January Mini-Episode | Reading Goals, Recent Reads, and Upcoming Adaptations

We're dropping in with a mini-episode to catch up before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Hear more about our recent reads, our 2026 book goals, and our thoughts on upcoming book adaptations.

See you next week to our return to regular episodes with our recap of People We Meet on Vacation! 

Transcript

Cold Open: POVs And Preferences

Abigail 0:00

Stop showing me first person dual POV romance. You don't need to be in a man's head. Third person single POV. Unless that man is in love with another man. I don't want to be in a man's head, okay? Exactly. Exactly. Get me out of there. Welcome to the redirect podcast. I'm Abigail Freshley. And I'm Emily Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is the show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes of some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in our real live experiences. On today's episode, we're kicking off 2026 with a marketing book talk. But before we start talking about books, we would love for you to support the show if you love us in a few simple ways. First, you can go on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, leave us a friends or review, let us know that you love the show. You can also share our show with a friend. Nope. Why do I not know what the thing is anymore? Oh my god. You can also follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky at redirectspodcast. 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, consider sharing our show with a friend. Because sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to grow our community of book loving nerds. And I've gotta say, what a fantastic high note to end 2025 on. Just the community we all felt around heated rivalry, the good times, the friendships made, the connections made. It's just gosh, fandom will save us. That's the first thing. That's the first thing. Among this fandom will save us. Let's do it. Um anytime. Um yeah, it's been so miraculous. Like I never knew what I would be known for in my life, and now I'm realizing that what I'm known for is gay hockey romance because the amount of people who send me edits that like I don't talk to on a normal basis, like the connections made, um, the detail. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Exactly to me.

Why Fandom Keeps Us Going

Segment Setup: Reading Catch-Up

Quick Reviews: Wintery Romances

One Day In December Deep Dive

Sky Daddy: The Wildest Ride

Abigail 2:10

And I love it, I love it so much. So no, what a way to end up. It just it is great hanging out with people and sharing the joy of a stupid thing. Yes. And I am hoping to continue cultivating that this year. It's like the point and the love of books, like the point, you know, the thing I love about it, something I love about fandom about doing this podcast. The thing that keeps me on the internet is connecting with people in real ways around stuff that just doesn't matter that much, you know. That's so true, you know, in like a very real way. Like, yeah, like legitimately, yeah. Back in like 2019, when I was in grad school, I was like so poor. I was getting grad school paid for, but I had to keep my GPA up very high. I was like working tons of odd jobs. I was just the amount of anxiety was unbelievably crippling. And you and I have long been fans of the popcast with Ox and Jamie. Um and genuinely listening to that podcast, their whole slogan is things that entertain but don't matter. Um, the whole point of that podcast, or that podcast in my life would literally get me out the door into my car and to the train station. And sometimes that was like the only thing that could like get me out of my house, is I would be like, Yeah, okay, I'm gonna listen to this podcast, and like it will be stupid, and they will like take me out of it for a little bit, and I'll get there, and then that's like one step done. Because when you have anxiety that bad, that's sometimes what it takes. Like you have to like break it down into itty-bitty steps, anyways. I told I reached out to them and I told them that back then. But um, I it's one of the reasons I enjoy doing this podcast. It's just a silly little snack of something to do, and so glad we can share it with more people in 2026. Me too. Thank you guys for being here. Uh, that was really nice unexpectedly. So I agree. Yeah, some days coming on here and talking to you about stupid stuff is the thing getting me through. That's it. So amen. Amen. Um, well, we've been spending the last month, six weeks, talking about heated rivalry, and uh, we haven't caught up a lot about other books we've been reading. And we are kind of in this like weird dead space because people we meet on vacation book adaptation is coming out like next weekend or movie adaptation. So yeah, we thought we would just check in and talk about maybe our goals for 2026, what we've read recently, any other pertinent news. So, yeah, let's let's dive in. What have you been reading recently, Abigail? I mean, I think the last time we talked about this was like a month ago, right? I mean, it's wild. Yeah. So the highlights. Uh I read some good stuff. And low lights if you want. And I read some less great stuff. Um, I've been I re reread the hockey books, okay? So that was a lot of it. I also read um The Mating Game by Lana Ferguson, uh, which is published published Omega Verse. It is this, it is a sequel to The Fake Mate. Um, so it's like a modern shifter romance. Um, if you like if you enjoyed Mate by Allie Hazelwood, this is like a good chaser to that. It was kind of like wintery, like Colorado mountain cabin themed. Um, you know, it was fine. It was great. Like it is what it is. I knew I wanted to read it. I read it, it was good. Um, I reread Time to Shine, which was extremely timely. Me too. Yes, me too. It was so good. It it just held up so perfectly. I know. I think I liked it better than the first time I read it. I think I did too. I was like, I just love them. Just so good. Landon and Casey are I enjoyed um Landon as the main character as a goalie. Um, I think being a goalie seems really hard. Yeah. And they're, you know, famously weird. So it's kind of an interesting character. Yeah, interesting character. Yeah. And then um I also okay, so more pertinent. So I read a bunch of stuff, blah blah blah. It's like not that big of a deal. I read a book that I think you're really gonna like. Blah blah blah, not a big deal, is me. Like, I read the rest of the game changers books. I read I reread some of the books that I liked that I've talked about here on before, whatever. Here's the important thing. Okay. I read a book called One Day in December by Josie Silver. This is not a hot take. This was literally a Reese's book club pick in 2023. Okay. Yeah. It's just not a hot take. People know about this book. But here's why I'm here to preach the good news to you. This book is the closest thing that you can get to one day with a happy ending. Okay. You have me. I'm sold. Okay. It is kind of a Christmas e-book. However, it's not really a Christmasy book. So here's the here's the premise: Lori. She's British. This is a British people. She's on the bus home to visit her family for the holidays. She's sitting in the bus in the window seat, it's kind of fogged up. They're at one of the stops, and she looks out the window. This is like in 2007, 2008. She looks out the window and she locks eyes with a man and they fall in love at first sight. Oh my god. Okay. So they kind of have this thing where they're like they're looking at each other and like, and then she they're sitting there for a minute while the bus is stopped, and then she's like, Should I come? And then he's like, No, I'll go. And he's about to come and get on the bus to meet her, but the bus takes off. No, okay. So then she spends a year looking for this man, genuinely. She everywhere she goes and she tells her her her um her best friend and roommate, Sarah. Sarah and Lori, they're every time they go out, they're like, this is right post-college. They're like, every time they go out, they're looking for him, they call him bus boy, and she never sees him, she never finds him. And then a year later, at the Christmas, at they have they have an annual Christmas party at their flat. And Sarah is like, Oh, I want you to meet my new boyfriend. And it's him, and she has started dating someone. No, no, and they they shake hands, and Lori meets Jack, and his name is Jack, this is Jack Lamara. Oh my god. And they both have this like moment of recognition. But right before the party, Sarah had told Lori, she was like, I think he might be the one. Like, I'm really nuts about this guy. Like, I think I'm Oh my god, oh my god. Thus starts a 10-year-long journey. No, no, no. Of Jack and Sarah and Lori and other men and other whatever and moving and confessions and ups and downs, twists and turns over 10 years. No. And and uh it is like a Christmassy book, but that's what I'm saying. Like it takes place in January, in June, in October. Sure, sure. Whatever. Spanning. The the book begins in December and the book ends in December. Sure. Um naturally it's on hold already in my in my account now. But what I can say is I genuinely feel like this is the closest that you can get to the book One Day by by who? Who did it? David Nickel, I think. Nichols. How do I remember that? And I don't remember the main character names of books I've just read. Don't ask. Okay. Anyways, one day. We all know what you're talking about. And this is literally called One Day in December. But anyway. Okay. I'm so pumped to read this. I can't believe it. I have to say, like, I was I was finished the book yesterday, and I was like in the last eighth of the book, and I was like, I don't know, man. I I don't know how this ends. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be real with you. I don't know how this ends. Okay, I'm so pumped. I know, I need you to read it. I have been craving like earlier today. I was like, I want to read something with like like that like drawn out kind of angst. I was just thinking that, like where they don't get together, yeah, when it hurts, and like I want that so far. It's so like ships passing in the night. The time meets that's what it is. That's why it's like one day. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Okay, I'm sold. That was the book I had to tell you about. I'm so and again, it's not a hot take at all. This has been like a top bestseller of Reese's book. It is to me, but I I have not heard of this yet, so I'm excited to read it. How long is your weekend? Not long. It was available, it was available, but not at my library, so they're just shipping it over. Great, great, great. I was gonna say I can send you my copy, but I'll probably be here in the same amount of time. And I and I've started the favorites because I actually so exciting. You suggested the favorites by Lana Ferguson. I'm in the middle of reading it, so a full report to come later. But we've my book club chose a new structure for picking books, and January I'm the host. So I got to suggest books. So I pitched out three different books, and then people voted on the three books I suggested, and they voted on the favorites because I was like, I like get ready for the winter Olympics. Yeah, it's perfect timing. Um, and I'm real, I have to say, so far, really, really enjoying it. I'm enjoying like the um the documentary mixed in with like the storytelling. I think it reads really fast. So yeah, it's a quick read. Like I imagine the audiobook is also really good. Um for that. I'm doing both. Are you listening? Okay, yeah. I'm doing. I bet it's good. Okay. All right, on to you. What have you been reading of notes? Okay, so we have to start first. I read Sky Daddy. I finished it at about well, I woke up at like 5 a.m. couldn't go back to sleep, finish it this morning. Okay, I want to say, before you say anything about the book, please say something. It is okay. If you didn't like it, I will be okay and we'll be fine. I liked it. Okay, you didn't love it. I I don't know. I really don't know. It's crazy. The fuck is crazy. It's I gave it four stars. I am uh that was just yeah, I that's a placeholder. I could see myself changing it either way. Um, it's crazy. It is you warned me that it was crazy, and other people like have heard people talk about this and say it's crazy, and I was still not prepared for how crazy it is. And I think I think I kept expecting it to like take a turn. It does not take a turn. It like follows this this concept to the very end. Like, she doesn't there's not like an emotional turning point. It's like let's remind exactly what it is. Yeah, remind the readers. So, what's the main character's name again? Linda Lindy. Linda is in love with planes. Um, she genuinely believes that she is destined to marry a plane. She's sexually attracted to planes. Her whole life's purpose, her whole point of earning money is so that she can go on more plane rides, so that she can uh find the plane she's destined to be with. And when a plane chooses her, she will marry that plane and they will crash. That is her belief. Um and I don't know what your experience was of this, but I felt like my experience of reading this at first is you're kind of judgmental of her, but then you're kind of like, I don't know, like I'm not that I think it's normal or like okay, but you kind of start to see it from her eyes. Yeah, she's like, I this is this is what is that is her true belief, and you feel like it's a default. She genuinely that's what I'm saying. Like, I expected the author to work harder to convince you to be empathetic. I think that's what I was expecting, and that does not happen. Like, you are fully in, there's never a point where she's like, Oh, yeah, maybe. I mean, like, there's hints of like maybe this happened during like a particularly volatile period in her life or whatever, but it's not like she comes to that point where she's like has a moment of clarity, like it's fully till the end. I think planes are uh have souls, and that I'm in love with them, and like this is an erotic experience for me riding a plane, and like it's going to crash, and that's going to be like, and if that doesn't happen, that is the equivalent to being rejected by the love of my life and like it to the end. And so I think that's like what but you're so right because you do read it and you're like, okay, yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess, yeah, like yeah, but this, but then the this whole plane thing, because it totally consumes her life, it makes it so that she doesn't really build like close personal relationships. She has like a fractured relationship with her family, she lost her dad, which is kind of part of the history about why she's in love with planes. It's like she had a traumatic experience. But the m you watch her as she builds relationships with other like humans, women, yeah, yeah, friendships, yeah. That her the things that the planes change. And then I don't I don't want to spoil anything for the readers because I really think people should know this book. Yeah, people should read it, yeah. But um, what did you think about the vision boards too? So there's this other theme in the book where you manifest what happens in your life, kind of and the the message She also believes that, yeah. That she can control what's happening based on what she puts on a vision board, okay. Right, yeah. But I also have to say there's so many moments of this book that are so like unbelievably cringe that you want to crawl out your skin. Like oh, it is a tough read at times for sure. When she like her interactions at the vision board brunches and all that stuff, yes, anyway, without spoiling anything too much, but she just she manifests love in finding a soulmate and having a soulmate and like a life-ending love. Yeah. And the I you know, I think there's a lot to be said after you finish the book about whether or not she achieved that. Yeah. But I I'm glad you read it. At least you know now. Yeah. And I've had a great time reading it. I really I like like I love weird people. I love weird books about like people who are interesting and not like not normal. And like but I do think there's also like a painful relatability at times to Linda of like most people are interacting with other people and saying the things that they feel like they're supposed to say to make people like them. Like that's all anybody is ever doing. And I think there's like a this is like uh taking that to its most extreme where she feels like if I'm honest about my like erotic love for planes, nobody wants to be my friend. But I feel like everybody's kind of doing that. Like if you're dating or if you're trying to make friends, like all you're actually doing is performing something that you think that they're gonna like. And so I did like you trust somebody and then you show them all the time to your freak. And then maybe, maybe back too. You know what I mean? So yes, yeah, yeah. And then and then it's like, oh, I'm showing you too much of my freak. Like, I thought we were all down with this, but yeah. I also think that this book was timely, and I think we'll look back on this moment in history for this book at the same time that this book comes out, and we're talking about inanimate object love, like she's has psychosis kind of, like she's in she's in love with the plane. People are having AI psychosis right now. For sure. For sure. Yeah, having relationships with AI, falling in love with AI. Like, I think this is a good mirror to like that cultural conversation and what's happening right now in this cultural moment. Couldn't recommend reading this book on a plane enough. Yeah, I'm sure that would, I don't think for me that would have been good. Um, no, no, no. You're afraid of flying. So I I don't want Linda anywhere near me or my flights. Uh, if you are like this, please don't fly with me. Last thing I'll say, this is a Moby Dick retelling, and I didn't learn that until I finished it. But I do think if you go into that with that in a as of that it is. The first line of it is call me Linda, which is uh called. Well, I didn't realize that either. But something in like the author's notes or something I saw. This is a good one. Oh my god, hold on. I gotta I gotta send a message to the group chat really quick. Send a message. So uh that also I think is helpful when approaching this of the you know, the website. That's crazy. Not that I've read Moby Dick, but I'm so I get the concept. No, I no, I do not know that. I am I this is like the second time in like recent history where I've read, I think I talked about this book on the podcast. Yes, you did the retelling of persuasion, and I was like, hee, it's so funny. It had the same names as the people in persuasion. Yeah, no, I would not have got it. I think in her like acknowledgement, she acknowledged Moby Dick as being an inspiration or whatever. So that's the only reason I connected those dots. But anyways, loved it. I do think it's worth the read. I just was like so fully unprepared. I I know you tried to prepare me, and there's someone out there listening right now who's like, oh, I get it. You guys are saying it's weird, but you're gonna read it and you're gonna be like, No, oh, I wasn't actually prepared. Hey, we have weird, we have read some really weird stuff. I I just I just said that I read a published Omega verse, okay? Yeah, so right. This is really weird. We this is weirder than you think it's gonna be. But if one of your 2026 goals is to push yourself out of your comfort zone a little bit, read this. Read Skype. This is the book for you. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's one thing I read today. The next thing I read was um another four star that I'm still kind of unsure about, actually, the rating, but it's the 10 year fair by Aaron Summers. Okay. It is like A A Ron or E R I N. E R I N. Um Lady Aaron. Yes. Um okay, so this fall. Main character Korra and Cora at the start of the book she just had a baby and she joined it's her second child, so she has like a toddler in daycare, but then she has this new baby, she's on maternity leave. She goes, she has just moved with her family from New York City to like a suburb in upstate New York, and she goes to this baby group to like try to make friends and connect to the community, and that's where she meets Sam, who is a father, and he's doing paternity leave because his wife is like a high-powered attorney or something. And they're happily married, they have both have these two babies, and they have this friendship, and there's like kind of some sexual tension between them, unacknowledged, until one day they have a conversation about it, and they're basically like, Should we have an affair? And in real life, they decide, no, we're not gonna have an affair. But the timeline splits, and you start to follow them for the next 10 years in real life, which is where they did not have an affair, and also in this other world where they did decide to have an affair, and all the like subsequent things that happen in that other reality that as a result of their decision to have an affair or not, and how they cross over and intersect and then diverge again for the next decade of their lives, living in this community, uh, having their families be friends, and so um it's very interesting. I've this took me a while to read because it is like at times incredibly brutal to read in terms of just like I think, yeah, I think everybody can relate in some probably not to this degree, but it's kind of like whatever your life is, you probably have some aspect of it that you're like, well, what if I had made a different decision and you feel like that version of you might have been happier or whatever? And like this plays that out of like, well, if you lived in that other world, you would be wishing for this life. It's like always, you know, this like constant domestic unhappiness that people can settle into, um, taken to an extreme, obviously, of like having an affair. But, anyways, it's like one of the mercies of life, I think, is that you don't get to know what would happen if you made a different decision. Exactly. Yeah, because that's like the greatest hell is being like, well, if I had just made this the confirmation that if you had made a different decision about something, it would go a certain way. Yeah. And yeah, and it's kind of like uncomfortable. Yeah, and it's like this woman, Cora, um, like she has a happy marriage, but like her husband struggles with depression and like the these like mundane struggles of life. So she like almost uses this other reality as like this sort of escapist world of like I would be doing these things, I would be doing these things. Um, it's just really interesting. It was tough to read, it was really well written. I think it's it's a really good book, but it was definitely a difficult one to get through at times because also you're like, stop, don't do that. Like, why? So uh yeah, I thought it was really interesting. Interesting portrait of like also, like, I don't, I mean, I think it'll probably a challenging book too, because you and I both are not really a huge fan of like cheating tropes. No, not not at all. No, or like, yeah, you and me are both famously on the side of like we're both team Gemma in severance. Yes, yes, it's monogamy. If you, whoever you marry first, that's who you're really married to. Correct. Sorry, sorry, which by the way, you know, some things just aren't for me. They're not for me. I don't know. So, anyways, I don't know. I don't want a thropple, I don't want uh polyamory, I don't want cheating. I don't I not in my fiction, like I want very committed and love people to stay married to the first person they married, unfortunately. But yeah, it was really well written, so I do think it's worth the read. Okay, last two. I'm gonna end with the best one. Uh, I've just listened to this audiobook, The Truth of According to Ember, by Danica Nava, which I just read her book last year, um, Love is a War Song, which I liked a lot better. I would start with, I would start with that one. This one was fine. It's like a a workplace romance forbidden, like you're not allowed to date. And Ember is the main character, and she is like trying, she's um indigenous, she's a Chickasaw woman living in Oklahoma, and she is trying to like get a job with very little experience and no education because of all these like very legitimate things that have happened in her life. So she kind of lies on her resume. No, she fully lies on her resume. Um, she also fully she checks the white box. This she denies her ancestry. She's like, I'm gonna lie about everything in my life to get this job and get, you know, get into the corporate world, and like that will be my in. But while she's there, she falls in love with um another Native American guy who works there in IT, whose name is Danawa, and he's amazing, amazing male main character. Ember, I'm also not a fan of lying. I it stresses me out. I'm not good at lying. I I can't handle lying. How could you keep a secret? How could you keep up the lie? She lies, she lies about everything, like genuinely to an insane degree. And um, she bothered me. I'm not gonna lie to you guys. But I did think like the writing was really good. If that doesn't bother you, I think you should read this book. But if you like me are bothered by lying, I would not read this, probably. Um, but I did like her other book a lot more as well, Love is a War Song. So it was good though. It was fine, it was a good read. Just it stressed me. Like it reminded me of um Dial A for Aunties, which was like, I like this book, but I'm so stressed out by the choice of the why are you guys doing crimes so much? Like, please stop.

unknown 25:50

Please stop.

The 10-Year Affair And Split Timelines

Abigail 25:51

Anyways, okay. Last book I've read recently is Palover by Brian Washington, who's like one of my favorite authors now, so you guys should not be surprised. Um, this is definitely my favorite book by him. This follows a mother and a son, and they are only ever referred to as the mother and the son. They don't have names. Um, but the son lives in Tokyo, he's like an English teacher, he's like trying to make this life, and his mom lives in Houston, and they're like kind of estranged, and um, he's kind of estranged for his whole family. His dad's dead, and his brother is in prison, and they don't talk. And his mom and him don't really have a good relationship. And one night, like, she calls, he calls his mom out of the blue and is like, Oh, actually, everything's fine. And she's like, Hmm, that seems really weird that you just called me out of the blue. And so she flies to Japan, doesn't tell him, shows up at his door unannounced, and is like, Yeah, I'm staying here for a few weeks. And he's like, I didn't ask. This is like Brian Washington's favorite thing, is like that's his favorite thing, yeah. And I love it so much because it's like, yeah, they're just it's just like so. I read Memorial by him, which is very similar, like a mother shows up and whatever. But this is like almost done even better because Memorial, I think it can be hard for people to empathize with all the characters in that book. This one, it's like, oh, I you the mother is like a fully developed character, even though um the reason they're estranged is because like the son is queer and she has done homophobic things and said homophobic things to him, and um has preferred the older brother who like is imprisoned, you know, like obviously is not on the up and up. Meanwhile, the son has like this life and is successful, but because he's gay, there's this like divide between them. But you see, like the mother's life, and like what she's from Jamaica and her immigrant story, and like her relationship to his father, and like you do have some empathy for her, and same with the son, obviously. Like, you see his life and the choices that they've made, and they like try to forgive each other in these conditions that are really hard. Um, and then like the other part I really liked about this was like the son, his journey through this book is kind of like realizing he does have a family in Japan, and the people he surrounded himself with are a family in their own right, and he like doesn't necessarily need the mother or his brother who he doesn't talk to. Um, he can like have a family that loves him and accepts him for who he is, and they've been there all along, kind of thing. So I really liked this. I thought it's like yeah, very this this description says nuanced explorations of family identity in the search for belonging. And I think that's what it was. It was a really good book. It does sound very new. It's hard to him for sure. Yeah, it's really hard. Like relationships with your family are hard. And I like that he doesn't write them in a way that's like and everything worked out great in the end. Like forgiveness is messy and complicated, and even if you get to that point, um, it doesn't always mean it's deserved, and it doesn't always mean like that your relationship is perfect after that. Like, yeah, some things are just hard. So I really liked it. Um, I love Brian Washington, so read his book. That's it. That's all I've read. That's literally all I've read for the last month, by the way. So I have been in a slump and I'm like I'm getting I'm getting back to it. So we'll see. Yeah. And you had one more book you wanted to talk about. Yeah, all it takes is one good book. I know, it really does. To get you back in.

unknown 29:32

Yeah.

Lying, Identity, And Workplace Romance

Family, Belonging, And Brian Washington

Allie Hazelwood’s Bound And Book Forgery

2026 Reading Goals And Systems

Abigail 29:33

Um, yeah, there was one other thing I forgot, um, which I listened to the audio exclusive Allie Hazelwood book, Bound. Uh so it's only available in audiobook. Um and I thought I was like kind of put off on it for at first because I thought it was a novella. It's not, it's a full length book. It's a shorter book, but it's a full-length, like eight-hour audiobook, I think. So um it is totally different than anything she's written, actually. And I think it also is like a little bit of I think that Allie Hazelwood is a twy hard, you know. I think she's a I think she's all but said that. I think this is kind of like a grown-up, interesting twilight, actually. Okay. Okay. I'm listening. You're intrigued. I'm listening. So it is and actually one of her less smuddy books, actually. Okay. Um I think probably because it lends to the audiobook format. Uh, you know, so main character, her name is Veronica, and she is a grad student who is uh like a book restoring archivist, like she studies book history, whatever, but she comes from a family of criminals, and so she also sometimes to make extra money helps to like make replicas of books, of like antique books that can be sold, you know, that like because uh she can like assess books to see if they're real, but she also sometimes makes forgeries, okay? So she falls into step with this guy named Victor, and he is maybe not all that he seems, and she gets into some shady business with him and is basically employed by him to recreate this very ancient, very specific book for a very important purpose, and he pays her like a million dollars to do it. And um and then chaos ensues. So uh don't want to spoil it, it's not a vampire book, but it is like a supernatural book. Sure. Okay. And um it's you know, if you hate the thing where one of the characters is like a thousand years old and then the girl is like 25, then you're not gonna like this. Skip it. So but if you are down for that, um, you might like this. And um, I think she kind of she leaned on her um familiarity with like academia because while it's not science, it's the academic world. And she tied in some of the supernatural stuff that she likes. So it was fun. And I thought uh there's like two audiobook narrators, one male voice, one female voice. They were both great. Okay, intrigued. I've been thinking about doing a twilight reread. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's it's coming. This may help scratch the itch. So yeah, maybe. Yeah, I I like that. A little bit of a supernatural, undead romance kind of thing. So it was good. But I had to mention, I forgot about that one. Yeah, you had to. That's important. Okay. 2026. 2026 goals. Yeah, what are your goals for 2026? Um, I mean, I'm running it back for a hundred books again. I have some, I think I'm gonna do mini goals. I think what is my goal is I'm gonna do a month. Every month I'm gonna do a mini goal. I like that to help me reach the goal. Yeah. So right now, I actually have a pretty good cue of a physical TBR that I need to work through. So I think I'm gonna start with that for January and try and work through the physical TBR. It's not as significant as yours that you started when you did your goal, but you sent me home with some books last time I saw you. I had a couple books I still needed to read that were so I'm not gonna get through them all in January, but I'm gonna start with that. That can be a goal. Yeah. I love that. Monthly goals is fun. Yeah, so I think I could do a monthly goal, and uh, I've also seen those people doing like punch cards. Have you seen that? People doing like 2026 punch cards, so they all make punch cards for themselves, and it's like reading books or whatever, but I think I might do something like that for like all the places I want to read. Like read in a coffee shop, read at the beach, read on a plane. Nice, so yeah, I might like that. What about you? Okay, I set my goals at 50 for the year because I was so down in December. I'm like, I'm scared to do 100 again. So we'll see. Um, I'll reassess for sure. I'm gonna reassess, but I can't start off the year behind. I mean, I probably won't. All right, let me go change it. I'll do that. I think you need to at least set it to 75. No, no, I'm setting it to 100 now. And if I fail, that'll be a good one. But you can always lower the goal. No, but I can always raise the goal. Okay. Um, I am doing I'm putting 100 now. 100. You can do it. Once you do it once, you can do it. It says I'm ahead by one book. I know. I just was so I literally read two books in December. So I was just feeling like I'm scared. But we're gonna block in emotional. And rereads count. Yeah, you're right. I was watching Heated Rivalry every single day. I just re-watch on on what day when I just came home the other day from the like near the day after New Year's, I guess. Um, I watched from episode one all the way to the end. It was a spiritual experience. I highly recommend doing that. Um, great way to start the year, but you're right. Now I'm read back into reading. Less on that was taking up a lot of my time. Um, so I just set my goal to a hundred for January. I'm doing Story Graph always does a pages challenge where you have to read one page every single day, which is like not that hard, but I mean it is like it's reading every single day, so I'm doing that. And so far I have read every single day in January and um trying to increase my diversity, which we talked about in our 2025 interview. Trying to get through my two. And also this year I decided I want to read more fanfiction, but not I'm not tracking it. So I made my own spreadsheet inspired by your spreadsheet because I wanted to track what I'm reading on AO3, and I want to be happy. So that's my reading goal for that's also why I put it at 50, but you know what? You inspired me, whatever. I can keep that in my life. So you're gonna keep any of the fanfiction as reading? No, that's not part of my plan. I'm going to keep it separate. Even if you're reading a really, really long one. I think I'm gonna keep it separate, yeah. Okay. Because I don't like story graph. Then I think you should reduce your book goal. I had my book goal reduced to but above over 50. I think 75. Alright, I'm going to 75 now. Because then you can always read it. 75. Okay, it says I'm ahead by one book still. Okay, 75 feels good. Um if you're trying to increase your fanfiction too. I mean, I just feel like I I did obviously read a lot of I read multiple long fics last year. I just would like to be more of a connoisseur, but probably not take on anything that long. Yeah. Obviously, like I'm not doing another reread of any of those. I need more, more, more on the uh Ilya wag tag. Yeah, yeah. I want to read more of that. My problem is with with Heat of Drivalry, I I'm so particular about them. It almost has to be like, I don't know, like I don't want to read any AUs. I don't want to read like like I just yeah, the Wag Tag. I want to read like in universe stuff. I just feel very specific about them. Yeah. Um, I don't know what that is, but so yeah. Um I'm if you have curated recs, please send them to me. I will add those to my tracker. But otherwise, I'm still on my Wolf Star bullsh. So yeah. And I'm happy about it. And guess what? I'm happy to be here. I'm happy over there. Like, we need things to live for. Fandom will save us, etc. So etc. Yeah. If you have any recs of any kind, please send them my way. Um, that's my goals. Yeah, I mean, otherwise, besides our goals, like we have said already on the podcast that like a lot of our autobuys are not coming out the release year. But um, 2026 is going to be your be the year of screen adaptations. So we have uh Sunrise and the Reaping coming out in November, which I would love to engineer a way for us to be together in person. I was just thinking about that, but it's the problem is it's like right, it's right before Thanksgiving, right? We can make it happen. I think it is like the week of Thanksgiving. All right, we'll have to make it work. We'll make it work. Um we have people meeting on vacation coming out this weekend. Um, the love hypothesis coming out this summer, I think. Yeah, it's coming out. I'm so excited. Me too. We have the Greta Gerwig Narnia adaptation coming out. I'm apprehensive, but I trust Greta Gerwig. But open-minded, open-minded, yeah. Yeah. We also have Wuthering Heights coming out on things on uh Thanksgiving, on uh Valentine's Day weekend, and Project Hill Mary, which will be a really big one that I'm gonna do. I'm most excited about that. Yeah, I would say that in the Hungary Games I'm most excited about. I probably love Hypothesis. Yeah, we'll have to do a review of that for sure. What do you think? So people meet our next episode will be about people we meet on vacation. Um, what do you what are you anticipating? Do you think it's gonna be good? Well, I do think it's gonna be good. I did see um that there's gonna be a couple of changes, so uh some significant changes. Yeah. So for instance, their long trip to Palm Springs, it's not in Palm Springs, it's kind of in like Rome or something, right? Yeah, yeah. There was something with like Spain as a film or something, yeah. It's gonna be like in Barcelona. I think there'll be some differences. Um I feel protective of Alex and Poppy. Me too. I think that some people don't this book often comes in low on people's Emily Henry rankings. When I did my reread last year, I couldn't disagree more. It's up in the top for me. But um so I'm I'm protective of them and I don't want people to hate them. I think that Poppy can be an unlikable character, I'm sure that that but I'm excited about Tom Blythe as Alex, I trust that. And um I don't know. I'm trying to go into it with like low expectations to no expectations. It's a direct to Netflix, you know, it's a Netflix movie. I'm not like sure. I'm just trying to keep an open mind and an open heart and just be happy that I'm getting in. What about you? Agree. I feel similarly. I think I mean like it's so hard with Heated Rivalry having just come out. That's like ultimate peak book adaptation, like improved in every way from the book. So um it's gonna be tough to follow that, with that being like the most recent thing on my mind. But I think it'll be good. And I think my hope is that I agree with you. Like, this was my first Emily Henry I ever read. Um, it's one of my favorites. I need to do a reread to see how I if I still feel that way. But like after Happy Place, I would say this is my second favorite. And I'm hoping that people will have their minds changed by the movie who don't like it as much. That's my hope. I think I don't know. We have a really I mean we have it's Alex, right? I'm not just like saying she's no, yeah, it's Poppy and Alex. I think like we have a very high potential for a lot of yearning uh from Alex on screen yearnings that I think sometimes doesn't even fully translate to the book because Emily Henry's books are uh singular singular POV, just the female main character. Why people like them, okay? Stop showing me first person dull POV romance. Like, don't want to be in a man's head. Third person single POV. Unless that man is in love with another man, I don't want to be in a man's head, okay? Exactly, exactly. Get me out of there. So, anyways, um, yeah, that's why. Yeah. So but I agree with you. We don't fully get the like I think we're gonna get high yearning potential. I agree. We'll yet to see if it delivers, but I think like we could be getting Alex could be added to like the montage hall of fame of the TikTok yearners. Like it could, it could happen. So I'm excited about that. I think it'll be fun because they shot on a lot of different locations, you know, and that'll be fun to see. Yeah. Um the travel like travel montagey movies are always fun to me, like a road trip or a lot of different travels. It's such an interesting choice that this is coming out in January. Yeah, that is weird to me. Like, why not a summer movie? Why would this not be a summer movie? Netflix answer for your crimes. I don't know. Like, do you think Netflix was just like, oh well, we don't have anything else big that month, we gotta put it there, you know? Like something anticipated. I don't know. This is just my brain is not I'm sure that this isn't it, okay? But being a Taylor Swift fan for 20 years or whatever has kind of messed with me. So I'm like, is this an Easter that that Book Lovers is next because it's coming up in January? And January is the name of the main character in Book Lovers. No, yeah, I've seen that speculated, but but come on, no, yeah. That's probably not it. That's probably not it. Um I think it's more just probably whatever, something. There's a reason, but it's probably dumb. There's like no winter scenes in this. No, it's like fully a summer. This should be a summer movie, and it should be summers. And it is a little disappointing that it's not. I'm I mean, yay, Netflix, but you know, I do wish we could see this in the movie theaters with our friends and like with the collective experience. Okay. So these are our expectations. When we come back to read, when we come back to recap it, know that we have discussed this here. And yeah, I'm trying to tell us from the future. Is it good? I'm trying to, yeah, I'm trying to release expectations and have an open mind, I think. I will say, like, I'm far more protective of happy place, and I feel like very intensely about that. And I feel like I love this book, but I don't really have as much like I love the book, it's fine. Like, if it the movie's not good, I'm not gonna be crushed. But if we're talking about happy place, I would be I would be really nervous, a lot more nervous. That would be like my Super Bowl. If that everyone's yeah, I think there are some very sweet moments in people we meet on vacation. One thing, you know what? I I am so spoilers, spoilers, but one thing I'm I'm interested in is if they're gonna keep up with the um the pregnancy scare that Poppy has and the vasectomy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Which is a crazy thing to do. It's a crazy thing to be like, I'm not the one who almost got her pregnant, but just in case I ever get the chance, I'm gonna go ahead and pre-get a vasectomy. Pre-getovisectomy. So she feels chill, yeah. And she feels good. Crazy. That's what I'm saying. The per the potential for that's not love, then what is the potential for yearning? Is so it's crazy. I know. Uh I love friends to lovers so much. That's also what I've been craving lately. God, send them my way if you have good recommendations with a lot of yearning. Really, what I want is actually two and one day in December. But I want like friends to exes, to lovers, to live their lovers. Worse. Worse. That's what I want. So uh, but yeah, long-term friendships. Like, I don't whatever. Like, does this really happen to adults? I don't know. Like, please call in. If you're an adult and you've had a long-term, extremely hot friend who clearly yearns for you and it took you years and years to get together, please tell us. But I do love to read about it. I mean, I think the only situation that that really happens is if like one of you is in a relationship, yeah. Or something like that. I don't know. Like there has to be another reason. How do you feel about this genre? Because I know like of I know more than one couple that this has happened to them. But they are married, or they're like a second marriage, but the way that they met is they were the first spouse's friend, and then that spouse passed away, right? I don't like that. I so I know this old couple that they they were couple friends. Okay, so the wife and her first husband, and the second husband and his first wife, and then both of their spouses passed, and then they got together. I mean, like, I don't like it. I do understand, like you both are going through the same thing, and you have respect for each other's force. Yeah, you're helping each other, yeah. And they knew your spouse, like, I bet that would be a comfort. Like, oh, you knew them. Friend is better than like the dead spouse's brother or something, or sister or whatever. Um, that's worse. I'm sorry if this is your life. If that if you did that, I'm sure you're a good person. I'm not judging you. I just I wouldn't want to read about it. Let's say that. I would not want to read about that. I think I would bring it on. Only if one of them's a plane. Okay, sure. Yeah, why not? All right. Well, we'll see you guys next week. Jinx. We'll be back. I'm gonna go start reading people we made on vacation. Yeah, enjoy. Thank you. Bye. Bye.