Bookwild - Katharine Hepburn, Old Hollywood and Performed Authenticity: Priya Parmar's The Original

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

This week, I talk with Priya Parmar about The Original, her fictionalized portrait of Katharine Hepburn’s early life and Hollywood reinvention, diving into how academic rigor, obsessive research, and creative intuition shaped the book. We discuss: Priya’s transition from academic and PhD research into fiction writing—and how scholarship still shapes her creative process The accidental Google rabbit hole that led her to Katharine Hepburn’s hidden early struggles A fascinating look at 1930s Hollywood as a surprisingly progressive, image-conscious, and socially fluid ecosystem Fame, performed authenticity, grief, reinvention, and how public myths are intentionally built Behind-the-scenes insight into writing historical fiction about a real woman whose voice, image, and legacy are already iconic 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 got to talk with Priya Parmar about her new historical fiction, The Original. And it is, here's the short blurb. This stunning novel plunges into the tumultuous life of screen icon Catherine Hepburn, a star whose fierce independence, passionate spirit, and fluid sexuality shattered Hollywood's rules, and redefined what it meant to be a woman in film. I keep finding it really interesting when people write fiction that is inspired, by someone's life. And I know obviously we can't assume that everything that's written is like correct about the person, but it was really fun talking with Priya about the research she started

doing and how the story kind of took shape as she started doing the research. It was also really interesting conversation about when she knew she had reached the ending of this book. It's a really fun conversation. It's a really fascinating look at Hollywood and identity and family and grief and all kinds of emotions. So that being said, let's hear from Priya. I am super excited to get into the original with you, Priya, but I do always want to get to kind of know you a little bit first. So what was your journey to writing like? Like what was your first moment that you thought you might write something? And then what happened from there? I was actually an academic. I was in my PhD.

And I was teaching 17th century literature. And I was not, you know, I sort of loved it. I loved the research. I didn't love the academic writing part of it. And but I'd always, I'd always written. I'd always, it just wasn't creative. It was always critical. And then I literally just a friend of mine had me edit her novel.

And so I edited her novel. And I was, you know, thinking I can try this. I want to try this. I think I can try this. And I did. And I ended up then like taking the turn into playwriting and, you know, other kinds of stuff like that but but basically i i i just you know did something to take a break from academic writing and yeah to you know and i had to do something where i used my phd or my parents were going to kill me

there's that added pressure yeah ashwinstead has a similar story she came from academic writing and almost kept giving up on fiction writing and she's like i've got to though I've got to because you're like you know if I don't use it I've gone to school for yeah years but I I use it all the time that's the way I use all the research you know stuff all the time I use everything I you know I used all of it all of the things that I thought I was never going to use I actually use it in fiction I think more than I would have as an academic so that's fascinating because this book is is it has, I guess we could say nonfiction elements. It has elements within it that are things

that did really happen in the past. But this is a fictional take on Catherine Hepburn and her journey through Hollywood and all kinds of other stuff. But was it, where did you get the idea? So like, did you get the idea while you were researching something? And then if not, like, what was the research like for this one? I got the idea. I was watching. I've always loved old movies. I've always watched them.

And we were watching Philadelphia story, which we'd seen, you know, so many times. And just out of nowhere, she said, this was her comeback movie. And I was like, come back from what? Like, when was she not on top? I didn't have any idea. So I sort of fell down a Google rabbit hole.

And I still didn't think this was a novel. I thought, okay, well, I'm just reading about Catherine Hepburn. And then I ordered a whole bunch of books. And I was like, okay, well, I'm still just reading about Catherine Hepburn. I'm not going to take on this sort of icon that I've loved my whole life. But I'm just reading about her for fun. And then by about the 15th or 16th book, I was like, this is what I'm doing, isn't it? Yes.

You're like, I think I'm going to write about this. It's happening, isn't it? Yeah. But yeah, so it was just totally an accident. It was just from something my mom said that I was off and running. It's cool when people's curiosities lead to that. Because that's what's airing right now kind of relevantly is Margot's got money troubles, just started airing on Apple.

And it's a book by an author by Rufie Thorpe, if anyone didn't know. but she was like watching the author ruffy was watching um like documentaries about wrestlers who build up that whole persona and like she just got really interested in it and started researching it and then that's why this whole like book and tv show came together so i love when it's like a curiosity thing i love that isn't the dad the dad yes yeah that's what is okay yes written nick offerman's character is the is margot's dad and yeah so she found this creative way to bridge wwee wrestling with like cam girls and how you build similar personas and so it's like a

whole it's really is a whole story about identity and similar to yours like deciding what that identity is deciding what the external identity is and like keeping your internal for yourself and not getting confused. So similar books. Really. So with with this, like it just seems like I've read a few books like this where it is about a real person, but it is like a fictional retelling or telling. And every time I read them, I'm like, I feel like it would be uniquely daunting to write something that is about a true person, but you're also writing fiction because I could get hung up on like, do I need this detail? Does it take away from the detail? Basically, how did you even approach like telling this story this way? Well, that's one of the things that's really hard because you do

all of this research and you've put so much time into finding these tiny little minute details to get it right. You know, you know, you find out the price of a movie ticket in 1933. And then you really just, no matter what, hell or high water, you want to keep that scene in there because it took you so much to find the price of the movie to, you know what I mean? So things like that. It's really hard when it ends up on the cutting room floor because it's just like, but we, you know, all that work. So I've had to really get ruthless in the editing process and just, you know, when it's not supposed to be there, I have to let it go. And I kind of edit in, in, in rounds

and I'll just weed away and weed away and so there's some things that I'll hold on for three and four rounds and I know that they have to go but I just need to hold on to them for a little bit longer and then you let it go

but the research was you know was everything from you know letters and traveling to different you know archives you know luckily one of their biggest archives is here in New York but you know it was to traveling to places where she lived to, you know, to reading so many of the biographies.

Yeah. It, you know, it took years to get that, to feel like I had enough understanding of the time and the players to really, you know, find a fictional way through. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. And so a lot of her stories. also is taking place kind of what you're saying in researching Hollywood in 1930s Hollywood.

Has that always been like a time period that you've been interested in? If it sounds like that might be the case since you've been like watching her movies. I mean, I love the movies from that period. I love the, you know, I, especially her movies. Yeah. You know, it wasn't until I was doing the research for this, but I realized that things like bringing up baby was a flop. You know, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It's been this huge, classic, wonderful, spectacular film.

So, yeah, I've always loved, I've loved that time. I loved the, I love the clothes. I love the, just, the, the aesthetic is just fantastic. And then, yeah, and the films that they were making at that time were just really, really fun to have that be, you know, you have that sort of guilty part of your voice. It's like, I need to get back to work. And it's like, oh, no, I am working. You know, watching this is part of the work. That's great. I do know what you mean. Sometimes when Tyler's like, you're reading all the time, I was like, it's for work. It's for the podcast. That's exactly right. It's for work.

Yes. I am a sucker for like stories that happened in Hollywood, really at any, any time, because there's so much you can talk about. So I feel you there. The other thing I thought was kind of like interesting, cool, smart. We start off really learning a lot about her family dynamics and like what's going on there. And I don't know if it's spoilery to say that there's there's just like a lot of like emotional repression and some rigidity going on, some comfort. probably some comfortability and control. So what was it like kind of writing those like beginning stages that are an important part of her?

Well, it's not very often as anomalous that you're like, you know, you're thinking to yourself, this is this is too much story. I can't, you know, this is too much. I can't. Yeah. Thin this out. It's, it's, you know, because so she comes from a, so much tragedy.

Yes. And I actually underplayed some of that because it's, you know, it was just too much. It was, you know, it felt like that would be the whole novel right there. So I had to figure out how to tell the story of her background, but at the same time, not let it overtake the whole, the whole, you know, story. Right. Because she does come from, you know, just, you know, I don't want to give things away, but she comes from very privileged but very difficult circumstances in her family.

Yeah. And there's very much like the, a focus on like intergenerational trauma and how, like, like mental health is at least somewhat hereditary. We even know that some of them are. Or it's even like you're living with a parent who's really struggling with mental health. You're going to probably struggle with it like later on too. So is that kind of important? Just to like include it in there. So we do have the context of her.

Yeah. Because I feel like that coming from that kind of a background where you have that much tragedy on both sides of your family. Yeah. It's going to shape your, your outlook. It's going to shape your understanding of the future. It's going to shape your understanding of death. It's going to shape, you know, it's going to shape so many kind of core beliefs in you.

So, yeah. So I did feel like I needed to make it part of the story, but not the whole story. but I feel like that I mean I don't want to say what was going on but it I you know I can't imagine that that ever really left her right yeah

and she is close with her brother Tom and he really wants to go into filmmaking and she she really wants to be an actress but they do really have that in common with each other but I feel like you did a good job of showing

like they both had very different motivations and that's kind of even why they still landed in different things they wanted to chase basically so was that kind of important to be able to like show like how many different reasons people may want to go to Hollywood yeah I mean I feel like she they they're they're the way that their family was structured is there were you know they had they were sort of in pairs so there were six kids and they were two you know two to and two. So her relationship with her brother, Tom, was the closest relationship in her life, you know, she was growing up. Yeah. So it also really gets into kind of what I was bringing up

up with the wrestlers is like public narrative, possibly public myth, and then like personal narrative. So there's there are differences between those two. And she's trying to kind of craft what her identity even is going to be while she's in Hollywood. So was there like any specific research you did to kind of like understand how she felt kind of about those subjects? I mean, she she she did several interviews where we have like little bits of what she, you know, thought about some of these things, which was hugely helpful. And then she left a, it's not really an autobiography. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, sort of a selected memoir, me. And again, we have, you know, but and also her letters are

hugely, hugely illuminating. So we have, you know, we have things that gave, they can give us an idea of what she thought about things. But the way that I sort of think about the fact and fiction kind of tension that happens when you write about a real person is that there's the kind of the topographical crust. And that's the, that's the chronology. That's the what happened when. You know, we know she made this decision there. She did this. She did this. She did this. And underneath, you have to build a kind of a fictional, moral, emotional logic that holds up, you know, that crust that gives you the reasons for why those things would have happened. And that's the fun part. That's the fiction part.

So, you know, some of them are my best guess. But some of them grew out of the sort of, you know, the emotional logic of this character that came from building this character. Yeah. And she has, I don't know how much you want to get into any of them, but she has some really close relationships with two women when she is in Hollywood that have a, like, great impact on her specifically. And what, like, kind of what drew you to, I mean, it may have just needed to be in there, but making sure that that was included. It's really interesting. You do, you do a huge amount. of research.

Mm-hmm. And then the, there are characters that just rise to the top. And you can know that they're going to be, you know, when I was doing all the research, I didn't know, Irene Selvnik was going to play a huge part in it. I didn't know, you know, I had an idea that Laura Hardingwood, but I didn't know, you, you, I didn't know Carrie Grant was going to play a huge part in it. because you it's it's sort of like you do all of the work and then the characters that are meant to be there kind of step forward and insist okay and then there's nothing you can do about it you can

try and have less of them and it doesn't find their way into the scene no matter what you're like I will be here you're going to you're yeah you're you're just sit there and be stuck until you put me in the scene because that goes. Yes. The other thing with Hollywood is it, I feel like we're getting really good contrast of how it's very glamorous, but it's also very either like claustrophobic or suffocating. There are these like, it just like everything. It's not all good and it's not all bad. So was there anything that like surprised you about writing that, that kind of nuanced depiction of Hollywood in that time period. I mean, so much.

First of all, I didn't know that Hollywood in the early 1930s, I didn't understand what kind of a town it was. I didn't understand that same-sex relationships were so common and unclosited. I didn't realize that, you know, it was very, very common for someone to have an open marriage and everyone knew about it. I didn't realize, you know, I didn't realize that it was so progressive and, you know, wildly, wildly free and, you know, happy, you know, in that way. I didn't, I didn't know that that, you know, because I had it in my head of the sort of a more, not Victorian, but I had a much more repressed post-Hollywood case code idea of Hollywood rather than what it actually was, which was an incredibly, incredibly progressive place.

And it was an ecosystem where they were all involved. The press was involved. The studio knew that everybody knew that everybody knew. And I didn't know that that was coming. I didn't know that that was the situation at all. Yeah. Even with Hollywood, that was kind of making me think there's, there are some themes in the book of like constructing and then having to like reconstruct your identity

because things change, circumstances change, you change. And so that's kind of happening for everyone, but it's even probably kind of happening for the setting too. Was that kind of just like a pattern that emerged? as you were writing it? It was. It wasn't something that I had sort of, I always write to a question. And I, I've gotten to a point where I recognize that, okay, this is my question and there isn't any way around it. I can try and write to my question, but it's going to come back to this question. And my question is always, what is the deal you make to live the life you need to live? That's always the question that I come back to. And even when I think that I've written away from it, I haven't. And I look on the

deeper and I'm like, oh, wow, really? It's this, okay, fine. That's cool, though. So you're kind of probably centrally intrigued by it. I'm fundamentally curious about, you know, these, the, the, the, the deals we make with ourselves about, about the lives we need to live, you know, and what we're willing to live with, were willing to give up and what were, you know, those, that central question, you know, clearly compels me. Yeah. So, so that, you know, I, I, I was sort of at peace with that. I knew that that was going to appear. But in terms of other themes that, that came up, in terms of identity and reinvention, I didn't, I didn't know because I knew, I knew just her sort of iconic myth when I was going into it. Right. I didn't know her, her history. I didn't know her whole trajectory. I didn't

know the trouble that she had in Hollywood with young. I didn't know any of these things. And my parents had us really late. And so my mother was born in the late 30s. And she knew. all of these stories from her grandmother. And so she was like, how could you not know that? And I'm like, because I didn't. Nobody knows that, by the way. Yeah. You know, nobody knows that.

So it was, you know, it was a really interesting thing to watch how for, you know, somebody born and, you know, much earlier, like that's common knowledge. But for somebody like me, it, not at all. Like I just have her myth, which I believe she really curated for us. Like I designed her myth and left it, you know, very intentionally presented it for us. That way. Yeah. Yeah.

That makes a lot of sense. The other thing that she really like grapples with, even from the beginning and maybe what the whole book grapples with, is, is grief. I won't talk about why, but how all of us are going to experience differing levels of grief in our lives. And sometimes when it's so devastating, like some of us have reactions to just maybe withdrawal or isolate and some of us move toward people and like work through it in healthier ways. And that it definitely wasn't modeled for her to like think people would want to share. in her grief. So was that another one? We're kind of just like going through the research. You were kind of seeing those themes. Yeah. And that's that's true. Like the the person she's grieving over was never spoken up again. Yeah. And that's that actually. It's so heartbreaking.

So heartbreaking. And when I found that detail, I was, you know, I was really stunned. And I, And I thought, okay, well, is this just one person saying this? And then I found, you know, source after source after source, and then I found her saying it herself. Oh, man. So I was like, okay, this is definitely not just one biographer. This is everybody. Right. So that's in biographies. We're, I'm always fascinated by the research aspect. Is it, are there like, like newspapers and articles that you go through? I'm assuming there's like some video of the time as well.

There's, there's video later because she had such a long life. Right. She flex on this time later. There's actually one of the most helpful sort of primary sources that I found was she did an interview with Dick Cavett. And she wasn't going to do the interview. She went in on a day with no studio audience, no nothing, to just check it out. And ended up saying like, okay, let's do the interview.

And before the interview starts, there's four minutes. And those four minutes, you see her, you know, setting the stage. I'd like this table. I want that table. I need to be able to put my foot up here. I want my hair like this. I want this like that. And those four minutes were actually so telling.

I was like, okay, so this is how she does it. Yeah, she knew. She knows what she needs to get out to come on and be, you know, herself. She knows what she needs. And that, you know, that was so helpful. That was actually much more helpful than everything she said in the interview, which was great, but it was all stuff I found in other sources. Those four minutes, I was like, there you are.

That's, you know, that's what you learn. So everything that that I cover in my novel, you know, the result is a person who is able to go and say, okay, this is what I want. This is what I need. This is what, you know, and just no, just take no prisoners. Yeah. I think there is commonly this misbelief that like, oh, models, like thinking they're just like, and I know, we're talking about her as an actress too. People will think about models or actresses and be like, oh, it's such an easy job. It's just, it's just a fun job. And it's like, knowing your angles is like so important. Knowing like how to orient your body, tortellins is so important. Like knowing what gets picked up on your face because sometimes you have to exaggerate.

Like there's all those little tiny parts of craft that I feel like a lot of people just look over. Yes. And she, she knew she was like, okay, this side. chair doesn't work for me. I need that chair. I want that chair. She knows she knew what worked for her. And she wasn't trying to come across as beautiful. That was what was so interesting. She wasn't trying to come across. She was trying to come across as herself, as the herself that she had presented to the world. So she was going for authentic, but it's the brand of authentic that she has, trained us to expect. Yeah, the performed authenticity.

And it's always fascinating to me as a subject. I'm very interested in fame and people who want it. I love doing this and I want to accumulate all the bookish power I can to interview who I want. But I don't want to be like widespread recognizable. Like it's not for me. So I think that's why I'm so fascinated by people who are, like, I want that and I'm going to be good at it. And then the performed authenticity they were talking about, it's interesting to me seeing there's a lot of conversation now about how social

media made us so performative. And I often am like, we've been performing forever, guys. Like, this is not a new concept. But even what you're saying here, I'm like, yes, even in the 1930s, there were women out there who knew like, okay, part of what's going to protect my private life. and also help my career is to be this very specific thing that people can kind of, she wouldn't have used the word at the time, but have a parissocial relationship with. And it works. It can work so well. And I think some people are judgmental about it.

And they're like, we're not getting the real you. And I'm like, you're not your real self everywhere you go either. No. And that's the thing. And she was so naive when she first got there. Right. And she learned so much, so fast. Yeah.

And she, you know, and everybody talks about, you know, Catherine Hepburn didn't do photo ops and she didn't do appearances and she didn't do any of that. And that's completely untrue. She did all of that when she was younger. And then she learned the power of saying no. And she learned the power of scarcity and all of these different things. And that became her image. And that became her authenticity.

And that became, you know, so it was just, she learned so much. And watching, you know, doing all this research and watching her build that was completely fascinating to write. Oh, I bet. Totally. Yeah. Was there, was there something that isn't spoilery that challenged you to write more than you thought it would? Oh, so many things. So many things. I mean, just small things. Like, this was the first person that I've ever written where we all know her voice sounded like. So it's very different and it leaves you a very narrow space in terms of fiction. You know, when I was, so my last novel was about Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. And we don't know what young Virginia Woolf's voice sounded like. We have a very short clip of her much later.

And we don't know what Vanessa Bell's voice sounded like at all. You know, so there's all this room for fiction where, you know, Catherine Hepburn, we all know what she sounded like. Yeah. Right. And so that, that was hard because I was like, I have to be able to land the description in a way that doesn't feel like I'm either telling people something they already know. Because it sounds like and doesn't, and rings true. Like it's got a way through and not sound like it's, you know, old hat. So that was a hard thing.

Yeah, I bet. Yeah. And we always know how she walks and how she, you know, all that. But it actually ended up being a really, really fun challenge. Yeah. I hadn't thought of that that we do, that we all like at least somewhat know what she sounded like. And it is so different. And I'm assuming like vocabrefer.

choice is like something you have to pay attention to. Yeah. Yeah. And I had, you know, I had, because she didn't use very many contractions. Oh, yeah. And so I, I had this thing of like, I'm not going to use contractions in the novel. And then it just sounded so stilted and so weird. My editor talked me into it and I was like, I am going to use contractions in the novel. I can. Interesting. You know, because she, she, she didn't use them very much. So you have to find. way of making it sound, having it, having it ring true, but not making it sound arch or strange or, you know, or dated or anything. Was there a way, like, how did you take, like, what you knew about her and then figure out how to put it in, like, what we are used to as a fiction structure?

Like did you kind of know once you had researched? Like did you see like the arc of how it could fit into fiction? No. So you kind of had to figure it out. I don't outline. Oh, okay. I don't outline.

So I kind of had an idea where it was going. Once I knew what it was about, I had an idea of where it was going. But then sometimes you sit down to write and things happen that are so surprising and you just, I didn't know that Los Angeles was going to start talking. I didn't know, you know, I didn't know that was going to happen. I didn't know. I never, I never know when the book is about to end. I kind of have an idea.

And then it's happened three times with all three of my novels. I've stayed up all night and then I've realized like, oh, wow, it's now. It's happening now. It's going to end now. Oh, my God. This is it. it's it's not it's it's you it's intuitive yeah it really really is in a in a way that's in a way that beauty um in in a way that that that that is um you know not something i can completely explain

yeah i mean that's what that's the intuition part that's why i always say like some people who don't outline feel like they should feel bad about it and i'm I'm like, you figured out how to finish a book. And like, if you're like generally enjoyed the process of how you did it, like, keep doing it your way. I mean, I, but you're right. There is that part of you that's like, I've got to, I've got to do that. Yeah. But then it's just that can also stop you.

Yeah, it's not how it works. It's not how it happens. And I, I had a friend, I have a friend who told me basically, you know, all the notes you keep and all the everything else. at the very end put it all down and then things that are important will turn up and the things that are not important will go by the wayside and that's something that really is true. I make sense. It's like I know Stephen King says like write the whole story and then go back and take everything out that's not the story.

So kind of like tell yourself everything and then cut what isn't for the story. I was like, I feel like that's probably like a good way to explain not not doing outlines too. Yeah. Yeah. It's also, it's also a way of not doing an outline also helps me protect that process of of my own brain sifting through. Yeah. What is what wants to come through and what is important to come through. And if I were to do an outline, I would be so careful to get it all in there.

and then that way of that process. Yeah, you don't get the discovery moments. Yeah. Did your perception of Hepburn change as you like really double down on researching her? Absolutely. She's so much more. Not that she wasn't interesting before. Right.

She's fascinating. Yeah. She, coming out of the life that she came out of for her to build the life that she built. I'm trying to say it without any, like, I know. But it's, I'm just in awe of her. Yeah, her determination and ambition. And her decision to bet on herself. Yes.

Really, really bet on herself. Yeah. Even without family who's, like, on board. like she's the only one betting on herself and believing in herself especially at the beginning yeah and and just she's doing the whole thing without annette she just did it i love that yes i very much respect i respect a girl who can do that i'm also a katherine who goes by kate so i was like i mean count her as one of the other cool kathrins absolutely i'm not spelled like her mine's r y in but we're close.

Close enough. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. It's, it was, that was one of the decisions that I had to make because she was younger. She was Kath to her family. And then later she was Kate to everybody. So I just went with Kate all the way through.

Because I also felt like it had, she's like, you know, she's like, we, we know her as Kate. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was, so I was named Catherine and then my parents called me Katie growing up. And when I was eight years old, we went to Disney World for the first time. And we were standing in line and I was like, why do I have to be Katie?

I want to be Kate. And they were like, okay, sure. They're like, if you get everyone to change your name, like, that's fine. Like the way they tell the story, they did not think I would. And I went back to school and I like wrote, wrote. letters for all my not i mean short letters for all my teachers and i told my doctor and i got everyone calling me kate within two or three weeks and so i've been kate ever since now do you remember what made you change your mind i have no clue why kate just felt like it sounded

more like me than katie but i was just standing in line and i was like i'm kate A moment of clarity. Amazing. Yes. Yeah, I'm not sure where I'm going from. Love it, love it. I kept it up. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I do love it. Were there any scenes that you wrote that were, like, difficult to really get like the emotional kind of tone to it since you are kind of fictionalizing what we know from history?

there were there were because i wanted so one of the things when you when you listen to her enough of her interviews when you read her writing and stuff she really doesn't say anything that doesn't need to be there so i i really wanted to strip out you know anything that was me kind of layering on much. And so I stripped it out and stripped it out and stripped it out to kind of have it be, so that it would just be the emotion and not, you know, the, the, just what I, yeah, so I'm not explaining well, let me explain. So it would be, it would be, I wanted it to be what I thought would be the sort of the most core element of her emotional experience and not all of the other sort of like grayer, less defined emotional kind of landscape around it. Yeah, that totally

makes sense. Well, I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it was a very fun way to go back to Hollywood learn a little bit. I was of course Googling her too. That's the fun part when you're reading historical fiction is like getting more of that full picture. I just thought it was great. And I know some of our listeners really love Hollywood stories. And we talk a lot about ambitious women who break the mold a lot as well. So I think everyone, as of the time that this is airing, everyone should go grab a copy because it's very fun. And then you could and talk you can talk to either of us about it really yeah thank you so much yeah but yes at the end I do also ask if you have any books that you read recently that you really loved or if you

have books that you just always recommend oh goodness um my friend christina's book is about to come out um it's called a foursome it's coming out on May 12th okay extremely good. My heavens is it good. It's yeah, Christina Baker-Kline. Oh, absolutely. And then books that I recommend all the time, you know, it's sort of a cliche, but I recommend Song of Achilles all the time. Oh, yeah. I need to read that one. I just, I loved it. I loved it. Yeah. I've heard it's really, really good. really good. And emotional. Yeah.

And unexpected and beautiful. Oh. Yeah. So yeah. I just really liked it. Yeah. So I guess those probably. Yeah.

Those are some good ones. Yeah. Well, where can people follow you to stay up to date with everything? I'm on Instagram on Pritha, writing. And then I'm just recently on Sub-Sac. Oh, perfect. I need to find that through my Instagram.

And then, yeah, that's, that's, and then I'm going on book door. So if you're anywhere nearby. Perfect. Exciting. Well, I will put all of those links in the show notes for people. You're welcome. And thank you so much for coming on and talking about it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. So kind.