The Readirect Podcast

The Readirect Podcast's 100th Episode & Reverse Interview!

• Emily Rojas & Abigail Freshley • Episode 100

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Tune in for our 100th Episode!!!! We're celebrating by inviting Friend of the Pod Emma Sandoval back to conduct a reverse interview. 

Thank you for being here for our first 100 episodes. We can't wait to get to 100 more! 

Recent Reads: 

100th Episode Welcome And Support

Abigail

Um, but what to expect? Um, more gay stuff. The next hundred episodes will somehow be the last. I can promise you that the reader is like that. I'm a real friend. And I'm a real show where we just look on the station. We just got the books and those things show up in our real lifting. Like today is a very special month. We have invited our best friend, and this animals, to interview Alice. And we have no idea what he's gonna. But before we get to that, very special today, very special episode. Uh, we would love for you to support the podcast in a few simple ways if you're loving the show. And it's our 100th episode, so like really hear this in your heart and go right now and go to Apple Podcasts and or Spotify. And if you haven't already, 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 on Instagram at Fabigal Insta and on TikTok at FabigaleEliven. You can also visit us at redirectpodcast.com to shop our merch. I'm thinking in celebration of our 100th episode, we're gonna have a really exciting blog post up on our website. So go check that out and follow us on Instagram so you know when that goes up. Um, but 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 help us grow our community of book loving nerds. Yay, you nailed it. Great job. I'm getting it's almost like we've been doing this for a hundred episodes. I've been getting better at the longer, um, the longer intro. It's a lot. And I will say, so um, from a lot of personal experience for our listeners, I've been using the media player from our website a lot to play our podcasts without interruptions for my dog who has separation anxiety. So it works great, and the search function is great. The search function is surprisingly excellent. So if you are looking for something, I recommend checking out redirectpodcast.com. But enough yapping. Welcome

Emma Takes The Mic

Abigail

back, Emma. Welcome back, Emma. Emma, you were on our American Girl episode. We did Daisy Jones and American Girl. Yeah, she's this is her third appearance on the pod.

SPEAKER_01

I am honored. Famous. It is good to be back. Everyone go spend $100 on their website in honor.

Abigail

Thank you, Emma.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, thank you for having me. I am pumped and so excited that you guys are hitting a hundred episodes. That's crazy.

Abigail

Yeah, it is kind of crazy when you really think about it. Taken four years because we do an only do an episode every other week. Um yeah. But we're we're I think it's a hundred give or take. We have some bonus episodes, our heat of rivalry episodes. We just stopped counting because it was such a frenzy of chaos. But this is our 100th promise. A sweaty blur, a lot of miles. A sweaty blur. So for our 100th episode, we brainstormed a lot of ideas. Um, and what we came up with was asking Emma to come onto the show and reverse interview us. So we have actually no clue what's about to happen or what she's we're about to talk about. I'm sure it will be interesting and compelling. Which I'd like to point out is like marginally less than we normally know because yeah, hardly planned for this. So normally we have our half, you know, of our minds. Yeah. I know in my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, so yeah, we're really going in blind. Emma valid. Yeah. You're the host. Take it away. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01

Well, welcome to the redirect podcast, where we turn the conversation back to books. Close enough. Nail back.

unknown

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01

I was doing a little research, taking a look at some of the episodes, and I thought we could start by taking a journey through the history of the pod.

How The Podcast Started

SPEAKER_01

So uh for those of us who maybe are new to the pod, the listeners who haven't been here since the beginning, uh, how did the redirect podcast come to be?

Abigail

Great question. You want to start this one, Emily? Great question. Sure, I'll answer that partially at least. Um so I I'm sure we've shared this at some point, but uh four years ago, probably a little over four years ago now, I had been posting on a Bookstagram account. I had my own personal blog, kind of for fun. And Abigail messaged me, and I think I still have the text. Um, I did make a little compilation TikTok at one point. Um, but she said, uh, if you ever wanted to like promote your brand, I would love to do a podcast, and I think you would be a good host. And she can share more about how she came to that text message, but that's as much as I knew at the time. And so we had already had planned for like a couple months after that a trip where we were gonna meet each other in Chicago. And so we were like, okay, let's think about this, brainstorm some ideas what the podcast would be about, and we'll meet in Chicago and we'll go to dinner with the intention of discussing this podcast. Um, so we went to that happened, we went to dinner. Abby's had the idea also to do it about books, which I was actually skeptical about at first. I don't know why. I was just like, can't, I don't know. I never imagined a hundred episodes of content about books, and so I was like, I don't know, I guess, yeah, maybe sure. Okay, why not? And then fortunately, we had a trip planned for me to come to LA like a month or so after that. So that's when we uh recorded our first episodes. We went to Target and bought headsets, that's why the audio sounds so bad. Um, I was also sick, I had strep throat, and we did our two episodes uh during that time, uh, locked in separate rooms because we have still yet to figure out how to record when we're in the same room together. So I was in her living room, she was in her bedroom, and we recorded our first episode, and that's how we got here. So, Abigail, what made you send me that text on that fateful day? Well, I'll also add that the perfect retelling. Um, I think the only difference is when I first had the idea of the subject matter, I was like, oh, what if we did something related to books because we both love to read? And I was like, we could do it, it was a very, very, very specific and niche idea. I was like, we could do a non-fiction book and a fiction book that are related and subject matter. And we did an episode like that. We did um exactly once, exactly once, because it's way too much work. Um, yeah. That we were like, and then we can compare, like we read When to Watch. We read yes, and and then um The Bachelor Producer's book, I forget what it's called. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like I forget the one about making the bachelor, yeah. Anyways, um, so we quickly got away from that. Uh yeah. But I mean, why did I want to do a podcast? I don't know. I like hearing myself talk. I thought you had a list of goals for your life, and that was one of your oh, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, edit that out. I'm trying to set you up here. Um I feel so far away from this now from the young woman who made the list of goals that it's hard for me to remember. But as a young woman, almost almost 10 years ago now, really, almost 10 years ago, I was going through a horrible heartbreak. Um, did not a breakup, just devastating unrequited love. And worse in some ways. Yeah. And um, I had gotten so deep and entrenched in this image of what my life would be. That was completely delusional. And um, so on the fallout of that heartbreak, of that letdown, I um decided to make a list of a bunch of things that I could do in my life rather than like be married and be obsessed with this person I was wanted to be with. Yeah. Among that list of many things was start a podcast. I'd like to say I have started a podcast, but I also have done so many other things on that list. Um, like adopting a dog, volunteering, going to grad school, walking the Camino, um, going on a long road trip. Like there's all sorts of little big and small adventures. So anyways, that's the story of the podcast. That's the story of the podcast.

SPEAKER_01

That's the story of the podcast. All right, see you guys next time. Excellent. I think I did a great job. Thank you guys for having

Finding The Format That Works

SPEAKER_01

me.

Abigail

Yeah, nailed it once again.

SPEAKER_01

So I was reminding myself that you started in September of 2022, and that was the Bachelor podcast, the very first episode. So moving away from the fiction, nonfiction uh kind of template you had uh laid out for yourself, have things just developed organically, naturally? Like how have you come up with what you are currently doing with the pod?

Abigail

I think our skip, I think our no no, no, no, no. I think our magic really lies in the fact that um obviously we're lifelong friends. It's not difficult for us to have a conversation. So we just don't do that much planning. We're very persuadable and we don't take ourselves too seriously. So it's been fun to watch the podcast grow over the last few years, and it's really fun to have built a community of people who like to listen to it and engage with us, but we would do it for no one, so it's just not that serious, I guess. And um, yeah, that's the key, I think, is like, I don't know, like it'll be like the day before what should we talk about on the podcast tomorrow? Sometimes we're reading a book in advance, you know, sometimes there's more pre-planning. But I think, and Emily can speak to this too, I think the key is just to be talking about stuff that we want to talk about. Yeah, and like for you know, we've also been flexible in the opposite direction. I don't think either of us have read the sequel to The Will of the Many, which we both loved, so there's really no good reason for it. But we were planning to do a book club episode for that and just like weren't vibing with it at the time, and so we just scrapped that. So I think we've been flexible. Like, we're not gonna force ourselves to book club something or talk about something that we're not really interested in talking about because I think anyone listening would be bored by that. Um, but yeah, we also have a l I have a notes app list. Uh, we've had like various brainstorm lists that are helpful when we get to a point where we're like uh don't know what to talk about. If nothing else, we always fall back on our book talk episodes where we just talk about basically whatever we want in a more hodgepodge manner. And if that fails, we can always do another twilight episode because there's always lots to talk about. Yeah, it's always twilight. You know what? Yeah. The truth is the people, the episodes that the listeners love the most, we get the most comments on, that we get the most follows from, the most subscribers, are the ones that we're having the most fun doing. And they're usually about the silliest, stupidest stuff. So yes, just like stop trying to guess what consumers want and just do whatever you want. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_01

A word for us all. Yeah.

Abigail

I wanted to sorry, we would and have done this for basically no one slash immediate relatives of ours. So, you know, we're we're here for fun. We're not here for anything serious at all.

SPEAKER_01

The best way to be.

Favorite Episodes And Listener Growth

SPEAKER_01

I wanted to talk about some of those silly, fun, wild episodes that you have embarked on. So, what were some of your favorites?

Abigail

I think, I mean, our uh weekly recaps of a heated rivalry were like because we didn't even set out to do that. We were just like, let's do um an episode about the premiere, about the first episode of Heated Rivalry and like our thoughts, whatever. And then we recorded for like 90 minutes or two hours or something like that, and we're like, oh crap, like we're gonna have to do more of these, and that was so fun. Yeah. I think aside from that, any episode we've ever done on Twilight is so dear to my heart. Blast. Yeah, yeah, I would agree. The heated driveover re episodes were so much fun. Um, I like it when we book club a book because I like kind of really I feel like those are always really fun to like talk about the nitty-gritty of books instead of kind of a broad overview. So I always enjoy those. And um, yeah, I think they're all fun. I have a blast with all of them. But yeah, I would agree. The heated rivalry, like you really had to be there, and the experience of watching the episode as soon as it dropped, immediately recording and then editing as fast as possible. I think it was also good for the pod. Like, not only a lot of you guys found us for those episodes, like our listenership pretty drastically increased, you know, from zero to after those episodes. But um, I think it helped me be a little less, you know, intense about what I'm saying and what I'm leaving in the final edit because I really just didn't have time to cut out everything and just had to kind of full send the content we were gonna be talking about. So I think in a lot of ways it was a good thing for the podcast. Um, so yeah, I like those and I think it was great. It was and of course every episode Emma's been on. Yeah, those are my favorites. The American Girl of all episode was really fun. I really like that. It was actually great. I think it's highly underrated. You guys should go back and listen to it. Uh, it was crazy and fun and heartwarming. Go to redirectpodcast.com, go to our media library, and search American Girl, and that's how you can find it.

SPEAKER_01

Perfect. I know that I was uh DMing a lot of people when Heated Rivalry was first starting up and telling them all to listen to your podcast.

Abigail

Thank you. And trust, that's we will be sharing a show with a friend. We will be back for season two, and we will be back for Unrivaled, the absolutely final book in the trilogy. So back and better than never. Yeah, we're we're not going we will be there, at least until that happens.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Moving in from the the history of the pod, how it's been developed. Talk me through a little bit about your current reading journey. Where are you right now? How has the podcast supported that? What's going on?

Abigail

Interesting. I definitely read more than I did before we started the podcast. I think I've said that before, probably. Uh I don't know how much of that would have happened because like me starting the podcast coincided with me getting a different job that took up less of my brain power and energy and like so yeah, the part of that is probably related to that, and part of that is related to the podcast. Um, I think I'm more a little more thoughtful about what I'm reading because I if I read a book that I don't want to talk about on here or like I don't think is gonna be good, then that's kind of a waste of book because like I do feel like I need something to talk about every time we record. So I probably think about what I'm reading a little bit differently. Um I was bullied into getting a library card because of the podcast, which has really changed my life, and also I definitely read more uh romance, which is Abigail's influence on me because I wasn't reading as much, and then she started getting me into recommendations, and now it's like most of what I read. So that's again, also like maybe that would have happened organically, but I think that's that's how I'm different as a reader now than I used to be. And yeah, like also reading trying to read books as soon as they come out, which can be hard sometimes if we're trying to book close something or whatever it can be. Yeah. So yeah. Shout out public libraries, yeah, yeah. Shout out the library. Um, so basically everything I heard there was Abigail's made my life so much better. Yeah. Well, that's what I said. What did I think about? Um, no, I I feel like around the time we came up with the idea for the podcast, I had started reading more, and it's hard to like say why. I think you kind of like in your early twenties, in my early 20s, and I think many people feel this way, you're like locked in on just trying to survive and like eat and work and see your friends and figure out your anxiety. And then I went to grad school, there was the pandemic. I was reading so much for just like out of necessity, like things I had to read. There's no time for reading for pleasure. And then after I moved out to LA, like life started slowing down a little bit, and I started creating more time. I I left a very high-stress job when I moved to LA. And I was like, Oh, I have more space in my life to like enjoy things. And I think the podcast has definitely kept me reading more. Um, because it's and not like out of obligation, but out of fun. I'm like, oh man, it's so fun to talk about this stuff. And, you know, I'm just around book community and book culture more, you know, online and in person. So I read more because of the podcast. And I hope that our listeners also read more because of the podcast. I would be happy to I would really like to know if our podcast has positively influenced your reading journey. Let me know.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, let us know. I would love that.

Abigail

And I also feel like I get uh I feel like I get recommendations from listeners as well because we're on here so much talking about our preferences that they do start to know, like you guys start to know what we like. And so I appreciate that too. Of like, I think you would really like this. Yeah. So that has definitely been amazing. Yeah, and I just want to also underscore when I say enhance your reading journey, I don't necessarily mean the volume of books you're reading. It also could just be you started reading things you really enjoy more, or you know, you started reading Ice Planet Barbarians, you know. You started, we'll get to that. You did something fun, you had it has enriched your life, not necessarily it's not a competition how many books you read, even though I'm trying to catch a wing goal, but sure. It's about the life game. Agrees. Also, this podcast is the directly the reason that I read and write fanfiction now, which has completely changed my life. So respect to us doing so many episodes that led to that. Um, which again, you know, if you need the journey, go search on redirectpodcast.com.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And uh Emily, where would we find that fanfic? Which one?

unknown

Mine?

Abigail

I don't know. I don't know that you want to talk about it. Nope. Not mine, but uh I hope it racks. If there was our listeners who were reading your fanfic and they were like subscribers of yours and they didn't know it was you. Actually, that's my goal. I feel like that's when I'll be successful. I I I I'm being earnest about this. Not really, but like I think it would be cool either way. If someone who is a listener was following my one of my fanfictions and didn't know it was me, obviously. Or if someone who followed my fanfiction recommended this podcast or was listening to this podcast, that would be like, okay, I have come made a complete circle of my life and I can quit. So whenever that happens Just kidding, I never want to stop this podcast, but I think that would be fascinating. Probably not, but you never know. So anyway, if you need racks, please DM me.

SPEAKER_01

I can attest that Emily has been writing Fanavic for many a moon, starting from my perspective at least, with the Lemony Snicket series of unfortunate events.

Abigail

That's true. That is true. I kind of forget that that counts as fanfiction, what I was doing over there, but I was in all in as normal.

SPEAKER_01

Another uh episode idea there.

Abigail

Yeah. Oh yeah. Their episode idea would be getting me to read a series of unfortunate events. Correct. No, please. We did have that. That was a suggestion you had when we did our first book swap episode, which was very fun, but I did make you read one day instead, which I don't regret at all. Yeah, so that was great, but we should do another book swap. Yeah, that's a good idea. That's a good idea. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Great, great idea. All right, thinking about I wanted to ask you guys about some of the funniest moments on the pod, if anything comes to mind.

Funniest On Mic Moments

SPEAKER_01

But I don't know if that would be heated rivalry or something different.

Abigail

I still this is a clip on our our account, so you can go watch it if you weren't there or go listen to the episode. But the the heated rivalry episode where I was like, Joe, we gotta have it out, and you reacted so violently that your mic fell over. That to me is the funniest memory because after that, we both could not like I had to edit it down the amount that we were laughing. Also, I remember I will never forget the unpopular opinions, one of the unpopular opinions episodes we did, where someone on Reddit was talking about ripping the pages out of a paperback after they read the book. Do you remember this? Yes, that is crazy. That was crazy. It was so insane that we were also dying laughing. So I do remember those two moments of ridiculous. Where we were laughing so hard that it's like you had to catch your breath because you know no one wants to hear us probably silent cry laughing for you know 30 seconds straight. But those were two very funny moments. I have to agree, those were both so fun. Anything like I think oh one of my favorite things about having this podcast in this space is just like the total freedom to be like insane about something. So and those are usually like really funny moments, but also very joyful, like when you're like, oh my god, I just like I love this thing so freaking much, and it's like yes, I'm seeing here, and yes, those are my favorite moments, and I think typically those have had to do with heated rivalry or um you know some of our book club episodes. I've really loved like the we did Jill Duggar's memoir, yeah, and we did um Spare by Prince Harry, and yeah, those were both less funny, those are less funny, but also more like I just felt like I could have talked and talked and talked about that for hours. Um, so yeah. No, and it's really such a gift to be able to, like you said, just be not normal about stuff on here because in real life you might be talking about something. Um, I know like this we got this message a lot when we were covering heated rivalry again. Like, but people like don't necessarily have someone in real life. I'm lucky that I have you in real life and on here, but it's such a nice outlet to come on here and like set aside time to be like we're gonna spend an hour and a half talking about one episode of Heated Rivalry, and and it's not gonna feel like it's too much, or someone's like, Okay, that's like I'm kind of tired of hearing about this now, and that's really special to have. Yeah, so that's fun and funny and heartfelt. Yeah, usually there's laughter in those moments, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's great because you get to put out what you want and your people find you.

Abigail

Exactly that they have that is what fan spaces are all about, baby. That's right. Yeah, period.

The Worst Books We Survived

SPEAKER_01

Any worse books that you wanna relive, go back, talk about anything you need to get off your chest.

Abigail

We have done like for all of our like, oh, this is just for fun. This is we put ourselves through so much trial and tribulation reading books that are objectively awful. Like true, we just our last episode we released was the first three chapters of Model Land by Tyra Banks. Unfortunately, enough of you have asked that we continue, that we will be continuing, but yeah, just unreadable garbage. Little House on the Prairie. Yes, hate to say it on the look back tough on the look back. What's other just like terrible books we've read? Chrissy Miller was rough. Um why did my mind just go blank? Um Princeton Rivers. What the heck is that?

SPEAKER_01

Redeeming love. Redeeming love Redeeming Love. One of my favorite episodes of the podcast. It was Thank you so bad.

Abigail

Why is that book 500 pages long? Correct. It's so that's the thing about Redeeming Love, I think that was um, I mean, you can go to the store episode for the hottest takes, but the most upsetting part about it was I actually did expect at least the story and the writing to be good. I expected not to agree with the politics of it anymore and like the message. I thought that that would not hold up well, but what I wasn't expecting was it to be completely like unreadable. Like it's just so long, it's not well written, the characters aren't likable. There's like nothing about it that's interesting. It's not even like smuddy, you know what I mean? Like it's it's fade to black, all the good stuff is, you know, but you have to read in detail about him like, you know, punishing her for her horrorish ways. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend reading that book. I would recommend listening to our episode. Um, that was definitely, I would say, gotta be some of the worst uh that we read in in pursuit of this podcast. That's probably how this has also changed my reading. I would never have read this if it wasn't for the podcast. Oh my god, I know. We we we forced ourselves for content to sometimes revisit old things that end up being terrible. And God, Redeeming Love was a hot pile of garbage. Oh, life and death, Twilight Reimagined, the the gender swap twilight. It was terrible. Also Midnight Sun, also in absolute terrible. Uh, reading for Nicholas Sparks episode, absolute trash. Found out he sucks, you know, at writing. So that was a pretty my honorable mentions. And as a person, yeah. Tough, yeah. Redeeming love on my story graph is the only book I've ever given one star. It doesn't even deserve it. But it's so important to me. It does not deserve it, but I had to do it. So yeah, honorable mentions, dishonorable mentions.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. You're doing important work because I think I probably would have gone back to Redeeming Love at some point. And I'm still a little tempted based on your episode.

Abigail

Don't recommend it. I really don't.

SPEAKER_01

It's unreadable.

Abigail

It's unreadable.

SPEAKER_01

It really is. Hot garbage. I remember in high school a friend of a friend made someone a like took the Redeeming Love book and like cut up important quotes and made it into some sort of compilation. That's terrible. Yeah, we revisited it. I would love to know what the quote was.

SPEAKER_04

We loved it. Yeah.

Abigail

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. That's why it's so jarring. Because it's like, okay, what was wrong with my mind? I feel like that's what makes it worse than even some of the other worst books we've read.

SPEAKER_01

That one's personal.

Abigail

Trauma. Yeah, that one is personal. Wow. Thanks for reminding me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You're so welcome. All right, let's see. I've

Guilty Pleasures Fanfic And Hockey Romances

SPEAKER_01

got a couple more questions for you all. I really am going to just to throw you something absolutely off the wall.

Abigail

Do it. We're off the wall here. We're free.

SPEAKER_01

Any books you would feel let's see, how do I phrase this? Any books that you haven't talked about on the podcast that maybe reveal a little too much about you, but you still would recommend.

Abigail

I have no shame or embarrassment about pretty much anything. So for me, no. Personally. For me, no, personally. Maybe like maybe some sort of like hyper-specific self-help book or something. I'm trying to think. Sure. Uh I mean, yeah, that tracks. But no. I don't know. I feel like you pretty much share everything to read. No embarrassment. But Emily. The only thing I have ever redacted is the name of a specific fan fiction that I felt might be a little revealing. But uh, you know what? I don't care. It's it's called Dear Your Holiness by Molly Mary Marie. And I did cut that out of an early episode, but I feel less shame now about what I'm reading. I've talked about worse on here. Also, for a while, like you were like not, you were like post-dating cocky romances. That's true. Just because it's so much when I was going in when like I when I needed them to be there for me, I was reading like 18 at a time. Like that's insane to have in my in my TikTok audio that's like one time during a depressive episode in 2014, I spent over $500 on Candy Crush. Exactly. Something I have also done. Okay. Oh my god, not $500, not $500. Oh my gosh, just all calm down. But yeah, because like I was just I lock in on my Kindle Unlimited and I'm reading 18 of them. I have made a I made a TikTok with my recommendations for my favorite hockey romances. You guys can go see that on my page at Emily Rowhouse Reads. Um, I'm happy to discuss. I really not ashamed of them. It was more the quantity and the covers. Like, I didn't really want that flooding. You know, the covers aren't great of the hockey romance genre, they're really tough. So, but you know what? I talked openly recently about the Puck Boys series, which is probably one of the worst offenders because of its name and because of the cover art. So I have no shame. I'm here. I'm free. Free.

SPEAKER_01

Proud of you. I hope this is the investigative journalism you were looking for. Thank you. It is we got the name.

Abigail

There's nothing that I don't put in my story graph, really. I've never read a book and not included it. So you have you have posted backdated. I have backdated.

SPEAKER_01

The you want you reading 18 fanfics in a row is reminding me of I can't remember the name of it now, but you know, you could ask men boys would do this in high school. You would ask someone to be your accountability partner if you were looking at something you shouldn't. And I was thinking we need that for fanfic of no once you get to 15, send me a message. Check out a friends.

Abigail

There's something about the small screen, you know what I mean? Just the yeah, it just hits the small screen in bed at night, the blue light, searing your corneas. Yeah. And you're just the next chapter button calling to me like a siren. Yeah. No, my goal this year was to read more fanfiction. I'm not going into any accountability partner to cut back. It's it's increasing. Intravenous. As it should. As it should. Yeah. Inject me. I want to be happy.

Real Life Reading Community And Libraries

SPEAKER_01

How have you guys, or what what does reading look like outside of the pod? You mentioned a couple book communities, things like that. What are ways that people can get involved with books? IRL.

Abigail

I'm in a book club, which is fantastic. Um, that's been another thing that's helped me read things that maybe I normally wouldn't. Um also just can't hype enough um going to the public library and engaging with the sort of programming they have with public library. Um, I just am a big advocate for like, you don't have to a lot of people I feel like don't get into reading. Maybe because online there's so much content around consumerism with books and people who have like giant floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in every room. They're like, oh, my book budget is out of control. Like I spend so much money on and like, why are we spending money on books? This is crazy. I buy books that I know like you don't actually have to do that. You don't actually have to do that. I buy books that I know I love, or I buy books secondhand, but mostly I just get things from the library or read them digitally. And um, so I would say like stop trying to perform reading and just do reading. And um, I don't know, like do like read about stuff you like. If you like outdoor stuff, start by reading a book that's out in the outdoors. There you go. It's like it's just like a dip your toe in, try and if you want to read more, integrate reading into the other things that you like to do and go from there. Um, and you don't have to invest a lot of money in it or time. If you didn't read any books last year, okay. Just like try reading one this year and see how you like it. Congrats your reader. Yeah, totally. Um, I'm in a workbook club, which is virtual because I do work remotely. And I'm gonna be honest, I rarely read the books, but I do have fun talking to them about reading. Uh so yeah, that's fun. Like, whatever community you can find around books. Um, I like posting on my social media about books because like that's fun to find people who like the same stuff as you. And obviously, I love the podcast, but also like since this is a way my life has changed. Since starting the podcast, I don't know if you feel this, Abigail. People are way more likely to be like, hey, got any book recommendations? So that is something I try to always keep a few. I'm trying to to hone down my like it's really hard if someone just says that. I try to ask follow-up questions and nail down like what they're actually looking for. But I feel like, you know, I try to keep a few state like Project Hill Mary is always gonna be a go-to for me, for example. Um, I have a few in other genres, but like books that you know people are gonna like that aren't too offensive in any direction and can be good for that like intro conversation with someone when you're asked for book recommendations, which is fun. I love talking about books in person, so feel free to ask, but it is interesting, like the frequency which that happens now. Yeah, totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You got the Rex. Any other go-tos other than Project Hail Mary?

Abigail

Well, I would have some that's to me is like such a crowd pleaser. I feel like almost everyone likes Project Hail Mary, so I would ask that. Um, then yeah, I have to go down in my genres, like what kind of genre are you looking for? What books do you like to read? What kind of shows do you like to watch? You know what I mean? So that's probably my go-to. I I recommend like Fried McBachman a lot. Then I have like romance books I would recommend, probably depending on what the person likes. Those are a little bit more difficult to make recommendations and more specific. Um, I often recommend the most wonderful crime of the year because it's like really fun and flirty, but it's like not super explicit. So yeah, I don't know. Those are a couple of my go-tos, but I do try to be like more, you know nailed down on what people like than just broad. Yeah. I love giving people book recommendations by asking them, oh, what's like three books that you read that you really liked, and then go from there. But last week I was sitting outside um on the porch with my dad, and I was like, we were talking about reading, and I was I was like, oh, maybe I could come up with a book recommendation for you. I scrolled through all of the like 500 books that I have logged in Story Graph, and I I have to tell you, I could not think of one single book for my dad of books that I've read that I think would be appropriate to recommend to him. He was like, I think I would enjoy reading a book about the history of the national parks. And I'm like, I bet that would be good. I bet you would. I don't have something like that. Um but you could Google it though. Yeah, he would. I will he was okay, he was looking for like an adventure book, I think. He's really into adventure, but all the adventure books I read are also have other content in them that I would not recommend. Show dad or think that he would like. Like, for instance, my favorite adventure series is Paladin's Grace. Everyone in that book is like a she they, you know, it's like this isn't gonna click with my dad, although I think it would be great exposure, but I don't think he's gonna read that.

SPEAKER_01

Very educational.

Abigail

Uh, have you read hold on, pulling it up, pulling it up? Okay, have you read The River by Peter Heller? No. He might like it. It's like two friends, besties, dudes. They are like going on a river trip. No, they no kissing. Um, yeah, and they're like, they like it's kind of a little bit of a mystery, but it's like really much like they're like paddling through Canada national river and like foraging, and you know, there's some like creepiness, but I think he would like it. Okay. Maybe. Okay. I would recommend that.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. Send Emily and Abigail all of your hard-to-please relatives information, and yeah, they'll send you recommendations.

Abigail

For Christmas, my brother gave my dad the People's History of the United States. Huh. And he went Which Peoples? No, well, the People's History of the United States is a very progressive. It's like the woke manual, but um by Howard Zinn. But and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, he's not gonna read this. First of all, it's like 600 pages. Okay. Yeah. It is really good though. I mean, I would recommend this to other people. Fantastic book, but yeah. Not him.

unknown

Yeah.

Abigail

Yeah. It's tough. We have done a few listener recommendation episodes, and I always really like those, and that's how we do it. We ask for normally like two books they really like and one book they didn't like, or whatever, or one book of each. So I think those are fun. And I think that's a really good way, like Abigail said, to make recommendations. Like what's something you like, what's something you don't like? Okay, we can work from there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Nice.

Abigail

Thank you.

Genres We Read And Why

SPEAKER_01

Okay, you uh mentioned romance. Sure. Great genre. Heavy hitter. Say that again. I said romance. Oh, romance. Romance. Uh, what genres are you reading these days?

Abigail

I'm in my lit romance. Lit thick bag. Um, yeah. And you know what? I don't even know. I have a book I'm gonna talk about later and recently read. I don't even know quite what genre you would classify it as. It's a breakup book. Sure. I don't know if it's a romance book or not. It but um I've been into recently reading books about complicated people, like people who have complicated morality or complicated backstories. Like recently across genres, it doesn't really matter what genre, I'm interested in some character-driven books where I feel like, ooh, I kind of don't want to be inside of your head, or like, oh, this is kind of a weird place to be. Like it's challenging in some way. Yeah, I think we both really like books about people who aren't necessarily likable. Um, been reading a lot of romance. I read Conversion Therapy Dropout at Abigail's recommendation, which was a memoir. And I've been reading a little bit more Ollific. I've been trying to get back into that because I do love literary books and not just romance, but also I again I like to be happy. And unfortunately, many of those books are depressing. And so, you know what you can always count on is a romance book to make you happy at the end, at least. So that is where I'm at in my life and in my journey, and uh I don't care. I'm happy about it.

SPEAKER_01

I pulled some quotes from your reviews.

Abigail

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

In preparation, I did my due diligence. Sure. Smart commentary, a lot of heart, love the back and forth, their thoughts about old and new books, two friends discussing all kinds of genres. Makes us feel like part of the group, part of the gang. You are what is your favorite part of the podcast? Do you know how we talk about this?

Abigail

Um, my favorite part of the podcast is um probably talking to Emily. I love Emily. And so we have a lot of fun chatting together. So that's probably what has made it last so long is that we really both enjoy doing it and we're lifelong friends. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I find myself like pulling up your podcast when I haven't seen you guys or talked to you in a while. Like, let me check in. That's really nice.

Abigail

Uh that has to be my favorite too, because I feel like well, before we started doing the podcast, we had a tradition, a habit. I don't know. We just started mailing each other books and um we kind of have faded off because I think we've both like loaded up our TBRs too much and have bought less books progressively over the years, but that was fun. Like before we started the podcast, we were still talking about books, although not definitely as in depth and as much. But it's nice to know, like you said, like no matter what, I'm never gonna go more than two weeks. Probably sometimes we record ahead, rarely. So I'm never gonna go more than two weeks without talking to you. And also, I have someone to talk to who is a friend and it's not fake. Like, I don't know, and I feel like some podcasts you're like, okay, they don't talk to each other as soon as they hang up the mics, you know. But like the reality, I talk to you probably almost every day on some forum, like a TikTok or a cappuccino, I DM or a message, a cappuccino. Yeah. So the best part is just having this time that I know I'm gonna get to talk to you and get to talk about books. So yeah, I agree. Definitely what it's quite if it was a boring person to talk to. Yeah, because there's definitely been times where we're like, okay, a few times we've missed our Byllyweekly episodes, so you can tell when we're stressing out. But there's been times where I've been like, I don't want to do anything, but I never feel that way about this. Like, this is the thing that I want to do. I sometimes it's other things getting in the way, but I'm never like, I don't want to record the podcast. Yeah, totally. Because if it ever got to that point, I'd be like, let's just call it, you know. But it is genuinely the highlight of my every other week. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks. All right. Rapidly approaching what I've prepared. So you're doing that.

What We Want Next

SPEAKER_01

Thinking about the future now of the pot. What can listeners expect? Obviously, you have a variety of people who've been listening to you for a long time, people who've just joined the gang. So what can we look forward to?

Abigail

The hell have I now? I don't know. Um that's a genuine answer. But, you know, I think here's what I think. We've tried our hand a few different times, and sometimes we get approached about interviewing authors. I don't think that is particularly our bag or something that we are great at doing or interested in doing. However, Rachel Reed, Emily Henry, Allie Gazelwood. Yes. Who else, Emily? Casey McQuiston, Casey McQuiston, Talia Hibbert, Kat Sebastian, Kat Sebastian. You're on this Show at any moment. Any time. My job to interview in the middle of the day. I don't care. So besides I'm not speaking to you. But besides that, probably not much more of that. Um, we had the opportunity to interview some significant authors, and we turned it down. Um, or we did, and we kind of were like, eh, regrupted. Um, so I like it when it's a little more organic. I really liked our conversation with um Jason Kirk, Hell is a World Without You. Yeah, that was great. That felt in line with stuff we like. I liked reading his book. So stuff like that. If it's just like a random cold email, probably won't be doing that anymore. Totally. Um, but what to expect? Um, more gay stuff. The next 100 episodes will somehow be even gayer than the last. I can promise you that. That I solemnly swear. I can't. Um yeah, like we have stuff we're looking forward to. Like you said, unrivaled, uh, heated revelry season two. Um, not talking about the Emily Henry movie adaptation. We don't care about that. Um, Casey McQuiston's coming out with the Red Ride and Royal Blue. How do you say Epistolary? Is that the word? Letters, epistemology. Something like that. Epistemology. Um really excited about that. Uh Emily Henry, surely we'll have a book next year. Um anyone else who wants to come in, Allie Hazelwood, where what are you doing? All those we'll be book clubbing them. And we're oh, Sunrise on the Reaping, the movie. We'll definitely be talking about that. Uh in some state of bereftness. Um, and yeah. If any celebrities want to come out with any juicy memoirs, Taylor Swift, we're always open to that. Anything like that, we'll be talking about it. That's what you can look forward to. Yeah, and more Taylor Swift, if you want to be on the pod. I think more having, I don't know, if actually we want to run the pod. We'll we'll talk about our memoir. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

Abigail

That'd be crazy. I don't think we we're good. We're good. Yeah. But um I want to do more and more episodes that we have fun with our listeners. Like they are enjoying it, we are enjoying it. And uh that's like the sweet spot. Like, that's the magic part is like when we're really excited about something that a broader community is also really excited about, and we can all be excited about it together. That's the best. So that is probably what we want to do more of. Agreed. So please feel free to slide into our DMs and tell us what you want us to do. Yeah, like Abigail said earlier, we're very persuadable.

unknown

Yeah.

Abigail

What else do you guys want to talk about? Um, I mean, we can if that's all the questions, we can go to our recent reads.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. That is most of what I had prepared.

Abigail

You did great.

SPEAKER_01

That was excellent. Thank you, Emma.

Abigail

Yeah, that was really fun. Emma, you're so welcome. That was a lot of pre-work that you put into that. Yeah, and we really appreciate it. Once again, none of us are making any money here. That's what we should have said. We actively spend money on this. Yeah. So that's why we can do whatever we want. We're literally losing money. Um, Emma, hang on on the pod because we want to hear. Even if you've just been working towards finishing a book, we still want to hear about it. Um, but this is a fuzz,

Recent Reads Rapid Fire

Abigail

yes. This is when I this is when we do our recent reads. Emily, what have you read recently? Okay. Exciting stuff. Number one, at your persuasion. I did read Ice Planet Barbarians number one by Ruby Dixon. Hello. Shit. All right. So if you don't know, um, Abby has talked about this before, but Ice Planet Barbarians is a series where some ladies are alien abducted from Earth, and they're all like 22 and healthy and fertile, and that's important. And they're being taken away by these evil, weirdo-looking guys. And they're like in a prison and they're like abusing them. It's really dark and bad in the beginning. So, but then the ship starts having problems. So the the creepy aliens dump them on a random planet and they're like, We're gonna come back. Basically, one girl has miraculously a translator implanted in her, so she knows they're saying we're gonna come back and pick them up in a week or something after we refuel. So they're on this planet, it's freezing cold, it's snowing, and the leader girl, she's like, I'm gonna go find help or figure out what we're doing here. So she heads out. Every other girl stays in the ship. Also, there's like a bunch of girls in pods who are sleeping, but some of them are awake. So, anyways, a lot of girls on the ship. They she goes, she runs into this ice planet barbarian who's like seven foot tall and blue and like unconventionally hot in some way that she learns to appreciate. And um, his people, they like mate for life. It's like a mating situation that you like imprint basically. But there's only like three ladies in the whole tribe, so things are not looking good for a lot of the dudes. So when they hear there's a ship full of women, they're stoked and happy. That's the setup of Ice Planet Barbarians. Is this book good? I don't know. Am I weirdly compelled to find out about the lore of the Ice Planet Barbarian world and feel the need to continue reading these books? Yeah, a little bit, I do. So anyway, if you want a book you can fly through and have a great time with, can I recommend Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon? It's a great time. So thank you for the rec. You're welcome. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Number two, and this is serious. I read It Takes Two to Tumble by Kat Sebastian, which is the first book in the Seducing the Sedwicks series, which I read the final book of already, and I said you could read them out of order, but I no longer stand by this. I think you should read this first. There's a lot of context I was definitely missing. This book, though, genuinely might be up there with Nick and Andy in terms of Cat Sebastian's couples for me. I feel very fondly of these two, and this book was so good. I gave it five stars. Cat Sebastian, obviously, I love Cat Sebastian, so the setup for this book Ben or Benedict Sedgwick, he is the vicar of this small town, and he is like a sweetie pie angel sunshine guy. He's the oldest son of the Sedgwick family, and his family's like kind of odd too, because his dad uh basically believed in like ethical nominogamy and had two wives, and then they both died. So he has like half-brothers, it's fine. So he has like an interesting perspective on life because of that upbringing. Anyway, he is asked, like, hey, there's these wild kids, four kids. Um, they or three kids, sorry. Three kids, they are crazy. They have run off every single tutor in town. Can you just go stay with them until their father, the captain, returns from sea for his like summer leave because their mom died and they have no one to take care of them, and you're like such a nice guy, and you're the vicar, and that's what you do. So he goes and he meets the children, he loves the children, and then Captain Philip comes home from sea, and he is like order, structure. I need things to be like discipline. And Ben's like, hey, dude, your kids don't know who you are. So maybe get to know them and like be nice, and like they'll come around. They I let's work together on this. So they're working together. It was just so nice. It was so nice. I love them so much. It has so many things I really like in a romance book, which is like there's a through line of grief. Philip obviously lost his wife, but he maybe also lost someone else that he is grieving very strongly. Um, and like Ben also knows grief because he's like constantly sitting by the bedside of people who are dying and like watching them pass and doing funerals, and um, it's also like about like what does it mean to be married? What are wedding vows? Who gets to decide? What life can you create for yourself? Which is very reminiscent to me of Nick and Andy. I feel like the stirrings of that initial like, can we carve a life for ourselves in a world that doesn't want us to exist? And it also introduced me to the Anglican wedding vows from the Book of Common Prayer, which include the line, With My Body, I the worship, which is insane, and I love this book. I was like, couldn't stop reading it on Saturday night. I was up really late and I liked everything about it. So I recommend It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian, as I do with all of her books. You can't possibly go wrong, but this is so good. Happy to report there is no weight in my library, so I have to- Oh, I'm so happy for you. Yes. I am so happy. I hope you like it. I'm interested if you'll like it. I did feel like this struck a chord between what I like in historical romance, which I don't always like, and what you like because it is very like historical, really grounded. But I like how Ben has a little bit of a modern sensibility about like there isn't, which I told you guys this in the car. There's not like, yes, he's a vicar, and yes, he's like gay. He doesn't have like the internal homophobia guilt about it. He has like an interesting approach to what he thinks. There's talk of Jonathan and David. If you know, you know. So uh I like that. There's a little bit of that modern, like, it's not gonna fix everything, it's not like quite to the level I like where everyone's chill with it and like they can live openly somehow. Um, so it's still very like much in the historical context, but I liked that there's like that that take on things, and I thought it was great. So love. I hope you like it. Yeah. What have you read recently, Abigail? I have read quite a few things. Um, I read Heartstopper Volume 6, which was just supremely delightful. Um, we were surprised to watch the movie and notice quite a diversion from the graphic novel plot, but rest assured, in both there is a happy ending. Um, but was really good. Enough said on that. I've talked about Heartstopper until I'm blue in the face on this podcast. Yes. I also read The Ghost by Robert Harris, who is the author of one of my favorite books of last year, which is the which is Conclave. Um, one of my favorite books. This one doesn't quite hold up to the level of Conclave. Um, however, uh the premise of this book is that a it follows, it's from the perspective of a ghostwriter who is asked to come in and finish in a month the memoir of the ex-Prime Minister of Great Britain after his ghostwriter died under mysterious circumstances. And in so they offer him like an obscene amount of money, and in in the process of the project, um chaos ensues. It was fun. I gave it like three and three-quarter stars. It was a pretty okay. Um okay. Next is We Will Be Jaguars, um, a memoir of my people by Nimon uh Nimante Ninchemo and Mitch Anderson. This is an insane memoir about a woman, Nimante, who lived in one of the last uncontacted tribes in Ecuador in the Amazon rainforest. In her parents' generation, white missionaries colonized their tribe, brought polio, and also brought in oil companies to start drilling in the Amazon rainforest. This is her story of growing up in like the first generation of colonization, um, the influence of the missionaries, and then actually what ends up being her life's work, which is to uh conserve and protect hundreds of thousands of acres of uh the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling, which is amazing. It was fantastic, and just the first half of the book is about her childhood and reading about colonization from pretty much a modern point of view. Like this was in the she was a kid in the 80s and 90s, which is wild. So thinking about it from that recent history is really crazy. Finally, um, five-star book for me was good material by Dolly Aller Alderton. This is British. It is the book that I was selling, is like a breakup book. It's from the mostly from the perspective of this guy who I forget his name and I will not be remembering, um, who has just been broken up with. Uh just ended his like four-year very serious relationship with his girlfriend. And he now he's in his mid-30s and he's trying to figure out who he is, what happened. It is heartbreaking, it is hilarious, it is melancholy, it is bittersweet. Emily, I think you're really gonna like it when you come to visit me. I'm gonna give it to you. Um I just couldn't put it down. It was just, I was laughing out loud, but also crying. Both. It was really, it was really good. So yeah, this definitely sounds up my alley. I'm really looking forward to getting it from you. Yeah. Emma, what have you read recently?

SPEAKER_01

All right. My last completed book was 1984 by George Orwell. Orwell. Sorry. I have, yes, I had never read it before, and I listened to the audiobook. And yeah, way too many parallels to feel comfortable reading this book in this day and age. Uh I would not say, like I liked the book, but I wouldn't say that the characters are very likable at all. I don't think that's the point of this book. Uh, so it it felt a little hard to engage with, also, probably given the content and parallels with our current situation here in our beloved nation. It was a tough read. But I'm glad I read it and it was really interesting. And I like thinking about, you know, I love words and thinking about language, so I really liked uh listening it, listening to it from that perspective of thinking about how language shifts based on who controls news and publications, things like that. So it was really interesting. Then my next, I have about 50 pages now on Fuzz by Mary Roach. Mary Roach writes a lot of scientific fiction. Sorry, nonfiction. Scientific nonfiction. Emily edited make me sound coherent. Mary Roach writes scientific nonfiction, and I love her style. She's so funny, and the way that she approaches it is very narrative. So it feels like you're like right in it with her, discovering uh these answers to her questions. This one, Fuzz, is about when nature breaks the law. That's the tagline, and it's all about how human movement affects animals and ecosystems and how humans deal with uh animals when they're when they kind of collide. So it goes over this one, each chapter kind of talks about a different situation in a different place with a different type of animal, and it is really fascinating. Uh, the chapter I'm in right now is talking about birds and military planes and what the US military has done to deter birds from getting into their engines and things of that nature, and it is wild. So that's where I'll leave.

Closing And Next Time Tease

Abigail

I'm really excited to read that. It's really fun.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I'm really interested. Yeah. Wow. Thank you.

Abigail

Well, Emma, come back anytime.

SPEAKER_04

Thank you so much. Anytime. We'll have you back for the 200th.

unknown

I can't wait.

Abigail

In four more years. Oh god. Four more years.

SPEAKER_04

Four more years. All right. All right.

Abigail

Well, wait, we'll see you guys next time for uh Modeland installment number two. Pray for us that we are forced to continue reading that. All right, bye.

unknown

Bye.