The Book Snug Podcast

S4, Chapter 8: Quarterly Review (January - March 2026)

• Stephany Yoder and Julia Dagen • Season 4 • Episode 8

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The first quarter of 2026 is over.  Unbelievable! that means It's time to talk about our most notable reads for the first three months of of the year.  Enjoy our opinionated and very meandering discussion!

Julia's Books

  • Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibañez 
  • House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom written and narrated by Shari Franke
  • Friends, Lover, and the Big Terrible Thing by written and narrated by Matthew Perry
  • Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
  • Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
  • Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
  • Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
  • A Rogue of One's Own by Evie Dunmore
  • Courageously Soft: Daring to Keep a Tender Heart in a Tough World by Charaia Rush

Stephany's Books

  • The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
  • Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, narrated by Stephen Fry
  • Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  • The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
  • The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Robert Ingpen
  • Love and Saffron by Kim Fay
  • 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
  • Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson 
  • The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith
  • The Astral Library by Kate Quinn, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
  • Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac
  • Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
  • Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafiald
  • A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourne, narrated by Angele Masters
  • A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James
  • Middlemarch by George Eliot
  • True Spirituality by Francis A. Schaeffer 
  • The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
  • The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Shows Mentioned

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Say hello at thebooksnugpodcast@gmail.com.

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

SPEAKER_02

Hello, listeners and fellow book lovers. Welcome to the Book Snug, a bi-weekly conversational podcast about books and the reading life. My name is Stephanie. And I'm Julia. We're a mother and a 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. Hi, Mom. Hi Julia.

SPEAKER_01

How are you? I'm good. Good. I'm good. I'm good.

SPEAKER_02

That's good to hear.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Hi, friends and listeners. Welcome to the Book Snug.

SPEAKER_02

Hello.

SPEAKER_01

Our little place where we talk about books and things and books and things.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Um for our conversation today, we are going to be talking about our quarterly review, which I will go over in just a second. But as we always talk about what we're drinking, um, what are you drinking for our conversation, Mom?

SPEAKER_02

I am drinking Harney and Sun's gingerbread tea, which is definitely a winter tea for me. But I know this is spring and it just doesn't matter because we're at the cabin and I saw it in the drawer and I thought that's exactly what I want to drink.

SPEAKER_01

Right. It smelled really good when you pulled it out.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. It's a very aromatic tea. It actually smells even better than it tastes. Yeah. Yeah. What about you?

SPEAKER_01

Water. Such is life at this point in my it's boring but necessary. Yeah. Yep. I one of these days I will have a fabulous drink for our conversations again. I can't wait for that time, but it's coming. I I I cannot wait. For our quarterly review, listeners, if you've not been here before, let me give you a little rundown. This is just a concerted time for us to kind of check in with our reading over the past three months or so. And we kind of do split it up in what would be considered a regular quarterly calendar. So January through March, April through June, July through September, and then October through the end of the year. Yes. And we'll take the time and we'll talk about um some different categories of books. Um, but then we also do uh a check-in on some of our goals, what's our reading been like, that kind of a thing. So to get us started, mom, how has your reading been since the beginning of the year?

SPEAKER_02

I would say I've been having a solid reading experience. I am enjoying what I'm picking up for the most part. Because of some of the reading intentions that I set at the beginning of the year, I feel like my reading has been exceptionally good in those areas. Sure. Because I'm rereading books that I have loved in the past, which are turning out to be just as lovable now. So that's impacting my reading. And I'm reading some classics and they have been quite good. So I think that is skewing my reading in a good direction.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I'm in, I don't want to say I'm in a reading slump, but I'm just feeling a little less like picking books up right now. And I think it's because I was trying to read The Gollum and the Ginny as a reread. And even though I love the book and I was enjoying the story, I just was not into it at the time I picked it up. And when you get behind an like when you get behind a book like that where you feel like you're in it but you really don't read it, kind of impacts your reading in general. Yeah. So right now I'm struggling a little bit with my reading. I it will pass, and I'm not pushing it, like I'm not making myself read anything. Yeah. But I just I don't feel real gung ho currently about my reading. But the last three months have been good.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_02

Tell us where you are, Julia.

SPEAKER_01

Well um I have I've read. I so I have some things to talk about.

SPEAKER_02

That's that's wonderful since this is a a book podcast.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. Um but for our new listeners or listeners that pop in once in a while, I am pregnant and I am tired. And for me, most of my reading happens in the evening. Like it's one of the things that I like to do before I go to bed. Right.

SPEAKER_02

It's an unwinding activity.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And when like 7 30 hits, my head is fallen over already asleep. So I I have fallen asleep reading multiple times already. And I just I don't enjoy reading like that because then I'm the pages get all blurry and I'm losing track of the plot and it becomes a chore. Right. Um, I have started listening to some audiobooks to kind of offset that a little bit, but I think I'm just running into the issue of my attention span literally is shortened right now. Um, I have a pile of books that I had set out, I don't know, end of last year that I was like, these are the books I want to read before the baby's born. And um, I got through one of them. And so they're by my bed, and every time I walk past them, it's just as like a pile of guilt instead of a pile of possibilities at this point. Right. Um, especially because there are books in there that I I got um Isabella Banya's her new book, The Graceless Heart, I think is what that's called. I believe so. And I'm so excited to read it, but I I am just so hesitant to commit to something that I'll then have to put aside or not finish or whatever. Then start all over again when you actually do pick a book back up. And especially when it's an author like Isabella Banya said I've liked her stuff before, I'm very much like I want to treat your book right, and so I don't want to get started and then have to like pause and come back or whatever. And so I think if I were to sum all of that up, it's I am reading. I'm not I'm not thrilled with what my reading looks like, but I understand that it's just the season that I'm in right now, and so that'll change.

SPEAKER_02

It is. And frankly, this is a book podcast hosted by real readers who don't claim to be anything other than just human beings experiencing real life and behind the scenes and enjoying reading in the midst of it. Right. And I'm sure many readers listening have been through pregnancy already and understand how all-consuming that can be. Yeah. So you don't need to apologize. And I'm sure that things will turn around eventually.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, two things can be true at the same time. That I am pregnant and I'm tired, but I'm also frustrated I'm not reading. These things can be true at the exact same time.

SPEAKER_02

Of course.

SPEAKER_01

So, with your reading, how many books have you actually read?

SPEAKER_02

So far, since the beginning of January, I have read 24 books. Okay. That is not including, I don't believe that's including three DNF books. Okay. Eight have been audiobooks, two of which I borrowed from the library. The rest have been either print or electronic, and nine of those 24 books have come from my own shelves. So I feel I feel like I'm doing okay. Uh the DNFs were all borrowed or purchased, which is always ouchy when you purchase a book and then you end up not really liking it. The only thing I can say is with Audible, if you purchase an audiobook with a credit, if you aren't enjoying it, you can return it and get your credit back.

SPEAKER_01

Good to know, because I'm gonna need to do that.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Now you can't do it over and over again. I think there's a limit, but it's a nice size limit, like five books or something. So I did return a book or two in this first quarter. So those are my statistics. I've I'm I think I'm like eight books ahead on my Goodreads, 70 books a year challenge. So I feel good about that. How about you? Do you want to share how wretched your reading has been?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Um, I just before I say that though, I just was reflecting on how this quarterly review, and I think the next one too, routinely is when you and I both um expressed that there's been declines in our reading anyway. That um like I have a regular annual quote unquote slump end of winter, beginning of spring, mm-hmm, where my reading all like it just dips anyway. Um but I think we've we've been doing the quarterly review, what, two or three years at this point? Three, I think. Yeah. So I think it's just an interesting pattern to see how it continues to now. Of course, m my re this my reading variable is removed from the conversation this year, but um I just I was just was reflecting on how that's a regular part of this conversation anyway. Um I have read three books. I'm in the middle of a fourth. Okay. So you are reading. Yeah. One of them was a physical book that I had purchased. Um, and then the remaining three were uh audible because I figured if I want to listen to a book or read a book, that's probably the best way for me to do it right now than sitting down with a physical. Um in that very, very, very small number also includes a DNF.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, there's no guarantee you're gonna like the books you pick up. It doesn't matter if you read two or twenty.

SPEAKER_01

I will explain that one when we get to it. Because I yeah, I knew it was gonna be uh yeah. Have you made any progress on any of the goals you set?

SPEAKER_02

I I think I'm doing pretty well. I haven't completed, okay, let me go back here. Some of my intentions have been to read 12 classics, one classic a month, and then do one reread a month.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So this is March. I should have read three classics and have done three rereads. Sure. I've only done one reread, one purposeful reread that I said was gonna be a reread.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, like one that you had set up as that. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Because I did finish the Harry Potter series, I read two books in January. Those were rereads for me, five stars 100%, but they weren't my official rereads, so I'm not counting them.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

The classics, I've read two, and I have one on the go. I've read, reread one book that I planned. The other one I think I shared earlier, The Gollum and the Ginny. I got behind in and I'm struggling to pick it back up. And I haven't started. I want to read Rebecca for March, and I haven't started that yet. So that's a good one for March. Yeah, that's a little, I'm a little behind there, but I'm definitely reading from my shelves. I'm reading seasonally, which I love. And I'm meeting my Goodreads challenge of 70 books for the year. So I feel pretty good.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And truly, if the rereads are going to impact me like negatively, I'm just gonna let those go and give up that goal for the year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. If it's not serving you, then it there's no point in yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I'm not gonna be uh die hard.

SPEAKER_01

A stickler. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I don't I'm not gonna ruin my reading for you.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02

That's where I am. I'm still absolutely loving making seasonal TBRs that are huge.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because I'm a mood reader and I need lots to choose from. Um, and I'm just I don't romanticize the seasons, but I love that my seasonal reading enhances my enjoyment of the season.

SPEAKER_00

Right. For sure.

SPEAKER_02

Are you meeting any goals, Julia? I feel like I I keep putting you on the spot to make you be like, I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, uh, so I don't I don't remember what goals I set for the year. I think I explicitly didn't set any for the purpose of what this year was going to be, but I do have a couple of overarching goals, maybe more so uh principles or systems that I've been trying to implement into my life. Like um not impulsively buying books or being very intentional about how many books I buy and reading from my shelf, and and then I have that um popular book bingo card that I'm doing. So those are overarching kind of things that I'm working on. Um I did purchase one book in this quarter, and that was The Graceless Heart because it was pretty and I wanted a pretty book, and so And you like the author, and it's her newest release. Yeah, Renaissance Italy.

SPEAKER_02

Like what else can we say?

SPEAKER_01

Right. And I thought it was gonna be a good jump start for me to keep reading, and I haven't started it yet. So okay, I mean I purchased a book. Um I have that's the only book that I've purchased, but I I feel that I would be remiss if I didn't mention that um we are now drowning in books in my little apartment because of the baby shower uh a week or so ago. And you were gifted a ton of wonderful books for the baby. We asked that um instead of cards that people write notes and books for us. And I'm also totally open to secondhand books. So we got books upon books upon books that um Ben's not incredibly happy.

SPEAKER_02

But just because of the space issue. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and I've already had to be like, what books can we have in here for the first three months? What books are waiting in in storage?

SPEAKER_02

They need to go in a box till yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right. So I I have not purchased all but one book, but lots of books have come into us. Yes. And then I do have a book from the popular book Bingo Card, which I will talk about. So um just put a we'll just put a pin on that for now. All right. In your reading, do you have any uh memorable or favorite experiences from the last quarter?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I do. Outside of the books I want to talk about. Okay. Um the rereading experience I had in January was Chef's Kiss. I reread The Snow Child by Eown Ivy. I think it's been over a decade since I read that book the first time. And we have had a very snowy winter. Very. So I was reading this lovely snowy story set in Alaska, I think in the 19 earl, the early 1900s, like 1920s, maybe. And it was snowing outside, or it had snowed and it was bitterly cold, and every time I looked out the window, there was snow. It was just such a wonderful, immersive reading experience for me. And I came out of that book loving it even more the second time than I did the first time. So that was a wonderful reading experience. Um, I already mentioned that I finished the Harry Harry Potter series. I was working through the Stephen Fry narration. And I'm just every time I encounter those books, I'm just amazed at J.K. Rowling's imagination.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And how sh how she created this world and these characters and the magic and the good versus evil, which is such a common theme in fantasy, and yet just it's just so well done for kids. I just I love it, and I'm so glad it's in the world.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then finally, and this could be recency bias because I just finished this book, but my classic for March was The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. And I don't know if you remember this, Julia, but we listened to this as an audiobook as a family in one of our road trip traveling experiences. I didn't remember much about it, only that Toad loves cars at one point in the story, and that weasels come and stoats and they kind of take over his home while he's away. Okay. But I have a beautiful version of The Wind in the Willows. It's illustrated by Robert Ingpen, who is my I just love him as an illustrator. And I read that version. So I was reading the story, looking at the illustrations. It was springtime, and the book starts in spring when Mole is spring cleaning and he doesn't want to do it anymore. So he runs away from his home.

SPEAKER_01

I feel that.

SPEAKER_02

And it was just such a delight. It's an episodic story. So you can read one chapter a day. Um, and it just it was just so delightful. I had such a good time. I'm I'm a huge proponent of adults reading children's books, especially classics like that. And it just really enhanced the beginning of spring for me. So those are my best reading experiences. What about you, Julia? Do you have a good reading experience you want to share?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I do. Again, I don't want to talk too much about it because it is gonna come up in what we say later, so I don't want to give too much away. But I listened to a memoir over the quarter, and it then inspired a whole deep dive into the situation. So watching documentaries and investigative shows, like wow, just a lot of um I love books that spark stuff like that. I just want to learn more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You get introduced to a topic and then you just research the heck out of.

SPEAKER_01

This is not a good topic. It was more one of those things where I need to know the behind the scenes kind of things.

SPEAKER_02

Well, more like a a horrific accident that you can't look away from. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It'll make sense when we get there. I'm not the more bittercrass, I promise. Right. Um, but then I will say that obviously the books from all the baby shower with the notes and everything in that are wonderful. Um, and there was one day where Ben happened to beat me home from work, and in our apartment complex, the people are moving or things, so I'll put stuff that they don't want down in the lobby and it's kind of free grab. And he happened to grab a couple of things, and when he went down to grab something else, he saw that somebody had put a collection of um fairy tales down there, and so he grabbed that, and so now that's part of the uh the library for the baby, and they're illustrated. I mean, it's it's not a spectacular version of them of any means, but I'm always for a cool find like that. I agree. So especially when it's book related. Right. And the fact that my husband grabbed it and thought of me and didn't leave it downstairs because no more books. So yeah, though those are my my memorables. Well, let's get into the review a little bit. Um, so the way that we do this is we have four different categories. We look at cream of the crop, which is the best of the best when we cannot stop talking about or thinking about, and we need other people to know about it. Um, a sleeper hit, a happy surprise, letdown, least favorite or most disappointing, and then wild card, anything else we feel we need to talk about. So let's get started with cream of the crop, mom. Which book falls into that category for you?

SPEAKER_02

Well, you described Cream of the Crop as the bestest of the best. And I pretty much talked about all that already. But I I I'm when I think about the quarterly review, I like to bring books to the show that we haven't talked about before because I want our readers to stay interested in what we're doing. I do think I talked about this book as well at some point on the show, but I'm bringing it here officially. Um, this book is Love and Saffron by Kim Fay. It's an epistolary novel in letters between two women who begin as strangers, but they develop this very wonderful deep friendship over time with the exchange of letters. Their first connection is food. The older woman, I think she's in her late 50s. Her name is Imogen. She writes a column for a paper in Washington. And it's it's like a food and lifestyle column. And there's a young woman who lives in Los Angeles. I think her name is Joan. She loves Imogen's column and she like fan mails her one time and sends her some exotic saffron with a recipe on how to use it. And their friendship starts because Imogen makes the recipe and is like, that was wonderful. Never tasted anything like that. And so they start exchanging recipes and talking about food. And then in the process, all these other people get pulled into their orbit, and relationships outside of their relationship are positively impacted. Plus, it's this is all happening in the 1960s. So you get this background of America and what's happening politically and socially in the 1960s. It's just a really, really uplifting, wonderful book. And I just, I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. Um, and on Goodreads, I just wrote, I love this. I cried real tears, which is unusual for me when I'm reading, and it completely caught me off guard. It's a lovely little epistolary novel showcasing the growth of a genuine friendship between two likable and distinct characters, and also highlighting the love of food and how it can bring people together and enhance their lives in so many ways. A wonderful, unexpected delight. It's similar in my mind, like comp titles. I would list um 84 Charing Crossroad, which is nonfiction about a friendship that develops between an American writer and a British bookseller. I think you talked about that. Yes. And then another comp. comp I thought of was Meet Me at the Museum, which is about an English woman who develops a friendship with an art museum curator, I Scandinavia somewhere, Norway or something. That relationship is a it's a little problem problematic because she's married and her marriage is kind of troubled. And she develops it's almost like an emotional affair with this guy, but the book is still good. Anyway, those are comps. It's funny at the same time I was reading this, I had just DNF'd the correspondent. It is a book of letters by a woman who writes letters to everybody. I was not enjoying that, but I really enjoyed this book. Gotcha. Okay. So that is uh Love and Saffron by Kim Fey. As soon as I finished it, I texted my sister, my mom, my sister-in-law, and I was like, you guys, you have got to read this book. All right, Julia, tell us the one book that you read that you really loved. Or didn't you really have any of those?

SPEAKER_01

Well no, I'm gonna say this is the cream of a crop, not because it's the book that is getting all of the confetti and the ticker tape parade. Like it's not that kind of book.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

It's the it's a book that I finished it and it's the one that sent me down the rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And that is House of My Mother by Sherry Frankie.

SPEAKER_02

Oh that's that is on my to be red list. And the reason it's on my to be red list is I actually did the rabbit hole first.

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_01

Well I listened to this and Sherry is the one who narrates it, which I think always adds a lot of depth to a memoir.

SPEAKER_02

It personalizes it significantly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I need to give a lot of context for this book. I don't want to there's a lot. But Sherry Frankie is the oldest of six kids. Um and if you recognize the name Frankie at all it is because her mother Ruby Frankie was arrested in 2023 with a they call a business partner not a business partner an associate and Ruby Frankie and the associate Jodie Hildebrand were charged with child abuse and neglect and it kind of broke uh quite a few things wide open but Ruby the mom had a YouTube channel called Eight Passengers where they filmed family vlogging um which is a whole conversation about whether this is something that's exploitation or not and I have my own thoughts um and Sherry is now in the process of really pushing some legislature through um to really reinforce that this is exploitation um and all of that. So this book House of my mother is Sherry's experience of growing up in the house with Ruby as her mom um when the YouTube channel started when problematic parenting really began to kick in um Jody Jody Hildebrand was part of something called connections which is whackado very the there listen the the layers of the onion that you could pull back on this is crazy. I do know she was influential though in the marriage breaking up like she encouraged yeah Ruby to leave her husband and yeah there's so many layers so many layers um jodi had even she is a psychologist that actually had her license suspended just it's it's yeah bonkers. Jody claims that she's type of some religious prophet like it's when I say that there are layers to this like you can fall down a rabbit hole and not come up for air for a day or two.

SPEAKER_02

So but the claims of child abuse were legitimate correct I mean they it's on tape yes the type of child abuse that was happening.

SPEAKER_01

Both on the YouTube channel and then also in the security camera footage when the first 911 call for these kids was placed. Yes yeah so it is this is a documented thing. Um tread carefully with this book listeners if this is something that you want to listen to or read Sherry is not going to shy away from some hard things and it's really hard to hear a parent make comments or do certain things that feel so counter to what you think a parent should do. Yeah. But then also I feel like I also need to make a statement that there this involves the Mormon faith and there's really not good representation of the Mormon faith and how the church behaves at all and I will keep opinions to myself on some of that but um there is religiosity in this there is spiritual abuse in this physical abuse like it's there's it's so so much.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And we're not spoiling I mean this story is news it's been public from the get go.

SPEAKER_01

Right. What was so powerful for me though at the end of this memoir is that Sherry just said these are this is my family please don't be nosy and then I went down the rabbit hole. But I just it's so I think it's so powerful to hear a family member say like stop like this is not okay.

SPEAKER_02

Like I think too um more so protecting her brothers and sisters I don't think so much for her parents that she's feeling that way.

SPEAKER_01

No and I will point this out in the book in her memoir she does not call her parents mom and dad. Yeah she strips them of that title completely and so it's it's there's this is an emotional story to get into um but I think it's very apropos and very um timely in terms of what's happening culturally with social media and um with where we're headed as kind of a society and a culture with some of that and just yeah there's layers clearly I can keep talking about this. Right. So this is the cream of the crop but again it's not the I need everybody to read this this was a book that was just impactful for me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah that you thought about yeah enough to investigate further. Yeah yep yes this is on my TBR the only criticism I have heard about this book truly is that people feel like what's her first name? Sherry Sherry is not far enough removed from the situation for it to be like a reflective memoir.

SPEAKER_01

It's more this is what we went through this is where I am I would agree with that but on the other side of that I would say that because she was the oldest she caught on very quickly that something was wrong and she removed herself from the situation. As soon as she could she was the one who made all of the DHS phone calls. Yes yeah so I agree that maybe it's she's still too close to the situation but I think she did a very good job of removing herself yeah very very quickly and very very intentionally trying to make things known about the situation.

SPEAKER_02

My biggest question in all of this and maybe it does get answered in the memoir is where was the father?

SPEAKER_01

Like where is this ridiculous man? It does get explained it does get explained and it all comes back to Jody. Okay. It all comes back to Jody. I mean there are comments to be made about how far somebody is willing to let things go but it Jody is the linchpin in all of it.

SPEAKER_02

All right and maybe I'm sorry maybe I should not call him ridiculous. Well he's gotten a lot of criticism yeah should we move on to some happier things I'm not sure we're actually gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah so next would be sleeper. Okay, you're sleeper.

SPEAKER_02

I always view the sleeper hit as a happy surprise something that I think might be good but ends up being way better or something I have no expectation for and it completely blows my mind. I could have put Love and Saffron in here. Actually I did have it in here and then moved it because that was also a sleeper hit for me. But my choice for today is The Remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguru and I listened to this book and I do not have the narrator's name on the tip of my tongue. So I will put that in the show notes but he did an excellent job. This is a book that is deeply internal. So you are in the mind of the main character for the whole story. He is a butler his name is Stevens he is close to the end of his career as a butler and it's also the end of the era of butlers running households so this would be after World War II when really the whole aristocracy of Great Britain is going through huge changes. Many people don't want to own the big houses anymore because they take too much money. Yeah most people can't even afford it anymore and that's where we are here. He is actually um working now for an American who bought the estate from his former employer who was a lord.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So things are changing and his his um employer is going away and he offers his very nice car to Stevens to take a six day road trip and Stephen decides to take him up to it and he drives around England and while he's driving he just reflects back on his whole life and he is not he's not a reliable narrator which I don't think any of us would be sure if we were telling a story about our own lives as we reflected on it. This is a very slow, very meditative and dense book but I found myself like I couldn't stop listening. It was very propulsive and I can't figure out what the secret sauce was in this book that kept me wanting to keep going it's not hopeless but it really is a hard read. It's not very uplifting and the main character being in his head is really hard because he's he's emotionally stunted he is never not a butler like even in his head he's formal and he has this very narrow view of the world on what is right and wrong and he just did I already say he's emotionally stunted yeah just he's very hard to be in the head of yeah yeah yeah so I would not I would not recommend this book widely but there's a certain population of people who like literary fiction where it's all internal you're all thinking about all you're doing is thinking about your life the mistakes you made your regrets your missed opportunities love that's been lost that's all that's going on here. And I just really enjoyed it I thought I thought it was great. I really liked the unreliable narrator aspect because he does come around so what I wrote is I don't know how to rate this book or talk about it. We're in the head of an aging butler as he reviews his life while taking a road trip around rural England. He is quite stunted emotionally has no life beyond being a butler and proves to be very unreliable. Through recounted vignettes we see a stiff contained man with a skewed view of his importance he has narrow ideals and there's an inability for him to be anything but a butler like he just can't do it. By the end of the trip he's finally truthful with himself and the revelations that he discovers aren't easy or tidy. It's like I said it's not hopeless but it's not really like rah rah rah at the end. So be prepared for that.

SPEAKER_01

Well I mean it's like a conversation with identity if all who's ever been is a butler how do you become something else after so long? Right.

SPEAKER_02

And he he has significant regrets about tying himself to a person, an influential person who maybe was influential in the wrong ways. Even if that person wasn't trying to be influential in the wrong way. So there's a lot of there's a lot of moral um ambiguity and then determining did you waste your life because of this it's very good. It's very good. He's a very frustrating character many times um and then you just kind of pity him because of the the things that he valued and what he let go that he shouldn't have. So it was very good. I I don't recommend it widely but I do recommend it for a certain type of reader. Kazuo Ishiguru also wrote Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant I've read both of those as well very all the books are different.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah but the writing is similar yeah how about a sleeper hit for you Julia so because I'm functioning off of four books I've read this is a book I'm still in the middle of okay um and this is a book that I put off and put off and put off listening to and reading because I knew it was going to be hard and I started it a week ago and it's hard and yet it is so enjoyable to listen to and that is Friends Lovers and the Big Terrible thing by Matthew Perry his memoir. Oh okay yes and um I love the show Friends I've never finished it because I I won't finish it because I like how things were going. I don't want to see it end. But I knew that this was going to be so hard and he narrates the whole thing and he narrates it I his addiction has been rather public. We we know that he has struggled with addiction and um he narrates this and you can hear it in his voice that he has been through stuff and I don't mean emotions like the rawness on his vocal cords and the stuff that he's just talking about he's very candid a little crass sometimes but I mean that's yeah but um I have just really been enjoying this and I have to take it in very very small sips.

SPEAKER_02

I think too when that when that book came out and people were reading it as an initial publication the end of the story wasn't known yet. Yeah. But now you're reading it knowing the end of the story and I think that probably makes it more bittersweet or poignant for you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah yeah and not I mean every the characters and friends all have their moments where they're the best on the show or whatever. And I I think that I know that Matthew Barry has done other roles. I know that he's what but he's going to be known for friends that just is what it is and um I it's just hard um that he uh that he's passed but we have the story that he's given us about kind of his life and and he couldn't actually overcome his demons I'm only a few chapters in um I have two or three hours audio listening however it breaks down um and like I said I am enjoying it it's I think it's an important one to listen to but um it's definitely hard.

SPEAKER_02

So does he go into the experience of being on friends in his memoir or is it more personal experiences?

SPEAKER_01

I have not gotten there yet but I know that he does.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

He is I think he's more looking at how did his addiction develop and how did it carry him through um because he kind of starts off looking at when he was born very or like very shortly after he was born his parents separated one parent moved to Ottawa the other person moved to Los Angeles. And so how do you grow up at like grow up like that and and whatever. And so I think we are going to get to friends but I think right now he's just looking at how he's was processing this feeling of loneliness that he had as a kid so my books have not been very happy yet have they?

SPEAKER_02

No not at all now we're gonna get into the letdown so we're gonna even be even more Debbie timers. Right oh and you're this is not a good one at all that you're my letdown should we get into yeah when we did our show at the beginning of the year where we talked about all the new releases we were really excited about I talked about the Astral library. I'm pretty sure I did one of us didn't we?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I think it was one that we mentioned together.

SPEAKER_02

Together okay I know it was on the show about this library that kind of lies in the in-between space I call it a liminal space and once you get to the la that library you can enter any book you want to and live in that book. Yeah not as one of the characters of the book but as your own person you find your own way you create your own life you can stay as long as you want to most people who are invited to do this are invited because the life that they're living in the real world is somehow less than it should be I thought that sounded so intriguing. This book ended up being something else than I expected and that's not necessarily the book's fault. Yeah um I was I was expecting something more fun and a little bit lighter than we were getting but my main problem with this book is I did not care at all for the main character. She was extremely unlikable to me and I don't think she was written to be unlikable. So I couldn't figure out what it was about her that just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So that that was number one. And then I also just I I just felt like the author's personal life philosophy kept bleeding through and it felt like that's what it was like the author was inserting her own take on life like her and I don't even want to say political views it's more like a worldview and I I don't care about that necessarily but it just felt really heavy handed and it it just didn't stop. And I I didn't care I found myself not caring about certainly about the main character I did not care what happened to her. None of the characters were particularly likable that I encountered and I did not care for the plot. And as soon as I started looking at Goodreads to see what other people were rating the book I knew that I was probably going to stop because I just it was hurting my reading life I I was feeling slumpy and I just didn't enjoy it. So the tone irritated me the main character irritated me and I just didn't care. I did not care what happened. So it was extremely disappointing for me. And actually I had several very popular very current books at the beginning of the year that I started reading and put aside because I just didn't care.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

One of them was The Correspondent which you mentioned which I mentioned and I can't remember who the author is for that book. I think her last name is Evans and then another one is The Favorites by Lane Fargo which is a take on Wuthering Heights but set in the ice skating world and oh man I just I didn't like the characters I didn't care about the story I just yeah it just was not for me. So I just I'm starting to think that current popular books are generally not gonna do it for me.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. That's what I've been finding on my bingo card that it's just it's not fun. But this one this Astral Library is disappointing because it was one that we were both so excited about. Yeah and now I'm like so hesitant to like pick it up and read it myself.

SPEAKER_02

Right I don't want to do I I feel like you should give it a go. Well sure it could just be a Stephanie thing. But I I've read I've read one other book by the author Kate Quinn. She usually writes historical fiction a lot of times based around World War II. Yeah and I read one of her books along those lines and really liked it. I thought the writing was great I thought the characters were good. This almost did not feel like her writing to me it was just yeah over overall like the whole experience was not a good one. Yeah I wonder if it was an experiment like an experiment and she just was it just it doesn't mean that I won't ever pick up one of her books again um because I have previous positive experiences with her but this one just did not I just wanted a different story and that is not Kate Quinn's fault. Yeah but I didn't even like the story that she was telling me. Sometimes I can get behind stories even if they don't end up being not what I wanted. Right this was not one of them.

SPEAKER_01

Well and if it's average advertised or incompletely advertised in a way that reflects what the story is, then you get set up with poor expectations or wrong expectations, and that really, really alters a reading experience as well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I just the problems for me were character, plot, and author author preachiness or heavy-handed insertion of author's point of view. That will always turn me off from a book. So yeah. So there's that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't like the Astral Library.

SPEAKER_01

I'm more sorry that that was such a disappointment.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because it just looked so cool.

SPEAKER_02

What about you?

SPEAKER_01

Um this one is not so much a disappointment as maybe it just I was bored. And that is um Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros. I had to I had to think of the name of it because I always switch the second and third book titles. So is that the second or this is the second nothing fundamentally wrong with this story. I know that there's a lot of criticism from the readers that this one felt rushed, that it it felt that she was trying to throw too much together um that people had asked for more world building and so she did more world building but didn't like I just there was a lot happening. The actual story itself fine I I've made comments before about the writing and how I'm not reading this book for the writing but it became boring to me because it was too dang long and I have read long books before my lame copy is 1700 pages. Right like I have read long books and I have no issue reading long books. This felt like it could have been split into two there was one point where I was reading and had gotten almost like two thirds third and it said part two.

SPEAKER_02

And I was like I'm done why not just make that another right do you feel I'm just gonna butt in do you feel like everything that was in the book needed to be in there or could it have been shorter and been more impactful?

SPEAKER_01

So let me answer it this way.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I was so bored that when I got to the end of it and a twist happened I didn't care about the twist. Okay. So I think if it had been split up I would have allowed for more impact on some of the other things that she was trying to do to set up for the next story. Like I just literally didn't care. I just was trying to read it so I could get my bookmark back. Like that's again not not a bad like the story itself was not bad. I just was bored. I felt like it was a chore to read it. I didn't like when the big conflict or the you know the big part of the book I I didn't have any emotional attachment because it just I was literally just trying to get to they all could have died and you didn't care. Well I wouldn't go that far but more the matter of like trying to build the intensity and you know make people ex and I just was like alright there's dragons they're fighting what's happening like let's keep them moving here. Um so I just was really bored by the end of it and that could have just that could be me and my own pregnant brain that could be that it was too long it could be that it just was not fully fleshed um but I'm not even gonna say that this was a true letdown because I didn't have any high expectations for it to begin with.

SPEAKER_02

You went in with no expectations.

SPEAKER_01

Right. But I don't think I've been bored like that by a book in a while. And again I just I I want to be very careful. I don't think it's the author's thought I don't think it's the story she's telling I think it was just this book was rushed and it was not done well and it reflects that. Right. So I have no intention of continuing in that series so I have doesn't hurt my feelings to hear you say that. I go back and forth and back and forth on if I should or shouldn't but then it's also like I think I think right now it's filling my need for a Game of Thrones like show. Yes the need for a long fantasy epic and so the story is kind of filling that and I think that that's why I am putting up with a lot of being tempted to pick up the next right right and then I argue with myself the whole time why I'm reading it as to why I'm reading this but yeah I think it's just gonna be that that's what it is. So all right we are at the final one here mom this is the wild card. So what do you just really want to talk about in your reading from the quarter?

SPEAKER_02

I think I want to talk about vintage literature these are stories that were written in the early 1900s. So we are getting to the point where they are maybe a hundred years old which would categorize them as true classics but I still see them more as vintage classics I have read several in the last three months. All of them I think are English but I if I could find American vintage literature like this I would certainly read it. I enjoy the stories because they tend not to be so explicit violence wise or sex wise plus they give you a peek into that time and place because I love historical fiction. These would not have been historical fiction they were contemporary to their times when they were written but it feels like the most wonderful kind of historical fiction. Yeah yeah so it's a it's a literal snapshot of life during whatever time the book was written. I've I have three books I'm gonna talk about them quick. The first book is Crossed Skiis by Carol Karnack. It's a British library crimes classic um written in the 1950s and it's a murder mystery it is written by an author who has a detective that she writes over and over again and this is like book number eight in that crime detective series. The detective's name is Justin Rivers and he is in this book. The premise for this story is a group of skiers who are casually connected some of them don't really know each other very well. Sure. They all get together they travel to Austria from London and they are doing a ski vacation for a week in Austria in the Alps right before they leave a murder is committed and Justin Rivers determines that the person who committed the murder is an excellent athlete he can climb well and he's also a skier and they know that because it has just snowed in London and they know the person who left the crime scene was on skis. He through deduction figures out that the murderer probably is in this group of skiers. Oh and so then he and his partner go to Austria and they figure out who it is. And the whole time you're reading of course about these skiers and their holiday you're getting clues about who could the murderer be. And they're hanging out in the lodge and around the fire. It's just it was just fun. So that was good. Yeah um then I read a book that is supposedly the precursor to Rebecca by Daphne Duite Morier called Vera by Elizabeth Van Arnhem. That was written in 1921 and it's really a fictional account of Van Arnhem's real life experiences of being married and it is not a fun story. She was very embittered about the powerlessness that women had in marriages especially if they were married to a man that mistreated them so I picked this book up because I wanted to see the comparisons to Rebecca and I would argue that you could fit Jane Eyre into this sort of thing as well it was good. It was a very hard read I was infuriated almost from the get go with the way that this man behaved yeah and it did give you a very specific very microscopic view of a particular experience during that time of a young woman being married to a wealthier older man and how she was treated the woman is very young and very naive and the man that she marries even though he's handsome and he has a lot of money he is like a toddler in a middle aged man's body he has no concept of anyone's feelings but his own he is completely asympathetic to anybody else he's cruel he's manipulative he oh I I I could go on and on. It was so frustrating it does not have a good outcome so if you're looking for a book that has a happy ending this book is not going to be it but I loved making the connections between this book and Rebecca and there are many. Yeah it's not a complete complete retelling or like a pretelling but it was good and that's why I'm going to listen to Rebecca as a reread now because I want I want to relive that story and see if I can find even more connections. But it was good. I'm glad I read it um just an infuriating read for me I I don't think I have ever encountered a male protagonist that I despised more than him and then finally I read a diary Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield and that was also an audiobook it was narrated by Georgina Sutton uh the book was written in 1930 it started out as a column in a paper and then it was serial it was serialized and then it was made into a book and it's just diary entries across a year of this woman who lives in a village in England. She is like impoverished gentry she lives in a big house they have staff but she's constantly going to the pawn shop and dropping off her jewels so she can have money to pay the bills. Yeah um it's funny it is so funny I laughed out loud so many times and you get like these charming little scenarios of village life and it was just a good time. I really really enjoyed it so I I'm just gonna say vintage classics that I have thoroughly enjoyed um felt like they were worth my time and I'm going to continue seeking them out. And like I said I'd love to find American vintage classics that I could do the same thing with yeah and I especially liked experiencing Vera because of my love for Rebecca and I liked seeing what the origin like the source material was for that. Yeah even though I did not really like the story. So that was a long explanation but it was just it was great. The other thing about Diary of a provincial lady I could see that being inspiration for the unselected journals of Emma M. Lyon very similar in tone in um the charm and the wit the little bit of snarkiness the accident prone nature of the main character um wanting more from life and just that yeah very very similar I wouldn't be surprised if Beth Browers listed Diary of a Provincial Lady as one of her inspirations for Emma M. Lyon yeah yeah okay that was a lot of talking Jolia do you have any anything you want to share for um uh what are we doing?

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah wild card I do but I think you're I think the books that you talked about are a much better ending note than what I'm about to share. All right so make a note of that w when we talk about wild card these are books that you know are just kind of whatever what that we want to talk about um maybe for good or bad reasons right I think often we put good good reason books in this category. My wild card is a DNF. Okay and that is Icebreaker by Hannah Grace.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my is that a romance I don't even know what you would call it okay so I can't I can picture the cover if it has an ice skater and a hockey player.

SPEAKER_01

Right. So this is on my popular book Bingo card and this was the book uh that kept me from ever posting my bingo card publicly because I knew that this book was going to be excuse my French a shit show and so I didn't want it to be I didn't want it to be publicized that this was one of the ones that I was reading. Uh-huh but um there is very little semblance of a legitimate plot okay all that happens is a college where it's a it's a sports college and there's multiple ice skating ranks and one is for figure skaters one is for the ice hockey team and the figure skaters are trying to go to the Olympics and something happens and now they all have to share the same rank that's the the plot okay um and I don't even I don't the main so it's told in two different perspectives you have um Anastasia is the girl I forget the guy Anastasia is annoying and undeveloped like it just all of it um this is quoted as being a spicy romance there's no romance it's just spice for no reason. So there's no relationship development you don't have any kind of understanding why the two people would want to be together right right there's um a very interesting relationship that Anastasia has with a guy friend that it starts off you're thinking that they're together and they're not they're just friends friends with benefits. Oh okay right yeah right um literally nothing in this book makes sense and I started reading the goodread I was listening to this book I was listening to it while I was doing work at home one day and I'm like whatever I'll give this a shot I found myself walking away to do things in another room without pausing the book and I was like that right there is an indication that I'm this is yeah a waste of your time right um all the Goodreads are like what is what is about like why is this so popular? Yeah and then you have the people in the Goodreads that are like this is the best romance I've ever read.

SPEAKER_02

Oh I know I know so um I don't even it was four hours of an afternoon I'm not gonna get back I guess um I can cross it off my list and say done and dusted like you gave it a go and it just didn't go yeah I don't even think it got started like it just I do I struggle with this we're gonna have a little conversation here because I earlier in the show I did the same thing I struggle with saying that I dislike popular books because it makes me sound like I'm not like other girls. Right I'm super special I'm above it all yeah and that's really that's not the case I think what it makes me realize is because of my worldview. Yeah because of who I am Jesus Christ it makes me look at the world a certain way and I evaluate my reading probably different than the majority of readers not not other Christian readers but the majority of other reads other readers. So the things that might make a book really popular are things that actually if they don't turn me off they don't interest me. Right. I don't know and I think that's where we are and I'm not saying we can't say a book is objectionably bad which I think is what you're saying here. Yeah yeah but then I scratch my head even harder like why are people I so fascinated by it because if it is just for the titillation of spiciness that's an issue in and of itself I agree and I think that's a whole avenue of this conversation that we could continue to have.

SPEAKER_01

Right um we could do a whole episode on that kind of stuff. And that not to be double entendre but that that conversation would get spicy in and of itself. We have a lot of very very strong opinions about that. But um I mean I'm the same I tend to stay away from what are quote unquote popular books because I do find that the theming in them or the structure of the romances or whatever it is even the writing are things that I don't agree with or just don't match what I'm looking for or don't interest me and I'm never somebody who is influenced by other people family aside. Right. And so if somebody says this is the best book I've ever read no I'll see you in three years when maybe I consider reading it.

SPEAKER_02

Like after it stood the test of time and people like it still keeps coming up.

SPEAKER_01

So like I I don't think I've ever said this one here but like I've never read the Hunger Games and I was a teenager when it was popular.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah I never have either and I know it does feel like yeah like somehow I failed as a reader.

SPEAKER_01

Well no I think my thing is is there were reasons I didn't want to read it at the time and now that I'm an adult I'm like maybe I could consider it now but it's still just as popular that I don't want to get looped up into it. So I think all of this to say is when we're talking about popular books, these are books that like are everywhere everybody knows, recognized like it's their moment in fame and whatever and yeah I've had good success on my bingo card. Yeah like yes I said she really liked probably that surprised you just for the Summer by Abby Amenis is one of the ones that stands up as like a glittery jewel.

SPEAKER_02

And you enjoy Daisy Jones and the six or a good girl's guide to murder right and then there are others like Bridgerton which I should have DNF'd or like uh Court of Thorns and Roses which I DNF'd like there are others where and I friends and listeners you're here because you you either like the books right that we talk about you have similar reading tastes or you like how we interact.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Jolie and I interact together. Yeah um or you don't like the books that we like but that's fine because you just like listening to us talk about them.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And these opinions are our opinions.

SPEAKER_02

Right and and I am never well I sh I can't say never I am almost never judging people based on the types of books well and if I am they like never publicly. Well and I I have people in my life that I love dearly I love dearly and their reading taste is completely different from mine. Yes and I could scratch my head and say I I don't understand but I am not doing that I am demonstrating real grace yes yes and love and letting them love what they love even if I don't understand it. So please I don't want anybody to take offense because I didn't like the correspondent or I didn't like the favorites or whatever or the astral library.

SPEAKER_01

Right that one borders on objectionally bad but I just had to put that in so where's the line between objectively bad and subjectively bad as I think the conversation we then need to have we should we actually should do an episode on that because I think you can recognize when a book is objectively buried.

SPEAKER_02

Did I say objectionably before whatever you say I don't know I think yeah we need to wrap this show up okay um well I'm gonna go ahead and pull this show back together okay um are you currently reading anything mom I am and I think what I'm reading is a testament to how I'm struggling right now with my reading I usually only have a book and an audiobook on the go and I have five books right now that are started um I'm currently listening to the Ghastly Catastrophe which is book number 10 in the Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Rayborn it's narrated by Angile Masters this is a total comfort read for me I love these people I love being with them so I am thoroughly enjoying it this has like a vampire spin to it I just started a Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James this is her newest release it came out in January it was a library book that I found and picked up and I am enjoying it. I am absolutely enjoying it I started middle March which is my classic for April and I'm struggling I'm very early into it so it's early days but I just don't understand the point of this story. So hopefully that's gonna get better. And then I'm dipping in and out of true spirituality by Frances Schaefer This is a short, short nonfiction, um, really about the the main tenets of Christianity. And I am talking about people who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, came to this earth as a man, died on the cross for our sins. Our belief in that is the only thing we need to be forgiven and saved.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That is what this is about. I love Francis Schaefer. He is probably one of my favorite Christian philosophical writers of the 20th century. I could read anything he writes. He is such an intelligent man. So that's it, Julia. I'm all over the place. What about you?

SPEAKER_01

Um well, I mentioned Matthew Perry's memoir. Um, I also remembered as we were talking that I started, I think it's a rogue of one's own by Evie Dunmore. Um I'm two or three chapters into that and fell asleep in the middle of a chapter, so I might need to go back a little bit. Um, but I am gonna mention that there is a book that I haven't started yet, but it's a book that I want to read before the baby's born. And it's called Courageously Soft, Daring to Keep a Tender Heart in a Tough World by Kiara Rush. Okay. Um and it's just looking at how do we as Christians keep a sensitive, soft heart when the world is just full of all the stuff that it's full of right now. And I feel like that just would be a really good meditation for me as I look at motherhood, especially with all the stuff that's happening around the world right now. And um, so I have not started that one, but that one is I'm running out of time to start it, so I will be starting it here soon.

SPEAKER_02

Well, we covered a lot of books. We got distracted territory. Uh this episode is ending up being a little bit longer than we hoped. So I think we need to wrap it up.

SPEAKER_01

But also, I think that's par for the course for us, honestly.

SPEAKER_02

It is. Um, I think we can say that we are still reading. Yep. That some books are good, some not so good. Yep. And that is usually how it goes. Yep. We do not know what's going to be up next. It could be a discussion about disability representation in fiction specifically. That is definitely a show we want to do. Yes. I don't know if that will be next. We also have um an episode planned where we will be talking about incredible settings in books. Books where the setting, the place, the environment where the story is taking.

SPEAKER_01

Almost a character itself. Very good.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for saying that.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

And then we also have planned to have some guests on the show with us and have some lively, like reader-focused discussion, likes and dislikes, and um maybe deal with feelings like books that made us really happy, really angry, really sad, that type of thing. So any of that could happen. It's all eventually gonna happen. Right. We just have both had kind of rough weeks. I've had a rough couple of weeks in a row. We haven't really had a chance to decide what we want to do next. So I hope you will join us regardless of what is coming up. Yes, please. Please do. Share us around, friends. Tell your reader friends about us if you want to rate us and review us. Anywhere that you listen to your podcast, we would appreciate it, but it's not necessary. We're just glad that you're here with us in the book snug. Yeah. So thank you for spending part of your day here with us in the book snug today. We would love to have you join us again in 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 Book Snug Podcast on Facebook. All of our episodes can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as at our website, the booksnugpodcast.buzzsprout.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_02

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