Shanna Read Two Books!

Books mentioned in today's episode:

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough 
To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

Libro.fm.
Use our code GOODBOOKS at checkout and get two books for the price of your first months membership!

Find us at:

www.goodbookspodcast.com
Facebook - In Her Good Books Podcast
Instagram - @inhergoodbookspodcast
TikTok - @inhergoodbookspodcast

We are affiliated with Libro.fm, but all reviews are our true and honest opinions!

Transcript

May 17

Shanna: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to In Her Good Books. I'm Shannon. 

Jen: And I'm Jen. And this is a podcast where two friends talk about books, actually books, because you'll never guess. I read two 

Shanna: books. Shannon read 

Jen: two books. Two. 

Shanna: So should 

Jen: I start? Yes, please do. I 

Shanna: read Tiny Beautiful Things by 

Jen: Cheryll Star. Great.

I had a feeling. Yeah. Everyone should know. I know. Everything she does. You do. 

Shanna: So yeah, I read that. Guess how many times I cried? A 

Jen: hundred thousand or zero, almost two. 

Shanna: Which I should be clear. Not even one, but like almost [00:01:00] twice. 

Jen: Wow. Yeah. Well that's impressive cuz I cried a hundred percent of the time at that book.

Yeah. 

Shanna: Um, I am dead inside, but. There was one story that one woman writes in about miscarrying. Mm-hmm. And holy moly, that was a 

Jen: rough one. Yeah, I definitely cried many times. Yeah. Ooh. In that one. 

Shanna: So trigger warnings for all the triggers. Yeah. But really, really good. You're right. Her writing is, it's really fun.

For some reason I thought it was gonna be kind of, Flowery or like staunch, almost like learn, which I don't know, I'm thinking on par with the one who wrote our very first. Our very second book, club book. Brene Brown. Brene Brown. Yeah. I don't know why I had them in like the same category. 

Jen: I, I think that I find her stuff to be kind of Brene Brown-ish, but Brene Brown is more, you know, she's doing research and clinical and [00:02:00] is a little more clinical, but all of her, her writing is also really anecdotal, so it's like all the stories from her life.

Mm-hmm. Relate to what she's talking about. And it's kind of the same way with Cheryl Stra in this book. 

Shanna: She has experience. She doesn't have scientific knowledge. Mm-hmm. Yeah. She's really, she admits that she's talking out of her ass a lot of the time that she's just giving you her gut. 

Jen: But her gut is awesome.

Her gut is awesome. Like I would take all of her advice all the time. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, 

Shanna: it was really, really good. And I think that non-fiction might be the way for me to go for a bit. Because I was able to listen to that in a way that I have not been able to focus in on fiction books on audio. Mm-hmm. So, well I was thinking something, 

Jen: it's gone.

It's gone. It's completely 

Shanna: gone. It's gone. Yeah. But yeah. Good. Great recommendation. Oh, I remember what it was. It is that I listened to a 10 year anniversary [00:03:00] edition. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it had, um, some covid related questions and like she had added a couple of other things at the end. Since the book was originally published.

Jen: Yeah. And I thought it was interesting because I have that one on Audible and I got it years ago, and then when I went to listen to it again, it had just automatically updated to the new version. Oh yeah. I was like, weird. Cool. I was like, ah, 10th anniversary edition. Sweet. Oh, 

Shanna: because I went on Audible and I was like, oh sweet.

It's already in here. She's never gonna know. Yeah. I should have picked up that It was a new edition, but whatever's funny. 

Jen: It's just weird. I feel like you would have to pay extra for the new one. Yeah. 

Shanna: Or you know what? If you don't want it kind of like we remember when you two gave us all their album.

Jen: This is true that I wanted it. So it was okay. 

Shanna: Yeah. It doesn't matter if you actually did want it, so, but yeah, that's one of the 

Jen: books that I read. I've been listening to the Dear Sugars podcast and it's been really good. Except for I found out that it's over. 

Shanna: I found out it was over too. [00:04:00] Yeah. In my listening 

Jen: of.

The book. I didn't pick up on that. And then I realized that the episodes that I've been listening to, they've already been repeated a few times. Oh, they just keep re-releasing? Yeah. On like a regular schedule. Yeah. So I don't know when it actually ended. They must be making some money. They must be. That's clever.

Yeah, it's good. Good podcast. Yeah. I 

Shanna: still only listen to the last podcast on the last, my favorite murder. 

Jen: Yeah. Well maybe you'll switch over sometime. Something else. 

Shanna: I don't think so, but maybe, who knows? There's a lot of life 

Jen: left to live. I, one day you'll listen to one of these other podcasts that I say are really good, and then you're gonna say, wow, I'm so surprised.

Jen has great taste in everything. I should just always listen to what she says. Okay. 

Shanna: But I know you recommended bunch of podcasts to me, but I had one friend come in. And recommend one. Would you be terribly offended if I started listening to that one instead? It was called Dungeons and Daddies. Oh my God.

So, you know, [00:05:00] those are 

Jen: two of my favorite things. Yeah. Well, you know, one day I'll write into you. One day you'll know. 

Shanna: Dear Mrs. Stra, am I the asshole? 

Jen: Yeah. There's a. Am I the asshole segment in obituary? Oh, yep. Nice. So you can write into them and then never listen to the podcast. You'll tell me. Okay. What did I read?

I got a ration. 

Shanna: My books out 

Jen: Ali One Lab. Okay. So I read Insomnia by Sarah Kin Burrow. So she was the author of Behind Her Eyes. Yes, which is the one that knocked my brain right outta my head. This one, I think is her newest book. It was released last year, and it's really, really similar to behind her eyes in a lot of ways.

Um, this one is about a woman named Emma, who is becoming increasingly [00:06:00] paranoid as her 40th birthday approaches because her mom in the weeks leading up to her 40th birthday, Just totally went off the rails, lost her mind, and it ended up with her trying to kill one of her children. So Emma's sister. And so she's been in a psychiatric hospital for 20 years now or something.

And so. About the sister? Yeah. There's just two books that were really kind of really similar and I was just about to say the, the other one instead of this one, what happens? Um, yeah, so she starts to lose time. She starts to, I. Do things like, you know, just find herself in her son's room holding a pillow kind of thing.

Mm. And uh, her mom had tried killing her sister, like by smothering her with a pillow and she would always repeat like a certain sequence of numbers [00:07:00] over and over again, and was always like kind of muttering to herself. And she starts doing this. The same things that her mom did. I like it so 

Shanna: far. I have 

Jen: berries.

Mm-hmm. But there's like a, a twist of, of things that cannot be talked about without spoilers, but the same kind of toastiness of behind her eyes. So, oh, Verity. Does it have a verity twist? Mm, no. 

Shanna: Oh, okay. Good. It was feeling like I was going down a verity path where, Things aren't the way they seem, but in a sucky way.

No, 

Jen: this isn't sucky. No, but it did get a little bit repetitive because just kind of the same things kept happening to her over and over again for a really long time. Mm-hmm. 

Shanna: Um, that was just long descriptions of. Injuring children for no reason. 

Jen: No. 

Shanna: I'll forgive that book one day. No, you won't. 

Jen: Not ever.

I'll never forgive it. No. But it was good. Yeah, it was good. This one, it didn't pop my head off or anything, but it, it was good. It felt the same. And the cover's really good. It has a. And then a [00:08:00] white nighty, probably kind of like the one that I own probably, but I haven't shown everybody yet. Yeah. My 

Shanna: hair's completely different than before.

Now it's 

Jen: blue. Yeah. I know. We, we missed the window of showing our things, but she has like the long black hair and it's all like creepy. Mm. Ring style. Yeah. It's my favorite. But at the end of this book, you get a little glimpse of. What happened to the people from behind her eyes. They make like a little cameo at at the end.

I love that. And it just made it knocked it up for me. It knocked it up. I was gonna say, 

Shanna: I hope she's gonna have another book, baby. 

Jen: Yeah. He didn't knock it up to like, I was gonna say it, knocked it up to five stars, but it's not still. But it gave me the feeling of like, this is a good book. This is a good book.

This is an awesome book. Yeah. And I was like, Okay. It's okay. Calm down. I haven't even read it. And I just got that 

Shanna: butterfly feeling. Yeah. Like, ooh. 

Jen: Like I love that a character comes in [00:09:00] and you're like, that name sounded familiar. Yeah. Oh, maybe she just really likes that name. And then I'm like, wait a minute.

Rewind. Oh, 

Shanna: that's so good. Uh, I love it when, when 

Jen: books cross over like that. Yeah. It made, it made the whole, whole book worth it. And I immediately messaged Carolyn and said, you have to read this book immediately. Only mostly just because of the last page. Yeah. So And she did and she was like, what? Like I know.

That's awesome. So good. So yeah, I'm really liking Sarah Pembro will be reading more. 

Shanna: Nice for sure. Yeah. Still too scared to try behind her eyes. I did recommend it to somebody recently though. Yeah. They had messaged me on Facebook and we're like, Hey, just wondering, could I have some recommendations in like this?

Then I was like, ah, I haven't read this one, but I hear it's going to blow you away. Mm-hmm. So I hope it's good. I trust you though. I know you're dying to know what the next book I [00:10:00] read is. Oh, yes. It was to be taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. Oh. So yes. Guess what A Becky Chambers book was awesome.

Of course. Can you believe it? She's the best. Her world building is. Out of this world. Ha ha. It's funny cuz it's Facebook. Uh, yeah. This one is about a crew that goes into space and they have something called Toper Topa, I don't remember, but it's like a medicated induced scientific sleep. And based on the planet that they're going to, it changes their bodies.

So like when they go to one with low light, they've got shimmery skin and if they go somewhere with way too much gravity, they're like all bulky and strong because for the 15 years or whatever of travel time they're in like as stasis. So they [00:11:00] don't age at all. They just get changed into cool whatever they need to be.

And so they leave earth, uh, it's like a crowdfunded space program where everybody just got sick of billionaires. Billionaire it up and separate, like, let's just go and science. And so a bunch of crews go to all of these planets and you'd think it'll be boring. Just watching a couple, like four, I think it's four scientists might be five, um, scientists all just doing science on a planet that's made up.

So it's not even real science, it's just, oh, it was so good. All of the worlds were so beautiful. The friendships, the like, Everything. It was all just stunningly beautiful and I loved it. It was so good. I highly recommend. 

Jen: I've heard this book described a few times and yeah, it doesn't sound interesting, but I trust that.

It's amazing. It's so amazing. 

Shanna: It really [00:12:00] shouldn't be, but it is. Oh, it's really cool. They get, because the amount of time that they're away is like 80 to a hundred years with. Like their time that they're doing their science on their planets, plus just all their travel time. So Earth keeps going normal, but they send news and it'll all be super outdated, but it's just, ugh.

Ah, it's so good. Yeah. Read it. Everybody read it. If you haven't read Becky Chambers yet, what's wrong with you? It's how I'm gonna trick everyone into reading sci-fi. Yes. She's really helping my 

Jen: cause. Yes, she is for sure. Uh, speaking of which, I read a Becky Chambers book. I know, 

Shanna: I saw your, your Kindle was up when I was at your house.

I know. And I was like, yes.

Jen: Uh, there's so many. Ways that you can just find out what I'm reading when we're nosy. I like had my notes written up on my computer and then you came [00:13:00] back here for something and I was like, oh no. And then I ran back and I was like, oh no, it's okay. It's covered up. Nope, I saw it on your coach. 

Yeah, 

Jen: like a week ago.

Uh, yeah. So I read a Closed in Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. It's the second book in the Wayfair series. The first book is called The Long Way. A long Way. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Yeah, which was great. Um, so not to do spoilers for the first book, cuz you don't have to read them, you don't have to read them in order.

But it might be helpful. Highly recommend 

Shanna: the first one first because all of the subsequent books have a character or a related character from the first book. Mm-hmm. So after the first one, it doesn't really matter which one. I don't think, but yeah, first one, 

Jen: first. This one is about a AI that gets put into a body kit, which is illegal, so they have to be really sneaky about it, and [00:14:00] she gets taken in by this couple named Pepper and Blue.

So we go into two timelines, present day with. This AI named Sidra and then in the past with Pepper and how she grew up and she had escaped from this factory when she was a child and found this abandoned ship and went to live in it. Oh my heart. I know. And I got raised by this other AI that was kind of trapped in the ship and then they had to escape from there.

And then, yeah, in the present day, CREs. Learning how to live in her body and was very good. There was definitely tears. Yeah. 

Shanna: It's so good. I feel like she always has these great lessons. Kind of like, so you know, TJ Clone, how he has those lessons in his books, but he's ramming you in the head with them.

Mm-hmm. Like, I don't mind it, but like it gets a little almost abrasive about how much he wants you to hear his lesson. This [00:15:00] one, she's got these beautiful lessons just kinda like woven in and at the end you're like, yes, I can feel what that was about. More so then she like told you this is what you're supposed to think.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, she's so good. 

Jen: I really liked the past timeline better than the present timeline. I was excited to be, I think, cuz I like survival stories. I like surviving, so I liked her. Trying to figure out how to find food in this junkyard that she lives in. And I love, she 

Shanna: lives on a junk planet. You know?

I love junk. Yeah, 

Jen: you love junk. I love surviving. Yeah, it's good. It's perfect. So 

Shanna: good. And then she's got this special spot for ais because she was raised by one. Ugh. 

Jen: I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, and finally it was like I'm doing it. It was time and it was good. 

Shanna: She feels so good on the brain.

I should just re, actually, I should finish Monk Robot. Yeah. Because those are little and Becky Chambers. They're different than these ones for [00:16:00] sure. Based on what I've read. But you can't go wrong. She has not failed me yet. No. 

Jen: I tried doing the first Monk and robot saw him for the Wild Built. Mm-hmm. On audio.

And I don't think it was for audio cuz I just couldn't, my brain couldn't grasp onto it. And I didn't, I only listened to her for like five seconds and I was like, no, I don't think this is supposed to be on audio. Sometimes 

Shanna: you can just feel when it's wrong. Like I cannot listen to a Terry PRT book on audio will not do it.

I just, it has to be the actual words on the page for me and she Yeah. Might just be the same. There are some people you just, you know how you read 'em. Yep. I didn't read any 

Jen: more books. Yeah, it's okay. I got more, but it's, oh, it's so cute. We're so cute though. We just, we each had a little surprise for each other.

Yes. 

Shanna: I was reading tiny beautiful things before I s sped, uh, closing down, so, you know. Yeah, we were, we were actually very cute guys. 

Jen: Very cute. Yeah. It wasn't like some secret competition. Yeah. Just both. [00:17:00] Adorable. Yeah. She was like, oh, I see what she's wearing. Well, I'm gonna do it too tiny beautiful things though.

Good. Yeah, that was 

Shanna: really great. It really was like, I never doubted 

Jen: you. Um. Back on it. But I always think of like in the first episode of the show, they read the letter, I forget what the letter was. Oh, it was, what would you tell your 20 year old self? And one of the things was that she would tell herself that one day she'll be on the bus and she'll be high on heroin and a little girl will get on the bus and, and she'll have two purple balloons and she'll go to hand her one and she won't take it cuz she doesn't think that she deserves such tiny, beautiful things.

Yeah. I'm just like, I 

Shanna: know that 

Jen: was a good one. And then it was like, but you do, you do deserve tiny, beautiful things. Ugh. 

Shanna: Yeah. It maybe we'll post a picture. We keep saying that. We'll post pictures, but we never do. Who knows if we will? I bought a really cool shirt. This doesn't sound related. We'll get there.

It's a like double [00:18:00] XL men's shirt and it's got the map from the Hobbit on it and it's very cool. Trust me. Jen's got to face like, Shannon, your shirt. Smell that cool. Uh, I 

Jen: thought I was hiding 

Shanna: it. No, no. I know how you feel about my clothes. It will not change a thing, but it's amazing. And when I found it, I was listening to tiny, beautiful things in this like, uh, vintage store.

So I must have looked very serious, just myself in there. Just flip, flip, flip, listening to these like really intense letters. I think it was, um, The girls. Oh, did she talk to, yeah. Like did she help the youth worker job? Mm-hmm. So I'm listening to that and I'm looking at t-shirts. So these guys must have been like, let's not talk to her.

Jen: Yeah, probably. 

Shanna: Although I think the general vibe I throw out is let's not talk to her. 

Jen: This is vibe I try to put out. Yeah, 

Shanna: [00:19:00] just think about my clothes. 

Jen: That might work. No, I, I support your clothes. Oh, really? For your body. Perfect. I was gonna say, 

Shanna: you know, I'm literally wearing pirate sleeves right 

Jen: now.

Right? It looks good. If I were that, I would actually look like a man pirate. I was going through Mediterranean vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and just the fact that you go in your closet and have a Mediterranean shirt, I go in my closet. I'm like, which black sweater or black dress shall I wear today? Yes. You'll never guess what this cost me.

Shanna: $1 $0. Nick, you gave it to me outta garbage. Yeah. Nope. Her stepmother gave it to her in a bag and then she gave me that bag. Was it a garbage bag? Yes. That's my favorite way to receive it. Yes. 

Jen: All right. What else have I got? I read Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. That's 

Shanna: why I'm wearing a Mediterranean shirt.

Jen: Oh yes. We just had our, our Greek book club. We wanted to eat Greek food, so we thought, which book can we read, where we can eat Greek [00:20:00] food? And there was a Medusa book out and we said, sure, 

Shanna: yes. I didn't read the book. 

Jen: This was a book that I should have read, the physical copy, because the audio, it wasn't bad.

Natalie Haynes narrates her own books and she has a nice voice and she doesn't do a bad job, but something about it, it doesn't go into my brain. It's like there's a 

Shanna: sing song, equality to her accent for me that my brain, Refused 

Jen: to 

Shanna: keep listening. Mm-hmm. Like I could listen to it all day long, but to like actually take in what she was saying, it just 

Jen: wasn't happening for me.

No. And because the story, it's about Medusa and all these other stories from all these other gods and how they pertained to Medusa and it was all important and it was all you had Smart. You have to be smart and she's smart, and if you weren't listening, then you miss it. Even at book club, people were like, oh, and this happened, and this happened and this [00:21:00] happened.

And I was like, yeah, did it? Cause I don't remember that. 

Shanna: I was really relying on my previous Medusa knowledge, mm-hmm. To carry me through this book club. But you did good. I feel 

Jen: like it did. Yeah. I think you did better than me. I was like, but yeah, I could only listen to it if I was just walking to work.

If I was hiking up the mountain. No, I couldn't listen to it at work. I couldn't listen to it while cleaning. So it took a while. Yeah, it's the story of Medusa. I wanted it to be more like Madeline Miller Song of Achilles, Medusa. I want everything to 

Shanna: be more of Madeline 

Jen: Miller song of Achilles. I know, and I keep.

It's just too high of expectations that I'm putting on some of these books sometimes. Yeah. I see Greek 

Shanna: mythology and I'm like, how do you stack up against Maddie? Yeah. 

Jen: Not at all. Damnit. No, it's good. 

Shanna: Not, not at all. Yeah. You're doing pretty great Natalie. Yeah. 

Jen: I trust this book was good. Um, it was just, I mean, I, I'm not gonna say it was factual cause it's all [00:22:00] mythology.

But I didn't feel like I got to know Medusa at all. I didn't feel like, I gotta know her feelings. You gotta spend some time with her and her sisters. But it wasn't enough. It was just more kind of about the outside world and how it came back to 

Shanna: her. I read a book last year that was a Medusa book, and I really quite liked it.

This author had a, I wanna recommend it because unfortunately I have no idea who wrote this book. Or what it's called or where it is in my, oh, that's right. I was trying to take a picture that I finished this book, except for I didn't want. Somebody's download of Colleen Hoover embarrassing me beside a picture.

So I had to reset my library. 

Jen: Oh, I found it in your library. 

Shanna: It 

Jen: must have been a real cheap Oh, I just saw it and I was like, oh, Jen, I was uh, in bed and I was like, oh, I could read a book [00:23:00] for a couple minutes if I wanted. And then I picked up the Kindle and I slipping through and I was like, That's what I feel like calling Uber.

I read like one page. Oh, maybe So you didn't put it on there. I did, yeah. I didn't. Well, I, I put it on there as in of reading it, but Oh, you're the one that I bought it. You bought it. That's weird. I thought you just went on there and we're buying books. No, I, I don't usually, I usually tell you. Oh, 

Shanna: well, I guess I'll throw it in the show notes if we can remember.

Because it was really good. I just, I have 200 books on this Kindle. Do you think I'll ever find it? Don't worry. I'll be the one once I stop talking and we move on. Hmm. Yeah. I don't know where the hell it is. Anyways, I'll find it later and I'll tell y'all about it. Cuz it was really good. It was, um, yeah, the story, Medusa was a retelling, but it was definitely Medusa.

Like it was from her point of view, we weren't doing anything 

Jen: else. Mm-hmm. Yeah, cuz this book had multiple points of view from so many different people and maybe. One quarter of the book was actually Medusa. [00:24:00] I was kinda hoping 

Shanna: it'd be like a Cersi. Yeah. You know, by Madeline Miller. Yeah. No. 

Jen: Come on Madeline Miller.

Give us another book so we can stop 

Shanna: devour it and then compare everything 

Jen: to it. Yeah. 

Shanna: Is it still the Persephone book is your 

Jen: next one? As far as I know. Hmm. I'll take 

Shanna: anything at 

Jen: this point. Anything, anything, anything. Diary. Yes. Her notes. Yeah. So, stone Blind, Natalie Haines. Good. If you wanna know more factual information about Medusa and surrounding people, uh, thousand ships or Stone Blind?

Um, they're the same to me. Really? Yeah. Oh, 

Shanna: actually, yeah. Thousand trips. Had a ton of characters. 

Jen: Yeah. Yeah, the same. Um, I read a book called Wrong Place, wrong Time, by Jillian McAllister. So this one was in the same vein as the two Sarah pin bro books, which is [00:25:00] why I started getting them mixed up. This one is about a woman who is waiting for her son to come home.

Her like teenage son. It's late at night. She's waiting for him to come home. My gut 

Shanna: just cleanse. Oh, this boy's not coming home, is he? Well, he 

Jen: is coming home. Oh, shoot. In a way that's, that's not expected. She looks, she happens to look out the window. And then sees her son stab someone to death. What? Yeah.

Oh hmm. And then she's like, like, what? And runs out there, and then the police come and. Arrest him and he's like, just turned 18 and No, that's the whole thing. Do do it like 

Shanna: a week earlier. 

Jen: Come on. Yeah. And then, so this happens on October 30th, and then she goes home, goes to bed and wakes up and it's October 29th and it hasn't happened yet.

This isn't sound at all like 

Shanna: the other book. 

Jen: Well, the problem is, is that you don't know what happens in the [00:26:00] other books, so I'm. Messing up my spoiler. Free reviews. Well, when you said she looked 

Shanna: out the window and saw I said a werewolf because I thought, yeah, son's a werewolf. Absolutely. 

Jen: Yeah. No, no. Just to kill her.

Just to kill her, um, out of nowhere. So then, yeah, she wakes up and it's the day before and it hasn't happened yet. And, but this seems 

Shanna: like just as weird as the werewolf idea, like maybe weirder, but you know, I love a time. Skip. 

Jen: Yeah. Or like, ugh. So then, Then she wakes up again the next morning and it's like October 28th.

So she's like going back in time and she's supposed to figure out what brought her son to kill someone. I love out of nowhere. Is it so good? It is really good. Oh, I should read it. It's really good. It sounds like a Love it. And it has dual timeline as well, so it has her going back in time and then it has this, this cop that is.

I don't know, investigating a case. And you're kind of also like going with him. Is he going forward in time? Yeah, he's 

Shanna: normal. Jen, [00:27:00] who are you to say what is normal with time? 

Jen: Whatever he's, uh, Typical these, your typical time 

Shanna: follows your average time. 

Jen: Just learn trajectory. Your normal time, normal. It's to say that's normal.

Oh, 

Shanna: so now going backwards in time. Normal. Yeah. Someone's a little timeish. Oh my God. 

Jen: All. I'm not 

Shanna: even mad about anything. I'm just being an ass. 

Jen: I never know how to say the right thing. I 

Shanna: just make sure I really breathe for normal things.

Jen: What are, who are you to say what's normal? Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah. I don't think going back in time is normal, but whatever. Um, yeah, it was, it was good cuz she gets to go back in time and she has to relive all these moments and [00:28:00] see them from a different perspective. Is she like 

Shanna: a ghost of Christmas past or is she living the day 

Jen: again?

She's living the day again. Okay. Yeah. It was really good. 

Shanna: Is there a Pico style court case? We're of course, talking about the famous author, Jodi Pico. Yes. 

Jen: See, took me a second. I was like Pico de court case. Um. No, because she's going back in time, so he hasn't killed anyone yet, and then she starts jumping further and further back.

Mm-hmm. She, she's jumping back to significant moments in time pertaining to this one event. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I really 

Shanna: like that. Did you ever read um, that book I love Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn 

Jen: Hardcastle? Nope. I think it's on my shelf still. Oh, it's one of those ones I've stolen from you and look up at my shelf.

Feel full of guilt, guilt, 

Shanna: shame. I know time. I know the feeling. Yeah, it's got great time. So yeah, whenever anything's got weird, wonky time, that's the book that I think of. Yeah. 

Jen: And I believe it's good not, [00:29:00] not reading it, cuz I think it's gonna be bad. You 

Shanna: might think it's bad. I don't know. I'm actually interested to know what you'll think of 

Jen: that one.

I know one day, one day. I just finished Girl Forgotten by Karen Slaughter. Oh yeah. You and Ms. Slaughter. Yeah. This one is kind of the sequel to pieces of her and this one. This woman becomes a US Marshall and her dad, who is a terrible person, kind of cult leader guy. Mm. Is in jail. And he's about to get out, not about to get out, but he's like coming up for parole or something and they wanna make sure he doesn't get out cuz he's really, really bad.

They think that maybe he killed one of his friends when he was in high school. Her name was Emily. She was raped and then got pregnant, but she couldn't remember, like she just was pregnant one day, like she went to a party and then four weeks later was pregnant and was a virgin. As far as she knew, like she didn't know that anything had happened to her.

She was completely ostracized from everyone and [00:30:00] just blamed and oh, it was the eighties and. Hmm. Yeah. Not a good time. And then, no, she ended up dead. Well, she got beaten almost to death and left in a dumpster, and then they found her, and then she was on life support. And then she gives birth. Gives birth of course, and then dies.

Woo, Emily. Oh, poor baby. Yeah. So we have two timelines. One is present day where. This US Marshall is trying to connect her dad to this old murder case to try to keep him behind bars forever. So she goes to his hometown, there's a judge there, Emily's mom who has been getting death threats. So she goes to protect her, and then her side quest is, Figure out what happened with Emily.

So yeah, we have that timeline and then back in, in the past with Emily and uh, there's a cult in there. I love cults. Yeah, it wasn't, there's like two kinds of Karen slaughter books. One is kind of crimes and one is horrible, horrible, [00:31:00] scary, gruesome stuff. This one was just like regular crime fighting, ah, with some cult in there.

So, well, I mean, a pregnant teenager gets. Smashed in the face and put in a dumpster naked. But that was kind of like the worst of it. Yeah, I was gonna say this 

Shanna: whole book, I thought you were gonna be like, and this falls into that category based on everything you've 

Jen: set up. No, it's just like one thing.

Everything else is like, yeah, I think you would like it. I think you would like her book. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, her writing is good. I think she always has the same audio. Oh, I just remember, I just remember one that I read that I forgot to talk about. Okay, sweet. I think Karen Slaughter always has the same audiobook narrator, which is good in the way that whenever I'm listening, I'm like, oh yeah, this is a Karen Slaughter book.

But then also they, they kind of start to run into each other a little bit. Yeah. Gotta break it up. Yeah. But screw that book. 

Shanna: Throw it in the trash. 

Jen: Throw that in the trash. Because I read Happy Place by he Emily [00:32:00] Henry. I saw that 

Shanna: on your Libro. Yeah. And I was like, what shadow? Pretend you never saw it, but now I told you.

Yeah. Now you, 

Jen: woo. How is it? It was so good. 

Shanna: How course it was. This one had such a weird, crappy 

Jen: sounding premise though. It does. Yeah. It sounded terrible, but it wasn't, Ugh. It was so good in the exact same ways that all the other ones are good. Well, it made me sad. Yes. I won't read it. It will make you sad.

It's about this couple, Harriet and Wynn, they get invited to, well every summer their friend group meets up at this cabin. And then now they've broken up, but they haven't told any of their friends yet. So Harriet shows up at the cabin for the week and then he's there and everyone's like, surprise, he could make it.

And she's like, brick. Hell yeah. And then they're also like, and also surprise, we're getting married like one of her couple friends, so they don't wanna spoil the mood. Yeah. So they don't wanna tell anyone what's happening. So they're like, okay, well let's just get through the [00:33:00] week and we'll just act like everything's fine.

And yeah, the synopsis sounded so bad. Mm-hmm. But no, so good. Her characters are so good. They're so well done. The relationships are amazing. Just even the friendships and then, yeah. Harriet and Wyn, ugh. Like every scene is just so full of chemistry and wanting and like they love each other so much and you know, You know that something happened, but you don't really know what it is and it's, you know, it's just always kind of like misunderstanding.

And if they just talked a little bit more, then it all would've been okay. But then of course it is okay. In the end, of course, you don't pick up a 

Shanna: romance with it not being all okay. In 

Jen: the end. I loved every second of it. Ugh. And I was crying at the end, like sobbing. Aw, I'm so happy for you. Yeah, it was really good.

And yeah, Julia Whelan narrated, of course. God, she's good. She's so good. I just started another book today that's not by Emily Henry, but she's a narrator [00:34:00] too. She's such a good narrator. Yep. It's like a performance. It's, she's not just reading a book. It's nice when you 

Shanna: see a narrator on an audio book and it makes you more confident in the book you're 

Jen: picking up.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. She's not narrating bad ones. No, not at this point. I don't think I want you to read it, but I think it will make you sad. I think it'll make me 

Shanna: very sad. I don't know. Do I need, I don't wanna cry. Cry with stupid stuff. Yeah. 

Jen: Like, yeah. So, but one day. One day. One day. But if you loved Bre and you loved book lovers, And I guess people mean on vacation, which is like the bottom of the pile, even though the pile starts really high up.

Yeah. It's like a 

Shanna: nice table that this pile is on. Yeah. 

Jen: Um, yeah. You'll absolutely love this one too. So good. Oh well that's so nice. Yeah, it was so I can't believe I forgot about it. Mm-hmm. I must have not put it on my story graph. 

Shanna: Oh [00:35:00] yeah. I need to start writing out my list cause I've read enough books now that I can start recording them, I, once I get 

Jen: past five books, I just looked at mine and I went, oh, only at 42 this year.

Shanna: Yeah. That's 

Jen: more like normal. Yeah. But actually 43 cause I forgot to put happy place on. So you're almost my goal. Yeah. Disgusting. 

Shanna: Disgusting, gross. You're all full of love 

Jen: in books. I was You once. Yes. One day you'll be me again. One day. Yeah. Anything else interesting in your life? Um, well, I just got a message from my husband.

I think we're going to Mexico. Woo. 

Shanna: Must be nice. 

Jen: Yeah, must be nice. 

Shanna: That's a joke. I'm not actually 

Jen: a jerk. Yeah, no. Yeah, I think we're gonna go at the end of June. That's soon, which is soon. But that's exciting though. Yeah. Yeah. I've never been to Mexico, [00:36:00] so. That'll be fun. Yeah. Or I'll be, I'm scared actually.

Yeah. Because I have two little kids and we just went to Sury for two days and it was really hard. Yeah. Because going anywhere with little kids where they don't have all their normal little kids', stuff that they need is hard. Yeah. 

Shanna: The traveling might be rough. Mm-hmm. But Veda ass, an angel and Callie will be so excited about learning.

Yeah, that you'll probably be okay. 

Jen: Yeah. We'll just frame it as school. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then we've got Jra, who's 16 and she can help. Yes. Sorry, JRA, 

Shanna: you're the helper. That's, that's the price of going to Mexico. 

Jen: Yeah, and I've been talking to my publisher about cover art for my book, so they're supposed to send me some cover concepts in the next couple weeks.

I'm really scared of that too. Oh, 

Shanna: I'm so excited. I'm so excited. 

Jen: But they [00:37:00] still have to send me the edit so I can do any work on the actual book. And they were saying, oh yeah, we'll do the edits and then we'll show you some covers and then we're gonna send it to the audiobook narrator. And I was like, I get an audiobook narrator.

What is, what do they sound like? 

Shanna: That's so exciting. Oh, I didn't even consider that. I'm gonna get to have it on audio. Yeah, that'll 

Jen: be so easy. So easy. You'll have no excuses. I'll have 

Shanna: no excuses. None. Well, now you said that I shouldn't even read the one that 

Jen: I have. No, the one you have is shit, it's old.

Yeah. It's one of those old drafts. And now, I mean, I can't wait to watch you sweat. I'm be sweating so much. Yeah. I'm already. 

Shanna: That's so exciting. I love it. Every time that there's any 

Jen: momentum. Exciting. Yeah. I think cuz I kept bugging them, being like, Hey, it's been a while. Like, where are we? And then they're like, oh yeah, I'll get back to you.

And then they don't, I think they finally were like, okay, we ha we're gonna have to give her something. Mm-hmm. Cause this is taking way too long. They said that the editor had some kind of personal stuff happening or something. I don't know that. And they're like, how about we just do your [00:38:00] cover? Yeah. Like distract you.

What's that 

Shanna: cover? Oh, okay. This is fun. Oh, and Janelle's book is out. Yep. Now, so I haven't picked up my copy yet, but I'm 

Jen: excited. Yeah. You guys should all go to carmack bazaar.com and get your copies of She Is Hope personified. Uh, yeah. 

Shanna: Well, 

Jen: I, 

Shanna: my house is for sale, so that's stressful. Uh, nobody's bought it yet.

Don't worry. Guess what? Inside of all my closets, marker. Everywhere. Everywhere. All of the bi-folds. Ah, yeah. Yeah. Whew. I'll send you a picture later. It's, shoot. It's more than I, hopefully they just 

won't 

Jen: look. I wouldn't, yep. Then there will be in like, I don't know what the insides of my closets look like.

Mm. Don't look, I don't want to just live your life. I did see some kids going in my closet and closing the door the other day. Ah, crap. Are they mine? 

Shanna: Because you're in for it. Oh my God. I don't even know where they're hiding pens at this point. Yeah. Yeah. [00:39:00] That's pretty much it. That's all I got going on.

Playing a lot of hollow night. 

Jen: Yeah, me too. Yeah, I've been playing games. Yeah. Well, not a lot By Shannon's playing a lot. I'm playing like five minutes a day. Yes. Or two hours sometimes. But I'm just 

Shanna: in bed and I'm like, I'm gonna jump around for a bit. Mm-hmm. Mostly it's just me getting murdered by bosses, but that's okay.

I'll get, I'll get good. 

Jen: Yeah, no, I suck. That's okay. Okay, well I think that's all we got for you this week. That's it. Maybe 

Shanna: next week I'll read some more books. Who knows? Hard to say 

Jen: maybe. Um, 

Shanna: okay. So you can find us@goodbookspodcast.com, and we are in her Good Books podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Have you done any TikTok 

Jen: Thatk? No. Every day I think about doing a TikTok, and then I don't, 

Shanna: I think you are doing TikTok sometimes too. Mm-hmm. But they're not related to anything. [00:40:00] Do them anyways. I should. I just need to save my crazy 

Jen: snaps. Yeah. I'm sure you have a whole bunch, you can just, I probably do put up 

Shanna: right now.

Yeah. I saved so many of them cuz I send them to my brother and sister who aren't on Snapchat. Mm-hmm So like my whole camera roll is basically just me doing insane stuff. Yeah. 

Jen: Load, load 'em up onto stuff. Right. We'll see, 

Shanna: we'll see what happens. Yeah. Head over there to give us a follow so you never missed out on 

Jen: what we're doing.

And while you're at it, write and review this podcast. It helps you get in our good books. By supporting the show and also helps other people find, 

Shanna: uh, otherwise, we'll see you in two weeks. See you in 

Jen: two weeks. Bye.

We did it.