The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Book Talk: This Episode is Cursed
Warning: This Episode is Cursed! Just kidding, but seriously, we tried recording this episode like three separate times and it felt like the forces of nature were conspiring against us! Even in the middle of this recording, we both got phone calls randomly, which we left part of the audio in for so you can see how truly chaotic this episode was.
Anyway, we've read a lot lately! If you want the name of the fanfiction I (Emily) bleeped out, feel free to DM us but I can't just put my business out on the internet like that tbh.
Recent Reads:
- The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
- Flirting with Disaster by Naina Kumar
- When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias
- Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
- Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
- Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Frostbite by Nicola Twilley
- So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
- Love After the End by Joshua Whitehead
Plus we talk a bunch of other nonsense like what's going on in our lives, who should play a young Haymitch, and boygenuis tiktok edits.
As always, follow us on Instagram, Tiktok, and Bluesky at @readirectpodcast! We love ya!
Welcome to the Reader's Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshley.
Speaker 2:And I'm Emily Rojas. The Reader's 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 lived experiences.
Speaker 1:On today's episode we are talking books in one of our book talk episodes episode.
Speaker 2:We are talking books in one of our book talk episodes. But first, if you've been enjoying the podcast, we would humbly ask that you support us in a few simple ways.
Speaker 1:Leave us a five-star review on apple podcast and let us know that you love this show we'd also love for you to follow us on instagram and blue sky at redirect podcast and if you really really love the show, please share our show with a friend. It's so fun building community around books. It's one of both of our goals this year in personal and podcast life, so join us in that journey.
Speaker 2:Speaking of blue sky, I love it over there. I feel so free to just say stuff because I feel like so few people follow me that you're like, oh yeah, whatever so it's like shouting into the void. Yeah, it's so fun. So anyways, follow us over there for.
Speaker 1:It has been. We were just saying before we started recording the devil doesn't want us to record this podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm literally getting a call.
Speaker 1:Okay Answer. This is what I'm talking about. This is the devil, literally the devil. Get deep behind me, Satan.
Speaker 2:What is so powerful about this episode that we can't record?
Speaker 1:Honestly, it's like the forces of evil are trying to stop us. It's so crazy. I'm sorry, I'm crying.
Speaker 2:Literally okay.
Speaker 1:So the last time we tried to okay first of all, two episodes ago or whatever, yeah, we lost the episode then we recorded something else, yeah, and we did. We did release that, though. Yeah yeah okay, that was a month then we tried recording this episode, but then your husband had to be had to go to the airport early in the middle of it, so we had to stop.
Speaker 1:We released an old episode and then, through a series of horrifying events, including the death of my dog, we just didn't, we were not able to order like literally Okay In a week like there was like a week we're trying to record this episode. In that week I had norovirus, I had to euthanize my dog, I got a cold and then I had to fly to modesto california for work no no, do you know what modesto is? No, exactly modesto is like central california farmland sure that sounds right?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, this has been, and that day we were trying to record was like the fourth day in a series of days of just like the most chaotic schedule of my life where I had no time, and that is so unlike me. So, uh, yeah, that was a experience, to say the least so yeah, basically like what you're about to hear, like we've tried to do this.
Speaker 1:I've been working against, so it's going to be powerful yes, way receive that.
Speaker 2:You're not ready for um.
Speaker 1:I have been alone, right, can you?
Speaker 2:tell. Yeah, I've been here for two weeks now by myself and yeah, I guess it has been two weeks. It feels like I don't know when does eric get back? He was supposed to come back tomorrow, but he just texted me earlier and said maybe not till monday, which is so classic, and then it's going to be Monday and then maybe it'll be next Friday. I don't know, but for some reason this time I'm like going a little more insane than normal. So if it comes through in the recording, you'll know why.
Speaker 1:It's like Eric is like a long haul trucker or something, like I'm on the road.
Speaker 2:It's crazy Like he's an engineer is insane, I know, and it's like I uh expected myself to. I am like an independent person, I like my alone time, but it's more just like, yeah, I think if I'd rather not, I'd rather him be gone for a long period of time. But it's like you get used to your routine when he's here and then he will be gone for like a month and then he'll be back and then you get used to your routine again and then you know like I don't like the disruption to my routine.
Speaker 2:So that's the part I don't like and not knowing when he's gonna come back. But anyways, I've been really into fan fiction again, as per usual but in a I've relapsed in a real way and to what Reading. You know writing no, like what ship.
Speaker 1:What are you reading? You have to ask, do you have to ask. Oh, wolfstar, you're listening to Wolfstar again, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm deep. I'm deep into it. I read a fic that I need to talk to you about, but I don't think I can like, in good conscious, keep in this recording, um, so I don't know okay.
Speaker 1:Is it too sexual in nature?
Speaker 2:I'll just start talking about it. So it's called um, I'm gonna try to find it by mom. Okay, and basically, to me this might as well not be fan fiction, like it's a work of, like it's so separate from any canon attachment. But in this world Remus is a Catholic priest and Sirius is like a religiously traumatized former Catholic who has to go back to church for his father's funeral.
Speaker 2:I was unwell, but also not only was I okay I will talk about this part and definitely leave it in not only was I unwell by the like tension that that inherently sets up, because you guys know me and I love yearning and that's like insane celibate priest yearning, um. So that was great, but literally this fan fiction is the thing. This was definitely about to be a blue sky, but it became a Tumblr post instead, because I need to be more anonymous by saying this. But here I am on the pod. Like it made me engage with faith and religion more than anything I've read in a long time. Wow, because what I really liked about it was Remus as a priest. Like he was questioning, like like does he want to stay a priest? But he wasn't really quite. Like his faith was just so compelling to me and he had like all these tattoos of hymns that were like extremely moving and like he was just talking about faith and doubt and grief and like hell and suicide yeah'm really.
Speaker 2:What I'm trying to say is I've been not only on the fan fiction beat, but on like the religious trauma beat, and I've been trying to find books that will scratch this itch for me, because, I don't know, it's just I need to be a little bit hurt right now and so, anyways, I highly recommend this. But there's also like this is what I was talking to Emma about- this is the part I'm going to cut.
Speaker 1:oh my god, dude not okay.
Speaker 2:Relationship part was also really good, but like the I don't know. I was just expecting it to be like oh, remus is conflicted, he might abandon his faith, but he was like no, like my faith is my, I have a version of faith that I feel comfortable with. Um and like I'm not gonna let other people dictate that and it was just really lovely. So that's what I've been into um, yeah, please do um, yeah, and us on, did you say you already said Instagram and Blue.
Speaker 1:Sky, yeah, okay, wait, okay, you read Deep End. I haven't read it yet.
Speaker 2:I read, not In Love, I did order it, though I want to say that I did order it because I remembered that I had sent you a book that was coming out about a summer camp a Christian summer camp with the pastor's daughter, and I forgot about that, yeah it was a long time ago but I was like I want, like I started reading some fan fiction on these lines and I like wanted a real book that I could, like that would hit the same notes of like some, like it doesn't have to be romance, but maybe there's a love story, maybe there's not, but like that, like a little itch of religious trauma. So I remember the summer camp story and I went to pre-order like look at, it's coming out in two weeks, I think, or a week from maybe when this releases and um, it is called, say a little prayer in case anyone else wants to join me. But it was 12 to pre-order on uh bookshop. So, okay, shout out to that girl on tiktok I don't know if you've heard about her, it was talking about paperbacks will be ten dollars again.
Speaker 2:Now that trump's president. Obviously she was wrong, but this one in particular. So when I went to order that, I'm like, well, I might as well just order deep end. So it's uh, it just shipped, like this morning, I think. Um, so I'll, by our next episode, I'll probably have read it.
Speaker 1:I bought my first ebook from bookshop uh-huh. Um, I haven't actually read it yet so I can't comment on the book, but it's for book club. Um. But I will say the catch, like just something to know if you buy a book, an ebook, from bookshop uh-huh, it's not available on your kindle, you have to read it on your phone via the bookshop app.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. I'm stuck with my kindle, uh, which is upsetting.
Speaker 1:You know like I feel like I mean like reading on your phone can be a vibe, yeah, but I prefer reading on my Kindle, definitely. So that is just something to know about buying e-books on Bookshop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's Kindle's fault, that's not Bookshop's fault. To be clear Kindle, yeah, is probably like, doesn't want you to have books from other places. So, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, all right, okay, so yeah, I haven't read it yet, but I did read not in love by ali hazelwood. Okay, I saw on your blue sky that you really liked it.
Speaker 2:I hated it like you gave it four stars. I did, yes, I, because I went to check, because I'm like, okay, a lot of people don't like this and so I was like what did? Did Abigail read it? Four stars, abigail.
Speaker 1:Okay, I did not Answer for your question. Maybe I felt like that after I finished it, but now, on the look back, I think I it's. Maybe it was like, maybe I skewed up because of the subject matter. Yeah, so it's like, definitely like, not a rom-com, it's like serious yeah, and there's like, there's like heavy themes, yeah, so like like proceed with caution, definitely. Um, yeah, so you loved it. Huh, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. It's my favorite ali hazelwood book to date.
Speaker 1:Well, you haven't, you haven't I have not read deep end and I let me tell you some good things about this it is not what I thought it would be okay, okay, let me just tell you that I don't even know if I want to tell you more about it. Yeah, I thought it was just going to strictly be like a college athletic. It is not that is not the main theme of the book. Okay, interesting, okay. But if I tell you what it is, I don't think you're you'll read it.
Speaker 2:I will read it. Don't tell me though I want to be.
Speaker 1:I want to be surprised, I guess you'll find out because of like the content warning on the first page okay, fair enough.
Speaker 2:So if I get past that, well, I bought it, paid for it, so I feel like I have to, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was good, though I really liked it, but yeah, I didn't. I was very surprised.
Speaker 2:Okay, interesting. Yeah, I'll report back, but yeah, not in love. I loved it. I don't know. I just liked. I liked I like unlikable characters who know they're unlikable. I don't like unlikable characters who the author seems to think that they have written someone really unique and interesting and you actually hate them. But that's what I liked about these two and I liked the tension and I liked the like, I don't know. I liked the plot, that it was kind of complicated, like it all, I don't know. It was just interesting. There was like multiple layers to the conflict and I don't I liked it what can I say?
Speaker 1:I'm you liked it more than bride. I liked it more than bride. You loved bride.
Speaker 2:I loved ride, but I like this one more. I don't know. I loved it. I don't know what to say, I just loved it great, yeah, cool, thank you all right.
Speaker 1:Well, what else? Okay, this, we have just this, this episode. I'm so sorry about the way you're gonna have to edit it yeah okay, what else have you read recently, recently?
Speaker 2:I have read. I'm gonna just stick to the good stuff, because I went through a phase, honestly, of reading a lot of mid books.
Speaker 1:Um, my, god dude, I dnf several books I probably should have but I mean they were fine.
Speaker 2:It was just mid, mid, mid tier, but I did read flirting with disaster, so we can talk about that. I really liked it I did.
Speaker 1:You like it more than clb mine I don't know.
Speaker 2:I liked it. I think less than I thought I would um did I overhype it. No, I think, because this is like I, literally, for some reason in my sick psyche, I love a divorce like comeback trope, Like that is a trope. I love.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's, let's close the listeners in really quick, because we have not told anyone else what we're talking about. So the flirting Disaster is a book.
Speaker 2:You talked about it on our last episode. I did. I did talk about it in depth. Okay, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:But if you didn't listen to that? One basically like in 10 seconds. It's like a Vegas marriage that kind of dissolves, but it's like following the plot of Sweet Home, Alabama, and the wife is going back to finalize the divorce with her husband because she's trying to move on with life and they get caught in a hurricane, yeah, and they have to stay together, yeah. Okay, that's what's wrong. All right, go.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So the only thing I didn't love, I don't know I either thought the book needed to have Shake as the conflict, which is the other guy that the protagonist is kind of like not dating at the time, but they were talking about getting engaged first place.
Speaker 2:But having both of those to me it just like felt like neither was fully developed, like it felt like shake was not really at a real choice, like he felt pretty written off pretty quickly, um, even though I think there's like a compelling case of like that's the life she wanted, that's the plan for her. And then I felt like the question of like well, why did they get divorced, with all the flashbacks that also didn't feel like fully fleshed out or like it really made a lot of sense in the way it was told. So that was my one critique where I was like okay, I wish it would have picked one and gone really hard after that instead of trying to like kind of balance both of those. But I did really like it and I liked I don't know. Also, I'll say Nikikhil is that how you would pronounce his name, nikhil?
Speaker 2:uh, nikhil yeah he was like veering into like unrealistically perfect person territory for me, which is sometimes I don't love because I'm like, okay, this is starting like he has to have something, like nobody is like this, um, but other than that, I mean I gave it 4.5 stars. I really liked it. It's one of my top books I've read this year, which again I was in a string of mid books, so this broke me out, but I think I'd like to say it'll be mine more okay yeah, what did you think?
Speaker 2:I liked this one more about it yeah, I like this one more, but I think they're both good, both good options yeah, it was really good still and, like I said, I love this trope, so I liked like, I just liked that, I like the flashbacks, I like, but, like you know, I don't know, it's just nice, it's. It's like it's an added layer of tension when, either, like in the pairing when they had dated for a long time and then broke up, or this where they were divorced because you know, like, how easy it would be because they've already kissed before, like they've already been married, you know. So then it's like that, like the line is so thin between like. Should I just give into this feeling that I'm feeling, or should I keep trying to be to go on this path that I've made for myself? Um, so I like that, but nice, that's good, um, okay, then I'll do another chill one and then I'll do the my favorite book.
Speaker 2:I've read this like in a long time. Um, I read this book called when we were widows, by annette chavez macias. Okay, this book follows a grandmother, a mom and a daughter, um, and the. The grandmother's husband was murdered when she was like 30 something, or killed, um, and the mom, her husband, died of like a stroke, like three or four years ago. And then the daughter, um, her husband was just killed in a a car accident and they all kind of have like a strained relationship with each other.
Speaker 2:And then, um, the mom and the grandma live together in like an apartment and their apartment floods. So they're kind of forced to ask the daughter if they can move in with her. She has like a really big house that she had with her husband, kind of like in the suburbs. It's set in la, so I got to see your world, um, but she's kind of like in the suburbs so they go and move with her and they're like all kind of forced to confront all this stuff that like they don't.
Speaker 2:They all think that like my mom wouldn't understand, my girl wouldn't understand, my daughter wouldn't understand, but really, like, the struggles are going through are very similar and there's some love stories. It's very chaste, um, very like pg, uh or g even. It's very chill, but I really liked it. It was very like I don't know, it's just really moving and um, no, I don't know, it was just really nice, like if you're thinking, I think, okay, so we originally this was going to be a book swap about how to fall out of madly, but it's like kind of a similar version of that kind of theme where it's like oh, I see women and mother-daughter relationships and all of them, they just needed to talk to realize that their struggles were very similar.
Speaker 1:We're all not. We're not quite so different yeah, but like we're not the enemy of each other right and like them.
Speaker 2:Continuing to pretend like everything was perfect was really like causing them to have this distance between them. So I really like this. I would recommend it.
Speaker 1:It was a very short book, interesting that's interesting because I feel like, especially like between mothers and daughters. Daughters don't like to imagine the similarities to their mothers in many ways like you, you know like, yes, sometimes like their best attributes, but mostly you're like oh, I'm nothing like my mom. When in reality you are really really similar to your mom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this whole book, like you know that quote where it's like I think we talked about this in our original version of this, but the quote that's like the mother and the father like joined to make fun of the daughter and the father join up to make fun of the mother because the daughter thinks like she can escape that same fate, but really like she can't. And that's really what this book reminded me so much of. That quote, um, and it was just, yeah, it was really fun it was a good book and gosh.
Speaker 1:the one thing that really gets me is, like this idea that like, especially like from grandmothers to mothers to daughters that with each successive generation, you're able to, like go a step farther than what your mom or your grandmother was able to do and experience and, like the things that they lived and experienced, like in their limitations at times, created the pathway for you to live a more full life. Yeah, you know, yeah, and then, like, thinking about, like I don't know, it really messes me up when I think about like my mom or my grandmother, like being my age, yeah, and like thinking of them like in my stage of life, you know, yeah, totally and totally, and yeah, that is quite a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get that. I could see how that would be a good book. Yeah, it was really good and also I'll say it's on Kindle Unlimited, if you have that, and the Audible audiobook comes with the Kindle Unlimited download, so I was easily able to go back and forth, but it was really good. And it does deal with like grief, obviously, because they're all widows and so there's like a lot about grief and I don't know how you might grieve someone differently, like it's not always just sad, there's also like anger or, you know, lack of closure or like whatever. So it was really sweet and it was really sweet like and it was very moving.
Speaker 2:Um, I've probably said like five times but I really liked it. Yeah, okay, the best book I've read is I also posted about this but the most wonderful crime of the year by ali carter, who I realized uh, wrote the the ya series. It's like I tell you I love you, but then I have to kill you the like spy did you ever read those books?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, no, well, I did and they were really good. And this book it's like so good I can't even talk about it. So basically, it's like Maggie is the protagonist and she is a like crime mystery thriller writer, um, who's recently divorced because she found out her husband was sleeping with her best friend and so now she has no husband and no best friend and also her parents are dead. So she has nobody and her arch nemesis in the publishing world is ethan. What is his last name? You have to get the full effect Ethan, ethan, ethan, hello, okay, it doesn't even say his name in this stupid synopsis. Okay, ethan, it's just Ethan, and he is also a crime in the same genre author and she calls him like a leather jacket guy because he's like he's wearing his leather jacket in his author photo and he's like so hot and perfect and like becoming more famous than her and like you know, that kind of guy crime writer that you can imagine.
Speaker 2:And she is approached by her agent, I guess, and um, or whatever, I don't know what the terminology, but she's approached and told that her like biggest fan, this mysterious rich person wants to fly her to their estate for Christmas and she has nothing else to do because she's divorced and has no friend and uh, that's normally who she would spend christmas with. So she agrees to go and when she gets on the private jet, ethan is also there and he's also been asked to fly out because I guess this person loves both of them. So they're forced to spend christmas together. But it's also a murder mystery. There is like they get somewhere to this estate. There's a whole cast of characters and there's a mystery that they have to work together to solve this sounds kind of like similar vibe to um.
Speaker 2:Everyone in my family has killed someone yes, yes, very similar, because it's like it's mystery, but it's very light and like fun and um, it's. The banter between these two people had me literally like giggling, like I had to, like I couldn't read it, like it was such good banter. So, like they both are just little vulnerable little babies who have their trauma halfway through, there's a perspective shift that will like rock your world.
Speaker 2:That is one of my favorite tropes when the author holds something back and then out of nowhere, yes bam, different POV. It was so sweet. Again, the tension, the like I don't know, just their little quick what am I saying? Quips. Ethan has this thing where he'll just randomly be like do you want to make out? She's like no, I ate you, but like they're just so like delicious and fun. Yeah, it was so sweet.
Speaker 2:Is it a christmas book? It is a christmas book. It takes place at christmas, but I feel like it's like you could read this anytime of year. Obviously, I'm reading in february and it was such a delight it warmed my cold heart. And also because I feel like it's like you could read this anytime of year. Obviously, I'm reading it in February and it was such a delight it warmed my cold heart. And also because I feel like we don't recommend a lot of these. It is a closed-door romance, so if you don't want to read something super explicit, this is not that, but it was still very, very good. Nice, highly recommend I really highly. I couldn't recommend it more. I Highly recommend. I really highly.
Speaker 1:I couldn't recommend it more. I don't know. I love this book. Yay, five stars.
Speaker 2:Five stars, my first five-star book of the year OMG. Very good. Yeah, that's pretty much the only good stuff I've been reading recently. That's not on AO3.
Speaker 1:Oh, and how to Fall Out of Love, madly. I forget that we haven't officially talked about that, but I really really like that book, which you've talked about before, but you know it was really good. Wow, I feel you, dude. I feel you on reading mid stuff, because I have quit a few books recently. Yes, that were not good. I read this. There was this book that I had high hopes for. Called this Should I say a book?
Speaker 2:Do you think I should say the books that I don't like? I?
Speaker 1:think so. We should be honest. We've said it before. This is a conversation. This is a conversation that you and I had. So, yeah, over text. So I read that I saw this book at a bookstore and I put on hold at libby and it was called. It's called the secret life of country. Gentlemen, yes, we did talk about this, yeah, and the author's name is like kj james or something like that, so like ambiguous, androgynous name, and it's like historical romance.
Speaker 1:Love, that's my thing, yeah, and it's boys, uh-huh and they're both boys and they're boys and like the idea is like one of them is like a new, um, like lord, and then like one of them is a smuggler, okay and whatever it was fine. It kind of got a little boring and I just I I don't know the sign for me that like I need to, not I need to quit a book Right, as I'm not excited to go back and read. Yes, you know I'm not like, oh man, I can't wait to get in bed and read this book, like that's how I want reading to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that you're like, I Googled this chore.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I Googled this author and I was like all right, who is this? And it's a straight white lady. Um and yeah all of her books are male, male romances. Uh, like all of them, kj. Kj charles is her name, and sorry, kj. Sorry, but I just feel like you put yourself out there in the world in this way.
Speaker 1:It's a conversation, so it's okay for us to discuss this totally I kind of started asking myself, like hey, like is it really weird that this straight lady is like only writing male, male romances, like only yeah and like yeah. I think it is like there's like a tokenization and like a fetishization for sure for sure when like and I think it's, I do want to say that I don't think that only like gay men can write male, male romance sure sure, like allison cochran, who is an author we both really love.
Speaker 1:Yes, she well. First of all she is queer, but she has written um, she's written female, female uh books, male male books and maybe even like uh, like a genderqueer book uh, some.
Speaker 2:There's a side romance in um the one. We recently read the christmasy one. Here we um, oh yeah, where that one of the characters is non-binary, but yeah, I don't know if any of her main characters have been.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking like okay, casey mcquiston, yeah, they um wrote a female female book, a male male book and a male non-binary book. Yeah, so like it's, I'm not like and I also think it's okay sometimes for like, non like I think, I think I would be okay reading like a non-queer author writing a queer character if it was well informed, well researched and whatever. But there is something weird, yeah, about a straight lady, because I was thinking, okay, what if this flipped and it was a straight? Dude writing all female female romances.
Speaker 2:Then people would be more clearly uncomfortable with it. Immediate ick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right. And then I was thinking about another author that we have talked about on this podcast, rachel Reed, because we both read in Time to Shine. Well, we started reading some of her other books and then it became apparent that all of her books are male-male hockey romances.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a weird thing about Rachel Reed too, because I felt like so this is more specific than the broader conversation, but I felt like Time to Shine was so, so good and each character was so realized and not. I didn't feel like it was like fetishy and weird. But when I did read her back catalog that's her most recent release when I read some of her back catalog, I was like I am uncomfortable with this and I I should have dnf'd it, honestly, but I was just trying to get through 25 books in december, so that's on me. But, like I, I was like I don't like this and it didn't feel the same at all and I do feel like there is a, there's a line.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I think there's a difference between like in general not even just talking about queer romances, but like in general when it comes to realized, fully realized characters, but especially when you are writing a character that does not align with your experience. Yeah, would be that your, like your assumed gender, race, sexuality, yeah, anything. Age, yeah, Like it's weird to be, like it kind of just feels, yeah, tokenizing, yeah. So that also kind of put me off to this other book, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's fair, and so that also kind of put me off to this other book. Yeah, that's fair. Well, also, her using like a frankly very ambiguous pen name is a little more weird too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I assumed it was written by a man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know like okay, you purposefully like, all of your books are historical male-male romances and you you purposefully changed like, used a pen name. That is very right right and like I'm not even trying to be like, like look at me sticking up for men right now.
Speaker 2:Like I'm just saying, like no, but I do think this is like a thing too in um, like, um, sorry, my dad sex me.
Speaker 2:Um, like in the fan fiction world there, like is a very we, yes, I love a specific male maleship, but like that's also a problem there that I think transcends into like romance because, honestly, we we got to talk about one day the fan fiction, fan fictionification of romance genre, where, like that's I think problematic in some ways, um, but I think it's, it's like that is seeping in, where it's like, yeah, these, these ships are like these relationships are really popular.
Speaker 2:Because I think, uh, I think a lot of reasons, I think, um, I don't know, like, I think women like to not be involved in romance because I think, for good reason. Like there's sometimes where it's like, hey, this is great because they're both equals, nobody's like there's not weird, similar. Like I feel the same about reading all kinds of like queer romance stories. It's sometimes when you read straight white romance authors, it's like this sucks, like you guys are just, I can't be freed, yeah the gender roles that oppress me right, like so that's like a positive part of it, but I do feel like there is definitely like a fetishist.
Speaker 2:I can't say any words today, but like there's a fetishization part of it as well. That, I think, is like people know that that genre is really popular, um, and so they try to get into it to make money and it's. It is a little bit weird, like I don't think, I don't know it, just it's a weird vibe for me when you are a straight lady writing exclusively yeah or any type of I don't know, it's just weird.
Speaker 1:And like don't if you are a published author that's making money from writing, like you, respectfully like you can't use the same rules as fan fiction. Yeah exactly Because like fan fiction, like, while certain things on fan like in fan fiction are cringe yes ultimately like no one's profiting from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're doing that out of your own passion, you know yeah, it's just like free speech.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but like you are, like you are making a career and making money off an experience that you've nothing to do with yeah, well, it's something I've been thinking about too on a broader level of like this me talking about the religious things I've been reading, like I do feel like I can see it happening in, like books about religion or books about the South. Those are things I'm very familiar with. Sometimes, like you can tell, I don't know, it's like it goes one way or the other where it's like either this is going to be so beloved and like polished and shiny, and or it's going to be like so horrible and this is terrible, and it's like any situation where you're writing about something that you don't know firsthand, like it is going to be more difficult, and I just wonder why you got. I really wonder why these people got into this.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know like how did rachel reed stumble her?
Speaker 2:way into this, probably through fan fiction, honestly, but it's just fascinating she probably had a good idea one time. It worked out and then she was like yeah, yeah, I don't know it, just yeah there's, just it doesn't sit right, yeah, in my spirit I hear you.
Speaker 1:So I did dnf that book. I dnf'd something else, not because I thought it was bad, but because I just wasn't in the headspace to read it. So for sure I will be coming back eventually. Um, this is a book called so Let them Burn by Camila Cole. It is a fantasy. Um, that is like, uh, it involves dragons, and like bonding with dragons, so it's like kind to like if you were trying to scratch that fourth wing itch.
Speaker 1:Sure, also there is. It's like loosely based on like Caribbean lore or like not lore, like Caribbean culture and like Jamaican culture and like a little bit of colonization. The two main characters are sisters who are black and they're like extremely powerful and, um, like are protecting their land. It's it like I really did, I thought it was good. I just was like I can't read a fantasy right now, like it just wasn't clicking. But also it's a queer love story. Yeah, uh, as part of the um, part of the gist, because each dragon bonds to writers. Oh, fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'll be picking that back up. Sure, just put a pause on it for now, but I would recommend someone reading it if that sounds interesting to you. Like I haven't finished it, obviously, but for what I read like it is totally readable.
Speaker 2:um speaking of that, did you know that um storygraph has a pause feature now, and I am very appreciative of appreciative of this. So instead of dnfing, you can mark pause and then it won't um count like, it won't show up in your current reads and it won't count like in terms of like days. You know it tells you like your average days to finish. It'll like pause it and then you can just go back and it'll, you know, save your place or whatever. So nice.
Speaker 1:I would recommend using that if you're a story graph user.
Speaker 2:Um, and you think I have like seven books on pause right now because I'm like, oh, go read those, maybe one day, but yeah, that way you can remember where you were without DNFing and you know they're just there whenever you want to go back to them.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah. Another book I read that I liked that I hadn't had a chance to talk about yet, is Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. Okay, this I listened to on audio. So Nicola Twilley is one of the world's like leading academics on refrigeration.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this sounds crazy boring but it is not, oh my God. So she talks about everything and a lot of it is narrative, like she did a lot of like on the ground research about this. So not only is it like the history of refrigeration, but she she describes, like our current world's food preservation system, the way that like, uh, like more developed countries use refrigeration versus, um, like less developed countries, and then like the environmental impacts of if the whole world were on like cold storage, like the United States is, we would be so fucked.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like, there's a lot of inequity in the way that, like we do cold storage, the our food system works um, like, for instance. One of the interesting tidbits that came out of this was that the reason like refrigeration, even like, started like the invention of like refrigerated trucks, for instance, is because, like during the industrial revolution, factory owners wanted their workers to have more access to meat, and it used to be that like. If, like there's like a bunch of factories in New York City or whatever, the only cattle, like the only beef that could be consumed by people living there would be cattle that like was in a walkable distance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:From like a nearby farm, so they would just walk. The was in a walkable distance from a nearby farm, so they would just walk the cattle to a market, then they would slaughter the beef Sure and then people would buy it that same day. So that's just not tenable for feeding the amount of people you need to feed.
Speaker 2:Maybe we should have actually stuck to that.
Speaker 1:So the reason that they did this is so that they could figure out how to ship beef from Argentina on boats to major American cities to like supply them with beef. That's fascinating. Also, it is not a surprise to me that, like the reason that this happened was because the owners of factories and corporations wanted to make more money, and they saw this as a way to make more money, yeah, it's like.
Speaker 1:Well, if our workers are stronger, they can do more output, yeah yeah, but also there's just like this big dilemma because you're like, literally, if we do not, if we give up our food system for all the problems that it has, yeah, people would die. Yeah, in mass waves of starvation. Yeah, because our entire society is now built on this food storage situation and there are acres and acres and miles upon miles of artificial cryosphere. There are acres and acres of refrigeration, in Southern California, for instance, that are storing produce for years. Oh really, and that's the food we buy in the grocery store. My God, it is crazy that is fascinating.
Speaker 1:It will really make you think about ethical food consumption, sure, and about the true benefits to the ecosystem, yeah, and the environment of like trying to buy more of your produce and food locally. Yeah, like the benefit of shopping from and buying from farmers markets, totally, um, or from like local things anyways. It is crazy, that is fascinating, and it was so fast. Fascinating. Refrigeration has everything to do with the way the american family yeah, is run the way that we have, like, gender roles and working roles, and it is crazy wow, okay you first.
Speaker 1:It was a revelation you persuaded me.
Speaker 2:I actually have to say I'm not. I haven't gotten far enough to even talk about it yet, but I am reading a non-fiction book right now I am dipping my tail into the world you are after a year of zero non-fiction, and I'm reading a short story anthology right now, which is very you, I feel so wait, influence on who is it by um curtis sittenfeld no it is, it is okay.
Speaker 2:So I just have to say this this is my um, you know, speaking of the environment and how I'm ruining it by using chat gpt. So I was like I am not trying to. Well, this was like a week ago. I was not trying to succumb to the fan fiction, I was trying to read actual books because. But I really had like such a specific itch to scratch, yeah Of, I want to be a little sad, I want some kind of romance, plot, you know whatever.
Speaker 2:So I asked ChatGPT, I gave it my full rundown and it gave me some really good recommendations, which I had read all of them already. So then I was like, okay, please give me more. So it recommended me this book. It's called Love After the End and it's, I guess, compiled by Joshua Whitehead and it is an anthology of books by indigenous authors who either identify as two-spirit or queer in some way, and they all are focused on like um, not like apocalyptic, but in his forward joshua talks about like indigenous people, like how do you define an apocalypse? And indigenous people have already lived through so many things that you could call an apocalypse. And so this book is like how about we imagine, like a positive futuristic or like post-apocalyptic, like love stories for Indigenous people, and so that's why it's called Love After the End. So far it is very, very good and it's hitting the vibe, but anyways, I really recommend it.
Speaker 1:It's really great.
Speaker 2:But I don't read a lot of anthologies, so it's just fun, because you can like it's a little snack. You just read this little thing and then it's over and you're like, oh, I kind of want more of that, like that was so good.
Speaker 1:But then you're on to the next thing. So yeah, that's been really enjoyable. Look at me rubbing off on you.
Speaker 2:You are and chat gpt. I'm telling you, I put like 12 books on hold from chat gpt suggestion, but unfortunately none of them were available except this one which I am reading, and then I relapsed and I'm back on ao3. You know what?
Speaker 1:can I? Say it's been great. Back to the sweet arms. It'll always be there for you crawling back to you crawling back to you, crawling back to you, me and ChatGPT.
Speaker 2:Me.
Speaker 1:So or not, sorry me, and AO3. Yeah, okay, speaking of indigeneity, the last book I want to mention is Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Robin Wall Kimmerer is the indigenous botanist that wrote to Braiding Sweetgrass, which was one of my favorite books from last year. This is another one of her books that is a little bit more technical, but it's all about mosses, because she is like a moss expert. Okay, and so you will learn about mosses, but also it's about what mosses teach us about the world, and like human beings, and also like culture, and it is really beautiful. She's an expert at like narrative nonfiction like narrative nonfiction.
Speaker 1:It's been very lovely and I really get a lot out of reading about nature from the indigenous perspective, and so I would highly recommend this book she also has another book that's like really, really short. I would call it more of like a um, what do you call? What's that word? It's like a novella. Not a novella, but it's like for non-fiction. Hold on, I need to know this. Oh my god, a monograph, oh, wow I don't think I've ever heard that word before.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's short, but it's called um, the the service berry, and it's about this idea of reciprocity, which is a big theme that Dr Wall Kammerer writes about Abundance and reciprocity in the natural world and the way that we give to nature and the nature gives back to us, and it's extremely lovely. One of the examples from the moss book is um. That was like a really interesting tidbit to learn is that she was doing all this research to try and figure out what was the use of moss by indigenous people, because in um, a lot, in lots of indigenous cultures, there's this belief that every plant, or like every living thing, has a gift to give.
Speaker 2:Sure, that's, nice.
Speaker 1:But she couldn't find anything out about moss and then she eventually learned that the reason it wasn't recorded is because most of this information was recorded by men and moss was used as diapers, like in the diapers of babies, and also for menstruation. So, like a lot of men didn't even know or didn't write about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why would they?
Speaker 1:Because it has like an incredible capacity to retain water Sure, that makes sense. Or to retain liquid yeah, anyways, it's just fantastic. And if you like are remotely interested in that, yeah, it's just fantastic. And if you like are remotely interested in that, yeah, it's not. Look, that recommendation is not going to be for everyone, but hey, nothing we recommend on here is for everyone, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:We've never been trying to please everybody, but I have some good things on my TBR.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am trying to get out of like a little bit of my fiction slump. Yeah, I've been like missing, missing, missing yeah slump.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been like missing, missing, missing, yeah.
Speaker 1:So read the most wonderful crime of the year. If you want to giggle, okay. Also like only a few more weeks until uh, sunrise and the reaping comes out.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking about that because I was looking at our plan for future episodes and it is so close. I am speaking of pain, like I am ready to be hurt. I'm ready to be sad I was. All last year was like I want to read happy books. This year I'm like no, back to being depressed. You know I'm so nervy. Yeah, it's going to be tough. It's really going to be tough, I feel.
Speaker 1:I've been seeing so many depresso Haymitch edits.
Speaker 2:Like already without any content, like imagine what they're going to deal with this, this and when there's a movie out, can you?
Speaker 1:who do you think the tiktok editors are going to cast as young hamish in the edits?
Speaker 2:well, first of all, there is going to be a movie eventually, so um yeah, but who should play? So how will do how he's got to be under 18?
Speaker 1:16. Let's say like, let's say, let's say 16.
Speaker 2:Let's say blonde, he's blonde right. Or are we just doing that because of Woody? Who plays him? Woody Harrelson?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, maybe they'll use a young Woody Harrelson Like a young. Let's not do that.
Speaker 2:Blonde actors under 30. Let's go with that. This is IMDb. These pictures are not helpful to me at all. Uh, the most attractive Also. Why was one of them Nara Smith's husband?
Speaker 1:I don't want him in there, ew, okay, oh my God. Speaking of trad wives, did you see that Ballerina Farm is pregnant with her eighth baby?
Speaker 2:No, that's disturbing to me. I can't engage with that. Who are all these people, by the way? Who are all these people I'm looking at? I don't know any of these blonde male actors under 20.
Speaker 1:I try and stay away from blonde men, no matter what the cost right, unless his name is glenn powell, I am not interested yeah, like I don't trust you and I think that you could be evil.
Speaker 2:Let's just search Haymitch, young Haymitch.
Speaker 1:Fancast Fancasting.
Speaker 2:I feel like I've seen someone. Okay, this person has Let me drop this picture to you and I'll text it to you In the chat. I'm not sure if any of these look compelling to me and I don't know who any of these people are.
Speaker 1:One thing that I trust if there's anyone I trust, it's the like 19-year-old editors on TikTok.
Speaker 2:They will find someone you know I'm not compelled, like whatever I just think it needs to be someone like who's a good actor?
Speaker 1:someone who, like, has maybe been through some trauma, like some yes I need someone. Actually, though, like young hamish wouldn't have gone through trauma yet we don't know that like maybe he would, because he grew up in the scene um, I like this harris dickinson guy.
Speaker 2:He was in the iron claw, apparently. Who did he play?
Speaker 1:okay, wait, I need to okay, I need to like include you into this and you might cut this from the podcast because there's nothing to do with books.
Speaker 2:But another thing to cut.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry yeah, he was good, but okay, are you a boy genius fan at all?
Speaker 2:uh, no, not really I mean are you aware of I'm in the. I'm in the like, that's like part of the ecosystem I inhabit, you know, okay, that's what I'm saying, like, but I'm not necessarily if you want to get into like some yearning?
Speaker 1:yeah, so the three members of boy genius are phoebe bridgers, lucy dacus and julian baker yes, understood they have decided that they're no longer going to tour together. They were nominated for a grammy, they won a grammy, and now they're all going to focus on their careers. But it's not like a sad breakup, it's just like whatever okay but julian and luc Lucy are dating now.
Speaker 2:Now they are girlfriends. Okay, really cute. I didn't know about this.
Speaker 1:Lucy Dacus is releasing a new album and she released a single, okay, and it is called Best Guess.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And this song was made in a lab for you. Let me read you one of the lyrics. So, basically the song song is about like I don't know what's the future, but you are my best guess at the future. Okay, um. And one of the lyrics is um, but you were my one. She's like if I were a gambling man and I am you'd be my best bet. And then, um, the bridge. She's like uh, okay. So here's the church, here's the steeple. You were looking for saints, but you only found people. Ain't that just the way it goes? I watched you fall from grace. You were graceful. After all, it's a small world. You may not be an angel, but you only found people. Ain't that just the way it goes? I watched you fall from grace. You were graceful. After all, it's a small world. You may not be an angel, but you are my girl, you are my pack a day. You are my favorite place and you were my best friend before.
Speaker 1:You were my best guest at the future and I just like I, I just feel like you would need to like, you need to get onto like the Tik TOK, where you see really cute edits of them because she like because she, like they were like, they like recently have like come out at each other's shows and like sung songs to each other and it's like the most incredible pure love, and I just think that you would like it.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm saying okay, I am so in for that yes say no more all right, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, this is a crazy diversion. This episode is all over the place it was really fun, though.
Speaker 2:I'm glad we did this, though, because I was like man. I have so many books I want to talk about and I didn't even like. I have read, by the way, 21 books this year.
Speaker 1:I can't stop killing it I, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 2:I set my goal to be 100 books and I'm seven books ahead. You're killing it. So, anyways, I had so much to talk about and I was like, oh, when am I gonna ever talk about this? But I'm glad we did this book talk episode because you know, cleanse cleanse the palate. Then we'll come back with a real big in two weeks.
Speaker 1:You got to squeeze out your sponge, so you can. Yes, I needed it Reabsorb.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was dying, so thank you, blessings.
Speaker 1:Well, we will. What's our next episode?
Speaker 2:I don't know, that's what I was trying to look at earlier, but I feel like we kind of got I don't know.
Speaker 1:We'll reuse this. We'll be back with something. We'll be back with something really good, really good.
Speaker 2:It's going to blow your freaking minds, probably.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll see you guys then. All right, tt Ryle, bye, bye.