The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Listener Book Recommendations 2
We're turning to our listeners for another round of book recommendations! We asked, and boy did you answer. We did our best to fit the brief and recommend books to add to your TBR.
Plus a discussion of the cover reveals for the new Emily Henry and Hunger Games books! AHH!
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @readirectpodcast.
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshly and I'm Emily.
Speaker 2:Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is a show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in real live experiences.
Speaker 1:On today's episode, we are giving curated book recommendations to our listeners, based on their individual tastes.
Speaker 2:But first, before we get to that, if you enjoy the podcast, we would humbly ask that you support us in a few simple ways. First, you can leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know that you love the show.
Speaker 1:We'd also love for you to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Redirect Podcast, and if you really, really love the show, you can share it with a friend. Sharing our show with a friend by word of mouth or by word of text or sharing an Instagram post is the best way to help us grow our community of book-loving nerds, and we have a lot of exciting stuff coming up. We definitely do we're? About to enter.
Speaker 2:Like peak, book season, yes, like months of great books.
Speaker 1:I feel and, by the way, not on our outline. But speaking of anticipated books, did you see the cover of Emily Henry's new book dropped?
Speaker 2:Yes, we got that today, and we also got the book cover and synopsis for the Sunrise on the Reaping. Is that the right title?
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, cover and synopsis for the sunrise on the reaping. Is that the right title?
Speaker 2:yes, okay, wait, hold on. I've had such a busy day with work I haven't all right, so let's read these on the podcast.
Speaker 1:So we need to emily henry, my great, big, beautiful life yes, great, big, beautiful life, I think, or great already five stars. Yeah, I don't even need. Okay, I'll read the synopsis of this one. You can discuss, and then you want to read the synopsis of sunrise let's go okay, about great big, beautiful life.
Speaker 1:Well, first let's describe the cover. The cover is an orange and yellow motif. Um, it's very cute, it's super cute. We see um like the female main character up in the corner. She's sitting like reading something, talking on the phone with a yellow bag. And then we see the male main character in the corner sitting crisscross applesauce with a bunch of crumpled up pieces of paper, kind of looking up at her. What will this say about the characters? I'm thinking back to when we had the same conversation about the funny story. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:With the crocs, the crocs and then the letter which we found out was the wedding invitation. Um, so you know, exciting things. Can't wait to see how that unfolds. Yes, okay, here is our synopsis. Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger than life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry. I wonder if she took a little bit of inspiration from the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Speaker 2:It gives me very similar vibes reading the synopsis, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Alice Scott is an eternal optimist, still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize winning human thundercloud, and they're both oh grumpy sunshine and they're both on a balmy little crescent island. For the same reason, to write the biography of a woman who no one has seen in years, giving evelyn hugo, or at least to meet the one, to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the margaret ives tragic heiress, former tabloid princess and the daughter of one of the most storied and scandalous families of the 20th century. When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she'll choose the person who will tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice's head in the game.
Speaker 1:One, alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice, and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two, she's ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a serious publication. And three, hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her and is shaken to the core way that suggests he sees her as competition. But the problem is Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story, pieces they can't swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them. Every time they're in the same room, fist pump and it's becoming abundantly clear that their story, just like the tale Margaret's spinning, could be a mystery tragedy, or or love ballad, depending on who's telling it I am.
Speaker 2:I've already read this once, but hearing you read it again, I am so excited for this book a few things to say.
Speaker 1:Grumpy sunshine, yes, um. Also forced proximity because they're on an island yes. Also yearning, I'm triggered.
Speaker 2:I'm triggered like rivals to lovers because they start off not liking each other they're literally competing for something.
Speaker 1:I have a feeling maybe they're going to be co-authors. What do you think, emily?
Speaker 2:I think that could be a great ending to the book, or neither one of them yeah. So excited I am eating it up.
Speaker 1:When is the release date?
Speaker 2:April, I believe April 25th. I want to say Excellent.
Speaker 1:Springtime snack April 22nd.
Speaker 2:Oh close. I also love genuinely when writers write about writers, because it feels like sometimes so much more authentic and interesting. And you know, I know sometimes it can probably be self-serving, but I do enjoy books where writers write about writers writer.
Speaker 1:Okay, I kind of disagree, only in the sense that I don't think they're not allowed to, but, like writers, think that they are the most interesting people alive.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fair, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that nobody gets them. And you know, like nobody gets me, and so that's kind of annoying, but I'm willing to abide it for sure, like I love books, there's lots of books that I love that are about writers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like about like writing in general or the publishing industry, like I just think that's. It's like like some someone who's been a writer and that's the only career they've ever had, writing about like an office job. Sometimes that's like okay, this is.
Speaker 1:You don't know what you're talking about, but you know, write about writing, yeah yeah, I have a feeling it's like you don't want to. You know, like emily henry, historically her research has been place-based yeah, like going to vacation destinations which like go off, like I love that choice for you. And, um, yeah, stick to what you know and just let the research be based on like tropical islands or like cute mountain resort towns, um, or places on lake michigan.
Speaker 2:So yes, indoors.
Speaker 2:I think that's great okay, okay, in a huge tone shift so we're on the roofing which, um, you know, we both, we both did not love, uh, the ballad of songbirds and say snakes, I'd say. But I'm way more excited for this one, like hamish to me it's not because the writing was bad, let me just say that so it just wasn't like my vibe. Anyways, this one is it's a purple background, it's got like a little arch, like a broken up arch, and then there's like the snake and its tail is connected to a bird and they're looking at each other and they're like hissing at each other and it says when you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the 50th annual hunger games, fair grips the districts of penem. This year, in honor of the quarter quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
Speaker 2:Back in district 12, hamish abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Hamish's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love shuttled to the Capitol with three other district 12 tributes. A young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive odds maker and the most stuck up girl in town. As the games begin, hamish understands he's been set up to fail, but there's something in him that wants to fight and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Speaker 1:So it is going to center around Hamish.
Speaker 2:Yes, that answers that question. Yeah, because there were some theories.
Speaker 1:There were some theories that like okay, we know what happens with the 50thth hunger game, so is it just said around the time of the 50th hunger game? Right it's like, how much does hamish feature?
Speaker 1:but it definitely seems like I love hamish as a character yeah, me too, and I'm so excited for this and it sounds like it's so for there to be like yeah, yeah, I mean it's going to be super depressing because I mean we know he is the sole victor, right of the those hunger games. So anyone else, any other character that we fall in love with, that's a tribute, is going to die, um, unlike the.
Speaker 2:Unlike the, the one thing about the ballad of sun birds and snakes is like you don't really know anything, like there was no context for snow and what happened in the very first hunger game, so, um, you could kind of go anyway. You didn't know as much. This one you know. Like it's almost like to me reading the Song of Achilles, like you know the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but what do you not know? Because it's not like. Hamish is like a very open person. Oh yeah, like through all the books, he like never wants to talk about his games.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, yeah. So this is a lot. This will be like the insight, I think into him and it sounds like there'll probably be a lot happening before the games as well.
Speaker 1:Um, because he's in love with someone and he's just trying to like make his you know dreams happen and then and like we're definitely going to get some great fan service, like foreshadowing moments, oh sure and it's much closer yeah, it's much closer to the actual hunger games trilogy. So and I'm thinking like, okay, I'm looking at the snake, I'm looking at the bird and like what do those two things represent? Like the snake kind of represents snow, like traditionally in this world, yeah, and the bird kind of represents catnips.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Slash. Oh, like a canary, like the coal mines. Oh yeah, definitely it could. Could be canary in a coal mine can't wait till we can answer these questions, so this one comes out march 18th 2025, we will be covering both so closely.
Speaker 2:Yes, stay tuned. It's so exciting. It's so exciting. It's like we're having a new Hunger Games book come out. We're having a new Emily Henry Just exciting.
Speaker 1:Exciting, Just a great time to be alive. Well, I mean kind of in some ways.
Speaker 2:TBD. I guess we'll see in a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:Anyways, alright, so we, for this episode, are doing our semi-regular recommendations episode. So some of you our listeners commented on a recent one of our posts, shared a book you love and we are trying to curate recommendations for you.
Speaker 2:yes and this is another reason to follow us on instagram. You never know when we're gonna use your comments at redirect podcast, but yeah, we've done our best. This was a crazy time.
Speaker 1:You guys came out with some crazy books yeah, I think this was our most challenging um, so we tried our best and also, I feel like I don't know, I should have the sense that some of the recommendations I'm like I bet this person's already read this book because, like, of course, they would so sorry if that's the case. Again, we did our best and, um, you know, maybe they're, by a stroke of luck, there's another listener listening who liked that book that you recommended and hasn't read the one I recommend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or I feel like if you're working in reverse too, if they, if someone, likes the book you recommended, then they'll know they should read the other book that the person suggested Exactly. Yeah, you might find something you like in here.
Speaker 1:Okay. So at rights woman said that they liked the cherry robbers by Sarai Walker. So here's a brief synopsis of that book, new Mexico 2017.
Speaker 1:Sylvia Wren is one of the most important American artists of the past century. Known as a recluse, she avoids all public appearances, and there's a reason. She's living under an assumed identity, having outrun a tragic past. But when a hungry journalist starts chasing her story, she's confronted with whom she once was Iris Chapel, connecticut 1950. Iris Chapel is the second youngest of six sisters, all heiresses to a firearms fortune. They've grown up cloistered in a palatial Victorian house, mostly neglected by their distant father and troubled mother, who believes that their house is haunted by the victims of chapel weapons. The girls long to escape and for most of them, the only way out is marriage. But not long after the first chapel sister walks down the aisle, she dies of a mysterious cause. A tragedy that repeats with the second leaving the rest to navigate the wreckage, to heart-wrenching consequences. Ultimately, iris flees the devastation of her family, and so begins the story of Sylvia Wren. But can she outrun the family curse forever? First of all, that sounds good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have not read the Cherry Robbers, but upon reading this book I knew the book that at Rights Woman you should read, and that is the Harris. The Harris, oh my God, the Harris. I can't read or speak English You're doing your best the Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. So, reasons, I think you'll love this. We have multi-generational family wealth and multi-generational like family curse, darkness type beat. We also have a past and present storyline so we, like you know, kind of flash back to the one generation up as we're following the story in real time of, like our generation of the family. It's fast paced, it's a mystery and you have just enough information to help you make a guess, but not enough for you to know what's going on until it all comes together. And yeah, I just think you're. If you like this, you're gonna like the heiress. I love that. Emily, you've read the heiress, right?
Speaker 2:and I when I was um reading through the comments, originally I thought of the heiress when I read this book. So I think that's a you nailed it like.
Speaker 1:That's the first thing I thought boom, yeah, yep, so that's rights woman sorted. Thank you, tell us if you liked it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, rights woman okay you're okay this is from at nikki xoxo, and they said love, love, loved mistborn, which is a series um, a fantasy series. So, as you guys know, that's a bit of a stretch for us, but this is the synopsis of the first book. For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years, the ska slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the lord ruler, the silver of infinity, reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained a terrible, scarred, heartbroken half ska rediscovered it in the depths of the lord ruler's mostish prison. Kelsier snapped and founded himself the powers of a Mistborn, a brilliant thief and a natural leader. He turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark. Okay, so that's a general vibe. I recommend a book we've talked about recently, which is the Will of the Many, by James Islington, islington, islington.
Speaker 1:Eilington. It might be Islington. When I read it I was like it's Eilington, but then on the audiobook they said Islington, islington.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's go with that, Not just because this is one of the few fantasy books I've read, but I think okay. So Mistborn is quite a long series, so this book is very long, so it will encapture you in the same way. And the second book is about to come out next year as well I've heard January so we're getting close to it being another book in the series. So you're getting in at the ground floor on a series that people are going to be talking about. It's a really great fantasy book. It's a similar vibe with, like a chosen one who's kind of trying to rise up against this system. So I think you would like that part of it. And, as we talked about when we talked about this book originally, um, james islington has another fantasy series which I have not read, but that might be another good place to start. But a lot of people have said like he in series really well, he plots his books really well, and he has said in interviews like he already knows all the things that are going to happen.
Speaker 2:and I just have a lot of confidence in that, because sometimes it's scary, I didn't know that yes, sometimes it's scary to get into books, especially when there's a lot of world building, um, when you don't know how it's going to end, or like you feel like you can't trust. Honestly, I feel this way about fourth link.
Speaker 1:I don't know that she, I don't know that she knows how she's gonna end it. Michael scott when it's like, when he's like sometimes I start a sentence and I don't know, I have that fear too I think he's like oh my god, great first book. And then was just like, oh, like I yes, like it just became too popular too I think this is like I have been playing a lot of online chess. Here's the thing I'm getting better.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I suck at closing the deal. I'm not like, even if I'm like doing amazing and I'm like totally killing the other person, or like you know, the computer, when I'm playing a robot, I cannot like it always ends in a draw because I cannot figure out how to get them a checkmate, sure yeah.
Speaker 2:No same thing. I think that's probably true. I'm not saying that's definitely gonna happen with fourth wing, that's just I feel nervous getting really invested, Rebecca, please yes.
Speaker 2:Just take care of us, but this I don't feel nervous. I put a lot of my trust into Mr James and so I think it's a good series to get into. While it's still being released, you can theorize, you can join the forums, you can get on Reddit and read about the ending and people's reactions. So I think that this is a good. If you're looking for another fantasy series to get into, with a very interesting world building and you can trust that it's going to be a good ending and it's going to be long, this is what you're looking for, so that's my recommendation for you, nikki.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to say that that's a really good recommendation. And I know that it's a good recommendation because I happen to know Nikki XOXO personally, and the Will of the Many is on her list.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm encouraging you, thank God. I thought you were going to say that she's already read it and I was going to be scared.
Speaker 1:I know it was on her list. I don't know if she's read it already, but like, move it up, you were on track. Thank you, for sure I'm locked in, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm locked in and now maybe I should read Mistborn, because maybe I'm getting into fantasy.
Speaker 1:Maybe I should. I feel like oh, author has the same name as Megan Fox.
Speaker 2:No, it is Megan Fox.
Speaker 1:Yes, and if you are our age, which is right around 30. Under, under, under, under, under under, you'll know that megan fox was the much vilified yeah, female lead of transformers that at least in like evangelical christian culture, like what was up with that rocked can't be too hot. Such a slut. Yeah, oh, my god, my box is so hot like she had a lot. She was a very controversial figure for her.
Speaker 2:She was like the butt of the joke, like the punchline. Who is that for today's youths? Who's like the hot girl? Like sydney sweeney?
Speaker 1:maybe, I don't know, maybe I would hope as a society we're getting a little bit better about it. So maybe just like I'm not around people who vilify women like that anymore, but progress anyway, whatever.
Speaker 1:All right. So here's the situation. So megan fox showcases her wicked humor throughout a heartbreaking and dark collection of poetry. Over the course of more than 70 poems, fox chronicles the ways in which we feed our fit ourselves into this, into the shape of the ones we love, even if it means losing ourself in the process. Um, this was really compelling to me, and now I really want to read this. I think I would really really love it. So thank you at Dulce's Diary for that.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if this is all dead on, but I have three recommendations and hopefully in here is something that speaks to you. First is the Husbands by Holly Grimazio. I briefly talked about this on a prior episode, but this is a hilarious kind of magical realism book about a woman who comes home one day from a bachelor party and she has a husband that she's never met before, and every time her husband goes into the attic a different one comes down, and so it kind of speaks to this like it's like uses magical realism to make a greater point about the lives women lead, and kind of the analogy of the fig tree like we stare looking at the figs, trying to figure out which one to pick, and the longer like you look at them, long enough that they all rot off the tree and die, and so it's like the pressure that we put on women to have a perfect life. It's also hilarious, which is why I added this one in here, because my other two recommendations aren't really funny, and if the thing that you loved most about the Megan Fox book is that it was funny, then you should go with this recommendation.
Speaker 1:The other two feel like same book, different fonts. The first is how to Fall Out of Love, madly, by Yana Kasali, and the second is If I had your Face, by Frances Cha. These are both books that follow or told in multiple perspectives of different women in a friend group. How to Fall Out of Love Madly is set in the united states and it's about um, these roommates, and um, a man moves in with them and one of the roommates, like, falls in love with him, but then, like, he also has a girlfriend and it's like a whole thing. So you see from all their perspectives and it's like in each perspective you want to vilify one of the other women, but then you read their perspective and you realize that men are the real villains.
Speaker 1:And that is on period.
Speaker 1:And it's really good and like desperately relatable. It almost resonates too much. So, like, read with caution, it will make you there's so many things I resonated with in this book you, there's so many things I resonated with in this, in this book, um. And then the third is, if I had your face by francis cha, really similar to how to how to fall in love madly. But it's set in korea and um more of an emphasis on class and the different, um like lifestyles of the women in this book, um, kind of depends on the class that they're in and like their social structure and the intense and rigorous beauty standards of Korea, which is something that I know that Hannah knows a lot about. So, hannah, you may have already read this book, but if you haven't, I'm sure that you would enjoy it and you would really really like it. So, yeah, those are all three. You'll resonate with them too much. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll moan in anguish.
Speaker 2:Love it. What more could?
Speaker 1:you ask for in a book, honestly Yearning, no yearning unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not what we're looking for here. Okay, my next one is from Strange Days 616. And they said three books Yellowface, the Wonder and the Midnight Library. Honestly, I just couldn't do anything with the Wonder. I haven't read it. I'm sorry I had to leave that one out. But for Yellowface and the Midnight Library I do tense book, also set in the publishing world, that also has some race-based tension, not just some a lot. That's the main plot point.
Speaker 2:I would recommend the Other Black Girl by Zakiya Delilah Harris and that also was recently adapted into a TV show. So you have that as a bonus. That one's really good. It's set in a adapted into a TV show, so you have that as a bonus. That one's really good. It's set in a publisher, a book publisher, and it's a little more. I would say it's a little more like scary horror, like supernatural-ish elements to it, versus Yellowface, which is a little bit more of like just a tense book or like a, I don't know. I wouldn't call it like a psychological thriller necessarily, but you know it's not quite on that same level as other black girl. So just a warning Also recommend the plot by John Humph correlates We've both talked about this, don't.
Speaker 2:It's not as good as yellow face, for sure, but it's a very, very similar vibe of someone stealing someone else's um book or like idea for a book, um, so that could be a good. Yeah, if you liked that aspect of yellow face, I think you would like the plot. And then for the midnight library, a little bit off the wall, but I'm gonna recommend dark matter by blake crouch. So the midnight library, if you guys haven't read that. It follows a girl who basically ends up in this library where every single book in the library is another version of her life and she can open the book and start reading it and it'll transport her into that.
Speaker 2:What if I had gone to college somewhere else or I don't know, all the different little choices you make in your life and how that would have played out for her. And so she's able to kind of experience all these other lives and see, like all these regrets she has, like what would have happened if she had made the other choice, um. So dark matter is a book that's a little more sci-fi but it does deal with like parallel universes or, um, making decisions. Same kind of thing like what would my life be like if I had made a different choice. Um, so I feel like the message is very similar and like the vibe of, you know, being happy with the life you have yeah, I would also recommend the husbands for that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah I by the way, I just bought the husbands on a recent trip and at a bookstore, and I can't wait to read it yeah, I would throw the husbands into that mix if that's like the thing you're going off that makes sense based on the description.
Speaker 2:And then I also recommend what alice forgot by leanne moriarty. It's kind of a different one, but this follows a woman who's I think she's in like her 40s. She's going through a divorce and she's like kind of unhappy with her life and then she falls off an exercise bike and hits her head and when she wakes up she is like a newlywed, doesn't have any children, um, is like young, like she's in her 20s again, and so she is now seeing her life through those eyes and like being like how do we go from being so happy and in love to being a new divorced? And I have this child now, and like my life is so different. And so it's kind of a similar thing, like more domestic, you know, literary vibes versus like maybe the more magical of the midnight library. But I feel like similar, of like what if you could look at your life with with different eyes? Or what if you? You know, what are you taking for granted?
Speaker 2:So yes your life through heaven's eyes. Yes, so that's my recommendation for you. Thank you, and I'm sorry about the wonder again, I got nothing for that.
Speaker 1:All right. My next recommendation is for at Colleen Sikorsky, the Sicilian Inheritance by Joe Piazza. Okay, so the synopsis of this book Sarah Marsala barely knows who she is anymore after the failure of her business and marriage. On top of that, her beloved great aunt Rosie passes away, leaving Sarah bereft with grief. But Aunt Rosie's death also opens an escape from her life and a window into the past, by way of a plane ticket to Sicily, a deed to a possibly valuable plot of land and a bombshell family secret. Rosie believes Sarah's great-grandmother, serafina, the family matriarch, who was left behind while her husband worked in America, didn't die of illness, as family lore has it, she was murdered. Thus begins a twist-filled adventure that takes Sarah all over the picturesque Italian countryside as she races to solve a mystery and prove her birthright. Flashing back to the past, we meet Serafina, a feisty and headstrong young woman in the early 1900s, thrust into motherhood in her teens, who fought for a better life, not just for herself but for all the women of her small village. Unsurprisingly, it isn't long before a woman challenging the status quo finds herself in danger. And so, basically, sarah is finding out more about Serafina's life and trying to solve this murder. So that sounds really good.
Speaker 1:I think I would like to read that. Here's the problem, though. I have a perfect recommendation, but I actually also know Colleen personally, and I know that she has already read my recommendation, which is we Solve Murders by Richard Osman. So if, by a stroke of luck, someone else here has read that book or heard that description and would like to read another book, I highly recommend you read we Solve Murders, because it's also about solving a murder. It's also about traveling all across the world, different settings, fun cast of characters. I just feel like, yes, it's perfect, and I know she liked both books, so there's more evidence. So that's a perfect recommendation. But I had to come up with another recommendation because I know she's already read that.
Speaker 1:So, um, I have the shining girls by lauren bukes. This is a lot darker than what she's described. This is definitely more of like a horror thriller type beat. Um, it's about this guy who can travel in time by going into this house and like he is in this house and he's like now, like fated, to kill these different girls throughout history and um, so, basically, like one is remaining and we're trying, like there's a cast of characters who are trying to stop this from happening based on like information you're gathering from the past, because he's shown up in different points in american history and like so there's that element that I think he would like Like trying to pick up clues from the past
Speaker 1:and also like trying to stop something from happening. But I will say it's like definitely darker. There's like gore, on-page death, that kind of thing. It would be good for this time of year.
Speaker 1:I just don't know if it's exactly what she's looking for, which is why I also threw in another recommendation which is a little more off, but it's Hester, by Lori Liko Albanese, and this is essentially like a different take, uh, in a little bit of a prequel to the Scarlet Letter. Um. So it tells the story of a young woman who immigrates to america and, um, her husband ends up um going off to work on a ship. She's left alone, kind of to be a single mother, as her relationship with nathaniel hawthorne, um, the eventual writer of the scarlet letter, and events that may have um transpired to inspire him to write the Scarlet Letter. So if part of what you liked about the book you described was the coming of age and hardship for women during this time, for the great-grandmother and that whole type thing, you might like Hester. So that's what I've got. That was my best shot, colleen.
Speaker 2:Very good, I thought that was good, like I think you covered all the bases for having the perfect recommendation taken away from you um yeah, that was rude well done. How dare you, how dare our friends and families support us in this way?
Speaker 1:so we already know all your reads.
Speaker 2:Thank you, colleen. Um, okay, so this one is from ashley and she said I recently loved hidden pictures, supernatural thriller vibes. Okay, so this says mallory quinn is fresh out of rehab. When she takes a job as a babysitter for ted and caroline maxwell, she has to look after their five-year-old son, teddy. Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fair trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day he draws something different a man in a forest dragging a woman life, a woman's lifeless body. Then teddy's artwork becomes increasingly sinister and cystic figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long, unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force. Knowing how crazy it all sounds, mallory nevertheless that's creepy as hell Sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it's too late.
Speaker 1:Dude, imagine if your kids were doing that Not your kid the kid you're nannying. Here's a hot take. I, not your kid the kid you're nannying, here's this hot take. I would simply tell them to stop. Be like you're not allowed to color anymore. No more coloring for you, no more artistic expression, because I'm not getting paid enough for this. I like, yeah, I am getting paid like 18 an hour. No, bennies, I'm sorry, I'm not solving a murder, so, so, just stop. I'm not Go play outside. I would quit Like a normal kid. Respectfully, no, respectfully, you have to shut up. No, I'm not going to.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I think the most perfect fit for this is Riley Sager's books, especially the Only One Left, if you haven't already read that he writes very supernatural thrillers. He writes like very supernatural thrillers. The House Across the Lake I've also read by him, which has definitely more of the supernatural element than the Only One Left. But the Only One Left has also got some hauntings and it's similar in that it centers around a caretaker who has to go take care of an elderly woman and she kind of has a complicated past and also wants stability and also wants her own living space and is kind of forced into this creepy situation. So I think that one is very, very similar, just with an old lady instead of a little kid doing the creeping, and then the house across the lake is also good, kind of follows.
Speaker 2:Another, like it's a classic, what's it called? Like a wine lady, an alcoholic Wine, alcoholic wine mom, yeah, but she's not a mom just like an alcoholic with a tragic backstory, who's an unreliable narrator, you know, who witnesses something that she can't explain and then has to try to solve a murder, right? So, um, if you like that genre, but there is a supernatural kind of twist to it. So if you're looking for something a little more creepy. I'd also like to recommend and I always recommend this I think you should read the Raven Cycle series. That's more YA and it's not as much thriller as it is mystery, but there are some supernatural elements, there's psychics and ghosts and, uh, other things like that, so I think you would like that and honestly low-key.
Speaker 1:Uh, ashley, you might like the shining girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you might like the shining girl look, there's a lot of good recommendations on this episode and then this is a wild not a wild card, but a little more out there and I also haven't finished this book because I got it on libby and then I started reading it like the day it was due back and I tried to power through and I didn't quite finish it. So I'm waiting for it to come back around. But it's my murder by kate williams, and this one's really bizarre. It follows a um woman who was murdered by a serial killer and then in this, this other universe or dystopic future, they have the technology to like, clone someone and bring them back to life with all their memories and traits and, um, oh, wow. So that's something they sometimes do when someone dies. It's not for everyone, but because, uh, these women were killed by this prolific serial killer, they choose to use this technology to bring all of the women back that the serial killer killed, and so it's definitely got a little more of the supernatural side.
Speaker 2:It's a weird book. If you're looking for something weird and creepy and a little disturbing, I think you would like that one. If that's what you liked about the Hidden Pictures book, um, but again, I haven't finished it. So if you, if you, really depend on a solid ending. I can't vouch for that, but like the 80 of it I read, I really liked.
Speaker 1:So we should have invited all these people on to our scary books. I know you guys have a lot of good scary books. Alexandra seward uh, likes know my name by chanel miller. She was known to the world as emily doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock turner. I've been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on stanford's campus.
Speaker 1:Honestly like look, I lived through that on the news and there's no, there's like hardly any more like information I could learn about that but just reading that sentence out loud it makes my body full of anger.
Speaker 1:Her victim impact statement was posted on buzzfeed where it instantly went viral, viewed by 11 million people. Within four days it was translated globally and read on the floor of congress and inspired changes in california law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experience of assault for the first time. Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma and transcendence and the power of words. It's the perfect case in many ways. There were eyewitnesses. Turner ran away. Physical evidence was immediately secured, but her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath of the trial reveal the oppression victims face even in the best case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture bias to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable and ultimately shines with the courage required to move through the suffering and live a life that's full and beautiful. First of all, wow, just take a breath. I would love to read that and um so much courage for writing that book.
Speaker 2:Yeah especially because her identity was not known, um, throughout the trial.
Speaker 1:And so, then, to be willing to put yourself out there, um, that's like got to be even more difficult and throw yourself to the wolves in the name of, like, standing up for other victims, because you know there's going to be tons of gross people who, like, are going to blame her and yeah, yeah, it's horrible.
Speaker 1:Oh, you shouldn't have been drunk or whatever you know, um, so, yeah, wow, that sounds so good. And the ultimate first book that came to mind was just mercy by brian stevenson. This is not a hot take. It's a very popular book, especially in the 2010s. Um, but this the reasons I think that you would like this book, alex.
Speaker 1:If you already haven't read it, um, which you may have, um, but if you haven't um, the reasons I think you would like it is because it's like narrative non-fiction. It uses stories of real life people who were wrongly convicted of murders and then were exonerated. Um and like is somewhat of a memoir, too, of brian stevenson, who is the uh, the founder of the equal justice initiative, and um works tirelessly to um end the death penalty and exonerate people from death row that were wrongly convicted. So I mean, yeah, obviously those things, there's a justice lens to both of them narrative nonfiction and memoir real lived experience. I think you'd like that, and, as I'm saying that, another book I think you would really like this wasn't on the thing is Evicted by Matthew Desmond.
Speaker 1:Evicted is the story of a bunch of folks who are facing housing insecurity. In where is it set? Again, I think it's in Milwaukee, and you find out at the end of the book that Matthew Desmond actually left his upper middle class house with his wife and family to live in these housing projects with the people that he wrote the book about. It's also narrative nonfiction. It talks about their lives with housing insecurity, the things that led them to where they are, the conditions of their homes, the expensive, like the challenge for them to move into, like safe and stable housing with their children. And if you really want something that's going to motivate you towards like justice and action and like really wake you up, this is an excellent book about poverty and corporate landlords and the housing industrial complex and I think you'd really enjoy that. It's excellent, one of the most life changing books, and it made it onto like the top 100 books of all time from the New York times or something like that Excellent.
Speaker 2:Okay, great rec. I also wanted to recommend one for this Cause I I was going to steal it from you when we were debating a trade, so I wanted to recommend Tell Me Everything by Erica Krause. It's about a woman who gets recruited basically to be a private investigator of sexual assaults of football players against college students, and so it's very similar, but it's also a memoir, also like very narrative and well-written, and I think deals with really similar issues to this one. So it's one of my favorite books I read, I think, this year or last year recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you told me about that one. Yeah, that sounds right on track.
Speaker 2:Okay, my last one is from my mom, so I have a little extra insight. She said the last 10 books I've read, I can't say I loved any of them. However, I really liked the forgotten.
Speaker 1:Pause, pause, kelly, I really think that's because your picker is off lady. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:She does not like, I think you need to branch out.
Speaker 2:You're reading, branch out, go ahead. She says I don't like thrillers or mysteries and I love a happy ending. I really disregarded the book she suggested. Just to be honest, it's about an older lady who's like forgetting her memory. She's losing, she's losing her mind. No, her memory is failing. And then she has to move in with her granddaughter and she kind of hates it. Yeah, that sounds good. I know my mom, so I'm going to recommend these to you, mom, based on your opinions. First of all, my mom is the one who introduced me to Annabelle Monaghan, who wrote. She gave me what is her first book called that we both read Nora Goes Off Script, so I know you like annabelle monacan, so if you haven't read summer romance, also by her, this is what I wrote down for my mom's brainstorming session cozy pg, happy endings and, uh, really like low conflict is what she probably wants, I've got one.
Speaker 1:Uh in, uh in a New York minute by Keith Spencer. Okay, it's PG, love Happy and day. Okay, add that one.
Speaker 2:Um, also Catherine center. I told my mom recently you should, she should read Catherine center Uh, the one I've read by her as the bodyguard, but she has two other like very acclaimed.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Um the, the face blindness, yeah, hello stranger, hello stranger.
Speaker 2:You should read that.
Speaker 1:Yes, that one that is pg and it has to do with, like you know the conflict comes from, like a biological issue. Yeah, so very similar, it's overcomable and then the seven year slip.
Speaker 2:I think that would be your branch out one. It's a little bit of a magical realism, but it's very like sweet and nice low conflict it's about and there is like a. There's an element of like grief and, uh, an elderly relative who does pass away. Um, but it's not too heavy, it's like very chill, and this this is what I've talked about very recently because I read it somewhere recently um, but it's about a apartment that sometimes randomly, without your control, will slip back in time. So the apartment itself. When you enter through the door, you will be seven years in the past and then as soon as you walk out the door, you'll be back in present day. And so this woman inherits this apartment from her great aunt and every time she goes into the apartment she's in the past seven years and there's a man living there and so, anyways, it's really cute and I think you would like it.
Speaker 2:Also, you put on here Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar. That's another branch out, but I think you might actually like it. I think it's a happy ending in the sense that she has become her own self, and I know you were invested in the Duggars at some time in your life. So I think that'd be a good if you want to branch out to a memoir and it's a very easy read. So there is a lot of conflict, for sure, but I think she approaches it with a lot of grace for her parents, despite feeling maybe like they weren't the best, and I think that's a good way to read it. It's not like you're not going to be stressed or disturbed, you know as much as you'll be just interested in reading about her experiences and I think she, you know, does that in a way. That's a little bit more low conflict for a very conflict filled memoir.
Speaker 2:So that's my attempt for you, mom. Thanks for calling. Thanks for calling in.
Speaker 1:Long time listener, first time caller. Okay, my final one is for Rayana Sanchez. Butcher and Blackbird by Bryn Weaver. The tagline of this book is every serial killer needs a friend. Every game must have a winner. When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloan and Rowan, the two find something elusive the friendship of a like-minded pitch-black soul. From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country. But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can rowan and sloan dip themselves out of a game of graves, or have they finally met their match? Interesting, um, this. It's really interesting to like take serial killers and make them the protagonist, like I kind of like. I know it's such a flip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I read so many reviews of this um, and people were like I can't believe I'm rooting for two serial killers to find love and be happy. Like, how do you do that?
Speaker 1:okay, amazing writing. Yeah, um, my recommendation is bride by ali hazelwood. This is a supernatural romance about a vampire and a werewolf, um, both like like cultures. The vampires and the werewolves like have issues and so you kind of have like a imperfect protagonist type thing, um, and it's like they are also, uh, like natural enemies, which I think might also kind of align with your interest in um, butcher and blackbird, and it's also like not very long. Um, I think I I think that there's lots of like synergy between these books. Is it like exact same thing? No, but I can't think of another book about two serial killers but imperfect characters, and certainly not on the romance about two serial killers. Yeah, but, um, imperfect characters, natural enemies, kind of overcoming the rivalry and the competition between them, um, and you kind of have like that halloween kind of dark vibe.
Speaker 2:So yeah, like two serial killers, monster people and then two actual monsters yeah, who aren't? Serial killers, but you know awesome monsters. That was a great. So yeah, uh, wreck for a difficult, very unique book. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, rihanna, I think you'll like it.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Okay, have you read anything good recently?
Speaker 1:Well, so our last episode. I had mentioned that I was like halfway through a couple of books the People's History of the United States and we Solve Murders Finished both of them. They were both excellent. We Solve solve murders was the most perfect, delightful, perfect thing. You should really read it.
Speaker 2:It's really great. I'm adding it to my list.
Speaker 1:It's fantastic and the characters like I love the thursday murder club so much and that's an amazing series and so I was like, okay, he's going, the same author trying to like start off with a new yeah, cast of characters like how could it meet expectations?
Speaker 1:he's so good at characters yeah, he's so good, so it hit. It was just fantastic, perfect little snack, um. And so mostly now I have been working my way through a book we're going to be talking about in the podcast soon. So TBD teaser, um teaser and um. Also, I'm about to wrap up another book by, um Howard Zinn. What a graphic novel adaptation of his uh book. It's called people's history of the american empire, and so it's about the united states, is like empirical pursuits across the globe through history and um, with a bit of a critical eye and also like he lived through a lot of that. He's dead now, um, but he lived through a lot of things that he referenced and um, he uses some of his personal stories. It's like stuff like that where it's like really heavy. It's just very nice and digestible in a graphic novel format, um.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I recommend that and uh, more to come soon awesome okay, I have read a really good book lately and I'm very excited to talk about it. It's called the Five Year Lie by Serena Bowen. Okay, so this is my transition back into thrillers, out of mysteries, because I mean out of romances, because I've been in my romance bag and this kind of like it's a perfect combo. So, basically, this follows Ariel, who is the heir to a tech company, a multi-billion dollar tech company started by her father and her uncle and it's basically like Ring doorbell cameras, so it's a similar product to that, but they founded it together and she wants to be like a glassblowing artist. She's very artsyy, but her dad doesn't approve of that okay, so different than the ring door right um, her dad doesn't approve of that, so she is like forced to.
Speaker 2:He, he makes her like become an office assistant for his company to have like a real job, quote, unquote. And um, so yeah, that's where she is and she, while working there, meets this guy named Drew and they fall in love, have a brief romantic entanglement and then he ghosts her she is pregnant with his child. So she tries to find him and she finds his obituary that he is dead. Five years later the son is five years old and all of a sudden she gets a text from Drew and it says there's been trouble. Meet me at the park in one hour. Don't tell anyone where you're going.
Speaker 1:Meet me at the park. I have a son. He's five years old, okay okay.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, she gets this text from the past, uh, from someone she thought was dead, and it says meet me in an hour, don't tell anyone where you're going. And so that begins a series of events of her trying to figure out what happened. Um, and is he dead? Is he not dead? What's going on? It's very like tense, um, there's a lot of like stuff going on and it kind of flashes back and forth. So it'll flash back to um drew's perspective five years ago and what happened leading up to the events that caused him to ghost her and um. Then her perspective in the current day, as she's like trying to figure out what happened.
Speaker 2:So it's very interesting and it also has the romance, because you get to see them fall in love in the past and like what happened in their relationship and then, um, like what's going on in the present. It's, it's good. It's like it makes you think about the ring doorbell thing, kind of creepy, how many cameras there are in the world and um, oh my god, it's like, um, it's like the every, yes, it's like the triggered, but this is a better book than that.
Speaker 2:Um, so yeah wait, no circle.
Speaker 1:What's the good one?
Speaker 2:the circle, it's like the circle so, um, yeah, I thought this was really good. It's a good like it was a good bridge from the romance, like I said, like it wasn't full-on creepy mystery, but it was very tense, but then there's like a little smidgen of romantic interest in there. Nice, I liked it.
Speaker 1:Wow, good stuff, yeah, great. Bye. All right, guys, we'll see you next time. Bye.