0:08

You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show

0:11

about book culture and literary life designed

0:13

to help you read better. I'm author

0:15

and book devourer Mallory O'Mara. And I'm

0:17

Bria Grant, filmmaker and e-reader. This episode,

0:20

we're ticking off a box from the

0:22

2024 Reading Glasses Challenge. The first tick.

0:24

The first box. First tick. First

0:27

tick of the year. It is read

0:29

a book by a non-binary author. Plus

0:31

we test out a multi-page

0:33

bookmark, which I have thoughts

0:36

about, and solve a problem

0:38

about recommending older books. But first Bria,

0:40

what are you reading? Okay.

0:43

So Mallory, I started reading this

0:45

book, Edenville, a novel by Sam

0:47

Rebeline. Why does this sound so

0:50

familiar? It came out last year. It is a horror

0:52

book. I'm surprised you didn't read it. I was wondering

0:54

if you had. Someone recommended it to me and I

0:56

was like, huh, that sounds really weird. And

0:59

I'm so, it's really scary to

1:02

me. And so am I having trouble reading it at

1:04

night? So what I ended up doing had a long

1:06

drive. So I ended up also getting

1:08

it on Libra FM. Use

1:10

code Glasses if you go sign up. So

1:13

it's read by Charlie Thurston, who does a great

1:15

job. But okay, I have two, first

1:17

of all, let me tell you what it's about. There's a man

1:19

named Cam and he published this novel called

1:21

Shattered Man. And he's not really

1:23

having, he's trying trouble writing his next one.

1:25

And it's from his point of view and his

1:28

girlfriend's point of view. And his girlfriend, basically

1:31

these people approached him and they're like, we love

1:33

your book and we want

1:35

you to come be a

1:37

guest lecturer at our university. We

1:40

think your book is so amazing. But this is a book

1:42

that didn't sell very well. It's not that big of a

1:44

book. And his girlfriend's like, what? They

1:47

want you to come be an artist in residence at

1:49

this university. And she's like, but she doesn't know how

1:51

to say like, I don't think

1:53

you're this famous and I don't think your book is this good.

1:56

That's hilarious. And that's

1:58

the most horrifying part to me. That is

2:00

the part that I cannot handle. Oh my

2:02

god. Sorry, I'm screaming in the... I cannot

2:04

handle the part where maybe he's not good

2:07

enough and she doesn't know how to tell

2:09

him. And then from there, it's

2:11

also like the town he's being invited

2:13

to is known for being little creepy and

2:16

weird and weird shit happens there and people are like,

2:18

oh, them's the breaks. They literally always say them's the breaks.

2:20

But it's like this man, his face was

2:22

ripped off in the middle of the night and no one knows how.

2:24

And they're like, them's the breaks. And

2:27

the girlfriend whose name is Quinn is really weirded out

2:29

by all of this. And

2:31

they get there and she's like, I gotta

2:33

figure out what's going on? This town is

2:35

really weird. I don't think he deserves to be there,

2:37

but I don't know how to say it. And

2:40

she goes- And she gets to the town and she was like,

2:42

oh, okay, I get it. It's weird. And then she goes to

2:44

the library and they're like, oh, you're

2:46

here to research the town? There's always some woman

2:48

researching the town because her husband- What? It

2:51

gets so weird and meta. And

2:53

then he gets there and they show up at this

2:55

house and he's like, oh, I see this house that

2:57

we're in is the house from my dream that

3:00

inspired my book. Anyway, you think I'm telling you

3:02

a lot? I'm not actually telling you that much.

3:04

There's a lot. There's also a whole- I completely

3:06

missed this book. It's really good. And I don't

3:08

know why it's so scary. I think in part

3:10

it's because this couple can't talk to each other.

3:12

And I'm like, just tell him you don't think

3:14

that he deserves to be here. Like you have

3:16

to tell him because you're now putting yourself in

3:18

danger because you won't tell him that he's not

3:20

good enough, that his book is shitty. Brutal. It's

3:23

like so brutal. Anyway, I was

3:25

driving a long way yesterday. And so I

3:27

was like, I'm just gonna see if they have this on Libra

3:29

FM, which they did. So I listened to

3:31

it. But have you ever been

3:34

reading a book and you start listening to it and you're like, is

3:36

this even the same book? Because it feels so

3:38

different. The listen is so different. And I don't know

3:40

what that is. We should do a show by the

3:43

way. It's somehow like, I think it's part of the

3:45

performance of the audio book. It's so different from the

3:47

way that you're reading it to yourself and your head.

3:49

And in my head, it's really snarky, but the read

3:51

is less, it's like very different interpretation. Like it's just

3:54

very like what it is on the page, which

3:56

I guess is kind of what you have to do. You can't really, it'd

3:59

be weird to do a snarky. he read of a book

4:01

if you that was the authors intention which I will

4:03

say most of the time

4:05

authors do not get to pick or interact with the

4:07

people who read their audiobook which I think is silly

4:09

is great and the voices they're doing actually

4:12

they're doing it they are really

4:14

good it's just it's different than what I

4:16

thought but I am riveted and I

4:18

was listening to it on the way here I was

4:20

listening to it yesterday I'm like I have to find

4:22

out what happens in this book cuz I just like

4:24

need this couple to leave this town I need them

4:26

to leave it's it's horrifying anyway

4:29

what are you reading Wow I cannot believe I think

4:31

you would get it Edenville

4:33

Edenville huh it's weird because there's two books that

4:35

have a name Eden in them from last year

4:37

and I actually started reading the wrong one one

4:40

of them was the one from Adam Sternberg

4:42

is that the other Eden Eden something yeah

4:44

okay cuz I'm there's one

4:46

called I think called the other even

4:49

Eden or this other Eden or something

4:51

his second book is the Eden test oh there's

4:53

another one called this other even by Paul Harding which

4:55

I also know how why are there so many even

4:57

though I don't know what the deal is I do

4:59

feel like publishing needs to get together sometimes and be

5:02

like it's like the version of the seven a half

5:04

whatever yeah yeah I was supposed to all get together

5:06

and be like this is our plan

5:08

for the year yeah yeah yeah like if you have something

5:10

also in this vein what are you reading I

5:13

am reading a book that it does ever

5:15

happen to you where you like you get a book from

5:17

Libby and you just open it up just to like just

5:20

to read a first page just to make sure you seems

5:22

like something you want to read if not you'll

5:24

re-release it back into the ecosystem like a fish

5:27

I got this book and I opened it up I

5:29

was like I just want to read a couple pages

5:31

see if I'm gonna like it and then suddenly I

5:33

read two chapters and I didn't know what happened oh

5:36

wow yeah one of those books it's called wild and

5:38

distant seas by Tara Carr Roberts and

5:40

I mentioned this in our anticipated books episode

5:42

for January so folks might have already seen

5:44

this in the show notes for that one

5:47

but it is I it's

5:49

kind of it was kind of pitched to

5:51

me as like kind of a Moby Dick

5:53

retelling but it's not even that it's like

5:55

she uses the events the

5:58

starting events of Moby Dick as jumping-off

6:00

point. The book is about this

6:02

woman and she is all alone

6:04

in the world. It's the mid 1800s in New

6:06

England and she gets to Nantucket and she needs

6:08

to figure out like, alright I need to find

6:10

a place to stay, I need a job, and

6:12

she ends up

6:15

meeting this man and getting a job in

6:17

his restaurant and marrying him. But in

6:20

the beginning, two of the people

6:22

who come to this restaurant are Queef Wag

6:24

and Ishmail. Oh, but

6:26

that's it. Like that, she doesn't go off, she doesn't

6:28

join them on the boat. It's just like the

6:31

same, it's like in the same universe. Oh,

6:33

I see. You know what I mean? Yeah,

6:35

it's really interesting, but basically what happens is

6:37

the event, like her meeting these two characters

6:39

from Moby Dick sets off a chain of

6:41

events and she ends up making these decisions

6:44

and the rest of the book is

6:46

how those choices that she makes ripple

6:50

through the generations. Like

6:52

it's like, I think it's four generations

6:54

of women all over the world that

6:57

like all start with

6:59

her and so it's like her

7:01

narrative and then her descendants narrative and it

7:04

goes from like Nantucket to

7:06

Brazil to Italy to Idaho and

7:08

it's like a big saga of

7:10

and there's a little bit of magical

7:13

realism to it because she has this power where

7:16

if she's talking to somebody she can kind of

7:18

like fudge their memory a little bit. Like

7:21

if you had come in the studio today

7:23

I could be like, Opria we weren't mentioned,

7:26

we weren't recording today. You'd be like, you're

7:28

right, we weren't recording today. So just like

7:30

a little bit of just a smidge of

7:32

like a little little sprinkle of magical realism

7:35

but it's so beautifully written like it's the

7:37

kind of writing that you just like just

7:39

sucks you right in. Yeah, I love that.

7:41

And I'm really enjoying it. So

7:44

that's Wild and Distant Seas by

7:46

Tara Carr-Roberts. Another 2024 book.

7:48

I know. Here you are. Here I

7:50

am. And mine is Enville,

7:53

a novel by Tam Riveling.

8:02

So I want to say hello to share some

8:04

listener feedback. Tanya wrote in about book tracking spreadsheets.

8:06

This feedback made me laugh

8:08

really hard. Tanya, you're fantastic. Tanya

8:11

says, I got really excited when you mentioned

8:13

using a spreadsheet as a reading tracker. So

8:15

last year we reviewed the

8:17

Book Riot book tracking spreadsheet.

8:21

Tara says, I love playing with my reading spreadsheets

8:23

so much and I thought surely you would both

8:25

be super excited about how fun this is. I

8:27

was surprised by the sort of lukewarm response. So

8:29

I went and looked at the Book Riot spreadsheet

8:31

and yeah, that's not something to get excited about

8:34

when that's just the data gathering page. Spreadsheets get

8:36

interesting when you do stuff with the data. So

8:38

I wanted to show you how cool it can

8:40

be when you put your data to good use.

8:42

I present to you my 2023 personal reading spreadsheet.

8:44

Yeah, Brea is looking at this right now. I

8:47

was blown away. I didn't even know spreadsheets could

8:49

do that. Hey, first of all, Tanya

8:51

reads a lot of books. Whoa, what?

8:56

Now is this something you just program spreadsheets

8:58

to do? Well, read

9:00

the second part of this because I think

9:02

that's part of what this is. The

9:05

most visual page obviously is the dashboard. I

9:07

have gauges that tell me whether I'm on

9:09

track to meet various reading goals and a

9:11

pie chart to show some statistics about my

9:13

reading. Another useful page is the challenges tab

9:15

where I keep track of reading challenges that

9:17

I'm participating in this year. I've

9:19

added graphs there to show how much of the

9:21

challenge I've read, how much is in progress and

9:23

how much I've yet to begin. Wherever

9:26

I start a new book, I take a

9:29

couple of minutes to update my Goodreads page

9:31

and add the book and a status to

9:33

my spreadsheet. Then I get automatically updated visual

9:35

representations of my progress and reading profile. It's

9:37

all super nerdy, but my reading spreadsheet is

9:39

one of my favorite toys. So this is

9:41

the kind of, you know how in some

9:43

books when a character from the olden times

9:45

comes across the technology that is so impressive

9:48

that it's like magic? That's what

9:50

this is. I feel like that too. I

9:52

mean, it's like literally there's settings.

9:54

There's pie charts. Yeah, with color

9:56

coded things. Like I didn't even know

9:58

spreadsheets could do that. this. I only

10:00

promise I feel like this would require you

10:03

and I to learn a skill of

10:05

making spreadsheets. I bet it's not that

10:07

hard. I'm now I'm like just

10:09

impressed with with her reading. This blew my face

10:11

off. Oh wow we can't even see her TBR.

10:14

Well hopefully we're allowed to just link to this because

10:16

we should let everyone take a look. I'll ask her

10:18

because I don't know if she wants the general public

10:22

to see this but it is I've never seen a spreadsheet

10:24

like this. I didn't know spreadsheets could do this. I thought

10:26

a spreadsheet was just a spreadsheet. Wow very

10:29

very impressive. If I had something like this or I

10:31

would get excited about it too. I didn't even know

10:34

this was a possibility.

10:36

Yeah this is amazing. This

10:38

is actually quite amazing. I'm very impressed

10:41

and you're right it would make oh

10:43

my gosh well I just really know that she has a pace where

10:45

she writes down the number of books

10:47

that she does by the day. Anyway

10:50

yes it's very impressive. Holy

10:52

shit and then we got this really fun

10:54

bookseller email. Jasper wrote in to say just

10:56

wanted to pop in and say every time

10:58

you mentioned TL Hutu's Edinburgh Night Series I

11:00

light up inside as I'm an ex bookseller

11:03

in Edinburgh who helped to hand sell a

11:05

lot of copies of the first book. I

11:07

mean me and Jasper clearly need to be

11:09

best friend. You do. Jasper

11:11

says when you're reading the second book and the

11:13

characters get coffee from Jasper's which I do remember.

11:16

That's me. Well I'm so glad

11:18

that you're supporting this wonderful book and Mallory

11:20

I adore the Lady from the Black Lagoon.

11:22

Jasper thank you so much. Bria you want

11:24

to read Jasper's Wheelhouse? Yes. Jasper's Wheelhouse is

11:26

anything horror fiction and nonfiction. I have a

11:28

penchant for morbid nonfiction fast-paced reads

11:31

found families supernatural thrillers and queer romances. I

11:33

love it. So you can email us at

11:35

readingglassespodcast.com if you want a list of all

11:37

the books we talk about on the show

11:39

delivered to your inbox every month you can

11:41

sign up for our newsletter there's a link

11:43

in the show notes and then reminder that

11:45

this Saturday February 13th is our readathon big

11:48

glass or bookmarks this week. Join us

11:50

at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday

11:52

for a Instagram live that Bria and

11:55

I are gonna kick off the readathon

11:57

with and then we're gonna read for

11:59

a hours when I do regular check-ins on

12:01

Instagram. So the night before, maybe right now

12:03

if you're listening to it when this episode

12:05

comes out, pick out your stack of books,

12:07

pick out your snacks, get ready, it's going

12:09

to be super fun. It's really just an

12:12

excuse to read all day and hang out

12:14

with your friends Mallory and Bria. It is

12:16

going to be a blast. Again, that's this

12:18

Saturday, February 13th. And if you

12:20

want to get a head start and read something that

12:22

a bunch of glasses are going to be reading, you

12:24

can read Starling House by Alexi Harrow. That

12:26

was the book that the glassers in the

12:29

Slack channel and in the email voting. It

12:31

was the clear winner. We're very excited. It's

12:33

a book that neither Bria and I read

12:35

last year, mostly because I got

12:37

a PDF. Oh, yep, that's right. Mallory

12:40

did not want to convert, but I'm excited

12:42

to read it. And I'm so pumped about

12:44

it. We love Alexi Harrow. I love this

12:47

cover of this book and it's haunted house

12:49

book that I didn't read. We are rectifying

12:51

this great wrong that I have done to

12:53

myself last year. So excited. At the end

12:55

of February, we're going to be doing a

12:57

glass or book club via zoom for members

12:59

for Starling House. If you want to get

13:01

a head start starting it on the readathon

13:03

would be perfect. So before we recommend books

13:05

by non-binary authors, we're going to see a

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14:00

just saying, this may be TMI, but I am always

14:02

looking for a way to reduce the bloat. I just

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feel like every time I eat, I'm like, oh, why

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do I feel gross afterwards? Why do I feel like

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try these gut and brain health recipes and

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I got some really, really great

14:23

meals that made me feel good. I

14:25

had this kale salad, I had this cauliflower.

14:28

It was like some really delicious stuff that

14:30

I wouldn't have made at home because they

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send you all these cute little things where

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I'm like, oh yeah, I am gonna toast

14:37

some almonds. I am gonna put some

14:39

fun stuff on here that I don't just have at the house.

14:42

I don't have these nice dressings that

14:45

I'm massaging into my kale at home. It's

14:47

nice to get them, they tell you how

14:49

to do it, and it's quick and it's

14:51

easy. They send you all sorts of farm

14:53

fresh ingredients like figs, dates, artichokes, sustainably

14:55

sourced seafood. Anything you're looking for, they're going to

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have. If you haven't tried Green Chef, I think

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it is such a good time if you're trying

15:02

to eat healthy, if you are just a busy

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person, or if you're just like me where I'm

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just sort of tired of cooking all the time,

15:08

I want someone to make that decision for me

15:11

so that the food is there, I don't have

15:13

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New episodes every Thursday. On maximumfun.org or wherever

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you get your podcasts. This

16:29

week, we're ticking off a box

16:32

on the 2024 Reading Glasses Glasses

16:34

Glasses Glasses Challenge. Gonna add a

16:36

new one for a new year. Read

16:38

a book by a non-binary author. We are

16:40

going to recommend some of our favorites and

16:42

talk about how we're completing this part of

16:44

the challenge. Also,

16:48

we want to remind folks, we have done

16:50

an episode about this, but usually when an

16:53

author wants to have their identity known by

16:55

readers, they'll include that information on

16:58

their website or their social media. Some

17:00

authors do it in the bio in the back of their book,

17:02

some of them do it in their Instagram

17:05

or Twitter profile. Some

17:07

of them just have it in their About Me section on

17:10

their website. If not, they might not want to share it

17:12

publicly or have their books categorized as such. You

17:14

probably shouldn't go around emailing authors asking

17:16

what their gender identity are. We

17:19

recommend focusing on authors who share that

17:21

information with the world and want their

17:24

books to be categorized in that

17:26

way. So, Brianna, what book are

17:28

you choosing for this part of the challenge? Well,

17:31

I'm about... I would say I

17:33

had a couple on my list and this

17:35

one, I'm over halfway through. It's a short

17:37

story book. It is Homesick by Nina Sippers.

17:39

Oh, you love this author. I know, and

17:41

I didn't know it came out. I actually

17:43

just totally was under the radar and I

17:45

was like, oh, I wonder because Nina Sipperi

17:47

wrote two novellas that take place in Ikea.

17:50

Fisect and Fina? Yeah.

17:53

And I think they're both really fun. I've recommended them both

17:55

on the show multiple times and they're both sci-fi. And these

17:57

are all wonderful sci-fi books.

18:00

short stories. This is such a wonderful short story book.

18:03

I cannot recommend it enough because I'm about halfway through.

18:05

Actually, I'm more than halfway through because I think all

18:07

I have left is like what is basically a novella

18:09

at the end. So it's a bunch of short stories

18:11

and a novella at the end. If I had read

18:13

this the year it came out, it would be on

18:16

my top of the year. Wow. It is so good.

18:18

And it is obviously very inclusive,

18:20

which is really nice. Like the story I'm reading

18:22

the novella part right now, which is about a

18:24

person who discovered this race

18:26

of ferret muskrats that are

18:28

the size of people. And they found evidence

18:33

of this, so they become really famous because

18:35

it turns out there's this race of giant

18:37

marmots or

18:39

whatever. What's a marmot? Is that a thing? I

18:42

think that's the scene that you say down south.

18:44

I see. I think marmot's

18:46

an actual animal. A marmot? I'm

18:48

thinking of varmot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

18:51

That's a real like Yosemite Sam

18:53

word. Anyway. Freya's here with her

18:55

10 gallon

19:00

hat. Oh, a marmot. And I keep

19:02

shooting my guns into the sky. Mallory

19:04

hates it. It's all

19:07

about this woman. She's cleaning a house and she finds

19:09

an ocean behind a couch. She moves

19:12

the couch and she's like, oh, there's an ocean

19:14

back here. And there's just like so

19:16

many good stories. There's one that's kind of

19:18

scary Mallory. You'd really like about a place

19:21

that's been haunted and the race like live

19:23

among people and every person has their own

19:25

little curse. And one guy's like coughing up

19:27

keys. It's amazing. It's

19:29

very, very thought provoking, very

19:31

creative. Hot marmot

19:34

info. A marmot is

19:37

a medium sized rodent sometimes called a

19:39

groundhog. Sometimes it's a whistle pig. Sometimes

19:41

it's a ground squirrel, which is

19:48

what we have. I don't know why. Which

19:51

we have up the mountain. Ground squirrel.

19:53

Or a rock chuck.

19:57

The fuck? Is

20:00

a marmot a varmot? I

20:03

think so because I think a varmot is

20:05

just anything that's like not like a creature

20:08

you don't want around that's a varmot like

20:10

a so all

20:13

Marmots can be varmots, but

20:15

not all varmots are marmots. Yes.

20:18

A varmots is a troublesome wild animal Yeah, it depends

20:20

on do you like do you like your rock chucks

20:22

or do you dislike your rock chucks? Anyway,

20:28

anyway loving it. That's great.

20:30

Telling you I think it

20:32

came out I think it

20:34

came out 2019 and I I swear it would have been

20:36

on my it would have been on my top of the

20:38

year I love it so much. It's so amazing. What are

20:40

you planning on reading? I've been doing a book called Lake

20:42

lore by Annemarie McLemore. It's a

20:45

YA book It's about these two this

20:47

one teen that is trans one team

20:49

That's non-binary and they get pulled into

20:51

a mysterious world under a lake in

20:53

their town fun It's I

20:55

mean is it fun is a bat. It's

20:57

fun. Okay, like I'm a magical like they and

21:01

It's kind of like in this town There was

21:03

always like this kind of like local legend that

21:05

there's like a world under the local lake and

21:07

these two teens find it But

21:10

they can't they have a hard time showing it to

21:12

anybody that's like really kind of only opens to them

21:15

and something happens I won't say anything but seven

21:17

years later things from that world

21:19

that lake world start to cross over and drift

21:21

to the surface of the lake and If

21:25

these two teens want to prevent their secrets from

21:27

coming to life The two of them need to

21:29

reconcile their broken friendship and work together And I

21:31

talked in a previous episode about how much I

21:33

love something happened And now we have to get

21:35

the fan back together and return to the place

21:37

where it happened Oh, yeah, and this is like

21:39

that. I'm like three or four chapters in but

21:41

it's great so far. Mmm All right. Now, let's

21:43

recommend some other books by non-binary authors that we

21:45

have already read Tried and true

21:48

and tested books from the reading glasses

21:50

Hall of Fame Bria. What is the

21:52

first book and author you want to

21:54

recommend? I'm gonna recommend River Solomon who

21:56

does like weird fiction slash

21:58

like speculative fiction like

22:00

science fiction. My favorite

22:02

of theirs is Unkindness of Ghosts,

22:04

which is science fiction that explores

22:07

structural racism and generation ships like

22:09

spaceships like that are up in

22:11

the sky for generations. I've

22:14

talked about this a lot on the show and

22:16

I feel like I retired it but I'm bringing

22:18

it back. Listen, they all come back. We always

22:20

circle back. So I

22:22

think like this book is like space dystopia. They

22:24

also had a book called Saralyn a couple years

22:26

ago that one of my friends is reading and

22:28

he was like this book is amazing because it's

22:31

body horror and also like an

22:33

exploration of like being

22:36

othered and queerness and

22:38

racial identity. So it's like there's

22:40

all and racism. There's like

22:43

they are just really good at taking science

22:45

fiction, doing what science fiction does best, which

22:47

is making an interesting point through

22:49

the use of science fiction, right? Exploring these big themes

22:52

through science fiction. But I'm going on Kindness of Ghosts

22:54

because it just really blew me away and I've recommended

22:56

it so many times in the show and I'll

22:58

fuck it. Gonna keep recommending it. Gonna keep

23:00

talking about it. Hell yeah. What's your problem? No

23:02

one can stop us. It's our show. What is

23:04

your first one? I also have

23:06

to shout out another Glasser favorite reading glasses

23:08

holocausting. I literally was like can I also

23:10

recommend a book by this person? Yeah. Sarah

23:12

Gailey. I'm gonna let you I'm gonna

23:14

let you recommend. Friend of the show. We talk about

23:17

their books all the time. So I want to

23:19

mention something that we haven't talked about on the

23:21

show is their comics. They have a comic called

23:24

Eat the Rich with Artist P.S. Bach and which it

23:26

finally came out in trade last year. I know a

23:28

lot of people like to wait for the trade. Oh

23:30

I think I read Individual. Yes. So

23:32

yeah I'll let you get the trade. It's

23:34

a horror thriller about this woman who goes

23:36

to the summer home with her boyfriend's rich

23:38

family and discovers that they have

23:41

a secret that's a little cannibaly. It

23:43

is very dark and also kind

23:46

of like it's like so over-the-top

23:48

and funny and wild and just

23:50

like you just can't go

23:52

wrong with Sarah Gailey. Like you just like

23:54

you could put a pile of their books

23:57

and just throw a rock and whichever book you hit

23:59

is gonna be incredible. And this one

24:01

if you've read all of their novels

24:03

and novellas get in on their

24:05

comics. This

24:08

one is great for people who are

24:10

into horror, a lot of social commentary.

24:12

It's great. What is your next one?

24:15

My next shout out is Pet by Akwaeke Emezi.

24:17

I've read a few of their books but this

24:20

one really stuck out to me. It is about

24:22

a black trans girl who lives in a world

24:24

in which all monsters have been defeated. There's no

24:26

more monsters. So everyone thinks.

24:29

And then something happens and

24:32

there is a monster. And

24:34

you get to see it from the point

24:36

of view of this little girl. And I know

24:38

you've also read a couple of their books but

24:40

this one really stuck out to me and

24:43

is one I haven't got to talk about on the

24:45

show recently. So that's a good one. I read this

24:47

one and I read Freshwater. Oh yeah, okay. But this

24:50

one I like. I mean another author you

24:52

can't go wrong with but I really like this one. Also

24:54

because I love monsters. Yeah, what's your next one?

24:57

The next book I talked about a while ago and I

25:00

picked it because it's got a lot of glasternip in

25:02

it. Okay, go on. It's The 30

25:05

Names of Night by Zen Yucadhar and it's

25:07

first off it's a bird book. Can't

25:10

go wrong with a bird book. Second

25:12

it's about a teenager whose ornithologist mother

25:14

was killed in a mysterious fire years

25:16

before and he finds this journal belonging

25:18

to a famous ornithologist who disappeared mysteriously

25:20

just like his mother and realizes

25:23

that both his mother and this other

25:25

famous ornithologist encountered the same bird right

25:27

before they died or disappeared. It's a

25:29

bird mystery. It's a bird mystery. It's

25:32

bird mystery plus there's a lot about

25:34

the trans experience, the main character was

25:36

trans and like the queer community takes

25:38

place in New York City. It's

25:40

just a great read and again it's just chock full

25:42

of glasternip. It's like there's

25:46

a little trail of treats leading the glasters

25:48

to this book and I think people will

25:50

really really like it. Where is

25:52

your next one? I love Jeremy Ship and they are

25:54

my next author pick and I'd love to shout out

25:56

the book I have since the atrocities but I won't

25:58

do that shamelessly. list of her missions. So

26:00

I'll do their most recent book which is called The Mary Dredgers.

26:03

I don't think he's going to talk to about this one on

26:05

the show. I don't know if I have and it has about

26:07

a lot of glass or nip in it as well. It's about

26:09

a woman whose sister was in an

26:11

accident that seems very suspicious and she's like I

26:13

just don't think that actually has happened

26:17

and she goes and it has to

26:19

investigate this cult that's living in an

26:21

abandoned amusement park which I feel like

26:23

it's something glassers like it's cults in

26:25

amusement parks. Yeah. And she has to

26:27

find out what really happened to her

26:29

sister and there's all these like very

26:31

cool details about the amusement park and

26:33

the like the rides and the places

26:35

that the cult are all they all

26:38

live there at this abandoned amusement park

26:40

and that is a super fun very fun location.

26:42

Yeah I don't know why we haven't talked about this

26:44

one on the show. It's really fun. Great. Super fun.

26:47

What is your next one? I have another

26:49

very glassery book. It's The Heartbreak Bakery

26:51

by A.R. Capetta. This has been on

26:53

my list for a long time. Yeah

26:55

I think you'd like it. I've also

26:57

read The Lost Coast by Them which

26:59

is a like Pacific Northwest sort of

27:01

more spooky witchy

27:04

kind of thing but this one is

27:07

a queer magical food book which I don't need

27:09

to say anything else. Big glass or big glass

27:11

or energy. Story about this queer

27:13

owned queer run bakery in Austin Texas

27:15

which I just got back from whose

27:17

products have magical powers. Like

27:20

they're breakup brownies. What happens?

27:25

You eat them and you break up with somebody? Yes. If you're if you

27:27

eat them and you're with someone you immediately want to break up with

27:29

them. Wow. How did you get those? Did

27:31

you do it on purpose? No and that's

27:33

like she's the main character when they

27:37

first make these brownies don't realize that

27:39

that's what's happening at

27:41

first. Got it. It's just extremely

27:43

cute and fun and again this

27:45

is glass or nip. Mm-hmm. What's

27:48

your next one? Oh I cosigned this one.

27:50

Well I didn't have a nonfiction writer on

27:52

here so I thought I should do one

27:55

and I got to talk about their books last week so

27:57

I was like I'll just bring bring Annalene Newitz up again.

28:00

Which is a go wrong with it in my next

28:02

one is for lost cities a secret history of the

28:04

urban age by an Eileen knew it So

28:07

an Eileen knew its rights fiction and we

28:09

love their fiction and they've been on the

28:11

show talking about fiction But also they write

28:13

history history books and science science articles. Yeah,

28:15

they started out as a science articles you

28:17

can you yeah, can you believe that and

28:19

books and they basically go

28:21

through the rise and

28:23

fall of four ancient cities and

28:27

Talk about like what happened with them

28:29

and research that Reveals

28:31

like how they were living how the environment

28:33

was changing when they were around the political

28:36

turmoil of these places I'm

28:38

not describing it well But it's just really interesting to

28:40

get into the cultures of these places and like sort

28:42

of what happened to these ancient Civilizations

28:44

and why these giant civilizations fell?

28:46

Yeah, that's what's so interesting. It's

28:48

like this I'm

28:50

sure when the people who are living in these civilizations are

28:53

like this is we live in this great massive city you

28:56

know in this huge that's a huge part of

28:58

the culture and Would

29:00

think they wouldn't like nothing would ever happen

29:02

to them. They did they're completely wiped

29:04

out Yeah, it's so it's they

29:07

write science and history in such a in

29:09

a way that it's very very very

29:11

compelling Uh-huh, you wouldn't be because it's very

29:13

dense material. Yeah, but they are just such

29:15

a skilled writer that you like it's very

29:17

accessible Very accessible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, which is which

29:19

is really fun. God. It made me when

29:21

you're talking I was like that us that

29:23

can be us for where the civilization that

29:26

falls a hundred percent. Yeah What's

29:28

your last pick? My

29:31

last pick is another author I've talked about a bunch on

29:33

the show But I don't remember I mean I did talk

29:35

about this when I started reading it It's

29:37

a no head cuz I want to read it too.

29:39

It's a novella So we love a

29:41

short book called the salt grows heavy by Cassandra

29:44

CA and if you're a genre reader You definitely

29:46

should be reading them. I love their book nothing

29:49

but black and teeth which is a haunted house book

29:51

and this is a Mermaid

29:53

story scary mermaid story this one in particular

29:56

is like it just like this book is

29:58

a great introduction to a Cassandra because

30:00

it's so short, it's a novella, it's about

30:02

a murderous mermaid and a plague doctor who

30:05

have to pair up to survive a creepy

30:07

forest full of bloodthirsty children. So there's just

30:09

like a buffet of horror delights happening in

30:11

this, even though it's a short book, there's

30:14

just so much going on. It's

30:16

so bonkers and it's such a blast. And

30:18

they like, Cassandra has like a very, very

30:21

specific writing style. That is

30:23

like, it's so interesting because it's

30:26

very verbose and like very

30:28

well articulated and eloquent. They're

30:30

like, they use a lot of like,

30:32

a lot of big words, but their work

30:35

is so short at the same time that

30:37

it's like you're getting this experience of reading.

30:39

It just feels like so densely packed in

30:41

a good way. Like eating, you

30:43

know those cookies that are like trail cookies

30:45

and they're like cookies with like one-on-one dried

30:47

fruit and stuff in them. Okay. And

30:50

it's like a hearty cookie to help you

30:52

on your, on your trails. Like this book is

30:54

like that. And you're getting

30:57

that experience of getting like very verbose,

31:00

beautiful prose, but in a

31:02

smaller package that doesn't feel

31:04

overwhelming or intimidating in any

31:06

way. Best of both worlds. So

31:08

fantastic. These are our recommendations. We'd love to hear

31:10

what you're going to be reading for this part

31:12

of the challenge. You can send your thoughts to

31:15

readingglassaspodcast.com. Before we test

31:17

out a multi-page bookmark, we're going to take a quick

31:19

break. Readingglass,

31:22

this is Rachael Park. This

31:24

week by Dipsie. You

31:27

will find yourself just going

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31:32

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31:34

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31:41

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31:52

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31:56

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31:58

vacation blings, and hot and heavy

32:00

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32:05

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32:07

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and this could be another place for

32:11

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32:41

slash glasses.

32:43

dipsiestories.com/glasses. Go ahead.

32:51

I'm Jordan Cruciola, host of Feeling

32:53

C, where we start by asking

32:55

our guests just one question. What

32:58

movie character made you feel seen?

33:00

I knew exactly what it was.

33:02

Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the

33:04

Spotless Mind. Shoei Wang slash Shobu

33:07

Tipaki. That one question launches amazing

33:09

conversations about their lives, the movies they

33:11

love, and about the past, present, and

33:13

future of entertainment. Roy in Close

33:16

Encounters of the Third Kind. I worry about

33:19

what this might say about me,

33:21

but I've brought Tracy Flick in

33:23

the film Election. So if you

33:25

like movies, diverse perspectives, and great

33:27

conversations, check us out. Oof, this

33:29

is real. New episodes of Feeling

33:32

C drop every week on maximumfun.org.

33:46

Time to look at some book tech advances in

33:48

bookish technology. This week's book tech was sent in

33:51

by a glasser, but it had no name, so

33:53

thank you very much. Hopefully you will know who

33:55

you are. It is billed

33:57

as a Bible bookmark, so we're

33:59

definitely. Definitely not the immediate target

34:01

audience for this, but it is

34:04

a small, so the actual bookmark

34:06

part is about the size of

34:08

a trisquot. Yeah, it's

34:10

small. Very small. It's a

34:12

small piece of rectangular leather and there's four

34:14

very long ribbons coming off the top in

34:16

different colors. I assume the four ribbons are

34:18

meant to mark different Bible sections. The thing

34:20

is, you can use this with any book.

34:22

You can't. They're not going to stop you.

34:24

There's nothing they can do. Yeah. So,

34:26

Bria, we tested this out. What did you think? Well,

34:29

okay. At first, I was like, what do

34:31

I need this for? Why would I

34:33

need this? You know what I said I think about? When

34:36

I was a kid, I read Choose Your

34:38

Own Adventures. And I always

34:40

want to go back to where I made the last decision, so

34:42

I feel like, oh, I'm going to go back to this last

34:44

decision. And I keep my finger there,

34:46

so that way if I made a poor decision, I

34:48

could go back. You are a genius. And for

34:51

that alone ... This gives a five out of five.

34:53

Because if you are a kid doing, or an adult,

34:55

doing a Choose Your Own Adventure, which by the way,

34:57

and also we like ... I was just going to

34:59

say, Pong Shepherd has a Choose Your Own Adventure book

35:01

coming out soon. Amazing. I

35:04

sent this to Mallory, and it looks like a Choose ... I couldn't

35:06

tell if it really was, but it looked like it was. I think

35:08

it is. And this would be perfect. I

35:11

would not even ... You were a fucking genius.

35:13

Wouldn't that be great? Oh my God. Because

35:16

I otherwise was like, I don't need all these ribbons. Like

35:18

what do ... Except, I mean, it's kind of pretty. It is

35:20

pretty. You know who needs all those ribbons? Our cats.

35:22

Yeah, the cats, I'm sure, like it.

35:24

Aesthetically, this gets very high stars. It's

35:26

very cute. And the high pages. Sorry,

35:28

we don't do stars here. Let's not

35:31

be wild. It's the pages. And then,

35:33

so for aesthetics, and usability,

35:35

I was like, I just don't think it's

35:37

a useful bookmark until I realized that. Yes.

35:40

What about you? What is your opinion? Obviously.

35:43

I'm not a Bible reader. We all know this here in Reading Glasses.

35:45

But I could see it

35:47

being very useful for either high fantasy or

35:49

nonfiction readers, or anyone who wants to flip

35:52

back to things. Maybe you

35:54

want to leave one ribbon on the family tree page.

35:56

Maybe you want to ... There's a page that hears

35:58

someone's explaining all the different houses you know

36:01

and you want to leave a marker there okay so

36:04

you can slip back to it if you need it

36:06

and you know so and then you have

36:08

one page one ribbon on the page you're currently reading

36:11

because I don't read a lot of choose

36:13

your own adventure books this

36:15

isn't really for me but I

36:18

can tell you that you do have

36:20

to be careful because the cats love these Lula locked

36:22

into this like a like a

36:24

military grade missile yeah she was

36:27

like like you know when cats look

36:29

at something you see their pupils get really good looked at

36:31

this and was like that is mine uh-huh

36:33

he wanted this so bad good cat

36:36

toy bad bookmark I mean it has

36:38

it's a bookmark with a very specific

36:40

purpose yeah like mark is a very

36:42

specific set of skills fully of

36:44

decent book work I'm gonna

36:46

give it a four out of five pages like

36:48

it does the job yeah but the thing with

36:51

all the ribbons is they might get tangled or

36:53

kind of confusing and like a paperclip or a

36:55

book tab might do the job same job of

36:57

marking pages but if you want

36:59

it all in the same thing and you

37:01

I mean it is this is much cuter

37:04

than those little book tabs yeah I agree

37:06

it is cute yeah pretty again aesthetics high

37:08

high marks but it's

37:10

gonna sit in a drawer till you need it yeah like

37:12

it's not gonna go when you need it oh baby it

37:14

is keep it behind

37:16

glass you break the glass yeah I

37:19

will put a link to it in the show notes

37:21

but again this is this this for

37:23

regular reading I don't think you need this but if

37:26

you have a very specific purpose it is perfect

37:29

yeah yeah so you can send your

37:31

book tech ideas to reading glasses podcast@gmail.com or you

37:33

can check out the link in the show notes

37:35

and send us some more cool stuff to test

37:37

out now

37:43

let's solve a boobish problem from one of our

37:45

listeners Whitney writes in hi brand Mallory I'd

37:47

love to hear your thoughts on a reader problem

37:49

I don't quite know how to approach how

37:52

do you suggest pitching a backlist book to

37:54

someone that you really love but hasn't totally

37:56

held up to today's societal standards one of

37:58

my favorite books is the Secret History by

38:00

Donna Tartt, which has by today's standards

38:03

a few unsavory references to gayness and

38:05

some racial language that wouldn't casually fly

38:07

today. These are blips made mostly

38:09

by an unlikable character, but overall has turned

38:11

some people away from the book when I've

38:13

recommended it. How do you approach

38:15

books that are still worth experiencing to others when

38:17

you know that they aren't totally meeting language standards

38:20

of today? This book is so beautiful

38:22

in its prose and characters that my partner and I

38:24

usually read it every single fall, but I feel stuck

38:26

and not confident in actually handing my copy over to

38:28

others. Also, thank you for your show and for highlighting

38:31

the reader who shared about the silent book club. I

38:34

run a lesbian bar in Chicago called Dorothy, and

38:36

starting this September we're kicking off our own chapter.

38:39

Oh, that's so fucking cool. Our first event has

38:41

over 50 RSVPs of introverted queer

38:43

readers who just want to be in a space

38:45

with each other while reading. I love

38:48

it. Very cute. Bria,

38:50

you want to read Whitney's Wohouse? Yes, it

38:52

is books about arts and

38:54

artists, multi-dimensions, queer characters, duh, fantastic realism,

38:57

incredible poetic prose, and references to early

38:59

2000s pop punk and emo culture. I

39:01

also like this. Bria, alright, what do

39:04

we think we should do to try

39:06

to recommend these books? Okay, it is

39:08

a conundrum. I think exactly

39:10

what you said is worth saying, right?

39:13

I think it's always worth getting someone

39:15

a heads up about anything, content warnings,

39:17

etc. Particularly if you know them and you

39:20

know what bothers them. Like, for example, I'm always going

39:22

to give Mallory a heads up if there's a snake

39:24

in a book. Yes, please. I'm

39:26

going to let Mallory know. But that's what

39:28

I would say. Look, it's a great book. This was

39:30

written in a different era, though. Or just, you know,

39:32

there's a character that's a piece of shit and they

39:35

say shitty stuff. I don't think it's the opinion of

39:37

the author, you know, which we've come across that a

39:39

few times where there's a character

39:41

who sucks. There's things here that may be

39:43

potentially harmful in this book, but the book

39:45

itself is great. And then people

39:47

are adults. It's up to

39:49

them to decide. And maybe

39:51

sometimes you're not an adult and you get assigned

39:54

this kind of stuff in class because that happened

39:56

to all of us. We read stuff that potentially

39:58

was not great when we were in. school and

40:00

they were assigned to us and we were able to

40:02

deal with it even then as teenagers. But I think

40:04

look, if you give them the heads up, I think

40:06

it's fine because I think you're just saying, there's some

40:08

stuff in here that's kind of unsavory, but I do

40:11

think it's an amazing book and like it's one of

40:13

my favorite books, you know, and so if you can

40:15

get past that stuff, I think it's worth reading. But

40:17

if these people read it and they're like, it's not

40:19

worth reading to me anymore, they don't have to read

40:21

it. You're not sitting there making them read it, are

40:23

you? What do you think, Melly? I

40:26

think most readers that you're recommending a book to should

40:28

understand. Mm-hmm. I mean, everybody

40:30

that I know who is an avid

40:32

reader or a semi-avid

40:34

reader, I mean, it's the same thing with

40:36

movies, right? I think it's like most people

40:38

who care about social justice nowadays, most people

40:41

who are on the, at least a similar

40:43

page to you when it comes to values

40:45

are going to understand what

40:47

you, like you said, exactly what Whitney says.

40:49

Like, hey, I really love this story, but there's stuff in

40:51

here that hasn't aged well. Mm-hmm. Especially

40:53

if it's not the point of view of the author, but

40:56

it's, you know, someone has

40:58

characterized a villainous character by

41:00

having them say, you know,

41:03

a bad word. All of Stephen

41:05

King. All of Stephen King? Yes.

41:08

All you have to, you know, all you have to do is include

41:10

the caveat, as you told us, it's an older book with some dated

41:12

language, but you still really love

41:14

it and recommend it and you can look at it

41:16

with nuance, you know? If someone doesn't

41:18

want to read it, that's fine. Like,

41:21

there's certain things that might put people off,

41:23

but most people understand that language evolves and

41:27

have the media literacy to understand when an author

41:29

is using language to show that somebody is a

41:32

villain. There's a book that I recommended last year,

41:34

I think it was, or a book I was

41:36

reading. I did really like it. It's called Come

41:38

Closer by Sarah Graham. And

41:41

in the beginning, the author uses the F word

41:43

from the main character, but the main character is

41:45

a piece of shit and she's trying to... When

41:47

you're saying the F word, you don't mean fuck.

41:50

No, I mean... Yes, I know, no. I

41:52

was like, okay. The bad F word. It's

41:55

a good F word, which you say all the time, and

41:57

then the evil F word. Okay. It's

42:00

very bad. But the author has

42:02

that character say that word as

42:05

a way of expressing that they're a garbage

42:08

person. And even though

42:10

it was written in the 90s, it's very

42:12

clear that this character sucks and is awful.

42:15

And I understand where maybe you've had

42:17

a bad experience with that word and

42:19

you're like, I just can't handle that.

42:22

But at the same time, even today in

42:24

this world, people need to understand that shitty

42:26

people still say stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.

42:28

So there's very much. So authors and artists

42:30

and filmmakers should, if they can handle it

42:32

in a way that is nuanced and is

42:34

using it to characterize people who are bad,

42:37

like those words are still being used. And

42:39

I will fight you if I hear you use that word.

42:42

But it's still out there. So

42:45

yes, I understand

42:47

where people might like that might put off

42:49

somebody. But like it's also it's still a

42:51

thing. It's still a real thing

42:53

in the world and it's fucking awful. Yeah, see,

42:55

that's the good F word. But

42:59

in most readers understand that like there

43:01

are bad people out there and they

43:05

say terrible things. And also even

43:07

10 years ago, like remember a few

43:10

episodes ago, I was talking about how in

43:12

the jacket copy for a book, someone, the

43:15

publisher, like the marketing team for that book

43:17

in like 2014 used an ableist language. Like

43:22

people just were fucking ignorant about this stuff.

43:25

People didn't care about it as much. It

43:27

was not a priority. I will tell you,

43:29

the first time for the

43:32

first time ever, I just finished

43:34

the copy edits for a new book that I have coming

43:36

out next year. I got bumped. But

43:38

it's coming out next year. Congrats, though. Very

43:41

excited. But it's the very first time I've ever

43:43

seen and maybe I had used I

43:46

think I used the word idiot, which

43:48

people are all trying to get away

43:50

from using. And it was

43:52

the very first time it had been flagged in

43:54

my copy edit path as something that

43:57

might be considered ableist. see.

44:00

Even a few years ago that would not

44:02

have been the case. I think even two

44:04

years ago. Yes.

44:06

So it's just language evolves. It does.

44:08

I think a lot of readers need

44:11

to give people the benefit of the

44:13

doubt most of the time. There are

44:15

authors out there who are pieces of

44:17

shit. There's tons of people who make

44:20

all kinds of stuff that are garbage people. But I

44:22

think, Whitney, you're doing your best and if you give

44:25

a caveat. But also I think most readers too. If

44:27

you're reading a book from, I think, when did Secret

44:29

History come out? 1990, I think? In

44:31

the early 90s? If you were consuming a piece of media

44:34

from the 90s, you are

44:36

probably aware from the get-go that there's some language

44:39

in there that is not going to fly today. Like

44:42

when we all used to use the word

44:44

gay as a derogatory term. Yeah. Yeah. I'm

44:47

looking at when it came out. It came out in

44:50

92. Yeah. So again, I

44:52

think you got to hold both pieces. Most

44:55

people understand that that stuff is

44:58

not okay anymore and very harmful

45:01

and causes harm to the people who it

45:04

was used against. And I think, look, if

45:06

you're a person who's getting this suggestion and

45:08

you're like, oh, that does really bother me.

45:10

Don't read the book. You don't

45:12

have to read the book. And the person that

45:15

they're recommending it to also, they need to know

45:17

that, yeah, that may keep some people from reading

45:19

the book and that's okay too. And that's okay

45:21

too. Yeah. And like, if you, again, had a

45:23

bad experience with that word or it just, it

45:25

takes you out of the book, it makes you,

45:27

you have a reaction to it. Yeah. It's

45:29

fine. That's, that's perfectly understandable. You don't have to

45:31

read this book on the flip side because I

45:34

can see a lot of people being like, oh,

45:36

the secret history, it's like a classic. I really

45:38

should read it, but it's really bothering me. No,

45:40

you don't fucking have to do that. There's other

45:42

classics out there that don't have that material in

45:44

it, you know, and it's, it's okay. It's everything

45:46

is okay. Except for the

45:48

F word. That's not okay. I

45:50

will fight you. It's all about,

45:53

you know, having nuance and media

45:55

literacy and being able to like,

45:58

Whitney, you're not a bad person. you

46:00

still like this book, right? But you have

46:02

to give people the option that they might

46:04

not want to read that. And that's okay.

46:08

So if you want us to solve your reader

46:11

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46:13

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46:32

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