Bookwild - Memorable Reading Experiences

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

This week, we talk about some of our most memorable reading experiences.Follow us on Instagram:Gare @gareindeedreadsKate @thegirlwiththecookonthecouchBooks We Talked AboutThe Girl on the TrainGone GirlSave the Cat Writes a NovelTaylor Jackson SeriesThe Silent PatientThe Snow GardenVerityInto the Black NowhereNinth HouseHell BentThe TrapDaisy DarkerThe Long and Faraway GoneDark MatterThe Broken GirlsThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn HugoDaisy Jones and The SixDark CornersYellowface Get Bookwild MerchCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian 

Hey guys, welcome to the Killing the Tea podcast. This is Gare and Kate. And we are going to be discussing all things, chills, thrills and kills. Kate and I are going to be talking about our favorite books, TV shows and movies that are in the thriller or crime fiction genre, as well as some reading habits and other items related to how we met on Bookstagram that will fit in with this podcast. So thank you so much for, joining us and we hope that you have fun and get totally terrified. So you have an icebreaker. I do. I do. I'm excited because I didn't, I couldn't think of one. Well, I'm very curious on your thoughts on this, which I think I know what direction you're going to go in, but I'm also very curious if you surprise me. But yeah, I was looking through. So on my notes app on my phone, I keep track of everything I read. And then I save that for like each year since I started my Instagram. But I was going through them today for our topic.

And I like noticed, you know, some books that I've reread because I'm a big believer that if you are in like a reading slump of any kind, that if you reread something that you know you love, it might get you into that like mindset of wanting to. to read something similar, whatever. Anyway. So I noticed that there were like a ton of books that I had read more than once. So my question for you is, since you're a good reads, girly, do you think that if somebody re-reads a book, it should or should not count toward their reading goal? That is such a good question. I've heard people say things on both. ends. Yeah. And I could see, I could see how you could think about things. I think your reading goal

is like just how many books you read that year. Right. Or month, whatever, like, time frame. So I feel like it counts. Okay. So I do too because like some people are like, that's cheating. But I also feel like those are the people that say it's cheating if you listen to a book on audio. Oh my gosh. I didn't even know that was a thing until recently. Like I started seeing the memes. And I'm like, What? I've like never seen such a toxic group of people over something so silly as reading. Like the girl who called out people that said that they were lying about reading like however many books in a month. Yes.

And I'm like, okay, if I eliminate it. So like I think that I am somebody who reads a lot. but like I'm an introvert. Yep. And that's how I like decompressed. Like I read on my lunch breaks. I read when I get done work. I read all weekend.

Like when my weekend comes, I know that I'm reading two or three bucks. Yeah. But like I'm thinking too like when it comes to situations like that, how, you know, if I eliminated movies that I watched, TV shows that I watched, if I eliminated podcasts I listened to. And I replace those with like read like physically reading or audio books like I could double I could double what I read in a month. Yes.

But I'm right there with you. The only time I read two books at a time right now is if I'm listening to nonfiction because for whatever reason I don't like to read nonfiction. So sometimes I will listen to that and be reading fiction. And you really could. You could get through more because it's like otherwise I do listen to a bunch of podcasts. So like technically if I did it. do that. You're right. You could be doubling your numbers. 100%. And like my whole argument is, is like, say that I was traveling and I brought five books

with me and the plane crashed and I survived with my five books because naturally I would take them with me. Yes. If I were stuck on that island and I read those five books every year until I was saved, I would still be reading five books a year. It would just be, you know, the same five books, but I'd still be reading five books a year. Yeah. Yeah. I love the visual of that to solidify your point. Me like kicking down the door of the plane and being like, yes. I saw you like in the water for some reason, just like holding them above your head. Yeah. Like you're more concerned with keeping them dry than like not getting water in your mouth. I have like my like sunglasses on and I'm like holding my books like this. Just like,

Yes. Is there air conditioning anywhere on this island? Is there a man? Yeah, I'd have five books. Yeah, I'd have five books. Yeah. Hopefully they would be all thrillers, because if any of them were some of the romances I've been reading lately,

I would be fucked and not in the way. Lonely. I'd be lonely. Sure. That's the best word I could come up with. Oh, God. So. That was a good question.

I like it. Yeah. I'm interested to see if anyone tells us their opinions now. Oh, we can do that on Spotify. We can add questions. So maybe I'll try that out. Yeah, we need to start adding the ice breakers. That would be fun.

Oh, yeah, that would be really fun. Yeah. But yeah, speaking of books that I've read twice, got me thinking of, you know, those memorable reading experiences where you're just like so into a book that you remember like if you ask me something about a book that I enjoyed yes I'll remember I'll be like yeah I read that I like this this and this if you if I talk about like a book that I like love loved I will remember where I was when I was reading it what I had for dinner what like I was wearing like I just will

have those experiences where I have like a very vivid memory of that reading experience. So I wanted to know if you had any of your like favorite memorable reading experiences. Yeah. It was kind of hard to pick them too. Just because it's like kind of a broad statement, but I was also having fun like going through my list and being like, oh yeah, this was memorable about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really fun. Well, you know, I mean, so like the reason I like kind of thought of it is because I was feeling nostalgic as one does. Yeah. When I was like going through some old photos because I was, I was being petty. And I was deleting pictures off my phone of myself and people that I don't hang out with anymore. Yeah. I do that. So I was like, you know, what, I'm going to save space on my phone. So see ya. So I was scrolling through and like getting

rid of some pictures that just did not mean anything to me anymore. It doesn't mean a thing to me like Nelly for Toto said. It's just a picture or burnt. Oh, good one. Yeah. So I was deleting some of those pictures, but I like saw some of my like very old, not only like Instagram pictures from when I started my Instagram, but also like ones that I had taken prior to that that I posted on like my personal Instagram before I even started my book one. Oh. So I was like, oh yeah. Like that's what I would kind of post on there would be like the ones that I'm like,

I will never forget this book. Yeah. Yep. I was kind of the same. Yeah. Yeah. Just had a personal one. Like mine was like the book that I guess kind of inspired this was like I remember exactly where

I was when I read the girl on the train. Yeah. Because it was one of those, it was one of those books that got me really back into reading after like binging Gillian Flynn. And I remember like

my, I remember like hanging out with my parents and like my dad and my mom were watching like a football game and I was like lying on the couch with my Kindle and like reading this book like because I wanted it so bad and it was like, you know, my first book with like an unreliable narrator and multiple POVs. So I was like, you know what,

the girl on the train. That was so good. Yes. I love that. I have been listening to Save the Cat writes a novel. And so it's like all about that. But one of the books, they like break down the plot beat sheet for a book in like all kinds of genres. And she did it on the girl on the train. And it was like so cool. Hearing someone like break down. like what it did really well. And I was like, it really was a great book. Yeah. That's one of my favorite books of all time. One of my favorite books at all time. And I read it at the same time. I read it like that and Gone Girl are like very similar time period for me and sharp objects. Yes. I will say I, for like my like reading history, I had fallen off from reading and then I went

on a vacation with my parents to maybe Myrtle Beach. Yeah. And it was around the time that Pretty Little Liars was going to be coming out. So I wanted to read all of the books. And I was flying through them, devouring them. And then, like, I had just read them as they came out. And then from there, I think it was the Taylor Jackson series by J.T. Ellison. Yes. And then when I moved home from Boston, I had just kind of kind of like falling off until Gone Girl and Gone Girl reignited it and Gillian Flynn did. And then I just remember the like, I just remember reading the girl on the train and being like, there was a light bulb moment where I was like, I am going to be that person now who always has a book in their

hand. Yes. Yeah. You know. I remember that feeling because go ahead. I was like, did you breathe? Nope, I was just like, I just remember, like, I mean, I didn't read as quickly back then as I do now, but I just remembered being like, you know, it doesn't matter if it takes me like a week or a month to read a book, but like I will continuously be a reader after this, this book. Yes. It's interesting that you brought up Gone Girl, because I didn't think to put it on my list,

but like it is a like experience that I specifically remember because when you were talking about it, I finished it. I finished it in like a lecture in college. I was reading it on my laptop, like, because I was so sucked into it. And like I finished that book like in a lecture and was just like, and I like remember looking at my laptop screen and just being like, what did I just read? Yeah. Yeah.

I remember with Gone Girl, I don't know if this is like an OCD thing, but like when I like found out about the book and I was like, okay, I'm going to dive into this. I remember ordering, I was going to eating. I remember ordering dark places and sharp objects first and reading them first on purpose because I was like if these are connected, if there's any Easter eggs or if this is like a series and I don't know it. But like I just remember Gone Girl being like such a like iconic pop culture moment for books. You know, like there hasn't really been other than the girl on the train.

and there hasn't been one that, you know, I think, you know, from Bookstagram, you see books that tons of Bookstagramers are talking about. And it's popular on Bookstagram. But, like, there hasn't been, like, a huge, iconic pop culture moment. Like, people who are non-readers are like, what is going on with this? Or, like, I remember, like, people who didn't read thrillers were like, I've never read a book like that, but that one was so good. Yeah.

Or people who didn't really read. read that much at all at all. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So, that's how I kind of came across. And I mean, if you, like when we go through these, like, if you want to like talk about your reading experience, then yeah, let's do, let's do that too. Yeah. I'm now. You want to kick it off. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I had my unofficial one with the girl on the train. That's true. That's true. You got to kick started. Yeah. One of the first ones that I thought of, though, was the silent patient.

Because it was one that like, it was like I was totally sucked into that story, like through the whole story. But it's also another one where like specifically I was like over there, like in the same room. I was drying my hair and like still like reading it on my phone because like I. I could not be inconvenienced to not be reading it. Like I had to know what was going to happen. And it did not disappoint.

Some people, some people are like, oh, it's such a big twist. It ruins it. I'm like, no, it blows your mind. Yes. So. Yes. I agree. Should I explain it?

I'm assuming I should explain a little bit or should I just talk about my reading experience. Okay. So basically this one, this is one of those ones that's popular on Bookstagram too, though. So some people may know is about Alicia. She's a famous painter. Lives in like this beautiful house. And one evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot. And Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then stops speaking like forever.

So she is, this is not totally, basically she is in an institute at this point, a secure forensic unit in North London, because she is accused of his murder, but she just absolutely is not talking. So Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who has wanted to work with her and gets the opportunity to. and he starts to find out some crazy things. Uh-huh. That one the whole time, there were a couple times where I was like, oh, is this a spoiler? I was like, no, I'm looking at the synopsis. I was so nervous to, like, say anything. Right, I know.

I know. I think that way too, like, that's why, like, it's, like, big for me to, like, actually read the synopsis on good news. Because if I try to, like, remember something, I'm just like, is that a spoiler? I might say it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I actually, you know, that's a very good point. I remember reading that during a snowstorm. Ooh. So that was a very fun. That was a very fun reading experience. Yeah. I love that one. I love that one.

I've always talked about my reading experience with a density of souls by Christopher Rice. Like I remember My dad going to buy a new truck And like me sitting in his truck In like the dealership parking lot Like reading it like nothing stopping me But I mean I've talked about that a hundred times So I do remember

I'm sure they still do this with some paperbacks I just feel like it was more popular back then But I remember with density of souls At the end of the book They did that thing where they had like the like first chapter of his next book and it was like the snow garden by christopher rice coming like yeah whatever and i remember reading that first chapter and being like oh my god i need this now and like having to wait oh you know so i remember getting the snow garden from like the bookstore like the minute

it came out like it was like the most exciting thing it was called like the bookstore back then was called Walden Books. And it was like a plastic white bag with like Walden Books Navy. And I just like remember like holding onto that with like a death grip. Yes. And like going home and just like I need to start this now. Like this is so exciting. And like that was like probably one of the first times that I actively would cancel

plans or actively be an introvert. Yes. Because like my like, my lifestyle into being an introvert was very like progressive. Like I used to be very extroverted. And then I was like, people just aren't it. Sometimes when you're around too many people, there's like drama and like stuff you don't want to deal with. And so, yes. The Snow Garden, which is a book I need to read again this winter.

Like I need to reread this because I've only read it that one time and was just like, oh my God, this is the best thing in the world. Oh, you read it together. It's so good. It's like... I know. I want to read it. New England vibe. Academia. All of the things. Yeah. So it's basically in late November.

There's a chill over the campus of Atherton University. When the wife of respected professor Eric Eberman is killed in a tragic accident, his secret student lover, Randall Stone, fears the professor tried to avert career suicide by committing homicide? Or do the dead woman's haunting last words point to an even more damning crime? Fearing the truth, Randall digs into his lover's hidden history, but what he finds draws him and everyone he cares into a dark dance of sexual manipulation, twisted retribution, and murderous rage, where nothing is as it seems. And no one will escape unscathed. It's so good. Oh, it is so good. It is so, so good writer. Oh, my God. It is. It is so good writer. Oh, my God.

in any genre. Like, I don't understand. I don't either. Some people just have range. Yeah, there's another one. I think it's called, well, I know that he has a book called Light Before Day and I think that's the one I was reading too. But I remember when I went to, when I worked for Verizon Wireless, they would send you to, you would have to travel for a month to train for them. So like every Sunday night, I would leave and drive three hours.

to where the training facility was. And I would stay there until Friday night. And then I'd come home like Friday night. So I'd have like Friday night and Saturday and Sunday during the day at home. But I remember like when we went there, the hotel had like complimentary happy hour for like two or three hours. Oh yeah. So we would all get done training and immediately go to happy hour. And like I just remember when the bat book came out like me being like, I'm not going to go.

And they're like, you go every night. And I'm like, I know. but I'm not going and I was like lying in my hotel room bed like oh my gosh binging that book that is an amazing memory he's definitely one that I remember like pretty much any of his books yeah yeah I do need to read it yes it's time it's so good it's so good I'm finally caught up on my arcs a little bit so good for you I'm making a huge dad in mine this Yeah. I'm getting there. So I don't really have a segue, but another one that I very uniquely remember reading is Verdi by Colleen Hoover, which I'm assuming most people know. But it was one

that I, it must have been in 2020 because it was like right at the beginning of COVID. I like saw it on Instagram and was like, huh. And like someone, as most people talk about, very, he was talking about like, I could not put this down. This blew my mind. And so I started it, I think at like five or six o'clock. And it was a night where like, I feel like Tyler was like playing video games actually. So I like started it and finished it at like two in the morning. And that's not something I can actually normally do. Like I really can't stay up reading no matter how good it is. Like I'm normally out not much later than 11. And that one like it literally kept me awake in a time that like I never was staying away to read books. So I like always remember that about that one. And it was like,

we didn't know what was like happening in like the literal world. But it was like I was totally obsessed with a story that was happening. Yeah. And that's. that's definitely like a good escape as well i remember a lot of the things like from the beginning of covid like yeah i remember like drama with like arcs and like oh really yeah part of that at that point yeah yeah there was like well so like the thing was is like i had somebody that like was a um like publicity contact that was like that was like that was like that I was working with. And she was like, I've been trying to like trickle out some books to you, but like just let you know you're going to get a box from me because I have to leave the office

today because we're working from home. And I don't know when they're going to let us come back. So she sent me like a huge box of like arcs like right when they started to shut things down. And then like, you know, some authors like unfortunately, they had things that were coming out in 2020 and they couldn't get their arcs out to people because there were, you know, there were there were anybody in the office and then some publishers shut down their printing of arcs. Oh, yeah. So they, like, were only doing, like, net galley and digital. And, like, some people were like, I don't have a Kindle.

Yeah, right. So, like, I'm like, oh, my God, it was a lot. But I remember, like, I remember, like, it's starting to get, like, very interesting to try to read, like, while that was going. going on because I was just like, I have, I'm working from home. I have all the time in the world. I don't have any social obligations and like just reading a ton of stuff. I read so many books at the beginning of it because it was like, it was also still a point where it was like, well, we just need to literally stay here. So I just started reading so much. But Verity is about. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I guess I should explain it. Yeah.

Is about Loen, who is a writer who has been struggling, is basically going broke. But she gets an offer. She gets an author. She gets an offer to finish some, a series of a bestselling author named Verity. and her husband like needs someone to come and try to finish the series. And so when she gets there, she's like looking through outlines, thinks she's going to get going on this book. But she didn't expect to uncover an unfinished autobiography that Verity never intended for anyone to read. And so there are like admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died. And so she decides to work on this autobiographical manuscript, but keep it hidden from Jeremy the husband. But then she starts to have feelings for him.

So then she's conflicted and can't tell if she should tell him or not. And it just gets twisty. That's all saying. Oh, I know. It is such a good book. Jeremy. And so many people talk about how they read it literally in one sitting. I did. Yeah. I feel like everyone I talk to you says that. I remember I only read thrillers at this time. So when Verity came out, because I had heard people be like, Colleen Hoover's the best. Like, oh my God.

Like once you start, you can't put it down. And like, I've experienced that now that I read outside of brothers. But like, I just remember reading Verity and being like, fuck and A. can she just please write more thrillers? Because this is I wish you would. You know what the thing is, I will say to people who haven't read anything by Colin Hoover who enjoy thrillers other than Verity. If you find a book by her that the synopsis sounds interesting to you, give it a shot. Because similar to like Taylor Jenkins read, when you read Colleen Hoover, her pacing reads like a thriller. So you don't want to put it down, you know.

I like that. All my Colleen Hoover books are read here. I love it. But. Yeah. She has lots. So. Yes, she does.

So she's amazing. Speaking of amazing, speaking of rereading, I have this thing sometimes where, if we're looking at a series, I will reread the previous book before I start the new one. Yes. Just to kind of like refresh myself a little bit, you know. And I remember this reading experience was something else. I got an Apple Watch and I was out drinking and I had cracked the screen on it.

Uh-huh. So, like, I contacted Apple support and they were like, yep, you send it in. We fix it and ship it back to you. And I was like, okay. So, but what they didn't tell me was that they were going to ship it to this Best Buy instead of back to my house. That's weird. So I was like, okay, this is very strange. And there was like some like roundabout way about it that they explained that made sense to me.

But anyway, the Best Buy had called me. and I was like, can you ship it to me? And they're like, now. So I had in like January dead of cold upstate New York, I had to drive an hour and 15 minutes to pick up my watch and an hour and 15 minutes back. But we had like not a no travel ban, but like only travel if you really need to kind of thing. They weren't giving people tickets. But we had like 40 to 50. mile per hour winds this day. So I woke up super early, drove to Best Buy, came back, and like the minute I got home, the wind got bad, even worse than it was.

And it started to snow. So it was like a fucking snow globe when you looked outside your house. Like it was just like crazy wind and like snow everywhere. Like you couldn't even see even though it wasn't. Anyway, so this is what I remember from that weekend was I was like, The new Megan Gardner book is coming out. So I need to reread unsub before I read into the Black Nowhere. Yeah.

Doing it when it's like freezing cold outside with a hot cup of Starbucks and like a snowstorm and this dark, dark, dark book. Oh my God. It was phenomenal. But I would not give to be cold right now. Yeah. I know. That sounds so nice. I've been seeing things where it's like, people are already counting down to fall.

And anytime you get hot, just remember. So we're at the point where June is pretty much over, right? Yeah. So just remember, between now and September is the amount of time that May and June went by. Oh, yeah. And think of how quickly May and June went by. You're right. They did.

We'll get there. We'll get there. It'll be fall soon. It's just going to be in the 90s. Oh my God, I know. I just don't like it. But Into the Black and Nowhere by Meg Gardner, one of my

favorite reading experiences. It is the second book in the unsub series. I recommend reading the first one, but like this is the one that I remember my reading experience. Right. So each book in this series is loosely based off from a real life

serial killer. The first book is loosely based off the Zodiac killer. This one is loosely based off Ted Bundy. Ooh. I will read, watch, listen to whatever, anything to do with the Ted Bundy case because I find it

fascinating. Yeah. So in this one, FBI profiler, Caitlin Hendricks faces off against a charming merciless serial killer. In southern Texas on Saturday nights, women are disappearing. One vanishes from movie theater, another

from her car at a stoplight. A mother is ripped from her home while checking on her baby. So Caitlin Hendricks, newly assigned to the FBI's elite behavioral analysis unit, fears that a serial killer is roaming the dark roads outside Austin. Her unit discovers the first victim's body in the woods laid out in a bloodstained white baby doll nightgown. The second victim in a white nighty lies deep in the forest darkness and around the bodies, Polaroid photos are stuck in the earth like headstones, picturing other women with their wrists slashed. The women in the woods are not the killer's first victims, nor are they likely to be his last.

To track the unsub, Caitlin must get inside his head. He's a confident, meticulous killer capable of charming his victims until their guard is down, snatching them in plain sight. He then plays out a twisted fantasy, turning them into dolls for him to possess control and ultimately destroy. That is creepy. It's so creepy. so good. It's so, like, I just love the way she writes her stories because you can, like, read it and be like, this sounds similar to the Ted Bundy case. This sounds similar to the Golden State Killer, but, like, she puts her own, like, small details, like, the nightgowns and

the Polaroids and stuff, like, in them, and they're so good. It's impossible to put them down. Yeah, that felt like, like, kind of a Nordic noir, the Polaroids. Yeah. Yeah. They're just very like cinematic. Like I just... I need to read some more of that again. It's been too long. Oh my God. Pick up Lars Kepler. The new one comes out in July. I really do need to then. Yeah. Because what are you on rabbit hunter? Right? Yep. I even have it. I bought it on one of the like double points days. Rabbit hunter is so good. But after that it gets fucking incredible. Like Lazarus is one of my

favorite books in the series. And you get to it. And it'll start referencing previous books that you've read. Ooh, nice. That's so exciting. Well, I don't have a segue.

Do you have a book about Ted Bundy on your list? Nope, I just don't. So what I mostly remember about this one is that it was me discovering a whole new, not completely new genre, but that was like the fun of it. And it's ninth house

by Lee Bardugo. My throat is so scratchy one. Show off my new stickers while you drink your water. Ooh. Oh, they're so cool. I love them. My friend Katie sent me this one. It's ghost face and says, call me. And then these came with some pins that I ordered, but I never knew what to do with them. It's Lori. and, oops, Lori, Annie, and Linda from the original Halloween movie.

So cool. But the guy makes pins so that they look like Barbie dressed up as the characters. I do. I think that's so fucking sick. I can't wait for the Barbie movie. I'm excited. It sounds so good. I just think it's going to be goofy and funny.

Yeah. But what's not goofy and funny is 9th House. But it was like the first time that I read like a fantasy thriller. And I was obsessed, like so obsessed. I still have not. I have not found a book to replace this feeling or replicate this feeling. But it's about Galaxy Stern who goes by Alex, but like has the coolest thing, galaxy.

And she ends up going to Yale her freshman year. She was raised in L.A. by a hippie mom and she dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age 20, in fact, she's the sole survivor of a horrific unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away, but at her hospital vet, Alex has offered a second chance to attend one of the world's most elite universities on a full ride. What's the catch and why her? Still searching for answers to this herself Alex arise in New Haven

tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. These eight windowless tombs are well known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood's biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more

sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. I was just obsessed with it. still so good to this day yep so good and then like i went right into um helbit so it was like the other part of that memory is like reading like two almost 500 page books like as quickly as i could i honestly think that i did too yeah you did because you read it right before helvent came out and then i was convinced i did because of january yeah that's crazy. And now I even have them on my bookshelf. I got a physical space.

That was such a fun reading experience too. And I remember like... I love it. That's one that I will reread. Yeah. Yeah. I think the thing that was fun about that one too is that I had read them, recommended them to you. But they were both really fresh in my mind so that when you were reading them and like updating me the entire. entire time. Like, I knew exactly what you were talking about because I had just read them. Yes. That was fun. Sometimes, like, somebody like, gushes about a book that you've read. And so they obviously don't care if they say anything that's spoiler because you've already read it. But you're like, I don't really have much memory of that book. I remember liking it. But like, so that was a

really fun time, too. I remember, like, Marco Poloing you about the book when we were, I was like driving in a snowstorm to pick up pizza. yeah, I do remember that. And I was like, it's fucking freezing here. And now I like, no. Yeah. I miss it. My next one

is about today. It's about today. I had an amazing reading experience today that I will never forget. Oh, nice. So I had to include it because I, like, this will always be a memory of me reading this book because of how impossible it was to put down how much I loved every single aspect of it. And it is The Trap by Catherine Lime Howard. Oh, I'm so excited to hear that. Oh, my fucking God. So incredible. So, so, so good. There's actually,

where did I put it? I lost the book already. But there's a note from the author. And the end of it that I was like saving until after we recorded tonight because like when I woke up today I was like my mood was like fine but I wasn't like pumped about life. Yeah. The weather here has been like really on and off. Um, so I was just like was like trying to drink coffee and like live my life and like I didn't know what I wanted for dinner. And then like I started reading this book and I was like, oh my God. Well, technically I started it yesterday but I finished it today. But I picked it back up and I was like wow wow wow wow wow wow wow I'm loving this and like ever since I finished it my mood like I like made myself like spicy soy noodles for dinner I like was like practically

skipping when I was taking Murphy out to pee like life is so fucking good oh my gosh I love this book so so so much so so so much that's exciting so the trap by Catherine Ryan Howard comes out this summer August 1st, I believe. It is an unsettling mystery inspired by a series of still unsolved disappearances in Ireland in the 90s, wherein one young woman risked everything to catch a faceless killer. One year ago, Lucy's sister, Nikki, left to meet friends at a pub in Dublin and never came home. The third Irish woman to vanish inexplicably in as many years. The agony of not knowing what happened.

that night has turned Lucy's life into a waking nightmare. So she's going to take matters into her own hands. Angela works as a civilian paper pusher in the missing persons unit, but wants nothing more than to be a fully fledged member of an Ingarda Irish police force. I'm not going to butcher that word. I don't know what it. Yeah. With the official investigation into the missing women stalled,

she begins pulling on a thread that could break the case wide open and destroy her chances of ever joining the force. A nameless man drives through the night, his latest victim in the backseat. He's going to tell her everything from the beginning. And soon she'll realize what you don't know can hurt you. Oh. Oh, that sounds so good. It is everything. It is so good. It sounds like it. I love, I mean, I guess this is like a little bit of a theme because Meg Gardner and that I just talked about did it too and like Jessica Noel did it with tech so when people take real cases

and write works of fiction around them I think it is fantastic and this is a prime example of how it is done brilliantly yeah the twists and turns in this book are fucking phenomenal it is like

police procedural character driven. It is bleak. It is like, like, it will have you questioning everything. And then in the end, it just wallops you.

And I, like, can't tell if I'm depressed from it. Or if I'm just like, you know how I always say? Like, I hate when people take the easy way out. Yes, you do. Like, when they're like,

oh, like she disappeared, but she was like hiking and, like, her phone died. She stumbled out of the woods. And it's like, no, that's not what really happens when people go missing, especially, unfortunately, women. When women go missing, it's not. Well, it's unsatisfying in a story even. Yeah.

Well, this gives you all of the answers, and it is phenomenal. Good. I'm so excited. Every time I read her book, a book of hers, I definitely struggle to put it down. This one's my number one now. Oh, I can't wait. I don't have it yet, but we'll see. It's, yeah, yeah, it's definitely my number one.

Oh, that's exciting. Yeah, it's my favorite one by her now. She's amazing. Yes, we love her over here in case you guys have it going on to that. Yes, yeah. I have all of her arts, like, right here. Mm-hmm. And I'm just kind of pissed that I never got an arc of distress signals,

her first one, because I didn't have my blog at that time. And so I'm just, like, so pissed that, like, I just don't have, I only have those six arcs. I don't have seven. Yeah. So, bummer. But maybe I'll just sneak a little paperback copy in there and call it a day. Yeah. Well, my next one, what I remember is I was close to finishing the book on a Saturday morning. And Tyler was like, woke up and was like, do you want to go to breakfast? And I was like, I do want to go to breakfast. But I was at like 85%. And then he wanted to go through the car wash on the way to breakfast.

And I literally was reading in the carwalk. and I think he even took a video and we made a reel out of it. But I then finished the book at Cafe Patachoo. Because I could just, I could not stop reading it. And I had to know what the twist was. And it was Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. Could not put it down. And then I honestly still am shocked that I did not.

I didn't see it coming, not even a little bit. on this one. So basically Daisy Darker's family has been avoiding each other for years and their Nana's 80th birthday party is coming up and she wants them all to be there

in of course a crumbling Gothic house on a tiny tidal island. So many scary adjectives. So they're all back together for the first time in a long time. The tide comes in. They're cut off from the rest of the world. And at the stroke of midnight, as a storm comes in, they find Nana and she's dead.

And an hour later, the next family member follows. Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets before the tide comes in and all is revealed. It's so fun. Sounds really fun. Mm-hmm. The way you describe it sounds like a treat. That's because it is.

I love that one. I remember, I actually remember where I was when I were about. You figured it out, right? I think you did. I figured out something. Yes, I figured out one of it. I figured out the shocking twist, we'll say.

Mm-hmm. But the rest of it was kind of like... Not like the actual how. right i figured out one thing that yeah in that sense so yeah there are lots of things to figure out and it's great it is so good i love that one i want to read that again i know i had something to show you Oh. With this one, my next one. Because I had another one where I had posted something.

I started my Instagram, my bookstagram in January of 2017. And this is a picture that I had on my personal Instagram, which is now deleted, because no one can find it. April 24th. Yeah, don't even look. April 24th, 2015, which means. means it's been eight years, but here is my picture that I had on my personal Instagram, one of my very first baby bookstagram pictures when I didn't even know what booksgram was. And you love that book so much.

And it is, yes, the long and far away gone by Lou Bernie. One of my favorite books, I brought it with me when my family and I went on a vacation to visit my aunt in Arizona. And I just remember like picking it up and being like, I loved this vacation. Like this was like one of the most memorable vacations. I loved everything about it. I love Arizona. And I just remember being like, I wish I didn't fucking take this with me on vacation because I couldn't devour it fast enough. And I just remember like staying up really late like after everyone went to bed to like continue to read it, but it's a huge book. So it was just so much fun to be like, oh my God, I'm enjoying this vacation so much. I'm having such a good time. But I'm also like, every time I had

to put my bookmark in to like go out to dinner or something, I was like, yeah. Yeah. But it is about the summer of 86 when true, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Six months. Six Movie theater employees were killed in an armed robbery while one inexplicitly survived. Then a teenage girl vanished from the annual state fair. Neither crime was ever solved. 25 years later, those unsolved cases quietly echo through the survivors' lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt's latest inquiry takes him back to the past he's tried to escape and drag deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead. Like Wyatt, Juliana struggles with the past the day her beautiful older sister, Genevieve, disappeared.

When Juliana discovers that one of the original suspects resurfaced, she'll stop at nothing to find answers. As fate brings these damaged souls together, their obsessive quest sparks sexual currents. Neither can resist. But will their shared passion and obsession heal them or push them closer to the edge? even if they find out the truth, will it help them understand what happened that long and far away gone summer? I have to read it.

You even sent it to me. It's noire. Oh my God. I will read it with you because I've been dying to read it again. Okay. So I will definitely... I'm just going to fit all of the books in. I know. I know.

Oh, my God. So good. So good. I just... Yeah. I can love that book so much. It's very, like, gritty, noir. Mm-hmm. It's just so good.

That sounds awesome. Mm-hmm. It's one of my favorites. Yeah, my next one is sci-fi. So. I've been waiting. I'm like, when is she going to do a sci-fi one? I know there's one in there.

And I think this was probably, like, I don't know. I feel like this was, yeah, so 2016, this was probably one of the first sci-fi thrillers where I was like, oh, I love sci-fi thrillers too. And it's Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. It's a really long synopsis. So I am going to try to keep it short-ish. But main character Jason is walking home through Chicago, looking forward to seeing his wife and his son when his reality completely shatters. Are you happy with your life are the last words that he hears before some abductor knocks him out? And then he wakes up surrounded by a bunch of strangers and hazmat suits.

And someone says, welcome back, my friend, because it's got to be creepy, you know? And so in the world that- I would be freaking the fuck out. Right. Are you? Am I poisonous? Why are you wearing a hazmat suit? Yes, like, welcome back. What?

So he has basically woken up into an entirely different world. His wife isn't his wife. His son was never born. And he is a physics professor, but also a genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible. Is it this world or the other that is the dream? And he can't tell anymore which reality is. actually the truest one. And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than

anything he could have imagined, one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself, even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. It is so good if you, it definitely is sci-fi. Like, it's not that it's closer to a thriller. but it has more of the like thriller pacing and it's not like tons of world building necessarily. Right. It's just like alternate realities. So if you're kind of a fan of alternate realities, it's perfect for that. But I think it was the first one that I read after having gotten like into thrillers where I was like, oh, I like sci-fi sometimes too.

And what I remember about it is like the idea of facing off against another version of yourself. self. Yeah. Like just tripped me out. And I was like, whoa. And there's something else, but I think it's, it's not a synopsis, so I'm just not going to say it. I've heard a lot of good things about that in the sense of it's like an excellent sci-fi book regardless. But I've heard that it's like the perfect book if you're a seasoned sci-fi reader or if you're like new to sci-fi because like you said, It's not like too much like world building and the science fiction aspects make sense and are like understandable to people who might not read a lot in that that genre. Yep. I agree.

So I love Blake Crouch. I'm a big fan of everything he's written. Well, okay. I know he's written books that I haven't read. So I've read a lot. I've read so much. I've read four of them, I think. That's so funny.

But yeah, I think he has like Wayward Pines. That's what, yeah, wayward Pines. I haven't read that series. So he has a whole series I haven't read. That's the series that I have heard a lot about. Yeah. And it got an FX show a few years ago, a long time ago. But yeah, recursion, dark matter, and upgrade.

I'm obsessed with those. I love the cover to recursion. I know. It is so cool. and such a cool concept for a book. All of them are cool. Yeah, I just can't imagine. I can't imagine writing a book in general, but I also can't imagine writing like anything science fiction like that. Yeah. Because it's just so much, you know what I mean? Yeah, I want to juggle. I want to write something where I juggle multiple realities. I think that would be

cool. Well, you could do it. You're a sci-fi girlie. I will. I'm going to do all the genres. I'm going to have eras. I love that. I love that. My last one is one that I actually stepped out of my thriller comfort zone for and never look back and never regret it. It is the Broken Girls by Simone St. James because I have. was like not a fan of any paranormal or supernatural aspects and thrillers.

But I was like, you know what? Like when this book came out, I was sent it. And I was like, I'm going to read it. I'm going to give it a shot because the publisher sent it to me. So I was like, you know what, Garrett? When you were 13, you read and loved Carrie by Stephen King. and that has supernatural. So just give it a shot.

Yeah. And it's one of my favorite books. I remember reading this March of 2018. It was super rainy outside. Like, I mean, just like a huge like rain, thunder, and lightning storm. And I was like snuggled in bed reading this and I could not put it down. That is the best. It's so good.

It's so good. I know a lot of people know about it. But basically in Vermont, 1950. also historical fiction, which is not my thing. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So Vermont, 1950, there's a place for the girls who no one wants. The troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good.

And it's called Idlewild Hall. Local legend says the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendships blossoming, until one of them mysteriously disappears. In 2014, 20 years ago, journalist Fiona Sheridan's elder sister's body was found in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idle Wild Hall. And although her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of the murder, Fiona can't stop revisiting the events, unable to shake the feeling that something was never right about the case. When Fiona discovers that Idle Wild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decided. to write a story about it.

But a shocking discovery during its renovation links the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past and a voice that will not be silenced. So good. So you do have a historical fiction one in your repertoire. I do. I have two. I have three. I have three.

I have five. Well, I just am thinking how I'm like, I do not like historical fiction. Yeah. This one has historical fiction in it, obviously, 1950. Yeah. And that's what I think of when I think of historical fiction. So I was like, this is my, like, unicorn of books, right? You know, like, this is the one that, like, the only one that counts.

And then I read Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid that takes place in the 80s and somebody was like, that's historical fiction. And I'm like, no, it's not. Like, I was born in the 80s. I'm not historical. Okay. I'm not like an artifact, okay? And then they were like, you do realize that the 1980s were 30 to 40 years ago. And I'm like, like, when you say to me 30 to 40 years ago, I think of like the 1950s. The 1950s, the 1950s, the 1960s. The 1960s. maybe. So then I'm like, oh my God. But then I read Evelyn Hugo and So this is perfect because when you were like I this was what you were saying like you went kind of outside your genre and then you said it was historical fiction. I had those as like

a thought was like Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones like all of those together collectively are my first experience ever reading anything anything that wasn't. wasn't like at least somewhat a thriller. Like, Ninth House was fantasy, but I'm like, yeah, but it was thriller. So I was thinking about how my Taylor Jenkins read experience was like, it was memorable that I was like finding books that like I wanted to tear through even though they weren't thrillers. So they were kind of on my list. I love that. That's how I feel about like the male male romances I've been reading. Yeah, I bet. And the Colleen Hoover era. that I was in and like some of the other things like how I want to read like Brett Easton Ellis and

you know just kind of like dive into some of those yeah other genres because there's always going to be like good thrillers and I'll probably always like prioritize those yeah I'm just like thinking like some of the experiences I've had where I've stepped out like like Evelyn Hugo the broken girls like some of those experiences where I like stepped out and I was like you know what

I'll fucking give it a shot and if I don't like it those are some of the ones that I remember very vividly yeah and I also almost brought up what I'm reading right now because I'm reading yellow face

which is the same thing like not a thriller is there suspense maybe I guess if I was going to stretch it But I'm really enjoying it. And what I'm learning is, I think if there's a really strong voice and especially if it's snarky,

I just love reading it. I think that's what I'm learning. Yeah. Yeah. I'm reading, I'm not going to tell anyone the synopsis. You can look it up yourselves. Because I'm reading Dark Corners by Megan Golden,

which is the second Rachel Crawblower. and I'm really enjoying it, but there's like three different, like, things going on. Yes. So there's three different ones. And I'm trying to, like, connect everything because I was like, I loved NightSwim. Yes. So when they sent me a copy of this, I was like, I'm just going to read it. I don't care what it's about.

I'm going to read it. I know Rachel's back and I know that it's a Megan Golden book. So I actually don't, I didn't read the synopsis. I was just like, yes, I will take this. And so I'm reading it right now. only 75 pages in, but yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm reading right now. I'm very excited for that one.

I'm really enjoying it. It's really good. That's exciting. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So many good books. That's what we all, that's like the conclusion of every podcast. That's how you're going to survive summer.

Yes, it is in my air conditioning. Same. That's just how we roll. Yeah. AC and TBR. Mm-hmm. Thank you.