In A Plot Hole

Update Time: May TBR and more

Samm & Mikayla

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Join a little chit chat with Samm and Mikayla as they talk over their TBR, some last minute updates and more. 


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SPEAKER_00

Alright, welcome back to In a Plot Hole. Episode two. Episode two. I'm Sam. I'm Michaela. In case you didn't know. Yeah. We're just book girlies. Book things. All things books. All things books.

SPEAKER_01

Alright. What are you drinking? Same thing you're drinking. Dr. Pepper! When do we not have a Dr. Pepper? We love a Dr. Pepper. A Dr. Pee-Pee. Okay, so.

SPEAKER_00

Let's do a little high low.

SPEAKER_01

High low for the day.

SPEAKER_00

Or as Michaela calls it high antelope.

SPEAKER_01

Hi antelope. That's a funny thing that goes. That my family and I used to do. Or they still do it. I just I'm not there anymore, so I don't take part in it anymore.

SPEAKER_00

We do it here. We do it here now.

SPEAKER_01

We continue the tradition and we do it on the podcast. And we would love to hear your high lows too when you this episode comes out. Alright, so um, Sam, what's your high today?

SPEAKER_00

My high today. I bought a bunch of stickers.

SPEAKER_01

Stickers. I love a good sticker. I think mine was going to the that market with you too. Yeah. That was really fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Gotta meet some really cool, like local artists. Local vendors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I got some nice tea, which is so fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Support your local artists in small businesses, y'all. Yep. Alright. Move to your Lowe's. Milo waking up and going to work. Drive an hour and a half to work every day. It's Sunday.

SPEAKER_01

I think Milo was probably having my legs being sore all day from the gym.

SPEAKER_00

She was limping hard.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think I got shin splints.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So don't go too hard in the gym.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Stretch first. It should feel good, but not painful. Pain does not equal it's working.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Also stretch beforehand.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Stretch. Warm up. Don't just jump right into it. Yeah. It's our daily advice. Okay. Question. Question. Question. We're gonna ask a question every episode.

SPEAKER_01

That's probably not related to books or maybe related to books. It doesn't have to be.

SPEAKER_00

You can tell us your answers in the comments. We'd love to have you participate. Or you can DM us if it's more not want to be shared to the public.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So the question is what is your career or future career and why did you want to pursue it?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh.

SPEAKER_01

Good question. Good question.

SPEAKER_00

Well, do I go first? Yeah, I'll have you go first. Um so currently I am studying to be an art therapist. I'm about to finish my my BA. My second BA. But my BA. And then I'm gonna go on to my master's. Just kicked her cat, I'm sorry. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01

It's always in the way.

SPEAKER_00

Um Love you, bud. But the reason why is I just I love art and I loved creating things and I loved doing like stuff as like an outlet to like not not escape reality, but like kind of help myself with realities differently. And but I love helping people and I love helping people through like their emotions and stuff. So I kinda was trying to do like I did research and I was trying to figure out like how can I do this and do that, and I found art therapy, and I kinda and that's just kind of where I am, and I really want to work with either kids or women that are suffering from past trauma or current trauma or anything like that. Yeah. What about you?

SPEAKER_01

So I just recently found out my passion and love for um weather and predicting weather and um so I think starting to go back to school for meteorology and to study atmospheric science and um weather patterns and severe weather. So I'm very, very excited to start that process because um I find it all just so fascinating. I'm learning every single day about just the the access that I have at home to that information. I'm like just eating it up. My cat's making really weird noises in the background, he's just scratching at his pole. So ignore that.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, she'd be looking at the clouds every day.

SPEAKER_01

I really do be, and everyone thinks I'm really weird for it, but that's okay. I don't think that you do call me nerd all the time though.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but that's out of love. It's not like I know. It's like a mean nerd. It's a it's it's a good nerd.

SPEAKER_01

It's a good nerd. Yeah, so I'm very excited to get that started and get that process started. Um currently looking at schools in my area for um my general education to start that process.

SPEAKER_00

If you know any good meteorology schools, hit me up. Hit her up, hit me up. If you know any master's programs for art therapy, hit me up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

If you have any good college resources, please let us know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Or tell us tell us what what you do and why you do it. We wanna know.

SPEAKER_01

We wanna know.

SPEAKER_00

Tell us why you love what you love, what you love to do.

SPEAKER_01

Or what you would love to do if your dream job.

SPEAKER_00

Your dream job. That too. Okay. So what are you currently reading?

SPEAKER_01

So, currently reading a couple things, actually. Um yeah, for me it is. So currently reading Court of Silver Flame, and I have been for a while. I just have gotten in a book slip for that one. I don't I don't understand why.

SPEAKER_00

Hello?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So Court of Silver Flame actively reading, and then Divine Rivals also actively reading.

unknown

It's good.

SPEAKER_01

So those those two right now.

SPEAKER_00

Originally, when we were originally normally I read like three books. I'm only reading one book right now. That's shocking. That's shocking. Normally the opposite. Yeah, but it's just because I finished Onyx Storm yesterday. Finally. But right now I'm reading uh Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm excited to read that one too. I've heard it's really good.

SPEAKER_00

Is it Holly Jackson? Or is it Holly Black? No, Holly Black does cool cruel prints. Hold please.

SPEAKER_01

Hold please. Author check.

SPEAKER_00

I don't wanna give credits where credits aren't due. Yes, Holly Jackson.

SPEAKER_01

Holly Jackson. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so let we had the first episode, we kind of talked about what we're gonna how we're gonna upload. Since doing that, we kind of we've updated we've reworked it a little bit just to make it a little more fun and better for other people. So what we're we were originally gonna do the first Sunday was about a series or parts of series, or just a general like over talk of a series, like if a book's coming out, and then we were gonna do one episode first standalone and then another episode of first standalone. We thought it would be really fun if we threw that second episode of every month. Just a little book conversation. Yeah. So that's what today is is a little book conversation. Um, I know like we had the intro, so there was like a book book talk there, but we kind of want to get into our like recording schedule. And then the last episode of the month, which so it's the two other two are the second Friday, the last Friday. Tentatively upload dates may change.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um flexible updates. But the last episode of the month will be about the two standalones. Yeah, good.

SPEAKER_01

So like I pick a standalone and then I have a standalone.

SPEAKER_00

That way, like, there's like it's not just like a 30-minute episode about one book. It's like a general conversation about two different books that we read in in the same month.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe we'll do like um maybe books that are similar to each other and do like a verses type stuff and just do kind of stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like same genre and that kind of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So we're gonna kind of experiment with schedule and recording and stuff like that. So we're pretty new to this, so give us some grace.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

But alright, so over the recording schedule.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. So today we're gonna do some book questions. A little book tag, maybe. We do love a little book tag.

SPEAKER_01

We love a little book tag.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but first we're gonna go over our monthly TBR. I thought it'd be fun to tell you what we're reading besides just what's gonna be in the podcast. Like, what are we currently reading? Personally. Personally, just so you can see, like my cats are playing.

SPEAKER_01

Which is unusual because they're still new to seeing each other. Uh Gigi says hi.

SPEAKER_00

Gigi says hi, Moonzy says hi. Yeah. So, but first we're gonna talk about like our May TBR. Like, what are we reading personally outside, like, we'll include what we're reading for the podcast too. Um, but what else are we reading? Like, what does Michaela read besides this? What does me, Sam, read besides this? Like, what are our tastes and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So I I guess I'll go first because you explained the intro. So obviously, we're gonna be reading the stuff for the podcast. So um I got Divine Rivals, The Ruthless Vows, we got that duology, and we got one Italian summer this month as well. And then um, I'm gonna start reading Pestilence, which is the beginning of the Four Horsemen series. Um I can't remember the author's name. Looking it up. Laura something. I can't remember the last name. Laura Talassa. Laura Talassa. Talassa? I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. Talassa? Talassa? I think it's Talassa. We could be wrong, but correct us if we're wrong. Okay, but pestilence, and then um, I want to start Monstrous Kind too. And then um Monstrous Kind. Let me check author on that.

SPEAKER_00

Linda Gravic.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

I'm really bad at pronouncing names. I literally cannot pronounce the last name of the girl that plays Bellow Swan in Twilight, Kristen. Kristen Stewart? Yeah, can't say that. Not going to. Don't you guys don't need to hear how I pronounce it.

SPEAKER_01

And we'll just not talk about me not knowing how to wink, it's okay. Yeah. Alright, and then my last book for the TBR is still Court of Silver Florida Silver Flame.

SPEAKER_00

And we're also reading Princess Bird this month for the last episode. Yes. But we finished it in April. Yeah. So not a part of the not part of May, but not part of May. If you want it to be part of your mate TBR, yeah. It is a great book, and we'll talk about that more in the next episode. So my TBR, I have Divine Rivals, Ruth's Vows by Rebecca Ross. That was my recommendation because I love that duology. Yeah. I really do. So this is a reread for me. So we'll see. Restread for me. We'll see how that compares. Then obviously One Italian Summer by Rebecca Cyril. And then my like general TBR is I Have Night Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. That's what I'm currently reading. I have Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett. Been wanting to read that, haven't read it. I have The Wedding People by uh Allison Esback, who wrote one of my favorite books actually. Um I'm excited to read this one. This is the second book of hers that I'm reading. Then I'm reading Glass Sword, which is the second book in the Red Queen series. That's by Victoria Arvard. I know you were excited for that. I'm very excited. And then the last one on my list. The reason why mine is big is because I took a bunch of books out of my library and I had to return them by the end of the month. So we're gonna do that. Is Anatomy, which is part of a YA duology. Um I forgot her name. I'm looking it up, I'm sorry. That's by showed me anatomy textbooks. That's by Dana Schwartz. Donna? Dana Dana? Dana Schwartz. So that's mine. I have eight. Michaela has six. So whoever completes the higher percentage gets a treat.

SPEAKER_01

It's most likely the you.

SPEAKER_00

Probably not.

SPEAKER_01

I'm really bad at reading, but I'm getting better about it.

SPEAKER_00

She's reading more books than me right now. Crazy. Yeah. That's a that's a first.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So I have some questions for you, actually. Are you gonna answer them too? I can. I was thinking either um I can answer some questions, or like if you wanted to make your own questions too, we can, but I can answer the same question.

SPEAKER_00

I don't have questions. So we can you can ask me and then you can also answer. Okay. So little interview.

SPEAKER_01

Little little book interview for you. Alright, so first question: what character or characters impacted you the most and why?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh, that's a good question. Um probably one of them being um Iris in Divine Rivals love her. But like I just again, like, I really just love that duology and like that whole storyline. So it's so usual. So Iris and Kit just really just yeah. I couldn't even tell you why. Like, there's just something like that. That's a series that I just think about. Like I it lives rent-free in my brain. Like, I love that series. Um, Nesta is one of them. Yeah, and I will say I was not a Nesta girl when the at the beginning of the series. Yeah. But reading Silver Flames has turned me into a Nesta girl. Just because a lot of the stuff that she has gone through, I have also gone through, and so I very much resonate with Nesta.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And then fuck it. Let's say Edward Collins. Cause you know what, bitch, I sparkle.

SPEAKER_01

You do sparkle.

SPEAKER_00

No, I just really like the Twilight series as well. Twilight saga. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01

I think that's your favorite.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's definitely the one that got me hooked on reading. It was definitely like the first series where I felt like I could escape into a world. And I don't know, I just really I think Edward's a very strong character.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would agree.

SPEAKER_00

Like, just who he he really defined like a genre of vampires for being like these more empathetic creatures rather than what we know from Bram Stoker. Just kind of Dracula. So I just think he's a very different personified version of a vampire, and I think he's very impactful. Yeah. And like when have you read the books?

SPEAKER_01

I have not read the books. That's what I was about to say. Is I have not read the books, but like it's so impactful that I I've known of him even before I re watched the movies. He was very well known. I was like, that's like the vampire you think of.

SPEAKER_00

I will say, like, I felt that one when I read the first four, but when I read Midnight's Sun, I got more of that. Um, those who don't know, Midnight Sun is just a retelling of the first book from Edward's point of view.

SPEAKER_01

Which I but I would wanted to wait to read this, read that series so we can do it on the podcast, so then we can get a reaction to someone who's never read the books.

SPEAKER_00

Which is crazy, because I read them in sixth grade. Which I don't even know how old I was then 11? Almost 20 years ago. Was the first time I read Twilight. I've probably read that series like 10 times, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's a from what I've heard, I'm very excited to read it. Because that's like that's like the I would say probably one of the books that like set the the stage for all of the other like books to start.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I will say it was never on my radar. I think I talked about it in the first one, but it was never on my radar. And then I had a teacher be like, Well, every month you have to do a book report, and you can't do book reports on books that have movies. That was his rule. And he said it was October, and he's like, if you want to do Twilight, I'll count it as like a horror book because the movie comes out in it came, it was coming out October, November that year, and he's like, I'll let you do Twilight because but you can't do it after, because and I was like, This is being made into a movie, let me read it. Yeah, it also changed my perspective of reading the book before the movie, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Alright. So my I guess my answer to the question, I was gonna move on to the next question. Uh my answer to that question is um the character that probably impacted me the most so far from what I've read, um, probably was Violet Soringale. And for the reason of like I I grew up with like a ton of knee pain and stuff like that. So I I resonated with like the fact that she's like constantly in pain, but still doing everything, all of the the stuff that she was able to do, and how um it was just kind of like uh oh my god, I can do things, but also be in pain, and you know, like kind of just live with it, I guess. But there's a quote from the book that I really like, and I think I mentioned it in the first episode was like um your body may be fragile, but you are unbreakable, and like I've kind of felt that like like over sometimes overworking my body to get to where I want to, but I do it because I I can I'm better than I can overcome anything, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, and it's not even just like physical pain, it's like it's emotional pain true. I I think she resonated with me in that. Like I'm very clumsy and I've hurt myself a lot, so I do have a lot of physical pain, but like most of my pain is like emotional, and like I think I resonated more with like I mean, and she has a lot of emotional pain too. Yeah, she does.

SPEAKER_01

So especially with like the loss of her father, her brother, her brother.

SPEAKER_00

No more after that. Yeah, no more after that. That's all you get to know. That's all you get to know.

SPEAKER_01

That's what that's what gets said in the first book.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um so yeah, she just deals with a lot of pain on a daily basis, and like sometimes I feel I feel constantly like I was limping at work today because I overdid it at the gym and my knee started hurting. So that was gym-wise, but I've had a lot of growing pain.

SPEAKER_00

You have knee problems. I do have active knee problems. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So like because I always had to wear like knee braces, and there was times where I was like, I didn't I got like a doctor's note to skip PE for like a long time because of my knees. And um it would it was always just kind of like, oh, I didn't feel like I could do things because of the uh my body wouldn't allow me to, but then I started just kind of like pushing it just a little bit, and I could do those things, it just like I had to overcome something to to be able to do those things, you know. Not let your body get the better of you, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00

Do you want me to read the next one? Yeah, if you want to. The next one is so now I'm gonna ask you. Yeah, what is the fastest book you've ever DNF'd?

SPEAKER_01

Oh the fastest book I've ever DNF'd. I think um there was a book that I read. It was called like maybe I'll pick it up and read it again. It was maybe just because I didn't have time to read it, but I just DNF'd it. Um, it was called H2O. And it was about um, I can't remember the author's name, but it was about like uh this girl in London who was having to deal with like this acid water and acid rain.

SPEAKER_00

And she had to, yeah, it she had to like by Virginia Burgeon, a young adult post-apocalyptic novel about a teenage girl named Ruby.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Who she must survive after a space bacterium contaminates the world's water supply, making rain deadly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so like, and they live in London, and you know London, it's constantly raining, so she has to like work her way around it. And I guess I just I never I wanted to finish it, but I just like I don't remember what happened. This was like so long ago. But I just remember having to take the AR. If you guys remember AR, did you have AR in high school or in school at all? What was that? Accelerated reading. They'd make me take quizzes on like books that I've read. Oh no. It was like a requirement. That's why I didn't like reading in school because it was like a that I was being told to read something.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, we we had the we had like required reading in different classes, but I electively took English classes as well um in high school, and I took an AP English class. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I took the I took the AP history classes, not the English class.

SPEAKER_00

I took the history one too.

SPEAKER_01

Anyway, but like we do accelerated reading, and that was like one of the books that I had to read for that, and I just like you know, the funny thing is I remember not finishing the book, but I still had to take the AR test. So I like guessed on all of it, and I got it a hundred percent correct.

SPEAKER_00

That just means the book's predictable.

SPEAKER_01

That's that's kind of why I DF it. I was like, this is kind of just like it got boring after a while because I was like, oh, this is kind of a cool concept, but then it was just kind of like oh, this is yeah, this is not what I thought it was kind of thing. But I would be interested in reading again because it has been so long.

SPEAKER_00

It sounds kind of interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It caught my attention at like Burn to Noble.

SPEAKER_00

Like was it one of those you bought for the cover?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because the cover was really cool. Yeah. If you look up the cover, it has like uh there's like it's burnt. Yeah, it has like little holes in the cover, and it's kind of cool. And I was like, oh, this is kind of sick. And then I was such annoyed reading it, I was like, oh. No, I'm trying to what's the fastest book you've DNF'd?

SPEAKER_00

So I went on a kick where I refused to DNF books for a while. Um, but then now I will. I will DNF a book. Funny enough, I DNF'd Iron Flame the first time I read it. You did. I could I I couldn't deal with the back and forth. I couldn't. They were pissing me off. But then like it gave me three months, I picked it back up and I read the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um I DNF'd 56 days. And I picked it up because I wanted to watch the show, because they just made a show, and it has Avon Joga and Dove Cameron in it, and I really liked them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Sorry. And so I DN I but I DNF'd it because the time it has time frame jumps and they got very confusing, and the terminology was like getting confusing. I had to look up what different words meant.

SPEAKER_01

GG, stop, please. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I had to look up what different words meant, and so I felt like I was like opening the book, reading like a couple paragraphs, and then going to my phone looking up what a word meant, and so I just was like, honestly, I give up. I think I read 36 pages of that book. And I DNF'd it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But I typically didn't. I used to force myself to read them. I have a lot of one stars because I just forced myself to read books I didn't like. Pee-pee break.

SPEAKER_01

I want to take a drink. Drink? Not sponsored, but we do love Dr. Pepper. Ah, Dr. Pepper.

SPEAKER_00

Did you ever watch um? I'll ask you later. Okay. We don't need to go on a full, full tangent.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So next question. Um number three. What is the genre that you want to try but haven't gotten into yet?

SPEAKER_00

Or is this the gene question? Not to call you out. I think it's funny. I can't spell for shit. I mean, so I have to sing holla backgirl to spell banana. So T A N A N N S. Don't copyright me, Gwen.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah. So, yeah, because I I spelt it as Jean because I didn't think anyone else would read it but me. So anyway.

SPEAKER_00

We're all friends here. We're all friends. We know Judge. It doesn't matter. I bet none of y'all can spell desperately correctly with the word try.

SPEAKER_01

Who wants to spell anyway?

SPEAKER_00

Or differently?

unknown

Differently.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. What is the what is the genre you wanted to have or wanted to try but haven't yet?

SPEAKER_00

I so I've read historical fiction. I don't read a lot of it, and I would be really interested in reading more like historical like fiction or like even like historical fantasy where it like takes place in a more historical time or it takes um like Divine Rivals is kind of like a historical fiction fantasy because it takes place during a time that would have been during World War One. Yeah. Very similarly too. But it's not like like actually like that. But I would be interested in reading more historical fiction because I don't it's not a genre I typically pick up, and it's not because like I don't want to, but like typically I'm just I like escaping the world. So reading about a world that exists or happened and is known to be a little bit more sad. I don't really want to read. But I've heard there's some really, really good ones, and I do love a book that emotionally destroys me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00

Because I know you just googled what I I saw on TikTok there's this book series. I forgot what it's called. It's by Kate the name I can't say. Kate Stewart. Yeah. Um But this girl on TikTok If I can find the TikTok, I'll put it, like I'll copy or link it or something. But you can find it, but I think I forgot what it's called, but she was talking about the second book and how she had to put the book down and go give her husband a hug and ask her husband for a hug. And I was like, that is a book I need to read. So I pip I bought the first one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yes. And then um for me, I think it would be probably more horror. Because I like like you said, it's a genre I don't typically pick up. I typically like watching horror. I haven't done a lot of reading horror.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like reading horror. Like it's I don't want to say it's different than watching, but it's more detailed. It's kind of potentially graphic because there's more it's not like you're just watching them cut his foot off. You're gonna describing it.

SPEAKER_01

So which that'll be really interesting, especially like um for some of them I want to read. I really want to read like um The Shining in Doctor Sleep, um Frankenstein. Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_00

Uh I love a little tiny horror book. Especially if it's pink.

SPEAKER_01

I think we're gonna bring this up every episode.

SPEAKER_00

Episode pink tiny horror books, my favorite.

SPEAKER_01

Um send her any pink tiny horror books that you have.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, gimme. Um no, I just love a good small horror book because a lot of the time they're the most impactful horror books.

SPEAKER_01

So the short stories tend to be that way.

SPEAKER_00

I don't like short stories. I know we were just talking about I don't like short stories. I like novellist-length books, but I don't like like a six-page story. Like it's not enough for me. Like, I don't, and I don't like a collection. The only collection of short stories I like is scary stories to tell in the dark. That's a great I saw the movie is. But like I just read a short storybook and I I I was so annoyed with it. I was just like, I wanted more. Yeah, you want more detail, more than I wanted more after, like I the book the thing would end, and I would just want more. Like after. I'm like, wait, I need more. Like what happens after? What happens like before? Like, I just need more. Like, where did we go? Like, how did we get here?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I like a novella.

SPEAKER_01

Love a novella.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's how I feel about like fantasy standalones though. I need more.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And we talked about we're gonna talk about that a little bit more when we talk about Princess Bride, but two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um about the moving my chair.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Because it'll make a squeaky noise. Make a squeaky noise and then you can't hear us. Okay. Okay, you were talking more about horror, I'm sorry. No, you're no you're fine. Um yeah, like I want to get more into because I do like I do like horror as a um as like a genre, just in general.

SPEAKER_00

It just showed her so we just me and her boyfriend just showed her saw.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we just we just watched Saw, which is really fun.

SPEAKER_00

Um And then we watched Princess Bread.

SPEAKER_01

And then we watched Princess Bread immediately after. If you know You know, and um Yeah, there's a couple other ones that like my boyfriend really likes horror books. And like he a huge horror fan. I think you and him are probably the you, him, and one of our other really good friends are like way up there on like you know a lot more than I do about horror.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I thought I don't know everything about horror, but you like there's people that know more than me, but I know I I do know a good job.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you've you've watched a a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. A lot of horror movies.

SPEAKER_01

That and like foreign horror movies too.

SPEAKER_00

I love a good foreign horror movie. Raw. Raw trigger warning on that one, but that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01

Like my boyfriend always refers to the one from um we were just we just walk, we just showed you this clip for the first time. Oh it's called Pulse. It's specifically, I think it's the Japanese version of Pulse.

SPEAKER_00

The original version, I think.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's called Cairo, yeah. I think, yeah, and it's so there's a scene in that in that movie where um they had gotten like a ballerina to like walk like like to like walk perfectly, but like it it looks so strange and it's so like uncanny valley type stuff, which I had realized and figured out that I'm fine with like a lot of other horror stuff, but the uncanny valley is what gets me and I can't watch that stuff, it creeps me out too much. Anyway, all right. Do you want to ask the next question?

SPEAKER_00

Give me the next question. So are you more of a harsh writer or more relaxed reader? So when you rate a book, on like the five five point the five-star scale, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um I would say I'm kind of in the middle. Like I'm not like super like super lenient where I can only just do like one or five, and I'm kind of like I don't know. I guess I'm kind of on the harsher end, but because like I rated um I rate books low if I don't like them. Not maybe just because I just purely based off one time.

SPEAKER_00

Like what would you consider to be low? Probably just a one star. So you wouldn't consider like a two-star low book?

SPEAKER_01

Um maybe like a yeah, maybe a two-star low book. Kind of like you think.

SPEAKER_00

Two and a half, two and five. Right in the middle.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's true. So yeah, probably around, yeah, probably two, maybe one and a half. Yeah. Maybe it's a low book for me.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like I'm lax, but I'm also like not a lax. Like I'm not afraid to give a one star, but like I'm a rounder upper. So yeah, if I'm like I don't do like 3.25, 3.5. I do like I do the 3.5. I won't do like the 2.5. If I'm like, if it's I'm like, if I'm stuck between a three and a half and a three, I'll just give it a three and a half. Like um, but I think most of my books I've read this year, this year, are four. I only have two five stars so far. You've you've read some pretty good books this year. Yeah, I read I read some read some good ones. I only have two that are below a three. Yeah. But like here's the thing one of the books that I rated under three was a two and a half, and it was a quarter frost and starlight. And it's not because it's a bad book. It's a good, it's a good book. It's a good book. I personally compared to the rest of the series, I did not feel like it, because like let me rate read you my ratings really quick. This is for Wings and Ruins, Frost and Starlight, and Silver Flame. So it's a four, a two and a half, and a five. But like, um Court of Mist and Fury was probably like a four and a half for me, and Avatar is like a four like a four.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I didn't because of the length and the style of the book, I didn't feel right giving it something close to the other ones. And that's fair. But it wasn't because it's a bad book. I really enjoyed the book. I think it's a fine book, like if but it's not like if you don't read that book, it's you're not missing much.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's just a little novella. It's a new it's a little novella. Um, it kind of gives you like a happy fur. It's like a cleanser palette cleanser. Yeah, afterwing is a ruin that like completely destroys you, and then After Wing and Ruin completely destroys you, and then you immediately pick up that book and you're like, wow, that's a complete like 180 from what just happened.

SPEAKER_00

No complete 180.

SPEAKER_01

But sometimes people really like the fluff and the like kind of.

SPEAKER_00

I don't mind fluff. I thought Onyx Storm was kind of not. I don't know. I'll say. I Onyx Storm was my lowest rated one out of that series. The fourth one series.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but not by much.

SPEAKER_01

Because I mean it's the third book.

SPEAKER_00

I will say it was a lot of world building, but the ending made up for it. It was almost a three and a half.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was I liked it though.

SPEAKER_00

But it doesn't mean it's a bad book.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like I mean, I think it's just because it's like the third book in the series, you're always gonna kind of get that like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Something I won't do. People think I'm weird for doing this. I'll never give the first book of a series a five star. Yeah. Which is fair. I just don't know why. I just can't give it a five star.

SPEAKER_01

There's I think there was only one that you've done.

SPEAKER_00

Was there I have two I have two five stars.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We can talk about that at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. For a discussion for later.

SPEAKER_00

Well, yeah, we'll talk about like our top-rated, low-rated books. Yeah, that's true. Throughout the year. I mean, if you want to know, right now, it's currently. It's currently a quarter silver flames is a five-star. Of course. And then How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps is also a five-star, and they're two totally different books. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

From what I've heard you talking about that second one, it sounds it sounds really fun.

SPEAKER_00

It's a comfy cozy book, but not everyone likes those. I like those, but I also read it in between like right after reading Silverflame. Yeah. Like not right after, but like pretty close to after. Like, but like, for example, like here's my thing. I'm going to my Goodreads. I rated how to defeat a Demon King in ten easy steps a five star. But it only has a 3.9 on Goodreads. Doesn't mean I'm wrong. Everybody just has 300%. Also, I rated a five star. Has a 4.45. Doesn't mean I'm wrong. Yeah. It's all subjective.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

And there's sometimes What did you rate Onyx Storm? Oh. Oh, you didn't put that in your book.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't put that in my book yet. Because I was use I have a I should because I was gonna use my current um reading journal just for the podcast reads. Maybe I'll get another one for the other books.

SPEAKER_00

I just use one for one for it all.

SPEAKER_01

But I want to reread the um Fourth Wing, the Empyrean series when the fourth one comes out. I want to reread it, so maybe that's when I'll put it in there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um as my second reread. But anyway, um I probably probably would rate it a 3.5. Yeah. Yeah. It was good, but like it like it kind of had um But see, I did a f I did a four, and she did it.

SPEAKER_00

Got scared that I wasn't recording again.

SPEAKER_01

I was like, no! We've been having problems with it not recording properly, so that's why we've had to take a couple breaks.

SPEAKER_00

I'm glad we figured it out while we're recording in the same room rather than like sometimes we like the first one we recorded separately. Yeah. That would have been nightmare.

SPEAKER_01

We love Isaac for saving us.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Okay. I think we finish the rating one to be We're having technical difficulties, so sorry. This is a weird, choppy episode.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah, I think we finished with the sixth question. Yes. Okay. So now we have a fun little game.

SPEAKER_00

Fun little game. It's not really a game, it's just kind of a game.

SPEAKER_01

Kind of a game. It's not a game, but it You wanna play a game? Game over! How how many times are we gonna make a thing up? How many times are we gonna mention Saw in one of the games?

SPEAKER_00

Take a shot every time we mention anything saw related.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god, Gigi. Bubby, please stop.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So we're you can find probably find this on TikTok. I don't know if I've uploaded it yet. But but it's that 54321. Yeah. Like book taggy, gamey. Yes. Lean, 93% lean meat gain thing. I don't know. Gamey sounded like meat, so.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god, my cat's being crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so it's five books you love. Yep. Four books you want to read. Yep. Three books you will always recommend to somebody, two books you have recently read, and one book you're currently reading. Okay. So. Do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_01

I can go first for the we could do like five and five and then four and four. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So my first. So like I do my five and you do your five. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So the five books that I love. I love Fourth Wing. We all know this.

SPEAKER_00

Shocker. Shocker. I love I love Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Moss. Take a drink every time she mentions an SJM book or uh Rebecca Yarros book. Also. Rebecca Yarros? If you touch Sawyer Riddick, we're coming for you. I'm coming for you.

SPEAKER_01

Um The Things They Carried. Um, The Odyssey. And then I put the Giver on here. But I think I'm gonna change that. Sorry. I wanna change that. I'm gonna change that. Yeah, I wanna. Because I do like that book, but it maybe it's maybe not on the five books that I love.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so what would your fifth book be?

SPEAKER_01

I okay. I'm gonna say Divine Rivals, but I haven't finished it yet. But I have a feeling that it's gonna be up there. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put that down there.

SPEAKER_00

It makes me really happy because my five books are Divine Rivals, is my first one on my list because I love that book. Yeah. Um I have notes on your setting disappearance. That book emotionally destroys me. Um I fell in love with hope. Also emotionally destroys.

SPEAKER_01

Which we're which we're which we have a buddy read coming up to do that. Well, I mean, this whole thing is a buddy read, I guess.

SPEAKER_00

This is just one consecutive buddy read. Exactly. Um Mr. Wrong Number. Ooh, a contemporary Sam recommending. Contemporary romance. Loves a contemporary romance? Um, I just like it, that one, because it starts with the line. It started the night I burnt down my heart. My house. My apartment.

SPEAKER_01

We were so we we go to this very local um bookstore, uh, secondhand bookstore.

SPEAKER_00

And it was there.

SPEAKER_01

And it was there, and that was she read me the first line of it, and I was like, oh, that's not what I thought it was at all.

SPEAKER_00

And then my fifth book is Into the Wild.

SPEAKER_01

That I've heard is like an amazing book.

SPEAKER_00

I so not technically, it's a nonfiction book. Um, it's by John Crocker. It's about the life of Christopher McCannless, who I don't know if if you don't like you probably read it in English class. That's where I found it. Um, but it's about a guy named Christopher Grant Canless, who he's comes from this rich, wealthy family, but then just like packs up and backpacks across the country, and then he ends up he ends up does sadly passing away in Alaska.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But I d I don't know. There's just I just love that book. It was my senior quote. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I love I love backpacking just in general.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, yeah. That book I really love.

SPEAKER_01

So Okay. So then four books I wanna read. Okay. So, um, For Whom the Bells Tolls. I wanna read that.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's For Whom the Bell Tolls, I think is the one. Yeah, because whom For Whom the Bells toll, I think it's a completely different one. I think you're right. From yeah.

SPEAKER_01

B-E. B-L-L-E. Um that one's by Genessa I want to say Alan, but I know it's I think I'm wrong. I might be wrong. JC Lynn.

SPEAKER_00

J C Lynn, I was so wrong. Yeah, because for whom the bell's toll is by Ern Ernest Hemingway.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so for whom the bell toll is Yes, that's the book I meant.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah. Very excited. I watched all of the I watched the entirety of the TikTok series that she did.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I've watched all of it. Like I started I started pretty early on when she started making those. And then like I kind of watched her write the book too, which is kind of fun. Yeah. To kind of have an author, and like I now have that book, so I I'm really, really excited to read it. And I love that story that she's created of just like the idea of.

SPEAKER_00

It's like a cozy, like cozy kind of.

SPEAKER_01

I love it because I love the relationship she has in that, um, yeah, in that book. It's just so fun. I'm so excited. Okay. And then um another one is Quicksilver. Very excited to read that one. I've heard nothing but good things about that book. I'm trying not to spoil it for myself, so I don't know too much about it. I just know I've heard really good things about that book. Um, Throne of Glass. Obviously, we're gonna be starting that hopefully here soon.

SPEAKER_00

Um in preparation.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. In prep scared me. He keeps scaring you. You keep forgetting he's up there. Well, I keep hearing like I have some R in my ear. Alright, and then my last one's Frankenstein. I really want to read Mary Shelly Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Um, for me, I have Black Sheep. I forgot. I picked that up from the library. Yeah. It just it was a pink book in the horror section. Are we shocked? No. Are we shocked? No. Go Gentle. That one I saw in the bookstore, and I was like, ooh, I wanna read that. Play Nice, that one's also a horror book. And then one, I'm very excited about this one. It's called Girl Dinner by Alva Blake.

SPEAKER_01

She wrote Girl Dinner.

SPEAKER_00

Girl Dinner. Um, she wrote the book Um With You in the Ether, I think is what it's called. Or like, I think she wrote the Atlas Six. Um, but I saw this book in my Barnes and Noble, my my local Barnes Noble, and I was like, oh, it's$30. I'm not gonna buy it, I'll just wait. And then I went to the used bookstore and they had it for$10, so I bought it. Sprayed Edges and all.

SPEAKER_01

Steel. And like we had we were just talking about that book. She had shown me a picture of it in the store, like maybe 10 to 20 minutes before we had found it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, ooh, sorry, uh my TikTok was play. I was like, ooh, look at this book. Um, yeah, so those are four books that I want to read. Okay, and then three books you will always recommend.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so I put the Lore Olympus books. Um yes, they count. The the um the graphic novels. The graphic novels based off of um Persephone. Yeah, Persephone and um Hades love story. It's very cute, it's very adorable. I love it. That's like my cozy read. Because I love to read it and I'm like, oh, they're so cute together. I love it. And then um I really liked The Illustrated Man because every story has like a lesson. Like in it's oh yeah, that's which is kind of fun because you have to kind of like they're all bizarre stories too. I mean, some of them are really it's really well written and it's just like really it's like a dystopian like style writing and like setting-wise, but it it's just like so odd. It's like such a unique read. So I I enjoyed that one, and then um Animal Farm.

SPEAKER_00

Did you read that in school or did you read that on your own free time?

SPEAKER_01

I read it in school.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of these books I read in school, if you cannot tell, but um, I did I did have a lot of takeaways from the books I did I did read, and I did like a lot of them um that kind of opened up more um perspectives on different things and things that I um.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny because there's a lot of books that I read in school that I didn't like in school rather than I reread them as an adult or like once I was out of school and I liked them better. And I think it was just that aspect of like having to read being being told to read it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Cause it was more like for to me, all of these were more like I'm being told to read these, and I'm like, I'm going into it like with a really bad, like, oh my god, I don't want to read this for school. It's bleh. But then I actually was like, oh, I actually really enjoy these books. And then and then I started reading Aquatar, and then that was like that that opened up the whole other fantasy realm of it. So I was like, oh my god, there's so much more that I'm missing out.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Hence the podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Podcast. Um three books I will recommend is the first one is A Quarter Silver Flames, but please read the rest of it. You need to read the rest of it. But or else it's not gonna make any sense. You need to read the rest of it. I just I don't know why I just put a quarter soon to the film and then the English is hard. Um, and then Dungeon Crawler Carl. Love that book. If you love a good time, you love a talking cat. Named Princess Donut. I really like that book. And then Twilight. Yeah. I I understand that not everybody likes Twilight. I'm gonna say it. I understand that. But it's like the same with all books. Not everyone's gonna like every book. Yeah. I know people that don't like Avatar. I look at them and like they have five heads, but yeah, but there are some people that don't like Avatar, there's some people that don't like Fourth Wing. But I mean there's stuff that other people like that I don't like. Yeah. It's just again, it's subjective. It's a pro it's a pro.

SPEAKER_01

This is this is all just our opinions. Yay. Anyway, okay. Um two books that I recently read. Um, so recently finished Onyx Storm. I think you also just recently finished Onyx Storm.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I have to read I have to alter what I wrote here because it's very different. I've read more books.

SPEAKER_01

It's updated. And then um also just finished Princess Bride.

SPEAKER_02

The Princess Bride.

SPEAKER_01

Princess Bride.

SPEAKER_00

Game over! If you don't know why we keep laughing about the reference of Saw and the Princess Bride, is Carrie Elise is in both of them. Yeah. He plays Wesley. And he also plays Gordon. And he plays Dr. Gordon and Saw. And I think and we watched them simultaneously, and it was it was really funny funny.

SPEAKER_01

Um because the two different roles. Very different movies, very different movies.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, two books I recently read. Originally I had put down other two, but the two that I did just finish was How to Kill a Demon How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps and Onyx Storm. But what I had originally put in here was Red Queen and Murderbot.

SPEAKER_01

So also very we filled these out a while ago. Very different books. Updating them too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So we're updating as we currently are going.

SPEAKER_01

And then a book I'm currently reading, um, Divine Rivals. We were just talking about it. But the other one is Silver Flame, which we were also just talking about, so I have gotta do one. Yeah. So I choose Divine Rivals.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. One book I'm currently reading is not quite dead yet, and I don't know why I keep doing this. When I write not quite dead yet, I keep writing quite as quiet. Don't know why. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01

Very similar words.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but not quite dead is what I'm currently reading. I have a big TBR. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's my biggest TBR.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It's only it's only third now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I got we got we got time and it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00

Star Wars Day. Yeah, it's my favorite day. And then Revenge of the Fifth. I love Star Wars. I'm currently wearing a Star Wars shirt now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're wearing a Phasma shirt.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Phasma. Best character in the Star Wars movies. I don't actually think that, so don't come for me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I my favorite movie is um Return of the Jedi.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good one. I have to rewatch them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, almost so if I re-watch the entirety of Star Wars and I rewatch Return of the Jedi, and I see like Anakin pop up, like at the end, where like Luke sees like Obi-Wan, Anakin, and then um Yoda. For some reason my voice my brain said toad, and I was like, that is not correct. Anyway, Yoda Luke sees him and then sees Anakin like for the first time, like as Anakin and not Darth Vader. I I ball every single time. I'm not kidding. That's really I'm a Star Wars nerd, guys. I can I can I can beat you guys with some Star Wars questions. I'm pretty pretty factual on that part.

SPEAKER_00

I took a class in college called um the Star Wars as the hero's journey, and it was a religion class. That's so cool. Yeah. I one of my homework assignments was every week I had to have a daily journal of how I used the force. That is so cool. And then she was like, I know you can't actually do it. But like, so my journal would be like I sat on my bed for 30 minutes trying to turn my lights off.

SPEAKER_01

I just like like just holding out your hand, just like, yeah. It's something okay. I will say, I think what I always do when I have like one of those electronic doors, sometimes if there's no one next to me, I'll just I'll just flick my hand like I'm Obi-Wan opening the door.

SPEAKER_00

I do that too!

SPEAKER_01

I'm like, oh god, there's you've got to. I've heard Ewan McGregor even does it. As as he's like, why wouldn't he?

SPEAKER_00

Um this isn't wholly not related, but um at Epic Universe, there's a Victoria Frankenstein animatronic who is Frankenstein's granddaughter. Um and there's a part where she goes, People will know the name Frankenstein, and she has her arms like up, and then she opens them to like a T-pose and she goes, Open the doors! And I laugh every time just because like I like do I like look at my husband and like open the door.

SPEAKER_01

Open the doors. I want to go to Epic Universe so bad.

SPEAKER_00

I know we need to go. I just went. I I went to go meet Yoshi because Yoshi's there right now. Ooh. I'm a big Mario nerd.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You guys even did it for your wedding.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we played Mario Kart as our first dance. Because my husband doesn't dance. Okay, so we're having technical issues. So we but we basically finished the episode. Yeah. So we're gonna end it here before we can't record anymore. But thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00

And we'll see you. Well we'll you you'll hear us. We'll see you, but in the next one. But so get your reading done, please.

SPEAKER_01

So that way we can we won't spoil anything for you when if you want if you wanted to read along with us.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and then um, so we're reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman and One Italian Summer by Rebecca Surial. So you can read both. You could read one. Or if you're just maybe wanting like a you just want like a a spark note, but there will t probably be spoilers in them. Um and then at the end of that episode, we'll talk about the next series we're gonna read. Yep. Because then the next episode after that will be for Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, which is a duology. Yeah. Get your reading done and we'll we'll catch you in the next one. Yeah, we will. Bye bye.