The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Book Club: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Join us for a deep dive of Emily Henry's newest release, Great Big Beautiful Life!
Plus a discussion of upcoming releases, movie adaptations, and casting for Sunrise on the Reaping.
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at @readirectpodcast, and share our show with a friend.
Recent Reads:
- Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha Tuli
- Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
- Plus a sh*t ton of hockey romances (DM Emily for details)
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshley.
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 are book clubbing Emily Henry's newest release Great Big, beautiful Life.
Speaker 2:But first, before we get to that excitement, we would love for you to take pause the show. Take a second. Support us in a few simple ways. Or don't pause it and go, leave us a review five stars, of course, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or both why not both, if you love the show.
Speaker 1:You can also follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky at Redirect Podcast, and if you really really love the show, you can share it with a friend. Sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to help us grow our community of book loving nerds and guys. We have our first hater. We made it. We got our first one star review. Yes, uh, I feel like I wear that with a badge of honor same I do not think I'm for everyone.
Speaker 2:I do not think we're for everyone exactly um period, and that's fine, but go pellets if you like us or you know what if you hate us, smash five stars, but then write why you hate us in the comments and let us know, so we can know. At least we'll know.
Speaker 1:We might not change, stick to the five stars, but we'll know that's critical.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my God, okay, okay, let's go we have endeavored to stay spoiler free.
Speaker 1:Like to not talk about this Spoiler. Like uh, to not talk about spoiler free, but yeah, like we haven't talked about it to taint the purity of this episode, and I think we've done that. So, um, we both like just finished it. You just finished it, like literally a few minutes ago. Yes, correct? Um, I finished it a couple hours ago. Yeah, if you want to read this book, don't? Stop now go, go, listen to it.
Speaker 2:We're gonna be talking about everything in extreme detail yeah, unless you're chill about that, but you know that's not for everyone either.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, fair warning um okay. So, emily, what did you think? Okay?
Speaker 2:I feel like maybe my opinion will change. I gave it 4.5 stars, which is the lowest I've ever rated one of her books, I think, but I still liked it. My only note is like I wish there was more like I wished. I felt like the ending was a little rushed. I felt like I wanted more of Margaret's story, like what's her deal? I wanted more of. I wanted more of everything. So that's like the only thing I didn't like about it. It's obviously different, like that's what everyone's saying. That's a the takeaway about this book is it's really different and, um, I liked it, yeah, I just wish there was probably more and I did find the ending a little bit rushed. That's my overall opinion. But strong, I love emily henry. She can do no wrong in my opinion, so so I still really liked it. Yeah, your thoughts Got it.
Speaker 1:I also liked it a lot it I rated it 4.25 stars, so for me it is. I don't know, I would think I'm having some recency bias, so I think I need to actually compare it, like to some rereads. It's like not necessarily at the top for me still. I mean 4.25 is like a really good. I'm grading her on her yeah, you know, yeah, exactly like I'm grading her against her own work.
Speaker 1:Um, not against like the average right like the greater world of literature but I think for me, there was a few things that kept me from getting it all the way to the five stars Totally. One of those things is the setting. I don't know, we're from Georgia. Yeah, it's tough. You know what I mean. Yeah, I wasn't able to romanticize the setting, yes, in the way that was intended.
Speaker 2:This is the thing about the southern small beach town that it is incredibly romanticized. It is racist as fuck Like yeah, you go to these places. They're not like this, they're not charming, they aren't. There's no like Cecil. I understand there's more to Cecil but there's no like extremely charming captain Like that guy has a maga flag outside the bar and like and he drives a golf cart everywhere, and I like the people who live in these places, they only wear golf shirts right, okay, right and they they have sexually harassed their executive assistant, um, and they have charming moments.
Speaker 1:But I just also this town is dirty, okay, I think some of that came through and like the strip mall, yeah, type aesthetic of some of it, it was romanticized in the book but, like we know this, this is where we come from there's not like, there's not good coffee shops, there's not cigarette butts on the ground. There's like brown colored puddles. The beach is like nice, but ultimately like not that nice not that nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's georgia, yeah okay, so that's real I think the one thing they nailed was the humidity and the bugginess. Yes, yes, got that right on, nailed that um. But I think for me, like it was um, I I did not realize before. All I read before was like Little Crescent Island.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know it was Georgia. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was a choice. And Emily Henry's not from Georgia, she's from Cincinnati area, so she has the ability to romanticize this, which is fine, and I hope that other readers did as well. Don't come here, For me. For me, I was like yeah, I don't know here for me, for me I was like, yeah, I don't know about that, I don't know about that yeah, so that was my first thing.
Speaker 1:I liked the characters. I didn't connect to them as hard as I have some of these characters. I thought alice, the female main character, was kind of. Kind of Bit much, Bit much Jessica Day, Mm-hmm, and I think like I will stand on this. Take Like I think New Girl would be a great show without Jess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's the least interesting part of New Girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's not funny. No, and so like. When she was, there was one moment in particular she like was wearing a 60s nightgown Mm-hmm, mm-. When she was, there was one moment in particular she like was wearing a 60s nightgown.
Speaker 2:I was like if you don't just put on a t-shirt and underwear, like that's crazy. Uh, I will say the whole thing made a lot more sense when it was revealed that she was homeschooled until high school and that her and hayden are both younger siblings with inferiority complexes, because I was like I'm not really into either of you guys. I'm happy you found each other.
Speaker 1:I really am what are you saying about our best friend emma? You defy stereotypes as a younger sibling with but emma would also wear a 60s nightgown. A version of Emma would Not. Maybe the current Emma Not current.
Speaker 2:But an unchecked Emma who became Alice instead. Maybe, yeah, maybe. So I didn't hate her. No, no, no, and I am glad she didn't connect to her. Yeah.
Speaker 1:One of the things about her character is she has, like relentless optimism and in the end it does come around like, hey, you have to face your demons at some point.
Speaker 1:I liked that check on her, that she's like I can't just sure you can be relentlessly optimistic all the time, but at some point you do have to confront your issues. Yeah, totally um, and like your pain points. And then also I kind of thought, like early in the book I made a little note and I was like it's giving adam and olive from love hypothesis okay.
Speaker 2:I saw someone do a tiktok and they said this is the most ally hazelwood ass main male main character written by emily henry and yes yes, I think, uh, what's his face?
Speaker 1:charlie from book lovers? Yes, yes, he was like older, more brooding, kind of like tall, dark and handsome, but this was like it's like she. This was the most tropey, I think that she's ever gone as far as characters, yes, like a grumpy sunshine. Yes, character situation, and she still built out the characters really well, totally, I think.
Speaker 2:But at first I was like okay, yeah, and I think um hayden is so interesting because he like starts off so gruff and then softens incredibly quickly. I would have really liked I know like there's no room in this book for a hayden perspective uh chapter, but I would have liked it because I didn't feel like until it took a long time I really liked their romance. I've seen a lot of people be like where was the slow burn?
Speaker 2:I actually thought this was a pretty decent slow burn in terms of them connecting and I really liked their love story connecting and, um, I really liked their love story. But I did feel like I was questioning for a long time, like which maybe is part of the point because I feel like alice is also like, does he like me? But I was like, does he like her or like, what does he like about her? Like, is he attracted to her? Is he does you know? Does he like her as a person?
Speaker 1:I don't know I felt like it was to me that's sort of getting resolved, maybe like a third of the way through the book when he was like I had an ex-girlfriend who I was competitive for a job with, so it's like he's kind of like guarded anxious and doesn't want to fuck things up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And because of that he's like concerned and she takes it as him being really gruff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, I don't think that she went over the line, but sometimes authors do go over the line where you're like, well, you're just rude and now I'm not gonna be able to like, yeah, circle back on you.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think hayden was like that at all. He was a very like. Every interaction he had with her, aside from like the very initial meeting, I think he was very like baby professional, but not mean, you know, and not like, yeah, he was just curt, yeah, yeah but, yeah.
Speaker 1:The other big character is Margaret, who is the person that Alice and Hayden are vying to write her memoir. Yes, she is the daughter, one of the last remaining or maybe the last remaining member of this big media empire family, like old money, but she has like fell off the face of the earth like 20 years ago. Yeah, and Alice tracked her down and Hayden is also there. We find out more about that later. Yeah, but Hayden is also there and she decides that she wants them to basically audition for a month. Yeah, stay on the island and then, like write up a proposal for her at basically audition for a month. Yeah, stay on the island and then, like write up a proposal for her at the end of the month of interviews. Yeah, they trade off days. They both sign NDAs. They're not supposed to talk to each other about the work or share anything about the interviews with Margaret Mm-hmm. But of course, it's a small town, so they bump into each other a lot and they get to know each other. Yeah, um, what did?
Speaker 2:you think about the margaret character. She was interesting. I don't know what to think about her and I guess that's kind of the point I felt like I guess it makes sense in the end when you find out like her true motivations for doing all this. But it feels like why are you doing all this? And then you don't want to like which, I guess, guess, I don't know. She's just so confusing to me, but I do feel like that's like human nature, like that you would tell yourself yeah, okay, I'm going to be honest about everything and I'm going to own up to all this stuff, and then the moment comes when you have the opportunity and you freak out and you don't really want to do it and I feel like that's what she's going through this entire time.
Speaker 2:But again, this is where I'm like I wish we could have seen more of what she was like with Hayden, because I don't. I feel like that part of the story maybe for me is like okay, what? What were you doing with him for a month? You know, like we're led to believe that she doesn't open up to him as much as she does with Alice, but he's the one she really wants to be there and so I'm just really interested in yeah, he's what happened, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, what we find out at the end of the book is that he is actually her biological grandson. Yes, and she, like, she wants him to like her right, essentially, yeah, um, and so maybe that's why she didn't open up totally. But from the first chapter of the book, al Alice is like pulling up to her house to like do this interview, and there's little breadcrumbs about her sister was in a cult. Her husband died in a paparazzi like Diana tile, car chase, all of these things.
Speaker 1:And the thing I wrote in the margins was I need to know more about Margaret. I need to read this biography about Margaret ASAP. That's what I want to read. I actually want to read the book that gets written about her.
Speaker 2:Me too. Well, that's what I was saying, this whole or not saying, but that's my takeaway. I actually want a lot more. I felt like I want to know more about her in Cosmo.
Speaker 1:I want to know more about the cult the sister was in I want to know more about, like, her relationship with jody now that like I want to know everything about her, and I would have liked more of hayden and alice, I guess so you wanted just more of all of it I mean because to me I I felt the same way like when we got to the first, so intersplice throughout the book are these little like interludes, called like the story and, you know, essentially like their excerpts of the final book that gets written about her, um, and I wrote yes, because I was so excited we were getting some of it but, and I was so excited every time to read the story about her yeah, but I was also sad because I was like I want more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, about alice and hayden. Yes, and I feel like I'm not getting enough of them, so it just wasn't enough of either. Yeah, and I feel like I'm not getting enough of them, so it just wasn't enough of either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like, um, obviously this is going to be compared to the seven husbands of evelyn hugo. It's very similar. But I feel like you knew that in that one, the I don't even I couldn't tell you a thing about the girl who's writing the story, about evelyn hugo the journalist. Like I could not recall a single detail about her Because to me her life in like the present day was a minor, minor story and the big story was obviously Evelyn Hugo's life.
Speaker 2:With this one I feel like it's trying Allison Hayden and Margaret they have equal weight in the story. Like the amount of time spent is pretty equal, I would probably guess I don't know for sure and I feel like to me I'm like, okay, yeah, but I want more of both Because it's still just a. I mean, I think it's like a 400-page book. I read the Kindle version, but that's my assumption. Like upper 300s, it's like 400, yeah, so like that's still like a. I mean that's a longer book, but it's still like that's a typical length of an Emily Henry book and she's telling two stories, you know.
Speaker 1:so of course, I think you're gonna end up wanting more of one of them, or like I mean, bummer, if you didn't like either story, but I liked both, I wanted more of both, like you're saying, Like I want to read the. I wish she would publish just a Margaret story, like I would read that memoir, yeah, or at least like a short story more about Margaret and Cosmo. Oh yeah, so, yeah. So I mean, like you know, in summary, basically Margaret has this crazy life. She marries an Elvis-like rock star. Her sister joins a cult. There's like secret marriages and births and stuff in her family it's giving like the murdochs or like kendall ross at one point.
Speaker 1:Yeah the kennedys. I at one point, uh, let's see, uh, when she's talking about her, uh, margaret's grandfather, gerald, um, and how he like he wanted to kind of take over the newspaper business from his dad and like run stories that like you know, he was like this huge partier and like rich guy and whatever, whatever and like, but he would write these stories about like taking down the system or taking down the man is like very performative. Yeah, and I wrote gerald is giving kendall roy uh on the stairs looking back at people going fuck the patriarchy, fuck the patriarchy.
Speaker 1:Like babes. You are the patriarchy.
Speaker 2:You know, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So like that's the kind of family that she's from and, because of that, like she was born with the spotlight on her like huge media story. Yeah, everything in her life. Yeah, she never had any choice she didn't have to do anything. Never, really value anything, because she never knew any lack yeah, yeah, totally, her life seems truly crazy.
Speaker 2:And it is like I think it, I think about this I say I think about this all the time, not all the time, but I think about it how difficult it would be to have kids if you are super, super wealthy, famous person. Because it's like, what can you do? And like, anytime there's like nepo, baby conversations or, like you know, criticism of kids of famous people, I'm like, what are they supposed to do? Like you know, like they can't go. The Kendall Roy's of this world can't go get a job at Dairy Queen, you know, like they can't. Just what's he saying? Do, do, yeah, he can't. Like go, you know, be an accountant. Like he can't. So I don't really know what you expect them to do. And I think it must be hard to like have a family in those circumstances. Because, like, how can you not spoil your kids if they're in this kind of world where, like, the thing she talks about is like they would blow in snow for them? They would, they had. Like, yeah, they.
Speaker 2:She read a children's book about a pony and they would buy her a pony the next day, like like that's an unimaginable world. Obviously they they took it to extremes. But like, like what can you do? What was she supposed to do? Her life was like I don't know, and that's something interesting that comes up throughout the book is like, is there free will? And it's like you know, was her life always on this path, or did she have any agency at all in her life? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:and uh, yeah, that's really interesting to think about because, yeah, the whole like her life kind of serves as um, like a catalyst for hayden and alice to also think about the choices they're making in their lives and what really matters, yeah, yeah, and their decision at the end of, like, how to balance their careers and their relationship with one another, to prioritize family over other things, like what really matters, and so it was helpful to see that from Margaret like on a blown up scale.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like in a very dramatic way, it makes them rethink their relationship with their own lives. And you know, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1:so yeah, one of the things I really liked about that was like a bridge to connect margaret and cosmo to um, alice and hayden, was the cosmo song that they reference. It's like peggy all the time, peggy all the time. He's like I'm trying to think of other things, but it's just Peggy all the time. Yes, talking about Margaret, which also, why is Peggy a nickname for Margaret? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Margaret has some great nicknames though, like Maggie, meg, peggy.
Speaker 1:Peg Midge yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's a Margaret.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don, yeah, I think that's a market. Yeah, I don't. Anyways, throughout the book. This is one of the sweet. This is one of the sweet things where I was like, okay, this brought it back from four to like 4.25 yeah um, was that like it's for alice's point of view?
Speaker 1:and she's like, she keeps on having these feelings for hayden and she's thinking like about that song. She's like, it's like in my mind it's hayden all the time, hayden all the time, hayden all the time. Well then, at the very end of the book, when they get together, he is like they're hugging and he says when I let myself dream, he murmurs against my ear, where it all comes crashing down, it's Alice, alice on my mind, alice all the time. Yes, yes, that was really really tender.
Speaker 2:Yes, I highlighted this earlier. In the book, when she's thinking about him, she says Hayden on my mind. I think Again. I wonder if the thought should terrify me. But there's no room for terror, there's just warm golden light, the smell of freshly cracked pepper and almond soap, the soft pop of a cork, mom's pulling from a bottle of Cabernet and a pair of pale brown eyes set into a thoughtful expression. I can't believe I ever mistook for a glower.
Speaker 1:Perfect for me oh so yeah, they really love each other you know, and they did have a lot of yearning because, okay, because here's one thing, uh-huh, this is one thing I'll say that I really do like, and it's like the anthony bridgerton thing like I have too much honor to give in to my desires. Yes, right, unfortunately, don't even go there for me, because he's like I have too much honor to sleep with you while I'm competing against you. Yeah, for this job. Yeah, like I don't want to mess things up, yeah, you might look at that experience in a different light if I take this job.
Speaker 2:I don't want to mess things up. Yeah, you might look at that experience in a different light if I take this job from you, which I think is valid and you know what. I'm probably not leaving this in, but I've seen a lot of comments. Okay maybe we'll see. I've seen a lot of comments not a lot, but I did see one where they're like you guys are so dumb You're saying we're not sleeping together but're like doing everything but sleeping together.
Speaker 2:to those people you obviously did not grow up in purity culture some of us because there's a clear difference did you guys know that yeah, right, like the girls are getting you know I mean yeah, it's not that hard in the specific situation to be able to say like no, this isn't the same yeah, because you have to compartmentalize, they have to. They have to in this scenario too, because he's like okay, well, like I'm not that honorable, but I am honorable enough like I won't sleep with you, I'm not gonna spend another thing.
Speaker 1:It's like he tells her he loves her, but he's like I just please don't say anything back. Yeah, don't answer that.
Speaker 2:Don't answer, don't respond to that either way until after this is over, because I, I don't.
Speaker 1:I'm willing to put my feelings on the line, yeah, but I don't want you to have to do that or feel like you need to. So I'm just going to say I don't want you to. Yes, and I love it, and so it's like the Anthony Bridgerton thing when he's like hooking up with Kate for the first time.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he's like tell me to stop. You know what I'm thinking about. Lately speaking, I actually think I don't like bridgerton at all. I just like season two, because I still haven't finished the third season. Like I have no desire, honestly, to watch anthony bridgerton, the man that you are like the yearning is so crazy the yearning is actually insane.
Speaker 1:It's off the charts. Yeah and I did like once.
Speaker 2:I liked them both so much more once they fell in love, like okay. There's a scene I highlighted too, where I screamed out loud this is the turning point for me, probably. But he says, even as he's stepping closer, he's saying I should get home. Our stomachs are nearly touching. I tip my chin up to meet his eyes. Why his people swear, you know why swallow, but it does nothing to diffuse the heat of my throat and chest. Because you have a girlfriend. No, he says no. That's not why I say or no, you don't have a girlfriend. You talk a lot, he murmurs. If you've got something to say, I reply. I'd love for you to interrupt me. And he does, just not with words. Instead he sets one hand lightly, teasingly, across my oh yeah yeah, nothing.
Speaker 2:Also, speaking of yearning, you know why is like yeah, you know why, like that's a crazy thing to say and I love it and I eat it up every time. It's like almost insulting, yeah, you know um someone's actually in real life. I might be like what are you talking about? You're so weird but in a book, I'm like, because that's such a confident thing to say. Like you know why, like you know what's going on here, we, we're not like stupid. You know, we're both fielders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on, don't make me say it, but oh my God, yeah.
Speaker 1:One thing. Another thing I thought was really, really cute is early in the book. They are still kind of rivaling and Alice is invited to go to this like birthday celebration for this local guy who ends up being important later in the book.
Speaker 1:Yes, Like critically important, extremely important, and he, like she sees him earlier in the day and she actually was gonna hook like meet up with the guy that she's been seeing casually, yeah, who like was in atlanta, he was gonna drive down to see her, and so he was like he asked like do you want to get together tonight, or something like that, like to have dinner, because they were like starting a friendship, yeah, and she was like I can't have a hot date, uh-huh. Okay, well, he the hot date doesn't show, uh-huh, but um hayden shows at the party, uh-huh. And so then she gets really embarrassed and she's gonna leave because she's like oh, like this is so embarrassing.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I had a hot date and now he's not even gonna be here and it's gonna seem like I made it up yeah.
Speaker 1:so he comes like she's leaving. She comes back to get her purse and then leaves. He's like, wait, where are you going? Yeah, and he is like he understands what's happening, that she's starting to feel embarrassed that her boyfriend didn't show up, her situation didn't show up, whatever. And he goes to make her feel better. This got me.
Speaker 1:He said I thought you invited me. He blurts what he huffs, eyes dropping to our feet before rebounding to my face. I I thought you were kidding about the date. I stare at him utterly shocked, Not because I don't believe you could get a date. He goes on gruffly, Just because we've been here a week and a half and almost everyone who lives on this island is a retiree. So I thought when you said he grimaces, you don't have anything to be embarrassed about here. Alice, I know I'm the one who kissed you. I know I'm the one who shut it down. So again, I guess he had already kissed at this point. Yeah, so he thought she was asking her on a date and he showed up and it was just like then he would be willing to admit that to make her feel not embarrassed.
Speaker 1:Yes, the vulnerability was really nice, yeah, yeah, like that nice vulnerability it's giving like hates everyone but loves me.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which again in real life. I'm not interested in that at all. Like if you had a friend who was like no guys, he hates everyone, but he really is really sweet around me, you'd be like I'm gonna call a hotline on your behalf in this world.
Speaker 1:It's really nice, you know, right right, right, yeah, um, there was so much yearning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they kept being like we can't do this anymore yeah, they just feel like really close faces to each other.
Speaker 1:But we can't do this. Oh, another thing. I highlighted that I was like this is before that. He said he loved her, but I knew that they were in love because, he was talking about um, oh, they're walking across the boardwalk and they see a snake and he's like really scared of it or whatever, and um, he was saying that when he was a kid he would have to dissociate around snakes as to not embarrass himself in front of others.
Speaker 1:And she says can't you just dissociate and pretend that didn't just happen? He shakes his head. It won't work. I'm not afraid of humiliating myself in front of you and I wrote that's love, yeah. That's really nice, I really think love is like not being afraid to humiliate yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No, Um. So what did you think about her relationship with her mom? So I need to talk about it.
Speaker 1:Okay Thoughts. So her relationship with her mom, well, okay. So I'm flipping back in my book because at one point she gets a message from her mom that says she's like I got a message from my mom, but really it's just a link to an article about how California is going to eventually go up in flames, then break off from the rest of the country and sink into the floor of the ocean, and I wrote relatable. I thought about you, because my mom constantly does that. Anyways, I I what I don't understand in people. I try to understand, but I don't understand the feeling of it is just not being extremely direct about the way you feel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so to me. I'm just like this would never work for me. Like I would, I would be at my mom's house for two seconds and have that distance and the weirdness, and I would just be like what's wrong? Like let's talk about it, or like what are we doing? This is a waste of my time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of my time. Yeah, so I don't get it. What do you think? I thought it was an interesting like I I don't know the point of this. I don't really. I don't know what the point was, maybe just to humanize alice a little more, but it felt like there was another story almost here about like mothers and daughters, yeah, like like there's almost something there with, like you know, spoiler jumping ahead but with margaret giving up her daughter for adoption and the whole like nicolette's throughout history and the hiding of the daughter that like we're gonna pretend this is my niece but it's really my daughter, although that was like a father-daughter situation. There's something about the mothers, I don't know. There's like almost another book there with like bernie and how she's kind of a different type of mother, yeah, and laura and how she had like almost another book there with like Bernie and how she's kind of a different type of mother, yeah, and Laura and how she had to leave Like almost like that was in the first draft and it got edited out.
Speaker 2:But this is the thing that stayed, which is Alice's complicated relationship with her mom, and I don't know. I just I didn't really know what to make of it. I mean, I thought it was, you know, I just almost, I was almost happy the first time they left her mom's house and it didn't resolve, because I felt like, oh, that's how it is, like people don't all have great relationships with their parents, or you might like she loves her mom, she can go stay at her mom's house, but it doesn't feel like home to her and I think that's real, like you know, like there's this distance between them and that's real, like you know, like there's this distance between them and that's never going to get any better. Yeah, and I almost liked that version a little bit more than at the end, when they kind of do have this like reckoning and that's. You know, I wish that part had been cut out, honestly, and that might have helped I don't know well, because then at the end she has a daughter in the epilogue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think, like I think maybe there was. This was pulled out a little bit more in the first draft. It got cut down but it stayed, because part of the reason that it's important to the story is because it's a way that kind of Hayden pushes in and checks her on her like relentless kind of fake optimism Totally, and so he had to have, there, had to be something there, because they have no other friends there, no other people that the only other person that knows both of them that's true, they can't talk about their conversation yeah, there had to be something that made their relationship believable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, how could he love her? You know what I mean? Like he, he met her mom, he saw her around her mom and like learned this thing about her Totally and was able to push through a little bit, whereas he is already, like he says multiple times, you know, I don't do things just to make people happy. Yeah, I'm really honest and blunt, like he's proven that he's really kind of just all out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I'm being honest about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it yeah, and so it gave her an. It gave an opportunity for the honesty about herself to come out, so maybe that's why it stayed in. Um, but also I think it's about, like you know, she, she lost her dad, her mom has left, and it's just a way to tie up the story of, like I wish you know what's what really matters in life, like I want to know my mom better before I stop time with her. Yeah, it feels like it could have been pulled out a little further, though I agree yeah, yeah, I think I think that's it's not.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like poorly written and I think it makes a lot of sense for the character and especially like having a her older sister is like both had a very medically complex childhood and then goes on to literally join the peace corps.
Speaker 2:So I think there's like a very obvious like uh, inferiority there and that's something that her and hayden bond on, because his older brother is, like you know, captain of the football team or whatever, um, and he's like kind of also a little bit of a disappointment or he feels that way. So I did like them connecting on that and I thought it made sense. But I I did feel like, okay, there's almost something else here with these like parental relationships that was really interesting to me and I felt like probably could have been another thing I would want more of. That's my only complaint about this book. I'm like I want more of that, you know, um, and I want more of like also hayden's deal with his parents and, uh, then margaret's deal with her parents, like that.
Speaker 1:That kind of echo shows up a lot, but I don't know that it's fully fleshed out in the same way that I might have like, yeah, I thought another thing like I wonder what this, as you're saying, that I'm like I wonder what this book would have been like if they were both like on assignment in little crescent to write something about, like not a memoir, like just some other writing assignment, yeah, and we had like the margaret component taken out, we had the parts of her life taken out and we could have pulled some of those other threads a little farther. Um, I don't know, that could have been interesting too, yeah, but then because the other part I think that wasn't totally baked Was, there was like a mystery element about all about Margaret's life and like what's the deal with Cecil? Unfortunately, I guessed a lot of it. So I did guess that Ruth was going to be Gerald's biological or Lawrence's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, gerald's biological daughter, yeah. I guess, it was like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I was like OK, why are we all surprised? Yeah, and then I got really close on cecil, uh-huh, um, but yeah, like she's not a mystery writer, no like I don't, she's not she's not a big twist reveal, you know. So maybe like cut back on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, I agree this isn't your niche, because it felt also like so, so built up of like margaret's lying to us, um, like from the very margaret's lying, yeah first, very first conversation and so it then the actual lie of it being like I mean, yeah, it's, it's a bizarre, I get why.
Speaker 2:Obviously that was built up. That's pretty much the the climax of the book. So you find out, um, for those who didn't read it, that um, margaret had a child and was pregnant. Um, when her uh, she started like spotting early in her pregnancy and her husband freaked out and drives her to the hospital and in on the way to the hospital they get into a crash where he's killed and she goes into hiding and ultimately gives up her child, um, for adoption and that she didn't want the child to be raised in the spotlight, like right and that child is hayden's mom and um, you don't find that out until the very end, obviously.
Speaker 2:and so then you find out that hayden was asked to come, whereas Alice actually tracked Margaret down, and so the whole novel is fake and she's not planning on actually releasing any kind of memoir. She was just setting this up as a ruse to get close to Hayden and hopefully maybe reveal the truth about who she is, which is I get it. But that's also like I would have been more mad, because I would be like I was doing a lot of work, like we could have just you could have been like let's just do a couple interviews, why a month? And why the whole? Like pitch at the end, like I wrote sample pages of this, like I would have been more mad, I guess she was still compensated well, and in the end I guess they wrote the, they did write the memoir together, that's the epilogue or whatever.
Speaker 2:But you know, yeah, I would have been more angry. So, yeah, no, but like, I felt like from the very beginning, like, okay, she's lying to us, what's she lying about? What's the real? And, yeah, it was probably built up a little too much, I think, of like. In reality, it was a pretty like uh, it became very obvious pretty quickly. You know what was going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you said, so I mean this was, as has been established, the most different absolutely yeah, and I think probably her publisher was like you have had hit after hit after hit after hit. Yeah, right, what you want, yeah, like sure, take a risk, go out on a limb, um. So yeah, like I think she has earned the right to write a book like this. Yeah, um, and I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't like I'm not having the same like.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, I can't stop thinking about it yeah, but I did after reading funny story yes or book lovers, yeah, or be treed no, like happy place.
Speaker 2:I read it and I instantly wanted to start it back from the beginning, like I almost did. I almost turned back to page one and started reading it again. This one I'm like I don't know if I'll ever read it, but I did really like it.
Speaker 1:You know it was really, I did really like it. Yeah, but am I gonna reread it? Yeah?
Speaker 2:also. Can I just say again I think this is like we established the, the parental figures. That's somewhere in there. I do not like it when someone has a baby in that blog. I don't like it, I just say more.
Speaker 1:Why not to like it?
Speaker 2:I feel like to me. I actually don't even like it when people get married in that blog, like I don't want a wedding, I don't want a baby. I want it to be obvious. I actually think. First of all, you know, I'm gonna go on this hill. I think we need to abolish epilogues. I don't think epilogues are needed. I don't think they ever really add anything. I think it should be. If you're writing a good romance, in my opinion it should be so clear by the end of the book that these people are going to be together forever that an epilogue is not needed. Yeah, I just think it's a cheap way to show like oh look, they're going to be together forever. But I think in a version of this book where this whole parent, child or mother, daughter thing has more weight to it, I think that's is an interesting way to end the book, you know, yeah I'm.
Speaker 1:I actually have a couple of her other books right here, so let me see happy place. Oh, by the way, we need to tell the readers that I found a copy of like a pristine never read a copy of happy place, um, in my little free library and it's signed. It says emily find your happy place, exa emily henry. Yeah, so me and emily are trading copies so she can pretend that emily henry wrote this to her. Yes, um, okay. So happy place, I think, does have an epilogue.
Speaker 2:I think it does I think it does because, it doesn't end like they're at the airport and he chases her down like it ends pretty, you know, abruptly, I think. Most like they're at the airport and he chases her down Like it ends pretty, you know, abruptly.
Speaker 1:I think most of her books have epilogues. Yes, it ends at the airport, yeah. And then this is like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. You know what Susan Collins can have epilogues. Everyone else needs to evolve. I actually think you know any kind of book could have an epilogue, but a romance book. If you haven't done the job of proving to me that they're going to be together forever, by the last page you haven't done it.
Speaker 1:Don't patch it up with a marriage.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, don't patch it up with a marriage that is going to either leave me thinking there's no way these two people are going to be married or, like I think it's okay to just leave it where it is, because to me, sometimes people fall in love and it doesn't work out, sometimes like they get married and then they get divorced in five years. Like getting married, having a kid, none of that's like, oh, they are always going to be happy and together, so just leave it where it is. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, let us just be in this moment I just think most epilogues aren't good and aren't needed and like, are cheap, and I think, just like, let them be in love and let it, let it be there, and I don't need to know that I would have been happier knowing they wrote the book about margaret together, but I feel like you could have just done that with like a headline. You know, just give me a headline that they published the book and we know that they're happy together. You know, I don't need the whole like. Oh, and then we had a kid and we named her Laura. Okay, like cool, I'm happy for you guys.
Speaker 1:And then like why do they name her? Like I get like Laura was the name of Margaret's sister. That was confusing to me, that was confusing to you.
Speaker 2:Like she was in a cult. I understand she turned on the cult in the end, but it does seem like the cult very much ruined a lot of people's lives. Yeah, she was pretty prominent yeah, I didn't get the laura name at all, that that that took me out of it.
Speaker 1:It did take me out of it too. Yeah, so for that blog. I think my 4.25 was correct.
Speaker 2:I think it was a well-written book. Yeah, had a great time it was a good time, but also like not my fave yeah, this goes to the bottom for me of my emily henry's, but I, I liked it. I still loved it. Like there's no, I I guess I get people who didn't like it, but I also like don't really know what they wanted. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:If, right, if I was the if this was her first book that I read, I probably rate it higher yeah, yeah, I actually agree, I totally agree with that but speaking of emily henry, um, we are going to be rereading people made, made on vacation, before the movie comes out, and I think it's supposed to come out in august.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's, it's nigh, because people there have been like pre-screenings people, some people are uh, have been speculating. I think like may something really? It might be like the anniversary of when it the book originally came out, that there'll be a trailer release, not that the movie will come out in may, but we'll get like the first trailer and, uh, release date and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah okay, so stay tuned.
Speaker 2:I've seen people speculate that that might be. You know, when we get our first trailer or around, then would be like a good time to drop it. But yeah, I can't wait to reread that and I can't wait for the movie. I think that's gonna be even like. I know it's not everyone's favorite book, whatever, but I think the travel elements of it, the locations, I think it's going to make a really good movie adaptation for sure, me too.
Speaker 1:Speaking. So are we. Do you have anything else to say about A Great, Big, Beautiful Life?
Speaker 2:Let me double check on my highlights. Make sure I read all the quotes I wanted to read. Well, I really liked the very ending when they got together. So at the end he like um, she writes a letter to margaret and is like, uh, because, okay. So she finds out that, um, nicolette is hayden's mom and that is margaret's adopted daughter, that she gave up, and she goes to confront margaret, who's basically like remember, remember, you signed an NDA and you can't even tell him. The NDA is clear you cannot tell Hayden anything. So she's like seriously, you're not going to tell him that he's your grandson. And so she writes this letter to Margaret and is basically like you asked me if you could trust Hayden and I want you to know that you can, and I think you need to be honest with him, selfishly, because I'm also in love with him, and like I, this is like the thing that ruined it, kind of thing. Um, and so then he margaret mails the letter to hayden and explains everything.
Speaker 1:And he comes to her mom's like compound down in south georgia and it's like yeah, she's a hippie living in south georgia, okay, okay, look, look, she's been run out of town. We have the correct credentials to speak on this. I just want to be so freaking clear about this. Yeah, we have the credentials to speak on south georgia. It's not like a chill place for her. Guys. Do not let this book romanticize this for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you okay, so then he shows up to welcome to plathville yes, thank you, that's south georgia, oh my god, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So then he shows up with the letter and he's like is it true? And she's like, yeah, it's true. You're, you're her, you know her grandson. He's like, no, is it true that you love me? I liked that. And then at the end he says, uh. She says I prefer I forget what the context is, so I'm sorry but she says I prefer that version of the world. I say smiling up at him, his arms ring my waist, his nose scraping along mine, you do. I nod the movement gliding our lips briefly across each other. It's yours, he offers. I laugh, oh, I can have the world Mine. He says, yeah, you can have mine. Aww.
Speaker 1:I thought they were really sweet together, so sweet.
Speaker 1:There was another cute moment. When he's telling her he loves her for the first time, she is like tell me something, no one knows about you. And he's quiet and still for so long I start to wonder if I've crossed a line. Then he tips his chin down to his clavicle to meet my eyes and simply says I'm in love with you. Uh-huh, so sweet. Let's see if I had any other quotes. Oh, okay, just one note I had Remember at some point in this book there's like a tropical storm. The minute it said now are you prepared for the storm, aren't you? I underlined it and I said let's go Like we know.
Speaker 2:I know he's going to show up during the storm.
Speaker 1:But like, this is where Alice and me could not be more different, because I'm like you, would not be able to hook up with anyone during a storm.
Speaker 2:But second of all, she just lets her phone die.
Speaker 1:She's like, oh yeah I guess my phone's dead.
Speaker 2:Hello, it's like a hurricane is coming, girl unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately for me, I do think that me and um alice are both gemini's.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I do think she is a demonized sister. It's okay, all of our flaws. She just could not be less relatable to me I did. I did enjoy it, but I felt like, like I could not immerse myself in her you are um, sorry, I gotta start saying this podcast.
Speaker 1:Um, so you are robert california's kid in the office where he's tracking a hurricane on the tv and he's like cold and low pressure system from the east that's you.
Speaker 1:You're not wrong, you're not wrong um, okay, there's one other thing I I underlined um, she's saying I can't remember the last time I had a crush like this not one that merely aches the way I felt about theo that theo's her situation, ship theo the first time, the first few months, that painful yet addictive feeling of wanting something that's being very intentionally withheld from you. This is the other kind, the dopamine hit of proof, evidence, facts that add up to the knowledge that maybe the person whose very presence excites you is also excited by your presence, that I think he likes me back feeling, yeah, I underline that because I felt like whenever I met Zach, it was like one of the first times in my life where I was like, oh, being in love is supposed to feel like relaxing and like chill and safe and not constantly like how does the other person feel about me.
Speaker 2:That was nice like where do I stand?
Speaker 1:do I need to try and press? It's like oh, I just, I know how you feel about me. You're clearly communicating that, yeah, and you're giving me so much proof that you like me too, yeah yeah, that's a good lesson.
Speaker 2:That's a really good lesson um I really appreciate that shout out to emily henry for that, yeah, she understands, she gets in. You know, something I read speaking of just this is general emily henry, not really related to this book, but I read this, uh, or a snippet from an interview with her, and I really liked it because she was talking about how people call romance books like unrealistic um, we're setting unrealistic expectations and she was like every I wish I had saved the quote. And she was like every I wish I had saved the quote. But she said something like every romance author is writing from something that they've experienced or that they've seen or that they know and so like.
Speaker 2:Instead of saying like this is unrealistic, you just need to not settle for anybody who doesn't have the capacity to like, love you in this way, and I thought that was really nice.
Speaker 2:So, emily Henry, you know let's know more about your life, but I think that's true, like people are writing from what they know or what they can imagine. If you can imagine it, then it's possible to experience it. It might not be, like you know, like an actual romance novel, but like the, the, the degree of love can exist. Yeah, so agree love it, okay.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else you want to say about this book?
Speaker 2:no, no, but when's the next one coming out?
Speaker 1:love it please, money, please yeah, greedy, greedy, greedy are.
Speaker 1:That was one of the things that we needed to talk about. So totally we are. We're getting to people meeting on vacation movie. We also got, um, some not all casting details for sunrise and the reaping movie. Yes, and um, we have a release date for the thursday murder club movie which is like august 20 something, I think. Yes, yes, something about, um, I can't wait, so I can't. I will be sat for that and we will almost surely, uh, do like a deep dive of the thursday murder club.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need to before we need to and I to. Before the movie comes out On the series, respectfully, yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's see, I'm pulling up an article really quick. Pull it up. We need to discuss. Okay, these are some names that were unfamiliar to me.
Speaker 2:Yes, In the Sunrise and the Reaping casting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:My understanding is, this young gentleman who is playing hamish is like relatively unknown so, and that's to me age appropriate and age appropriate.
Speaker 1:Okay, so his name is joseph zada um. He has recently starred in australian limited tv series invisible boys okay so yeah, so is he Australian. I don't know. He looks like Woody Harrelson he does For sure I mean, yeah, there's a difference between book Haymitch and movie Haymitch, which is fine. Just be consistent, but yeah, I mean he is believable to me.
Speaker 2:But it does seem like 100%. Woody Harrelson is going to come back and do that blog.
Speaker 1:I just feel that I feel that what else do you have going on? He's just doing a bunch of commercials with Owen Wilson, right? No, matthew McConaughey, because it's like, isn't it like speculated that they're half brothers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's like a joke yeah like speculated that they're half-brothers. Yeah, I think that's like a joke, yeah. So yeah, I think like like, do it, you know. So anyways I feel like they need to cast someone who does look at least a little bit similar too. Yeah, because it's going to be up close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, interesting casting Whitney Peake as Lenore Duff Baird, which to me it's like she looks so much like Rachel Ziegler. Yeah, so to me this is further proof that they are, like, really closely related.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, or just like the Covey Also.
Speaker 1:are we now like really drilling in, like the Covey are like also an ethnicity?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Seems like it, we'll see the rest of the cast. Mckenna Grace as Maisley Donner. They have not cast the twin.
Speaker 2:Merrily right.
Speaker 1:Merrily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it seems like they could just have her play both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or just cut the twin out yeah, they might do that. Okay, I'm really excited about this, jesse Plemons, as Plutarch, heavensby, perfect, there's nobody else.
Speaker 2:There's no one else it could have been. It had to be Jesse Plemons, and I love Jesse.
Speaker 1:Plemons and he's going to do so good. I've loved him since he was Lance on Friday Night Lights.
Speaker 2:Jesse Plemons no, then we get Jesse Plemons.
Speaker 1:Let's keep going More, jesse Plemons.
Speaker 2:Yes, he'll do a great job.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so that's who we have so far. Obviously, it's not a full casting. They're really getting every little morsel of our money and attention by dragging you to house, as I should, and fair enough.
Speaker 2:It's like next November is when it's supposed to come out, right? Yeah, november 2026.
Speaker 1:It is such a November movie. Oh, it has to be, it has to be. It is All the movies come out in November, right? Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:I think maybe like one of them, like one of the, maybe like one of the Mockingjays came out at a different time, but I could be wrong. But yeah, we need it, so bring it to us. We're really excited.
Speaker 1:We need every, everything we can look forward to in this life. We need it. So, yeah, yeah, I need more, I need more, I need more and I think we still have some fun. Oh, okay, so I saw you shared this. Ali hazelwood has released a date for which I'm. It's a book I'm skeptical of, but the problematic summer romance which is the sequel to the much controversial not in love, um, back off haters. So she's released, so that's coming out this summer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll be excited about that, I'll read it too but I'll probably get it from the library I think I am skeptical, like it's gonna take a lot to make me think a 23 year old and like a 36 year old should be together, but I am really gonna enjoy the world but you know what?
Speaker 1:she's leaning into it and just being like yeah, this is problematic but they're like, I'm not like.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's interesting yeah, we'll see, I can't wait so yeah, so we'll see. Yeah, um thank you.
Speaker 1:You know who normally releases books in the summer, who is allison cochran she has one coming out, yes, her, her camino book uh is coming, yes, omg, okay. So I'm really excited about that, although this is gonna be every step she takes. Um, this is gonna be new for me because, although I did walk the camino, she the main character of the book watches walks the camino portuguese. Oh, there, you go Through Portugal. So I will not be like intimately acquainted with it. Sure, sure.
Speaker 2:So, yes, it's coming September 2nd. It was supposed to originally be called Learning Curves, but there's like another book coming out the same exact day with that title. So I like every step she takes, though. Think that's cute, yeah, yes. And someone I also really like, an author that I've recommended, emma albin. She does like the uh, yeah, yeah, historical queer books. She just had a cover reveal. It's called like in love with you and it's about two like rivals to lovers, regency debutantes, um, and that one is coming out january next year, so we still have some time, but I just saw her uh cover reveal, so nice, really exciting.
Speaker 1:So there's, a lot of good things happening in the book world little treat just a little treat, yeah, I'm really excited too, like some of my other things on my tbr might need to get shifted because, as I make room for summer reading, because starting to get really nice outside, like it was feeling like so cozy and nice today and like sunny and I'm like I don't know if I want to read pachinko. Yeah, I get it summer, you know what I'm saying totally like yeah, I just so we'll see yeah um, have you read anything interesting recently?
Speaker 1:so, as I've mentioned, well, no, I guess the listeners didn't hear it because we did tragically lose our episode that was supposed to come out last week but um I've been in a reading slump. Yeah, uh, emily henry got me back, but I did finish trial of the sun queen, on your recommendation. Yeah, what did you think? And I liked it pretty well. Yeah, I think I knew where it was going. Sure.
Speaker 2:That's not hard to figure out.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. It's further cementing my belief that you would like ACOTAR, probably. Yeah, it's just ACOTAR.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is ACOTAR in a different font. You just I probably would like it.
Speaker 2:I'm just probably never gonna read it. God, but maybe. But you would like it, I probably would.
Speaker 1:Anyways um, you, it's just akatar um, but I started the second one so I liked it well enough. I gave the first one 3.75. I didn't think it was incredibly written. No, I liked it enough and I know where it's going.
Speaker 2:I think the second two are better and then I think the fourth one is back to like fine mid that's my opinion Like I thought they got better and then it probably should have just a trilogy.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I did like the second and third one a lot yes, I also started reading and then dnf'd about a third of the way through.
Speaker 2:I did text you about this uh deep cuts which well, I have to talk about it to me, because I want the people to hear it and I want someone else to read it, okay fine, I will stop.
Speaker 1:And then you re-recommend it. Okay.
Speaker 2:And then you're gonna say why I dnf'd it okay okay, well, now I feel self-conscious because you've already heard this and you've already read it, but, um, it is called deep cuts. I'll be sure it's by holly brickley. It's her debut novel. Um, it is about percy who, as abigail will say, is an incredibly insufferable protagonist, and if you can't deal with that, I think you shouldn't read this book.
Speaker 2:No, she is an insufferable person and she loves music, though, and she meets joe at a bar and they connect over their love of music and he's also pretty insufferable. I would say like they do deserve each other and, uh, they connect over music. He has a girlfriend at the time, but they kind of like form this relationship built on, like he writes a song and she'll critique it, and then they kind of come together and like through working on songs together, they make like these masterpiece songs, and it stretches, I want to say, eight or nine years of their lives together, and like sometimes they're really close, sometimes they don't talk at all, and like how the relationship ebbs and flows over it is.
Speaker 1:It is fun that it starts in the early 2000s starts in the early 2000s.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of like. I mean, there's stuff the early 2000s obviously I was five in 2000 when the book starts, so it's not like very relatable like coming of age, but there's a lot of like the music that's referenced where you're like, oh, that's so nostalgic or it's like interesting to read about, as someone who is a bit younger than the protagonist, of what it was like to like grow up and be an adult in this time period around like 9-11 and you know, turn of the century, um, but yeah, it's like a lot about music. So that's another thing insufferable character and a lot about music. If you can't handle either of those things, I can see why you wouldn't like it, but I really did enjoy it and, um, yeah, I think it's like it's well. When I first told you about this I the reason I read it was because I saw someone on tiktok say it's uh like daisy jones and the six meets normal people, meets uh one day and that's I think that is true, actually, yeah yeah, I think that's true, yeah
Speaker 1:yeah, so say why you dnf'd it. I liked the premise, I like the setting. I I think that people who talk about music the way that they do just piss me the fuck off. That's real. Just shut up like you're not better than everyone because you feel connected to this dumb song, like yeah, oh, my god, it's like it just to me. I was like you know what I'm never gonna like them, yeah, and I just gotta let it go. I like music too, but I, I don't know. I even feel I love reading, obviously.
Speaker 1:We have a whole podcast about reading, but the people who talk about reading in that way, oh no, totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hate them too, like Percy and Joe are not people I would want to hang out with.
Speaker 1:Anyone who talks about their hobby like it makes them like superior to others, yes, or like they know things other people don't. Yeah, babes, it's not that deep, like calm down, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so and something interesting about not I'm going to spoil it now because you're not going to read it but something interesting about, I do think, the. If you do want to read this, skip ahead. But the journey Percy goes on specifically like there's a part that actually deeply offended me, because she kind of goes on a little tear about the song Our House by Crosby Stills.
Speaker 1:Nash.
Speaker 2:Young and I love that song. Like it is to me one of the most romantic songs.
Speaker 1:Like I just think I do, I love it.
Speaker 2:It's such a good song and she like really tears it down because of like some things going on in their personal lives and like she's like like the domestic labor of women and it's so annoying. And then at the end she kind of comes to a moment with joe where she like references the song and it's like more like oh, like it's okay for it just to be what it is and like it is a nice song. So I did like a little bit of that journey, but I again, if you're not like it is, she is a very off-putting person and so I think if you're not vibing with her from the beginning, she's not going to get better.
Speaker 1:What became clear to me is she in the 2024 election. She wrote in Jill Stein.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is who she is Okay, yes, but yeah, I think it's enjoyable.
Speaker 2:I gave it five stars so you can read it and give us your opinion on what you think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah I did. I was telling all I will say. I feel like I'm a more judgmental person than you are I feel, like you are better at seeing the shades of gray than I am fair and so, and so, if you like, that's a good quality. That is a reason also that you continued reading this book. Yes, because you were able to see the shades of gray.
Speaker 2:I was just like yeah, I get it. No, like it's not for everyone. I think I was pretty clear about that from the from the jump.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were. This is not for everyone, I think some people that listen to this podcast should still listen to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but just know it might not be for you. Um, I did also read one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, hockey romance. Oh my god, in the course of being sick, um, genuinely, that was like the only thing I could do was read these freaking hockey books you're absolutely gonna make your reading goal, oh wait, I now.
Speaker 2:I am solidified that I will uh so if you need any like very mediocre hockey romance um recommendations, please dm me and I can give them to you. But there's nothing that I want to uh publicly recommend, but they're all on kindle gosh I need.
Speaker 1:I was really hoping that Great, big, beautiful Life would be the thing that really shook me into reading. I think I'm getting back, but I need something good, great, big, beautiful Life didn't make me want to start from the beginning again.
Speaker 2:I get that Right.
Speaker 1:I need a little something, something, so good luck yeah, I hope you find it bye.