0:07

You're listening to Reading Glasses, a show

0:09

about book culture and literary life designed

0:11

to help you read better. I'm author

0:13

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

0:16

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

0:18

we're taking off another box on the

0:20

2024 Reading Glasses Glasses... Glasses Glasses... Glasses

0:22

Challenge? Glasses... Square?

0:24

Tripled? Yeah, there

0:27

you go. Set in a country you've

0:29

never been to. Plus, we're talking about

0:31

how to get strong enough to lift

0:33

books. Mallory is excited to talk about

0:35

being beefy. I texted Bria this email. We

0:37

got it. And

0:40

recommending one last job novels. But first Bria,

0:42

what are you reading? One last job. I'm

0:44

listening to... I'm doing a lot of listening

0:46

lately. Just gonna let you know. I

0:49

am listening to the new Emily Henry. Funny story.

0:52

Oh! Right by Julia Whelan. Wow,

0:54

let me tell you, this book has everything.

0:57

This book has everything. It has a

0:59

librarian, a l... it's

1:02

a romance, a small town and...

1:05

I can see every glass or ear in the

1:07

world perking up. And a fake relationship. Which I

1:09

know people... Oh, people love a fake... Is there

1:11

a word for that? There's a word people use.

1:13

Fake relationship. So basically it's about this librarian who

1:16

was getting married to this guy,

1:18

perfect guy, you know, and then

1:20

all of a sudden on his

1:22

bachelor... Bachelor party? Party, yeah, bachelor

1:24

party. One

1:26

of his best friends is a woman and he

1:29

comes back from that bachelor party and

1:31

he's like, I'm in love with

1:33

my best friend. Oh, that is brutal. And she

1:35

moved... this librarian moved to this town to be

1:37

with him. She runs the

1:40

children's reading... she runs the children's

1:42

reading program, but I think she's a children's

1:45

librarian. So this splits into two... like those...

1:47

so they're having their own romantic comedy book

1:49

off in another thing. So this woman now

1:51

has to get her own book. Okay, and

1:54

then she moves in with the woman who's

1:56

now dating her ex. What?

1:59

Moves in with her ex. her ex. Am

2:02

I explaining this one? Yes, yes, okay, now I'm

2:04

getting it. Okay, so her, so the best friend

2:06

whose name is Petra had a boyfriend and they

2:08

broke up when of course, Daphne, who's our main

2:10

character, Daphne's husband, or two of the husband. So

2:12

the two jilted lovers move in together. Move in

2:14

together. Okay. And they're sparks. Oh!

2:18

And this is a man that, you know, she's like,

2:20

this guy's like, you know, he's got messy hair and

2:23

he's like, got tattoos. He works at a wine bar

2:25

and like, he does, he has like a million jobs,

2:27

odd jobs, like he's not a guy. But then come

2:29

to find out the more she gets to know him.

2:31

It's like, does he work odd jobs or does he

2:33

just like trying to make the wine bar work so

2:36

he spends time like doing other stuff to like, get

2:38

it going? He's just too busy to calm his hair.

2:40

I know, and is it that he just like kind

2:42

of actually enjoys living in this city and going to

2:44

like the beach and like, he actually lives like a

2:47

really cool life and like, what does it look? Anyway,

2:49

what does it look like when the librarian's able to

2:51

unbutton a few buttons and let loose? Oh! Ah!

2:54

And then of course, what's keeping them apart is their roommates

2:56

and shouldn't they not? Anyway, it's

2:59

great, it's a great listen. Although the problem with listening

3:01

to romance books is sometimes you're like, God, I hope

3:03

no one gets in the car right now. It

3:06

would be so embarrassing. Someone pulls up with you at

3:08

an intersection. No, yeah,

3:11

she is undoing his pants. I don't

3:13

know. Sinking down into the seat. Anyway,

3:15

I know people, there's

3:17

Emily Henry fans on

3:19

this show, this is just a well-written book.

3:21

I've never listened to an Emily Henry book.

3:24

It's great for listening because it's very, it's

3:26

quick, it's easy, and the narrator is

3:28

fantastic. What are you reading? I am

3:31

reading a book that is so goddamn

3:33

fucking horny. Okay, well, we're both reading

3:35

horny books. Whew! This

3:37

is a book that came out in February, it's a 2024

3:39

book for people who are trying to keep

3:41

up with that as well as us. It's

3:43

called The Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson.

3:46

Oh yeah, this is on my list. Yeah,

3:48

it's a dark academia retelling of Camilla. Oh,

3:51

that's right. I don't know Camilla that well,

3:53

and so it's been kind of, I keep putting it off, because I'm

3:55

like, what is this story? I have never read

3:57

it either. Okay, okay, okay. All you need to know is, Horny

4:00

lesbians. Okay, great. That's really

4:02

all you need to know. They're wonderful. Horny lesbian vampires.

4:05

Okay. I think it takes place

4:07

in the 70s and it's about this young woman. She's a

4:09

writer. She's from the South and she

4:11

gets accepted to this writing program in this boarding

4:13

school in New England. So of course, I get

4:15

Massachusetts book. I get very excited about it. And

4:18

she gets there and it's very like secret

4:20

history energy where it's like this little tiny

4:23

New England school and it has all these

4:25

weird, very old rituals and all the buildings

4:27

are really old. And she gets into this

4:29

writing program for writing poetry and the professor is

4:32

very famous and she's very cool and she's like,

4:34

she shows up on red lipstick and she's really

4:36

hot. And like all the, like it's one of

4:38

those professors where she walks into the room, like

4:40

all the students just like focus in on her.

4:42

And that class already has like a star

4:45

student. She's like the best writer, the teacher's

4:48

obsessed with her. And

4:50

the problem is the main character is just

4:52

as good of a writer. So from the

4:54

first day, the poem that she reads makes

4:57

the other girl mad. So these two become

4:59

kind of academic rivals. Interesting. And

5:01

then it gets into almost kind

5:03

of not a love triangle situation,

5:05

but the main character finds out

5:07

that her academic rival has maybe

5:10

a relationship with the professor that

5:12

is not quite professional. Oh, and

5:14

maybe a little supernatural. Oh,

5:17

and so they get all entangled

5:19

together. And it's also, this

5:21

book is not just horny because of course,

5:23

like the rivals are horny at each other.

5:26

The rival is horny at the professor, the professor is

5:29

horny at all kinds of stuff. But

5:31

it's also very kinky. If

5:33

you are into BDSM, this

5:35

book is very kinky. Wow.

5:38

There's a lot of bondage,

5:40

that kind of stuff in this book. But

5:42

it's also, it's like the flavor of it

5:45

is great because again, it's like at this

5:47

New England boarding school in the seventies, like

5:49

all these people have cool outfits and like

5:51

they're going to these weird themed parties. This

5:54

is one scene that happens at a party where

5:56

each level of the party is a different layer

5:58

of hell. Oh my God. Okay. It's like super

6:00

cool, it's very lush. Like, lush is a really

6:02

good word for that. It's also a really quick

6:05

read. I just loved it. The cover is beautiful.

6:07

It really is just a blast. So all the

6:09

you horny queer folks out there, run,

6:11

do not walk to go get this book.

6:13

And again, it's also a retelling. So that's

6:16

An Education in Malice by Estee Gibson. I

6:18

have to say this, I just noticed that

6:20

this book, Funny Story by Emily Henry is

6:22

number one on a Libra FM audio books.

6:24

Wow. So overall on everything. So if you

6:26

are looking for a buzzy book to read,

6:28

this could be the one. And it is

6:30

narrated by Julia Whelan. So

6:36

we want to take a moment to share some

6:38

listener feedback. Sarah wrote in to say, thanks as

6:40

always for a great show. I

6:42

have a suggestion for Kaitlyn who wrote in about

6:44

reading insomnia after her sister died. I do want

6:47

to say we got a lot of really nice

6:49

feedback about this. So Kaitlyn, you are in a

6:51

community here. You have people who are with you,

6:53

they are understanding you and they're caring about what's

6:55

happening with this situation. Sarah says, first, I 100%

6:57

agree with your advice, but if she feels like

7:00

she really does want her need to read this

7:02

book, I suggest she listens to it instead of

7:04

reads it in print. Perhaps

7:06

speed it up to 2X or any speed that is

7:08

faster than normal. It's easier to zone out on audio

7:10

and put some distance between you and the book if

7:12

you want to, instead of letting your imagination run wild

7:14

with a slower pace of a print book. And if

7:17

the narrator sounds a little more chipmunky, it probably takes

7:19

some of the scary out of it. I never thought

7:21

about that. That's a good idea. So the whole thing

7:23

was that her sister gave her this book right before

7:25

she passed away, and now she feels like she has

7:27

to read it even though it's scary. Yes. So

7:30

Sarah says, that's what I would do, but if I

7:32

still feel obligated to read it, even after hearing your

7:34

advice, I think that's a great tip. It's a great

7:36

tip. Mike wrote in about Webtoons. People were so excited

7:38

that you were reading Webtoons. That I was reading Stumptown.

7:41

Not Stumptown, Stagtown. Stagtown. Stumptown

7:43

is the coffee brand. Yes, yes. And

7:45

also there was a comic book called Stumptown. Really? Yeah,

7:48

Mike wrote in and said, hi, Bria and Mallory.

7:50

I was so excited to hear you talk about

7:52

Webcomic recently on your podcast. I've been reading Webtoons

7:54

for years now. I still haven't found a good

7:56

way to track them, but I take it as

7:59

a practice in remi- remembering that not everything has to

8:01

be tracked on an app. That's totally true.

8:03

Here are a few of my favorite

8:05

webtoons. Oh, great. So I have the

8:07

app now for webtoons because I read

8:10

Stagtown on there. Now you're hooked. And

8:12

I'm still reading Stagtown because there's many,

8:14

many issues of Stagtown. All right, here's

8:16

Micah's favorites. Crumbs, which is cozy magic,

8:18

bakery, magic school and sweet romance. Okay,

8:20

adding that to my list. Jackie Rose,

8:23

what if Indiana Jones was a teenage

8:25

girl? Gourmet Hound, Girl with the Magical

8:27

Spinsome Smell, family history, restaurant found family.

8:29

Love that. Miss Abbott and the Doctor

8:31

and Lady Liar, historical romance, funny and

8:33

sweet. Magic Soda Pop, which is middle-aged school

8:36

girl, gets magical soda that gives her weird

8:38

powers, but also potentially spooky. And The Blind

8:40

Prince, which is spooky forest, Girl with Magical

8:42

Powers slash curse. Sounds great. Great, great, great,

8:44

great list. I wouldn't recommend anyone downloading this

8:46

app. This is great comics, really. And you

8:49

can just put them on your phone. You

8:51

can read them at any time. And it's

8:53

like, also the scrolling mechanism is so- Satisfying?

8:55

Yeah, it like really hits something where you're

8:57

like, oh, I'm not scrolling social media. I'm

8:59

scrolling and reading. And it just, yeah, it

9:01

makes you feel good. Yeah, because you're still scrolling,

9:04

but it's doing something that isn't making you want to

9:06

jump a dual leg. Exactly, exactly. Debbie wrote in to

9:08

say, first off, let me say I enjoy the show

9:10

very much. I've been listening for a few years and

9:12

I've also listened to all the shows back to the

9:14

beginning. On a fairly recent episode, Bria talked about the

9:17

age group that most of the listeners fall into. We

9:19

get these demographics from Max Fun, so they tell us

9:21

like who most of our listeners are. But Debbie

9:23

says, I'm 65, way over that range. In

9:26

addition, most of the books discussed are not books I'm

9:28

interested in reading. That said, I'm a big reader and

9:31

I love listening to other people who love books and

9:33

reading as much as I do. Your enthusiasm is a

9:35

bomb to my soul. One of my favorite things is

9:37

when you talked about owning too many books and also

9:39

the wonders of the library. Huge fan of libraries. One

9:41

of my issues is wanting to buy more than one

9:43

copy of a beloved book, one that

9:46

is in better condition, a different edition, or

9:48

occasionally even the same one, just in case

9:50

something happens to the one I own. Especially

9:52

children's and middle grade books, it's nice to

9:54

know that there are other people who can

9:56

relate. You want to read Debbie's Wheelhouse? Yes,

9:58

magical realism, steampunk, classic novel. novel slash fairy

10:00

tale retellings, variations or continuations, literary novels with

10:03

protagonists age 35 or older, small town quirky

10:05

characters, and a romance as long as it

10:07

doesn't involve a reunion with an old love

10:09

where the narration doesn't include as much detail

10:11

of the prior romance as it does the

10:14

current one. Oh, I like that. Okay. You

10:16

want to know about the last one and

10:18

this one. We love a specific wheelhouse. Both

10:20

of them. You got to tell us all

10:23

about all the romances. Honestly, I'm glad we

10:25

have a wide range of listeners and I'm

10:27

glad that Debbie is enjoying it even and

10:29

just listening to us talk about I also love listening to

10:31

people talk about books. That's why we made this show. That's right.

10:34

So you can email us at reading glasses podcast@gmail.com

10:36

if you want a list of all the books

10:38

we talk about on the show delivered to your

10:40

inbox every month you can sign up for our

10:42

newsletter. There's a link in the show notes. So

10:44

two things one folks, it's our birthday. It's reading

10:46

glasses birthday. Yeah, well, technically it was last week,

10:49

but we're also we're still celebrating it all month

10:51

long. Seven goddamn motherfucking years of reading glasses. Holy

10:53

crap. We have been doing the show for a

10:55

long time. And we want to say if

10:57

you want to give us a birthday present, that's totally free.

10:59

Now would be a great time to review the show

11:01

on the podcast listening app of your choice. If you

11:03

use Apple podcast, if you use

11:05

Spotify, whatever you use, you've got to do it

11:07

on your phone. So you open up the app

11:10

on your phone and you go to the show

11:12

specifically and you go look where the reviews are.

11:14

And there'll be a way to put a review

11:16

in and we would love a five star rating.

11:18

We'd love a quick little one sentence review of

11:20

why you love the show even more. It really

11:22

makes a difference for us. It really helps us

11:24

grow the show get the show out there. And

11:27

again, it's our birthday and what

11:30

better birthday gift to get to us than something

11:32

that's completely free and will take 30 seconds

11:34

of your time and really, really mean a lot

11:36

to us and benefit the show at the same

11:39

time. Also, we want to

11:41

remind you folks as a present to you tomorrow,

11:43

June 14 is our recommendations

11:45

members only party. If you were not a

11:47

member you want to join go to

11:49

maximumfund.org/join to sign up email us your proof

11:52

of membership at reading glasses podcast@gmail.com. But if

11:54

you're already a member, you can do that

11:56

you can email us for an invitation to

11:59

the party or just check in the Slack channel, because

12:01

there's going to be a link to

12:03

the invitation there. It is going

12:05

to be me and Bria and

12:07

a bunch of Glassers giving recommendations,

12:09

getting recommendations, bring your weirdest, your

12:11

strangest, your most niche recommendation requests.

12:13

You want something that you've never

12:16

seen before. You want a read-alike

12:18

for a book that you love.

12:20

You want something really, really specific.

12:22

You want bisexual wizard who likes

12:24

hats. You want a fairy that

12:26

likes pancakes. You want an enemies

12:29

to lovers about a whale and

12:31

a dolphin. Mallory just

12:33

pitched me three books that I would read.

12:35

Yeah. Folks, we got you covered.

12:37

Actually, maybe not the last one. I

12:40

don't know. I'll do some research. Bring

12:42

your recommendations. It's going to be super fun. We

12:44

love doing these Zoom parties. They're super fun. It's

12:46

so cool to meet the Glassers. It's so cool

12:48

to see Glassers meeting other Glassers and becoming friends.

12:50

It really is a fucking blast. So it's going

12:52

to be June 14th. That's tomorrow. It's a Friday.

12:54

It starts at 6 p.m. Pacific. It's going to

12:57

be on Zoom. Email us

12:59

at readingglassespodcast@gmail.com for the invitation.

13:01

So before we talk about books set in countries we've never

13:03

been to, we're going to take a quick break. Reading

13:11

Glasses is sponsored in part this

13:14

week by Pear Eyewear. Folks,

13:16

it's June. It's sunny, at least in

13:18

my part of the world. Sunglasses

13:21

are extremely essential

13:23

to summer, but they are really

13:25

expensive. Don't worry. Pear

13:27

Eyewear has got you covered. With Pear

13:30

Eyewear's sun top, you can help protect

13:32

your eyes from UV rays and minimize

13:34

glare while you're driving or

13:36

reading, all without carrying around

13:38

another pair of glasses. Folks, we

13:40

love Pear Eyewear here. Glasses are

13:42

a very important part of my

13:44

personal style, of my ability to

13:46

do things, and I

13:48

love my Pear glasses. So the way

13:51

Pear works is that you get base

13:53

frames that come in a bunch of

13:55

different sizes and widths and shapes, and

13:58

you get tops that stick on there. magnetically

14:00

so you can change out the color, the

14:02

pattern, but the really cool thing about Pear

14:04

is that you can pop sunglass tops on

14:06

there. Sun tops, that's what they're called, which

14:08

means that no matter how tiny your purse

14:10

is, you can carry your sunglasses around because

14:12

it's just a very thin little sun top.

14:14

It is fantastic. I have the cat eye

14:16

shaped glasses because that's how I roll and

14:18

I love the sun tops for them. They're

14:20

so convenient. One of the things that's really

14:22

annoying in the summer for me is I

14:24

have to carry around my glasses and my

14:26

sunglasses and then when I go into a

14:28

store, I have to take my sunglasses off

14:30

and put my regular glasses on. With Pear eyewear

14:32

sun tops, you can just pop them on and

14:35

off. Super easy, super convenient, and the base frames

14:37

for men, women, and kids start at $60 and

14:40

the sun top frames start at just $30. Folks, we all

14:44

know how expensive prescription sunglasses are. Why

14:46

are they so expensive? It's

14:48

a mystery that the world may never solve,

14:50

but Pear eyewear has got you covered and

14:52

you can use your FSA or HSA to

14:54

buy them. There's free standard shipping and a

14:56

flexible 30-day return policy. I love my Pear

14:58

eyewear sun tops. I really do think they

15:00

are so convenient, so easy to use, and

15:02

they look wicked cute as well. You should

15:04

at least go on the website, look at

15:07

the frames, look at the sun tops, see

15:09

if there's any that you find cute you

15:11

want to try out. So you can snap

15:13

into summer and get 15% off

15:15

your first Pear with Code

15:17

glasses at peareyewear.com. Support the

15:20

show by mentioning that reading glasses

15:22

sent you in your post checkout

15:24

survey that's Pear, P-A-I-R, eyewear.com, Code

15:26

glasses. Glasses. People

15:33

say not to judge a fish by its

15:36

ability to climb a tree. Which

15:38

is why here on Just the Zoo of Us, we

15:40

judge them by so much more. We

15:42

rate animals out of 10 in

15:44

the categories of effectiveness, ingenuity, and

15:46

aesthetics, taking into consideration each animal's

15:48

true strengths. Like a pigeon's ability

15:50

to tell a Monet from a

15:52

Picasso or a polar bear's ability

15:54

to play basketball. Guest experts

15:56

like biologists, ecologists, and more join us

15:59

to share their unique insight into

16:01

the animal's world. Listen with

16:03

friends and family of all ages

16:05

on maximumfun.org or wherever you get

16:07

podcasts. This

16:26

week, we're ticking off another box on the 2024

16:29

reading glasses, glasses, glasses, glasses challenge. Read

16:31

a book set in a country you've

16:33

never been to. Why did we put

16:35

this on the challenge? How are we

16:37

completing it? And most importantly, how can

16:39

it improve your reading life? First off,

16:41

rules for the glassers. Rules, rules, rules.

16:43

This can be any type of book,

16:45

be fiction, nonfiction, short stories, novel. It

16:47

just has to be set in a

16:49

country you've never been to. That's

16:52

what it is. It doesn't matter the type of book. Could be a

16:54

brand new book, could be a 300 year old book, but

16:57

it has to be set in a country you've never been to.

16:59

Second, Bria, why did we put this on the challenge? Because

17:02

it's fucking cool. Yeah, it's fun.

17:04

It's fun. It's a fun way to break

17:06

outside your literary comfort zone. A

17:09

lot of us, including myself, we end up

17:11

reading books that are set in our own

17:13

country or countries with cultures similar to ours.

17:15

I find I'm very much always reading books

17:17

set in the United States. Yep. Sometimes Canada,

17:20

sometimes England. You want to go a little

17:23

off the beaten track? A little Canada. Maybe

17:25

Canada. And this is a good

17:27

excuse to read somewhere in a place you

17:29

don't know that much about. So maybe you'll

17:31

find something, you'll discover something about that place.

17:33

You'll learn something. You know, I love learning

17:35

while reading. Maybe this place will

17:37

be a new place you want to read about and it goes

17:39

into your wheelhouse. It's just a way to expand your mind and

17:41

expand your reading. Also, this benefits

17:43

your non-reading life, which is awesome. Reading

17:46

books, of course, you know, generates empathy.

17:49

It also generates airline miles. Hell

17:51

yeah. So we are attracted to

17:53

places where we know things about. So what better

17:55

way to expand your curiosity about a place than

17:57

reading a book set there? There are so many

17:59

countries. that I would have never put on my

18:01

tippity-top list of places to go just because I didn't

18:04

really know anything about them. But then all of a

18:06

sudden I read a book set there and I'm like,

18:08

this seems cool as hell. I want to go there.

18:10

Like, Rhea, look at us. We just went

18:12

to Edinburgh. We haven't gone yet. We haven't

18:14

gone yet. We're recording this. But we are going to come down. But

18:17

we read all these books at Edinburgh and

18:19

we're both like, fuck it, we want to

18:21

go. We want to see it. I know.

18:23

And also, I think it's no coincidence that

18:25

I got into reading translated Japanese fiction and

18:27

then was like, I gotta go. And

18:30

then I went and spent six weeks in Japan because it

18:32

was just like, it was a lot of fun. And also,

18:34

I just felt like I knew

18:38

a lot about it, even though I didn't.

18:40

I only knew it through fiction. But it

18:43

was like... But it's enough to peak your

18:45

curiosity. Yeah, for sure. And I feel like,

18:47

you know, in a world divided today, we

18:50

need more of that. We need more of curiosity

18:52

about other cultures and places. And that's how you

18:54

do it. That's why brand recognition works is because

18:56

you're like, I know a little something. I

18:59

know something about this cookie, but I don't know it

19:01

about that cookie. And that's how traveling works. And reading

19:03

is such a great way to do that. There's been,

19:05

again, so many places. That's why I was excited to

19:07

go to Oxford a few years ago because of my

19:09

favorite book series of all time, The Golden Compass, was

19:11

set there. It was really, really important to me. All

19:14

right. So, Bria, how did we complete this part of

19:16

the challenge? What did you do? Of places I'm going

19:18

to go by the time I... Okay, this is very

19:20

rare. I did once there were wolves, but now I'm

19:22

going there. So I'm like, is this still my... I

19:24

mean, I guess this is the reasoning. Scotland? Scotland. It's

19:27

about a study about wolves in Scotland. And

19:29

this woman is there releasing wolves back into the wild.

19:31

And then there's a murder in this small town. And

19:33

they're like, was it the wolves? Was it a person?

19:35

And I loved this book. I thought it was great.

19:37

But it's kind of exciting because I'm... At first I

19:39

was like, well, maybe I should do a different book

19:41

because I'm going so quickly. But I didn't

19:43

know when I read it for sure if I was going to Scotland. I

19:45

thought I probably was, but I didn't know for sure. We kind of booked

19:47

it last minute. Yeah. But also, I can

19:50

think about this book while I'm there. Yeah. And that's kind of

19:52

exciting too. It is kind of exciting. And I felt that in

19:54

Japan where I was like, oh, this is just like that part.

19:57

And when the coffee gets cold, I can think

19:59

about... These things that I read about

20:01

in the book and them talking about this stuff.

20:03

So that's what I'm gonna use for mine What

20:05

about you? So the funny thing is I've actually

20:07

done this a bunch of times this year. Okay But

20:10

the thing is they all a lot of

20:12

these books were like books like brought up

20:14

see which I originally picked for this challenge

20:16

Which was mostly set in Jamaica, but it's

20:19

a lot of the main character Reconciling

20:21

with the fact that she hates Oh And

20:25

it you know, it's not like it's not a book you

20:27

it's such a good book But it's not a book you're

20:30

like I want to go to Jamaica after this So I

20:32

kind of wanted to find a place that piqued that curiosity

20:34

for me And I'm a little extra credit fiend and I

20:36

wanted something more positive to talk about on the show even

20:38

though brought up She's a great book as I picked another

20:40

book that and that was set in a place I've never

20:42

been to and it's whale fall by Elizabeth O'Connor set in

20:45

Wales, which is the only part of the UK I've never

20:47

been to and it's historical fiction.

20:49

It's set in the 1930s. It's this really

20:52

sparse Beautiful literary

20:54

fiction differently language forward book about there's this

20:56

like tiny little Welsh island That is fair

20:58

like this like less than 30 people who

21:00

live on it and a big whale carcass

21:02

washes up on the shores of the

21:05

town and around

21:07

the same time these two scientists

21:09

anthropologists arrive and they want

21:12

to study the island and

21:15

the main character Who's this young woman who's always

21:17

lived there? She's very curious about she's never been

21:19

off the island She becomes enamored with these two

21:21

anthropologists It's a man and a woman and all

21:23

she wants to do is like, you know, she wants to

21:26

work for them she wants to leave the island and Pretty

21:29

quickly she realizes that these two people

21:31

even though they're supposedly So much

21:33

smarter and more learned than she is and everyone

21:35

on the island They are not representing the island

21:37

in the way that is accurate. Mmm They're

21:40

painting it in a way that is like one day she

21:42

comes up on them and They're making

21:44

this fishermen do this weird thing and like taking pictures of

21:46

him and she's like that's not how fishermen do this thing

21:48

And they're like I know but it would look cool in

21:51

a picture and she's like what? so

21:53

it's her it's a really interesting book about like

21:56

small towns and reconciling

21:59

that desire to leave with

22:01

the way that the outside world

22:04

looks at that place, all while kind

22:06

of like, the background is this like rotting

22:08

whale carcass. But it's

22:10

really interesting and it did make me like

22:12

very curious about whales. Whales,

22:15

both the whale and

22:17

whales, the place. I

22:19

just realized that right now. Whales,

22:22

W-A-L-E-S, and then whales,

22:25

W-H-L-E-S. But yeah,

22:28

it's great, like tensions between a small town and

22:30

the world outside. Did they talk

22:32

about how people in Wales, when you go to Wales,

22:34

everyone says to you, there's more sheep than people

22:36

here. I feel like I went there and

22:38

like, There were a lot of sheep in the book. Okay, there's

22:40

a lot of sheep there. And I will say, when you go

22:42

there, you're like, God, there are a lot of sheep. So many

22:44

sheep. You don't like sheep, don't go to Wales. Yeah, and you

22:46

know what? I love sheep. But I still,

22:49

I'm very excited and I hope I get

22:51

to go to Wales someday. It's gorgeous. So

22:53

yeah, folks, let us know how you are

22:55

completing this part of the challenge. Send your

22:58

thoughts and books that you're reading to readingglassespodcasts.gmail.com.

23:00

And before we talk about building book muscles,

23:03

we're gonna take a quick break. I'm

23:11

Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. I'm

23:13

Elliot Kalin. And together we are The Flophouse,

23:15

a long running podcast on the Maximum Fun

23:17

Network, where we watch a bad movie and

23:19

then talk about it. And because we're so

23:21

long running, maybe you haven't given us a

23:24

chance. I get it, but you don't actually

23:26

have to know anything about previous episodes to

23:28

enjoy us. And I promise you that if

23:30

you find our voices irritating, we grow endearing

23:32

over time. Perhaps you listened to one of

23:34

our old episodes and decided that we were

23:36

dumb and immature. Well, we've been doing

23:38

this a while now. We have become

23:41

smarter and more mature and generally nicer

23:43

to Dan. But we are only human,

23:45

so no promises. Find

23:47

The Flophouse on maximumfun.org or

23:50

wherever you get podcasts. Time

24:03

to solve a bookish problem from one of our

24:05

listeners. Maureen writes in, I am going to

24:07

be moving soon. Now I've moved a

24:09

lot, but I have some new problems.

24:12

Since moving to Portland, I have grown my library

24:14

considerably because there are so many great bookstores in

24:16

Portland. I can't resist some good used books. And

24:19

of course, warrior cat books just keep coming with

24:21

no end in sight. I've also gotten a job

24:23

in publishing, so I get even more free graphic

24:25

novels and comics regularly. But going

24:27

from a job with more manual labor to a

24:29

desk job has turned my arms to noodles. So

24:32

Mallory, what kind of workout do I need to

24:34

do to buff up so that I can be ready to move

24:36

all of my boxes of books in a couple of months? Love

24:39

it. P.S., you answered my question about

24:41

a trash book in a little free library a while

24:43

back. Thank you. Next time I

24:45

went, the book was gone so I could only

24:47

hope someone else recycled it. I'm excited to scope

24:49

out the little free library situation in our new

24:51

neighborhood and maybe make one of my own if

24:53

there isn't one already. Thanks for the great podcast.

24:55

I've read so many great books from your recommendations

24:57

and you guys always pull me out of any

24:59

reading slump I happen to find myself in. So

25:02

first off, you've actually worked in a library and

25:04

in a bookstore 20 years ago. Yeah,

25:07

but you know, you have more actually

25:09

you have more experience professionally moving books

25:11

than I do. I don't know. I

25:14

think you've moved a lot of times. So I would

25:16

say a job. Okay. Yeah. But

25:19

for a job, you aren't moving my massive boxes most of

25:21

the time. I would say I worked. I moved more boxes

25:23

when I worked in a restaurant. Interesting.

25:26

Well, you move a lot of boxes like a food

25:28

and I also worked usually I worked in the back

25:31

of house like a few times. And so yeah, you

25:33

end up moving boxes doing that. But so I have

25:35

a little bit of advice here, but the Mallory is

25:37

going to be going to be your gal here. I

25:39

was literally born to answer those questions. But I got

25:41

to say you got to hit those low shelves. That's

25:44

the key. And so you make sure you can squat,

25:46

squat depth, baby, and are flexible. And

25:48

I remember when I worked in a library, it was all

25:50

about I just squat because I had to be able to

25:52

get down and look at the low shelves. This also is

25:54

just something that helps you as you age is to be

25:56

able to squat low. And then the other thing I would

25:59

say is learning to. lift correctly is probably

26:01

gonna be important for this particular thing, which

26:03

Mallory can talk about better

26:05

probably because my back hurts all the time. I

26:07

don't lift correctly. It'll lift with your legs. People

26:09

say that, but then like, what does it mean?

26:12

Like what does, I'm- Get low. But then how

26:14

are my, what are my arms doing if I'm

26:16

lifting with the legs? It doesn't make sense to

26:18

me. They're staying stationary. Yeah, got it.

26:20

Your whole upper body stays- I'm always trying to lift

26:22

with my waist, and I think that's the problem. You

26:25

have to keep your whole upper body stable

26:27

and intense and your, make

26:29

your whole lower body do all the work.

26:31

Okay. Now, as

26:34

the resident, meet him at the show. Mallory didn't

26:36

even wait for me to ask her. Mallory just

26:38

went right in. I just, the brand turns around,

26:40

I have a PowerPoint presentation. I have a little

26:42

laser pointer. Again, I was born

26:44

to answer this question. I do want to say for folks,

26:46

I have not done my book lift yet that we unlocked

26:48

during the drive because me and my boyfriend have not been

26:50

home at the same time in a really long time, thanks

26:53

to work stuff, and he needs to be the one to shoot

26:55

it because I need a

26:57

videographer for this. Sure, and probably make

26:59

sure that you don't injure yourself. Oh,

27:01

that I'm not worried about. Okay. But

27:04

I do need a camera person for this, but it

27:06

is coming down the pipeline at some point. I did

27:08

buy a bunch of plastic bins to put the books

27:11

in. Wonderful. Anyway, lifting most things, whether

27:13

it's crates of food or books or whatever it

27:15

is, it truly is about more than the arms.

27:17

So you can have jacked arms, and

27:19

then the rest of your body is a noodle and

27:22

you're gonna have a hard time. John Cena arms on

27:24

a noodle is not helpful. But

27:26

it would be funny. It

27:29

would be hilarious. It'd be like when

27:31

you use tip over constantly. Yeah, yeah.

27:33

It's like a Popeye situation. Yes, yes.

27:35

So lifting things is really, especially stuff

27:37

like this, it's a whole body exercise.

27:39

It's leg drive, it's back, it's core,

27:41

it's glutes. I would hit the gym

27:43

and start generally weightlifting. I would not be like, oh, I

27:45

just want my arms to get strong. Cause like you said,

27:47

it's your back. You have to get

27:49

your whole body stronger. I don't think for just, oh,

27:52

I want to get stronger at moving boxes of books.

27:54

I don't think you need to like power lift or

27:56

Olympic lift or whatever. But I would just look up

27:58

a general program online that hits your full body. Also,

28:00

my hot moving tip for boxes books,

28:02

get bankers boxes. That is my, what is that?

28:04

They're the ones that you don't have to tape

28:06

them up. They come with the lid. Thing

28:09

is, it's not just the lid. It's the, it's because

28:11

they have a built in handle. Handle

28:13

is a game changer. So much easier

28:15

to move the books and you get

28:17

the small ones so you can't overload

28:19

them. Must as with fucking comics. God

28:21

damn, we never get to date a

28:23

comics writer, folks. Good God. But

28:26

if you didn't name like three moves someone

28:28

would do at the gym to help. Squats

28:30

for sure. With weight? With moving

28:32

books specifically. Yeah. I

28:35

would do squats, absolutely. Yeah, but with weights on,

28:37

like weights on your shoulders holding weights or anything?

28:40

Well, first you just start with squats. Honestly,

28:42

you could even start with no weights.

28:44

Do stuff like that just is your

28:46

calisthenics. That's just your bodies. Body weight

28:48

squats, pushups. Everybody

28:51

hates pushups unless you're a sick freak.

28:55

But stuff like that. But you can, bicep curls

28:57

will definitely help. Bicep curls, okay. Pushups,

29:00

bicep curls and squats. Those would be the things you think.

29:02

Yeah, but I would definitely look into like compound things like

29:04

squat is a whole body exercise. A bench press is a

29:07

full body exercise. A lot of people don't realize that because

29:09

you use a lot of leg drive in that. Dead lifting

29:11

is definitely gonna help. That's gonna strengthen the lower back. And

29:13

it's nicer when you're doing a full body lift because you

29:15

don't have to do as much because you are hitting multiple

29:18

muscle groups. So you don't have to

29:20

do five different lifts. You can just

29:23

do that one. And make

29:25

sure you eat your protein. You're not gonna make any gains in

29:27

the gym unless you eat enough protein. But

29:30

again, my big thing for lifting books is

29:32

don't focus on just the arms. Like

29:35

you said, 150% it is all about the form. You

29:38

do not get giant arms and then bend over

29:41

from the waist and try

29:43

to pick up a box of books. You will

29:45

be down for the count immediately. Basically squats are

29:47

the key to life. Squats are the key to

29:49

life. Which is unfortunate because they're also. I

29:52

love doing squats. I used to hate doing squats

29:54

and then my coach fixed my squat stance and

29:56

now I'm like, I'm like squats now. Oh wow. but

29:59

it took me a long time. It took me

30:01

four years of power lifting to like squats. You

30:03

should look at my squats and tell me if I'm

30:05

doing them wrong. I feel like you could do

30:07

a good deep squat. I can do pretty deep

30:09

squat. That's the other thing is like a lot of

30:11

people don't do a deep enough squat. You got

30:13

to break parallel with that leg. Break

30:15

parallel. So your hip, like your thigh has

30:17

to touch up like, yeah, that's a wicked

30:19

deep squat. Ooh, wicked deep squat! Yeah, yeah,

30:21

Bria's squat. I do like Pilates and shit.

30:23

Yeah, Pilates is really great. Again, it's not

30:25

even just weights. I got squat approved. It's

30:27

the flexibility. It's the full body thing. I

30:30

normally don't go that low. I'm normally going

30:32

like this. See, that's not deep enough. Is

30:34

that enough? No, your thigh... I'm like, it's

30:36

sitting in a chair. Your thigh has to

30:38

break parallel with the floor. So your thigh

30:40

bone has to tilt down towards the floor

30:42

a little bit. You got to break that

30:44

parallel. I'm going to lose the pants that

30:46

I'm wearing right now. Oh, yeah, see, squatting

30:48

in jeans is tough. Squatting. You ever

30:50

see those people at the gym? They're working out in

30:52

jeans and I'm like, are you a serial killer? What

30:54

is going on over there? Yeah. Or

30:56

maybe they're real, maybe they're like jeggings.

30:59

No, these are full on jeans. I can't. But so... There

31:01

used to be a guy at the gym we went to

31:04

that worked on jeans. I'm sure. Remember that? Bodybuilders. Oh, yeah.

31:06

There's lots of guys who worked out in jeans. What is

31:08

happening over there? What is happening?

31:10

So, all right. Squats. Squats for

31:12

sure. Form. Form. Full body. OK.

31:15

And again, a lot of lifting stuff

31:17

is making it like set yourself up for success.

31:19

Don't do not pack a giant box

31:22

of books. What are you doing? Yeah. Small boxes. Do

31:24

not overexert yourself. Do not don't hurt yourself.

31:27

Don't lift with your back. You got this,

31:29

Maureen. I want to see those

31:31

bookish meatheads out there rise up. So,

31:34

if you want us to solve

31:36

your meaty reader problems, send it

31:39

to readingglassespodcast.gmail.com. Quit saying meaty. Brett,

31:41

keep that in, please. Now,

31:50

let's answer a recommendation request from Carmella. Carmella

31:52

says, hello, I asked this question on the

31:55

Facebook group and didn't get many recommendations. Is

31:57

it very active, our Facebook group? I think

31:59

it is. Neither of us have been on

32:01

Facebook in years, so. So I want to

32:03

ask you all directly. One of my favorite

32:06

tropes is when someone has a criminal or

32:08

clandestine background and says they're out of the

32:10

life or gone straight and gets pulled back

32:12

into one last jab. I enjoy this across

32:14

genres, including thriller, fantasy, whatever. Some

32:17

I've recently loved are the adventures of Amina

32:19

Alsarafi, which is the one I recommended last

32:21

week. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna

32:23

Rayburn and Backed Up Wasteland by S.A. Cosby.

32:26

Can you recommend any others that fall into

32:28

this? Thank you so much. Mallory, what

32:30

do you have for Carmilla? I want to say first

32:32

off, right off the top, this right here is why

32:34

AI book recommenders are never going to fucking replace us.

32:37

And I do want to say, folks, we've been getting some

32:39

emails about people who are like, you should talk more about

32:41

AI book recommenders. And the only thing

32:43

that we need to say about it is fuck them forever.

32:47

So every time you do

32:49

that, you are literally talking about something that's trying to take

32:51

me in Bre's jobs. And I know that you're doing it

32:53

because it's- Yeah, you were discussing about it. I mean, right?

32:56

Yeah, you were, we don't want to talk about them. We

32:59

did an episode on them. They're not great. They were

33:02

probably going to get better because AI is going to

33:04

get better, but it does feel like you

33:06

are making us interact with the thing that's

33:08

trying to replace us. Yes, exactly.

33:10

So- It's like we're that

33:12

guy building a railroad and you're making us- Yeah,

33:15

that's weird. Although, wait, that's not actually bad. We're

33:18

John Henry and we're versus the

33:20

machine. Yeah, but eventually the machine won anyway. So

33:22

maybe we don't like that example. I know, but

33:24

now there's two of us. John Henry was only

33:26

one guy. Yeah, that's right. That's a f***ing machine.

33:29

Yeah, again, we've already talked about it. It's

33:31

not something that we approve of and we

33:33

are both terrified of the rise of AI

33:36

in our industry. But again,

33:38

questions like this are the reason why

33:40

they'll never get rid of us after seven

33:42

years, we're still here. Because this is

33:44

stuff you can't Google. No, it's too

33:46

hard to Google. It is, it's a lot of research.

33:48

So I'm going to recommend a book that I think

33:51

a lot of philosophers will like. It's Even Though I

33:53

Knew the End by C.L. Polk. So

33:55

it's a historical fantasy noir book.

34:00

her brother needs to do one last job

34:02

before she gets sucked into hell. But

34:04

a mysterious client shows up and offers her

34:07

a chance to get her soul back, but

34:09

only if she can track down this serial

34:11

killer in Chicago in three days. If

34:14

she fails, she's got to say goodbye to

34:16

the woman that she loves forever and get

34:18

sucked down to hell, but she's got three

34:20

days to maybe turn it all around. Wow.

34:22

So high stakes, one last job, really great

34:24

historical queer fantasy noir. What do you think

34:26

Carmella should read? Okay, I got

34:28

a non-crime one. So this person doesn't have

34:31

a crime background, but it is a one

34:33

last job book. Okay, that's my argument, is

34:35

that it's Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor

34:37

Jenkins Reid, because it is about a tennis

34:39

player who retires and then

34:41

has to come back for one last tournament. I think

34:43

that truly counts. That she is like, she has to

34:45

kind of get her name back, cuz she was kind

34:48

of like a, she was a little, she

34:50

said things she shouldn't say, she was a bit of a hot head.

34:52

And then, and she has kind of this dark background, so when

34:55

she comes back to not only is she trying

34:57

to prove that she's an okay person, or whatever

34:59

and go against this reputation. But then also wants

35:01

to try to win this thing even though she's

35:03

been out of the game. That totally counts. Yeah,

35:05

been out of the game. And I think it'd

35:07

be an interesting one to see if you like

35:09

this one, cuz I do think this is a

35:11

one last job book. I think, yes, 100%. Cuz

35:14

she also said that she's down for whatever

35:16

genre. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just like she's not

35:19

a criminal, I guess. She's a tennis player.

35:21

But listen, none of us knew

35:23

we could like tennis and then it turns out that

35:25

now we're watching. This is what a reader is, all

35:27

of a sudden you read a book about something and

35:29

you're like, am I interested in this? Yeah, yeah, exactly,

35:31

exactly. Like between this and challengers, tennis is having a

35:33

moment. Tennis is having a moment. And so are threesomes.

35:37

This does not have any of those, I don't

35:40

think. But it does have some romance, a little bit of romance. But

35:42

I think it's a fun one last job. So

35:44

I'm recommending Even Though I Knew the End

35:46

by CL Polk. And mine is Keri Soto

35:48

is Back by Taylor Jenkins Read. So if

35:50

you want us to answer your recommendation requests

35:53

in the Reading Glasses podcast@gmail.com, as always, we

35:55

want to thank the wonderful mods who run

35:57

our Facebook group. We really appreciate them. And

35:59

remember folks. If you want to help us

36:01

feed our hungry, hungry animals, we have a

36:04

Void Merch store with all kinds of awesome

36:06

reading glasses merch. There's stickers, there's totes, there's

36:08

tank tops, there's shirts, there's sweatshirts in a

36:10

variety of colors and fabrics. It really is

36:12

a great store where you can get so

36:14

many different sizes. Like if you

36:17

have a particular, like people have very big

36:19

opinions on type of t-shirt material. Ooh,

36:21

yeah, I do too. People are like, ooh, is

36:23

it the soft t-shirt? What shape of t-shirt? Our

36:25

Void Merch store has got you covered. And again,

36:27

it directly supports us. There's a link in the

36:29

show notes to that. Check it out. And if

36:32

you like the show, and again, you

36:34

want to get Bri and I a birthday present.

36:36

It's reading, seven years of reading glasses. You can

36:38

get us one for free. That'll really warm our

36:40

hearts, but also make a difference in the show.

36:43

Please rate and review us on the podcast listening app

36:45

of your choice. It will only take 30 seconds and

36:48

it helps grow the show and grow

36:50

our hearts one size bigger. You

36:52

can email us at readingglassespodcasts@gmail.com. Find

36:54

us on Instagram at readingglassespodcast. Thanks for listening

36:57

and thanks for reading. Thanks

36:59

for reading. Maximum

37:07

fun. A work road network.

37:10

Of artist owned shows. Supported

37:12

directly by you.