← The Book Lisp with Jon Ryan & Sarah Colonna
The Book Lisp with Jon Ryan & Sarah Colonna
Welcome To Your New Favorite Book Club
00:36:26
Jon and Sarah kick off their book club by welcoming you, filling you in on what to expect, and how the unexpected differences in their reading habits got them here. Welcome to The Book Lisp!
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- [00:00]
Sarah Colonna
Hi, I'm Sarah Colonna.
- [00:02]
John Ryan
And I'm John Ryan.
- [00:03]
Sarah Colonna
And you're listening to the Book List. The Book List.
- [00:08]
John Ryan
The Book Lisp.
- [00:09]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, that's right. You're listening to the Book Lisp. Hello and welcome to the Book Lisp with John Ryan and Sarah Colonna. Hey, John.
- [00:20]
John Ryan
Hey.
- [00:21]
Sarah Colonna
The title of the podcast is, in fact the Book Lisp. That is not a typo, as someone thought. Very politely.
- [00:30]
John Ryan
Yes. Someone asked us to check our spell check.
- [00:33]
Sarah Colonna
Very politely. John, why is it called the Book Lisp?
- [00:36]
John Ryan
It's called the Book List because if you have at least one good ear right now, you can tell that I have a little bit of a speech impediment. And it. You know, this is 11 years ago. This wouldn't have been possible because once I met you, I really came out more and was more vocal.
- [00:52]
Sarah Colonna
I was going to say, keep going. Don't say you just came out once you met me, because people are going to be confused about our relationship. Thank you.
- [00:58]
John Ryan
Straight. When we met and I was a little bit more. I was playing in the NFL at the time, and I became a little bit more vocal. People kind of learned my personality a little bit more. The full story is when I was a little kid, when I was three years old, two years old, learning to talk, I had really bad ears, bad ear infections, and even now, you know that I don't hear very well. Different sounds and stuff are always hard to me. And I was in speech therapy from 3 until 20.
- [01:25]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, wow.
- [01:26]
John Ryan
Yeah.
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Sarah Colonna
I actually didn't know that.
- [01:27]
John Ryan
Yeah. And it was what it was always. The most frustrating thing for me is I can't hear it. I kept on working on it, but it was like, it's hard to correct if you can't hear. And so it was great because when I met you, you're like, who the fuck cares? Like, just be you. Just like, show your personality. Show people who you are. And then I think. I think maybe four or five years ago, I was thinking, like, whose voice do I hear more than anyone's? My own voice.
- [01:53]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, I thought you were gonna say mine. I was getting nervous. Yeah.
- [01:57]
John Ryan
The voice I hear more than anyone else's is my own voice, and my own voice sounds normal. So in my mind, I was like, well, I talk normal. Everyone else has a speech impediment.
- [02:07]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, that's a good way to look at it.
- [02:08]
John Ryan
Except that we're like, you guys are the ones that don't talk normal. Because the voice that I hear all the time is normal.
- [02:14]
Sarah Colonna
That's a good Point that's like. Well, it's almost like when they tell you to picture people naked or whatever.
- [02:18]
John Ryan
Yeah.
- [02:18]
Sarah Colonna
Which I've never done, by the way, as a comedian. I've never pictured a room naked. That would just be weird, in my opinion. But, yeah, then maybe that wasn't a good comparison. You're looking at me like I'm crazy.
- [02:29]
John Ryan
Yeah, same, same. But it's funny because when I was growing up, I grew up in Canada, and people are, oh, kids can be so cruel. I went through all of elementary school, all high school. No one ever made fun of my speech impediment. Not until I got to university, got the pro football. So, like, kids can be cruel if they learn it from adults, in my opinion, because I never heard anything. Still, even now, I'll post something on Instagram or something. You always look down as one. It's like, bro, why do you talk like that? Take your retainer out, dude. It's like, okay.
- [02:59]
Sarah Colonna
Say it to his face. That's you out there. I dare you to say it. Flex your biceps, John, so we can get more followers.
- [03:06]
John Ryan
Would have never been possible if not for Sarah Colona. And me accepting that this is the way I talk. And if you don't like it, now's a good time to turn it off.
- [03:16]
Sarah Colonna
It's never bothered me. I love your voice.
- [03:18]
John Ryan
Thank you.
- [03:19]
Sarah Colonna
Yes. This is a book club podcast, and we are drinking wine in the middle of the day just because, I mean, we had to shoot at some point and we didn't want to not have wine because that felt off brand for us. And the way we came up with this idea was that John and I both like to read. We lay in bed at night, we both are reading. We ask each other what we're reading. And if you. You're probably already aware, if you're already here, but if you're new to either of us, you will learn that John really likes to read his romance novels.
- [03:52]
John Ryan
I really do. I mean, sometimes you say romance novels, people think, like, drugstore, like, Fabio on the COVID Airbrush. Not that far. No, I don't go.
- [04:00]
Sarah Colonna
That's what shows up on your kids as recommendations.
- [04:04]
John Ryan
That's when it started. Because I always read on a Kindle, and we were on vacation one time, and when you're on a Kindle, when you go to standby mode or, like, sleep mode, it comes up as, like, a suggestion, this should be your next read. And it's always like, I cowboy with half a shirt on. And it's like, rough ride home. It's like it's always like very brat Brokeback Mountain. Ish. It's like whatever. For whatever reason, the algorithm, Amazon's algorithm thinks I'm like a desperate housewife from Indiana who's about to leave her husband or a guy from West Hollywood. Yes, that's my.
- [04:39]
Sarah Colonna
Who's about to leave. Who's his husband.
- [04:42]
John Ryan
That's my algorithm. And, and I'm a sucker for it. And I just keep on reading these same books and I, I do read a lot. I read a lot of other things other than like the romance. I love the Ellen Hildebrand. As you know, I've read all 28 of her full length novels. Abby Jimenez, as well as my, my, my. Go to Taylor Jenkins. What's her full name? Taylor Jenkins. Whatever. I, she's very good too.
- [05:09]
Sarah Colonna
Well, it's funny because when you, when. So I really like to.
- [05:11]
John Ryan
Taylor Jenkins Reed.
- [05:12]
Sarah Colonna
Sorry. I, I really like to read like a thriller. Anything that says psychological twist, heart pounding, blah, blah, blah. I like to read those. And I, I saw Murdery, like the Lifetime version. Lifetime cheesy movie version of a novel sometimes, but then also sometimes a little bit more serious than that. And we just thought it was kind of like an odd mix that we both. That he reads the lady novels, I like to call him. And I read the murder novels and we started talking about, oh, how, how fun would it be if we do a book club podcast. He'd always wanted to do the book. Lisp was always her idea. And he said why don't we do it together? And one month they have to read one of my suggestions. One month they have to read one of yours. Now I will say when you first told me about Elle Lynn Hildebrand, which ever she's obviously a hugely famous author. A lot of people read her books. I did assume they were all sort of romance novels, but she does a little mystery. A little. Yeah.
- [06:16]
John Ryan
My first selection here that we'll talk about. It's. It's not just straight up romance. There's some romance involved. Eventually you want to punch both the characters in the mouth and then you cry with them, then you laugh with them and then you cry with them again. So it's not just straight up a Hallmark movie, but I won't kick a Hallmark movie out of bed now. Pretty good too. But it's not just straight up romance. Cut to the end. They find each other in a forest and live happily ever after like Hallmark Christmas movies.
- [06:42]
Sarah Colonna
And then if my, in my books, if people find each other in the forest, usually it's that one of them's dead.
- [06:47]
John Ryan
Yeah, it's bloody.
- [06:49]
Sarah Colonna
So that's what I like to read. And we have been going back and forth about how to do this. So we figure, you guys, listen. We pulled you guys at the book list on Instagram, which is. If you're not following that, follow there. We'll always announce what books we're reading. And we figure we'll start the month off discussing whatever we want about books. The second and the third weeks will be related to the book that we announced. Maybe things that are in the news that related to the books that we announced or just parts of the books. But we're not going to break it down until the very end of the month so that you have the full month to read your book. The fourth week of the month will be the quote, unquote review. And I have to go ahead and say right now, just to prepare people when I. When we discuss books, because we started doing this with John. He was guesting on Are you. My podcast, which is my podcast with Mary Radzinski, which is very funny if you don't already listen to that. And he came on to give us his summer reading lisp. And our fans were very into it. And a lot of. A lot of people were surprised to find out that John. What. He likes to read. I don't know why. It's just. It's just not the typical thing. Right. So that's when we decided to turn it into this. And I. I pulled people and everyone decided one book a month is probably the best case scenario. But breaking it down per week seems like too much to me.
- [08:05]
John Ryan
It's like, yeah, we're not going so in depth to the book. It's more just. We're just having fun with it. We're gonna. We're gonna talk about different issues that come up in the book that relate to the real world. Maybe on the second and third podcast of the month and then the fourth one, as you said, we're gonna really break it down. But not to the point where we're depicting chapter by chapter.
- [08:25]
Sarah Colonna
No, we're just kind of not that.
- [08:26]
John Ryan
Serious, you know, talking about our boot. Our new friends in the book.
- [08:31]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. And also I want to warn everyone that I get really annoyed with characters sometimes. And that doesn't mean. And so I'm not.
- [08:37]
John Ryan
Nothing with the author.
- [08:38]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. I'm not bashing the authors by any means. I'm like. But sometimes I get annoyed by. By characters in a book. But I actually like that. I like when A character annoys me and a lot of times I think they're meant to. Now John always has very specific authors and I, I, I don't know if I should admit this or not, but I'm going to because that's what we're doing here is I sometimes just pick mine based off Amazon suggesting not the Drugstore Cowboy, whatever novels that he has. But it'll be like based on your reading and then I'll just read a synopsis and it'll say heart pounding psychological thriller, blah, blah, and I'm like done in. And so but for me that's been fun because I discover a lot of authors that way that I don't know that I would have read before. Like one of my favorite authors is Tess Garretson and she, I discovered her a long time ago. I'm not starting off mine with one of her books. We are going to tell you in a moment what our, both our books are so that you'll have November and December. But I, Tess Garretson, you might know her from, you might know her series that was created off of her books Rizzoli and Isles that I think was on Lifetime. And they created that, that series off of two of her main characters. And it's, that series was very, I think watered down compared to the way that she writes. But her very early books, one of my favorites of all time, which we will do eventually. We're not starting off with it because I'm afraid you guys will be afraid of me because it's called the Surgeon and it's a, it's a serial killer who was a surgeon. So he's.
- [10:15]
John Ryan
Eric Roberts would play him in real life.
- [10:17]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, if Eric Roberts, you guys know I love Eric Roberts and his if you guys have ever seen the Stocks by My Doctor series on Lifetime. It's the greatest movies you'll ever see in your life. So anyway, I, we're not starting off with anything quite that crazy, but we might get to it eventually. But I do have a lot of authors that I've discovered from going on Kindle. So my December book is going to be somebody that I actually have not read this book yet. I'm taking a risk here because I want you guys to read it along with me and then we'll just decide together if I picked a good one or not. It's got a lot of great reviews, it's super. But we should start with yours just so everyone can write down what they're reading for November.
- [10:57]
John Ryan
So our November book will be from my very Favorite author, Ellen Hille the Brand. She's been my favorite author since I read her. The first time I read her book was summer of 69. So I kind of got game late. And then. And then I went back and read all, you know, now 28 novels. She'll write one book a year. Now she's retiring, but she'll write one book a year based in Nantucket, one book a year based in the Virgin Islands. And my pick was one of my favorite books. It's called 28 Summers. That's the number one book for. We're on the podcast for November, 28 Summers by Ellen Hildebrand. And as I said, it's one of those books where you love the main characters and then you hate them and then you cry with them and then you hate them again.
- [11:39]
Sarah Colonna
I was crying a little bit the other day. I've already finished it. But. But just to be prepared. But we. I was crying a little bit at the end of the book, which I was surprised by myself that I had that kind of feeling about these characters.
- [11:53]
John Ryan
No one gets murdered. No. It's slashed up like yearbooks, you know.
- [11:58]
Sarah Colonna
Eight summers in prison.
- [11:59]
John Ryan
Yeah. But it's funny because I went and looked at some of the reviews, and the reviews are. Overall, they're very. But when you go down, like, that weird rabbit hole, like a Reddit rabbit hole, there's. People are like, I don't like the way she's glorifying cheating. I couldn't read this book. I don't think she's glorifying cheating this book. I think it's just a book.
- [12:20]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. I think it's two characters in. They're not real and they're not.
- [12:24]
John Ryan
It's a book.
- [12:25]
Sarah Colonna
Sometimes you have to remember that.
- [12:26]
John Ryan
I call it fiction.
- [12:27]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, I know, but think about how I felt. I mean, I used to watch General Hospital and, boy, did I get mad sometimes.
- [12:34]
John Ryan
No, I get it.
- [12:35]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. At the storyline.
- [12:36]
John Ryan
You should get mad at the storyline, not the author.
- [12:38]
Sarah Colonna
I don't know. I left some.
- [12:40]
John Ryan
Wow.
- [12:40]
Sarah Colonna
I've told you this before, but they used to have a hotline. General Hospital used to have a hotline. And it was a 1 900, so you had to pay, but you could leave your feedback. And I. When I first moved to Los Angeles and I was really. I was living with my dad and my stepmom and had just graduated college and had zero friends here. General. The characters on General Hospital were my only friends. And so I used to call the 1900 hotline, and I would leave them my Feedback. And one time, my stepmom got her phone bill and she said, oh, my God. She took me in my room by myself. She didn't want my dad to hear it. She said, you have to tell me about these 900 numbers you're calling. And I was like, oh, I was so embarrassed. And then I realized she. She was so relieved when I told her it was General Hospital because she thought I was calling, like, a sex line.
- [13:28]
John Ryan
Oh, that's amazing. Also, this is information I would have liked to have before we got married.
- [13:32]
Sarah Colonna
Sorry, too late.
- [13:33]
John Ryan
No problem. No, now I'm adjusting.
- [13:36]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, it's gonna be fine.
- [13:37]
John Ryan
And do you want to announce your first book for December?
- [13:39]
Sarah Colonna
Yes. So mine is called On a Quiet street, and it's by Seraphina Nova Glass, who is. I think that's right. We're gonna make sure. Again, I don't have the. I don't follow the favorite authors quite as well as John Does. I mean, I have some I've definitely. And I've discovered them. Yeah. Seraphina Nova Glass. I read another book by hers up. I heard that was called vacancy in room 10. That I really like that I do believe I'll make a book at one point. And another one, something about a wife. You know, I love those. Something about a pissed off wife. And this one's called On a Quiet Street. Seraphina Nova Glass. So that will be your book for December. So if you just in case you go to the library for your books, or you. What are you. Or you can, you know, you can rent them off of Amazon and whatnot. So those are your first two, and.
- [14:26]
John Ryan
You'Re really gonna get a monthly mix because, you know, as we said, mine's more of a romantic base and yours is more of a SL. Slasher.
- [14:32]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, we saved the slasher, psychological thriller.
- [14:35]
John Ryan
And the thing is, though, we save.
- [14:36]
Sarah Colonna
Those for December during Christmas time when.
- [14:38]
John Ryan
We go on holiday or something. These are like our go to books. This is like my. My go to genre. That's your go. But we both like each other's books as well. Like, I. I love right now. Frida McFadden.
- [14:48]
Sarah Colonna
Yes. I introduced him to Free to hit it. Freedom McFadden. She wrote the Housemaid series, which you guys.
- [14:53]
John Ryan
Incredible. Yeah. She has three or four books on the New York Times bestseller list right now. Colleen Hoover, I love who's writes some of the most twisted books I've ever read in my life. Verity, if you read that.
- [15:04]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, yeah, that's a great one.
- [15:05]
John Ryan
After you read that, you're like, this woman is. Has a screw loose to write a book this crazy.
- [15:10]
Sarah Colonna
I. It's so funny that sometimes I go the way we read differently. I mean, I. We both are Kindle readers because we travel so much and so if Kendall cares to sponsor us or something, we would love a new one. And we. But I do like to hold a book. But I think because the one downside to Kindle and it's the only downside because we can travel with so many books, I blow through them on the beach. Like I read the kind that you can read in a day. And then there's the. And then. So you obviously aren't having to pack a bunch. And then it's just so then you can see more recommendations, books you might like all that. But the one thing downside is I. You don't hold it. You don't look at the COVID very much. I literally will forget the title while I'm reading it. I don't look at the author's name as much like I. And then once I finish it, if I really liked it, then I go to that author's page and I. And I get more from them. But it has made me sort of. It's made me find more authors, but it's also made me a little bit scatterbrained. When someone says your favorite author, I panic and I'm like, I don't know, whatever.
- [16:12]
John Ryan
You have to look back and look in your app.
- [16:14]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. And then in fact, with this one, I got nervous that I had already read it and that because I thought, oh, did I delete it from my library? But I hadn't. Now you picked 28 summers because you have read it.
- [16:26]
John Ryan
I've read it back during COVID It came out in 2020. I did read it when I was thinking about the best novels to introduce our fans to our reading styles. That was the one, the first one that came up in my mind and.
- [16:38]
Sarah Colonna
I didn't think that smartly. I thought I'm just going to read by an author that I've enjoyed something from recently. This book. So a couple. I think it's 2022. It came out, had a solid. I do a lot of like Goodreads and Amazon Reviews has really good reviews and all that. So I thought it would be kind of fun to see a different one. And like I said, some of the ones that I have read will. Will do those at some point.
- [17:03]
John Ryan
I'm looking forward to your. Your picks because the books that I wouldn't necessarily read. I know you introduced me to Freddie McFadden. Then I started reading all her books, and they're incredible. So I'm looking forward to being introduced to more authors. Like the author of your first book. I've never read before.
- [17:18]
Sarah Colonna
I'm trying to remember who read. Who wrote. You.
- [17:23]
John Ryan
You.
- [17:24]
Sarah Colonna
You.
- [17:24]
John Ryan
You mean. You.
- [17:25]
Sarah Colonna
Caroline Kepnes. I don't know if that's how you say her last name. She's read about. She's written a bunch of books that I like. I was just looked it up. But you. The book that's turned into the Netflix series, you know, those are some good book. They're really. Yeah. And they had. And she has a series after that. She is. She writes some really good. Those are probably a better example of some of the ones that I like. Like a little bit. Like a. Like a boyfriend or a girlfriend's a little messed up and then. Yeah, they like to hurt people.
- [17:51]
John Ryan
I know. Like, Margaret Atwood was a Canadian author, so she was like standardized reading, like, all through our high school days. And she's a great author, too.
- [17:59]
Sarah Colonna
Like Handmaid's Tale.
- [18:00]
John Ryan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Were you always a big reader?
- [18:03]
Sarah Colonna
Yes, I have been. I've always been a big reader. My. My stepdad's a big reader, and he. I actually introduced him to.
- [18:12]
John Ryan
Big library guy.
- [18:13]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, he loves the library. He loves going to the library. And so. But I always send him books. He was for. He loved westerns. He liked Louis Lamour, and he likes. He likes James Patterson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michael, you know.
- [18:30]
John Ryan
Oh, yeah. Mike, Mikey, sometimes Connolly.
- [18:35]
Sarah Colonna
No. Anyway, two smart people talking about books. But I introduced him to Tess Garretson and he really liked her books. So, yeah, he's a big reader. But I have always been. And I have not. No, no.
- [18:48]
John Ryan
This is kind of like a pay it back. I remember, like, in high school. I think I read one book in high school, and it was Friday Night Lights.
- [18:55]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, my God, I love that book.
- [18:57]
John Ryan
It's such a good book. I think I read it two or three times, but literally in Mrs. Stewart, if you're still alive, I doubt you are, but in your English class, I remember one time we had to read a book and we had to. We had a whole month to read the book, and then we had to sign up to, like, present the book to the class. We all wrote. We all read the same book. So I signed up for Friday afternoon, like the last Friday. So everyone sign up, like, Monday, Tuesday. Well, I want to get it over with Monday, whatever. So I don't even open the book for a month. I listen to everyone's presentation. I then go home on Thursday night. I make like this big board just based on what everyone said. All the stuff, the topics they put. They put up this big board. I just bullshit my way through this five minute presentation on Friday afternoon because I'm the last one to go.
- [19:37]
Sarah Colonna
And you hadn't read it? No.
- [19:39]
John Ryan
Just based on what? Everyone already. I had 25 presentations of the freaking book. I didn't need to read it. And So I got 120% because I made a board. I went above and beyond. Ms. Stewart said, I'm sorry. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of like paying it back now. But I don't know what you like did the.
- [19:59]
Sarah Colonna
You were like the first Cliff Notes person, but you stole it from all your stu. All your.
- [20:03]
John Ryan
In Canada, we call them Cole's Notes.
- [20:05]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, really?
- [20:05]
John Ryan
Yeah, it's Cole's Notes. I think it used to be a bookstore named Kohl's. Oh, we don't call Cliff Notes.
- [20:10]
Sarah Colonna
It's a department store here now.
- [20:12]
John Ryan
It is. And you get coal dollars.
- [20:14]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, yeah. You do? Yeah.
- [20:16]
John Ryan
That's where you get all your, your best off brand stuff.
- [20:20]
Sarah Colonna
Well, wait, so you stole. Okay, so you stole everyone else's sort of presentation, turned it into yours straight up, said that this was what you.
- [20:29]
John Ryan
Like and they got the best mark in the class.
- [20:30]
Sarah Colonna
And then you got the best mark in the class.
- [20:32]
John Ryan
That was an example of the, the shenanigans I pulled in high school. But I, I think I feel bad. I think I read one book and it wasn't even a signed book. I watched a lot of movies and then we had to watch the Alive. Remember live. Live alive. But the Alps, the, The rugby team that crashed.
- [20:47]
Sarah Colonna
Oh yeah.
- [20:48]
John Ryan
And they came out with a movie about it recently. But that was one of our. I was like, I'm just going to watch the movie.
- [20:54]
Sarah Colonna
Okay, now that you talk about now.
- [20:55]
John Ryan
And now fast forward. I'm the nerd that's like, have you seen Harry Potter? Like, yeah, like I have and I read the book. Yeah, yeah, like I'm like that nerd. Like, I'm not going to watch the movie. I read the book. It's way better.
- [21:07]
Sarah Colonna
I have to say. I've never read one Harry Potter novel.
- [21:09]
John Ryan
I've read them all.
- [21:10]
Sarah Colonna
I know I had to get the movie. They had to get past that. Have you? Have you? I don't care about your list, but I care about your Harry Potter problem. Yeah, what about. So, but you've seen the movies.
- [21:22]
John Ryan
No, I've not seen any of The Harry Potter movies. But I've read all the books.
- [21:25]
Sarah Colonna
Okay. I feel like I can take that better. Like, if you were like, oh, let's go see a Harry Potter movie on a Saturday afternoon, I'd probably say, oh, I'm busy. And then I'd pack and leave. But it's just not Mike. And that's not. There's no. I know that there are incredible books, and they have a huge fan base. It's just not my reading. Just. Right. It's just not something I've ever started.
- [21:47]
John Ryan
Reading all those novels because it was such a big part of popular culture at the time. There's Jeopardy. Questions. There was like, you know, talking about Gryffindors and all. All Slytherin and all this stuff that I thought that it was such a big part of popular culture that I needed to read it to be a part of it.
- [22:01]
Sarah Colonna
I like that.
- [22:02]
John Ryan
But you did not feel that way.
- [22:04]
Sarah Colonna
No, I. I'm. There's enough pop culture going around for me. I'm good. But that just that you brought up movies versus the book because you said Friday Night Lights.
- [22:15]
John Ryan
Yes.
- [22:15]
Sarah Colonna
Which is a very good book.
- [22:17]
John Ryan
And it's all based on a book from 1987 in Odessa, Texas. Premium. Premium Panthers. Odessa, Texas. Back when, like 1987, high school football is already huge. Huge, huge in Texas. I think back then it was kind of like, unmonitored and huge. Like, 87 coaches were making, like, a hundred thousand dollars, which is like, in today's dollars, like a half a million dollars. So it was just like, kind of like totally unmonitored and guys just doing whatever they wanted. And that's what the whole thing was based on. It's still going with different shows and stuff now.
- [22:48]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, well. I grew up in Farmington, Arkansas, and fright. I mean, Friday Night Football was everything, Right. Everyone's so excited. Such a big night. It's like you. I can smell the Frito Pie from here. It's so good. But I loved. I loved Friday Night Lights. And I know because I knew that world. I mean, people did take it too seriously. People did. Remember. But remember the movie with Tim McGraw? Can't you hold on to the.
- [23:12]
John Ryan
That's your favorite line.
- [23:13]
Sarah Colonna
My favorite line because he's drunk and then he's like. And he's mad that the QB one. He's the father of. In the. In the TV show. It's QB one, right?
- [23:21]
John Ryan
Yeah. What's Tim. Tim Reagan's. On the show was the running back.
- [23:25]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. QB1, Ms. Matt Sarenson. I Think, yeah, I don't know. Anyway, it doesn't matter. But Matt. But Tim McGraw gets real mad at his son for dropping the ball during a game and he's drunk in the backseat of a truck and he goes, well, can't you hold on to the ball? And then he kicks out the window and then he tapes his hands to the football, which is a little bit dark, but I loved it. But a good reference for book versus movie is actually your. Your girl or show. Ellen Hildebrand, the Perfect Couple. Netflix was just out on Netflix. Talk about pop culture. We're on it. Gu guys were on it. So we watched that show and because I wasn't quite enjoying the show, I decided to read the book to see if I would like the book better. And I like the book a lot better. And I finished the book while we were kind of watching the series. So it was like, first of all, I'll be honest. I love a spoiler. I don't give a. It doesn't ruin anything for me. I could. You can tell me. I love a spoiler. I. If I find out what's happening, it relaxes me and then I can just ease into, oh, I already know who murdered someone throughout this entire book. It's going to be great. When it gets to the end, I'll feel so satisfied, I don't care. And then I can watch him. I can watch that fucker the whole book, you know, whether it's a man or a woman.
- [24:48]
John Ryan
I can be the last chapter first.
- [24:50]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, I stopped doing that.
- [24:51]
John Ryan
Okay.
- [24:51]
Sarah Colonna
Just because it's harder on a Kindle, to be honest. You got to go back. I know. It used to be so much easier with a book. You just flip to the back and then. But now it's like, it's almost like they know you're doing it. You feel, like, kind of dirty about it. So I did stop doing that. But if I can find spoilers online, I do it.
- [25:08]
John Ryan
I do it even for our reality shows that we.
- [25:10]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, the only one I don't do it for is Married at First Sight, because I do that on my podcast or even my podcast. And I can't ruin that for myself because I have to, like, speak in time during the show.
- [25:22]
John Ryan
Right.
- [25:22]
Sarah Colonna
I don't want to ruin it for my. Our listeners or. And plus, there's no spoilers out there on that anyway. I wish there were. But. But I do like the Bachelor reality. Steve. If you guys. I love. I look, I go right to his page. I don't even watch the Bachelor. I Don't even watch it anymore. But I still go to his page and I go, oh, look at who he ends up with or who she ends up with. And then I'm like, why do I care? I don't even watch it.
- [25:44]
John Ryan
Reality Steve is like the ultimate spoiler. And Sarah's such a spoiler that Sarah. I think Sarah's gone out for dinner with Reality Steve before.
- [25:50]
Sarah Colonna
That's how bad.
- [25:51]
John Ryan
That's how. That's how in deep you are with writing stories. But also, then this first book that we're reading should be perfect for you. We've reading the book and the book starts at the end.
- [26:01]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah.
- [26:02]
John Ryan
Not really a spoiler, because it is the first chapter you'll read. It's called 28 Summers. It's kind of a.
- [26:06]
Sarah Colonna
Same time Alan Hildebrand. That's your. That's your.
- [26:09]
John Ryan
It's, you know, seeing the movie Same time next year. It's kind of like that.
- [26:13]
Sarah Colonna
And it's kind of kind of like that. They reference it, the whole book.
- [26:16]
John Ryan
They watch it together. And so the book starts off, the very first chapter is Mallory is on her deathbed and she says to her son, go get this phone number out of this hidden area. And she, He. He calls the person, and it happens to be the President of the United States. Husband. And she's like, my mom needs you to come here.
- [26:36]
Sarah Colonna
Right.
- [26:36]
John Ryan
And he thought it was like a prayer.
- [26:37]
Sarah Colonna
And that's the very beginning.
- [26:39]
John Ryan
That's really chapter number one. So I'm. But that. So it starts at the end. So we already know there's 28 summers between then and then. It starts off in 1993, and it goes all the way to 2020, chapter one, basically.
- [26:50]
Sarah Colonna
Well, the best part about that is, while I was reading it, at one point, John goes, have you gotten to the part where Mallory had a kid yet? And I go, spoiler alert. And he goes, that was the first chapter. I'm like, all right, I. I forgot. So I.
- [27:04]
John Ryan
This book is kind of perfect for you. It starts the end.
- [27:06]
Sarah Colonna
It does. I like something that I like when. When movies and TV shows start like that. But the. The Perfect Couple was not. I didn't like the series. I felt like if you were not an Ellen Hildebrandt fan before and you hadn't read any of her books, and then you saw this show based on her book. I personally was wondering if people went and would go, then buy her books based on this TV show or if they'd be kind of turned off by it and not that it was Bad. I just thought it was not nearly as good as her books.
- [27:40]
John Ryan
And it's hard to be any kind of television movie as good as the book in sometime. In this book they reference like, women are writing all these books, but men are dominating the best selling list. And I'm happy to say, like four years later, this book was written in 20. 24 years later, it's quite the opposite. Yeah, you look at the New York Times bestseller list, it's like Colleen Hoover will be like five, Freedom of Family, the next three. And then it'll be like a new hell Ellen Hildebrand book or whatever. But it's like Almost every week, 10 to 12 authors are dominating the New York Times bestseller. It's all female.
- [28:13]
Sarah Colonna
Do you know what other female author has been on the New York Times best selling list?
- [28:16]
John Ryan
Sarah Colonna.
- [28:17]
Sarah Colonna
Thank you. Number five, Life As I Blow It. Pick it up and Has Anyone Seen My Pants? That's my other book. We won't review those because that would be awkward. Which, speaking of. So my second book, I am also an author. It was called Has Anyone Seen My Pants? Because I like very serious titles and I write very. It's about dating all through my 30s. And I wrote very. I kind of wrote forgetting my mom would read it. That if. If that makes any sense. Right. And my mom's sweet because she. Every time she read both of my books and she's like, I just love how you just like mix stuff up. I was like, sure, that's what I did. Let's do that. So but I wrote about our relationship in that be and we had met. It was. It was truly about dating. I'm not trying to flip this on a book about myself, but it's just, I just think this is an interesting thing, is that I had. I was writing about meeting John after writing about being single all through my 30s, and the fact that I enjoyed it and the fact that I was tired of people asking me when I was going to meet someone and the fact that it's okay to be single and blah, blah, blah, and focus on your career and not settle for some. And then of course, I meet him while I'm finishing the book. So I wanted to be honest. And I wrote in this ending where I was like, I met this guy. We'll see where it goes. And when people read it now, they always write me and they're like, I had to go. If I don't. If I wasn't. If they weren't still following me or had just discovered me or something, they would say I'd ran to your page to see if you ended up with this guy, which I did. But I wrote about, like, I kind of forgot that. I also forgot that I was writing. Like, your mom might read it one day.
- [29:58]
John Ryan
Oh, she read both of them?
- [29:59]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. And it's just. I know she loved them and she's the coolest lady, but it's just. It's sort of weird to realize that.
- [30:06]
John Ryan
I put yourself out there.
- [30:07]
Sarah Colonna
I did, but I wasn't thinking about it. But that's when I first was asked to write a book. I got very nervous. I said, why would anyone ever want to read a book by me? I'm not like. It's not like I'm Carol Burnett in my 90s with this whole life story to tell. Right. It's like I just had some ideas and some short stories that I thought connected well and would be. And. And readers would connect with them. And my book agent, Robert Gensler, who's the best, and he's going to be sending us some books for the. The podcast, too. And that's going to be a good way for you guys to discover maybe some authors you don't know. But he said, are you a reader? I said, yeah. And he goes, well, do you always know the author that you pick up the book by? And I was like, no, I barely ever know them.
- [30:49]
John Ryan
In fact, a lot of times better when you don't.
- [30:51]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. And he was like, there you go. He's like, you don't. It's. They. Someone has to be finding out. Oh, I'm. Of course, there's Ellen Hildebrands. There's these huge famous authors. A new one that I'm really liking. I think she's Canadian, too. Sherry Lapina. She's got a bunch of. You'll. We'll be reading some of her books. But anyway, point is, he was saying a lot of times you just discover. You just read a book and you enjoy it. Doesn't matter who wrote it. So that's my. I don't know what that was, but it was just to tell you guys, if you're interested in writing a book, first of all, don't. It's a pain in the ass. But second. Yeah. Someone might be interested in your story, and you have no idea.
- [31:28]
John Ryan
You didn't think anyone would be interested. And then you became a New York Times bestseller. You're number five on the list.
- [31:32]
Sarah Colonna
Like how we made this about me.
- [31:34]
John Ryan
Me too.
- [31:35]
Sarah Colonna
My favorite favorite episode so far. So 28 Summers by Ellen Hildebrand. It's your. Is it the first book you read by her? Because we'll discuss.
- [31:44]
John Ryan
The first one I read by her was 69 summers. No, summer 69. And it was, it was kind of like her first like real mainstream book that everyone's kind of like pumping up. Then I read that and then I went back and read every. Everything she's ever written because I was.
- [31:58]
Sarah Colonna
Obsessed with it now what I was, what I saw after I finished 28 summers, which again, the review will be at the end of this month, the fourth week, but. And we'll discuss some, some bits of it in between on the next couple weeks. But one thing that I saw at the end of 28 summers on my Kindle was it recommended that I read this something the Sixth Wedding or something like fourth, fifth Wedding, something like that. But it was, it was called A 28 Summer Story. Like it's another book about like referring back to this one, but it's way shorter. It was like 90 pages or something.
- [32:33]
John Ryan
Yeah. So she does this a lot. Which actually went back to my Kindle. I was like, oh, I forgot about that. And then I was like, I actually looked back. My Kindle actually had read that as well. She'll like follow like characters along. Like she had Summer 69, which was a full length, whatever, 800 page, but whatever it was. And then she had summer of 79, which is like a, you know, a 40 page thing, just like a follow up so you can follow the characters a little bit. And then she had summer of 99, another, you know, 40 or 50 page thing. Just because everyone is so obsessed with. She does such good work with character character development that you want to know like where they are in 10 years, where they are in 20 years. And she writes a lot of these short novels as well, just to kind of keep up with the characters as well as a lot of the characters kind of intertwine in different novels.
- [33:13]
Sarah Colonna
Yes.
- [33:14]
John Ryan
One of them was. Now you've read the Perfect Couple and this one Ed Cabin Dish. He shows up real quick in this.
- [33:21]
Sarah Colonna
He's the sheriff in town. Yes, sheriff in town.
- [33:24]
John Ryan
The chief.
- [33:25]
Sarah Colonna
Chief. There you go. That's the word.
- [33:27]
John Ryan
And so she has little Easter eggs that pop up in different novels, which is always fun too.
- [33:31]
Sarah Colonna
But you don't have to read them in order.
- [33:32]
John Ryan
Right. They're all standalone novels, but it is fun. Just when you read them all, you don't necessarily have to read them in order, but you see little, as I said, little Easter eggs here and there of different characters popping up because we had read it.
- [33:45]
Sarah Colonna
We're not. Obviously that's not when we're reviewing right now. But we had both read Swan Song because he introduced me to swans. Ellen Hildebrand a bit ago. And Swan Song was her final book. Right.
- [33:56]
John Ryan
I think her final solo full length Nantucket novel.
- [34:01]
Sarah Colonna
Oh, so she's like, she's retiring like Tom Brady, right?
- [34:05]
John Ryan
Yeah, it was like, it was like, I think the morning I'm on her email list, sweetie. So the morning the book was released, she released an email to everyone on her email list being like, this is. It's called the Swan Song because this is my swan song. But then she also announced that she's writing a book with her daughter doing some other things. But she's like, I think I've exhausted the topic of Nantucket. I'm not going to touch it anymore. I'm going to leave that alone. Which also leaves her open to the British Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands, which she writes about. But I think she. Look, she going towards retirement. She has a podcast now.
- [34:36]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah. Who doesn't?
- [34:37]
John Ryan
She. She replied to me on Twitter one time. That was fun.
- [34:42]
Sarah Colonna
She did. I. Yes. That's actually a good way to close out this podcast is by you telling that story. Because that really entertained me once when you wrote. You posted something about.
- [34:52]
John Ryan
I think I was trying to live tweeting like the end of the book. Be like, so and so just showed up. Jesus Christ, Ellen, what are you doing to me? Whatever. And she's like, she was like, oh, my God, now my fan base now includes an NFL player.
- [35:03]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah.
- [35:04]
John Ryan
Thing.
- [35:04]
Sarah Colonna
She was very surprised. You were, you were very excited about that. Almost as excited as my mom was when Luke Bryan tweeted her.
- [35:10]
John Ryan
Well, I'm not that excited. She's.
- [35:12]
Sarah Colonna
I know.
- [35:13]
John Ryan
Stop talking about it for 12 years.
- [35:14]
Sarah Colonna
No, but she actually said, Luke Bryan twatted me. And that was very, very upsetting for me. But he did. I have the. I have the tweet to prove it. So we really just want to introduce for this episode our. Ourselves, if you don't know us, which we didn't really do. But I'm a comedian and a. And an author.
- [35:31]
John Ryan
I'm a former professional football player and.
- [35:33]
Sarah Colonna
I'm also an actress. Oh, boy. And then. John, go. Now you can talk.
- [35:37]
John Ryan
Anything else, sweetie?
- [35:39]
Sarah Colonna
Yeah, actually a writer. Anyway.
- [35:41]
John Ryan
Go ahead. I am a former professional football player. I played professional football for 19 years, 12 of those years in the National Football League, mostly with the Seattle Seahawks. And now I'm retired and I don't do a lot.
- [35:53]
Sarah Colonna
He reads now he's retired and he reads. And so we have a podcast, and we would love for you to join us. And 28 Summers by Ellen Hildebrand is your first assignment. If you want to go ahead and get your second book for December, it is On a Quiet street by Seraphina Nova Glass. Question mark. Yeah, that's right. And we look forward to you guys following along with the book list.
- [36:18]
John Ryan
Can't wait.
- [36:19]
Sarah Colonna
The book list.
- [36:20]
John Ryan
The book lisp.
- [36:22]
Sarah Colonna
The book list.
- [36:23]
John Ryan
The book lisp.
- [36:25]
Sarah Colonna
The book lisp.