Book Talk: Mid-Year Check-In, Beach Read Movie Update, and Love Hypothesis Release Date!

Here's what's in store for today's short & sweet book talk episode: 

• Mid-year reading goals check-in (and how we're both woefully behind) 
• Recent reads (including Abigail's NEW favorite read for this year) 
• The Beach Read still posted to Instagram and its accompanying ChatGPT-sounding caption 
• Love Hypothesis good vibes and release date
• Books we're looking forward to in 2027 and later this year (looking at you CMQ) 
• and more!! 

Recent Reads

• The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
• My Friends by Fredrick Backman
• Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson 

Transcript

Abigail 0:00

Hey, quality over quantity. Quality over quantity. I've read a lot of your books. I've also read Christy Miller this year and Redeeming Love.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

That probably ruins me. Honestly, those probably single-handedly send me.

Abigail 0:09

The crazy thing about that is like we we chose that. We were just like, I'm gonna make myself doing this. Nobody's forcing me to do this. No one forced me to do that.

Welcome And How To Support

Abigail 0:21

Welcome to the redirect podcast. I'm Abigail Freshly. And I'm Emily Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is the show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in our real lived experiences. On this week's episode, we are gonna be checking in on our reading goals, our recent reads, just generally mid-year check-in and see how we're doing. But before we get to that fun stuff, um, if you are a fan of the show, we would love for you to support us in a few super simple ways. First, you can go on Apple Podcasts and or Spotify and leave us a five-star review and let us know that you love the show. You can also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at redirectpodcast. You can follow Emily on all platforms at Emily Rojas Reads, me at Fabigail Insta on Instagram and at Fabigail11 on TikTok. And you can visit us at redirectpodcast.com or you can search our media library, shop for merch, and send us a message, probably. Yeah, totally. No, and after our last episode, where we were discussing whether someone can search keywords that we discussed in the episode, obviously, assuming I included it in the notes, which I try to do. Um, it is searchable because I went and searched for Fu Balisa. I think that's what we were talking about, and it came up the previous time. So that is a great feature. So that's a good feature. Yeah, if you're looking for a specific, even if it's not in the episode title, if you're looking for a time we talked about a certain book or author or whatever, you should be able to search it and find it in our website library. So yeah. Cool. There you go. There's your approach. Go go visit us. Yeah. Oh, and if you really, really love the show, you can share our show with a friend. Oh my god, I almost forgot. Because sharing our show with a friend is by far the best way to help us grow our community of bookwoman nerds. Obviously. Totally. So we're here.

Midyear Life Check And Heat

Abigail 2:15

Wow. It's the middle of the year. Okay. Amazingly. The date of this recording is June 12th. So we really are just basically in the middle of the year. Right. Smack dab. It's getting hot. How are you feeling? Finally. Like in life? About the passage of time. It's crazy. I feel like June. Obviously, I work in the education world. So this time of year was recently very crazy. And now it's like finally starting to slow down. But I feel like that means June always comes so fast because May is always like crazy. Uh yeah. So like slammed. So now I'm like, oh, June's already halfway over. And I feel like I'm just now relaxing. So I've been trying to touch grass a lot this week. I've been outside. I've been doing things. We went to watch um Mexico's first World Cup game yesterday. I took off work to do that. Uh per dude persuasion. Is this my first World Cup in LA, I think. Maybe not. But I think I think it is. When was the last World Cup? Four years ago? Four years ago. Okay, yeah. Well, I've been living here for four years. So I guess I just probably had just arrived, yeah. Anyways, there's all of these watch parts. But it's in LA too. It's like meaning there. Is it? Kind of. Yeah. Partially. A couple games. Partially. I mean, it's like also in Mexico and Canada and like whatever. Anyways. But um anyway, uh, also at Jordan Hare Stadium in Auburn. Which is crazy. Random. But um, anyways, I uh it's it was just it's just like banging, it's bumping. There's so there's like the there's a huge like the biggest Korean community outside of South Korea is in LA. And also, obviously, we have Hello Mexicans too. Sure. So it is like it is the the vibe is electric, people are freaking out. There's like all sorts of block parties, like don't try driving anywhere. Yesterday I took the train to work and there was like a crazy amount of Mexico jerseys. So sure. It is crazy, and then next next week Mexico and Korea play. Yeah. So that's gonna be that's gonna be crazy. Um, and also it's hot. Like normally in LA, we get the June gloom. We do not have that this year. It is just it's like started to heat up, it started to get warm. Yeah, heat up by like today the highest 85, which feels warm. Not that bad, but it feels warm. Um and yeah, I am behind on my reading goals. I'm not gonna lie. I am we'll get to this, but we can get to it right now. Yeah, we can get to it right now. I am

Reading Goals And Falling Behind

Abigail 4:59

okay. So my two main goals for this year: one was reading related and one was outdoor time related. I made a goal of getting a thousand hours outside and to read a hundred books this year. I am behind on both goals. My uh my thing is with the outdoor time, I'm not as married. It's the first year I'm doing it. I'm not as like tied to getting the 1,000 hours level set. Right. But also setting the goal has gotten me outside more. So it is achieving the purpose, which is to get me outside more. The goal, the reading goal, I I feel passionate about meeting that one because I know that I can meet it. I've had it in the last like three years. So like I need to do that. And um, so I'm I'm 10 books behind right now. I think at my at my worst last year, I was like even more behind than that, maybe like 14. I feel that you were, yes. You got quite behind at some point. I yeah, my goal actually for the summer is to close the gap. I think by August 30. Wait, is August have 31 days? By August 31st, yes, August has 31. I wanna I want to be on pace again. Okay, that's a good goal. I believe in you. I think you can do it. Summer reading is funny. Okay, so I lowered my goal this year, and I'm glad I did, because I'm still behind. So I my goal is 75 books. I have read 31. I think I'm only like two or three books behind, so I'm not far off. Um, I've been slumping aggressively uh in always, but like I said, I've been outside more. So I don't know, it's evening out, I guess, with like good for me stuff and you can't feel like far behind because I've only read 35 books this year. And I haven't had like it's like two books, like it's really not far behind. Um, so I can catch up to that in a week, in the weekend. Maybe this weekend I'll walk in. Um, but I have been reading a lot more fanfiction for sure, and I've also been tracking it, and I wanted to share.

Fanfiction Word Count As Books

Abigail 6:57

I am shocked by this number actually. So I Well, this was one of your goals was to read more fanfiction. This was my one of my goals. I was like, you know what? Let's disconnect from reality even more. So so far this year, I have read 1,72,278 words of fanfics. Holy crap. And that's not including that is just like completed works because I have a separate tab for works in progress, which I'm following currently that have updated within this calendar year 14. And that would be a little bit more, a couple hundred thousand more. So Okay, so for reference, cool for those like wondering. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has like 198,000 words. I'd say 100,000 is probably an hour. I that's how I think of it. 100,000 that counts as an extra book. So we're talking about 10 extra books, um, excitedly. So basically, I'm not off track at all. And I've just been spreading my elsewhere. Is Order of the Phoenix, which has 257,000 words. Yeah. So I mean you've read four of those. So yeah, I'm really excited about that metric, and I've read a lot of good stuff, and I've been having so much fun and having the time of my life and happy about it. So uh yeah, I can't really say that I'm having a bad time, but I feel like I've been in more reading slumps this year than I have in past years, like really going long stretches without reading at all, and that is concerning, obviously. Um, so I don't know what to do about that. I don't know. Vibes, I'm whatever. I got nothing. Yeah, but like look, 31 books is more than most people read. Like, I just need to chill out. Like, they're like half of America doesn't read a single book per year, you know. Like 31 is already a lot. I'm doing great. I'm gonna meet my goal. And I've discovered a lot of new authors this year. Like this year we got Kat Sebastian, you know. So what is on StoryCraft? What is your average time to finish a book? Let me know. It's like under if you're in stats, it's like contents red. Six days. That's all. Okay, mine's seven, mine's seven days. I think actually, maybe in one of the ways, a roundabout way to to increase to meet your goal is to try and reduce that number instead of thinking about reading more books to reduce the number of days it takes you to finish one on average. Yeah, yeah. It's so interesting too because like often I'm it's such a weird average because I will start a book and let it linger forever. I don't really use the pause feature unless I'm like fully pausing it and like not gonna pick it up for months. So I'll read it. There's some books that like there's a book right now that is currently reading that I've had there for probably two weeks because I'm like so slowly working my way through it. And then other books I'll read in one week or one day, like or yeah, or at least there's no in between for me. Yes. So that's that's a good goal though, to try to get that number down because um that would help for sure. But yeah, I mean I'm having fun, I'm having fun, and that's the most important thing about reading. But it's definitely I'm in a slump right now. I have not read much since our last episode. I've finished one book that we can talk about later when we get to that section, but I don't know. I have several from the library that are hanging over me, and I'm gonna try to get through some this weekend. That's the plan. Okay. So hopefully by next time I have a lot of reading updates of new recent reads to share with you guys, which is what I thought would happen for this episode, but it didn't quite get there. Yeah, dude. I don't know. Some it's weird, you're about to hit it like a summer reading stride, I have a feeling. Um I don't believe in that. You don't believe in that? No, I just believe in that. Oh, okay, okay. I am believing that. Another weird thing, too, is like last year I was I spent a lot more time alone because Eric was traveling so much more. So yeah, that's right. I had to do free time. Yeah, it's all good. That's what I'm saying. I'm happy, I'm living a good life. I've just, you know, the book flow has not been flowing as hard. But that's totally. Hey, quality over quantity, quality over quantity. I've read a lot of good books. I've also read Christy Miller this year and Redeeming Love.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

That probably ruins it. Honestly, those probably single-handedly send me.

Abigail 11:18

The crazy thing about that is like we we chose that. We were just like, I'm gonna make myself. Nobody's forced me to do this. No one forced me to do that. Yeah, we bought the books. Read those books. Lord Jesus. So if you guys would just please give us money. Right. Um, yeah. I mean, I think we've recently talked about what our five-star books for the year were, but do you have like a favorite book so far this year? Ooh, okay. What do you have one first while you look at what I've read? I don't know. Let me check. I have 11 five-star reads. From this year? From this year. I'm very liberal with my five stars. Yeah. You know, probably by now. Wow, you really are. I would say of these, there's probably like three contenders for actual favorite book of the year. Okay, I want to say we could be so good, but that's just like we've talked about to death. So, like, I'm not gonna say that is my official one, but no, but like that probably is the real answer. Yes. Um, I actually think my favorite book is a book I like to talk about of as a recent read that is five stars. So, okay, so then let's take that one out too. So my third favorite book I've read is. Um, do do I really, really, really liked Big Swiss, which I talked about, I talked about in the last episode. That book was really weird. But that's just to say it's your favorite of the year, yeah. That tracks.

unknown 12:58

Yeah.

Abigail 12:59

Okay. I will say probably again, I've talked about there's nothing I could say that I haven't talked about at length already, but I can't believe I only read minor black figures this year and I've been talking about it so much. That probably has to be my favorite. Um, but if we take that out, I also really liked The Everlasting by Alex Harrow. And I can't wait for the show. Oh my god, you know what? Let me check my holds really quick. So by the way, I got minor black figures in the library. Yes. It was like two hold. So I have it now, I haven't started it yet. But um, I have that and doing 18 days, except and then I'm three weeks until the everlasting still. Oh, that's gonna be just hid so slowly. Time is doing so slowly. But look, if you can read it and then after, like soon after that, I'll see you, and then we can talk about it. So we probably shouldn't do that because people want to hear do they? Yeah, never mind. But we can still, you know, we'll talk about it on here. Yeah. All right, do you want to talk about our recent reads and then get to book news? Yeah, I was like, or do you want to do book news first? Okay. No, let's talk about recent reads. We're we're already in the we're rolling. Yeah. Natural segue

Recent Reads Kat Sebastian Romps

Abigail 14:11

here. So I uh I've read two things recently. One is the queer principles of Kit Webb, which did I talk about that? No, did I talk about that on the podcast already? No, no. Oh, okay, great. Um, yes, so I read that. I gave it four stars. Um, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb is a historical romance by Kat Sebastian. I really enjoyed it. Um, I thought it was like more heavy on the adventure, and um, I didn't find the characters quite as compelling as some of the other books she's written, but still, again, we're grading her against her. So yeah. Um, but I really, really enjoyed it. So basically, Emily's talked about this book on the podcast before, so I'll keep it brief. But essentially, this is about a reformed highwayman, kind of like folk hero criminal guy, and uh a duke, or maybe not so much a duke, trying to work through like a blackmailing situation slash um dukedom situation. There's like, I think my favorite thing about the book was the class divide. I really like when class divide is explored in historical romance, and um, I thought that was really, really interesting. And the way that class divide and like exposure to people outside of your class really impact someone's point of view, and I thought that was uh my favorite thing about the book. So I have the sequel and I am now reading it, um, which is The Perfect Crimes of Marion Hayes. So, and that one is so far super funny. I was like, I haven't really seen, I haven't really read Kat Sebastian writing women yet. Funny, yeah. Oh yeah, and women, yeah, and like women, and it is I was like, oh wow, this is really good. So I'm really enjoying it. See, when I finished The Queer Princils of Kit Web, I was like kind of indifferent about those characters, and so I was not planning on reading the sequel until you got it, and now I am planning on reading it eventually, but um, and somebody told me like in my comments somewhere, I think, that it was really good. So I'm excited. Yeah, but I'm really interested. I'm very curious and interested. Um, we did our Pride of Wit Month episode last week. We talked about um Danny Brown, take a hint, Danny Brown, but the same principle here. Both Rob and Marion, who feature prominently in the first book, are queer, but in the second book, they're like the main characters of an opposite, uh, an opposite gender romance. So um I'm very excited uh to see how that plays out. And um, yeah, I it's really, really funny so far. Okay. Speaking of Cat Sebastian, she has a new book coming out later next year, I think. Um that is a second chance contemporary romance contemporary. Like, I'm so happy about that information. It's like childhood stars, like they were stars on a TV show together, then they broke up. Is it the same universe? Do you think as Starshipped? I think that that tracks that it would be. Um it's similar cover art. Yeah, it looks very similar on the yeah, the the yeah, the cover art looks very similar. We're gonna have to book what that oh for sure, for absolute certain. Um, I cannot wait. It's it comes out March 2027, so stay tuned. We will be redoing that. Second chance romance is obviously my favorite thing that exists in the world. By the way, also next spring. We do not have any information about it, but we do have confirmed M Hen next spring. Yes, a new Emily Henry. We do, so we do. Also, I am going insane about Casey McWiston and their uh untitled, unannounced um lesbian uh night book that they keep teaching teasing on Instagram. Uh, I'm going a little bit insane about it. So yeah, so excited. That would be next year. So good at bread crumbing and like getting teasers. So good. Because I remember there was like back before the pairing came out, they did that with the pairing. It was very good. Yes. Yes. Um, so yeah, okay. Can't wait for 2027, you guys. Yeah, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. Um, I read one other book recently.

Yesteryear And Media Literacy

Abigail 18:22

Okay, and this is one of my top books of the year for sure. I'm excited to hear what you're saying about this based on your Instagram teasing. So, what have you heard about yesteryear by Carol Claire Burke? I honestly just heard of it from you. I actually had put it on hold at the library because it was telling me that it was the most popular book. My library was like, most popular hold. So I just put it on hold. And then you had told me that it was about uh like a trad wife going back in time or something. Um, so that was like the first I had really heard anything about it. And that's right. So there was a lot of hype about this book, I feel like, before it came out. It came out, it was like an instant, like big bestseller, but there's a lot of mixed opinions about it. And like I was like, I'm not gonna buy this book, I'm getting it from the library. So during the period that it came from when it came out and I put a place to hold till when I got it off of hold. I'm hearing all this stuff where people are like, I don't think it's satirical enough, or I don't think that it's like I the character is so unlikable. And I'm like, also, like you guys read what you want to read, but don't tell on yourself that you have poor media literacy. That's my least favorite criticism of a book. The characters are unlikable. Like, okay, like that's have you never consider that consider that being the point, right? Like, consider it's maybe not satirical enough because you're from the main character's point of view, and the main character is like an anti-hero, is not self-aware. Right. I don't know. I'm just not to me, I'm like, come on. I mean, and I get it. Some don't if you don't like reading horrible characters from like their point of view, I mean, yeah, a lot of people don't like that. Then just don't read it, but also then don't complain about it because no one told you that this book was going to be something different, right? You know, like yes, yes, oh my god. So, anyways, I just think I'm like, I just write that off honestly to like poor media media literacy and like poor critical thinking skills. And I think the children did get left behind, and I think that we're not paying attention in English class. You know what I'm saying? And like there are people who paid attention in English class and like English lit, and they'll like this. Yeah, yeah, and they'll like this, so whatever. Anyways, yesteryear is about this woman named Natalie, and it's told in a bit of a time jump. I think she calls, she categorizes the times as like past, present, and future. But to be honest, as a reader, you don't really know what that means. And it may not mean what it you think it means from the surface. So she's kind of telling the story of her life. She gets married to the son of a senator, and it's like the son of like a senator, but like also billionaire. The character is completely modeled after Ballerina Farm. It is like a shot for shot description of Ballerina Farm, except she's brunette and not a dancer, but anyway, um, but like same entire premise. Early in the book, like this is all like backflap type of stuff. She wakes up and she's in her home, but in her home, it is like 1855. Right. And she's like, wait, what's going on? And her kids aren't her kids. And her husband's just like an older version of her husband, and she's living without electricity and all this stuff, and she doesn't know how she got there. And um it basically the message of this book is patriarchy hurts everyone. It comes for everyone, even by those who play by its rules. Yeah. Um even men. Uh everyone. And it I I just couldn't stop, I couldn't stop reading it. It was just really, really good. And I I'm just very interested in talking more about this book and really thinking about all the different messages of it. Here's my caveat. Apparently, the author, Kiro Claire Burke, is not like the chillest person ever. And apparently she like made some comments like about nobody should like comment on Ariana Grande's body. Like, no one like, if Ariana Grande says she's not sick, she's not sick, whatever. And it's like, okay, yeah, but you know, there's a lot of nuance there, whatever. Okay. All of that being said, this is a good book, and I'm really looking forward to you reading it so that you can tell me what you thought about it. Should we book club it when I do get it from the library? Sure. If if you want to talk more about it, hold on. I'm gonna see. I have a long way to go on this, but let me see. I've had it on hold for quite a while. I'm excited to read this. This seems like something I'll really like. I love literally nothing more than insufferable problematic characters. Like, I love that. I just love so much. And it's really interesting because you get her in her monologue. Like, there's also um, there's like another character that she meets very early on in the book, and throughout her story, you kind of get these little glimpses into the life of the other person, the other woman. Sure. And it's like she is trying to convince herself that she's chosen the right things for her in life, even though it just feels like she like all these sentiments are just like drenched in jealousy and envy, and um, it's just they're complicated people. At no point did I find myself rooting for her. At times I did find myself feeling bad for her, to be honest. Um, but it's so it's complex, it's difficult. Um, and I really enjoyed it. Okay, I'm 130th in line, so it could be a little wild. Hopefully, they'll see how many copies they have. Okay, I've lost it. I'm sure they have a lot of copies, but who knows? It's I think I started in like the 300s, so you know, it's going down. We'll get it. You're getting closer. It's gonna be there for you when you need it. So yeah, I can't wait. I really can't wait. That sounds so greedy. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners have read it. And look, if you didn't like it, that is okay. I just think that if your critique is that the character was unlikable, then I think there's a little bit of a misunderstanding about what the book was before you read it. That's all I'm saying. Sure. Yeah, that makes total sense. Okay,

Backman Tears And Fun Mysteries

Abigail 24:37

over to you. What have you read recently? I have only finished one book, as I said, but it was a five-star read, and it was great. Expected, expected five-star read. It was My Friends by Friedrich Bachmann. Um, obviously, I'm a big fan of his writing style, and this is no exception. I think, okay, so before this, I probably would have pointed to Anxious People as the place to start, but I would also suggest this book as a place to start if you've never read any books by him before. This is a great to me example of how he writes and the kind of stuff he writes about. And if you will don't like it, you're never gonna like any of these books, but you know, whatever. Anyway, it's kind of hard to explain his books as well because there's all often like multiple stories going at once, but um this book starts with Louisa, and she is 17, it's the eve of her 18th birthday, and she is living in foster care and is in a terrible foster home situation. Her best friend recently uh took their own life, and she is like, I'm just gonna run away, and if I can just make it to light when I turn 18 without getting caught, then I'm free. I don't have to, you know, I'm no longer a ward of the state. During that night, when she's about to turn 18, she goes into a art exhibit and she looks at this painting that she has been like enamored with her entire life, and it's a painting of the sea, and she like just yeah, looks at it and then she goes outside or whatever, and she's like running from the security guards because she ended up doing some graffiti on the wall, and she runs into a man who she has an encounter with, she thinks he's homeless or whatever, and they have this like conversation, and he encourages her to like paint on the wall of this church where they are standing in like this alleyway, and she paints something, he signs the painting, he helps her paint it, and signs it with the signature that is immediately identifiable to her as the paint artist of the painting that she had just gone to see in this art exhibit. And so then through a series of events that I don't want to spoil, she ends up with the artist's longtime friend um going on this journey. And so Louisa is telling the friend Ted the story of her life, while Ted is telling her uh the story of the artist and their friends, um, Jor and Allie, and how the four of them grew up. And the story kind of takes place in this one summer of their childhood before they turned 15, when like a lot of things happened in their life, and so you're getting the story of the past intertwined with the story of the future of this like journey that Ted and Louisa are going on together. And it was obviously very like his books are always emotional, they always make me cry, they're always like very moving. And um, this was no exception. I love how he writes, like he kind of tells you up front what's gonna happen, but then like surprises you with how it happens, or it's not exactly what you expect, and that's was the case here. Um, and yeah, I thought this was really nice, just about like grief and friendship, and the way like the friends that you meet when you're young have this like lifelong impact on you, and who you are as a person, and the way that you can like not to say that friends you meet when you're an adult don't matter, but like there is something about the people you meet when you're a kid who stick with you, and how you love those people and how they love you in return, and it was just really great. So I loved it, it was great. I loved every second of it. I love when you have an author that you love, they release a book and you're like, I know I'm gonna love this, and I know I'm gonna love it. Yeah, yeah, this was great. So, exactly what I was looking for, and I would recommend it to anybody if you like it's like I always say his writing is so specific and not it's definitely not something everybody would like, but I think if you do like his writing that you will love this instructive, it was really good. And then I have started and hope to finish tonight. Um, Everyone in this bank is a thief, which is the next um Ernest Cunningham, I think. Mystery. And I'm already having a great time. Those books are so fun if you've ever read any of them. They're just silly, goofy mystery fun. And this one's I'm like, how do you keep doing this? Because the whole premise is like that this guy sort of everyone in my family has killed someone, this guy? Yes, yes. Um, yeah. So the premise of the first one is like he accidentally stumbles into a murder. That's another one on a train where it's kind of the same thing. Um, so I'm like, how does this keep you know? I mean, a lot of serial mysteries are like this, where like the person, you know, like the story keeps going and increasingly implausibly, but this one is really unique how it's approached and it's uh heisty and what go ahead, sorry, finish your thought. No, no, that's it. It's just it's fun. So I so wait, have you ever read The Housemaid?

unknown 29:42

Yes.

Abigail 29:42

Did you ever okay? You reread The House Maid. Like, I have not read it. Okay, I did I did watch the movie. So me and Zach were like having like a goofy movie night, whatever. And he was like, he saw it in the theater when it came out. Oh with his AMC stubs thing, he'll just go see anything. He was like, I I I want to watch this movie, it's gonna be so fun and funny. Okay. And so I so we watched it. And then so spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, but at the end I was like, Wait, she's gonna go do this again at someone else's house? Yeah, it's like that's the premise of all the books. Is it crazy serial murdering people's husbands? Yeah. What look so uh I was like, looky, I will watch these movies. I don't know if I will read the book, but it's like, is it a goofy 90-minute investment? Sure. Yeah. And look, I'm sure a lot of our readers love them.

unknown 30:35

So I don't want to read it.

Abigail 30:36

I mean a lot of our readers. But I have read several her books are so good. I should honestly return to her because they're so good for a reading slump because they are just the dumbest, easiest things to read. Like I through them. It's not is it a great book? No, but is it a great book? Sure. Yeah, sure. Like, is it a is it fun? No, it's not even really that fun. It's more just like it's so, it's almost like reading fan fiction, but worse writing than the fan fiction I read. Because because it's essentially all of every book I've read by her, I have had a moment where I've thought, wait, I've read this book before. And it's because she's just like blatantly taking from other like tropey, like pop, but like writing it dumber and faster. From the very beginning, everything that was going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

No, yes, yes, exactly.

Abigail 31:27

Except for the end when she's like gonna go do this for someone else. I was like, wait, that's the premise. What? Yeah, there's like multiple housemade books that they're just yeah, they're so numb. Don't ask me any questions about those books. It was crazy, and also city sweeney, you know. I'm just like yeah, enough of her. But one day we should do a we should do an episode on her books because they are hilarious. So maybe sometimes be like a like a romp. Like it's just like ridiculous. Insanely popular again. Like, it's okay, I guess. It's cool that you like that. But it is it's like a shortcut in your brain because you're reading it and you're like, oh, I know. Like you said, I I have read this before. I know what's gonna happen. Um, I'm not gonna be really that surprised by any of the twists. It's like watching The Office for the 40th time. Yes, reading her books is like watching you know what the jokes are gonna be. You know what the second feels nice, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sometimes it feels nice, so yeah. Anyways, I was shook. I was shook. I've got I haven't seen the movie, so maybe I'll watch it with it. Oh my god, it's so funny and

Adaptation Anxiety Beach Read Still

Abigail 32:40

crazy. Yeah, I think um, okay, so speaking of book to movie adaptations, uh, we found out we got our first still from the Beach Reed movie adaptation. I thought there's no way it could be as bad. We've all hyped this up to be horrible, and I'm sure a lot of us will be pleasantly surprised. It was bad. This one image, first of all, why is it lighting like that? Dude, why is it lit like that? First, I don't know. Second, why is his hair like that? It's so bad. It is so bad. Why is her hair like that? She looks bad too. I am even less sold on her. I was never like, yeah, like January to me, whatever. I think she would be fine in January, but uh this still made me question that. Like, I'm like, I don't actually know that she will be fine in January. Like all of a sudden, I'm having a lot of questions. So like you know, like Emily Henry still is not talking about it. Like she's she still has something to say. It's tough, it's really tough. Uh yeah. So if you haven't seen this, Yulin Kwang posted it on Instagram, and that's also part of my problem is like Jesus wasn't wanting it to be so she's wanting it to be good so bad. Like it's yeah, it's pretty clear that she posted this as a way to be like, see guys, she he looks great, and it's like the fact that you thought that this image would because it's not like it's it was released, it wasn't like a shot from set that was like put out in a press statement. This is just her posting a picture on her Instagram being like, Look, he looks great, comments limited. It's like that you thought this picture was what would prove to me that you understood the problem. I actually don't think you understand the problem. I have more Instagram followers than her. That's deserved. Um it's so bad. It I tell I message you this in the DMs, but I um I to me this looks like genuinely you could tell me that this was a still from a Nicholas Sparks adaptation where like her husband is actually an abuser and she's gonna run away, and some like really hot Zach Efron guy is gonna save her from her abusive situation. If you told me that was the clause, I think it looks like a horror movie. I think I think it's horror adjacent. He does not like it. So she said a crumb of BTS from Bee Tree camera test for you. Dear reader, can't wait to show you we've been cooking up. Please don't. Girl, put the phone down. Put the cobble. I don't know. You need a different recipe because this is crazy. It's just so sad. I bought it, Bee Tree, to reread it because that was one of my plans for the summer was to do some Emily Henry rereading, and I can't bring myself to start it because I'm just like, I think this is gonna really upset me if I remember how lovely Gus is. I just don't, yeah, and yeah, I don't know. It's really tough for me. I'm having a hard time with this still. Oh it's gonna be horrible. As bad as you think it is, it's worse. It is worse, and it's so upsetting. Here it's it's giving chat GPT. Look at the emojis, choices, and placement of this. She has uh dear reader, chick. I can't wait to show you what we've been cooking up, and then like a timer and chef. Filming has eventually commenced to me. The green chat green square. It gives chat GPT. See you only in the theaters on May 7, 2027. And then uh sunglasses emoji, popcorn emoji. Wait, is it in 3D or something? Or is that a heart? No, that just seems like a chat GPT kind of confused about theaters. I'm on board with you. I think she said, please write a casual lowercase Instagram caption to make people stop hating me.

unknown 36:49

I think that's what she did.

Abigail 36:55

And look, I'm no stranger to like book adaptations being hated. I have been I remember the old ancient text of when they cast Robert Pattinson as Edward Collin, and every single message board I was a part of was having a meltdown about how he wasn't hot enough, including me. I was posting that he wasn't hot enough. And you know what? I think he made a great Edward, and that was the feeling I had prior to this still being released. I thought maybe I'm wrong. Like I am willing to accept that I could be wrong. I am no longer willing to accept that. I think it has been proven that Yu Ling Huang does not understand the readers or the best picture. She had a lot of pictures. She had like 40 options, yeah. And this was her best and final. Correct. Which is also upsetting. So anyway, I'm I don't know what to say about this, except that I'm not excited. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm really deaf defaced. I think we should just put a it's just upsetting because you know what makes me mad? Like, you have the I know people like bros are mad about the Odyssey or whatever, and like Dune, probably too. But like those male movies get such like a high budget, they get like so many stars, they get like effort put into them. And what do we get? Us women, we're left with fing Patrick Schwarzenegger. Like, that's what we're left with. Are you kidding me? You know what? Yeah, demand more, demand more better. That's what I'm saying. We deserve better. This book is um like Emily Henry is a massive success. She's an instant bestseller anytime she puts something out. We should have better than this, you know? And it's upsetting that we're not getting it for this. But I'm gonna have hope that Happy Place, script written by Emily Henry, will be better. I'm gonna believe that. And um, yeah. I can imagine it's so hard though, if you're an author, because she has no control in the situation, and she's the one who's having to like face the press and answer questions about it. And that would make me, I would be like, I'm not gonna be nice. I'm just I'm not like I can't handle that. I'm gonna be mean, I'm gonna go on their podcast. Yeah, as you're talking about Emily Henry, I've been thinking about some of her press appearances. She's been on like, you know, Good Morning America, today's show, stuff like that. And you know what I was just thinking? I bet Emily Henry ate down in the Twee era. I bet for sure. So Twee. And if she had come to her fame, I guess she probably wasn't even old enough, really, but if she had come to her fame in the Twi era in like 2012, she couldn't have been. I mean, you know that she had like little ox and little overs and like a vintage buttons. Yes. Yes. She had straight bangs, like I'm gonna Google Emily. Emily Henry Twee era. Emily Henry 2012. Emily, if you want to come on the podcast, this is a safe space. We would love to have you. We know you're listening, we know you're a big fan. Um, if you want to come on, we will chat with you. Nobody, not enough people listen to us, you know, so like your secret's safe. We'll we'll just chat with you about what you really think about the casting and yeah. Okay, she scrubbed the internet of photos. She has nothing personal on the internet, and I admire that for her because if I ever become that level of famous, the amount of things people will find out there of me is crazy, you know. So I'm assuming Emily Henry also isn't her real name. I don't know, is it? You know, so that could be crazy.

unknown 40:28

I don't know, I don't know.

Love Hypothesis Hopes And Upcoming Releases

Abigail 40:30

Okay, the last piece is deeply upsetting. I sent you some stills from another book to screen adaptation, which is Love Hypothesis. Yes, and I sent you on Instagram and I said, notice how this doesn't fill you with rage. Because even though the casting, I think, like I think in my mind's eye, Adam Dr. Adam Carlson looks different than the man who's cast as him. Yeah, I'm not it doesn't fill me with rage. So I'm gonna pull that back up. There's a and I'm excited because speaking of on-screen chemistry, the actors are married, so yes, you know, they should have good chemistry. Are they married? Yeah. To each other? I think so. I mean, obviously. Am I wrong about that? I did not think they were. I thought they were. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I mean, you could totally be right. No, just kidding. Wait, no, she doesn't have a husband. Okay, shut up. I'm stupid. All right, no, they're not married. But wow. Um, they seem they do seem to have great chemistry. She, I think, is actually like a perfect casting. Um, like visually, she looks just like him. We're like her. He, I think, looks a little too pretty, but like, whatever, I'll get over it. Like, it's not like, oh no. I'm not that picky. He's hotter than I expected. What a bummer. Right, you know. We have the opposite problem. Right? Yeah, no, he's a little polished. Like, I would like a little bit more scruffiness, like a little less perfect beard and tenor. You know, yeah, he looks like a person who takes a lot of care in his appearance, which I don't necessarily think is true to the character, but everything else is fine. You know, he's fine. You know, I'll get over it. Yeah. But this still looked great, and there's a release date, right? September 23rd. Oh my god. So soon. You guys. There's still live. Uh when is the Red, White, and Royal Wedding coming out? December 1st. I was oh, the movie. I think next year, right? Okay. But the the the the book. We will be book clubbing that. I'm gonna be going in with high. I need to reread the first one related to the Red White and Royal Wedding. It's a separate universe. I don't think I own that one. I don't think I have that book. So I need to buy that. I need to pre-order the new one, and then we can book club and read the new one and then be happy and then watch the movie. And remember that not all adaptations are bad. Because even like Red White and Royal Blue, for example, is that like a good adaptation of the book? No. But is it a really fun movie? Like, yes, and and like, you know, the people are excited to be there, and I'm excited that they're there, and like they're gonna be asking. And the characters didn't feel the actors didn't feel totally miscast. Yes, so that is an example of me learning to be okay with things, unlike whatever. Yeah, I know. I can't talk about Adrian. I don't think you ever watched Wonder Hill, did you? No. Okay. Sorry. Well, on the next episode, I'm halfway through. Okay.

Next Reads Cult Memoir Tease

Abigail 43:40

One of the I'm reading this book right now called Dinner for Vampires. One of the it's a memoir from one of the actresses on Wendry Hill, Bethany Joylands. Oh, she was in a cult, actively in a religious cult, um, the entire time she was uh on Wendry Hill. And it was like a small, the thing is it's like kind of triggering slash like it's it's like a a Christian, like a small Christian uh high control group. Sure. Um I think you're gonna relate to it too much. It's it's it's highly relatable, but um she uh it's really good, and I am she narrates it as well, and she's an actress, so that shines through. That's a good job. Um but I'm I'm looking forward to talking about the next episode. Interesting. I can't wait to hear that. Yeah, exciting. I hope to have more books to talk about in our next episode. Me too. I need to catch up. I'm 10 books behind, so we're gonna lock in. We need to do like a chat, like uh, I don't know, a challenge, a readathon, summer reading, summer reading challenge for me. Yeah, if you guys have any ideas, let us know. Oh, last year you said the ideas for me. Yeah, have I gone through that? No, still no. No, you have not. You could pick that up. I'm not doing that. That's a surefire way to make me not be able to read anymore. Read her entire backup. How many books does she have out? Probably like 65, you know, like there's no way. I mean, good for her. Good for her. I respect that. Respect the hustle. All right, I think that's it. Well done. Yeah. We'll have more to share soon. We will be back soon. Bye.