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Reading Glasses
Ep 463 - Most Anticipated Books for May + June!
00:48:38
Brea and Mallory talk about their most anticipated books for May and June. Email us at readingglassespodcast at gmail dot com!
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A
Foreign.
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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.
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A
And I'm Bria Graham, filmmaker and e reader. Hey, it's back. It's the anticipated books for May and June. We know what month it is right now.
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B
It is the anticipated, anticipated episode during the fun Drive.
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A
This was one of our goals. We were laid back. Hey, we're only gonna bring it back if we get 300 new people to join. And we got that. And we really appreciate all you who joined and make this episode possible. We are so excited to talk about the books that we are looking forward to for May and June.
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B
But first, Brienne, what are you reading?
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A
I'm checking off the reading glasses. Challenge of a book in a. What is it? A book in a category that you wouldn't normally read. A genre.
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B
Are you. Are you going to talk about Odd man in.
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A
I'm going to talk about Odd man in. Odd man in Hockey.
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B
Oh, my God.
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A
Emergency Goalies and the Wildest One Day Job in Sports by Stephen Wino. Okay. I just want to say we have a mutual friend who is into hockey.
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B
I know. I love hanging out with Anthony because he's like, bria's been telling me hockey things that I didn't know. Bria doesn't watch.
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A
Okay. I told him. I told him about this whole thing. I feel very. I don't care anything. I will never learn anything else about hockey. But this was when we were talking about on the show. I was like, what's a sports book? And you recommended a few. And this one felt to me like one that I could actually read because it's about, basically, there's hockey teams. You're gonna be able to explain this better than me, but I'm gonna try.
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B
Wait, no, I want you to do this. This is great.
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A
Hockey teams have to have an emergency backup goalie because there's been times where, like, these goalies get plowed in the head by a puck too many times, they can't play, and then they're like, what do we do? So they have to have a backup goalie. And there's two, right? There's usually one goalie, and then there's, like, the one that could also play.
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B
And then there's another starter and your backup.
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A
Right? And then there's an emergency backup. And usually. Yeah, knee bug. Emergency backup goaltender. Is that a word? And so this book just goes through the history of them because they haven't had been called up to play that many times in the history of hockey. Like it's less than 20 times or something. But the times are always really interesting where it's like, oh, no, one guy like threw his back out and then the other guy, you know, got hit in the head with a puck or whatever. And now we have to go find the other guy and he's like drinking at a bar and we had to go pull him out of the bar and sober him up and put a uniform on it. So there's been like stuff like that. But then there's also guys who are just like, the guy is the. I just read one where he was kind of. He's the equipment manager, maybe like some job like that. And the thing that I've learned about it is that it's a very. Just a sportful little sweet men. Like the men are so cute.
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B
There's a lot of horrible people in hockey, of course, but there's also a lot of sweet little baby boys in hockey.
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A
Sweet little, sweet boys. Like, so it's a lot of stories of where they're like, okay, this, you know, guy who was in charge of our equipment, he got a chance to play for, you know, 45 seconds or something. Like a lot of times it's like that small amount and, and they all talk about how happy they were for him. There's one guy who like, it was literally like 45 seconds and they. It's like all these interviews with the people on the team, they're like, we were so happy that he got out there and got to play.
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B
It's a big deal.
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A
And what. I can't remember the guy. I will never remember any of these people's names. 1. But you get your own jersey if this happens.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And it was like a night where they gave away their jerseys to fans and the fan got the jersey and he was like, oh, he's going to want this. And so he reaches back out to him and he's like, hey, I feel like for your, like, you know, whatever, however long you played in, in the NHL, like, you're going to want this jersey back. And so they met up and became friends. And it's just like very sweet. So these stories are like, it's all just like different stories of these guys. I'm about to read the one about the Zamboni driver that's like, I do love that.
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B
And one of my favorite hockey facts that always blows my hockey friends minds is that Zamboni is, is like a trademark term. It's like a Band Aid or Kleenex. It's not. Zamboni is not like, you have to use Zamboni with a capital Z. Because the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine was invented by Frank Zamboni.
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C
No,
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A
that's a tragic name. That sounds like. That sounds like a cartoon character who would, like, be a circus, like, work at a circus.
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B
Yeah, he, like, is made out of, like, Mr. Zamboni, if he's got a big, weird mustache.
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A
And he's like, here's Mr. Zamboni Step.
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B
But this is why I love hockey. I have a baseball hat that I wear all the time that says I watch hockey for the plot. And this is why. Because it's, like, fun. It's just, like, made out of fun, cool stories. And I love the storylines, and I love.
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A
It's a cute book. It's taking me hope. Hopefully I get through it by the end of the year. I'm, like, very, like. I read it at night, basically, when I can't sleep. It's a really good one because it's, like, kind of takes me out of my brain a little bit. And, yeah, I'm enjoying it. What are you reading?
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B
I am reading a book because of you that I've already talked to you about, but I need to shout it out on the show. It's Accumulation by Amy Pak Watka. And I know you loved the Parliament, so when I saw this come up on Libby, I was like, bria really loves this author. I think I'm gonna try this. And this is gonna be one of my favorite books of the year. And you're gonna especially love it. Cause it's about a female director, and it is about this woman and her husband. They are from, I think, North Carolina. And they end up buy. They buy a house in upstate New York. And it's like. It's a really weird house. It's kind of a fixer upper, but it's the only one that they can afford. And they have two kids, and they're really, like, excited. And she has a new job being a videographer for some company. And she thinks she's gonna. She's, like, so excited to, like, get back to her work being a documentarian. And her husband has this, like, great job working at. At a surveillance company. So they both weirdly work in film, but in very, very different ways. And so he always gets these, like, weird things that he has to review of, like, footage of, like, people dying in weird ways. Basically, his company, like, if someone weird way on a cruise Ship, like, and it's his company's surveillance equipment. Like, they have to submit the evidence to the police and, like, be part of the investigation. So he's just, like, constantly watching these videos of, like, people falling to their deaths and, like, weird stuff happening. So when they get to the house and just, like, weird stuff starts happening immediately and she can't figure out if it's her or if it's the house and there's a creepy doll they keep finding. And, like, this book is so fucking scary.
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A
It is.
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B
It's really scary. But it's really about just like, it's a stressed out mom book which has been in my doghouse for a while. But this book was so good that it overwrote it. But also just about how hard it is for women to realize their autistic ambitions because there's so much shit that we all have to do all the time.
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A
Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. I can't wait. I loved the Parliament and it was a real sleeper hit. Like, I feel like. I feel like the name was a little confusing for people because it was about, like, a bunch of killer owls,
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B
which I'm now going to go read.
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A
Yeah, you should read it. You'll love it. It's great.
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B
I am such a haunted house fiend that it's very hard for me to find a haunted house book that gives me something new. And there's an aspect to the haunting of this that I've never seen before. And it is really chilling. And yeah, five star read. So that's Accumulation by Amy Pak Watka.
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A
And mine is Odd man in by Steven W.
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B
So I want to take a moment to share some listener feedback. Megan wrote in to say hi. Brian, Mallory. Hope you could find some rest after all the fun, drive excitement. Not really, but thank you. We're too busy, ladies. I'm writing it in with a hot Libby user tip for audiobooks. Have you had the moment where you're listening on the go and hear a quote you wish to say but don't have the brain to time stamp in your head? Well, fear not. You can highlight the timestamp in the audiobook by pressing and holding the bookmark icon. It will function like a highlight on a Kindle, saving the time for you even after you return the hold. I've been a listener since episode one and a subscriber for five years now. Reading Glasses has definitely changed my life and I'm so grateful for the podcast. Love all that you do. Oh, my fucking God.
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A
You know, at one point I feel like we Knew we looked into whether or not you could like save stuff on Libby, but I don't know if you ever tried it. So this is good to know how you do.
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B
Oh wow.
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Mallory's getting at the slide whistle. Wow, Megan, you're getting the slide whistle.
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Slide whistle. That's a hot ass book tip.
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A
That's very cool. That's cool to know. Good to know. Audrey wrote in and said hi Bria, Mallory, I really enjoyed the latest episode all about book clubs and wanted to write in to praise my book club's fearless leader. About three years ago, some friends and I started a women's history book club. Yes. We read Girly drinks and daughter of daring Mallory was our first repeated author.
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B
Thank you.
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A
Our leader assigns a theme to each month and we can nominate books based on that theme for this year. She gave the whole year a theme back to school. And April is music class. We're. Oh that's cute. We're reading but will you love me tomorrow? An oral history of 60s girl groups. We nominated nominated music class books in January and learned what got the most votes in our January meeting. The theme makes it fun and a bit easier to narrow down what we want to nominate. And knowing the book months in advance gives us plenty of time to read. We've been using an app website called book clubs for about a year now and are really happy with it. In the app we can message our club so it's where we nominate books but you can also set up a poll so that that's how we vote. Oh, that's cool.
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B
Book clubs.
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A
We should try this out. Mallory.
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B
Yeah, we gotta test this out.
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A
It maybe we use this for reading glasses thing like book club of some
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B
sort or reading smart or musical watching club.
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A
Yes. Oh my God. It also allows for ranked choice voting which we really appreciate. I think we really love it. Maybe something to consider for a future segment on reading glasses. You know what great minds think alike. Audrey, thanks for letting me sing our leaders praises and thanks for the show. I look forward to it every week. You sound like a great book club leader.
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B
This and I love a theme. I really something that a lot of people talk about and you see a lot of essays about is that like in this age of like endless stuff, endless art, endless media, it actually can be really nice to have parameters and have a theme for something. And I think given even if it's just like something pretty vague like music, it's I, I think that can make it really, really fun. And I think this is. Yeah, I love this. And Marie Wrote in with a wheelhouse, which is magical academia. Not dark academia. Sparkly academia.
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A
Yeah, I like that.
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Unreliable slash unhinged narrators. An alternative narration. Breaking the fourth wall. Entering a land of stories or fractured fairy tale retellings. Lovable dysfunctional families. Extra points for multicultural, immigrant or LGBTQIA elements. Cozy mysteries set in a small town and witty comedies of manners. Ooh, that's fun.
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A
That's very cute. Do you feel like unhinged unreliable narrators are getting even more of a heyday at this moment? I feel like we had a lot of requests for that during the drive.
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B
People really want to unrelax, I think. Again, I think it's just people. I said this during the drive on one of our streams, but I think just people feel unhinged right now and they want to be in the brain. They want to feel like that's normal. They want to be in the brain of someone else who feels unhinged.
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A
This is my era, unhinged era. I feel very unhinged.
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B
You see, you give an aura of hinged, though.
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A
Thank you so much. No, I'm hingeless. I'm definitely hingeless right now.
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B
Bria is a beaded curtain right now. She's just no hinges. No hinges on her. So you can email us@reading glassespodcastmail.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. Couple of things. Two important things. First one is we are finally getting our shit together for the Members Only book recs episodes. So one of the things we unlocked during the drive are these bonus episodes that are going to be for members only with member only book recommendation requests. So what you do. I already said this in the Discord, but for for people who are not there, our listeners, for members, if you want us to answer your book recommendation request, you email it to reading glasses podcastmail.com if you haven't. If you're not part of the Discord, you've never emailed us before, please include your membership proof like a screenshot of your membership so we know that you're a member. Otherwise, if you're already like in the Discord, we've already got that, so you don't have to worry about it. But tell us what you want, tell us what recommendation you would like us to answer. And then starting next month, we're still collecting them for May, we're going to do a monthly bonus. Some BoCo of recommendation requests from members only. And it's hopefully going to put a dent in our absolutely massive pile of. Our absolutely insane pile of recommendation requests. But we're really excited. I think it's going to be fun. We love doing it and we know people love it. And, and then second also really important thing, I just want to call people's attention. If you are on the bookish Internet, you might have paid attention to this, but there's a lot of people who don't know about it. There is a bill going in the House of Representatives right now called HR 7661 and it's a book banning bill. And it is horrifying. Not only is just the fact that they want to ban books bad, but they have tucked a lot of awful shit into this bill that they're basically, they're trying to get rid of queer books. They're trying to get rid of books that even mention being trans. And this is just, this is just the start. You know, they're. If you were a romance reader, you think they're gonna, they're not gonna be coming for romance. Books that, books that are made that are all about women and being independent. Anything with any sexual content, they're gonna come for. And after they take, after they come for trans women, they're gonna come for CIS women, they're gonna come for smut, they're gonna come for romance. If you think you're safe, you're not. And there's some really. I'm gonna put a PDF in the show. Notes from authors against book bans. But they have some really wild shit in here, including that they're trying to. What they're doing is they want to make it so any library or school library doesn't get funding if they hold. Have these books. So they are holding money over the heads of schools and libraries. And one of the types of events they're trying to ban is one that includes lewd or lascivious dancing. So we're literally going to be living in the world of footloose people like this is. It's absolutely horrifying. I mean, we gotta laugh. It's insane. And they want to define the term classic works of literature to include the great books of the western world, which literally means we're just going to go back to nothing but straight white men. Like they are going to take any book by any marginalized person out of curriculums. You gotta call your representatives. There's the thing that's really nuts about this bill. We just had a Meeting about this the other day with authors Against Book bans is. There's a lot of. This is happening in blue cities. There's a lot of Democratic representatives that don't know why this bill is bad. If you are living in a really progressive blue city, you are still in danger here. You still gotta. The amount of emails that I have written to representatives over this, you gotta reach out, you gotta make people aware of it. You should post about it on your own social media, get people aware of this. Because this is how bills like this get passed. They're not. People aren't paying attention, and there's so much heinous shit tucked into it, it makes me want to scream and never stop screaming. Oh, yeah. Here, buried in the bottom of the bill, the real intent is defining being transgender as a sexual activity in itself. Like, this is, this is what these, these, these atrocious lawmakers are trying to put in. Like, they're literally trying to make it illegal to be, to even mention being trans. That's what it all is. It's. I mean, it's. We talk about this on smut a little bit and maybe we should talk about it more. But that's how they control things. It is. It is horrifying. So again, I'm going to put some, some literature, some PDF, some, some websites in the show notes. And if you are a person who likes to, likes to write an email, if you're even braver and you are down to make a phone call, or even if you just want to post it online on your blue sky, on Instagram, please get the word out about this. Please reach out to your reps. It is fucking horrifying. And we got to stop it. So before we name our most anticipated books for May, we're going to take a quick break. Reading Glasses is sponsored in part this week by Green Chef. Folks, it's almost summertime, one of the most delicious times of the year. And if you want a company that's going to deliver food and recipes, delicious food, delicious recipes that make healthy eating easy, Green Chef has got you covered. But, Bria, what's Green Chef?
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A
With Green Chef, you get over 40 recipes. That's so much organic produce, responsibly sourced proteins, and nothing you can't pronounce. Making me hungry just thinking about it. Pick what matters to you. Mediterranean high protein, new longevity line, which is built around the brain and gut health. Because, you know, there's like a connection between gut brain health. That's like a whole thing that everyone is discovering now.
- [16:48]
B
It makes Me furious that everything in your body is connected.
- [16:51]
A
No, that's good. That's good. It's how you figure stuff out. You don't like it. Well, it's important. And that's what, that's what we're gonna say here. It's important what you eat. And if you want a little bit of guidance about what to eat, they include a free one on one nutrition coaching with Green Chef, which is kind of amazing. And we really like Green Chef. It's like something that, you know, you. You want to make something at home, you don't want to go out and spend. I'm really bad about spending money on going out to eat. Like, it's a way you can save money, it's a way you can eat healthy. But you do it all at home and it's already ready for you. You know exactly what you're. It's picked out, it's ready to go. At the end of the day, you've made a hundred decisions. You've made more than that. How many decisions do you think you make a day?
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B
I don't want to. I want. I don't want to make a decision about saying how many decisions I made
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A
Hundreds, awful hundreds of decisions. And at the end of the day, you don't want to think about what you're eating. Instead, you can just use Green Chef.
- [17:43]
B
I will say I've been trying really hard to eat healthy and cook more. A friend of ours came over the other day and looked in my fridge and was. Who are you? There's food in here. And you know what makes it so easy is Green Chef. I don't even know 40 recipes, folks. So you can pick out stuff and it's going to be delivered right to your door. It's not another errand you have to run, which is really one of the most important parts of this. It's so fantastic and the food is great. You can head to greenchef.com 50glasses and use code 50glasses to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months. That's code 50glasses@greenchef.com 50glasses classes glasses.
- [18:24]
C
I'm Graham Clark, co host of Maximum Funds. Stop Podcast yourself. And I'm here with Max, fund member of the month, Matthew. Hello, Matthew. How are you? Hi, Graham. Thank you for supporting a thing that you love. That's something that you listen to. I do it as well, and I love being able to do that for the podcast that I listen to. Plus, you're the kings of boco. Absolutely. We are. I appreciate seeing those coming in. Now, do you know what your perks are for being the member of the month? I do. I mean, I get to talk to you, which is kind of the big thing. Of course, the. The best. The parking space. Yep. And I think there's $25 in the max fund. And you also get a bumper sticker. Oh, bumper sticker. That's right. Yeah. So is there anything else you'd like to add? Talking to other people out there that are maybe considering joining Max Fun, Knowing that you're supporting something that you like that brings value and happiness to a ton of people, That's a good feeling. You're fighting the good fight.
- [19:25]
B
Support the shows you love, including this one. Check the show notes for a link or go to maximumfun.org join. This week, we're talking about our most anticipated books for May and June. Open up. Libby, call the bookstore, because we've picked out the books we are most excited about and most importantly, that the Glassers will be excited about across all genres for the start of the summer. So first off, folks, you did this. Our members, our Max Fund members, you made this possible. You are so generous. You were so incredible. You know what? If you're like, wow, I want. I too want to be generous and incredible, you can still. There's. There's still time. Anytime you can sign up to become one of these lovely bookish angels, go to maximumfund.org join. Sign up to support the show. There's a link in the show notes. They've streamlined the links, by the way, Bria, we now have a special reading glasses specific link. That's wicked quick, wicked easy. It's also how you get access to the Discord. If you email us your membership proof. We love our members so much. We know that times are really tight right now for all of us. So we really appreciate the folks that signed up, the new folks that signed up this year to make this possible. And remember, Bria and I are each going to be talking about, I think it's like 10 books, 10, 11, 12 books that we're really excited about. But there is. You don't even know how big this list is.
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A
There's so many books. You don't know how big.
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B
This, this episode, I think right now is 26 pages long. I spent two days on it this time because June is such a big book release month there. So it is a curated list. It's got the genres, got wheelhouse items in the show Notes, please. For the love of God, look at the show notes. All right, let's get into our picks for May. We have one shared pick this year from an author that we both like.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So for everyone who loved the Book Eaters, Sun Yadin is coming out with a new book. Actually, it might already be out because it's May. It's the Girl With a Thousand Faces. So this is a gothic historical fantasy. It takes place in Hong Kong with ancient myths and there's some ghosts involved. The COVID is really beautiful with this. It's honestly part of the. One of the reasons why I didn't even see the author's name. I was like, damn, that cover is sexy as hell. Yes, it is out already. It is about this. Oh, this is such a fun trope. The main character washes up on the shores of Hong Kong with no family, no money, and no memories. The only refuge she finds is the infamous ghost infested slum of the walled city. And then she has to. So she's like, rebuilding her life and she's working for this local gang as a ghost talker. I'm excited about this because it feels like it has Library of the Dead energy. And I like Sun Yudin because Book Eaters was fantasy, but also a little bit of horror. And it seems like this has kind of the same thing. And I guess there's like an evil ghost involved. I don't know. I'm pumped. I'm waiting. I'm already waiting for this at the library. All right, Bria, what is your first solo pick?
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A
Oh, you know what? You're so crazy. You're right, I did. I literally just pre ordered this. That's so funny. Mallory just said to me, okay, wait, this happened off air? But Mallory just said to me, you know what book you. You should look at? Because I was missing one. Is a book called Absence by Andrew Dana Hudson. Which is funny because I was like, I haven't heard of that. And then. That's not true. I actually had. I literally just pre ordered yesterday because it's May. It's already May when we're doing this. This is such a new book. Yeah. You know what's so funny? Yeah, you're right. You do know me so well. It says basically, people are disappearing.
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B
It's like an epidemic of people vanishing,
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A
and then people are disappearing one by one called Spontaneous Human Absence. You know, I love that. And it's looking bad. And then at one point, at the Bureau of Depopulation.
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B
So, yeah, that's. That's another very Bria thing.
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A
I know. He basically, there's a woman who they thought was absent and she reappeared in Kansas and she's claiming she's already been to the other side, wherever they're going and back and God, I'm excited for this book. This seems like this is such a Bria book. I'm literally, I'm going to make double sure I pre ordered it because I was looking at it yesterday thinking, I got to get this book. Mallory, you know me so well. What's your first one?
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B
We're good at this, Bria. My first one I'm really excited about. It's really buzzy. It's the Last Lady B by Eloisa James. And I've actually never read this author, even though she is a really, really huge famous historical romance author. But this one is like, is like a gothic blue beardy kind of energy. It says so it's a historical romance, but it takes place in like a, like a gothic castle. And the main character has a pet piglet, which I'm really excited about. And from what I understand, she's in this sort of like sexless marriage. She is this young woman, her husband is a septuagenarian and they travel to a haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands. And I don't think it's a. It's not a spoiler to find out that her husband suddenly dies. So she's a virgin widow and there's ghosts in this place. And she has to deal with her husband's solicitor who fucking hates her and hates her husband. But of course it's very sexy. And so there's like ghosts and like scary hot lawyer. And this just seems like a really fun place to start with this author. You know, I'm always looking for like a historical romance that has like horror shit in it. So, yeah, I'm excited about this. What's your next one?
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A
My next one is SA Barnes wrote a contemporary romance set in a dark academia.
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B
I saw this. I was. I literally did a double take. Cause I was like, wait, what?
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A
No essay. Barnes wrote Dead Silence, which I loved. This one is about a woman who, who's at university and she is the only child of death. So it's, it's a. It's like God's ish kind of thing in a dark academia environment. And no one knows who she is and they would be her friends, her crush. Everyone would be horrified to discover that she feeds on them to survive. And then there's like some sexy stranger stuff happening. It looks like it's the first of a series. It's not one I think I would have normally picked up. But I like SA Barnes enough to where I'm like, okay, this is one especially like paranormal romance gods. Like, it just sounds like kind of interesting and I just think it could be. Could be a really fun book. What's your next one?
- [25:38]
B
My next one is a thriller and I put this on here because every time I see an art book I'm like, bria would want me to read this because I'm probably.
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A
I know it's so true.
- [25:45]
B
And so this one is a thriller and it's about this woman. She is an attorney and she gets asked to assist on this case because the Italian government is claiming that there's like this artifact that was stolen from their museum and sold to another museum illegally. And they're trying to get it back. And it turns out that this lawyer wanted to be an archaeologist when she was younger. But something happened at a dig when she was in grad school and she left the profession forever. And turns out this dig is connected to this artifact that has been stolen. So it's like something bad happened in her past. And it's also like the world of art forgeries and illegal artifacts. There's something about the underworld of art that is so fascinating to me. I don't even know why I'm not a painter, I'm not an art person. But there's something about the world of art and art history that is just really interesting to me. In the underworld of stolen museum artifacts is fascinating. So I'm really excited about this. What's your next one?
- [26:45]
A
My next one is Abyss by Nicholas Benge. I really liked Ascension, which is another book. He wrote these one word books, but this one is called. They're calling it Severance meets Lovecraft, which you love Severance. So I do love Severance and I like Nicholas Bench. I think he writes really great books. Basically it's about a guy who is an administrative assistant. He's hoping he gets this new job, but when he goes, he's never heard of the company and he discovers that what they want from him is like, is just his potential or something. It seems like it's. It's very like horror critiquing late stage capitalism. Which of course I love. It sounds really good. Big fan of Nicholas Binge. So excited to see what that would be. What's your next one?
- [27:27]
B
This is another one that I have pre ordered and I'm really excited about it. It's called Decomposition Book by Sarah Van Oss.
- [27:36]
A
Such a good name.
- [27:37]
B
I almost said Sarah Van O's like, as if she was a cereal. And then I was like, oh, it's Sarah Van Oss. But it's about this woman. It's horror. It's weird fiction. It's sapphic, I think. And it's basically about this woman who, like, finds a dead body, like, in the woods near her house of this woman. And there's this woman has, like, a diary on her. And she starts reading the diary and, like, it's really attached to the woman and doesn't want to let the body go. And something weird starts happening. Like, the more. The further she reads into the journal, like, the stronger this. This woman's like, ghost is and their connection. And it's just like, it seems so weird and strange. And I'm really excited about it. What is your next pick? Oh, yeah, this one. I'm too nervous to read this.
- [28:24]
A
Yeah, I mean. I mean, I love the idea of it. It seems kind of culty. It's Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey. Big, big fan of Sarah Gailey on this show. We're both big fans. This one seems to be kind of culty. It's about a. It's about a woman who wants to belong, doesn't want to be alone anymore.
- [28:40]
B
I'm already like. I'm like. My hackles are rising just hearing the description.
- [28:46]
A
She goes to some sort of, like, secluded community that's like, hey, we're gonna heal you. We're gonna, like, make you transform. And she's ready to be healed. And it's some sort of. Sarah Daly is just like, a really great writer and also takes these, like, fun horror, big ideas, and I think does really something really interesting with them. And this one seems like, yeah, like culty, paranormal, weird. I'm. I'm excited. What's your next one?
- [29:12]
B
My next one? Yeah. I can co. Co sign that. I just. I. There's never been a bad Sarah Gailey book, but, like, there's something about. It's not even just like, cult. It's like. Like this, like, wellnessy cult. Like, there's something about it that just, like, freaks me out so bad.
- [29:29]
A
I love that we're getting all these horror books about it, though, because I think, like, it is prime because this stuff is happening. It is horrif. Horrifying. Like, we should be.
- [29:38]
B
We should be paying attention to 100%. So my next one, Hard Left Turn. It's a Perfect Hand by Ayelet Waldman. And so this is a historical fiction. 1800s England. And it's about this lady's maid who falls in love with the valet of this other random nobleman. And they realize they want to be together, so they tried to make her the lady she. She works for and the man, the lord, he works for, fall in love with each other so they can be together. And I'm like, that just sounds like so, so ridiculous. So fun. Since it's really. It's very funny too, in like a great examination. Because that's another thing I have a hard time with Regency sometimes. It's like, I don't want to read about rich people. Like, I watched the Other Bennett Sister, which I was obsessed with, but I literally had to fat. I mean, you know, I already have a hard time with, like, why I have a hard time with a lot of Regency stuff because, like, the social expectations, like, there's scenes in the Other Bennett Sister where they're like, well, you're not allowed to dance with this guy again because you've already danced with him twice. And if you dance with him once more, you're gonna have to be like. It makes me so anxious. I have to fast forward it because I start to freak out. So the idea of having that setting but being like a class down so you have. It's not just about rich people. I'm really excited about it. It just seems like a silly, fun time. What is your last one for May?
- [30:56]
A
This was a pre order for me. It is the new book by Holder Nutstratter.
- [31:02]
B
This is the woman who did the Night.
- [31:05]
A
The Night Guest, which is one you recommended to me. This is another one that's 100. It's under 200 pages. We both just loved the Night Guest and I now that, like, it just was such a. It's. So she's an Icelandic author because of that. Now these are like must orders for me. It seems like the new one is about. I don't know if it's a man or a woman because the person's name is Anur. Man or woman, we don't know. But who's.
- [31:28]
B
I think it's a woman.
- [31:29]
A
Okay. Living a normal life, maybe a little lonely. And there's a black cat shows up. And then a nur takes the cat back to the owner, who's a young woman who's in need of some help. And it seems like something that I think Mallory really dislikes. Someone crossing boundaries. Someone listening to boundaries.
- [31:45]
B
I got this one on pre order, but God.
- [31:49]
A
And it's some sort of like, crossing boundaries. Friendship under 200 pages by Tor Nightfire. This just seems like I'm very excited about This I just like after the night guest which like scared the out of me but also was like just this quick little scary book. I'm like a big fan of this cool Icelandic author whose name I won't try to.
- [32:07]
B
Yeah, this is another co sign for me because yeah, I'm nervous about it. But yeah, we love a horror novella. Mm.
- [32:14]
A
Yeah. What's your last one for May?
- [32:15]
B
My last one for May is another hard left turn. It's a nonfiction kind of self helpy kind of history called A Time to Gather How Ritual Created the World and How It Can Save Us by Bruce Failor. And it's, it's a book about like ritual, something you and I talk about a lot. It's like how important having a little ritual for something is and especially like seasonal stuff. So the author went on a, went on a trip all around the world to 16 different countries on six continents and to view like rituals from like.
- [32:44]
A
I will love this too. Yeah, this sounds great.
- [32:46]
B
Yeah, Everything from like weddings to funerals to baptisms to an adolescent tooth filling in Bali. It's something that I have come to really. The older I get, like, the more I appreciate ritual and how important it is for things and like even just like my little. I look forward to doing my before bed ritual so much. There's so many little rituals in my life and like how important doing rituals with people you love for important occasions is. I just think this is going to be really fun. I'm. I'm waiting for the audiobook from the library so you can send your thoughts to reading glasses podcastmail.com before we talk about our most anticipated picks for June, we're going to take a quick break. Hi everybody, it's Ellen Weatherford and Christian Weatherford. People say not to judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
- [33:40]
C
but we can judge a snake by its ability to fly, or a spider by its ability to dive or a
- [33:45]
B
dung beetle by its ability to navigate with the starlight of the Milky Way galaxy.
- [33:50]
C
On Just the Zoo of Us, we rate our favorite animals out of 10 in the categories of physical effectiveness, behavioral ingenuity, and of course, aesthetics.
- [33:58]
B
Guest experts like biologists, ecologists, musicians, comedians and more join us to share their unique insights into the animal kingdom.
- [34:06]
C
Listen with the whole family on maximum or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:25]
B
Okay, we are back and talking about our most anticipated books for June. Again, thank you to our members for making this possible. There is a quick link in the show notes if you want to sign up to be one of those people all right, Bria, we have a really exciting shared pick for this.
- [34:38]
A
Okay. Do. Do you know I've already read this?
- [34:40]
B
No, I haven't read. I haven't. Oh, I want to read it.
- [34:43]
A
Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheet by Paul Tremblay, friend of the show, friend of me, friend of you.
- [34:48]
B
We love Paul.
- [34:49]
A
I was a beta reader for this book because it takes place in Los Angeles. There's some Los Angeles stuff. So I read it for. Just to make sure everything made sense with the Los Angeles geography. It's so good.
- [35:00]
B
Oh, I'm so excited. And I'm like, Paul Tremblay getting me excited about a sci fi book is ridiculous. But it's Paul, so it's interesting.
- [35:10]
A
It's Philip K. Dig Meeks, the Coen Brothers is the pitch. I would also add in a little Weekend of Bernie's. It is so fun. It's like fun. It also. He is. Paul is doing things. He's taken the genre of book and being like, what if I did different stuff with book? Like, he is like, he's like.
- [35:30]
B
He literally is one of my favorite authors, even though he.
- [35:33]
A
Which is.
- [35:33]
B
It's funny. This is going to come into play in our next episode next week. But like, sometimes people are like, oh, but if they're your friend, you're just hyping them up, right? I'm like, no, Paul Trumbull is literally one of our favorite authors, even if we had no idea who he was.
- [35:47]
A
Yeah. This book is. It's about a young woman who takes this. Who has like this mom who works at a. Some sort of like, like technic kind of company and she gets this job. Basically her mom like throws her a bone and gives her this job where she's to accompany this man across the country who has an AI sort of thing in his brain. And he's essentially like a AI Weekend of Bernie's where she has to control him with like a remote control and get him across the country. But like, as it goes on, she realizes things about what's going on. But you're also like in this guy's head. And that part is where. Where Paul's doing really interesting things within the confines of writing a novel. I don't know how to explain it. If you want a, like unreliable narrator. If you want like, like taking. Doing experimental things with books. It's really cool.
- [36:34]
B
I have this pre ordered. I'm so excited. Also, the COVID on this is awesome.
- [36:38]
A
Like, they really cool. Very cool. I can highly recommend for this. Yeah, I'm very excited.
- [36:43]
B
Oh, so pumped. Yeah. A new Paul Trembling book is an event on this show. What's your first solo pick? I. I should have known you were gonna pick this one.
- [36:51]
A
Okay, I've never heard of this author. Have I heard of Michael Hogan?
- [36:55]
B
No.
- [36:55]
A
Michael Hogan's first book. It is called Based on the title, only I picked it the Dog Walkers Detective Agency. A novel.
- [37:03]
B
This does seem like your though.
- [37:05]
A
They've got leads, but can they call her a killer? I actually saw Sheep Detectives last night, if you want to know where I was.
- [37:12]
B
I actually was gonna. Was gonna text you about that and see what you thought of. Because of Sheep Detectives. Because I meant I am. I'm not. Not interested in Sheep Detectives.
- [37:20]
A
It's cute. It's really cute. Basically, it seems like that it's about a man and his beloved staffie. They stumble across a corpse in the woods in a sleepy town, and they' mysteries are afoot and they have to figure out what it is. They're sniffing out the clues. They're. It just could happen. Body appears. It just sounds so good to me. I love it. It sounds cozy, but wonderful. I actually have like two cozy mysteries on here, which tells you what kind of mood I'm in.
- [37:46]
B
My next one is a coat. My first one for June is a cozy mystery.
- [37:49]
A
Okay, tell me it is.
- [37:51]
B
So. I loved Murder at Gold's Nest last year by Just Kidd. Just Kidd is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors. And this is the second book in that series. So the main character is a nun turned detective, which is so fun. And she is solving. There's a. It's a little seaside town, and a medium comes there and she's like on this tour, and a reading, like a seance she does goes really wrong. The medium dies, and all the six people at the seance all fall victim to supernatural deaths themselves in the days following the reading. And our beloved nun turned detective has to find this ghostly serial killer that she believes is responsible before something bad happens even further.
- [38:33]
A
Sounds good.
- [38:34]
B
I'm excited. It's called Murder at the Spirit Lounge. Like, it just sounds fantastic. The COVID is cool. I love Just kid and I love this. I love this main character. I love a reluctant detective where she's like, God, I gotta solve a crime. I gotta fix all this. Like, she's. I love her as a character and I'm really excited for this. Oh, my God. Tell me about your second
- [38:57]
A
second cozy mystery. This one's by Lev Rosen. If we like him. I didn't just pick it randomly based on the title, but I Could have because the title is the Disaster Gay Detective Agency. Which I was like, says, so cute. It says, meet the disaster gays. They're messy, they're queer, and they're about to solve a murder or die trying. And essentially it seems like it's about a guy who hooks up with another guy and then he. In this hotel. They all like work in a hotel or something. And the one guy who hooked. He got hooked up with leaves early, checks out, believes his cell phone. So the guy like that we're following goes to find him thinking like, oh, this is going to be my moment to find him. But then he witnesses a murder and he sees the first guy fleeing the scene and it becomes about him solving this.
- [39:41]
B
Sounds like. It sounds like a rock. Incredible.
- [39:43]
A
Just a fun. Sounds so cute. We love love residential show. So thrilled. Thrilled to be.
- [39:48]
B
Yeah.
- [39:49]
A
He's such a fun little romp from Lev Rosen. What's your next one?
- [39:52]
B
My next one is another. There's been a lot of really good banger covers. Highly recommend. Looking up this cover. This is another horror book. It's Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. And so this is historical horror. Takes place in 1920s Mississippi. And the main character lives in this town that is a wealthy, all black free town. There's no oppression from whites here. And the main character is a wife. Her and her husband live there. They're so excited to live in this idyllic town. The only problem is the town is completely populated with these like ghoulish walking nightmares. But only the women can see them.
- [40:26]
A
Oh, my God.
- [40:27]
B
Yeah. So the men are like, oh, we're living this beautiful, incredible existence. And the women are like, I guess. I guess we are. And she, the main character who has just moved here, becomes friends with this other woman who is seeing. Seeing these monsters. And the other woman, her powers start growing and growing and it starts to unveil the, like the. The. It says the rotten core of the town. And this just sounds awesome.
- [40:53]
A
That sounds great. That sounds great.
- [40:54]
B
I know. What's your next one? Oh, well, yeah, you gotta. Yeah, you gotta shout this out.
- [40:58]
A
I've already talked about this on the show, but I'm just like, it's not often we actually read the books. We're just like, these sound good, but I've actually read this book, so I felt like I should shout it out. Which is the sixth Nick by Daniel Krause. Which Pulitzer Prize winner, Daniel Krause. I know, I know, I know. My mom was like, do you know that that angel down book Won a Pulitzer Prize. Could I read it? And I was like, you can. It's very scary though. I talked about this a few weeks ago, so I won't spend too much time on it. But if you are looking for a very weird, fucked up science fiction book, this is the book for you. It's like, about a cult. It has. It's about a child who's like, kind of treated like a savior, who's like, sent to a playgrounded planet to die, essentially. But then it is like, becomes this ragtag crew. It's very dark. Things get dark.
- [41:42]
B
People who listen to the show do love a ragtag crew.
- [41:45]
A
It has a ragtag crew. But I can't say that it's. It's a fun experience. This is also. I talked about it. The ship is kind of like a tumor. Like, this book is just wild. It's so imaginative. I can highly recommend it. But, like, it is. It is a tough read and very, just like a. Wow, What a very imaginative book. So again, we often, like, don't get to read that many books at a time. Because I read this at a time, I feel like I. I gotta shout it out because it was probably gonna be one of my favorite books of the year because it's so wild. And like, I kept wanting to talk to people about it. I'm like, I'm at this part and like, somehow they're like, she's like trying to make it into this place, but her, she's too heavy, so she's chopping her leg off, you know, like just like wild is happening. Hopefully. I mean, that's a little bit of a spoiler. Anyway, Wild. Wild in this book. I have to recommend, though, what's your next one?
- [42:33]
B
My next one is a mystery thriller. I'm gonna call it a thriller. I don't know how, how much on the spectrum it goes, but it's called Heather by Caitlin Mullen. And it does seem like kind of the kind of a normal thriller setup in the 1990s in New Jersey. These two twin sisters, one of the sisters started having an affair with a mysterious older man. Then inexplicably, both of them disappeared. No one ever found out what happened to them. And then, same town, many years later, the new police chief makes an arrest that unexpectedly resurrects details from the case. But the thing that made me. And that's a pretty standard thriller fare, you know, bad thing happened decades ago, new thing gets discovered. The thing that made me want to read this book is this book bears a visceral Reminder that the truth of a woman's life is often complicated and unknowable to those on the outside and sometimes even to herself. And I'm like, that is interesting to me. That is fascinating, because it's very true. We're mysterious. We're little moon creatures. Bria. Who knows what's going on in here? Oh, speaking of, what's your next one?
- [43:36]
A
My next one is Marianne by Leah Rowan. I don't know this author. Oh, I guess it's her first book. It's a retelling of Psycho from the point of view of Marian. If she didn't die, she grabs the knife, she kills Norman, and she escapes. And now she's fleeing with both money and she's killed someone. And, like, what does that look like? And I love that idea.
- [43:59]
B
I mean, I think that's really, really fun.
- [44:01]
A
People love retellings on the show. I'm less of a retelling person, but when you take something and redo it, I'm a fan of that. And, I mean, I love Psycho. So I think this is one that, like, yeah, I'm really excited for this book.
- [44:14]
B
The fun thing about that is that this is an extra fun retelling because Marianne doesn't get that much time in Psycho. No spoiler for a very, very old
- [44:22]
A
woman, you would think, but she is. But she doesn't get much. You want more time with her. And she's such a, like, important character in the history of cinema. So, like, justice for Marian. Let's see what would happen if changed. Changed how it looked.
- [44:33]
B
Yeah, she showered with a gun.
- [44:38]
A
Apparently. She steals his knife and then stabs him to death.
- [44:40]
B
Oh, that's very exciting. It's not a spoiler.
- [44:42]
A
That's in the like. It's in the description.
- [44:44]
B
Anyway, my next one is another hard left turn. I've been picking a very random assortment of books. This is nonfiction. It's Sex and the Transformative Social Power of Our Erotic Lives by Angela Jones. And I'm excited to read. Every. Every month or so, I try to read one book that is, like, sort of research for our other show, Reading Smut. And this is just about how the conservative forces in the world try to repress anything sexual. Talked a little bit about that at the top of the show. Even things that aren't sexual just have to do with gender and how powerful it can be to talk about these things and to be open about eroticism and something that we talk about on Reading Smut quite a bit. And this is kind of a buzzy book. So I'm excited to read it. What's your next one, Bria?
- [45:34]
A
My last one.
- [45:35]
B
Oh my God, your last one.
- [45:36]
A
Oh, June.
- [45:37]
B
Too scary.
- [45:38]
A
Naomi Kritzer, which I'm excited about there being a new Naomi Kritzer book is called Obstetrics. Obstetrics. Yeah, that's how we say it. Obstetrics. It is scary because it's very real. But it's about a dystopian future in which this woman who's an obgyn, she just got acquitted for. For performing the last abortion in North Dakota. And then these people kidnap her and take her to a fundamentalist culture and they. But they need. Because they need an ob gyn and she's actually like kind of treated as respect because she has like, she's a doctor, but she also knows that something bad happened to like the last person, last doctor they kidnapped. And it's a scary world. Near future. Hopefully not. I don't know. It's another Tor book which you know, I love and I like Naomi Kritzer. And so yeah, it's been a while
- [46:24]
B
since catfishing on catnip, I feel.
- [46:26]
A
Yeah, yeah. And this is a short one too. It's only like 200 pages, so we
- [46:29]
B
love all these novellas coming out.
- [46:31]
A
Short novella. Oh yeah, yeah. Give me a novella by Naomi Kritzer. I'm down. I'm totally down. What's your last one for June?
- [46:37]
B
My last one is Lovers XXX by Ali Rowbottom. And this is a historical fiction that when you hear, when you hear this, the title, the subject of this, it's going to feel weird that it's historical. But it's 1980s LA and about these two young women, they're literally 18, right out of school, they fall. One of them falls under the spell of an older man with drugs and they end up kind of spiraling into the world of 80s adult filmmaking. And it's like a novel about their friendship, self invention and sexual identity. Beyond binaries. I think it is Sapphic. It came up when I was looking for was putting queer books in this list and it just like the sleazy neon soaked world of 1980s LA porno movies. Sounds fascinating to me. And like in a novel of like two women, two young vulnerable women like navigating that and like becoming themselves in the middle of all that just sounds awesome. I've already sent this to a few people that I thought would like it. So I'm really, really pumped for it. All right folks, if you have May or June books that you are excited about. Send them to reading glasses podcastmail.com as always want to thank the wonderful mods who run our Discord server and our Facebook group. Remember there's all kinds of fun stuff at our Void Merch store. There's a link in the show notes and if you like the show why not rate and review us? Why not 30 seconds of your time? Maybe you're listening to this when you're are you on the toilet? Are you wait are you in the waiting room for something? Are you in line at the post office where all of us seems to be all of the time? Take 30 seconds, open up your mobile app, give us a 5 star review means the world to us and helps us reach more readers. You can email us@reading glassespodcastmail.com find us on Instagram at Reading Glasses Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.
- [48:21]
A
Thanks for reading.
- [48:30]
B
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