In Her Good Books
We Read No Holiday Books. Not Even Close.
Books mentioned in this episode:
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew Sullivan
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
What Wild Women Do by Karma Brown
Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I listened to this one on Audible because it was the only audio version that I could find that I thought was good)
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!
Books mentioned in this episode:
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew Sullivan
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
What Wild Women Do by Karma Brown
Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (I listened to this one on Audible because it was the only audio version that I could find that I thought was good)
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!
Hello everyone and welcome to In Her Good Books.
Speaker 1:I'm Shanna and I'm Jen and this is a podcast where two friends talk about books.
Speaker 2:Hi Jen. Hello, how's it going? Good, good, merry Christmas.
Speaker 1:Merry.
Speaker 2:Christmas.
Speaker 1:Because when this comes out, christmas will have passed, but just barely.
Speaker 2:So, I bet, we had a great time I bet we did. Yeah, I love.
Speaker 1:Christmas. Actually, I always get a little bit sad. Why? Because I'm so excited for Christmas and then Christmas is happening and then I'm like it's almost over, oh, and I can't enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's so dumb. I know You're gonna get such good presents, probably.
Speaker 1:I will.
Speaker 2:I know that you will. Yeah, yeah, not from me, but Probably from you. No, just kidding, they're pretty good. I keep buying you stuff, but some of it's dumb.
Speaker 1:Me and Sam have been like we should actually just buy each other gifts this year, because usually we kind of just do a stocking, but the stockings always end up like out of control, yeah. So we're like, let's just stop pretending that's what we're doing, except for now. I think we went too far.
Speaker 2:I believe it.
Speaker 1:I absolutely believe, because then he kept being like oh, I got you this really great thing. Oh, I think I got you too much. And then like I better get him too much too.
Speaker 2:I kept getting you stuff and I was like I haven't got anything for Sam, so I gave you more stuff for your birthday so that I think it would be Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of probably else what Sam did. Yeah, probably he's like should I give you all your good presents on your birthday? I was like, well, no, because then I want good presents on Christmas too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is unfortunate that your birthday is so close to Christmas. Oh, happy. How did I already say happy birthday to you? Well, you did on my birthday? Oh, yes, but what about on the podcast? No, I don't think we mentioned it. Well, happy birthday, thank you.
Speaker 1:That's what it says on your birthday. Guess it was my birthday. I'm now 37.
Speaker 2:So old. How old did you think you were 39? Yeah, so you got younger. I did. I'm not 40. So that's good. It's pretty sweet. Pretty close, though Closer than you were, closer than me.
Speaker 1:Yes and 37. It just does feel so much older than 36.
Speaker 2:Does it? It really does. I won't know for a few years. It really does.
Speaker 1:But we're always talking about do we want to have another baby? But I'm 37. You're 37.
Speaker 2:That's getting old Lady in the book I just finished had a baby at 39. Oh, and she had a hard time, didn't she? Well, no, no, well she by the end of the book, but had nothing to do with the kids.
Speaker 1:Shoot.
Speaker 2:But speaking of books, have you read any I?
Speaker 1:read a couple Sweet. I hear, though, that you've read the most Ooh does that mean I get to start.
Speaker 2:I think you should. Okay, well, I read Holly by Stephen King. Did I already talk about this? Yes, had I just started it or had I finished it? Finished, finished, crap.
Speaker 1:Okay, well Again.
Speaker 2:Apparently, that line is for book club, not for podcast. I read. I have some questions for you. I think I was reading this last time. Yeah, you just said, yeah, yes, okay. Well, I finished it and it was great. Yeah, I really liked it. This was a crime mystery. Who done it? Dark academia it's about a woman. I've read two books about podcasters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it comes up a lot actually, right yeah.
Speaker 2:It's almost like it's like this new thing. So now it's the career that people are having, yeah, but yeah, so this is a podcaster who goes back to her old school, which is like this weird prep school, and she goes to teach like a little mini course during a break about podcasting and also movie stuff, because she's a movie podcaster and she's also thinking a lot about a murder that happened her grad year and so she is getting one of the students well, she's not getting. She's kind of encouraging one of the students to do a podcast on the murder that happened. The murder that happened. It's twisty and there's a lot.
Speaker 2:So one thing I really really liked about it is there's a lot of social commentary, but in a really interesting way, where she'll say, like she'll be talking about abuse against women or things that have happened. She's like it's the one where the famous man raped all those women oh, no, no, it wasn't that one, it was the one where the, the socialite, was behind a dumpster. Like she'll name all of these or like allude to a lot of actual situations, but she doesn't say which one she's actually referring to. She's just kind of grouping them as a whole just to make the point of this is happening, and she does that throughout the book, and it's oh, it's by Rebecca Mackay, by the way.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, I have not told you this. And it was narrated by Julia Whalen, right Julia.
Speaker 2:Whalen yes, god, I love her Great voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it had this really good social commentary about both like believing women and also like how much you can believe social media, and it was really interesting and I really quite enjoyed it. I recommend it. Awesome. Have you read it?
Speaker 1:No, I have not. Oh, I thought that was what you were gonna say. No, sorry to disappoint you, but I want to.
Speaker 2:You should. We have book club immediately after this, so you're gonna have to hear me say all of this again in a minute.
Speaker 1:I know What'd you read? So I read the Handyman Method, A Story of Terror.
Speaker 2:My hold for this one just came in at the library.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's by Nick Cutter and Andrew F Sullivan and I always really like when there's two authors in a book. I think that's really fun, but I always want to know more about how they did it. There's some books where people do like each do kind of a point of view or each do chapter or whatever. So I was trying to find information on how they co-authors the book, but I couldn't find anything.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:But that's okay.
Speaker 2:I agree that co-authoring is pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 1:I can still be so fun. Yeah, I also probably really hard yeah.
Speaker 2:Fun? Probably. Yeah, you want a poorly written half of your novel.
Speaker 1:You know who to come to.
Speaker 2:No, it would be wonderfully written. It would probably be pretty good actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, you can do everything, so I. I don't know why. So Nick Cutter is a pseudonym for Craig Davidson, I think it was. So he has like two different names for the different books that he writes. So Nick Cutter is his like horror name, and I did read a few reviews of this book and a lot of people were saying, okay, but the shining was better. Yeah, you're just trying to be like Stephen King.
Speaker 2:The very famous novel by famous novelist Stephen King Is better. Yeah, huh, yeah, well, it's weird Burn.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we're ready. Yeah, a lot of people are saying that there's like a lot of similarities to the shining and that his writing is trying to be like Stephen King. All horror writers are trying to be like Stephen King. Yeah, that's normal.
Speaker 2:He's the master for a reason. Yeah, like he's who. Everybody who writes horror grew up reading.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like if I wrote a book and someone said that about me, then I'd be like man I must be almost close to writing like Stephen King. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, you're someone to pick up on it. You thought about Stephen King while you read my book. Yeah, that's good Sick.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:What kind of books does Craig Davidson write?
Speaker 1:He wrote the one that I think has gone around a little bit, or a few people have read it, like the somethings ghost club.
Speaker 2:Oh, the babysitter ghost club. I know what you're talking about. The campfire ghost club. Yeah, the Saturday night ghost club. Saturday night ghost club, that's one of those I'm sure yeah.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like still kind of in the spookier realm, but not Spooky light. Yeah, sounds like it. So the handyman method it's supposed to be for fans of Black Mirror and the Emmityville horror.
Speaker 2:I am both of those.
Speaker 1:Yes, me too. So it also had a lot of Mr Magic vibes, which is a book that I read a few months ago. Is that what it's called, mr Magic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I thought that was the show in the book, but I think you have a different one.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah, that one was by who? Was it? By Kirsten White. There seems to be kind of a theme of books that are coming out that have kind of the same ending.
Speaker 1:Oh, so this one is about a family who moves into like an unfinished development community, except for it's like they're the only house there, they're the only house that have been built. There's no other houses, but they're supposed to be. So they move in and they're waiting for the rest of the place to be built and it's a new house. But things kind of start breaking down right away and the husband is like kind of insecure because he's got fired from his job and now he's unemployed. His wife is, you know, makes all the money and he's like I'm going to fix this stuff myself. So he starts looking on YouTube for do-it-yourself home renovation videos and he finds this one guy called handyman Hank and he starts exclusively watching his videos. But as he's like watching them, the things that Hank says starts to get like more and more kind of sinister and weird and he starts the husband starts listening to him a little bit too much and he kind of becomes like the voice in his head and telling him to do things that he shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 2:Like what people think. All of the YouTube kids programming is, yes, like kill your parents, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And then there's like the other kind of similar storyline with his son. He's kind of latched onto the kids YouTube program Kill your parents yeah, something similar is happening there. So I thought it was pretty good. There's a lot of toxic masculinity, a lot of misogyny, but on purpose, because that's what it's about. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Makes sense.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of hard. It was like kind of like ugh. But I read one other Nick Cutter book. I read the Troop, and that one was also really good. But I did have to give a content warning for animal cruelty and that one. So I pretty much had to tell everyone I know that they couldn't read it because they would be too upset. Yes, and this one also has that. So if you love turtles which we know that we do.
Speaker 1:There's a pretty upsetting turtle. This was the turtle book, yes, so I am sick and I'm able to pretty easily remove myself from what's happening, so it was kind of cool, though For a way to kill something in a book. It was terrible, it was unique, it wasn't a death I had seen before, so that was cool.
Speaker 2:Well, knowing that it's coming is always nice yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was good. It was really. It was pretty creepy. There's some pretty cool scenes Pretty good, like haunted house, killings, sweet. It wasn't like the best book I've ever read Solidly fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was pretty. Even more than fine. I liked it.
Speaker 1:Sweet. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I will still read it then. The only thing I wasn't really happy about the ending, mostly just because, like I said, it's becoming a trend in the books that I've been reading lately, so I'm just kind of like over it. Like the first time I was like, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:And now. I'm like get your own ending, yeah, but it's okay.
Speaker 1:It's fine. I'm sure for everyone else who hasn't read multiple books this year and like this, you'll be quite happy.
Speaker 2:Yes, we do read a lot of books. Yeah, that is kind of it can be a problem. Yeah, yes, it's like here. I'm going to do these out of order, actually, because it made me think of the book I just finished called None of this Is True by Lisa Jewel. It's the new Lisa Jewel.
Speaker 1:It was fresh, for like yesterday.
Speaker 2:I know it was really good Like yesterday after, yeah, at the grocery store. It was 10 hours long and it's a psychological thriller, and so what made me think of this is like you read a lot of horror. So once you've read a bunch in a row, you do start to like well, I start to be able to predict what's going to happen. Yes, you maybe, not so much.
Speaker 1:Not as much.
Speaker 2:But I have been kind of out of the thriller game, mostly other than I mean I literally just told you that I finished a thriller but shut up. So it's been a while since I've read a thriller. So this one and Lisa Jewel is so good at it, I really enjoy her style. It's easy to kind of bop along with yeah, yeah, this one is about a podcaster. I kind of like it. Yeah, she's got like a kind of semi successful podcast where she interviews women who have done great things and then she's looking for something new. She goes for dinner on her 45th birthday and another woman also goes for dinner on her 45th birthday, so their birthday twins. And the one woman who's kind of weird and quiet notices the podcaster woman who has got a ton of friends and like she's celebrating her birthday. She kind of approaches her and says, oh, I'm your birthday twin. And they talk a little bit and then the weird lady shows up at her kid's school and then, yeah, she kind of approaches her by doing a podcast about her and about changing her life because she'd listened to her other podcast and the creep factor in this one, the weirdness it builds at a really like steady pace and it's called.
Speaker 2:None of this is true. So I went into this thinking like I swear to God, if you lie to me this whole damn book, I'm going to be so mad. So I think, like most thrillers, the ending was. I mean, they're never quite. The endings are hard. Yes, I get it and it was fine. I actually quite liked the ending. But then there was another ending after the ending that made me less sure that I liked it, because I thought why did you just undo the ending that you just gave me Interesting? Yes, but overall I did really like it. I thought the ending was good, like you blew through it. Yes, it was super easy to listen to because the audio was phenomenal. There were multiple narrators, it had musical accompaniment. It had bits where you know in the book it would have been like excerpt from the podcast they do like a musical interlude for each time that happens and they have a different narrator read those parts and they have different voice actors come in for the interviews, and so it felt like listening to a podcast and it was excellent.
Speaker 2:I really, really quite liked it. Awesome, I recommend it.
Speaker 1:I have a physical copy of that one, so will I read a physical copy? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Hard to say, but that's a shelf trophy.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, it is. I don't need to read those ones, no.
Speaker 2:I listened to this one on my library, so you're a luck there.
Speaker 1:I noticed that I have two spots for holds.
Speaker 2:I was a hundred and thirty third in line when I put this hold on. So it's gonna be a while. Yeah, this is a new one, but yeah, I recommend get that hold gone.
Speaker 1:But on another note, what's happened? I read a book that was really quite boring.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:It was very upsetting. It is upsetting. So I read what Wild Women Do by Karma Brown and I was really excited about it because I got this picture of it, it has a beautiful cover and that it's supposed to be about women in the woods doing wild stuff and I know how badly we want to live in a bog yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was like, yeah, cabin in the woods, some women doing things, there's like some kind of mystery. Of course, I just perused the synopsis as quickly as I could. Women, woods sold. Yeah, I used to like a sacred credit Get it. I think I may have even purchased extra credits to get it. And then I was. My plan was like this is gonna be perfect. I'm gonna read it and then I'm gonna put it in for the book club Christmas. I'm gonna win.
Speaker 1:And then I read it and I was like this is why I'm so glad that I didn't just get it. Yes, Well, maybe someone else would have liked it, because other people like it. I did read reviews and they said I love this book. It's about this. I think I'll tell you what it's about. Maybe you guys can decide for yourselves. Did it have?
Speaker 2:like nuance and things that you had to like interpret. It wasn't?
Speaker 1:I don't think so no, I think it was just born. Aw, so it's about this woman named Rowan who has this kind of fiance and they are YouTubers and they go on vacation in the Adirondacks for a month to focus on their writing. So, my sweet, that sounds good. They get there. They find an abandoned camp Also sounds good. Also good, I love abandoned camps.
Speaker 2:I love most things abandoned yeah.
Speaker 1:Usually there's like a killer there. That's good, I love it. So then they find out that in the 70s a woman named Eddie, who owned the camp, she, went missing and no one ever found any evidence of where she went. Nobody could find her. So they kind of end up on this like kind of like a treasure hunt, almost Just like a treasure has been hidden on the camp grounds and now they're like we're going to YouTube and find this treasure, but the treasure hunt is like two clues. That's not interesting.
Speaker 2:And did they find it so easy? Did they find it?
Speaker 1:I can't even talk about it.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's very upsetting. Was it the friends they made along the way? That would have been better.
Speaker 1:Anyways, the camp, like the idea for the camp, was kind of cool. This woman was really wealthy and she started the camp so that women could come there as like a retreat and for free. And do you know, lady stuff, lady stuff. Have their periods, kind of. Did they like workshops of like get to know your vulva and everyone would get a mirror?
Speaker 2:And then, like you know, you know like a Saturday Doing yoga and stuff.
Speaker 1:And the holidays. So there's like a whole thing where people in the town didn't really like her because it was like two out there for them but it wasn't for them, it wasn't for them and it wasn't really that interesting like their conflict and the end was just I was like my face looked physically on the outside like I'd just eaten garbage off the ground.
Speaker 2:I went all this way to get here. Yeah, yeah, that's like no.
Speaker 1:I thought the most interesting part of the book was the YouTubers. Like there weren't great characters or anything but their story was just kind of funny because they had accidentally become really kind of famous YouTubers who had their whole life was all staged like everything and that's not really fun, but no that's so much work, goodness gracious.
Speaker 2:But it was kind of interesting. It's so funny when you make content. Suddenly you notice how much work Like there was TikTok that I had sent you. I was like imagine how long this would have taken to shoot where she put one book for the entire room. That would have taken literally hours. Yeah, so long For 30 seconds of content.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like that's, and that's just like the filming part too, Like it's justI make a TikTok and film it for five minutes and then five hours of editing it. I know it's so much Like how are people doing?
Speaker 2:this. No, I would do like a 15, 20 minute YouTube video and it's like five hours of work, it's so much.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I thought it was interesting, kind of going behind the scenes in that and like it totally ruins their relationship and stuff and it's like not great but you didn't care about them, so it's fine yeah. Exactly so. I mean, I kind of think, because I've read mostly darker fiction, horror and thrillers, and then when I read just like a regular fiction book, I kind of think that maybe I'm a little bit like where's the killing? Ah yes, so when someone turns up dead of natural causes, I'm like this isn't what I'm here for.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. No, people don't die like this, no pointy objects Absolutely not, so people again reviews.
Speaker 1:I love the ending. This was the best book I've ever read, most boring book I've ever read. I was so disappointed and I wish I had stopped halfway.
Speaker 2:Those people only read three books. Yes, which is fine. That's good. I do love it when people have read at least three books. Remember my Christmas party? It was so fun. It was last year. We went to my work's Christmas party and we were talking to one of my bosses about reading and he had never read a book before in his life and it was just. It's so awkward. He was trying so hard to remember the only book he's ever read and I was like, oh, I love this about you, sir. Yeah, that was good. It's funny when people try and talk to us about books, because I think that they just don't realize the pool they're jumping into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or sometimes people try to talk to you about books and I'm like I don't know how to talk about books. Yeah, so I was always like, oh, you got any recommendations from me? No-transcript, I've never read anything in my life.
Speaker 2:I can't think of any books I've ever read. Well see, I can't just recommend a book to somebody. If they ask me for a book recommendation, I say, well, I have this short questionnaire for you. So once they've answered my 10 questions, so that I know which road we're going down, then I can help. I can recommend an excellent book, kind of like this one oh, please, please, do I read Herk. Oh yes, by Phoenicia Rodgerson, and it was really good. Yeah, thank goodness. I already told you that I bought a few for Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and by the time this comes out it is Christmas.
Speaker 2:I'm not good at surprises, I'm not good at gifts, no, I'm good at gifts. I'm not good at surprise gifts or keeping secrets. So, yeah, I got Herk. It is a retelling, I guess, of the Heracles story. Is he in the Iliad or is it the Odyssey? I don't remember him in the Iliad. So because he is obviously a Greek hero, he is a demigod when you're half god, I think so. So he is half mortal. His father is Zeus and it is, yeah, the story of Heracles and it's a queer retelling, which is cool. So the way that it's told is from the points of view of everybody in the story. So Magara, his first wife, she has chapters where she speaks, and all of these kings have chapters. And his nephews and actually I don't think he has Does he have chapters? I don't even remember.
Speaker 2:There's so many characters. It's the kind of book where they've got a thing at the end so that you can go back and remember who and their names are so similar because they're all crazy Greek names. Something that threw me at the beginning was that it's kind of told in a more modern tongue. So I think that one of the characters is something like what's up, and it was a little bit blunt, but then you kind of get used to it. Yeah, because there's younger characters and there's older characters and they've all got British accents. It's a little bit weird, but I got to learn a whole bunch about, because I, I, we all know Hercules from the Disney story.
Speaker 1:That's pretty much the only one I know it's not the same. No, I have heard little snippets of things and I'm like that's not what I expected.
Speaker 2:So the only thing that I knew about the real Hercules you know what I mean is that he killed his wife and family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the only thing that I know. So I thought that was going to be like the climax of the book. It is in the first quarter, not even like the first few chapters, so it turns out that's early on. That's like one of the things that starts his story and it's brutal. You know how I feel about when kids die. You know how much I like it when they get slammed into walls. It's not good. It's not good. It's not good. That one happened in Game of Thrones as well. I never liked it. It's really bad. I never liked it. But yeah, it's all of his escapades and he's told us this oath and you don't like him. It's kind of hard to take the Hercules from Disney and then the Hercules from this one. They are different, very, very different. But I only watched.
Speaker 1:Hercules for Meg. Yeah she was so good.
Speaker 2:Oh man, she burns to death so hard. But I don't know if that's a spoiler, it's not really Guess what. She didn't make it Shoot, but yeah, it's really good. I think you're really going to like it. You're going to listen to it, and then you got your shelf trophy which I brought to Book Club tonight as a visual representation of the book that. I read, but yeah so it was really good, and I know that one of our favorite books of all time is the Song of Achilles. Song of Achilles, it is not.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it doesn't. It's not the same. It's not the same, but it's not that it's.
Speaker 2:We've read a bunch of these kind of retellings. It, I think, falls in the same thousand shipsy. Okay, yeah, you know where it's good, you get a lot of Greek mythology. It might even be a little bit better than that one. I think it might be more easy to follow and it's funny. Like the way that they use the modern language is funny.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, just always searching for another Song of Achilles. It just does not exist. It's, I mean, it's the best. Yeah, the only book that I put next to it is more Song of. Achilles, that. But then if we were villains like those? Ones are the ones that I put together. These are the ones that you should read. Yes, they're like no notes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, perfect books, they're. So you guys, if you have not read the Song of Achilles, or if we were villains, just do it, just do it. But it's wrong with you. Top books, top tier yeah, good yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you read anything else? Well, I kind of. I have one more. So after we read the last bookshop last month, and loved it. Because in that book they talk a lot about trying to find Emily Bronte's lost second manuscript. They sure do, they sure do. But it just got me thinking about Emily Bronte's actual book, Wuthering Heights.
Speaker 2:And you read it.
Speaker 1:And I read it. Well, I read it many times, you have. Yes, oh, I love it, oh, but I haven't read it. Like I wouldn't. I haven't read it as I would consider myself an adult now, so it was. You know, the last time I read it was probably in my mid 20s.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So it's been a long time, it's been a decade, yeah. So I've been wanting to pick it up a few times, but I just don't have time to read my physical book, so I'd always get through a couple of pages and then not pick it up again. But then I found an audio and it's narrated by Joanne Froggett, so she is one of the actresses from Downton Abbey, okay, which I have not watched, but I hear it's very good and popular.
Speaker 2:I have seen an episode before.
Speaker 1:Okay there was a bathtub. Oh, that's all I remember. Yeah, I've not seen it, but I always really like when actresses I guess maybe actresses too, but I like actresses better. I always like when actresses narrate books. I always find they do a really good job and sometimes, if I know the actress personally, I just I don't know makes it fun. So I hadn't heard her voice before, but she's been heard her voice before, but she did a really good job. She did different voices for everybody, different accents. So I didn't end up finishing it because I have a reason. I was listening to it and I was just in the best mood. It made me so happy, so full of joy, and I was just desperate to talk to somebody about it.
Speaker 1:So I was like kind of like I'm gonna talk to Shanna and I'm like no, I have to wait. And then I'm like maybe I can make Sam read it with me. I'm like no, he'll really hate that. So I was like okay, and I looked for a podcast, like we do, where people are talking about it, and I couldn't find hardly anything. Everything that came up was just people reading the book out loud.
Speaker 2:Which it must be in the public domain.
Speaker 1:Yeah so. But then I found one and but it was like two guys and they did a fine job, like I liked their episode and it was good, but they're just two guys. They didn't get it.
Speaker 2:They didn't get it and they said I don't get why this is like this or like oh you're a man, it's like when I read Pride and Prejudice I'm like how could anybody not love this book? It's so good yeah.
Speaker 1:So then I reached out to Rachel from the Barely Bookish podcast. Oh, because she does, as you know oh, my god I forgot she does classic literature and she like really gets in deep and does like an episode per every couple chapters. So we were on the podcast with her a few years ago doing Rebecca, yes, During our Rebecca season.
Speaker 1:Yep. So I'll put some links so you guys can listen to those episodes. But I reached out to her and was like I looked, I couldn't see it. But have you done Wuthering Heights? Because I need to talk about it or I need to listen to someone else talking about it. And she was like no, but it's on my list. And I was like, okay, you need to put it at the top. And she's like, okay, well, if I put it at the top, would you be on the podcast again? And I said yes, I would, Absolutely. So she's going to forget a figure out in January Went when we want to record. So, just in case you're like wanting to read it, Okay, you could be on too.
Speaker 2:Okay okay, sounds good. I was already thinking in my brain as like, oh, I'm going to suppress her, so good, I'm going to read it so happy.
Speaker 1:Yes, I stopped reading it. I was like maybe like two thirds of the way through, just because I'm like okay, if I'm going to be talking it about it kind of chapter by chapter, then I'll actually read the book and make notes and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doesn't sound like me.
Speaker 1:No, I'll do that. Yeah, Thank you. You read and show up yes.
Speaker 2:I'll be there with Majo.
Speaker 1:Anyways, okay, what is it about? Well, the Ring Heights is about. There's this dad. He brings home an orphan child into his house. It's him and he has two kids, Hinley and Catherine. Then eventually, of course, the dad dies, Everyone dies.
Speaker 2:The mom is already dead, being an orphan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the boy kid hates Heathcliff. Heathcliff is the orphan boy that he's brought in, but Catherine loves him and they grow up being really, really close and in love. But like in like a really dramatic, can't be together but like they actually can't be together, but like it sounds terrible. Are they siblings?
Speaker 2:Why you love siblings. Yes, I love siblings, that's true. I was thinking about how good a Heathcliff would go with my children's names Heathcliff. If I had a fourth, yeah, that'd be great Benedict, cambria, william and Heathcliff. Yes, I'd have to go find a manor house.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, wuthering Heights is like the house that they live in. And then one day Catherine says something unkind about him too their kind of housekeeper and he overhears her and just runs away and is gone for three years. And in that time she and Mary yeah, he doesn't leave. Who is that? You? Yeah, it's very strange. I love it. I love it so much. In this time she marries this like guy that lives in the other house, like there's two houses out in the moors away from town. She marries the only other guy that's there.
Speaker 2:What were her?
Speaker 1:options. And then Heathcliff comes back, suddenly he's rich and like a proper gentleman, because before he was kind of like an orphan child off the streets, yeah, street rat, yeah all those things. But yeah, catherine's married and it's so dramatic, it sounds glorious. So like I keep thinking like which channel like this?
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure, because you know, I love me a classic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's classic. It's like it's not a romance. It's not a romance book, but there is like this like really intense love story, but it only takes up like half of the book and the writing around it is so beautiful and intense, it's just like the whole time I was just like oh, I'm dying.
Speaker 2:That's how I feel about Pride and Prejudice, so I'm just like this is supposed to be one of the greatest romances of all time. There's like no romance in the hook. It's my favorite romance.
Speaker 1:There isn't really that much romance, but the things that they say sometimes are like so good, I'm like, but they are also, they're not together and they like almost love each other so much they hate each other. Oh, they hate each other so much, they love each other, but they're not together, they're never together. Anyways, then everybody dies.
Speaker 1:Everyone dies. I guess my main complaint is that all of this really good stuff happens the first half of the book and then everyone's dead and then it's like there's more happening in the end with like not their kids but not their kids. Like they've had kids together but they're separate kids. Ah, yes, their children, the children of everyone, All of the children so like their stories kind of take up the last half of the book, which is still good. But Sweet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll check it out.
Speaker 1:It's just like so. When Emily Bronte published the book she published under the pseudonym Alice Bell, which I also love, everyone at the time was like this book is terrible. Who could write such filth? And like this is obviously written by a man. And I came out that it wasn't written by a man and everyone was like this is impossible. No woman could write stuff like this. But she did and really sad that she died like one year after 100 years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:One year after she published it did Probably we could find that secret. Second manuscript I know, maybe we should start looking for it In thrift stores. I said it, there's like an introduction by someone who works for, like you know, the historical Bronte society or something like that and they're like, but there was rumors of a lost second manuscript and I'm like I can't even hear about it. No, please. After that book.
Speaker 1:That enough. There's also one by Anne Bronte. I forget what her book was called, but I also put it on the audible. You see, I'm going to turn that on too.
Speaker 2:I don't know what she's reading. Maybe she's just laying there going like this yes, yes, why is she buying like so many books on my own? I've got like have you seen how many books are on the audible? It is getting out of control. We have 145 titles. That's a lot. So many books. I've got like 200 on the Kindle and then I have three huge bookshelves.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of books. Sam came in here and he was like where'd the secret bookshelf come from? Because I have like a whole bunch of books in my office at the coffee shop, because I get them from the little library on the way here or people put them in the book exchange here and I take them, where people return my books or give whatever.
Speaker 2:I also bring books sometimes. Yeah, I just put them there.
Speaker 1:And he's like I got you one of those books for Christmas. Which ones have you read? And then I said this one, this one, this one, this one. He's like, damn it, he read the one I got you. He's like, well, I guess I'll take it back. I'm like what do you do? He's already owned it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good to know before the day. Now he can get you something different. Better not be her, it could be that's gonna be funny. Maybe I should tell him that I got you her so he doesn't do that. Yeah, that's all I had. Yeah, that's all I had too. I thought I had four but did not. No, yeah, I'm almost done with other books, but not done, so gotta have something next time.
Speaker 1:I was really trying hard to get one done before tonight. I wasn't trying really hard because it's still four hours, so it didn't do good.
Speaker 2:You could have tried harder. You could have done it. I started this one last night.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. It's just like there's a season happening right now where every single time I press play, someone is there wanting me or something. Every time. I even tested it last night where I was like sound is upstairs, I'm alone down here. I'm like I'm gonna press play and he's gonna come down Play. Of course. Immediately I'm like okay, this is not a good spell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need to take it back. Yeah, that's the worst. I know all about it Like most of the time it's fine.
Speaker 1:People are just doing their thing. I'm listening to my book, but right now, no, absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Well, you still got some red.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:Somehow, somehow, I don't know. I know I was shocked when I had. I mean, I would have only had two if I hadn't devoured that book in a day. Yeah, all right. Well, you got any other stuff? Hmm, we're about to have a Christmas party. Yeah, I'm wearing sparkly eye shadow.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna wear shiny pants.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I wish I wore my shiny pants. Yes, you really should have Shiny pants to your shirts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could have dressed almost exactly the same.
Speaker 2:It would have been so funny and we could have just pretended like we didn't. We didn't know.
Speaker 1:It was what it is for people to say yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's one of our book club Christmas parties, so it's always really fun. Yes, we got food, we got book presents and book talking.
Speaker 2:Yep, all of the best things.
Speaker 1:Good thing, we just talked about books for one hour.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Whoa. Ready to do it again.
Speaker 2:Yes, Okay, well, I hope everybody had a merry Christmas. We're gonna find us, jen.
Speaker 1:You can find us at in her good books podcast on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. And it's Christmas time, so give us a review guys.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you. That's all we want for Christmas, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's what I.
Speaker 2:Your review.
Speaker 1:That's our 100th episode, so I want it for my birthday. That's what we want for Christmas.
Speaker 2:That's three opportunities to make us happy. Don't you love us, Carolyn? Have you done it? Because I just Carolyn has not done it, carolyn, get on there, right there, get on that, okay, well, anyways, or rather otherwise, we'll see you in two weeks. We'll see you in two weeks, bye.
Speaker 1:We did it.