Bookwild - 2026 Book Releases We Can't Wait to Read with MacKenzie Green

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

This week, MacKenzie Green is back, and we talk about 2026 releases we are excited about!Books MacKenzie Talked About2026 ReleasesHalf His Age – Jennette McCurdyFear and Fury – Heather Ann ThompsonThere’s Only One Sin in Hollywood – Rasheed NewsonVigil – George SaundersAmerican Fantasy – Emma StraubLady Tremaine – Gretchen McNeilOther BooksFrankenstein – Mary ShelleyBlood in the Water – Heather Ann ThompsonThe Gods of New York – Jonathan MahlerChallenger – Adam HigginbothamMidnight in Chernobyl – Adam HigginbothamFrostbite – Nicola TwilleyLolita – Vladimir NabokovMy Government Means to Kill Me – Rasheed NewsonLincoln in the Bardo – George SaundersGirl Dinner – Olivie BlakeBooks Kate Talked About2026 ReleasesYesteryear – Caro Claire BurkeSublimation – Isabel J. KimScreen People – Megan GarberLanguage as Liberation – Toni MorrisonJapanese Gothic – Kylie Lee BakerOther Books Separation of Church and Hate –  John FugelsangThe Bluest Eye – Toni MorrisonBeloved – Toni MorrisonProject Hail Mary – Andy WeirThe Martian – Andy WeirScream With Me – Eleanor Johnson Check Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackGet Bookwild MerchFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrianMacKenzie Green @missusa2mba 

This week, I am back with McKinsey Green. We're going to talk all things, 26, bookish, or just all things books. We know. We talk about a little bit of everything. We do. Well, I mean, I think what I told you, so context for the listeners, Kate and I hang out before we record. But one of the things I was saying to you that I really loved last year was like, that was the first year as a reader that I consciously had like pre-ordered 2020. 25 releases and tried to keep up with like the Booker Prize nominees, like all that kind of

stuff. And I feel like that's like the next level of bookishness is when you go through just reading to now you're like, oh, it's like the way as a film person that you're like, oh, you know, Paul Thomas Anderson has a movie coming out in two years or like, oh, Chris Nolan has a movie coming out. I have to make sure I'm like, I go through the canon of his work, like all this stuff. And so like this is definitely a year where I feel like I have a lot of. of new releases. I'm like anticipating for the first time in a long time and actively keeping up with like what came out today. Like oh, it's Tuesday. It's pub day. Like what is hitting the bookshel. So I'm like I'm most excited for 2026 because I feel like now I'm becoming a really nerdy reader where

you know, award season starts. And I'm like, I have opinions. I have opinions. Totally. I yeah. I had a similar moment basically the first year or the year after I started podcasting. It was the same thing where like if you, I still read what would be considered a lot. Yeah. Like 40 to 50 books a year. But I was not similar to everything you just said. I didn't realize like every Tuesday tons of books come out. I had no clue.

Yeah. And I just like such news to me the first. Yeah. And in certain genres and what I think of. referred as like romance and thrillers probably probably a decent amount of genre fiction but I know with literary it's not expected but romance and thrillers you kind of are expected to put one out every year once you get your first one out there so then there's that you're like wow yeah sometimes because then all of a sudden it's like and I think that's the fun part about reading is like it just

doesn't stop it's like hundreds of books come out a year or a hundred of books. hundreds of book comes out a month. Then it's like tens of thousands of years. And it's like so even if in a perfect world, I read every single book that is potentially going to be long listed for the Booker Prize, there are still categorically so many books I know absolutely nothing about. And I think that is the most fun part is like to me being a reader is the embodiment of keeping your shore of ignorance and sight at all times.

Because even like we're going to. to talk about her release, but it's like, I'm diving into Heather Ann Thompson's first book, Blood in the Water, and I'm like, oh, even when I finish this giant tome about a prison of rising in the 70s, I now have hundreds of pages from her to then follow up about a conflict in New York. And the crazy part that I know for myself as a reader is once I finish reading like the Attica prison book, I'm going to be like, well, I want to learn about this thing. It's like what happened when I read Gods of New York is that immediately I was like, well, I want to learn more about this. Is there a book on Spike Lee, the making of do the right thing? Because even this little

snippet I got, I want more. So yeah, I'm just, I'm very much like, I think I'm, I'm very embarrassed by the fact that I fall more and more in love with books and bookishness every year to a point that I'm like, this is, this is a hobby I will have forever. Yeah. But also I'm like, wow, it can get so nerdy because like you said you can get into like oh you're a romance person are you a nonfiction and then if you're like us you're like i read everything almost everything yeah yeah the nonfiction especially well and obviously we've talked about like fiction can make you aware of stuff too but nonfiction especially i'm like there are so many things i just because i think what's endearing to me lately is that nonfiction writers i'm thinking about this in the sense that like i just got an

audiobook that was on sale. It's all about parking and the way that parking shapes communities. So like someone got so hyper fixated on parking that they got excited and now I'm excited. I think it's also that neurodivergent like seeing somebody else because it's like when I, so people know my imaginary boyfriend Adam Higginbotham who wrote the book Challenger that I love so deeply in every fiber of my being in the most embarrassing way possible. But to your point about hyperfixation. Yes. I am like,

I really, because I think it's, it's something crazy where right now, it's like all his books focus on the same year. It's like the Chernobyl disaster, the Challenger explosion. Like, they all happen.

And I'm just like, the idea that he, like, again, my little ND brain goes, yeah, he woke up one day and was like, I'm going to talk about the challenge explosion.

And then just became so hyperfixated. Yes. Interviewed people over years. Yeah. It created this beautiful piece of narrative, nonfiction that feels like you're reading a movie script even though it's real life and it is just so funny to me every time yeah yeah when you really drill into it and you're like oh this little this little weirdo yeah like so into this that he could like you said it's like you got so

obsessed with parking that you're like I'm writing a book about parking spaces like this changes everything this is everything like one of the books I'm like in stupid books it's a back list but It's that book about refrigeration. Oh. And it's like how basically like the refrigerator changed the world, like flatten the world. Because in my desire this year especially to learn more about like, I think it's post reading Frankenstein that I'm like, I want to learn more about AI. I want to learn. Actually lies.

It was the challenger book. Everything leads back to Adam Higginbotham for me is because they end the book with the Feynman Commission where he's talking about this idea of like let this commitment. shouldn't be an example of the hubris of men is dangerous. Yes. Couple that with my knowledge when Chris Nolan was like, I want people to understand that this is a horror movie. This is a cautionary tale about technology in the hands of the wrong people that even the most well-meaning person can have their innovation taken and can destroy the world.

So like here we are living in this in shittification, another book of my TBR of like the world via AI. and I am so obsessed right now with just books about single inventions that were meant to like do great things that are then being used in like harmful ways. And so I think like the refrigeration book kind of does that where it's like, hey, it was this great thing that helped make food more accessible and like opened up, you know, food for other people. But like the environmental impact of it, like how much we use it, how ubiquitous it's become. It's like it's no longer being used as a tool. Like it's being, you know, it's a status symbol. It's this. And so like it's those kind of weird books in 2025.

Is this frostbite? Yes, frostbite. Okay. Okay. It's like, I said 2025. It's 2026. I don't know where we are in space and time. But it's like I want to engage with more books like that.

Yes. Where it's like it's these. Again, you know this from the Heather Ann Thompson one that's coming. It's like just these very specific drill down. I'm just fascinated because we're living in history right now. Yes. So it's kind of like I think I'm just, I think my brain is just, again, it's that ND part of me. I think my brain is like, I want to understand not just the history, but how we talk about history.

Because it's going to be on us to be the character. Like we will in our lifetime see people we know being oral history people or talking heads in a documentary for shit I'm living through right now. that I will have to explain out to potentially one day little people or even just my nieces and nephews where they're going to be like, explain to me what happened the year I was born. And I'm going to be like, the year you were born, we were snatching people off the street. This was going on for a long time. Yeah, and I'm like, because a thing called J6 happened and they're going to be like, what? And I'm going to be like, okay, so let me back up some more. It's like, it's just so fascinating when you're like to now be living in history as somebody who grew up with history present.

Yeah, you, yeah. Yeah, like I've always been aware of how condensed human history is. But now I'm just like, oh, no, I'm in it. Oh, God, I'm in it right now. I'm in somebody's AP exam. Yeah. If you're, if you are someone, and I am newer to it, but if you are someone who has some context, of the last 500 years more too but if you have some context you're like oh this is one of those

things where like it's reminding you the book like yeah what how many years from now what is it uh everyone who's gonna have been against this because that was like my yeah everybody should yeah that was a great release it's like that feeling where i'm like okay i think i'm going to eventually be in a part where some of these crazy people i'm going to be like yeah now you you even understand you're grace. Or I think if like again, in the release of last year before we get into the ones for this year, it's like when I think about the gods of New York, here you

are reading this book. They're talking about like a young upstart, you know, attorney general named Rudy Giuliani. I know. Roodle. Real estate. What they said it first. Rudolph. Yeah. They're like a young real estate mogul learning from his father, Fred, named Donald Trump.

It's like, I also am really deeply fascinated by like hopefully we learn our lesson. But like this idea that if one day my kids are like, oh, that's Jake Paul, the senator. And I'm like, let me tell you. Too good. But the idea that I could be in them a book about 2024.

Or no, because the fact that that book is four years. So let's pretend like the Gods of New York book is the election, the 2024 election to 28. The fact that my kid will potentially be reading a book about a Vine Star, turn YouTuber, turn boxer, and we'll be like, mom, is this the senator? Yeah. That they're talking. And I'll be like, okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just like our reality star. Yeah.

Or it's like, but just this. Yeah, the idea of like, sit. Like, that's why I'm excited. It already came out, but there's a series of books this year coming out about January 6th. And I really want to read them because, again, it's like, I have lived, we lived through it. I can look on my Instagram right now and see my videos from that day. And now here we are five years later. Yeah. And being like, wait, and even having friends of mine who read it, who read the book and have been like, oh yeah, it's crazy. I forgot these details. Like, we lived

it and I didn't even remember this was a thing that happened. I know. Because there's so many things. That's the other thing. Which there's something like truly bad every day. Yeah. But I think to the thing we've talked about before where it's like this is when the artist appear.

It's like I feel like some of the new releases that are coming are reflection of like what we're living through where it's like you're seeing it in. Like perfect example. I'm super hype for Jeanette McCurdy's book, Half His Age. Me too. Now, again, last year I read Lolita for the first time. Knowing, having to have read that, done that in a book club, really broken it down, talked about Humbert, Humbert, how discussing his, all this stuff. And then to learn that, like, Jeffrey Epstein collected first editions of Lolita.

Get that were, like, all over the place and pictures. Like he used the term nymphet, non-ironically, all this kind of stuff. It's like, I'm really excited for half his age because, again, like, this is where artists are important. Like, we're having a hard time getting people to understand, like, why you don't want to be 30 dating a 14-year-old. Right. And then when you try to point them towards Lolita, they're like, oh, this is like such a long ago book or whatever. Like, for some reason they like can't. And so I'm excited for her book.

This sounds insane to say. I'm like, we need another Nabokov reminder of like dating children is gross. Yes. And I think she is uniquely positioned to write it so well for lots of different reasons. That's what I'm saying is I feel like, you know, people might be like this is very hyperbolic, but I'm like, I feel like she is going to give us the modern humbert humbert. I think so. Where you will be looking at this repugnant character through her book and being like, gross. Because I think what I've heard of the book that I think is actually going to be really clever, similar to a Lolita, is the fact that, like, you were looking at the story through the eyes.

Because Lolita is obviously through the eyes of the actual pedophile, but like this is going to be through the eyes of like a teen girl. And I think that is going to be necessary because I heard, and I don't know, it might be this one. But like, I've heard one of the critiques, a friend of mine who got an ARC said is that she was like, oh, it's like, she's just like such a gross. horny teenage girl. And I was like, but isn't that kind of like the chaos that we were also finding in a lot of these stories now about grooming? Like when I think about what grooming really is, I was almost about to give an insane example that was going to tarnish one of my heroes, but it's fine. When I think about Kobe Bryant dating his wife, he met her when she was like 17 on the set of a music video. And he was like 17 too. But the idea that a

17-year-old girl got cast for this music video. And I'm imagining that must be a bit of what Jeanette is going to kind of tackle. It's like, I've heard Vanessa Bryant say like, oh, I thought I was mature enough to handle that set. I thought I was mature enough to handle all of that. And I'm like, and I think that is going to be a really interesting thing to see if she plays with. It's like, because I do. I think in these kind of conversations about grooming, which is what the creepos use is that they're like, she's really mature for her age. And it's like, you know, and to quote,

Hillary Duff, it's like with that song she has now. It's like, no, I'm not. No, I'm not. I think I am. But you're the adult in this situation. Yes, that is still true. You could very quickly be like, oh, that's so sweet, honey. But like, you're a child.

Yep. Yeah. It's like, yes. Yeah. It's like I love Celine Dion, but when I really drill down. Oh, I know. I'm like, Celine. It's a little bit like that with Beyonce too, right?

Yeah. Yeah. You know I have talked about this many times and it pains me to say it what I do. I know. But whatever I'm like, guys, Jayzie met Beyonce when she was like 15 at the Apollo. And you're like, and then you realize like when Tina's book when she's talking about Beyonce at like a 20 year old. Yeah, it's like a young girl. That was when I read matriarch.

I was like, oh. But see, I had clued in pre matriarch. So Tina Nol's used to have. This is just thing. No, this is even crazier. So Tina Noles had a book. when she was the stylist of Destiny's Child about what it took to style

Destiny's Child. And it was just meant to be like a, like, like the way La Roach has his book. It was like, Tina Knowles Guide to Life and Style. And in the book, she has a cornbread and chili recipe and completely one-off in the intro of the recipe. She's like,

Jay-Z flies to Houston all the time for this cornbread and chili. And you're like, and now as an adult, I'm just like, But again, to what I'm excited to read in Jeanette's book, it's like when you have a very mature child, when you have a kid that had to grow up really quickly, I can imagine as a parent, you're like, oh, I trust my kid's judgment. I've raised them right. They're smart. Right.

And then simultaneously, you're also kind of like, that's the part where I'm like, guys, it's okay. You're not being like an overbearing parent. I don't know. I'm really curious to get into because I think about this a lot of somebody who wants to be a parent where I'm like, you're not an overbearing parent if you're like, Beyonce, I love you so. much. But you cannot. You need to wait a couple years before you go out with this grown adult man. Like really adult. Yeah. We all know, or at least women, I feel like, we all know that like there is a huge difference between like 17 and 19. Not to mention like 19 to 25. You're like so much different. I'm not kidding. We were talking about this earlier with the whole not liking water thing.

I was a college senior dating a college freshman who played on the football team. And you want to talk about an age difference, just that little bit. I said, I'm talking to a child right now. Yeah. Oh, my God. What? And then that was when I started being like when I would have, you know, classmates who were like, or you would hear about guys who were senior year who like were falling hard from a girl from insert whatever high school. And I was like, you're a psychopath.

Yeah. I don't know what to talk to children about. Exactly. I don't have, like, I am five years older than my current partner, and even I sometimes have to open a sentence with, I don't know if you're too young to know this. Do you know what such and such is? And I feel like a cradle robber. And I am well.

She's not. She's not a child. I met him, and he's 32. And I was like, I'm like, when did you graduate? Oh, God. Like, sometimes I'll be like, when I was on stage at Miss USA, you were in high school. Holy crap.

Like, even, so I'm so geeked for this. And I also think her writing is so interesting. And since I'm glad my, I'm glad my mom died felt so nonlinear. I'm going to be curious to see how she does with a narrative that has to follow, like, a linear structure. So, yeah, that's like one of my ones that hype for was one of your one. I'm very excited. I'm going to see her in Chicago. So I'll post about it, everybody. I'm so I know. I'm glad I was able to. Okay. So this is one that has a really fun concept that I also think you will enjoy this as a concept. It's called Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. The gist of it is a traditional American woman, a beautiful. beautiful wife and mother who sells her I already know I'm sold you said traditional American woman I said

I was like let's not say trad wife but say trad wife you sold me I know so she sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers suddenly awakens cold filthy and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805 where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister. Doesn't that just sound amazing? That sounds so good. Because you know what that gives me, too? It's such Pleasantville, like, vibes.

Because it is that idea of somebody opining for a time that they're convinced if they lived in it, they would be so much better off. And then getting dropped in it and being like, help. Exactly. Yes. Yes. You're like, oh, you think America's great? back then. Yeah, here you go ahead. Go ahead. Enjoy it. Also, the concept makes me think about,

I'm convinced they got rid of this question after my year, but at Miss USA, like one of their favorite things for the questions, like the cute little stand-ups of like, get to know the contestants is they used to do if you could get at a time machine and go back to any time. What would it be? Oh, boy. You know, it's so funny when I think about myself and my life that oftentimes I'm like, oh my god, I don't know. I just became so outspoken in 2020. And then I started looking at my life. And I'm like, no, you've always been this person.

I got, they, everybody, I can feel everybody's like butt tighten up because I said, when they asked the question, I first paused and I went, well, this is a tricky one because I'm black. So we got to, we got to land this plane properly. And everybody was like, oh, my God, she did not just say that. And I think I said, what did I end up saying? I was like the 90s. Hmm.

Because people were like, people were like saying something. like the 1950s, like when women were, when people could be so glamorous and all this stuff. I think I said the 90s, I was like, that worked out really well for black folks. And I think then the alternative I gave to that is I initially said like ancient Egypt and I go, but I got to stay this color. Because if I get any darker, they're making me haul bricks up the pyramid side of the pyramid. And they, I just remember every cameraman in that room was like, she's funny. Oh no.

Oh no. this one's got a lot of opinions. You have to. Someone has to. I love the concept of that. I'm obsessed with that. Okay. I am so excited. I think she's going to talk about a lot of different things. Yeah, I think she's going to be able to put a lot of good stuff in there. We talked about it, but Heather Ann Thompson's book, I'm jumping around, but like before Kate takes it off the draft board, that is on my list. It is about, you know the title. I'm blanking on the title.

Fear and Fury. And it's the Reagan 80s, the Gets shootings, and the rebirth of white rage. Yes. That is a book I am dying to read because it is after having to read Gods of New York, there is a lot of the tumultuous moments racially in New York are around this shooting on the subway and how it became a larger representation, which, it's almost like we lived through those kind of things now. It's like that one moment became so bad. big because for white New Yorkers it felt like justification of kind of like vigilante justice

protect themselves against black folks and then black people were furious in the city because it was like oh so now we can go around indiscriminately shooting black people that we decide are suspicious and shouldn't be there and so I'm like super geek to read it and I'm also just hype to read Heather Ann Thompson this year like I just you know it's really good narrative nonfiction yes has been like my gateway drug into liking nonfiction. I would say that and as I call them like the pop sciencey book. So like girl on girl like you know word slut. It's like these more kind of like, you know, they're not the hardcore Daniel Kahneman kind of books.

But like they give you the top line of the subject matter in a fun way. So yeah, I'm hyped to read to read that book this year too. Yeah. It's really good. And she is, she's just fun. So as you guys are listening, her episode will come out like a week after this episode. I would also, props to you because you will get people on this show, myself excluded, who are so impressive that I am like, say what now?

And then you'll be like, oh, yeah. They'll be like, oh, this guy's on the Today show. And I'm like, ah, separation of church and hate looks like a cool book. And you're like, oh, yeah, no, he's coming on the show. Like, I DM'd him. I'm like, oh, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. So basically it's you, you know, Savannah Guthrie, Kelly Clarkson, like you guys are the only people talking to him. Cool. Got it. Great. Some of them. But yes, I just, you know, I will send a DM. I will send it. And actually with hers, I got it on a net galley and I tagged her in a post. And she was like so grateful. And I was like, you want to come talk about it? And she was like, are you serious? And I was like, yeah. To our point of like authors, especially nonfiction ones being these like neurodivergent weirdos hyper fixate. Like they always seem so surprised. when you want to talk to them about their hyper fixation basically.

They're like, other people care. And you're like, babes, not only do people care, you have won the Pulitzer Prize. Right. Honey. I know. Never has a hyperfixation taken somebody so far. Right. I know.

You wrote it out and we all basically collectively went, oh, so tell me about it. Tell me about it. Tell me everything you know. Yeah. And they are like their different kinds of interviews kind of because. of what you said it's like they just get to geek out talking about something they were hyper fixated on and as both an introvert and then also neurodivergent i vibe with that like if someone else is excited i'm like oh okay no small talk you're just going to teach me things go on yeah like you said

they're just going to deep dive into immediate so he shot this kid and you're like yes and he was sitting down we're just getting right into your weird thing you like and you're giving me all the details, unnecessary ones, necessary ones. Yeah, yeah, there will be a lot. There's definitely going to be more nonfiction on here this year. I do too. Yeah, I feel like this is going to be a heavy nonfiction year. I feel like if anything, for me at least, like, yes, there's literary fiction, but I feel like there's going to be a lot of genre fiction for me. It's so fun to have both. Because I'm just like, yeah, because I'm like, I know I'm going to get into heavy deep topics and I want to read more classics this year. And I'm like, so then I kind of just want to read like,

book where wife murder's husband. Right. Runs from cops. I have lots of those. Yeah, jumps on train and end a book and is like, goodbye, coppers. Like, that's basically. Yes. You always need a good for her thriller in the mix.

Yeah, you always need one like amid the heaviness of learning about history. Yes. I need like, I need one good for her. Yeah. I always like to have one in terms of black authors. Like, that's what I thought. Yeah. Kind of book.

And then like and then one more in there that just either satisfies both of those simultaneously or kind of like, yeah, everybody sucks. I like one of those genre fictions where you're like, I'm reading for nobody. Yes. And then at the end when anybody dies or they all survive, you're like, no. I hope you guys carry up your lives. I tend to have like a nonfiction and a fiction. And typically I'm listening to the nonfiction and reading the fiction. but it's not a hard and fast rule but yeah sometimes you just need variety that is one of those

things were like it wasn't until i started listening to audiobooks that i was like oh i really can i can i can have multiple books open and i'm like that was like one of my things that like i was just always like no i read until this is finished and i'm like we're like i didn't have to no truly you're like oh wait so like there were other choices here i didn't have to yeah yeah and i'm like, oh, three books at the same time right now on Goodreads. I look chaotic. I'm like, no, you don't. Yeah, no. Yeah, I usually think that too. I'm like, when people log on to my Goodreads, they must be like, she's reading five books at once. I'm like, I'm not though, but I get what you saying. Yeah. Well, one of my, since you were talking about the kind of like, that's what I'm

realizing social studies is what it is that I'm like in history and social studies. Yeah. But there is this book coming out called oh where did it go called screen people um who does it say it's by i forgot to pull the author's name um screen people by megan garber and the short version screen people argues that in a media saturated age we've been trained on experience trained to experience real life as entertainment casting politicians strangers and even ourselves as characters in an endless show by tracing how spectacle reshapes our culture, politics, and empathy. Megan Garber reveals how this obsession with diversion fuels mistrust and misinformation and why reclaiming reality is an urgent act of resistance. I was like, sign me up. I know, everything about this is, I mean, because you know, I work in

social media. So it's like, I love any, people are always so shocked. I love anything that's a critique of social media and our lack of attention. Because, yeah, wow. Okay. That's a good one. I had just got an email about that one. Like NetGalley sent out like, check out these nonfiction. And I was like, oh, that one does sound good. So I like just added that one to my list. Damn.

Good pick. I know. I know. Damn you. Thanks. I would say my other one, my, another one for me. And honestly, Rashid Newsom is my dude. He is amazing.

He has a new book coming out this year. It's called there's only one sin in Hollywood. And so that one is for people that don't know, he wrote my government means to kill me. Again, going back to the gods of New York, like, I like to say it's the exact same time period, but it's like a gay, black Forrest Gump where you're like meeting all these characters through him. But this one is following a back lot, fixer's daring investigation to suspicious death of a closeted black actor within the glamorous world of Hollywood from best-selling author of my government means to kill me. See Barlow, one of Hollywood's young black stars,

taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios ambitious attempt to rival Sydney Poitiers' success. So like literally we're getting like a fictitious Sydney Poitier Harry Belafonte type type character and he's closeted and I just

I'm obsessed because they talk about like years later when Xavier dies at the height of his fame Aaron Toussaint, Skyline's designated backlog fixer who helps the studio stars stay as deep in the closet as human but possible is ready to expose the powerful culplers responsible for his untimely death. Like

this sounds spectacular. It sounds so good. It sounds so good. Yeah. Because I already know the cast of characters we're going to interact with is going to be really fascinating because there's such a complicated relationship, I feel like, for folks with Poitiers and Bellefonte, where it's like,

yes, they were these activists, but they were very mean and how they spoke about, like, black women. Because, like, I've heard Lena Horn and Eartha Kitt and all these people talk about how like horrible they were to them. And so I'm going to be curious to see two of like the character starts like because I can only imagine if the character is closeted. How he's also observing the behavior of those around him where it's like, oh, they get to do this out loud. And I can't do that.

You know, and it's like, so I'm, I just can't wait. And I just think Rashid Newsom is such a good writer and so fun and so like authentically himself in a way that it's like enjoyable to watch also as a fan of his. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that one sounds very fun. i think i have it on net galley i can't remember i probably do i know i requested it but you never know know i always get all of them yeah but yeah that one is on my list too yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i know that one just sounds amazing well i might blow your mind again

with this one because this one is giving me severance vibes it's called no i'm obsessed severance here. I know. It's called sublimation by Isabel J. Kim. This is like the short version. When an immigrants cross a border, their lives split into one self moves forward, the other remains behind. And for Soyang, Rose Kang, that fracture resurfaces when she's called back to Korea after her grandfather's death. What begins as a reckoning with the life she left behind turns into a chilling confrontation as her other self plans to take her body and claim, the future Rose thought was hers alone. So basically a really wild immigrant version of us. Yes, definitely.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Very much so. But again, like all of these themes feel so emblematic. Because when you think about how long it takes an author, it's anywhere from like, you know, two, three years, it's like, okay, where were we two years ago? People thought we were out. And sometimes it's like five years of things.

That's what I'm saying. It's like when I really think about it. Yeah, it's like when I think about it, yeah, when I think about yesteryear, it's like at any point over the last few years, she could have been inspired to write that. And it's kind of like, but now it really hits. Yes. Or the same thing with this book. It's like when I hear the concept, I'm like, oh, all we're talking about is immigration. We're talking about good immigrants versus bad immigrants.

Like here is somebody battling. And like fractured identities. Like there's a lot of you can do there. So here's going to be somebody battling her two selves. I'm very I think that one is April I think it's kind of far out I know when some of them are like super far away I'm like well I hate this yeah June but yeah I'm very excited for that one um my other one and I think it's gonna I personally think it's probably going to make the Booker list um it is Vigil by George Sanders

yes so yeah the same dude that wrote Lincoln and the bardo which I have not read it's on my list. Me too. Yeah, it is taking place at the bedside of an oil CEO in the twilight hours of his life as he is ferried from this world to the next. Not for the first time. Jill Dahl Blaine finds himself hurtling

towards Earth, reconstituting as she fall right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummet stores her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife and lands head first in the circular drive of his or mansion. But like all, I will let people read it. It's a hell of a description.

But for me, I have such a obsession with Charles Dickens' Christmas story. I am obsessed with the concept of ghost, angels, whomever, coming to visit people. You need to be put on the right path. I think that stuff is so funny. It's like the preacher's wife to me. I'm like, and so I'm just excited for this because I just anticipate because of the idea of somebody kind of coming down to help ferry the dead. Like, you know, they talk about in the description. It's like, um, it's like she soon discovers this isn't like the powerful K.J. Boone,

who will not be consoled because he's nothing to read. He's lived a big, bold life and the world is better for it. Isn't it? Visual transports us careening through the wild final evening of the epic, epic complicated life. And I think, you know, as we're all sometimes waiting for the big, beautiful announcement. I think I often think now, and I think only because I've also been dealing with like the health of my dad is like this concept of what we talked about, like looking at your life and having a movie worth watching, like being okay with what you see. I am, yeah, this is what that's one that I'm like, I just like that conversation. I like sitting with characters, be they good or bad and watching them reflect on their actions.

with like a sign from heaven walking them through what they should take away from how they showed up on earth. Yes. I agree. And to your point of things being written and coming out, then it's an oil executive. Like literally, it's one of those things where I'm like, I'm sure George Sanders was like, I knocked that out of the park with Lincoln and the Bardo. And then eventually like got the visitation for this concept.

and then wrote it and now it's like uh-oh he didn't know like yeah it's like you didn't know like I'm sure there's going to be conversations in this about like it's easier for you know a rich man to get in heaven then a cable just fit through the eye like I'm sure that's coming and it's like I'm just I'm so geeked for this one yeah my friend Hallie is too and she

she shared this story that when she was I think she was in her MBA MFA program um she was reading she had read lincoln and the bardo and he like came through um and she like went through the signing line and literally was so starstruck that she was like oh my god i know you're married but like if you if you weren't i would be like smothering my like putting my like throwing myself at i don't blame listen i'm that way about adam hickenbottom and there's a old british man i thought about that when you brought up that story it's one of those those that's the first time

with him as an author where it hit me like how group like with your like your friend I'm like oh I get how groupies exist oh yeah totally I'm like because right now my delusional brain is like if I could put my mouth on his mouth if I could kiss his face so she felt I could absorb his knowledge through my skin

if I could just lay on a pillow next to him and talk to him so the sun comes up I will be smarter for it and I'm like oh I now see how you had like groupies for like Aristot And I'm like, it's not that you're hot, bro. It's that I'm like, I love your brother. I'm like, I'm having a very remic moment where I'm like, I just went inside your brain and I want to scoop it out.

And the best way I can think to do that is I'm going to cradle you like a baby till you fall asleep. I want you tell me everything no and how you know it. We love authors over here. We do. I tell you when authors are like, people care. I'm like, babes. Yes, we do. Let me tell you who cares.

I'm like, there's a handful of people in this life. that if they walk through my front door right now, it would send me into a connoption. And I would leave my partner, Harrison Ford. Full stop. I get it. Yeah. At any age, whenever people are like, when he was young?

No, today. He's fine today. At all points. Like, Callista Flockhart better be happy. I can't find her. And I don't know how to fight. Jason Manzukas. Why do I not know that one?

He's from How Did This Get Made? he played Derek on the good place. Okay. Yes. Oh my gosh. I love. I once said this to a random stranger and they were like, didn't see that coming because I was like, I'd leave my boyfriend. Is this surprise me?

Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. But I get it. This one makes no surprise because again, these are all my remic. Like, I just went inside your brain. Ryan Coogler. Oh, totally.

Actually, it's a three. It's a threesome. It's Ryan Coogler, his wife, Zenzie, and the music composer. I'm like, I would leave. Yeah, I would, Ludwig. Yeah, I would leave my partner to go start a polycule with them. And then, and then the last one is Adam Higginbotham. If he walked in this door and he was like, hello.

I'd be like, you love me? I should go with you. We're best friends. Yeah. And then weirdly, it's not, I don't love him the same way I love Adam Higginbotham, but after our conversation and now being mutuals with him, again, thanks to Kate for making me cool is Sebo Campbell. He's not, I don't want to marry him, but I want him to let me be his best

friend. I know. I want it because like we were talking about his like he even like designs hotel brands. Like he was just talking about everything he does. And I'm like, I just want to like hear about your creative vision. I just want him to FaceTime me like while he's at work. Like I just want to be that close where he's like, hey, what do you think of this? This change. lounge and I'm like I'm glad you appreciate my like I just want Sebo to care about my opinion. Oh, I get that. Yeah. Like if he asked me for like a little piece of advice or what I thought about something, I'd be like, I'd be like my taste is so high. I'm not, I had a post online. All of the cool Hadid sisters liked. Oh yeah. And I said, fame is going to change me immediately. It's going to. Yeah. And I said, because if I'm friends with Alana Hadid

and Belop. I'm never talking to the rest. I'm not talking to normal people anymore. I'm too cool. I'm not. I'm changing my number. And when people are like, I'm able to reach you, I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. I've just been. I'm just been so big. I'm like, you know, me and Alana, we were

talking about sociopolitical issues and then Sebo Campbell had to FaceTime me to ask me if I thought this was the right shade of green for this hotel. And I was like, oh, everybody. leave me alone. So yeah. Yes. I get it. I mean, the other things, too, something as big as fame, it would be weird if it didn't change you.

Like, it's going to change you somehow. That would actually be concerning if it didn't. Like, it would be a little like, are you good? Yes, exactly. Why are you still acting the exact same way and doing all the same stuff? Yes. You would kind of want some things to change. Yeah, absolutely. Which is okay.

There we go. Oh, wait, I'm up next. Okay. My next. Oh, no, you did vigil. Oh, I did. Yeah, I did vigil. I just looked at my notes.

Okay. So my other one is called Japanese Gothic. So it is about fleeing a violent act, he can't remember. Lee Turner escapes to his father's isolated house in Japan, only to find it warped by eerie rules, impossible apparitions, and a presence that refuses to stay buried. Twinned with the story of a disgraced samurai in 1877, haunted by war, loyalty, and prophecy, the novel binds past and present in a chilling puzzle where one life is a ghost, one is a lie, and the truth beneath the house may destroy them both. Very dramatic. Wow. But Gothic tends to be

dramatic. I know. I was about to say, you've made me nervous. Now, this might be be the first pick you have that I'm like I don't know I can't enjoy this journey I know I have leaned into horror in a very different way here's the thing I love horror I don't like gothic gothic yeah but you did like Frankenstein right I did like Frankenstein I did like frankestine I blame it on um what's her face uh that I hate oh yeah uh Charlotte Bronca she she she can go to hill yeah I have beef with Jane hair till the day I die you and that's one of those books that I'm like well now I'm going to have to revisit it because I talk so much crap about it.

You need to make sure you like our own. That like I need to make sure again that I still dislike it. My other one. So I feel like this is the portion where we might have books that the other ones like you have fun with that. You had Mexican Gothic and my other one is Emma Straub. Oh yeah.

American fantasy. I don't even have to read the log line. It is basically what would you do? I'm speaking for myself. If I found myself on the backstreet boys cruise and then one of the backstreet boys fell in love with me. I mean, that sounds fun. Yeah. So I'm like so hyped.

Like this is my like really frothy one that even though it comes out in, yeah, it comes out in April. It is the book that I'm going to get and not read until I am like by a pool somewhere. Oh, okay. Like until, yeah, like it is going to be my break glass book. Like I have one of those every year where I'm like, this is a. silly book that when my brain officially taps out on all of my tomfoolery for the year, I will grab this book and be like, help me. Help me. Get me out of my reading slump. Give me something silly and fun to like get into. So yeah, that's what this one's going to be for me, for sure. For me,

that one right now is The Martian because Project Hail Mary was the best audio book I've ever listened to and it was like the third audiobook I listened to. So I got so spoiled. There you go. And The Martian is just as good. So I, like, have it. But I'm like, I've got to save that for when I've had, like, three DNFs in a row and don't think I can ever like a book again. That was, for me, that was, I read like this really silly literary RPG book called Dungeon Crawl Carl. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And that was for me where I had hit, like, three books that I kept starting, couldn't get into starting, couldn't get into. Like, I had reached the point where even Buffalo Hunter Hunter was not fun to me. And I was like, you know what? It's heavy. It's heavy. I said, I got a clock out of this. And then the other one, too, because knowing how my brain works, end of the year, also, I'm like, I don't want to read anymore. And I'm like, I've been doing it.

And so that was girl dinner for me last year. Oh, yeah. Did you like it? I can't remember for you. I loved that stupid book. Okay. I really liked it. It was a weird ride to your thing of like the year of sociology.

It is more interesting for the conversations the characters are having in their, like, academic. settings about like womanhood. And I think I finished it around the same time I did the Mar-a-Lago show. Oh, wow. And so the book kept talking about this idea of like the perform, like what version of womanhood should we all be performing to be acceptable to these men? And so then to drop into the show where I'm looking at people that look like the human embodiment of the jigsaw puppet from the saw movies.

Yes. And I'm asking myself from the book, like, what version of womanhood are, we performing right now. I'm like, because I can't put my fingers on what the origin is for any of this being the correct answer. So yeah, that's like, that's a back list for anybody that's like, what was a book you like from last year? I'm like, yeah, dinner was a vibe.

And so like, again, this is going to be that book for me where I'm like, okay, it's like silly and frothy, but it's going to like, it's going to make me feel warm and fuzzy. Yes. You've got to have those. Yeah. Well, that girls dinner is going to be mine now. My like backup. I better.

Because especially if I just needed to listen to something. The way I would love to describe it to you would give away the best part of the book. Yeah. I get that. So we will not. That was the reason you were like, did you like it? Because my review, I think I even said in my review is like, what I want to call this book to tell you all why it's so fun would give away what the book is about. Okay.

I get that. Once you read it, then I will tell you what I've been like affectionately calling it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This is, yeah, this is going to be my fun one. Okay. Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, you have to have one really fun one. Oh, so I read, I've read, oh, the bluest eye by Tony Morrison. Yeah. And beloved's last year. And I'm definitely a Tony Morrison fan. But she has so, she and Octavia Butler both have so many. books. Truly. And they're both so, they're both so different. Um, but there is a, there's a book that's like a compilation of her. Um, what am I saying? Trying to think of like professors her. Oh. What do you

professors deliver? Why can't I think of this? Dissertation. Dissertation. Yeah, dissertation. When you present it to some people. Yeah, they have to defend their dissertation. I know that much. I'm somewhere my brother. If he hears. I should probably like, I lectures. That was. Okay, I was going to say, I was like, my brother is somewhere screaming because he is a professor. He's like, what are you talking about? I can't believe I couldn't think of it. He's like, do you not know what I do for work? I'm like, I actually don't.

But this book is called Language as Liberation. And it says Tony Morrison investigates black characters in the American literary canon and the way they shaped the nation's collective unconscious. Immediately sold. And then you get to read. these lectures collected here for the first time is to encounter Morrison, not just the writer, but also the teacher in the most profound and subversive way yet. So that's cool too. But yeah, I love, because one of the nonfiction I really loves was called Scream With Me. Yeah, you hit me to that book. And I was like, this is really fascinating, where it was an examination

of women in horror, I think it was. Yeah. And I was like, oh, of course, this is like a genre of book that I like. Like I love talking about arts or whatever. So then like Tony Morrison doing it about other characters. I'm like I'm on board. And I think like Tony Morrison's another one that I keep saying similar to a friend of mine who did all the works of Shakespeare over the course of like two years. I keep saying I want to do that with Morrison and August Wilson is read their complete canon in order it was released. Yeah. Yeah. Because I just read last year God helped a child. and I was like and that was like a more current I think it was the last book she wrote before she passed and I was kind of like whoa this is so different gets close the woman who wrote the bluest eye right yeah yeah no she's so heavy and good and I'm gonna give you more McKenzie Lord that is a book my family gave to me when I was like in elementary school and now in hindsight I'm like you all are so confused why I'm weird that's like a high school that's like a high school that's like a high school that's like a high school school at least book.

I don't think I actually even read it. I think the family member gave it to me and I was like and I started reading it and I was like I don't think I'm old enough to understand half what's happening right now. It like opens with rape from her father. I realize now too like the person was just like Oprah's talking

about it and I'm like okay well maybe you should have read the book first before you handed it to a child you psychos. Seriously. Yeah. Come on people. People are so inappropriate. So I have Lady Tremaine. This is...

Oh, yeah. As a Disney adult. I bet. So I went through a real period where I was obsessed with Disney smut books. Oh, yeah. So blasphemous as a Disney lover to be reading a book about like Jafar and Jasmine falling in love. So I really, I had to step away from the genre of Disney retelling. Because once I found myself reading,

a book where, you know, again, I'm going to say it on this show where Ursula was pegging someone with her tentacles. I said, oh, we, we love that here. I think we've hit rock bottom. I think, I think the first step is admitting you have a problem. That was what I said. Let's step away from the genre for quite some time of Disney retellings. Because at this point, McKenzie, I don't trust your judgment. Because we went from like, you're remote. To we really veered into a space that says a lot about you. So I was sent. an ARC for Lady Tremaine and I was like, uh-oh.

It just doesn't awaken anything in me. But I actually am really excited to read it because I know like, I don't know. I have a real complicated feeling, I think because of where we sit in history right now with these retellings of like evil characters of finding this like redemption for repugnant people. But what we've talked about, I think people were making these and leaning into them during a time where we didn't have such horrendous real-night villains. And so I'm going to be interested to see

what takes us out of that pendulum swing because right now, I don't know if you heard, they announced they're going to make a movie about Gaston. I did not know that. And people were like, okay, I think Disney we've gone too far because it's one thing to give us an origin story,

which that movie was spectacular, Mufasa. It's one thing to give us an origin story on like Scar. It's another to show us that like the evil queen wasn't this bad. Same thing, I'm Medusa. It's great to show us like that's not Disney, but still it's like telling us how villains deserve it. And I found that period was a lot of like redemptive arcs for female villains,

which I kind of love or like femme presenting if we're going to add scar to the group. But like, and so that's why I'm excited for Lady Tremaine because I think from my perspective, Cinderella stepmother really doesn't have any redeemable qualities. But I am curious to see of like. Like, well, yeah, this is a woman who married a man who died. And now she is raising not just her child, her kids, but his kid. And who knows what she was doing? So I'm interested for that, but that guest on one is garbage sounding.

I'm like, this man. Yeah, this misogynistic weirdo, basically a red pill dude before it was a thing, does not deserve a story. Like, guys, you might as well just call it the Andrew Tate story and we move on with our lives. I know. I know. Yes. Yeah. That's the closest Disney character for him. Yeah. I'm like, good night. We're good. I don't need any more from you. Yeah, I'm excited for that one because like retellings can be interesting. Yeah. From just because they're retellings sometimes. Yeah. Which coincidentally, that when we were talking about Tulsa before. Yeah. The one that I just, it's another great Gatsby retailing. I'm just going to keep rereading the great Gatsby. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I am right now. But it is, I think it's any. time you want to talk about the American dream

have to use it's the only it's kind of the only thing and that's where my thing with Disney retellings is I think the only way to you know our thing about everything is bigger than it is it's like I think Gatsby represents the American dream I think

Disney represents untarnished stories like perfect stories and I do think anytime you retell those you recalibrate people's understanding of of just because you're told a fantasy story about settlers or Western expansion or good people or whatever doesn't mean it's true. And also it doesn't mean that in knowing, you know, Lady Tremaine had dreams for herself

that she had to give up. It doesn't mean, it doesn't negate the Cinderella story. It allows you to sit in the narrative of both. And I think retelling just make people uncomfortable for that reason as they take stories, you know, and they make you sit with like, hey, maybe you don't actually. know the whole thing. Maybe you actually were just given a story. I mean, think about the combo around Wicked and Wizard of Oz.

People are like, you know, watching people freak out about how do I rectify this movie with what I know from Wizard of Oz and then watching people be like, think of Wizard of Oz as the propaganda film against Alphabet. And I'm like, you guys are stressing people out. You're stressing them out because having to imagine ABLE Love Story as the not right. story is too much. It's too much for some people. It is. I have to shout out a book that I've talked about a lot this year, but it's called, and then she fell by Alicia Elliott. But the brilliance of it is in the first chapter, she's a Mohawk woman who like just had her first kid. Yeah. But

she's like watching the TV and like Pocahontas is on the Disney version. There you know. And then Pocahontas steps out of the TV because this is also horror. and starts telling her what actually happened. And it's like, I'm like, this is the perfect way to start a like magical realism, slightly horror book. And then like also incorporate like a retelling. Like, yeah, it's a fantastic book. So I had to.

That sounds really good. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think I will probably read Lady Tremaine at some point too. You should. That way we can talk about it and have a whole Disney day. Yeah.

Yeah. One that doesn't even have a synopsis up yet, but I had to mention it, is Deadbeat by Lee Bardugo. Because it is the third in the Alex Stern series. I think it's called Alex Stern. Yeah, it's the Alex Stern because it started with Helbin. Helbin's the second one. Yeah, Helbert's the second. Ninth House. There you go, ninth house. Yep. And those are to this day, you could have heard. me gushing about them for three years because I never stop. Yeah. They're so good. The way that it's dark academia and like dark magic. Yeah. And mystery even as well. Like there are so many things. And I just love it so much. And I think it's been three

years since the other since Helbert. My, so because I know how long it takes her to write stuff, I just, so I've only read 9th house. I remember you seeing that? I'm going to buy the third. But I, when it hit me of how long she was waiting, I said, you know what? I don't blame you. Yeah, I said, I'm going to forget all of this.

I said, so what I'm going to do instead, man, Lee, I'm going to wait for the other book to be about a month out. And then I'll read the other two books. And then I will buy the third and be ready. Because otherwise, like, again, crazy things my part. Yeah. Because it's the same thing. Like my partner loves Dun & Girl Carl, a couple years between books. And every time a new one gets released, he will read the entire series all over again. Every time. Every time. Wow. And I even, and when he was doing it, I said, what were you out here? Reheating the Harry Potter series every single time a new book was released. And he was like, yeah, of course. I said, what? What? I used to do that with TV shows. Truly. So in my head, I was like, oh my God, you were.

number one, one two, one, two, three, one, two, three, four. This is why a series dressed me out a little bit too. I don't actually read too many series. Well, you know this is my anger now about all that is Apple TV, is that I listened to all you dumb-dums, got obsessed with severance, got so obsessed with severance, I started driving myself a little insane, and now I'm pissed because I've watched the damn show, and now I've got to wait like 800 years. So long.

2027. Because when I now as somebody who's watched it guys I'm sorry I've hijacked this and made this the Severance rewatch pod. Oh you should see me when I was watching. When I think about season one when I watch those seasons when I now think in my head that you all watch them get in the elevator you watched

Homeboy split the switch and then like three years past before you got to know what happened and not many of us watched it. And then for it to open with them going back to the severed floor. Three years later, I was like, I would have lost my mind and been like,

so you mean to tell me all of it happened and we didn't get to see it? Yeah. Yes. I'm going to lose it. Anyway, I have one last book to throw in the mix because, so a lot of people hate that movie that was Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper,

where she is the crossword puzzler puzzle lady. Remember it like won her a Razzie. It was, I cannot remember that. Oh. It is such a, it's one of those movies that's really bad that I find to be delightful. But this book, when I had heard about it, sounds like that movie, but in literary form, it's called A Good Person. And it's Gone Girl meets Big Swiss in this eclectic binge of a debut about a millennial anti-hero who seeks revenge on her ex-situationhip with a hex only for him to actually literally die. And it just reminds me, it's, it was, the movie was.

about Steve. Yes, all about Steve. She falls in love. She goes one date with this character. She tries to hook up with him. It's failed. It's like her first date in forever. And because she is the lady who makes the crosswords in the town, she makes the crossword puzzle the next day all about Steve. I see. And then she gets fired and then proceeds to go on like a journey to find Steve. Because she's like, no, I think we actually really hit it off. And like the whole movie is this chaotic film. And so like the first time I heard about a good person, it's by Kristen King. It sounded to me like all about Steve. Yeah. Death. And I was like, sign me out. That does sound really fun.

Yeah. So I was like, yes, please. Absolutely. So yeah, that is my last like what I'm into like of new releases that I'm like super excited for in the new year. And then obviously I'm trying to like read through these classes. classics. I'm such a deep hater of the Bronte sisters that I will be reading Weathering Heights

this year so that I can go to the film and then tell everybody why both the book and the movies. That's what I did for Housemade. See, I was too sick, but like I didn't think I could care to see it in theaters. I read it in basically 12 hours. Yeah. And I found myself with some free time on New Year's Eve because I posted about how much I hated the book. And this person was like, well, the movie was better.

I said, hold please. And I got up and left my house. I put a bra on so that I could go prove a point and sat through a horrible film just so I could send a DM that said, just left the movie can confirm even worse than the book. Every clip I saw looked so bad. So I couldn't bring myself to go. Yeah. So that's basically what I plan on doing to Emerald Fennell and whichever brought, because here, you should have seen my face.

You want to talk about silly shit. They're like, Wuthering Heights is being made into a movie because that book that came out last year about the figure skaters. And I was like, I will never, and people kept saying, they were like, it's figure skating, Wuthering Heights. I said, I don't, I'm not reading that nonsense. And so kept going, kept going. Then they're like, Emerald Finnell is making weathering heights. And I said, all right, have fun. Emerald, whatever. Because people are like, it's so embarrassing.

And then when they said it was by T.K. Bronte, I said, wait. There's a third Bronte sister I don't know about that also wrote. And so, yeah, then immediately I was like, well, guess what? You're number one hater. I am the Kendrick Lamar to the Bronte sisters, Drake. I will make it my mission. Or I always love this concept in stoicism where they're like, you want to road test your philosophy. And one of the things that they say in stoicism is like, if it takes one question,

one comment, when whatever, to make the entire foundation, not just the structure crumble, but the foundation of what your philosophy is built on, then you have a poor foundation, which is why then to where we started this with, with like reading band books or, you know, like reading last year, reading Lolita and having people be like, oh, that's a disgusting book, don't read it. Why? Mm-hmm. Yeah. If bad men are reading this book and taking this to me... And probably wrote it.

And literally engaging with this book and their takeaway is, I'm going to go out and steal a child, then I definitely want to read behind enemy lines and understand it. That's exactly what I also had a childhood best friend who, when we were assigned, Catcher in the Rye in high school, she's Andy Young's granddaughter. So again, more context.

It's like this girl grew up with like Bernie. King and, you know, hearing stories about her grandfather with Dr. King. When we got a side catcher of the riot school, I remember she goes, oh my God, is this going to make me want to shoot the president? And then, but like true critical thinking, the lens of how to think through stuff, I literally was reading. That was one of the books I actually read in school. And I read it the whole time being like, okay, now Taylor says that the guy who read

this shot the president. What part of this made him want to shoot the president? And it was like, but it became like this. some yeah, very scavenger hunt of knowledge where I was like, okay, I remember saying, my mom like, can you show me taxi driver? And she's like, what? And I was like, I'm trying to understand what about, and I'm like, then I'm rereading the book being like, okay, how did he see taxi driver, read Catcher in the Rye, and then something in Catcher in the Rye made him go, well, shooting the president is going to impress Jody Foster. Like, it's just, I just, I just, I think, if I were

to tell, people are probably like, that was a weird rant at the end, McKenzie, but the, a weird rant is to say, definitely if nothing else this year, like try to not read behind enemy lines, but go through the pursuit of trying to figure out, like, what is it in a ban book? Like, if you're going back through old classics and we talked about

like, Blueis Eye and, you know, beloved and all this stuff, it's like, read it with the thought process of like, what knowledge is in here that made somebody want to ban this book? Yeah, yeah, that's how I feel. And it's like, don't even read the trigger warnings or they're like, don't read animal farm

just got, you know, cursing in it. No, like, genuinely read it and be like, what is in this that someone would want to keep from me? Oh my gosh. I have a random fact that is very related to this. I read, I think it's called the American Bookshop and then it's like the complete history at bookstores. Yeah. It's like a really repetitive title. So that's not very helpful. I know exactly what you were talking about. I'm like, I know it because I'm like, it's like the last owned an operated bookstore. It's the weirdest title that just like eats itself. Yes, it's very long.

But it has like a bookshop as the cover basically. But he like really does talk about the whole journey, like the first libraries in the US. And then bookstores as well. And then I also learned the first band booked in general that we really think is Uncle Tom's cabin. you know what and see and this is why I love a book and you're like that tells you something that tracks and so there were these librarians who were known for writing they're like they had like a it wasn't a librarians it was like a bookshop in a like horse like in some kind of carriage behind their horse and so they had like hidden copies um they would like get them in the south

and like bring them to the north so that people could read uncle tom's cap and God, that's so good. God, that's just a like badass book story. I mean, truly my thing is like reading is such an active resistance. And it's like, I would love people to read new releases, but I'm also like, no, but for real though, if you only have. Do both. Yeah.

If you only have the capacity to read one book every other month, make it banned book, new release that is a perspective that is not yours. Yep. Like if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm a sister. heteroperson read books by trans authors like read detransition baby read the lilac people if you like historical like I guess my woodworking is really good I just listen to that one my thing to people at the end of the day if they're like oh cool what should I read it's like

read band stuff read things that make you step out of your your perspective like and anything you prefer there is a book that can hit that for you yeah in the genre to which you care about. It's like, it could be thrillers, it could be nonfiction, it could be romance, it could be frothy, you know, lip thick, yeah, it could be pop science. It could be, like, there is something out there that will make

you better for having to read it. And like, in my litmus test for like, if it is a book worth owning, it's like, if there is no quote, no moment, no nothing out of it that you would share with another person, then it was not a, a good fuck. Yes.

Yeah. But outside of that, you know, it's like really, yeah. You gain lots of experiences. Yeah. You gain so many. Or nonfiction. Yeah. So it's like if you're somebody out there, this is for the conservatives.

If you guys like love Peter Sol, read double tax. Mm-hmm. Or Thomas Sol. Sorry. Isn't that so ironic? We're talking about Uncle Tom's cabin. It were, it went right past. Do you know how quickly I think about that every time with Clarence Thomas?

Anyway, I'm not going to go down that thing. But every time I think about this man's got Tom in his name, every single one of them that's been a problem. At some point, you can find Tom in that name. Somewhere. That's when I put my- Find it somewhere. That's my tinfoil hat for real. And I'm not even going to go down that road because then this pot episode will be three hours. Same.

I mean, we both couldn't stop ourselves.