I Know What You (Are Still) Read(ing) This Summer

Hamden Library Podcast team members Hannah, Eliza, Matt, Rebecca and Michael discuss their summer reading.

Transcript

Michael Pierry: Hello, and welcome to the Hamden Library Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Pierry, and this episode brings back one of my favorite formats. It's a roundtable discussion with five members of the podcast team, including myself. Much like last year when we did this, we talked about what each of us read or are still reading this summer, and what we're looking forward to reading next. 
 
 

We also talked about our favorite places to read and how much of a book you actually have to read in order to claim that you've read it. It's a fun, lighthearted discussion, and I hope you have as good a time listening to it as we did recording it. Now, let's listen to the discussion. Hello, everybody. 
 
 

Welcome to our summer reading roundtable. My name's Michael Pierry, and, to my left I have Rebecca. Say hi.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Hey.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: And- ... oh, to her left I have Eliza.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Hello.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: And joining us via SquadCast, I have, or we have Hannah.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Hello.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: And Matt. Matt, where have you gone?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Maggie, stop grabbing at the microphone.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Okay, great. So what's everyone been reading this summer? 
 
 

Matt, you start. Maggie, you start.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: so Maggie has been reading a lot of Matilda. I'm sorry, not Matilda, Madeline. Maggie really enjoys Madeline, and I have... I read, ooh, there was a new graphic novel that came out, a sequel, Beetle and the Chimera Carnival, which is the sequel to Beetle and the Hollow Bone, and they're both really good, and I also read, His Majesty's Dragon, which is one of Naomi Novik's earlier books, which re-imagines the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Very cool.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: There are a bunch of other books. I'm not gonna chase them down. But the one I read, I was very happy with.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Okay, so that was, that's a thumbs-up for you.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Yeah. especially if you're looking for more dragon stuff or if you are a big fan of Naomi Novik, who you probably recognize from the Scholomance books, A Deadly Education, they're a good read. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Hannah, how about you?  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Yeah, I ventured into fiction this summer, so that's... It's... I get it now. I get why people like fiction. I read Isola. That was a historical fiction about a French woman landing in New France, and I've- Failing to have my turn with the book Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I opted to read a juvenile nonfiction book about the Earth's atmosphere. 
 
 

So I learned a bit about that, so that was great and other things I've been reading are magazines. Been catching up with the news. Like that's just some light reading.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Mm-hmm.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Mm-hmm.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Let me see if I can remember any parts of the atmosphere. Troposphere. stratosphere.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Stratosphere, and I listened to the Beck song while reading that section.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Is there a mesosphere? I feel like there's a mesosphere, but I could be wrong.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Yeah, I think so. the ionosphere too.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Oh, yeah, ionosphere.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Read about that ozone layer.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Can't forget about the ozone layer. And then, isn't there, one more that's, like, right at the edge of space? 
 
 

Or is that just the stratosphere? Does it just kinda peter off? Come on, Hannah, you're the expert.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Oh my gosh, I know, peters off.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Okay, excellent. We've learned so much on, on this podcast already.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Already. Yeah.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Eliza, how about you?  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Actually, I did get to read Atmosphere. It was my lucky day. So if you guys don't know what the lucky day is, please come check it out because you get an opportunity to check out a book you might not otherwise get because it's in high demand, like Atmosphere. 
 
 

That was on my reads this summer. It was a great book. Really enjoyed that. And I picked up Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pell, I think, or Pelt, which has been a popular title. I keep watching people take it out, and I was like, "Okay, let me check this out and see." Great sweet little story. 
 
 

Kind of predictable, but it was a really good beach read for me, so.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Cool.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Mm.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: And how about you, Rebecca?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I've been reading more nonfiction than I usually do this summer. I'm particularly interested in the popular works about sociology. I'm rereading Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell, which is about cults and group identity and language. 
 
 

She has this podcast called Sounds Like a Cult, where it's kind of like everything is a little bit culty in its own way, but, you know, some things are harmless live your life stuff, and other stuff is really rather dangerous. And she covers different subjects, sort of using the same sort of ideas and rubrics that she puts forth in Cultish. 
 
 

I also finished one of our new nonfiction published earlier this year by Sophie Gilbert. It's called Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, and that's about popular culture, in, like, the late '90s and the aughts, which I just felt was very timely because that's sort of when I came of age, graduated high school and college, and it's... 
 
 

Nostalgia's different now than it was when I was growing up as a kid with Nick at Nite and everything, but the aughts are really coming back as a time for nostalgia. But that just always felt wrong, and I really vibed with Gilbert when she was talking about sort of things that happened around that time that sort of explained why. 
 
 

Other than that, I'm kind of having a hard time listening to romances on audiobook just because it's awkward to listen to other people getting hot and heavy. They are fun to read, but I think they are a text-first genre for me. Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings came out last year, and I'm just loving both of the main characters, but I'm paused halfway through until I get a copy in text. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: That's fair. So I have been rereading, Infinite Jest and, I hope that if you hate David Foster Wallace you don't turn off the podcast right now because we will be talking about other things. But, I'll just say I read it first when I was, about 20 years old in college, on summer break, and I did nothing, basically nothing else but read that book for like a month. 
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Mm-hmm.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: And it was not like any other experience I had had with a book before. It was like a weird cross between a bunch of humorous authors I had read before Like Kurt Vonnegut or even Douglas Adams in some ways and, like, an encyclopedia. And, rereading it now is really interesting experience. 
 
 

It's very much a product of its time, so it was written beginning in the late '80s through the early '90s and published in 1996. And, it's like it tries to encompass basically everything in like American culture at the time, and does a pretty decent job doing that. And, you know, that includes all of the problematic aspects, including ones that Wallace and most of us were not really kind of aware of what we were doing at the time. 
 
 

So some of the parts that seemed humorous at the time are a bit cringey now. But there are some really quite astoundingly funny or profound passages in it, and, it's just been very interesting to go back and like sort of... It's ironic because it's a sci-fi novel. 
 
 

It takes place in a future that we've now gone past in real life. But, it's very much, you know, about that '90s zeitgeist. It did predict certain things. Like, there's definitely parts of it where he basically explained why video phones kind of died rapidly after they were introduced, and it... 
 
 

He basically invents the Instagram filter before Instagram existed, which is kind of funny to read. But, yeah, it's been a wild ride so far. I'm only about 200 pages in of this thousand-page book, but really it's more than 200 pages 'cause you also have to read the endnotes, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm gonna stop talking about it now because some people really, really hate Wallace and this book, and I don't wanna bum people out. 
 
 

Anyway, I also started reading a nonfiction book, just because I usually like to alternate fiction and nonfiction depending on where my brain is at at the time. So I've started reading Talia Lavin's Wild Faith, which is about the evangelical right and their kind of rise to political power over the last 50 years. 
 
 

So it's quite an interesting topic. I just started that one, but it's... We're already talking about Satanic Panic and Michelle Remembers and all that good stuff. So it's very interesting book if that strikes your fancy as a topic you wanna explore.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: If you want a documentary to go with that, I've heard great things about The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which is, also about the rise of even evangelicalism. 
 
 

Yeah, I guess evangelicalism in the United States.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: All right, so that's what everybody's reading. What's everybody's favorite summer reads? I'll start. I don't really have a favorite summer read kind of thing. I don't change my reading habits for the summer in any way. So for me, I'm just like, "What's next? 
 
 

What's next on the list?" It's just like, it's that whole thing of when you, are an adult and there's no more summer vacation. Summer's just another season, man. You just keep going. So, same thing with my reading habits. Boring answer, I know, but, that's just how it is. What's next on my Goodreads or whatever, list, and I go from there. 
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I hear what you're saying, and that's totally fair. For me, I just think I tend to go lighter in the summer just because there's so much more to do, more things you can do outside, more things to distract you. So I prefer choosing things that I can put down and pick up quickly. Not exactly like pulp fiction-type things where you read it once and then you never think about it again, but just stuff that doesn't require a lot of heavier concentration. 
 
 

I don't know, I have that tendency. Warmer weather, lighter books.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: What about you, Eliza?  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: I kind of actually share your mindset in I just continually live my life and see what's on my list, what's coming up or what's available or... That's one of the perks of working at the library, honestly, is just to see what comes across-  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Yeah 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: at Borrower Services and go, "Ooh, that looks good. I might grab that one." 
 
 

Yeah, I don't really kind of... I used to, I feel like, trend towards, like, Kristin Hannah, Elin Hilderbrand, a lot of those kind of light reads over the summer, but now... Well, I guess I did that with Taylor Jenkins Reid and Atmosphere too, kind of of that same genre a little bit. 
 
 

But, yeah, I just kind of like to continue working down my list, and if it feels a little too heavy, I put it to the side, and I know that I'm an adult, and I don't have to finish a book.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Fair.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: I don't have that childlike quality, be like, "I must finish it, even if I hate it," so I'll put it to the side. 
 
 

Yeah, so I don't really have a summer read anymore at this point. It's just kind of like, "What feels good right now? What can I handle right now?" And that's kind of what I roll with, so.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Mm-hmm. Hannah?  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Yeah, to echo that, 'cause I work right alongside Eliza, I think, I feel like this summer I've taken home a lot of books, read parts of them, and returned them. 
 
 

So if something caught my interest when I was checking it back in, I would take it home. But I do give myself permission to stop. and I do remember the days of AP English summer assignments and a 700-page book for the summer, and I want to be able to do that, but it is still time to work. And- I just don't have the capacity anymore to read 700 pages in a summer. 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Mm.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: But a chapter here and there is a good intro to some non-fiction topics.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Yeah, I mean, it's August and I'm only on page 200 of Infinite Jest. This is what's ha- this is what- Right.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: You're not 20 anymore, Michael.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: I know.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I mean- ... you couldn't tell from your voice, but you're not.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: How about you, Matt?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: In the winter, it's cold and nasty out, so you wanna stay inside and read a good book. 
 
 

And then in the spring it's wet and gross and rainy, so you wanna stay inside and read a good book. And then in the summer, well, it's hot, so you can't go outside 'cause it's too hot, so you wanna stay inside and read a good book. And it's too windy in the fall to keep the book on the right page, so you have to stay inside even though the temperature's right. 
 
 

So all year round is good book-reading season, and I just take whatever catches my eye off the shelf. Or sometimes I'll grab something I've never heard of just because I've never heard of it. I do have another question that I was talking a little bit about with Hannah yesterday. How much of a book do you have to have read before you can say you've read the book? 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Ooh.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Because I think if you've read half of a book, you have more or less gotten the vibe of that book. You might not be able to say, "I finished the book," but you could say, "I read the book and liked it. I know about, enough about this book that I am happy passing it on to other people, or not passing it on to other people because it's not my speed." 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: But what if there's a great plot twist, Matt? What if something happens in those last 25 pages that you were not aware of?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Oh, good. There is exactly... The book is the whole experience of the book. There's only one book that my opinion of has changed halfway through, and that's Catch-22, which it was there the entire time, I just didn't get it. 
 
 

And once I got to getting the book, Catch-22 is one of the best written books I've ever read. And most books aren't that well-written, and you honestly don't have to read the whole book to have read the book.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: That's Matt's hot take. Most books are garbage.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Catch-22 is actually on my did not finish list, and has been there for over 20 years. 
 
 

But you are making me want to pick it up again, maybe try an audiobook version, see if it was the time or the book itself.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Well, wait now, so you just said your did not finish list. Would you say you have read the book based on Matt's description?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I only remember reading, like, one chapter or 20 pages or whatever. 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: So did you read the book, though? Like Matt is saying. Would you tell somebody you read the book?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I don't know. I tried to read the book. I feel like probably the threshold is, you know, a few more pages unless it's say a novella like, someone please remind me, what's that one that got made into the Apple [series]... Oh, Murderbot. 
 
 

If it's a novella like Murderbot, the, threshold might be lower, but I think for a full-length novel, probably about 50 pages is fair. It's not usually more than a quarter of the book, but it's enough to know whether it's you or the book as far as the mismatch.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: See, I'm a rule follower. I can't... I have to complete every page in that book to be able to tell somebody I read that book, and that's just me. 
 
 

That's my type A-ness. Like, I have to read the entire book to say, "I read this book."  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Oh, yeah. It's like caveat: I didn't complete it, but I did read it enough to know it wasn't for me.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: There you go.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: That's where I am.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: I think it depends on the book. I would say if you read half of a book like Infinite Jest- 
 
 

Rebecca Coates: [Laughter, crosstalk] Please continue.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: There is a certain cyclical nature to that book where it keeps, you know, you jump around back and forth a lot to different characters in the book, and you do kind of get into the rhythm of it, and I would say at a certain point you're like, "Okay, I know what we're doing here." 
 
 

And, to spoil it for people who haven't read the book, you don't get the kind of ending that you would get in a more normal book. So if you're looking for things to be wrapped up neatly in a bow at the end of Infinite Jest, you're going to be disappointed. There is kind of a projection of maybe how things wrap up, because the beginning of the book is actually the end of the book really. 
 
 

But there is a certain sense in which things are cyclical and, really, you're just getting more detailed information about the different characters and what they're going through. So it depends on the book. There are certain books that are... A lot of books are more linear, and they go from one part to the end, A to B, or A to B to C. 
 
 

And if you don't read all of it, you miss part of that journey, and you miss some really interesting plot twists and things that, you know, would affect your emotional experience of going through that. I can think of different books that meet that criteria. Like, I wouldn't say that you've read Pride and Prejudice if you haven't read it the whole way through. 
 
 

You know, there's a bunch of books like that. So it really depends on the book and how plot driven it is. And some books are actually unfinished, so you can read those. And even if you read the whole thing, have you read it? I don't know. 
 
 

Hannah Tyce: When I was doing my summer reading going into ninth grade, we had an Agatha Christie book to choose, and I chose that, and I got to the end and everyone was murdered, et cetera, and then I saw the epilogue. 
 
 

And I said, "I don't need to read the epilogue." One of the essay questions on the test was, "Who did the murdering?" And I had no idea because I didn't read the epilogue. And does that actually matter for the book? I don't think so. I don't think my experience would've been better had I finished the epilogue. 
 
 

But for that test, I would've gotten the full thing correct, but I didn't. But life is not a test about what books you've finished.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: But Hannah-  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: That said...  
 
 

Michael Pierry: But Hannah- Yeah ... you didn't care who did the murdering? They're dead. Isn't that, like, the whole point of the book?  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: It was the butler, if you're wondering.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: How do you know? You didn't read the book.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Because my classmate spoiled it. But using the clues in a well-written story, and you can see where the ending is going, is not a failure on the author. In fact, I think it is proof of their craft if you can figure it out. It's not a "gotcha" moment. So I think the ones that you can figure it out, totally fine to say you read the book But I am a front to back kind of reader. 
 
 

I follow that rule as well, except for the butler. But that was 14-year-old me. She was different  
 
 

Matt McGregor: I, for me, for mysteries, I want to get to the end. I feel like for a good mystery, you get to the end, and you're left with the feeling that if I'd taken more time, I could have put this together. The author gave me enough. And I feel like for a really good mystery, you get that same feeling, but if you dig into it a little more, there's no way you could have put it together. 
 
 

The author hid things too well.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: 14-year-old me didn't even remember that there was a butler, so- ... I think that she, I think she did a good job writing that. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: I also wanna say that I think that mystery authors have probably missed out on this title that you inadvertently said, which was Everyone Got Murdered. 
 
 

I think that would be a great title for a mystery novel. 
 
 

Rebecca Coates: But if everyone got murdered, then who solved the crime?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: That'll be the next title of And Then There Were None- ... when they find out that that title is problematic too.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Matt, that was the book. That was the book.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: It wasn't the butler. I mean- Oh ... it was the butler. 
 
 

Hannah Tyce: I guess I'll reread that for the summer, my summer finale.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: It's pretty good. It's one of her best.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Okay, anybody else? I think we've all weighed in on that. And Matt, you sort of answered this already, but what's the ideal location for summer reading?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Where's the air conditioning at? 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Yeah, that's for, that's me too. Anybody else?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Anywhere where you can't overhear other people's conversations or, like, a playlist you don't like. I always get distracted by sounds, but I will at least try to read anywhere. I just wish books could be waterproof so we could take them into, like, Long Island Sound or the pool or whatever. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: If you laminate your book-  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Right. ...  
 
 

Michael Pierry: every single page.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Not impossible. Kind of costly.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Maybe an  
 
 

Matt McGregor: e-reader?  
 
 

Michael Pierry: In a waterproof case or something.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: In a waterproof case with buttons you can press on the outside to turn the pages.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Well, all that to say it was not an accomplishment, for 2025. I went to Hamonasset. It was wonderful. The book did not go in the water with me.  
 
 

How about you, Eliza? Favorite place to read?  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Favorite place to read currently?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Especially summer.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Yeah, in the summer, I just moved, and our new place has a beautiful sun porch that the breeze comes through, and I have one of those old-school soft papasan chairs, and,  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Oh, that sounds so good. 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: My plants are hanging up. I have little crystals that, like, reflect the light. I have a fan. My cat comes out. So yeah, right now that is my very favorite place to read. I am a beach reader. I love to take a book to the beach. I hate getting sand in the book. it's so funny also working at the library because you can always tell people who took their books to the beach.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Oh, yes. We know.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Yeah. We know.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: We don't hate you for it,  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: No, but we know.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: We know.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Yeah. So I do, I love reading at the beach. I just don't like taking my books to the beach. There's just that fear of getting them kind of messed up, but I will literally read anywhere. 
 
 

A super hot day, I'm with Matt in the AC. I like being inside, you know-  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Mm-hmm ...  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: curled up. But I'm happy to read anywhere. But right now, the porch, that's my chef's kiss, so.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Wonderful. Yeah.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Yeah.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Hannah?  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: I would read outside more if there were fewer mosquitoes in my yard. But, so my answer is my sofa with the fan going. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Nice.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Very nice.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: What's next on everybody's list? What do they want... What do you wanna read next?  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: So I'm... This is Eliza. Sorry, I'm just jumping in at this point.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Oh, please do.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: I'm kind of on this octopus theme, so because I read Remarkably Bright Creatures. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is on my list for the next book to read. 
 
 

I just picked it up. That's what I'm focused on right now, and then I picked up Circe, but I just got a couple pages in. I tend to like to have several books going at one time for some reason. So that's where I'm at.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: How about you, Rebecca?  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: I also just started another book, it's called The Dead Come to Stay, and it was released literally the day before we're recording this. 
 
 

It's a cozy mystery, which is a little out of my comfort zone. I'm usually reading Louise Penny, and I can't wait for her next book coming out later this year. I also can't wait for the next book after The Full Moon Coffee Shop. It's called Best Wishes from the Full Moon Coffee Shop. It's already out in Japanese, but I think we're getting an English translation later this year. 
 
 

I loved the original because it was just, you know, quirky, cozy, and warm, and well, there's magic and cats, two of my favorite things.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: That sounds like a perfect fall read to me.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Oh, yeah. Another perfect fall read for me is Thief of Night by Holly Black. It's another sequel, and actually, full disclosure, I read it ahead of time 'cause I got an ARC. 
 
 

It's sort of like a suburban fantasy, [that] takes place in the Massachusetts Valley around Springfield, that area. There's, you know, some gore. It's kind of dark. There are definitely some themes to sort of approach with caution, but the parts of it that I like are, it's an adventure story and it's more of a relationship fiction than a romance. 
 
 

The first one was more of a mystery, and this one, Thief of Night, is more about self-actualization, at least in my experience of the book. But those are three things I'm looking forward to reading.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Awesome. My wife and I just got done binging Murderbot on Apple, so I'm really looking forward to reading those books now because I did the same thing with Silo. 
 
 

We watched Silo, and then I was like, "Oh my God, I love this story. I have to... I need more." So I read all the books, and now I'm like, "Okay, cool, I can't wait to see how they adapt this," because it goes crazy places in the next book. So I'm really looking forward to reading further adventures of Murderbot. 
 
 

And, I'm also going to be reading more nonfiction, including, Copaganda, which is a book about how, the police and the, mass media have kind of teamed up to give us a perhaps biased point of view about what the police do and how they work. But, yeah, those are what I'm looking forward to if I ever get done with my current albatross. 
 
 

Eliza Moyer: What is it you're reading, again?  
 
 

Michael Pierry: I can't say, really.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: And how long is the... it's infinite, you said? 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Yeah, that's the trick, is, you get to the end, and there's just, another book appears right under it.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: It's not actually infinite. It's cyclical. It's a subtle- a difference if you'd read the book.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: If you finished it?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: At least 20% of it. No, at least 20%.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: At least 20%.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Aw, thank you. Hannah?  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: I've got some books in transit about, maybe a murder mystery, I believe, is coming finally. And then I'm also gearing up to do some kimchi making. My husband's Korean, so we prep in the fall. It's almost harvest season, so this is the time to start prepping. So I've got some fermentation cookbooks on the list. 
 
 

I've got some pickling books on the list, so that'll be a hands-on project at home in the upcoming month or two.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Mm, delicious.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Yeah.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Love, love kimchi.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: It's so good. 
 
 

Michael Pierry: Matt?  
 
 

Matt McGregor: I've got three irons in the fire right now. I'm, just randomly picked up off of the shelf Oceans Echo by Everina Maxwell, about a society with people who can read minds and people who can bend others to their will, and it's really hooked me in the first 30 pages, so I'm probably gonna finish this one. 
 
 

I'm reading Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, which talks about, you know, all sorts of poisons and drugs. There are a lot more drugs than I suspected, although I guess it was "wicked plants" and not "poisonous plants". And I have Dungeon Crawler Carl on hold, so we'll see when it gets here, and I'm looking forward to reading that book also. 
 
 

It's sort of a fantasy in space about a human who has to do typical adventurer dungeon crawling stuff for the entertainment of aliens.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: That's awesome. Those all sound really fun. All right, thanks everybody. This was a great talk, great round table discussion, and perhaps we'll do another one in the winter to see how we did with our current TBRs, our to be reads. 
 
 

We'll see if, how many of them are DNFs, did not finish.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: And if Mike actually finished-  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Oh, my God ...  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: his book. Maybe he'll be on page 400 by then.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: I don't think six months is enough time.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: It depends if time is a flat circle.  
 
 

Eliza Moyer: Oh, wow. [Cross talking] 
 
 

Michael Pierry: All  
 
 

right,guys.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: Thanks so much. We'll do this again. Thank you.  
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Thank you.  
 
 

Matt McGregor: Happy summer reading.  
 
 

Rebecca Coates: Woo-hoo.  
 
 

Michael Pierry: That's all the time we have on this episode. Thank you for listening. See you next time. 
 
 

Hannah Tyce: Hello again, this is Hannah. It is with humility and hilarity that I bring you this episode's epilogue. Spoiler, it was not the butler and was in fact the judge who had invited them all to the island. This is a notice to me that I will read the epilogues if I do in fact read a book from cover to cover. 
 
 

Thank you