The Book Snug Podcast

S4, Chapter 10: A Chatty Catch-up (featuring The Other Bennet Sister mini-series)

• Stephany Yoder and Julia Dagen • Season 4 • Episode 10

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 45:14

Send us Fan Mail

We are back from our May break and sharing our love for The Other Bennet Sister mini-series (based on the book by the same name by Janice Hadlow) currently streaming on Britbox.  Our podcast skills are a bit rusty, but our enthusiasm can't be dampened.  Grab a drink and join the fun!

Books and 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

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 are 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. Hi Jolia. Hi mom. How are you? Good. It's been a long time. Lots of life changes. I was actually just thinking, the day that we were supposed to record last was the day I went into the hospital. I think so, yeah. Because we had push it off from the day before, and oops, that was that. Yeah. Yeah. So you have a new member of your family. Yes. So, listeners, if you hear some squealing, that's what's happening. We have a baby girl who has joined the podcast group. Yes. So it's going to be weird getting back into this. Welcome, friends and fellow readers and listeners. If you have been coming to this podcast for a while, we are so glad to have you here with us again. Hi, friends. I hope you will extend some grace. This is going to be a little rough, I think. Please, I'm very much still in the newborn trenches. My brain doesn't work. I'm tired. I don't know what day it is. If you are new here and this is your first time with us, welcome. Yes. This is really not the type of show that we normally do. But we wanted to drop in and do a little bit of a catch-up and actually do a little bit of bookish talk. Yeah. Not too much because Julia still is not reading. Doing much reading at all. But we have some fun things to talk about. We do, we do. And for the time being, anyway, we are hoping to record every two weeks, but our episodes will probably be shorter than what they have been in the past. Till we get our feet underneath us and figure out what the new normal is going to be. Right. So having said all of that, whether you're new or old or whatever, we welcome you to the show. I can speak for both of us and I can say let's say new or old listeners. Okay. I guess that's a good idea. Okay. Whether you are new or old listeners, we welcome you. And I hope this is just a good, relaxed time with us today. Before we get started talking about the things we want to talk about, Julia, are you drinking anything interesting today? I wish. Just water. Just water. Okay. Well, that's that's perfectly acceptable and understandable. I just I I want to say this for a little bit of maybe humor. We had some cousins come visit us last week and they brought us dinner. And I was like, oh, if you guys want anything to drink, you might want to grab it because all we have is water, beer, and breast milk. And I feel like that just captures kind of where things are at right now. Well, I have something a little bit interesting. And it looks delicious. I think I have mentioned the brand Izzy on the show before, I Z-E. It's a soda brand, but it's made with fruit juice. So, yes, it still has a lot of sugar in it, but it's all coming from fruit juice. Right. And I found a sparkling peach variety that I am loving right now. And so that is what I'm drinking for the show today. No, it looks so good. It is very good. So that that's my drink. No tea, even though it's not very warm around here yet. We've had the oddest May in years. Yeah. I don't think we had any really hot days, maybe one or two early on in the month. We've had a ton of rain and it has been cool. I feel like April and May switched. I feel like April was a lot warmer than May has been. Yeah. And then on top of that, Memorial Day weekend happened as early as it possibly could this year. And it has just really thrown me off with May. I feel like May is going on and on and on forever. I I'm just stuck in doldrums over here, so I don't know. You're just existing on sleeping, feeding the baby, and changing diapers. There was one day where I needed some serotonin. So I watched all three of the good parts of the Caribbean movies. And there's a line in the third movie where Tia Dolma says, if we don't escape these doldrums, we will be dead by night. And I felt like that was my life for like three days. If I don't escape these doldrums. Well, since we're talking about the month of May, I thought Julia, you might be able or would be willing or interested in telling our listeners a little bit about what's been going on in your life since the end of April. So you can probably hear the squealing and the snorting and the gurgling that's happening. End of April, the little baby decided that she was ready to come three weeks early, which was not the plan. So it kind of threw a lot of things kind of to the wind fairly quickly. Threw a wrench in the works. Everywhere across the board. But we're glad that she's here. We're glad that she's healthy, that I'm healthy, that even though it was a bit of traumatic, almost emergency situation, that everything worked out the best way that it could have. And so we have just been soaking in all of the sleepless nights and the snuggles and the village that's been around us too. So helping you out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And no reading has been occurring. I have the blurriest eyes in the whole world, right? I'm pretty sure if I start the wall too long, they'll go cross-eyed. Like that's just I think that's expected. Yeah. We can extend some great. Great things. I have been reading not as much as I usually do, but I have been reading. Yeah. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. Yeah. I've been spending a lot of time here with Julia. We're actually recording at Julia's home. We usually record in the basement of my house. We have a little studio set up. Yeah. So I am going to say that if the sound quality is a little bit different, that is part of it. We are just sitting in a room with pretty high ceilings, yeah, talking. And the windows are open and there's a baby and a cat, and just is what it is. So here we are. I think what we're going to do. Not only is it May, and we took May off from recording, May in our area starts strawberry season. So strawberries are just now this past week or so really getting going. And I don't know if we've ever shared on the show before, but we are huge strawberry fans. Anyway, I decided, I decided yesterday that I was going to go and pick strawberries because I always make strawberry freezer jam. And I got to the patch, and you could either buy little single quart baskets or big five-quart buckets. So I decided to pick two five-quart buckets worth of strawberries. Not really thinking what that would equate to as far as jars of jam. And I ended up making 44 jars of freezer jam yesterday. It took all day. I had to run to the store three different times because I ran out of sugar. I ran out of shore gel. I ran out of uh jars to put the jam in. And I still, when I was finished with the 44 jars, had strawberries left over and ended up making some strawberry coolies that I could put in the freezer. So it's been a strawberry kind of week for me. What was that book that we had growing up? The woman with too many pumpkins or something like that. I feel like that was yeah, like a similar experience. What was that book called? I don't know. But she made all of the different pumpkin stuff. Yes, because there was a truck that had a big accident and dumped pumpkins in her yard. Yeah. And then her yard filled up with pumpkins the next year, and she ate it pumpkins. Hated it. So she ended up doing all this baking and then she got to know her neighbors and yeah. Yeah. Sweet story. But as you were talking about all the strawberries everywhere, I just was the image in that book of the pumpkin pies and the pumpkins and the cookie, like everything. I'm gonna have to look that up and put it in the show notes. But yeah, I was feeling like that yesterday. So that's basically what I've been doing with myself. I finished up the semester with teaching at the very beginning of May and have pretty much been busy doing this and that since then. Yeah. Spending a lot of time here with you and my brand new grandbaby. Yeah. We have been, though, while we're spending time together, watching a show that has recently come out. In England, it has been out, and I've seen it on Instagram all over the place. But in the United States, through Brit Box, it's been available for the last couple of weeks. And friends, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I am talking about the mini-series of The Other Bennett Sister, which is a book that was written by Janice Hadlow. I think it came out in 2020. And I read it in 2020. So it's now 2026 and I'm old. So I remember the feeling I had reading that book, but I don't remember much of the story. I had a wonderful time reading it. I do remember that. But anyway, Julia and I have started watching the show with Little Baby Girl here. We're starting her early on the Jane Austen stuff. On all of the classic. She's already watched Sound of Music. Like we're getting our started early. So we thought we would talk about the other Bennett sister. I can talk about the book a little bit. We can talk about the show. And we just thought that would be a good time. And then we're gonna end the show today talking about some of the things that we have been reading because Julia lied. She has read a few bits and pieces. Yes, there are caveats to that I'm not reading. So we thought we would close the show, of course, with just a few little bits of book talk because that's why we're here. That's what we do. If you're not familiar with The Other Bennett Sister, it is a show that focuses on Mary Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. And in the original book, Mary is well, how would you describe her, Julia? So I never read the original book front cover to back. Okay, so based, I would say if you go by the movie, the 1995 movie, yeah, you will get a very accurate depiction of who Mary was. Well then I can definitely say that there feels to be a big difference between the Mary in that show and the Mary in this show. Right. So how would you describe the Mary in the original? This is gonna sound rough, but the first word that comes to my mind is abrasive. And I don't mean that because she is rude, but because she's very much this is the intellect or her pursuit of the intellect, or the religiosity is almost hard for her to connect with people. Okay. And she has a hard time. Abrasive isn't the word that I want, I think, but I I think in the show that Mary comes across as quite a foil to her more frivolous sisters. Yes. I I do think that's true. I'm working on three hours of sleep here now. But but but in this show, I love Mary. Yes. I love her. Okay. I'm rooting for her hard. Uh-huh. In the BBC show, it's not that you don't like Mary, but I think that you mean in the mini-series from 1995. Yes. Yeah. Mary is almost in that show, I think, cast as a foil. Yeah, she's a foil to her more lighthearted and extroverted and open to frivolity. Yeah. She definitely is. She's more serious. She's more inwardly focused. Yeah. She acts like she's put upon all the time. She is kind of, really. I think in that show, you ask the question more are people treating Mary the way that they treat her because that's the personality she puts into the world? Yeah. Or are people treating her that way and that's how she's responding to it? Versus in this show, in the other Bennett sister, you really get the sense that people are just not treating her nicely. Right. And there are particular people that have a huge impact on how she sees herself. Yeah. I guess we ought to step back here because we dove right into the show. Let's talk about the other the concept of the other Bennett sister. Yeah. Janice Hadlow has taken Pride and Prejudice and she's taken the care the character of Mary Bennett, who is the third oldest daughter in the Five Bennett Girls. She's the absolute middle. She's studious, she plays the piano and sings, but not very well, but feels like she needs to perform everywhere she goes. She's very readerly, she wears glad tools. Yes. But it I I've always questioned, is she really intellectual or is it a thing that she does? Yeah. So anyway, Janice Hadlow takes this character of Mary and she gives her her own story. And what we get is an origin story of why Mary behaves like she does in Pride and Prejudice. And then we see her story arc afterward and what happens. And of course, Janice Hadlow gives her a very lovely story arc. And we get some insight into why Mary behaves as she does in some of the important scenes in the original text. And it gives you a little bit of a different perspective on her and her feelings and what she thinks about herself and other people. Right. Right. So, okay, so there we are. So we're talking about Mary, the Mary Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. Yes. The book itself, I was talking about the book, The Other Bennett Sister, with my sister Kelly, who's been on the show before and who is currently reading the other Bennett Sister. And she did not like the part of the book that rehashed the episodes in Pride and Prejudice. So the big ball when Mary sings and makes a full of herself and the family. Or Mr. Collins. And Mr. Collins. Yeah. Kelly thought that those parts were boring because we already knew that. And I have to agree, that's a slower portion of the book. But Janice Hadlow, I think, uses that to give us more background than we don't get with the original Pride and Prejudice. And then after all of the girls are married, something happens that causes Mrs. Bennett and Mary to have to move out. Yeah. So let's just talk about the show. We won't talk about the story necessarily. I just want to talk about your feelings about the show. We've seen four of the episodes, and there are ten total parts to this miniseries. So in general, you already started talking about Mary Bennett. So let's talk about her. You said you love her. Well, I should say that I have not read the book. Okay, yeah. It just is I hadn't gotten around to reading it before the show came out. In the show, I find there's almost a layer to Mary that reminds me of like not Anne, surely, but like somebody who the world feels magical to her, but she doesn't know how to like grasp it. Okay. I don't know, I don't know how to say it other than that. Right. And especially in some of the later episodes that we've watched of the four that we've watched, I think we start to see that more where she is starting to really grasp that the world is just as much for her as for everybody else. I think that saying that sh originally she felt like she was not supposed to be participating in the world. I think that's very true. And I think that Mrs. Bennett is the cause of that for the most part. Yeah. In in the original Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennett is just kind of silly. Yeah. And in the movies I've seen, she's presented as this she loves her girls, but it's silly, and she is base level very selfish and self-focused. And everything is about her. In the miniseries that is now coming out, Mrs. Bennett is mean. She's crueler. She's much more cruel with Mary. She it's obvious that she doesn't really care about her. She doesn't have any hope that Mary will ever marry because she's not as pretty as her sisters. And everything for Mrs. Bennett is about appearance. Right. So Mary is not, she's not beautiful or sparkly, and Mrs. Bennett just doesn't care about her. But not just that, she demeans her on a regular basis. And in a public level, too. Yeah. And I that's why we get the Mary that we see at the time that Pride and Prejudice is written. Yeah. And afterward in The Other Bennett sister. Mary just has no self-esteem whatsoever. She doesn't think she's worthy. She is just there's one line that she says where she just doesn't sparkle like other girls. Right. And I feel like that just captures it all of she has kind of seen other girls behave certain ways or look certain ways or get certain things, and Mary is just assumed that that's just not her. Oh, when they go to balls, she just assumes that no one will dance with her. Yeah. Yeah. So that that is Mrs. Bennett, and that's the background. But originally we started this conversation saying, what do you think about Mary Bennett in the in the mini-series? And I I agree with you. I love her. I just think that she is charmingly awkward. Yes. Oh, the actress does a great job of that. I and she she is delightful. She's absolutely delightful. And I think that the casting for that character was done superbly. Yeah, perfect. The actress that plays her, her name is Ella Brucoliri. I keep wanting to say broccoli because that's what it looks like on paper. But I think it's Brucoliri. She's perfect. She is absolutely perfect for this particular character of Mary. Absolutely. I love her, and I just want good things for her. Yeah. Yes. And then the other main character, well, is he a main character? I don't know. I think he's going to be the main love interest. It's Mr. Hayward. Yeah. The actor that plays him is Donald Flynn. I think he's perfect. I think he's perfect for the role, and I think he's perfect for her. And I'm pretty sure that they're the ones that get together at the end. I don't know, because they're throwing wrenches and things right now. There is a love triangle. Yes. And she hate. I do. And I forgot. I forgot that there was a love triangle. And when I was thinking about the last episode where the second guy was introduced, I thought, oh, that's right. We have two gentlemen. And there's another girl too. Yeah. So it just is now all complicated. Right. So anyway, I think it's been very well casted, except for I don't like Lizzie Bennett, and I don't particularly like Jane Bennett. They don't matter. Like they're believe it or not, they don't matter much at all. They're just there to give the story structure to the reference. Yeah. I will also say, and I know that in the original Pride and Prejudice, the Gardeners don't have much of a big play in the story. Right. Jane spends some time with them. Right. I love them in this show. Yes. I love them. But again, I think that they're designed to be a foil for the Bennett's. Yeah, for Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. And for the the childhood that Mary had andor didn't have. Right. Because, well, even in the original Pride and Prejudice in the book, and I I would even say in the miniseries from 1995, to me that's the oak. Oh 100%. It's the yeah. And maybe that's why Jane and Elizabeth Bennett don't measure up because who can do better than Jennifer Ealy and Susanna Harker? She played Jane. There's just no, I'm sorry, there's no comparison. Use the words. Okay, but anyway, back to the gardeners. The gardeners love each other. Yes. They love each other. They love their kids. There's a very relaxed feel in their household. And I they love Mary. Yeah. And for the first time in her life, she is in a place where people value her. And want her around. Right. And she struggles with that mightily. She struggles with that. Yeah. But I do think it's because of them that she starts opening up and allowing herself to enjoy things. Yes. And be frivolous. I agree. I agree. We already talked about how Mrs. Bennett is changed from the original Pride and Prejudice book and movie to this miniseries and book. There's another character that I found to be fascinating in the way that she was changed. And that is Charlotte Lucas. Yeah, this was interesting. In the original book, and by Jane Austen and the miniseries from 1995, Charlotte Lucas is this older, like 27. Yeah. That's not. I've been almost a spinster. Right. Who is a very dear friend of Lizzie Bennett. Right. She ends up marrying Mr. Collins because Lizzie Bennett won't have him. Right. And in the original presentation, it comes across like Charlotte doesn't want to be an old maid, and this person comes along who's available that she can make a life with. And so she just does it. Right. She's practical. Right. Exactly. That's the perfect word. Yeah. But in this mini-series, The Other Bennett Sister, she's much more ruthless and conniving. Yeah. She sees Mr. Collins as an opportunity and she tricks Mary into doing something so that he will absolutely not want her. And she knows Lizzie Bennett won't want Mr. Collins. So she maneuvers things so that she can marry him, knowing that he will inherit the estate. And well, money will come with that. And so she's making a way for herself. Right. I and I think I struggled with the those characters early in this show because I felt like they were much like Aunt Kelly had said, like that part of the story was boring because we knew those already. Yeah. I felt like the Lizzie, the Jane, the Lydia, the Kitty, and then the Charlotte were quick, here are these characters, this is what they're doing. Bye. Yeah. And so Charlotte we did see once or twice. And I think in the original show or in the original book, even there's a level that I think puts her very similar with Mary. They have very similar personalities. And in the show, there's one scene specifically where Charlotte and Mary have a conversation, and Charlotte says the phrase, we're not like the other girls, or we don't sparkle like the other girls. And so you have this sense of almost camaraderie. But I felt I felt like Charlotte and I felt like the Lizzie, the Jane, and the others were superficially introduced because it was so hear their story done, moving on. And that could, that could have been just choices they made with the show to get to the good stuff. And again, I didn't read the book too, so I don't know how Charlotte is presented in the book. Right, right. What do you think as far as visual appeal of this show? Do you find it appealing? Is there anything interesting you want to comment on? I think I'm leading you because all I want to do is say, I love watching it. I love the costumes, I love the settings. Yeah. I think oh the scene with the lilac was so pretty. Yeah. Just I I just feel like it's very thoughtfully done and well done. It feels tender, like it feels like the person or the producers or the directors of this wanted to treat the story with the due diligence that it deserves. Right. Yeah. I think so too. And I just I enjoy looking at it. I the colors are vibrant, but it does have a soft, yeah. It does have a soft feel to it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how else to say it, but that's exactly right. Like it feels even in the really awkward scenes with Mary doing her awkward stuff, it feels gentle. It feels it feels like a hug, is how I would say that. Listeners, can you tell that we really love the show? That we look forward to the new episodes coming out. It is so difficult in this modern time frame to find shows and movies that aren't questionable. Yeah. That I can sit down and thoroughly enjoy without feeling like I'm giving in to some things. Right, or condoning something. Right. Or letting things pass that I really don't want to. And this is a show that I just thoroughly enjoy. It's charming. It's gonna have a good outcome. And I am just loving it. Right. And that's something that I've begun to think about too, now with the baby of like, what is the stuff that we're listening to or that we're that's on the TV or like and even though even background, what is seeping into your head without you knowing about what is even though she's a little little and probably can't see the TV yet, I still want to be careful of like if I'm putting the TV on at night when we're when I'm feeding her, what is on the TV that's like yeah, or what is the music that we're listening to in the car, et cetera, et cetera. And even though I love a good fantasy, like good Game of Thrones or whatever, I have really begun to think about what is edifying and what is what is stuff that I feel comfortable watching with my kids someday. And this is definitely a show that checks those boxes for sure. It's not only edifying, it is completely entertaining. Right. Wholesome, clean, like but not boring. I am not the least bit bored. Right. Right. Do you have a favorite scene? Can you think of anything? I well, there's two that stand out to me. Granted, my brain is all blurry, but the one scene, I think these were both in the last episode that we watched, where there is a poetry, a sonnet or something that's recited in a beautiful garden with lilac, and that was lovely. That was lovely. And then one of the ending scenes of that episode, Mary is first of all wearing a very garish dress. Her fashion sense is a little wild as she figures herself out, right? But there was a game that was being done, and and Mary was really beginning to step into herself and her confidence, and I don't wanna I don't want to spoil too much of what happened in that episode, but the ending of that was just really nice as she started to make some decisions for herself based on how the game went, how she's feeling about herself, yeah, what she feels like she deserves. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I wanna second the scene in the garden, it had just rained, and she went to the garden with a gentleman that could possibly be a love interest, Mr. Harlow, and her aunt and uncle, and he took them there because he was trying to encourage Mary to read poetry. Right. Because she's very no-nonsense, yeah, not no nonsense, but very rational, very reasonable thinker, and she was struggling with understanding the point of poetry. And so he took them to this garden and he recited just one short set of verses. It was gorgeous, yeah, lovely. And she started crying. And I just love that. It was so romantic. Yeah, it's just wonderful. Yeah. So I think, listeners, you can tell from our discussion that our general impressions of the other Bennett sister are top-notch. Like just a lovely, lovely, lovely show, worth watching. Yeah. Nothing that you can't share with your kids. Yeah, it's just it's just great. And I I'm just so pleased to have something like this being pre-produced and presented for viewers. Yeah. And I love it when a book is handled well when it's translated into a TV or or movie, and this is okay. I haven't read the book. Again, I've said that, but I feel like this has been handled well. Yes, very well. It has been interpreted very well. I because I read the book so long ago, I can't tell if this is a faithful retelling. Yeah. I don't remember. Yeah. But the feeling that I had with the book, this movie definitely portrays. Yeah. There's just one other really fun fact I wanted to share, and then we'll stop talking about the Other Bennett Sister. Other than I just want to encourage everybody to watch it, especially if you're a Jane Austen fan, or if you have read The Other Bennett Sister and you enjoyed it, I would highly recommend that you do this like the seven-day free Brit box if you don't do Brit Box. Wait the 10 weeks, wait till it all comes out, right? And then do your seven days of wonderful watching. Yeah. But the other just fun, fun little fact is the actress who played Mary Bennett in the 1995 BBC version, her name is Lucy Bryars, I think. She plays Hill, which is the housekeeper. Yes, in the show. In the show. And she is from the beginning Mary's champion. Yes. And she encourages her or discourages her to do certain things. Right. And she's the one who tells her that she deserves happiness and a good life. She's also the one who tells her that just because she's surrounded by lilies doesn't mean she's not a daffodil. Right. And that when she's on her own, she's not pretty enough to catch somebody's eye. Yeah. So just a lovely, lovely show. And it was just fun gushing. Right. Gushing about it. I had forgotten that we were going to talk about that. And so I want to backtrack on something I said earlier. I think when I there in the BBC, the the 1985 version, is it Mr. Bennett, one of the Mr. Bennett or Mrs. Bennett refers to their daughters as silly daughters, silly girls, a bunch of silly girls. And I think that that's maybe more the word that I wanted instead of abrasive when I was talking about Mary. Yes. And I think Lucy's version of her is silly on the function. On the other side of it. Yes. And the you said Ella, she is silly on the silly side of it. So they're both kind of foolish. Just different sides of it. Yeah. Yeah. Let's end the show talking about what we've been reading. Anything that we want to share. Doesn't have to be a ton of stuff. Yeah. Do you want to go first or do you want me to? I can go first. Okay. That's fine. I have not gosh. I'm gonna say pretty much since the beginning of the year, I have not finished a book. Okay. I've started quite a few. And uh I had quite a pile of books I wanted to read before Baby was here. They're now sitting on my nightstand holding up the monitor. So we didn't get to those books. I even started listening to some audiobooks at one point to try to jumpstart this. They were memoirs, which I tend to really enjoy. Didn't even get very far in those. So I didn't haven't finished a book in a while. But I have this week specifically have been trying to be very intentional about that when baby is awake or you know, where it's not bedtime, we're not, you know, trying to sleep. How often do I have the TV on? Is the TV on just for my own, I need to pass the time, or is there a purpose to it? And so I've been trying to find other activities to do. And so I've started to read. And I also know that if baby's trying, you know, struggling to fall asleep, that maybe my the sound of my voice might hope help her fall asleep a little bit. And so I had looked through my bookshelf and I was like, what book do I want to read that I could maybe talk out loud or read out loud? And I had picked up Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, which is a good book, right? Thinking this is gonna be a nice story about a magical garden right in the springtime, right? Right. And there's stuff that happens in the first couple of chapters, and I'm like, I have to skip that word, I can't say that sentence. Oh my gosh. So that book has been tabled to not read out loud. And so the other day I picked up Little House in the Big Woods as part of the Little House in the Prairie series, and so I've started to read that out loud to to baby, and so that's kind of where my reading is at at this point. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Engels Wilder. Yes. I we were just discussing this. Yeah, I have never read a single one of the books in that series, which just really surprises me. When I was a kid, that would have been the 1970s. That's when the Little House on the Prairie show was being produced in real time, and we watched it every week. Yeah. So I don't know if maybe I never felt like I needed to read the books because I watched the show, but I think that's wonderful that you're reading that too. Yeah. It's a little girl. Yeah. We'll see how long it lasts. Because I if I'm holding her with one hand, it's how long can I hold the book with my other hand before my hand gives out. Yeah. Maybe you could just like lay it beside you. Yeah. Or figure out many other ways of doing it too. But that's been that's been really nice the past couple of days of doing that instead of sitting mindlessly in front of the TV. So I think that's a good idea. Yeah. Well, I have two books. I'm gonna share. I was gonna say you're definitely reading more than I am. I am, but I just chose two books and they're pretty much sticking with the theme that we've been discussing. I borrowed a book from the library called Murder in Highbury. And if you remember anything about Jane Austen's heroines, one of them lived in Highbury, and that was Emma Woodhouse. So this is a cozy murder mystery series. Emma Woodhouse is the amateur sleuth. Her friend Harriet Smith helps her sometimes, and so does Frank Churchill. Oh. But she's married, she's already married in this book to Mr. Knightley. They find, she and Harriet find a body in the village church. Oh. And the story goes from there. Oh, this is fun. There is a second book in the series already. I enjoyed my time with this book. It's certainly light and fluffy and worth the read if you want to spend more time with the people in Highbury, Emma and her father and the villagers. The mystery is pretty basic. You'll probably figure it out pretty quick. And the author does have a couple ticks. Writing ticks, she reused phrases pretty frequently. And anybody who has been listening to this podcast for a while or who knows me knows that something that gets on my nerves. Right. So don't do ticks well. I wasn't sure that I would be able to do that in another book, but that's me personally. It's not that I wouldn't recommend picking it up or not. So that's the first book I wanted to talk about because I thought it fit nicely with our theme of Jane Austen and doing some retellings or stories that are adjacent to some of her heroines. But I'm listening to a book right now that I absolutely love. And if you love Jane Austen and you like stories like Downton Abbey, then I would recommend A Perfect Hand. This just came out. This is a brand new release. It was it's written by Ayolette Waldman, and I'm listening to it, and Juliet Stevenson narrates it. I know that name. Yeah, she does a lot of British historical or classical movies. Gotcha. What was I gonna say? Oh, the story is based in the 1970s, and it's about a ladies maid to a young heiress. Oh, and she falls in love with the valet of an eligible lord, and they are maneuvering to get their respective people to fall in love. This was a release, wasn't it? One of the new releases that we talked about. They want them to fall in love so they can get married and live together. It has just been delightful. I am enjoying it so much, and I think it's because I'm listening to Juliet Stevenson read it. The other thing that's fun about this book is it's an omniscient narrator who breaks the fourth wall and talks to the reader frequently. Yeah. And it's a way the author uses to do like background information on the time and classes and expectations for women and all of that type of thing. It reminds me a lot of Ella Enchanted the movie. Oh, oh, with the There is an omniscient narrator in that movie, and this feels a lot like that. Okay. It's funny, it's smart. You can tell that the author did a lot of research into the time of the 1870s and the place. It's just delightful. And I love, I love the two main characters: the lady's maid whose name is Alice, and the valet whose name is Charlie. They're just wonderful. I love them so much, and I definitely want to happy ever after for them. So I I highly recommend A Perfect Hand if that sounds good to you. Some of the reviews on Goodreads aren't very good because the readers don't like the omniscient narrator. They feel like it interrupts the story, but for me, that is not an issue at all. I read a lot of books that have omniscient narrators that break the fourth wall. So I don't find it annoying at all. No, I think it's fun when an author plays with narration a little bit. So this is A Perfect Hand, just came out, I think in May, by Ayolette Waldman, and highly recommend it. It's gonna be a five-star read for me unless something horrible happens. I'm already halfway through. Okay. Nice. So readers, yeah. That's what we've been watching, reading, and reading. Lack thereof. Yeah. I mean, I should say that I have been consuming stories. There's I've watched some TV shows, I've watched some movies. I mentioned the Pirates movie. So like I am, I am consuming stories, but I just I cannot wait for the day when I can sit down with the book and read for hours again. That might be a long time. Although, hey, we're going to the beach here in a couple months with lots of people who can help you out. Right. Yeah. So I'm gonna pass baby off for at least two hours while I read on the beach. We're representing life. This is how life goes. Oh man. And there are certain times in your life where reading just takes back seat. Yep. Which I had purchased, because I know we talked about this on the show. I had purchased Graceless Heart by Isabella Banias and had wanted to read that so bad. And I don't know when I'm gonna get to it now. You will The Beach. Probably. Probably. But yeah, it's just the season right now. And so I will read when I read. Thank you so much, friends and listeners, for hanging out with us today. Our next episode is kind of TBD. Yeah. We have a idea. We have a couple of ideas. Yeah. We are at some point going to do a three or four peas in a pod episode about the first volume of Emma M. Lion because that is kind of blowing up. Yeah. And we also have a couple other things on the docket. We definitely want to do an episode of books coming up in the second half of 2026. So stay tuned. You you will know when we know. Right. Right. I know it's been a while since we've said this, but um, if you have enjoyed our chatty conversation today or our chatty conversation on any of the other episodes you've listened to, we do humbly ask that you write and review us on Apple and Spotify and share us around with your friends. That just does help with algorithm things. But also, this is a fun little bookish community, and even not with us, but like book space on the internet is a fun place for readers to hang out. Yes. Thank you so much for spending a part of your day with us today. And we look forward to having you join us again here in the Booksnug for the next chapter. Bye, friends. 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, the booksnugpodcast.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. 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.