The Readirect Podcast

Summer 2025 Beach Reads

• Emily Rojas & Abigail Freshley • Episode 69

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Today's episode is all about our picks for your beach reads this year! 

As a reminder, the beach is a closed ecosystem and what you read there does not transcend into other realms. Like the airport, nothing matters here. Read your crazy books, be free, have fun. 

BEACH READS: 

Recent Reads:

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshley and I'm Emily Robles.

Speaker 2:

The Redirect Podcast is a show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss the future of some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in our real-life experiences.

Speaker 1:

On today's episode. We're getting you ready for the summer with our 2025 Beach Reads.

Speaker 2:

But first, before we get into that, we would love if you would support the show, if you like it, in a few simple ways.

Speaker 1:

First, you can go on apple podcasts or spotify and leave us a five-star review to let us know that you love the show you can also follow us on instagram and blue sky at redirect podcast and if you really really love the show, feel free to share it with a friend. We have some new friends here following the pod. Share it with your friends. It's by far the best way to help us grow our community of book loving nerds. And tell us what you'd be interested in hearing this summer. Yeah, Always open to ideas, Wide open spaces.

Speaker 2:

You know we love to hear from you guys and what you want us to talk about. So exactly, okay let's go.

Speaker 1:

Um. Well, today's episode is very timely for me because, um, I literally went to the beach for the first time this year this morning, because it was, it is I was telling you before we hit record there's like a crazy heat wave happening, like it never gets as hot yeah this early in the summer summer in la, I feel like, doesn't even really kick off until like the middle of july, right, um, but it's really hot.

Speaker 1:

So we decided, and at the beach it's like 20 degrees cooler. Nice, the high of the beach today is like 75, so love it we had to get out and we brought our puppy oh did she do good, she loved it.

Speaker 1:

We were really worried because um puppies, like when they're seven to nine months old and she's seven months now go through um like a second fear period where they get really spooked by stuff and so like, for instance, we'll be like walking on the sidewalk and they'll be like someone's garbage can is like turned over on its side yeah, and she's like freaking out, she's like scared, like jumping back.

Speaker 1:

So we thought she might be really scared, we at the ocean. But she wasn't at all. She, um, was running around, she ran in the water a little bit. She was digging like crazy. She was just digging a lot of holes. She would just, she was just like locking on one area and like dig, and then be like okay, two feet over, dig, check what's over here?

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately. So there's only a few dog beaches in LA. Most LA beaches are not dog friendly, obviously. We went to a dog friendly one, but none of the other dogs wanted to play with her. She wants it all. All she wants in life truly is have to have another dog to play with. Yeah, she loves playing with other dogs, and all the other dogs were like you're kind of like they didn't want to play with the puppy which I get.

Speaker 1:

I get they're like I just kind of want to lay on the blanket with my mom, or yeah, or probably more likely.

Speaker 1:

I really just want my mom to throw me my ball and I really just don't want to play with you yeah, this is an independent activity, yeah, and so she was really sad about that, yeah, so she kept like going up to dogs and they kept being like anyways, so it was good and it got. I didn't do any reading, of course, because we were just with the dog the whole time. Yeah, and it was good and it got. I didn't do any reading, of course, because we were just with the dog the whole time yeah, and it was just like running around playing that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

But it was great and it's beach season. It put you in the mindset is what we're saying. It put me in the mindset. I was like what would I be reading?

Speaker 2:

if I was here?

Speaker 1:

yeah, if I was reading because this is my thing and I typed this in our outline, so you've seen it. The beach is a closed ecosystem and what you read in that realm does not impact other realms. Like it's a different place. You go to the beach and you're not in America anymore or maybe you are, but you're just like it's a different place. Don't you know what I mean? It's like international waters. Exactly, it's like an airport.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you get drunk at 8 am at an airport.

Speaker 1:

That's okay, closed. You're not an alcoholic, it does.

Speaker 2:

You can eat or drink anything at any time and spend any amount of money, it doesn't count. It doesn't count for everything else you can buy unlimited merch books.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, like shitty, it's not real, yeah it's not real, and that's what the beach is. It's not real. Totally, yeah's what the beach is. It's not real. Totally yeah, I totally agree, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

You got it, you got it yeah, and you also need to have. I think like it's like you have to curate a specific vibe when you are reading on the beach, or like just in the summer months in general, but especially on the beach, because it's like you know you really want to lock into something, you want something, but that's not going to challenge you too much, but that's going to like help you pass the day away right, because also your body.

Speaker 1:

Like. I don't know about you, but for me, when I'm not at the beach with a puppy, yeah, I'm like sitting under the umbrella absolutely no sun touching me. No, not no, I have fabric hats, yes, and sunscreen covering every inch of my body. Absolutely, I'm under the thing. I have a cold drink, yeah, and I have a book and my body gets really heavy and I just like, really.

Speaker 2:

So it can't be like it's like hypnotic.

Speaker 1:

It can't be too much of a slog. No, right, no, it just needs to be like yeah, yes, but I also can crush a lot of books at the beach like I don't know what it is.

Speaker 2:

But I can read like a book a day at the beach. You know what I mean. I can just whip through those things. So it's also good if it's like kind of short, because you start to feel really accomplished, I think, because you're like yeah, I just knocked out five books this week sitting on the beach or the balcony or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Also sometimes at the beach.

Speaker 2:

I don't really love, like and don't play your music yeah, I need to be honestly.

Speaker 1:

I need to go to a senior's beach. I need to go. Yes, I need to go to a beach. This is so great. Um, so, like a little lore, emily's grandparents had this condo which now your parents have. Um, yeah, at the beach, and so we would go like once a year or something like that for a weekend and it was like a grandparents condo.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, it was just a bunch of olds that for a weekend and it was like a grandparents condo. So, yes, it was just a bunch of olds that owned condos and the beach out by this condo was just a bunch of old people yeah or no one at all. Yeah, elite I want you guys to be quiet.

Speaker 2:

Yes, no, no, freaking. What do they call it? Spike ball? Yeah, no bluetooth speakers. I don't want any of that when I'm at the beach. I don't want kids, I don't want teens, I don't want young adults.

Speaker 1:

I will say the one thing I will accept. So obviously. I just said I went to a dog beach. Only bring your dog to a dog beach. This is where all the dogs are going to be hanging out, right right, don't ruin someone's time by bringing your dog to a regular beach. Yeah, there is is a guy who pushes an ice cream cart down the beach at my beach and that is amazing.

Speaker 2:

That's accepted.

Speaker 1:

Yes, A pineapple popsicle in the middle. Come on, now you're talking yeah, an icy cold LaCroix.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, pv&j ice cold LaCroix bag of Doritos. What else could you want?

Speaker 1:

So good.

Speaker 2:

That sounds so good Okay.

Speaker 1:

By the way, do you?

Speaker 2:

have any plans to go to the beach this summer? Not yet, not yet I want to. I've been talking with my friend Allie about doing like a reading weekend Fun, like when Eric's gone sometime. But it's really hard to coordinate because my parents obviously rent out the condo and then like knowing when eric's gonna be traveling, so I don't know if it works out. If the fates align. Yes, I would love to go to the beach, but but maybe at least some pool reading yeah, yeah, pool outside time yeah something yeah, airplane.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're coming to see me, I know, so that's good enough. Yeah, yeah to me the airplane is the same as the beach. The books I want to read are the airplane airport beach.

Speaker 1:

All the same kind of books yeah, absolutely yeah, totally I'll get there okay, well, let's get into it. We've talked about. We wanted a beach read, maybe. What do we not want to be treed? What do you not want?

Speaker 2:

um, nothing lame, nothing that's like oh, I would have read this in school, you know. Like no classics. No, um, like challenging books.

Speaker 1:

Nothing boring, nothing non-fiction nothing I would say teach me something nothing non-fiction, unless it's a salacious memoir.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, yes but nothing like self-help or a juicy memoir, yeah that's fine, um, yeah, so just nothing like that, nothing lame, um nothing like last time we did this, which was like two years ago I think, I think I said three star books, you know like, like that's what I want is something, um, you know, like mid, but good but, like popcorn, you know, just something to fill me up, but not nourish me in any way that's what I want.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, totally heard. Yeah, I think for me, similar thing. If there's anything I don't want, um, I need the book to be so. I don't want anything too short or too long. I want the book to be around 250 to 300 pages.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's real yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think, that's a good length. I want it to be a paperback.

Speaker 2:

Yes, no hardbacks.

Speaker 1:

No hardbacks and Kindle is maybe if I have to. Yeah but it's like too much sand. Yeah, it's risky.

Speaker 2:

Kindle's fine if you're like for in, like you're inside or you're on a balcony looking at the beach. But, yeah, if you're gonna be on the beach, it's got to be a paperback. Um, probably one that I've like got secondhand or someone lent to me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're like I found in the condo, oh yeah it's a, it's a book that lives at the beach house.

Speaker 1:

Oh my, god a lot of nicholas sparks yeah, a lot of nora roberts, a lot of Diane Steele, danielle Steele yeah, oh, my God. Okay, side note, when Emily and I were, we recently shared a like a VRBO for our friend Emma's wedding and the books that they had on their bookshelf. Oh God, it was like they had the DSM, the VRBO. They had the DSM, the VRBO, the DSM. They had all these books about, like Christian couples counseling.

Speaker 2:

And then this book about like how men, how to save your marriage from the brink.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how to save your marriage from the brink, and then like how men can please women. It was crazy, it was insane. And then they also had like Pilgrim's Progress.

Speaker 2:

It was like hey, you guys need to clean this up. Like this is not vrbo material and some of it was like this is like. It was like uh, children of like emotionally immature parents, like healing from infidelity.

Speaker 1:

It seemed like they were probably like.

Speaker 2:

They were like marriage counselors or something like. But it was very jarring and you're like, people are renting this, you know like. Can you imagine like we're here for a wedding? It was a story so crazy yeah, that was yeah so if you have a vrbo or an airbnb like maybe don't put your personal book collection, just fill it up with whatever you can find at goodwill, you know totally that's what we want, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

So, uh, who you want to kick it off? You want me to kick it off?

Speaker 2:

um, I can kick it off if you want, sure, so I did, uh, instead of like well, I do have specific book recommendations, but I just am doing three general categories, okay, okay, and things that fit into those categories. So the first one is, like you want to pick the tropiest romance that you enjoy, find your niche, whatever that is like. For me right now it's hockey romance so I have some recommendations in there.

Speaker 2:

but also I wanted to say, like road trip is a really good uh, niche, um, which we have. I think I'm recommending some things that I think were on the last episode that never released and the audio deleted. But I recently read this book, you with a View by Jessica Joyce. That was like two people taking their grandpa on this not their shared grandpa, but one of their grandpas and then this girl on a road trip across like the Western, you know, united States, and then also we both really like and have talked about, here we Go Again.

Speaker 1:

Here we Go Again is a great beach book. We love that book. Well, it is a crier.

Speaker 2:

It's a crier but it's like a solid paperback. But I'm just saying find your trope that you like. Again, for me it is hockey romance. I'm recommending these two that I talked about on that last episode, which was Gravity, and the Other Side of the Story by Tao Bauer. It's like a duology. You don't have to read them in that order, but it's fun if you do. But the thing about these extremely tropey romances number one if you get a one-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited, you can just lock in and read the most trashy or enjoyable or mid-romances on a trope like infinite. There's an infinite amount. If you go on kindle unlimited right now and search like hockey romance or uh we were talking about, are we going to get into cowboy romances or like you want? Some people are really into the mafia romance.

Speaker 2:

I don't get that I'm never going to get into that, respectfully, but that might be for you. Maybe you like um, like a billionaire romance. I think that's a big one. Anyways, you can find a million of those. Uh, and the thing about those authors too, is they'll always write like a 10 book series where, like you know one character from one like a side character, and then they're the main character, and then you know anyway. So I just think, like, whatever your trope is, find it just like. Go within yourself, you know, do a seance, speak to the other side, find that trope that's going to connect for you and then lock in and read like 20 books in that trope. That should be your beach read that's a good idea.

Speaker 1:

You know that's a really good recommendation, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you like that yeah, because I just feel like know, like once you find something that you like, you can sit and read a million books on the beach that are basically the same.

Speaker 1:

And so, yeah, just find whatever that is for you and like even more fun part, you'll always look back on that trip and be like I associate that with hockey.

Speaker 2:

Maybe like hockey's, not the one. Hockey to me is like a wintery thing, you know messed up way um when I was like 17, my family went to seaside.

Speaker 1:

Sure, and I, for some reason, I read this present darkness by frank peretti at the beach. That's wild. And now I will always associate seaside florida with the demon book, this present darkness. It was crazy.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy. I read last year I went to the beach and I read the will of many at the beach, um, which did take me almost like that was the whole time, uh, but I wasn't like it was in the fall. So it wasn't like going and sitting on the beach, I was more like in, just on the balcony. And, yeah, I always think about the beach when I think about the wealth of any. Yeah, yeah, it's just when you read you can really, you know, place an association.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, that could be your thing yeah, uh, also like honestly get into fan fiction at the beach, why not? That's a really good point your tropes or just during the summer, like those are summer reads, so find your fandom.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, find your fandom, find the other day, Emily said to me you said fandom will save us, and I think that's true. I think it's true. I want a tattoo of that on my wrist.

Speaker 2:

You need to be obsessed with something fake honestly, and it will make your life better. If you haven't tried it, if you haven't tried being a fangirl, honestly.

Speaker 1:

Why try drugs when you could try fandom?

Speaker 2:

Gender neutral fangirl. Yeah yeah, gender neutral fangirl, like just try it, because if you have a little bit of an obsession with something and then all of a sudden, every little tiktok is an edit to a show or a movie or a fake world that you like, um, and then all like, you see that fandom everywhere you look, and then you buy merch and then you read fan fiction and then you're on tumblr and pinterest and, like your whole life can be a little bit tinged with something you love.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you would have, you could, you could see something normal that you could just see like a cake and be like oh, remus, remus, lupin, you old so-and-so exactly okay.

Speaker 2:

What's your first recommendation? Okay?

Speaker 1:

before I get my first recommendation, I would like to remind everyone of the rules of the beach, yeah, which are. It is a closed ecosystem.

Speaker 1:

It is a separate realm and in it exists nothing else. Okay, facts. So I looked back on our last episode and I recommended ice planet barbarbarians by Ruby Dixon Correct, and this time I'm recommending another work by Ruby Dixon called Bull Moon Rising. Bull Moon Rising is going to be new for some of you, so it is a minotaur romance and but OK, and it's crazy, all okay, and it's crazy, all right, it's crazy. And if you don't like really insane, crazy minotaur smut, this isn't for you. But if you think you could be into that, um, the plot is also really good. It's about a girl who's like learning how to mine for artifacts to save her family, and the Minotaur is her coach and there's like it's like a marriage of convenience. Anyways, it's insane, but I think sometimes the beach can allow something insane to happen. Absolutely yeah, and so if you're going to read something insane, this should be the place to do it and honestly like so I read this book because I was like you know what? Hell yeah For the plot.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I was like I liked Ice Queen of Barbarians. Ironically, yeah. I was like all right, like let's send it why not yeah. So then my friend sarah read it and my friend sarah, like, she typically likes things that are a lot more like cerebral, um, she reads a lot of dystopian stuff. Octavia butler, she read like the uh, the wool series. Anyway, she gave it four stars and she's like unfortunately I do have to give this book four stars because I would recommend it to a friend, so sorry.

Speaker 2:

Like I do. So I'm just saying it has a broad appeal it could surprise and delight you. Yeah. And I think if you're going to branch out and try something crazy and unhinged, the beach is a great place to do it Totally, totally and I think, like you know, have your like pina colada and read something crazy and, just you know, be enjoy your life be free.

Speaker 1:

I will say that, like outside of the crazy romance, it does have a really good plot, yeah, and like there's like a whole adventure element and like the heroine is like on a quest to save her family and like it's all really interesting, like there's a really good plot outside of the bromance. That's all I'll say. Yeah, I believe, give it a shot. Yeah, all right, what's your second pick?

Speaker 2:

okay. My second category is like uh, well, this is what I titled it sh**ty mysteries, just again. This kind of goes with the romance trope thing. It's like you want this to be like. Are these good? I don't know, but I'm going to lock in and read this entire thing and not be able to put it down, you know.

Speaker 2:

So my pick for this one is the Five Year Lie by Serena Bowen, who ironically, writes a lot of romance which I think tracks, and this is like, I think, her transition to trying to write a thriller. But I really like, like this I think I talked about it when I read it originally on the pod, but basically, um, if you don't remember or if you miss that episode, or if I'm making that up, um, this girl named ariel, she uh, was dating this guy named drew, for, like, they were super serious, they were in love and one day he just disappeared and turns out also she was pregnant with her, his child but she never could tell him because he disappeared before she like found out and was able to tell oh right, this is ringing bells.

Speaker 1:

This is ringing yes yes.

Speaker 2:

And then five years pass and she gets a text, um on her phone that's from him, that says something's happened I need to see you meet me under the candelabra tree, a capital t. And so, oh, and she thought he was dead, like someone for some reason, like she had found out I forget how, like either she found his obituary or something, but like he was supposed to be dead. And so she gets a sex from him, um, and so then that like unfolds a series of events. So this is really good, uh, like I just love like a domestic thriller, a woman protagonist.

Speaker 2:

Um, there's like a added like romance story here, kind of, because it's like there'll be flashbacks like how they first met and everything.

Speaker 2:

Um, but yeah, I think books like this that are like really fast-paced, mysterious, I always like, I think I like mystery and romance for the same reason because you know something happens or is going to happen or has happened, but you don't know how you're going to get there. And it's like you want to keep turning the pages to find out, like either how to solve the mystery or to see how these people are going to fall in love, see how these people are going to fall in love. And so I feel like they light up the same part of my brain of like I can't put this down until, like, they kiss or until, like, the mystery is revealed. Uh, so, anyways, I think if you are looking for something, find these. Like you know, if you've never read, like the woman on the train, uh, the woman in the window, uh, gone, girl. Like if you've never read any of these, this is your time to do it because, like, yeah, it's a formulaic mystery a formulaic mid-tier and it's going to keep you turning the pages.

Speaker 1:

It's going to keep you out on the beach longer.

Speaker 2:

This is what you need yeah, and you're out in the sun, so you're not going to be scared. You know you're not gonna be like I'm afraid. You're out in the sunshine. Just read, read something a little creepy, mysterious, and it's like really satisfying too when you find a good resolution. At the end You're like okay, I did that. I read this and I feel like all the loose ends are wrapped up and now I'm ready to move on to the next thing. So, yeah, totally that's number two. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Good, I like that one. Thank you, good rec. My second is categorized as tropical setting, so you're reading about someone being at the beach while you're at the beach, and for this I will submit the fake boyfriend fiasco by talia hibbert. Um, this one we have said many times. This is not new. If you're, if you're a new listener to our podcast, okay, okay, we love.

Speaker 2:

Talia Hibbert.

Speaker 1:

We would read anything she wrote. I'm obsessed with her. Did you also know? Did you hear she's writing a romanticie?

Speaker 2:

I've heard, I think I've heard something about that, did she post?

Speaker 1:

something about that recently I think so it sounds familiar.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, I'll be sad for that, but this one is really fun because it's fake dating, obviously from the title, but also it is celebrity, normal person and it's all set at, like this friend's weekend with like a lot of people around and he needs a fake girlfriend to kind of help protect him from misunderstandings with other women or something like that. It's been a while since I read it, but of course they're in the same room. Of course they're in the same room. Um, of course they. There is sexual tension, of course they fall in love and uh, it's plus size representation, um, which is always really fun, especially because, like, the male main character is like a famous, like football player, um, like soccer, uh-huh, oh, so it's like, yeah, fat people also pull athletes, um, yeah, so anyways, it's a lot of fun. It's definitely spicy, um, beach time, tropical setting, like they're out on the beach, they're at the pool, they're in a beach house, like it's fun read about what you're living.

Speaker 2:

I think you would like that and always support talia hibbert because she's our number one fave this is like one of very few talia hibbert books I haven't read, so I just it's on kindle limited and I am, uh, I'm going to be reading it, yeah you're gonna love it. I just um you're gonna eat this up yeah, I did not know it was celebrity, normal person. I would have read it a lot sooner if I had known that uh, there's something about just the fantasy of like celebrity yes, yes, and being like you're the only one who understands me, this is my favorite dynamic of all time in books.

Speaker 2:

I want one person person a, let's say to be famous. I want person b to not be famous, but they're obsessed with person a, like they had their poster on their wall. But then person a is the one that falls in love harder that's what I want yes, like then, they're like no, I'm obsessed with you and that's what I want. I want that and I'll eat it up every time, so that's the best possible dynamic.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great for the beach. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm locked in. I'm going to be ready.

Speaker 1:

All right, what's your next one?

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I want to add on to that. I think I would recommend this is not one of my recommendations, but beachy setting people need to read the pairing, because I'm so up in arms lately about this. Obviously we've talked about this at length on multiple episodes and we did an entire episode about the pairing. But I recently saw someone do a ranking of casey bequistin's books and they put the pairing last and were like so mean to it and I. That's because they have no taste they have no taste.

Speaker 2:

So you need to join us. If you're out there listening, read the pairing. Join us in our crusade. This is how I feel about happy place too. People need to stop shitting on the best books, so yeah, but I mean, like the pairing should be read during the summer. It should be read it's a summer book, yeah with like a bunch of grapes um being fed to you and like you're a little cheese board yes, a cheese board, yes, okay, my last category is books that feel like a hot august day okay

Speaker 2:

I have no context for this, but when I think about these two books they're both five star books I read, uh, they feel like when you wake up in the morning and it's so hot outside and humid, um, and it like smells like summer you know what I I'm talking about and you're like it's not going to cool down at all, like the night did nothing to cool me down. Number one is Chain Gang All Stars, which I've talked about on here before. So you guys need to go read that book. It just feels like the entire plot of the book happens in the summer. It's like sweaty and hot and like intense and I think it's a good beach read, even though it is like a really happy subject matter.

Speaker 2:

So if you haven't heard me talk about this before, it's like um. Or if you're unaware of the book, it's um, what am I? I just lost my train of thought. It's about a gladiator prison system where people on death row can choose to go and fight to the death for entertainment yeah, and if they work their way up through the system, they have the opportunity to be freed.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of like Trial of the Sun Queen. It's a little similar, but way better, way better, way better.

Speaker 2:

Respectfully. And it's not. There is a romantic element, but it's not like romance heavy, and so it's. It follows these two women who are in a romantic relationship, but they're also both a part of the same chain in Chain Gang All-Stars, and you know, it's kind of devastating, but it's so good. I think in these times it's probably even more relevant than ever. So that's my number one recommendation. The other one is called the Displacements. If I have talked about this, it's probably been a while. This one is about the first Category 6 hurricane.

Speaker 1:

Hold on. You started this episode and you were like no serious subject matter.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I lied. No, here's the thing I mean mean when I think of serious subject matter, I mean like real life serious, but like it can be serious if it's like incredibly gripping, and okay, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

So I want to be gripped. You don't want to read about world war ii right, right, right, right.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to read anything non-fiction that's going to educate me. Got it okay but if it's like uh, I think both of these would be like speculative fiction. That category is fine with me where it's like you know, like what would happen if this if this happened makes sense anyways, this one's about the first category six hurricane hitting, uh, florida, so that is self-explanatory.

Speaker 2:

Like it's storm season and, um, you know, something I love about the beach is like, uh, when you're there all day and then in the afternoon there's like a crazy thunderstorm that just dumps rain and you can just sit on the balcony and you're showered and you're clean and you can like read your book and like watch the rain come in. I just love that. So it's about it kind of like. To me, these books are written very similarly. They like switch perspectives, they take you through an event, and this one is similar, like it's multiple perspectives of people either fleeing the storm or evacuating, or like their homes are destroyed, dealing with like resettlement camps, and it's really, really good, I think. I would highly recommend this as well. And these are supposed to be feel like a hot August day. So the displacements and changing all stars, I think.

Speaker 2:

If you are someone who doesn't want to read something trashy on the beach, which I can't relate, but I think these two were both five star reads, incredibly well written, but still like will grip you and feel like you know you can fly through it when you're sitting on the beach. So and think about if a category six hurricane is hurling towards you as you sit and watch the ocean.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's it only.

Speaker 2:

You would recommend that I know, but someone out there listening has the same taste as me and they're're going to really appreciate it. They're going to get it. Yeah, thank you, I'm going to read that. But I might read that book at home in the summer, but not on the beach. Yeah, that's fine.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, my last book the category is Reliable, faithful Beach Read and that is Funny Story by Emily Henry, excellent. I am biased towards this because I just finished a reread of this yesterday. As I told you, I think, off the podcast, I'm going to be doing a reread of emily henry universe. Um, because it's I've read them as they've come out and so it's been over the last like five years, right. So like really comparing them has been difficult and also I needed somebody to get me out of a reading slump and so I just reread Funny Story and it is set at a beach, it's set on Lake Michigan, but it's such beachy vibes. There's a literal beach, there's boat rides, yes, there is fireworks and ice cream cones, food trucks, like it is just the most vacation, vacationy vibes with the best characters, the sweetest, just picturesque, lavender farm type it was. It's just lovely, it is, it's so good, and I love the male main character in that book yes.

Speaker 1:

You'll totally absorb into this. If you read this on the beach, it's so good.

Speaker 2:

Emily Henry is a faithful. I'm doing a happy place reread right now. I'm trying to parcel my way through it, go slow, but yeah, I think to me also not on the same caliber necessarily, but Ellen Hildebrand's, another where you're like you can just pick up one of her books on the beach and you know what you're getting and you know it's going to be like pretty good and reliable, you know. Yeah, so like the reliability.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Of Emily Henry. Like safe, this is your safety backup choice.

Speaker 2:

Like, if none of this.

Speaker 1:

If everything you've heard so far sounds like a little bit of a risk to you, yeah, then let's wrap up this episode with like, with like, emily, henry, yeah. One that's definitely going to hit Like I can almost guarantee it for you. Yeah, I feel like even people who don't, who inconsistently like Emily Henry, love this book.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think funny story. This was also something we talked about on our last episode. The funny story is like the unifier Cause. I see people as people we meet on vacation, happy place polarizing on one side, book lovers, beach read are polarizing on another side.

Speaker 1:

but I feel like everyone unites over funny story and liking it we are gonna save I, so I also rewrite people we meet on vacation. We're gonna I'm saving that because we're gonna do an episode on that book before the netflix movie comes out yeah but I can't wait the the little teaser treat of my thoughts about it are. It is not as like. I thought. It held up pretty well. I liked it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, I think people just don't like friends to lovers or second chance romance, which are my two favorite tropes. But I think people like people to meet and instantly feel connection and don't necessarily like it when people have to grow it over time or they have to grow up separately first. That's my take on why people don't like people we meet on vacation, interesting and happy place, and the pairing Rude. Leave these people alone, you know. Stop it Anyways. So, yeah, great.

Speaker 1:

Love it All right. Have you read anything recently that's up note.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I have so much to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Okay, great.

Speaker 2:

Should I say like I really want to talk about why I didn't like a book first? Should I do that first? Sure, I feel like I end on a more positive note. Okay, so I read the Rom-Comers by Catherine Sutter. Would you like me to not spoil you.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to read it. Okay, great, after hearing that you just didn't like it.

Speaker 2:

I'm a big Catherine Sinner fan. I say that, but I've only ever read the Bodyguards.

Speaker 1:

But I really like the Bodyguards. I read the face blindness one, Uh-huh uh-huh I thought it was okay.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I thought this was okay.

Speaker 1:

The other thing about Catherine Sinner is and there's nothing wrong with this it's closed-door romance. Yes, so you really. Everything else needs to be really good.

Speaker 2:

That's, I think, the problem. I think, she, you can't have it both ways. There are people who over rely on, like, sex and smut to convey that people are into each other. Yeah, so if you're not going to use that, which that's fine, you have to show me that people are into each other with their actions and their thoughts and their feelings and their words. Uh, so, anyways, this follows emma wheeler and she is a writer, she loves rom-coms more than anything and she, um has kind of like, put her life on hold because her dad had a debilitating accident, um, and he's okay, but, like he has some long-term chronic health problems and can't be left alone, has to be taken care of. So she has a younger sister who, like, has been able to follow her dreams and live her life and she's, like you know, put her life on hold or whatever so there's supposedly some animosity there, um, but she gets this opportunity from her high school boyfriend who ended up being gay, so now they're just really good friends.

Speaker 2:

He calls her and is like hey, I'm the manager for charlie. He's like a manager in la. He's like I manage charlie yates, who's this like famous screenwriter and he has to write a rom-com. But it's, he wrote a script and it's horrible, and so you have to come out here and fix it, like work with him and fix it. So she goes out there. Charlie doesn't know she's coming. This was like a complete elaborate scheme by her friend, because Charlie's like has writer's block because he got cancer and then his wife left him on the same day, which is really shit, and so he can't write anything.

Speaker 1:

And he doesn't like rom-coms. This is getting so suspiciously like just dump everything convoluted.

Speaker 2:

It gets worse, okay let me just dump every plot thing you could think of yes.

Speaker 2:

So because he didn't know she's coming, he's like really genuinely very mean and says, like you're a failed right, like you're nobody. I'm better than you, like I'm an amazing writer, I'm I'm like super famous, you suck. And she hears all this and she's like sad. She's like I'm gonna convince you that love is real and that rom-coms are good. So then they start working together on this. He agrees because she convinces him. I guess they fall in love allegedly. There's so many things that happen then.

Speaker 2:

Then her dad has an accident. She flies back home and she like tries to come on to him multiple times and he keeps turning her down and he, throughout the course of this book, multiple times says more mean things about her, like even as they're working together and becoming friends, no, and like he's taking her advice. And so then the end comes and he's like oh, I was actually just pushing you away because I thought my cancer had come back, but it turns out I just had bronchitis and they got the scans mixed up and like so now we can be in love and uh, whatever, it was really just stupid, because he was like I don't want to die on you, basically, and like put you through that okay, that's why I was a jerk that's stupid.

Speaker 2:

And then it's stupid the grand romantic gesture. This is my biggest grief. So they spent six weeks working on this rom-com script that she's like it's like a remake of an old. It would be like redoing sleepless in seattle or something like an iconic movie that she's obsessed with, and so they spent six weeks working on it. They almost finish it before she has to like flee to go help her dad. Then his like grand romantic gesture is he's like hey, we sold us, we sold a movie script together. Um, and she's like oh, the movie we've been working on for six weeks. He's like well, he doesn't even say this directly, but through her friend she. He's like no, look, and it's he has written a rom-com based on them falling in love. So it's like two screenwriters. That's not romantic, no, and her name's on the script. So he's like congratulations, like you sold a script. But it's like she didn't. She didn't write this. Like she spent six weeks working on something she worked on this other thing.

Speaker 1:

That's like I would like crazy.

Speaker 2:

No, it was so bad to me. Um, anyway, so I posted on my instagram story and someone else dm'd me and said like I didn't, I hated it, but I didn't realize I hated it until I finished it. I was like, yeah, that's exactly how I felt, because through the time reading it, I'm like this is okay, I guess I don't like how he's constantly being a jerk, whatever. So if you are out there and you also hated this, please dm me. Um, it was not great. And it was like, also, she was trying this thing where the narration would like break the third wall a lot, or the fourth wall, which is really hard to do Like really hard to do, and it was not done well in my opinion. It was like I just didn't like it. Sorry, catherine Sutter, but I was not a fan. Okay, here's my five star book. Okay.

Speaker 1:

Excited.

Speaker 2:

I read this Is how it Always Is, by Laurie Frankel.

Speaker 1:

Have you heard of this? Oh, I have heard about this. Okay, but keep talking in a good way or a bad way. I'm scared I'm in a good way, I think okay, okay this is how it always is okay.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I've definitely seen this around a lot. It's it was published in 2017, so it's older um but, I had not read it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so this basically follows a family. It's just like a. It's just follows a family. They have five children, the parents, rosie and Penn. Rosie is a doctor in the emergency room and Penn is an aspiring writer. He's like constantly working on his novel but he also raises the kids, you know, and he's very soft and sweet and she's very like, ambitious, and they just have a really lovely relationship. They have five children. All of them are boys, and their youngest child is born a boy but pretty quickly in his life begins to communicate to their parents that he is not a boy, he's a girl, and so it's about raising a transgender child. The child's name is Claude and then later goes by Poppy. The pronouns kind of switch back and forth, but I'll say she and Poppy. And she grows up and it starts telling you how, like telling you how rosie and pen first fell in love, how they had these kids, and it goes all the way until poppy is like in middle school. Um, so there's some time jumps in there.

Speaker 2:

I just like I really love this book for a second. This is one of those books that's so good where you're like, oh, like, would it be kind of cool to have five kids? No, that's the answer. No, but like the family is so beautiful, like even when they have like problems, it's so beautiful. And I think, like in my mind, I would have probably said before reading this book that there are just two types of people who end up having kids who are transgender or gender non-conforming and like some people are gonna be horrible and they're not gonna accept their kid, and then some people are gonna be great and they're gonna accept their kid and like those, that's it. That's the binary that exists. And this was like hey, there are actually people who are really accepting and really loving and want to like support their kid and still do the wrong thing sometimes and like, yeah, nobody knows how to handle something like this.

Speaker 2:

Um, and every kid is different, um, and so like, for example, when uh poppy first starts like wearing dresses to school, at that point you know she's five years old she's not saying like hey, I'm a girl, like I want to go by she her pronouns. And so the parents are like, yeah, sure, wear your dress to school, grow your hair long, like I don't care. And the school's like, oh, we're very accepting, we're super accepting, but like, which bathroom is are they gonna use? And like is it a boy or a girl? Like which one? You have to pick one. And the parents are like, oh okay, we didn't know. We had to. Like pick. You know, this is just our kid.

Speaker 2:

And just like the countless decisions that you would have to make for any kid, not just if they're transgender, but sometimes kids have other medically complex needs or they have learning disabilities that you as a parent have to make decisions that might impact their entire life and they aren't old enough to understand the implications necessarily, and you're just trying to do the best you can. So I thought the story was really lovely. It was very moving. It doesn't like end, it just kind of like takes you through their life and you know it ends midway in their life and like you just get a glimpse into this family, how it impacts all the other kids and it's just a really I will say it's not super nuanced and, yes, informed by real lived experience.

Speaker 2:

It is, um, I will say like number one too, one of the number one things I feel like not a lot of people know how to write like a relationship that's already existing, and I just thought the love story with rosie and pen the parents, is like one of the more moving parts of this book.

Speaker 2:

Like they go through there are things where they disagree on how to handle something and there are times when, like they're clinging to each other because they don't know what to do, and like just the journey that they go on is really nice. Um, and, like you said, the author does have a transgender child. So, um, laurie, she said, like this is not my child's story, it's not like an autobiography but, like you know, it's informed by her experience. And I did look because I was, like you know, sometimes, like I see this sometimes with like autism community where it's like the parents are making it all about them and then the actual autistic child is like, hey, that's not my experience at all, or like you're making this by yourself. So I tried to find like as many, uh, transgender adult reviews as I could and everything I saw was really positive, like that this is a great reflection of um, you know a transgender child and their experience and I don't know it was very moving.

Speaker 2:

I would really recommend it it's also on kindle unlimited so you can read it. If you are like me and you get one month and you're trying to like, uh, defraud jeff bezos, but yeah, it was really really good. I I like it was an easy five stars, I couldn't stop reading it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know that's amazing, sounds really good and it sounds, uh, like it is avoiding the thing that you want to avoid, which is like being prescriptive or like putting people in boxes based on their identity.

Speaker 2:

It sounds like it was a nuanced experience and showed lots of different perspectives yeah, there's a part um, sorry, I'm to talk a little more there's a part where the mother, who's a doctor, rosie, she has the opportunity to go to Thailand to do some medical work over there and she brings Poppy with her because there's some other stuff going on, difficult things, and Poppy sees in Thailand.

Speaker 2:

It's pretty known there like a little bit more nuance when it comes to gender expression, and so there's like a bathroom that Poppy sees, that has like a half male figure and a half female figure on it, and it's just like a really I don't know like subtly profound moment where it's like hey, like maybe I don't have to be one or the other, like I don't have, like I'm a kid, I don't have to be one or the other, like I don't have, like I'm a kid, I don't have to like fully decide my life, but I can just be who I am. And yeah, there are people who will accept me, even if it's not one like, even if I'm not necessarily a girl like the kind of girl everyone thinks I would be, or a boy like everyone thinks I would be, I can just be poppy, I can be myself. I don't know. There's so many things in this I could talk about it forever. So I really want everyone to read it and talk to me about it, because it's really good.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'll put it on my list, please do.

Speaker 2:

That's it. Also, I have to say last thing. Last thing I am scared that our tastes are diverging because I have started heated rivalry against your advice and I really like it, oh no, okay. Anyways, I'm like 25% through and I'm really enjoying it. So I'm sorry, I'm scared because this is like too many things happening in a row.

Speaker 1:

Where I'm quitting books that you recommended.

Speaker 2:

So I won't recommend it to you, obviously, because you're already adapted.

Speaker 1:

So Trial of the Sun Queen yeah, I liked it, I thought it was good, I just didn't. I think what was missing for me is so I finished that one. I quit the second one because I was just like I don't feel like I'm connecting to the characters like that. No, that's fair, that's fair, um, but I generally liked it. What else did I quit that you recommended to me? Oh, deep cuts, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But that was. You get it. You get it. You get it. I was worried about recommending that to you. You get it.

Speaker 1:

You like it, or it's a strong character. So yeah, given that I have quit a bunch of books recently and I'm just wrapping up this book called Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, which is like a feminist retelling of the Greek mythology character Ariadne, who was the sister of the Minotaur, the daughter of King Minos. She got like jilted by the hero Theseus and she ended up marrying Dionysus. It's all right.

Speaker 2:

Like. I don't like.

Speaker 1:

I'm not quitting it. It's interesting, I liked it, but like it didn't do me like, that you know what I mean, yeah. So I am about to like okay, follow up with me next time, because I do have a cowboy romance slated. Okay, and I just picked that one series. I see the covers for all the time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I already know what you're talking about this one yep, yep, yep, yep done and dusted, I see enough to know what you're talking about done and dusted by Lila Sage, yeah, um, and if I don't love this one, I am going to stop it and then pick up this other series. That's like very popular cowboy romance. Um, if you don't follow me on blue sky which you should I'm at fabigal on blue sky. Um, or maybe is that what I am on blue sky. Hold up, you are. Um, yeah, no, I'm fabigal one. Um, follow me at fabio one on blue sky. But, um, I was listening to like a country classics playlist and save a horse ride.

Speaker 1:

A cowboy came on and there was something in my body that was just like activated and I was like yeah I saddle up my horse and I ride into the city, so anyways, anyways, I'm reading a cowboy romance and I think that's going to be like.

Speaker 2:

I think that's gonna hit a moment. That's a summer reading. That's a summer reading journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, so yeah, and I'm going to continue rereading Emily Henry. Yeah, as you should, and hopefully I have some of those good things coming up, but maybe, maybe, maybe I just give your recommendation some room to breathe.

Speaker 2:

I know I'm not even recommending anything to you now.

Speaker 1:

I'm scared no, no, don't be scared, don't be scared. I respect your opinions and I really generally like your taste, but I don't know, I think maybe just the things you're looking for right now, and things I'm looking for right now, are not emerging yeah yeah, but hey, that makes our content more interesting yeah, let's argue some more um, okay, uh, have you started.

Speaker 2:

Careless people no, okay, I haven't got there yet. No, I'm going to this week, obviously, but audiobooks I haven't decided. Yeah, I haven't decided. I'm gonna do the audiobook or try to just get it on my kindle or something. So, okay, that's what's next, though that's a preview. That's a preview. That's a preview.

Speaker 1:

That's what we're talking about next time If you want to. So our next episode is going to be a book club episode with friend of the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Colleen.

Speaker 1:

And we are going to talk about the Facebook memoir Careless People. Yeah, so if you want to be ready and prepared for our next episode, read Careless.

Speaker 2:

People Join.

Speaker 1:

If you want to be ready and prepared for our next episode.

Speaker 2:

read Careless People. Join us and you'll know the tea or just listen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can't wait. All right, guys, we'll see you later, bye, bye.