Bookwild - Some of Our Favorite Subgenres with Gare Billings and Steph Lauer

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

This week, Gare, Steph and I chose our own genres to pick books from, and tried to guess what each other picked based on our choices! Listen and you can play along with us!Kate’s PicksThe PredictionFatal IntrusionDead MoneySteph's PicksA Step Past DarknessJane DoeThe Mindfuck SeriesGare's PicksThe Girls Are All So Nice HereTell Me EverythingOnly If You’re Lucky 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 

I am back with Gare and Steph, and I think we're all kind of a sleepy little group. Maybe not Steph, though. She might just be thriving, you know. Steph's always thriving. It's better than it was. Yeah. Crazy house this weekend, so I'm a little more refreshed today. Oh, nice.

That's good. Well, we have a fun one coming up. We each picked like a tree. of books that technically have something in common, but we have to try to guess what each person's like overarching theme was. So that's going to be super fun. But we are also going to talk about reading habits we want to leave, or reading related habits that we want to leave behind for 2025. So who has one? I have one that I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish it.

Oh, yeah. So I would like to leave behind feeling, well, I know how I'm going to leave it behind, feeling like pressure and overwhelm with my TBR. And I think, like right now, I think I'm doing okay. But like I requested way too many things that come out in January. Is it anybody's fault? Yeah, it's mine. I did too.

And so maybe trying to limit that. And then things that don't have a due date, I've been really trying to get to like, who cares? Get to it when you get to it. You don't have to have like a physical book and an audio book going at all times. Like just be slow. So what? So I think like pressure and overwhelm I'd like to leave behind because it's a hot.

Yeah. I feel the same way. Yeah. I think mine is that like I'm going to allow myself to be more of a mood reader and like not pressure myself to like fin it like I plot out my TVR like to the point that I'm like I can read this book if I start at Friday night I can finish it by Saturday night and then read something Sunday while I'm doing laundry like I pressure myself too much in that way and then I feel like I might not enjoy a book as much like right now all I want to like all I'm thinking about that I want to read is the new Ashley. Winstead book. And I'm like, why? Like, why wait then? Like, if I want to read it now and I love it,

I'm still going to be talking about it when it comes out in March. Yeah. So I'm just going to, like, fly by the seat of my pants kind of booky. That's good. And I'm not going to get any cold in 2025. None. Zero. Yeah.

Well, I don't want mine to sound like, oh, we'll brag. But legitimately, I'm having more people reach out to want to be guests on the podcast. And like, what I will say is I'm talking about, like, cold emails from, like, there are a bunch of services that have popped up that are like, we'll get you booked on podcasts. And so I'm getting more emails from those people. And sometimes I feel like, well, I need to take each one seriously and I need to think about it. but like, I need to feel okay saying no to some of these offers, because while yes, sometimes they play out well,

it's what ends up kind of to some of your guys' themes, it's what ends up making me feel pressured about reading is I just go ahead and say yes to too many things, so I'll be like, I'll have time to read it too. So being pickier and not just feeling like, oh, I'll have three episodes come out, one week. Yeah.

Yeah. A lot of editing for you too. Yeah. There's a lot of editing involved with it. Yeah. Yeah. It is tough because it's like sometimes, well, I will say, like authors in my

DMs does feel very different and like often those actually fit what I want to read. But sometimes I'm like, oh, it's so hard to like write something and then like you're asking someone to read it. Like I like feel for them and I want to like. I don't know, help the underdog in some situations or whatever, but I can't help everybody every year. So, got to be pickier. Yeah. Like, I can't adopt all the animals at the shelter, you know.

Exactly. Right. Right. I just can't. Oh. That's how I feel about my TVR, though, where I'm like, I need to be pickier sometimes. Like, when I get a book and I'm like, oh, what was I thinking? Or like, why did I think that I would really be into this? But that's just, yeah, that's just like you, I have to be picky with my TDR and you have to be

pickier with who you allow on the podcast. But like, yeah, I feel like your like slogan at the bottom of your email should be like Gretchen Weiner's like, I can't help it that I'm popular. That's amazing. To the point you just made, there's times where I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to request this book. It doesn't come out till June. Well, like, why am I requesting it now? Yeah.

I might not even, by the time it gets to June, I'm like, why did I request this? Like, no offense to the authors, but it's just like, it sounds fine. But what I have picked it, if I was like mood reading right now, probably not. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. That's the other hard part of being a mood reader. And having access to net galley.

Yeah. I think I'm going to start using my Kindle and net galley for some of the ones that I'm feeling like iffy on instead of a physical arc. That's a good idea. We're just going to be brand new readers in 2025. Yeah. I'm going to be brand new. I agree with ourselves and others.

Mm-hmm. Big time. Yes. Fuck yeah. Maybe Blair and Sharpest tool by Sabrina Carpenter until J. Or in your town is going to be like, The sharpest tool guy? Yeah, right.

They're like, oh, no, you're passing by. You can hear him come in. Well, I can kick us off with my... So how are we structuring? Are we each doing still one at a time? Yeah, I think we can. Okay, okay. Yeah.

Because I don't know if I can read three synopsies back to back. Yeah. Well, the first one in my little. little trio. Are we guessing? How are we guessing? You'll guess at the end when you know all three that we've recommended. Yeah. Yep. So the first of my trio is the prediction by Faith Gardner. We've talked about it, but it just fit. Welcome to Silicon Valley where the weather is perfect. The income is high. And Rowena Snyder is miserable. A transplant from New York, Rowena moves into her husband Jacob's idyllic childhood home with their new baby.

But suburbia isn't ruinous cup of Starbucks, and she's got serious anxiety and depression to boot. Jacob worried about their marriage scores a new product currently in beta testing from his tech job, Maxine, a digital friend that bonds with an individual by continually gathering their personal data. along with functioning like an upscale digital assistant, Maxine has advice and prediction nodes that have shown promise for patients with mental health issues. To Rowena's shock, the device turns out to be not just helpful but eerily accurate predicting events before they even occur. It's a godsend until Maxine offers a series of increasingly bone-chilling predictions that will change Rowena's life forever. This one is very fun.

very, very, like, domestic suspense and techy at the same time. Yeah. And Faith Gardner's cool. I'm taking notes like a little detective, by the way. I'm like, I'm like, I have like buzzwords and theories. I love it. I get my little notebook then. Stuff's an old school detective.

I still write my grocery list. You guys, I'm so old. Oh, my gosh. I know. I use reminders for my grocery list. Mm-hmm. Have you guys done that? Like, you just, like, check it off. It's just so easy. Yeah.

All I need is high. I use this app and do you pick up. Because I always leave my list at home. Like, that's what that person should do. Right. Oh, let's see. So, Gere, do you want to go next? Sure. Because I still have two piles I'm choosing between, to be honest. Okay. Okay. So my first one is, the girls are all so nice here by Lori Elizabeth Flynn. And this one is about a lot has changed in years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college. And she's worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her 10-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads,

We need to talk about what we did that night. It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia's past and the people she thought she left behind aren't as buried as she believed. Ambrosia can't stop fixating on what she did or who she did it, larger than life, Sloan Sully Sullivan, her former best friend who could make anyone do anything. at the reunion Ambrosia and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages and it becomes clear that they're being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused and the extent of which Ambrosia is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else and the girl who paid the price. Boom.

It was one of my all-time favorites. It's so good. It's so good. It's so dark. Very dark. It's so dark. If you like that one and you haven't read everyone who can forgive me is dead, it's a very good cop. Yeah. I agree. Oh, yeah. That one's got a good one pile I was thinking of making was snarky characters, and that one would have fit in there. Oh, man.

The moment of truth. We should play the Jeopardy theme. I know. All right. Well, I guess I'll... You know what? I kind of want to talk about these instead. All right. So great. All right, let's do this one. All right. My first one is A Step Past Darkness by Vera Curian. Six classmates, one terrifying night, a murder,

20 years in the making. There's something sinister under the surface of the idyllic suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it's not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. The six couldn't be more different. Maddie, a devout member of the local megachurch, Kelly the bookworm next door, James a cynical burnout, Casey, a lovable football player, Padma, the shy straight A student, student and Gia, who's starting to see visions she can't explain. When they realize they can't trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions in town

escalate to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. Their plan works, almost. 20 years later, Gia calls them all back to Wesley Falls. Maddie has been murdered and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things they have to return to the mine one last time. That one had so many things going on. Yeah. I love her writing style too

and her characters. Yeah, her humor like clicks with me. I like a lot. Yeah. Yeah. She's pretty awesome. Well, my next one is one we talked about

earlier last, or the in the last episode that aired with us, it's Fatal Intrusion by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado. Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules, but when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator. With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of professional. Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor, and she's

cashing in. They seem to catch the assailant who mystifyingly has no discernible motive and fits no technical, no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives his chillingly efficient tactician his nickname, the spider. Over the next 24 hours, Sanchez and Heron find themselves in the midst of a lethal chess match with a killer online as they race to stop the carnage. As the victims mount, so do the risks, because the spider's web of intrigue is more sinister and goes far more deeper, far more deeper, far deeper than anyone could possibly anticipate. fate. I struggle with that one. That was a hard one. So this one, very fun, has like this whole

hacker element to it as well as a serial killer and agents, law enforcement agents. It almost sounds like it would be like a really good like a series too. It is. like a movie like a movie or a TV show like a TV show series yeah yep I agree it'd be really I could see a lot of the things in that playing out well on film yeah it really would well my next one is called tell me everything by Cambria Brockman in her first weeks at Hawthorne College Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together through all four years. There's Gemma, the Insecure Theater

Major with... Oh, from London. I was like with London. John, a tall, handsome, and wealthy New Englander. Max, John's cousin, and shy pre-med major. Khalid, a wisecracking prince from Abu Dhabi, and Ruby, a beautiful art history major. But Malin

isn't quite like the rest of her friends. She's an expert at hiding her troubling past. She acts as if she is concerned with all of the preoccupations of those around her, boys partying, all while using her extraordinary insight to detect their deepest vulnerabilities and weaknesses. By senior day on the cusp of graduation, Malin Secrets and those of her friends are revealed. While she scrambles to maintain her artfully curated image, her missteps set an emotion of devastating chain of events that ends up in murder.

As their fragile relationships hang in the balance and close alliances start, she'll shifting. Malin will test the limits of what she's capable of to stop the truth from coming out. I loved that one so much. Oh my God. It's so great. There's, um, my eyes are so watery that like the lines when I'm reading the synopsis are like blurring. So I'm like, she's with London. Um, but no, it's, it's so good. There's, there's actually one line in that book that like whenever I talk about it or like I see it, I constantly think about it. And it's just like stuck with me for years and years and years.

But it's so good. It's so good. I can't wait to see what she like does next if she releases another book. I know. I want her to. I do too. She's kind of like Gillian Flynn meets Donna Tart, I feel like. I agree.

Yeah, because it's dark. It gets really dark. Yeah. Bleak Billings. this one was on I have the hard copy but I wanted to read it on my Kindle and it was like available on Libby just to like check out

and then all of a sudden now they're acting like they don't have it oh that's weird yeah I think you would fly through it yeah I did I'll just read my paper copy it um it definitely gives like a little bit of like tell me

lies. Yeah. Oh, yeah. My next one is Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone. A double life with a single purpose, revenge. Jane stays at a Minneapolis insurance company are perfectly ordinary. She blends in well, unremarkably pretty in her floral print dresses, an extra efficient at her low-level job. She's just the kind of woman middle manager Stephen Hepsworth likes, meek, insecure, and willing to defer to a man. No one has any idea who Jane really is, least of all, Stephen. The plain Jane is hiding something, and Stephen's bringing out the worst in her. Nothing can distract Jane from going straight for his heart, allowing herself to be seduced into Stephen's bed, to insinuate herself into his career and his family, and to expose all his

dirty secrets. It's time for Jane to dig out everything that matters to Stephen so she can take it all away just as he did to her. That one's very good too. That one's very good. It was very much my taste.

I can see that. Especially when she goes on a lot of everything. I'm like trying not to make a lot of comments because I don't want to like spoil my you know what I mean? Yeah. Because I went to say like three things about that book and I was like, mm-hmm.

My tongue. Can I tell you what I thought was going to happen today? And maybe it's just like me not listening. So I thought I was just going to be like in the beginning what I thought Kate would pick and what I thought Gare would pick. Like I thought we would guess in the beginning and see if you got it. And so when I read my synopsies, I'm like, I wonder. like I wonder if people would guess what they have in common based on their synopsies based on how I thought it would be like they would already know the common thread when I read them.

So it's interesting. I'll be interested to see how it is. Yeah. I thought it would be. Yeah. If that makes sense. Yeah. No, that does make sense. Mm-hmm.

Well, my final one is a book that I just finished. I thoroughly obsessed with it. It doesn't come out until 2025, unfortunately. January or when? Yeah, sorry, January 2025. It's called Dead Money by Jacob Care. In her job as unofficial problem solver for Silicon Valley's most ruthless venture capitalist, McKenzie Clyde's gotten used to playing for high stakes.

even if none of those tech row millions, she's so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets. But this time, she's in way over her head or so it seems. The Lightning Rod CEO of Tech's hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in dead money that's frozen in his will. As the company's chief investigator, oh no, sorry. As the company's chief investor, McKenzie's boss has a fortune on the line. and with the police treading water, it's up to McKinsey to step up and resolve things fast. McKinsey's a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing with its list of suspects that reads like a who's who of Valley power players should be way out of her league, except that McKinsey's used to being underestimated.

In fact, she's counting on it because the way she sees it, this isn't an investigation, it's an opportunity, and she'll do anything it takes to seize it. anything at all. And then it says featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily outsider heroine you can't help rooting for dead money is a brilliant sleight of hand mystery

written by a long-time insider. It's also a dead on snapshot of Silicon Valley's rich and famous a glimpse of the darkness lurking behind the tech world's cheery facade. It is so good. It reads like a noir,

but it's like, Like, where noir is a little grittier in setting. It's like, it is the sleek modernness of Silicon Valley. But there are so many, like, shifting characters. And it was, it is just so good. It kept surprising me. And then the ending, so good. Hmm.

Yeah. I love it. Just as we were talking about how we're overwhelmed in January, Kate recommends another one that we're both intrigued by. I know. And I had to read it because I'm interviewing him on January 7th, so I had to hurry up and read it. Yeah. I'm glad you loved it. I loved it. It sounds like a book you would love.

Right. I loved it so much that I built my whole everything for tonight around this book because I wanted to talk about it. Okay. My mind's still spinning with. Okay. So my next one, I have to add my notes for Miss Kate because I'm like, hmm, my next one is Only If You're Lucky by Stacey Willingham. Lucy Sharp is larger than life, magnetic, addictive, bold, and dangerous, especially for Margot

who meets Lucy at the end of their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina. Margot's the shy one, the careful one, always the sidekick, and never the center of attention. but when Lucy singles her out at the end of the year, a year Margot spent studying and playing it safe and asked her to room together, something in Margo can't say no, something daring or starved or maybe even envious. So Margot finds herself living in an off-campus house with three other girls. Lucy the ringleader, Sloan the sarcastic one, and Nicole the nice one. The three of them opposites, but also deeply intertwined. It's a year that finds Margo finally coming out of the shell she's been in since the end. end of high school when her best friend Eliza died three weeks after graduation.

Margo and Lucy have become the closest of friends, but by the middle of their sophomore year, one of the fraternity brothers from the house next door is been brutally murdered, and Lucy is missing without a trace. More tell me lies, fimes. Yeah, yeah. I know. I do have some notes written. Okay.

My last one is the Mind Fuck series by ST Abby. Monsters can come in many forms. They took too much, left too little. I had nothing to lose until him. I didn't expect him. I didn't want to fall in love, but I can't let him go. Logan Bennett makes the world a safer place. He's brilliant.

He's a hero. He locks away the sick and depraved. But while he's saving lives, I'm taking them. collecting the debts that are owed to me. Ten years ago, they took from me. They left me for dead. They should have made sure I stayed dead. Now I'm taking from them.

One name at a time. I've trained for too long. I've been patient. I can't stop now. Revenge is best served cold. They never saw me coming until I paint their walls red. Logan doesn't know how they hurt me. He doesn't know about the screams they ignored.

He doesn't know how twisted that town really is. He just knows people are dying. He doesn't know he's in love with their killer. No one suspects a dead girl. And Logan doesn't suspect the girl is in his bed. They're looking for a monster, not a girl who loves red, not a girl in love. I'm a faceless nightmare, at least until I tell them the story they've pretended never happened, but in the end, will Logan choose them or will we watch them burn together? Jesus. I know. So good. I have it. you'd fly through it it's five books and one it's really long but it's very fast yeah yeah

what's it's an omnibus is that what they're called where it's like more than one book and like one i think so big big one um i have a few of them and they like intimidate the shit out of me because i'm like i have like a series of like three or four like books and they're all separate and i'm like i'll fly through that but then like when it's like an omnibus and it's like this i'm like oh my god I'm intimidated. I put like a tab in when each book starts and it's like, oh, it's less than 200 pages. Like it's not bad, but. Like this is an MM romance one and like I still haven't read this series even though I love

the author because of how like gigantic. Yeah, that's a lot. Well, and you're kind of committing to doing it all in a row pretty much then too. Like whereas sometimes with a series you might take a break. True. Or like pounds. yeah wow okay so how do we want to guess do we should we each guess and then she can tell us if we're right yeah yeah okay you go first here me guess i guess on kate's first do i only guess like one or do i like

say like you don't have to like just have one word okay so here based on your choices here are what I think that could be your theme. Okay. Techie murder thrillers, California-based books, and action-packed thrillers. I was trying to personify Techie Becky. That's what I was going to say, Tech World or Silicon Valley, but I couldn't remember if the middle one was actually in Silicon Valley. Yeah. It kind of wasn't. So, you're right you actually like tricked me too because like they were all in california yeah they're all in california and like i also was like wondering like on the tech base if it was just like high tech thrillers yeah or if it was artificial intelligence and thrillers because i didn't know how

far the tech like the technological aspect got yeah that's a good point yeah yeah well you guys figured me out So now we need to guess about Gare. I mean, Well, you can go in two ways. Yeah. Maybe. I would say that Gairs is dark academia with a focus on messy female relationships.

Yeah, I was going to say they're dark academia and or toxic friendship. 100%. 100%. I actually was due. My, like, pick was going to be toxic friendships. And then I realized that like all of the ones that I like really enjoyed took place in like college.

Yeah. So yeah. So that was like, if we want to get really specific, it can be like toxic friendships and dark academia. So you guys. Yeah. Nailed it. We're so smart.

We're also smart. Yeah. Okay. Stuff. Okay. I'll be interested. I feel like it's about revenge is the one that I can see in all three of them. I said... Two of them I see something that I don't see in the other one.

I said revenge thrillers or characters that have secret pasts. So the interesting thing about how, like, reading the synopsis first all three of them to me had like a really solid friendship element like a good friendship yeah because in the first one there's like the six friends and jane do she's like avenging her best friend yes and then in the mind fuck series like the guy that helps her get revenge is her best friend oh and he like helps her take he helps her like take down the town. Nice.

So like it is interesting because when we were reading the synopsies first, I was like, they, I couldn't believe Jane Doe didn't say anything about the friend. That is weird. Yeah. So as I was reading him, I was like, oh, this seems like a revenge thing, which was like too obvious. That's why I didn't pick it. It's not too obvious.

Yeah. But I really thought I hit the nail on the head with like, secret pass. That's a good one. Or like revisiting their last. I really thought that I did because they all seem to do that. Yeah.

That's also true. My honorary fourth one I picked was so thirsty by Rachel Harrison because that's like straight about a friendship. And then I almost picked the Golden Cage, but I just

talked about that one last week. So yeah. Yeah. And what I'm reading right now, the Three Lives of Kate Kay is a really interesting friendship story. I'm so intrigued by that one. I am too. I was through it across the room at one part, but then I started crying at another part. Oh my gosh.

I haven't felt that way about a book. I don't know if I've ever felt that way where I'm like, like I was mad. Wow. Does it feel really literary? Because I keep seeing that. Okay, cool. Really? Yeah.

I saw that in a couple reviews. and I was like, huh? I wouldn't. That's not really my jam, so I wouldn't say that. Right. One thing that's interesting about it is like, so the main character is like an author, and it almost, it's almost like people in her life,

like submitted their own versions of things, and she has like little footnotes in them and stuff. So like that's kind of interesting, but I, yeah, I wouldn't have used that word, I guess. Okay. Good. It's really funny too because the last time that we had recorded when you mentioned that, I was like, I need to request this on that galley, like the next morning.

I went to check my email and they had reached out to me and they were like, do you want to arc of this? And I was like, that is so perfect. They really are listening in. I swear. They are. Everyone knows. I just finished the new Derby came, what the wife knew.

How did you feel about it? so snarky. Oh my god. So snarky. I really loved the ending. Oh my gosh. Interesting. It's my second favorite thriller of hers. Like pretty little wife is always going to be my favorite, but this one was really, really, really good. She made Perla from the last party kind of looked like Snow White. What? What? Damn. Yeah. Like the snarkiness and like what she says. And like how she says it to people, I was like this character is a biotch and I'm obsessed with her. God, now I need to read this too.

Oh, yeah. You have to read the final act. And that. Which one is that one? Lisa Gray. It's like the one about the actress who goes missing and it's like dual timeline and it's super dark and it deals with like toxic TikTokers who like try to like self-crime. rhymes when they don't know what they're doing. It has like everything I love.

Oh my God. And there's like other things in it. I'm just like obsessed. When does it come out? It's out. Oh, it's out. I think it might be on, I think it might be on Kindle and Limited. It's on Kindle Unlimited.

Yeah, because I downloaded it. I have it there. So it looks at me. But I need to finish a couple of other things. I downloaded it on Kindle Unlimited. And then when I read it, I ordered a physical copy so it can be in my picture for the end of the year. of like all of my favorites.

Nice. Also, I cannot wait for you, you, you're speaking of bitchy, to read nowhere, no place left to hide or Megan Lally's new one. I'm interested in reading.

I keep seeing people losing their minds about that one. Oh, like some of the burns, because you know how I feel about YAA dialogue sometimes. But like some of the burns, I was like,

damn. Damn. Because there's definitely like a friendship rivalry or like what turned into a rivalry and it's wild but yeah it's very um fast-paced very I can't wait to read it because I also saw your comparison with I know you did last summer yeah and I also remember reading that's not my name is that what it is yeah that's not my name and when I got to the ending of it I was

like this is not YA I know disturbing um Yeah. It's another January one and now I can't decide if I should request it. I'm going to buy that. It's like 255 pages. So I think you would read it really quickly. I will so. So I actually looked up the trailer for I know what you did last summer just to like see if I was right. Because it's been so long. But I was like, okay, the something happened in the past and like the friendships. Like that's where I think it is. It's not as like slaps. Eschery, but like the vibes are there.

Yeah. The vibes are there. The vibes were there. I was like, oh yeah, Ryan Phillipie just being kind of an asshole. Like, I love it. Oh my God. He was so mean in that movie. That's probably why I've ended up in a lot of shitty positions that you guys have to hear about. I think my love of toxic men started with Ryan Philippi and was resurrected by Jacob Allorty.

Yeah. Cruel intentions. what you did last summer, Ryan, Phillipie, okay. Yep. Yeah, there we go. There we go. And they're filming the new one. I was obsessed with. They're filming the new one.

Oh, yeah. In Australia right now. I'm super pumped for that. They're bringing cruel intentions back, or they already brought it back, too. That's wild. Reviews are not too hot, kids. Yeah. A long little preview I saw, I was like,

didn't look great. I feel old because I'm like, is this little pipsqueak supposed to be like the heartthrob that Ryan Philippi was for this new generation? Yes. Yeah. I'm just like, if you have to go with people that are actually like 28 to 32, please do. Yeah, right. I know.

Yeah. Because I'm like, back in my day, Ryan Philippi and Josh Hartnett were like, let's go. Mm-hmm. I know. And Josh Hartnett had those awful bangs. They were the worst. And he was still hot. Oh, my God. Sometimes, sometimes bangs get out of hand. They can. They can.

No shade. Oh, no. I'll throw my own shade. My bangs have gotten out of hand before. No, your bangs, even if your bings decided to go fully rebellious on you, they would never look like the Courtney Cox. spain. I was just going to... I know. It felt like it one time. Oh, my gosh. Have you guys watched

anything lately that you loved? Oh, I love the new A Man on the Inside with Ted Danson. Yes. I think it's the same person that did the good place. It is. Very heartwarming. I cried. I'm not done with it, but if you need just like a good

soul show, it's good. Yeah. It's funny and it makes you cry. It is good at both. We just found one. I know this will not be for you, Gere. But for people who really like sitcoms, kind of like Brooklyn 9-9 in the office and that kind of stuff, there's one on Peacock called St. Dennis Medical.

And like sitcoms are like hid and miss. So like you just don't know if they're going to be good. We were cracking up from the beginning. So if you need a funny show. So to lighten up your life right now, I highly recommend it. It is just consistently funny. Oh, I love the guy that's in it that was in Secret Life of College Girls. And he was in that show, um, jury duty, the one where like the one guy didn't know that it was a show and everyone else was an actor.

Mm-hmm. I like he, I fucking hated him in sex lives of college girls. Well, I hated him, but like I like him in general. Or is that movie? Yeah. He angered me so much in that. Oh, I need to watch that. That just came out.

Yeah, season three is out. It's releasing every week or something. Hmm. Yeah, that shows so good. I've actually four times. All I've been doing, I feel like I'm never going to have, like, a good recommendation because all I do is just consistently repeat. Like, what I watch lately is the 1974 version of Black Christmas as a comfort watch.

Mm-hmm. I rewatch Tell Me Lies. Mm-hmm. and I'm still watching like I watched a really good episode of Law & Order last night. Ooh. Nice. We rewatch a lot too. Actually, I've never really watched modern family.

AJ's watched it before. And Kate is like such a non, like I'm not rewatching shit. Mm-hmm. Or re-re-re-now. I don't watch some stuff before the new stuff comes out. There are a few shows. Like, I'm tempted to re-watch Severance because I loved it so much. But I think it was three or four years ago that I was.

watch the first season and it's one of those shows where there's so much going on that like you need to like have the world in your mind going into the second one so it's like every now and then i will but then there are also a lot of good YouTubers who do good like 15 to 20 minute recaps of a whole season and that tends to like be enough sometimes too. Yeah I can't I just it's like for me the fun of watching or reading something is that I don't know what's going to happen and then typically the genre, like, I'm trying to figure out what's going to happen. So then if I already know, I'm like, eh. Yeah. You know what's really good is shrinking on Apple TV. Yes. And it's slowly coming out. And this season to me is like the episodes have, are just so good.

Oh, like we've been waiting for them all to air, but now you're getting me even more excited. Like the way that the different characters, like their stories run kind of parallel to each other. Oh, that's cool. It's phenomenal. And I don't really notice that stuff, to be honest. Like, I'm not that deep. Like, I notice it in this. And I was like, holy shit.

You're like, I noticed something. Yeah. Oh, I'm trying to do this year, for sure. Yeah. Dude, I want to watch what keeps getting great reviews, but I just do not. I haven't had like a nine hour time commitment just open up. But the penguin on HBO is getting such good reviews. People are saying it's like as good as the Sopranos.

And I'm like, that's a big thing to say. And it's like a lot of people saying that. So it's one that I wish I could watch. But I'm like, I don't know that I'm going to be able to fit it in. Yeah. We saw Interstellar and IMAX though because it came back for its 10 year anniversary. so good in iMacs and there's an example if there if it's been 10 years and i can go see it in i max i'll go rewatch something

tyler leaned over halfway through and like he was the one who like found out and was like oh i want to go see it i was like okay i'll figure out how and he leaned over when we were like 20 minutes and he's like i'm just realizing i don't know what this movie's about at all Yeah, it's really good, though. We also watched The Perfect Wife on Hulu. It's that three, about Sherry Panini. Pippini. Pippini.

Panini. New York too. Sherry, that's a lotch. I had listened to a podcast before. And so as. we're starting, I was like, I know what happens, but it was like a one episode. Mm-hmm. Aj had no idea.

So I was, like, interested to see what he would think when it was done. Yeah. So I won't spoil it for any listeners, but like that one is a wild ride. It's wild. There's like a moment where, like, I felt you just feel so bad for someone. And, like, the way that the doc is like, built in the way you're like getting the information like I just felt so bad for someone at one point I was like this is horrific like imagine this someone coming and telling you this basically I'm

jumping all around to avoid spoilers but it was really well produced yeah I agree I think I watched that too I think you did feel like you posted about it with Murphy yeah it's like the really like she's a very like small statured blonde like lady with bangs, like really bright blue eyes that goes missing. Yeah. She was going for a run and she got like picked up in an SUV and she goes missing. And then like all of a sudden, 22 days later, she's found. Yeah.

Yeah. And they were treating it like they were calling her like the media was calling her like gone girl, right? Because they didn't believe that she didn't believe her story. Yeah. Yep. But it's different. There's also a document. called like American something that is similar. Do you guys remember that one where the guy had like

swim goggles on? American nightmare or something. Yeah. I almost thought that was the going to be the Sherry Papini story. Yeah. And then I realized it was different. So like right the synopsies sound the same. They do. And that one also was like, oh, is this gone girl? Yeah. So one show that I've, really, really, really want to rewatch. It's called Unbelievable on Netflix. Have you guys watched that? No. It's based on a true story. And it has

Caitlin Devere in it, Tony Collette and Merritt Weaver from Nurse Jackie. Wow. And it is incredible. It's based on the Washington and Colorado serial rape cases.

And it follows a woman who was charged with a crime for reporting that she was raped and like the two detectives that like actually believed her so like she gets raped in the beginning of the story and then the detectives like don't believe her and they're kind of like well what about this and what about that and then she's like okay fine like you think I made it up I made it up and then they charge her with like falsely acute like falsely filing for like a rape but these two women detectives like they are like I think that she was telling the truth.

And they kind of like investigate other rapes happening on like the West Coast that they think that like have like too many like eerie similarities. So they think that she's like telling the truth. It's one of my favorite shows. And I keep seeing it on TikTok. So I'm like maybe it's time to rewatch it. Yes. I think I started it and I was almost like this might be too heavy for me at the first one. And then I don't know if I finish it.

But yeah, I love that one. She's a new girl too. she played like schmidt's ex-girlfriend her oh my god yeah oh yeah she's in a show called nurse jackie that was like popular on showtime and she was like so funny and like witty in that but like in this she's like no bullshit like almost like kate winslet and like mayor of east town yeah and i'm like oh my god like what a complete and utter difference but it's such a good show yeah i think i should to revisit that. So even though I watched it like five years ago, that's my recommendation because I've just been

rewatching shit ever since. That's not wrong with that. Well, when you can tell us things that we kind of forgot about or don't know about that aren't necessarily new, which is always good. Yeah. True. Yeah. Is this based on a book?

I think I bought the book, unbelievable, and I don't think I read it, but I think it's, I think there is a there's probably a true crime book about it. It's an unbelievable story of rape by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. So yeah, I think I was going to read it first and then I never did.

Yeah. Or it's an article. Oh. Maybe it was an article. It could be part of like a short story though. I don't know. It's just really really good. It's really good. And like what what fuck's her name?

Tony Collat Like can do it all right Oh Yeah I know She's so talented