Episode 25: The End of Summer and Genre Jumping

Hello, Hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads this is episode 25, “The End of Summer and Genre Jumping.”

In this episode, Erin and Jillian share their end-of-summer reading and all the genre-jumping books they’re reading.

In This Episode:

• The ladies jump right in with their reading check-in. How many books did Erin read on her vacation? Tune in to find out!
• What is Jillian’s pet peeve regarding books from the library? You must listen to learn more!
• It’s time to jump into the meat of the episode… Erin and Jillian each share 3 of their last three books, and there are some GREAT recommendations.
• Are books becoming the next Fast Fashion? That’s this week’s hot take! We’re basing our hot take on this article: https://www.themarysue.com/books-are-now-fast-fashion-and-you-can-blame-booktok/
• To end the show, Erin and Jillian share what books they’re waiting for from the library and what books are up next. 

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

• Maya’s Laws of Love by Alina Khawaja 
• The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
• Blessed Water by Margot Douaihy 
• Scorched Grace by Margo Douaihy
• Go As a River by Shelley Read
• This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
• One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis
• The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
• Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean
• The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson
• Birnham Wood by Eleanor Catton
• Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
• A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson
• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
• The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach 

Transcript

You know, somebody like Colleen Hoover will have a great success and then everybody else wants to jump on that trend And so everybody's reading the same type of books and people are pumping them out because they want to get them out Well, the trend is still hot and I just think that Not all books.

I want to be specific and saying that not all books have been following this formula but a lot of the Books that you see on book talk tend to follow the same formula and tend to be really Quickly put out and not great quality not all of them of course, but just a lot of them and Honestly, I don't often I just did my toe in book talk most recommendations for me come from friends or you know from a big Pick like Reese's list or you know good morning America's or One like that or the flat lays Aaron sends me on Instagram.

I'm an enabler Hello, hi and welcome to medium lady reads this is episode 25 Hello, everyone.

I'm Jillian an Instagram content strategist for bookish people a mom of two based in Buffalo, New York And I'm Aaron a mom of three a hospital administrator in Ontario, Canada and the host and founder of the medium lady community and medium lady talks Together we're thrilled to bring you another episode of medium lady reads a podcast about reading as self-care Passionate love for the public library and all of our thoughts and opinions on book culture having its moment Hi, everyone and welcome back to medium lady reads this is episode 25 We're seeing that the summer is winding down and slowing down and that's bound to have an effect on our reading So let's jump in with our check-ins and current reads Aaron.

How's your reading going?

Hello, Jillian my reading is going really really well, but I'm anticipating like pumping the brakes on that so I recently spent about 10 days up at our cabin There's like very limited internet access.

There's really not a lot to do except just like be in nature and chill And my kids are at a level of much more independence than they usually are even Beckett who's four he'll be five in a couple weeks He's got a lot more independence, which means I have even a little bit more time to myself and I read eight books while we were up there for 10 days Oh my god, yeah, I know it's like living the dream right and the kids were like mom We're here for 10 days.

Are you gonna read 10 books in 10 days?

I said I don't think I'll read 10 I said I think I'll read eight and I did and I did read eight so That's impressive.

I mean, it's I guess but it's like There's not a lot to do up there especially in the evenings Once we hit like eight o'clock eight to 10 p.m. 10 30 sometimes later I'm just reading so you know you kind of get in the groove and you kind of like as long as you have a book that you can really like Whip through the pages and that's maybe I'll talk a little bit about that's important when you're on vacation to have those books But yeah, but my current reads I have a couple current books on the go I'm currently reading a book called Maya's Laws of Love by Alina Kawaja and it's about a Pakistani Canadian woman who is about to have like an arranged marriage and she's going to Pakistan and she's like you know excited for this next Like stage of her life.

She's 28 years old.

She's a little bit older and on her trip to Pakistan for her destination wedding a number of things in suit But she's also sort of sees herself as someone who has has been cursed with bad luck And so the bad luck kind of unfolds on her trip to Pakistan and then it's a it's a romance novel and so she meets a stranger and some things kind of evolved and unfold from there But I really have been enjoying it and I'm about I'm almost finished that book I thought I'd finish before we started recording, but that's what I'm currently reading so yeah, that's my chicken lots of reading for the month of August lots of good books and Jillian I'm excited to hear how's your reading going it's going pretty good.

I have to say I have really been enjoying the summer and Like my reading is more fluid.

I've been doing a lot of different books.

Nothing the same.

I had some thrillers in there some mystery Some contemporary fiction and I'm really enjoying the the swapping of subjects from one to the other like it's not not a lot of romance or a lot of thrillers It's all a whole mixed bag and I'm loving it.

I Have been sitting outside and reading a lot more which always helps with the reading.

I love that That was a goal of yours when we last chatted you're like I just want to I'm gonna be reading outside more Which is great.

Yeah, and I've made the effort and the funny thing is when I'm so quiet and I'm sitting out there reading Like the the wildlife will come in and I don't live in a naturey area I live in a regular you know neighborhood, but the squirrels will kind of shuffle in and the rabbits will come in and then they see me and then they like startle and run off but I feel sort of like Cinderella.

I was like yeah, you're like snow white Cinderella Just like sitting with the woodland creatures reading your book.

It's very very cottage core My current read is The pairing by Casey McQuiston and it is really really good.

I'm enjoying the storyline and It's about this couple the Owen kit.

They're inseparable they fell in love his friends and then they fell out of love and now they're on this trip together and We haven't gotten to miss communication yet, but I feel like there's might be a miscommunication trope in there Which I don't love but so far the book is pretty good.

I'm really enjoying it.

That's awesome I actually just picked that up yesterday from the library.

So I'll be curious to know What your rating is of that.

I really like Casey McQuiston, but their books are hitting miss for me like I know people love red, white and royal blue and I just hmm.

I felt like it was good It was good.

My favorite is one last stop like that is that is beyond five stars that book for me So I'm curious to read this one The copy I got from the library has brushed edges or has sprayed edges.

What are you called that?

Yes, sprayed edges.

It says some things are better together or something like that is sprayed on the and I was really surprised to see that from a library copy Yeah, mine's just a basic one, but that's okay.

It smelled good.

It had the good book smell Yeah, I feel like I was probably the first to read this copy so I'm excited about that I always love that because then they don't have the smell of other people's lotion and hands and stuff on them I never think about that, but you've been Fetched that before like oh My god, it drives me crazy.

I do love the good smell of a library book Yeah, when you put your nose right into the spine and you can tell it's a library book like I love that But I there's nothing better to me than being the first one to read a copy of the book.

Yeah, not having other people's handsense on it So if you're a library book reader keep your lotion unscented so that you're not Reminding other people of your like coconut verbina bath and body works I'm serious like I I miss I do actually consider myself a super smeller Mm-hmm.

I'm a sense sense are like I'm really powerful But stay more you're a super smeller I don't know.

I mean, I've never been diagnosed as such or anything, but I will smell things that you know my husband doesn't or that my kids don't And this is just one of those things that it just I don't know it drives me bananas Don't return your library book stinky everybody It was the worst during the pandemic because they were whatever they were doing to clean the books Oh, yeah, yeah, they were putting on there and I would get it and it would be so fragrant with whatever Cleaning fluid they used it was terrible.

I'm glad that's over.

Oh my gosh for more reasons than just my books not smell Obviously, thank goodness that pandemic's over Oh my gosh, I love I love learning about you.

That's so funny Okay All right time for book chat and the heart of our episode Aaron what are the layout of your last three books?

What are we in for okay?

So let's dive into our three books So my three reads are kind of all over the map and actually you mentioned You've been like picking different genres and not sticking with like the same genre of book or the same like bookshelf area and I I've been the same and I've been enjoying that too Reading at the cottage.

I have been genre jumping big time So today for the show I have historical fiction a gum shoe detective novel featuring a queer nun And a contemporary fiction novel about twins.

So I guess like I don't really have any themes theme is fiction Jillian, what are your three books like?

Oh, I love that mine are varied too.

I have a historical fiction as well A really good thriller mystery and then a contemporary fictional novel that I'm excited to share Two of the three are very highly rated by me nice one is It was okay.

Yeah average But I'm excited to dive in Aaron.

What's your first last book?

My first last read was Blessed Water by Margot Duayhi This is the second in the sister holiday mystery series and while sister holiday kind of sounds like a fun Angela Lansbury nun who solves cozy Christmas mysteries Please note this is not that.

So here's the setup in this follow-up to her first novel scorched grace We're back with sister holiday a punk rock nun who's also a freshly minted PI apprentice a sister holiday and her PI partner rovo opened the doors of their newly minted PI business They stumbled upon the body of a priest in the Mississippi River when they thought they were meeting a new client This discovery kicks off a much darker investigation with new Orleans drowning in a torrential Easter weekend storm Sister holidays on a mission to uncover the truth and protect her community.

I read the first in this series I read this actually last year Because they have these amazing covers so if you want if you want to google this listeners google sister holiday novel and the covers are Reproductions of stained glass that you would find in like a Catholic church They're visually like hard to like tear your eyes away from so I saw this cover For the first book which is called scorched grace.

I grabbed them and Once you kind of start reading you're reading something.

I've never really read anything quite like these books before Sister holiday is a really gritty character She's kind of hard to relate to at least she was for me and the characters often sort of sometimes get a little layered over Top of one another and sometimes I did find the writing was like not distinct enough The character of sister holiday does come with this history of trauma that sort of Filters in the story, but it's often not told in a succinct or in a in a time linear way Which can make it a little bit confusing for the reader.

I did find with this second book which was similar to the first book I wish margo duet he would do more in terms of like descriptions and it's very plot driven So the end of the book felt really rushed for me and I ended up lowering my rating overall because of it There is something of a found family in this book that I really really enjoyed The book is very very short and I do kind of wish although I don't often wish books were longer I do actually wish this book was maybe 50 pages longer so that The author could have spent more time on those relationships and on bringing that found family to a little bit more of the heart of the book But all in all I think I gave this 3.5 if you like mysteries gum shoe detective is sort of the like If you imagine like a detective from the 50s is like she walked in the door and there was you know her hat was over her eyes And she spoke in a husky tone.

It's sort of like in that style Except she's a queer nun.

It's almost satirical but not quite so you know like I said like this book is Kind of hard to define worth a shot if you're looking for something totally different.

It's a very good palette cleanser book Yeah, I am interested in this.

I did google the covers of the book.

They're beautiful.

Yeah, they really are But I'm interested in the gum shoe mystery.

I'll have to check them out They sort of have themes like the theme of this one was water the theme of the last one was fire They're a little bit quirky.

So if you're looking for something quirky, I would recommend you check it out Okay, Jillian.

What is your first book for the show today?

The first book I'm sharing today is Go is a River by Shelley Reed I had really high hopes for this book everywhere you look you see people raving about it But I just found it sort of boring and redundant.

I actually gave it 3.5 stars Which is pretty low for me.

I'm usually if something strikes me well.

I'll give it 5 I'm pretty easy Here's the setup on a cool autumn day in 1948 Victoria Nash delivers late season peaches from her family's farm to set amid the wild beauty of Colorado As she heads into her village a disheveled stranger stops to ask her the way How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives So begins the mesmerizing story of a split second choice and courageous act that propels Victoria away from the home She's ever known and towards a reckoning with the loss hope and her own untapped strength Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence spinning through the eddies of desire heartbreak and betrayal She will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever Now that synopsis makes it sound really good Yeah, but it's written sort of like a journal.

There aren't page entries, you know, January 5th 1948 like there's no page entries or anything But it's it's told in the first person and she talks a lot and tells a lot about what she's doing day after day Which if that were different?

I would have liked more But I can only hear her visiting and touching her peach trees so many times Touching her peach trees Is that a metaphor?

No, in this case it actually is not She she talks about going and having to like visit her peach trees and like put her hands on her peach trees All the time and it just it was too much for me.

I It was a good book and if the last third of the book Where how the whole book was told I probably would have given it five stars But the first two thirds of the book were not as good as the last third So it got three and a half for me Hmm.

What are your thoughts about it Aaron?

I've had this book on my TBR for such a long time and I was selfishly Hoping you would give it five stars For one reason only my aunt my godmother who might actually be listening to this high Antonita My aunt Anita took me out for coffee on my birthday and we got talking books because she's had a book club for the last 30 years with the same Ish women in her neighborhood and so she said the favorite book that she read From her book club was Goa's a river so I put it on my TBR and I told her I thought the best book she could read with her book club was this time tomorrow by Amestrab So we kind of exchanged and I still haven't read Goa's a river and I probably still will because it's my godmother And I want to read her recommendation But I'm kind of super bummed to hear that it's mostly touching peach trees and visiting people There is a really great storyline in there I think the issue for me was just how it was written like a journal and you just heard her Doing the same things day in and day out it was just it was too much the storyline is great and you very well may like it I struggle with historical fiction though to be honest I Too no me too.

I don't love it and if I do love it, it's got to be a really good book.

So that could be part of it too All right, Erin.

What is your next read?

My next book is called One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis Jillian have you heard of Terry Fallis?

I have not So Terry Fallis is somewhat of a Canadian treasure in the genre of Canadian humor fiction Similar to how Carly Fortune is our treasure for Canadian nostalgic romance I gave this book a solid four stars But as I kind of like stepped away from the book I think my stars are maybe kind of waning a little bit This book is perfect for anyone looking for a story that balances humor with heartfelt emotion.

Here's the summary In One Brother Shy we meet Alex McCaskill a painfully shy software developer in his mid-twenties Who's been haunted by a traumatic event from his youth known only as Gabriel When his mother passes away, Alex is forced to confront his past and embark on a journey that takes him from Ottawa to London to Moscow Along the way he uncovers family secrets encounters with the KGB and even brushes up against the 72 Russian hockey team.

It's a wild ride But one that ultimately leads Alex to discover who he really is Terry Fallis has a formula and it's usually kind of a reliable way to spend time reading like if you need a good time You could reach for Terry Fallis and you're not going to be mad at it It sort of follows this formula young man faces an unexpected twist on their very mediocre life path The young man follows like those unexpected twists The young man makes decisions that continue to follow through on the eventuality of the plot twist The young man the young man maintains the moral up upper hand These characters never make any questionable decisions that you yourself would not also make And then the young man has emotions and feelings and generally the reader gets to watch him mature to an older young man The story here One Brother Shy follows that same formula I enjoyed this Terry Fallis book more than some of his others I really particularly like the recovery storyline of a person who's been largely held backs by events in the past Terry Fallis writes books that are kind of like romance novels for men They always end with a happily ever after There is this sort of underlying trauma that Alex is recovering from and once that's revealed in the book I found that actually horrible I was really surprised at the depth of how awful that event was I think this was done to explain how painfully Shy the character is and he goes through quite a lot of internal monologue about how difficult it is to be so shy By the time you learn about his past he's come out of a shell he's gained confidence Nevertheless even with that part set aside The storyline of him there's always a little bit of a fairy tale element to these stories And they are always very bantery and very funny I would recommend Terry Fallis for anyone who maybe hasn't read in a while and looking to kind of jump in with something that is going to be fun, easy, emotional and pretty good storytelling overall It sounds pretty good but I gotta be honest I don't know if I'm going to put it on my TBR I used to put everything on my TBR like I have If I go on good reads I have like 3000 books on there.

I'm not exaggerating And I've tried to be more discerning And so I think I might skip this one Yeah, I totally think you could I do think that there are better Terry Fallis books out there There are also worse Terry Fallis books out there I do think that he's doing something interesting in male fiction Like these are not chicklit but they're like brolit Like they read like they read like women's fiction But there are almost no women in the in the books whatsoever And the women that are play very very minor characters And that's usually my beef with Terry Fallis's he doesn't really write women at all And he's not really interested in writing women And that's okay like listen I'm 80% of the authors I read this year are going to be female But I do think he's writing something that not everybody else writes It's not the James Patterson's and the Tom Pritchett I don't know I was going to think of another male author But I just hate James Patterson so much So that came to the One thing medium lady reads listeners can count on is that I will talk about how much I hate James Patterson But I digress I would recommend this book to a very specific reader though So I don't want people to write it off But anyway there's that Okay, Jillian what's your next book?

I know we didn't talk about it in this show But we've talked about it in previous shows Where we have authors at genre jump This next author is a genre jumper And I have loved both of the books of hers that I read But the book I'm going to bring today is the Return of Ellie Black by Amiko Jean Oh my gosh if you enjoy thrillers you've got to read this Amiko Jean has written an incredible suspense-filled book That had me turning my pages at the speed of light It's a great feminist thriller Calling attention to things like how men's crimes allow for excuses While women don't get the same option I think that might have been the parts of the book where she is very Her feminism shows where some of my favorite parts Because you read thrillers and you don't often see that And it's in this book Okay, here's the premise For Detective Chelsea Kelhoun life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier Has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state But Ellie's reappearance leaves Chelsea with more questions and answers It's been 20 years since Detective Chelsea Kelhoun's sister vanished When they were teenagers And ever since she's been searching for signs, for closure, for other missing girls But happy endings are rare in Chelsea's line of work Then a glimmer Local teenager Ellie Black who was disappeared without a trace Two years earlier has been found alive in the woods of Washington state But something is not right with Ellie She won't say where she's been or who she's protecting And it's up to Chelsea to find the answers She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie for herself And for the memory of her sister But mostly for the girl next door who could be taken And who, unlike Ellie, may never returned I'm telling you, this is so full of suspense I absolutely loved this book I've put it on hold, I've already I just like put it on hold while you were reading this summer I was hooked And I could see you're right, Amiko Jean She's written maybe six other books Yeah, she has quite a few Some young adult, this one looks kind of like romance Maybe was a Reese's pick And then a fantasy Yeah, she really has John Rajamp to quite a lot The other one that I read was Mecha in real life And that one is um Was a good morning America pick Nice It's about adoption I remember it being well received in the adoptive adoption community Because of the way she writes about it And a way that makes it more positive versus negative So I highly recommend that one too I don't remember exactly what it was about But I do remember enjoying it And that it was very well received by a lot of people So get them both Awesome, awesome I mean, I was happy because Ellie Black was available Oh wow, no wait, that's nice Yeah, I was, I got the last, they had nine copies I got the last one Very nice, all right, you'll have to tell me what you think of it I will What's your next book?

Okay, my last book today is probably a home run for most of our listeners I discovered this book through the listener press episode of Currently Reading Which is our favorite book is podcast After Medium Lady reads obviously This book is The Last Bookshop in London by Madeleine Martin Here's the setup Set in August of 1939 as London Braces for War We follow Grace Bennett She's always dreamed of moving to the city She's left from sort of the British countryside with her best friend But what she finds in London is far from the glamorous life she imagined bunkers, blackout curtains And she finds a job at a dusty old bookshop Primrose Hill But Grace is not a reader and she's not very impressed with this job It doesn't match with the glamour That she expected her life to bring when she moved to London As the Blitz rages on, Grace starts to actually find confidence and comfort In her landlady, her boss, and her new London community Eventually over time and after a few harrowing air raids Grace discovers that books are more than just stories They're a powerful forest that brings her community together Offering hope and solace even in the darkest of times So, Jillian you shared earlier in the episode historical fiction is not usually for me I would say that's the same for me It's like one of the genres I reach for least often And while that is true, this book is hard not to like Well, it's not complex, it's not challenging It is a story that always gets at most readers Coming of age, found family, courage in the face of adversity And then at a bookstore filled with book lovers It's like a recipe for chocolate chip cookies How could you go wrong?

You can't I wanted a bit more depth and complexity at times This book is more plot driven than character driven But then it also crept up on me emotionally And I found myself totally attached to the characters And everything that happened to them This is a great story about the people who stayed in London During the Blitz of World War II It's a really nice portrayal of everyday life I'm using air quotes everyday life during war During this period of history for ordinary heroes of the city The last bookshop in London is definitely worth picking up And of course it's the perfect book to check out from your local library It was published in 2021 It's likely to be immediately available This is also a really great book for a book club It really has something for everyone Now this book I will most likely be adding to my TBR It sounds really good It sounds like the type of historical fiction that I would enjoy There's a few moments Jillian I think will really pull at your heartstrings Oh perfect, perfect I'll have to put a hold on this immediately then And it'll be one that I don't need to rush to read So if I'm looking for something in between I won't have to read those seven day hold books I can fit this in That's right Jillian are you ready with your last review for the episode?

I'm ready All right, my last book is Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufy Thorpe And if you remember Aaron and I were talking about this one during the last episode just briefly I saw that a number of my friends had read it and reviewed it and saying they enjoyed it So of course I had to jump right in as well And I was not disappointed It's campy, emotionally filled It's a beautiful story of a woman becoming a young mother And all of the stress and beauty that comes along with it Here's the synopsis Margot's Got Money Troubles is a humorous and touching novel about a young woman named Margot Millet who was trying to navigate the challenges of adulthood, new motherhood, and financial instability Raised by a Hooters waitress and an ex-wrestler Margot finds herself pregnant at 20 after a brief affair with her English professor Struggling to make ends meet and facing eviction she agrees to let her estranged father move in to help with her child care In a bid to improve her financial situation Margot starts an only fans account and uses her father's wrestling advice to build a more successful online persona The book explores Margot's journey as she balances the demands of her new life with the pressures of internet fame offering a witty and insightful look at self-discovery and controlling one's narrative If you're looking for a book that has strained family dynamics but shows that love prevails This is definitely going to be the book for you Aaron, I know you've read this book So tell me what are your thoughts Um, I can not stop raving about Margot's got money troubles It will definitely be on my top books of the year I loved your review of it, Julian I think that it is absolutely campy Not only will it be one of my favorite books, but it's also one of my favorite characters of the year Margot is tenacious, she's kind, she's thoughtful, she's really hardworking She's very creative and loving And I think this could have been a book about hitting rock bottom after rock bottom after rock bottom And those moments happen But it never feels like it's because Margot's making messed up decisions It just feels like that's kind of the journey that she's on You know, yeah She actually makes really good decisions throughout the book Are they the decisions that I would have made?

No, they're not But you know, they are her decisions and I believed in her and her conviction and her decisions from page one I feel like the character of Margot is beautifully written and realized in a really efficient way by Rufy Thorpe This book is not very long either It does so much in it's like 200 odd pages There's good guys and bad guys in this book I love that too The good things happen to the good guys, bad things happen to the bad guys And I don't know, I just felt like even also there's a bit of found family in this book too I couldn't help but cast people in my mind I cast Maya Hawk and Ethan Hawk I don't know, you know Ethan Hawk's daughter was in Well, you don't watch TV, Julian But Ethan Hawk as Janks the dad and I cast Maya Hawk as the daughter Because they're legitimately like father and daughter And that just like also kind of bump the reading experience up for me as well Oh, but you know what?

I do know her because she's from Stranger Things, right?

Oh yeah, but I made the assumption that you I made the assumption you hadn't seen Stranger Things Yes, she is from Stranger Things And then Ethan Hawk She's Ethan Hawk and Umatherman's daughter And so I just cast the two of them in my mind And that made it really fun to read too I cast Jennifer Aniston as the mom Anyway, yeah I missed, I completely forgot It slipped out of my mind how much you how well you do at Filling people into the roles in books I forgot all about that I don't always and I couldn't tell you when my brain is like this book needs to be cast It's usually like how much I love that like I didn't cast Blessed water, I didn't cast any of the books I reviewed today Like I'll usually, if I cast the book, I'll share it But some books, they just capture my imagination so much that I need I need like a physical representation This margots got money troubles is not for everyone I think if you feel at all sort of queasy about anything in the premise Then just like skip it But also like maybe don't because it'll probably when you over Yeah, sorry, Jillian, I feel like I took over your review there No, please, please It deserves all the airtime it needs It's a really good book As hard as it is to move off of Margot It's time for hot takes and our current thoughts on book culture A hot take is an opinion usually formed off the cuff and with little research Sometimes provocative All right, Jillian, here we go Have books become the new fast fashion So I stumbled upon this doing a bit of research for the show The Mary Sue.com website has this article that says Books have become the new fast fashion publishers Are striving to produce content as quickly as possible to capitalize on trends We've seen them.

We've seen them off your romance trend come and go We've seen the hockey romance trend come and go genres like young adult romance and fantasy Have become some of the biggest victims in this scheme resulting in titles that often feel like a copypaste of one another Jillian, you and I have had that problem on the show Sometimes we can't even remember the title of a book Because it's kind of blending in with all of those other queasy titles We will link this article in the show notes If you want to go and read it out If you want to go and read it for yourself But Jillian, tell me what do you think about this?

Have books become the new fast fashion I have to say I think I believe that they have The article talks about book talk and how that's become the big factor for this People are trying to read the same books over and over again You know somebody like Colleen Hoover will have a great success And then everybody else wants to jump on that trend And so everybody's reading the same type of books And people are pumping them out because they want to get them out While the trend is still hot And I just think that not all books I want to be specific in saying that not all books have been Following this formula But a lot of the Books that you see on book talk tend to follow the same formula and tend to be Really quickly put out and not great quality Not all of them of course But just a lot of them and Honestly, I don't often I just get my toe in book talk Most recommendations for me come from friends or you know from a big Pick like Reese's List or you know good morning America's or One like that or the flat lays Aaron sends me on Instagram.

I'm an enabler Which is okay because they're usually good books But yes, my simple answer is yes I do believe the books have become the new fast fashion I mean that is like distressing to me in so fact as like when I think about fast fashion I think about you know like what's trendy and how do you get that trend cheap And how do you make that trend in a way that's really inexpensive so that the trend can be consumed And then when the trend is over what happens to that piece of content is it becomes garbage And like we see landfills we see Tons of issues with like fast fashion populating It's a huge contributor to garbage in North American society Is that the way of books?

I mean books come in lots of different formats Not all of them once disposed of will become trash But certainly like it'll be interesting to see You know, am I going to find these hockey romances in the free little libraries in six months time Are these books just going to become a books do contribute to garbage as well Even despite being like recyclable in most communities And you know, maybe that's that's a concern as well So when I think about this I do agree I think I can see how books are becoming fast fashion I also complained about like how books are being made Some books are made really really well some books are not made as well Or at least they're made in ways that make them hard to read I assume that this also comes from like cutting down on publishing costs But also the time it takes to bind and put a book together So I do think that all of this has like a trickle down effect on the reader And it's surprising to me given how many books already exist That what we strive for as consumers is the newest and the latest book And Jillian you and I talk about that all the time It's like we love to read the new release We love to be the first to consume it We love to be able to give our reviews and to have been able to say like oh yeah, I read that But as library users that's the one thing for me is I'm like if you want to consume the trends You absolutely can because your library is as affected by the trends as anybody else I don't know that this is that different except the volume with which it's happening We certainly saw there are lots of trendy authors well before tiktok came out You know like books that get published on mass the mass trade paperbacks etc It's true.

I'm gonna bring up my favorite James Patterson But you know Agatha Christie like we've had people publish prolific amounts To satisfy the consumer desire and want but it seems like what we're seeing is publishers are saying You know what's really hot on book talk right now is mafia romance And then they're like we like your book, but can you make it mafia And then the degree and quality of the thoughtfulness of the storytelling may be changing Because we're sort of putting the trend ahead of the art Deep thoughts man hot take I love it.

That was a great hot take a hot take that became a slow cooker Hahaha That's the kind of stuff we love to talk about julie and i if we were in person with the cup of coffee and it was late at night We talk about this way longer.

Oh my gosh forever We're going to wrap up with the holds list Aaron and I are very passionate about the library and because we're both avid users We both have very active holds lists and we feel like this something we don't hear a lot about I'm book podcast or book talk or IG So we know it's something we offer the bookish community Plus for season two we're going to add what's up neck to let the listener know What would be reaching for with our TBRs?

All right, Aaron.

What's on your holds list?

Okay, because it's an oh it's episode.

I'll share my physical holds list Up next to read is the art of catching feelings by Alicia Thompson This is about a woman who heckles a professional ball player after realizing she sort of crossed a line She reaches out to apologize to him on social media and their messages evolve into something more In terms of my physical holds list.

I have Burnham Wood by Eleanor Catten on my list This was a very buzzy book at the end of this past year It made a lot of lists for the book or prize the Pulitzer the women's fiction prize and the Carol Shields prize as well So I'm looking forward to reading that that'll be probably one of my like heavier reads for the end of the summer in the early September I also have half a soul by Olivia at water This is a book that keeps popping up on a lot of the people that I sort of do consume and watch on Instagram YouTube Book talk Megan's T-Rume She's recommended this book half a soul another person.

I've watched newly Nova on YouTube Lexi She recommended this book as well.

I just decided it's time to read it Jillian, I have a suspicion this may also keep company with under the whispering door, but let's just wait and reserve And then I have another book called a Love Like the Sun by a wrist Nelson This is I think a young adult fiction and I was inspired to read this because Emily Henry promoted this book on her Instagram And it was available and so I popped it into my holds list, but I'm gonna be busy I got a lot of really good books coming up and I'm gonna have some hard time choosing I think I know you're supposed to be slowing down Because you just got back from your vacation But I don't think you can allow yourself to you got to keep reading at the same pace.

I'm gonna have to start sacrificing on sleep.

Yeah, absolutely Jillian, what are you waiting for from the library and what do you have coming up on your TBR?

So I'm not currently waiting for anything, but that's because I picked up books yesterday I had the frozen river waiting for me, which I know I mentioned that I had out before, but I had to return it because I wasn't getting to it Um, and now I'm gonna I'm that's my next stop And then I also got the seventh veil of salome And that's by Sylvia Marino Garcia Which she I I'm not sure yeah because I haven't read this one, but she may be also a genre jumper as well Because I guess I don't know enough about it.

I I saw I love her books.

I decided to get it But it doesn't didn't seem like it was um a thriller like Mexican Gothic was oh, I don't know We'll have to see so those are the two that I picked up yesterday and then waiting for me I still have I have sandwich on hold because I desperately hoping to get that soon Um, and then the wedding people um But oh, yeah, I've seen that everywhere.

It's an espoch.

It's fuzzy.

I feel like I'm not gonna get that for a while because I'm I'm 199 so January So next up for me is the frozen river as I said which is by aerial law hunn Which takes place in 1789 Maine and is a gripping tale of determined woman seeking justice in a time when women's voices were often silenced And is supposed to be super well received and reviewed.

It is historical fiction But every single person that I know that his reddit has absolutely loved it and I'm gonna trust them and read it too Yeah, I've seen a lot of real readers not books not influencers.

Yes, really love that Yes, my two of them being one my mom might and the other my sister.

So I'm gonna trust their Take I like most of the books that they put out or the same chosen Amazing All right that wraps up episode 25 Aaron Medium lady reads is a spinoff of the medium lady talks podcast and Instagram community You can find me jillian at jillian finding happy and you can find Aaron at medium.lady for more of our current reads and other shenanigans And of course you can follow the podcast itself on IG at medium lady reads if you like this episode Please share it with another bookish friend or post on Instagram and be sure to tag us We would be tickled pink to hear from you Thanks for listening.

I'm your host Aaron and I'm your other host jillian until next time We hope that your holds arrive quickly and your next book frimes you right when you need it most we'll talk to you soon Bye [BLANK_AUDIO]