The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
2025 Reading in Review
It's not quite the end of 2025, but we're checking in for our annual year-in-review episode.
We celebrate a breakout year of reading and real talk: how to hit big number goals, diversify authors with intention, and find joy reading. We share five-star favorites, surprising hits, and a few fears about the 2026 release drought (let's not talk about how no new books are coming from Ali Hazelwood, Casey McQuiston, Talia Hibbert, Alison Cochrun, OR Emily Henry so far in 2026 - SAVE US!!!)
Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky at @readirectpodcast. Emily is on Instagram and TikTok @emilyrojasreads, and Abigail is on TikTok @fabigail11.
See you later this week for another Heated Rivalry Bonus Episode !!!!
Now you have to keep sharing our show with a friend because unfortunately we did grow a lot this year. So if we don't equally grow next year, it will be really sad. The stats will be like growth negative a thousand percent. You know what I mean? So this is actually on you now. You have to share our show with a friend.
SPEAKER_03:It's like a pyramid scheme. You just tell can help you tell three other baddies in your community, support their families, and be a businesswoman by listening to our podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome to the redirect podcast. I'm Anita Freshley. And I'm Emily Rohan. The Redirect Podcast is the show where we shift the conversation back to books. We just continue to do our favorite books and those things show up in a real motivation.
SPEAKER_03:On today's episode, the reading in 2023.
SPEAKER_02:But before we get to that, we would love for you to support the show. And if you support, if you love it, you can go on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and let us know that you love the show.
SPEAKER_03:You can also follow us on Instagram and boys guide at Reader Podcast. You can follow Emily on all platforms at Emily Rojas Reads and me on TikTok at Fabigal11. And if you really, really love the show, you can share our show with a friend. Because sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to help us grow our community of book loving nerds. And speaking of growing our community of book loving nerds, today was Spotify Wrapped Day.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it was.
SPEAKER_03:And we are like totally geeked and blown away because we didn't really realize like the extent to which that we grew this community this year. Yeah. But Emily, do you want to share some of like the takeaways, the stats of how our community grew this year? Totally. So um this is just on Spotify too. I keep remembering that. And yeah, I think I think we have a lot of listeners on iTunes, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's about 50-50 normally, and then there's like a few on other apps. Shout out to my fellow um Overcast listeners. That's where I listen listen to my podcast over there. But yeah, it's mostly Apple and Spotify. So, anyways, this year, first of all, we have 55 people where we are their number one podcast. And if that's you, genuinely we would love to hear from you. If you listen on Spotify and we're your number one podcast, let us know because that's just crazy.
SPEAKER_03:Because you and I don't between the two of us have 55 personal friends who listen to this. Like, there's I'm sure there's a few. In fact, some of our closest personal friends do not listen to this podcast, and I know they don't. In fact, I had a warning in the last episode to people who know me not to listen. So right. So, who are you? If you're to know. Oh my gosh. Um, and thank you all. Our listening time increased by 999% from last year. So crazy.
SPEAKER_02:So crazy. And so did our um like our audience. We got a lot of new memb people following us, 170% increase in followers. Like thousands of new of first-time listeners this year. It's amazing. And I Spotify tells me that we were growing, we were we won the Rising Star Award because we were growing faster than 99% of other podcasts. So thank you for being here, you guys. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, oh my god, literally introduce yourselves. We would genuinely love to know who you are. Email now. Um yeah, exactly. Connect with us.com. But, anyways, thank you guys so much. This is like it just we love reading and reading like anything else you love is best enjoyed when enjoyed in community with other people. So it's just really fun that people to know that there are people out there who are enjoying reading with us in their earbuds.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was so nice to see. And I think um part of what's so fun is like I I was trying to think like when we had the idea in Chicago to start this podcast, like I don't think it ever occurred to me that people would look like I just didn't think about it. I was just like, yeah, doing a podcast sounds really fun, and talking to you about books sounds really fun, but the fact that people listen is still a foreign concept, so it's cool. I don't know, it's like this is just for fun. But thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, thanks for being here. And let us know, like, what did you like? I mean, if you're one of those, if you think that you're or if you know that you're one of our top listeners, what did you like this year? What do you want more of a next year? And uh truly weigh in anytime. We love getting episode suggestions.
SPEAKER_02:We really do. Um the one of like my a really fun episode that we did this year, which was the celebrity papwalk books. That was a listening suggestion, our friend suggestion. So um, things like that were definitely open. We just loved the app. Yeah. Can't shove us up another year of it. See you guys next year. Now you have to keep sharing our show with a friend because unfortunately we did grow a lot this year. So if we don't equally grow next year, it will be really sad. The stats will be like growth negative a thousand percent. You know what I mean? So this is actually on you now. You have to share our show with a friend.
SPEAKER_03:It's like a pyramid scheme. You just tell can help you tell three other baddies in your community, support their families and be a businesswoman by listening to our podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Somehow they will make money off of this. Can't explain how, but don't worry, we'll figure it out. Yeah. So it's perfect timing that we decided to do this today because I mean you're not hearing it on Spotify Rap Day, but this is kind of like our Spotify rap, our year in reveal.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and we were, I mean, eagle-eyed, eagle-eyed and eagle-eared listeners will know that we were supposed to release a Strength of the Few episode today for the second time, but we just need more time, so we're not doing that. But instead, we're gonna talk about um our 2025 reads, our goals, our highs, our lows, and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, it's our most favorite time of the year.
SPEAKER_03:This is genuinely my favorite episode to do every year. So I hope you guys like it too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's just fun. It's really fun. Where should we begin?
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, you want to talk about your goals?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I would love to talk about my goals. Um, so at the beginning of this year, my main goal was to read 100 books for the first time in my life. And And you were nervous to even say that. I was really nervous. I think I actually I was trying to remember because I was talking to my friend Allie about our goals. She's also surpassed her goal for this year. I was thinking, did I start the year um with the goal of 100, or if I put it at like 50 um and then like increased it part of way through the year? Part of me thinks I did do that just on story graph. But, anyways, I did want to try to say I would read 100 books. Um, and I felt good about that. I was scared, but I locked in so hard in December. And then in January, when I was really thinking about my goals, I also locked in. Let me pull up my stats.
SPEAKER_03:Wait, so did you start counting in December?
SPEAKER_02:No, I just felt like I was on a really good streak.
SPEAKER_03:And I was like, if I can make it. Oh, because you locked in to like meet your goal last year.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so then I continued in January. I read 13 books in January, which was a really good start to the year, um, and got me ahead on my goal. So I felt like I could do it, but of course, I wasn't sure. I've never read 100 books in a year before. And as of today, which is December 3rd, I am at 113. And a sick part of me was like, could I just like binge a bunch of like novellas and get to 150 or something? But I'm not gonna do that. Quality over quantity, but yeah, I read 113 books this year, um, 47,573 pages if anyone wanted to know that. And I had a great time with all those.
SPEAKER_03:So you're regular schmegular AO3?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's like one pick on AO3, okay? No, but um, yeah, so had a great year. Had um yeah, that that's to start with. I think I also wanted we both talked about diversifying our reading this year, and I can share those stats later if you want to have a bigger conversation about that. But that was something I was thinking about. Also trying to tackle my TBR, which I can shamefully talk about. I'll just say I I I really made a big deal about that challenge, and then remembered I am such a mood reader, and I should not be beholden to the stack of books that I have acquired through various means.
SPEAKER_03:I think maybe you could um modify that goal this year. Like you could carry on the spirit of the goal, but not be like, I have to read everything in my TBR, but like every um like once a month that you're gonna read a book from your physical TBR.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I've been trying to still make my way through it. I took the time limit off that challenge because I was trying to do it over the summer. Now it's just open-ended, I'm still making progress, and I have really been trying genuinely not to buy any books. I don't know that I have bought any books, maybe one. Um, but I've been trying just to read books from the library and stuff. So I'm like until I get through the TBR, I'm kind of banned from buying books unless I need it. Like I bought the strength of the few, so we could talk about it, but um, that's kind of my mentality of like you can read other books from the library, but if you want a physical book, you need to read the ones you have first.
SPEAKER_03:Um maybe it's like a year-long goal for 2026 is to finish your physical TBR like over the entire year, because then that still allows flexibility for meditating.
SPEAKER_02:So there you go. That's that's my update on my goals. How did you do and how are you doing? And what were your goals?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, okay, so my number goal was I was gonna read 100 books. I am I have not done it yet as of this recording. It is 12.3. It is December 3rd. I'm on track to do it. I have eight more books to read. So um I'm on track to do it, but I'm gonna be squeaking it in at the last second. Heck yeah. Like the last week in December for sure. Um but yeah, I think what you said about getting ahead is a huge deal. Getting ahead of your goal early in the year, I think helps you because I think pretty much from the beginning of the year, I was a little bit behind on my goal. And then the snowball effect of that becomes really difficult to overcome. Yeah. So as like actually as you were saying that, I was like, I wonder one of my goals for next year should be like to read 15 books in January. Yeah. Because then it sets you up for success to read a hundred books for the year because now you have a little room to like fudget a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly. And I was never behind this year, I don't think, because I started pretty strong in January, and it's just a mentality thing. And that was me the last two years.
SPEAKER_03:It's just a mentality thing. The last two years I did crazy numbers, and that was because I got like, let's see, I can look actually. In 2024, I read and I read 10 books in January, and in 2023, I read 12 books in January, and it just got me ahead.
SPEAKER_02:And I know myself, I always have a dip in the summer months. Like I don't know what it is. I'm just not I don't read as much in the summer. So it's kind of like when you are in those time periods when you know you're more likely to read, if you can lock in harder, I feel like that helps you meet your goals because then you have that cushion when you get to the times where you're more busy or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so definitely I think yeah, starting off strong is a is a really good tip.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yep, yep. So that was one of the the difference makers. I'm still on track to reach it. Um, but yeah, and then one of my other goals was to diversify my reading. So I made the goal of reading um 40% non-white authors. As of this recording, I am on track. So I have read 58.7% of my reading has been white authors. Okay. So I'm at this, at this moment, I'm exceeding my goal. I think I'll basically get there. Um, but I I do want to talk about that, the pursuit of that goal. Um, that has been like, and I don't want to say this is like where it comes off in a bad way, but I think reading with that much intentionality limits the ability to mood read, which I think also had an impact on my total number of books, definitely. And to me, like really exposed like the um the white dominance of the publishing industry. Because I mean, most of the books that I was like advertised to read or came up in my feed or I was influenced to read were by white authors, or you know, if I if I got into like a specific genre, so like this fall, I was like, oh, I want to read more paranormal authors. Then I was like, okay, well, I need I'm gonna like I'm searching specifically for BIPOC paranormal authors so that I can continue and reach my reach my goal. And um it just it's a lot harder to find. Um and then like the pockets where it exists are smaller, like especially in sub-genres. Um and it also meant at times that I didn't read the book, like a book that I was really itching to read because I needed to stay on track with that goal. And so, and that's like that's not a bad thing, it's it's a it's a it's just a thing. But I think it like being somebody who's really gonna be committed to diversifying your readership or your reading really means that you sometimes you're gonna have to make a sacrifice and like forgo reading a book that you would otherwise really want to read in that moment to be committed to like racial equity. Totally. So I'm not don't take this as me being like, oh, poor me, like poor white me for having to do this. Like, no, I read amazing books this year by all sorts of authors. My reading was way more diverse. I learned so much. Um, I was forced like out of my box, out of my echo chamber. It was all very good, but it was not easy. Like I didn't think it was gonna be easy, but it was definitely more of a challenge to reach the goal that I anticipated it would be.
SPEAKER_02:Totally understood. Um yeah, I didn't have a specific number I was trying to get to, but I did for the first time this year track the race of the author that I was reading. And um, not super great. I did 75% of my um reading was white. And I want to kind of recalculate that. I mean, not that that's not fair, but like if I lock in and see, because I know like I read several series that are like eight or nine books long that are it's like all the words, you know. So that might help a little bit. But anyways, it it was definitely eye-opening just to track it for the first year and like have a baseline, like what am I you know? That was with me trying.
SPEAKER_03:Like so instead of being like what percentage of the authors or what percentage of the books is what percentage of the book. I would be interested to see that. I mean, yeah, that was me last year, and I did read several series, but last year my my stats were like 75% white, I think. And that again, I thought I was being I thought I was being pretty intentional last year. Me too. That's what I felt this year. Like that's what I'm saying. It takes a lot of commitment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and like you said, it's it's not you like it's books that like that's you yeah, just naturally that you're seeing where you're like, oh, that sounds so good to read, and then you read it. Um, and then yeah, it's like or like even unexpectedly, like books I thought maybe that like featured non-white characters, or like the person's name sounded like ethnically diverse, and then you look it up and it's just another white person. Like, that's also something if you're being intentional, you might just not even realize, you know, because like names are vague or whatever. So yeah, it was really interesting.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it's like it's a systems-level issue, like it's a systems-level, like publishing industry issue. It's something that readers can be intentional to to do to like support independent BIPOC authors. Um, that is really important. Um, but ultimately it is like a systems level issue. Yeah, and just like m every other industry in the world, it or in at least in our country, is rooted in some aspect or to some extent in white supremacy culture. So um I think if we want to see more diverse authors, we need to support them. Yeah. And yeah, it just it takes a it takes a lot of intentionality. And I think one of maybe our podcast goals this year is like to do to do our level best to support and uplift books by BIPOC authors when we can. Yeah. So that more people can know about them. So, like, you know, one of the things we just named is that like finding the books or like what's being presented to me and influenced to me was mostly white authors and being able to share and uplift for other people, books by BICOC, BIPOC authors, I think is something we can fold into our goals for 2026.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Yeah. And so, yeah, and I recommend tracking it. Like it's Story Graph makes it really easy. You can do custom tags. So I just started tagging every book with the like ethnicity of the author, and then it has a graph for me. So they make it simple. If you use story graph, um, that's easy, and that's with the non-paid plan, you can do that. Um, so I I do recommend tracking it and just seeing where you're at. I think this was really eye-opening for me. And again, I did feel like I was trying, I don't even want to know what last year's was because I feel like I was actually trying harder this year to read more diverse books. So it's good to know, and I would like to increase that next year. That'll definitely be one of my goals. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:I think so. For this year, so one one thing one of the ways I changed my tracking from last year to this year was last year I was like LGBT author, which was really flawed because you can't know that. Um so then I'm like being a creep googling, googling these authors and being like so-and-so partner. I don't, whatever. It was just a lot. Yeah. So then I started tracking, is it an LGBTQ story? So is the is one of the main characters LGBT, and it doesn't have to be even like a romance, it's just is that part of their character description? And um about a quarter of the books I read this year um featured LGBT stories. And last year it was a slightly different like metric, but I was only 15%. Okay. Yeah. So I did increase that. Um I'm sure for you is much higher.
SPEAKER_02:It's quite high. Uh just like my my genres. So uh um Story Graph categorizes LGBTQ plus as a genre. And I'm looking through, and this does, it's not just romance, it's like any book. It looks like it includes any book featuring an LGBTQ plus character. Even one, I wouldn't put that on there. Um, and it's 59 out of 113. So about half.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, about half, which tracks, which really tracks. Yeah, that does track. Um great. By the way, I'm gonna offer this up to our listeners. It Emily has lots of great hacks for tracking on story graph. I also track on story graph, but because I also want to track like some more like niche categories like LGBT story, race, ethnicity, and then also I track like where I acquired the book and what format I read it in. Um, if you're interested in getting a template of my spreadsheet that I track these things, these things in, you can send us an email um to the redirect podcast.com at gmail.com, the redirect podcast at gmail.com, and I will send you a template of my um of my spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And I love that. Yeah. Okay. Shall we get into the specifics? Yeah. Let's do it. Okay. Abigail, what were your how should we give a number of our favorite books this year? Or like, are you just going to do an overview or are you going to do your five stars? What are you going to do?
SPEAKER_03:Um, let me pull up story graphs so I can more easily see this.
SPEAKER_02:I'm such a slug with five stars, so I'm not gonna go through every one of mine, to be honest with you, but I will I personally will tell so like maybe the ones that I'll remember really for a long time.
SPEAKER_03:I think that generally my rating for books is pretty high. Yeah, but mostly I think I have four stars. My five stars reach a different level. I'm a little bit more discriminating.
SPEAKER_02:I need to be more discriminating, so that's my goal for next year as well.
SPEAKER_03:If a book is like really good, if it's like pretty good, like oh, this was a good book, it's usually a four star. Um but it has to have the genus. How do I just see the five stars though?
SPEAKER_02:If you click on if you go like to your stats page and then you go to the graph with all the stars, and then you click on the bar of your five star, does that make sense? Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_03:I had 19 five stars this year, actually. Okay, yeah. So definitely better if I fit. Um out of like you know, 92 books so far. Um, some of my faves, um maybe I should just like name some of them and then maybe drill in on like the really, really top faves. Do that. How does that work? Okay. Margot Smot Money Troubles by Ruby Thorpe. Oh, and then maybe if it was also a five-star for you, chime in. Okay, same. That was a five-star for me. Happy Place Reread, five stars. Same. Flirting with Disaster by Naina Kumar, five stars. I didn't give that one five stars. Okay, no worries. Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The selected poems of Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry. Book Lovers Reread, five stars. Wait, did I really give that five stars? No, I changed my original ranking of this book was five stars, but this year it was not. I I lowered it. Alright, so take that back. I forgot how you did your Emily Henry reread this year. That was that was fun. I did. That was a good era. Uh Sharkheart by Emily Haybeck. Such a fun age by Kylie Reed. Classic. Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, six stars. I reread The Love Hypothesis by Allie Hazelwood, five stars. Barons by Austin Freerick, five stars. The Will of the Many, reread, five stars. Normal People by Sally Rooney, five stars. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, the like coldest take of all time. Like 20 years later reading that book. Waiting in Waist High Water by Colgate Blue Minty Gell. Six star. God damn. The Wedding People by Allison Espatch. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Changing All-Stars by Nanaquame Ajay Brenya. And The Service Berry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. What a lineup. And so many rereads. You know what you want to see deep. Yeah, you are. I actually this like in November, I reread The Love Theoretically. I saw you doing that on story graph. Love Hypothesis. Those are good in my veins. You know what I mean? I just know what I like. Yeah. Alright, anyways. What about you? Okay, I'll do the same. Um just go through them all. I want to get them all.
SPEAKER_02:Sunrise on the Reaping, Margot's Got Money Troubles. He already said those. Anxious People by Friedrich Bachman. I'll be recommending this till I die. Um, Happy Play, Semily Henry, Reread. Okay. Um, The Cadence of Part-Time Poets by Monswallow. This is How It Always Is by Lori Frankel. And They Were Roomates by Paige Powers, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Famous Last Words, Jillian McAllister, The Darkness Outside Us by Elliot Treffer, The Fall by Tao Bauer, The Favorites by Lane Fargo. I can't wait to talk about that with you, by the way. That's a recent read. Memorial by Brian Washington, Family Meal by Brian Washington, uh, iconic. He's a new favorite author. Last First Kiss, Julian Winters. That book is coming out next year, and I also can't wait to talk about it with you. I won an arc on Story Graph. Spoiling my recent reads. Anyways, I didn't know it was an advanced reader copy, and then I got it. I was like, what the heck? I feel so special. Anyways, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reed. Don't get me started. Say not, give that one five stars. I guess I did it. Uh Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley, famous DNF. Normal people seller and you talked about that. Um, The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, Love After the End, which is a short story collection curated by Joshua Whitehead. Um, The Great Believers by Rebecca Mackay. That one's another icon. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Allie Carter, a great Christmas read. Uh, a poetry handbook by Mary Oliver. I don't even know if I ever talked about this on here, but that was a really good book. Uh it's like a, I don't know, how-to guide for writing poetry, but I feel like it's like anybody who likes to write in any capacity should read it. Anyways, The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, um, problematic summer romance by Allie Hazelwood.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I want to say a lot of these were four and a half. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm I'm hearing you. I'm with you. I'm with you. That's what I'm saying for the five stars.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. The winners by keep it closer, legs. Thank you. I should. The winners by Friedrich Bachmann, um, which is the final book in the Maritown trilogy, which is the only one of the trilogy I read at five stars. The Prospects by Katie Hoffman, which made me care about baseball for about half an hour. Um, In Memoriam by Alice Wynn. That's so serious to me. And The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibert. Again, Talia Hippert. Can do no wrong.
SPEAKER_03:Roommate Risk, come on. Roommate Risk is so freaking yearning. Dude, that's what I thought when I was rereading Love Theoretically. I was like, oh, this man is down.
SPEAKER_02:I need to reread that book because that I only read it the ones.
SPEAKER_03:And like, also, and like, I don't know. Just the whole thing about like let me take care of you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Mmm.
SPEAKER_03:Wrap it up. Wrap it up. We're out. I'm out.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, those are my five stars. So many icons. I mean, I've probably talked about all of them on here, except for the ones I had just read, which were a couple of them. And I can't wait to talk about them at the end of this episode. So a really good year of reading.
SPEAKER_03:What about this? What was your favorite mm like reading vibe this year? Like you read on a trip or on a plane. I'm like, what's like your best reading memory of the year?
SPEAKER_02:Ooh, that's a good question. Um honestly, like I when I flew out to visit you, I was reading problematic summer romance on the plane. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:And it's just like a time capsule.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, like I will never forget that. And I it was weird. I got moved to a seat that didn't have a screen. It had like a pull-out one, but whatever. So I was just locked in reading. I didn't have a window. I was like, I feel like I was in a capsule. And it was a really early flight, so like all the lights were kind of dim. And I almost finished the whole book in that on that flight. It's like almost five hours. So um that's true, right? So like a four and a half hour flight. Five hours, yeah. So I was locked in most of the flight, like listening to music, reading that book, just having the time of my life. Like, I was so happy, and I hate flying, but I just that was like the best flight I ever took because it was so it was just so fun. So I I love that. I I loved, and I think I bought it, yeah. I bought it in the airport too. Because I was like, if I see it and I have time before the flight boards, I'm probably just like the universe wanted you to read it. Yeah, so that was that was um that was probably my my favorite reading memory for this year. What about you? I love that.
SPEAKER_03:Um, actually for me, it was also reading from Atlanta to LA on a plane, reading Sky Daddy. That was like in one sitting, just like this all-consuming, just like I'm sucked in and I can't stop reading this.
SPEAKER_02:It's a great flight to read on, like it's long enough. You can really almost finish a book or finish a book. Um but it's not like so long where you're like, get me out of here. So it's a really perfect reading flight.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I'm and I'm flying um on Friday out to DC. What are you gonna read? Um did I tell you that Megan bought me a ticket to come visit her? No, that's after I got laid off. So nice. She was like, I have a bunch of credit card points. Let me fly you out since you don't have anything going on. I was like, Are you kidding me? That's really nice. So she's flying me out, and so I'm like, okay. So I gotta make a choice. I mean, this is yeah, it's important. This I got a lot of reading to do, and this is a big flight. Yeah, so wow, I can't wait to hear what you decide to read. I know, I'll report back. Yeah, totally. So, yeah, that was. I mean, I think this was the year for reading on planes, clearly. Yeah, totally. I think this for me was also the year of listening to audiobooks while doing puzzles. That is such an important vibe to me. So, yeah, that's important too.
SPEAKER_02:I did, I I on my personal Spotify wrapped today. I found out that I remembered that I listened to the audiobook of Deep Cuts and I listened to it all in one day while I was doing a puzzle.
SPEAKER_03:Immersive.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm like, maybe that's why I liked it so much.
SPEAKER_03:Like, you know, it was just um puzzle is the perfect activity. It is because it's using a different part of your brain than the part that's listening to audiobook. It's just it is like I reach a flow state. Me too. That's a flow state. I reach like I that is a flow state, man. And like a little drinky drink.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And you're just locked in. Um, I need to do that. I got a puzzle for my birthday, so that'll be my that'll be my next book. I'll listen to an audiobook. Um, were there any books that like surprised you this year? I'm asking this because I don't know the answer. Like that you didn't expect to like as much, or like I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, the obvious answer would be shark heart, but I'm not gonna say that because I won't shut the back up the book. But um I heard but let me see. Okay, Our Wives Under the Sea. I would did not expect to like that book as much as I did. Yeah. Um, which is a mutual mutual read of ours. I didn't rank it five stars, but it was still like I was just it was it surprised me. Yeah, I agree. Um, how much that book stuck around with me. And um Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lowe. Um, that one stuck with me too. I rated that four and three-quarter stars. I don't know why I did that. I should have just given it five stars. But 4.75 is hilarious. Yeah, I know. But I get it. Um and uh Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, that was four and a half stars for me. And I really thought that that was gonna be just like a good classic, like three and a half, you know. Like that was pretty good. And I was really, really surprised by the quality and I really enjoyed it. Uh-huh. What about you?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I was gonna say um The Great Alone by Chris and Hannah. I honestly didn't think I would like it that much.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think that was one of my favorite. Oh my god. No for the audio. My I'm dead in the eyes right now. Um, I also That was my goal. Get you to read that. And you did it. You did it.
SPEAKER_02:Congrats. Um I did not expect also the Wolf song series. I I like didn't expect to I don't know. I thought I wouldn't like it actually. Like, I don't know. People kept recommending it that it seemed like I would like it. You know what?
SPEAKER_03:I thought I was gonna like that more.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so 50-50 split. And then and I didn't. And um, that's probably it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you know what? The Christine Brown's memoir, honestly, I was not expecting her to like spill as much tea. I thought it would be like okay, you know, happy.
SPEAKER_03:But it was you know what? Surprising. I was not expecting this year to be the year of divorce memoirs. Shout out to divorce, heavy divorce memoirs this month this year.
SPEAKER_02:I would love to read more divorce romance books next year because that's a genre fan fiction. I really like, but I do not read a lot of like actual books. I just love divorce, man. I love it. I love getting back together. That's it. That's the happy place, it's the pairing. Like, that's the same vibe. Um, flirting with disaster.
SPEAKER_03:We also need to talk about this. What speaking of the pairing? What's going on? Like, are our favorite authors not releasing books next year? It's starting to get scary. It's starting to get scary. Emily Henry is not releasing anything in 2026. 2026. Allie Hazelwood is taking a break. What's that about? Which is she allowed to do that? It's deserved, but come on. Allie, drop your AO3 username. I know you're on there. Please, please let us read you. Come on. And then I haven't heard anything from Casey McQuiston.
SPEAKER_02:They've been posting that they're like literally yesterday, they posted that they were in a hole, like trying to finish their draft of the book. But that means like that's a year, you know?
SPEAKER_03:That's not even close.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, like they're not past their deadline yet. Hey guys, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_03:Hello. What's going on? This is the first. I mean, not that this is like the height of books, but like that's the big three. This is the first year in a row. We have we're not the first year in like three straight years that we are not getting another uh fourth wing book. Yeah, yeah, no fourth wing to start the year. Um, I'm concerned. And what's Talia Hibbert do? I haven't seen her coming out with anything. Yeah, she's not, she hasn't been coming out with anything. I follow her on. I'm just a little, you know, I'm a little scared. I'm a little frightened. No, we were talking like I'm unsettled by that because I I I'm used to every April having an Emily Henry to read.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Ma'am. Ma'am. It's scary, it's frightening. Um, we need you guys to get back on your book writing. Nobody suggests Abby Jimenez. Don't be like, oh my god, you should have shut up. She's my dad elsewhere. She's probably a really nice person. I'm never gonna read another one of her books. I don't care what you guys tell me.
SPEAKER_03:Just I'm just saying, like, don't don't be like, oh, Cochrane just hasn't released. She's not coming out with anything next year.
SPEAKER_02:Come on!
SPEAKER_03:Stop doing that.
SPEAKER_02:No more kids.
SPEAKER_03:Why do you all have to do at the same time? Yeah, we need we've got to be. These are like the tent pulls of my year. I marked the passage of time by the release of books by myself. It's not even a joke. It's dead serious. So So y'all really need to fing get it together. Yes. Okay. Or I'm gonna do nothing, but I'll be upset. Yeah. Deep breaths. Okay. We'll figure it out. We'll find new, we'll find new authors. We will.
SPEAKER_02:We will. Um okay, yeah. Do you want to like deep dive a couple of your favorites or anything else you want to mention? What what do we what do we got? Anything else? I think that's it.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, we could talk about books we've recently read. I would love to because I have several. Okay. Okay. Um Do you want to go first? How about I start and you finish? Does that sound good? Go. Okay. What's the last book I talked about on here? A River of Stars? The one Yeah, because you added to your, it's the one about the girl from China who has a baby and her baby daddy follows her around. I think she's a good one. Yes, yes, yes, okay. Yes. Okay. So since then, since then, I read Give Me a Reason by JC Lee. Okay. This is a book that pleasantly surprised me. It is a second chance romance, which I understand is very controversial. Okay, not to be. But it's it's a modern day retelling of persuasion. Okay. And it is about um a a K drama actress who has was like is from LA, but she went to Korea to build a career in in K dramas. She came back and she is like reunited with her college boyfriend who her aunt pressured her to break up with due to like hit her fears that he would like inhibit her career. And now like they're thrust back into the same friend group. Their names are literally Anne and Frederick, which are the literally the names of the characters of Persuasion. It didn't even, this is how dumb I am. It didn't even click to me until 75% of the way through the book that this is a retelling of Persuasion. But she um the little the dedication of the book, she's like to my fellow Jane Austen fans. So I don't know how I didn't that didn't click. But the whole time I kept being like, who's named Frederick in 2025? Yeah, not even like Fred. No, Anne and Frederick. So, anyways, um I ended up liking it. I mean, it is it is second chance. Um, but there's just, you know, there's yearning. Yes. There's there's a lot of mutual yearning in this book, I will say.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I'm saying. That's why I like divorce because the yearning goes crazy.
SPEAKER_03:And like, and this is kind of that vibe. They both were holding a candle for each other forever, but they thought the other person was like mad at them or hates them, and they're working through it, and there's forced proximity, and they're both in a wedding party together. It's a lot. A wedding party. Again, it's a retelling of it's yeah. So also I don't know if I'm allowed to say this yet, but I'm just gonna go ahead and go for it. I am moderating a panel in February um with a few romance authors. I'll share more details when when the event gets closer, but JC Lee will be one of the authors. So I'm excited. If anyone else has read this book or read a book by JC Lee and you have some questions you'd like me to ask, feel free to slide through. Give me some ideas. But yeah, so I read that. Um I reread Love Hypothesis and Love Theoretically, which we talked about briefly, but I needed something to kind of like spark me. And actually, right before I had gotten laid off, I had ordered some books from Thrift Books, including Love Hypothesis and Love Theoretically. And I was like, you know what? A little treat. Yeah. So I just like crushed those. And then I also read Big Chief by John Hickey, which is literary fiction. Um about it's a modern day indigenous story about this guy who is like campaign, he's like the campaign manager slash fixer for a local tribal president. And it's about like the it's like a the it covers the week leading up to the tribal presidential election and the what's happening with the politics of the tribe and what that's bringing up for his own like um background, family relationships, community identity, values that align with his indigeneity. It is um, it's really good. There's some flashbacks, there's some um it's all it's kind of like that slow pace of like, okay, Thursday, Friday, like the all the days leading up, and you're getting to see quite a bit. So um I really enjoyed that book, and that is Big Chief by John Hickey. I have first of all, I'll start with two that you had some big you had a big Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02:I did. So two you've read before. One is Every Step She Takes by Allison Cochrane, which we haven't talked about because you didn't talk about it because you don't want to spoil it. So I'd love to talk about it. Okay, let's get into it. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_03:What'd you think?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, I gave it 4.5 stars. It was so good. The only reason I took off half a star. Okay, so this follows to fill you guys in who are listening. Um, Alison Cochrane is one of. Of our God tier romance authors. This follows Sadie, who and Mal. And Sadie goes to walk the Camino, and she's third in her 30s, I think, and she's like, I think it might be a lesbian, but she's like never admitted that to herself really before or to anyone in her life. And she ends up taking her sister's place, who's like this travel blogger on this, what she finds out is like a queer women or femme person, um, walk, guided walk that's like really in-depth and like spiritual journey. And she's paired up with this other girl named Mal, who she has this encounter with on the plane, and the four today fall in love, and blah blah blah. And it's all about her like discovering herself and reclaiming her youth, and it was really good. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because like it felt a little like at times like on the nose of like this is what you should do. But I think that's great. Like, I think it's an important book and it's gonna probably help a lot of people. Um I gave it four stars. Yeah, okay, great.
SPEAKER_03:So I thought it was like a little bit it's like yeah, a little on the nose, a little surface level, but it was a great book. I think one of the best it was close to my heart, and I um I appreciated the exploration of queer adolescence. A delayed queer adolescence is like a big theme of the book. So this main character, Sadie, she's like in her 30s, and she's all the people on the trip are like trying to help her live out her delayed queer adolescence and helping her understand that in queer spaces, like the pace is different, like there's no rules, like it's you know, it's more it's more normal to like sometimes be figuring things out on a different timeline, and like she had a a safe group of people to figure that out with, and also just the um the magic of the Camino and the way that that allowed her to have space to breathe and really like explore herself and find freedom, yeah, and not be so constrained by other things. And I related to that deeply.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:From my experiences on the Camino and my own exploration of those similar things. So um I I really enjoyed it. I'm glad that you did too. Yeah. And um I think I did have a few notes where I I felt like there were some ways that it well, I had to like release my own judgments about the way that they did the Camino in the book because I I thought it was I understand they had to make it work for the plot. Like, in order to make the plot work, there has to be they have to say it in like private ends, and there has to be roommates and all this stuff. That's not the actual truth of how the Camino really works, but you had to do it for the book. But um, like letting go of that, it was really great. And the characters, this is something Allison Cochran is just a pro at is making extremely lovable and creatable, and and uh lovable and relatable characters that you just really connect to.
SPEAKER_02:Totally. Um, yeah, two parts really stuck out to me where the one where she cuts her hair and she's like, that's one of the first things that happens. And Mal is explaining to her, she's like, hey, like this is a this is like a gay rite of passage. Every like young queer kid has to f up their hair. And she's like, Okay, you're right. Like I'm so attached to this thing, and if it's it doesn't matter if it's bad, like I should just do something because I've only reason I have my hair long and like the way it is, is because I felt like I had to. And so then she's like sitting with all the other group, and they're like, wait, I Sadie, I thought you were straight. And she's like, I don't know, I'm thinking about fing up my hair, and it's just like, yeah, like those little things. I think any human being can relate to that. Of like, there are things that you do in your life because you feel like you're supposed to or you feel like you have to, and it's like really freeing to do the thing that you feel like you shouldn't, or you feel like it's a mistake, you know, like just to do it.
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, and then there's other things around like compulsory heterosexuality, like oh, this is just the default. You never really like it's so normal that many people who identify as queer they never thought about being like straight. They just were just assigned that, and like later in life, it's like, oh wait, I never even questioned this. Yeah, totally, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then the other thing I was gonna say is um one of the like lines is someone says, like, would life be boring if we had everything figured out about ourselves? And I just like that too, where it's like there is no timeline, like you said, for figuring yourself out, and this is a really nice book about figuring yourself out. And I feel like also I've been seeing a lot of discourse on the timeline about um, you know, with pita rivalry being a success, about like why, like what we talked about in our bonus episode, why are specifically male male romances like so much more popular than women? Um, and what I think I saw TikTok actually earlier today, and I was thinking about Allison Cochrane because they were talking about how people are scared to write complicated women characters. So a lot of like lesbian romance novels are boring because the women are like cute and like fun and boring, and like I think Allison Cochrane is really great at writing complicated female characters, and that's why her books are so good because like here we go again, here we go again, like but in this one too, like Sadie doesn't do everything right. Mal has like a lot of issues, and like they both make hurt each other, they're both immature in their own ways, and like that's interesting because that's like human beings. So um Alison Cochran is the goat, and uh I think that's why I think she writes really great, like you said, lovable but complicated and nuanced characters of all genders and orientations, and and a great cast of supporting characters, which is something you said, I think, um, when you were first talking about this book. So they're just like really fun.
SPEAKER_03:Cochrane 2026.
SPEAKER_02:I'm telling you, she just had a baby. Maybe she already had one loaded.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe save us Elison, Cochrane, save us, please. I don't see anything.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I fear it will be not the next year. Anyways, great book. Thank you for giving me the space to read it, and then we can talk about it because I was dying to dark side with you. My pleasure. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Okay, number two, I'm almost done with this. I'm listening to the audiobook, but it's a witch's guide to magical in keeping.
SPEAKER_03:It's so good. It's so good. Also, you guys, the audiobook is so freaking good. So much so much yearning. Um, and the British, the British narrative, like the whole, it's just so crazy.
SPEAKER_02:No, but this girl is good. She does the little accents, she's got the the Scottish guy, everybody has characters, great characters, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god. The yearning goes crazy in this book.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I really like it. And it's like, and it's like the, you know, the um like found family, the all like, you know, yeah, like the witchy, magical, but like in a cozy way.
SPEAKER_02:Very cozy, very sweet. Um, great cast of characters again. And um my one note on this is I feel like it's dragging at the end. That's why I haven't finished it yet. Like the ending, and honestly, the beginning was a little draggy, but everything else in the middle, so good.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I think that like, so I read that one and then I read the other book that came out earlier, that came out last year by Sanggu Mandana, The Very Secret Society of Regular Witches, which I thought was also good. And so I'm like, okay, like I'll auto-buy whatever Sanggu Mandana releases next. So are you releasing a book in 2026? Please. Let's see. I don't know, but her books could normally come out later in the year. Yeah, let's hope. Let's hope. So I'm thinking like maybe she wouldn't have announced it yet.
SPEAKER_02:That's one of those things though, that is the case that normally books aren't announced too far in advance. I mean, I feel like Emily Henry is prone to do hers like a year in advance, but other authors sometimes wait um until a little closer. So there's hope for next year, but it is looking bleak right now with my current Rostra. Emily Henry is an author. No, she's not. I don't think she is. I really don't. Anywho, um, okay, now I have three more that you guys haven't read. Okay, I'll be quick. Well, who cares? This is my podcast. I won't be quick. Yeah, exactly. I'll be indulgent. Okay, there's three you haven't read. Number one um is Family Meal by Brian Washington. Dude, I discovered Brian Washington earlier this year actually as part of my goal to read more diverse authors. And I read Memorial by him. Absolute five-star.
SPEAKER_03:So you told me about that one, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So then um this one I happened to see at my library, and I picked it up. I didn't realize he had released more. I don't know. Yeah, I should have been paying attention, I guess. So I picked this up, and he has another book out that just was a finalist for the National Book Award. So I put that on hold because that was a more of a wait time. Anyways, I read this one. Okay, read the content warnings because for all of his books, like they can be a little bit intense. Um, but this follows Cam and he lives, um, when you meet him, he is living in Houston, where he's from. He has moved back there after spending several years living in LA. And he has moved back after the death of his like longtime partner, like deep love of his life, um, named Kai. And so he was with him for years, and then he passed away. He moves back to Houston because he's like, I can't stay in LA, like there's all these memories of him here. Um, and he's not doing great, like he's he's doing very badly when you meet him. And um, like the opening chapter, he's working at this bar that's owned by really close friends of Kai who reached out to him after he passed away and were like, hey, if you want a job back in Houston, you can have one. And so he's working at the bar, and in the bar, um, it's like this gay bar in this like neighborhood that's rapidly gentrifying in Houston, and they're like one of the last original spots, so there's all this pressure and like money and rents going up. And then his friend, um, his childhood best friend, who he lived with for several years, actually after his parents passed away when he was young, his name is TJ. He like walks into the bar and they like haven't spoken to each other in years, and they start kind of rebuilding a friendship, and like you don't know what caused her falling out or what happened to Kai, and like all that stuff is revealed there through like flashbacks. And I just yeah, I really like Brian Washington writes about grief and um relationships and like the intersection of all of Cam's like different things he's going through, um, and like race and sexuality and all these different things. Food plays a big role in his books. Um, this book deals a lot with complicated relationships with food and disordered eating, so definitely be cautious if that's like something that you're uncomfortable reading. But um yeah, I just really like the way this was written. He also like both in Memorial and in this does a really good job of like playing with the POV. So it does start in Cam's perspective, but then there's like a pretty jarring switch, and then there's another switch. So there's three different people's perspectives telling the story, and I really like called family meal. Yeah, I really like the choices he made. Um, his books are so yeah, they're so like almost simplistically written. Like he doesn't use a lot of words, but there's like a succinctness that's really interesting in the way he tells stories. Um so yeah, it's tough. Like it is a tough read. I want to be clear, but but it's also interesting with the again with the perspective shift. I don't want to spoil whose perspectives they are, but it's like also like not quite unreliable narrator, but just like how maybe you don't see yourself and your situation clearly, or how someone feels about you, um, or like the relationship you have with someone, and then when you're looking from a different perspective, how it looks completely different. So I really like this, and I am excited to read his other book, which again it was like about to win some awards, so I'm sure it's great, but love, auto-byauthor. Now, um, okay. Then I read The Favorites by Lane Fargo. I texted this to you. I loved it. Yes, okay. This book, I this is part of my TVR. I've had it forever. I actually got it when I was visiting you in the Little Free Library, and um Oh really? I don't know why I just felt like I wasn't gonna like it. But in fact, it is like lab cooked for me. So this follows Katarina Shaw, and she is it's very it's kind of Daisy Jones in the six vibes, because you start off um with like a transcript from a documentary that's being made on the 10-year anniversary of her final skate in the Olympics, and like you don't know what happened, but like something weird happened and or bad or whatever. And it's like this is the 10-year anniversary, and um, so you get like the transcript from the docusaries, there's like interviews, and then you get her point of view telling like the real story, like I'm gonna set the record straight kind of thing. So um, Katerina, she is like you start out when she's really young, like a teenager, and she has this dream of being an Olympic figure skater, and she skates in the like pair, I don't know, partner dancing with her like childhood best friend who has become her boyfriend, whose name is Heath. And he was a hockey player, she kind of poached him from hockey to be a um figure skater, and they have like this insane chemistry together on the ice, like that's what they're most known for, but like it's also controversial because they're like very like chemistry focused on the ice. Um, and he's like in foster care, and um her dad ends up like getting permanent guardianship over him, and then he dies, and so then she has like this abusive older brother, whatever. It's all this drama, and so you actually like you go from them being like 16 or something, um, and like struggling and like having to hustle to pay for their own like costumes, they don't have a coach, and then moving up in the world of figure skating and aging as well. And like sometimes they skate together, sometimes they're not skating together, they have this like on again, off again, like toxic situationship, final boss going on here. Um, so it's a love story, but it's also like extreme competition. Katarina is like extremely, extremely competitive, cutthroat, will do anything to win. Um, and I just love that because I love competition and I loved the like format of this where you get like what people are saying versus then what she's saying actually happens, so it's kind of interspaced.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I love Winter Olympics coming up, so like good timing.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes, perfect timing for the Winter Olympics. It was very dramatic. And if you like me, I don't know anything about the world of partner figure skating, but every time there's like a competition, I get a lot of edits on my TikTok for you page.
SPEAKER_03:You know what? This is like Colleen's special interest.
SPEAKER_02:Ask her if she's read this book.
SPEAKER_03:It's called The Fellows Favorites.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's really intense. So um by Lane Fargo. I will say if it I don't know if I should say this. It is a romance novel.
SPEAKER_03:So Is it Lane Fargo?
SPEAKER_02:Lane Fargo.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So, like genre, it does have happily ever after because it is a romance. So don't be too stressed, but a lot of dramatic things happen. So it's very angsty, good yearning, good drama, complicated characters. You'll love to hate him. So fun. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:This would be a great like January, February book for the Olympics.
SPEAKER_02:Pre-Olympic read. Last book is called Last First Kiss by Julian Winters, which I won, as I mentioned, as an ARC from Story Graph. And I was like, the when I won when I was reading this. How did you win it? I entered the giveaways. Do you ever enter giveaways? No. Okay, you guys gotta enter giveaways on story graph. This is the second book I've won. This one though did make me think, did they look at my profile? Because the author lives in Atlanta and the book is set in Atlanta, which was really fun. That's so rare. That is fun. Um, it was really and it was like, oh, that obviously he lives here. I think he's from here, um, Julian Winters, but like, you know, it wasn't just vague, it was like very specifically Atlanta. So fun. Um, this is like a second chance romance, too. It follows um Jordan Carter, and he is an event planner. His family is like a celebrity high-end event planning company, family-owned in Atlanta. Like they plan these like really big high-profile events, and he is trying to like get a promotion, um, whatever. He's working his way up in the company. Um, it's called 24 Carter Gold. And he um for years, like they haven't done any weddings, but then they decide they're gonna pivot back into weddings, and so they're like, we need the perfect wedding. Like, we have to let's go off, it has to go off without a hitch, has to be a really big, high-profile wedding, and we have to get it in like Southern Bride, like all these magazines, um, because this is our launch back into weddings. So Jordan's working on it, and um, the bride and groom come in, and the bride's best man is Jamie, who is his um cousin's like best friend from childhood, who was his first kiss when they were um like 16 or whatever. Um, because they were like really young, and Jordan was like, I'm 16, I've never kissed anybody, and Jamie was like, Well, you could try me, like classic, classic thing that probably never happens in real life. Um, and right before the if that's happened to you, yeah, please let us know. I would die to know if that's happened to anyone in real life. Um maybe it has. Um, anyways, Jamie and Jordan like are really good friends, but like six months before the start of the book, they almost kissed again. And Jamie stopped him and was like, Hey, I feel like you're figuring yourself out, and I don't think I'm the person for you to like figure yourself out with. And so, no. And Jordan is like heartbroken, like completely heartbroken, and he is trying to figure himself out. He's like, I don't know, like, do I like men? Do I like women? I don't know. I I feel like I don't have any specific feelings either way. And his family is like, you know, assuming his mom's always trying to set him up with these women, and then they have to like plan this wedding together, but he's like stressed and um, you know, upset and feels rejected by him, but he's like always there because he's best friends with the bride, and so it was really fun. I was so pleasantly surprised how much I like this. I gave it five stars. That might be like a bit of an overreaction, but I just thought it like the characters were so lovable. Um, they have this like really nice friendship. So you get like flashbacks to when they were younger or like growing up together and then um figuring yourself out. It's like very similar vibes to. Every step she takes, where it's like, hey, it's not too late to like figure out who you are, and you know.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe I could grab it from you when I I was thinking of sending it to you.
SPEAKER_02:Um, because it was so good. So this comes out January 2026, I believe. Um, so I really recommend reading this because it was it was just like surprisingly, yeah. I I was really surprised. I've never read anything by this author before, but I was surprised how much I really loved it. Like couldn't put it down and just loved the characters and was like really happy for them in the end. So and it's great to read a book in Atlanta. Shout out Julian Winters.
SPEAKER_03:If you want to come on the pod, come on it, come on, slide through.
SPEAKER_02:But it was just really fun. It was like like things happening at Piedmont Park, and um, you know, I can't remember what else big events happened, but it was fun. So that was my Thanksgiving reading journey, and it was so good. Tea deep breath. Okay. Well, that's it.
SPEAKER_03:That's good stuff. That was a good episode, bro.
SPEAKER_02:That was a great episode, and we'll see you again, maybe for more heated rivalry, definitely for the strength of the few in two weeks.
SPEAKER_03:Oh legitimately. We can read it by that. Uh we will. We'll we'll come through.
SPEAKER_02:We've only said that now, you know, three times. So we'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_03:Um, all right. Well, we will see you guys in a couple weeks. And I think probably for more heated rivalry. Honestly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, twist my arm. We'll be back.