Lessons in Chemistry, Moving Pictures, The Need and The Fury

This episode has been cursed from the get go! Made the recording happen, the audio was terrible for some unknown reason and then Jen edited it but never published it before leaving for Mexico.  So, without further ado, here it is published from Mexico  - we tried hahaha.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 1:42

Hello everyone and welcome to In Her Good Books.

Speaker 1 1:47

I'm Shanna and I'm Jen, and this is a podcast where two friends talk about books.

Speaker 2 1:55

You say book? I don't know, did I, I don't know? I thought that was the way that you were telling me, that you only read one book. No, I did not only read one book. Oh well, I should have said book. Then Maybe you did. You're projecting? Yes, I was projecting, but I'm certain that I hadn't asked that. I know because I'm a little bit lispy. Yes, yes, I know, I know my asses.

Speaker 1 2:18

There's almost always one, so how's it going? Pretty good.

Speaker 2 2:23

How was your other book podcast? Oh, so we're doing this again. Yeah, jen, I wanted to wait until we were here In front of all of our friends Once again.

Speaker 1 2:35

just finished recording with Rachel from Barely Bookish.

Speaker 2 2:38

This time she didn't even do it at her own house, guys. She even flaunted it in front of her.

Speaker 1 2:43

Yeah, just right in front of her, I was just laughing and laughing and telling joke, joke, joke. How's I do? Yep, we did what? Chapters 10 to 15 of Wuthering Heights Ugh, I'll say it again so good. I would not know, you wouldn't and you weren't even listening to my jokes.

Speaker 2 3:05

So no, I'll hear them on the podcast.

Speaker 1 3:08

Yeah, I guess it's probably better if you can also hear her side.

Speaker 2 3:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I've read the book before. Yeah, that helps too. I would love your edit context half jokes. Hey, it's still funny. I'd still just be sitting there with hearts in my eyes. Yeah, I'm really all, the whole.

Speaker 1 3:23

All I'm doing the whole time is laughing.

Speaker 2 3:25

It sounds like a great book.

Speaker 1 3:27

She says this is what happened. I'm gonna laugh hysterically.

Speaker 2 3:31

Well, that's how that book podcast works. This one different. This one we talked about what we read. So since you were bragging about how many more than one books you read, the pattern insists you go first.

Speaker 1 3:45

Yes, I do see that I've actually read five books Shut up, but I mean we haven't recorded for a while, so that's true, it's not really that extreme. It's just really low for what it is. Yes, I read lessons in chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and we did me and Carolyn did a whole episode about this one. So go and check that out.

Speaker 2 4:09

But in case you, haven't read it and you don't want to listen to a whole episode about it.

Speaker 1 4:13

I'm going to tell you what it's about. So it is about this woman, elizabeth Stott, who is a scientist, she's a chemist, and it's set in the 1950s, 1960s and obviously back then women were not taken seriously. So she's constantly trying to get people to take her seriously. No one does. And then she gets offered a TV show, like a cooking show, where she used to go on and she thinks that she's going on to do like serious science cooking in her serious science lab kitchen with her like lab coat and everything. They want her to be all hot and moaning on her food. But she's like, yeah, no, I'm not doing that. And she just fights back so hard. It's so much about just equality and women being sexually harassed in the workplace, generally harassed at all times, and she just like, does not take it and it was really really really quite good. What did everybody else think? Well, so you read this one for Book Club.

Speaker 2 5:23

We.

Speaker 1 5:25

I read this one for Book Club. Me and Carolyn read this one for Book Club. How many of you have people? Read it for Book Club Ange, she'd have to.

Speaker 2 5:35

Oh, I thought she would have read what this author wrote, and then everything else she's ever even thought of.

Speaker 1 5:38

No, she only reads the smuddiest smut she can find.

Speaker 2 5:43

Oh man, when I look at that woman too, I think that's a smut reader right there.

Speaker 1 5:46

Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 5:49

She's knitting just what.

Speaker 1 5:55

And then Demi and Martina both just didn't finish it just because they just didn't have time Kind of comes off as you think it's going to be some kind of light romance, because the cover is really kind of cotton candy. And then you start the book and immediately are in a horrific rate. You're like wait, this isn't what I'm here for.

Speaker 2 6:19

I did not sign up for this based on the cover.

Speaker 1 6:22

And then it just kind of gets. It's not a dark book, it is kind of like a strong light book. I don't know. There is all kinds of there's sudden death, there's suicide, there's sexual assault, child abuse.

Speaker 2 6:38

So much stuff. I did see why you loved it.

Speaker 1 6:43

The more horrific the better. But it's also like it's just bright, it's kind of the best way I can describe it. It's really a bright book, so like the cover kind of does make sense. But it needs a little bit of darkness in the cover because there's some themes.

Speaker 2 6:57

Yeah, it doesn't have kind of a where'd you go?

Speaker 1 6:59

Bernadette style cover yeah which that book I think. I haven't read it, but I've heard it's also the same kind of idea that you think it's? Going to be. This light Read and then you're like whoa, what is happening? What, if any other ones?

Speaker 2 7:12

fall under that, because the other one that makes me think of is the one where that woman accidentally becomes a paid killer.

Speaker 1 7:20

Yes, Finley Dodderman. Yeah, that one is funny though, yeah that one is actually funny.

Speaker 2 7:26

I was hoping you would have some insight into why it fits the mold.

Speaker 1 7:31

I mean I can see what you're talking about for sure. I mean this one was funny too. I guess it does fit. It's just kind of like not as intentionally funny.

Speaker 2 7:41

Is it funny like Wuthering Heights funny?

Speaker 1 7:43

No, that is actually a comedy goal. Elizabeth Zott is definitely on the spectrum, so a lot of the humor. Just the way that she's interacting with people is hilarious.

Speaker 2 7:55

I did start it. I did not get very far. I got to basically, I think when she's getting offered the show because she storms up to that guy's house, it's like your daughter is eating my daughter's lunch and he does not understand what's happening in that moment.

Speaker 1 8:10

No, as any dad would not.

Speaker 2 8:13

But I love robot characters. She's not a robot, but she qualifies yes for sure.

Speaker 1 8:19

So yeah, it was really really good. I rated it at 4.75 stars what? But I said it's not my favorite book. I love it, but it deserves a high rating and it could have gotten five if it was my favorite book. It was really well done, it was a really good story and, yeah, I thought it really deserved 4.75.

Speaker 2 8:41

Maybe I'll finish it one day, probably. I won't, we won't. I didn't feel like. I mean, I'm such a mood reader and my mood sucks, yes. So you're not going to pick this one back up, Not for a while if I do, I'll have to be in a very specific mood, yes, and then I might get into the kind of mood where I like to read complex books. Slash anything.

Speaker 1 9:06

There was one part of the book where well, it's not one part, but one character in the book is a dog, and I didn't think that I like animals as characters. I don't usually like the point of view of animals in a book, but I keep saying that and then liking it. I don't usually like this, but I really liked it and again I thought I didn't like it. I loved it. The dog's name was 630.

Speaker 2 9:32

Good name. Good name, solid name.

Speaker 1 9:33

Yeah, and he was just such a good dog. He was so smart and she included him in her experiments and put goggles on him and he would like go and pick up the kid from school. And he was on the show and he sniffed out a bomb Like there were also good dogs in my book.

Speaker 2 9:55

Yeah, yep, also very smart, but mine could talk. So, yeah, mine couldn't. Oh, yeah, mine. One of the characters' names is Gaspoed. He's Gaspo the Wonder Dog. Good talk, I'll tell you about it later. How about now? Okay, I guess I read Moving Pictures by none other than Terry Pratchett. It is the 10th Discworld novel and it's not my favorite, but it's also not my least favorite. I don't think it's the book's fault. I think it is the extended period of time that I spent reading this book that wrecked it for me, because usually with my e-reader, I pick it up every single night and I only get a few pages in, but then, like once or twice a month, I'll finish a book on it, because every night you know it adds up. But I would go days, if not weeks, between like reading chunks of it and I just kind of between it being very complex, what was happening, and just too much time between picking it up.

Speaker 1 11:07

It was really hard for me to follow.

Speaker 2 11:09

But let me tell you what it was about. It is set in the Discworld. It's set in Acmore Park, which is the main city. It's like their New York melting pot dirt pile place. And off a little ways on a hill there's it's kind of like Call of Cthulhu, ask, like there's a dark creature. It's called Hollywood. So they create like the alchemists in the Discworld, create clicks which are movies and Hollywood. Suddenly, just it's this magic and it's trying to be brought back into the world. But it's a destructive force. So there's like this underlying thing that's kind of growing and taking over everybody. I don't know, I never know how to explain a Discworld book.

Speaker 1 11:57

You're not already in the Discworld. It's hard to picture.

Speaker 2 12:00

I found. So there's a character he's called Cut my Own Throat, dibbler Nice, and he, like they actually see MOT Dibbler in the book and he's normally a sausage salesman in Acre Pork and he sells just disgusting food but he's always offering you the best price. He's cutting his own throat. But he ended up having like a big role in this book and I kind of found it off-putting because he's just a dorky little dork selling sausages in Acre Pork but then he's like this big Hollywood producer and it wasn't bad, he's just always in a bad mood.

Discussion on Psychological Science Fiction Novels

Speaker 2 12:40

Even Terry Pratchett could perk me up. But extreme it's so extreme it wasn't bad. But oh, Hollywood, All the animals that were around where Hollywood kind of came back into existence. They could suddenly talk. And so there's this rabbit and a mouse and a cat and Gaspoed, and they're all suddenly sentient and they're having to deal with that kind of trauma that would be hard. Yeah, they were pretty upset about it. Like they were. Like I would really rather not have thoughts, Like I would like to be run on instinct again.

Speaker 1 13:15

Like now what do we have to do? Do we have to get jobs?

Speaker 2 13:17

Well, they're all talking to each other. We have to find build a house, yeah, a real house. So they well, gaspoed, though. He ends up being kind of like an agent for our main characters, who end up being the Hollywood stars. They also like he references a lot of Hollywood stuff, like there's a very clear reference to an Oscar. There's King Kong in there, gone with the Wind. That's fine, it's Satire. It was good. I mean, it was Discworld, it was. I gave it four stars, yeah, so that's good. Yeah, I have to really not love it. If I hated a Discworld book, I would still give it three stars. Yeah, solely on the basis that it's a Discworld book.

Speaker 1 14:03

I was gonna say I know what you mean about not picking up your book enough times to kind of keep up with the story or like quickly enough. I keep waking up and being like, okay, I have time, I could read an actual book. I could sit and read a book and then I'm like, but I'm probably not gonna have time tomorrow or for like another week, and then the thought of just reading a couple pages at a time like no, I can't do it.

Speaker 1 14:26

I need to be able to just read at least one quarter of the book in a sitting. Have something happening to at least be able to latch on to and then know that I will have time again to read tomorrow. Yes, like especially. I think it's just gotten so used to audio and being able to listen to such big chunks at a time that I listen to my book and I'm like, okay, well, I've just read 15% in a couple hours.

Speaker 2 14:51

You're doing something else too. Yeah, when you have a zillion things, yeah, that literally, if you don't do them, they will not get done. Yes, there's just no.

Speaker 1 15:00

Yeah, sitting down and actually spending the time reading the book. It's really hard. It's gotten impossible for my mind to even consider doing and guess what?

Speaker 2 15:08

I have a secret to tell you what. I finished this while you were recording with Rachel. Nice, good job, thank you. Thank you, good job. I almost came into here with nothing read Almost. I know you could have pretended I could have. I was at like 94% you have, I have. I think like once poorly yeah.

Speaker 1 15:31

I heard there was one time where we did a whole episode where you didn't have the book Like a whole episode of the book.

Speaker 2 15:37

That's right. I can't remember which one it was. Oh, never can I, but you wrote all my parts, yeah, and I was like, oh, thank goodness, yeah, I can't remember what the book was. I think it had to do something with oh, I know what it was a thousand ships it was, and then I ended up reading that one later and loving it, yeah, and it was like rudely not that much later, it was like a weekly yeah.

Speaker 1 15:59

It was because you probably recorded the episode and was like, man, this sounds good, it sounds really good. I should have read this. You were able to get through because you knew enough about Greek mythology. That's right, it was fun.

Speaker 2 16:09

Wouldn't it be funny if it was Piranesi?

Speaker 1 16:14

I think we all know about Piranesi. I think everybody.

Speaker 2 16:18

But you knows about Piranesi yet. So we've got four more books coming from you.

Speaker 1 16:23

We do so. I read one called the Need by Helen Phillips, I think, on our last episode we recorded together. I think it was that one, but one recently you talked about the anomaly.

Speaker 2 16:34

Yes.

Speaker 1 16:35

So everyone in Book Club has been reading the anomaly or rereading the anomaly. Everybody loves it. There's one character in that book, a mom, who then duplicates. So there's two of them and now they have one kid. That's right. One kid, two moms, torture yeah. And how do you navigate that?

Speaker 2 16:56

Why didn't they just get into a relationship with themselves?

Speaker 1 16:58

That would have been pretty good yeah.

Speaker 2 17:00

We solved it.

Speaker 1 17:01

We solved it, but we kind of said, like that part of the book is pretty stressful to think about, having like being in that situation ourselves and this whole book. The Need was that Was just that situation. Exactly, pretty much exactly, sounds awful. Yeah, it was extremely stressful. I did message you almost immediately when I started and said Nicky talked about this Book at Book Club. It is not for you.

Speaker 2 17:27

Don't even bother trying.

Speaker 1 17:29

Do not do this to yourself.

Speaker 1 17:31

So it's about this woman who works. She's like an archeologist or something. They start finding all of these things that are just a little bit off, like a Coke can where the font is just a little bit different, or a Bible where, instead of he, all the pronouns are she. This is awesome, but they're like, where are these things coming from? And they're not like a penny that is just a little bit different than our pennies and they're new things. They're not like ancient things that are being dug up and are all old looking. They're just like oh, look at this new Bible.

Speaker 2 18:05

Well, isn't somebody just doing an art piece?

Speaker 1 18:07

Well, they're trying to figure it out and they're like is this just a prank, is it art? Or like what is happening? Where are these things coming from? And then this woman. She has two kids and the book starts out with she's putting them to bed upstairs and then she hears someone downstairs in her house.

Speaker 2 18:24

Don't love that. Sorry, they made me think about how, when I'm downstairs just hanging out in my basement and I've got the room, but on I'm always sure it's my kids running around. I'm always like get up, brad, we're in bed, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 18:41

So that's stressful. But it turns out that there is a second one of her. So from this pit of stuff, another person has come out of it and it's her. It's not even just like an alternate version of her, where in another universe she's living a life that goes in a different direction and other different people. It's like it is her. She is wearing the clothes that she wore on that day.

Speaker 2 19:07

Yeah, she did that from the splitting point.

Speaker 1 19:09

Yeah, the exact same. But it was upsetting how she kind of got there and now she doesn't have her kids anymore and she like the one that's come through and she wants to be with this other version of her kids. So there's two of them now and they are trying to like figure out how to make this work and this whole time that her husband is away on work trip they spend this whole week taking shifts because they also don't want to freak the kids out and they both kind of empathize with each other because, she's like, yeah, I would want to be with my kids too.

Speaker 1 19:42

That is me it ends up being. From what I can see from some reviews, people are going into this book expecting the anomaly. They're not saying the anomaly, but they want some kind of like science fiction, simulation theory, hardcore sci-fi, thriller kind of thing, and it ends up being more psychological. So it ends up being a little bit more. I mean, I guess it depends how you read it, because you could read it in multiple different ways, which is something that I really liked about it.

Books Discussions

Speaker 2 20:13

You can read it as a sci-fi kind of thriller, kind of book.

Speaker 1 20:16

Or you can read it. Well, I think it goes more into how you lose your identity. When you become a mother, your identity changes.

Speaker 2 20:24

But was she just two women in the same body the entire time? Oh, you can't say.

Speaker 1 20:28

Well, I can't say it.

Speaker 2 20:29

Oh, you can't say it because you don't know yeah it's really.

Speaker 1 20:31

it's one of those ambiguous books that you could be either. Don't you hate that? I thought it was really well done in this one and, I don't know, maybe that's giving too much away.

Speaker 2 20:39

Yes, well, I know I'm never going to read it.

Speaker 1 20:41

You know that is, it's just a spoiler, yeah, a spoiler. But I think if you go into it just expecting it to be just a regular science fiction kind of book, then it is kind of disappointing because it kind of lacks in that way, because there isn't there isn't really any explanation, there isn't any finality. That comes from that. But if you read it as if there's another possibility that it's just this sad mom having a hard time alone when her husband's gone for weeks at a time, yeah, I would have a hard time reading this book.

Speaker 2 21:13

Yeah, this is not for you. Yeah, it's Wednesday and I've already gone and visited my children.

Speaker 1 21:19

Yes, but yeah, I thought it was really well done. It doesn't have very high reviews or doesn't have very high rating, but I messaged Nikki right away after I read. It was like oh my god, I need to talk about this. She's like oh my god, I know, it was really good. I thought it was really well done, I really liked it.

Speaker 2 21:35

Oh that's good, All right. What am I not going to read next?

Speaker 1 21:38

What are you not going to read next? You're not going to read the Collective by Alison Galen. Why? Well, because it's a well, maybe no. So this one was also really good. It was about this woman whose daughter is killed, murdered. That's why, yeah, it starts out with someone's daughter immediately being killed. Is it an adult daughter? It's like a teenage daughter. Yeah, she, the daughter, is in high school. She goes to like a college party and gets killed in the woods there. The guy that the mom knows did it was found not guilty. She kind of is obsessed with him and follows him a bit and shows up at this event that he's getting an award for being such a great person and loses her mind and people take a viral video of her being drunk and Does she have more kids?

Speaker 2 22:31

I'd kill him.

Speaker 1 22:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, then she gets kind of recruited. Well, she gets kind of added to this Facebook group where all these women who have lost children, they just kind of go there and save their story. And then people say all these ways that they think that they should kill the people that did it yes. So they just kind of and she's like, oh well, this is kind of fun. Yes, you should find him and cut his head off and flush him down the toilet, like just kind of crazy stuff. And she's like, yeah, this is, this is therapeutic. I feel much better talking about this.

Speaker 1 23:06

And then it kind of goes to the dark web where there's a group of women called the Collective who, through a series of so many events and pieces coming together, actually kill the people that have committed these crimes. So it'll be really complex, like one woman goes to the store and buys a gun in another town and then she drives to another town and mails it to someone else who picks it up and puts it in a car, drives the car, leaves the car somewhere and it's just like all over the place and really far removed from everyone. So it's really hard to pin down what's happening. And then she's like this is amazing, yeah, I'm into this. And then it just kind of starts to be like maybe that person that I just killed wasn't guilty.

Speaker 2 23:53

Yeah, I was thinking he didn't do it, did he?

Speaker 1 23:55

Yeah, because they're all like killing each other's people. They're all connected, they're all contributing to the deaths of all these people. And, yeah, she's like finds out that one of these people didn't do anything wrong and so she wants to try to figure out who is, like the puppet master of all of this. And it sounds good. Yeah, it was really good. There's this whole other like kind of subplot this like other character.

Speaker 1 24:22

At first I thought that their relationship was really weird, because she like goes to his house and then they kind of like cuddle on the couch, but his girlfriend is in the next room and he's young and she's old. This is like it was weird. Were they recording a podcast together? Yes, no, it turns out when her daughter died, they donated her organs and this guy got the heart and then he contacted her a while later and then they created this really nice friendship. So that was like a really nice part of the book. It's nice. Yeah, I really liked it. Yeah, it was really good. The ending kind of ended up being like eh, yeah, but that's normal, we know that's normal. That overall, I thought it was really really good. Nice, yeah, it sounds really good. It was interesting the way that they do kill these people and just the way that the plan is set up. I'm like it's a good idea. Yeah, currently well, like I said, I don't have anyone I'd want to kill, but I mean Nobody worth going to jail for no, but if I did.

Speaker 1 25:26

And then I read the Great Believers by Rebecca Mackay.

Speaker 2 25:30

Oh yes, same as I know you did some. What's it actually called?

Speaker 1 25:38

I have some questions for you, so close. So this one's about a group of men. Okay, they're gay men. Yeah, I love gay men.

Speaker 2 25:51

I also love gay men. I also love regular men yeah me too.

Speaker 1 25:55

So it's about a group of gay men in the 1980s living in Chicago, and it's just kind of right as the AIDS epidemic is hitting.

Speaker 2 26:05

Oh, aids, aids makes me tired. This book already makes me tired.

Speaker 1 26:09

I don't want to say I love AIDS, but I love. I love books. I love books about this time period.

Speaker 2 26:16

I think they're always really sad.

Speaker 1 26:18

Yeah, I'm sad and I like sad books. It's in my wheelhouse, so it's going between like 1985 and then 2015. So we got two timelines. In 2015, we had Fiona, who is the sister of one of the men who died of AIDS in the 80s. So she is in Paris looking for her daughter who has joined a cult. And then in the 80s, we're just with these great men characters. Well, okay, specifically one, there's one character named Yale and he works in an art gallery and he is trying to get all this really great art from this old lady. That's really old and she wants to donate her art and I honestly could not care less about the art storyline or the cult storyline. So the only two I would be into.

Speaker 2 27:11

Maybe you should have sent me those portions.

Speaker 1 27:13

I'd read them for you. I mean, they were fine, it was good, and they had reasons as to why they were there. It's like in the art one she was kind of around during I don't know which war, the war.

Speaker 2 27:27

Probably makes me sleepy.

Speaker 1 27:30

And she was talking a lot about how all the all their men were disappearing around that time because they were all going to weren't dying. And she kind of says to Yale like, yeah, you know what it's like, because all the men in their community are all also dying. So there's that parallel. That was really interesting. The whole cult one not interesting. That storyline was really boring and annoying. Other people probably don't agree, but every time we were back there I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get back to Yale, who is oh, there's just so many times in the book is everyone's dying and everyone's getting sick and it's like really quite scary. And I just kept being like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And then something happens, but like ugh. And then a little while later, I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 28:18

like saying out loud I know this is happening and I don't want it to happen, yeah.

Speaker 2 28:22

I had to like. So gasp out the Wonder Dog. You'll remember he is in later books and at the end of this one, him and Laddie. No, laddie, not Lassie. Okay, the whole Wonder Dog was perfect and everyone actually loves it.

Speaker 2 28:36

Death comes and death is a character. He's got a special font, so you know it's death. No, I was like no and I said but I know the gasp doesn't die, so that one ended up being a little bit weird. But like I was definitely like no, no, no, no, no, no, certainly not. Yeah, Like this can't, this cannot be. And then it was not, so it was okay, but probably the same. Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 29:05

I think it is the same. Yeah, yale is my friend, he's my family.

Speaker 2 29:11

Yeah, I love him yeah.

Speaker 1 29:12

Yeah, it was really beautifully written. You are really there with them and you really care about what's happening in their lives.

Speaker 2 29:21

Maybe I need to just like emotionally exhaust myself, but I don't want to be sad. It was sad, can't? I just get the physical release of crying without having being sad. I mean, I don't know if that's you know, when you just see people just like crying in the streets, that's probably what's happened to them.

Book Reviews and Plant Magic

Speaker 1 29:39

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, this book was completely different from I. Have some questions for you, though. Like these books, I would not have thought of them as a book, but I think they're really these books. I would not think they were from the same author at all. Yeah, couldn't be more different, which I kind of like. I'm gonna talk about another book coming up. That it's fine, but you could definitely tell that it's written by the person it was written by, because it's just so exactly the same as all the other books, and that's not always a bad thing. I like knowing what I'm going into if I'm reading a repeat author. But it shouldn't be the same book. It shouldn't be the same book and this case. But this case is completely different. So if you read I have some questions for you and then go to this one thinking it's gonna be the same, you're gonna have some whiplash.

Speaker 2 30:30

Yeah, it's not a Lisa Jewel.

Speaker 1 30:32

I would probably still only give it like 4.7.

Speaker 2 30:35

Is this gonna be real? I know I'm gonna see you with those 4.75.

Speaker 1 30:39

No, I'm being real stingy with my five stars.

Speaker 2 30:41

Oh yeah, but you should be stingy up to, I'd say, four. I just think that 4.5.

Speaker 1 30:46

maybe you can just make me feel so deeply for a character.

Speaker 2 30:49

Oh, that's true.

Speaker 1 30:51

And then, last but well, possibly least, I read the Fury by Alex Michaelides. Oh, sounds like his new book. He wrote Silent Patient and the Maidens. Silent Patient great book, the Maidens. I mean it wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the best. Hey, we also have a whole episode about the Maidens, so if you guys wanna listen to that, check it out, check that one out. I read that book. Yes, yes, she did.

Speaker 2 31:23

We should have left it open-ended Like can you guess?

Speaker 1 31:24

what's happening. Yes, yes, great, send everybody on a little. If anybody can figure it out, there's a prize. There's no prize, but that would have been good. Yes, so this one is about a actress who finds out that her husband is having an affair with her best friend.

Speaker 2 31:49

Good, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 31:51

So she and her friend Elliot kinda make this plan that they're gonna get everyone to go to this island that she owns and they're gonna set it up so that they come out with it. She wants them to admit it. So they make up this big, elaborate plan. I almost didn't read this book because it starts out it's from Elliot's point of view and he's like hey, I'm gonna tell you the story and I'm unreliable.

Speaker 2 32:18

I hate that, I know.

Speaker 1 32:20

I'm like I like an unreliable narrator. Don't tell me you are one.

Speaker 2 32:24

No. From the get-go, because now I know that this whole book is bullshit yeah yeah, so Although I am also often angry at the end when I find that the whole book is bullshit too, I'm less angry then.

Speaker 1 32:34

I'd like to be tricked up into the end, but Tricked me well, yeah, but like if you're gonna tell me that you're tricking me the whole time, and then so we'd be going and he's like, yeah, this is what happened, except for that's not really what happened. So let's go back and I'll tell the story again and I'll fill in.

Speaker 2 32:49

Don't tell the truth this time, yeah.

Speaker 1 32:51

And I'll fill in these blanks, and then you get to the end and then it's like, actually I'm gonna tell you what actually happened now. It just happened so many times that I was just like I do not care about this book at all, but I think if they had left out the beginning, I'm unreliable.

Speaker 2 33:11

Then it would have worked.

Speaker 1 33:12

And then it may have worked better, because then you would have been like a surprise, you would hate it the whole time. I was like no, you would absolutely hate it.

Speaker 2 33:19

Yeah, that's awful. I don't like it. Would you give it 4.75 stars?

Speaker 1 33:23

It just very. No, I don't even know. I yeah, I almost stopped listening to it so many times and, like the narrator, the voice was just so annoying and the silent patient was really well done. It was so good. And then this book was like I'm trying to be the silent patient again.

Speaker 2 33:42

Imagine having to live up to yourself.

Speaker 1 33:45

Yeah, which that's exactly what it felt like he was doing, and the characters were too similar. Don't want it. No, no, anyways. And then one thing that we always really like in books is when authors kind of have their whole universe and then they I love that.

Speaker 1 34:01

Things kind of crossover and stuff, and so we had that in the maidens where we had some character crossovers and some references to the silent patients, and that was really good. And then they also had that in this book. But it was like I always do this in my book, so insert character name from the maidens into this book, and it was just like I don't know, it just felt really inauthentic. But maybe it's just because I didn't like the whole book as a whole. I don't know.

Speaker 2 34:29

Is it doing? Well, I don't know actually.

Speaker 1 34:31

I'm gonna look, because it's pretty new. It is it's like 3.49. So it's fine. It's fine. The silent patient has 4.18. So, yeah, I thought it was going to be a little bit better, but that's okay. Now I know.

Speaker 2 34:48

I feel like a lot of island books have been disappointing me lately.

Speaker 1 34:51

Yes.

Speaker 2 34:52

The last one I liked kind of was that Beauty and the Beast one. I can't remember that one Call that the golden couple. Yes, I kind of liked that one. I wonder if I liked it then or if I'm just remembering it fondly. I think you did? I think so too.

Speaker 1 35:04

Because it was during a time of all of our Beauty and the Beast retelling.

Speaker 2 35:08

Yes, that's right, and they were all great. Yeah, I have a correction for myself from many weeks ago. So If anyone cares, if anybody cares. Way in the past, in case you were thinking about Shanna, you're completely wrong. I said the wrong number. Network effect is number five in the series Murderbot Of Murderbot. Yes, not number seven, but for me it was actually number six that I had read, because I read them in order from afterwards. I was still wrong because I still said seven.

Speaker 1 35:38

Yes.

Speaker 2 35:39

But just wanted you to know that I was in fact double wrong, Double wrong. Yeah, I was editing that episode and I was like Shanna, everything you're saying is the wrong numbers.

Speaker 1 35:49

So I hate when I'm editing and I'm like, damn it, that's not right. I hate it, there's nothing I could do about it. No, because Then you should just be like record five. I don't know, this is network effect, book five.

Speaker 2 36:06

Just put it in the voiceover voice yeah, but yeah, that was the only thing that's been driving me crazy for weeks. Well, I had it on a sticky note in my laptop so I was reminded it was when I opened my laptop about how wrong I was.

Speaker 1 36:21

Meanwhile, me I'm like, oh, that was wrong. I'm never listening to this again and I will not remember that it exists. Yeah instant mind-wake. Yeah, no, Otherwise I will go crazy.

Speaker 2 36:32

Yeah, so you got any other stuff Really Watched.

Speaker 1 36:38

Super magic, practical magic Twice. Twice in one week, actually, like two, almost maybe two nights in a row. Yeah, it was, and I was totally happy with it. That movie is Practical magic. Yes, I watched it with Janelle first and then we were watching it and it was the same Every part where, like, this is the best part, as all the good movies are, and then it ended and we're like we probably could just push play again and watch this again, and it's okay.

Speaker 1 37:09

We're not sick of it at all, it's the best. And then Sam was like I want to watch Practical Magic. I was like, let's do it, you're forcing me, I have no choice. And then I did and I watched it again. Still so good, still good. And I watched it, I think last year, like I think, yeah, so it's a perfect movie. I'll have to check it out sometime you have to, I'll watch it with you.

Speaker 2 37:32

Oh well, I watched both Rush Hours yeah.

Speaker 1 37:36

See, you can watch a movie.

Speaker 2 37:38

I can watch movies if they're perfect movies. Like the first two Rush Hours, this is a perfect movie.

Speaker 1 37:45

It's Witches. It's Cedric Bullock, it's a cool Kidman. It's Stocker Channing Rizzo from Greece. Thank you.

Speaker 2 37:53

Good.

Speaker 1 37:55

Has great music. Cedric Bullock has bangs at the beginning.

Speaker 2 37:59

Nice, she did Love spells Course correct, just kidding.

Speaker 1 38:04

I love your bangs she did.

Speaker 2 38:05

I don't know what they mean she did.

Speaker 1 38:09

It's great. It's so much fun.

Speaker 2 38:11

Yes, okay, fine, I'll do it.

Speaker 1 38:13

Also, janelle would come and Carolyn would come. Everyone would want to watch it, everybody loves it.

Speaker 2 38:19

It sounds great, it's so good. I have nothing against this movie. And then every time I do check out something that you like, oh yeah, it's pretty good.

Speaker 1 38:28

I am very smart and have great taste. Yes, I agree, we went plant shopping yesterday.

Speaker 2 38:35

Yes, we did.

Monstera Plants

Speaker 1 38:36

I have discovered that I have magic. You do have magic. I have plant magic. Yeah, and it came out of nowhere because I've historically been very bad with plants. I was telling Janelle that two years ago I had a half dead translucent spider plant. It had no color, it was white. Yeah, it was not green, it was literally a ghost. And it's still hanging on my thread. But like I killed everything and not because I just didn't know anything and I didn't try, yeah, and now I'm trying just a little bit and everything is like I can just look at something and it just grows from the ground. I'm pretty sure it was amazing, because all my plants are doing really, really well. I have a point, seta, that I think looks better than when I bought it at the beginning of December.

Speaker 2 39:28

It's very strange, it's very, very strange. It's still going.

Speaker 1 39:32

Yeah, I've had it for three months, I guess, and yeah, I don't understand.

Speaker 2 39:38

No, I didn't know that could happen.

Speaker 1 39:40

I think I'm just going to have. This is just like my point.

Speaker 2 39:42

Seta now, at this point we have to see how long it'll live, yeah.

Speaker 1 39:47

I can't throw it out. It's a perfectly healthy, happy plant. I have a snake plant at the shop that is blooming. Yeah, you didn't know they could do that, neither did I. Yeah, it's apparently very rare. Yeah, yeah, so we went plant shopping yesterday and got some new plants. Now we're in even more of a competition. Now we have three plants that are the same yeah.

Speaker 2 40:07

So we know what they look like. That's you got to start at the same spot and see what happens. Our Monstera's Great. They're great. My Monstera looks great.

Speaker 1 40:24

We should take a picture each and put them side by side.

Speaker 2 40:27

We should Mine has personality. Yes, it does.

Speaker 1 40:31

And it's still going, it's still doing pretty good. Yeah, it's got like a lot.

Speaker 2 40:34

It's gone through a lot.

Speaker 1 40:36

It's going up the what's happening.

Speaker 2 40:39

Yeah, that plant has been through some stuff it really has, yeah, but it's somehow yeah, like, just like us, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 40:48

Flourishing.

Speaker 2 40:49

Yeah, it's okay, it's just hanging on. It's kind of a weird skinny spider person.

Speaker 1 40:57

I think that's all we have for you this week.

Speaker 2 40:58

I'm pretty sure that's all we have for you this week, yeah.

Speaker 1 41:00

I'll bring the fan to Jen. You can find us at inhergoodbookspodcast, on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Yeah, Otherwise we're going to see you in two weeks. See you in two weeks.