The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Reading Rewind: American Girl Dolls (Meet Kit and Addy!)
In today’s episode, we’re doing a deep dive into one of our FAVORITE playthings from childhood—American Girl Dolls and their accompanying books. Joined by very special guest and leading American Girl expert Emma Wright, we’re revisiting the stories that shaped our childhood. Today, we’re revisiting Kit and Addy’s stories, plus a brief mention of Dolls of Our Lives, another book.
For more about the making of Addy, we highly recommend this Slate article. Plus, take the AG personality quiz!
Finally, read-along with us as we reviewed a hilarious piece, American Girl Dolls Ranked In Order of Gayness.
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Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and TikTok @readirectpodcast!
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast.
Speaker 2:My name is Aliza Freshly and I'm Emily Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is a show where we shift the conversation to active books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in real lived experiences.
Speaker 1:On today's Reading Rewind episode, we're discussing the classic culture-defining life-altering American Girl books. Reading rewind episode.
Speaker 2:We're discussing the classic culture defining life altering american girl books but first, before we get to that, if you've been enjoying the podcast, we would humbly ask you to support us in a few very simple ways. You can leave us a five-star review on apple podcasts and let us know that you love the show we'd also love for you to follow us on instagram and tiktok at redirect podcast.
Speaker 1:And finally, if you really really love the show, please share it with. We'd also love for you to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Redirect Podcast. And finally, if you really really love the show, please share it with a friend. Sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to help us grow our community of book-loving nerds, and it just makes it more fun.
Speaker 2:And, speaking of friends, speaking of friends to the pod Emma.
Speaker 3:Thank you, roaring. Applause.
Speaker 2:Yeah just picture it, the crowd goes wild.
Speaker 1:Emma, you joined us for what episode again? Daisy Jones and the Six. Daisy Jones and the Six A classic A pillar, an icon. And we've asked you back today because you're one of the country's leading experts on American Girl dolls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, am I remembering this correctly, that you had like a lot of American Girl doll stuff? You had two dolls. Right, you had Kit we had three in the home, but I feel like you had the accessories, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You had a lot of accessories yeah. We had a horse, we had a-.
Speaker 1:The horse goes with.
Speaker 2:Samantha right had a a horse. We had a horse with samantha right, yes, and we had a cast and crutches.
Speaker 3:I think that, yes, was a result of my, my sister getting hurt and I don't know where they came from, but yes, I had a lot. I think that it all started with bitty Baby Sure, which is the American Girl doll, baby, doll.
Speaker 1:Oh, we'll get to that. It's on the list.
Speaker 2:Don't jump ahead.
Speaker 3:So I think that's where it started. But I know that I inherited one from one of my cousins, and then I think my sister also passed down hers, and then you got hit for you, yes that was like
Speaker 1:everyone's here okay, emma, even though you're the youngest, you deserve something of your own maybe tiny tim something like that okay, cool, um well, we can share our history with american girl dolls, but I thought it might be good to start the conversation with a little just general history of american girl dolls. American, the first rollout of the first three american girl dolls, which were uh, molly, kirsten and samantha. Molly is uh, on the home front during World War II. She has the braids and the cute little Coke bottle glasses. Kirsten was a pilgrim or like prairie front. What do you call those people? Pioneer, pioneer, pioneer in Minnesota. And Samantha is a complete bitch.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:How dare you. What year was she from? Again, that's my child. She stayed with her.
Speaker 2:Uh, rich grandma yeah, like the, the, the 1900s, right like the 40s that's 100 years yeah I know, but like she's not before that 1904, yeah, yeah yeah at the parking day grows up in upstate new york um kirsten was in from 1854 and okay, quick quiz for you quick quiz for you all.
Speaker 1:Can you think of who would be the oldest, chronologically american? Girl not like in release, but in years that they would have lived. Okay, that's emma's guess, yeah I mean of the originals.
Speaker 2:That's a yeah, or possibly addy. She's pretty, she's civil war. So, um, is someone before her? Oh, there's a revolutionary one. Who's the revolutionary girl? Is she the oldest one?
Speaker 1:um, that's actually a good point. I thought that was named felicity, but I'm looking at the american girl doll website and they have them listed in order, with josefina being the oldest. Maybe they're just counting the originals from some point, so josefina was in 1824, nice good job.
Speaker 2:Good job, emma, you win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good job, Emma. That's why you brought me here. Yeah, so, yeah. So they were founded in 1986 by a woman named Pleasant Rowland, who came up with the idea of American girls after visiting colonial Williamsburg. So she was like I love being a girl, I like empowering girls and I love American history. How should I merge these things into a way for me to make a lot of money? And so she created American Girls dolls and since the inception of American Girl as an idea, they have rolled out many more dolls. They rolled out in 1995 the Truly Me dolls, which I had one of those. They're the dolls that you order to look like you um, and I didn't.
Speaker 1:I never really felt like mine, really looked like me, but I mean maybe kind of. And then also 1995 is when they rolled off bitty baby. Um, that was the year all three of us were born and um. Now they have a under the historical doll section on their website. They do have a doll from 1999, so that sucks yeah, I mean, time marches on.
Speaker 1:You know, time marches on um, uh, they kind of took on this mission of just all things girlhood. So, on this podcast, before we talked about the care and keeping of you book, they have a magazine. They have also like some fairy dolls now, like they're called, like welly wishers or something. They have the american girl doll stores in chicago and new york new york yeah, I want to say new york yeah, where you can like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take them to like the hair salon or the hospital or whatever. Yes, their. Their thing is that the books that they write about the girls and all the dolls they roll out are between the ages of 8 and 11, which I didn't know until today, but that is apparently the age range they focus on.
Speaker 2:I read this book dolls of our lives. I'll show you guys on camera by mary mahoney and alison horrocks. Apparently they host a podcast, or they did host I think it's no longer releasing episodes a podcast by the same name and it's all about american girl dolls and so they're former historic historians. I learned that pleasant ralland, um roland, was a teacher and she also then wrote a phonics curriculum and then she was really inspired by like the life, like real life learning that was going on in colonial williamsburg and so that was her background. So she was like really into teaching, uh, so emma, relatable and um, anyways, this book was kind of interesting but they kind of just talk a lot about like the role of, uh, the dolls in their lives. But I did find the history a little bit interesting, which you already kind of covered. But I thought her teaching background was cool and also that they go into a little bit about how american girl was acquired by mattel and so uh, that has changed yes, so she's no longer involved.
Speaker 2:She retired and yeah. I think I think, interestingly, like we kind of grew up when they were already ubiquitous. I feel like we weren't in that first wave. These girls are were born in the early 80s, so they were really like kids when these first came out, versus us, like a little bit, little bit younger we they were already all around by the time we got to them, you know. So, anyways, I would recommend that book if you want a little bit more american.
Speaker 1:So so emma had kit and samantha and josefina no, yes.
Speaker 3:And do you know what we also had, kirsten?
Speaker 1:oh wow, four yes, this is why I said she's one of the world's leading experts.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I knew you had a lot.
Speaker 3:It is unlocking my memory looking at these photos.
Speaker 2:You did have Kirsten. Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:But I think, honest to goodness, I think that I'm changing my story to. I think both of my cousins on my mom's side, two of my cousins on my mom's side, gave me both of their dolls. Oh, so that was really nice of them. Inheritance yes, because these are expensive.
Speaker 1:Very nice of them, Emily. You didn't have any, did you? How dare you? I had Kit.
Speaker 2:You did, and I had Emily, who is Samantha's friend, but she's not like a main doll, but because her name's emily, I was gifted to emily.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, but kit was my first one I had. I didn't, I only had the truly me, but I felt like playing with american girl dolls was like the number one thing I wanted to do at emma's house and also my cousin had a couple dolls too. She also had kit. I mean, everyone, I feel like our age really wanted to have kit.
Speaker 2:Um, yes, kit was a girl. She had a great outfit and I read.
Speaker 1:I did read that book for this podcast, so I can't wait to talk more about her lots of things to say about kit but, um, yeah, my cousin had some, and my mom was basically like that's good for you. Yeah, my cousin had some.
Speaker 2:And my mom was basically like that's good for you. Yeah, truly me, and play with everyone else's dolls, that's enough. Yeah, yeah, I think it's interesting. So I had my two dolls but I didn't and tell me how you guys feel, and when we played together. I know this is the same true thing. Anyways, when I played with them, I did not play with them as historic figures, um which in this book that I read, they were really into the history and would play like great depression or whatever.
Speaker 2:Uh, but for me they were like they were just normal dolls. I didn't have any regard. I did read the samantha books that came with the emily doll, like I got those books to go with her, but I didn't. Like she was a modern girl. In my imaginary play life and when I played Emma's they were just like whatever scenario we came up with, they were a part of it yeah, emma, you had the typewriter right like as I'm remembering.
Speaker 1:I think you had a camera for kit. I did oh yeah, I remember the camera and I think you might have had it like you had like, had like a desk she had a lot of accessories.
Speaker 2:Yes, I had an art desk.
Speaker 1:How were you? How do we remember this more than you? I don't know, you had like a roller desk.
Speaker 2:They were there every day. For us.
Speaker 1:It was like we a cool desk and stuff and the chair and she had something that's true I I don't know why this is coming to my brain like from the deep, dustiest recesses of my mind, but I think you got like a flattened penny and you were like this goes with kit because great depression, and then like that was like her penny or something. I don't know.
Speaker 3:You know that's on brand, yeah I really my brain is stuck right now in thinking about where in the world all of that came from, because we were not the family going to your parents did not buy those for you no, no we did not.
Speaker 1:I'm saying, I think you got one from Charlesy.
Speaker 3:We might have. We'll have to confirm yeah.
Speaker 2:I just remember like if I'm picturing playing at Emma's house and honestly I would not have thought about this until doing this episode and prepping for it and remembering all the stories. I remember my play name was always Samantha, because I did Sue me. I liked her, Okay, and she was my favorite and I remember like getting going into her closet in her room and getting out boxes of the American Girl doll accessories and playing all these different games with these American Girl dolls and like my I would be Samantha. Emma would had her fake. What was your fake name, Heather?
Speaker 3:You had one, I'm gonna Heather.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, yes, so Heather, oh my god you are so heather, oh my god and then we have our doll characters and like I had been, zoe, that sounds oh, yeah, very accurate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't know where we got these names from I know where I got zoe from.
Speaker 1:I got zoe because one day I was walking my dog in my neighborhood and this like lady and her mom in the car pulled up next to us. They were like hi, we lived on the road. Is your name Zoe? And they were like I wish. And they were like I don't know, you just look like a Zoe and I was like hell, yeah, I do yeah.
Speaker 2:The other thing that's so long, for me too, was I had I had a subscription to the American Girl Doll magazine for many years.
Speaker 1:Yes, you did.
Speaker 2:And I think this is where I got my love of hosting people, because, as I was reading this book which, again, I'm referencing it a lot more than I am giving it credit for but they were talking about all the theme parties that they would do in the American Girl Doll books, and that was like my dream was to throw one of those theme parties where you have all your theme crafts, your theme games, your theme snacks, like theme goodie bags that people could take home. And I'm not talking, like you know, paw Patrol theme, I'm talking like Great Depression, but like it was like a classy theme, you know we?
Speaker 1:well, okay, did we all say what our favorite was? Do we make that clear? Because we do have a quiz that we're all going to take on air on this podcast to figure out definitively, according to bud speed, what american girl doll we are. But before we do that, um, I guess, do you guys want to make a prediction about who you're going to be and who's your favorite?
Speaker 2:okay, I don't know who I'm going to be, but I really did actually like samantha. I'm sorry, I liked her no, I liked samantha too.
Speaker 3:I will say that kit's book is the most. I can remember that book.
Speaker 2:It feels like word for word and I remember too, also how excited you were when the movie came out, like I remember talking about like oh my gosh, the kit movie and the actress who played her, and like all that stuff I wanted to have a boarding house so bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you wanted to be a landlord?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's ethical. Which again?
Speaker 3:comes back to the perspective of the books, the perspective that these books were written in.
Speaker 1:I always dreamed of being a landlord. Emma said I know how I'm going to make my wealth off the back of the working man. I'm providing shelter and security, yeah, okay. I also like Samantha. I think my favorite is Kit. I'm gonna be Molly.
Speaker 2:You're a sun Kit, your moon is Molly and I'm not a Samantha Rising, oh God. Anyways, shall we take the quiz. I think I might be a Samantha Rising. Oh god, anyways, shall we take the quiz, ladies, I think there might be a Felicity. Rising so the first question choose something to study should we read out the questions.
Speaker 1:Do you think the listeners want to hear that?
Speaker 2:yeah, just say we'll read all the options, but read the question and we'll say the answers choose something to study that's a different question than I have. You don't have to do it in different orders oh yeah, free time.
Speaker 1:Choose something to do in your free time.
Speaker 2:This is actually a tough one, because I would want to do a lot of these things, but I'm going to pick what I would want to do right now, which is go to the movies, because I don't want to think or do anything active.
Speaker 1:I'm going gonna say write a poem or read a book.
Speaker 3:That was my second choice I'm going hiking good for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, now we can choose something to study.
Speaker 1:Choose something to study. Oh, I'm going history in vice I. I think I'm going english you get extra money, what are you doing with it?
Speaker 3:I have to be honest.
Speaker 1:Definitely not donating it to charity, respectfully. Honestly, I was going to choose that. Oh, good for you, aviel, I love that. I guess I'm just better than you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm going to say honestly, I'm splurging on myself. I'm doing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that sounds like you. I'm going out with friends.
Speaker 1:I think that's nice, yeah, okay, choose somewhere to visit.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I have always wanted to go to Alaska. That's a good one.
Speaker 1:But like in the warm months, not in the winter, I'm choosing England. Connect with my ancestors.
Speaker 3:I gotta go France.
Speaker 1:At least we know we're gonna get different answers. It's clear choose, choose a band or artist to listen to. I think this is a trap. Because this is a trap and I'm gonna get to this in in in the later in the episode I think some of these american girl dolls are definitely queer coded and I think, sure, pick phoebe bridgers, you're gonna get the queer ones. Sure, I do love phoe Phoebe Bridgers, but Taylor Swift has been my top artist for yeah.
Speaker 2:I gotta go with Taylor Swift. Yeah, out of respect.
Speaker 3:I'm going to Impala. That's such a. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:The thing about picking.
Speaker 3:Taylor.
Speaker 1:Swift is that's such a Samantha option.
Speaker 2:I know so, samantha, that's a risk you're willing to take.
Speaker 3:You have to be honest.
Speaker 1:What's to take. You have to be honest what's something you're passionate about?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna say workers rights. See, this one feels, this feels also very pointed. I'm gonna say the environment. I don't care about the human rights.
Speaker 1:Look, just go with your gut well, the environment has to do with human rights.
Speaker 2:They're all intertwined, finally choose an aesthetic. Oh, these are really hard to describe what did you choose, emma?
Speaker 3:for. Which one. What something you're passionate about I did human rights for the benefit of the podcast, I think it's important to note that there is one that just says ending poverty yeah, that would have None of us picked that.
Speaker 1:You already donated charity I guess I already ended poverty and finally choose an aesthetic. Oh, these are not even named, they're just pictures.
Speaker 3:I'm going the teacup.
Speaker 1:I'm going the house with the cottage, with the heather.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have to be different. I'm going to house with the cottage, with the heather Okay, I have to be different. So I'm going to choose this little tent oh.
Speaker 3:It reveals as soon as you click. Oh.
Speaker 2:Not what I was expecting Me neither. I'll be where you go first.
Speaker 1:I said my favorite was Kit. I guessed I would be Molly and I am Molly.
Speaker 3:Molly McIntyre 1944.
Speaker 1:You're like Molly. You guessed I would be Molly and I am Molly. Oh, molly McIntyre, 1944. You're like Molly. You're talkative, talented and feisty. That's so true. You enjoy trying new things and you are constantly looking for ways to reinvent yourself. That's so Gemini, and I am a Gemini. Sun and moon Wow. You're the kind of person who's always scheming, true, and coming up with big plans for the future, also true. Nailed it, I know myself, yeah.
Speaker 2:I could have never guessed this, because I have no concept of who this doll is, unfortunately for me. But I got Kaya, 19 or 17. I did too. How is that possible? Zero of the same answers.
Speaker 1:Okay, wait Answer. Wait, read about kaya and I'm gonna see if this has, because you guys are the same sign you're both scorpios, let's see. Let's see. If kaya's a scorpio, she's oh good point.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm strong, ambitious, kind-hearted. Care for friends and family above everything else and go out of your way to show them how much you love them. You can be a bit impulsive, but that's only because you want to live life to the fullest. Well, it must be true, because we both got there. They're the same but different paths.
Speaker 1:Kaya is hawaiian, the native hawaiian, doll right. Yes, she is she's definitely native.
Speaker 2:Something based on these long braids and her outfit should I retake it why I was honest native american.
Speaker 3:It says that she's Native American.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I don't think she's Hawaiian. No, the Hawaiian girl is a different girl. I never read her, so I wouldn't know.
Speaker 3:I did read this book, oh good for you. I had a lot, I think all of the books. Oh my gosh, somehow, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:I had a lot of books. How did you get all of this paraphernalia?
Speaker 2:We need you to dig deep into this.
Speaker 3:The books my parents probably bought me. Do you think you could text your mom?
Speaker 1:really quick. You had a lot of books. Find out as well Also.
Speaker 2:I guess if you are being homeschooled, you need to have a lot of books in your house.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:You guys would have had a lot of books.
Speaker 3:Okay, I mean honestly, I can see, I could definitely see the american girl doll books being good for homeschooling because it puts a lesson about history educational yeah, all right so in preparation for our books yeah, I read meat kit, emily read meat addy and emma is here to do commentary on both.
Speaker 1:Yes, who should go first?
Speaker 2:should I go first to end on maybe lighter note.
Speaker 1:Maybe let's not end on slavery. Yeah, let's not. All right, hit it Emily.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I read Me Addie and some fun facts. Number one this book is free on the American Girl Doll website. As part of their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, they have all of Addie not all of Addie's books, but several of Addie's books and the other Black American Girl dolls which do now exist and other books written by Black authors for free on their website to make them accessible, which I thought was I don't know. I don't know if that was in response to something bad, but it was nice. So I got this. As me and Abigail all talked about too, the original books are very difficult to find, so this was my way of finding an original.
Speaker 1:they're very difficult to find yeah emma, you might have like a treasure trove, like you genuinely might because, they're not for sale anymore. At like major booksellers on amazon on the american girl website, I found this original. Let me see what. What this one was printed from the Los Angeles Public Library and it's the only kit book I could find was the original.
Speaker 3:Me too, I cannot remember I meant to go look before I jumped on but I didn't. But I cannot remember if I have already given them to McKay's or not. I know they should have paid you more, whatever they paid you. There was one day that I donated a lot of books and I got a decent amount of money. So I'm nervous that they're gone, but I don't think I would have given away Kit to be honest, I thought you would have kept one.
Speaker 1:So check, we'll see you kind of have hoarding tendencies.
Speaker 2:So I think you, I think that is what this podcast is about anyways, addy, I also like addy because that's my middle name, so I had to pick her and, um, okay, so she was the first black american girl doll, but she's not an original american girl doll because pleasant uh, maybe her not so pleasant side she thought it would be too risky to start with a. She wanted to do only white, according to an interview she gave early in her career, because she at the time believed whether this is true or not that black families did not purchase things through mail-order catalogs, which is how American Girl was sold for a very long time you could also make the assumption that no white girls would want to have a black doll exactly, exactly, um, or learn about black history.
Speaker 2:But uh, she was one of the like early dolls. She was pretty early on, so she just wasn't original she was in like 1994, I think yeah, so she's not like a.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of newer, more diverse dolls now, um, but she was not original but early. And the controversy of addy is complicated because while she was ahead of like, addy was a black doll when there weren't a lot of black dolls and a lot of major companies did not make any black dolls. Um, but she is also born in slavery so it is kind of like well, complicated because she was the only black doll that american girl doll had for many, many years. This was the only choice that, like black children had to get a doll that looked like them. So it's kind of complicated because a lot of people like it was actually very thoughtful.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised I have an article I read um by slate that really goes into a lot of detail about how addy was developed and they were pretty thoughtful of like well, we want to tell more stories from black history, but we kind of have to start with slavery for people to understand um, like the implications of why the civil rights movement happens and like things that will happen later. So I do understand part of it. Um, so I don't know, but it wasn't probably great to have this be the only doll, which is kind of where the controversy comes in for a very long time.
Speaker 2:Also interesting the addy doll does have textured hair, which was a big point of contention when she was being developed, and I just think that's actually kind of nice. I read another article of a woman talking about how Addie, kind of like, helped her come to terms with her own hair texture. So I don't know, it's like there's it's a double-edged sword, but it's not all controversial with Addie a double-edged sword, but it's not all controversial with Addie. Anyways, shall we get into her book? Yes, we shall.
Speaker 2:So, addie, it opens up. It's a very hot night in the south of the United States. Addie wakes up and she hears her parents arguing. And what do you think they're arguing about? Well, I'll tell you, they're arguing about whether or not they should make a run for it and try to escape slavery. Mama says that the war is almost won and the Union soldiers will be here at any minute and they're going to win and they'll be freed and they won't have to try to risk death and run away. But Papa says we better go now, because who knows how long it's going to take them to get there and things seem to be getting worse, or whatever. Also, addie's brother had already run away once, sam, and he was captured and whipped in front of her, and she describes the experience of watching him be whipped. And her parents weren't crying and she was like, why aren't you crying? And they're like we are crying on the inside, but we're free on the inside. We can't be free on the outside.
Speaker 2:So very rough start to this book. I'll say too, I was actually quite surprised. I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be able to dunk on this a little bit more. I thought they were going to. You know, one time, emma, I don't know if you remember, but we were doing an Easter lesson for the three-year-old classroom we used to work in and they said Jesus went away for three days and then he came back and the world was healed. And I thought it was going to be like that, where we're not going to acknowledge, we're going to baby this down so much because it's for kids that it will not be real. But no, I thought it was actually a fairly decent child.
Speaker 1:Appropriate depiction of slavery yeah, that seems um I'm. I'm surprised too, that it was that honest it was oh, it gets worse.
Speaker 2:so her dad wants to run away because he's sad watching addy, a nine-year-old girl, work as a slave every day, because he's like sam, he's a man. Because he's sad watching Addie, a nine-year-old girl, work as a slave every day Because he's like Sam, he's a man. Basically he's already 15. But my daughter, addie, is just a child and she shouldn't be living like this. And they also have a baby named Esther, who's only just a baby, so she doesn't do anything yet. But you know he wants to make sure she doesn't have to live that life.
Speaker 2:She dreams about freedom. Her dreams are to learn to read and write, wear fancy clothes and eat a lot of food, because the only thing she eats is cornmeal mush, which sounds horrible. She's working in the house one day with her aunt who works inside the house, and Master Stevens. The master needs money, money. So he says that he's going to sell some of his slaves and she understands from context clues that he's talking about her brother and her dad, and so she tries to get out to warn them. But someone sees her and they are taken away before she's able to warn them and they're sold. So now it's just her and her mom and her sister, so traumatic it's very sad.
Speaker 1:I'm actually I'm like gosh, so taking pause really quick. Yeah, please, I I you're right, it is a double edged sword, because it's like if they didn't tell this story, they would be doing a disservice to the rest of black history in america, and these are american girls, so you have to set the context.
Speaker 1:At the same time, it does also suck that the only representation among american girls that were this highly coveted, trendy, like special thing that girls our age could have, right, the only representation that a black girl could have was someone who had this traumatic of a story, and the trauma of that is not even nearly compared to. Like Kit, the book I read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, the and the other girls face hardships. Obviously they live in difficult periods of history, but nothing compares to Addie, really, and I think that's what I concluded at the end of this, not to skip ahead to my conclusion. But, like, I think Addie is a great American Girl doll for white girls and not a great American Girl doll necessarily for black girls or children, because I think this is an excellent way for kids to learn about slavery. It's age appropriate, it's not so horrific of like the true, you know, like, no one gets killed in this book or whatever you know, so it's not to the extent it could be, um, but it's pretty realistic, I think, for a nine-year-old's perspective. So that was kind of my thoughts of like if there were just other girls at the time, which there are now that girls can play with, like there's the you know truly me dolls like you talked about, or there's some from like the harlem renaissance and, like later in time, civil rights movement.
Speaker 2:So, but, like you said, you also do need to tell the story, so I don't know. Anyways, to finish up the book, uh, she is then distracted deworming tobacco plants, where she's taking worms off of the tobacco, and because she's sad about her brother and dad being taken away and the overseer forces her to eat worms to learn her lesson and she's yeah, then she's crying with her mom and she says she hates white people and her this is a quote from her mom.
Speaker 2:She said, honey, if you fill your heart with hate, there ain't gonna be no room for love. Your brother and papa need us to fill our hearts with love for them and not hate for white people.
Speaker 1:Um, which is really like emotional as well, and so, anyways, they decide to make a lesson that it's okay for addy's mom to say to her yeah, but not okay for any of the rest of us to say to addy.
Speaker 2:She has every right to hate. She can hate whoever she wants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my god who wrote? This book uh, I don't I need to pull up her name which I meant to put in my notes and I'll work on it, but she was she is black, so okay, I could.
Speaker 2:I do know that I read a lot about her writing up the book and her research for it, so, um, just to be clear, that helps a lot.
Speaker 2:Anyways, her and her mom decide to make a run for it, but they have to leave baby Esther behind because she'll cry and they'll get caught. So they leave her with their aunt and uncle and they escape and they are traveling through the woods at night, going along these railroad tracks, and Addie is told about her great-grandmother, who was brought from africa, um, into slavery by herself. She was taken from her family and her mom tells her that to help her to be brave like her great-grandmother was and her she's named after her great-grandmother she learns they almost drown while crossing a river. Her mom almost drowns and addy helps save her and then they finally they encounter some, uh, confederate soldiers, so they narrowly escape them and then they reach a safe house, um, with an old white lady who I assume is part of, like, the underground railroad or equivalent um. She has a safe house and helps them get on a ship to Philadelphia and the book ends with them making their way to a new life in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2:She and her mom, she and her mom.
Speaker 1:The author's name is Connie Rose Porter. Thank you.
Speaker 3:She was born in 59. She has a LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:She was a writer of young adult books and teacher of creative writing.
Speaker 1:This is her most famous thing that she did, though, was the Addy books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she did a great job. I wish I wanted. Unfortunately, I wanted to read after I finished this. I wanted to read the last book because I understand that her so every American Girl doll has six books that kind of follow one year of their life, and my understanding is Addie's last book is when her family is reunited, or they're supposed to be, so I wanted to read that, but that is not one of the free ones on the website, so I wasn't able to find out how her brother and dad and hopefully baby Esther, come back.
Speaker 2:But, um, yeah, she she lives like. Obviously her story also does start in slavery, but the rest of her books are taking place where she's a free person in um philadelphia and like what that's like, and post-war and reconstruction era um, so very interesting life. Yeah, I was. I was honestly, after the trauma of um little house on the prairie and the eugenics of the boxcar children, I was nervous reading this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. My bad um, I was pleasantly surprised and, like I said, I think like it aged, you had a child. Yeah, if you had a child especially a white child probably, who needed a child's understanding of um slavery like this could be a good option.
Speaker 1:And I don't know, I like addy, so yeah uh, as an adult reading it back, like, do you think that was? Was it? Did it still capture your attention? Were you still like riveted interested?
Speaker 2:yeah, like it was kind of good. It was not also again like little house on the prairie was so boring and even the boxcar children was so kind of like. Oh my god. But this I really liked it. The, the illustrations are really nice. I didn't necessarily remember those um, and the writing. It was very like engaging, even as an adult. I mean, you know it's obviously written on a child's level, but I was surprised how it was like I didn't want to stop reading it. I just, you know, blew through it. Dude Great book report. Thank you, Thank you, Sorry, that was. That was a lot of information. I'm so glad you read it first. I think kids will be more entertaining this one. I give it two thumbs up for how it held up historically. I do understand the controversy around Addie, but I think she's an important part of the overall collection which I'm glad has expanded to include a lot more stories.
Speaker 1:The one. I was looking at her other books. I'm interested in Addie and the Wedding Quilt One. I was looking at her other books. I'm interested in Addie and the. Wedding Quilt. And let's see, addie Learns a Lesson. It's all good. I wish these were easier. I'm so curious about why they're hard to find now.
Speaker 2:I think it's kind of the same From my understanding of my research. It's kind of the same from my understanding of my research is it's kind of the same concept as, like the disney vault, like they retire girls and then they no longer release those dolls, like you can't buy those dolls anymore, you can't buy their stories anymore. And then they did. I know they did like a re-release, I think, of samantha.
Speaker 2:So there is a potential for re-release in modern times, but they kind of seem to like only have a few available at one time.
Speaker 3:Oh, I see I don't have my dolls anymore.
Speaker 2:That's a fact rip me either yeah also, I definitely probably destroyed their resale value because I put, like I put, lipstick on some of them. I cut their hair like I. I did not treat them with the care they probably deserved you weird Barbie.
Speaker 1:They got the weird Barbie treatment.
Speaker 2:Yes, all my dolls got weird Barbied.
Speaker 1:That's very you. You destroy your doll's energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but not in a mean way. I was making them over way yeah.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Kit.
Speaker 1:Please, I've been waiting for this. Okay. So kit's story is uh, is set in 1934, is the first book in cincinnati, ohio. It opens and kit is clickety-clacking on her typewriter. She is different than other girls, that is very clear. She is very different than other girls. She loves typing on a typewriter. It's giving tortured poets department. It's giving Maddie Healy.
Speaker 2:Okay, but also at this time, isn't typing on a typewriter, just typing. Yes, but she loves it.
Speaker 1:And she's really into being like. So she and her friend ruthie are like really into being like a reporter and so like they'll read the real newspaper, but they're like, oh, there's so much bad news because there's this thing going on called the depression, and they actually do a really good job of like explaining what the depression is to, uh kids who are at this reading level. So let me actually read you guys a little thing. Um, oh, also, she opens up. She talks about her mom just uhcorated her room and it's pink with a white trim and she doesn't like it. I would like to remember that for a second.
Speaker 3:That's why I hate pink too.
Speaker 1:Okay. So she knew there hadn't been much good news in the real newspapers for a long time. The whole country was in a mess because of this depression. Dad had explained it to her About three years ago. People got nervous about money and stopped buying as many things as they used to, so some stores had to close down. The people who worked in the stores lost their jobs. Then the factories that made the things the stores used to sell had to close down, so the factory workers lost their jobs too Pretty soon. The people who lost their jobs had no money to pay their doctors or house painters or music teachers, so those people got poorer too Pretty soon. The people who lost their jobs had no money to pay their doctors or house painters or music teachers, so those people got poorer too. What a great explanation of a very complex financial crisis.
Speaker 2:That's like way better than any teacher ever explained it to me. That's so understandable, right? No, but yeah, that's a very simple way to understand.
Speaker 1:Okay, so she's fed up with the bad news and so she wants to type up a newspaper for her dad every day when he gets home, so she's going to share the news with him. Kit would have loved Twitter. Kit would have loved Substack. Oh, yeah, she would have been a blog girly. Yeah, she was all about the gossip she and Ruthie, her mom, was having like a garden party. She's like Ruthie, let's sneak out and like hide behind the bushes of the garden party so we can get the gossip and write a headline in the newspaper about what they're talking about at the garden party.
Speaker 3:It's all coming back.
Speaker 2:You're saying Kit would be de moi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kit was de demois. Kit is one of us, she's just one of us. She totally gets gossip girl. Yeah, um, and maybe this is why I imagined, emma, that you had the typewriter. She also loves like, she's a documentarian, she likes to take pictures too. So that's what I know. You had the camera. I know that, yeah, um. So anyways, they over here at the garden party, one of her mom's friends is like oh, you know, we're actually, um, are my husband moved to chicago and he's for a business opportunity and we're moving too, and they're like, oh, whereabouts in chicago, she's like, well, we'll be popping around for a while, like my husband actually doesn't have a job yet, and so the subtext is they can't stay in their house in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2:You're homeless yeah.
Speaker 1:So then, kit's mom is like no worries, you can stay with us.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 1:And Kit's like headline New guest. I'm moving to the attic, so she puts that in the newspaper for her dad, and when her dad gets home from work he's like wait, this is news to me, so that's amazing.
Speaker 3:She's like dad. That's the point breaking news.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm hot off the presses, okay yeah, um, so through this whole like period of time, there's this little boy in the house named sterling who was like sick with some mystery disease like consumption. Basically he can't go in the sun, he can't run, he can't do anything, so, um, but we learn some things about kit and I would like to state the facts about kit, and then we can all draw our own conclusions about Her sexuality. All right, all right, her name is Margaret Mary Kittredge.
Speaker 1:She doesn't like the name Mary or Margaret, so she goes by the nickname Kitt, which is also a boy's nickname, short for Christopher.
Speaker 2:And she chooses.
Speaker 1:Kitt, short for Kittredge doesn't like the feminine names of Mary or Margaret.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those old-timey people loved their weird nicknames, by the way, yeah.
Speaker 1:Continue. She loves baseball and she plays baseball. And what position do you think she plays? She's the catcher. Okay, she's also really interested in pirates.
Speaker 3:Sure sure, who isn't.
Speaker 1:that's gay pirates pirates are inherently gay. There is a lot of gayness in pirate culture, sure?
Speaker 1:um also she has a bob, okay she said that is true, you, you can't argue with that she does have a fucking bob, and if, if she lived in 2024, you can best believe she would have an undercut absolutely yeah, um also, she doesn't like the fact that she has this really girly room, and part of the reason she doesn't like the pink room with the white trim is because she can't hang up pictures with thumbtacks of famous baseball players that she loves. Kit is a pink room girly who, well in her heart, I think that she is a lime green girl. Yeah, she would have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she would have had a lime, green and blue bedroom.
Speaker 1:Yes, but she's forced to have pink with white trim and that is why I'm saying she falls somewhere within the LGBTQ plus community.
Speaker 2:Okay, I googled Kit Kittredge lesbian she's, gay she's gay. I found an article that says American Girl Dolls ranked in order of gayness, and number one is Kit Kittredge. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I clocked her. I clocked her immediately his author said.
Speaker 2:In many ways I'm essentially just modeling my life after kit kidrich, and I can only hope to embody her tenacious gay spirit in everything I do. I'm going to try to persuade american girl to let me write a book about kit as a gay communist journalist working at the height of mccarthyism along with her gay communist girlfriend, hollywood actress ruthie smithens. If they don't let me, I'll just a03 it. Watch this space. I will link to this. This is hilarious. Watch this space. Oh my god. Yeah, you, you convince me, you've convinced me.
Speaker 1:I also want to say something else about her being a communist right, because, um, I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but her family does fall on hard times and, um, her mom is like we should be landlords, and as emma's dream is to be a landlord right and make money off of people's basic right of having housing yeah, and go to the depression.
Speaker 3:Redact it redact it okay.
Speaker 1:So, um, another thing is that kit is really into reading robin hood, so she says her mom's like are you still reading robin hood? And she's a good old robin hood, said mother, robbing the rich to give to the poor. Kit propped up her propped herself up on her elbows and looked mother, too bad, there isn't any robin hood today. She said if rich people had to give some of their money to the poor, it would make the Depression better. It would help, said Mother, but I don't think it would fix it.
Speaker 2:Oh, isn't her mom like hey Kit, we're the rich. By the way, we are the rich you're referring to, hey Kit Kit cut it out, kit Kit, easy light on that light on that light, on that light, on that, are you giving up your typewriter?
Speaker 1:light on that kid, light on cat, so um, anyways, that's amazing I just want to establish, before we go any further, that she is, um, she is a chapstick lesbian. Yeah, so, um, okay. So everything has been going okay for kids family. They've been enduring the depression, but one day her dad okay, also, her dad owns a car dealership. So you tell me if they're rich or not is this for?
Speaker 3:is this ringing bells for you, emma? Does he lose?
Speaker 1:his job. He has to, so he has to close down the car dealership because no one's buying cars.
Speaker 3:Wow yeah, which, by the way, is not the same as losing your job, just putting that out there.
Speaker 1:He gave up his job, yeah yeah, so um, it is coming back, yeah and you touch me like this and you hold me like that and it's all coming back, okay. So that stinks for them and they're like, oh God, how are we going to pay the mortgage? And so Kit's mom is like, hmm, I know we have been being benevolent to my friend and her sickly son, who's dying of consumption, by letting them live for free in the household, but we're going to start charging them money and we're also going to kit. You have to give up your room that's pink with the white trim. You have to move up to the attic and that's where you're going to live. You, yes, cretin. And then your brother is going to. Does anyone know what a sleeping porch is? Can we define that? Yes, what is it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, a sleeping porch is a.
Speaker 2:It's essentially a screened-in porch with a bed or a sunroom or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so they kick out her older brother, christopher, and he has to sleep on the sleeping porch. Kit goes up. Is his name Christopher or something else?
Speaker 3:I really thought Kit was struggling.
Speaker 2:You thought she was like going through the break-up.
Speaker 3:I thought she was a down-to-earth girl, no, no. She wishes she was. But, with a sleeping porch.
Speaker 2:She's going to aggressively rewrite her backstory when she goes on to become a communist journalist, so people won't know how privileged she was growing up.
Speaker 1:In today's America. She would dye her hair blue, she would have an undercut, she would she and her she-they partner would be in an open relationship and she would be a freelance journalist and have a huge TikTok following and Twitter following.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but when anyone asked about her upbringing, she would be extremely vague and be like why I grew up during the Great Depression.
Speaker 1:She would be like she wouldn't last an hour in the asylum way.
Speaker 2:It grazed me Exactly.
Speaker 3:She's also going to pretend that she doesn't really like social media that much and that oh yeah, oh yeah corrupted the.
Speaker 2:The written form she yeah, but she's like has an anonymous tiktok. That is going crazy. She is the voice of sylvain drama on tiktok.
Speaker 1:She she is the personification of a lavender oat milk latte. Yes, she exactly, and she performs communism, but her parents do pay her car payment yeah, like she has a credit card, they pay off every month she has never been taken off the phone plan right yes, hey, hey watch hey.
Speaker 3:I'm staying as long as I can.
Speaker 1:You guys are still on your parents' phone plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And. I'm never leaving.
Speaker 3:Wow, but I have plans to dye my hair blue next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kidding. I, like Kit, would fudge some details of my backstory.
Speaker 1:So Kit moves up to the attic and she's like how am I going to make the best of it? Well, first she's like, mom, will you help me decorate it? And her mom's like no, I'm busy making this house into a boarding house for low-income people who work at the hospital and teachers. She literally said we're going to rent rooms in this house to nurses and teachers.
Speaker 2:Okay, you know that's a common good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they had to do what they had to do to pay their mortgage. I get it, but still I remember, whoever comes to me, she was like I'm going to seek out historically low-paid female-led adolescents. Emma, what were you going to say?
Speaker 3:I was just going to say that when I was seven, we moved to our new and current house, which has an attic, and I was deeply obsessed with trying to live up there yes, I would love to live in an attic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean because of kit so she goes into the attic and she there's like different, like little corners of the attic and she makes each one like a different activity center.
Speaker 1:So one of them is like her writing desk where she has her typewriter in her camera, and that's like her journalism central, you know center Like it's like the New York Times, it's the Cincinnati Press in there.
Speaker 1:And then one corner is her baseball corner where she hangs up her catcher's mitt she's the catcher, her catcher's mitt and her baseball cards. And then she makes her sleeping area like a treehouse and she starts writing down and brainstorming ways that she can help the family save money. She says I can give up dance lessons and the fancy dresses that I need for my dance lessons, I can give up going to Cincinnati Reds games, I can do whatever. So anyways, she said I could, instead of giving getting my Bob trimmed every four weeks, I could get it trimmed every seven weeks, you know whatever. Um, so yeah, that's basically how it ends up and her mom is getting ready to run the boarding house and she's about to start pitching in and help the family get through the great depression. I will say it was informative, oh, and in the back of the book has a lot of just information about the actual great depression I.
Speaker 2:I liked that part.
Speaker 1:With pictures and descriptions of what happened, which is really great and informative. I think Kit is still a legend. I always thought she was a legend. She's still a legend, but I definitely read it in a different light now.
Speaker 3:I mean I can totally yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, that was the first thing that jumped out at me. So anyways, Kit is that bitch. Yeah she is.
Speaker 2:She is and she always will be.
Speaker 3:She blasts Maggie Rogers constantly.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, kit wears Doc.
Speaker 2:Martens and like cut off shorts together we love her and like a crocheted bralette. Um, while we're on the topic of american girl, can I admit to something that has been lying dormant in my brain for many years and it's all coming back to me now. So my grandmother. First of all, I want to do some reverse housekeeping. Emily was molly's friend, not samantha's, uh, and as I was looking at emily I realized that my grandma once took me to what I was trying to google, but there is no record on the internet grammy.
Speaker 2:She's the one who bought me my american girl dolls and she took me to some kind of american girl convention. Yes, where I got the, this is what reminded me of it. I got the robe and slippers some kind of American Girl convention. Yes, where I got the, this is what reminded me of it. I got the robe and slippers and the pajama set to match Emily, and I remember I had those. Let me show you guys this picture.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, that is coming back to me now. Oh my god.
Speaker 2:Yes, Wow, we took professional photos with our dolls, which I have somewhere, somewhere, but that is the only picture I can find right now. Um, like a professional headshot photo with my doll. They had a fashion show. They had like dolls on display. Everyone brought their dolls. It was like a formal event I wish I could track this down of what this event was, but I absolutely probably loved it at the time.
Speaker 1:And I will share those pictures on our Instagram. I can't believe that didn't immediately come to your mind. Isn't that funny how brains work?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I honestly had forgotten completely about it until I was going through all these old photos and there was several from this event and I'm like, oh my gosh, that is like insane from this event. And I'm like oh my gosh, that is like insane that I forgot about this. But incredible, let's see. Oh, here's my. That is wild. It says emily addie martin you are the greatest american girl we know.
Speaker 1:And they had a message from the doll wow, so that's kit and her f*** us, bob and she was mine, that's Kit yeah.
Speaker 3:Isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow you know what's really great Kit's little hat.
Speaker 2:Yes, I like her whole outfit honestly, yeah, and then she had this green dress that they made out of.
Speaker 3:Yes, in the books they made out of potato sacks. Yes, I remember that now and I thought it was the cutest dress in the entire world.
Speaker 2:I love the american. I did not remember, honestly and I said this, I think, at the top but I had no recollection of how critical american girl dolls and american girl doll culture was in my childhood until prepping for this episode. I'm like no, these were like extremely formative for me and like the whole the culture around them, the books, the stories, the movies, the dolls, the merch, the magazine it was all a big part of my life.
Speaker 1:So I'm sorry, I'm still laughing at the um the watch this space oh yeah, that was so funny.
Speaker 2:I'll send you guys that article so you can review the ranking. Can you tell us the other top?
Speaker 1:three gayest American girls can, I guess Molly, yeah, okay, who do you think?
Speaker 2:is Molly, is number Molly's up there seven, she's seven.
Speaker 1:She's not number two, josefina no no, low key.
Speaker 3:I think it's like Kirsten no, okay, hold on um.
Speaker 1:It is an original, like it's one that's julie. No, it is an original. It's not okay. Do not tell me it's samantha. Samantha is the straightest.
Speaker 2:No, no no, although samantha is rated number three.
Speaker 3:What Okay, no, she said her whole story is about her becoming.
Speaker 1:Can you put this article in the chat?
Speaker 2:Yeah, her whole story, samantha's whole story is about her becoming best friends with a working class Irish girl named Nellie, teaching her to read and then liberating her family from the poor house. All of this points to Samantha and Nellie getting a domestic partnership, their senior years and living in the countryside with some cats, a garden and, uh, yeah, I think I want you to know that this is an excellent, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 3:All I was gonna say is when I google american girl doll timeline to look at the uh, the facts about them, one of the searches related is homeschool education okay, so at so at 15 is Caroline Abbott.
Speaker 1:I don't even know who that is. Yeah, 14, mary Ellen Larkin.
Speaker 2:Don't know her either.
Speaker 1:Kirsten is 13 of 15? I don't, yeah, that's not my understanding.
Speaker 2:Did you guys also know that Brie Larson chose her stage name after Kirsten Larson?
Speaker 1:The American Girl doll. Wow, really, that's that brie larson chose her stage name after kirsten larson. The american girl yes, that's my fun fact. Josephina's 11 melody, nenea, is the native hawaiian. Yes, molly is seven that she has a literal jacket and pleated slacks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, oh my god, her roller skates were so cool yeah, those are molly had the coolest outfits addy is six, okay, julie kaya, samantha's three and felicity is two okay. I'm honestly just going to copy and paste the ag wiki summary of felicity here, because every word is resonant. Confirmation of her lesbianism. This article took longer to write than I thought it would.
Speaker 3:I can't remember if we had Kirsten or Felicity or both, I don't know. You had Kirsten you had a lot.
Speaker 1:Can you please text your mom and sort this out?
Speaker 1:Okay, felicity is a tomboyish, daring, adventurous, spunky, brave and fiercely independent-minded girl. She's very active for a girl her age and her era and is annoyed at her lack of freedom as a young girl and the ladylike things and personality that is expected of her. Felicity believes in fighting for what she wants and can be quite stubborn and headstrong at times. When she wants something, she goes for it quite often without thinking about it. She sometimes wafers between brave and foolish and sets her heart on things.
Speaker 1:Often when felicity is angry, she's never afraid to speak her mind and stand up to bullies. She is constantly fussed after being not very ladylike, for the most part felicity is a tomboy with a love for horses, yep, nature and the great outdoors. She's quite impatient, especially when it comes to things she finds dull and boring, and is often regarded to as flighty and thoughtless by her mother and often chided for not finishing or attending to her domestic work properly. She shows disinterest for the most part in cooking, sewing, dance and other then feminine skills, though she does like working in her garden and playing her guitar. It's indicting.
Speaker 2:Sewing especially bores her and she's generally sloppy in her work can't fight the facts you really can't um, wow, what a beautiful episode this is so robust I think this is really fun, though, and I'm thankful for this, because I have a lot of memories that have come back to me of the american girl doll world, um, that I treasure, and I would love to get my hands on a magazine, because I especially remember how much I love those, so maybe I'll find one.
Speaker 1:All right, should we talk about books you've read recently?
Speaker 2:I would love to, I would really love to.
Speaker 1:Okay. Is that because you want to stop talking about this or you want to talk about a book?
Speaker 2:No, I'm really excited about the book I read. Yeah, okay, go off, you go first. Okay, I read a book that we talked about in our summer preview episode, which was Summer Romance by Annabelle Monaghan, and I read Annabelle's debut novel, which was Nor Goes Off Script, which I liked. It was a celebrity novel person you guys know I love that, um, but this, like that book to me was like reading a hallmark movie. This book, I mean, dare I say this is almost a level of emily henry for me it was so good it for being called summer romance.
Speaker 2:It was a lot heavier and like more emotional than I thought it was gonna be, but um, it follows um alice or ally.
Speaker 2:She's the main character, and two years ago ally's mom died of, I think, cancer and then, exactly one year to the day, her husband asked for a divorce later so within two years she's got a divorce and, um, or she's going through the process of a divorce and her mom passed away and her mom was like everything to her, like her best friend, helped care for the kid, like really stepped up and then left a void that ultimately leads to a divorce. She meets a gentleman unexpectedly at the dog park and her dog pees on him and she's never seen him in town before. She lives like in a small town and she really likes him. Come to find out he is the little brother of one of her closest friends, but he hasn't been back to town for many, many years, so she didn't recognize him and so, yeah, this book is like extremely I don't know, it was a very emotional book. She's dealing with like grief through the loss of her mom, learning how to move on from that, falling in love after heartbreak and after divorce with having kids. She's also essentially like a single mom because her ex-husband kind of sucks and yeah, but like and the guy is like very likable and and like you fall in love with him but he also has his comp, like he's not perfect, which I liked.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so it was really. I don't want to give too much away of what happens, but it was like genuinely making me cry. Um, it definitely does deals a lot with grief, which is it was very reminiscent of the last book we both really liked um, here we go again. But it it deals like lot with grief, which is it was very reminiscent of the last book we both really liked here we Go Again. But it deals like more with the aftermath and she kind of like has this metaphor that the main character uses a lot of like.
Speaker 2:It's like getting a dog. Is signing yourself up for the ultimate heartbreak because you know you're going to outlive a dog and you know you're going to that, that you're gonna fall in love with it, but you still do it anyways. And it's like kind of the same in relationships. Are you gonna be willing to like know you could get hurt, know this like this romance she's setting out on might just be for the summer, but is it worth it to you know, throw yourself into it anyways, or are you gonna hold yourself back? And so I really like this. I'm a big. I'm now an even bigger fan. I was already a fan, but to me, annabelle, her first book was like okay, but now this one, I'm like, okay, I'm all in. So this was really good. That's lovely.
Speaker 1:I really liked it yeah, and you classic you. You said I'm gonna read more romance this summer, but I'm gonna do it in a way I didn't even need to with this book.
Speaker 2:I didn't know it was going to be so emotional, but it was Always.
Speaker 1:It was really good though Did we talk about. Here we Go Again on the podcast.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool. So my life recently as of late, has been very well with a couple of things. Things I finished reading the uh league of extraordinary women books, but I've kind of talked those to death since I've been reading them for the last few episodes yeah, recorded. I've also been reading a couple other things I will have as something to update on, um, the next time we record. I haven't finished yet, but the reason I haven't finished them yet is because my life has gotten consumed. My reading life has gotten consumed by working through the extremely dense text of all the young dudes by Ms King Bean. 89 on archiveofourowncom. Heavy breathing, what'd you say?
Speaker 1:Heavy, breathing Heavy breathing, yeah, yeah, sorry yeah.
Speaker 1:I would like to say something. I I'm gonna save like more of my commentary about this because I expect that we will maybe have a more robust conversation about this on a future, like sure you know, book talk episode or something thing. But one thing I will say is I'm the more good fan fiction I read, the less grace I have for published authors who can't write and who write things that are not well written and, um, don't have a good plot structure and don't have compelling characters, like yeah if a 15 year old can write and english is their third language can write a text that will bring me to my knees and shake me to my core and kind of change the trajectory of my life.
Speaker 1:And guess what?
Speaker 1:they got their friend from their favorite discord channel to beta read for them, that's the only editing they got yeah, then you have no excuse I need published authors to get that, to get it together, because, yeah, I'm reading things on this website that are shaking me to my core, literally, so please step it up yeah, and also these people on this website. Some of them write really good stuff, some of it is just okay. Yeah, I would like to also say that, like these people are not getting paid for their work, so if you have negative critiques of it, just keep that to yourself yeah, I agree, I'm saying like these people have not put themselves out there to be criticized, so praise and laud and like, yeah, encourage, discuss.
Speaker 2:When you like it.
Speaker 1:But also like, if you read something that you don't like, don't dunk on it, because these are just again teenagers. Yeah, anyways, it's um, all the young dudes. I think it's the most popular thick ever on archive of our own.
Speaker 2:I think it's the most popular fic ever on Archive of Our Own.
Speaker 1:I think it's been read over 4 million times yeah it deserved. Wow, yeah, and you've talked about it a little bit, emily, but it is a Marauders fic spanning from the Marauders' first year at Hogwarts to the events of the Goblet of Fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first year at hogwarts to the events of the goblet of fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just casual multi-decade fan fiction with hundreds of chapters and that will genuinely alter the chemistry of your brain. But you know, and my tiktok for you, page I'm getting oh, yeah, a lot of marauders edits and let me tell you I like it. If TikTok is listening, if my TikTok for you page is listening, I would like to say I would like more Hunger Games edits. I would like more Marauders edits. I would like these things to be set to Taylor Swift and other like really emotional female music and.
Speaker 1:Hoosier, but no other boys, maybe some Noah Khan, but like, besides that, I want it to be like women, queer aligned women writing really emotional, heartbreaking stuff, and I want my favorite book characters on my for you page and I want the edits to shake me to my core. Yeah, yeah, what else? That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2:That's where I'm at anyways emma have, you can't wait to talk more about this we didn't prep you for this.
Speaker 1:To be fair to emma, we texted her a few hours before this maybe less than an hour but, yeah, anyways, it's been a treat.
Speaker 3:I would say that I am deep in my my poetry era, because poetry books are usually shorter than and I find it a little bit easier to access writing and reading, especially when I'm traveling, just to pick up a poetry book and read a couple and then not. So the book that I have been carrying with me is called the Carrying by Ada Limon, and she is an excellent author and poet laureate, so check her out, wow nice.
Speaker 1:Is this collection centered around a specific theme that you can tell?
Speaker 3:I mean, it's very kind of autobiographical. She's talking about her life. She's talking about her life in the US and everything that comes with that.
Speaker 2:I like that. These two book recommendations back to back are the definition of you know how to ball and know Aristotle.
Speaker 1:You know what it's giving. It's honestly giving Molly McIntyre and Kaya.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, and I love it there you go Respect. Alright y'all.
Speaker 2:Emma, thank you for joining us. A substantial episode.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Alright, we'll catch you guys on the flip. Bye.