The Book Snug Podcast

S4, Chapter 7: Meet the Podcasters, Again

• Stephany Yoder and Julia Dagen • Season 4 • Episode 7

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Our reading has changed since we started this podcast in 2022AND we have new listeners.  It's about time we reintroduce ourselves. 

Books Mentioned - too many to list

Other Mentions


Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for listening to today’s show.  To support The Book Snug Podcast:

Say hello at thebooksnugpodcast@gmail.com.

Intro/Outro music:  Summer Fling by L-Ray Music

SPEAKER_03

Hello listeners and fellow book lovers. Welcome to The Book Snuck, a bi-weekly conversational podcast about books and the reading life. My name is Julia, and I'm Stephanie. And we're a mother and daughter who love reading and talking about books. The ones we adore and the ones we don't. We're delighted you're here. So grab your favorite hot drink or ice cold beverage and settle in for another cozy, bookish chat.

SPEAKER_00

Hello, Julia. Hi, Mom. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? I'm feeling pretty good. Good. Hello, listeners and friends. Hi friends. Welcome to the Book Snug. Uh we are hanging out today. Yes. And we are drinking some tea. Well, one of us is. Oh, that's true. It's just me.

SPEAKER_02

I'm just drinking tea. I had my tea with church this morning. So, what are you drinking? Water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Not me. I may actually made myself a London fog today. I just was in the mood for a little bit of a fancy drink. So here we are. Yay. Here we are. Listeners, I hope that you are settled in with your favorite drink. Yes. If you are new here, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. And if you are regular listeners, we're so glad to have you back. Um we, well, actually it was me. I made a mistake in our last episode. At the end, I said that today we would be scussing our quarterly review, the first one of the year for 2026. And in our quarterly reviews, we just go over our favorite and least favorite books for that three-month quarter. So it would be January through March. Yeah. But we are still in the middle of March. So we can't really do our quarterly review yet. Right. And then we thought it would be an interesting discussion to talk about disability representation in literature because March is also National Disabilities Aware Awareness Month. Man, I'm having trouble with my words here. But that discussion we feel deserves some mental energy. Right. Mental energy and thought. Yeah. And neither one of us has felt up to the task.

SPEAKER_02

I'm not up to many tasks these days right now.

SPEAKER_00

So here we are. Life has definitely been operating at high speed for both of us. And we're a little bit tired and a little bit frazzled and a little bit confused. In need of a Sabbath. Right. So we thought we would do something fun today. Um, if you have been listening to us for a while, you know that we are in our fourth year of podcasting.

SPEAKER_02

Let me say this first. We still do want to have the disability conversation. It's just being tabled for a later time.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, 100%. We feel that it's definitely a worthy topic. We just wanted to be able to give it our full attention and our full brain power. Right. So what was I saying? Oh fourth year. We're in our fourth year of podcasting, and it's been a long time since we discussed at all anything about who we are as readers.

SPEAKER_02

Which I think I think because we are related, that I think we just automatically know who each other is, that we forget to do introductions for you guys regularly.

SPEAKER_00

To share. Yeah. We think it's about time just to review where we are as readers. Plus, we have acquired several new friends and listeners, and we feel like it's probably a good time just to refresh. Plus, I have changed as a reader since we've started podcasting. So uh what we're gonna do today was a fun exercise for me to think about what I'm reading now and how I'm reading. Uh it's gonna be kind of a fly by the seat of our pants type of discussion. There wasn't a whole lot of preparation for this. So we we hope that we have some good times, uh, some good laughs as we talk about the books, types of books we like, the types of books we don't like, the way that we evaluate what we're reading, and and that type of thing.

SPEAKER_02

But also, if you're longtime listeners, I think this level of chaos has just become kind of a standard on the show, too. So even though we're gonna do our best to present something that's enjoyable to listen to, I I'm sorry that there's patterns of chaos on the show. Right.

SPEAKER_00

And there's I'll be the first to admit that this topic feels a little bit self-indulgent. Yeah. So please forgive us for that. Or don't listen if you don't want to. It won't hurt our feelings. But don't go away forever. Come back for the next episode.

SPEAKER_02

We'll be more together at some point.

SPEAKER_00

Let me just say this you are pregnant.

SPEAKER_02

Very.

SPEAKER_00

Um, your due date is coming up very soon. And we've been planning baby showers, and I was away for a week, and school for me is very busy and hectic at this point, and we have a lot of stuff going on just everywhere in our lives. I am I'm not complaining, and I'm not trying to make it sound like my life is so much busier than everybody else's because it's not true.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

I know most people are much busier than me. And I'm quite jealous of your schedule sometimes. But we are having a hard time just fitting in the things that we love to do because they are important but not pressing.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So here we are. Right. That was a little bit of an apology. But again, I hope we have a good time with this. I love talking about books, and I still think that we'll be able to fit in some recommendations.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh, yes, as we go.

SPEAKER_00

The the inspiration for this little talk, of course, came from book two because you'll you'll hear later on in the show that I get a lot of inspiration from watching book two, what we want to talk about, the books that are really uh being hyped right now or not hyped. And this comes from a tag. We have changed a lot of the questions, but the tag was created by My Name is Marinas and Thoughts on Tomes to BookTube channels. I'll put the links in the show notes. And the tag is called Reading Tastes Tag. So we're using it as kind of an outline to talk about our reading, how we choose the books we read, how we rate the books we read, what books we love, what books we don't, how judgy we get with people who don't love the books we love, and vice versa. Yes. So why don't we just jump in instead of me keep me uh going on about the explanation? The first topic we're going to address is rating and reviewing books. Because on this show we do a lot of talking about books that we're reading, how much we love them, what we love about them, what we don't love about them. I generally give star ratings for the books I'm talking about. And I I think you do, Julia. At least if you love a book, it's a five-star book.

SPEAKER_02

So I use the five-star structure, but in my journal, I don't use stars. So like if I'm grading on Goodreads, yeah, it's stars. But in my journal, it would be like, so um, I don't know why this is the example that's popping into my head, but in Murder on the Orient, there's a handkerchief that's important to the story. So I will draw five different handkerchiefs and color in that way.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So like it's still a star rating, but I'm using items that are specific to the story. So it doesn't, I'm just not drawing stars all over the world.

SPEAKER_00

Right. But the underlying concept is five handkerchiefs is five stars. A great book.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I use star ratings. I am actually one of those people that will break down into quarter stars. Oh. So if I love a book, truly love it, but it isn't quite like tippy tippy top, then it's a 4.75 star book. And if I thought a book was okay, but it didn't really feel like four stars, but it didn't feel like three and a half, then I'll do three, seven, five. I know it's ridiculous. And I also will be the first person to admit that it feels very subjective. Yeah. My ratings are subjective. I don't ever claim to be this analytical person who's picking apart literature for theming and I don't know. I just that's not me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that that could lead us into the second question. How do you approach your reviewing of books? And some of the options are are you analytical? Are you emotional? Is your rating very casual? Or is it very structured?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I think unless we are doing a three piece in a pot episode or two piece in a pot as we've done, I'm not very analytical. I'm not breaking things down. I'm not looking at theming or talking about like I'm not parsing it apart. I'm also not somebody who annotates my books. And I know that that's something that will add to the analytical review of stories as well. Um, and listeners, if that's your cup of tea, like more power to you, what a cool thing. For me, it's a distraction, so I don't do it. Um, but most of my reviews are casual because I'm just writing my own thoughts in my own journal and just going from there. It will become an emotional review depending on my experience with the story. So if it made me really mad, my comments are gonna be like this made me freaking mad, or vice versa. Um, but it's just a very casual, I liked this, this is why I liked it, or I didn't like it, this is why I didn't like it, or that kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_00

Right. I, for the most part, read for enjoyment and entertainment, and so for the most part, I am rating my books based on that. But I love good writing, and so there is a certain analytical component to my rating. Sure. If I'm reading a book and someone reuses a word over and over and over again, that will bring the rating down for me because it annoys me. So I I'm not I'm not an analytical writer, I'm a subjective writer based on enjoyment and entertainment, but there is a component there. If it doesn't feel like it's good quality writing, then I'm definitely gonna dock it.

SPEAKER_02

And that's a good point. Like there's a difference between I'm breaking this review down into like the call pile we use. Like I'm not doing it that way. But I agree with you that if an author has ticks that I've caught onto or a character was annoying, or like surface level analytics versus underlying analytics, like I will catch the surface level stuff if it's stuff that applies to my review versus letting other stuff go if it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00

I should also say here, too, that I will very rarely rate any book below three stars. Because if it's three stars like this book was fine. It was fine. I don't feel like I wasted my time. It was okay. But below that, I will definitely put a book down. So it is very, very rare to see a one-star or a two-star rating on my Goodreads account or story graph or whatever. I just tend not to finish books like that because I know I'm going to rate them that poorly, and that's really not fair. It's not fair to the author because the book obviously was not a Stephanie book.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And for me, often if a book is less than fine, I have DNF'd it for the most part. And so then that's a different, I don't even rate it because I didn't even finish it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So okay. I think that's good for ratings. And I think that we've proven this on the show, how we approach books. I can okay, I'm gonna give you an example. I do not care for the experience of reading Wuthering Heights. I don't care for it by Emily Bronte. Yes, and I'm bringing this book up right now because it's apropos, it's it's out there because of the movie, which is a whole other conversation. I can appreciate the structure and the writing and what Emily Bronte is trying, not trying to say she's saying it. It's there. I can appreciate all of that. I understand why it's a classic, but I have a very hard time rating it five stars because I don't enjoy reading it.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So I think that that is a perfect example of how my rating system works. There is certainly an emotional and enjoyment component to my rating.

SPEAKER_02

I would agree with that. For me, Wicked was the same way that there's conversations within Wicked to have about any number of the 10,000 different themes you put into that story.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_02

But I did not rate it very highly because I can't I let me be polite. I don't like Gregory McGuire's writing. Okay. So I agree with you that there's also a very personal element of this is my opinion on this, but I can see why it, you know, people like it or why it's rated so highly, or X, Y, and Z too.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Okay. I think we've covered the rating and reviewing of books.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And if you do want to see us be intellectual with our reviews, there's tons of three P's in a pod episodes on the show.

SPEAKER_00

Which we apologize we haven't been doing lately, but again, pregnancy and planning ahead, and it takes a lot of work to do the three piece in a pod, and right now we just don't have the margin.

SPEAKER_02

And we are as we get closer to this next year of the show, we're toying with a couple of other ideas as well. So for the time being, the three P's in a pod has been tabled, and so we can address that project with a little bit more gusto.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, figure out how we want to work it in.

SPEAKER_02

Which they have been fun. They're always some of our highlights, but just for the sake of this year, it's just been tabled.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So now we're gonna talk about how we became readers. And the first question is what's the book that made you a reader? And then the other questions that go with it are whether it was your first favorite or one that got you hooked, what is the book that started it all? So let's hear it, Julia.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so as I was ans thinking about my answer to this question, um my notes literally say a personal book, because I think it was a lost cause from the very beginning with all the books you guys read to us as children.

SPEAKER_00

Right. We did, we read a lot and we read big books to you. Um we read Despero, we read Aragon.

SPEAKER_02

We read some of the Chronicles of Narnia. The Hobbit. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The one that stood out for me in that list though was probably Incart. And I think that that one grabbed me because of the desire to read stories to life. Yes. And I have reread that book a number of times. Um, and I think the other thing that sparkles for me with that story is how she um I don't remember the author off the top of my head, but how she starts each Cornelia Funk. Yes, yeah, starts each chapter with a quote from a book that correlates to that story. And I just was so fascinated with this true love of storytelling. And I would spend many afternoons trying to read the story that I was reading out loud into the into existence. So I think maybe Inkhart from the foundation of being read to and having stories, you know, being exposed to stories as a child, Inkhart was the one that set me off like I need this in my life all of the time.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to approach it that way too, but I'm going to go with books that teachers read to me that I then picked up and thought, I want more of this in my life. The first one, I think I've mentioned this many times on the show before, is James and the Giant Peach by Rold Dahl. My, I think it was my third grade teacher read that to us, and I was so enthralled with the story. I would go home at night and repeat what we read in class to my parents, and then I got the book out myself and read it. That's one book. Um, another book is The Wonderful Escape to the Flight to the Mushroom Planet. That's a good one. I don't know who the author is because I just thought of that off the top of my head. I'll put it in show notes. The wonderful flight to the mushroom planet.

SPEAKER_02

Is it wonderful or miraculous? I think it's wonderful flight to the mushroom planet. Well, I know that we've talked about it before, so it is in show notes. We'll put it down below.

SPEAKER_00

I I should have looked it up before I said it. But that's about two young boys who answer an ad in the paper, build their own spaceship, and fly to the mushroom planet. That again, loved it. So fantasy and science fiction, and then um A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline Langle is another book that just really pulled me into reading. And I have been a fantastical reader ever since. Love fantasy, love magical realism, love science fiction. So for sure, those books are big for me.

SPEAKER_02

Well, The Mushroom Planet is one that you even read to us. So that's been passed down then to us, and I've read it a number of times myself as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It's an old book, but it is just still so much fun to read. Well, question number four is do you have a genre niche? Are there certain genres you gravitate toward, or do you read widely across genres?

SPEAKER_02

I think the older I've gotten, and especially the more that we've done the show, the wider my tastes have become. Um, I think I saw that the most when we pulled up our upcoming releases that we did at the beginning of the year and how I picked landed on books that like you normally would have picked and I wouldn't have. So it was really interesting. Um, but I think the older I get, the more my I open my door a lot more to different stories. And um not that I'm not open to entertaining different themes or conversations, etc. But I think as much as I love fantasy, I'm like, let's have other conversations too. So very eclectic. But I do generally gravitate towards a good fairy tale retelling, especially the more niche fairy tales. Like if somebody does a retelling of Rumpel Stiltskin, like I want to read that over a retelling of Cinderella. Like tell me all of the ones that have never been done before.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Do you want a suggestion for Rumpelstilskin? So I have one. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

So I have read um Cursed Dark is Gold. Okay. I don't remember the author. It's a YA from I was thinking uh middle school when I read it, but it is a telling of Rumpel Stiltskin. Um and it's the only one that I have ever I have ever encountered up until this point.

SPEAKER_00

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak. That's also a Rumpelstiltskin retelling. Very, that's very good. Yeah. Incorporates Faye, who are um they live in a frozen world. There is a Jewish component to the story. It's very, it's very good.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. But like that's just an example because I feel like everybody pulls Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.

SPEAKER_00

Which is I love sleep uh not Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast retelling.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I also like historical fiction. So a good historical fiction romance. When I want to read romance, I want it to be set that way. Or historical fiction with fantasy elements, I also really like as well. So if I need like a comfort type of story, those are the ones. Um, I also love a good world-built fantasy, like fully immersive, whether it's a single story or a trilogy or not, one where I can brand new creative world to explore.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What are yours, Mom?

SPEAKER_00

I am definitely a broad reader. I read nonfiction, I read historical fiction, I like uh middle grade, I will read mystery, I will read science fiction, fantasy, but I do have my favorites. Um, and this says what is a a genre niche. So I like literary, magical realism, I like historical fantasy, like you said, I like m murder mystery, and it can be a series or a standalone. Not necessarily cozy. I don't do too many cozy mystery series. I have a couple on the go, but I don't want the gritty, hard-boiled, very graphic type of murder mystery either. I like, and I don't want to say cozy adjacent, because I don't want it to be thought of as cozy at all. It's just not graphic. Yeah. But I love those types of murder mysteries, especially if they're a series where I can get really involved in the characters. And the murder mysteries are fun, but it's just watching the characters and their relationships develop over time.

SPEAKER_02

I think it's interesting that that's the type of murder mysteries that you like to read, but yet how many cozy murder mysteries have we watched?

SPEAKER_00

Right. I watch a ton of them on Brit Box and Acorn. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Father Brown, Miss Marple, Franny Fisher. Like I would classify those as cozy.

SPEAKER_00

Even Murder She Wrote would be one. Jay and I used to watch those all over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. But those are cozy, but I know that that's very different than what you're talking about here.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I also like weird books. Now, not crazy weird, but just a little on the strange side. Yeah. So that would probably be another genre niche for me. Um, I'm thinking the Saturday Night Ghost Club in that vein. Or maybe Rabbit Cake or Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett. Um, Jess Kidd. She's another like slightly weird writer. So those are just some of the things I love. I I read classics, I love classics, and I love rereading classics. So those are just some of my favorites. But I do read very, very broadly.

SPEAKER_02

I thought another uh thought of another one that I really like. I like authors who play with story structures.

SPEAKER_00

I like that too.

SPEAKER_02

So like Liar's Dictionary, if you if listeners, if you've never read that, it it's not just a story, there's lots of other stuff in it. But that one plays with um literariness because it's word play on top of word play on top of story play on top of everything else. Um so that's just an example. Or like I just talked about this one in the last episode, but everyone knows your mother is a witch, even though it's telling a story, it's playing with how the story is told. So I really like books where you can tell the author loves the craft of storytelling and wants to play with it. Um I would argue that series of unfortunate events is kind of the same because nothing is resolved in that story, or even seven and a half deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle because of how that story's being told. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um that you get to the end back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right. So I like I like when authors play with standard storytelling structures as well.

SPEAKER_00

L M N O P would be like that, not necessarily the structure, but how he plays with words because you keep dropping letters from the alphabet, and so the words can't have those letters in them. Right. You get to the N and you can hardly say anything. You can hardly write anything because there aren't any letters left. Yeah. The Phantom Toll booth is like that too, where the names of characters and the names of places are very meaningful to the themes that the writer is trying to get across to the reader. So yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_02

I wish authors would play with that stuff more. But there's something to be said for a good straightforward A, B to Z story.

SPEAKER_00

But where you're not having to stop and think, oh wait, I see what you're doing there.

SPEAKER_02

Or every other word pull out the dictionary. But I think that those so add to the reading experience too, whether it's making us better readers or better word users or whatever. Yeah. I they're just a fun um gem to find occasionally.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Yeah, I do like to mix those in every once in a while. Do you generally prefer your books to be character-driven or plot-driven?

SPEAKER_02

So this is gonna be an out on a lot of these questions, and I don't mean it to be, but as somebody who likes to write stories, I have come to find the truth that some stories have to be written a certain way to be genuine to the story as it needs to be told. Okay. If that makes any sense. It does, I think. So when it comes to this question, for me, it depends on the story and how it needs to be told. So, like the Lost Book of Eleanor Dare is a character-driven story and it's a slow plot, um, but it needs to be told that way for what it's trying to do, versus like Fourth Wing is a plot-driven, there's some character elements, character elements in it too, but it's mostly plot-driven, and that's how that story has to be told. So for this one, it all comes down to what is the story, how does it need to be expressed? And I think often the rub that I have with um how a story is done is if I feel that it needed to be like, hey, this was a character story, and I didn't get the characters, but I got more of the plot kind of a thing. And then that's kind of when I can get really frustrated with maybe how the author told a story that I feel it wasn't doing it justice, if that makes sense. I think so.

SPEAKER_00

I I'm definitely character forward as far as reading pleasure, but I like a good plot too. And some, like you said, some stories, thrillers for the most part, or action thrillers, or action mysteries, or spy novels, a lot of the time are plot forward, and that's the whole point. Yeah, you want the adrenaline rush. I don't generally read those types of books because I like the character focus. I like to know what's going on internally with the character. I like to see growth across time with them, whether it's a day or years, it doesn't matter. But I am just as happy to read a plot-driven story, and that is why when I read a thriller, I generally read it straight through. Like I can't stop because I'm so invested in wanting to know what is going to happen next. What is a book that you love so much that you don't care if others don't like it?

SPEAKER_02

So I think we should just share the hot take on this one.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, let's share it.

SPEAKER_02

We are both fans of Harry Potter. Yes. And not to get into the whole conversation that there is to have around that story. This for me is a story that I think to kind of maybe go back to what book made you a reader, this is the book that pulled me into fantasy, I think. And and I'm sure that there's heartbreak for people who hold that same thing with the conversation that we're not gonna do. If they have issues with the conversation. Um, but these books I will just pick up and reread occasionally. The third one is a favorite one for me to read um in the fall, or the first one is a favorite in the fall, or you know, they're comfort, they're familiar.

SPEAKER_00

And I do I unapologetically love Harry Potter. It's well written. The creativity is mind-boggling. Right. And I just I just finished listening to this whole series. Started last year and just finished it up. The character growth and the themes of friendship and found family and wanting to do what is right and love, yeah. It redemption, good versus evil, and the things that actually overcome evil. You cannot beat it. And I it saddens me, it really does sadden me that it there is so much controversy around it right now. I I do not apologize for loving it, and I will not.

SPEAKER_02

Right. I love Harry Potter. Um, and it it's it will become like we talked about a little bit earlier of um a legacy story that we I will pass down for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I you're the one who mentioned this book for me, and so I'm going to bring it to the show. I do not care if others do not like the great Gatsby. Yeah. I love that book. The writing is sublime. And no, the characters are not likable, and it is not an uplifting story, but it is a beautiful snapshot of a particular time and place in American history among a particular class of people. And I think it is so accurate, and like I said, the writing is gorgeous. I don't care if others don't like it. I understand why it is a classic of American literature, and I think it is a great book.

SPEAKER_02

It's so interesting with unlikable characters, and I think it's an interesting dichotomy between you and I that I can't stand books with unlikable characters. And yet I know Greg Atsby or Secret History or like others pop up for you.

SPEAKER_00

Wathering heights.

SPEAKER_02

Well, but are yeah, that I like that you like that are unlikable characters, and I can't stand either of those books because the characters are unlikable and they're not I can do not happy stories, but I can't do either of those. And it's just an interesting, like personality-wise, like how that happens.

SPEAKER_00

It is interesting because for the most part, I'm not very tolerant of unlikable characters. But for whatever reason, the Great Gatsby and the Secret History, from the very beginning, I understand the point. Sometimes I don't understand the point of unlikable characters, and then I can't get behind it.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Do you have any other books that you love enough for everyone?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, there's there's a lot, but uh baby brain has been hit me hard on this question, so I could only pull up one. Um, and um if I haven't said this book ever before on the show, that's my fault, and that would be Jane Eyre.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What a shock. I did put down persuasion, yeah, and I put down all the light we cannot see. I don't know how someone could not like all the light we cannot see, but I'm sure there are people out there.

SPEAKER_02

And I like I said, I'm there's a bajillion others that I think if we sat and had more time we could think of them too.

SPEAKER_00

I for those of you who have been listening to us for a while, for 2026, I said I want to reread 12 of my favorite books to see if they're still favorites. And in January, I reread The Snow Child, which was perfect because we got a ton of snow in January that stayed around for a long time. Yeah. And it just it was wonderful to read a snowy book in those conditions. But I finished reading that book, and even while I was reading it, there was so much pleasure in experiencing the story again. I think I liked it even better the second time around. This So The Snow Child by Ewan Ivy would be another book that I would put in this category, that it is one of my favorite books of all time. It's just such a beautiful retelling of a fairy tale, a Russian fairy tale. And I think it perfectly encapsulates my genre niche of literary magical realism or fantasy. Yeah. So that's another book that I love enough for everyone. But that book is pretty beloved. So yeah, you don't have to worry about too many people not liking it.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and I think that's where I got kind of stuck too. I was like, a lot of the books that I love like they are talked about as enjoyable stories. And so trying to think of books that I love that like nobody else does. Does yeah. Or it's hard is um not well known enough that like there's not a lot of conversation about it.

SPEAKER_00

What's a book you love so much that if someone doesn't like it, you know your reading tastes don't align. And the book or books where difference of opinion is a strong indicator of reading different reading preferences. Like you know you're never gonna align up with the things that you like or or don't like.

SPEAKER_02

Um, well, I I can think of a real example here. So I've m mentioned Darling Desi on the show before, somebody who I watch for lifestyle content or whatever, and she had started to read Emily Wilde's and put it aside and said she didn't understand what all the hype was about.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And now I've questioned every single book she's ever recommended.

SPEAKER_00

Because she didn't, she wasn't sure about Emily Wilde's.

SPEAKER_02

There was I have also followed um Sid Bookworm on online as well. Yes. Um, and there have been times that she has put a book for that I was like, that was not a good book. What are you reading? Right. Um, but I also know that I don't share, we don't share very similar tastes. Uh I do have an inverse situation for this.

SPEAKER_00

This is how I treated it. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

I had a friend, this was a couple years ago, we got talking about books, and she had recommended the Discovery of Witches to me.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And I have talked about that book here on the show, but it's been a while. And I went on to read the entire series and finished the series and maybe politely on social media, but maybe not so politely here on the show, said it was a waste of my time. And it was really funny because on the post that I had posted about it when I was trying to do my own book stuff on my own Instagram, the friend commented and said, I'm so glad you liked this book. And I was like, Well, that's not what that meant. So there are also times that I've seen this in the reverse of people have recommended something to me and I've not liked it at all. Right. And so then I don't ask them for recommendations anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I when I was looking at this, I took it as what is a book that either you love and someone else hates and you know that your reading doesn't align, or vice versa. So I actually went with a book that I hate. And unfortunately, I I'm sad to say this because this was a three piece in a pod book. Your dear friend came on the show and we had such a fun time, but I hated this book, and it's a book that I read the whole way through. Yeah, it is The Crimson Moss by Kristen Sicarelli. I hated this book, and part of the problem that I hated it, the reason why I hated it is it had some very awful issues, awful issues surrounding essay.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Treatment of yeah, and that people were loving this book. And it the fact that it was like it didn't even phase them that this was in it. It's a fantasy book, it's a romantic fantasy or a fantasy romance. And I'm sorry, if this is like a top book for you, we would probably not overlap at all in our reading.

SPEAKER_02

So that ended up in one of Sid's most liked books. Yeah. And so I was like, okay, well, I like you for your personality. I'll keep watching because of that, but I no more wrecks. And to be fair, after that episode with Emerald, she said she didn't like the book either. So it was kind of a miss on all of us.

SPEAKER_00

And it it was fun. We had such a good giggly time on the show. It was fine. Yeah. The book just was not fine. And it made me really consider what is being offered to young adults as far as literature.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's a whole question, a whole conversation we can have because I have a lot of thoughts on all of that.

SPEAKER_00

I don't read young adult much because I don't have the patience for the angstiness and the yeah, I just don't. But I was really disappointed in what that book was offering to readers. Anything else you want to add, Julia? We didn't really answer the question the way we were supposed to, but that's my answer.

SPEAKER_02

It's our show. What I will say is I'm gonna come back to that conversation here in a couple of questions.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Let's talk about things in books that will be big no-nos. Like as soon as they pop up, we're putting the book down, or we're not even gonna bother to pick it up if we know that it's in there. Do you have any red flags that will instantly turn you off to a story?

SPEAKER_02

So this is another one where story dependent comes up. Okay. Because if if these things make sense in the story, I'm a little bit more likely to give them grace.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So what I have here is bad writing, but maybe I should specify that as immature writing. Okay. So like fourth wing, immature writing. I would not argue that it's top-of-the-line writing by any degree, but it makes sense from the perspective that it's being told.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So I would like I don't like the writing in those stories for the very premise that it feels underdeveloped, like it's it doesn't demonstrate high skill. But because of who's telling the story, like it it matches the character, right? Um, there's a book I'm gonna bring up next where the writing is bad, flat out, flat out, bad. And so therefore it was one of the bigger turn points for me of okay, this book is getting DNF'd because I just it's so distracting. Um Unlikable characters, which I mentioned. Again, if they're within context, and I can that one's a little funky because like secret history, it's with it's within context, and I still don't like them. Right. So that one can be a little hit or miss.

SPEAKER_00

Do you are will you tolerate them more if there is at least one character that you can I think if I can sympathize with?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, and if I can understand why they are unlikable. I think my issue with the secret history is the only reason that they are unlikable is because they're just pretentious rich kids. And that's not enough for me to redeem them. Um so if nothing redeems them. But that's what I mean. Like there's nothing in it that is letting me get past that. Right. So depending on what's in the story and who the other characters are, I could let an unlikable character go or not go. Or if there's overly political characters or political theming with no reason or context. Right. Then it feels like I'm just being preached at. Um so those are kind of my big, my big three things of like, okay, this book is not for me.

SPEAKER_00

Right. I didn't even put that down, but that is a huge I actually just DNF'd a book that I was was probably one of my most anticipated releases of 2026. And I put it down partly because I felt like the author was just whacking me over the head with a particular political viewpoint and theming, and I just didn't I was tired of it, so I put it down. Yeah. So that definitely is a deal breaker for me that I didn't even write down. Bad writing is 100% a deal breaker. Uh several years ago, I picked up 50 Shades of Gray out of curiosity. I was in Target, I was doing other stuff, and I rolled by the book section.

SPEAKER_02

I don't think you've ever shared this on the show before.

SPEAKER_00

And picked it up to read the first page. This was when it was huge. Everybody was reading it.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And I was just curious. I read two or three pages and put it back, and I was like, there's no way, even if the plot was like engrossing, I couldn't do this. So bad writing for sure.

SPEAKER_02

Funny story. I go regularly to a chiropractor and have for a little bit. And part of what they do when you walk into the chiropractor is they do a thermal scan to determine where inflammation is. And one of the receptionists was getting ready to do my scan, and they must have been talking about romance books before I came in. And she's this older single lady was like, Oh, have you ever read that book? It's so good. And I said, Which one? And she said, Fifty Shades of Gray. It's the best romance story I've ever read. And I said, Um, I prefer Jane Austen, but dude, that's okay. And then it got really quiet for a couple minutes.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah. No 50 shades of gray here. No. I do have a couple other things that will turn me off. One is infidelity. Now, if it is actively happening and it's glorified, yeah, I will not read it. Yeah. If it has happened and you're working through the aftermath and there's some redemption and working towards um saving the relationship, or you're just investigating the fallout from it, even if it's not good, even if things have happened, I'd rather read that than watch people engage in it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's just, I don't want to read that. And then a missing child. Oh, I can't do it. I cannot, especially if you're inside the parents' head or you're dealing with what the parents are dealing with. I can't do missing children or children being abused. Well, that's really hard. And then finally, and I can give you a perfect example of this. If I am reading a perfect character, I cannot do perfect characters. Like lessons in chemistry, Elizabeth Zott is presented as this like super woman perfect character, and I couldn't do it. She wasn't believable, and so I didn't care about it.

SPEAKER_02

She wasn't likable, but she wasn't believable.

SPEAKER_00

Who teaches themselves higher level uh scientific ideas like uh quantum physics and that kind of like I just I don't know, I couldn't do it. You you don't take a woman who knows nothing about rowing and in a couple weeks she's rowing in an eight-man rowing team because she knows math and physics. Yeah, I can't do it. Sorry. That is just such an that is a turn off for me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um we talked about this before we started recording, but I think we would both agree author text falls in this list of like if an author repeats a word, who was it? Um over and over and over again. I read a book when Dune. In Dune, when he was always talking about the ten, he kept saying Sphincter. That pulled me out of the book so much every single time. Like I knew exactly the image he was getting at, but because it happened all of the time, it pulled me directly out of the story.

SPEAKER_00

This is so funny because I can't even remember the books these picks were in. But in one story, the main female female character, every time she was a mad, she clenched her hands. So every single time. And then in another book I read, everybody nodded their like they dipped their chin when they were in agreement. And it happened on every other page.

SPEAKER_02

I read one, I and I know the title. Of this one because it's it irritated me how flat the story was, because it was Mr. Darcy's little sister. And so I thought it was gonna be right. And um, it was a really flat story anyway. But there was a scene where somebody gets kidnapped and they're being saved, and they just smiled at each other over and over and over again. It's so unrealistic. So author ticks are a big part of if I catch this in the third chapter and you've already done it five times, we're gonna have to do that.

SPEAKER_00

That's editing. Where are the editors? That's what I want to know. Right. Because that could be fixed. Right. You can't blame that solely on an author. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh the last thing I want to say though, mom, when we were talking about the missing kids or things like that, I think that there might, at least for me, there's a difference between, oh, these are just like annoyances versus like hard lines. I don't read books with these themes or et cetera, et cetera. And so I do have a couple of hard lines. Um, but deal breaker-y things are just all of the things we've just talked about.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any strong opinions out of about a book released within the last year? Now I know this is going to be hard for you, Julia, because you tend not to read current releases. Um and if you do have a book, was it overrated, underrated, or you just need to talk about it?

SPEAKER_02

I have two of them. Okay. The one uh I will talk more about this in the quarterly review, but is Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. And I'm just gonna say I don't understand how anybody read that book front to back.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Don't hold back.

SPEAKER_02

I won't when it comes to the quarterly review.

SPEAKER_00

That's a romance, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's something.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

It's touted as a romance. Did you read the whole thing? No.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Well, I guess she said I don't know how anybody could do it.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and I'm I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek because I know that the author is probably very proud of her work, but I have again, I have thoughts and opinions on that one. Um, and then the other one is the woman, and I'm just putting on that here because I have shared my thoughts on that before.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Um that was a another three P's in a pod episode for and that was a fairly traumatic reading experience for me. Yes. Um, so those are the two that specifically I have very strong thoughts on at this point in time.

SPEAKER_00

I have some good and bad that I want to share. Yeah, please. Um the books that I feel are overrated right now that have come out in the last year or so is The Favorites by Lane Fargo. That is an ice skating disaster that is based on Wuthering Heights. And you can tell it definitely has that obsession theming, but I just I couldn't, I couldn't do it. And then it just didn't feel like spectacular storytelling to me. It just felt like your average book. I I don't understand why everyone loved it so much. So that that was a I don't understand this book. And then the correspondent, and I forget who wrote the correspondence, so I'll have to put that in the show notes. I didn't hate this book, but it is like on fire right now. People love it. It made so many people's best of book lists last year, and it is an epistolary novel and it was fine, but I just I there was nothing about it that I found to be five-star. Yeah. So I just was scratching my head all the time. I think it's because I'm a cold-hearted reader. No, I do not like any type of novel that I feel the person is manipulating my emotions get me to cry.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um and I just found the the main character who was doing all the letter writing. I did not really care for her. And I could kind of see where the book was going, and I didn't even care about that. So yeah, for me, that was a very overrated book. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not criticizing people who loved it. I just I failed to see the hype. Yeah. And then I have an underrated book that I think more people should read because it was delightful, and that is The Aights. And I forget who wrote it. I forget who wrote it. I'll put it in the show notes. It's a historical fiction about the first women who matriculated into Oxford and actually graduated with degrees. And it's the story of four very different women who room together and they develop this incredibly supportive and vibrant friendship through all of it. It shows the difficulties that they faced with the misogyny that was happening at the time, and just uh the feminist movement alongside of that, and it was just really, really good. It was just a good, good read. Yeah. And I wish more people would read about it, read it and talk about it. That was the AIDS by somebody, some really good writer. I'll put her name in.

SPEAKER_02

I think you've mentioned that before.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, what do you look for in writing, Julia? When you pick up a book and you're gonna call it a good book, what does it have? Is it the prose style that you like, the themes, the voice of the author, the structure? We did talk about structure a little bit already. Or is there some other secret sauce that makes it extra special for you? This is another, it depends on the story. I think that's true. Yeah. I mean, I think we just need to accept that right up front.

SPEAKER_02

So, an example, we are all the same in the dark by whoever the author is. I know her first name is Julia, but regardless, um, that story has a very southern epic feel to it. And that matches the story and how it's being told. Um, and so I just was very intrigued by the words and how they were put next to each other to give this sweeping story of I don't know how to say it other than how ancient the South feels. Do you know what it? Like, I don't and so it just was playing into that. Or like with Ten Thousand Doors of January, the way that the writing um who is the author of that?

SPEAKER_00

Alex E. Harrow.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Even though it's told from the main character's persp perspective, it's written in a way that is very much epic storytelling, too, but a little bit more confined because it's like a teenager telling the story. Or in the marriage portrait, because it's more narrative, how it is detailed and specific and beautiful and almost reads like a poem sometimes because of how the words are put together.

SPEAKER_00

And this she uses words to create a setting that then shines back on what's happening emotionally and in the background as far as motives and stress. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Maggie O'Farrell is very showy, not telly. Or um uh piece like a river. It kind of does the same thing. So banger. Right. It it to me it very much just depends on the story and how the story's being told. Um does the voice, if it's coming from a character's first perspective, doesn't match their personality. Right. So like I'll bring up Fourth Wing again. It's told from Violet Sorengale's perspective. I have said that I think that the writing is immature and I think that that's the case, but it she's like 18 or 19. So in that regard, I'm gonna say it it matches fairly well. So it it to me it depends on the story and how I'm reading the story and how I understand the story to be told, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_00

I agree with you, and I underlined everything because I do enjoy it all. Prose style. I love reading books and contemplating the themes, and are they being presented in an interesting way? Voice, I agree with you. I like voice to match personality of the character. I I love books with interesting structure. I do have to say though, that prose style is probably the number one thing that really draws me in. I love poetic prose. Not necessarily really flowery or overly descriptive. I the best kinds of books are when I'm reading and I just feel that the author is considering every word that they're putting down to tell their story. Right. I love that. Time of the Child by Niall. Again, I can't remember. My brain is just not working today. Um, I'll put his name in the show notes. He's wrote he's written several books. This is Happiness, Time of the Child. There are some other books. They all take place in the same town of Faha in Ireland, but his prose is just gorgeous. And it it fits right into the story. You're listening, and you're all of a sudden like, oh my word, that was beautiful. Yeah, so prose is probably my number one thing, even though I appreciate all of it. Yeah, and you need all of it to have an excellent story.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Can you have a good story without good writing?

SPEAKER_00

I think so. I think somebody can have a terrific concept and not be able to tell the story well.

SPEAKER_02

Like they were not the right author for that story.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00

So I do think that you can be someone who develops incredible stories, but you may not have the skill to tell it in a way that would make it like a five-star experience.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. No, I think that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00

I also think that you can be an incredible wordsmith and not have anything important to say. I'm gonna go to jail. I'm gonna go to jail for being so mean.

SPEAKER_02

No. Well, what was we were listening to a Peter Pan story. I don't remember what it was, but it felt like a scene would take 15 minutes to get through because it was so distracting. Peter Pan and Scarlet, do you think? Yeah, I think that's what it was. Yeah. So I agree with you that I think sometimes the the prose and the writing gets too heavy-handed and is too much.

SPEAKER_00

The story gets lost.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or was never there in the first place.

SPEAKER_02

Well, now you are gonna go to jail.

SPEAKER_00

How do you decide what you're gonna read next? Are you a planner? Do you use TBRs and stick to them? Are you more of a mood reader? Are you impacted greatly by what everybody else is reading?

SPEAKER_02

So I'm not influenced by others by any means.

SPEAKER_00

I am not either. No. So in that we are very similar.

SPEAKER_02

No, I am gonna say I am influenced in that if a specific book starts getting really, really hyped, I run the other direction. Okay. So I am I will I will say I'm influenced in that regard. Uh-huh. But I across the board, I'm not influenced by other people. Now, if you, mom, if you specifically say, I think you need to read this, if you tell me five times, I probably won't read it. If you tell me one time, I probably will. Yeah. Um I'll remember that. Well, it's just the pressure part, right? Of like if I feel like I'm being pressured to read something, I'm not gonna want to, versus it's that antagonist, not antagonistic, but what's the word I want where you push back. Right. Yeah, and I know I got that honest because Mark and I and Aaron too both have it. Right. So I definitely have it. So yeah. But um for general context, my reading right now is non-existent. So I'm looking at the larger context of how I read. Um, I do create seasonal TBRs, but within those seasonal TBRs, I'm very moodish. So then when I have my set books of okay, it's springtime, so I'd be pulling my spring books together right now. I might pick what I want to read. Like I might start off with, hey, this this order might make sense because of how, you know, moving into summer. But I could finish one and that then it pull me into the like a completely different story because of how that book went. So I'm structured, I'm moodish within structure, is I think how I'm saying that.

SPEAKER_00

This is one area where I have changed as a reader a little bit since we started the podcast. I used to be 100% a mood reader. I would do reading challenges, but they all the reading challenges did was allow me to take the books I was mood reading and fit into a certain category. I didn't I very rarely read to meet one of the categories.

SPEAKER_02

Right. You were you were passively achieving the goal.

SPEAKER_00

Right. I have been doing seasonal TBRs recently. I've done them now three or four times. Doing them more for the sense of being more aware of the seasons around me. I'm not romanticizing anything, it's just making me more aware. Because of that, I feel like I'm planning my reading. But my, I need to stress here, and for for friends who have been listening for a while, they know that my seasonal TBRs are like 70 books long. I pick ebooks, I pick regular books and audiobooks, and I make a huge pile so that within that pile I can mood read. Yeah. And I allow myself as much as I want to and anytime I want to to choose books outside of that. Yeah. So there's no pressure, but because I make that list, I do kind of have some pressure to pick from there. Right. It has enhanced my reading tremendously with regard to enjoying the seasons and paying more attention to the seasons. So I feel like it's a good step, but it is different than how I have read in the past. I've very much just been a person who lets my mood take me wherever we go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, now we're gonna talk about the show a little bit and how we do our planning for our topics. Not really sure how to approach this because the question is where do you get your inspiration for your content? What sparks your podcast ideas? Other creators, trends, personal reading experiences. I I feel like a lot of our topic ideas just come from our own interests. Yeah. Things that we're thinking about, what's happening in the world around us, seasons, holidays, new information that so I have on mine, like it's um if I'm reading a book and it sparks an idea.

SPEAKER_02

So like we have an episode that we're toying with about settings, and that came from a book I read where the setting was so cool and I wanted to talk about it.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Or if um the the episode that we recently did about real women, yeah, real women who are mostly unknown in history, yeah, in fiction, that came from you reading a book about a woman, but I had already done, like I'd already read several books, and you brought the topic up, and I was like, Oh, yeah, we could easily talk about that. I have all these good recommendations, yeah. So I think a lot of it is just our what's happening in our life, what we're reading at the time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Or what we think, what we think you listeners and friends would like to hear about. We're basically, I feel like we're basically a topical book recommendation podcast. I don't know that that's what we started out being, but it ends up being what we most like to talk about.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I think that that gives us the freedom to talk about whatever we want whenever we want. I mean, we do try to have a schedule, but um within that, we still are very much like, oh, hey, we want to talk about this then, or hey, we think this fits better here, or um we do have an editorial calendar for those of you who are interested in like the workings behind the scene that we put together a year in advance.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So we almost always know exactly what we're doing. But I think Julia will agree with me. Sometimes a topic comes up and it's just a struggle. Right. We sit down to talk about it and we cannot make it happen.

SPEAKER_02

We have been better with that, but in previous years, we would sit down to do an episode and we would try two, maybe even three times, and would have to scrap it at the very end.

SPEAKER_00

And just say this is not working.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. But we have gotten better with it, I think, is we've gotten more time doing this under our feet. Um, but there are definitely topics where they sound great on paper, and then we go to do it and we're like, this is pulling teeth.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I am a booktube watcher. I watch a lot of booktubers, and sometimes I get inspiration from watching booktubers. And we have used tags occasionally to start conversations on the show. Like this one. Yeah, today is a perfect example. And we use the call pile system, which came from a booktuber to help us organize our discussions for three Ps in a pod. But I feel like for the most part, we get inspiration from all over the place.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I I agree. I think it's a little bit of everything is influencing what we do.

SPEAKER_00

And we're still loving what we do. Julia is struggling a little bit because she's not reading much, which and I am gonna piece out here for a little bit here in a second. Yes. So it's so that's been a little bit tricky. And in the next couple of months, we're gonna be bringing in some other people for book discussions just to give Julia a break and get her feet underneath her. Because when little little bubula comes, yeah, things are gonna get shoved. But that's where we get our our inspiration. We uh this is a very laid-back, very micro podcast, um, just personal. Yeah. I don't know what else to say about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. No, I mean, we're always open for suggestions, and I know that we don't have a website up that we've been talking about for years. We're working on it, okay. Um, are we? I don't know. I'm trying to be positive.

SPEAKER_00

We've also not been very good on social media because neither one of us is really on social media, but it's been a struggle.

SPEAKER_02

We are open for suggestions, and so you can always reach out through the Buzz Sprout page because there's that option to interconnect with us or email us. Yes. So if there are that you would like to see us talk about or interested in having the conversation with us about 100% send it our way. Um, I think we're always up for entertaining any idea or seeing how we could make it work. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, Julia. If you could make any book go viral right now, what would it be? So you need to pick a book that you think deserves more attention and why.

SPEAKER_02

So I wrote down, I don't know if I want a favorite book to go viral because I want to protect it.

SPEAKER_00

That sounds very much like you.

SPEAKER_02

Because I feel like sometimes books go viral that are good books, and then they go places with the virality that like Right.

SPEAKER_00

They're not they're not as beloved then after a while. They get to be the type of book that everybody wants to hate on.

SPEAKER_02

Or then they become a movie or a TV show and it's not done well at all. So when I think about there are books that I think deserve more attention, but I'm not sure I want any of those books to become viral because I want to protect the integrity and I would even say the the sanctity of what those stories are.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Yeah, viral is such a it's such a touchy word. Yeah. Because it just feels like with a book going viral or anything going viral, it's hot for a moment and then it's gone. And the books I really love, I want them to stand the test of time. Yeah. And going viral feels like the antithesis.

SPEAKER_02

It's the it's the highway to the dead zone. Right, right. Okay, well, friends, hi. If you had didn't know us beforehand, I think you know us a little bit better now. At least who we are as readers for sure. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Strong opinions, a little bit spicy.

SPEAKER_02

We we don't often share our very strong opinions. So I think we let loose a little bit today.

SPEAKER_00

Occasionally I will on a book I really disliked, but I very rarely talk about authors and I don't ever talk about other readers. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Sometimes I say I don't understand, but that's not being But even still our private opinions don't ever make it to the public stage in terms of our very, very strong spicy opinions.

SPEAKER_00

Right, because we're not here to get everybody riled up. I don't think we had really strong opinions today, did we?

SPEAKER_02

I d well I got started and tabled it for later. Okay. Regardless, um, friends and listeners, we hope that this provided a little bit more uh insight. If you are new to our little corner of the world about who we are and the things that we talk about. Or why we talk about the things that we talk about or the books that we gravitate towards or why we gravitate towards those. Um or if this was the very, very first episode you found us on hi, you might want to go listen to the introduction next. Um But all of that said, thank you for hanging out with us as we just chatted and changed the schedule around today. Um as we said at the beginning, we will revisit that disability awareness month conversation. We do just want to do it justice, so we are going to wait till we can do that in the way that we feel that we need to. Our upcoming episode, this does not change, this is set at hard date on the schedule. It is, is our quarterly review. So that will cover all of the books that we read from January, February, and March. And I said all as if I have read more than two. But that's the time for us to talk about and reflect on how our reading has gone so far this year.

SPEAKER_00

You have time to read a few more before we actually get together. The energy's the issue.

SPEAKER_02

But I I I am trying. Um if you feel so inclined, you uh there are options for you to rate and review us on Apple and Spotify or wherever you find us. Yes. Um and share us with your friends. We do like to we do hope that we create a cozy little place here on the internet. And so if this would match um any other people in your life, if they would match their personality, share us around. If not, it's cool that you're just here with us too. Any other housekeeping things? I don't think so. Cool. Well, thank you for spending part of your day with us today, friends, and we'd love to have you join us here again in the Booksnug for the next chapter. Bye, friends.

SPEAKER_00

We'd love for you to continue today's conversation with us at the Booksnug underscore podcast on Instagram and at the Booksnug Podcast on Facebook. All of our episodes can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as at our website, thebooksnugpodcast.budsprout.com, where show notes for every episode can be found. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at the Booksnugpodcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_03

As C.S. Lewis, one of our favorite authors, so famously said, you can never have a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me, and we wholeheartedly agree.