The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
A Thoughtful, Bookish Holiday Gift Guide
Want to gift a book this holiday season, but not sure where to start? Tune in to today's episode for a thoughtful, curated holiday gift guide. Plus the Goodreads Book Awards, recent reads, and more.
This is this is an epidemic spreading across the nation. Okay. As heated rivalry comes out. Oh my god. Hear me out. Oh my god. It's coming out. It's obviously sold out everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to the redirect podcast where Emily shifts the conversation back to the city.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just saying, as it comes out, it's there are a lot of people reading it for the first time.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_00:Who are into who are now going to be into the world full of people. Welcome to the redirect podcast. My name is Abigail. And I'm Emily Roman as the redirect podcast in the show where we shift the conversation back to the books. Before we get into that. You love us. Please be for you to support the show in a few simple ways. Sorry, Zo no. Uh first you can leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and let us know that you love the show.
SPEAKER_01:You can also follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky at redirectpodcast. You can follow Emily on all pref platforms at Emily Rojas Reads. And me at uh Fabigil11 on TikTok. Um, and if you really, really love the show, consider sharing our show with a friend. Sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to grow our community of book loving nerds.
SPEAKER_00:Consider that our Christmas present from you to us. Share a show with a friend, give us a special review, follow us, all that. You can also email us at therrectpodcast at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_01:Or you know what? Here, you know what, I'm gonna expand this invitation. If you live in either the Atlanta metro area or the Los Angeles metro area, and we are not already friends in real life, reach out to hang out. One of us would love to hang out with you in person and make a real life connection.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we'd love to. Why not? Don't you know murder us or anything, but uh sure. DM us.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, let's hang out. Okay, okay. Oh my gosh, so much is going on. You just had dental surgery. Correct.
SPEAKER_00:Surgery's doing a lot of work there. Dental procedure. Procedure, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's better. Yeah. And you am unemployed. So I'm gonna have a ton of time to just yap and yap and yap and yap and yap.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'm gonna make this podcast my full-time job. That's you. Yeah. Great. Well, we're excited to have you here, Abigail. And uh excited to be here. Let's hope the employment unemployment era is short-lived.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm trying to, it's only been two days. I'm really trying to like enjoy, I guess, but it's weird because what do I do? You know what I mean? Correct. What do you do? I wouldn't know. Yeah. Because you're trying to balance the anxiety of not having a job.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's not like you can relax.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, like it's like like fully. You also it's kind of impossible, especially in like mid-November of a year, to apply for jobs eight hours a day, right? Yeah, yeah. So, okay, what? Like two hours a day, go out. So, yeah, so two hours a day, I'm like doing job search stuff. Yeah, right? Sure. Yeah. Seems like appropriate. I'm walking the dog. Yeah. And then the walking. If I'm lucky, I have an hour of errands, and then we're gonna start doing this podcast once a week. I'm gonna, here's the thing. I'm definitely gonna meet my reading goal. That's for sure. Hell yeah. I'm definitely gonna meet my reading goal. And now is your time. If you guys have been wanting us to read a book that you love, yeah, I will volunteer myself. I have plenty of time. If there's a book that you want me to read, DM us or email us at email us, yeah. Readpodcast at the redirectpodcast at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_00:Just regular redirect podcast on everything else.
SPEAKER_01:Um would could have thought that one through a little better, but that's my bad. But yeah, Abigail will read it. I'll read it and then we'll report back. That'll be a new segment. Yeah, yeah. Or if you have any leads on jobs. DM us with that.
SPEAKER_00:Everyone guess my career and just feel out the vibes of what Abigail might be good at since everyone.
SPEAKER_01:Anyways, all right, whatever. Let's start talking about the content of this episode. So Yeah. It's we've done this every year. Yeah. And I feel like it's evolved. Correct. Our style, our format. Um, the thing is, it's hard to like guess what an individual person in your life might want. So we're gonna re-reverse engineer it. We're going to say some of our favorite books of the year and who would fit the profile of a good person to give that book to. And we'll talk about some other responsible, thoughtful ways to shop this holiday season for book related things to give for a winter holiday. How about that?
SPEAKER_00:I love that idea. And I think um we're gonna have so much fun. You're gonna you're gonna have a great time listening to us. So it's buckle up. Buckle up buckle in. What would you what would you what book would you want to give to someone and who would the person be in your life?
SPEAKER_01:So um one of my five-star reads of the year is a poetry collection, the selected poems of Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry, um, rest in peace, is um my favorite poet. He is um, or he was, an um environmentalist, a farmer from Middle America, and kind of like way ahead of his time, especially fitting the demographic of like white guy from Middle America. Sure. About um the way that we treat our world, the way we treat kids in society, um, the way that we just live our lives. And I have a tattoo uh alluding to one of his poems. I love him so much. This would be a great book to give to the nature lover in your life. I feel like it's like, okay, anyone who has like a love of nature or can relate to like metaphors about the earth or um animals or even like he has a whole section of this poetry collection about marriage. Um I feel like this would be a little bit out of the box. They may not normally not gravitate towards poetry themselves, but um also reading poetry is really easy because most poems are like five or six lines, so you can kind of just like flip through a few pages at a time and kind of like this is an entree into like reading, right? Like if you don't yeah, if your loved one isn't really like a huge reader, like a hardcore reader, yeah. Yeah, this is nice, and um taking it a step further, one thing you could do is you could order a used copy or a new copy of this. Um, we love thrift books, but uh you could tag and annotate the book with some of your favorite poems from the book or say, like, oh, this one made me think of you. I thought you might like this one, and that just takes the book to the next level.
SPEAKER_00:That's so kind. I love that idea. I was gonna say a poetry collection is probably a really good gift because it's like low commitment too. Someone doesn't feel like the pressure to read the book um necessarily, like they can peruse it at their leisure, and um, like you said, it's kind of like an easy barrier to entry, so you can just read one little poem at a time, it's not that difficult. Yeah, and that's something someone probably wouldn't buy for themselves. Yeah, you know, yeah, I love that. Okay. What about you? I'll go. Um, this was a controversial book on this podcast, but I personally five-starred Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley. And I think this is a good gift if you have someone in your life who is pretentious and possibly um really annoying about music, uh, especially. I think this would be a good gift for them. Or if they liked really annoying people in love. Like, I do think like kind of Daisy Jones-esque. Yeah. Um, or even normal people, where they're both kind of like, oh, sometimes you don't like the choices they're making. If they like those books, they would like this. And this would be really great. Like you could make them like a mixed CD of all the songs mentioned in the in the book, um, or you know, get them like an album to go with this. But I think this is a really good one for yeah, someone who is kind of annoying about even if they're not annoying about music, if they're the kind of person who understands people who aren't annoying about something, if they're pretentious about some niche interest in their life, I think this would be one that they would like. So I like this one.
SPEAKER_01:Good, good call. Okay, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What if that is a correct read? Like, you have to know the person you're giving it to. I don't think everybody would love it, but that would be my suggestion.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. My next one, you know how like some people will be like, if I could give a book six stars, yes. Okay. So I feel like my sixth star book of the year, and we'll probably talk about this at like our year-end recap, sure. Is Sky Daddy by Kate Folk. Yes. I yeah, I just love that book so much. It's maybe one of my favorite books I've ever read. And I think you should give this book to your friend who's down for anything. Like, if you have if you have a friend, and I feel like I'm maybe normally that friend in the group, who's like, yeah, who's like, you know what, I'm willing to just like try it out. Yeah, I'm down, let's do it. Um who's like open-minded and curious and like receptive to be blown away. This is not the book for someone who doesn't normally read, I don't think, because it's breaks all of the rules about what a book should be, and it doesn't bring comfort in like the typical structure of how a book should be. So um, I think this is for your friend who reads but is interested in like branching out or trying something different. Um Sky Daddy is about a woman who is in love with a plane, um, and also about friendship and so much more. And I think this would be a really, really cool gift, or to give to someone who you're going on a trip with. Oh my god, if you're going on a plane trip with somebody in the next few months, get them this book because this will be a conversation piece about flying on the plane together. I promise you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I can't wait. I've had this book on hold for like months and months and months. So I I can't wait till the day I finally get it. But do you have to do that? Yeah, how much longer do you have? I think a while. Let me check. Uh oh, this says four weeks. Oh my god. Okay. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01:Lord hasten the day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I can't wait to get this from the library. So yeah, it should be soon, next month, by the end of the year, maybe. I hope. I'm so excited for you, and I'm so excited for me. Yes, I'm excited for that too.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, what's your next one?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, here's what I'm thinking. You're gonna have a friend in your life. This is this is an epidemic spreading across the nation. Okay. As heated rivalry comes out. Oh my god. Hear me out. Oh my god. It's coming out, it's obviously sold out everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to the redirect podcast where we're Emily shifts the conversation back to the Twilight.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just saying, as it comes out, it's there are a lot of people reading it for the first time.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_00:Who are into who are now going into the world of it?
SPEAKER_02:Full of people reading it.
SPEAKER_00:Correct. And guess what?
SPEAKER_02:People know this is true.
SPEAKER_00:People have been claiming has just now ordered copies of it, a bunch of them, like within the last few days. It's it's happening, okay? So you're gonna have a friend, and I mean, I know I'm on this side of TikTok, but I have seen a lot of people on TikTok being like, well, I'm gonna read this to see what the hype's all about because everybody's doing these edits. So if you have a friend who is getting into heated rivalry because of the show, which I was gonna say, um, the T, the latest T for anyone who cares, is that Rachel Reed has followed HBO Max on Instagram, which feels really important to me. So as that comes out, people will get into this for the first time. What you want to do is buy them Time to Shine because it's a Christmas book. It is also by Rachel Reed. It's in my opinion, better than Heated Rivalry. It is such a good book. It's got like the most adorable, lovable characters. I personally just bought this off Thriftbooks with a gift card Abigail sent me for my birthday, which was so nice of her pre-unemployment era.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And so, like Emily, best friend, other best friend, Emma. We all grew up together. Emma's birthday is on the 17th, Emily's birthday is on the 8th, I got laid off on the 15th, and so then I had to text Emma and be like, sorry, no birthday present for you. Next year. Next try again next year. Let's double it and give it to the next person.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you double and give it to the next person. So, anyways, I bought that with uh I'm really excited to read this holiday season, but I think if you have someone who's new to that world and you want to introduce like you're feeling, oh, she's this person is really hyped up about the heated rivalry adaptation, which is going to be airing around Christmas, um, you want to buy Time to Shine because uh first of all, it's in stock, and second of all, yeah, I think it's just a it's an overall better book. Um, so if they like that heated rivalry, I think they'll love Time to Shine, which notably you told me to read. So this whole path of me getting into Heated Rivalry is really your fault if you think about it, because that is where it began.
SPEAKER_01:So uh yeah. What's that thing in like science? This is in one of the Allie Hazelwood books where one of the mail mean characters has like a tattoo of that thing, and it's like there's never a start or end to it. Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know. Yeah, but don't know. That's like our our reading situation. The thing, I'm Googling the thing in science where there's a circle, but there's no start. It's like Mobius. Oh. Mobius strip.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like a yeah.
SPEAKER_01:May the circle be unbroken. A Mobius strip is a one-sided surface by and by. Yes, with one edge created by taking a strip of paper, giving it a half twist, and joining the ends together. The mathematical and topological curiosity as a single continuous surface and edge, meaning a line drawn down the center, will cover the entire surface before returning to its starting point. That's what you and me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, that's yeah, yeah. That is what our reading habits are like.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All right.
SPEAKER_00:Sometimes they they don't overlap, but they always leap back to each other.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they are using applications like conveyor belts to ensure even wear and are featured in art and architecture.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's exactly it. So yeah, I think, anyways, you can only blame yourself. And Time to Shine is an excellent book that we both liked very much um last year. So that's true. Yeah, I think that's what you want to buy. And it was like not that much on Darth Books, so go over there and get it.
SPEAKER_01:T. Alright, I'm trying to think of one more because I'm like You can think of one more. Yeah, I can. Well, I have other like four and a half or five star books, but I'm like, who would I give them to? Um I feel like we I'm not gonna, I'm not this is not my final answer, but I feel like you and I collectively read a lot of books this year about divorce. We did.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, I love divorce so much. Respectfully.
SPEAKER_01:Wait until you hear about what book I'm gonna recommend to you later.
SPEAKER_00:I need to hear it. Like divorce as a trope is so spiritually important to me. As a function in society, as a woman, it's important to me.
SPEAKER_01:Just the existence of divorce of divorce is important.
SPEAKER_00:But divorce is so delicious in a book, whether it's like the pain, the angst, the person moving on, them getting back together, I don't care. I just, yeah, I do love divorce in a book. But you're right, we did read a lot of divorce.
SPEAKER_01:Um, okay, I'm gonna say if you have someone in your life who loves tea, not the kind you drink. Gossip. Yeah, who likes gossip, who likes to get all the details, you need to give them uh Careless People by Sarah Wynne Williams. This is the most tea-filled freaking book. We have a whole episode about it. You could also include um cute. Okay, you get them the book, and then on the inside of the book, in like a little card or whatever, you print out like the QR code that links to our episode about careless people. So it's like read this book, and then you can listen to these hot bitchs talk about it. I love that idea. Um, this is for people who like who are like f suck, like whatever, and also like I want to hear the tea, like yes, who are on okay, if if your friend has ever sent you a TikTok about Donald Trump blowing Bubba, get them this book. I'll be right back. Oh gosh. Okay, so that's my final answer is like if someone sent you a text talk about that, this is the book kind of book that they need.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I have my last one. I think I'm gonna recommend this book, uh, Anxious People by Friedrich Bachmann, which I've talked a lot about on here. This is for your friend who's an empath, who calls himself an empath, um, someone who likes watching hope core videos of soldiers coming home or dogs being reunited with their owners and making themselves cry over it. Cancer moon, correct? And um, yeah, anybody who just cries easily at commercials on TV. I'm just grabbing myself, by the way. Uh, this would be a great one for them. This book would also be really great if you wanted to like write notes in it and or like highlight sections, because it's kind of like a lot of really good parts. Um, and yeah, there's a lot of like really interesting relationship dynamics going on in here. There's like father and son, and strangers, and families, and friends, and like people who are lonely and people who are anxious and people who are grieving. And so I think, yeah, if your person is someone who likes to force himself to cry over random things, you want to buy this book for them. But also that they want to be happy. Like, trust me, I'm not recommending you buy anyone the Bear Town trilogy because that will ruin their their Christmas, their year, their lives. But this one will end them in a happy place, they'll feel positive in the end, and but they will be crying, you know. So I've been recommending this to everyone. And like it's pretty unoffensive. I think a lot of Friedrich Bachman's works are, but this one in particular, like, you could probably give it to anyone, and you know, it's not gonna be like, oh, what is what is he talking about here? So I think this is good for your friend who's a self-described empath. Uh, they're gonna read this and love it. So yeah, I love that. That's my that's my last that's a good rack.
SPEAKER_01:I think we got a well-balanced slate uh book.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I was trying to think of though, uh, is a romance book I would recommend to buy, but that is so specific that I couldn't think of one. Um, you really have to know your friend if you're gonna write buy them a romance book, which like if you came to me and we could chat, we could workshop it, but just on the air, I can't give a broad blanket recommendation. So yeah, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Um, just generally though, you know, we are pro shopping small, upcycling, thrifting, reducing waste.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We are big fans of thrift books, we talk about it all the time. If you're one of our LA listeners, there's this cool website called Gift Foria. So if you're gonna do like a bookish gift that has other components or you want some to go along with it or something like that, you can like search this website and it will connect you to um like it'll identify a product for you and then connect you with an LA small business that sells it, which is really cool. Yeah, that's extremely cool. Yeah. Um, so it's called Gift Foria. Um, I've also like gotten to the side of TikTok where people are doing thrift Christmas, which is very controversial. Some people feel very anti this. That's stupid. Um, but like respect, like finding like a cool or like pretty basket and then like some cool kitchen item and then including other things in the basket and creating this like pretty curated personal thing. I like that, and I think books fit into that really well. You could do a whole themed thing around a book. Like if you did the Wendell Berry book, for instance, there's like a there is a poem in that collection that is about a persimmon seed, and you could like I mean, you could do like it's on my mind because I made persimmon jam, but like you could do persimmon jam. Like, you know, I think people like the extra thought you put into things.
SPEAKER_00:They do. Um, they really do. I was gonna say, like, estate sales are great for like unique bookish gifts, um, thrift stores, vintage stores, antique stores. Um, also, you know what I love more than anything in the world is a bookstore that's like a used slash new bookstore where there's no discernible organization and there's like books stacked on the ground, and there's like a cat that lives there. And it's just chaos because you will find the most interesting things that way. Um, so you should find that. There is one in every town, so you should find that place in your town and go there and like walk around and see what you find that strikes your fancy. And then, like Abigail said, you could like build a whole gift around a book. Um, like yeah, things that you know someone might care about, things that are useful. Like I love the persimmon jam idea. I'm like, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01:Surprise and delight, right? Yes, something they wouldn't buy for themselves. Yeah. And I feel like the like the more into adulthood you get, the more like emphasis I put on that. Cause it's like, okay, well, if there's a book I really want to get, I'll have to get it for myself. Yeah. Yeah. But if it's a book that you think I should read, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Then that's a nice. Yeah. Yeah. That you thought about me. Did you want to tell me about the Goodreads book awards? Yeah, first I did have a few few random things. Okay. Random book gift ideas. So, first of all, I always like to do a cookbook. My cookbook recommendation for this year is Bad Bitch in the Kitch by Cassie Young. Do you follow her? She's on TikTok. Cassie, her Instagram is Cassie Young Money. Um, she makes like extremely the log line is Cravable Asian Recipes to Ditch the Takeout. Her recipes are just like extremely accessible, um, but like also authentic Asian cuisine. I bought her cookbook when it came out. It's very fun. It's pink. It's like the recipes are really good and they're not super complicated. There's some more complicated ones, but there's a lot of stuff that's super easy. So if you know someone who really likes Asian cooking, um, take out recipes, like you're gonna find this here. There's a lot of noodles and curry and dumplings and like egg rolls, all the delicious things you would get from like a takeout place. So I really recommend this. And I think cookbooks are great gifts. I personally love getting cookbooks. They love giving cookbooks. You can often find those at used bookstores or at thrift stores, but this is a new one that I think is really good and really fun if you know someone who would like that. So yeah, and Cassie seems like a great person. I followed her for a long time, so that's great.
SPEAKER_01:And help people get out of their comfort zone, try something new. Yeah, I a cookbook I would recommend is I got Sami Nosrat's new cookbook this year, uh Good Things. And there's like a theme around this, I think, because she named I went to a book event where she was talking about her cookbook, and she named the book Good Things because there's this quote from Raven Carver's short story, A Small Good Thing. That's why she named the book that. And it's um a meal is a good thing in times like this. And you know, it's been a year. Right? Yeah. For a lot of us. For many of us. And the book is about um, it's like meals that she has shared with loved ones. She created this like community where she would go over to her house every Monday night and like make a meal. And so they're very simple things, very nourishing, very like just that's really nice.
SPEAKER_00:So food is such a I've been thinking a lot about how food is like such a connection point for people and um a way that we connect with each other. So yeah, I think that's another reason why cookbooks are great. I saw this girl, I don't know, I think it was like an Instagram post, and she this is like kind of I love it. She started hosting these like dinner parties where people bring their administrative work, like their bills they haven't paid, if they need to call Comcast and like cancel cable, if they like need to make appointments, whatever like stuff that they've been putting off, they come over and they all work together and do this, and this is like she does this every couple months, and it's like just yeah, stuff like that is just really nice. Like have snacks, have drinks, connect together on like the boring stuff about life. Like, that's just really nice. That's really nice. I love that idea. Yeah, cookbooks are great. Okay, I do want to talk to you about the Goodreads Choice Awards. Okay, it's been bubbling in the world, especially. I've seen a lot of conversation, and I I think you'll see why when I tell you who the nominees are about the romance category.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I miss this completely. So this is breaking news. Okay, so there's quite a lot of uh Can I Google it? Good or do you want to tell me?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Um, I've seen romanticy and the romance category. So for example, okay, so basically. That's what I'm saying. First of all, get off Goodreads. Stop being mad at them, just get off them, okay? We all need to get off Goodreads, okay? But, anyways, so basically in the romanticy and in the romance category, there's like not a lot of diversity. There are no queer books nominated. Okay, hold on.
SPEAKER_01:In the romantic IDC, two romances, hold on.
SPEAKER_00:Casey McQuiston said specifically there, and this is true, there are three former Germani fan fiction books nominated in the romantic category, and zero.
SPEAKER_01:So the top vote was is funny story.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Did that come out this year? You're on last year's. You're on last year's. Yeah, wait, there's last year's. Voting is still open. So I'll read the while you navigate there, I'll read the romance categories. Um, so in the romance category, we have Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry, Spiral by Balcabra, Story of My Life, Lucy Score. I haven't read a lot of these. Tourist Season by Bren Weaver, Wild Side, Elsie Silver, Sail Remember Me by Nemesis Abby. Rewind It Back by Liz Tom Ford, First Time Caller, DNF by BK Borson.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but also you have problematic summer romance in here in Deep End.
SPEAKER_00:Which Let's vote for that. Okay, yes, Allie Hazelwood. Okay. Um what is so yeah. What are these books? What is Spiral? I have no idea. I've never seen that in my life. Correct. And I won't be reading. Straight. Um that's just yeah, there's just a little bit of buzzing about especially the lack of queer representation, I would say, has been the thing I've seen the most. Um which is seems valid.
SPEAKER_01:Uh huh. Also, I would say when you how do I say this? When you include one BIPOC person, like of every type, right? You're it feels tokenizing. Yes. Like, oh, we got the Anna Huang book in here. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Check. Right? We got the Kennedy Ryan book in here. Yes. Check. Yes. You know what I mean? It just like feels performative. Correct. And I've read some of Kennedy Ryan's books. I don't think that this well, I guess it's just this year. I was gonna say it's not her best one, but Right.
SPEAKER_00:Also, Brynn Weaver is on here twice. Exactly. And and so is Allie Hazelwood, and she's also in romanticy. And it's like, I don't know how these are chosen, but like Is it just like most red? I don't know. I it feels like not. It feels like there has to be some curation to it, um, I would think.
SPEAKER_01:So, okay, what's in romanticity?
SPEAKER_00:Romanticy is bleak.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not gonna. Okay, a witch's guide in magical inkeeping. I love that book. Vote for that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, that one was cute. Um, mate. Silver Elite, maybe the worst book I've ever read, which I didn't even read. I didn't finish it, but maybe the worst thing I've ever read with my eyes, respectfully to everyone who liked that.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, this sounds very corporate, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00:It does feel corporate, and that's what Goodreads is. Like, it is very corporation vibes over there, and the more people stop using it, the less power they will have, and the less it will matter if their awards are stupid. So I would say go over to StoryGraph. People like Fable as well. I'm not gonna switch again. I I'm I'm loyal to StoryGraph, but there are other options out there, and you can find what you're looking for somewhere besides Goodreads, where the only person you're benefiting is Jeff Bezos, really. It doesn't help authors.
SPEAKER_01:It's not like to be clear, it's not like don't read popular books. Because I think popular stuff is popular for a reason. But this feels very chosen. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna Google, just for comparison's sake, most popular romance books released in 2025. So this pretty much is like the top 10 list, but there's some that aren't. Like some of these are way farther down, so it it definitely is curated to some degree. Um the biggest thing I think is like acknowledging awards in general are not related. So many awards are not related to the actual best book.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like these books are not the best romances written in 2025. Um, the writing I'm sorry. You know? Wait, hold on.
SPEAKER_01:I just clicked on audiobook. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is on here.
SPEAKER_00:Well, there have you do you know about the whole new cast remake?
SPEAKER_01:No, they're like re-recording all the audiobooks.
SPEAKER_00:Good, stay out of that side of the world. They're re-recording them with like a full cast, and um, I think it's like really annoying who has signed on to do it. Wait. Um where okay, it's like actors, like people, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so Bryn Weaver also made it onto the audiobook.
SPEAKER_00:What is she who she paid off?
SPEAKER_01:You know the her book is like her big book is The Butcher and Blackbird. It's a romance book about a serial killer.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I'm aware of that one. Yeah. I don't know. Just stop, stop supporting Amazon. Don't buy your books from there. Don't buy your don't go on Goodreads, just stop.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, also it's no surprise that like half of these are Audible originals. Exactly. Owned by Amazon.
SPEAKER_00:That's the thing. Yeah, they're buying up all these books. Um, like your the Project Hell Mary right now, your library can't get that because it's a freaking audible original. And like it sucks. So stop supporting them. Don't let that don't let them keep taking things from you. Okay, that's it.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I'm gonna stop being mad about this. I think some of these books are Kimmel. I literally think the the Rewind It Back by Liz Tom Ford. I'm pretty sure that's just a that's a Kindle Unlimited book.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I'm saying. Goodreads is fake. Okay, whatever. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Boo. We hate Goodreads. Boo. Okay, what have you read recently?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, this is the reason I made you record this episode. So I'm so excited to talk about these books. And I have already talked about them on social media, but if you don't follow me there, this is new information to you. So, first I read In Memoriam by Alice Wynne.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, I actually like purposely skipped your um talk about this because I was like, wait, I want to stay untainted.
SPEAKER_00:Good, okay, great. Okay, so this book, this book. I've seen this recommended a lot. Actually, this book completes my quest because after I read The Hearts of Invisible Furies and then also disavow that author is not the best right now. Um, so then I'm like, I need another book that fills that void that I can recommend to people and also that like I can like. So I was like on a hunt. Like, what books hit the same notes as the Hearts of Invisible Furies? What I liked about that book, I liked that it was like a sweeping story. Um, like it took place over a lot of years, and I liked the characters, and I liked that it was like devastating and sad, but I liked that it ended in a place where you felt hopeful. Like I don't want to end up being like depressed for depression's sake. I do want to feel some kind of hope at the end. So there are several books I've read as a result of that quest. This was the final one from my initial searching. And also, I will say, look, I haven't corroborated this, so this could be fake. I could be be smirching Auswend's name. My understanding is she got her start or she started writing dreary fanfiction on AO3, and nobody is writing yearning like fanfiction authors, and the yearning in this, as I was reading it, I did not know about the dreary thing. Um, that would be Draco and Harry for anyone who's not brain rotted like I am. And um, I'm like, this is she's she's from we're from the same place, you know what I mean? The streets of the Bronx the world. So, anyways, this book is about um it starts off in 1914, and um the two boys at the center of it are Gaunt, Henry Gaunt. They call each other by their last names, which that's important to me, and Sydney Elwood. Um, they have gone to this like boys' school in England for many years together and grown up together, and World War War is kind of raging, World War I is raging around them, which don't get a lot of World War I content. It's always World War II, so that was interesting. Put some respect on World War One, yeah. And so at in in 1914, you had to be 19 to enlist, and they are 18 at the start of this book, but like a lot of people are lying about their age, and apparently there was this thing where like women women in town would see um like young fighting age man and give them like a white feather, and that was supposed to be like super shameful, like you aren't defending England, like crazy stuff. So, um, Henry Gaunt, he is like you start with him, and he's like a conscientious objector. He's like, I don't believe in this war, I'm not 19, I want to finish my education, I'm not going to fight. But he is also half German, and so his family is like getting suspicions, and like neighbors are mad at them because their son hasn't enlisted and they're half German, and like, are you guys not loyal? And he's like, Well, I'm only 18, like I can't even do it, and they're like, Well, come on, everybody's lying about their age. So he has that on his mind, and also he has always been deeply in love with his best friend, um, and his roommate, Elwood, um, Sydney, and Sydney is like effervescent and charming, and he wears his heart a little more on his sleeve, and he like sleeps around a little bit and is like not doesn't get emotionally attached, and gaunt is like, I can never tell him my feelings because he would just hurt me, and I can't ever like give in to him, even when he's like fake flirting with me because it's obviously fake. And so they have this moment that's like really charged, and they like have this intense like hug and kiss on the cheek, and it's like, oh god. And so Gaunt with pressure from his family, and also with this, like, I can't deal with this anymore with these feelings, he enlists and he goes to war. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, wait, I want to read this, so don't tell me, don't, don't tell me too much. Literally all like the first chapter. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00:This is the setup. Um, and then basically they write some letters to each other, and in the correspondence, um, Henry says, like, war is so harrowing that he's like honest for the first time, and he says, I am like devastated to think that I might die and I'll never see you again. And so then, like the next day, Elwood, who by the way, you find out again in the first chapter, is also deeply in love with him and like has always been. Um, he enlists in the war, and then all of a sudden they're together on the front lines in the trenches every single day, like horror, horror, horror going on, and like worried about losing each other, neither of them knowing about the other's feelings. Um yeah, just like deaths all around them. You don't know if you're gonna die, and also we would be killed if we did have a relationship, and like also I don't even know that my feelings are reciprocated. Um, but I really liked this, and it's called Im Memoriam, and like in between each, not every chapter, but in between the chapters, there will be like excerpts from newspapers um with like the immemorium pages, like memorializing those who have died, and like a common thing between them is talking about is it Lord Tennyson, I think, who wrote In Memoriam? Hold on, like a poem. Yes, it's Lord Tennyson who wrote In Memoriam AHH, which was like about his male friend, and they talk a lot about those poems, um, like from the beginning, like not really saying that they have feelings for each other, but it's like how like Gaunt will ask Elwood again. This is all in the very beginning. Like, how will you write about me if I died? Like, would you write me those kind of poems? And so it's all about like how you remember people when they're gone and like the things you will write about them, and not just like these two characters, but there's like a wider cast of people that like um yeah, you like again. I did not appreciate probably the scale of the death in World War One, and so when it's like tens of thousands of people are just dying at the drop of a hat, like it's easy for them to all blend together. But if you have someone who loves them writing something about them, like a memory or part of their personality, like they will always be remembered, and so um it is tough, it is brutal, but it was so good, and I want to read it so I can like go and highlight it. Um, and like there's just a lot of poetry, a lot of like writing, and a lot of like feeling in this book. So yeah, the yearning is crazy. The yearning is off the charts, it's off the charts, yearning is okay. I wanted so much.
SPEAKER_01:You've sold me. Please had me in 1914.
SPEAKER_00:Correct. I know, and I I got my friend Allie to read it, she put it on hold too because uh she loves historical war books, and I'm like, yes, like that's not always my thing, but to me it works here, like because World War I is so senseless, like the scale of the violence is like almost disgusting, and so it works like to have something soft and like poetic on it's just a really nice contrast. Okay, enough of that. I also read uh Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed. Did you like it?
SPEAKER_01:Dude, I finished it last night. Yeah, no, I was crying, not like don't not spoiling for anyone, but the ending is just like it's like one punch in after another. And it's just like it's just like it's relentless. It's just like oh, and done. And then, yep.
SPEAKER_00:Which I thought was perfect. I thought it was perfect. I don't I wouldn't change the ending at all.
SPEAKER_01:But Taylor Jenkins read, you are so back.
SPEAKER_00:You're so back, like okay. So if you don't know, uh this follows uh Don't Ask what the hell I literally read it last night. Um Vanessa, Vanessa is the girl, and Joan is the other girl. Joan is the main character. She um has like wanted to be an astronaut forever. She gets the opportunity to join the space shuttle program as one of the first women to be in the program in the 80s, and she does, and she like works really hard. She's also like very like naive a little bit and like childlike and not experienced and like sort of single-minded um in a lot of ways, and she also has this like kind of somewhat evil sister with a niece that she dearly loves and like takes care of half the time. Um, and she falls in love over the course of the book with this other astronaut who is also a woman and her name is Vanessa. Yeah, and she's like more gregarious and reckless and like opposites, but yeah, but also the sauce of this book is that it's told like it the time jumps a lot.
SPEAKER_01:So you're seeing there's like this one scenario that's happening in the future or in the present, I guess, depending on how you think about it, and then it's telling the story in like backwards, like okay, how you got to this point. Um I'm gonna cry thinking it's really good.
SPEAKER_00:It's so good. And this book, I mean, not to spoil any I won't spoil anything, I'll be vague, but this book and Im Memoriam also has this. I love nothing more, like nothing gets me more than when two people can't say I love you to each other, so they have to say it another way. Like that to me, you might as well murder me. But I love it so much, and that happens in this book of like that's what got that's what set me over the edge. Skip ahead, 15 seconds or so, but you don't want to hear this. But at the end, Vanessa's because they're on like a recorded line and they've already been threatened, like they can't have their relationship exposed, basically, like, or they'll be like kicked out for being deviants, and she's like, you know, they're talking about this song lyric, and it says, like, you know, tell my wife I love her, she knows. And Vanessa says, Do you think she knows? And Joan's like, she knows. Like, well, that just gets me because it's like, oh god, I love people when people say things without saying them. So it's a beautiful book. And if you were like into space, you'd like it.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I feel like it was plenty well we researched.
SPEAKER_00:And I that's how I felt at the end. I almost like Googled, like, wait, what happened? Like, I felt like it was a real story, you know what I mean? So I just loved it so much, it was so good. And what I noticed about this, I feel like Taylor Jenkins Reed, which is why I think because I was reading some of the bad reviews for this, as I like to do. Um, she like just trusts her reader so much, like she doesn't spell things out, she just writes what's happening, and it's kind of up to you to like put the pieces together, and especially in this one, because there are, like you said, the flashbacks and the flash forwards, and you have to like remember what's going on. But even with like the falling in love, like she doesn't spell it out. Like, I don't know, it's just a very trusting relationship to the reader, which is enjoyable in a time where I feel like a lot of authors are like telling you how you're supposed to feel. Um, so I really enjoyed this read. It was so good. I was so I I'm not kidding. The last like a hundred pages was like someone was holding you up and like repeatedly just watching stomach. It's like, oh my god, no, what else is gonna happen? And you're just going back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. So she's so back, anyways. Uh, it was so good. So, yeah, those are the two books I read recently. And I love them both. Five stars. Love that. You go, love that.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I've also read some good stuff recently, and I'm in progress of reading a couple of really good things I think I can recommend. So first uh life-changing book for me is Barons by Austin Freerick. Okay, not everyone's gonna love this book. Okay, it's a nonfiction book and it's about our food system, but it's told through the perspective of like basically the reality of our food system is that it is owned and operated by like five families, and it tells the story of these families, and like the chapter setup, like, okay, this is the grain baron, the dairy baron, the coffee baron, oh baron, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And um, it is about our food system, about corporate greed. Um the thing I want to emphasize about this book is the call to action is not for everyone to just make ethical buying choices because corporate power is so overwhelming that you just like buying everything the right way or shopping local for everything. Like, I'm saying this as somebody who does buy local for a lot of stuff. It's not like ultimately the corporation can just come in and buy it. It's about like the need for big structural change, but it did feel really important to know. And um, I learned a lot about our food system. Um, I mean, it's like it might stress you out a little bit. I'm not gonna lie. Like basically, because of capitalism, our food system, our food is becoming unhealthier, it is destroying the environment because we're now only farming monocultures, um, and it is becoming more expensive and the quality is going down. So all of that, but it was really, really good. And it's kind of like narrative nonfiction. You're hearing like the stories of each of these families. And if you listen to the audiobook, it kind of each chapter kind of feels like a podcast episode. So if you're into anything remotely like that, like I am, you would love this book. Um, definitely gonna be a standout for the year. Um I am also uh almost done with a um like an essay style memoir, like a collection of essays called Sucker Punch by Sashi Cole. And um this is a divorce memoir. Ooh, juicy divorce memoir. Um yeah. So I I think apparently Sashi Cole is a internet personality that I was not from familiar with, but a friend recommended me this book. And she came to fame because her first book of essays was about how she fell in love with this guy. So she's from a South Asian family, he's a white guy with a 13-year age gap. And it's like all about like overcoming adversity and falling in love and like finding your person. And then this is the f I haven't read that one, but this is the follow-up, which is about their divorce, largely. And let me tell you, tea is spilled. Oh, okay. It's very honest, it's very raw. Reflections of her life while she's going through divorce, reflections about the divorce. Um, and yeah, wow, it is tea. Um, this is the year of reading divorce books, apparently. As it should be. Um, and then placehold. I am also um I'm like 65 to 70 percent through a book called A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua. And um, this is an insane book. It's a modern immigrant story about a woman, uh a Chinese woman who um gets pregnant with her boss's child, and he sends her to LA to give birth to the baby so that the baby can be born an American citizen. Sure. But he sends her to like this woman who like has this whole business where she like brings Chinese women to the United States to have babies, and it's kind of like low-key very controlling and weird. Sure. So she like escapes and she goes off to like build a life in San Francisco, but uh the baby daddy is like on the way to try and find her. No, but it's also like a critic, it's a crazy story, it's like slightly insane, it's just totally unhinged, but really good, and it's gonna be a topic of the year as well. Like it's just interested, okay, really weird, um, but really gripping too, and the characters are really good.
SPEAKER_00:So wow, yeah, so many good ones. I just put the sucker punch one on hold, so it says one week wait. So can't wait.
SPEAKER_01:Your Libby says one week?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's like someone already has it checked out, um, and there's yeah, there's no one else in line.
SPEAKER_01:Like so my Libby only ever says two weeks. It's like the lowest. Oh, well, there you go. I don't know, cool.
SPEAKER_00:All right, well, that's our episode. And next time we actually will be talking about the stream. We just need a little extra time. We need more time. Yeah. It's a long book, so but we're sure. Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, I can't wait. I can't wait. My plan is to read over Thanksgiving break, so devote my time to. When are you going to the beach? Saturday. So, yeah. Also, I'm trying to read, I don't think this is gonna work out, so I didn't well, I'm mentioning it now. But I'm trying to finish Lonesome Dove because I finally got it from the library and I'm trying to lock in, but it's gonna be due back during Thanksgiving. And I can't renew I can't because someone has my hold. So I might. I'm trying to lock in, but it's a long book. I'm probably just gonna return it and then maybe I'll get it on the other side, but so far so done, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, we'll catch you later.