The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Book Talk: Holiday Reads, 2024 Goals, and 2025 Releases
We reflect on our holiday reading experiences and recap our ambitious goals for 2024. Join us as we discuss our favorite books, share insights into reading strategies, and anticipate exciting upcoming releases to fill our TBRs.
Emily's Mentions (we know there were many)
- The Natural Series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- Never Lie and The Housemaid Series by Freida McFadden
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
- Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Abigail's Mentions
- Bull Moon Rising by Ruby Dixon
- Fourth Wing Audiobook on Hoopla
- Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
- Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
2025 Releases We're Excited About
- Flirting with Disaster by Naina Kumar
- Onyx Storm by Rebeccas Yarros
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Join us for a Buddy Read of Onyx Storm on Storygraph! Follow us at @fabigail and @emilyrojasreads. And as always, follow us on Instagram and TikTok (while you still can) at @readirectpodcast! We love you!
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshing.
Speaker 2:And I'm Emily 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 relate to our real lived experiences.
Speaker 1:On today's episode, we're catching up on holiday reading, talking about how our 2024 reading goals shook out and talking about upcoming releases in the first quarter of this year.
Speaker 2:But before we get into that, we would like you to support our podcast in a few simple ways. If you love the show, if you hate the show, still support us. First, you can leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you listen to this.
Speaker 1:That will let you review and let us know that you love the show you can also follow us on instagram at redirect podcast and you can follow us individually on storygraph. I'm fabigale on storygraph and emily is emily martin. 210 I'm.
Speaker 2:I just changed it actually to Emily Rojas Reads because I tried to match my Emily Rojas Reads on Storygraph. I just changed it like five seconds ago. But yeah, follow me there. I need more friends. I only have like three.
Speaker 1:It's really fun. On Storygraph I feel like Storygraph is better than Goodreads at being able to interact with people and see what they're reading and how they read things.
Speaker 2:I agree, I like it, but I need more people.
Speaker 1:So friend us totally okay, oh yeah, and share our show with a friend, share your show with friends. It's the best way to help us grow our community of book loving nerds. We are really like in the vacation mindset right now which we're having a really good time recording it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I working today, but I'm still on the vacation.
Speaker 1:Today is my first day back at work. Yeah, yeah. But, like three quarters of my coworkers, took today and tomorrow off.
Speaker 2:Right, which was kind of smart of them.
Speaker 1:It is yeah, so you know there's really not. I'm easing my way back in. I cleared my inbox this morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I back in. I cleared my inbox this morning. Yeah yeah, I tried to like preemptively, get things done before the holidays so this wouldn't be so stressful and it's been an easy roll back into work, but I think the brain's still on holiday mode. That's fair to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Well, speaking of holiday mode, you were a crazy reading beast. So when we last recorded well, I guess when we last recorded we did the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, yeah, which I speaking in holiday mode, it was released two days ago and today is. January 2nd and I just now posted about it because, yeah, time is real.
Speaker 2:I know Today Eric has like an appointment on Monday and I like this morning I'm like, oh, what time's your appointment? He was like it's on Monday. I'm like, oh, today's not Monday. Like no, I just felt like it should be a Monday. So.
Speaker 1:I don't know and I'm not even sorry about it.
Speaker 2:I feel so rested and relaxed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too anyways um so yeah, last time we talked about our goals. How many? How many books had you read?
Speaker 2:you had reached your goal. Yeah, I think I was at like 68.
Speaker 1:I was going for 70 and how many did you finish?
Speaker 2:85. Okay, yeah, I now get it how you could read 200 books in new york, because if I maintain that pace I I read 25 books in december. So and I just looked, I did not read at all for the first eight days of december, so I read 25 books in like the last half of december or the last three quarters, whatever look, yeah, I feel like that's what happened to me in 2023.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, is that in january of 2023? I just had like this insane month where I read so many books, yeah, and then it was like I didn't. I didn't maintain that pace for the rest of the year but it was still a pretty good pace and then I ended up reading like 135 books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I feel like that could happen. So, um, anyways, now I'm kind of I like need to back off a little. I think I read way too much, because I was reading like two books a day, uh, for some time there. Because what happened was I got to 70 and I texted you and I was like, is it crazy to go for 80? Because I think there was 10 days left in the year 11. And I was like, okay, I could read one book a day, I could go back and finish some books I had already started, which I did do, and so then the problem was, as I was going along, I'm like, once I get to 80, I'm not going to want to stop, because the most I've ever read in a year was 84 books in 2022.
Speaker 1:It was just right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I felt like I had to. I knew that if I got to 80 and it wasn't the last day of the year I would feel like I had to go for 85. And that is exactly what happened. So I got to 80, I think by the 28th or so and then I'm like, okay, I can do it. So I read my last book, finished it in the afternoon of December 31st and I'll say all of those, Okay, let's see Two, three, three. I had already started and out of those three, I'd say two of them I was pretty much done with, and then one of them was a novella, but everything else was a full book. So, anyways, I feel really great about that and it taught me like, okay, this is how I can not fall into a reading slump this year, Because I felt like there's definitely some books that I didn't love, but I knew when I picked them out they were instantly available, number one.
Speaker 2:And like I knew when I picked them out I was going to be able to read them really fast and I would be sucked into them or whatever. And so I'm like that's a good strategy, you know, because sometimes I don't have anything on Libby, I don't have any books I feel like reading and then I just don't read for like two weeks or something. And so I feel like now it's like if just don't read for like two weeks or something, and so I feel like now it's like if, that if I get to that place I should just download one of those books that you know are in your sweet spot and you're gonna crush and it's gonna keep you, keep your momentum going so no, not every book has to be a five-star book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um yeah, and most of them weren't yeah, like not every book has to be a five-star book and um. Also, I still had fun.
Speaker 1:I had to remind myself, the beginning of December I was reading a book that was kind of interesting, but I just didn't want to keep going back to so I had to quit it, or maybe I'll come back to it later, but I just like it was killing the joy of reading for me because I just didn't want to read it. That much Just don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't get stuck. So yeah, I can't wait to when we talk about books we've read recently.
Speaker 1:I have several, but why don't we just go ahead and talk about that? Okay, sure, let's, let's mix it up. So, of the like 100,000 books that you read in December, like what was, what were some of the tops?
Speaker 2:Okay, some of the tops. First of all, I read a really fun I'm not done yet, but a fun YA series which I normally don't like, but you guys know me, I liked this one a lot. So it's called the Naturals and I didn't really know it was YA. I think I had seen it on TikTok or something and people were recommending it. It's by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and basically this series follows this girl, insert first name Cassie, and she is kind of recruited by the FBI and they basically have a kind of a secret off the books training program for teens who are naturally gifted at solving crimes. So she is a natural profiler, like she can just look at someone and she knows their deal. There's someone in their group who is a natural with like numbers, like a savant, and she can kind of like numbers, anything, numerical calculations, she's got it all. There's someone who, like can read emotions. There's someone who can, like tell if you're lying, um, and so basically the the thing is in this world is that they have to intervene when they're teens because if they go through like college and stuff, they'll lose these natural abilities, so like get trained out of them. But if they catch them when they're young enough they can like cultivate their natural gift or whatever, I don't know. Anyways, it's really fun.
Speaker 2:Every book is like a standalone mystery. They do deal with serial killers so it did creep me out actually a lot, because I was reading the first one when I was home alone and I got kind of scared. But so I would just warn you of that. But I think we're losing, like the um, you know, sacred texts of a, a YA kind of I don't know, it's not dystopian, but like a fun YA world with a love triangle and this has that and I can't decide, like who I want her to end up with. It's just fun.
Speaker 2:So I haven't read the fourth book. There's four and I'm waiting for that. I just got it on Thrift Books with the gift card you gave me, actually for my birthday, so I am waiting for that to get delivered. But the first three were really fun, easy reading, yes, um. And then I read a bunch of frida mcfadden because I felt like she's so popular I have to know what's up, and they were fine, like I would say. I read the housema series, which is, I think, her most kind of popular book series, and then I read Never Lie. I think you know if you've read any book like this, you've. You've read this book like I've had to stop, actually, and make sure I hadn't already read this book before. But it was a quick read, it was fun. I like the Housemaid better than the Never Lie book, but it's just like a psychological domestic thriller. If you've read something like that with a twist ending, you probably can predict exactly what's going to happen. But it was still like I read them in like one day.
Speaker 2:It was a comforting formula for you, very comforting formula. Then I'll save the best for last. I'm skipping over a few. I read one called Cleet Cute, which was a cute soccer romance they're teammates and it was cute, nothing special. Then I read I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston.
Speaker 1:I didn't know One of the YA books right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I didn't know it was YA. I just started reading it because I'm like, oh, I love Casey McQuiston and it was really cute. It's set in small town Alabama. Casey has a um dedication at the beginning and they say like I guess casey grew up in like a small town in the south and it's kind of like this is I don't know. I need to read it but I don't remember exactly what they said. But it was kind of like there are all kinds of people in rural america, in small towns, in the Bible Belt, in Christianity, because it takes place at a Christian school and like this is for like those weird or queer kids or like unpopular kids who grow up in those circles and like there are people like you and I don't know. It's just.
Speaker 2:It was so the main character in this. What is her name so bad? Chloe. She on prom night Shara Wheeler, who's like this popular Christian. Her dad's the principal of their school. She's blonde.
Speaker 2:She kisses Chloe unexpectedly on prom night and they're also Chloe moved to this small town from California. She has two moms and she's like I hate this place, I can't wait to get out of here and so, but they're both in competition for valedictorian, like they've been competing all four years. So then, after uh she kisses her um shara disappears that night. And as chloe's trying to figure out what happened to shara, she connects with shara's um boyfriend, smith, and who's like quarterback popular, like sporty, and then um shara's next door neighbor, rory, who's like delinquent bad boy, you know has. They have nothing in common, basically these three people, but they like start working together to find out what happened to shara and they realize maybe, like they have a lot more in common than they originally thought.
Speaker 2:And chloe realizes like maybe this, like there are definitely people who suck in this small, uh christian school, but like there are also people who are like me and I kind of wrote them off because I, you know, had my own stereotypes about them and it's just cute, like everybody was really nice and maybe this is like probably a unrealistic portrayal of like some people really do have genuinely horrible experiences in these type of places that aren't redeeming. But I just liked this and I liked I like you know, as people who grew up in the South, there's not always a lot of generous depictions of it. It's kind of one way or another. I feel like and and this was like there are all kinds of people in these places and yeah, like there are good things, we talked about that with.
Speaker 1:Here we go again by allison cochran this year where it's like um, you know, there are pacific northwest people who are driving through middle america and through the south and it's right, oh, they're surprised to find out that when they pulled up at this motel, the proprietor of the motel is a gay guy, or yeah you know, with a trans daughter or something like that, and it's like, yeah, um, the more like heightened oppression against those groups in those places make you think that those groups don't exist there, yeah, but in reality like they exist everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's really cute. And my last one for you, which I want you to read I think you would like. I'm ready. Have you heard of quick silver by callie hart?
Speaker 1:no, okay, what is that?
Speaker 2:lock in. This is a 700 page book. I read it in like one day, okay, whoa. So callie hart? My understanding is that callie, uh, self-published this book. It's a dark romanticist um, which I'll get into the plot a little bit.
Speaker 1:Wow that's really surprising that you picked that up, because that's not really you okay, I know, but well, here's the only reason.
Speaker 2:Why is that? Jamie golden from the podcast greenlit this and I always like the book she recommends, so I felt like I was in good hands and it was available now and I was like I'm just gonna read it and um, it is so. Anyway, she self-published this and then, um, it became like word of mouth.
Speaker 2:Extremely popular is my and so it was recently picked up by a traditional publisher and republished, and now she signed on with them, I guess for a series. It says that there will be two books, but I could see this going longer than two books. I don't know. But basically this follows. You know, I have to look up these names. You know, I have to look up these names.
Speaker 2:Saris, right, saris. She lives in this realm where they have this like somewhat evil queen who has been on the throne for a thousand years and she is human, but they don't know why she like won't die. And so she lives in the third ward in this realm and that ward is like quarantined because there's a semi-religious group that says that there's a plague in this ward. It's very complicated, so stay with me. And she also like they have like rationed water. They can only drink like six ounces of water a day. It's like a struggle to survive every day. She's taking care of her little brother, who is 21 but acts like he's like eight and she's they don't have any other family. She's kind of on her own. She's like having to steal and barter and you know whatever, do whatever she can to survive. She is captured by the evil queen and taken to the dungeons and, through a series of events, she finds herself transported to another realm, which is where the fey live, and she meets quicksilver. No, he's not quicksilver. To get to this other realm, she has to go through quicksilver, which is like this magical version of silver, and she's rescued by king fisher, who is a fey who lives in the Southern Realm, and he is low-key, possessed by Quicksilver because it saved his life one time, but in order to save him it had to possess him, and it's kind of driving him crazy, slowly but surely, like terminal illness. Anyways, they are working together to save his realm and that's the only way she can come back to save her realm. So there's crossing of realms. It's very.
Speaker 2:The plot is complicated, okay, but the romance was so good, their banter was so good, like. I am intrigued. It shows that it was self-published. It could have used, probably, an editor. I have, though, high hopes for the future because she had been picked up now by a publisher that, like the second book, will go through a little bit more rigorous editing, but I did think, like the plot and the romance and like the I don't know complexities of what's going on, and all the side characters were really fun, and I'm just I'm interested to see how it ties up. I think you would like it. I think if you are like a die-hard romance or a fantasy person, like again, if you're not like a fourth wing person, I don't know that you would like this, but if you're just like I'm here for the fun times and I will take everything at face value and go along with the story, I think you would like this.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed it I think, yeah, I think I can be into it. Yeah, I think you would like it yeah, okay it is on. It's gonna take 14 weeks for me to get it yeah, maybe less but I'm gonna get it eventually maybe they'll pick up more copies.
Speaker 2:Um also, I'll say that this audiobook is an Audible.
Speaker 1:I'm 931st in line.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, See, it's very popular right now. The audiobook is an Audible original and I still had one credit left, so I used that on this to kind of listen and read. And since it's an Audible original, it has, like the main narrator is like narrator. The main narrator is Saris's voice, but any other side characters have their own, like actors come in, so like he has his voice, there's other side characters with their little voices, so that was kind of fun. Like the dialogue parts were really fun to listen to, but I mostly read it. I just was doing some chores and stuff and decided to listen to a couple chapters.
Speaker 1:So speaking of that style of audio book. We, you know we've talked about this offline but in preparation for the release of the third fourth wing book, I've started my reread of the first two and I found, on Hoopla there is like a dramatized adaptation of the fourth wing books. So it's like most. There's like different voices and actors, and it's a little bit goofy at times because there's like dramatic background music and like sound effects and stuff, but it's like it.
Speaker 1:It's faster than the original audiobook because instead of it of reading like the door creaked, you would just hear the door creaking. Oh so but almost all the words are the same from the book, like, yeah, you know um.
Speaker 2:Like, for instance, like violet's thoughts and things like she's still narrating that and saying it okay but if it's like the wind blew really hard, you would hear the wind blowing really hard.
Speaker 1:Okay, so anyways it and wind blowing really hard, okay, so anyways, and it's just like I think combined there's like two tracks of it. There's combined that audio book is like 16 hours versus like 25 hours for the base audio book. Oh wow.
Speaker 1:So um, anyway fun doing that along with reading. So this is a tip to the listeners um, if you are rereading fourth wing or whatever, I would say for your initial read, I would just read it. Read it, yeah, but if you're doing a reread, um, interesting, this dramatization is kind of fun yeah, I, I am also rereading it, not to jump ahead, but, um, I am very.
Speaker 2:I haven't re-read it since I first read it and so it's like knowing what you know now. Not to spoil anything, but it is like a completely different vibe not completely different, but like the initial interactions of everyone. Knowing, like the things you find out later is crazy. So this is definitely a good one to re-read. I feel like, if you haven't like me, gone back, it's interesting. Yeah, how was your holiday reading? That's?
Speaker 1:that's enough of me, uh my, my holiday reading was good. Um, I think on the last episode we discussed, say you'll be mine, didn't we?
Speaker 2:yes, we did on the last one.
Speaker 1:So, um, I read that and then also um. Over holidays, while I was doing lots of baking and cooking, I listened to the audio books of the Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian, since I was already on the Narnia thing yeah, those were like super quick. Audio books yeah, yeah, it was very easy.
Speaker 2:Very fun, whatever.
Speaker 1:Very cozy. I was like that was a cozy holiday experience. Um then this is gonna be a little non-conventional, so you know hunker down. Do you remember ice planet barbarians that I talked? Yes, I do okay how could I forget the author of those books? Her name is Ruby Dixon and she has a new release that is called Bull Moon Rising and it is really good. It was good. It was good for what it was. I mean, it's like insane, but it's a minotaur romance.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:What is a minotaur?
Speaker 2:They have like a weird top half it's like it's bull and man mixed, so bullhead, bullhead man body but man got it, but, but, but hooves right, okay, so like human arms and hands? Human, human torso and then legs go to hooves.
Speaker 1:Got it, got it okay, um, but it's about this. Like this girl who her name is aspeth and she is, um, uh, she's like a nobleman's daughter, but their family is, like, secretly bankrupt and like, the way that you accumulate wealth in a society is that you collect these magical artifacts. Okay, and um, he, her dad, has gambled away all their magical artifacts. So, to save her family, she decides to run away from home and take on a new identity and become one of the people who worked in the artifact guild, where she's going underground into these ruins to try and collect these things, but they won't let her join because she's a girl, so she would have to have a chaperone.
Speaker 1:So she decides to enter into a marriage of convenience with a taurian, which is like, like taurus, like the like minotaur, um named hawk, and the reason that he needs a marriage of convenience is that once every five years, the bull moon will rise. Because, um and like. The legend of this world is that minotaurs are descended from like the bull. God had like procreated with a human, and that's how menopause were made sure. So every five years and skip ahead if you have young children in the vicinity the full moon rises and all of the taureans go into rut okay where they become like sex addled and they this is like the time that they can procreate okay, and he does not have a mate and
Speaker 1:he is like I'm gonna go crazy if I don't have someone to be with. So let's do a marriage of convenience. I'll be your chaperone for the thing and I work in the guild with you and you'll be my wife and she's like yeah, let's do that, I want to do that. Okay, what I will say is actually the thing I enjoyed most about this book was not the romance at all. It was like the guild and like searching for artifacts and like the magic of the world and all that stuff. The guild and like searching for artifacts and like the magic of the world and all that stuff and, honestly, like I probably could have left the romance of it behind. Interesting, I would say.
Speaker 1:If you liked Ice Planet Barbarians or if you'd like to read like weird, magical, smutty books, try this one out. The thing I was shocked about about this book is that when I went to in Los Angeles, there is a romance bookstore called the Ripped Bodice and so I went there to buy this book and when I was at the checkout, the woman was telling me that NPR put this book on their list of like top 15 cozy romances to cuddle up with this Christmas. On their list of like top 15 cozy romances to cuddle up with this christmas. And I was like did didn't an editor at npr read this?
Speaker 2:yeah, like, did somebody read that and think it's a cozy romance? I know great, I wouldn't define it like that, probably based on what.
Speaker 1:So I would say that this book was good for what it was, but it's like what I'll say about ruby dixon is like the books are almost like camp like it's, almost like it is, like it's self-aware how crazy it is. Yeah, but it just fully is that I like you know I appreciate. So, yeah, you know this was like a three and a half stars for me, but like it was good for what it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love it okay, then I read two really good books, both by curtis sittenfeld, who is a woman, and, yes, I didn't know that until I googled her, yep um, but smart of her, because that's probably the effect that she wanted. Yeah, it's for us to go, because curtis is her middle name, I think, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So at your recommendation, I read romantic comedy um which is the like, the snl romance basically yeah we've talked about a little bit before but as a refresher, it's about this like late 30s writer on snl who um kind of strikes up a relationship with like this very attractive beautiful singer, songwriter, who's like the host and musical guest on an episode of the the night owls, which is this book's version of SNL, and it explores her doubts that like there's like this thing in the book called the Danny horse rule where it's basically like Pete Davidson dates all these hot ladies Okay, that's basically the whole thing is like hot ladies are willing to date ugly guys but hot guys aren't willing to date ugly girls or like girls below their station, I guess. Yeah, and it's like the exploration of like how she feels that disbelieving that she could be in a relationship with this guy or that you know, and like her insecurity. It like it sounds fine, but like when you read it it's so good and it does not read like a normal romance novel?
Speaker 1:at all. No, it doesn't Not even close. The dialogue is hilarious and so good. Their banter is so great I like devoured it. I was like kicking my feet and squealing and laughing and gasping and there's a time jump yeah, just so fun and um, yeah, it was so good and I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm glad you liked it I really enjoyed the um, just like the insight into what it would be like to work for snl or to be a writer or like a performer or whatever, because it's just such a fascinating like that to me was almost as interesting as the romance you know like yeah the schedule they have to work, yeah yeah, it was really well done at the end of the book in her like acknowledgements section or author's note, she names all the books and resources that she read to help contribute to this book.
Speaker 1:She read a ton of memoirs by former SNL cast members and it's just, it's incredibly well-researched. Yeah. So her other book that is equally, if not better, researched Okay, so good. It's a speculative fiction, uh-huh, called Rodham. Have you heard of this?
Speaker 2:Only because I saw it on your Goodreads and I clicked on it. Yeah or not? Goodreads Storygraph.
Speaker 1:So Rodham is a speculative fiction about if Hillary Clinton never married Bill and what would have happened. I listened to the audio book of this, which is really good. The narrator does their voices really well like she does this incredibly accurate voice for bill and a pretty good one of hillary too.
Speaker 1:So the first, you know, maybe third of the book is true to history. So it's, you know, her um, it's like when she meets bill in law school and as they begin dating and kind of looks back, also intersplice with like stories from her childhood that, like, provide context for like her way of thinking and things like that. What is also true to history is that Bill like in the real world, bill proposed Hillary three times and it took her three times to say yes, wow. Like in the real world, bill proposed hillary three times and it took her three times to say yes, wow. And so in this book, the point where it diverges is that she decides not to get married to him, uh-huh. And then it's like what would happen if that didn't happen? Uh-huh, and it's so interesting and I would also say like it. The thing that's so good about this book is that it reads like a memoir so it's.
Speaker 1:This is like in a different world. Hillary clinton was writing her memoir of what happened in her life. I like that, and so it. There was multiple times where I had to remind myself that this isn't true is it real that this isn't a memoir? Because the like you know she'll think she'll say like when I was in this hearing or in this meeting or whatever this is what I was thinking and it's like the style is just like a memoir and um, it was so good and also like it.
Speaker 1:It shows like a well-rounded perspective, I think on on Hillary Clinton, or if Hillary Rodham in this world, because like it's transparent about some of the mistakes that she likely would have made along the way as far as like um kind of like white feminism or like the lack of intersectionality, or you know, the strategic decisions that you would make to acquire power, even at the expense of like what would be morally the best.
Speaker 1:So it's not even like this, it's like Hillary Clinton fan fiction, basically. But, in a way that I don't think it gives a balanced view.
Speaker 1:I think of her life and you ask questions about like is she really like? You know, it's a balanced view of her. So I'm trying to say, um, but it was so good it will stick with me for a long time. And one like trigger warning for this book is that um, donald trump is still in this book, so yeah, um inevitable exists as a character in this book, so this follows all the way up through the 2016 election.
Speaker 2:That's crazy um wow, do you think? Hillary clinton reenstein is like what if I hadn't married?
Speaker 1:honestly, I don't think she read it yeah, I don't think I would.
Speaker 2:I don't know, maybe I would.
Speaker 1:I don't know, that would be tough but what I'm telling emily is so good. Yeah, I'm interested it is so good, I mean I think I'll report back like no context for politics and that's not your thing at all. Yeah, then he wouldn't like this. You don't have to have a lot, but like yeah, and it's so interesting to see you know what, when she made this decision, like when the timeline split yeah what events in history still happened?
Speaker 1:yeah, what didn't happen? How did they impact her? And, um, oh my god, I just really want you to read it and tell me what you think. Okay, well, I'll let you know thank you, very interesting.
Speaker 2:All right, so that wraps up what we read I also wanted to ask you because I saw that you dnf'd one of rachel reed's books and I wanted to talk about that because I read another one of her books and did not love it, and so I'm just curious why you decided to dnf it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just wanted to talk about it, so the shared book that we loved yeah, it's time to shine. Which?
Speaker 1:is a cute, uh, hockey romance and somebody. I was talking about that book with someone and they're like oh, you might like her other book, heated rivals um, or heated rivalry um. It's also hockey romance, but it's a little bit more angsty and I just didn't like the characters and I thought it was not great. I don't know, I just, yeah, it was like darker and like more angsty and like piney, but not even like yearning. It was just not good yearning, it wasn't. I read, it was just I don't know.
Speaker 2:I quit yeah, I read the first, so that's like a part of a series, I guess. And I read the first, so that's like a part of a series, I guess. And I read the first book in that series, which is Game Changer. It's like a series of like seven or eight books, which I'm also.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'm like I know, look, I know this isn't real life. Like romance books are not real life. But sometimes when there's a long series, I'm like, okay, there is just no way that this many like queer relationships in the nhl, like we have to reel it in a little bit. I understand that's this is not real, okay, but I start to question that. Um, but this, yeah, it's another hockey romance and I feel like I hope that she keeps going more like, because game changers no game changers. When I read time to shine is when we liked, yeah, that was a little different. I felt like it was more fun. This was was like I agree with the same. I didn't like the characters, I didn't like I don't know, it just wasn't the same, it wasn't hitting as different. So I wanted to hear about that because I'm like should I keep reading these her back catalog, or I don't think I will now, because you've confirmed that I didn't enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I just like I I probably could have kept reading it like it wasn't so bad. I just yeah. It was one of the one of those things where I was just like I'm just not enjoying this that much yeah I don't know good to hear anyways but definitely read time
Speaker 1:to shine off too, like the way that she was telling the story was just off, so anyway okay now what? Now what? Okay, so you went. So we talked about the fact that you ended up reading 85 books um yes I ended up reading uh but the thing that I did this year was just out of curiosity, with no goal.
Speaker 1:I started um on like a spreadsheet recording the data about the authors. I was reading the genres, I was reading whatever, but specifically like the gender, race and LGBTQIA identity, that one I don't think was very useful because I found out quickly that you don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unless someone is like openly queer. Yeah, or like like married or something.
Speaker 1:Then I would be like I had options like yeah, or you know they write queer books, or something like that, like I'd be like okay, yes or no, and so then I ended up having to add unknown, because I would just be like well, I don't know if this person, yeah, how this person identifies.
Speaker 1:So that wasn't really helpful because, yeah, that's not something that you can know all the time, um, but so so, gender wise, I read 78.8 of the books that I read were by women, two percent were by non-binary folk and 19.2% were by men. That feels right. So that's as to be expected. Yeah, yeah, but I was really I don't know. I was disappointed to see that 75% of the books I read were by white people and then the remainder of that was split between AAPI, middle Eastern, north African, black, latinx and Indigenous. So that felt like a lot more white people than I thought I was going to be reading.
Speaker 1:So I think one of my goals for this year it'd be more intentional about maybe bringing that down to like 60, 40. I think 60% of published authors in the United States are white. Yeah, I think 60% of published authors in the United States are white. So if I was closer aligned, you know, bringing it more representative of the author pool, yeah, so that was surprising and I felt like I we talk about reading BIPOC authors on here a lot and supporting like indie BIPOC authors, so I thought it was important to share that I didn't actually do an amazing job of that. Yeah, but it was a good starting point for me to be able to compare from year to year. For sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's something you unfortunately have to be intentional about because, like just in general, the publishing world is predominantly white, and what's getting promoted, what people are like latching on to, tends to be also white authors. So it's yeah, yeah, if you're not being super intentional about it, it's easy to not read a lot of diverse authors yeah so yeah, you probably do better. I don't have my stats on that, but I'm sure it is similar, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, okay. So coming up this year we have a lot of exciting releases, like in the first quarter of this year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, should we talk about so many?
Speaker 1:We should, let's first let's talk about should we go in order of release?
Speaker 2:That's a good idea. Yeah, should we go in order of release? That's a good idea. Yeah, I was thinking that. Um, so the number one is flirting with disaster by naina kumar, who we both kind of discovered very at the end of last year. Um, do you have a summary for that pulled up that you want to share? No sorry but I can why don't you pull up a summary of that while we chit chat?
Speaker 1:yeah, so, um, the book of hers that we loved was uh, say you'll be mine, be mine. Very cute, very cute. We just recently talked about that in our last episode. If you want to go, yes, and listen about that.
Speaker 1:Okay, here is about flirting with disaster. She needs a divorce from her husband, but a hurricane threatens to dredge up their stormy, passionate past. In a sizzling romance from the best-selling author of say you'll be mine. It's been years since mina separated from her husband nikhil. Years since they first laid eyes on each other in their home state of texas, years since they spontaneously wed in las vegas and she felt true happiness, now on a high power, now a high power power lawyer on Capitol Hill and ready to move on with another successful lawyer, shake.
Speaker 1:Mina has returned to Texas, this time finally to obtain a divorce. But there's one thing Mina didn't account for a hurricane forming in the Gulf, veering right towards them and giving them no choice but to hunker down in the home that they had built together. Suddenly, she finds herself trapped amid gale force winds and pelting rain with the man she once loved. As they spend more time together, mina begins to remember everything that drew her to Nikhil his small-town charm, his thoughtful nature, his absurdly good looks. But being with Shaikh makes sense to her. He's steady, ambitious and wants exactly what she wants. So she'll stick to her plan, come hell or high water. But will her windswept heart make the right choice. Once the eye passes over and the storm settles. Oh, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared, right now, oh, that's scary.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I guess we'll have to see.
Speaker 1:Who is she going to choose? We'll have to see. I think it all hangs in whether or not we like Nikhil.
Speaker 2:Yes, because I'm already biased towards him. I want her to get back with Nikhil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you always root for that.
Speaker 2:I know Actually when I read that I'm biased towards Shaq because I many things like why did you break up the first time? Has that changed? And is shake good? Is nikhil good? Are either of them bad?
Speaker 1:I'm scared.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have an open heart me too, maybe, okay, excited for that. And then next is onyx, storm um, which you guys know is the third in the empyrean. Is there supposed to be four total? Has she said that?
Speaker 1:I think so Is it.
Speaker 2:Empyrean, empyrean, empyrean how many books will Aren't you so glad you listened to this podcast.
Speaker 1:We're so well informed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In fourth week series. Oh, there's gonna be five.
Speaker 2:Oh Wow, oh, there's going to be five, oh Wow, okay, so. So what's going to happen? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Let's read the. Would you like to read the summary of Onyx Storm I?
Speaker 2:would love to read the summary of Onyx Storm coming out on, and then we can maybe talk about some of our theories or what we're scared for hope streams. Yes, I would love to talk theories. Okay, what we're scared for hope streams. Yes, I would love to talk theories. Okay, blah, blah, blah. After nearly 18 months at baskiath, I never know how to pronounce these words for college.
Speaker 1:I pause on that, because oh because you know. No, I'm still confused when I read it. I read baskiath, yeah, but in the dramatized version of fourth thing I was reading listening to last night, they pronounce it baz guyath. But what I also know here is a lot of the names for the dragons and, like the world, yeah derived from gaelic yes so whatever you've, whatever it would be in gaelic, is what it's going to be.
Speaker 2:Let's go with that, okay, go war college violet sarn gale knows there's no more time for lessons, no more time for uncertainty, because the battle has truly begun and, with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it's impossible to know who to trust. Now Violet must journey beyond the falling Aritian walls to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navar. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck and strength. Strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves, her dragons, her family, her home and him, even if it means keeping a secret so big it could destroy everything. They need an army, they need power, they need magic and they need the one thing. Only violet can find the truth. But a storm is coming and not everyone can survive.
Speaker 1:It's wrap okay, okay, what do we think? Thoughts? So first, onyx is famously the color of zayden's eyes right on the gold yeah, now he's.
Speaker 2:He's red venin, uh, so maybe he'll he'll. I think she's obviously going to try to find a way to cure him or whatever I think venin darna is going to be the cure to curing him.
Speaker 1:So like I think she's going to get a signet from andarna, who's her little gold dragon. Yes, and that signet she's going to have to go on some sort of quest or find something that will complete. Looks like a missing piece to the signet or she's gonna have to apply the signet.
Speaker 2:Maybe she'll find that out by the end of this book, because I'm just trying to think this is like the third book in the series, so there still has to be two more full books of content. So like you know what I mean, like they can't get too far in beating and winning the war. And you know what I mean Like they can't get too far in beating and winning the war, and you know what, what?
Speaker 1:Dane is probably going to be the person who's helping her to try and figure out what the thing is that she has to do.
Speaker 2:I agree Because you know she has like kind of said I feel like that there isn't going to be a love triangle, or I don't know Like I feel like she said the stuff like that there isn't going to be a love triangle, or I don't know like I feel like she said the stuff like that. Like her and zayden are in game. I believe that. But I just don't understand the point of dane. Like I don't understand his purpose of like giving them this backstory where, like I'm reading the first book now and she comes in and she's like thinking that they're gonna hook up, like she is attracted to him, they have this like friendship history that was turning into something more. I don't understand the point of all that if it's not going to pay off.
Speaker 1:I think that it's going to make Zayden jealous. So, she's going to stay loyal to Zayden. Dane is attracted to her or feels protective of her or whatever, and she's going to spend more time with him. This book and trying to find the cure to zayden's venenous or something to do with her signet that she's going to get through and darna, and it's going to make zayden jealous, which is going to drive a wedge between zayden and violet. Yes, like I, I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:I don't think she's going to have a full like relationship with dane. I just think he definitely serves some kind of purpose in the trajectory of their story, like I don't understand his purpose.
Speaker 2:Otherwise, bella kisses jacob and yeah, like it doesn't mean anything, but does it, and then she's gonna have baby and Dane will get with the baby. Sorry, okay. I saved this TikTok like two no, a year well, a year and a half ago and it has this person's theories for the series, so I really liked them, so I'm going to share them with you.
Speaker 1:There's only three. What's the name of the creator?
Speaker 2:The creator is Brooklyn Breyer at SheIsLiterate on TikTok.
Speaker 2:So theory one of hers is that well, basically that Zayden and Violet are going to be endgame but there's going to be some other kind of love interest, whatever we just said that she says Andara is going to be dragon royalty and her bond will create the overarching plot throughout the series, which we kind of said that as well.
Speaker 2:And theory three, which is the most fascinating and why I saved this, I think because there's a fable in Violet's Book of Fables about three brothers and it says one brother was bonded to Griffin, one to dragon, and when the third grew jealous he drew directly from the source, losing his soul and waging war on the other two. So she thinks this greater and that's the Vennian reign. Yes, that Violet is going to have to either kill Meera or Brennan, because in this fable one of the brothers had to kill the other brother. And so she said Brennan represents the Griffin brother because he's supporting the revolution, meera will represent the Griffin brother because he's supporting the revolution, mira will represent the dragon brother because she'll remain loyal to Navarre. And Violet is the third brother who is part Venon. So it's in the book of fables.
Speaker 1:Wait, Violet's not part Venon.
Speaker 2:No, but the third brother is. So they're saying that's what Violet represents because of Zayden or whatever. So it says. But it was the third brother who commanded the sky to surrender its greatest power, who finally vanquished his jealous sibling at a great and terrible price. And then, um, then a venin says to violet later such untapped power, no wonder we were called here, you could command the sky to surrender all its power. So like that's the same wording that was used in the fable. Um, so they're thinking that she's gonna have to kill one of her siblings or something.
Speaker 1:I hope that it's mira I hope so too.
Speaker 2:I like britain. Do we also think that there's anything like? Do we think her, uh, her dad is alive or something with her dad?
Speaker 1:probably.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's two more books probably I know it's just so hard to see, like how is this going to stretch into five books? I don't know, but we'll find out, Because I feel like she could wrap it up in three, I mean why, do that, stretch it out, you know.
Speaker 1:But I'm interested, I don't know, I mean, unless this takes a, so akatar, for instance, the fourth and fifth books kind of follow different, like they follow the main character, like the main character in the first three books her name is feyra then then, like the last two, follow her sisters, okay, and like focus more on them, like they're all together, but so, and I don't know, I feel like this is very similar similar in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, so it's possible that, like maybe in the last couple books, like the, the love interest part has been reason, like the world is still at war or something. Yeah, love interest thing has been resolved between zayden and Violet and then we like focus on, like Rhiannon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be interesting. I hope that. I tend to think that Violet is somewhat of a self insert for Rebecca Yarrow, so I do think that it will follow her for all five books. But I would like if the love story is wrapped up by the end of this book. I would like if her and Zayden can just work together and fight the war and not be so angsty, uh and focus more on the war stuff.
Speaker 1:They're gonna have to have some other love interests in the fourth and fifth well, they can still be in love with each other I just want them to, but that's not interesting if they're working together to fight the war no, I think she's gonna.
Speaker 2:I think probably by the end of this one they will not be together, and then the fifth one they'll will get back, or the fourth one they'll get back together by the very end, and then the fifth one will just be winning the war. That's my final answer we'll see.
Speaker 1:I mean watch everything we say be wrong. I'm just, I know I'm hoping that. I'm hoping that she got some help in finding her way.
Speaker 2:I'm a little worried, but I know that was my last question before we move on to the next release is do we think she's going to jump the shark in this book or is it going to continue to be okay?
Speaker 1:I think she's going to get. I think she's in a course, correct? Okay, I think like.
Speaker 2:Iron Flame the first time. Iron Flame wasn't very good yeah second half is like she jammed everything in yeah, and then by the end I was like this is so classic fantasy book like. The last 40 pages are like oh my god, oh my god, what's happening? Yeah, yeah and then.
Speaker 1:So I think I think she's gonna course correct a little bit okay I have hope we've, like we've introduced. We had to spend a lot of time in iron flame introducing the griffin writers yes, saying like right, there was a lot to yeah we learned a lot about like the wards, like there was a lot of like information downloading we had to do, and I think that's setting us up for success.
Speaker 2:So we'll see also I wanted to share that. Um, rebecca yaros has shared her writing vibes playlist for onyx storm and um, someone has done a deep dive of it. Yeah, but uh, some of the love songs include uh, let's see ones that I know. So it goes by taylor swift. Uh, you know, I'll see what else do I know by Taylor Swift. You know, I'm see what else do I know? A lot of Halsey, that's basically it. Several Halsey songs, like him and I, by Halsey and GZ cross my heart. Hope to die to my lover. I'd never lie. He said be true, I swear I'll try. In the end it's him and I. He's out of his head, I'm out of my mind.
Speaker 2:That's the lyrics that's so on the nose uh, she's, I mean she's not one for, like a good metaphor, okay, also circus by britney spears is on there, a lot of halsey who's afraid of little old me, that tracks miss americana. And the heartbreak prince, she's just a girl, you know, rebecca yarrow, she's just a girly anyways.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm here for it, very excited yeah, look again, I think, the diehard it's like quicksilver the diehard fantasy people. I understand this is not what you're here for. This is what I'm here for this is for romanticist readers yes friends of fans of brandon sanderson, look elsewhere yeah, like that's not for me, this isn't for you, that's okay. All right, then deep end by ali hazelwood that, yeah, I feel like we've that's.
Speaker 2:You know, I think we read the description of that when it was first announced, so it's like yeah, that's a college college athlete you know I'm gonna eat that up I'm really into the the uh, the sports romances right now, so especially when they're both competitors, um like, I really appreciate that when they're both on the team, or like they're yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, which is why I like my fourth wing too. I like the like early twenties college.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:I love it Okay, and then that's coming out two, four.
Speaker 2:Sunrise of the Reaping Three eighteen.
Speaker 1:I can't believe it's coming out so soon. I'm so I know I'm so sick when I think about it, because I know it's so important to me. Haymitch is such an important character to me, yes, and I feel like I had trust issues now because of um ballad of somber snakes, that I didn't like that much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm just so nervy. Um, I think recent on a recent episode we did. We talked about the um that we we talked about the that we read the summary for it when we found out more information. But it sounds like it is going to follow Haymitch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seems pretty inevitably Haymitch, so I can't wait, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're definitely going to do a book club on that one.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Have to, and that would be a fun one to do a storygraph buddy read for yeah, for sure podcast. I feel like there'll be a lot to discuss, and likely we'll do that with onyx storm too, if anybody yeah, wants to read along, yeah tune in it'll at least be me and you, and then a couple of my other friends who are reading the book.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but join us. And then last is my great, big, beautiful life by emily henry uh, coming out April 22nd. That's like the first, for the beginning, part of the year that we could remember off the top of our heads. There's probably others Can't wait. So exciting, you know, some of these I'll read right away. Some of these I'll wait till I can get it on Libby, yeah.
Speaker 1:One thing I would like to say about Emily Henry is that I really like that she's gotten on this flow of, uh, releasing her books in April because, um, there's like so many other romance books that come out in June. Yes, like to kick off the summer and I think that this is like a really good kind of dead spot where she, yes, hits, and it's so good.
Speaker 2:April is free yearning also. You know what I want to say. I uh, speaking of emily henry, I saw gladiator 2 and look, I didn't get like the paul meskel thing, but like I do get it now and I would like him to be in one of her books adaptations. I really don't care which one, but I am on board. Was it the thighs?
Speaker 1:yes, I saw gladiator as well, and when he gets on that horse, are you? Kidding me? Yeah, it was a lot, and I think also, do you know what it is actually, emily? Yeah, everyone has the same face now. Yeah, because of plastic surgery right same face.
Speaker 2:That's true. He doesn't, he doesn't he has an old face he has a face that belongs in a different time and it makes it very interesting, he's kept his.
Speaker 1:No, he's kept his like roman shaped nose yeah like. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just feel like also, aging is beautiful, like allowing yourself to like he feels like face to age yeah, obviously he's extremely hot, but like he also feels like a real person, you know, like that you could actually run into, no, and so I think, and I also think he would do yearning very well, that's all I just think he could do it. You know, yearning, that's what I want. So I'm on board. I didn't see it before because people were wanting him. I think I remember which one people were wanting him for. I want to say like happy place or one of those. Can I tell you?
Speaker 1:something about gladiator do you know who they almost cast instead of paul mezcal. No, I'm scared. Timothy chalamet, timothee, timothee I, that would have been such a it would be different.
Speaker 2:It would be different, um, because it'd be different, I guess. But I think he could. He has the acting and just like, would I believe him being some kind of like physical warrior, no, but like acting wise, I understand, but you know, I'm, I'm, I'm out on that. Yeah, let's keep Tim and say it away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keeping him from that Bob Dylan and such. Yeah, he him from that bob dylan and such. Yeah, he can do those things. Yeah, he can do. Dune, keep him in the desert, yeah exactly um, okay, that's it.
Speaker 1:So we already talked about the books we read we have so many great things coming up, so maybe I'll just do a quick heads up. So what you need to do if you want to participate in our buddy read. Here's what you would get if you did the buddy read for Onyx Storm. What you would do is you have a Storygraph account and then you would update your progress on the book, so either by percentage, if you're reading on Kindle or listening to the audio book, or by page number, if you're reading a physical book, and then in the buddy read you would be able to see comments left by other people participating in the buddy read when you reach that point in the book. So it'll be hidden from you until you update your status, and that's what makes it so fun we can all interact while we're doing it. So what you would need to do between now and January 21st is create a Storygraph account, if you don't already have it, and then add Emily and I and we'll make sure that you're part of the buddy read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll do a post and stuff on our Instagram at Redirect Podcast. I want to say, speaking of, I'm really excited about this because I originally read Fourth Wing on my Kindle and I'm rereading it on my kindle and I had left a bunch of notes and so it's just really fun just to read my own notes, like what I was thinking when I first read it and like what I highlighted. And now, knowing you know, the full extent of the series is I know I was so naive, but it's like fun to see those and that's just me, so I think it'll be even more fun if it's other people.
Speaker 1:It's so fun to see what other people think and then like throughout the thing you can be like, oh, like. This is my fear. What's gonna happen now, at this point and then? Yeah, you know you can leave comments on other people's comments and interact and just a lovely way to build community like why not so? Yeah, so join us over there story graph all right, well, we'll see you guys in two weeks can't wait bye.