something terrible in the woods in her town. And I'm just gonna read you one sentence from the. From the descriptions. Unnatural acts giving birth to entities made of human flesh and petrified bark.
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B
Amazing.
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A
I wrote bark monsters in. In the description, but I. So it's like something about. I know the kind of overall theme is like how we ruin the earth and logging and all of that. So that combined with like some family drama, I'm. I'm pretty pumped. What's your next one?
- [18:29]
B
My next one is. Okay, Mallory.
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C
Oh, I knew this.
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B
Do you know I love the Hunting Wives, the show.
- [18:33]
A
Well, we love May.
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B
We love May. But Hunting Wives, I listen. My friends and I were texting the Hunting Wives. The Hunting Wives walked so that he did Rivalry.
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A
I was literally about to say that exact sentence.
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B
May Cobb, who is from the town. She, I. She's from East Texas, which rarely happens. There's so few of us. And I'm from East Texas and you May, and.
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A
And Brooke Bolander.
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B
Yes. That's literally where the. The only bookish people. Also May Cop has a new book coming out called all the Little Houses. Takes place in 1980s in Longview, Texas, which is a very tiny town, but the town I'm from. And it's all about a woman who has a. There's a daughter that bursts onto the scene and she gets exactly what she wants. But it's sort of a coming of age story for her trying to claw her way to the top in this very high society of East Texas. And I'm just excited about a new makeob fun thriller, mystery. If you liked Hunting Wives. I feel like this is one you should definitely be checking out.
- [19:33]
A
And I know a lot of people love Hunting Wives.
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B
It was honestly one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. Oh yeah, wildly entertaining. What's your next one?
- [19:41]
A
This is very Mallory month. My next one is werewolf book the Wolf and his King.
- [19:45]
B
I feel like you read a book with the same title.
- [19:48]
A
I read the Wolf King by Lauren Kauferman. Listen folks, I like what I like, okay? But this one, this one is not smutty. This is so. It's A Wolf and His King by Thin Longmen, which if your name is Finn Longman and you don't write fantasy books, I mean, I think legally you are required to write fantasy novels. But this is a queer retelling of Bisclav Cleveret. Bisclavret. This is one of those words that I read a lot, but I've never said out loud. But it's like a French werewolf story, takes place in 12th century. So it's a historical queer retelling of a werewolf story. And plus there's like some court intrigue which I think is really exciting and I can't fucking wait. The read alikes are like Madeline Miller, Naomi Novik. So it's less horror and more like fantasy medieval werewolf stuff. But I'm pumped, very excited. I love a queer retelling, Love a werewolf story. What's your next one?
- [20:41]
B
My next one. I'm in the mood for some cozy stuff. So I chose this one because I felt like, feel like this is. I've read a lot of thrillers in a row and I really feel like this will be a good one for me. It is a midnight pastry shop called Huawul Dong. Probably not saying that correctly, but let's.
- [20:56]
A
We're doing our best here.
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B
We're trying. It's by Lee Anhua. It is compared to before the Coffee Gets Cold, the Midnight Library. And basically it just sounds so cozy. It's about this person who inherits her grandmother's bakery and is like grandmother's. Like there's only two conditions. You have to keep it open for another month and you can only serve customers between 10 and midnight. And she's like, okay, I guess I'm gonna help run this. I'm gonna run this bakery. And it's like a cozy magical realism but with like desserts. And honestly there's. I truly can't think of a better book for this time of year. For me, I'm. I'm going through a lot. A lot is stressing me out. And this just feels like a very.
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A
Cozy, wonderful dessert for your brain.
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B
Dessert for my brain? What's your. What's your next one?
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A
My next one is When Trees Testify. Science, Wisdom, History and America's Black Botanical Legacy by Rhonda L. Montgomery. This is a non fiction book. It's basically a history of American black botany through seven different trees.
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B
Oh, that's cute.
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A
If I was ever a vampire, which would suck for me because I would rather be a werewolf, but if I ever became a vampire and I was.
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B
A mortal, I'd go werewolf any day.
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A
Really? Yeah. Why? Neither of us eat meat. We'd have to drink blood.
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B
I think I could. I'd get past it. If I was a vampire, I mean, I would be fine.
- [22:15]
A
I guess as werewolves, we'd have to eat meat.
- [22:17]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
Oh, but werewolves are so much sexier.
- [22:20]
B
Wow. Gonna agree disagree on that one.
- [22:23]
A
Anyway, if I was a vampire and became immortal, botany is one of those things where I would really. I'm very like, interested to be interested in. Does that make sense? It's like if I had infinite lives, I would be really interested in botany, which is funny because I have a black thumb of death and struggling every day to keep my house plants alive. But botany is just so fascinating to me. And this sounds really, really interesting. It's like cultural, but also personal. Like, you know, I feel like a lot of books nowadays are like half personal, half history, half cultural history, which I love, and starts by saying the history of trees in America are also the histories of black Americans. So this is like a perfect comb of like interesting botanical science, but also American history. So I am. I'm very pumped about that. What's your last one for January?
- [23:09]
B
My last one is the Bones Beneath my skin by TJ Clune, which sounds totally great. I love TJ Klune. It is about a 10 year old girl with some sort of powers. Her father and a stranger who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all cost. A strange story of family love, comets and bacon.
- [23:28]
A
Oh, yeah. This is very. If you were unhappy about the way the Stranger Things ended.
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B
Apparently that's what people are saying. This is what.
- [23:34]
A
This is the book for you?
- [23:35]
B
Yeah. Did it end? Stranger Things? Is it done? Oh, it is done.
- [23:38]
A
I haven't seen it, but I know it is done.
- [23:40]
B
You haven't watched any Stranger Things? I've watched.
- [23:43]
A
I watched a few seasons of it. Yeah.
- [23:45]
B
I haven't watched the newest one, but this all takes place in the 90s, which of course I love, and I love TJ Klune. So I'm excited about this one. It's a tour book. A lot of my books are tor books. Always.
- [23:54]
A
You know, we love. We're tor heads.
- [23:56]
B
We are real tour heads over here. What's your last one?
- [23:59]
A
My last one for January is Winter the Story of a season by Val McDermid. Which is so funny to me because I was just thinking the other day that when January hits la, like, I feel like winter's over. Like, as soon as New Year's, I'm like, oh, it's. But it's been so cold.
- [24:12]
B
It has been cold. It's cold today.
- [24:14]
A
Cold here. But this is so. It's creative nonfiction. It's the history of winter community events. The author lives in Scotland. Most of the book takes place in Scotland. It's sort of like ruminating on, like, when we used to, like, have spend time together in winter to like, keep each other going.
- [24:31]
B
I can read this.
- [24:32]
A
Yeah, it seems really, really good. Journeys into the heart of the season's ever evolving based traditions. And yeah, it's all from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night, just sort of. What's that? How do you pronounce that? Higga. Higgy.
- [24:49]
B
I forgot. But I know what you're saying.
- [24:51]
A
H. Requiring your podcasters to be able to pronounce things. Don't listen to.
- [24:55]
B
Wrong show for you, baby. H, Y, G, E. I think it is Hig. Higgy. It's a language we don't speak.
- [25:03]
A
Yeah, this is another word that I read a lot, but I don't say a lot. Can you tell I live by myself and just read a lot. Yes, that's me. But it's a higgy filled journey through winter nights and I'm excited for this. I look like. Winters used to be so different before we had electricity. When we were more community based.
- [25:22]
B
Take me back. Yeah.
- [25:23]
A
So you would love. You would love no electricity. You would love waking up at midnight to do some stuff and then go back to bed.
- [25:28]
B
I do that already. That's my current life. I wake up at midnight, I do some stuff, I go back to bed.
- [25:33]
A
I'm gonna get you a bonnet and a little in a pail.
- [25:36]
B
Oh, oh, like, okay. I was gonna do, like, errands, but you're talking about a little candle.
- [25:40]
A
Yeah, I'm gonna get you like a, like a candle and I'm gonna get you a sleepy time bear costume.
- [25:44]
B
I would love that.
- [25:45]
A
That'd Be a great Halloween costume for you. That would be a good sleepy time.
- [25:49]
B
That sounds great. And then I can just go to sleep at night when I'm.
- [25:51]
A
Yeah, just go straight home. Straight home to bed.
- [25:53]
B
Yeah.
- [25:54]
A
All right. So you can send your thoughts to reading glasses podcast gmail.com. before we talk about our most anticipated books for February, we're going to. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part this week by Green Chef. This new year, try Green Chef, which is the trusted authority and delivering only real farm sourced ingredients. New year. New you, baby. Listen, a lot of people, it's easy for us to make fun of starting over in the new year, but starting over in the new year does feel really good. I've started a bunch of new habits and I feel great.
- [26:26]
B
Like what?
- [26:27]
A
I just. I've been eating better. I've been not eating like a divorced dad. Oh, you'd be so proud of me. I cooked last night.
- [26:32]
B
What'd you cook?
- [26:33]
A
Some couscous and fish and green beans.
- [26:36]
B
Whoa. Who is she?
- [26:38]
A
Someone who needs a lot of protein. That's who she is. If this sounds good to you, check out Green Chef. Every Green Chef box delivers certified organic produce and responsibly source proteins and seafood. That means avoid ultra processed fillers. Tell me more about Green Chef.
- [26:53]
B
Green Chef does research and meal planning and grocery shopping so you can enjoy low prep less mess meals for every lifestyle. Make your habits better for the planet. Green Chef cuts food waste by 20% versus grocery shopping and offsets 100% of the delivery emissions. That's so nice.
- [27:07]
A
I will say as an honorary divorce dad did, I didn't like make start making some meal plans for the year. It took me like all night. Yeah, I really felt like I was.
- [27:17]
B
It does take a long time to cook, but not with Green Chef.
- [27:19]
A
You know that scene in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf has to go do some research in that tower to make sure that the ring is actually the ring and he's like looking through all these dusty tomes and unfold furling scrolls. That's me trying to meal plan.
- [27:31]
B
Ah, yes.
- [27:32]
A
It took me multiple pieces of notebook paper to figure this out.
- [27:35]
B
Got it.
- [27:35]
A
You know what fixes all of that?
- [27:37]
B
Green Chef would solve that problem.
- [27:39]
A
You don't want to feel like Gandalf trying to find out if the ring is real. Get Green Chef. You can take control of your eating with less stress. They take care of all the meal planning. That is the hardest part. That is the part, at least for me, that takes so much effort. If you want to get that out of your life right now.
- [27:54]
B
Go to greenchef.com glasses graza and use code glasses graza to get started with 50 off green chef plus a free Grazza olive oil set in your second and third boxes.
- [28:05]
A
It's really nice olive oil.
- [28:06]
B
Yeah. Mallory loves it. It's this 50 offer is only available for a limited time, so don't wait. That's Code glasses graza@greenchef.com GlassesGraza that's G R A Z A glass. Say, what's the trivia show where dreams come true? It's gotta be Go Fact Yourself. Legend in the house. We quiz celebrity contestants about topics they love, then bring out surprise experts to delight and amaze. And then finally tell us why you know and love the lyrics to the song Knockin Boots by Candyman. Joining us tonight is a rapper and producer.
- [28:46]
A
It's Candyman. Hello, Candyman.
- [28:50]
B
This is among the greatest moments of my life. This is one of mine too.
- [28:55]
A
I love it.
- [28:56]
B
That's Go Fact Yourself twice a month, every month here on Maximum Fun.
- [29:13]
A
Okay, we are back. Let's get into February's most anticipated books. We actually have a couple shared ones for February.
- [29:18]
B
Oh, my God, Mallory. I cannot believe Bethany C. Morrow is putting out a horror book.
- [29:22]
A
I. I felt like I had to climb on the roof after I saw this. I need to set off fireworks.
- [29:29]
B
We're so excited.
- [29:30]
A
You gotta get on the news.
- [29:31]
B
I am very, very excited. We love Bethany C. Morrow.
- [29:34]
A
This one sounds weird as fuck.
- [29:35]
B
It does sound good. You wanna talk about it?
- [29:37]
C
Yeah.
- [29:37]
A
It's called the Body and it's about this woman. She is in a failing marriage that she does not want to be in. And from what I can tell, it seems like her in laws kind of didn't want the marriage to happen. The marriage has been kind of under attack the entire time it's been going on. Only now it's under attack for real and some weird stuff is happening. And the book description doesn't tell us what the attacks are. All it says is, she's under constant attack from all directions. The assaults turn increasingly vicious and bizarre. Mavis realizes that hell is not reserved for the afterlife. So this seems like one of those weird books that if, like, you say too much about it, it spoils it, but it sounds super strange and unique and interesting and I cannot fucking wait for this. Yeah, what's the second one? Actually, I've had shout out to Rachel Conrad, friend of the show, texted me about this a while ago and was like, heather Fawcett has a New book that you gotta find out about, which we love.
- [30:34]
B
We love Heather Fawcett on the show.
- [30:36]
A
Who we never talk about. We always talk about Emily Wilde, but it's really Heather Fawcett.
- [30:39]
B
It's really Heather Fawcett. It's Heather Fawcett who's fantastic. She has a new book coming out called Agnes Albert's Mystical Cat Shelter, which sounds very cozy but wonderful. It's about a woman who runs a cat shelter in the 1920s in Montreal who turns to a grouchy but charming wizard to help save the shelter in a heartwarming, cozy fantasy.
- [30:56]
A
So adorable. Adorable us. Like a little gentle fantasy about a cat shelter.
- [31:02]
B
And the name of the woman is Agnes, just like my dog, who's staring.
- [31:06]
A
Directly and through the crack podcast room so badly.
- [31:11]
B
Desperately. Desperately. But that sounds really cute and adorable. I'm very excited for new Heather Fawcett.
- [31:15]
A
Oh, so, so pumped. All right, what is your first individual pick?
- [31:18]
B
My first one is the Forest at the Edge of Time by Jasmine Kirkbride. The COVID of this is so cute.
- [31:23]
A
Go look at the COVID I'm doing this right now.
- [31:25]
B
Okay. Recruited by mysterious project that is going to change history and save the future from an ecological disaster. Basically, these two people are transported to opposite worlds. 1. Isn't it a beautiful cover? One works as a healer's assistant in ancient Athens, and the other is the last human alive on this polluted island. Basically, it's like time travel. And then also the women are suffering amnesia. And it also is like an eco horror thriller. This just sounds. And it's science fiction, so this just sounds like all my favorite things wrapped into one book. So I'm very excited about it.
- [31:56]
A
Very Bria book.
- [31:57]
B
What's your.
- [31:58]
A
What's your. My next one is a thriller called Her Last Breath. And I don't read a lot of thrillers, but there's something.
- [32:04]
B
I'm way more thriller heavy.
- [32:05]
A
You're way more thriller heavy than me. But there's something about this one that really intrigued me. It's about these. These two women, these two best friends, that finally, one of them is really into caving, the other one is not. And the friend that's not into caving, finally, after many years, decides to go on this expedition with her. And as they get down in there, they realize they're not alone. It sounds great.
- [32:28]
B
And it sounds like more horror almost than thriller.
- [32:31]
A
This is not a spoiler because it's in the description, but the. The friend that doesn't like caving 24 hours later is in a hospital. And she's recounting how this man killed her, her best friend. But as detectives start investigating the case, she finds out a lot of stuff about her best friend's life. That she did not know her true past. And they begin to suspect this attack was not as random. After all, who is her best friend, really? And there's something. Every once in a while, I read a description like this and I'm like, if I don't know, if I don't find out what happens? I am. I'm gonna go lie on the road. I have to know. I have to know. So I'm really excited about this one. What's your next one? Oh, I knew you were gonna pick this.
- [33:07]
B
Of course I picked this one. The title alone is gonna get me. It's called I'm not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig, which is about. After serving a long prison stint, this former serial killer goes to retirement home. She's ready to just relax. She's not killing anybody. But then someone drops dead and she has to prove she didn't do it. And that, to me, just sounds like a perfect plot. I'm so. That. That's wonderful. Fantastic. Five stars.
- [33:30]
A
Ready to read?
- [33:31]
B
Oh, yeah. What's your next one?
- [33:33]
A
My next one is the Glowing Hours by Layla Siddiqui. This is a fucking Frankenstein retelling as told by her Indian housemate.
- [33:41]
B
Yeah, this sounds great.
- [33:43]
A
I am really excited. So this is horror. It's gothic. It's about the summer that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. And Mary Shelley had a maid, Indian housemaid. Her name was Mare Begum. And I was like, that's all I need to know. Like, I love a retelling from a point of view that we like. I. I had no idea. I didn't even know this woman existed until I saw this. And I was like, I gotta know because that is like one of the most famous literary stories of all time. Is Mary Shelley as a teenager just inventing a genre over a summer? So I'm really pumped about this. What's your next one?
- [34:17]
B
This was the new Catrion Award. We love. We're. We're big St. We're big Catriana reward heads over here. It's called Nowhere Burning. I think I already have an arc for it.
- [34:26]
A
It.
- [34:26]
B
I'm just gonna read the description. Riley and her brother Oliver set off in the pitch black night, fleeing their troubled home. They are headed for nowhere, an abandoned ranch once the playground of its former eccentric movie star owner. Now a haven for runaways. She's so good at taking a great location.
- [34:41]
C
Yeah.
- [34:42]
B
This is why she really is everything. She's very setting. And basically there's a. This. There's a mysterious clan that guards secrets and scorched grounds hold the ghosts of the past. And they realize that they may have escaped the devil they knew. But something darker lurks in the burnt shell of nowhere. It just sounds really good. I've loved all of her last books. I'm really excited for a new Katrina award. What's your next one?
- [35:03]
A
Mine is. It seems this seems like the perfect book to read if you have the Husbands by Holly Grimasio left a itch that you cannot scratch. It's called Insignificant Others by Sarah Geo. And this is a sci fi romance about a woman stuck in a one day time loop. And every day she has a new one day relationship with a past.
- [35:23]
B
Boy. Is this person not me.
- [35:24]
A
I don't know.
- [35:24]
B
Okay.
- [35:25]
A
But it says this might be a shared pick because. So every day she gets a new try with one of her past boyfriends. And this sound. It just sounds so good.
- [35:35]
B
I love that. That sounds amazing.
- [35:37]
A
Yeah. What's your next one?
- [35:38]
B
My next one. Wow.
- [35:40]
A
Your last one.
- [35:40]
B
My last one. I'm so. This sounds so good.
- [35:42]
A
I know. I almost picked this one too.
- [35:44]
B
It's called the Renovation by Kenan Oren. It is about a woman that discovers her bathroom has been remodeled into a prison cell where she is an unlikely inmate. And it's a surreal novel about exile, grief, memory and migration.
- [35:57]
C
Oh.
- [35:57]
B
It takes place in Italy as well. This just sounds like something I would really love. I'm very excited. A surreal.
- [36:03]
A
This.
- [36:04]
B
I. I wish I had written this. I'm. This sounds so fun and really weird. So thrilled. I don't know this. I don't know this author.
- [36:11]
A
I love a woman going through a weird situation.
- [36:14]
B
Yeah. Especially if it's real and like it's like something to do with like her house. I'm totally on board. What is your last one?
- [36:19]
A
Mine last one is a non fiction book. It's a memoir. It's called Unread A memoir of Learning and Loving to Read on TikTok by Oliver James. And I had never heard of Person, but he's a big TikTok guy and he as an adult was one of the many people in America who are adults who cannot read. And he learned to read by using a TikTok.
- [36:39]
B
Adorable.
- [36:39]
A
And it's all about literacy and how important literacy is and how it's changes life and I can't wait for this. I'm going to do the audiobook. This just sounds awesome. Like, we love a book about books. We love a book about reading. And it's. I'm very interested to read this because you and I might be the last human beings on earth who are not on TikTok.
- [36:57]
B
I don't want to be on there.
- [36:58]
A
I don't. I'm not on TikTok. I don't look at TikTok. I am still that friend that people send me TikToks, and I have to, like, go look at it on a browser.
- [37:05]
B
Yeah, same like a like. Or I just say, what is it? I'm not going to go look at it.
- [37:09]
A
I also do that.
- [37:10]
B
Yeah, I can't see it.
- [37:11]
A
So I'm actually very interested in getting this sort of, like, window into that type of. That, like, section of BookTok, because despite being book podcasters who've been featured in the New York Times, we're not on Book Talk. So it's a. It's a world that we're very interested in. But so I'm excited to, like, get it in this way and, like, read a. Read a memoir about it. So you can send your most anticipated books for the start of the year to Reading Glasses Podcast mail. Before we talk to Danica Ellis from Book riot about their 2026 Read Harder challenge, we're gonna take a quick break. So pretty special moment right now. We've got Danica Ellis, editor at Book Riot here. We're so excited to have them here. Danica, before we get into the reason you're here, we have to ask you, what are you reading?
- [37:55]
C
Yeah. So at the time of recording, I am currently trying to get through as many Sapphic holiday books as I can. Queer.
- [38:05]
D
Love to hear it.
- [38:06]
C
I'm kind of. Yeah, I'm kind of in between some right now, but I'm hoping to get to Joy to the Girls by Rachel Lippincott and Allison Derek.
- [38:15]
A
Love the Nothing as Good as a holiday romance title. We love it.
- [38:18]
C
Right. But it's got this time limit built in, so I feel like I have to rush through them. And then another one. Really Cute People by Marcus Harwood Jones is a polyamorous Snowden romance. So hoping to get to that one, too.
- [38:34]
A
That's awesome. Okay, so you're here from Book Riot, of which if you listen, you listen to the show. You know, we're big Book Riot fans. Tell us about mutual fans.
- [38:43]
C
Oh, that's.
- [38:44]
A
That. That honestly made my day when you emailed us. So something that that a lot of Book Riot readers love is The Read Harder Challenge. Tell us about 2026. What's on the challenge for this year?
- [38:56]
C
Yeah, it's very exciting. It's the 12th year that we're doing it, which is wild. Yeah.
- [39:02]
B
Oh, my God.
- [39:05]
C
In Internet years, that is a century.
- [39:07]
A
Oh.
- [39:07]
C
So it's very impressive. And this is my third year running it. So I write the newsletter, and it's made up of 24 tasks that are supposed to diversify your TBR, expand your reading life, and help you pick up books you might not have discovered otherwise. And this year, we put a lot of. Of thought and perhaps overthinking into the. What? Hold on.
- [39:31]
A
Bookish people overthinking this what?
- [39:35]
C
So we take it very seriously. It's a mix of kind of fun things to spice up your reading life. Like, we have one about for task 20. Read a book set in space. But then we've also got some, like, timely things that we think we probably should be reading. Like tax number 18 is to read a nonfiction book about AI or social media.
- [39:59]
A
Yes.
- [39:59]
C
So we're trying to balance those things. We want it to be fun, but we also want some serious stuff in there too. And another thing we highlighted this year are some buzzy subgenres that are popping up, like, reading queer bipoc romantasy novels, because romantasy very big, but a certain kind tends to be the biggest right now. And also got gothic novels, which are having a moment right now.
- [40:27]
A
It's because we all wish we were wearing a beautiful gown and running through the woods holding a candelabra. That's kind of, like, where we're all at mentally. And I think that's why everyone is, like, might as well pretend to be a gothic heroine for 400 pages.
- [40:39]
C
Exactly. If everything's gonna be bleak.
- [40:42]
A
Yeah.
- [40:42]
C
At least be romantic. Yes.
- [40:44]
A
I really think that's what it is. So I'm so curious. It's such a.
- [40:49]
B
The book.
- [40:49]
A
The Read Harder challenge is like, the.
- [40:51]
D
The.
- [40:52]
C
The.
- [40:52]
A
One of the, like, iconic reading challenges. How do you all decide? Like, is it. Is there a, like, secret, shadowy book riot council? Like, what goes into choosing what the categories?
- [41:04]
C
Well, it's been a little bit different year to year. I wasn't here at the very beginning, but I believe it was just one of our writers, kind of on a whim, put it together herself.
- [41:15]
A
Beautiful.
- [41:15]
C
And it's kind of expanded from there, so we have all our editors brainstorm a whole bunch, and we had dumped them all to a doc. And then this year and last year, we've also gotten our Contributors to add their ideas. We end up with a lot to choose from and then we try to narrow it down to 24 and have that, like I was saying, that balance of different genres and formats and tone and making sure it's accessible. And there's again, a lot of overthinking about making sure that it.
- [41:47]
A
We do the same thing, like that's the way Bri and I do it, is that we be honestly kind of throughout the year. Every once in a while something will pop up and we're like, oh, that'd be a good thing to put on the challenge next year. And then we end up with a doc full of ideas and then we filter them all out. Like that's why we don't normally do like format things because we want to make sure that everyone is able to participate. It's. It's honestly all of this. Your overthought is making me feel better about my overthought. So I love it. So which ones are you particularly most excited about for 2023? Basics.
- [42:18]
C
For me, I'm most excited, I think, about task number five and six. So number five is read a non fiction book about resistance.
- [42:25]
B
Nice.
- [42:26]
C
And I think, yeah, I'm excited to get, you know, some inspiration.
- [42:31]
A
We're gearing up. I mean, it's real. It's just research at this point.
- [42:35]
C
Exactly. It feels like a good time to, you know, learn from those things.
- [42:40]
A
Yes.
- [42:40]
C
And then the other, the other direction, as I mentioned, read a gothic novel published in the last 10 years. I've especially been loving all the sapphic gothic novels that have come out in 2025. So I just want to lean into that.
- [42:54]
A
Yes, we love it. We true. Like, because if. If one gothic heroine running through the woods with a candelabra is good, why not have two of them?
- [43:03]
C
Like, exactly.
- [43:04]
A
You can't go wrong.
- [43:06]
C
I just read. I read one this year called the Salvage I love by In Bar Essala. Oh, God.
- [43:14]
A
It was one of my favorite books of the year. I just.
- [43:16]
B
It.
- [43:17]
C
Me too.
- [43:17]
A
It was, it was the book that I picked that I want to see most adapted because I was like hot lesbian snowed in Haunted Love affair on an isolated Scottish marine archaeology. Imagine Gothic. What? Oh my God. It was just like so many great things in there. Like, imagine a scene where she goes down to the. Into the haunted shipwreck.
- [43:37]
C
Like. Exactly.
- [43:39]
A
I just. I love it so much. Yeah, I am.
- [43:41]
C
Yeah. Wow.
- [43:42]
A
I'm already. It's not even 2026 yet and I'm already getting close to finishing this challenge, I'm excited.
- [43:49]
C
Exactly.
- [43:50]
A
So something I really love about Book Riot is that you all. You do this Read Harder challenge, but you also have these corresponding Book Riot articles to help readers find books. Can you talk about, like, does people get assigned those? Do you do those? Like, is we send people to Book Riots so often when they're looking for a particular typ. Type of book. Like, when you do the challenge, are you, like, all right, well, this is our, you know, on our content calendar for the year. How does that work out?
- [44:17]
C
Yeah, it has changed over the years. So the last few years, I've been writing most of them, and then we also, between the editors, kind of split it up by a specialty, essentially. So, yeah, I think a couple years ago, I think I wrote all of them. I could be remembering wrong and then have managed to divest some of them.
- [44:40]
A
To see you're like me. Yes, we're overthinkers, but we use our overthinking to power stuff.
- [44:47]
C
Exactly. Yeah. So we have. If you want the recommendations, there's the Read Harder newsletter. That's what I write. And it's throughout the year. So it's every other week we do a recommendation list, and we give at least two recommendations per newsletter and then more for paid subscribers. So you get an extra. Extra four or more if you're a paid subscriber. But we always make sure there's at least. At least a few for everybody.
- [45:13]
A
Oh, I love that. So this challenge has been going on for an eternity, essentially, in Internet years. You've seen 12 years of this challenge. How do you think doing reading challenges like this improve someone's reading life?
- [45:30]
C
Yeah, I think it's a great way to break you out of a rut, I think, especially now there are so many books to choose from, it's really easy to go so really niche and accidentally realize that you've been reading the same sort of book over and over and over again because there's just so many of them. And it's a good way to get to know new genres and formats and tropes that you wouldn't have tried otherwise. And I also think it's just a bit of, like, gamification. I always find it funny when people seem to get annoyed that people set reading goals at all. You know, like, oh, you shouldn't. You shouldn't try to reach this number. You shouldn't try to. To make it into homework. But it's not homework. It's a game. It's a fun thing to try to achieve. So personally, I Think that's just entertaining. Trying to check off all the boxes. And not everybody is going to complete the whole challenge. People kind of handle it differently and decide how they're going to do it. But yeah, I think it's fun to challenge yourself and break out of your rut a little bit.
- [46:33]
A
I really like what you said because there are just so many books that come out every year and it's so easy to just be so overwhelmed. We get so much fan mail from people who, who are like, I don't even know. How do I pick what to read next? How do I pick off my tbr? So having a challenge like that to sift out the what, hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, however many hundreds of thousands of books that come out every year is. Is real. Can be really helpful and fun as far as I think. All right, so besides, we've got Sapphic romcoms, we've got Sapphic Gothic. What else is in your reader wheelhouse?
- [47:09]
C
As soon as I knew I was going to be on the podcast, I was drafting this. I love it together in my wheelhouse. So the first thing on my list was Sapphic novels, which is a new. A new edition. But I'm. I'm very glad for it. And then also Sapphic vampire novels. I love it.
- [47:27]
A
So you're a big.
- [47:28]
C
Alexis.
- [47:28]
A
Alexis Henderson person.
- [47:31]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:32]
A
ST Gibson.
- [47:33]
C
Yeah, yeah. Yes. Love SD Gibson. I love Queer cozy fantasy, obviously, especially Sapphic cozy fantasy. But all queer cozy fantasy is fair game. I also love slice of life manga and anything that has cute fantasy creatures in comics like the Tea Dragon Society. My reading tends to be to one extreme or the other. Like I either I want to be.
- [48:00]
A
Terrible, so comfortable and cozy.
- [48:04]
C
Exactly. And by the way, if you love the Tea Dragon Society, there was a book that came out this year and now I'm not going to remember the full name.
- [48:12]
A
We'll put it in the show notes. We'll find it.
- [48:15]
C
Yeah, it has Geo zoology in the title. Lu and Wren's Guide to Geozoology. Something like that.
- [48:20]
A
Wait, does that mean Little Rock People?
- [48:24]
C
It is huge creatures. Like they're part of the landscape. So they're like giant hamsters.
- [48:31]
A
I love it.
- [48:32]
C
That you could climb up.
- [48:33]
A
Oh my gosh.
- [48:34]
C
And it's so cute. It's Angela Shea as the author and it's a similar sort of like very cute style, but also really beautifully written and moving. And so if you are also a Tea Dragon Society fan.
- [48:49]
A
I very much am.
- [48:50]
C
Why not? And then my other bullet points, thought provoking fiction and books. By indigenous authors. So it's not all.
- [48:58]
A
We have very similar wheelhouses. I'm into this.
- [49:00]
B
This is great.
- [49:02]
A
So folks know where I I'll put obviously put a link to Book Riot and I'll put a link to the Read Harder Challenge where can listener. Is there anything else that that people should be signing up for the Read Harder newsletter? Where can people find you specifically on online if they want their sack of book recs from you?
- [49:21]
C
Yeah. So at Book Riot you can find me at the Read Harder newsletter as well as the Arc we are shelves newsletter I write. So those are my two beats. And then I also am a co host on all the books the podcast.
- [49:34]
A
One of the best podcasts ever.
- [49:37]
C
Oh thank you so much. And I also run a sapphic book blog with about a dozen reviewers called the Lesbrary so you can which is there too.
- [49:46]
A
So great. I actually I have used the library Lesbury so many times when people write in for book recommendations. So I am listeners can't see but I am saluting you because you're doing. You're doing some important work over there.
- [49:58]
C
That's. That's so fun. Thank you. I appreciate that.
- [50:01]
A
All right, I'll put links to all of this in the show notes. But Danika, thank you so much for coming on the show. This is so great.
- [50:06]
C
Thank you for having me.
- [50:08]
A
As always want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. And remember you can buy reading classes totes and shirts and stickers over at Avoid Merch store. Maybe now that it is winter time, you're. You're chilly. It's been winter time for a little bit, but you're chilly. You need a nice sweatshirt to keep you warm. Maybe a library user sweatshirt. Check it out, check out the link in the show notes and if you like the show, please write and review us on the podcast listening app of your choice. It is so great for us and really helps us reach more readers. You can email us out at reaching reading glasses podcastmail.com find us on Instagram Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading. Maximum Fun. A worker owned network of artist owned shows supported directly by you.