Classic City Vibes

Library Buzz: The Books Everyone Wanted In 2025

• Athens Regional Library System • Episode 95

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This week Niké and Dana join James to discuss the most popular books of 2025, our favorites, and what we are looking forward to in 2026.



SPEAKER_03

All right, welcome to Classic City Vibes. I'm James, and today we have with us Nikay coming back for the third time, I believe.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, it is. Hello.

What Patrons Fought Over

SPEAKER_03

And our first time, Dana's go with us. Yeah. So thanks for joining us today. Happy to be here. And so it's a little late, you know, a couple months in, but we're discussing today books from 2025, some kind of the trends we saw in the library, some of the best of some of our favorites that we read, and also some things to look forward to in 2026. So let's start just in 2025 in terms of patrons, what we saw in the library. What were some of the books that jumped out to you that you know were patrons were clamoring for?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so um in my case, I would say uh, you know, a lot of fiction titles uh and I also cheated a little bit um running a report to make sure I was, you know, refreshing my memory since I'm not in circ anymore. But uh, you know, Kristen Hanna's the woman, you know.

SPEAKER_04

Still there.

SPEAKER_02

Still there, still there and still rocking and rolling. Um as well as like the wedding people I saw a lot of. Um, you know, and then thinking of like adult titles, you know, when it comes to um other materials like for children's, you know, uh Dave Pike Pikely. Pilkey? Pilkey Pilke. Dave Pilke, sorry Dave. Um, who's definitely listening to the show, as we always say. Um, you know, he's always popular. Dog man is like insane. And then um also uh a lot of manga for like teens and children's like Spy Family, I know is a very popular one, as well as Demon Slayer, I think, because of the animes that are attached to them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, those are always very popular. Um I saw a lot of like Rebecca Yarros, Colleen Hoover, you know, anytime a book gets big on book talk, the library then sees a lot of um a lot of use of those books. But um one book that really surprised me that was very popular in 2024 um was The Frozen River, which published way back in 2023. And that is still, even now, being put on hold, being hard to find on the shelf. Um it just has maintained its popularity longer than just about any book I've ever seen. It's really amazing.

SPEAKER_03

Is that is that one that's on book talk as well? Is that what's keeping it going a little bit?

BookTok Waves And Surprise Stayovers

SPEAKER_00

I don't think it's on book talk. It's much more of a historical fiction. It's uh based on an actual uh woman who was a midwife uh and kind of uh uh a mystery that surrounded her family. Um a member of their community was killed and and her family was accused. Um and and it is I've read it, it's a really good book. Um I'm just not I'm not sure what it is about it that's had that level of staying power because two years on a hold list is a long time.

SPEAKER_03

Aaron Ross Powell It is interesting what sticks around for forever, it seems like. Especially, you know, libraries have longer tails than bookstores too. Like they cycle through it a little quicker than we do. So we'll see things that like stay on that list longer than they will. So for me, I think Theo of Golden was kind of that big out-of-nowhere title that the waiting list is a gazillion miles long. Yeah. And I believe it started as self-published back in January. It did. January. Was it January it came out?

SPEAKER_00

It was in the fall. Uh oh, it was fall of 21st. Yeah, it was in the fall. But yes, it was self-published to start out with.

SPEAKER_03

I had patrons asking for it in January, I remember. Um there was already a buzz before it even got to whoever picked it up, whether a major um label, print imprint, not label. That's music.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, it's um on the ILL ends. Um we have other libraries, you know, outside of the Pine system, uh requesting a copy. Like it's the half of the ILL list a couple months back, like it was half of it was just the O of Golden, and we had to be like, well, our copy is too new for us to even be sharing with Pine. So yeah. Sorry, we are not gonna share it out outside of that right now. But um yeah, I didn't I hadn't uh that was my first, you know, interaction with it, and I was just like, oh my gosh, people must really want it. So have either of y'all read it?

SPEAKER_03

I haven't read it, no.

SPEAKER_02

I haven't read it yet either.

SPEAKER_03

Um but it is interesting when I love it when a book that has no push. Uh-huh. You're like you know, a lot of books make it because their author's already popular or the publisher's pushing them big. And but when someone just comes from the self-published world and then like blows up like that, that's always that's always cool.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, I think it's been fun to watch that.

SPEAKER_03

And a Georgia guy. Yeah, he's from Georgia. I can't remember where in Georgia.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, I I've had people ask uh what the city is, where it's set, and they're like, I I think it's this, I think it's that, and it never tells in the book. Like it doesn't disclose you know uh an actual location. But people are like, I think it's South Carolina, I think it's Savannah, I think it's this, I think it's that. And that is that's fun, I think, for readers too, to try and speculate where it is that he is writing about.

Self-Pub To Sensation: Theo Of Golden

SPEAKER_03

Was the correspondent did that come out in the fall? Yes. That was the fall, yes. So that was another one. The waiting list on that is still like good luck. Yes, yes. It's one of those books, yeah. That one I have read.

Waitlists, ILLs, And Scarcity

SPEAKER_00

It was really good. It's uh done in epistolary style, so everything's a letter or a newspaper article or uh um, you know, some other form of written communication, um, which is always fun. Um Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is written like that, and it's wonderful too. But it's got an older protagonist, um, and you know, set in present day, so the world is really changing around her, and she's trying to change how she thinks about things, and uh she's a big letter writer, so you see her kind of evolve through her letters and her uh relationships that she has as she is going through this world upheaval, and it's really it's really very good. Um it's kind of a feel-good book, um, but it definitely has some depth and um some good emotion attached to it.

SPEAKER_03

And had you read the author before?

SPEAKER_00

I had not. This is my first. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

You're gonna go back and read some others? I probably will.

SPEAKER_00

I thought she was really good. I enjoyed her a lot.

Epistolary Hit: The Correspondent

SPEAKER_03

So what about what you've seen kind of out in the world, the best of list? I would say this year, more than any other, there was more variety in terms of like there didn't seem to be a consensus. Yeah. As there often is, usually there's some kind of consensus that we this was the big book of the year. Um but y'all didn't see much of that, did y'all? It seemed kind of all over the place.

Best-Of Lists Without Consensus

SPEAKER_00

And and I see um and and it could be I uh just recently moved to Athens in the last couple of years, so I don't know that this is due to reading or just because I changed locations. Um but I see a lot of people now looking at the um the prize winner list or the long list, like the book or long list that came out today, and reading off of those and trying to get those uh books in. Um those have been on our waiting list a lot recently, and so that is I'd love to see that because it's all different uh ethnicities and different geographies and different histories, and it's really fun.

SPEAKER_03

And I believe the National Book Award, I believe North Sun was on that this year, which was a small press, which I love to see I love to see a small press make to the to the finalist kind of list because it just doesn't happen very often. So that's on my list to read, but I didn't get around to it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

What about Unike? Did you notice any kind of like trends overall from 2025, best of?

Prize Lists Shape Reading

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh I'm not I think I I noticed the same thing you were mentioning about how like it didn't seem there was you know, like a clear, like, oh, this is like the clear book of the year, you know, or the at least the one everyone's talking about. Maybe because some of the lot later ones were mentioning, like the of Golden, you know, they came later in the year, so you know, maybe or I guess that one did come a little bit early, but uh with the buzz. Yeah, no, I um I think it's I I always think it's interesting, you know, uh varieties like the spice of life, you know. So um on and honestly, everyone kind of like uh, you know, you've talked about before on the show and everything, everyone's tastes are like so different that for me, I usually don't really peruse best of lists. I do more of uh, you know, recommendations from like, you know, my peers or friends and stuff, because uh having a book on a best list doesn't mean that I'll find it best or I'll find it enjoyable. Um and so I and it's so much a matter of taste, you know, and I think uh the more variety we have, the more it can be reflective of how like, you know, a book isn't the best, maybe because it fits like this one certain genre or like certain niche, just like the way it maybe makes a lot of people feel. And that can be very, you know, difference across the audience. And then of course, you know, I still partake and enjoy uh uh a lot of YA. So, you know, I'm awesome.

SPEAKER_03

What was a YA book this year that was kind of surprising for you that you enjoyed?

YA Trends, Duologies, And Longevity

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so I um Trisha Levenseller is uh one of my newer, uh a newer YA author who's like one of my favorites. She does uh a lot of um uh mysteries, or not mysteries, sorry, uh romance, you know, and kind of like she's kind of considered a little bit more of like a dark romance uh, you know, um author, I guess, uh even though still for YA. So um I was reading some of her um older stuff because I discovered her a little bit more recently, but um a book that I think it was, I'm checking real quick, okay. Oh, technically 2024, but I read it in 2025. She published a sequel to uh it was called The Darkness Within Us, uh, and it was a sequel to uh her first work that blew up The Shadows Between Us, really big. That one was uh published in 2020. Um, and maybe that's also a you know, COVID times books can book talk, you know, the rise of book talk and all that. But um anyway, I really uh I really enjoyed it. Um, and she's been one than uh this year or this past year. I read some of her earlier works in her series. Um uh Blade of Secrets uh was another duology um that I really much enjoyed. It was very like fantasy, you know, um uh just for no spoiler of a little premise. She uh there's a um a blacksmith and she creates a sword for those per like she she's a magic blacksmith, she weaves magic in her weapons and she gets a commission and she makes a sword that's like indestructible. It turns out the person she's made the sword for is go use it for like not great purposes. So now she has to go on a journey, you know, to like get rid of the sword and stay alive as she, you know, does it so that she doesn't help, you know, I guess bring about the the end of the world or you know, whatnot. A little dramatic, maybe take it that far. But anyway, yeah, no, that was um really great. So she's an um an author, I think, with the Y genre, especially, you know, it can be so enduring, as in like people are still writing Tamara Pierce, they're still reading Christopher Paolini, they're still reading, you know, Philip Pullman, they're still reading all of these great long times. So I feel like it can sometimes be harder to like establish yourself sometimes like as a name the way you could with like a series, right? Suzanne Collins, she has the Hunger Game series, which I haven't read the latest works there, but I've heard really great things, and they were also ones that I saw regularly.

SPEAKER_03

Jack got on a lot of lists, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And Rick Riordan, he came out with a sixth book in the Percy Jackson. Yes, yes, I had no idea until Patron walked up and they were like, Oh, I'm looking for like the sixth, you know, book. I was like, oh, you mean like Heroes of Olympus, you know?

SPEAKER_02

She's like, no, like he came out with another, I think it's it's gonna be three. Is it a trilogy? I think so.

SPEAKER_00

I think so.

SPEAKER_02

I was like, sir, what are you doing? I'm not like and this is how I always feel. I'm like, I'm not checking, even Tamara Pierce, where she's producing new works. I'm like, I'm not checking up for y'all anymore. Like, you guys need to be a good one. No, yeah, Nikkei, no. You can find her at the Athens Clerk Kenny Library, 2025 Fax Retreat. Please, everyone who's listening who's a YA author, let me know when you release a new title. You're a long person, you know, you've been long Mainstay, and it's been decades since you're like you can't just throw it in. I'm not looking for the title job anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, my kids are adults, and they were like, Mom, mom!

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I need so that's on my own.

SPEAKER_02

This is publishing for sure, for sure. But yeah, no, it's um Yeah, I think that's uh I think it's also a little bit different the way the buzz, you know, given the audience how that works versus, you know, for uh adult fiction. But I think book talk and social media can also be a maybe even a larger contributing factor, you know, at times for them.

SPEAKER_03

So I do like the trend of duologies though. Yeah. Isn't there seem to be a lot more of those now? Because it just seems less for me as a reader daunting than a trilogy or some of these series are like 10 or 15. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's too much unless you've been in it from the beginning. It's too much. Yeah. And see, when I was younger, I really loved it because for me I was like, when I find a book I love and enjoy, I want more. So I would purposefully hunt for series because I'm like, if I enjoy it, I want to keep, you know, I want I don't want it to end there. And this is of course before I discovered the joys of fanfiction.

SPEAKER_03

But um the never ending series.

SPEAKER_02

The never ending series, yes, exactly. So um that was something that uh drew me. And now that I'm older, like you said, would if you were to like try and get into a series now and it's like 10 books long, and it's they're not done. It's like, oh my gosh, that's a lot, that's a lot of investment now on the back end. So um and they may not finish it.

SPEAKER_03

And you may not manage it, and then you're in the middle.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so it is nice to have like a little duology where it's like I get you know, it's like basically you have a slice of cake after a really great meal, it's like, oh, it is my little extra, like a little slice. And I was like, oh, that was that was nice. And now I'm I'm good, I'm full. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Something to look forward to, but not that big daunting task.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

What are some things that that you read in 2025 that kind of stood out for you?

SPEAKER_00

Um, so I read um Buffalo Hunter Hunter, which was really big. Actually, I listened to it, and I was really glad I listened to it. Um the main character in the audiobook is voiced by a Native American. Um and it is an astounding book. Really, really good. Um I uh have never been a big horror reader, and a couple years ago started reading Stephen Graham Jones because everyone was talking about him, and I just love him. Um and yeah, that so that was really good. I spent a long time recommending that to everybody that I came in contact with. Um another one that I read last year, um, I read with my book club here in town. Um, we read uh Han Kong's um Human Acts, which was a Pulitzer Prize winner. Um not a light feel-good book, but um for books are but this was about an actual, like it was a story centered around an actual event in history that has happened in my lifetime. Um, and I never had heard anything about it. It was a a big massacre of of people who were protesting um government in Korea, and the Korean army came out and just mowed them down. Um and it just it her book was so beautiful um exploring this event from the viewpoint of several different people um who were involved in it or uh a couple who died in it. Um and it was it was really, really beautiful, although difficult to read, and that is one that I think about a lot still.

SPEAKER_03

That's always a good sign of a book.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, when you're still thinking about it six months later, that's good. It's a good book.

Heavy Reads That Linger

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Technically, because you you know, having the um a Native American, you know, audiobook speaker, um, that reminds me of one. Technically, I read this in January, so you know, um not 2025, but yeah, it's uh part of a book club uh that me and my friends have. Um it was uh Vagabonds by uh Ojosa Osundi. Um and I listened to the audiobook. Uh it's like 11, 12 hours. But um essentially it's a series of like vignettes um that seem to be kind of unrelated, but they all happen happen in Lagos, Nigeria. Um and the author is a Nigerian author, and um uh the term comes from how uh the queer community, you know, how um the laws, you know, against being openly queer that exist currently in Nigeria, um, and then it follows a lot of uh, or all of the characters are queer who it follows in the story. Um and hearing it narrated by Nigerian um, you know, narrators, one of whom actually had my name in like my so my my Nigerian name is Ifenyingwa, and one of her her name was that uh and then uh one of my brother's names, Ikena, was in a character in the book. And I was like, oh, so you get to be a character and I don't, and it was also weird to read because he was like a kind of love interest, like very briefly, and I'm like, oh. I'm like, I've never had that problem, you know, Ikana, Shimobi name. I've never had the problem of like having my family's, you know, names be in a book like that. So um, yeah, but hearing them, like getting the chance to listen to them narrate, it added like this storytelling element to it. That was uh very beautiful. Now to finish the book in time for the book club discussion, I made it halfway and then I was like, okay, gotta go to print. And so I re I read and and listen, and it's a very um it was a very different experience, but um, especially because she uses a lot of uh, you know, pigeon um and language and hearing native speakers, you know, speak that. It was just it made it a a much richer, you know, I feel like experience. And so that's something that when you mentioned your title, I was like, oh yeah, I love it's something I want to, I think, to do and explore more of when it comes to like different cultures and having you know the narration. The narration, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So did you read that listen to that on Libby?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yes, I did. No, I think um, and this is kind of aside from best books of 2025, but I think the books that intimidate us as readers because we don't know the culture, we don't know the names, or you know, you get hung up on the pronunciations of things. Audiobooks are the way to go when they have a native speaker narrating them. Um it removes all that distraction and it really does make the experience, I think, even better. Um I love that. I love that you did that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So wait a minute. I was gonna go back to something you said.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You quit the audiobook so you could finish it quicker. So you read quicker than you listen?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Oh yeah. Wow wow.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I mean, I also listen at like regular speed. I know a lot of audiobook listeners listen at like two times, uh-huh or two and a half. And I try, but like it for me, it like it changes uh and especially in that book, I feel like it changes the pacing. There's definitely other books where I maybe like sped through, but I am a standard listener of that variety. So I think if I did listen to it faster, it might have maybe I'd but if you read normal space, I definitely read. They read slow, like the intentionally, and I think and that was very intentional because that was like one of the minor criticisms, you know, of the story that uh uh some of the people had in the book club. And for me, I was like, I think that was intentional effect because they're not reading you a story, they're telling you. Like it was the the intonation and the pauses were very, you know, the way it is. If you've listened to some great storytellers, which you know we have, you know, and spades here in the Athens community. Shout out Donovan. Um and Eddie. Um, but uh yeah, no, it was it was very, very um uh wonderful to listen to. But yeah, I uh like I said, it was 12 hours. Um so you know, what would have taken me six hours to listen to? Or I I guess I um used it two and two speed, that would have been three, and I finished it in about then. So I guess I would say maybe I'm like even. You know, I finished it in about three hours when I read the last half of the book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So you're a pretty fast reader on conjunction of the they read slow. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I listen slow, but I read faster. That's funny.

SPEAKER_03

I'm the opposite. So I try not to get angry at my wife when she finishes a book in like a couple of days. I'm like, I can't do that. We all have our own superpowers, I guess. Uh I do want to give a shout out to Natch, which was uh written by Daryl Kinsey, which is a great book. Um Daryl's from here in Watkinsville. And he won the um debut novel award from the Center of Fiction.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

When Books Feel Written For TV

SPEAKER_03

Which was super cool to have a local person win such a prestigious kind of national award. Yeah, I'll have to look at that. Yeah, we have a couple copies in the system. Um and very very good book. Uh anybody any other books in 2025 that you want to mention before we move on?

SPEAKER_00

Um, so I'm gonna mention just one more. Um I read prodigiously, but I read uh both fiction and nonfiction, and last year I read Um Soldiers and Kings, um, which is an incredible journalistic book about people who um about the people in South America who help people to move illegally across the border. Um some of them are terrible, some of them are just people trying to get by. Um but when it talks about their experiences in their homelands in South America, in Brazil and Uruguay and places like that, um it makes them far more sympathetic, it makes them far more human, not maybe not sympathetic, but it makes them far more human. Um and they're a group of people who are often villainized, and I think that making that humanity apparent is a great gift. Um the book is amazing. The Jason DeLeon, who's the author, would live with these people for you know months at a time. It was immersive journalism. Um, and the book is phenomenal and not at all. Again, easy to read. Apparently, I read all heavy books last year. But I recommended it to everybody I saw. And most people are like, nope, it's too heavy. I don't want to read it. But I wish you would, because it's so good.

SPEAKER_03

What do you say to people when not patrons, obviously when they read what they want, but like when you're friends and stuff, if you really want to get someone to read a book and they're like, I just like to read stuff that makes me feel good. I don't want to go there. Do you have like a how do you try to convince someone to this one? This one's different. This one is different. Just read this one.

SPEAKER_00

So um I I cheat a little bit. I do actually have a book club uh back where I moved from. I used to live in Milledgeville.

SPEAKER_03

So you just make them.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, exactly. They want me to pick all the books. And so we actually did read it for book club. And a couple people did not come because they were like, I don't want to read that. Um but for the most part, I don't know. I feel like we like what we like. And some people, I personally really enjoy like reading out of my comfort zone. I like to explore different things, um, and I like to um try different um styles and genres. And uh, but I also think sometimes people really do want to just feel good. You know, life is hard. And if you want to read uh an Emily Henry story where you know what the story arc is gonna be and that you're gonna get a happy ending, you shouldn't be ashamed of that. You know what I mean? We should never, I feel like we should never force books on people, but I will listen if there's any form of interest whatsoever, and I'll be like, oh, I got a book for that.

unknown

Yeah.

Small Press Gems And Short Novellas

SPEAKER_02

Uh I guess for me, um, to go, I guess, pivot for books that we read that we might not have enjoyed very much. So this is also for my book club. It was um, and it was the first title actually that we read. Um, Love You to Death by Christina Dotson. Um, and I think it was her debut novel, and it was published in 2025 as well. Um, and so as the librarian of our group, I was the curator for our initial titles. And so um we were reading um books that were uh, you know, had um black characters as like, you know, uh a main character or figure. And so I just kind of went through, I used um what is it, novelist, you know, and I was like, I'm trying to be unbiased, you know, in my selection. I'll do like a range, you know, and and and a range of genres. And so we went with this one because, you know, the premise seemed pretty interesting. It was uh two best friends who are wedding crashers as a hobby. They crash a wedding and it goes terribly wrong. And so then they have to kind of be on the run together, and you know, the strain it puts on their friendship. But I have to say, you know, fan. Not a fan. Um, you know, no offense, Christina Dotson, if you're listening to this. Um, but I think, and while when we had our discussion, we talked about this where I think it's especially for um this now this wasn't is an adult title, but um particularly I think for some incoming, you know, um YA with like the book, the book, the book talk books that seem to be kind of like written for book talk, if that makes sense, or the what I call the Wattpad effect. It's like, you know, you had a couple of titles that, you know, from we're amateur or newer writers that, you know, got big and then, you know, kind of blew up, maybe before we had the that editing skill to like, you know, kind of shape it into the ones that naturally blow up big, you know, based off of uh other parts, like the writing quality. Anyway, um, we kind of discussed how it feels like there's become uh this genre or or not a specific genre, but a style where it's like written for like TV. Like it's not written to be a novel, it's written for you to like visualize.

SPEAKER_03

Um to get adapted and adapted, uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

Like and it's written with that intended purpose. And those are two very different genres. That's why me as a book to movie lover, you know, as we talked about, I think the last time I was on, you know, I always respect a choice that's made where it's intentional to change it from this from the book to the screen because it doesn't translate as well. Like those are different uh mediums and they require different writing and different skill set. And so when you're trying to blend the two, it does not, at least with the what their attempts are, it does not work well because it feels very there's an element that feels very like manufactured where it's like performative, where you aren't getting it from un, you know, like if we were if I was seeing it, I'm not hearing that internal work. So you don't need to focus on that internal work. And with this title, Love You to Death, it was so apparent because the character, the main character, she would keep continually keep making the same mistake and blaming it on like some other thing. And there was like zero growth or like self-reflection or self-acknowledgement. Like you're having the same thought processes and then leading to this conclusion, and then you're like, oh no, this happened. And you have the same, like, and it's it was just so mind-boggling where if you think about it as an on-screen thing, you're not seeing those thought processes, right? You're just seeing the resulting like dialogue and description, and so you can, there's an element, you know, that you can allow the the audience to project onto if you are kind of intending it to be there, right? Like the audience can take the reading as they want, and you don't necessarily, and other greats, of course, do, but you don't necessarily have to do the work to like build that. But if you have in a novel, that's where we are. We're living in the character's internal, you know, like they're not monologuing the entire time for most, you know, narratives. And so it just was so telling, and that made me interested in like, you know, now I've lost to see some scholarly, you know, analysis, some scholarship on like investigating that as like a growing trend. Phenomenon. Yeah. I don't want it to continue though.

SPEAKER_03

But it wasn't picked up for TV, was it? No, no, it's not picking up. Yeah, that's it.

Looking Ahead: 2026 Releases

SPEAKER_02

And heck, things can be optioned for TV and like never get produced. Uh there was one not, you know, to bring up Wattpad again. There was one I was reading back on there when I was still there um that I really, really enjoyed. And the uh she said it got while she was writing the sequel, the author said it had been optioned for a TV show. That was like over five, seven years ago.

SPEAKER_03

The majority of things that get bought as an option don't get made a movie or film. They're just starting in how many get pitched before how many get chosen. So I did want to mention one more from 2025 that I just thought of. I just said I don't like series, but this is four volumes. And actually they're not all out yet. Um but the first I believe the first volume came out last year. But on the calculation, um and I'm gonna try and pronounce this name. This is by Solja Bali. I'm sure that's not what it how it's pronounced, but um so New Directions put this out. So small press, I'm getting a little small press shut out here. And it's basically she gets uh kind of like a groundhog day thing, or it's the same day every day, but it's a little different in the sense that the um she is aging as this is going on. And um and she does sometimes affect things that happen. So if she eats all her food, then the next day it may be gone. Oh, yeah. And slowly slowly she's eating all the food out of this local grocery store and she's going in, and it's like they're very low stock today, you know. But you know, most of it's about her relationship. She's married and she kind of chooses to like she's kind he she was gone to a conference that day. So her husband actually spent the whole day without her. So to begin with, she starts spending the day with him, and but after time it gets kind of depressing for her. You know, he wakes up every day like it's why are you here? I thought you were at the conference. And so she kind of like sets up this separate life parallel to his and it's like, oh yeah, this is the time she knows when he goes to get the mail, how long he's gonna be gone, and all this kind of stuff. So uh I have only read the first volume, but there's four volumes, um, I believe at least two are out, maybe three.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. And you said it's called calculations.

SPEAKER_03

On the calculation.

SPEAKER_02

I just added it. That sounds really interesting. Four volumes of like that same plot.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and it's these thin books. Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

That makes more sense. Because I was about to say, like, how do you get like I'm thinking like volume 60,000 words? I was like, how do you get like 240,000 words out of out of that same like I'm I'm impressed. Like I'm supposed to be, I'm interested.

SPEAKER_03

So the first volume was 176 pages. So these are short little novellas. Yeah, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_00

I gotcha. That sounds cool. Yeah, it sounds very cool.

SPEAKER_03

Did you have a book from 2025 that you would like to throw under the bus?

Sci-Fi Vs Fantasy: Different Umbrellas

SPEAKER_00

Oh gosh. Okay, that's a hard question because I don't record those. Um Okay, one that I did not care for. Um, I'm not a big like romance or rom-com reader. I know those books are really trending right now. People love those little paperback romances and more power to them. Um, but Dolly Alderton wrote one that was supposed to be more literary and it was called Good Materials. Um, and one of my book clubs read it, and I just was like, this is not for me. I don't this he said, she said, on again, off again. I just can't do it. Um so that is one, but uh people love it and they speak very highly of it, so that's definitely a personal thing for me, but that's one I did not enjoy. And I did finish it. Usually, if I don't enjoy it, you get about maybe 70, 80 pages out of me. And if I don't like it, I'm not gonna finish it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's good. All right, so let's move on to 2026 since we're here now. What's some things y'all are looking forward to this year in terms of releases?

SPEAKER_00

So um I'm a big Maggie O'Farrell fan, and I know she's big right now because Hamnet came out, uh, but I've been reading her for several, several years, and she's got a new book coming out in either March or May, and I think it's called Land, and I'm really, really looking forward to that. I think she's just pure magic. So I love her.

SPEAKER_03

Um that'll be huge, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, because of Hamnet being so, so big. Um and Emily St. John Mandel has a new book coming out. Um I think she's best known for Station 11 and Glass Hotel. Um I can't remember what her book is called that's coming out, but it is coming out again in March or May. So one of them is definitely March, one of them is definitely May, and I can't figure out which is go on and figure out which one.

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so yeah, those are ones I'm really looking forward to.

SPEAKER_02

Now that I'm in a book club, I kind of let them guide me. So I haven't been, um, but uh for some, I guess, you know, to to bring up the the series again, um, Tristan Livenseller, like I mentioned before, uh, she came out with um a new series uh What Fury Brings. I haven't read the first already, but she's is going to be a series. So I think she already has said that the next one should be coming out, I think, this year. And um, like I said, I but so she is, you know, YA author, and what I really love about her works, um, which I think is something I appreciate from a lot of uh YA when they do it, is having like very strong female protagonists who in you you avoid that not like other girls, you know, element that you know can sometimes come uh from it and their their strength isn't always that like oh they're strong or clever, or like they're the best. It's just like a very well-rounded, still strong but well-rounded female protagonist. I think she does that very well, and then to have the romance element and be appreciated for those, I'm like, oh yeah, this is my jam. So um I'm looking forward um to that. Actually, I think what Fury brings, if I remember. No, yeah, that's her adult debut, actually. Oh, so there. Yeah, yeah. So uh I'm looking forward, I guess. Technically, it was published September 2025. So I'm looking forward to reading it this year in 2026. I'm I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series. So I'm wondering how um how it's going to do in the uh the uh the adult the adult genre world.

SPEAKER_03

So as as someone who reads and likes YA a lot of YA, what's your general what what's the general outcome for you as a reader from someone who's done a lot of YA when they go to the adult world? Do you tend to like it or you tend to uh well I guess it really depends.

Consciousness, AI, And Reading Futures

SPEAKER_02

I think oftentimes, like I when they when they sometimes when they jump uh uh audiences, they also like change genres or like they're going in a different direction, and it's like I'm I'm gonna be able to do that. That's not your jam. Exactly. Like I'm reading you for fantasy and this, and if you're now going like, you know, for a more literary work grounded in realism and everything, it's like, well, I'm I just have less of an interest, but it also depends on the author. So like there could be an author who like I would, you know, because of them as an author, where it's like, oh, I'm really committed, or this is so um, I guess well, no, no, no. The host is is is technically a YA novel.

SPEAKER_03

Um that was actually someone I was thinking of, like someone like that, um Myers.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Stephanie Myers, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's going into is she releasing something in the the water she had, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, she did. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02

She's got a couple, and I think the host is one that straddles. And for me, yeah. So I was a big Twilight girly, like I look back and I can see the flaws, of course. Um but as a 11-year-old, 12-year-old, when it came out, you know, it was like my jam, you know, my jam. And so the host is always like, I always have to recommend it for people and say, like, listen, I know she's the twilight author. Ignore that because the host is different. I promise you it's different. But um, yeah, it there's definitely authors like even uh Tamara Pierce or someone like who where I would be, you know, no matter what you no matter what you write, I'll I'll read or I'll at least give it a chance, even if it's something that I've you know, sci-fi has never been like a a big thing for me, but I'd read a sci-fi book by by you, Tamara, if you you ever decide to leave fantasy and venture venture forward.

SPEAKER_03

You know it's the interesting thing about everywhere you go, in bookstores and wherever you go, sci-fi fantasy are always put together. Yeah. But the readerships generally don't overlap that much. You may dabble here and there. Of course, you know, pretty much everybody dabbles here and there every once in a while. But they're really very, very different readerships. But they kind of always get kind of put together, which is interesting in terms of like marketing, you know, name it.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, no, like they're just it's it's it's different genres and different like, you know, tropes and and patterns and storytelling and you know, fo different focuses too on like what the story means. I think sci-fi, from what I found, is a lot of times, you know, has that l literary aspect where it's very, you know, it's trying to it's uh a lot of times a commentary, right, on on society or some some form or humanity or something, you know. I've I've found with some of the, I guess maybe the great sci-fi's. And it's not that fantasy can't do the same, but that's usually at least what I found, not the intention, it's more so more a storytelling. Yeah, a story. And that's what I enjoy. I enjoy stories. I I can also enjoy, you know, more grounded things, but what I when I read, I'm usually reading for the story. And um, that's not to say sci-fi can't have great stories or great stories. It's just like I said, usually it's it's it's a different kind of story. Um and so yes, yeah, like you said, it's interesting because I think sci-fi is technically considered part of like the fantasy genre or vice versa. Like there's some overarching genre and it's like a speculative fiction or something like that, you know, where it's like, oh, they're all the same umbrella. And I'm like, I think you need to have two different umbrellas at this point.

SPEAKER_03

I wonder if they put them together for things like I think it was something like Star Wars. Uh where they like it's really just the fantasy, but it's in the sci-fi fantasy space. Yeah. Instead of trying to separate them.

SPEAKER_01

It's like just put them in sci-fi.

SPEAKER_02

You know what that could actually check out? Yeah. Yeah. Because you have those debates of all the time of like, you know, is I think Star Wars has been accepted now long enough to be like, no, it's a fantasy. It just takes places.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, totally.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely is.

SPEAKER_03

One of the ones I'll do a nonfiction. So I'm looking forward to A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Poland. Polan.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, yes. I like that.

SPEAKER_03

So of course he did How to Change Your Mind, um The Plant. I'm putting down the names.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, uh, I can't think of the names either, but he always writes about food and what what we should be eating and what is best for us. What we eat, I think, is what we're doing. Yes, there you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So consciousness will be interesting because there's a lot of books coming out in the last few years about consciousness because it's something that define it, where it comes from, is something you know philosophers and scientists are still struggling with. But also the rise of AI and this kind of idea is AI capable of eventually having consciousness is like, well, we can't even decide what it is and how it's going to be. How are we going to agree on that kind of thing? So it'll be interesting to see where he goes with that, because it to me it's a fascinating kind of idea.

Long-Running Series That Still Deliver

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and because his last book was more about like opening your consciousness, because it was alter or altering your consciousness, I guess. It was about um, you know, uh mushrooms and psychotropic drugs and things like that. So yeah, that's interesting that he's evolved to writing about consciousness.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's probably that's probably what linked him into it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So that'd be interesting. I I I just had a recent you bring up AI and consciousness. I actually just had a recent debate with a friend Dole about that, and I'm Well, let's hear it. Come on, you can just for me, I'm firmly on the the the camp of nah, we're not even close. If we get to a point where I think we can successfully map the human brain, and like you know, we don't even fully understand right our own human brains.

SPEAKER_03

Not at all, not at all.

SPEAKER_02

So we I think we need to get to full understanding of that, and then like maybe map once you have the understanding, then that could be mapping and creating, and then at that point, we're talking like, and then also I don't think I want us to I think some things are best left unknown, like maybe not. But with AI, I think you know the big thing is it's very good at performing, you know, as a person, and that's like the intended design. But one thing you learn as a computer scientist, you know, in my case, minor, or as a computer scientist, is the first thing they always tell you is that uh computer will only ever do what you tell it to. And the reason we're told that is so that if there's ever an error, it's either hardware that's not hardware or software, it's you, it's the code that it's related to. So when we talk about AI, I don't think at this point it's grown outside of the bounds of that, you know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, nowhere near that.

SPEAKER_02

Nowhere near that. And I don't think with our like what we think of as machine learning and that we call artificial intelligence, really machine learning. And when you have those concepts of like how it works, it makes it where it's like, if this is how it works, then it could never attain consciousness because it's built around these, you know, structures that are rooted in like these still rules at the end of the day. It'd be like an escape of the rules. And I just think that it'd be restructuring then like the you know, you'd have to do a lot of restriction about like how it works. But um, honestly, I'm like, can we abandon that goal and focus more on like sustainability and environmentalism and like you know the impact we're having on you know literacy rates, right? Like we're talking about, we all care about literacy, and I'm like, guys, Gen AI is not our friend when it comes to the fight against literacy. It is the end.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and just to your point about environmentalism stuff, AI is actually a you know, because of the massive energy and resources. So it's it is it is not that. But at the same time, it's like is that a damn that you're gonna, you know, are you gonna stop that tidal wave of this is all Nikay's unfiltered opinion as a as a as a as a personal, not a professional.

SPEAKER_02

No, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Any other books that are coming out that you're looking forward to?

More 2026 Heavyweights To Watch

SPEAKER_00

Um I am actually looking forward to so my guilty pleasure is Jim Butcher's Dresden series. Um and he's got a new one coming out. And I did actually get my hands on an advanced reader copy. Um and uh, you know, if if you've read Dresden, he's lived a hard life. And then this one he gets to be happy a little bit, and I really liked that. So I'm looking forward to reader response on that.

SPEAKER_03

Is that what in the 20s at this point? How many of those are there?

SPEAKER_00

There's a lot. It's probably if it's not 20, it's approaching 20. And this one, in this last story arc, um, where a couple years ago, 2022 or 23, he he published two books in one year. Um and they were a story that was definitely if you didn't read the first one, you shouldn't read the second one. And this third one kind of follows that. It's almost like a trilogy. Um, the two of leading up to the major event, and then this one is the ne it's called 12 months, and it's the next year after this big event happens. Um but I'm really looking forward to people responding to that because that's my That's your thing. Yeah, that's my brain candy.

SPEAKER_03

And that's that's an example of a series, though. Like there's series and there's series, and it's in the terms of like some, especially fantasy, is like there are m 14 books. You gotta read them all. You can't just four because they're all so intricately tied together. With a series like this, you could literally pick up.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, most of them you can pick up one. Somewhere. There's some overarching storylines, but you if you're only reading one or two, kind of like mysteries like there's a character and it's nice to know the backstory, but you don't have to. But you don't have to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So Tiari Jones? Is that pronounced that right? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00

So I have an advanced reader copy of that.

SPEAKER_03

She's an amazing writer. I loved um the last one she did. The uh an American marriage that was interested.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02

That one I still have to read.

SPEAKER_01

I feel so bad.

SPEAKER_02

She came to our uh to undergrad, she came to one of our writing classes one time at school. Yeah, and I have a a um a selfie. I took her and everything, and she explained like how she wrote, you know, her writing structure and everything, which you know, like writing out of order, like she just writes and then like puts them all down and then like arranges them. And I feel like, oh my gosh, I was like, I need to get on your level. But anyway, you're almost there. I've been thinking to myself, I was like, I do need to read, like, it's been on my reading list like I guess for the past seven years now, because that was a whole while ago.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, she's this one is actually like it's funny. Uh now I'm not very far into it, but it ha I've laughed. She her commentary on black culture is very she talks about black grandmas. Uh huh. Hilarious. Um, it's uh it's uh Ken, you said is the title word?

SPEAKER_01

Ken.

SPEAKER_02

Ken. Ken. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02

That makes more sense.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, wonder who Ken is. I'm sorry, I totally interrupted you.

SPEAKER_03

No, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00

You're excited for that one? Yeah, I'm excited for that. That's all I'm saying. I mean I'm enjoying it performing it right now.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and I maybe that one comes out pretty soon, I think. I'm trying to remember. I could today, I think. Oh I think it's today that it publishes. Today is definitely pretty soon. So I was right.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's today. Because I'm supposed to be done with it, and I'm not yet.

SPEAKER_03

Get on the wait list for that one.

SPEAKER_04

So definitely get on the wait list for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I'll just mention a few other, like George Saunders has a new one coming out, um, which would be interesting. Ann Patchett, who's always a big one, has another one coming out this year. Colson Whitehead is finishing the trilogy. There you go. So that I think that will be a big one. I've read Colson Whitehead, but I haven't read any from that.

SPEAKER_00

I need to read all of those. I've read uh Sag Harbor and Underground Railroad, um, which I loved. And but these it's it's a trilogy. I I don't think they're dependent on each other, but I think it it's called the Harlem trilogy, I think.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, the Harlem Crime trilogy, yes. Ray Carney. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

But I don't think they necessarily like I think you could pick and choose which one you read. Like I don't think they're related other than like location and culture, if I understand correctly.

SPEAKER_03

You can, but as a reader, I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no, no, no. No.

SPEAKER_03

If a writer writes something in a certain way, you know. You need to be read that way. Yeah, that's how I that's just me. That's just it.

SPEAKER_02

You know, with Philip Pullman and the uh Chronicles of Narnia, you know, I was like, what do you mean there's a chronological order? And that's how I read them chronologically. And then I I was always I always told myself, I'll go back and I'll read them like the way he didn't. I didn't get around to it. You didn't get around to it. But yeah, no, you're right. You're right. It is it's it's kind of like what people say with music, listening to an album out of order. It's like, no, you it's a different experience. And then then when they they're like, oh, I didn't like it, it's like, well, you didn't listen to it.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you were wrong. And that's why.

SPEAKER_02

But you had other titles.

SPEAKER_03

Uh let's see. Uh Barbara King Solliver has a new one coming out this year. I didn't work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So she's always popular.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Partilla, her last one when the Purezer. Well, it'll be interesting which twins the Purets are this year because there was no standout last year. But anyway, she has an an an and it's um based the main character is a married woman, a one-time pianist haunted by a passion for music that she never lived out. So I've read a few Barbara King's hours, but because it has music in it, I'm more likely to read it. Uh same with like Ann Patchett. I've only really read Bel Canto. Um just because the music thing kind of sucked me in.

SPEAKER_00

And I I wouldn't I don't even know how you'd begin to compare Bel Canto and Tom Lake.

SPEAKER_03

Like they're so different.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they're so different.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, maybe I did read Tom Lake.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I loved Tom Lake, but it's set on a lake in Michigan, and I grew up on a lake in Michigan, and so her sense of place is so on point. It's just love. I loved it.

SPEAKER_03

All right, now we're gonna get personal.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I don't think I even told y'all about this, but I just want you to tell us a book that it's kind of stuck with you your whole life.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_03

Not necessarily your f it had to be your favorite. It could be your favorite, but just something that like a book that just like it's lodged in your brain, and when you're 95 years old, it's still gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I guess for me it's you know the one that kind of briefly came up when we said it's about Stephanie Myers, the host. I always say it's my favorite book because it's the one I've read cover to cover the most times. I think my last count like was six. Maybe maybe and that's cover to cover. I've read elements of you know, parts, some of my favorite portions, but cover to cover at least six times.

SPEAKER_03

Wow, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Um, yeah, I actually have a a copy I got at one of the uh old book sales. Um, and I was like, ooh, that will be my seventh time. But yeah, no, um, it's just okay, so I was a big fan, and if if it wasn't for the Annie Morphs being a series, I might say the Annie Morphs instead of the host, but um, which is a single title. But the Annie Morphs series, you know, by uh Kay Applegate, um, which is 54, you know, novels in the main series, and then like, you know, there's some spin-offs. I read all of them. I read them at the old O'Cone Kenny Library. I've told James about this before. Um, and the host has a similar premise of it being aliens come and invade and they can take over your body. Um, but for while in the Animorphs, it's like a secret silent invasion, and the Yorks are like, you know, supposed to be the bad guy, right? Like aggressors. And the host, um, those aliens, uh, they are uh peaceful, like in the sense where like they that they basically have no war, no conflict in their society. So they're like taking over because they're like, and that's how you humans started knowing something was wrong, was because we started like not having wars and disarmed, like it was and grid. And yeah, no, and so it's a very interesting commentary, right? Basically, about you know, society. Like, is there like what does it mean? Like, is freedom, you know, about choice and freedom, right? And and the consequences of having that or not having that, and then also like what it means to be, you know, human, right? What it means to have a soul, because they're called the souls, uh, and the host is an alien race, is you know, their term in English. So, um, and it follows, you know, one soul in particular. She's put in uh and she's lived several lifetimes, you know, on different planets that's different uh organisms and stuff. And um she uh merges is put into this human girl who usually the personality is fully erased, it's just the soul and the body, and there's you have memories, but not the person. But uh the person she's put into Melanie, she's still there, like she can still hear, and that's not supposed to not happen. Um, and so there's consequences as a result of that, and yada yada. Um anyway, it was do not I do not compare it to the movie. The movie did not capture, I mean, the soundtrack is Imagine Dragons, I love it. But uh the movie as itself, no, it's like a book, and I keep I keep trying to tell people because they think Stephanie Myers and they go, uh-uh. And I'm like, no, listen, look past the author for once and and read it. But in real, I think that's gonna be the one that just stays with me. Like I said, it's uh uh and maybe this is where my my interest in you know fantasy overall and then you know my not as interest in sci-fi kind of, you know, maybe when it comes to this specific alien and stuff, I'm I'm more interested. But um, yeah, it's just what it says about society and people and and goodness and values and more and you know, everything and community is just, I don't know, it's just it it's a book that makes me remember, you know, why I love, I guess, humanity and love people. And like love, love and caring is like just such a a central point of the book. It's the whole book, the reason the book happens is because of love and the care that Melanie has, you know, for her family that she was, you know, separated from when she was captured. Um, and you know, it just is is is really an incredible to read and reflect on. And it ends on this note where uh Stephanie I think has said before that she might, you know, continue or think of like she has ideas, but not necessarily a book. But honestly, I love where it ends. It ends on a very like, oh, here's how like because you know, is we're talking about like total takeover of the alien race. There's only like pockets of humanity that are free, you know, that remain. So it's like, how do you defeat them? And what is defeating them look like when again they're not that they're not like this big bad, evil alien species.

SPEAKER_03

They brought peace and they're not.

SPEAKER_02

And and and what it seems to imply is that how it ends is with coexistence and what could coexistence look like? And anyway, it's just a really, really uh uh uh great book, and I think that's the one so far that will there's so many books, of course, that will stay with me, but I think that's the one that's that one in Animorphos. Yeah, yeah, and Animorse, the whole Annie Morph series, all K A, which you did at that end, like I still can't talk about it.

SPEAKER_03

But you know what interesting, I I asked my mom, I was like, did I read a lot as a kid? Because I don't remember when I started reading. Oh, you read all the time. I don't remember any books. Like there's no like author or like experience when I was young. Apparently I always read. I don't ever remember not reading. Yeah. But I just don't remember any books from my childhood. Even though I read a lot.

SPEAKER_02

Did you go to the library a lot or did you have like them at like home or um we did go to the library?

SPEAKER_03

I remember we went during the summer with summer reading and all that. Um as far as other than that, I once again maybe this is just a a a testament to my memory. Because I always have to ask them, did I do this? Did I not remember much of anything? So but I would hope the books would stick in there, but they didn't.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's what one thing that helped me remember was um, and then I was obsessed with building my Goodreads profile to be like every book I've ever read ever, like even as a child. But I went, you know, to our local and you know, I went through the stacks and I can see the title of some of them. Like Eva Ibotson is like a great children's author, you know, Cornelia Funkey, you know, and um, oh, I guess Inkheart would be another one. Uh that whole the whole trilogy. But as a writer, I think and I think that might be what part of what developed my passion for like writing and stuff, and anyway, it was oh, it was it's something. It was I don't know, it was something, something good. Yeah. But it was something that one. Ooh. It took it took a premise of like, what if your favorite characters came to life and like made it like not a good thing? Yeah. Very interesting, honestly, and it was very awakening for me being so young. Like, whoa.

SPEAKER_03

We recently recently interviewed uh Gerald Ma, who is the editor for uh the Georgia Review. And I'm gonna probably get this quote wrong. But he was talking about someone he had had a class with, and he said a writer is a reader who's kind of just overflowing. So I like that. So you can't like be a writer unless you have this classic reader. The reader comes first before the writer. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

100%. I can't I couldn't see it any other way. Yeah, yeah.

Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00

Um, okay, so this is this is not my answer, but Island of the Blue Dolphins is my childhood, childhood book. Um, a book that sticks with me forever. I've got two. Um The Talisman by Stephen King. And I know I just sat here and said that I don't read horror, but I have read everything Stephen King has written. Uh my dad loved him, and my dad is where I get my love of reading from. And I was probably a pre-teen when The Talisman came out, so it would have been in the 80s. Um and I can remember my dad sitting at the table and talking about flipping. Um, oh, I just flipped, I'm in the territories, and it just the way he talked about it, I couldn't wait until um I could read it. And it's just it's the best hero tale, it's the best journey across America. It's a boy saving his mother. Um the characters I I uh I will carry Wolf in my heart for forever. Um, and I think about that story a lot, that book a lot. Um I feel kind of the same way about Roland in the Dark Tower series, but uh Jack has me for forever from The Talisman. Um and that's from my like my childhood. Um, a book that I think about all the time as an adult is believe it or not, that I know I just said I don't read ro romance either, um, but The Time Traveler's Wi. Um I was so because I figured out how it was gonna end before it got there. Um, and I literally was like, I'm not finishing this book. I I refuse to let this happen. Um and I've only read it one time. I'm actually about to reread it because this year I'm doing some rereading. So and I'm a little nervous because I remember being a basket case when it ended. Um, but yeah, that one, I think about it a lot. Um, and that's just kind of uh, you know, how do we fit in space and time and and how do our lives unfold? And um, it's a really well told story for a romance.

SPEAKER_03

A romance romance is great. It's just yeah, each to everybody has their own thing.

SPEAKER_00

Everybody does have their own thing.

SPEAKER_03

Well, thank you both for coming in today. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00

It's fun.