Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District

Episode 1 - Meet Your Hosts

• Green Hills Public Library • Season 1 • Episode 1

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In episode 1 “Meet Your Hosts,” get to know the voices behind Checked Out as Klaudia, Sara, and Tessa, discuss their favorite and least favorite media. Get an inside look at the different paths that led them all to work at Green Hills Library and a hint at what lies in store for future episodes.

Here's a list of media discussed in the episode: https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/63143

Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed? 
Send a recommendation to: ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org

SPEAKER_01:

Hey everyone, I'm Claudia. I'm Sarah. And I'm Tessa and this is Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library.

SPEAKER_00:

So for today's episode, we're going to be introducing ourselves, talking a little about what we do here at the library, what we're interested in. In our next episodes, we'll be delving a little bit further into topics that we choose. But if there's anything that you guys would like to hear us talk about, please drop an email over at GHPLD at greenhillslibrary.org. That's GHPLD at greenhillslibrary.org.

SPEAKER_03:

So to get us started in our introduction, we want to talk about a little bit of what we do here at the library. I am an adult services associate, so I work on cataloging our print materials. I work on adult fiction and nonfiction displays and our adult book boxes that you can check out every month.

SPEAKER_04:

Similar to Sarah, I'm a youth services associate. We share similar responsibilities just in the different departments. I also do our print cataloging. I do our young adults, so our teen displays and shelf talkers over in the Hangout. I do hold a couple programs for teens like our About the Artist program. And right now my big focus has been introducing and getting through our 3D printer requests. If you guys ever want to submit a request, we have our lookbooks at Youth and Adult Services, and there are forms that you can fill out, and you can also find more information on our website.

SPEAKER_00:

Just like Tessa, I also work in the Youth Services Department. I am the Youth Services Librarian. I'm in charge of the volunteering program. So if you guys need your service hours, come on over to the youth services desk and talk to us about it. I'm also in charge of outreach events, getting to know the community better, school story times, and I also buy and develop the collections for juvenile fiction and youth nonfiction. A little bit about how I got here. So I got my bachelor's degree in psychology over at University of Illinois at a brand of Champaign. I originally wanted to get my PhD in clinical psychology and become a clinical psychologist, but I didn't get the research experience I needed to do that because of COVID. So I instead applied for master's degrees. I didn't get into any of the schools that I wanted, so instead I was looking for jobs and I landed in libraries. And ever since working here, I decided that I would get my master's in library science, and now I am a librarian.

SPEAKER_03:

So similar to Claudia, I didn't initially, you know, intend on working at a library when I got my degree.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm the same way. I originally wanted to be a flight attendant. It was my dream all through my childhood. You have to be 21 years old to be a flight attendant, and I turned 21 during quarantine, which travel was obviously not a booming business at that time. After getting my associates in arts, I chose to look at different avenues of education, and I found a library technical assistant certification. Growing up, I read constantly, I still do it today. I average about 150 to 160 books a year, and finding that program just kind of solidified that it would be something that I would care about and want to share with the public. And so I started that program and I've since finished. I did that program at Joliet Junior College, so I officially have my LTA certification.

SPEAKER_00:

Woohoo! Go Tessa. Yeah, um I'm really happy with where I ended up too. I mean, as a kid I loved coming to the libraries and I would read like all the time. Kind of slowed down as I got older just because I didn't have as much time. Um, but since working here, I've been reading a lot lately. I've also just recently started this web serial called Umpact. It's by an like, he's not an anonymous author, but he goes under a pseudonym Um Wildbow and he writes these really, really long um serials. Most of them are fantasy or science fiction, but this one I'm reading right now is currently like a supernatural fantasy drama about a family of witches. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04:

It's kind of like urban fantasy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is kind of like urban fantasy.

SPEAKER_04:

It's like in our world, but just like shifted.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just shifted. It's kind of like a dark um magic system. It's a little scary, and I would not want to live in that world.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I read the first, like, is it a chapter? It's a chapter. Okay. I read the first one of it after you were talking about it. Yeah. And it's really good, but I need to set some time as it's long. It's like really long.

unknown:

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

But it was cool. Yeah. It's definitely very well written.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, and it's kind of different from what I've been reading that's been like traditionally published. So I'm kind of into it. I like it.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it's cool to like go down different avenues of publishing, whether it's like traditional indie. Self-published, obviously, with like Kindle Unlimited and Book Talk and stuff. Self-published and indie authors have really been getting their moment to shine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is really cool to see. It gives a little bit of power back to the writers and the authors, and people get to discover new things instead of just what is being traditionally published out there. So I think it kind of goes to show that there's really something out there for everyone.

SPEAKER_04:

Self-published authors are getting picked up traditionally too because they got to write it in a vacuum and it's exactly what they wanted, and they had no pressure on it. And like it still is getting that success and it's like translating into traditional publishing.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's something that I see really popular with um like romance writers. I know you mentioned Tessa like Kindle Unlimited. So many of them have gone from being non-Kindle Unlimited to getting these publishing deals with traditional publishers, and it's it's really awesome to see.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I feel like romance as a genre has really like changed from what traditional romance, like mass market paperbacks. I feel like it's really like gone out of that lane and like tried to make it something different.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. It feels a little bit like a rom-com resurgence, which I really really like to see because you know, back in the day you would think like romance novels and you would think of your like little harlequins that your mom would like read, right? But now it's a little bit different, and it's really cool to see that a lot of these books, like Emily Henry's books, are starting to get movie deals too. So I'm a huge fan of early 2000s rom coms. I feel like we're gonna see a little bit of a good rom-com resurgence, which I I really want because I've missed those. Right?

SPEAKER_04:

Media like shied away from that, it became more historical and like big like fantasy or like sci-fi, like superhero movies. Like we went really hard in that, and it was like everything. Really sad historical dramas.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, not the sad historical dramas. No, it was all either like high art indie films of like A24 or big action blockbusters.

SPEAKER_02:

I do love an A24 movie.

SPEAKER_03:

I'll watch an A24 movie. Last one that I watched had Paul Meskell in it. Um, and I thought it was it was really, really great. It's available on Canopy if anyone is interested. We do have it through the library. Yeah, um, that's how I watched it, and it was really great. After Sun, that's what it's called. Um really recommend. He does great work in that film, and it's beautifully directed.

SPEAKER_00:

And speaking of A24 films, a book that I think would be so good as an A24 film is Bad Cree by Jessica John, which we do hold at this library. So if you guys are in for a psychological or supernatural thriller, I think you should check it out. I talk about this book to everyone, okay. She made me read it. It's so it's good. It's so good. It's a great debut novel. This is her first novel. I really want to see what else she's gonna come out with. Um I agree. I haven't seen anything. Me neither. I really I follow her on Instagram and I'm like, come on, girl, like, are we gonna write?

SPEAKER_04:

It does keep getting like renewed in publishing. It came out with a paperback, and I think in a few different countries too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, it did. So it's um I think it's gotten some pretty good success. I would really like to see what else she's going to come out with. I'm not super big on psychological thrillers or anything scary. I'm a I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat. Um, but I saw the cover of the book when I was just like scrolling through what we had in the catalog one day, and I read it over, and so it's about this um girl whose sister recently died. She's been kind of distant from her family lately. Um, but she starts having these really realistic dreams where whatever happens in them, she wakes up and she finds herself in that same situation. So um the book starts off like really fast where she has a dream where she's holding a crow's head in her hand, and when she wakes up, there's a crow's head in her hand. Um, and it kind of just spirals it kind of just spirals from there. The author is native, and so is the main character in the story and the family in the story, so it kind of delves into some native mythology too. It's just so well written. The way that it's written, too, is very descriptive, and I could honestly see it easily being translated into directing styles. I think it would make an awesome 824 um thriller.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Like you said, like it is really descriptive in its writing, but it doesn't get like bogged down by it where it's like super heavy-handed and like you're not really going anywhere with the plot because they're like so focused on making you see it. I feel like it's a great balance. Yeah. Like, is this all happening in her head? Is it happening to her for real? Like, where's losing it? Yeah, what's the where's the line? And you feel like it kind of makes you feel like you're losing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And you don't really know until like you get closer to the end. And even then, you still kind of think like, is it real or was it all in her head? Yeah, that does seem like it's right up A24. Yeah. I would really love to see it get picked up with like as a movie deal. I think if any book deserves it, that book absolutely deserves it. So yeah, Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. Check it out, read it. I could not recommend it.

SPEAKER_03:

The audio book is good too. I'm really big on um thrillers or horror on audio. There's something about it, it makes it so much more atmospheric. It does, it really gets you through like a long shift or a long drive. Um, I recently did I'm totally blanking. Describe her. I'll help.

SPEAKER_04:

It was Grady Hendricks.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, um, Bio Girl Support Group. Yeah. Yeah, but you didn't like that. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. We didn't like listen for the lies. I didn't like that either. My god, uh, there's just been duds recently. You listened to the familiar, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03:

That's not like No, I didn't listen to The Familiar.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh.

SPEAKER_03:

No. I thought you were reading it. I'm reading it. I put it on hold. Like I paused that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Are we liking it so far? It's okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

It's very how far did you get? Just that first chapter, and I was like, I can't do it.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, I got to like chapter 13. Oh. And like I'm coming out of a reading slump. I know it's Sarah's too. I'm in the middle of mine. Welcome to the era of reading. Yeah. Yeah. The era of reading slump. It is. I feel like all of us are. Like when we're talking in the back, I feel like all of us are like, has anyone read anything good? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like it's wrong. No. And I don't know. I think it's just for me personally, I'm in a reading slump because I'm just so busy all the time. I don't have time to read.

SPEAKER_03:

I know you we were just talking about you read or you listened to um Bad Cree. Yeah. Bad Cree a little bit on audio, and even that, like, it's hard for me. I'm a big audio person for thrillers and horror. Yeah. It's just even those have been kind of like a little bit of a slump for me. I've been reading them or listening to them, and I'm just like, eh, they're okay. It's just not the mood. It's just not it right now. No, and I want it to be so bad. Right? I really want something that I'm like, whoa, this is so gripping. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I wanted the familiar to be that. Because I feel like Lee Bardugo, depending on what of hers you read, she can like develop like decent characters that you can like at least develop an opinion on. Like you might hate them, you might love them, but like they feel real enough for you to care enough about them. Yeah. And I, yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna go back to it because it's reading Slunderas, so I don't know if I was giving it the fair chance it deserves. But I was I got to like chapter 14, I wanna say it's like 25% in, and I was like, I literally don't know. Like, I don't know. Is it a historical supernatural thriller or it's it's like historical supernatural fan like there's like some because it's based on a real historical figure, right? I don't know if it's it is a historical figure. I know it's the Spanish Golden Age.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, yeah, so historical time period.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I mean honestly, I don't know. You could be right because I don't really know where the story goes on. You know, I'm not sure either listening to anything right now or reading it.

SPEAKER_03:

Um so I just finished Daisy Jones and the Six. Loved that, that was super great. Um, and then a little bit before that I finished Martyr, which was a debut, and the author's name is escaping me right now. But that was fantastic. Um I tried audiobooking Daisy Jones and the Six, but I couldn't I couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_04:

I can respect that. If any of you guys have or haven't read it or have or haven't listened to it, it is a book about it's basically Fleetwood Mac, just fictionalized and like that kind of era of music and their different like relationships to each other and stuff. But it is written as an interview, almost like documentary style, where different people are recounting things differently that happened in like their history. It's super good, probably one of my top favorite books, but the audiobook I feel like it's a it's a reread situation because it's a full cast, and so like you get to hear as if you were listening to like a podcast or if you were watching a documentary but like weren't really paying attention to the screen, but and it's easier when you've already read it because you're like okay, I know just going straight into it, I guess might I can see where that would be a lot because you aren't looking at like they don't say their name every time, like it's you wouldn't know the voice. One of the characters is Billy, it's not like every time, even though it's on the page, it says Billy Colonel and what he says, it doesn't do that. It gets a little overwhelming, yeah. Yeah, if you're not like familiar, if you have bad voice recognition, I do. Yeah. So like yeah, I've listened to it several times, but I have also read it several times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So I think it also like it doesn't help that I listen to my audiobooks on like at least two times speed. Oh, same. So, you know, full cast and like they all have different voices, but when you're listening to it at like 8.5, 275, like they all kind of sound the same. Um, so I think that that's really something that I was like, you know, I'm gonna pick up the book rather than you go as far as 75, 275? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, girl. Seven five, sometimes three, depending on the pacing of the book. Yeah. I can do a three if I really want it to be over. If you really and I'm just like, let's run it. I get that.

SPEAKER_00:

But I really like this new era of audiobooks being a bit more immersive and having a full cast, because I feel like if you just have one voice actor for a whole thing, depending on the book, it can get so boring just listening to one person try to be like ten different people and put on different voices, yeah. And it can be a little monotonous. So I think it's kind of cool that they're delving kind of into more of um like a podcast type situation where you have sound effects, you have um a full cast of people reading for the book. I don't know if you guys recently saw um 1984's um new audiobook with Andrew Garfield and um Wow Oh man, his name is slipping me. Andrew Scott, Andrew Garfield and Andrew Scott, and honestly, I heard like some snippets of it. It's really good, and I don't even like 1984 like that. But I I mean the way that they act it out makes it more engaging, which I think is gonna be really great in the long run for um different kinds of readers, but also for high schoolers who have to have it for reading. If I for sure if I was listening to 1984, I would be way more engaged than when I was reading it because it was, I mean, if you've read it, if you've read it, it's dry and it's confusing once they start talking about that double think, double speak stuff.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I know that um I think it's an audible exclusive. Brandon Sanderson has if you have never read Brandon Sanderson or know who he is, he writes very, very high fantasy, very long novels, and they're all interconnected, like they're a separate series, but they all take place in the same universe. There are like connectors throughout them, but I think I want to say it's the Way of Kings. So, like the first Storm White archive book, they have like a full theatrical audiobook, and I really want to listen to it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's on my list. I honestly really wish that I could listen to audiobooks in my car, but I feel like that just takes too much mental effort when I'm driving. So I tend to listen to music. Um, I'm really into I mean, I'll listen to literally anything. I have a 10 million playlists on Spotify according to mood, genre, um, what I want to listen to. Even sometimes, like, I'll make it based on the books that I'm reading.

SPEAKER_04:

I do I do like listen to a curated playlist while reading. Right, me too.

SPEAKER_00:

Me too. Like I had one for Dune, so I have some Yeah, so I I'll do that depending on my mood. But I feel like if I had to choose a genre, I normally listen to Indy, so I'm like Young the Giant, um, Florence in the Machine, an incredible boy genius, and like Like all their separate music too. Yeah, yeah. And Taylor Swift too, but honestly, I am not a huge fan of the last two um albums that recently came out. I I'm huge on folklore and everymore. I still think those are her best albums.

SPEAKER_03:

I think, you know, I'm a pretty big Taylor Swift fan. Um, I liked her last two albums. I honestly kind of like everything that she puts out. I do have to agree though, I think that folklore is one of my favorite albums of the Lization.

SPEAKER_00:

It was just something so different, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

It was. It was very um, you know, it's like a it's fictionalized stories, and I think that I love stories so much that listening to that and it being at a slower pace was a lot nicer. Um I enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of Noah Khan too, love his work.

SPEAKER_04:

People love Noah Khan. Yeah, seeing him in Denver in Jesus.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh nice, yeah. Yeah, big fan of him. Um, I really like Sizza too. I think that she is just has beautiful lyrics. So I'd I'd love to see her in concert too. I heard she's pretty great.

SPEAKER_04:

I feel like we have overlapping music tastes. The three of us often enjoy the same things, a Venn diagram, so to speak. We all have like a lot in that center part, but we'll like split off in our different things. I feel like music is probably the one that we stay on the biggest same track of. Yeah, yeah. I feel like our biggest differences come from books, yeah. Books, like our genres, absolutely often we'll find books that overlap, but as far as our like everyday genres, I I read a lot of fantasy. I also read a lot of YA or YA fantasy. I think that it benefits me in my job, obviously, working in the youth services department. But at the same time, like I when I talked about Brandon Sanderson, his shortest book is like 800 pages. Yeah. Yeah. And like it's so good. He's so good at what he does, it's great. And a lot of adult fantasy is like that. It's that long, and it has to be to make it what it needs to be and make the world feel real as much as it can be. Right. But I think that why fantasy is such like a special thing. Like, there's world building, and does it always make sense? No, but like, do you really care? Because it's like it's not that deep. No, and a lot of times it focuses mostly on like drama or romance as well. Right, and yeah, it becomes more like you're rooting for the characters inside this world that's slightly shifted from your own. And in adult fantasy, you're like dropped into a completely different world. Right. And there are Y fantasies that feel like that, but I feel like Y fantasy is really in a a popularity resurgence right now. I feel like a lot of people on like inner the internet and stuff are talking about series that were older. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and they're kind of making their comeback, like the Shatter Me series. I know we have tons of teens asking about that, and if we have the next one and they want to place holds, and I had actually never read it, which is kind of crazy because it was like our era when they were coming out, right? And that seemed very bizarre.

SPEAKER_00:

And I had no idea that they even existed until like recently.

SPEAKER_04:

I knew that they existed. I don't know why I never read it. It definitely was not as popular as it is right now when it came out. But I just read the first three of them. Okay, and like they're so fun. Nice, like it's nothing groundbreaking, it's a YA dystopian, it's giving the Hunger Games, it's giving divergence, it's entertaining, yeah. But it's so fun and it's so fast, and I completely understand why people who aren't into reading would devour them. Yeah, right. Because like I will sit down for four hours and completely like cover to cover and then be like okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, absolutely, which is nice for teens and other young adult readers and want to get into reading.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, for sure. Oh, that's cool. So if you wanna wanna try something out, for sure go for it.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, right? I primarily read romance, that's like my big wheelhouse. I also really like a good litfic. I think that they kind of keep me on my toes sometimes. I like to see you know the new perspectives that come out, the different types of writing styles that come out. I think that literary fiction is kind of where people get to play around with structure more, so that's always interesting and engaging to me. Um, and they deal with a lot of like real world issues that I like to read about and just kind of get the takes of different people on different authors and how they feel about them. But romance will always just be a diehard romance girly here, so that's my favorite. I'm a big Emily Henry fan because I feel like she kind of plays along the lines of literary fiction and romance, and I'd love to see her like do a whole literary fiction.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we were just talking about that when the funny story came out. Like, yeah, it's so close, and I just really want her to like go for it. I think it would be great. And she's like she takes risks and changes it up because Emily Henry's first few novels are YA sci-fi. Yeah, yeah. And like she really said, I'm gonna do something completely different.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I really respect that in an author. I mean, similarly to Sarah, my two big genres that I would read um were Lit Vic and Romance. For me, I think Lit Vic was mostly my um wheelhouse. Like, my all-time favorite book um is The Secret History by Donna Tart, and what makes me really like this book is her prose. I really do appreciate structure and prose and wording in a book. I like when authors play around with it, and I think that's also why I like Emily Henry so much, just because it is different from other romances. Just like you were saying, she really tries hard to do something different, and I would also like to see her do Litfic in the future. Well, honestly, recently I've gotten super into sci-fi, and I think that's kind of interesting because I was never really into science fiction, but I mean I started to read Dune and I'm almost finished with I'm almost finished with but I am in my reading slump, so it's been on pause for a little bit. But I really enjoy the drama of it. I think if you like litfic science fiction and fantasy is also good to kind of steer into because that a lot of these authors play around with world building and structure and also wording, which I think there's a lot of overlap between people who like litfic and science fiction. That's just what I really liked in Dune so far. I really like the world building of it a lot and also um just the drama of it. It's a little slow at first, but once that big like incident, yeah.

unknown:

Inciting incident.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, inciting incident. Thank you. I was looking, I was like, I don't know, searching for the word the big the big thing. The climax. Yeah. I mean the big the exposition is like pretty pretty slow when you get into all the building, all the world building, and then also the mechanics and behind the scenes of like politics. But we love politics and politics, exactly. But once once you hit that big inciting incident, I mean it's just go, go, go, and you can't put the book down, it just keeps on happening. I don't know. I'm really excited to read the other ones. That's also why I'm really enjoying Pact so far. Um, and I also picked up a couple other books that I thought were interesting that are also sci-fi and fantasy. So I think for now, I think for now I'm gonna be reading mainly sci-fi and fantasy, and I'm really excited. I really am, I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

SPEAKER_04:

It's so interesting how tastes will change. Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, we've all worked here about like a year and a half, two years. Yeah, yeah, we're all about there. And I remember when we first started working together, Claudia, like you were like not a fantasy girl. Like you were like, I don't know, like I I can't like get into them. Dune changed you. Dune changed my life.

SPEAKER_00:

It's the best TikTok I can be ever. No, Dune Change My Life is the title of the episode. I mean, listen, I gotta hand it off to those TikTok editors because I would see those Dune edits on my for you page, and I'm like, I gotta read this book. I gotta watch this movie, and I gotta read the video. I can't wait for you to finish it so I can watch it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Next episode, you're gonna have to give us a movie review. Absolutely. I will. I'm so excited. TikTok, you gotta I gotta be on. Alright, I'm on a time crunch now. Good, I'll do it. You dip into fantasy sometimes, Sarah. I do, yeah. I'll dip into fantasy occasionally. Um, it will have to have the romance in it.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that I I dip more into thriller horror than fantasy sci-fi. I don't know. I I wish I was more of a sci-fi fantasy girly, but I feel like it takes finding the one that like really clicks for you.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And then once you have that, it's easy to weed out which ones you're like, oh no, like that that one's not for me. Yeah. Because there's different kinds. It's a commitment. Like I can respect the hesitation, yeah, because like I said earlier, they're 800 pages. Right.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that I am more of like a a character-driven reader, um, than like uh, you know, having this nice, beautiful setting put out for me. Um or maybe I prefer more plot than like having the world building. I think maybe that that's kind of what di like makes me distance myself from starting a sci-fi fantasy because there's all of that world building. Yeah, um, I don't know. I mean I in high school I read um like Tolkien and that like he does a bunch of of world building. Like it's just pages and pages of it.

SPEAKER_04:

He's very heavy-handed, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03:

So I think that makes me away from it. I'm like, oh no, like I'm gonna pick this up and it's gonna be Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit and Yeah, I think that it also changes too.

SPEAKER_04:

If you get through the first book of the series, when you get into the next books, they don't have to do all that anymore. Yeah. And it becomes a more character plot driven story. And like, yeah, of course, there's always gonna be things that come up that they need to explain as time goes on and things in the world change. Yeah. But like if you can get like you were saying with Doom, Claudia, like once you get through that starting point of like I have to set the scene and then you get through it. I think that the characters in the plot become more important than anything. Yeah. But like we've said, it like it's a commitment, like you have to commit to get there to make it happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Although I do think that if not to shamelessly plug, but I think if you like character-driven um stories, I think you'd like packed a lot. I think that would be like a pretty good commitment for you too. Just because I don't know, you'll see like a book and it's like this big, like super thick, and you're like, I don't want to read this. But even though this one is pretty long, it's broken up by chapters and arcs. Okay. So and it's on the sidebar, so it doesn't really feel like you're reading a lot of things. Yeah, like I read that first chapter, yeah. It's like, oh, I'm done. Yeah, and it's it right, Tessa, it's pretty character-driven from the start. I mean, it's in it's told in first person. Um, he has a very strong voice and he's kind of like a sassy character. It was written, I think, in like 2014, 2015. So I think if you like that era of like 2010s, oh yeah, you'll like it.

SPEAKER_03:

I think that's also like another thing for me. Like, you know, you mentioned that I had completely forgotten that for me reading something in third person, it is so hard for me to get into that. I feel very formal sometimes. Third person, like, man, I just and I want to break it so bad. Like, I want to because I'm I limit myself so much, so I want to be able to get past that. I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit.

SPEAKER_04:

You try, yeah. You you try like you will try books and be like, you know what, that's not like you give it the fair shot. Yeah, yeah. Not everyone's gonna like everything.

SPEAKER_00:

No, that's true. And I think that is valid too, and that a lot of authors will maybe sometimes get a little too formal when they're reading or when they're writing um th in third person. Yeah, it's not as personal or personalized as a first person perspective, might be. Definitely not, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't like rule out books in third person, but I will say that like obviously most fantasy is third person. Right. Y fantasy, you get more into first person. High adult fantasy, a lot of times, is third person, and I I do well with that, but I agree like romance and because every once in a while I read a little romance. Yeah, it doesn't happen all the time, but I yeah, I make it happen sometimes. Yeah, I enjoy a romance that's like different, I guess, that has like a different element in it. Yeah, but in like litfic and in romance, I need it to be first person. Yeah, I think when it's like in our world, like the world that exists, like you want to feel as connected to those people because you want it to feel like it's when you're connecting with the story and like what the characters are saying and like the messages and the emotions they're going through, like you want to feel like it's your friend telling you about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. And it makes sense for those high fantasies to be in third person too, because you have so many characters that you need to keep track of, so it makes sense for it to be third person omniscient for all my kids out there who are learning about first, second, and third person. Um and and you know, when it comes to books that are in our world, you already know the world. So how awkward I don't know, I feel like how awkward would it be for a high fantasy to be in first person and it's just like some guy explaining to you how the world works, right?

SPEAKER_04:

And like you need to be able to step back from it in fantasy because like we were talking about with Doom, like there's politics going on exactly, the politics become the plot, but you have to understand them for it to become a plot, and like you said, it can't just be some random guy being like, Hey, these nations hate each other, right? This is the situation, we're probably gonna go to war.

SPEAKER_00:

It's yeah, but exactly, and with third person, you get to see it from different characters' perspectives too. Like it doesn't just focus on you know this one family or this one character, it will switch perspectives, so to speak, so that way you kind of get the full picture. Whereas like I feel like that's not as necessary in things like litfic or for s or sorry or romance, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, because fantasy, like you need to know more than the characters know exactly to make it work and in litfic, in romance, even in thrillers, yeah, like you well, I guess especially in thriller, like you don't yeah, you don't really want to know you don't want to know more than the characters know. You want to figure it out with them, you want to feel like you are like in that person's head versus being in the world that a fantasy can exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like you don't really see second person all that often in books either. Um, I do know that um you, so everyone out there who loves like I do, the Netflix series you, um, there is a book version, and the book is told entirely in second person, which I think is really interesting and makes it kind of scarier. Have you read it? I I haven't read it, I've just seen snippets of it. And you know, I've I've watched the show. So when I it's honestly a lot scarier, I feel like in the show they set it up so that you sympathize with Joe a little bit more. Yeah, yeah, and I hate how sometimes I'm like, oh why do we think kind of think the same way? Is he kind of real for saying that? But in the books he's terrifying.

SPEAKER_04:

I have read it. I read it um like as the first season was pretty big. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, they definitely take a a different approach. The book is I wouldn't say it's scarier, okay, okay. It's more intense, and I think a lot of that does come from second person. Right. It's like it is very much like like you, if you've seen the first season, you are bet. You are reading it. All the voiceovers in the show when he's like, you do this and you do that, like that is the book. Hello, reading it, and you're reading big chunks at a time. You get to a point where like you like, he's watching it. You are bet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like the show. I do like the show, but honestly, I kind of fell off of it. I really like the first three seasons, and then after that, I don't think I finished it. It just starts to kind of get repetitive. I feel like nothing's ever gonna beat that first season because that first season was crazy. I do season two is also good. I just really love Victoria Pedretti. I think she's another amazing actress.

SPEAKER_04:

Speaking of her, my favorite show of all time is The Haunting of Hill House. This might sound crazy to say, it's literally a comfort show for me, which is Yeah. Um, I watch it all the time, and it is just as emotionally devastating every time. Yeah. But I think she's great in that show. I think her main part of that show is one of the best twists of all time in a show, especially in like a a horror gothic kind of show. Like I'm not gonna spoil it for you because it it's crazy to watch that scene. Like, Mike Flanagan killed that scene and making it like having it all come together in such like a visual, visceral way. I have qualms with Mike Flanagan's other shows, but I think that Midnight Mass. Yeah, yeah. But Haunting of Hill Houses is Magnumopus. Honestly, it's gonna be better. Yeah, I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

Midnight Mass could have been so much better, in my opinion. It's really good. It does, but I can't stand monologues, and that entire show is 90% monologues. It is, yeah. Is it?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I don't mind monologues too much.

SPEAKER_04:

Mike Sandigan loves monologues. Yeah, he does. Speaking of like comfort shows, do either of you guys have shows that you watch constantly as like a comfort to you?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh oh yeah. Um, I'll pivot. I know that like you said, the haunting of Hellhouse is kind of yours, so I'll pivot to something more comedy. I really love Dairy Girls. I think that it's such a well-done show, it's hilarious. I love that there's a historical element that's weaved into it, it takes place in Northern Ireland, and I love Ireland, so it's one of my favorite shows to watch. And they're like really short episodes, they're about 30 minutes, so you just pop one in, you know, eat your TV dinner, and it's it's great. Love it. Okay. Um, I also really like the bear. I think the bear is is so amazing, it's so well done. The character development is just brilliant, and I cannot wait for this next season to to come out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, a nice local show, right? Yeah, yeah. Alright, just to piggyback off what Sarah was saying, I mean, I I have also two comfort shows. One is lighter and more of a traditional comfort show, the other one is more. Like Tessa's word. It's not a traditional comfort show. So my first comfort show is Gilmore Girls. I'll watch it when I'm feeling down or when I'm when I'm sick. I mean, it's it's just such a good early 2000s show. I watched it when I was growing up, and my second comfort show is Criminal Mike. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, I don't feel like that's super uncommon though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely not. I mean, I started watching it when I was in middle school. It got me into psychology, which is why I ended up majoring in what I majored in. Dr. Spencer. Yeah, Dr. Spencerine. That's amazing. I love Spencerine so much. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's not so much about the horrific tragic crimes that happen in the show. I think it's more about um the characters. I really do love the characters. I love seeing their lives outside of the show. And I feel like it's one of the only like pr police procedural type shows that shows what the characters do outside of their jobs or what their lives are like outside of the work. Like I feel like other procedurals are very much just who-done it's, but this one's not a whodunit, it's a why done it. So I don't know. I just I feel like it's just very comforting when I want to get back into it. I'll just pop in the first season and just watch seasons one through seven, which if you ask me, yeah, are the only seasons worth watching to not watch past season seven. And that's that's a hot take. So I I'm with you on that hot take.

SPEAKER_03:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

It falls off seasons are much better than the later ones. Absolutely, it is, and then once you know you get past season seven, a bunch of the main characters start leaving, so the actors leave. I'm gonna be so real and honest. I've never watched a single episode of Criminal Minds.

SPEAKER_03:

Really? Like I mean it's really, really good. It's so good. I mean, it gives me massive anxiety, and I can't sit and watch it for long periods of time. Like if I sit and I watch like all of season one and you know, however long it takes, I will have anxiety and not be able to sleep. Yeah. But like watching an episode here and there, I I can do that now.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

But I mean, it used to be like our family show. Like we would get together every day and watch like an episode.

SPEAKER_04:

Law and Order SPU. Oh, that's which is alarming. I would never say that that one's my comfort show. That one gets a little scary.

SPEAKER_00:

It's kind of scary. I mean, it's based on real crimes, isn't it? Yeah, because a lot of the times it is, yeah. Yeah. I think that's kind of like Law and Order's claim to fame. Yeah, I think that's what really also makes criminal minds fall off after season seven, is that they start to get a little bit more um fantastical with their crimes. Yeah. I mean, it's just crazy how like every single crime suddenly occurs to every single agent in the show.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I see like little clips on TikTok. Yeah. I am, in fact, victim to like watching entire episodes. Oh, same. I have I have watched it.

SPEAKER_00:

I've watched it then. Yeah. Honestly, tell us I feel like you'd love Emily Prentice. I feel like that'd be your girl.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. I keep seeing the little clips of when Aubrey Plaza's in that show. No. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm like, guys, there for a bit. What's the no no? That's in the later seasons. Read the clip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So staying along the same vein of, you know, thriller, mystery, criminal lines, vibes, my current read is Happiness Falls by Angie Kim, and I'm audiobooking it. So that's on the roster. Super excited to get started with that. I'll let you guys know how it goes the next time that we get together. Um, what about you guys? What are y'all reading or listening to?

SPEAKER_04:

I just recently bought The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon, but she's interesting because it's like a sci-fi fantasy dystopian something. It's adult. It's a finished series and the first one came out in 2013, and then this past year she released them all again as the author's preferred texts. Oh. Because she wrote the first one when she was well, she wrote it even younger. It was published when she was 21. And she like went back through it and wasn't happy with and she openly was like, There are plot holes, some things don't make sense. Like they made sense to me because I knew the world, but like because I was young and like coming off of writing prior of the orange tree and a day of fallen night and like those big expansive worlds. Yeah, she went back to it and like filled in what was wrong. And I have I haven't re I've never read it, but I have the OG version that I've had for like years and just haven't read it. And so my plan is to read the preferred one and then read the old one. But I was looking, even the chapter titles are different because yeah, so that that's the plan right now.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that.

SPEAKER_04:

We love a self-aware author that goes in and Well, when I first heard about it, I was like, oh money grand, like you finished your series and now you're like trying to like bring it back up again. Yeah, because like prior of the orange tree and a day of fallen night, and honestly the bone season books are all very long.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I was like, mmm, you're cooking up something that's gonna take you a long time, but you wanna fill it. Yeah. And so I was I was hesitant about it, but then I like looked at the differences and I was like, oh no, you like really went back in there, and you like really like the first paragraph is almost completely different. Oh wow. Wow. Yeah, so I'm excited. It's like the same ideas, but she like seriously went back and like rewrote stuff. Like I don't know. We'll see, we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you updated on my thoughts about it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm currently reading Pank, like I said before, um, whenever I have downtime, but I am going on a trip this week. Um, so I'll be bringing Dune along with me so I can fulfill my promise of finishing it, so I can get that review in of those movies.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Yeah, that'll be that'll be fun to circle back to. I know. Yeah. Because you'll be able to finish the book and then watch the movie. Yeah, maybe by the next time we record, you'll have had time to watch them.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. I'm excited to hear what you think about it all. I'm really excited to finish it. Because I mean I'm like crazy close to finishing.

SPEAKER_04:

You got it. I got it. And you have the second one on deck.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Are you gonna take a break or are you going for it? I might take a break, honestly. That's it. Just so I can say that I finished it and come back whenever I want to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, no, no, for sure. So now we're gonna jump into a little fun segment that we will try to keep up with every time we have our podcast, which is Hot or Not. This week our hot is first person point of view, which we talked about a little bit earlier, and I'm always a diehard fan, love first person POV, think it always makes a book ten times better. I'm trying to broaden my horizons into third-person POV. So let you guys know how it goes. Not hot is making an author change the title of their already like released book, well, supposed to be released book. So, for example, Allie Hazelwood just released a title called Wet W-H-E-T that is um supposed to come out in February of 2025, and I guess her publishers or whoever made her change the title from that to deep end. I don't think it's cool to make your author change the title after they've already released it to the public, but hey, teach his own.

SPEAKER_04:

I agree. Yeah, so I feel like it takes a lot of the power away from the author, which we talked about earlier in this podcast about how we feel like publishing as a whole was letting the author kind of have more power back with having like indie authors trap published and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

But clearly it's not always perfect.

SPEAKER_00:

No, yeah. Alright, so this concludes our episode. Thank you so much for taking a listen, guys. I'm Claudia. I'm Sarah.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm Tessa, and this was checked out with Green Hills Public Library.